Page 46 of Waitress at the Shadow Ridge Inn
I sucked in a breath when he opened a door to a massive bedroom with a walk-in closet the size of my first apartment, a sitting area, a fireplace, and a bathroom straight out of my fantasies. Jacuzzi tub, six-head steam shower. When traveling with my parents, I’d stayed in five-star hotels that weren’t as nice.
“Go on then. Have a good soak. It’ll take me at least an hour to make dinner.”
“You aren’t real,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m dreaming all this, aren’t I?”
He chuckled softly, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “If you need anything, let me know.”
Oh, I needed something all right.
I reached out and snagged his hand. “Join me?”
His eyes lit up from within, but he banked it. “Later,” he said huskily. “If I get in there with you, we won’t be eating dinner anytime soon, and I promised you a meal.”
My lips formed a pout until he added, “It also provides incentive for you to stick around after I feed you.”
“I’ll say it again. You don’t play fair.”
Steve Ziegler was a wise man.After soaking for an hour and turning onallthe jets, I felt much better. My stress level was down, and my body was soft and suitably pliant. How did I thank him for his thoughtfulness? I raided his closet and wrapped my upper body in one of his soft flannel shirts over my stretchy yoga pants before finding my way back to the kitchen.
Judging by the way he paused and regarded me with an appreciative, possessive look in his eye, he didn’t mind me poaching his clothes too much.
After a delicious meal of a perfectly grilled steak, salad, and a baked potato, I sat back, took a sip of wine, and said, “You need to stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Being so damn good to me.”
He smirked. “It’s called wooing, and I have no intention of stopping. How else am I going to convince you to give me a chance?”
I sighed. “I’m already convinced. The problem isn’t you, Steve; it’s me. There are things I need to do before I can consider getting involved with anyone.”
“Like what?”
“Like come to terms with and reconcile my past so I can move on.” I hadn’t intended to share my plan, but he deserved that from me. “To do that, I need to visit a hypnotherapist who can help me recall what happened that night.”
His brow furrowed. “Is that possible?”
“My psychiatrist seemed to think it was, but suggested I wait until I was ready to attempt it. It’s going to bring a lot back to the surface, and I need to know I can handle it.”
He thought about that for a minute. “Okay,” he said, drawing out the word. “I understand where you’re coming from, but couldn’t you do that without going back? Your stalker is still out there. If you return, he’s not going to stand idly by, waiting for you to identify him.”
“I don’t plan on advertising it,” I told him, though his concern did send ripples of warmth through me.
And I did see his point. It would be safer to seek those answers far away from Chicago. The East Coast had enough large cities that I should be able to find someone who could do what I wanted.
But there were other reasons to return home as well. Several million of them, in fact, just sitting there, waiting for me to claim them.
I kept that to myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Steve. I’d learned early on that money had a way of changing people’s perception. Angie was a perfect example. She’d taken one look at my clothes and designer bags freshman year and judged me without even knowing me. It had taken a long time for her to accept that I wasn’t just a rich, spoiled princess, living on a stipend until I could claim my full inheritance. It had taken years of seeing me work my ass off instead of just having things handed to me.
I wanted people to like me for me, not my family’s money.
If things worked out the way I hoped, then after I did what I needed to do, I’d return to Shadow Ridge and come clean about everything.
“When?” Steve asked, unaware of the path my thoughts had taken. When I looked at him blankly, he added, “When are you planning on going?”
“Soon. I’m going to talk to Rose next time I go in and put in my two weeks’ notice.”
He nodded, his expression thoughtful. “All right. That should give me enough time to rearrange a few things.”
