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I dashed away my tears. “What do you mean very few of them? You have tons of people you work with.”
He invaded my space to cup my face. “Emphasis on work, Ivy.” He brushed the last of my tears away. His intense blue gaze bore into mine. “I have plenty of people I work with, but getting close to people isn’t my thing. Not until...”
“Until what?”
He covered my mouth. The kiss was hard and fast. Intense on a level that usually left me missing clothing. Just as suddenly, he tore his mouth from mine and pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re not supposed to be more than fun.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He hung his head. “Bollocks, I can’t do any of this right.”
This time, it was me who laughed. “I get it.” I curled my arms around his waist and stepped into him.
He wrapped his arms around my shoulders until there was no space between us. “I never expected you.”
I flattened my cheek to his chest and listened to his heartbeat. “Ditto.”
He took a step back. “But I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wasn’t ready to let you go.”
I swallowed down the hope flaring to life inside me. He didn’t mean it that way. And even if he did, Rory’s basic makeup was completely opposite from my own. He was a musician, or a producer—heck, I wasn’t even completely sure what he did. But none of it included a small town. Or a family.
For pity’s sake, I’d been saving up to open an ice cream truck in the summer. I was small town. I wanted a baby so bad I’d actually gone to a meeting of like-minded women who were willing to do the baby thing alone. I wasn’t exactly ready for the baby part yet, but it had always been in my plans.
A little girl or boy running around the truck with me, helping me pass out ice cream and create crazy flavors. I could see it all.
What I couldn’t see was him.
Rory would be across the street watching. Forever watching and separate. He wasn’t the guy who would climb into the fray and pick up a sticky, screaming kid and kiss away his or her hurts.
He kissed away yours.
I ignored that little voice. He wasn’t a monster. He just wasn’t my future.
But he could be my right now. He could be a bright spring day in one of my favorite places on the planet beyond the Cove.
“Let’s go see your friends. You have work to do, right?”
“Only if that’s okay with you.”
I rose onto my toes and kissed his scruffy chin. “It’s a real hardship to deal with you, LC, but I will survive.”
He hooked his arm around my shoulders and dragged me back toward the car. “A magnanimous woman. I’m not sure I can survive the day.”
I bumped my hip against him. “So, I get to see you play that guitar? Do you sing?”
His cheeks went ruddy. “I can play any instrument you put in front of me, but singing isn’t really my forte. I leave that to the Kellans and Ians of the world.”
“But you can?”
“I can hold a note, yes.”
“I expect to hear you sing, LC. Today.”
He rolled his eyes. “We’ll see.”
Thirteen
We made it into the clearing and Ian and Kellan were waiting for us.
