Page 63 of A Brambleberry Summer

He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “She admitted after you left that she invited us both to dinner because she has some wild idea of matchmaking.”

Instead of continuing to smile, as he thought she would, Rosa suddenly looked distressed.

Her eyes widened and her hands slipped away from around his neck. “Oh, no.”

He nodded. “I told her to get that idea out of her head. I told her we were only friends and would never be anything more than that.”

She stepped away. “You told her the truth. That is not a lie. Wearefriends.”

“But we’re more than that, aren’t we?”

She folded her hands together, her mouth trembling a little. “No. What you said to her is the truth. We are friends. Only that.”

“You can really say that after that kiss?”

“Sharing a few kisses does not make us lovers, Wyatt. Surely you see this.”

He wasn’t sure why she was so upset but she was all but wringing her hands.

“This thing between us is not exactly your average friendship, either. You have to admit that. I have lots of friends and I don’t stay up nights thinking about kissing them.”

She made a small, upset sound and reached for her dog’s leash.

“We cannot do this anymore, Wyatt. You must see that. I was wrong to let you kiss me. To—to kiss you back. I should have stopped you.”

She started moving toward the house. He gazed after her, hurt at her abrupt dismissal of what had felt like an emotional, beautiful moment between them.

He knew she had felt it, as well. Rosa was not the sort of woman who would kiss someone with so much sweetness and eagerness without at least some feeling behind it.

He quickly caught up with her just as she pushed open the beach gate and walked into the Brambleberry House gardens.

“Why are you so determined to push me away? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing. I told you before—I am not looking for this in my life right now.”

“I wasn’t, either, but I think it’s found us. I care about you, Rosa. Very much. For the first time since Tori died, I want to spend time with a woman. And I might be crazy but I suspect you wouldn’t kiss me if you didn’t have similar feelings for me. Am I wrong?”

She was silent for a moment. When she faced him, her chin was up again and her eyes seemed without expression.

“Yes. You are wrong,” she said, her voice muted. “I do not have feelings for you. It is impossible. You are the brother of my friend and you are my tenant who will be leaving soon. That is all you are to me, Wyatt. I... You must not kiss me again. Ever. Do you understand this? No matter what, you must not.”

She turned and hurried for the house, leaving him staring after her, hurt and confusion and rejection tumbling through him.

She sounded so very certain that he could not question her conviction. Apparently he had misunderstood everything. All this time, he had been falling for her, but the feeling apparently was not mutual.

She had told him they should stay away from each other. Why had he not listened?

He knew the answer to that. His feelings were growing so strong that he couldn’t believe they could possibly be one-sided.

Lord, he was an idiot. No different than Jenna’s cop, who couldn’t accept rejection even after it slapped him in the face.

He should have kept his mouth shut. She had told him over and over that she was not interested in a relationship with him, but he’d been too stubborn to listen.

Now he just had to figure out how he was going to go on without her.

Rosa sat in her darkened apartment a short time later, window open to the ocean and Fiona at her feet. Usually she found solace in the sound of the waves but not now.

This night, it seemed to echo through Brambleberry House, accentuating how very alone she felt.

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