Page 78 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
She sighed. “There’s still so much to do.”
“You have help anytime you need it.”
Leah didn’t comment, and he knew there was no way she’d ask for it. The only way to deal with her was to force her to take help by turning up.
Dan studied the last barn as they reached it. There had been traffic in and out of here recently. He could tell that right off. Unlike the others, the grass in front of the doors was flattened.
Leah reached for the doors, but he beat her to it and opened one. They both walked inside.
“The padlock on this was newer,” she said.
It was a large open space, as barns tended to be, but not as much clutter as he would expect from a man like Chuck Reynolds, who had hoarding tendencies. There were some pallets stacked on the floor in a grid pattern about the size of his mom’s living room.
“I wonder what was stacked on those?”
“No idea,” Leah said.
He found the pickup and headed in that direction. A 1958 Chevy Cameo that half the men, and a good handful of the women, in Lyntacky lusted after, him included.
“Are you going to drive that pickup now?”
She shrugged and kept walking to the far right corner of the barn, so he followed.
“The other barns were where Dad did all the things with those cars, but this wasn’t really for anything much, or so he said. Me and Cassie weren’t allowed in here,” she said.
Chuck Reynolds, you asshole.
“And you listened?”
She spun, and he grabbed her shoulders to stop from knocking her over. She put one hand on his chest to steady herself.
They stared at each other, heat and lust swirling in the air between them. Dan wondered if it would always be there when she was close.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said, lowering his head. “I’ve never wanted any woman more.”
For about five seconds, she sagged into him as he kissed her and then pulled back. “No, Dan, please.” She stepped back out of reach. “This—we can’t,” she whispered.
He ran a hand through his hair as she turned away.Fuck.He was in uniform again, and he was better than this. A hormone-fueled teenager had better manners than him in that moment. This had to stop. Something was going to give. He just wasn’t sure what, or when.
“Show me what you found, Leah.” His words came out gruff and harsh, but she didn’t comment.
She got into the pickup and drove it forward. Then after climbing out, she pointed to a handle in the floor and the outline of a door.
“It’s down here,” she said, reaching for the handle.
“Let me do that. You have a sore head.”
She didn’t argue. He shot her a look, but her eyes were on the opening beneath them, like every fear she’d ever had was waiting for her below.
Chapter 22
She watched Dan continue down the stairs below her with his flashlight lighting the way.
“There’s a light switch to your right,” Leah told him.
Light flooded the room, and she watched Dan’s hands as he turned off the flashlight he carried. Hands that had held her so gently once and taken her places she’d never been before.
Don’t go there, Leah.
