It wasn’t like Josh Turner wanted to instantly stoke the fire they’d shared from so long ago. He would settle for a slow burn ending in a wild inferno.
Yet one thing was for sure. After running into Hailee at the kitchen store, he was entirely head over heels for her. She was still the Hailee he remembered, but with far more intensity and…
Rage?
Whatever it was, he couldn’t get over the emotions stirring inside him since he’d come face-to-face with her.
Granted, things hadn’t panned out quite like he’d hoped, but he wasn’t giving up.
Far from it.
“What did you expect?” Dakota asked, sitting across from her brother in their parents’ kitchen. “For her to jump in your arms after she found out you tricked her?”
Josh rolled his eyes. “I didn’t trick her.”
His mother raised her brow and laughed. “Well, then I’d like to hear what you’d call it, Joshua.”
He couldn’t believe how at almost forty, his parents could make him feel so small, especially his mother.
“Do you remember the heartache she caused your only son?” he teased, taking another bite of ham.
“Vaguely. God, it was so long ago. What was it, eighteen years ago?” His mother put more potatoes on her plate and looked at his sister, Dakota. “Are you buying it?”
“What, in particular?” Dakota asked, grinning.
“That he’s an innocent in all this.”
“Oh, God. No.” Dakota laughed. “Josh is never an innocent. But I do buy that he’s got the hots for her.”
Josh ignored his sister and mother and turned his attention toward his father. Surely, he’d understand where Josh was coming from.
“Now that she’s back in my territory—” Josh began.
“Son, you sound like a dog in heat.”
“Females are in heat.” Josh stared at his father. “Males are—”
“Precisely my point,” his father interrupted while his mom and sister laughed.
He suddenly remembered why he spent so much time in New York. The conversation wasn’t going to take on any real substance if they had their way.
“I think all you can do is say you’re sorry and move on, Josh. Really.” Dakota wiped her mouth and put the napkin on the table before scooting her chair out. “I think that’s the safest thing for all parties involved. She messed with your heart once. Why let her do it again?”
Josh looked at his parents, who both seemed to be waiting for his response.
“I still have feelings for her.” Josh shrugged, trying to play it off.
“You have feelings for who she was.” His father looked sympathetic. “But you don’t have any clue who she’s become.”
“True.” He had no desire to continue this conversation.
His parents looked satisfied and finished their meal, leaving the dishes for his sister and Josh to take care of, just like old times.
“Seriously, Dakota? You think I should just leave her alone?” he whispered, making sure his parents were out of earshot.
“Well, what’s your plan? Show up everywhere she is and annoy her into submission?” Dakota asked, collecting all the dirty plates and silverware.
“It’s not an entirely bad idea,” he joked. “But honestly, if nothing else, I want her to know I’m sorry for what I did.”
“What about what she did to you and to me?” she asked.
“She apologized.” Josh knew right where this conversation was headed because he wondered the same thing.
Why was he letting Hailee off the hook? She said sorry, and he still had no real, solid answers as to why she did what she did.
“I love you, Josh, and I know you. Just because you left for New York and pretended to create a glitzy lifestyle—”
“It’s not pretend,” he interrupted, teasing her.
“I still know that you’re a romantic at heart, and I don’t want you to get hurt again. I wasn’t kidding about that. She vanished into thin air once. There isn’t a reason in the world she won’t do it again.” She turned on the water and began rinsing the plates but continued. “It sounds to me that she made her intentions pretty clear about where you stand.”
“She could have been a lot more hostile at the store than she was.” He smiled and held his head. “Yeah. I see where you’re going with this.”
“If you prove me wrong, that’s great. But you’re my brother, and I know what this woman is capable of.” She itched her nose with the back of her hand. “Remember, she was once my best friend.”
“Hailee mentioned you invited her out to your studio.”
His sister nodded. “I did, and she’s more than welcome to come, but I’m certainly not promising anything more than a quick tour. I’m apparently less forgiving than you.”
“Except that you didn’t pay her seven figures to find out why she dumped you and fled the state.”
“Don’t forget about the name change.”
Josh stared at his sister and nodded. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“It’s what I do.” Dakota smiled and let out a sigh, studying him. “You’re still going to pursue her, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know. I’m not good at hearing no, and Hailee is quite good at saying it.” He shrugged and helped put away the leftovers. “Anyway, how is your love life going?”
“Ew.” She smacked him with her dish towel. “Like I’d tell you.”
“What? We’re adults. I can handle hearing you’ve gone on a date.”
“Well, I haven’t, so that makes it extra easy.” She grinned.
He glanced at the clock. He might not be in New York, but he had an extra-early morning coming up, and he needed to get home to sleep. Thankfully, home in Silver Ridge was never very far.
Josh said goodnight to his sister and thanked his parents for the meal before taking off. It was difficult for him not to turn down the street that Hailee lived on. He didn’t know what he’d say if he showed up at her door, but he was pretty sure he was walking a thin line between running into her and stalking her, so he went home where he could miserably wonder what his next move should be.
Suzanne hadn’t mentioned receiving any other chapters, and he was confident she would have had she received them. Josh walked into his home, flipped on some lights, and immediately turned on the television to see several women arguing over which one of them had slept with the other’s man. What saddened him more than anything was that this was reality television, not a scripted show, and the books he published were starting to teeter on salacious, if not downright scandalous topics that these reality shows depicted.
But those stories were what sold, and he had a company to run and employees to support. He collapsed on the couch, and his mind immediately returned to Hailee. The mere thought of her made his heart thump in his chest as if he were jumping off a cliff without a parachute.
And maybe he was. He didn’t even know any longer why he cared so much. It wasn’t about ego. Josh could care less about that.
So what? A girl dumped him eighteen years ago. It was that he’d given his heart entirely to this girl, and he never got it back. The damage had been done. She broke him, and he never figured out a way to repair himself.
Sure, gorgeous, witty, and smart women had come and gone in his life, but none of them ever compared to how he felt for Hailee. He’d tried to pretend at first, but he soon realized that the woman he was dating could always tell, and his goal wasn’t to cause more heartache in the world, so he always kept things casual.
And that’s why he knew Hailee was different. There was absolutely nothing casual about her. He let out a groan and adjusted a pillow behind his head.
What he needed to do more than anything was see her one more time and prove to himself that she wasn’t worth the risk.
Yet that was precisely the problem. She knew he’d let his heart get broken a hundred more times if it meant getting to spend one more night with Hailee Howard.