Chapter 10 #2
Mabel pursed her lips and blew a raspberry.
“I nominated The Flames of Heat and Desire for this month’s pick, but I got vetoed.
And rudely at that. They said they were a ‘reputable’ book club and ‘reputable’ book clubs don’t read those kinds of books.
So I told them I was going to start my own book club.
” She sniffed. “One that isn’t reputable so we can read the good stuff.
Who wants to trudge their way through Ulysses when you can read about two people engaging in a passionate, forbidden love affair instead? ”
“That’s a very good point,” Addison said.
“They told me I should be ashamed of myself for even suggesting it, but I lived a lot of years doing just that, and do you know what I realized?”
“What’s that?” Avery rested her elbow on the front desk, propping her chin in her hand as she stared at Mabel.
“I cannot find a single hoot to give. It took me— Well, a long time until I finally got to the point of not caring, but I’ll be damned if I go back. They can boycott the newspaper all they want.”
Avery’s brows flew up, and I couldn’t help but mirror the expression. “They’re boycotting the newspaper?”
“So they say. But George’s and my little paper is the only game in town.
Where do they think they’re going to get their news from?
Facebook?” Mabel tossed her head back in a gleeful cackle.
“I’ve already blocked them and put them on my Dead to Me list. Buncha old prudes,” she muttered.
“They probably haven’t seen the other side of an orgasm since the last Bush administration. ”
My sister let out a loud guffaw, and Avery snorted a laugh, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth as if trying to hold it in.
I didn’t know whether to laugh, flee, or stand as still as a statue and hope no one noticed I was still in the room.
My palms were sweating, my heartbeat frantic, and my body hadn’t decided on fight or flight just yet.
“It’s true!” Mabel said. “I have no doubt they were the ones who complained about my booth at the farmers market and forced me to keep all my sex toys and various paraphernalia under the table. The mayor’s wife is in that book club, you know, and she’s a stick-in-the-mud.
Has her hands in everything in Starlight Cove, too.
Poor Ernest can’t even grow his cannabis in his yard anymore. ”
“She sounds like a real fun-ruiner,” Avery said.
“Oh honey, she is,” Mabel agreed. “And I don’t even see what the big deal is. It’s just sex. I don’t know what they’re so scared of.”
I didn’t either, but it was clear they were terrified enough to attempt to put a small family business under. A small family business that wasn’t all that different from ours.
This was exactly what I’d been afraid of.
And knowing a small group of influential women in town were boycotting the newspaper simply because of Mabel reading a book was just more confirmation of my fears.
Starlight Cove was tiny and tight-knit enough that it wouldn’t take a group of naysayers to ruin my family’s business. All it would take was one.
I wasn’t ready to gamble that because of a selfish dream I just couldn’t let die.
I glanced at Avery and found her staring at me, her bottom lip caught between her teeth and a furrow between her brows.
I had no idea what was going through her pretty little head, but I could only hope that after hearing what Mabel had to say, she was starting to understand my perspective.
Starting to realize I couldn’t possibly come out as the author of this kind of book without the resort and my family suffering the very real ramifications of such a reveal.
I could only hope that after this, she kept my secret a little longer.
With Mabel talking Addison’s ear off about the party this weekend, I followed Avery up the stairs to our side of the house to get packed for our apparent weekend away.
Before she could disappear into her room, I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and tugged her to a stop, that ever-present hum of awareness zipping up my arm at the contact.
She twisted to look at me, and I scanned her face, trying to get a read on where her head was right now after everything she’d heard.
“Hey.” I leaned close, keeping my voice low so it wouldn’t carry downstairs. “I know you need to pack, but I just wanted to say thank you.”
She leaned back against her closed door, one brow raised. “For what?”
“You know what.” I tipped my head in the direction we’d come from. “Downstairs. Not saying anything when you very easily could have.”
She lifted a single shoulder in a shrug but otherwise didn’t say anything. She didn’t tell me she understood now. Understood why I’d been lying for so long. Didn’t tell me she’d keep my secret as I’d asked of her. A shrug was all I was going to get.
I scanned her face, looking for any sign of apprehension or uneasiness over our impending trip, but I couldn’t find any. Still, three nights together was going to be unbearably long if she didn’t want to be there, so I wanted to give her the out if she wanted it.
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” I said. “Despite Addison being a tyrant and throwing us into this situation without our input, she can’t force you to go. If you’d rather stay here, I can tell her to fuck off and deal with it.”
She stared at me for long moments, her eyes dropping briefly to my lips before scanning the rest of my face.
There was no denying the chemistry between us still crackled.
A charge was in the air when we were this close…
A pull that was tugging me closer to her with every second that passed. One that had been damn hard to ignore.
One that would be even harder to ignore on a trip with just the two of us.
She shook her head and glanced down, breaking the connection. “No, it’s fine. We can handle being in the same car for a few hours, right?”
With this woman? I truly wasn’t so sure.
Being this close to her for weeks and not being able to touch her had been testing my limits.
Every fucking day. And that was when I had my own space to escape to for a reprieve.
But driving four hours with her in the close confines of my car, the memories of that night playing on a loop in my mind?
Well, that was going to be a challenge I hadn’t expected.
“Right.” My voice was too low, too rough, but it couldn’t be helped. “We’ll have separate rooms, so we can each do our own thing. I’ll stay out of your way so you’re not uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable around you, Aiden,” she said, truth ringing in every word.
I lifted my gaze to meet hers, my body leaning into her space without my permission. It would be so easy to close the distance. To press her against the door, drop my face into her neck, brush my lips against her bunny tattoo, and soak in the little whimper that would escape her at that contact.
But I couldn’t do that. We weren’t there. We might never be again. And I should’ve been happy about that. Should’ve been happy I wouldn’t have a distraction like her diverting me from everything on my plate.
Clearing my throat, I stepped back and turned toward my bedroom. “We’ll leave in an hour.”
“Hey, Aiden,” she called just as I turned my doorknob. When I glanced back at her, she said, “Was that why you did it?”
“What?”
“Why you’ve kept the secret for so long… Because of what Mabel said down there? Because of those women boycotting her business? You’re worried the same thing will happen to the resort, aren’t you?”
I stared at her for a long moment and swallowed. Finally, I gave her a short nod. There was no use in denying it anymore. No use in pretending my choices didn’t have the very real ramifications of fucking up my entire family’s lives.
And no use denying that even knowing all that, I’d still signed on the dotted line.