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“Yes,” Seth answered, although he wasn’t exactly certain what conversation they were actually having. She was likely out of sorts about him being the owner of the hotel project she’d been hired for. Then he remembered. Duke mentioned that he accidentally spilled the beans about Seth being the owner of this motel.
“Are you angry with me because I didn’t tell you I owned this motel?”
Her lips flattened. “Perhaps, I didn’t like finding out the way I did.”
“I’m sorry, Jessica. I should have told you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because you were staying in my motel. I didn’t want there to be any impropriety.”
One brow lifted. “Oh? I believe there was quite a bit of impropriety last night. Didn’t seem to stop you.”
“Right. Which is why I fully intend to comp your room while you’re staying here.”
“You didn’t want to sleep with a paying guest. I see.” She shrugged. “Just another in a long line of bad signs I should pay attention to, so I can think very carefully about what I’m doing,” she said under her breath.
Another bad sign? That didn’t sound promising. She and Garrett were having a major disagreement of some sort. He hadn’t figured out what the exact problem was yet. If he had to guess, he’d say that she asked Garrett something about relationships or commitment and he’d reacted as he always did, with disdain.
Garrett tilted his head to one side. “Will you move in with me?”
Jessica’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“You want me to move in with you?”
“I do.” They stared at each other for a long time.
“No, you don’t. And even if you did ask only so you could shut me up, how long would it be before you decided it was a big mistake?” Her mouth trembled. “I mean, would I actually make it to the altar this time or just put deposits down on a dream wedding that I’ll never have…again.” Tears welled in her eyes, spilling over her lower lids to splash on her cheeks. She was headed for full-blown meltdown.
Before Seth could do it first, Garrett moved closer to her. “I’m not going to hurt you like he did.” He tried to put his arms around her, but she backed away.
She sucked in a deep breath. Blue eyes flashing with bright passion, she said, “That’s right. Because I won’t let you.”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Seth asked.
“She’s upset about the break-in. She’s afraid of being hurt because her ex-douchebag fiancé dumped her in a humiliating and public way. I believe she’s afraid I’ll do the same thing to her, but I won’t.”
Jessica gave Garrett a watery look. Her mouth quivered with emotion when she asked, “How did you know all that about me?”
“Figured it out. You took one look at that room in a shambles and freaked out. You decided it was like a sign from above you were doing the wrong thing once again, didn’t you? Was that the way you viewed your life after douchebag left you? As shambles that could never be fixed because you missed all the signs of him being a total fuck head?”
She nodded. Garrett moved in her direction, opened his arms again, but this time she fell into his embrace, sobbing. “Now I can’t trust myself to do anything right. Especially not with my love life.”
“Want me to tell you the heartbreaking story of why I’m so commitment-phobic? I’m pretty sure I can top even your tragic story, but you know what? I’ve figured something out.”
She hiccupped, and her tears subsided. “What did you figure out?”
“I would be willing to bet money that you would never do what our ex-fiancée did to us.”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “How do you know?”
“Because of what your douchebag, fuck-head ex-fiancé did to you. I understand you well enough even after our short acquaintance to know you’d never dish out anything so painful to another human being as what was done to you.”
She seemed to think carefully about his words for a minute. She soon smiled. “You’re right. I would never do that. Thank you.”
