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I chuckle and she glares at me. “Sorry. But the idea of you becoming a broken woman is laughable.”
She rears back forcing me to drop my hold of her. “How do you know? My mom was a fun woman once, too.”
“Let’s back up here a minute.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s no reason to discuss you becoming a broken woman because I would never do to you what your dad did to your mom.”
She rolls her eyes. “All men make the same type of promise at the beginning. It’s all, I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to hold you in my arms forever. And then they find someone else and the narrative changes to it’s not you, it’s me. I love you but I’m not in love with you. Thanks but no thanks.”
“I’m not promising you forever.” I want to, but I won’t. Not yet. “But I want to see where this goes.”
“Have you not been listening to me?”
“I have and I know for a fact none of those things you just described happened in Winter Falls.”
She shrugs. “What’s the difference? College boys become men. They don’t change.”
I ignore her men bashing – she has a right to her feelings about men after her experiences – and concentrate on the Winter Falls aspect.
“The difference is none of those things could have happened in Winter Falls because the gossip gals would have skinned those men alive.”
“Winter Falls doesn’t believe in violence.”
I shrug. “Ran them out of town, then.”
“Dear old Dad managed to have a second family without anyone in Winter Falls knowing about it.”
Damn it. She has a point. But I’m not giving up. “How did he leave town often? What kind of job did he have?”
“He only lived in Winter Falls on the weekends because he needed to be in the city for his work.”
She must hear how suspect her explanation sounds. But I don’t push it. I try a different tactic instead.
“I live and work in Winter Falls. I hardly ever leave town.”
“Maybe you don’t have a second family out there waiting for you but you can still hurt me.”
“How about this? If I hurt you in any way, I hereby give you permission to sic the gossip gals on me.”
“What about your brothers? Can I sic them on you, too?”
She won’t have to – if I screw things up with Eden, they’ll slay me – but I nod. “Yep.”
She bites her lip as she studies me, but I’m not giving her a chance to think too long. Not when she’s wavering.
“Do we have a deal?”
She blows out a puff of air. “Okay.”
I smile and push to my feet before holding my hand out to her. “We need to seal the deal.”
“With a kiss?” she asks as she lays her hand in mine.
“There will be kissing.” I wink. “Among other things.”
Chapter 25
