Chapter 28 Louise
LOUISE
I heard the Mustang roar off down the street and that gave me the confidence to hurry inside the house. I didn’t want him to see me like this. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted him to see me again, period.
I was a mess. There was grass in my hair and mud on my knees and calves. My top and bra were ruined and filthy with dirt where we’d rolled around. But the worst damage wasn’t visible.
What the fuck had just happened? After weeks—months—of us both lusting after each other, suddenly he’d decided it couldn’t work? And he’d waited until he had me half-naked and panting under him, still flushed from the freaking orgasm?
The worst part was that, however much I raged about it, however much I hated him for it, I knew he was right.
He’d given voice to exactly what I’d been worrying about.
I’d been thinking all this time that we shouldn’t get involved, that giving into it would be the worst thing possible, connecting Kayley and me to a world we should stay the hell away from.
I’d known this...but it was Sean who’d called a stop to things.
He’d reduced me to such an aching hot mess that I would have gone ahead and had sex with him.
..and loved it. He was the criminal and I was the mom and yet he was the responsible one.
Well done, Louise. Well freaking done.
And what now? My stomach lurched. What if he doesn’t come back?
I had no idea how to go about selling the crop, or how to protect it as harvest time grew near and it became more and more valuable.
By letting things get out of control, I might have just jeopardized the whole plan.
I might have just thrown away Kayley’s only hope.
I braced my hands on the edge of a table and leaned over it, shoulders silently heaving as I wept. I could hear my tears falling onto the leaves of the plants like rain.
Idiot! You freaking idiot!
And then there was the least important thing of all: my own shattered pride.
I knew he’d done the right thing, but that didn’t stop the rejection hurting.
It wasn’t just the physical side...when we’d been planting the rose I’d thought I was actually getting close to him.
And that just made me feel even more stupid, for letting those sorts of feelings creep up on me when we were so obviously, completely wrong for each other.
I knew things would change, now. The next morning, I found out how much.