“Those two things are mutually exclusive, aren’t they?”His hand trailed the silhouette of her shoulder, sending chills across her skin.“We can enjoy one another, then show up as a united front to make this problem that Banberry is facing disappear.”
No.They couldn’t do that.It was too close to everything she’d wanted, and from the absolute worst man for her, one who was even more untethered than she was.
“Yes.They are.But I-I can’t conflate them.There’s too much at risk.”Namely, if she slept with him and they showed up together at Paige’s, she’d have gotten so close to her dream only to have it potentially ripped from her.She was barely figuring out how to stay afloat as it was, and until she heard from her immigration attorney, she couldn’t make moves that were more than temporary.
The look he gave her—one of curiosity and like he had something on the tip of his tongue he needed to say—was almost enough to break her resolve.
“Let’s call this what it was: a moment of weakness on both our parts, nothing more.”
“Speak for yourself.I don’t agree at all.”
Aurelie frowned.She didn’t want to believe that.They barely knew each other.He was beautiful, delectable even, but that didn’t mean they had to make a big to-do about their kiss.Especially if she might not be around to see it through.Saying goodbye to Banberry would be hard enough without adding another complication.
“Can we meet up tomorrow morning around seven?I know you’re working with the men, but we should talk to everyone before Paige and Owen head out for their anniversary trip.”
“Yeah,” Jace said.He smiled, but disappointment tugged the corners of his mouth down.“I’ll see you soon.And thanks, Aury.Tonight meant a lot to me.I’m glad we met, even if it wasn’t the most auspicious start to a friendship.”
Friendship.She could do that, couldn’t she?Aurelie was met by a rush of cold air that slapped her across the face, riling her up from the juvenile fantasy she’d let herself take part in just moments ago.Only then did she look back at what Jace had driven them in.“You have a new truck,” she said, amazed she hadn’t noticed before that.Her lack of attention to detail this stranger brought on was dangerous.
Lethal.
“An old one, actually.I told you the other one wasn’t right.It almost ran over the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, so it had to go.This is my dad’s.”
Aurelie shrugged the compliment off her shoulders.He’s an actor, she reminded herself; he could make anyone believe anything.How could she ever trust him, trust herself around him?The spell was definitely broken.
If only he didn’t look so good next to the well-worn vehicle, like he belonged there.That made one of them…
“Good night, Jace.”
She opened the door to her apartment and closed it on the handsome cowboy who had infected her thoughts like sepsis.She leaned against the closed front door, breathless; sleep looked as far from her future as a permanent life in Banberry was.
*
Seven came fartoo early.Or maybe the six rums she’d shared with her new neighbor were the problem.Either way, the two cups of coffee she’d downed did nothing to give life to Aurelie’s body.Wiping sleep from her eyes, she walked into Paige’s home without knocking.Paige sat at the breakfast bar Owen had built for her the previous Christmas, Jace already beside her with a latte from Jules’s restaurant.In fact, it appeared he had one for each of them.
Where had he found the time or energy to go into town before seven?They’d gotten home after midnight.She sat next to him while Paige tidied up the kitchen.
“I was just catching up with Jace about last night.Sounds like you two had fun,” Paige said.
She opened her mouth to answer, but Jace’s hand settled on her knee, silencing her.She peered over at him, his smile and touch somehow cracking the facade she’d built to keep him out.Aurelie’s eyes grew wide until he interjected.
“I told her about chatting through the issue we want to let her in on, but that we were interrupted by your admirer.”
Aurelie exhaled.Not that she owed Paige an explanation about her kiss with a virtual stranger, but she didn’t know how she’d begin to define it to herself, and until she could make heads or tails of it, she’d keep that little secret close to her chest.Even if that little secret had his hand discreetly on her knee.She didn’t dare move lest it break the spell.She’d assumed it was the rum that had fostered the magnetic connection she’d felt with Jace, but it was strong as ever.
“Are the guys coming?”Jace asked.
“They’re on their way, but you think you have a solution?”
“Well, we found out who’s behind the mystery land purchases in Banberry.What we all want to do about it is another issue entirely.”
“Crap.I worried it was more serious than we thought the other night.”
“It is,” Aurelie said.Much more.What had bothered her most was that before Jace arrived, no one seemed to know anything about the purchases or that the individual sales were connected.The town was naive enough.Aurelie had joined the nurses at their table to write an op-ed for the paper explaining how the town needed to be aware of what was happening before they all lost out.
Paige got out her cell, but the tension in her features remained.Aurelie didn’t blame her.The newspaper was open, so the whole front page was visible on the counter where Paige had been sitting.
“Hey, babe,” she said into the phone, her tone gentle, loving.Jace squeezed her knee.Instantly, Aurelie’s shoulders relaxed, and her anxiety slipped away.She didn’t even want to think about what that meant.“Are you and Brad close by?”
