Page 26 of Love to Prove You Wrong

“Don’t flatter yourself. People have seen my bad girl side before,” I said, trying to sound cool.

He threw me a look that called me out on my bullshit. “Sure.”

“Fine, you’re right,” I said. “Other people don’t know that part of me. But the fact that you do, that I get snappy with you sometimes… That’s because you’re not the nicest guy. You can be so full of yourself sometimes.”

“Who else would I be full of if not myself?” he asked. “There’s nothing wrong with being confident, with speaking your truth and being proud of what you’ve achieved.”

I cocked my eyebrow. “There’s nothing wrong with modesty either.”

He leaned back in his seat, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I guess we’ll have to meet in the middle then. I’ll tone my famous actor vibes down, and you speak up for yourself more often.”

“It couldn’t hurt to try,” I said. “But I’m not convinced you can do it. It would mean you’d have to stop posting selfies on Instagram, looking all brawny and smug.”

“I’ll put a paper bag over my head next time. That’ll help with the smug looks. The muscles… Yeah, can’t do anything about that. If you have them, you might as well show them to the world,” he said with a grin that set my insides on fire.

As I looked at him, a relaxed smile on his face, hands resting in his pockets, hair spilling out from under his cap… I caught a glimpse of the guy he was without the labels the world had given him. In the tiny confines of this car, he was no longer Justin Miller, award-winning actor with the dazzling smile and the overconfident talk. In here, he was Justin Miller, the small-town guy who needed someone he could talk to without being afraid of having his words twisted. Someone who didn’t blindly adore him. Someone… like me.

He’d told me he wanted me to feel safe around him. But what if he was looking for that same safety from me?

He had closed his eyes, his broad chest rising up and down with every breath. “This silence feels so good. I can’t remember the last time I was able to hear nothing.”

“Then why did you break it with your chatter?” I asked, laughing. “You never shut up, do you?”

He opened his eyes. “Stop it. Admit that this is nice.”

I did nothing of the sort, but I did smile like a moron. Because he was right. It was nice.

I stared at the lights below, illuminating Old Pine Cove. Life was so simple around here, yet somehow Justin coming back had complicated everything for me.

“Thank you for having a burger with me, Addy,” he said.

“Too bad I couldn’t finish it in peace, thanks to your fans.”

“We’ll have to do it again then,” he said, his words nothing more than a whisper.

I grinned. “We’ll see about that.”

In the distance, two headlights crept up the road toward us. Justin and I exchanged a look.

“I think that’s our cue to get out of here,” I said.

“You’re right. I don’t know who’s in that car and what kind of activities they’ve got planned, but let’s not hang around to find out,” Justin said. He started the car and pulled away from the clearing.

I got my phone out of my bag, pretending to read a message. Instead, I slid it on silent and opened the camera app. I angled the phone so that I had a perfect shot of Justin and snapped a pic. Okay, five pics. I wanted to remember this night before the clock struck twelve and I’d be back to hating him.

Chapter Nine

Ididn’t have a lot of time to think about my outing to Roger’s and The Pine Lookout with Justin the next day, as we were officially opening our new flower-themed rooms to the public. All ten of them had been booked, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was exhilarating to see the inn grow thanks to the hard work my team and I had put in the last couple of years.

Since it was a big deal for us to expand the inn, I’d hoped Dad would travel to Old Pine Cove for the occasion, but he claimed he couldn’t leave Florida. He was the head judge of an orange-peeling tournament and forsaking his commitments didn’t feel right to him. Even though I had frowned when he told me, I did understand. I too found it difficult to let people down, or not keep my promises.

At ten a.m. on the dot, Rachel from Blooming Fun parked her delivery van in front of the inn. I’d ordered fresh bouquets to put in the new rooms, each flower arrangement matching the room’s name.

“Would you mind helping Rachel unload?” I asked Carter. “I want to go over my to-do list one last time and make sure I’m not missing anything important.”

“On it, boss,” he said, heading out the door and down the porch stairs to the parking lot.

Once all the flowers were in place and I’d done a last check-up, I was able to breathe freely again. I was just sprucing the pillows in the lobby one last time when I felt a presence behind me.

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