by Jill Shalvis
His kitchen would never be the same.
She would never be the same.
And now it was over.
Miserable, Holly watched the water from the hose fall into the dog’s dish and overflow.
She shouldn’t feel so surprised that the café had sold, but she did. She felt as if her world had just slipped out from beneath her feet.
And it made no sense. All along she’d known she would leave here. It’d been simply a temporary phase in her life until she figured out what she really wanted to do.
Only it was occurring to her, this was what she wanted to do.
Her timing had always left a lot to be desired.
Riley handed her back the phone, his eyes dark, his mouth grim. “She’s gone. She…didn’t want to talk right now.”
“Right. She probably had something much more important to do than discuss my life.”
“I’ve got to tell you, Holly. I don’t think I like your mother very much.”
She let out a little laugh. “Don’t worry. The feeling is probably mutual.”
“You were crying.”
“Was not.”
“Holly.”
Oh, Lord. Her heart was beating fast and it had nothing to do with her phone conversation and everything to do with him. He looked good. He wore faded jeans and his uniform shirt, which stretched across his broad chest. He looked every inch a rough-and-tumble male.
Now he was squatting down before her, trying to see her face, and she couldn’t allow that. Couldn’t allow him to see her pain. She concentrated on the water flowing from the bowl to the ground, on her silly dog—yes, her silly dog—who was attempting to lap at the flow coming from the hose and was instead managing to get himself all wet.
“Look at me,” Riley said. “Please?”
“I’m busy.” How was she going to walk away from the most wonderful, warm, sexy, gorgeous man on the planet?
She trembled at the thought.
Buster decided he’d had enough water, and with a wiggle that started at his nose and ended at his tail, he shook.
Water flew all over Riley.
Buster panted and smiled, his mission complete.
Riley stroked the dog, then lifted Holly’s chin, forcing her to look at him.
“You’re wet,” she said inanely.
“I’ll dry. You wanted your parents to acknowledge what you’ve done here.”
No sense lying. She lifted a negligent shoulder.
“You wanted them to respect it, and you.”
“I’m sure that sounds stupid to a man who the entire town loves and respects.”
“Oh, Holly.” His eyes were fathomless, and filled with things that made her hurt all the more. “Don’t you see?” he asked her. “No one can give you love and respect until you give it to yourself.”
“Look, I’m…really busy here.”
He didn’t budge, didn’t do anything but look at her with his heart in his gaze, his voice low and unbearably familiar. “Do you, Holly? Do you respect what you’ve done with your life? Are you happy?”
No. A small part of her had been sure she would screw it all up. That she would make a mess of everything and then move on, just as she always had.
And an even smaller part of her resented him for making her face it.
“I know you’re hurting,” he said quietly. “I hate it that you are. But can’t you just admit that you’re upset because you don’t want it to be over?”
Dammit, it was enough she was going to have to leave here, the one place in the entire world that had ever felt like home. It was even worse that she was going to have to leave him.
But to be forced to admit it? Out loud? Never.
She’d leave with her pride intact, thank you very much. “I’m fine. I did a great job. It’ll look good on my résumé.” She even smiled at him, though it was so brittle she was certain she would shatter apart if he so much as touched her. “And I especially had a lovely time getting to know you.”
His eyes narrowed. “That sounded like a goodbye.”
“It was.”
“No.”
“No?” She managed a laugh. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t really up for discussion.”
He let out a breath and shook his head. “You’re really going to do it to me. God. I didn’t think you could, but you are. You’re going to walk away. My mother did that, you know. To my father. It’s why I treated you so cavalierly when you first came. I took one look at you and pegged you as an uncaring sophisticate, out for a good time. Like her.”
She felt her heart constrict. “Oh, Riley. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not like her,” he said flatly. “Not at all. You’re sweet and caring and warm. I know that now. But I don’t think you know it.”
She concentrated on Buster, on how the big, silly oaf was reveling in the growing puddle of water, rolling on his back and frolicking in it as if he were a pup. “I’m trying to make this easier on both of us,” she said.
“You’re running scared. Again. Things got too close this time, in this place. People got too close. You opened your heart and let it all in, let us all in, and now, because it terrifies you, you’re going to use the excuse of the sale to bail out.” Disgusted, hurt, he stood up and looked down at her. “I’ve got news for you, Holly. You can run from here to hell and back, but you’ll never be happy.”
“My life is fine.”
“Sure. As long as you’re alone.” His eyes were dark and intense. Unreadable. “You’re going to find it’s not as easy to be alone this time, not after all you experienced here.”
Buster stopped playing and licked her hand. She was going to have to leave him, too. Her throat tightened. How had this happened, dammit? How had she tied so many strings on her poor heart in such a short time? “I’ll be fine,” she repeated.
Riley stared at her for a long moment. “Can you really forget last night?”
Unbidden, the images came to her. Riley holding her, touching her, kissing her as she’d never been kissed before, so that she’d lost herself in passion and joy, in a way she’d never expected to experience.
“Can you?”
