Chapter Two
Warren watched Erin go and then turned back to his beer. He shouldn’t have poked at her, but hell if he could resist approaching her when she was sitting all alone with that lost look on her face. The woman he knew didn’t hold still long enough to be lost, so it was disconcerting in a big way to realize that something so fundamental about her might have changed when he wasn’t paying attention.
So he’d done the one thing he knew would snap her out of it.
Even then, it hadn’t fully chased that expression off her face. She was like a boxer who’d taken a ringer and was against the ropes. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit. Warren took another pull from his beer. It wasn’t his goddamn business. Nothing about Erin Robinson was—something she’d made damn sure he knew time and time again over the years. He might have access to her body, but she never let him past the surface after that first summer. They’d get together for wild sex in whatever place was available—closets, bathrooms, one particularly memorable time on a tractor—and the next morning she’d slip out of bed and walk away.
And hell if she didn’t take a little piece of him every time she did.
Gena stopped in front of him and leaned against the bar. “How long are you back in town this time?”
There was no missing the interest in her eyes, but he couldn’t find an answering spark inside him. Even a year ago, he might have considered taking a stab at it. But that was before his last tour in Afghanistan, before… He didn’t touch his newest scar—a bullet wound just above his hip—but it was a near thing. That injury had changed his course, whether he wanted it to or not.
It had put a lot of shit into perspective while he was lying in the hospital, wondering if he was going to die.
One of those things was Erin.
She was fire and lightning, all bottled up in a package that was deceptively innocent-looking. A man who didn’t know better would be caught flat-footed when she went from sweet to pit bull in the space of a heartbeat. The contradiction was part of what had attracted Warren to her in the first place. It was one of the things that kept him coming back for more, no matter that she seemed determined to keep him at a distance.
He glanced up and realized he’d been so lost in thought, he hadn’t responded to Gena. “Just for the holidays.” Old Joe was town patriarch in a lot of ways, but the holidays had a way of bringing out the loneliness when people weren’t paying attention. With Warren’s parents off in… He thought hard. Where were they this month? India? Thailand? Brazil? He’d lost track. In a week or two, a postcard would show up with another exotic location on it and a short note from them. These days they even managed to pick up the phone every few months.
His parents suffered from a wanderlust that was rivaled only by their love for each other. Growing up, they’d hauled him along like a well-loved teddy bear—and paid him about as much attention. He’d spent his formative years in Mexico, Russia, Chile, and half a dozen other places scattered around the world. The only constant had been when they sent him back here for a few weeks a year to spend time with Old Joe. Even with so little time, his granddad had become his rock in a lot of ways.
In a life where everything around him was a never-ceasing wind, that consistency was priceless.
So he came home every holiday season to spend time with the old man. His granddad always had a whole new batch of stories to tell. It had been one of Warren’s favorite times of year growing up, and it was even more so in a lot of ways now.
Especially now that he was looking for a life that was more rocklike than windblown.
Disappointment flickered over Gena’s face, but she masked it quickly. “Mark my words, Warren Davis—someday you’re going to settle down in Wellingford for good.”
“Maybe someday.” Sooner than anyone realized. He’d told his granddad about his plans, but it wasn’t public knowledge. Not yet, at least. He finished off his beer and dropped a twenty on the bar. Though he knew better, he asked, “You see Erin Robinson around here much?”
“Just the last month.” She shrugged. “She’s between shows or something.”
That made sense, though he’d never known her to come back here for longer than strictly necessary since that first summer they spent together. Ever since he could remember, she’d had her eyes to the stars and her plans for moving to New York and becoming a famous Broadway star. She hadn’t done too bad for herself, but all his knowledge was second- and thirdhand, so there was no telling.
He glanced at the door and frowned. There had been something off about her tonight. He’d thought it was just being stood up—though fuck if that didn’t aggravate the hell out of him. What kind of idiot stood up Erin Robinson? She was dynamite. A guy got a chance with a woman like that, and he jumped at it with both hands.
So why haven’t I?
That was the damn question, wasn’t it? He’d already decided that he cared about Erin. There was no time like the present to start putting shit into motion to see if it was even worth pursuing.
He headed out into the night and pulled out his phone, dialing before he could talk himself out of it. One little phone call wouldn’t hurt either of them any. Liar. He barely gave Erin time to say hello before he spoke. “I have an idea.”
“Not interested.”
