He flinched with every anxious word as though she was striking him, but he took a slow, gentle step toward her. She threw herself away from him, banging her shins on the coffee table.
“Eliana—”
“Stop, I need—” She didn’t even know how to finish that sentence. She felt like a trapped animal, and thankfully, Asher didn’t come any closer. The pain in his eyes physically hurt her. She couldn’t hear what he had to say and think she could still walk away.
“We can’t see each other anymore.” Tears spilled from her eyes as she fled this amazing man, needing to escape before she took everything back. She flung the front door open, her vision blurry as she raced out, straight into the broad chest of Gerard, a bemused Mr. Richardson beside him.
Chapter 38
“I wish I had no heart, it aches so…” —Louisa May Alcott
Gerardkepthishandson her arms until she was steady on her feet, and when he stepped back, she noticed that he positioned himself halfway between her and Mr. Richardson.
“Is everything alright?” he asked quietly.
She swiped at her cheeks, mortified. “I’m fine. Yes. We pulled an all-nighter to finish packing the boxes.” It would be clear to anyone that she’d just woken up. She stood there in her pajamas, her hair a mess, crying, and she wasn’t even wearing shoes, for heaven’s sake.
Gerard nodded like she made perfect sense. “That was very kind of you.”
“And who are you?” Mr. Richardson asked, anger lacing his tone. “Did yousleephere?”
“This is Winnie Rees’s granddaughter,” Gerard said, his tone smooth and soothing. “It’s my understanding that she’s been helping clean out the house in preparation for my moving in.”
“That’s correct.” She held her shoulders straight. Dang it. Gerard was making it really difficult to hate him, like she wanted.
“Listen, young lady,” Mr. Richardson said, clearly not buying what they were selling.
Asher’s hand grabbed the door’s edge and he opened it wider. It was very clear he’d also just woken up. His eyes held the kind of resolution that filled her with foreboding.
“Don’t,” she said to Asher firmly.
Mr. Richardson looked back and forth between them, his face turning red with anger as he put two and two together—and came up with fifteen. “Our bungalows are not love shacks.”
The words shocked the tears right out of Eliana.Love shacks?
He continued, spit flying out more generously with every word. “You have taken my generous gesture of letting you have time to clean out your grandpa’s bungalow and abused it by turning it into a den of fornication.”
“That’s not what—” Asher began, but Eliana’s own anger bubbled over like a hot pot, and she couldn’t hold her words back.
“Excuse me,” Eliana said. Mr. Richardson was making Asher sound like some sort of lawless predator.Shewas the one who had pushed herself into Asher’s bungalow.Shewas the one who had kissed him first. Andshewas the one who got them caught. “Asher is not the kind of person you’re making him sound like—”
“It’s okay, Eliana.” Asher placed a gentle hand on her arm, resigned. “It’s time.”
“No,” she snapped. They had not hidden his secret this long, and gone to so much effort to do so, for it to all come out now, right at the end.
Mr. Richardson scoffed derisively. “I should call the police for trespassing.”
Gerard placed a firm hand on Mr. Richardson’s shoulder. “That seems unnecessary to me. The kids were cleaning up, and they fell asleep. It happens. I fall asleep mid-project more than I’d care to admit.” He flashed a charming smile at Mr. Richardson that took some of the hot wind from his bloated sails. “I have another meeting soon, and I’d still like to discuss my donation to The Palms memory care center.”
She saw the wrestle Mr. Richardson had over railing them about whatever he thought they were doing in there, and the potential of getting money from Gerard.
Money won, as well as a not-so-gentle leading down the stairs Gerard did with his hand on Mr. Richardson’s shoulder. When Gerard glanced back at them, she mouthed,Thank you,and he winked before returning to his conversation with Mr. Richardson.
Now not only did she kind of like the home-wrecking Gerard, she owed him.
“You should have let me tell him.” Asher ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
“Why? So they could press charges against you?” she shot back.
