Page 95 of Good Girls Don't Kiss and Tell (Rock Canyon, Idaho 7)

She turned her back on him and waved at another taxi coming down the street, only to be spun around. His hands held her shoulders firmly as he bent over her.

“I’m sorry, Gracie. I didn’t mean to hurt you in any way. I had so many feelings inside me, and I needed somewhere to put them. I swear, the character wasn’t you, but maybe you’re right. All the frustration and resentment was about you and how I felt. But this last month, I’ve seen you in a new light too, you know? I started to think that all the misconceptions and misunderstandings were a thing of the past and we were finally getting somewhere good.”

He let her go so fast, she nearly stumbled. “But at the first perceived infraction, you blow up and cause a scene. Then you run. Because that’s what you’re good at, right? You said so yourself. Love them and leave them.”

He took another step back, and she felt the distance between them like miles of bad road.

“When you come down from this and look at it from my side, I hope you realize that I’ve been honest. And that although I’ve made mistakes, this wasn’t a deal breaker.”

He put his hand on the door and gave her one last long look.

“Because I love you, Gracie Louise McAllister. Always have. Always will.”

She didn’t even hear the cab pull up behind her until he honked, she was so busy staring into the building as he disappeared. When the cabbie honked again, she climbed into the backseat, getting angrier by the minute.

How dare he drop the L bomb in the middle of a fight! Of all the conniving, sneaky, underhanded—

“Where to, miss?” the cabbie asked.

Gracie told him the hotel’s name, but when Eric got in, she wouldn’t be there. She needed to think.

Which was something she couldn’t do when a part of her wanted to forget this night had ever happened and go back to this morning, when she was sure she was in love with him.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Losing someone you love can cause you to take a hard look at yourself and your choices. Hopefully, you like what you see.” - Miss Know-It-All’s Gossip Column.

Gracie stepped off the plane first, and Eric watched the way she quickly marched away from him once they hit the pavement. Eric almost reminded her that they had ridden together, but decided it was better just to keep his mouth shut.

She’d slept somewhere else last night, and he’d actually been surprised to see her for the flight home this morning. When he mentioned this, she’d just put in here earbuds and said, “I couldn’t get a flight home last night.”

He turned on his cell phone as they waited for their luggage. Her sparkly pink case came out first, and she was out the door before him.

He clenched his jaw, wishing she could see that although there was some truth to his book, it was fiction. It was a fun way to vent his frustrations at the world around him and entertain people. What the hell was wrong with that?

Eric walked outside to find Gracie waiting on the curb. His phone went off with a thousand notifications, and he pulled it out of his pocket as he stopped next to her.

“The car is that way,” he said, pointing.

“I’m waiting for Mike to pick me up.”

Of course she had called her knight in shining armor. He tapped on his voice mail, and the first message made him stumble as he stepped off the curb.

“Gee, you walk much?”

He ignored the jibe and turned around with his phone still in hand.

“Mike’s not coming, Gracie.”

She gave him a hostile look. “What are you talking about? He told me last night—”

“Mike’s not coming because he was in a car wreck last night.”

Gracie paled. “Is he—”

“He’s alive, but pretty banged up with a broken arm.”

“Thank God for that.”

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