“I can try.”
Riley closed his eyes. “You can try. Great. Good luck with that.” With one last look, his expression filled with haunting sorrow, he turned on his heel and walked away.
Buster sat and looked at her.
“Not my fault,” she told the dog. “I warned him I was a bad bet.”
The dog whined.
“Well, I did.” So why then were her eyes wet again, her chest so tight she could hardly breathe?
Buster shook again, spraying her from head to toe, mingling her tears with garden water.
11
AFTER A BRIEF pity stint, Holly came to her senses. First of all, dammit, she was in charge of her own life. Since when did she let anyone dictate it, especially her parents?
So she’d wanted a little acknowledgement from them. She wasn’t going to get it, no surprise, but there was no way she was going to just roll over and play dead.
Not when getting even was so much more fun.
She wanted the café. It seemed so ridiculous, but it was the truth. She wanted to stay here forever and work at a café, of all places. She wanted the rangy, laid-back sheriff to love her. She wanted to spend the rest of her life here. It was her heart’s choice, and for once, she would go with it.
And Riley.
She couldn’t say why the sexiest, most gorgeous man on the planet wanted to be with her. It was the eighth greatest wonder as far as she was concerned.
But she would go with that, too.
She had no idea what she was going to do with a man like that, a man who could see right through her and still, still, want to be with her.
Keep him, that’s what.
With newfound determination, she stalked across the street, but Riley wasn’t in his office. Jud told her he wasn’t at the ranch either, but he could be reached by radio.
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br /> Great. Radio would have to do.
Jud handed it to her, then sat on the edge of his desk instead of leaving her alone.
“I know how to work it,” she said, hoping he’d take the hint and go.
He smiled and crossed his arms, settling in.
“You can…go do whatever it is that you do.”
“This is about it,” he said.
She sighed and called Riley.
When she heard his deep, husky voice, she had to sit down, she was so nervous. “Hey,” she said into the radio. “When are you coming back?”
“Later.”
Later. Okaaay. “I…um, have an emergency at the café. I was hoping you could come check it out.”
“Break a nail, Princess? Call your beautician.”
So distant. So hurt. She bit her lip and thought. Connived. “No, it’s…another gas leak,” she said brilliantly.
Jud snickered.
“Call the gas company,” Riley said.
Call the gas company. She wanted to stomp up and down and force him to take her seriously. She wanted him to talk to her in that sweet, sexy tone that made her melt. She wanted…to take back all the things she’d said and done to cause his hurt.
But Jud was watching.
“Thanks,” she said quietly, and she went back to the café.
Jud swore.
LATER, Holly came up with a new plan, a better plan.
Riley was there now, in his office. She could see his truck.
Perfect.
She entered his office as coolly and calmly as she could with her heart racing as if she’d just run a marathon. “I have something I thought would interest you,” she said in a purposely sexy voice.
He pushed up his hat, leaned back in his desk and studied her quietly. “I doubt it.”
His distant tone was almost more than she could handle. She thought about the chocolate cake she’d asked Dora to bake, topped with extra, extra frosting. “I’ll give you a hint,” she said. “It’s yummy and covered in chocolate frosting, just waiting for you to—”
“Not hungry, thanks.” He picked up his phone and started dialing.
“But—”
“I’m really busy right now.”
Her own words, echoed back, thrown in her face.
Heart in her shoes, she left him alone.
She went back to the café, where she polished off three huge pieces of the cake all by herself.
THE NEW OWNERS arrived right at the dinner crunch. They wanted an inspection before entering escrow. Holly was a wreck.
“I’m going to mess this up,” she whispered to Dora, hiding out in the kitchen.
“You?” Dora laughed. “You never mess anything up, you’re too sure of yourself.”
“No, you don’t understand. I mean I’m going to mess this up so I can stay.”
Dora went still. Then her smile spread. “You mean, you want to buy the café for yourself?”
“I can’t let it go, it means too much to me. You mean too much to me. Riley—” she swallowed hard “—Riley means too much to me. Oh, Dora, I’ve blown everything, all because of stupid pride, and I want to take it back. I want to stay. I want—”
Dora turned and picked up the phone. She dialed seven numbers then thrust the receiver at Holly.
“Who is it?” Holly asked, staring at the phone because she knew, oh Lord, she knew, and she’d never been so scared in her life.
“You’re telling the wrong person,” Dora said. “Tell him. Tell Riley.” She waved the phone beneath Holly’s nose. “Hurry, before you lose your nerve.”
She’d already lost it!
“Hello?”
It was him, oh God, it was Riley. “Hello,” she said as calmly as she could. “I, um…”
“Yes?”
“There’s a huge garden snake here in the kitchen,” she said quickly. “It’s big and mean and it’s going to get me. Can you come—”
“I’ll call the exterminator for you.”
“But—” Holly looked at Dora helplessly.
“Tell him!” her friend hissed.
“Riley?”
“Yes?”
“There’s not really a snake here.”
“Do tell,” he said wryly.
