Jill Shalvis - Kiss Me, Katie! & Hug Me, Holly!

Holly hardly understood it herself.

“Yes, ma’am, I do realize you were talking to your daughter,” she heard him say. “But I think you should know, Holly has done a marvelous job here. She’s changed the serving style and it really works. She got a huge spread in the paper this morning and the café is- No, she’s not paying me to say this!” Shocked, he looked over at Holly.

Holly couldn’t help it, she laughed coldly. “That’s my mother.”

“Look, Mrs. Stone, I’m trying to tell you-” His jaw tightened. “Yes, I’m really the sheriff-”

Oh, her mother was in rare form this morning. Now she’d insulted Riley, the only man in Holly’s entire life to…to what? To get past her defenses? To make her see herself in a way she’d never seen herself before? To make her want things she had no business wanting, things like a white wedding dress and a picket fence?

Last night had been the most amazing-and terrifying-night of her life. Riley had shown her things she’d never dreamed of. He’d coaxed her in that soft, sexy voice to both say and do things she’d never imagined, and all that before the most incredible sexual experience of her life.

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.