Free The McCullagh Inn in Maine by Jen McLaughlin

joyriding kids didn’t pan out, and they still don’t know who shot at us. Did they give you any new details? Something that sparked these hypothetical thoughts you’re having?”
    She stiffened at that last part. “Nope. I told them that I moved here to fix up the inn, and that my place got shot up.” She swiped the brush across the mantel harder. “That’s all I know, so that’s all I told them. End of story.”
    Jeremy gritted his teeth. Enough was enough already. Obviously, she trusted him enough to put him in charge of the inn. Now she needed to trust him with her secrets, too. “Really, Chels? After all this time, you still won’t let me in, not even a little?”
    “I don’t know why you keep asking me about this. You were there! You saw everything I did. Maybe even more.” She turned around, her cheeks slightly red and her lips parted. “You’re turning out to be a lousy worker, more interested in gossip than actually helping. Are you going to nail those strips of molding to the wall, or are you hoping they magically attach themselves?”
    He threw the wood down and held his hands out at his sides. “I don’t know. You seem to believe in the impossible, as if I wouldn’t remember that your voice goes up when you lie, so maybe you believe in magic, too. Or, better yet, maybe you could, I don’t know, tell me the truth . Why do you need a caretaker for the inn? You running away again?”
    For a second, just a brief fucking second, she opened her mouth, and he thought she was going to finally talk. But then she closed it, shrugged, and shot down his hopes with a single word. “Whatever.”
    When she turned back to the mantel, ignoring him again, something inside him snapped. He stalked across the room, rage consuming him, and spun her around by the shoulder. “Damn it! Stop ignoring me. I’m trying to save your ass, and you won’t let me.”
    Her nostrils flared. “No one asked you to ride back into my life on some quest to save me. I don’t need you, or any other man, trying to be my knight in shining armor. I can defeat my own dragons, thank you very much.”
    Suddenly she looked more alive than she had in days. So that was the way to get her talking. Piss her off. Luckily, he was good at that. He gestured to the formerly shot-up wall and said, “Looks like you suck at it.”
    Her cheeks flushed, and she pointed an angry finger at him. “Screw you. You think you can just come in here and the world will arrange itself to your will, that everything will be sunshine and rainbows just because you say so. Guess what? It doesn’t matter if you’re a good person or if you try to do the right thing, because evil will triumph over goodness every time. And I hate…I hate.…” A frustrated sound escaped her, and she stomped her foot, just like she used to do when they were younger. Just like she had ten years ago, when she told him she loved him and that he was a fool for agreeing to marry someone else. “I hate you .”
    He did the same thing he had done all those years ago, when she said those same three words to him. Growling, he wrapped his arms around her, hauling her against his chest, burying his fingers in her hair and splaying the other hand across her back.
    “Yeah, well, I love you. So tough shit.” The second he said it, he knew he had made a huge mistake. Chelsea and feelings didn’t mix, and he was going to scare her off before he had a chance to save her life. Her eyes widened and her lips parted, and he did the one thing guaranteed to shut her up.
    He kissed her.

Chapter 19
    I strained against him, trying to get closer, knowing I should be pushing him away. He loved me, and I was only going to break his heart. When this whole thing was over and the dust had settled, he would be left alone, sad, missing me—and I didn’t want that for him. He deserved more than memories. I broke the kiss off, trembling, every inch of my body begging for more. “Are you sure?”
    He grabbed my