Love to Hate You: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  He watched me for a beat, as if waiting for me to say something else. I struggled to get the words from my throat for several seconds before he gave up, taking a step back. “Okay, well, thanks. I guess I’ll see you around.”

  “Wait!” I cried, slapping my hand on the solid wood door as he began to close it on me. “Micah, I—”

  “You what?” he pressed when I didn’t finish my sentence.

  “Okay, look. I know things between us have been . . .”

  “A shit show?” I curled my lips between my teeth to hide my grin while nodding. “Yeah. That’s one way to put it. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and began fidgeting in place. “I wanted to apologize for how I’ve been acting around you. Despite what you may think, that’s not me. I’m really not a mean person, I promise. Even though I’ve been acting like one lately.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and rested a shoulder against the door jamb, like he was settling in. He was getting a kick out of watching me squirm, not that I could blame him. If the shoe was on the other foot, I had no doubt I’d be doing the exact same thing.

  “So . . . I’m sorry. That’s what I wanted to say.”

  “That it?”

  “Yep—oh, actually, no,” I blurted, suddenly remembering the real reason I was there. “I also wanted to invite you over for dinner. Ivy told me she asked you, but you turned her down. And, well if you’d like to come, the invitation’s still open.”

  His lips curved, revealing those pearly white teeth. “That so?”

  His grin was infectious. “Yes, that’s so.” I started walking backward, adding, “It’ll be done in about forty-five minutes. And I know a particular little redhead, about this tall”—I held my hand out at my hip—“who’d be really happy if you showed.”

  “Yeah? She the only redhead who’d be happy if I showed?” he called back as I turned and started back toward my house.

  “Baby steps, Micah,” I returned. “Baby steps.”

  He let out a booming laugh as I crossed back into my yard and scurried up the front walk. I was smiling wide as I stepped into the house and closed the door behind me, hoping more than I cared to admit that he’d show up.

  * * *

  Micah

  The door flew open before I finished knocking.

  “You came!” I was rocked back a step when the full force of a little four-year-old plowed into my legs, locking them in a vise grip. My arms shot out at my sides as I fought to keep my balance, looking down into a pair of big, sapphire doe eyes. “Mommy said she didn’t know, but I told her you’d come, ’cause we’re best friends!” she declared.

  “We are?”

  She released my legs and took a step back. “Yu-huh! You’re my best friend, Mike, who gave me six bucks!” I gave up trying to get her to say my name correctly, accepting that I would probably forever be known to her as Mike. All of a sudden, her smile drooped. Her bottom lip poked out, and her chin began to quiver. “But Mommy took my money away.” Her big blue eyes grew even brighter as tears welled up in them.

  Oh shit. Oh fuck. No, no, no, no. “What’s happening right now?” I asked, panic starting to clench my chest. “What are you doing? Stop it.”

  She sniffled. “N-now I c-can’t get ice cream.”

  “Oh God. No. Please don’t. Look.” I quickly pulled my wallet from my back pocket. “I’ll give you the money back, okay? I’ll give you all of it. Just . . . stop whatever you’re about to do.”

  Hayden suddenly appeared out of nowhere, grabbing hold of my wrist to stop me before I could throw all the cash I had—a hundred and twenty dollars—at her kid. “Ivy,” she clipped in a scolding tone. Almost immediately, the chin quivering stopped and the tears dried up. “What have I told you about that face?”

  The little monster let out a huffed breath. “Not on easy targets.”

  “That’s right. Now go help your aunt set the table.” The girl literally skipped off with a wicked smile on her face.

  I turned to look at Hayden, slow blinking as I muttered, “She just played me, didn’t she?”

  “With hardly any effort.” She shook her head in mock disappointment while bracing her hands on her hips. “Really, Micah, I’d have expected better from you. I told you she’d clean you out if you weren’t careful. You gave in within thirty seconds of that door being open. That’s a new record, even for her.”

  “Wait a minute.” I lifted my hand, finally registering what she’d said. “Easy target?”

