Page 10 of Mountain Man's Pumpkin Spice
He pulled away abruptly, his warmth leaving me as he stepped back and reached for his discarded clothes. The sudden distance between us felt like a chasm.
“Ashe—”
“It’s fine,” he said, his tone clipped. He pulled his underwear and shorts back into place without meeting my eyes. “I’ll take you back.”
I swallowed, suddenly cold despite the lingering heat between my thighs. I’d messed up. I just didn’t know how.
The drive back to the inn was silent, the weight of his disappointment pressing down on me. When we arrived, he didn’t kiss me goodbye. Didn’t even touch me.
“Goodnight,” he said, already turning away.
And just like that, he was gone.
I stood there, staring across the parking lot at his retreating taillights. My body still hummed from his touch, my heart aching with the knowledge that I’d somehow ruined everything.
How do I fix this?
But the night gave me no answers. Only the whisper of the wind and the fading echo of his truck.
6
ASHE
“Pumpkin spice latte?”
Her voice was soft, almost playful. But my heart jumped like I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t.
I looked up and laid eyes on her for the first time since last night—since I dropped her off at the front door of the inn without so much as a goodnight kiss. No goodbye. No “see you tomorrow.” Just a nod and a terse, “Goodnight.”
I’d been kicking myself since.
It wasn’t what I wanted to say. Hell, it wasn’t even what I’d meant to say. But I panicked. The second she said she had to get up early tomorrow, that she wasn’t coming back to my place, I’d felt the twist in my chest. The one that said I’d gotten too close. The one that told me I was about to lose something I didn’t even have yet.
So I’d backed off. Shut it down. Fast.
“Hey.” I stood from my work stool, brushing sawdust from my jeans. “You found pumpkin spice coffee?”
“I took over the coffee machine.” She held out a to-go cup with a white plastic lid. “This place needs some pumpkin spicelatte. Everyone’s pretty much done with coffee now that it’s lunchtime, but I figured maybe the local grump might need a caffeine boost.”
I took the cup from her, fingers grazing hers. “I’m not grumpy.”
She raised a brow. “You dropped me at the inn and haven’t spoken to me since. That’s a little grumpy, no?”
Damn it.
“I didn’t mean to,” I said, wrapping both hands around the warm cup. “I just…I figured you were tired.”
She tilted her head. “I was tired. Still wanted you to kiss me goodnight, though.”
I ran a hand down my face. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded like she believed me. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still confused.
“You want to tell me what happened?” she asked gently. “Because if you’re mad I didn’t come home with you last night?—”
“I’m not mad at you,” I cut her off, fast and firm. “I’m mad at me.”
That stopped her.
