My Life as a Holiday Album (My Life as an Album #5) - L.J. Evans Page 0,95
keep from tossing the machine aside and kissing the hell out of her. She didn’t respond, and I kept going.
“I’ll do the floors, and you can do one thing for me.”
“One thing?”
“You give me that kiss I dared you to give me.”
I thought maybe she’d stopped breathing, but then it whooshed out of her with that heavenly maple scent I’d experienced the day before.
“How about I buy you the meal you came downtown for?” she offered.
I was already shaking my head before she finished the words. “No, I can more than afford my own dinner, but I’m not sure I can afford to leave Tennessee without knowing what those sweet lips feel like against mine.”
The blush coated her cheeks again.
She backed away from me. “I think maybe I need to do the floors myself. I’d already planned on doing them. I didn’t ask you to take over.”
It was a fast ramble of words. I’d made her nervous and instantly regretted it.
“You’re right. You didn’t. Let’s just say I’ll do it in hopes that I’ll get to experience those lips before I leave Tennessee.”
I turned the machine back on and got to work.
While I was doing the floors, Ginny got a ladder and started stringing lights. As I took over more of the floor, she was limited to a smaller and smaller space. Eventually, she had to give up. She sat cross-legged with her back against the door and her phone out. She was reading. I could tell from the way her eyes sped along and the way her thumb flicked the screen.
As I finished the last section, it brought me right to her feet.
She got up, opened the door, and stepped outside, shoving her hands into her coat as she went. I finished, yanked the cord from the wall, and pulled the polisher out onto the landing. Then, I ducked back in and pulled on my new coat that was still wet from the sleet that had fallen as I’d walked to town.
“Thank you,” she said.
I nodded. “Glad I could help.”
“I’d still like to buy you dinner. As a thank you.”
If it kept her near me for a little while longer, it was worth the knock to my pride to let her pay for my meal. “I think I’d like that.”
She smiled her real smile again. I was damn proud of myself for knowing the difference after only two days in her presence.
I carried the machine down, she popped the trunk, and we angled it inside. Once she closed the door, she headed toward the back door of the bar, but I halted her with my words.
“Can we go somewhere else? I’m not sure I can handle the noise or sleazy-eyed Phil.”
It was the truth on both counts because the noise of the machine for a couple hours had been enough. I’d been surrounded by noise all day. People. Machines. Crowds. I was ready for some peace.
She came back to the car. “It’s eleven. It’s either this or the Dairy Queen.”
“I don’t have a problem with the Dairy Queen.”
“But they don’t have any seats indoors.”
“We can take it back to the hotel.”
She flushed again, and I realized her thoughts had traveled all the way to my room. I wanted to take her there, but I wasn’t going to do the whole one-night stand thing with a woman I’d have to see again—probably many times—if Mayson and Grace stayed together.
“I don’t mean it like that,” I said. “We can eat in the lobby. If you want to come up to the room, you can eat on Grace’s bed, and I can eat on mine, and I won’t even blame you for the crumbs when she asks.”
She hesitated, and her car keys swung around her finger like she’d done with her cousin’s the day before.
“Or you can just drop me off and head on your way, and I’ll see if the hotel still has room service available.”
I was leaving it up to her. I knew I didn’t want the time with her to end. I knew I wanted to know more about this Ginny who was as witch-like as her namesake. She’d wrapped herself into me and was calling to me in words I hadn’t yet deciphered, but I wasn’t going to push. That wasn’t me. Would never be me.
“Okay,” she finally responded. “Dairy Queen it is.”
I didn’t know if that meant she was coming in with me, but I’d take it.
We climbed into her little car, ordered at the drive-thru, and