Mary Alice went stiff. Was this really what people thought? That she was using Chad as her rebound guy? She didn’t look to see who the speakers were. She didn’t want to know. Instead, she took her tray of coffees and the bag of muffins and escaped.
On the drive to Chad’s, she tried to put the whole thing out of her mind, but it continued to circle around her brain.
He’d apparently been watching for her because he came out of the house as soon as she pulled into the driveway. With a cheerful smile, he slid into the passenger seat of her Nissan Rogue. “Good morning, beautiful.” Leaning across the console, he caught her mouth for a kiss that had her pulse doing a tap dance.
Warmth pooled low in her belly as she reached up to cup his cheek. Stubble rasped against her fingers and had her thinking about late nights involving something a lot more personal than work or phone calls. Even before she’d broken things off with Judd, it had been months since they’d been intimate. Needs she’d repressed or ignored came roaring back to life, and along with them the echo of the gossips she’d overheard.
Rebound.
Mary Alice broke away and blew out a breath. “Good morning to you, too. I like the scruff.” Surely, this attraction she felt was the real thing and not some product of her touch-starved brain.
Chad scrubbed his hand over his jaw. “Got called in for a late surgery last night. Didn’t take too long, but I wasn’t much in the mood to shave this morning.”
“Oh, are you too tired? We can reschedule.”
“I’ve been looking forward to spending today with you all week. I don’t want to reschedule.”
How could she not be into a guy who said stuff like that? “I got breakfast.”
He peered into the bag and pulled out one of the gigantic blueberry streusel muffins. “Mmm, these are my favorite.”
“I’d say lucky guess on my part, but they’re everyone’s favorite.” Mary Alice backed out of the drive and headed for the highway.
He made a few volleys at conversation, then lapsed into silence when she failed to pick up any of the topics and run with them.
She liked that he’d let her be alone with her thoughts for a bit, that they could sit in comfortable silence—even if her head wasn’t in the greatest place.
Somewhere around Chapel Creek, he finally spoke again. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with a frown before. At least not while sober. What’s wrong?”
She considered blowing it off, but she’d blown off too many things, made too many excuses in her relationship with Judd. She didn’t want to make the same mistakes. “Do you think, when you get out of a long relationship, that whatever relationship immediately follows is automatically a rebound?”
He considered the question. “I think that’s a gross over-simplification. Some people get out of one relationship and immediately look to fall into another, without taking the time to sort out what went wrong. They’re too afraid of being alone. But I think others actually take the time to do the work to learn from the failed relationship, so they’re in a better place for entering into a new relationship, when it comes around. Are you worried that’s what this is? That I’m your rebound guy?” His tone was neutral, revealing nothing about how he felt about the possibility.
“I hadn’t even thought about it. But some people were gossiping about us at The Grind and it just...bothered me.” Mary Alice glanced over to find his kind eyes fixed on her. “I find you appealing on pretty much every level. You’re smart, funny, gorgeous, and incredibly considerate. Spending time with you, being the focus of your attention—it’s all exciting and new and fun. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it’s gratifying to my wounded ego.” She swallowed, grateful to be able to fix her attention on the road. “I feel like I’ve done the work. I know exactly what went wrong in my last relationship. So no, whatever this is happening between us, I don’t feel like it’s a rebound.” She shot another quick glance in his direction. “I hope it’s just the start of the next real relationship.”
Heat flooded her cheeks. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Not this soon. But she didn’t take it back. It was true. She wanted a real relationship with Chad, and she didn’t expect to feel that so quickly after Judd.
“Is that what you want this to be?”
Mary Alice bit the inside of her lip. She’d spent too much time not saying what she wanted with Judd. “Yeah. I mean, that’s probably getting ahead of things. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but—”
Chad picked up her hand and kissed it. “It’s what I want, too.”
Relief came first, and on the heels of it, her smile spread wide. “Okay.” She laced her fingers with his. “Let’s get to that shopping.”
Chapter 6
SUNDAY WAS CHAD’S DAY to make up for the hours he’d taken off to help with Mary Alice’s class earlier in the week. He’d barely been home two minutes before the bell rang, signaling her arrival. Maybe they’d call in an order to Dinner Belles before they got going on decorating his tree. He tugged open the door and stared at the bright green casserole carrier and pie Mary Alice was holding. She had one of those reusable fabric grocery bags thrown over one shoulder. It was bulging.
“You cooked.”
“Well, you had to work half the day, so I thought you could do with some home-cooked sustenance to fuel the tree trimming.”
“What is it?”
“Poppyseed chicken—my grandmother’s recipe—and pecan pie. Which is superior to PEE-CAN pie.” She winked at him as she stepped into the house.
A casserole and pie. He’d seen so many of them since moving here, but none had made him smile like this. Or maybe that was just Mary Alice. “You’re wearing elf ears.” More properly, she was wearing an elf hat with ears attached. It was adorable. She was adorable.