Reede smiled. “No. Not by a long shot. But they did trust me.” He led her back to the stool and pulled the sandwiches toward them.
Sophie went into the kitchen to find the ingredients to make iced tea. “I want to hear more about your travels. You once said that you wanted me to get to know the real you, the one inside that you don’t show to other people.”
“Only if you agree to do the same for me.”
“All right,” she said.
He took a bite of his sandwich. “How about if I tell you about the time Kim’s husband, Travis, nearly killed me and my donkey? And he destroyed medicines that had taken me six months to get.”
“Really?”
“Oh yes. It was in Morocco and it was horrible. There was an international race that day, but the idiots in two of the cars were on the wrong road! Later I found out that they were following each other, some sort of personal vendetta, one-upmanship. The first guy decided to cut a few miles off the course by not going around the village but through it, and the other one, Travis, followed him.”
“But what about the people who lived there?”
“Exactly,” Reede said. “Someone saw the first car coming so they began to warn everyone and they managed to get out of the way.”
“Except you,” Sophie said.
“I had a donkey loaded with boxes of medicines and the animal froze, wouldn’t move. The first car ran past us, with sand flying everywhere, and the poor creature freaked. Refused to take a step. I couldn’t believe it when another car came right behind the first one. It was heading directly toward us.”
“What did y
ou do?” she asked.
“I didn’t think about anything but keeping the medicines and that terrified donkey safe. I threw myself between the car and the animal.”
Sophie stared at him. “That was dangerous.”
“Yeah,” he said, “but if you had any idea what I’d gone through to get those supplies . . . ” Reede shrugged. “Anyway, the guy driving saw us and did a U-turn that scared the donkey so much that it sat down and the boxes split open. I lost everything.”
“And Kim’s future husband was driving?”
“Yeah, that was him.”
“What did he do?”
“Ran off. That race was everything to him and he kept going. Later Maxwell Industries replaced all of the supplies quite generously but still . . . ” Reede gave a one-sided grin. “At least he didn’t win the race.”
“I’m glad he didn’t,” Sophie said, and Reede smiled at her.
As she looked at him she thought that this moment was more romantic than all the rest that they’d been through. While it was exciting to have a man sweep you away on the back of a horse in the moonlight, it was quite another for him to wipe away your tears. She liked moonlight during the day also.
“Come on and finish your sandwich,” he said, and they kept smiling at each other.
Seventeen
Sophie spent the night in her new apartment over the sandwich shop. Reede tried to coax her into staying with him and it was nearly impossible to resist the intensity of his eyes, but she’d done it. She felt like there were other things in her life that needed to be sorted out before there was more intimacy. Now, in the morning, as she lay in bed staring at the ceiling, she realized that something was happening inside her. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but she thought maybe it was hope.
For years now her hope for the future had been tied to when her sister went away to college and she’d no longer have to live in the same house as her step-father. She’d had hope that her future was connected to Carter, then in just days she’d attached her hope to Reede.
But now . . . Now there were other possibilities. She’d never wanted a restaurant. She’d learned how to cook because she had to. And because she was a creative person she’d taught herself to do something other than fry pork chops. But perhaps . . .
She had her hands behind her head and was lazing about when the shout of a male voice startled her.
“Sophie!” came the roar from downstairs.
It was Roan, and his voice was as big as his body.