The Delivery of Decor (Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers #7) - Liz Isaacson Page 0,108

did you think I meant when I said we should go to breakfast the other day? Or when I asked you to the wildflower festival? The tree lighting?”

Libby rolled her hands over and around one another. “I don’t know.” She knew, but she absolutely would not admit it out loud. She hadn’t once, not even to herself.

“Libby.” Mister approached slowly, which was probably a good thing. “I’m standing right here, and I’m telling you in plain English that I’m interested in you. I like you. I want to date you. I think about kissing you all the time. Holding your hand. Holding you close, like I just did.” His chest heaved, and his eyes seemed a bit wild. “Tell me you don’t think about the same things. Tell me that, and I’ll leave you alone.”

She’d been taught not to lie, but she couldn’t get her voice to work.

He trailed the back of his fingers down the side of her face, and oh, Libby couldn’t help herself then. She leaned into that delightful touch and closed her eyes.

That must’ve been some sort of signal for Mister, because the next thing she knew, he’d cradled her face with one hand and touched his lips to hers.

No! her mind screamed. Libby had started to sink into the kiss, but she stiffened. She pushed both palms against Mister’s chest and sent him stumbling back away from her.

“Stop it,” she said, her voice coming out so much like her mother’s. Scathing and tight. “Don’t you dare kiss me, Mister Glover.”

“Libby,” he said, and he wore shock and hurt in his eyes.

Libby had had enough. She was tired of playing the weak woman. Tired of pretending like she didn’t know what Mister was doing when he asked her on dates. She was really tired of saying no or making up excuses, but she wouldn’t be played for a fool.

She marched toward him, and back he went again, almost like he expected her to hit him.

“Libs,” he said, his voice holding plenty of warning.

She kept going, backing him against the opposite wall. She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and held it tight. “I know what you’re doing, Mister.”

“What am I doing?”

“You don’t see me. You aren’t standing in front of me. Don’t make it sound like you’re this poor, poor man, pining away for the woman who won’t give him the time of day. That’s what I’ve been doing, Mister, and everyone knows it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Libby forced her fingers to uncurl. Tears pressed behind her eyes, but she would not cry in front of him. “We’ve always been honest with each other, right?”

“Until the last few months, I thought so, yes.”

“I only need a yes or no answer,” she said. “To one question.”

“Fine.” Mister reached up and pulled his shirt down, straightening it and putting everything precisely back in place. How did cowboys know how to hit all the hormones of a woman? It really wasn’t fair.

“If I hadn’t messed up and said what I did to Preacher last year, would you even be standing here in this hallway with me right now?”

Mister looked like she’d hit him with a two-by-four. That was the only answer she needed, and it wasn’t the right one.

She’d suspected as much, which was why she’d put him off about going to the wildflower festival. Why she’d made up a reason she couldn’t go to the tree lighting ceremony with him. Why she’d picked a fight with him instead of agreeing to go to breakfast. Why she’d insisted Mildred ride with them tonight.

He wouldn’t have seen her if she hadn’t indicated her feelings for him first.

“The only reason you ‘see me,’” she said. “Is because Preacher told you I liked you. If I hadn’t been so stupid as to ask about you when he’d come to the ranch last year, you would’ve never known. You would’ve had me set you up with some other pretty girl for tonight. You’d be back here with her, trying to sneak a kiss.”

“That’s not true,” he said, but he didn’t provide any evidence to the contrary.

Libby raised her chin and looked him straight in the eyes. God would have to forgive her for lying, just this once. “I don’t think about kissing you. I don’t want to hold your hand. I want you to leave me alone.”

The words took everything from her, and Libby didn’t have the strength to hold back her tears any longer. But if she cried, he’d