Free A Longtime (and at one point Illegal) Crush by Janette Rallison

away.
    He let out a disapproving grunt. “See,” he said as though she’d proved his point. “You can’t even look me in the eyes.”
    Well, what did he expect w hen he looked at her like that? It was worse than staring at chocolate when you’d been starving for years.
    He pulled her closer so he could speak into her ear. “ Elsie, you’ve got to stop this. Your parents live here. Your brother wants me to be his children’s godfather. He’s considering taking a job as foreman for my ranch. Are you going to avoid your family just so you can keep avoiding me?”
    “What I do with my family isn’t any of your concern. ”
    He made another grunting sound. “I can’t believe you’re still acting this way. You know, I don’t think my cows surrounded your car on accident. I think they staged an intervention.”
    He smelled so good. He wore the same aftershave he’d used when she’d been in high school. It made her feel like she was walking back through time. All the old familiar feelings of longing were stirring around inside her, promises of a summer that never happened. It was dangerous dancing with him this way. She gazed around the room to clear her mind. “Shouldn’t you be dancing with Lisa? Where is your girlfriend anyway?”
    “Lisa is just a friend, and she ended up not coming. ”
    “Then where were you last night and all today?”
    He looked at her in surprise, as though she should already know. “I drove to Billings to find Olivia’s dad and bring him here.”
    “You did?” Elsie not only met his eyes, she held his gaze. How sweet. How thoughtful. It made the ache inside her all that much worse. Kye was wonderful and he had never been and never would be interested in her.
    Kye’s hand tightened on her hip possessively. “You would have seen me come in with Olivia’s dad if you hadn’t been hiding in the bride’s room.”
    “I wasn’t hiding.” Okay, she sort of was, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “I was seeing if Olivia needed anything.”
    Kye pulled Elsie closer to avoid another couple. “Which brings us back to the topic at hand. We were talking about your inability to let go of the past.”
    “No we weren’t. ” She looked over his shoulder at Carson and Olivia dancing, at all the couples clinging to each other. “You were lecturing me, and I was ignoring you. I’m not your student anymore. I don’t have to listen to you.”
    Kye sighed , then stopped dancing. She had no idea what he meant by it, or what she was supposed to do now. He wasn’t watching her any more, though. He was gazing at the door. Still holding Elsie’s hand, he led her across the dance floor, weaving around other people.
    “Where are you taking me?” she asked.
    “We’re going to fix this once and for all.” He kept heading toward the door.
    She could have pulled her hand away. Part of her wanted to. It was arrogant of him to assume that she would just walk out of the room with him. But another part of her was curious. How exactly did he think he could fix this?
    Kye took her down the hallway that led to the pastor’s office. It was dark there, but Kye didn’t flip on a light switch. He didn’t stop until they’d nearly reached the pastor’s door, until the two of them were swallowed up in the shadows of the hallway. People coming and going from the reception wouldn’t be able to see them down here. Elsie’s heart began to beat faster, although what she expected to happen, she couldn’t say.
    Kye still kept hold of her hand. In fact , he took hold of her other hand too. His eyes looked darker here in the shadows, coal-black almost. “Back when you were eighteen,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone, “you were feeling overly-emotional about me rescuing you, and you did something you regretted. You kissed me.”
    Elsie shifted away from him. “Yeah, I remember. I was there.”
    “Don’t interrupt,” he said. “Apparently you’ve been so embarrassed by my reaction to that kiss, you