She started to type, but the soft thump of footsteps behind her interrupted her thoughts. Quickly she clicked on the logout link.
"Sugar?"
She turned to face Jack, who looked tousled and sexy and way too good for the middle of the night.
Her heart sped up at the sight.
"What’re you doin’ up? You okay?"
She stood to face him. "I’m sorry if I woke you."
"You didn’t. I just rolled over and you weren’t there. Brought back memories of that morning after till I remembered I was at your place. Pretty hard for you to run out on me."
Holly smiled and pushed back a lock of dark hair that had fallen over his eye.
It hit her again, like an arrow between her eyes. She was in love with this young cowboy and it was time to let him go.
She’d do that in the morning. For the rest of the night, she could lie in his arms and make love to him. For just a few more hours, she could play Pollyanna like Megan and pretend everything would work out.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to end it.
Chapter Eight
"What?"
The forkful of scrambled eggs on its way to Holly’s mouth dropped back onto her plate.
Jack smiled at her from across the kitchen table. "I said I want you to spend the weekend with me."
"You’re kidding."
"Nope. I want to see more of you and I want you to meet Sam."
"I don’t think I’m ready to—"
"No excuses, Holly. Don’t tell me you didn’t feel something special last night. We made love four times. Four, sugar. I’m twenty-nine, not seventeen. I haven’t been able to make love four times in a row for nearly a decade."
"Maybe you just haven’t had any in a while?" Holly’s voice hedged.
"You’re right about that. Not since that night with you."
Her fork crashed onto her plate next to the discarded serving of eggs. He hadn’t had sex since her? Well, she hadn’t either, but he was a guy—an incredibly sexy and desirable guy. Surely women fell all over him, especially with all that nude modeling.
How was she supposed to end this? To love him enough to let him go, like Charlene said, seemed impossible.
"Look, Jack—"
"Sorry—" He stood and placed his empty plate in her sink. "—not taking no for an answer this time. We have something special here, Holly. I want to get to know you and I want you to get to know me and my son." He hesitated for a moment and a troubled line creased his forehead. "You do like kids, don’t you?" he said, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
"Yes, of course I like kids, but—"
He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. "Good. I’ll pick you up at your office tomorrow at five. Have your bag packed."
"Jack, really—"
"Gotta run, sugar." He thumbed her cheek and kissed her again. "I’m pickin’ up Sam this morning at my mom’s, then I have some stuff to do around the ranch today. I’ll see you tomorrow evening."
In a flash, he was gone, leaving Holly with her mouth hanging open.