  Her response was to shrug her shoulders on a sweet, melodic giggle. “If the shoe fits.”

  I couldn’t argue that. “But . . .” I looked back into the house. “That face. Christ, it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I’d have signed over the title to my truck if she’d asked.”

  “Yeah,” Hayden said on a weary sigh. “She’s gotten way too good at it.”

  My head whipped back to her, my tone almost accusing as I asked, “How the hell are you not affected by that face? Is your heart made of stone or something?”

  She brushed me off like it was nothing and started into the house, waving for me to follow. “Oh, please. Where do you think she learned it? That face has been passed down for generations,” she said as I followed her toward the kitchen. The house was still as bright and insanely decorated as it had been when Sylvia lived in it, but I noticed Hayden had made some additions. There were new framed photos everywhere, almost all of them containing Ivy, either by herself or with Hayden and/or Sylvia.

  “Fuck,” I hissed under my breath. “I just stepped into the lion’s den, didn’t I?”

  She turned and threw a beaming smile over her shoulder that hit me straight in the chest before traveling south—along with all the blood in my body—to my dick. Christ, she had an incredible smile.

  “Just watch where you step,” she teased with a wink.

  “Ah, there he is,” Sylvia crooned as soon as Hayden and I entered the kitchen. She moved from the stove, coming around the counter to place her hands on my shoulders, her way of communicating silently that she wanted me to bend so she could give my cheek a kiss, which I did. “Heard you got hit with The Look. You managed to survive the first time, which is more than I can say for some men.”

  “Let me guess. You’re the one who taught Hayden, who taught that little devil child.”

  Ivy grinned happily, completely unfazed at being called a devil.

  “It wasn’t so much taught as it was passed down through the genes. You can’t blame me for genetics.”

  “I’ll find a way,” I grumbled in mock seriousness.

  Then I noticed the delicious smells filling the air around me. My stomach let out a loud growl, reminding me I hadn’t put anything in it since the donut I’d gotten at Muffin Top that morning. If dinner tasted anywhere near as good as it smelled, I couldn’t wait.

  “Mike. Come sit here.” Ivy patted the cushioned stool next to hers at that bar. “You can draw with me till supper’s done.”

  “I don’t know, kid. I’m not very good at drawing.”

  “Dat’s okay. Just try your best. Dat’s what Mommy always says.” She patted the seat again, giving me no choice but to join her. As soon as I sat, she shoved a piece of yellow construction paper in front of me and slid a box of crayons between us.

  I looked across the counter to where Hayden was standing at the stove, her lips curled between her teeth in a failed attempt to hide her smile as she watched us. When she caught me staring, she uncurled them and grinned, mouthing sorry.

  “Let me get you a drink, Micah,” Sylvia decreed, shuffling toward the drink shaker she always made her Tom Collins in. “I’ll have you set up in no time.”

  Before I had a chance to fight back a wince at the thought of having to drink that disgusting cocktail, Hayden spoke up. “Actually, I was gonna offer Micah a beer,” she said quickly. “I bought a six pack the other day, and I ended up not liking it. It’ll go to waste unless he dri
nks it for me.”

  “All right, dearie. More gin for you and me, then.” Undeterred, Sylvia whipped up a new batch while her niece moved to the bright, lemon-yellow fridge and pulled out a beer. She popped the top as she headed toward me and slid the bottle across the bar.

  “Thanks,” I murmured under my breath, picking it up and taking a big gulp.

  “No problem,” she returned, just as quietly. “I remembered what you said the other day, and I know you’d drink it just to make her happy, but I figured this would be a safer bet.”

  I was quickly coming to realize she hadn’t been lying when she said she wasn’t normally a mean person. Sitting in her kitchen with her aunt and daughter, I was seeing the side of Hayden I’d seen that night in the bar, the side I’d thought was just a fluke. I’d only had brief glimpses of it then, but it had been more than enough to make me want to fuck her. And I’d be damned if seeing this lighter side of her now wasn’t making me want the same damn thing.

