and despite the fact that she said she hadn’t been in love with him, the man was still standing firmly between them.
And now his leg ached. Well, his stump ached. He’d slipped on the wet floor and banged into the front desk of the motel. He was screwing up a lot today.
He grabbed the bottle of muscadine wine and took a drink. It looked like sharing a bottle was going to be about as close as he would get to Seraphina.
chapter seven
Seraphina stepped out of the shower and knew she would regret not spending the night with Harry for the rest of her life, but did she honestly want to wreck another of Celeste Beaumont’s relatives?
She moved in front of the mirror, looking at the girl reflected back. Girl? She wasn’t a girl at all anymore and hadn’t been from the moment she’d realized Luc was growing in her belly.
Or maybe it had been that moment that she’d realized she would have to let Wes go, that minute she knew she’d gone too far and they couldn’t go back. She’d finally understood it wasn’t fair to him to even try.
Did she have to pay for that one mistake the rest of her life? She stared at herself in the mirror and wondered who she’d become. Was she the woman who peaked in high school and never quite found her footing after? She’d watched most of her friends start their lives, find careers, get married, leave for brighter prospects, but she felt stuck. It wasn’t that she wanted to leave. She didn’t, but she wanted something that made her feel like she was moving forward. Purpose.
She’d found it in restoring that old house. The last week had been the best she’d had in a long time. She wanted to get up and get to work. There was a bounce in her step and the place was starting to look good. It was starting to look like a place that could really work as a B and B.
Harry was a part of it. He didn’t pat her head and tell her to call a man in to do all the work. He taught her. He was patient with her. She’d started to think about what she would do with the money from the house. What if she took that money and bought another place, a place that needed work? She was damn good at making a place look pretty. Harry was good at the practical stuff. She could study real estate. Maybe get her license. They could build a business out of their skills, and she would do something she genuinely loved.
She groaned. She had only kissed the man once and she was practically married and running a business with him.
Her phone rang, startling her since it hadn’t been working before. She glanced down, her heart seizing a bit. Her mom. She slid her finger across the screen to accept the call. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” her mom said. “Sweetie, I was calling to tell you everyone is fine here. The rain’s let up and you should be able to get back in the morning. Luc is sleeping and that dog won’t leave his room. I’ve been watching the baby monitor and every time Luc gets up and tries to climb out of bed, the dog gently nudges him back. We should steal that dog, Seraphina.”
She liked the dog almost as much as she liked his owner. “We’re not stealing Shep.”
“Maybe not steal, but you could do that thing where you bat your eyes and all the boys do what you want.”
Yeah, that hadn’t worked since high school. “Momma, I’m not stealing that man’s dog, but I will think about getting Luc one. Is everything really okay? I’m sorry for not getting home.”
“I’m not. You could use a night away. Now let’s talk about how you’re going to take that man down. Zep told me he is very interested in you. It’s been a long time since you seduced a man, and quite frankly, you are out of practice.”
“Mom.” Sometimes her mother could still shock her. “I’m not seducing him.”
“Well, you never will with that attitude of yours. I swear if I was twenty years younger, I would be all over that man like jelly on peanut butter, and it would be the crunchy kind. There would be nothing plain about it.”
She coughed. “Mom . . .”
“Don’t you pretend like he’s not the most gorgeous thing to walk into Papillon in years.” Her mom