Page 17 of Choosing Happily Ever After

Levi had kissed her on the forehead.

But when?

How was it that she had no memory of Levi kissing her? It didn’t make any sense. Was it at the bar? Or…no!

She flipped over so quickly, the pain in her stomach almost made her vomit. But she needed to know.Was he in the bed with her?

No. The bed was empty.Of course it was.

She would never have let him spend the night. Hell, she hadn’t even kissed him yet.

Except he had kissed her.

She touched her fingers to her forehead again.

Hadn’t he?

Hope groaned and rolled over. Her feelings were all too confusing. And therewerefeelings.

There was no denying that. The feelings were all there. And they were all real. Heck, they’d probably never left. She wasn’t sure exactly what they were, but she was definitely having feelings for Levi.Majorones.

Not that lying there still wearing her clothes from the night before was going to sort any of that out.

That was a whole different problem, in fact. Never in her life, even when she was young and made her share of poor decisions, had she ever had no recollection of how she’d ended up in bed the night before. That was definitely not normal.

Slowly, Hope pulled herself out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. The cramps in her abdomen intensified when she stood up, but she managed to make it into the bathroom, start the shower, and swallow down a few painkillers. The heat of the water helped, or maybe it was the painkillers, but by the time she finished in the shower, she felt much better and the idea of facing her day, even though she was already getting a way later start than she would have liked, was finally bearable.

Hope wasn’t surprised to see Levi’s truck outside the barn when she pulled up in her golf cart. The sight of it made her smile. For as much as she had her doubts, hiring Levi had turned out to be a really good decision. Besides the fact that he worked harder than she would have thought, he went way over and above what she’d expected, and maybe most importantly, she really enjoyed his company. More than she cared to admit.

“Good morning,” Levi called the moment she walked into the barn. He was across the room, pulling linens from one of her bins. She watched for a moment while he expertly shook out the tablecloth and laid it out over the table before picking up the steamer.

She shook her head with a grin and made her way across to him. “Where did you learn to do that?”

He held up the steamer and gave her a campy grin before getting back to work. “I have skills you don’t even know about.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Clearly.”

She watched for a few more moments before he asked, “Am I doing okay?” He paused before steaming out a wrinkle. “Because if you want to jump in and take over, I won’t be offended.”

Normally, Hope would have done just that. But she shook her head and pulled out a chair. “You’re doing a great job. I’m happy to sit and watch.”

“You could help, ya know?” He teased. “After all, I am just the help. You’re the brains behind this.”

She knew she probably should, but she was just so damn tired. Guilt flooded through her. Not once since she’d started Ever After Ranch had she sat back and let anyone else do the preparation for a wedding. Not ever. She took her events incredibly seriously. After all, the happy couples were putting the most important day of their lives into her hands. It was the least she could do.

But on that particular morning, Hope had put all her energy into just getting herself into the barn. It didn’t seem like a bad idea at all to let Levi set the tables. She propped her head up with one arm. “No.” She stifled a yawn. “I think I’ll let you handle it today.”

Levi eyed her suspiciously. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth and looked away. His silence only lasted a moment, however. “Are you okay? You look...”

“What? I look what?”

“Exhausted, Hope.” Levi abandoned the table he was setting up and sat across from her. “Are you okay? Last night, you were—”

“I’m so sorry about last night.” Her face flushed hot as she once again remembered that something had happened last night, even if it was innocent, that she didn’t recall. “I didn’t mean to…well, I don’t even know what happened. I was just so tired and I—”

“It’s okay.” He stopped her and reached for her hand. She should have pulled away, but having him touch her felt so right and natural that she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “You fell asleep in the truck, and I didn’t want to wake you,” he said. “Well, that and I don’t think I could have woken you up. You sleep hard, Hope.” He laughed, but she was still too embarrassed to join in. “Seriously,” he added when he realized she wasn’t laughing. “You were fast asleep. I carried you upstairs and tucked you in.” He squeezed her hand, and Hope had to work hard to ignore the feelings that the simple action sent racing through her. “That was it.”

“That was it?”

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