Page 85 of Major Love

“Why on earth would he want to do that with me?”

“Because he never got over you.”

“Casey,” I rasp, because even though Jason and I have fallen into an easy friendship, I’m pretty sure thenever got over youpart is a one-sided thing.

As in,myside.

Because I never got over him.

Seeing as it’s nighttime where Casey is, we talk for ten more minutes and then say goodnight.

I spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on a weeks’ worth of missed emails from Riley’s management, happily surprised to see that his manager contacted theObserverand fed them an alternative story – something about his new album’s ‘alternative’ writing process, so that they’ll pull the articles that they’ve been spinning about me. She even sent me the new articles that they’ve been posting, and I sigh with relief when I finally read them.

It’s so freaking good to see that I’m no longer in the headlines that I immediately email her back, sending her all of my gratitude and appreciation. Then I go online and find a Nashville florists, ordering the biggest bunch that I can find to get mailed to her office on Monday.

The relief of knowing that there will be no more ridiculous articles written about me is almost distraction enough to make me forget what’s been going on – about what Casey said this morning, and how tense Jason was last night, and the realisation that if I’m no longer a wanted woman in Nashville, because the bar-goers realise that I’m not making out with their favourite country singer, then I’m technically free to look into the huge offer that I was propositioned over a month ago.

I have until late March to let them know if I’m interested in the role of Manager, but the only reason I ever went to Nashville was to run thespecificbar that Cash was in love with.

I continued his legacy and now I have a chance to do something new.

So I’m not sure if going back is something that I want to do.

I stare at the offer for a minute and then close my laptop, well and truly done with all of my Nashville work for the day.

I mean, I’m supposed to be on vacation, after all – it’s time that I start acting like it.

I’m just walking over to the refrigerator when the sound of a truck pulls up through the clearing. And half a minute later Jason is opening the front door, his dimples flashing the second that he sees me, and then he’s dropping his gear and lumbering over.

He strips off his jacket as he joins me in the kitchen, and it genuinely makes me laugh when he has to hunch way down to hug me.

“You laughing at me?” he mumbles, which only spurs me on to laugh even harder.

He smiles against my cheek and then pulls back up so that he can look down at me.

“You look good,” he says gruffly, and I try not to blush, because I know that he only meansyou don’t looksick anymore.

Then he surprises me by asking, “Got any plans tonight?”

My lips part, wanting to tell him that IwishI had plans tonight, but I’m way too shy to tell him how I feel about him.

Instead, I say softly, “I guess I should be heading back to Casey’s cabin.”

He watches me for a moment. Then he says, “I’ll take that as a no.”

I almost want to argue with that, but I’m too intrigued to see where he’s going.

“I was thinking we could hang out,” he finishes, his deep voice reverberating against the wooden cabinets. Then he folds his forearms over his chest and adds, “If you want.”

I laugh in confusion. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing every night?”

He rakes his hand through his hair and says, “It’s not the same when you’re ill.”

I frown slightly and remind him, “I probably am still a little bit sick, you know.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I know. I didn’t mean that we’d do anything, like…” His neck flushes slightly as he trails off his sentence. “I just… there’s something that I thought we could do. If you want to hang out before heading back to Casey’s, I mean.”

I watch him in silence before slowly nodding up at him, and his broad chest swells with relief as he tries to hide his grin.

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