Page 29 of Words of Love
“Whenever I built a blanket fort, my dad helped me set the projector up inside. I’d lie there for hours, just thinking about stuff and looking at the stars rolling across the inside of the fort. It was so different from seeing them on my bedroom ceiling. In the fort, they were bigger and brighter and so close I felt like I could just reach up and grab them. I made a lot of wishes on those stars.”
The wistful tone in her voice wrapped like a ribbon around his heart. He stretched out beside her, resting his head against the elephant pillow. “Did your wishes come true?”
“Yes, but sometimes in ways I hadn’t expected. Or if they didn’t, then I needed to figure out the reason why.” She stroked her hand unconsciously over her arm, her face still turned upward. “Have you ever had a wish come true?”
“I don’t know. I guess I don’t believe much in wishes either.” He immediately wanted to take the words back, knowing they’d disappoint her. “But it sounds like you had a great childhood.”
She murmured a noise of assent. “Because of my parents and my family. I just got really lucky.”
He tucked one hand behind his head and tried to picture big, glowing stars gliding over the blanket ceiling.
Brooke shifted, and he felt her gaze. He turned to face her. The muted firelight cast a dim glow over her pale skin and created a gold sheen on her eyelashes. She was the only woman he’d ever known whose eyes were so transparentlyopen, like she had no reason to hide anything because she had nothing to hide.
“It’s been way longer than fifteen minutes,” she murmured. “Did you have fun? Or am I making coffee and meals for the rest of our stay?”
He chuckled. “I had fun, so no need for you to cook. But if you want to dance around and sing Beyoncé, I’d be happy to watch.”
She laughed. “You’re the only person in the world who would.”
“Good. Then it’ll be our secret.”
“Ah. Blanket fort activity number six.” Curiosity lit in her eyes. “Tell me a secret, Sam Donovan.”
He’d spent the past year avoiding her in order to protect his secrets. Now, for inexplicable reasons that he suspected had more to do with his attraction to her than his intellect, he was half-tempted to confess.
Aquartertempted. But he wasn’t that big an idiot.
“I don’t like cheesecake,” he said.
“Sacrilege!” She clutched her chest and widened her eyes. “Have youtastedEleanor Prescott’s chocolate cheesecake?”
“No, because I don’t like cheesecake.” He shifted to adjust the unicorn and elephant pillows. “Your turn.”
“Well,The New York Timesdebacle was my biggest secret, even though everyone in Bliss Cove knows about it.” She looked at the firelight dancing over the blanket ceiling. “I’ve never told anyone the sordid story of my ex, though.”
The muscles at the back of his neck tensed. “Why not?”
“Oh.” She expelled her breath in a long sigh, and her eyes fluttered down to conceal her expression. “Talk about humiliating.”
He shouldn’t ask. Shouldn’t dig deeper or breach the wall any more than he already had.
He gazed at the sweep of her lashes and the little mole right at the corner of her eye.
“What happened?” he asked.
She was silent for so long he thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then she rolled onto her side and lifted her gaze. Her irises were chocolate-brown, flecked with gold like glitter, and surrounded by a ring of pure black. The kind of eyes a man could lose himself in.
“Have you ever had a fantasy?” Brooke slid her hands between her head and the fuzzy bear pillow. “I don’t mean the sexy kind, but a big, epic picture of you living out something you’d always wanted? Like if you were a kid dreaming of becoming an astronaut, and you saw yourself blasting off in the space shuttle and walking on the moon. You could picture all the details. That kind of fantasy.”
She waited for his response. He didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded.
“I’d always had this grand idea of love, as you can imagine.” Her lips curved slightly. “I wanted what the people around me had, and probably what I read in romance novels, too. But because I was surrounded by all these great love stories, I knew it was attainable. When I met Michael, I felt like I’d been hit with a lightning bolt, and in the best possible way. I was convinced he was the other half of my epic romance.”
“But you found out differently.”
“Yes.” Her smile faded. “We met at the Chrysler building. I was late for an interview and running across the lobby to this jam-packed elevator. Michael saw me, and he held the door open until I got there. I was all sweaty and wheezing for breath. He handed me a bottle of vitamin water and asked what floor I wanted. Right when the doors opened again, he pointed to the water bottle and said I owed him a drink. He’d written his cell number on the label.”
Slick.Even though Sam had never read a romance novel, he knew enough about life—and women—to see how she would find that appealing.