Page 5 of All Roads Lead to You

He’d been looking forward to that all day and she’d bloody well taken the last one and he was pissed about that too.

“Can I help you?” he asked coolly as she approached, her sandals crunching over the gravel.

She came to a stop by the truck, close enough for him to see that exposure to the harsh southern-hemisphere sun had made the faint little dusting of freckles across the pale skin of her nose darker and that she had a touch of sunburn to her cheeks and forehead.

She always wore a lot of jewelry too, a quantity of silver bracelets chiming on her wrist, plus the necklace she always wore—a small silver pendant in the familiar, curled spiral of a koru, a fern frond, hanging from a delicate silver chain that nestled just in the hollow of her throat.

It was pretty, just like her, as were the small silver hoops in her ears, the surface of the silver etched with intricate, swirling designs.

Had she made those? She was a jewelry designer, or at least he’d heard she was. Not that he’d been paying attention. At all.

“Funny you should ask,” she said. “Because yes. Yes, you can.”

Great. This was the last thing he needed. He had to get up to Clint’s—the horse farm he’d been helping Clint manage and was in the process of buying off of him. There were a few things he needed to finalize, and he didn’t particularly want to get sidetracked into helping Beth out with whatever it was she wanted.

He didn’t particularly want to get sidetracked by Beth at all, but while he didn’t care about a bit of absent rudeness, he couldn’t quite bring himself to be an active dick with her, especially when she’d been nothing but nice to him.

Andmostespecially when the problem wasn’t her.

He dragged his gaze from the necklace and the hollow of her throat to meet her clear green eyes. “Make it quick. I have to get up to Clint’s.”

“Oh?” Beth looked momentarily concerned. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. Just some horse stuff I have to do.”

“That’s good.” Her smile crept back, like the sun slowly dawning over the sky at the end of night. “You know, I think that’s the longest sentence you’ve ever spoken to me.”

Wonderful. Like he needed a reminder of how he’d been avoiding her ever since the day she’d arrived.

Deciding to ignore it, he said, “What kind of help do you need?”

“I hope I haven’t offended you or anything.”

“What?”

“Oh, it’s just that you…well, seem kind of annoyed with me.”

She didn’t sound the least bit accusing, only curious, which was somehow worse because he’d thought she wouldn’t notice his reserve around her.

Seriously? You really think she wouldn’t?

Okay, maybe not, but he’d hoped.

“I’m not annoyed,” he said shortly, wishing she’d leave it at that because this was not the conversation he wanted to be having in the middle of town, with a whole lot of tourists around, not to mention a few locals.

Bill had come to stand in the doorway of the general store, watching them, and Finn could also see Cait O’Halloran, who owned the Rose along with her father, Jim, standing on the veranda of the Rose next door, also watching.

Even Mystery, the mystery dog, the town stray, was sitting at the bottom of the Rose’s steps and staring at them.

They all liked Bethany because everyone liked Bethany. Hell, he’d probably like Bethany too if he weren’t attracted to her.

But he was attracted to her.

Which apparently means acting like a sulky teenage boy.

Finn didn’t like that thought, mainly because he had a suspicion it was true. In which case it was time to draw this little scene to a close.

“Can we talk about this another time?” He turned back to the truck and pulled open the door. “Like I said, I have to get up to Clint’s.”

---