“What’s going to happen?” she asks quietly. “With Weggers and the will and the land and everything. Can I help? I wasn’t kidding about the fake wedding.”
I shake my head. “It’s under control. We can’t do anything till we hear back from Weggers, who’s deciding whether he can cut us some slack. I still think he might cave. And regardless, no outcome of this situation involves you going anywhere near Paul Graves.”
I almost growl it, and that makes her smile. Which makes me smile.
“Do you think—will it be okay for Hanna?”
“I won’t let it be anything but okay,” I tell her. I lean over and kiss her again. When we—finally—pull apart, she says, “I should—probably get back. I stole Mari’s car keys and her car. I should get them back to her.”
I snicker.
“Plus, I have to teach a ridiculously early class tomorrow and all my supplies are at home, so I think I should head out, but—I don’t want you to feel like I’m running away.”
Eden pushes herself off the couch, and I feel a thousand things at once. Strongest among them is the urge to pull her back down, to wrap her in my arms and keep her here with me.Don’t go,I want to say.
When I came to Rush Creek, I couldn’t believe I had to give up my New York City life for a month. Now the remaining few weeks don’t feel like nearly enough time. And I have to fly back to New York this coming Tuesday for a couple of days to make an emergency court appearance for a case I thought was on ice.
“There’s a Hott family dinner Sunday night at Hanna’s. Come with me.”
She freezes, and I know I’ve gone too far.
“‘Family dinner.’” She makes the air quotes, her expression stiff.
“My siblings and their significant others?—”
“Does that mean that I’msignificant?”
It feels like there’s no right answer to that question, like if I say yes I’m asking too much of her, and if I say no I’m pushing her away—and lying through my teeth. So I dodge the question. “It doesn’t have to be a big deal. I want to see you tomorrow night, and that’s where I’m going to be. At a family get-together. Easton’s an amazing cook, one of Hanna’s friends from high school is coming, too, and rumor has it that Tucker might actually show up. It doesn’t have to mean anything unless you want it to.”
Do you want it to?I’m tempted to ask, but I’m not sure it’ll do any good to know the answer.
She bites her bottom lip, worries it between her teeth. “Do they all hate me because I didn’t marry Paul and screwed everything up?”
“No.”
She smiles. “Are they all going toassume thingsabout us if I show up with you?”
My turn to smile. “Unfortunately, yes. They’re going to assume that, in Reggie’s words, we’re banging like bunnies.”
That makes her smile, too, and the tension eases in her face and shoulders. “Okay,” she says. “I can live with that. I just don’t want them to start putting pressure on you to, like, move back to Rush Creek and make an honest woman out of me or anything.”
“I’ll set them straight if they do that,” I tell her.
I walk her out to her car, which is parked on the street outside the main house. She pauses before getting in and lifts her face to mine.
I only mean to give her a good-night kiss, but as soon as my lips get close to hers, I feel the way the charged particles between us align, and I know there’s no such thing.
“God,” I groan, when I finally manage to break the kiss.
She’s breathless, too, her hands plucking at my clothes. “I know,” she says. “This is—next level. I feel like I’ve heard people talk about chemistry like this, but it’s never actually happened to me.”
I heave a sigh of relief, and she laughs. “You neither?”
“Me neither,” I admit.
Then we’re kissing again, her body molding to mine, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to drag her back to the guesthouse, except that just then the door of Quinn’s house opens and disgorges two of my brothers. We break apart like we’ve been electrified.
“Glad the argument’s over,” Shane says, and I roll my eyes at him and open the door to the car Eden stole from Mari and watch her drive away.
