“Where’s the gray? You had gray running through your hair, and now you don’t.”
“I don’t?” Angus reached up and passed his hand through his hair like that could tell him something. “Well, I don’t know. Why are we talking about my hair all of a sudden?”
“I thought maybe you got the gray colored to impress Ben.”
“What?” Angus stared at me. “Impress him for what reason?”
I shrugged, trying to look casual. “You know. So, he’ll accept you as his alpha.”
“What in the hell are you talking about, Colt? You’re not making any sense. Do I seem like the type of man who would color his hair? As for Ben, I’m too old for that boy no matter what color my hair is.”
“No, you’re not,” I said. “Age is just a number.”
“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit. I’m three times that boy’s age. And twice yours.” He mumbled the last part, but I’d heard it.
“Just come out with what you want to say.” I went back to staring at my plate.
“Well, I would if you’d give me the chance and stop talking about my hair,” Angus grumbled. “I’m trying to tell you that I’m sorry I never told you how I feel about you.”
My eyes flew to his face, which was red with, I was fairly certain, embarrassment.
My heart beating hard, I asked softly, “How you feel about me?”
Angus turned his focus to a scrape in the wood of the tabletop and cleared his throat. “Yeah. You’ve been distant for a while, and I was thinking maybe it’s because I never let you know how much you mean to me.”
I had to lean forward to hear the last bit, Angus’s voice having fallen to a low grumble.
I had to ask. “How much do I mean to you?”
Angus’s bright blue gaze shot to mine. “A lot. A whole lot.”
I let that sink in.
“Another thing I haven’t told you is, you’ve got eyes the color of a storm cloud right before it bursts with a downpour.” Now his cheeks really were red.
I’d never heard Angus talk this way and resisted the urge to look around to see if maybe it was a prank and Maddox was about to jump out with a camera and laugh at me.
“Of course, maybe you aren’t interested in me that way. Maybe what we used to do was just a passing thing,” Angus said, uncertainty heavy in his tone.
“It wasn’t just a passing thing,” I said quickly. “But…what about Ben?”
Angus frowned. “Why do you keep bringing up Ben? I’m talking about us, for fuck’s sake! Did you fall off a horse and hit your head while I was at lunch?”
Ignoring his orneriness, I said, “I’m pretty sure you bonded with Ben, and—even if that isn’t true—Angus, I can tell you have feelings for him.”
Scoffing, Angus looked away. “I’m an alpha and the kid’s staying in my house, and I feel responsible for him, that’s all. I don’t want to talk about that; I want to talk about us.”
“Us?”
“Yeah, us. You and me.” In his frustration, Angus’s voice was rising.
Reaching over the tabletop, I rested my hand on his. It was warm and both rough and soft at the same time. “Okay, okay. Let’s talk about us. You’re saying you have feelings for me. Well, I have feelings for you, too. Only, I never knew how to voice how I feel or if you’d ever be up to anything more than what we were already doing. And then Be—”
Angus gave me a warning look, and I stopped.
He didn’t want to talk about Ben.
Picking up my plate, I stood and headed for the sink.