Page 27 of Cherishing Happily Ever After

She knew that he was a crazy talented craftsman. He didn’t like to wear a shirt. He was ridiculously cocky about…everything. And more than anything, she wanted to feel the way she’d felt with his arms wrapped around her and his lips on hers.

But she couldn’t.

She pulled her arm away from his and took a step back, taking a deep breath at the same time.

“I think you should stop answering questions with questions.” She turned back to the counter and the food she so desperately needed. “I also think that I need to eat something.” She turned with the buns on a plate that she held between them like a shield. “Want one?”

“You’re offering me a honey bun?” The disappointment played with the humor on his face. “Now?”

“Seems like a good time.” She pushed the plate toward him and raised an eyebrow. She’d meant it when she’d told him before just friends. Well, maybe she hadn’tmeantitmeant it.But it was the only way she was going to get through being stuck in a cabin with him without making bad decisions, so she was going to hold tight to the idea of friends only. “Besides, that’s what friends do,” she added. “Feed each other.” It was lame, and she could see in his eyes that he thought so, too. “And that’s what we are, right? Friends.”

“Just friends,” he said slowly. “I remember.”

“Good,” she said with an assurance she certainly didn’t feel. Because no matter what they said, they both knewjust friendswas going to be next to impossible.

Just friends.

Just friends.

He repeated the words in his mind like a mantra. Maybe if he kept saying it, he’d start to believe it. Because as it was, he was having a very difficult time reminding himselfandhis body of that as he sat across the room from her. She looked so sweet and sexy in her oversized sweater and leggings, her hair hanging loose over her shoulders and her face so gorgeous without a trace of makeup on. She looked very kissable. Very—no!

Travis tore off another piece of honey bun and shoved it in his mouth. The sweet pastry was delicious but it was a poor substitute for the sweetness of Stephanie’s lips.

Again, his mind went down the rabbit hole of thinking about her soft lips and how they’d yield against him. The way her curves felt under his hands. How creamy soft her skin was, with the most unexpected sprinkling of freckles across the top of her shoulders.

Friends.

Just friends.

“So,” he said, determined to take his mind off what he’d really like to be doing at that moment, which was decidedly more than to bejust friends.“Tell me how you got to be so handy with a shovel. I wouldn’t have expected that from you.”

She grinned and tucked her legs up under her on the chair across from him. “Because I’m a movie star?”

“Nope,” he said confidently. “Because you’re a girl.”

She tossed a throw pillow at his head, and he laughed as he caught it easily and tucked it behind his back with a wink.

“I’m kidding.” He chuckled. “Obviously.” He waited until she smiled in acknowledgment that he may be a lot of things but he wasn’t a chauvinist. “But seriously, and please forgive me here, but you don’t really seem the type of woman to get your hands dirty.”

It was her turn to laugh. “You only say that because you don’t know anything about me. If you had known me when I was young, you’d be surprised that I’m a movie star.”

“Really?” He leaned back, intrigued. “Did you get dirty a lot? And I don’t mean that sexually,” he added quickly, and she laughed.

“When I was a kid, my mom couldn’t keep me out of the dirt,” she said. “Much to her disappointment, I would have rather been outside than helping her out in the kitchen or learning how to sew. I think my dad secretly liked it, though. Since I was an only child, I got to be both his little girl and the son he never had. We had some land, so there was always lots to be done.”

“North of here, right?”

“Far north of here.” She nodded and smiled a little.

Was she surprised that he knew details about her? Probably. Especially because they’d never talked like this.

“A little town even smaller than Glacier Falls, about five hours north of here. It was a pretty simple childhood. Maybe that’s why I like Glacier Falls so much.”

“It’s not a bad place.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Not bad?You’re still here, so you must not hate it too badly.”

“I never said I hated it.” He crossed a leg over his knee and leaned back. “I never said anything at all.”

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