Small-Town Girl Read Online Free

staring at her. “Would you take me sometime?”
    â€œSure.” He shrugged.
    â€œSoon.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œTomorrow?”
    Brice chuckled. “All right.”
    Wait. Had she just forced him to take her on a date? Wow. Her forward personality always seemed to get her into trouble. But she hoped it didn’t come across that way. No. She hadn’t...right? She couldn’t, because Kendall was not dating anymore. Goose Harbor was going to be a boyfriend-free zone.
    Kendall trailed her fingers through the sand. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I kind of forced that on you.”
    He looked over at her and they made eye contact. “I want to.” His voice was soft, almost a whisper. Brice’s pale green eyes were so intense her breath caught for a heartbeat. He kept speaking. “I have some smaller boats that I need to test out. I’m trying to decide what to do with them. One is nicer, and I’ve only taken it out once since I bought it. She could use a spin out on the lake.”
    â€œShe?”
    â€œAll boats are women. I thought that was common knowledge.”
    â€œI guess I don’t spend time with enough pirates to know these things about boats.”
    â€œYou slay me.” He laid his hand on his heart. “Do you see an eye patch or a peg leg here?”
    â€œYou’re right. Pirates certainly don’t use words like slay .”
    â€œBlame the books for how I talk.”
    â€œYou’re a reader?” She wondered what types of books he read. Nonfiction books about fixing cars? Autobiographies about people who definitely weren’t pirates? Or did strong Brice Daniels curl up with a fictional mystery during his downtime? Her interest piqued, suddenly she wanted to know all about him.
    â€œOf course.” Brice’s voice broke through her thoughts. “What else is there to do when you’re out on the lake?”
    â€œUm, watch these amazing sunsets!” She slapped his arm but then left her hand there. “Brice, I was just hit with the most amazing idea. Care to hear me out?”
    â€œSure.” Another one-word answer.
    â€œYou don’t speak a ton, do you?”
    â€œThat’s what you wanted to talk about?”
    â€œNo, but I just thought that.”
    â€œDo you say everything you think right when you think it?”
    Kendall pursed her lips and rubbed her chin, pretending to think really hard for effect. It worked. Brice shook his head, a half grin on his face and his eyes twinkling with a shared joke.
    â€œOkay.” Kendall rolled her eyes. “Most of the time I say exactly what I’m thinking. Right when I think it.”
    â€œWell, I don’t.”
    â€œThat’s it?”
    â€œYeah, I guess.” Even with his boots on, he moved his feet back and forth in the sand as if he was digging in his toes. “I believe in thinking about things and not always saying them out loud. Words don’t always solve problems.”
    â€œBut sometimes they do.”
    â€œSometimes silence is better.”
    â€œI feel sorry for your girlfriend.” Kendall slapped her hand over her mouth. “Wow. Sorry. That didn’t come out like it sounded in my head.”
    Brice raised his eyebrows, but the lift at the edge of his lips told her he wasn’t mad.
    Kendall pinched the bridge of her nose. “All right, you win. Sometimes silence is better, like it would have been four seconds ago. Let’s silently sit here and watch the sunset. Then we can silently walk across the beach. Afterward, we can silently say goodbye to each other. Won’t that be fun?”
    â€œWhy don’t you tell me your idea first? The one you had before getting off track.”
    â€œI will. But sorry about the girlfriend thing. I’m sure she’s happy and—”
    â€œI don’t have one, so no worries. No wives in the attic either.”
    â€œ Jane Eyre