Free Winter's Wonder: Pine Point, Book 2 by Allie Boniface Page A

dinner without her crawling across the table and into his arms.
    “It’s hot. And humid.” He chuckled and helped himself to another pork chop and two more beers for them both.
    “No, I mean…how did you end up there?” She only meant geographically speaking, but his expression sobered.
    “I dropped out of high school after junior year—guess you know that.”
    She nodded. She’d heard about a hundred reasons why too, but she wasn’t about to ask.
    “I got arrested a bunch of times up here for stupid shit. Shoplifting, trespassing, drinking, speeding…my mom figured the best thing would be to move and get a fresh start.”
    Becca didn’t know a whole lot about getting arrested, but she did understand fresh starts. Feral cats came into the shelter battered and ferocious and scratching anything they could reach, but they just needed a quiet room and a wide berth until they realized everyone in the world wasn’t out to hurt them. She wondered what had hurt Zane, why he’d ended up feral and ferocious too.
    He met her gaze and then looked away. “I was such a messed-up kid. My dad took off when I was eight and my sister was ten, and—” he stopped, a pained expression on his face. His fingers tightened around his spoon almost imperceptibly. His tongue worked inside his mouth, like he was trying to figure out words. “This is funny, actually, that I’m sitting here with you.”
    A pain knifed through her. Funny?
    “Just because you’re so in love with animals. I told myself when he left, on Christmas Eve by the way, that I’d never get attached to one again. ’Cause when he left, he took our dog.” His eyes clouded. “Goldie. Shit. It sounds so stupid now, but I loved that dog. She slept on my bed every night. I fed her every day when I got home from school.”
    “And he took her from you?”
    “Looking back, I think it was to spite my mom, because she’d brought Goldie home when the dog was just a puppy.” He shrugged. “He ended up spiting me more than anything else, not like he ever knew that. I never saw the dog or my dad again.”
    Silence washed over them. Becca’s heart hurt. What kind of father did that to his son? Or to his own pet? She could only imagine Goldie whining for Zane, or the kids waking up Christmas morning without their father and their canine best friend.
    He resumed eating. “Anyway, I think that was when it started. I closed up, just stopped caring and set my mind to having a good time, no matter the consequences. By the time I was seventeen, my mom figured moving was the only way to get my head straight.”
    Becca nodded. “Makes sense.”
    “Like I said, I didn’t really clean up my act right away. But after a couple years down there, bouncing around from stupid job to stupid job, I finally woke up. Realized my life was going downhill unless I did something about it.”
    “You seem pretty put together now,” she said.
    He crooked that smile again, the one that went straight under her skin and made her heart flip. “Ah, doll, I’m trying. Can’t say my halo is entirely straight, but—” he winked, “—my idea of a good time is a lot more legal these days.”
    She smiled too. She couldn’t help it. His teasing confidence, his slow, sultry smile—and, okay, the body too—but mostly the way Zane told her his shit straight out made her like him even more.
    “What are you thinking right now?” he asked. Empty plates sat on the table between them, and he reached over and took her hand. His fingers stroked her palm.
    “That you aren’t like any guy I’ve ever been with,” she blurted. Oh hell, Bec . Why couldn’t she ever say something smooth and fun and flirty? You sound like you’ve spent your adult years living as a nun.
    He just smiled. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
    “You should.”
    In the next instant, he’d gotten up and rounded the table, and before she knew it, he’d pulled her into his arms.
    Those arms…
    One hand lifted her