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13
GREYSON
Molly had a look of pure concentration on her face. She tapped her chin, then locked eyes with me.
A game of animal-themed memory match was set up on the rug between us. Behind her, a fire burned in the mantle of Gramps’ inn, and I could hear Billy outside throwing a tennis ball against one of the brick walls again and again.
“I’m gonna find that snow cat,” Molly said. She held her finger out over one of the cards, hesitated, and then flipped it. “Chicken nuggets!” She groaned. “Elephant again?”
I grinned. She had flipped that same elephant card at least four times already. I knew where the card she wanted was, so I flipped one of the snow leopards and then “accidentally” flipped a zebra. “Damn,” I said.
“Language, Daddy,” Molly scolded.
I grinned again. That was exactly how Katie scolded me for swearing around the kids, and Molly had picked it up. She even had the tone perfect.
We both jumped in surprise when a woman’s voice called out from the lobby. “Hello?”
I got up quickly, meeting Molly’s eyes. “Customer?” I mouthed.
She clapped her hands together and rubbed them excitedly, then nodded. She rushed out ahead of me and shouted, “Yoo hoo! We’re open!”
I smiled, then followed after her.
I found a lone woman in the lobby. She was tall with dark hair, a slender figure, and she was decked out in some sort of trendy overcoat and bright red high heels. She looked about thirty by my best guess, and she seemed to miss a step when she saw me come into the lobby.
“Hi,” she breathed.
“Looking for a room?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m actually trying to get to California. I had a hotel booked a few hours down the road, but my car broke down.” She pointed to her shoe, and I realized one of the heels had snapped off and there was dirt smudging them. “I walked two miles until I found this place.”
“You came to the right place,” I said.
I spent a few minutes collecting her information, then showed her to a room upstairs. For some reason, I felt compelled to set her up in the room farthest from where I was sleeping downstairs. The woman was clearly hoping to talk to me more, but I cut things off at her room and told her to let me know if she needed anything.
I took a deep breath once I was back down in the lobby with Molly, who I caught flipping cards in our game. She tucked her hands in her lap and smiled sweetly as if she hadn’t just been cheating when she saw me.
I sat back down, but my mind was elsewhere. I thought about the stupid bet I’d agreed to with my brother last night. If I could get a date before we headed back home, he’d stop pestering me about moving here. If I couldn’t, I’d stay six months instead of three. I’d been a dumbass to play his game, but I had a few beers last night and I let him goad me into it.
I sighed, flipping the snow leopard again to try to help Molly out, but she went straight back to the Elephant and let out another string of six-year-old “curses”.
“Flapjacks on a Sunday!” she swore, pounding her little fists against her knees.
The woman upstairs had my mind racing. She was my age. Attractive. She was clearly interested. I could go up there right now and ask her if she wanted to get dinner tonight and I was certain she’d take me up on it. I’d shut my brother up and that would be that. So why was I down here? Why was I trying to put as much distance between myself and her as possible?
I knew damn well why. I just didn’t like the answer, and I was choosing not to face it.
That kiss last night with Harper wasn’t supposed to mean anything. I’d decided to play my brother’s dumb game, get a date from Harper, and that would be all. Except the fucking kiss had shaken me to my core. A few moments of contact and I knew I couldn’t just use her to fulfill some dumb bet. I knew it would be more than that if I went further, so I left.
But walking away hadn’t put out the fire we’d lit. I’d had to fuck my own hand in the shower when I got home, but that hadn’t helped. I just felt a lingering shame about what I’d done with her. The only answer was to keep my distance from now on. I needed a distraction, and the woman upstairs should’ve been the perfect opportunity. There’d be no strings because she was just passing through.
Except I knew I wasn’t going to make a move. All I could do was think about the kiss. About Harper and how just talking to her had my adrenaline surging.