  “Appreciate it, Red.”

  I caught a peek at the pink that was blooming across her cheekbones just as she turned her back on me, and I knew then how completely fucked I was.

  Because there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to have this woman under me again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Hayden

  Dinner turned out to be surprisingly fun. Between Ivy filling any silence with her usual chatter and Sylvia sharing stories of me as a girl and stories of Micah in the time she’d lived beside him—most of the stories embarrassing as hell—there hadn’t been a single lull in the conversation. I laughed almost as much as I had the night Micah and I first met.

  I managed to find out more about Micah as we ate. I learned he’d been with the Hope Valley Police Department since the start of his career as a police officer over thirteen years ago. I learned his drive to become law enforcement came from his father, who was a cop in Richmond, but he preferred the slower pace of a smaller town and had left the city specifically for this job.

  The better I got to know him, the more I liked him. He was funny and down-to-earth, and he didn’t seem to mind that my baby girl had latched onto him like a suction cup. But that was part of the problem. It wasn’t just about wanting to strip him naked and climb him like a jungle gym. That attraction I’d felt the very first night, the one that hadn’t faded even while we were fighting, was there in spades, only now it was more intense, because I was getting glimpses of the real man beneath the surface. He loved his job, he cared about the people in this town, and he was loyal to his friends and family. That was a side of him I’d never seen before, and damn if it didn’t make him even more attractive.

  When dinner wrapped up, he offered to help clean, but I quickly shooed him out of the kitchen to join Sylvia and Ivy in the garden while I took care of everything.

  Truth was, I needed a few minutes to myself to get my head straight. I was discombobulated and off balance. As I washed the dishes by hand, scrubbing the hell out of the baked-on cheese in the casserole dish, I practiced my yoga breathing, hoping to find my center, as Sylvia would say.

  I’d almost gotten myself there when a hand came down on my shoulder, scaring a yelp from me and making me jump around, slinging sudsy water all over the place. “Holy shit,” I exclaimed, placing a wet hand over my heart to keep it from beating out of my chest. “You scared the hell out of me.”

  “Sorry about that,” Micah said, holding his hands up in surrender. “I thought you heard me.” One corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. “So how much do you owe the swear jar?”

  “Real funny,” I deadpanned, turning back to the casserole dish. “Do you need something?”

  “Nope. I was just wonderin’ what was taking so long. Then I saw you scrubbin’ that dish like you were trying to get a genie to pop out of it or something. Didn’t even hear me call your name.”

  “Oh. Uh . . . yeah. Um, baked-on cheese is a real bitch. If you don’t get it all off the pan right away, you might as well buy a new one.”

  “Well, I think it’s safe to say you got it all.”

  I looked down at the dish that was now so clean it was practically sparkling beneath the soapy water. “Oh.”

  “You good, Red?”

  Was I? He wasn’t standing close, but I was still able to smell his intoxicating scent, and that was enough to make my body react. Goosebumps had broken out across my skin, my pulse was thrumming, and my breasts felt heavy, my nipples tightening to stiff peaks beneath my bra.

  “Mmmhmm,” I hummed, keeping my eyes on the sink as I pulled the plug and turned on the water to rinse the stupid dish. “Just finishing up here. I’ll be right out. You need another beer? I’ll bring one out for you in—”

  The rest of the sentence got stuck in my throat when Micah’s chest pressed into my back and his arm came around my front, taking the dish from my hands and dropping it back into the sink before shutting off the water.

  I spun around in surprise and had to lean way back in order to look up at him. I’d forgotten just how big he was. Big enough to make me feel small and protected. Damn it, Hayden! Get your head in the game. “What are you—?”

  “What’s the deal, Red?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You come over to my place and apologize, invite me to dinner, then act like I’m a walking case of typhoid. What was all that stuff about earlier? Was it just bullshit?”

  “No! Of course not!” He was standing so close. Too close. “Could you maybe take a step back?”

