Page 17 of Kissing Her Rescuer

“I’m not sure Hugh wants freedom. That sounds too much like—” Cameron fluttered his fingers in the air “—happiness. We could always come here.”

Addie nudged him in the ribs. Hard.

He coughed. “Or not. Not a good idea.” No, Addie wouldn’t want the house she’d finally made into the home invaded by a half dozen men.

Dewey shifted. His weight on the couch made the cushion sink lower. Eliza tumbled his direction, catching herself with a hand on his knee as her shoulder bumped his chest.

God, there was so much man sitting beside her. The heat from his body soaked through her clothes. Her face flamed red. She mumbled, “sorry,” and tried to scoot away.

Impossible. It was like a forcefield, or gravity, drawing her to him. Like they were both being sucked together on the small loveseat.

Damn it. Becky watched the entire interaction with more amusement than necessary. If anyone noticed Eliza’s discomfort, Becky would. She’d already asked her a few months ago about her history with Dewey.

Eliza leaned the other way, holding onto the arm of the sofa like a lifeline, and putting as much distance between them as possible. Unfortunately, that put her neck in line with his hand, still resting on the back of the loveseat. A strand of her hair was gently pulled.

He twisted a piece of hair through his fingers. Everyone in the room remained oblivious to his torment.

She held stick still. Was he flirting? She’d all but issued him an invitation to kiss her in the hallway at Ms. Peggy’s house, shamelessly running her hands along his muscular arms. She’d blame the bump she took against the wall. It must have rattled her more than she realized to make her act that way.

“What about taking him to Rhonda’s? It’s out of the way. That way, he can’t ruin your party.” Cameron looked to Dewey. “Sound good?”

“Sounds fine to me. Haven’t been to Rhonda’s in a while, now.” His thumb skimmed down the back of Eliza’s neck.

A small squeal formed in the back of her throat, but she swallowed it down. Instead, she smiled at Becky. “Did Ms. Iris pick the cake she wanted?”

Becky nodded. “Yes.” She tilted her head to the side. “Are you sure you’re alright? If it wasn’t one in the afternoon, I’d get you a glass of wine or something. You look out of sorts.”

Eliza faked a yawn. “Yeah. You know, Carrie kept me up last night. She had a few bad dreams.” Lie.

“She can call me if she ever needs to.” Dewey’s low voice sent a shiver through her body she didn’t contain. His hazel eyes caught her gaze. “We are friends, after all.”

“Friends. Right.”

His fingers went back to twirling a piece of hair again. An absent-minded gesture, probably, but it meant so much more from him.

“Let’s all go out to Rhonda’s.”

Eliza tore her eyes away from Dewey. “What?” She didn’t want to go back to Rhonda’s. “I’m not sure I can.”

Becky arched one eyebrow. “I didn’t tell you when. Ms. Iris said you’re coming to her house tomorrow night to go over the decorations.”

Eliza grimaced. “Don’t remind me.”

“Come out afterward. Hugh can watch Carrie.”

What if she ran into George and he said something? Or worse, Tommy. “I really hate asking my dad to watch Carrie so much. I don’t want him to think I’m taking advantage of him.”

Becky typed into her phone. The response was immediate. “He said he’d watch her.” She held up her phone. “There. Any other excuses?”

The brush of Dewey’s thumb down the back of her neck again, silent torture, let her know that she didn’t get the goofy, fun-loving Dewey she’d wanted. She got the seductive Dewey that knew (he had to know) that she melted with a simple touch.

“Nope.” She took a slow breath. “I guess I’ll be there.”

Ms. Iris slidanother picture of flowers across the table. “See. I like how dainty this looks.”

Eliza looked at the caption. “A hawthorn? I've never seen those before.” Before today, she'd heard of roses, violets, although she didn't know what a violet looked like, and then daisies. The. End.

Now, she could add hawthorns to the list of flowers Ms. Iris loved. And those pink ones over there and the yellow ones in that other book. This was way over her head.

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