Page 72 of Second First Kiss

“The looks, the curt answers, the way he didn’t jump in when R. J. shoved me. I know when someone doesn’t like me, Nolan. I know I’m not everyone’s flavor, and I am not Eli’s. And that’s okay,” she said like it was no big deal.

“Has he treated you poorly since he started working for me?”

She bit back a smile. “I thought I worked for Eli and that was your way of avoiding me.”

“You work for Eli because I slept with you. And I want to again.” He slid his hands up her thighs. “And again. And again.” He kissed her jaw and her head fell back with a moan. He kissed his way down her neck, over her shoulder, skating down her arm, taking that scrap of lace with him. “Did I mention I want to fuck your brains out?”

“What happened to one night because I didn’t work for you yet?”

“I’m rescinding that statement.”

“I’m not.”

He stopped mid kiss and lifted his head to meet her gaze, which was sex-hazed. Still, he scooted out from beneath her legs. Because in his world no meant no. Regardless of what the woman’s body was saying or how mixed the signals she was shooting off.

“Do you mind telling me why?”

She looked at her swinging legs. “I’m a onetime girl. I thought you knew that. I don’t have the time or inclination right now to take on any more. Between my new job, my county job, this custody fight, and keeping my sister out of jail, I just can’t. I already feel like I’m failing at everything.” She met his gaze with honesty and bravery. “I can’t fail at one more thing, Nolan. And eventually I’d fail at you. And I can’t do that to you.”

She hopped off the counter. “I should go. This was a bad idea. I don’t know what I was thinking trying to be Holly Homemaker.”

But he couldn’t let her end tonight on this note. So he gently grabbed her elbow as she started to walk away.

“Message received and you won’t get any pressure from me to be more than friends. But you’re wrong, our lives are already intertwined. We’re neighbors. Your best friend is marrying my brother. We will be forever connected, so we can’t pretend nothing happened. We can’t go back to not being what we were before.”

“I’d never make Milly choose,” she said vehemently, as if she’d rather distance herself from Milly than cause any trouble. Like Kat wasn’t worth the fight.

So Nolan felt like a class-A jackass when he was forced to agree with her. “You may have a point. Milly would feel like she’d have to and I want to have a close relationship with my new sister.” But he couldn’t lose Kat altogether.

“So then we keep things friendly?”

“You’re friends with all your other flings, right? Then what’s different with this?”

She swallowed hard and that told him everything he needed to know. He wasn’t the only one who knew there was something different between them and that night proved it.

“Nothing,” she said nonchalantly. “Friends it is.”

“Then don’t leave. Let’s eat dinner and you can be my assistant while I fix this sink.”

“We’ll eat, but I’m no one’s assistant. I’ll fix your pipe.”

“Now you’re just talking dirty.” Since he didn’t have a kitchen table, Nolan grabbed the bag of food and walked into the front room and sat on the couch.

He took out the burgers, handed her one and kept the other two for himself. They ate in silence for a while, then she asked, “So how did you convince Eli to hire me?”

Not wanting to get involved with hiring a woman he was seeing, he’d handed the role over to Brynn. She said that Eli had balked when she delivered the résumé and even tried to talk her out of hiring Kat, saying she wasn’t trustworthy and possibly behind the missing whiskey. But Brynn explained in the simplest terms that Kat was the only applicant qualified for the job. But how did Kat know that?

He could lie to her, but she could always see through his BS. Plus, he wasn’t a liar, and he didn’t want any untruths to come between whatever this new friendship was.

“Eli wasn’t on board right away, but I promise you that I didn’t intervene. I didn’t have to, all my siblings were behind this hire, not just me.”

“Because of Milly?” she asked casually, but he saw right through her. She attributed her hire to Milly. He knew that she knew she kicked ass at what she did and applied herself, but she was clearly suspicious of being given a chance.

He took a sip of his soda. “Because you’re the best person for the job.”

“Even with my history?”

“You were a kid. Kids mess up. That’s a fact. If I was judged on everything I did when I was a kid?—”

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