“I didn’t have a gas leak, earlier either.”
“Big shock.”
“I just wanted to tell you something.”
“Holly, I think you already said everything you wanted to say.” He sounded weary. “You’re leaving. It’s best just to let it go.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “Riley, I can’t. I was wrong before, so wrong. I thought I could walk away and it’d be no big deal. I thought I could go back, start over and forget about Little Paradise, about you. But I was wrong about that, too!” He was silent and she rushed on. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, I did it because I was too afraid to admit the truth, to tell you how I felt about you, that I love—”
She got a dial tone. She stared at the receiver in shock. He’d hung up on her! And for the first time, a sincere, bone-crunching panic set in.
He wasn’t falling for any of her tricks! How was she going to get him back?
“I failed,” she whispered to Dora, setting her head down on the counter and closing her eyes. “I pushed him away because of my own stupid fears and pride and I never got to tell him I love him.”
“You could tell me now.”
“Riley.” She whirled around to face him. He was at the back door; hair wild, body tense, chest heaving from his run. His eyes were warm and suspiciously damp.
He cleared his throat. “It occurred to me on my mad dash over here that I haven’t been completely fair to you.” He came closer, then closer still, so that they were barely an inch apart. “I never told you how I felt about you, either.”
“You could tell me now.” She was breathless, her heart in her throat.
“Oh yes, tell her now,” Dora breathed.
They both looked at the redhead, but she refused to budge. “Oh, let me stay! Please?”
“Dora—”
She lifted up a hand tipped with purple fingernails. “I’ll be quiet, I promise.”
Riley looked at Holly, who shrugged.
“She has to stay,” Holly said. “Because I can’t wait for the amount of time it would take me to wrestle her out of here.”
“Exactly.” Dora nodded and flexed her muscles. “Besides, I know how to fight. It would take far too long.”
“Dora?”
“Yes?” she said sweetly to Holly.
“Don’t take this wrong, but if you’re going to stay, shut up.”
Dora grinned and mimicked zipping her lip. “I’m shutting up.”
“Okay.” Holly looked at Riley. “Ready.”
He smiled. “Good. But I forgot where I was.”
Holly smacked him lightly on the arm. “You did not! You’re going to tell me about me!”
“Ah, yes.” His smile faded and he looked deep into her eyes. “When you first came, I thought I had you pegged. You put on a good show, princess. You played tough and cool to a tee, but it didn’t take me long to see right through that to the real you beneath, to the woman who hid behind the veneer to protect her heart. I love that woman.” He reached for her hand, entwined their fingers. “You drive me wild, you make me laugh, you make me think, but mostly, you make my heart soar like it’s never done before. For all of that, Holly Stone, I love you.”
She and Dora both sighed dreamily. “Oh, Riley.”
“Now tell me,” he demanded.
She smiled through her tears. “And I thought maybe you came back over here for another chocolate frosting round.”
“Tell me now,” he demanded. “Then chocolate.”
“Okay.” She was shaking. “I love your smile, your easygoing ways. I love the way you calm me, the way you touch me, how you make me feel every single second of every single day. I love how you want me in your life, even when I’m impossible and restless and—”
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“And difficult,” he added helpfully, and she laughed.
“I’ve never felt so special, so wanted,” she said. “Because of all of that, I love you, Riley McMann.”
Dora sighed again, her hand on her chest. “Oh, that’s so beautiful. Now don’t start kissing,” she said sharply, slapping a hand between them. “Or you’ll never stop. You’ve got to get out there and ruin those new people’s taste for this place.”
“I nearly forgot!” Holly looked at Riley in panic. “They’re out there wanting to be served. I’ve got to hurry!”
“We’ve got to hurry,” he corrected. “We’re together in this.”
“I want to buy this place for myself,” she said urgently, grabbing his arms. She had to make him understand how much this meant. “I want to stay.”
“Forever.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Forever works for me. Especially if you agree to be my wife.”
Dora and Holly both gasped. They both started to cry.
Riley grinned. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes,” both Holly and Dora said.
“Good.” He didn’t look too steady, either, but he beamed with happiness. “Now let’s go scare off some buyers. Shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Not with my talent,” Holly said, still reeling from the fact he wanted her to be his wife. “Let me start, I’ve got a knack for this.”
ACTUALLY, it was Dora who started off the project nicely by spilling ice water in the lap of the wanna-be buyer.
His wife gasped, stood up and flung her napkin down. “I’ve never!” she said.
Dora popped her gum, leaned close and winked. “Well, you really should. It’s good for the skin.”
“Honestly! You’re talking to one of your customers that way?”
“Sarcasm is just one of the services we offer.”
The woman gaped at Dora until Harry—egged on by Riley—leaped up on their table and sat next to the salt and pepper. With a huge amount of dignity, he lifted his leg over his head and proceeded to clean his…essentials.
And while that had the couple’s eyes nearly bugging out of their heads, Holly knew she needed to take more drastic measures. Still, even she couldn’t have planned what happened next.
