Page 38 of Hometown Hottie

I opened my mouth to tell her I felt the same way, but she wasn’t done yet. “All this time, my family has been my number-one priority, and now I’m kissing you and that puts my relationship with my brother in the line of fire. I can’t…”

She took a step away from me, the expression in her eyes haunted. She dropped her face into her hands, inhaled and exhaled deeply a few times, and then pushed her fingers into her golden locks as she lifted her chin up again.

I practically saw the thoughts racing through her head even though she didn’t voice them all. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was feeling desperate to maintain control over at least one part of her life.

She probably also felt a bit foolish. Frankly, I understood the sentiment.

Was it really possible to catch feelings so fast after such a long time? I didn’t know, but I was willing to risk it. When Nova spoke again, it became clear that she wasn’t.

“Please don’t say anything to Ryan,” she said, her voice hushed now like she was pushing through pain to say what she was. “This means nothing and Ryan and I already have so much on our plates right now. Let’s not make it worse.”

Struck by her words, I looked into her eyes. She seemed to regret saying it, but that didn’t make it better. Or not true.

Nodding slowly, I started to turn away from her and she tried to reach for me, but I backed up.

She winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You’re right. I should head home. Check on my mom. Good luck with all this, Nova.” A minute ago, I’d thought that I couldn’t walk away from her again, but if what we had wasn’t worth fighting for to her, then it was best I leave.

I really did need to check on my mom, but more than that, maybe the universe was onto something with all the roadblocks it kept putting in our way just before we did something we could never take back.

And maybe it was right.