Page 56 of Promise Me

“I don’t know.” she groans. “It’s clearly doing well, but I can’t stop thinking about Sips and Stories, and everything is just confusing.”

“Sips and Stories?”

She smiles. It’s different from the one she usually gives me, but it’s all the more amazing.

“Yes. I was going to open it where your bar is, with a corner window reading spot. It was going to be filled with flowers and a bar in the back for fun dunks. There would be big cloud chairs and sofas all around where people could sit and read. They would bring their own books or get one off the shelves. A mimosa and a romance novel in a room full of flowers just sounds so … soothing.”

I’ve never heard her so enthusiastic about something. She sure as hell didn’t sound this passionate when she made her pitch to Mrs. Whittaker ten days ago.

I bought the bar through email before I moved back. I had no idea she wanted it.

The bar space and the apartment.

Shit.

I stole her dream right after her mom had passed away.

I wouldn’t have tried to make amends with me, either.

“You think it’s stupid, don’t you?”

“No, why would you think that?”

“You’re just sitting there in silence.”

I blow out a breath.

“I’m thinking that I have a hunch on why you hated me so much when I came back.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I bought the bar. I took your dream, and so you made a new one.” I gesture to the bakery.

“You think so?”

“It makes sense. You’ve hated me even more than usual since I came back.”

Our eyes lock, and she bites her lip.

Oh hell. The urge to yank her chair toward me so that my mouth can replace hers hits me hard. My hand even twitches.

“What’s this?” I ask to change the subject quickly. I tap on her notepad.

“Oh, it’s all my questions for why I’m doing what I do now.”

“Let’s hear them.”

She laughs. “Well, number eight is, has Hudson always been this sweet?”

I bark out a laugh.

“I’m not sweet.”

“You’re pretty sweet.”

The things my mind wants to do her right now are anything but sweet. On this table, with her stripped bare for the entire town to see through the front window.

“I think we will have to agree to disagree. What else is on there?”

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