Chapter 8 #3
Ethan looked at the post, rolled his eyes. “I’m real sorry, Lily”
She shrugged. “At least they aren’t saying anything mean. I’ve been branded a ‘nice girl,’ so far at least.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Wait until they find out I quit my job to work for you at the Cantina. Bet they change their minds to gold-digger in a hurry.”
“When I go back on the road, they’ll get over it,” he said.
The thought of him dancin’ with some honky-tonk honey had her seeing red. “That’s not for a while, though.”
“We’ll see. I can get things pretty well underway here in a couple of weeks.”
She set her iced tea down on the table and tried to catch hold of his evasive eyes.
“You are running away,” she said. “Just like I said you would.” Then she heaved a huge sigh.
“And it isn’t right. I can’t have you running away because of me.
You need to be here for the good of your career, and I think for your own good, too.
I don’t need to work for you. They’d take me back at the hospital, or even at the clinic in Quinn.
“That’s not what I?—”
“I can call the hospital right now, prove it to you so you don’t feel bad about letting me go and?—”
“I don’t want to let you go.”
She stopped speaking. God, she loved how those words had sounded. If only they meant what she wanted them to mean. “Well, I don’t want you to leave town, so…”
He closed his eyes. “I think your first idea was probably the best one.”
“What first idea?” she asked with bunched-up brows and an irritated tone. Sexual frustration would do that to a girl, she reasoned. Although it had never been a problem until now.
“A hands-off policy while we’re working together. You said that, remember?”
“Yeah. Before I kissed you. Twice. Which you liked as much as I did.”
“Maybe more,” he admitted. “But I’ve told you why it’s a bad idea for us to be together just now. So your hands-off policy makes sense. And I don’t have any better ideas, besides hittin’ the road.”
“Well, I have a better idea.”
He looked at her with naked fear in his eyes and did not ask.
So she asked for him in her best Ethan voice, all deep and drawly. “What’s your better idea, Lily?”
“Why thanks for asking, Ethan,” she replied to herself. “My idea is that you stop worrying so much and make love to me like you want to.”
She didn’t get up and go over to him, though.
She thought about it, but sliding onto his lap on her dad’s recliner would feel disrespectful of her dad, and besides, he needed to have a choice.
She didn’t think his brain would keep functioning if she sat on his lap, and that wouldn’t be fair.
And if their roles were reversed…damn! She wished their roles were reversed.
So she stayed where she was, on the sofa, gazing at him and he stared back at her, looking deep into her eyes.
He swallowed. She could tell by the bulge and retreat of his Adam’s apple.
And then he said, “Lily Ellen Hyde, you’re the prettiest, sexiest, most amazin’ female I’ve ever set eyes on, and I’ve never wanted to say yes more than I do right now. ”
He closed his fist around the iced tea, brought it up and guzzled it, rising to his feet as he drained the glass.
“I think your first idea was best, though,” he said.
“A hands-off policy while we work together. And if we can’t make that work, then I’ll go back on the road.
” He set the glass on the table and started for the door.
She rose, too. “You’re out of your mind. I’m a grown-ass woman.”
“Family’s too important,” he said, his back to her. “This…us, if it went bad, it would drive a wedge through our families. Between me and Harry, between me and Maria, between your dad and the whole clan.” He shook his head. “No, I can’t. We can’t.”
He’d said it all without turning to look back at her. But at the very end, he did. And when he saw the tears on her cheeks, he reacted as if the sight pained him. “I’m so sorry, Lil.”
She shouldn’t have stayed on the sofa. Dammit.
“There’ll be a deputy watchin’ your place all night. But if Angus Silver’s not in the hospital, he’ll be in a jail cell, Garrett’ll see to that. You’ll be safe here the rest of the afternoon and overnight. Might be best if you don’t go out the rest of the day.”
“Wasn’t planning to.”
He opened his mouth, closed it again, then said, “I hope you can come to the cantina tomorrow,” he said. “I have a contractor comin’ at noon to discuss the addition. I need you there to help me flesh out my vision with your ideas.”
She rose and moved closer, so she was standing right in front of him, and raised her hand to his cheek, and stood on tiptoe, and kissed him.
He shuddered all the way to his toes, and just when his hands touched her waist, she stopped and stood flat-footed again.
She was pretty sure that if she kissed him one more time, he’d scoop her up and carry her into the bedroom…
and maybe never forgive her. So she sighed, and said, “Okay, fine. We’ll do this your way.
See you tomorrow, boss.” Then she reached past him and opened the door.
He stepped through, looked back, and she closed the door gently in his beloved, bewildered face.