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Cash smirks when he notices how red my face is. Lucky for him and his man parts, he doesn’t remark upon it. “You didn’t deny you’re going to live here for a year.”
I open my mouth to deny it now, but what’s the use? He figured out I was staying in Winter Falls long before I was ready to admit it to myself. Naturally, I’m staying. I can’t let Grandma’s house be demolished. Even if I have to put my life on hold for a year. What’s a year to save the house Grandma loved?
I sigh. “Because I’m staying.”
He grins. “I knew you would.”
“Don’t be a braggart. No one likes a showoff.”
He winks. “But I’m really good at showing off.”
I snort. “I bet you are.”
I carry the box to the hallway to join the pile of boxes I already placed there. When I return to the living room, Cash is emptying a shelf.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m helping.”
I don’t want his help. Every time I’m around Cash, the wall I’ve built around my heart – the one with the big flashing ‘Cash Stay Out’ sign – cracks. I need him to stay away before it crumbles completely. This isn’t some second chance romance in the making.
“Aren’t you supposed to be recording an album or doing some other rockstar stuff?”
He chuckles. “Rockstar stuff?”
“You know – smashing guitars, sleeping with your fans, getting drunk as a skunk.”
“I don’t get drunk.”
Shootawhoota. I’m a jerk. I know he doesn’t get drunk.
“I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. At least you won’t try to force me to drink tequila shots off your belly button.”
My nose wrinkles. “Who would ask you to…” I stop myself when I realize there are thousands of fans who would ask him to drink shots off their bodies. Probably their naked bodies. I do not need to know about any of it. “Never mind.”
“It’s nice, you know.”
“What’s nice? Having millions of fans?”
I grit my teeth. What is he getting at? First, he left me to become a rockstar and now he’s bragging about his fans. Geez. Way to make a girl feel special.
“Nice being around someone who understands why I don’t touch tequila or vodka or any of the other hard stuff.”
I amend my earlier statement. Cash does know how to make a girl feel special. I want to gather him into my arms and hold him close. Erase all his pain from having an alcoholic for a mom. A woman who chose the bottle over her son when she drank herself into an early grave.
But I won’t. Cash isn’t mine to hold and comfort. He’s my past. Not my present. Not my future. I need to keep distance between the two of us. I have no idea how I’m going to manage it since we’ll be living in this house together for the foreseeable future. How long does it take to record an album anyway?
“How long are you planning to stay in Winter Falls?”
He glances over his shoulder at me. “Trying to get rid of me already?”
“I’ve been trying to get rid of you since I arrived or have you forgotten?”
He feigns a shiver. “Forgotten how you’re using the demon cat to run me out of house and home? Not likely.”
“Katy Purry is a sweetheart. You should give her a chance.”
