Free With This Kiss by Bella Riley Page B

had.
    Finally, she said, “You asked me at the beginning of lunch why I came to Emerald Lake and I don’t want you to think I make it a habit of not answering direct questions.”
    To say that he was shocked to hear her actually admit to him that she wasn’t answering his questions about Stu was a major understatement.
    He was floored.
    Her eyes continued to hold his as she said, “The quick and dirty answer is that I needed a fresh start.”
    “There are a lot of places you could have started over, rather than at an inn in the middle of the Adirondacks.”
    “Sometimes it’s good to go where no one knows anything about you.”
    “You knew Stu,” he reminded her.
    “He’d told me about Emerald Lake for years and promised me if I ever came to visit that I wouldn’t want to leave. Maybe that’s what took me so long to finally come here. Maybe I was afraid to fall in love with some place that I couldn’t easily pick up and run from.”
    Jesus, there she went again, saying things that most people wouldn’t dare say out loud. Heck, most people wouldn’t even admit something like that to themselves.
    There were so many questions he still wanted to ask. But he knew better, knew that learning more about Rebecca would only draw him in deeper to the subtle web she clearly knew how to weave around people.
    Yes, she was certainly good. He’d give her that. But no matter how genuine she seemed, how open and honest, Sean wouldn’t make the mistake of letting her weave a spell around him.
    “Alice will be leaving soon. I should probably check on the front desk, make sure nothing has come up that she needs me to deal with before she leaves. I’m sure you have other things to take care of this afternoon.”
    He got the picture. She wanted to get rid of him for a little while. And the truth was, he needed a break from her smile, from her fresh, sweet scent, from the way soft, silky pieces of hair had escaped her ponytail and were brushing against her chin.
    Despite needing to remain on guard with her, he couldn’t deny that she was very good at her job.
    “Thank you, Rebecca. You’ve taught me a lot today.”
    Instead of accepting his compliment, she frowned. “Something tells me you already knew how to clean a toilet.” She bit her lip. “The truth is, I might have been a little bit upset with you earlier today. I shouldn’t have wasted so much of your time with cleaning the rooms.”
    “I appreciate you telling me that, but you didn’t waste a single second of my time. I need to learn this inn from the ground up and that’s what you were showing me. Most people wouldn’t have the guts to hand me rubber gloves and a scrubber.”
    She cleared their plates from the table and put them in the commercial dishwasher. “Let me know if you need anything else today. Otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    He was looking forward to it far more than he should.
    Fortunately, the one person guaranteed to help remind him to stay far, far away from the temptation that Rebeccapresented was likely waiting for his report on Stu’s whereabouts.
    No doubt, dealing with his mother would be a fitting punishment for those few moments when he’d foolishly let himself enjoy being with Rebecca.

Chapter Seven
     
    R ebecca had been too close to Sean for too many hours. There shouldn’t have been anything exciting about bumping into each other as they made beds and vacuumed floors, but evidently even doing completely mundane tasks with him got her heart moving too fast.
    She still couldn’t believe how good he’d been about doing whatever she had tasked him with. He hadn’t once acted too important for bathrooms or dusting. Even Stu had always complained about doing the cleaning on days when they were short staffed. But Sean had simply gotten to work and done a heck of a job. Maybe even a better job than she’d done, given how distracted she’d been by his nearness.
    Okay, so she felt like a big coward for running, but how could