I froze once again, my brain automatically imagining all the things he could say to shatter my world. He had a girlfriend? He wanted custody? He wanted Iain to live with him?
“What’s that?” I asked in a raspy voice.
He took enough steps to stop right in front of me. He cupped my neck, his thumbs running back and forth along my jaw. “Iain isn’t the only one I want to spend time with.”
Butterflies, long since asleep, awoke and stretched their wings in my stomach—and a little further south. When I looked into his eyes, they were peering back with an intensity that made me catch my breath.
This time, I couldn’t resist as his lips brushed against mine, so softly I almost couldn’t be sure it happened, then with more firmness and certainty. But there was no pressure for more, but still had me wanting it to linger.
As he pulled his lips from mine as slowly as he’d placed them there, we stared into each other’s eyes, gold meeting green, searching for what was and what might be.
His hands fell away. “It’s too soon, I know.” He took a step back but never took his eyes from mine. “But you and me? We’re not done, either. And I’m going to prove that to you.”
CHAPTER20
Emalee
Teagan carried a pitcher of sangria to the table and put it next to the platter of tapas I’d made. It had been too long since I’d seen my friends, and I really needed them to help me sort out everything that had happened.
“Girl, those smell delicious,” Teagan said as she poured the drink into the glasses I already had laid out. “If I could cook like you, I’d be as big as a house. I don’t know how you stay so slim.”
I laughed at one of my closest friends. “Try keeping up with the inn along with an active six-year-old. It’s as good as any exercise class.”
She poured herself a drink and toasted me as an acknowledgment. “You’re amazing.”
I shook my head. “We all do what we have to.”
Megan burst into the room with Cameron right on her heels. All of us practically gaped at Cam’s state of dress. My cousin was practically a fashionista, always dressed more like she worked at a high-end law firm instead of a construction company. But she seldom left the office for the work sites. Instead, she managed the design packages and the business itself. Tonight, however, she was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt under a flannel jacket, and work boots. Even so, she still had her makeup artfully done and her hair pulled back in a perfect French braid.
Megan put down her tray of desserts, her specialty, while Cam plopped down a box of chocolate.
“Sorry,” Cam panted. “I didn’t have time to do any better. My damn lead foreman quit last week and took a couple of my guys with him to work on a big government project in Nashville. I guess they pay more, I don’t know. So, in the meantime, I’m trying to oversee the projects myself until I can find someone new.”
“Where’s the loyalty?” Teagan asked.
“Right?” She took a long sip of her drink and fell back on the couch next to me.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I put an ad in newspapers all over Tennessee and North Carolina. Hopefully, someone decent applies. I had a guy call me today, and he kept asking for Cameron. I kept assuring him that was me, but he said he was looking for a man, not some woman.”
We stared at her with big eyes. “I hope you hung up on him.” Megan scowled.
“I didn’t have to. He hung up first.”
“Then he wasn’t the right one for the job,” I said.
I knew how hard Cam had worked to keep Sterling Construction going after she inherited it from her grandfather. She’d double majored in Interior Architecture and Interior Design so she could add a new dimension to the company.
She’d worked alongside him for several years before he was killed, along with his wife, brother-in-law, and several other church members when their bus rolled down an embankment coming home from a seniors’ trip with their church. It had shaken our community horribly.
As a result, Cam had inherited her grandfather’s construction business, and Chase had inherited their great uncle’s farm. Bristol had inherited their big country house. But she was having too much fun traveling the racing circuit with her dad and hadn’t come home for years. I was still hoping that someday she would, but the longer it went, the more I had a feeling she’d sell it. But for some reason, she hadn’t pulled that trigger yet.
“No, he wasn’t, but I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t find someone qualified soon. I’ve had to temporarily promote one of the guys on the crew, but honestly, he’s not ready for these big projects.”
I leaned over and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry you’re having a rough day. Hopefully, you can forget about it for a while tonight.”
I closed the living room pocket doors after making sure the sign that saidPrivate Partywas on the outside.
