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“You’ve been watching me?” I nodded. “So, you have to know I’ve been watching you, too.”
“I hoped.” I shrugged and groaned. “I just…”
“I get it. I think.” She pulled her hand from mine and rested it on top of her thighs while she looked out the windshield.
“Just so you know, I don’t think your age or mine are a problem. Not if what this crazy pull is the way it is.”
“Honey—"
“Thank you for the painting gig. You can Apple Pay me later. Half, though, since we didn’t get to finish.”
“Juniper—” Solid fear rushed through me. She was saying goodbye. She was cutting me out. I could feel it, and I started to panic.
“And just so you know, I’m an adult,” she clipped. “I’m not a child. I’m a grown woman.”
“Honey—"
“I’m almost twenty-five, Dasher Whittaker, not eighteen. I wasn’t even eighteen when we met. I was almost twenty-one,” she reminded me, and I swallowed. “I have my own place and take care of my bills. I might…have a couple of different jobs to do that, but that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of knowing what I want.” She turned, and her eyes flashed with fire and desire that matched my own. “I know what I want.”
“If we had stayed at my house, I don’t think I could have stopped myself,” I rasped.
She had no idea of the danger she would have been in! I wouldn’t have cared the walls were wet, I would have pushed her against them and fucked her hard, making a mess out of the two of us.
“Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, after all this time, I didn’t want you to?” With that little bomb, she slipped out of my truck. I watched her walk inside, and I stayed there, staring at the door once again wishing for X-ray vision.
Fuck.
After all this time, I didn’t want you to.Her innocent little words were laced with temptation.I know what I want.I gripped the steering wheel with a white-knuckled hold all the way back to my place. When I stepped inside, I could see her there still. The walls were almost all done except for the trim.
I found myself bending to use the roller she’d painted with and got to work. Finishing up didn’t take long with the pent-up frustration I felt. I looked at the bare walls as the sunset cast a glow into the room.
You haven’t decorated for Christmas.Her words had me scratching at my chest. I hadn’t decorated in a long time.
I know what I want.She wanted me. I lived alone. Randall hardly ever came back to Holly Burrows to visit, and much less for the holidays. I’d stopped trying. I moved through to the kitchen and reached for a beer. Popping the cap, I stepped out into the backyard and stared at the storage shed.
An idea sprung to life.
One that might probably be stupid as hell since she might never return, and I’d most likely scrooged up my chance at winning her heart.
I took a healthy swig and set the beer bottle down.
I had to try.
My heart started to pump harder with every step I took toward the shed. I didn’t have much when it came to Christmas decorations. Some ornaments and a wreath, and probably a couple of strands of lights I wasn’t sure would work. But I could head out to the tree farm in town first thing in the morning. They always sold extras.
What are the chances she will ever come back?a pessimistic voice sounded in the back of my mind. I had to try. Just in case I figured out a way to get Juniper back under my roof, I’d want to make her happy.
And I knew if I had the place lit up just for her, it would do the job.
4
JUNIPER
“Wait, what do you mean, you just left?”
“I went on a whole rant and just slipped out of his truck,” I repeated, knowing how crazy it sounded. It was the next afternoon, and I was finally catching Rory up on everything that had happened the day before.
“And he let you?”
