He wanted to ask her why, but knew it wasn’t the appropriate question to ask. He had been focused on his pain and had missed the grief in her eyes. Slowly, Matthew reached down to trail a lone fingertip over her exposed cheek.

“I’m sorry. You love children, so that must be hard for you.”

“I don’t let myself think about it often.”

“Then we’ll change the subject. Luckily for you, I had a feeling we wouldn’t be having a fish fry, so I brought some sandwiches.”

Her expression lightened. “So, we can stop fishing?”

“I take it you don’t like fishing?”

“It won’t be on my list to try again, no,” she said, straightening back into a seated position.

Matthew tugged the nylon bag he had brought from his home. He opened the bag and took out the two sandwiches he had prepared, handing her one.

Her eyes widened when her hand dipped at the weight. “I can’t eat the whole thing. This is enough to feed three people.”

“Or”—he grinned, opening his own mammoth-sized sandwich—“you and the person sitting next to you.”

“Now that makes sense.”

“Yes, it does. Just eat as much as you like, and I’ll finish it off.”

“What if I ate most of it?” she teased before taking a large bite of the sandwich.

He delved his hand back into the bag, pulling out three bags of chips, bottled waters, and four candy bars.

“You’re a man who thinks of everything,” she complimented.

“I try to. I wanted you to enjoy yourself.”

“Why?”

Matthew used the pad of his thumb to wipe the dollop of mustard away from the corner of her mouth. Bringing the thumb to his mouth, he licked it off. “A man who wants to live forever would be lonely without a fishing buddy by his side.”

Alanna blinked at him. Matthew could see she wasn’t ready to believe what he ached to tell her.

“But I hate fishing.”

“We could do other things than fishing,” he suggested.

Matthew saw her throat move under her fair skin.

“Like what?”

“I can teach you how to play with fire.”

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

God, help me. She had never wanted to fan her heated face more in her life. Sitting next to Matthew after seeing him shirtless at his shop was a trial in endurance. Wanting to take the towel and wipe the sweat away from his chest …

When she had walked inside and saw both shirtless men, she had no difficulty keeping her eyes off Isaac while Matthew’s bare chest had drawn her gaze like a magnet.

Both men were handsome, had almost similar hair color. Matthew wore his closely cropped, while Isaac’s dark-brown was much longer and tied back. Matthew was taller than Isaac, while Isaac was stockier.