to the blanket again.
Melanie returned to them. Connor thought she looked sort of bemused. “CJ starts tomorrow,” she told him. “Nine to one, Monday through Thursday. I guess we’ll have to take turns driving him out here—Jerilyn, too.”
“Either Gerda or I will do it, no problem.” Connor would slip his housekeeper a little extra for the inconvenience. “So you’ve got two new employees, then?”
“Oh, yes, I do. CJ turned me down flat. But then Jerilyn spoke up and said how she’d love to work at the Hopping H. So I offered her the job.”
Connor could guess the rest. “And then CJ suddenly changed his mind.”
“And it’s great. I can put them both to work, and Ryan will love having them around.” She added, sounding bemused again, “I really do like that girl.”
Connor almost turned to share a glance with Tori, to give her a nod of acknowledgment, since what had just happened was all at her urging. But then he remembered that he and Tori were finished sharing glances.
They were finished, period.
As the day went by, Tori became only more certain that there really was no hope for her and Connor. The picnic at the ranch was just one of those final obligations they both felt duty-bound to fulfill.
By Sunday evening, when Connor pulled the SUV to a stop in front of her house, she was beyond positive. It was done between them, finished. All without ever really getting started.
She tried to remind herself yet again that it was for the best. But somehow it didn’t feel that way in the least.
CJ and Jerilyn jumped out first, but only to load Jerilyn’s bike in the back. They would take it to her house when they dropped her off.
That left Tori and Connor momentarily alone.
She said, each word falsely bright, “Well, thank you. It was a beautiful day.”
“Yeah,” he replied without looking at her. “Great weather.”
“I’ll be seeing you, then.” She leaned on the door.
He turned as the door swung wide and he looked at her. A look that burned her right down to the core. She had the impossible, overwhelming urge to leap across the console and kiss him so hard.
Uh-uh. No way. Not going to happen.
She tore her gaze free of his and got the heck out of there, somehow managing to wave goodbye to Jerilyn and CJ as they put the bike in the back of the SUV.
In the house, feeling totally bereft and hating that she felt that way, she called Allaire. But no one was home. They were probably off at some Traub family Sunday dinner. Tori hung up without leaving a message.
About then, she realized that she’d left her picnic basket in the back of Connor’s SUV. It wasn’t a big deal. She could get it later. Much, much later.
Or maybe he would have CJ drop it by.
It was all just too sad and depressing. She’d finally found a guy who made her heart turn somersaults, and he was a ruthless corporate shark unwilling to be straight with her.
She took a long bath and turned in early.
And at midnight she was still lying there, wide awake, telling herself that she hardly knew Connor. They’d only spent a total of maybe fifteen hours together—if you counted the picnic just that day, when they’d each been doing their level best to pretend the other didn’t exist.
Really, she needed to get over this and move on. She needed to shut her eyes and get some sleep.
But sleep was not in the offing. She kept seeing his face at that last moment before she got out of the SUV, seeing the hunger there, the stark longing for what was never going to happen between them. She kept thinking that maybe she had been too uncompromising.
After all, she knew darn well he was trying to buy out the resort. His confessing the fact in so many words wouldn’t make much difference in the end.
Except that, well, what kind of relationship would they have, if he couldn’t even be honest with her about his real intentions? It all had to start with honesty, and with trust, too. If they didn’t have honesty and trust, they had nothing.
Time crawled by. She tried not to look at her bedside clock. It only reminded her how miserable she was—and how little sleep she was getting.
And then, out of nowhere, at ten after one, the doorbell rang.
At the unexpected sound, her pulse started booming in her ears. And her chest felt so tight, it hurt to breathe. Either it was Connor, unable to wait to tell her he wanted to work it out with her. Or it was some awful disaster that couldn’t be put off till daylight: a fire; Jerilyn with bad news about her dad.
Terrible dread and impossible hope warring for prominence in her heart, Tori yanked on her robe and ran to answer. Breathless, frantic, she pulled the door wide—and when she saw who was on the other side, her pulse thudded all the louder.
Connor.
He stood there on her doorstep in the same jeans and fancy boots he’d worn that afternoon, her picnic basket in his hand, looking exhausted—but determined, too. She realized as she gaped at him that he was the handsomest man she’d ever known.
“You left this in my SUV.” He held out the basket. “And yes, I’m planning to buy the resort.”
Connor waited, his stomach in a knot and his throat locked up tight. He had no idea what would happen next. She just might grab the basket and shut the door in his face.
But no. Those amazing hazel eyes had gone misty. That had to be a good sign, right?
And then she stepped back and tipped her head toward the great room, inviting him in.
He cleared his throat. He felt he owed her … something. A more thorough confession.
What the hell was happening to him? He wished he knew.
He found his voice. “I’ve been walking the floor half the night, thinking about you—” And then it was like a damn bursting. The words came tumbling out of him. “Thinking about how I’ve never met anyone like you and I can’t stand to think it’s over with us when it never even got started. I decided at least fifty times that I would come over here—after which I decided not to, that in the end, I would be leaving when the summer is over, so what was the point, since I know you want more than a summer romance?”
She gazed up at him, her eyes so soft. “Connor.”
“Yeah?”
“Will you please come in so that I can shut the door?”
He frowned, wanting—needing—her to be certain about letting him into her house. It was insane. Where had these silly scruples come from? He’d never been troubled by them before. “You’re, uh, sure?”
She only looked at him, still misty-eyed, and slowly nodded her red-gold head.
So
