AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Doing something so mundane helped. The smooth muscles and warmth of the horse evened her out. They hosed Porthos down and moved on to brushing his coat.
“So I lived my life, and my father left the house to me and my mom. And eventually we made it into a bed-and-breakfast to help with bills. We had all this land right on the lake. It just made sense.”
“If I didn’t hate people, I’d agree with you.”
Kendall laughed and relaxed a little more. “My mother loves being around people. And I’ve learned to enjoy it. After ten years it’s all I know.”
“I sense abut.”
The sounds of brushing filled the silence. How did she explain that her mother had loved an undeserving man? That Lily’s heart was the reason change was coming like an uninvited guest. Was she destined to revisit the same mistakes because she was probably mistaking passion for growing feelings?
Another Justice was changing her life.
Every day she’d spent with Shane made her want more. The sex and the excitement were enough at first. But now she ached with missing him. She stared at the ceiling each night. She worked herself into exhaustion, hoping that she’d drop into sleep, but her body and her heart longed to curl into his reassuring warmth. The need to pull a smile out of his serious face was more tempting than thinking about the future.
She was ignoring the facts.
He didn’t want forever. As much as she hoped he would want to become her partner so that she could keep the Heron, he was probably going to want the money. This was his chance to start over. The fantasy of seeing him in the B and B with her was just that—a fantasy.
The deep brown of Porthos’s coat blurred. She’d been doing her level best to hold on to the days and create a precious time separate from Winchester Falls, but the reality was leaking into the fantasy.
“My mother loved my father too much. Even when he didn’t love her back. She never moved on. She never took Larry’s name off the deed to the house. When he died, the only thing left was my house, and everything was split between me and Shane.”
“So wait, he’s not your brother, but he’s got rights to the house?”
“Lawrence adopted Shane, raised him as his own.”
“And now you have to share the house with him?”
Kendall nodded. “I love the Heron. It’s been nice to be away and see the country, to be with Shane. Everything’s going to change when we get to Winchester Falls.”
“So what are you afraid of?”
“That he’ll just want to sell it and walk away.” She swiped at her wet cheeks with the heel of her hand. “I don’t want him to walk away.”
Evelyn came around and leaned into the horse’s neck, absently patting his broad face as she gave Kendall her undivided attention. “From you or the house?”
The concern in Evelyn’s voice killed whatever was left of her resolve. “I’m afraid it’s both. And it’s stupid to think that way. We’ve only known each other for a little over a week. I’ve got to be confusing my feelings with the afterglow of great—and I do mean great—sex.”
“What about him?”
“Where’s the advice jar?” Kendall forced herself to swallow the lump in her throat. This felt like a therapy session. No more tears. She would not let a Justice make her cry again.
Evelyn’s steady, dark gaze bored into hers. “Don’t avoid the question, Kendall.”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. From the moment we got near each other, it’s been like this.”
“All sex and no talking?”
She could feel the flush crawling up her neck and flooding her cheeks. High emotions and lust were a terrible combination. She and Shane barely knew how to talk to each other. And she was deluding herself to think they could be anything more than a fling.
Even if being with him felt more right than anything had ever felt before.
Porthos nudged her shoulder; his peach-fuzz-soft lips snuffed at her ear. “We’re good at the sex part, but these few days without him being around, it makes me wonder if there’s anything else between us.”
“I can’t answer that for you, but relationships have been started on less. You’re what? Twenty-something?”
“Twenty-seven.”
