Unimpressed with his non-answer, she simply said, “All of the above.” Rowan knew he didn’t have to answer the first two, but he did owe her an explanation for being in her private space.
“I’m in Oklahoma to check on my properties, take care of some business, attend a few golf tournaments that I was invited to, and attend a fancy game shoot in Kansas. I’m in this suite because I was visiting Mom after her months of traveling.”
“And my room?” Rowan prompted.
Hugh uncrossed his arms letting them fall uneasily to his sides. He brushed his palms against the sides of his jeans. Hugh was nervous. Impossible. He was the most self-assured man she knew. He had a trademark legendary aloofness, which managed to madden almost everyone he encountered.Thatconfident man was squirming!
Rowan crossed her arms over her chest and leaned nonchalantly against her doorframe. Waiting.Take a dose of your own medicine, Mr. O’Faolain.
He lasted another two minutes and then he shocked the hell and breath right out of her. “I missed you.” He ruined it by cringing like he hadn’t meant to admit his feelings.
What was Rowan supposed to say to that? He missed her. What in the hell did that even mean? She could not let this omission derail her ‘moving on’ efforts. She’d found a man who took her out on dates. Held her hand in public no less. Who had kissed her only a few hours ago. A man she’d agreed to date.
“Did you miss telling me to leave you alone? Seriously, Hugh, you might have just texted me.” If Rowan weren’t half a minute from a full-blown anxiety melt down, she might have felt bad for the look of anguish that passed over Hugh’s beloved features, but she had to have tough love if she were to survive Hugh’s inevitable guilt and push back after one of his ‘slip of feelings’ episodes.
“I’m sorry, Row. I was wrong. Will you just talk to me?”
Hugh’s gravelly voice sent shivers up and down Rowan’s body. He moved closer to the door—closer to where she was standing. He’d never initiated contact, so when he didn’t stop until his feet stood in front of hers, where his body heat touched her skin, she stiffened in surprise. When Hugh placed his hands on each side of the door frame, she began hearing 911 emergency sirens.
She could run or stand her ground. Byrnes weren’t runners, but in that moment, it felt like the safest course. Rowan was just taking a breath to tell Hugh to back off when they both heard the front door open and heard Matilda’s voice ring out that she was home.
“Fuck.”
Hugh’s muttered expletive had her eyes meeting his. Direct. There was no hiding what they were feeling from one another. Rowan’s emotions were easy. Embarrassment, hurt, and confusion. Hugh’s body language was all demanding, aggression, and possession. There was also regret and longing.
Before his mom caught them in Rowan’s bedroom, she went ahead and put the nail in their coffin before he could beat her to it. “Don’t come into my room again. I will move out if I must, but you are not welcome in my space.”
He tried to argue, but Rowan held her hand up, stopping his rebuttal. “The moment you left me in that hospital room was the day I stopped believing that something could exist between us. It’s over, Hugh. I’ve moved on, and I can assure you that I will not embarrass either of us by ever pursuing you again.”
Rowan saw Matilda walking down the hallway toward her bedroom, before she stopped, looked at Rowan with her son looming over her in the bedroom doorway like a harbinger of The Black Death, spun on her Louis Vuitton flats, and vacated the area.
Unfortunately, Hugh was still intent on conversation. “I fucked up, Row. I know I did. Please just let me explain.”
Tears were starting to prick her eyes. All her hard work…No, she would not go back to that day, those feelings, again. Waking up to hear your family’s stalker had shot you, sore, in pain, and with permanent scars to commemorate the day didn’t hurt her as much as Hugh turning his back on her outstretched hand.
Not again.
“No more. I’m going to go finish the armoire for your mother and then I will pack and move. I cannot allow myself to be open to the type of hurt you are capable of putting me through. Don’t ask me to, Hugh. It’s cruel. I imagine you heard I’m dating someone, and you’re here to mark your territory.”
“That isn’t true. I just found out you were in Oklahoma this morning. I just found out you were dating someone this afternoon.”
“You didn’t even know I’d left Dublin. Did you?”
He hesitated, but he answered honestly. “No.”
“Were you still trying to run from me?”
“Yes.”
“And ran right to me instead.”
“Correct.”
Hugh felthis first breath of hope wheeze and wither. Christ, how could he ever try to fix things if she refused to hear him? He didn’t blame her. She had a million reasons to mistrust and despise him. They might not have touched one another, but they had been intimate, twice, and he’d run away from her both times.
The idea that his mom might be right about why he’d fought against his feelings for Rowan was galling. The fact that he might have been running scared because of his ex-wife disgusted him. He didn’t run from anything. Helen was a shit wife and a worse mother. He’d never been so thankful and relieved as the day the divorce was finalized. The weight he had intended to endure for a lifetime had been lifted. That freedom had been a gift.
He had felt considerable guilt that he’d chosen a woman who hurt his boys. He was growing his company and quite aware that he probably knew less than half of the hell she put Bran and Patrick through. It killed him that he’d allowed that woman’svitriol to touch them. He’d always loved his sons, but he worked a lot in those days.