“Yes, you are. Unless you’ve lost your edge in your old age.” He put just enough arrogant tone into the last to make her see red. It had never failed him before—if there was one thing Erin had in spades, it was pride.
Sure enough, she hissed out a breath. “No more than you joining the Marines has made you an idiot jarhead—oh wait, you were like that before you joined.”
There was that fire he was used to. “Damn, Freckles, I think that was almost a compliment.” He grinned. “Meet me down at the coffee shop.”
“It’s closed.”
He had her, hook, line, and sinker. “See you in ten.” Warren hung up and grinned. He might be ready to go all-in with the woman, but she’d have to be eased into the idea. If he played his cards right, by the end of the night, she’d see exactly how great they could be together—and this time maybe she wouldn’t be so eager to walk away.
He slipped his phone into his pocket and meandered down Main Street. Even in the cold front that had blown in today, the town wasn’t completely deserted. There was Miss Nora, walking her beast of a dog. She waved as she passed, but for once didn’t stop to talk. Warren flicked up his collar to keep the wind off the back of his neck and crossed the street to where the warm lights of the coffee shop bathed the sidewalk. Even closed up, it was a beacon in the middle of the shadows cast by the few streetlights.
Should have told her to meet me in the Diner.
Except he didn’t want an audience for this, and there was sure to be one there. The last thing he wanted was his granddad’s knowing looks and sly comments about what a good girl Erin was. They’d never officially dated and no one else in town knew that they’d dicked around at all, but Old Joe didn’t miss much. No one had been more heartbroken than Warren’s granddad when they didn’t immediately get married and pop out a few kids. Old Joe made more comments than he could count about how he always thought Warren and Erin would make a great couple.
We were too young back then. Now we aren’t.
He turned at the sound of footsteps in time to see her come round the corner, her shoulders hunched against the cold, her curly hair shoved up under a neon-green knit hat that, if he didn’t miss his guess, her mom had made for her. He’d recognize those missed stitches anywhere. What the woman lacked in skill, she made up for in bright colors and sheer enthusiasm.
Erin scowled when she caught sight of him. “This had better be good. I was almost home.”
It was less than half a mile walk from Main Street to her parents’ house on the outskirts of town. He raised his eyebrows. “You really are getting old if you’re headed home before midnight.”
She made a show of looking around. “Right. Because Wellingford is such a hot spot of activity at this hour.” She sighed. “You know what? This was a mistake.”
“Wait.” He heard desperation in his voice and tempered it down. “You haven’t even heard what I’m proposing.”
“I don’t have to. I know you. And as great as an hour of hot sweaty sex would be, I’m not in the mood.”
That, more than anything else, confirmed there was something wrong. He tamped down the urge to ask what it was. They weren’t that kind of friends. Not yet. They were two people who’d hooked up a handful of times in the last six years. That was it.
That was what he was trying to change.
So he nudged her shoulder, hating that the winter made so many layers necessary. It was only his imagination making him think he could feel the heat of her body through her coat from that tiny touch. “Truth or dare, Freckles?”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re joking.”
“We haven’t done it in years.” Not since the night they met.
“Right. Because we’re grown-ass adults, and truth or dare is for kids.”
He watched the memories reflected in her hazel eyes. Truth or dare was how they’d gotten started in the first place. They’d been with a group of friends down at Mill Creek and someone had suggested the game. It had been a wild night of the kind of trouble only teenagers could get into, and it had culminated out in the middle of the creek where another of their friends dared Erin to kiss Warren.
And, holy fuck, had she kissed him.
His body heated, his cock going rock hard at the memory of her soft lips against his. There had been no hesitation even back then. Once Erin decided on a course, she went after it a thousand percent.
After that kiss, she’d decided she wanted Warren.
He’d been completely on board with that idea. The following months had been the most insane of his life. They couldn’t get enough of each other, and he couldn’t begin to count the times they’d almost been caught. Warren would like to chalk it up to teenage hormones, but here he was, staring at Erin’s mouth and wondering if the last year had changed things or if he’d kiss her and get a taste of the wintergreen gum she always seemed to be chewing.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“No.” He realized what he’d said and shook his head. Reel it back in, Davis. “Truth or dare?”
For a long moment, he thought she’d tell him to take a hike. Hell, he’d deserve it if she did. She didn’t owe him a goddamn thing, let alone to play a game straight from the past they both went out of their way not to think too hard about.
But then Erin licked her lips. “Dare.”
Got you, Freckles.