Page 61 of You Wish
Within twenty-four hours, she’d gone from a life full of love to one of empty agony.
“Maybe what you need is someone who will take care of you.”
Georgia snorted. “I’d rather take care of myself than inevitably be let down.”
Joy reached a hand across the table and rested it on Georgia’s. “Like I said the other day, maybe you just haven’t met the right person.”
“I thought I had once, but it didn’t work out.”
“Maybe it was the right person, but the wrong time.”
“Maybe,” she said, but didn’t mean it. They’d given into temptation last night. Allowed the romance of the evening to cloud their rational decision making. But that didn’t change the facts.
Georgia and Jake were absolutely wrong for each other. Period. End of story.
As if the universe wasn’t finished with the tattered threads of her dignity, soft footsteps sounded from behind her.
“Georgia?” Jake’s voice was sleep-roughened and caused her lady parts to perk back up. “You here?”
Georgia’s head dropped back on a groan.
Joy chuckled. “She sure is. Lookin’ like the cover model fromBless Her Heartmagazine.”
21
Jake spotted her before she spotted him—though really, “spotted” made it sound casual, like he wasn’t already scanning every corner of the town square as if she might materialize out of the winter air. Which, apparently, she had.
Because there she was, standing by the coffee cart, wrapped in a red and white oversized plaid scarf that looked like it had been wrestled from a picnic blanket, while pretending she wasn’t shivering.
Following their morning-after moment, which was lovingly chaperoned by Grandma Joy, he’d scoured the house looking for Georgia. Only to discover that she’d vanished like a snowflake in mid-July.
He wanted to talk. Theyneededto talk. In order to do that, he had to find her.
His first clue had been the tire tracks left by the ride-share Jake had spotted zipping away from the cabin. And since the only ride-share driver in town was Clive, he’d phoned him up. But Clive didn’t talk for free.
He wanted four premiere tickets to the Austin race, three autographed Nova ball caps, two rounds for him and his friendsat the Watering Hole, and a partridge in a pear tree. And that was just for information regarding the pickup and drop off location. Not the time she’d requested for the trip home.
At least he was able to confirm that her return trip was to the cabin and not Austin. Small wins.
How hard could it be to find a single woman in a town of under five thousand people?
Not as easy as one might think. Especially since the population of Pine Village doubled around the holidays and it was just three days until Christmas. But an hour and a half, and three cups of hot cocoa later, he’d found her. And he wasn’t letting her out of his sight—not until they talked.
Except the second her eyes flicked his way she bolted.
Spun on her heel, muttered something to the poor barista, and bee-lined toward the side street like a shoplifter making a getaway.
Jake huffed a laugh, even though the sharp edge of it caught in his chest. She was avoiding him. Because of last night. Because she thought sleeping with him had been some kind of catastrophic lapse in judgment instead of the best damn thing that had happened to him in a long, long while.
He wasn’t about to let her sprint out of his life before they even had a conversation.
“Georgia!” he called, already striding after her. She walked faster. He lengthened his stride, falling into step beside her just as she stopped dead in front of a shop window displaying—of all things—ceramic armadillos in Santa hats.
“You know,” he said, leaning against the brick like he had all the time in the world. “For someone who claims to be good at hiding, you’re terrible at it.”
Her jaw tightened. “I’m not hiding.”
“You’re definitely hiding.”
