Page 58 of The Mountain Man's Mail-Order Mafia Princess

“You matter too.”

“Then tell me whether you’re staying.”

“I can’t give you an answer yet.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

She pressed her lips together.

“Both.”

I waited.

Talia turned toward the bedroom.

The fitted red dress hung from the door, ready for the celebration.

“Ask me again after the Fourth,” she said.

“Why after the Fourth?”

She kept looking at the dress and didn’t answer.

Chapter Five

TALIA

Jonah’s question repeated in my head before I opened my eyes.

Why after the Fourth?

The red dress hung from the bedroom door. My phone lit on the nightstand with a message I’d read before the flight.

DADDY:My driver will collect you at the Promise Ridge Fourth of July celebration. Be there.

Jonah moved around the kitchenette in a charcoal T-shirt and worn jeans, making coffee. He set out two mugs and took eggs from the refrigerator as though this were another morning in the life we’d started building.

My toiletries occupied one corner of his bathroom. My boots stood beside his. A gold bracelet rested near the sink because I’d forgotten to put it back on after washing the dishes. I’d spread through his cabin while withholding facts that might make him want every trace of me gone.

Jonah set a mug in front of me. “You slept badly.”

“So did you.”

“I wasn’t the one checking the time every hour.”

“I checked it twice.”

“You checked it twice while I was awake.”

I wrapped both hands around the mug. “That isn’t enough data for a reliable conclusion.”

His mouth almost curved, but the expression faded.

I could wait until tomorrow. I could let Daddy’s driver arrive at the celebration, then explain everything after Jonah had been pulled into a conflict he hadn’t agreed to enter.

That was how Daddy handled information. He decided what other people needed to know, then called the decision protection.

I set down the mug.