Free With This Kiss by Bella Riley

feeling aloud regardless of whether it helped or hurt her… Sean hadn’t believed there was a woman alive who possessed those qualities.
    Despite how sweet Rebecca seemed, he still didn’t.
    How could he when she still hadn’t come completely clean with him about Stu, and clearly had no plans to do so any time soon?
    Not planning on beating around the bush another second, Sean slid into a seat across the table from Rebecca in the kitchen and said, “I’ve spoken with half a dozen of Stu’s friends. None of them know where he is.”
    She stirred a spoon into her untouched split pea soup. “He obviously doesn’t want to be found.”
    Sean couldn’t argue with that. Still, he had to know. “I was surprised to find out that my phone calls are the first his friends have heard of his disappearance. They told me they knew the wedding was called off, via your e-mails, but nothing more.”
    He watched a whole host of emotions flit across her face. Regret. Frustration. And finally, resignation.
    “I don’t know all of Stu’s reasons for what he did, Sean. But what I do know, I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”
    He jumped on the proof that she did, in fact, know more than she was telling him. His own anger and frustration lit a fire beneath his words as he told her, “If he’s in trouble, I want to help him. I need to help him.”
    He watched her swallow, close her eyes tightly for a moment, the re-open them with a shake of her head. “He made me promise not to tell anyone his reasons.”
    Sean leaned in toward her, all but forcing her to look him in the eye as he said, “He couldn’t have meant me.”
    She never broke his gaze, not even as she whispered, “I’m sorry, Sean. I promised.”
    “I’m his brother.”
    “I know.” Regret hung in every word, in the faint lines around her mouth. “But he told me he needed time,” Rebecca replied, as if it were really that simple. “I’m trying to give it to him.”
    They were sitting in a private back area of the kitchen, by a small window that looked out on the lake. It was a clear, bright day and he could see layers of ice on the surface of the lake starting to melt beneath the sun’s warmth.
    For all the power of winter’s cold and ice, it could hold out for only so long against the growing heat of spring.
    Not at all satisfied with her response—with any of them, no matter how genuinely upset she’d seemed as he’d poked and prodded at her to try and get her to break his brother’s confidence—he said, “Why did you come here, Rebecca?”
    Sean told himself he wanted to know the answer to this question simply because he was on a fact-finding mission on behalf of his brother.
    She didn’t answer for a moment. Finally, she said, “I was ready for a change.”
    There was nothing quite like hearing his words come back at him—and knowing them for the bull that they were. The previous night, she’d asked him why he’d sold his business and that was all he’d given her.
    But now he understood, all too clearly, that if he was going to get any more out of her, he was going to have to give a little himself.
    “Fair is fair,” he said softly. “How about I answer you first? After fifteen years of launching new businesses for other people, I started to feel like I’d learned everything there was to know about venture capital. I woke up one morning and knew I was ready for a new challenge. I wanted my own business. That’s why I bought the inn with Stu a couple of years ago. Because I knew it wouldn’t be long before I’d be here learning the business, top to bottom.”
    And maybe, he’d started to think, he’d bought the inn because he wanted a reason to come back home one day.
    “It’s going to be your turn to answer my question soon,” he said, but he didn’t like that she hadn’t so much as had a sip of soup or a bite of bread yet. “I want you to eat something first, though.”
    Her eyes narrowed as if she was getting ready for a fight.