Most Eligible Baby Daddy by Chance Carter Page B

breath. He stared at her as if looking into her mind. She felt he could read her thoughts, and her main thought at that moment was that if he was so tough, if he was so hot and muscled and tattooed, then why couldn’t he stick up for her and Kelly?
    “I found it,” Forrester said.
    Elle waited, giving him an opportunity to elaborate on his father’s funeral, but he didn’t. He wasn’t much of a talker, Elle realized.
    “How’s the burn?” she said.
    Forrester smiled at the memory. “Again, I’m really sorry for acting like that yesterday. It was a weird day.”
    Elle nodded. He pulled up the sleeve of his jacket and showed her the area the coffee had burned. The skin was red and tender, but it was nothing that wouldn’t heal in a day or two.
    “It’s better already,” he said.
    Elle didn’t hear what he said because she was so taken by what she saw. All along his arms were small, round cigarette burns.
    “So it’s true,” she gasped, without thinking.
    Instinctively, Forrester pulled down his sleeve.
    “What’s true?” he said.
    “Sorry,” Elle stammered, “nothing.”
    “What’s true?” Forrester repeated. He wasn’t angry, more curious.
    “I really shouldn’t say. It’s private.”
    “What’s private?”
    “It’s just,” Elle sighed, “I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business, but you know how people talk.”
    “About what?”
    “I heard that you had cigarette burns on your arm. That’s all. I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe it, but now I see it’s true.”
    “You heard that about me?” Forrester said.
    “Yes. You know. Small town. People gossip.”
    “I suppose they do,” Forrester said, almost amused that she’d heard something about him. He wasn’t used to it. He’d left Stone Peak when he was twelve years old. First he’d been in Billings, and later in California with Lacey and her father and the brothers. People in Stone Peak might have known his story, but by the time he arrived in California, he was just another kid with a past. He wasn’t used to people knowing his story. He’d never realized that everyone in Stone Peak might still remember him. He’d long forgotten all of them.
    “I really shouldn’t have said anything,” Elle said, feeling awkward.
    She glanced over at Kelly, who was watching the scene with a bemused look on her face.
    To change the subject, Elle brought up the tattoos. “You like pit bulls?” she said. She was so flustered that she’d temporarily forgotten that the pit bulls played as integral a role in Forrester’s story as the cigarette burns. She just saw the tattoos that covered his arm, and brought them up.
    “I guess I do,” Forrester said.
    “How come?” Elle said, digging herself deeper and deeper.
    Forrester thought for a moment. “I guess,” he said, “that they remind me that you can find kindness and love in the strangest of places. Sometimes it’s the very last place you expect, that you find the greatest treasure of all.”
    “That’s a nice thought,” Elle said.
    “Well, it’s just something I noticed growing up. It happened to me twice.”
    “Really, when?”
    Forrester laughed. “You have a lot of questions.”
    “I guess I just find you interesting,” Elle said.
    “And what about you? Maybe I have some questions of my own?”
    “About me?” Elle said, surprised.
    “Of course. It’s not every day I run into a girl that affects me the way you did.”
    “I affected you?”
    “You saw what happened,” Forrester said, fixing her in his powerful gaze. “You were pouring me coffee, and I just straight up reached out and touched your hand. That’s not exactly normal for me.”
    “Have you ever done it before?”
    “Of course not.”
    “So why did you do it with me?”
    Forrester shrugged. “I don’t know. A million reasons. Who can really say why any of us does any of the things we do?”
    Elle was surprised at how comfortable she was starting to feel. She’d been so shy when she