Page 20 of Inherited Holiday

“No, that’s a friendship.”

“I think you are wrong, but you were saying…”

“As a man, our friendship and connection are still there, but what’s changed is my desire to eat her cookies.”

“I see…”

“I’ve never felt such a physical reaction to a woman before. It’s surreal, and I honestly don’t know how the hell to deal with it, let alone where we go from here.”

“Now I know you’re messing with me. You never had sex?”

I shook my head.

“What?”

“What part of that did you not understand?”

“The whole thing.” He stood there with a stunned expression. “What do you mean you never had sex?”

“We never had sex,” I repeated.

“Why not?”

“I just told you it wasn’t like that.”

“For you?”

“For both of us.”

“Because of you?”

“What are you getting at?”

He leaned against the exam table, folding his arms over his chest. “You have commitment issues.”

I jerked back, never expecting his response. “That’s not true.”

“How do you figure it’s not? Why else would you run away from paradise? This town is amazing. You were set up to thrive without even having to prove yourself.”

“Maybe to have my own life,” I reasoned, needing someone to understand why I had to leave. “Maybe so that I wouldn’t live in a place where buildings are named after my entire family, and everyone kisses my ass for it.”

“Yeah,” he snapped. “Look at what good that did you? Now you own it.”

“No shit, and the only thing I got for it this morning was a knee to my balls.”

“Wait, what?”

“Noelle.”

“She kneed you in the balls?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you do?”

“I pulled her toward me.”

“Wow.” He smiled. “She’s violent. I like it.”

---