Page 41 of After You

“Oh?”

“I know the whole story.”

Hannah’s gaze flickered past him to the men perched around the center table, watching them. “Oh.” Yeah, he probablydid.

“So.” Levi looked back and forth from her to Kyle. “This will be interesting.”

“I’m trying to talk Hannah into staying,” Kyle said, flashing heralook.

She read it loud and clear—no time like the present to put the plan into motion. Fine.

“But I have a life in Seattle,” she said. “So, while it’s great to be home to visit, I’ll be goingback.”

“Well, we’ll see,” Kylesaid.

And damn, that sounded real. Real enough for her stupid nipples to tingle anyway.

Levi was studying them both. He finally focused on Hannah. “As a guy who came to this town to visit for Christmas and now can’t imagine home being anywhere else, I think it will take a mighty strong something to pull you back to Seattle after being here again.” Then he glanced over at the older men. “Did you guys hear that? Mighty strong. I’m sounding more like you all thetime.”

He got a thumbs-up, a couple of eye rolls, and several chuckles. While Hannah worked on not feeling like he’d just kicked her in the stomach. A mighty strong something? Like fear? Like weakness? Like not wanting to hurt anyone any further? She looked across the table at Kyle. He was watching her closely.

But there was something strong that would make her go back to Seattle at the end of this visit—the desire to do what she’d promised Kyle she would do. Thistime.

“Anyway, I actually came over to talk to you about Michael Kade and his new book,” Levisaid.

“Oh?” That surprisedher.

“I want to be in it. How can I go about that? Send him a gift? Offer him cash? Take him out for a drink?”

Hannah laughed. “You want to be in his book? Really?”

“Eccentric-playboy-millionaire-turned-small-town-philanthropist. I think that would be a great protagonist.”

“You know that he writes thrillers, right?” Hannah asked.

Levi’s eyes actually sparkled. “I know. I’m thinking I could be…a zombie.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Kyle muttered. He scooted to the edge of the booth. “I have to get back to the clinic.” He looked at Hannah. “You coming withme?”

Well, there was an eccentric-playboy-millionaire-turned-small-town-philanthropist blocking her way. For one thing. For another, she was supposed to be resisting Kyle. And that seemed like a really goodidea.

She shook her head. “I think I’ll stick around and talk about zombie millionaires and acupuncture, actually.”

Kyle narrowed his eyes, then looked around the diner. “You all behave, okay?” he asked.

They all gave him wide-eyed innocent looks. He rolled hiseyes.

“I’ll see you later,” he said to Hannah. And it seemed like there was a lot of meaning in those words.

The only problem was that she didn’t know if that meaning was fake, for the sake of the onlookers, or if he meantit.

No, that wasn’t the only problem. The other problem was that she didn’t know if she wanted it to be fake or for him to meanit.

Very. Long. Six. Weeks.

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