The Home Is Where The Heart Is Collection. Maisey Yates
seemed to jolt her back to her senses.
They couldn’t do this. As much as she wanted to make love to him right now, she sensed it would leave her shattered.
Somewhere deep inside, she at last uncovered a forlorn little shred of self-protectiveness. Though it was the hardest thing she had ever done, she managed to slide her mouth away from his.
“We have to stop. Please, Aidan.”
He eased away, his breathing ragged and a slightly unfocused look in his eyes.
“Why?”
She scrambled for words, her thoughts as scattered as paper snowflakes on the wind. “I like you,” she finally said. “I like you very much. And you’re a fabulous kisser. As I believe we have quite firmly established. But I...I haven’t even dated since Trent died. I can’t just jump headfirst into the water with someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
She eased away another few inches and tried to tuck her hair out of her face with fingers that had a rather embarrassing tendency to tremble. “You’re larger than life, Aidan. I’ve seen pictures of you with the kind of women you usually date—thin, gorgeous, perfectly made up. They’re not frazzled mothers who drive an SUV with Cheerios under the seat and juice boxes in the cupholders. You’re not interested in a relationship with me. The idea is completely laughable.”
“Funny. I’m not laughing.”
“Come on, Aidan. Be serious. You’re the CEO of your own billion-dollar business and I’m a heartbeat away from being homeless.”
“You’ve had a run of hard knocks. That’s hardly your fault and certainly doesn’t negate the possibility of a relationship between us. I don’t think less of you for circumstances out of your control, El. You’re one of the hardest-working women I’ve ever met. What you have done with Snow Angel Cove is amazing.”
He wasn’t listening and she couldn’t seem to make her brain cells cooperate to come up with a cogent argument. “Thank you. But that’s not the point.”
“What is? This is the point, as I see it. I’m attracted to you. You’re attracted to me. I like you very much and enjoy your company. I suspect you feel the same, though I could be wrong.”
She shook her head. “You’re not wrong.”
“I already care about your daughter. As far as I can see, there aren’t that many additional barriers that would keep us from pursuing this attraction.”
On a logical plane, she would lose any argument she put forward. The reality settled over her with depressing force. “You forgot the most important one. Yes, I like being with you. Yes, I’m obviously attracted to you. You’re the Geek God and I haven’t been with a man in more than three years. I would have to be dead not to be attracted to you.”
“You’re saying it’s only physical.”
For some ridiculous reason, she thought he actually looked a little hurt by that.
“I’m saying that for the next week, you’re my employer and that has to be the only relationship between us. I apologize for kissing you. It was completely inappropriate and won’t happen again.”
She didn’t want their wonderful evening together to end like this, with cold words and anger but, again, the words to make it right just wouldn’t come.
“What about friendship? Any interest in that?”
Suddenly, for no reason she could have pinpointed, her throat felt tight and her eyes burned. “Of course. I told you I like you, Aidan. Far too much for my own comfort, if you want the truth. I just...I’m a realistic kind of girl. Life hasn’t given me a lot of choice in that pragmatism. The way I see it, you’re like a fairy-tale prince and I’m Cinderella without the godmother and the cool shoes.”
And on that ridiculous, entirely too revealing statement, she moved toward the kitchen and her rooms. Before she left the great room, she turned back and found him standing by the fire, the glow silhouetting him. “Thank you again for a wonderful evening. I’m sorry I spoiled everything.”
“You didn’t spoil anything,” he assured her, but she knew it was a lie.
She tried a shaky sort of smile and then hurried out of the room before she could make an even bigger fool of herself.
Once in the safety and privacy of her sitting room, she closed the door quietly behind her—no emotionally wrought slamming of doors here—then collapsed onto the sofa.
She felt completely wrung dry, as if she had just tried to swim the length of Lake Haven.
She couldn’t believe what she had just said to him.
I like you, Aidan. Far too much for my own comfort... The way I see it, you’re like a fairy-tale prince and I’m Cinderella without the godmother and the cool shoes.
The truth was deeper than that and far more serious. She was falling for him, just as she feared she would. She was coming to care for his kindness, his funny sense of humor, the rare vulnerabilities he showed.
For her own self-preservation, she ought to pack up her daughter and her things and drive away from Snow Angel Cove and Lake Haven.
She could find a short-term lease somewhere in Boise and start seriously looking for another job.
That would be the wisest choice.
She had made a commitment, however, and she was a woman of her word. Aidan was counting on her to see to his family’s needs while they were here and at this late date, he wouldn’t be able to find someone else.
Oh, Aidan and his family would survive if she wasn’t here. Between Sue and the cleaning crew that would be coming in daily to help, she didn’t doubt the house party would run magnificently without her.
They would go on to have a wonderful holiday without her. She, on the other hand, would know she had made a commitment and then reneged on it. She knew too well what being on the losing end of broken promises felt like.
Beyond that, Maddie had been through enough tumult these past few weeks. She didn’t need another upheaval. Her daughter was happy here and was looking forward to spending the holidays at Snow Angel Cove. Her heart would be broken if Eliza packed her up again and hauled her to some impersonal hotel.
For her daughter’s sake and for Aidan’s, she would be a professional and do her job. No matter how difficult, she would keep her relationship with him professional, casual, friendly—and do her very best to protect her heart.
If she wasn’t already too late.
AIDAN SAT BY the fire for a long time after Eliza left, trying to sift through the past few moments.
He felt like a different person than he had been earlier in the evening—as if everything he was and everything he wanted had just undergone a radical shift.
After the doctors found his brain tumor, he remembered walking out of the office and into the August sunshine, amazed to see people going about their business, driving down the road, walking into stores, eating in restaurants. How could life just go on around him like normal when his world had just been completely rocked on its axis and nothing would ever be the same?
This evening spent with Eliza and Maddie felt much the same, for reasons he didn’t quite understand.
He had feelings for her. He wasn’t sure how or when they started, but he was coming to care deeply for her courage and her strength, her sweetness and warmth.
He didn’t want to think about her and Maddie leaving. But how could he convince her to stay when she was throwing up barriers between them as fast as she could come up with them?