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“You’re sorry,” I say hollowly.
“Yes,” he says. “Sorry that I lied. I simply wanted to spend some time with you.”
Oh.
Now I don’t know what to think or feel. Should I be mad? Flattered? Both? I think both, right? Then again, the treasure hunt was fun and I got to spend all that time in his company, which was beyond fun, so maybe I should be grateful?
Yeah, this is beyond confusing, especially given that I’m flying home tomorrow and feel like an elephant has taken a dump on my chest each time I think about getting on that plane.
Evan takes a step toward me. “Let’s go inside. I’ll make dinner and?—”
“No.” I wipe a bead of sweat off my brow. “I need time to process all of this.”
Evan’s face falls. “Time is the one thing we don’t have.”
The stupid elephant takes another shit. “I know that.” It’s part of the reason I’m so overwhelmed.
Evan closes the distance between us and takes my hand, scrambling my already-jumbled brain. “There was something I wanted to talk to you about over dinner.”
My belly flutters, like strips of paper caught in the wind. “What?”
He squeezes my hand. “I don’t want you to leave.”
My skin tingles, and not just where his hand touches mine. As soon as I hear those words, I realize that it’s been my biggest dream to hear him say them—because I so desperately want to stay. Except maybe I should’ve dreaded these words instead. They will make leaving that much harder, and staying isn’t an option. “You don’t?” I manage to say.
He shakes his head vehemently.
I stare into the depths of his Husky-blue eyes. “I don’t want to leave either, but I have to.” “Understatement” isn’t just a word that would score me seventeen points in Scrabble.
“But do you?” he asks, frowning.
I cover his hand with mine. “I live in New York, and you live here.”
“That can be changed,” he says. “I know it’s only been a few days, but I thought that maybe?—”
“Stop,” I say breathlessly. “This was supposed to be a fling.” Which happened despite our better judgements.
“No.” He tenderly massages my palm. “I didn’t want to label whatever it was precisely because I hated the idea of a fling. And so did you.”
My heartbeat skyrockets. “Are you going to New York with me?” Scratch my earlier dream. This is it.
He frowns. “I own a lot of land here, which comes with responsibilities. Also, I can’t just leave my volunteering gig. And there’s the surfing.” He looks at me imploringly. “I was hoping I could persuade you to stay here.”
And there it goes, my dream bursting like a balloon inside a papier-mâché head. I slowly blink at Evan, like Sally might. “I can’t stay.”
“Why not?” He pulls his hands away, and I miss them immediately.
“My job is?—”
“Remember the call I had to make this morning?” Evan asks, his eyes gleaming. “It was to talk to Calvin.”
I stare at him. “Calvin being the guy with the pet cows?”
“Exactly, though he’s more famous around these parts for being the owner of the local veterinary clinic—the cows and his other furry charges are an extension of that. In any case, he said he would let you groom the dogs in his practice and pay?—”
“No.” I swallow. “Even if I had a job—and that one sounds too good to be true—I couldn’t stay.”
He stiffens, and not in a fun way. “No?”
