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Thisfor what a bunch of strangers thought about her Now her reasons were all about wanting Marcus entirely for herself

"Even if I weren’t too old for you--"

Nicola cut him off "We’re both adults"

He looked at her, head to toe, and she kneas taking in the too-big sweatshirt that went past her knees Despite the fact that she knew she looked really, really young with no ht I looked plenty old enough last night"

His jaw tightened "Last night was a mistake And if you hadn’t fallen asleep it would have been a truly huge mistake"

Wow That hurt

She had to turn away from him on the stool and scoot off so that he wouldn’t see just how bad his words hadrejection just bounce right off her Turned out she had a long way to go, if only a feords fro inside

"Nicola"

She didn’t turn around to face hi for the couch where she hoped her shoes and purse were She stripped off the sweatshirt while she walked, wanting nothing et the heck out of the house and drown herself in work, the work she’d been drowning in for the past sixdown to pick up her shoes when Marcus beat her to the that did or didn’t happen is your fault"

She held out her hand and willed it not to shake "Can I have my shoes, please?"

For a few seconds, she wasn’t sure he was going to give them to her, but then, he finally handed theertips didn’t touch as she took thee of the coffee table to slip theh to sweep out of the house like a woman who couldn’t care less if one man found her attractive or not There were plenty of others anted her One day, when she was feeling stupid and reckless again, she would find one of the he could have said would have stopped her fro but that

"When you were sleeping last night, I couldn’t stop thinking how beautiful you are I can hardly believe you caht" He ran his hand over his face "I shouldn’t be telling you that, but it’s so daht I told er and not worry about your feelings" His eyes caught hers and held them fast "I don’t know a lot about you, but you don’t feel like a stranger anymore, Nicola"

A flicker of hope lit in her chest "Neither do you," she said softly