Page 37 of The Payback Adventure
She clung to Henry’s wide shoulders. She didn’t want tolet go. She didn’t want this kiss to end. Not ever.
One little kiss wasn’t so little.
Henry’s kiss washed away her loneliness. She felt a sense of security that had been missing for way too long. She was no longer a big sister, a farmer, a server, a stand-in mom. She was simply Elisabeth. A woman. And she liked the feeling a lot.
He pulled her closer, and she went willingly. The years of wishing things could be different but knowing they couldn’t faded. At this one moment, her life could be different. She could be different. She could believe in a happily-ever-after ending. She could believe in happiness again. She could believe in almost anything.
Henry backed away. His eyes were wide, his breathing as labored as her own. “I’m sorry, Elisabeth.”
She was sorry, too. Sorry his kiss had to end. She touched her throbbing, swollen lips, wishing Henry’s lips were against them, not her fingertip. She glanced up at him. “You’re apologizing?”
“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
No, he probably shouldn’t have. But he had, and she liked it. A lot. He was ruining it by apologizing. “I didn’t stop you.”
“No, but that doesn’t make it right.”
But it felt right. So very right.
Henry glanced around the kitchen. “I work for you. I shouldn’t take advantage—”
“Would you stop it?” She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him until she couldn’t breathe. Until she couldn’t take it anymore. Elisabeth tore her mouth away. “There.”
He blinked. “Where?”
“You can stop apologizing. Now we’re even.”
But as she said the words, she knew that wasn’t true. Henry might not be the player she imagined he was, but he sure could kiss. Suddenly, the farm wasn’t her only concern. She had a much bigger one—her heart.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Saturday morning, Henry stood on a street corner in downtown Berry Patch with the three Wheeler kids in tow, wishing he were anywhere but there. Portland, Prague, Paris. Paramus would be an improvement. But no, he was on a guided tour of a small town with an eleven-year-old who didn’t want to be there either, an eight-year-old who knew too much about everything, and a four-year-old who had to go to the bathroom in every building they passed.
It served Henry right for kissing their sister.
All he’d wanted was a taste of Elisabeth, one kiss to kill his growing curiosity, not fuel his fantasies and make him want another and another.
Henry blew out a puff of air.
He waited for one of the two traffic signals in town to turn green and fought the urge to hit the crosswalk buttonagain. Once he crossed Main Street, his tour would be over. He was tempted to run, not walk, across the street and straight out of town. That would be the only way to make the adageout of sight, out of mindcome true. He had to get the constant thoughts of Elisabeth out of his head, or he would go crazy.
The light changed to green, and theWalksymbol illuminated. Caitlin slipped her small hand into his and glanced up at him. “I’m not supposed to cross the street without holding hands.”
Abby grabbed his other hand. “Me either.”
Sam sneered. “I’m too old to hold hands.”
“You’re never too old to hold hands,” Henry said, wishing that was all he’d done with Elisabeth last night. He thought the farm work would kill him. He’d been wrong. Elisabeth was the one who would do him in.
Her and her kisses.
What was happening to him?
His reaction made zero sense. He’d kissed women before. More than he wanted to remember. But none had ever had a rock-his-world effect. He didn’t like that she had, and he wanted it to stop.
“That covers downtown Berry Patch,” Abby said with tour-guide hospitality after they crossed the street and stopped in front of the bistro. “Of course, the zip code covers approximately thirty miles of acreage surrounding the town, but it’s mainly farms and vineyards.”
“Where’s Elisabeth?” Caitlin asked.
