What You Need(63)
Her openness floored me. In my limited experience, people who’d remade themselves were reluctant to talk about their past, about who they’d been before.
Lennox is not this open with everyone, dumbass. She covers her tats and leaves out her piercings at the office because she wants to conform as much now as she did when she tried so hard to be nonconformist.
I crossed the room and framed her face in my hands. “Lennox. Look at me.”
She lifted her long lashes.
“Thank you for talking to me.”
At that, she offered me a smile.
That smile loosened the tight feeling inside me I’d been carrying around for years.
She sidestepped me. “Let’s strap on the gear and get the skiing thing out of the way.”
Lennox lasted longer than I’d predicted on the skiing trails.
I didn’t make a single crack about bears. Nor did I point out all the different animal tracks. But then again, her fear last night had led to our sharing a bed. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent the entire night with a woman and I knew it’d never been so easy as it was with her.
And torturous.
“Hey, dreamy mountain man,” she shouted at me.
“What?”
“I’ve had enough of this nature shit. Let’s get dressed and take the sled dogs into the village for supplies. We can practice yodeling on the way back.”
“Yodeling. Seriously?”
“What? Your mom is from Sweden. They yodel there, right?”
I honestly had no idea.
“Besides, I want to test you on that ‘stepping out of your comfort zone’ promise.”
“I already fulfilled that one this week.” I tapped my forearm. “I got a tat, remember?”
“Lucky for you, then. This is gonna be a twofer.”
*
I stared up at the sign on the building. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. Come on, Mr. Lund—this will be fun. Let that creative side out.”
“At Pottery to Paint? Lennox, look in the window. The average age in there is like . . . eight.”
“Yay! I’ll be above average for once.”
“Let’s go back to the bowling alley.”
She rolled her eyes. “You only want to go back there so you can keep making cracks about the size of your blue balls.”
I laughed.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll have a paint-by-numbers option, since you claim that numbers make sense and you’re scared of plain old creativity.”
“I’m not scared.” I brushed my lips over hers. “And, baby, I’m plenty creative when it counts.”
“Prove it.” She shoved me toward the door.
An hour later, we were still painting our coffee mugs. Evidently, that wasn’t a big seller with the grade-school crowd.
“Pop quiz time,” Lennox said.
I groaned.
“Oh, stop. You suck at small talk, so I’m throwing you a bone in the ‘getting to know each other’ portion of our endless date.”
“Feel free to throw me a bone whenever you want.”
She flicked paint at me.
“Fine. Small talk questionnaire. Go.”
“Favorite movie.”
“Avatar. Yours?”
“Bridesmaids.” Without looking up from painting, she said, “Monopoly or Scrabble?”
“Neither.” I’d finished my mug and watched her concentration as she painted. Her tongue would dart out. Then she’d sink her teeth into her bottom lip. Sometimes she’d scrunch up her nose. Or she’d narrow her gaze until she was almost cross-eyed. She was so damn cute. Everything she did, she gave her all, which fascinated me. Because I was exactly the same way?
“That’s cheating.”
“No, I’m just not conforming. My favorite game is chess.”
She lifted her eyes to mine. “I saw a chessboard at the cabin. I challenge you to a match tonight.”
“Challenge accepted.” Maybe I’d challenge her to a game of strip chess. “My turn. Favorite music.”
“Rock. With some thrash metal thrown in. You?”
“Guess.”
“Classical. With a preference for piano arrangements.”
I leaned forward. “Classical? I’m not that much older than you.”
“Ah, but you’re that much classier than me, moneybags.” She smirked. “Besides, I saw the piano at the cabin, so I’m assuming that, in addition to dance lessons, Mama Lund made you take piano lessons and you had to practice even on vacation.”
“Only Annika lasted longer than a year with the lessons. Walker actually took wire cutters and snipped all the piano strings so he wouldn’t have to play. Now guess again.”
“Jazz fusion.”