  He moved, but only to brace his palms on the edge of the sink beside my hips. “Then what’s with the avoidance?”

  His gorgeous face and clear green eyes were all I could see. His musky, manly smell invaded my senses. “I’m not avoiding you, I swear.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Micah, please.” My chest was beginning to heave. “Please just step back.”

  “Not a chance. Not until you tell me what the fuck is goin’ on with you.”

  I tried to keep my eyes from straying, but they drifted down to his mouth and those perfect, plump lips of their own accord. Just staring at them made the skin on the back of my neck prickle. My tongue peeked out to swipe over my bottom lip before I pulled it between my teeth and bit down.

  A deep rumble worked its way from Micah’s chest, giving me a start, and when my gaze flew back up to his, I knew I was busted.

  “Ah. I see what the issue is.”

  “Micah,” I said on a breathy whisper. “Move back.” A gasp was ripped from my throat when he closed the last remaining inches between us, pressing his body against mine from hip to chest, the unmistakable impression of his steely erection prodding into my belly. My body jolted at the feel of it, an electric shock zipping its way through my limbs and coming to a stop at my core.

  “You still want me,” he murmured, the green in his eyes darkening as his pupils expanded. “That’s it, isn’t it? You want me, and it’s freaking you out.”

  “No, I-I don’t—That’s not . . .” I let out a tiny growl of frustration. “Please move. I can’t think when you’re this close.”

  Instead of giving me space, he lowered his head, dragging the tip of his nose along the column of my neck until my whole body shivered against his. “What if I told you I still want you?”

  Ah hell. There was only so much strength one woman was expected to possess. “We can’t do this,” I insisted, but the fight sounded weak, even to my own ears. “It’s not smart.”

  Screw smart! That little devil shouted. Think of all the orgasms!

  He made his way up, trailing his nose along my jawline and cheekbone before bringing his lips to mine, hovering millimeters away so they gently brushed against mine as he asked, “What would you do if I kissed you right now?” He knew what he was doing. He knew how to tease so damn well I felt like I was about to come apart. “Would you push me away or kiss me back?”

  “I—” didn’t have a freaking clue. “This is too messy, Micah. W
e’re neighbors.”

  “And apparently, I’m your kid’s new best friend,” he said, humor laced through his words. “But I don’t give a shit. You’re still the best I’ve ever fuckin’ had, and I’m dying for more.”

  “B-But . . . we hate each other.”

  “If I recall, those words never came outta my mouth, Red.”

  He was right. “Well, no, b-but . . . I hate you.” I was so turned on, I couldn’t even make that lie sound believable.

  His chest shook on a low, raspy chuckle. He knew as well as I did, that I was completely full of shit. “You can hate me all you want, Hayden. Just as long as you come undone for me again and again, the way you did in that hotel room.”

  My panties were soaked, my nipples throbbed, and my pussy pulsated, wanting him almost to the point of desperation. I was about to close the last remaining bit of space between us, sealing his lips with mine, when my daughter’s voice carried in from outside. “Mommy! Can I have a popsicle?”

  Micah and I flew apart like our bodies had given each other an electric shock. The spell was shattered, the air around us, humid and thick with lust only a second ago, now felt chilled.

  “Uh, yeah, love bug,” I shouted back so she could hear me through the closed back door. “Be right out.” Moving as far away from Micah as possible, I opened the freezer and pulled out a popsicle, hovering in the open door for a few seconds to let the cold slap against my cheeks and cool the heat that had built inside me.

  When I had no choice but to turn around, Micah was right where I’d left him, watching me like a hawk might watch its prey. “What just happened here, or almost happened, or . . .” I shook my head to piece my thoughts together. “Whatever that was. It can’t happen again. Not when we’re living right next door to each other. It isn’t smart.”

  He moved in, taking the popsicle from my hand and bending low so his face was all I could see. “You might be right, Red. But smart or not, we’re inevitable, so you may as well wrap your head around that now.”