Dreams that had only gotten hotter and more frequent the last three months.
“I was trying to help you,” he said.
Indignant color flooded her high-sculpted cheeks. “I didn’t need your help.” As always, when in a temper, she tossed her shoulder-length dark brown hair.
He lifted both hands in abject surrender. “I know that now.”
She clamped her lips together tightly. Appearing as if it were taking every ounce of self-control she had not to haul off and slug him. “Good.”
Man. She was still really ticked off at him. That meant she still had to harbor some feelings for him, right? He held her eyes for a long moment, giving her all the respect she was due. “Your blog is incredibly successful,” he said admiringly. “And getting more so every day. All the women I know read it.”
Still glaring at him furiously, she huffed. “But not you.”
The truth was, he never missed a post. But figuring she would think he was insincerely kissing up to her if he admitted to being her biggest cheerleader, he merely shrugged.
“The Cottage Site isn’t really my thing,” he fibbed, deliberately getting the name wrong—just to get under her skin and keep her there talking to him a little while longer.
His facetious mistake had the desired effect. She pushed the words through tightly gritted teeth. “The name is My Cottage Life.”
They were standing on the porch of said cottage. Talking, well...arguing...more than they had in years.
“So, if that’s all...” she said dismissively.
Cade sobered. They really had gotten sidetracked. “Actually, it’s not.”
* * *
Of course it wasn’t all, Allison thought. Cade was an expert at delaying her. Keeping the attention on himself. Especially now that he was out of the limelight.
“I wanted to talk to you about this weekend,” he continued, even more seriously.
She held up a hand, ready to decline whatever he had in mind. “I’m babysitting for the Bailey quadruplets while their parents are in Switzerland.”
“I know. Shawn mentioned it.” Intuitive dark brown eyes lassoed hers. “He said you are refusing to bring in extra help and he’s concerned.”
Allison turned her gaze to the wintry gray clouds looming on the horizon. It wasn’t supposed to storm this evening, but it still looked like it might. “I’ve already talked to Sarabeth about the situation. She isn’t concerned.”
Cade inched closer, inundating her with his soap and man scent. “The thing is, I offered to help out, too.”
She could barely look at him and not wonder what it would be like to kiss him again. Just as an experiment, of course. To find out if her outrageously hot memories of the two of them were wildly exaggerated, too?
Allison rubbed at the tension gathering in her temples and drew a long, bolstering breath. Regarding him from beneath her lashes, she asked, “Since when do you babysit four-year-olds? Never mind four at once!”
“Since I heard you planned to go it alone.”
Wishing she didn’t enjoy spending time with him quite so much, even under these ridiculously aggravating circumstances, she picked up her toolbox, looked him in the eye and flashed him a confident smile. There was no way she was going to amuse him while he was temporarily at loose ends, trying to figure out his next move, only to have him break her heart all over again. Once had been enough!
“Well, un-volunteer,” she snapped.
She watched his cocky grin disappear.
Tamping down the fast beat of her heart, she went on in a low, quelling tone. “I mean it, Cade. I do not need or want your help with babysitting the quadruplets or anything else!” Leaving him alone to contemplate that, she walked inside the house, shutting the door behind her.
Copyright © 2020 by Cathy Gillen Thacker
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ISBN-13: 9781488070129
Secrets of Forever
Copyright © 2020 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Secrets of Forever Page 19