Page 70 of Cautious Love

I drop my gaze to my hands, unable to look at her because I know this is the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts. “I can’t … do anything. And after what she’s been through, the last thing I want her to think is, I’m just another man trying to use her.”

Sterling huffs. “Yeah, I doubtyour wifeis thinking that,” he says carefully.

“Why?” I ask.

He nods in her direction, and I find her staring at me with amused eyes and a little smile. “A girl who isn’t interested doesn’t look at you that way. I would know.”

I shake my head. “That’s going to bite you in the ass one day,” I mumble.

“Hopefully she has nice teeth, maybe I’ll get a tattoo of her bite mark,” he says with an idiotic grin.

“You’re a piece of work.”

“I’ve been called worse,” he mutters, and glances at Gracie and June, who are, no surprise, already slamming shots.

“Someone drove them here right?” I ask.

“Yep, I did,” Sterling sighs.

“No more than one beer,” I command.

“Yes, sir,” Sterling says, saluting me and spinning on his heel like a toy soldier before strutting over to June and Grace.

“What can I get cha’ Sheriff?” Shiloh asks me leaning against the counter and I try not to look, but it’s hard not to when she’s squeezing her breasts together, and all I want to do is stare.

I cough clearing my throat and look her in the eye. “A beer, please.” While still looking at me she reaches into one of the wells and pulls out a longneck. She pops the top and slides it across the bar.

“Anything else?” she asks.

I shake my head, and she smiles. “If you need something, you know where to find me,” she says, and I slide over a bill that is more than what the beer costs, but I don’t care.

She sets her hand over mine, pushing it back from the edge. “On me,” she says, and if it wasn’t so loud she would have heard me groan, but the way her eyes lit up, she might have.

With that she leaves me weak in the knees and a wanting man on a razor-thin edge.

Instead of standing here like a dunce I go over to Sterling and the girls. They talk, but I hardly listen to either of them because I keep looking for Shiloh and her eyes keep finding mine.

“Will you dance with your sister please?” June asks me.

“Maybe if she stops referring to herself in the third person,” I grumble, taking a swig of my beer.

She stomps her foot, tipsy, and temperamental. “Please, Ledgey,” she whines. “Or I’ll go find another man you don’t approve of.”

I roll my eyes and grab her hand pulling her onto the dance floor to two step to a song I’m barely paying attention to.

June giggles as we dance and she’s following my lead. We’ve been dancing since we were kids. Mom and dad taught us mainly because we watched them do it in the kitchen for so long.

I glance at June and she’s looking at someone else as I spin her around, making a point not to crash into another couple, but I keep finding Shiloh.

The song changes and Sterling taps my shoulder, offering to take over. I all but throw my sister into his arms and she grumbles, but goes with him anyway.

Shiloh is collecting dirty glasses off a high top and I stop next to her. I have no plan, which isn’t like me, but she’s the only woman I want to dance with in this old bar. It’s a terrible idea because it will out us, and the ring on her finger will only confirm it. But my resolve is crumbling. I don’t want to like my wife because Ican’t. We have a timeline we agreed upon, but I only have so much energy to give, and telling myself no every time I look at her is exhausting, and I can’t fight it anymore.

Or maybe I don’t want to.

“I know you’re working, but would you like to dance with me?”

Shiloh tilts her head and glances at the bar. “One second,” she says and takes two stacks of glasses to the end of the bar. She says something to Greer behind the bar and her eyes widen on me and she nods.