Chapter 18
Hating how their lovelyday had now turned awkward, Shane leaned over the table and kissed Krista on her lips.
Not a hot, lingering kiss like they’d shared many times before, but a friendly,Hey, I’m still the same guy you floated in the pool with earlierkiss that would hopefully get them back on track to enjoying the rest of the evening—and their holiday.
“We still have four hours left of daylight,” he said, stepping over the baggage he’d just unloaded between them.Well, she was the curious one, wasn’t she?It wasn’t his fault if she somehow didn’t like what she’d just heard. “How about we head out to Medicine Lake? I read it’s a great place to see the sunset, and we’ve got a good, clear sky today. Just the right amount of clouds.”
“Yeah, sure. Sounds awesome.”
But on the drive out to the lake, the ghost of girlfriends past still lingered between them, making the car feel crowded and claustrophobic.
Krista was quiet.
Shane tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Fine?He almost laughed. She was pissed off and irritated—by what?That he’d had a whole life she didn’t know about before he’d slept with her?
He pulled over by the lake and cut the engine.
“Spit it out, Krista.”
She folded her arms. “I feel like I don’t know you.”
“Well, you don’t.”
“Thanks, asshole.” She pushed the door open and stalked out.
Shane drummed the steering wheel then did the same.
“What do you want from me, Krista? My life story? My credit card details? What I got for English in my HSE grades? You tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine.”
“Now you’re just being a dick.”
Yeah, he was. Because the dark, heavy cloud of his damn wedding had loomed over yet another day of his life and pissed all over it. And he was confused and annoyed about Krista’s reaction—more so because he damn welldidunderstand what she meant about not knowing him, and he was being an arse pretending that he didn’t.
Revealing what had happened on his circus show wedding had revealed other things about him, too. All his trash talk about love that first morning in Banff and how, at the Moose Head Lodge, he’d shrugged off the whole debacle like it had meant nothing. He’d led Krista to believe he was a player, a happy-go-lucky guy who never got serious about a woman.
And now she knew differently.
With her back to him, Krista held herself stiffly as she faced the mountains on the other side of the lake.
Treading carefully, he came to stand behind her. Slowly, gently, he placed his hands on her hips. When she didn’t shrug him off, he eased her toward him. “By now, you must’ve figured out why I said all that love is for losers stuff the other day.”
