“I get it,” he said with a slow nod. “I’ll…see you around, I guess?” He half-turned his body toward the exit of the courtyard.
“No good-bye kiss?” she blurted. She felt bad letting him think he wasn’t going to see her again, but that regret lasted only a moment, because he swept her into his arms, one strong arm around the small of her back, and he covered her mouth with his, those soft full lips playing over hers, parting hers so he could touch his tongue to hers. She closed her hands over his shoulders to keep her balance, to keep herself grounded as he kissed her, as she raised herself up as much as she could to meet his kiss, could breathe him in, could memorize the feeling of what it was like to be in his arms, until she could return to Broken Wheel this summer.
He was the one who broke the kiss, though she felt the reluctance in every line of his body—and she could feel that because she was pressed so close to him.
“I’m really glad I met you,” he said, stroking her curls back from her face with the side of his hand.
“Thanks for coming to my rescue,” she murmured, and slid free of his arms when he loosened his hold.
She was practically positive she heard him say, “Thank you for coming to mine,” when he turned away and walked out of the courtyard.
CHAPTER15
Espy woke still dreaming of that kiss when her phone rang the next morning. She rolled over to look at the screen, and snapped awake when she saw Tommy’s number.
“Esperanza, this is Tommy. Just wanted to let you know I got your part in. If all goes well, I’ll have you on the road this afternoon.”
Her heart did a little twist at the idea of leaving Broken Wheel so soon. Her heart clenched. She wasn’t ready. But she shifted to business. “Thanks, Tommy. I’ll let my clients know to be ready by, what do you think?”
“Noon at the earliest. I told you I’d put you as a priority.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” she made herself say though she did not, in fact, appreciate that. But she needed to get home.
She disconnected and stretched on her back on the bed to stare at the ceiling.
Javi was already at work, and she had time to kill, so she headed to the diner after informing the Laughtons and Gavin they’d be leaving town today.
Once Espy got to the diner, she saw that Ginny was slammed. Without a word, Espy pitched in, bringing drinks to the tables without, refilling coffees, then taking some orders from people who hadn’t ordered yet. Ginny cast her a grateful look and went to join her cook in the kitchen to get the orders out faster, leaving Espy and Sandra out on the floor on their own. Espy was surprised to hear people greet her by name. She’d only been in town…four days? And people knew her already.
She took that as another sign she was making the right decision.
By the time the crowd died down, she sat at the counter. Ginny brought out a plate of breakfast, the same breakfast she’d had the day before and had gushed over, biscuits and sausage gravy. Ginny added a glass of iced tea, and Espy again smiled, feeling like part of the town already.
“We’re heading out this afternoon.”
She hadn’t seen Ginny surprised in the short amount of time she’d known her, but she was surprised now, her expression still and blank. “So soon?”
“We weren’t supposed to be here for this long,” Espy reminded her. “We thought we would just be here one night.”
“Feels like you’ve been here a lot longer.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Espy asked with a laugh and took a deep swallow of tea.
“It’s going to make it harder to say goodbye,” Ginny said, which wasn’t elucidating. “Does Javi know?”
Espy lifted a shoulder as she set the glass down on the counter. “We sort of said good-bye last night.”
Ginny dropped to her elbows, her face almost in Espy’s. “You did what?”
Espy’s face felt like it was on fire. So here was a downside of small town life. “No! Not that. We…he ate dinner, and then we said good-bye and then he…left.”
“I heard there was a kiss.” Ginny leaned onto the counter and waggled her eyebrows.
Espy snapped up straight. No one else had been in the courtyard. She’d thought they’d had privacy. “You heard what?”
Ginny pointed toward the town square. “Right over there.”
“Oh, that was just—“ Espy couldn’t meet Ginny’s gaze so she dragged the tines of her fork through her gravy.
