Ready to Run (I Do, I Don't 1)

For a second she wanted nothing more than to turn the car around, drive straight to the airport, and get back to New York. To throw herself into the bustle and general chaos of city life and anything that would help her avoid the pain.

But that wasn’t why she was here—she was tired of avoidance. She wanted acceptance and peace.

And if that was too much ask, then at least closure. When she’d arrived in Lucky Hollow, she’d been ready to take swings at Luke for running away—from his fiancées, from big weddings, from commitment.

But somewhere along the line she’d realized that she was the one who was running. She’d run headlong away from the painful loss of her family, and maybe that was okay. She’d been seventeen. But she was thirty now. And though on paper she didn’t scream flight risk—she’d had the same job and apartment for a couple of years, even a couple of long-term boyfriends along the way—her heart knew that she’d never settled down, not really.

Never allowed herself to get too attached to anyone or anything. She knew too well that you could lose it all in an instant.

Physically, she’d been perfectly stable.

Emotionally, she’d always had one foot out the door.

And wouldn’t you figure, the first time she actually wanted to put her heart on the line, to belong to a small town again, she’d been rejected.

Or not rejected so much as…ignored.

Jordan forced herself out of the car and made it only a few steps before she lowered herself to the ground, ignoring the fact that it was wet, ignoring that the damp air was making her hair frizz, the drizzle causing drops of water to run over her cheeks.

Or maybe that was her tears; she didn’t even know.

Admittedly, she hadn’t answered Luke’s phone calls, but she couldn’t stop hearing his careless dismissal of her, couldn’t stop reliving the moment where she realized her feelings were entirely one-sided.

Jordan might be willing to put her heart out there, but he hadn’t been even close to offering her his. She still wasn’t sure that he’d ever have told her about Eva and Gil, that he’d ever trusted her, not really.

One thing was clear. Luke Elliott wasn’t having forever kind of thoughts with her. Annoyingly, she wasn’t even sure she could blame him for being wary.

He’d been hurt by women he cared about. Three times. She didn’t blame him for not being able to come back from that, but man did she want him to. She wanted to be worth the risk.

Jordan pulled both knees up, wrapped her arms around her legs, and rested her chin as she stared at the space where her home had been.

She let herself remember. The way she and her brother had been impossible to get out of bed every morning, except for Christmas, when they’d been up before the sun.

Remembered the way her mom had carefully curled her hair before her first dance pageant and again, years later, before her first high school dance.

The way her dad had been gruff but kind, surprising Jordan and her brother with a treat whenever he’d gone into the big town on errands.

The wind picked up a little, as did the rain, but Jordan barely noticed. Heck, she was so lost in her own memories that she hardly registered the sound of a vehicle coming down the gravel path, until the slam of a car door had her bolting upright, scrambling to her feet.

Her heart pounded. There was no reason for anyone to come out this way; it was nothing but overgrown land….

It took her eyes a full thirty seconds to register what she was seeing.

Luke Elliott was walking toward her.

She wouldn’t have believed it was him, but everything about him was familiar. The jeans, the boots. He wore the usual T-shirt, although he’d layered them, a long sleeve white one beneath a light-blue short-sleeved shirt she’d seen dozens of times. Heck, she was pretty sure she’d worn that one on a couple of mornings. Even the damn backward cap made her heart flip a little.

The recognition was more than that, though. More than the usual attire and familiar half smile.

Her heart recognized him—her soul knew this man, because somehow he’d wiggled inside her and occupied every corner of her that mattered.

Luke stopped in front of her, hands shoved in his back p

ockets.

“How’d you find me?”

He winced. “How creepy is it if I tell you I saw you in town? Then followed you out here?”