“Written me off? Why?” He tightened his grip on her hips. “Am I that bad?”
“No, but…” Her eyes skated nervously over the monkey enclosure. Rocks lined a pool of water moving in the evening breeze on the far side of the exhibit. Ally tried to figure out how to explain what she’d felt earlier.
He stepped into her line of sight and gazed into her eyes with a soft, worried look that she hadn’t seen before.
“Talk to me, Ally. We’ve both been lied to. We established that the other night. I’m not going to do that to you.”
“I’m not worried about that.” She dropped her gaze. “Or maybe I am. I’m not sure. But this afternoon I realized I was anxiously awaiting each text from you, and I kept thinking, what happens when they stop? Eventually they would, and I’d already felt myself getting tied up in you in a way that I probably shouldn’t.”
“That’s why we’re here.” He said it so easily, like it made perfect sense, and she didn’t have a clue what he meant.
“At the zoo?”
“No, sweetheart.” He smiled again.
Somehow his words, his smile, eased her worries. He looked trustworthy and sincere, and she knew it was genuine, but she’d been hurt before.
Hasn’t everyone?
She hated the conflicting feelings warring inside her.
“That’s why we’re on this date,” he explained. “I was feeling the same things, Ally. I’ve never checked my cell phone as many times as I have in the last two days. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I had to find out why, and when I saw you in the lab, all my rules about dating came crashing down.”
***
HEATH COULDN’T BELIEVE the words that were spewing from his mouth. They were all true, but he hadn’t realized how strongly he’d felt them. He could tell by the worry in Ally’s eyes that she was struggling with this as much as he was, and all he wanted was to make her worries go away.
That wasn’t exactly true.
He wanted much more.
“But why, Heath? Why are we feeling this way after the things we did?”
“What do you mean? If you have great sex, it can’t lead to something more?” Didn’t most women want something more? Now he was flat-out confused. “I have to be honest. I have been confused as hell over all of this, but then I thought, why fight it?”
She touched her forehead to his chest, and he held her close. There beneath the moon and the stars, outside the snow monkey enclosure in Central Park, Heath felt his world shift and his heart open.
He cupped her face between his hands and tilted it up toward his, searching her eyes for answers. He didn’t even know what the questions were, but somehow he knew that whatever the answers were, they lay within her.
“We’ll go slow, Ally.”
He was rewarded with another sweet smile. He couldn’t help but press his lips to hers.
“We can start by you telling me your last name.”
She laughed, and it was music to his ears. “Jenner. Allyson Jenner.”
“Related to Bruce?”
She shook her head, and he lowered his lips to hers again. “You really are the most intriguing woman I know, Allyson Jenner.”
They left the zoo a short while later, having seen few animals and discovering a whole new world within each other.
They walked back to Ally’s apartment, and by the time they reached her door, Heath didn’t want the night to end. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed spending time with a woman so much or hadn’t wished he was reading a medical journal or catching up on sports instead. When he was with Ally, the rest of the world fell away.
“Do you want to come in for a drink?” she offered.
It was nearly midnight, and Heath knew she had to get up early, as did he, but when she blinked up at him with her big doe eyes, he couldn’t resist accepting.
“Sure.”
She unlocked the door, and the first thing she did when she walked inside was bend down to pick up Fifi and give her a snuggle. He wondered if she was nervous, or if she was overly comfortable. He found that he was both. He was overly comfortable with Ally and he was nervous about where to take things from here.
Her efficiency apartment smelled like spring, fresh and floral. To the right was a small kitchen counter and a row of three cabinets, with a breakfast bar and two black stools tucked beneath it. Scarred hardwood floors and white walls gave the small space an airy feel. Heath’s eyes rolled over the simple sofa and television and moved to the king-sized bed just beyond.
“Wine okay?” she asked as she reached for two glasses.
“Yeah, sure.” He picked up Fifi and petted her while he discovered more about Ally. “I like your apartment.”