Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Ginny tilted her head to the side. “Why do you think that?”
“You smile at him the same way you do me.”
He had to give her credit; she didn’t give away any movement that would betray how she felt. She seemed genuinely puzzled.
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do,” he argued.
“Then either you’re not looking hard enough or you don’t want to see the difference.”
“Or maybe it’s a habit you’re unaware you have.”
Ginny sank down on a chair across from him. “Why don’t you just come out and ask me what you want to know instead of beating around the bush? Are you trying to hurt me, because I’m not trying to hide that I care about you?”
“You haven’t known me long enough to care about me.”
Ginny squeezed her eyes tightly shut, as if she was experiencing excruciating pain. When she raised her eyes back to his, he felt an intense sorrow trying to pierce through the shield around his heart.
“I’ve known you forever, Gavin,” she whispered.
“Because you felt a connection to me at T.A. and Dalton’s wedding?”
“You know I did. You felt it, too.”
“Who else have you felt that connection with?”
Her probing gaze had him shifting uneasily on his chair.
“You think I led my stalker on?”
“Not deliberately, no.”
“Because I smiled at him?”
“It’s a nice smile.”
“Are you serious?” She solemnly waited for him to take it back. When he didn’t, a puff of air escaped her as if he had punched her in the gut. “You’re being a jerk. If another man said that to me, I’d never talk to him again.”
Wincing, the depth of pain she was showing sent another piecing pain into his chest.
“I’m not saying you deliberately—”
“Thanks.” Sarcasm rolled off her in waves.
Reaper braced himself as rage beamed at him from across the table.
“No, there has never been anyone else other than you. I wish there was. Right now, you don’t know how much I wish that were true. If there had been, I wouldn’t still be sitting here. Believe that, Gavin.”
“I was making sure we didn’t leave any stones unturned.”
“Is that what you were doing? I don’t think so.” She shook her head at him. “I think you were trying to explain away why you’re so damn concerned about the way I smile at other men. Why don’t you call and ask Nickel if he thought I was flirting with him? Then call Shade, Rider, Moon—hell, call every man I am acquainted with and ask them! You want to know something about me, Gavin, come out and ask. Don’t dillydally around and presume something about me that isn’t true.”
“The only way I’m going to figure out who it is, is to find a link between you and whoever is stalking you.”
“There is no link!” Tears glistened in her eyes. “There is no link. There can’t be, Gavin.”
“Quit calling me Gavin!”
“I can’t call you Reaper!” she yelled back.
“Why not?”
“Because I fell in love with you before you were Reaper. I fell in love before I really knew what love was.”
“Stop … I don’t—”
“What if I tell you something that you can connect to my stalker?” Mockingly, she waited for him to argue. When he couldn’t, she continued piercing his heart just as surely as she had when she poked his chest with her finger when she got angry at him in her car.
“There is no link to anyone else, because there has never been anyone but you. I have a large family, mainly boys, but I had a sister who was everything to me. Our father homeschooled us, and while Leah spent a few days a week with her mother, she was the only girl I spent time with. When Leah came back from visiting her mother, she brought books and magazines that she let me have. We laid on her bed and dreamt about what it would be like when we grew up. Bless her heart, Leah was a romantic. We would read the magazines and books together and dream about the man we would love and the life we would have one day.” The tender, reminiscent smile on her lips pierced the hard interior of his heart, aware that none of Leah’s dreams would ever come true.
“Leah wanted to be an astronomer. She was fascinated with the stars in the sky. She was the one who told me what a soul mate was, and we would dream about who they’d be. Leah was certain hers was a boy she had seen a few times. She said all the signs pointed toward him.”
When Ginny paused to stare blankly over his shoulder, Reaper knew she was lost in her memories.
“Signs?” he encouraged her to continue.
“Like one of the mountain superstitions I told you about,” she resumed talking, her focus returning to him. “There are dozens of them, and Leah knew them all. Our brothers would make up a few of them just to trigger us. Jody told Leah her husband’s first name started with a B.” Peals of laughter came from her at the memory.