Happy Mother's Day! - By Sharon Kendrick Page 0,178

bring home milk.

He grinned. Matt had joked he would send a message in case James needed an out if it all went horribly wrong. Who knew that the message would come just as it had all been going so very right?

‘You should go,’ Siena said, her voice ghostly soft.

And James’s grin faded. It took some effort to look into her eyes as, for some reason, for the briefest of seconds, he thought she meant for ever.

‘Go?’ he repeated.

She nodded, her eyes wide and skittish.

He bit back a growl of frustration. He’d thought that they were finally on the same page, but she was looking at him not like he was the answer to all her dreams but more like the big brick wall in their way.

He took in a deep breath, centred himself, then took her spare hand in his. It was limp and unusually cool. He could feel she was shivering. He wanted nothing more than to drag her into his arms and not let go, but somehow he didn’t think that would help.

He had to be honest. To stop playing word games and tell her outright why he had come to her.

‘Siena, I have come here tonight to ask you to tell Max you can’t go to Rome. I would like you to stay.’ Here goes … ‘Stay for me. Let’s see how this thing between us could develop with some real time invested in it.’

Her eyes blinked up at him, moist and wide.

She swallowed, her thin throat obviously working hard.

‘That’s it?’ she finally asked.

Well, now, that wasn’t quite the reaction he’d been expecting. He’d thought himself indescribably brave in laying himself on the line like that.

But if she wanted more from him he wasn’t quite sure he had more to give, because even though Matt had told him to think about himself for once, he feared it would never be just about him.

What if she stayed and this thing between them never got off the ground? It would be his fault that she’d given up her dream job.

What if she stayed but was not looking for anything more than a fling and Kane became even more attached to her before she figured that out?

What if he thought he was ready for her, and found down the track that he wasn’t as strong as he thought he was? What if his feelings for her weren’t enough?

Or, just the opposite, what if they stayed together but his need for her always outweighed her need for him. Could he live like that? He knew that Dinah had always felt that way, but she had Kane to think about. But, now he was in the same shoes, could he?

‘That’s it,’ he said, his spine stiffening. ‘It’s the best I can offer you right now.’

Oh, God. He was trying.

Siena could see that. He was making her the best offer he could. It was a really sensible offer. For any regular girl, any together girl, it was a lovely offer.

But for this girl it wasn’t enough.

She loved James. She had fallen hard for his gentleness, his tenderness and his kindness and his wish to see the best in a bad situation.

But the problem was, he was the one who had started her thinking that she deserved more in the first place.

‘You asked if I was a huffer as a kid,’ she said, biting her lip so as to stop the completely irrational feeling that she was about to cry. ‘I still am a huffer, James. I’ve lived my own life for so long I am set in my ways. I’m stubborn. I’m a pain in the butt. And, just like Rick has said, I’m a born nomad. So thank you for your really sweet offer. But I’m afraid that it’s only the second best offer I’ve had this weekend.’

She was lying through her teeth. She knew it the minute the words left her mouth. His offer was so tempting it terrified her. She was so interested she could feel a definite wobble beginning in the region of her lower lip, especially when faced with the expression on James’s face. With every word she said his face closed down, all semblance of the smile evaporating until she wondered if she had only ever imagined it.

James was ready to call her bluff, to blurt out that he didn’t believe a word she was saying. The tears brimming in her eyes, the passion with which she had kissed him, even his own heart told him she