Page 53 of Say it Ain’t So

Which only made me hotter.

Rylan reached for me, his big hands settling low on my waist. His eyes locked on mine and the tip of his tongue slipped out of his mouth as he licked the corner of his lips. Heat flooded me, flaring hotter at the points where we touched. I had to press my hand to his chest to steady myself, to ward off the wave of dizziness that hit.

For one brief moment, those little fantasies I harbored went rampant through my head. Rylan pulled me closer. He smoothed his hands down to my hips. He leaned in, and I wanted to meet him. To kiss him. To regain what I’d stolen from the both of us the day I walked away.

Before I could, Rylan was pushing me aside. “‘Scuse me, gorgeous. Gotta get through here.”

The loss of the heat of his body and hands was immediate, but no cold ravaged me. Instead, I burst into red hot flames of embarrassment.

He hadn’t been reaching for me. He hadn’t been moving in to kiss.

He’d been moving me out of his way.

As he turned his back on me and looked over Kolton’s shoulder at my computer screen, I felt like the biggest fool in the world.

I’d shared his secret.

That little slip of paper peeked out of his jeans pocket, taunting me with what I’d lost.

What an idiot I was, for thinking for one moment that I could keep him.

For thinking he could ever be mine again.

17

JOSS

For over an hour, I worried that what I’d done—what I felt—had ruined the peace that Rylan and I had. While he supervised Kolton with the security system. While I helped Van with securing the sound system speakers into place. While the four of us cleaned the lobby until it was spotless, ready for our first customers to show up.

All that worrying seemed to be for nothing. Rylan treated me the same as he had earlier in the day. He even flirted with me like always, offering me help with things—like climbing into the front seat of Van’s truck—that I was perfectly capable of doing myself.

At Dueling Axes, all three of them treated me like I was incapable of doing a thing. Kolton signed us up for a cage while we ordered food and drinks from the bar, then Van and Rylan insisted on carrying it all while I clutched my purse and felt dumb.

I didn’t know what to do with myself. I wasn’t used to being treated like this. Peter never lifted a finger to help me out, even when it was something I could barely lift myself. Even my parents would have made me carry my weight—both figuratively and literally. It was just expected of me. The zoo always came first.

“Something wrong?” A hand wrapped around my hip as the voice rumbled close to my ear. A voice that had me trembling for reasons I wasn’t used to.

Turning my head, I sucked in a hint of peppermint-scented air. Rylan was so close to me it felt like he’d stolen my remaining breath. I offered him a smile that didn’t feel any stronger than my shaky knees, and I fingered my hair at my shoulder. “Nothing.”

The word was a breathy whisper that had Rylan’s face morphing—his furrowed brow melted, his probing gaze softened, his frown transformed as the corners of his lips turned up. He squeezed my hip, giving it a tug that pulled my body against his. “Have a seat, gorgeous.”

He had his free hand on the back of a chair at our high-top table. The hand on my hip slid lower, half on my ass as he gave a squeeze.

“Up you go.” Just like when he helped me into Van’s truck, Rylan offered me his hand. I slid mine into it as I had then. Although then, I’d done it more out of reassurance that he wasn’t pushing me away than of need.

Now, I needed it. I needed his steady presence and the hand on my ass that helped boost me into my seat.

Rylan stepped up into his chair beside me, immediately busying himself with the baskets of wings and fried pickles and onion rings they’d ordered for us. His sudden lack of attention left me floundering—it felt like whiplash, the way he showered me with attention and then pulled away.

I lifted my gaze, only to find Van frowning at the two of us.

With a hard swallow, I turned on a smile. “This looks amazing.”

“You look nervous.” Van’s cocky grin was almost as infuriating as Rylan’s, though for different reasons. Van’s was so much a part of who he was, whereas Rylan’s just left me hot and bothered.

“I’m not nervous,” I told him, only realizing as he dropped his attention to my hands that I was wringing my hair as if it were wet. I stilled my hands before I forced them to my lap. “This should be fun.”

Rylan grinned. “Damn right.” He bit into a wing just as Kolton reached for one of his own.