Wild With You (Independence Falls 4)

Then she’d said please, and he wanted to be the one to grant her every wish, to hell with consequences. But he’d already played that card, letting desire win, and look where it landed him.

“I’ll think about it,” he said, even though he couldn’t shake the feeling that another night with Kat wasn’t the right move. “But first let’s get you settled.”

Then he needed to haul ass back home, shower, shave, and dress for Eric Moore’s wedding to Georgia Trulane.

He parked by the front entrance, stepped down from the truck and went around to get her bag. Kat took the handle but didn’t move to the hotel entrance. Staring straight ahead, her lips sank into a frown.

“I know it’s not the Ritz,” he said. “But the Falls Hotel is the only option in town.”

Unless he offered her the studio apartment over his barn. His brothers, and sometimes his little sister, used it as a place to take their dates. He’d done the same once or twice when he didn’t feel like subjecting a girlfriend to his family. But now Chad spent most of his time at Lena’s apartment, Katie had moved in with Liam, and Josh, well up until last night he’d been off the market. But the thought of having Kat so close, teasing him at every turn—­that thought tied him in knots.

“The hotel is clean and comfortable,” he said. “But I doubt it has changed much since you lived here. Same 1980s interior. Not that you had any reason to come here as a kid.”

“I don’t need fancy.” Kat tightened her grip on her suitcase handle, but she didn’t step forward. “And I’ve been inside before.”

“Prom?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t go to prom. When I was seven, my social worker took me to an adoption event held in the hotel lobby. Prospective families from the area who might be willing to adopt an older child.”

Her voice trembled as if she’d left her bold, self-­assured tone in his truck. One look at her stricken expression and he felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. The seductive woman, the one who’d faced him head-­on when revealing her true reasons for traveling to Oregon, had vanished. In her place stood a person who looked as if she’d been delivered to the doorstep of a nightmare.

“Didn’t go well, huh?” he said, trying to picture her as a grade-­school child. He barely remembered her from high school, and his mind couldn’t make the jump.

“I brought my science fair project,” she said. “You remember those trifold boards?”

“Yeah. My dad took us to the hardware store to pick them up around science fair time each year,” he said, unsure how the poster related to the fact that her feet were glued to the white line dividing his parking space from the empty one beside his truck.

“My second grade teacher made sure I had one that year. My project was about the solar system. For a while I thought I wanted to be an astronaut. I presented it to every family. I wanted to show them I was smart. But . . .”

She shrugged, forcing a smile. “No one called about me. I guess they didn’t like my hypothesis. Funny thing is, I can’t even remember what I was trying to prove.”

“You don’t have to laugh it off,” he said.

“It was a long time ago. I can see the humor now.”

And he could still see the heartache.

Brody fought the urge to wrap her in his arms and hold her tight. One glance at Kat told him a porcupine would be more receptive to a hug right now. But damn it, he wanted to offer her something. He understood childhood sorrow and despair. When his mother left, he’d wondered why she hadn’t wanted him and his siblings. But he had chalked it up to something being wrong with his mom, and he’d focused on the ­people who wanted him. His brothers. His sister. His father. He’d never had to prove he was worthy of a family. Not to them.

At seven years old, Kat had walked into that hotel alone and believing no one wanted her, and she’d left with confirmation. Maybe he couldn’t hug her, but he had to do something.

“We have a studio apartment over the barn,” he said. “You can’t walk to town, but you’d be close to Josh.”

“Thank you, but I’ll be fine at the hotel,” she said, stepping off the white line. “I’d forgotten all about that day until we pulled into the lot.”

Yeah, that was a big fat lie.

“Kat, do you have plans tonight?”

He couldn’t stand the thought of her alone in that hotel surrounded by the memory of her seven-­year-­old self determined to prove her worth and then coming up empty.

Kat glanced over her shoulder, pausing in the space marked for a car. “I was planning to catch up on work. And update Dr. Westbury on my first meeting with Josh.”

“Give Dr. Westbury another day to recover from surgery,” he said. “It’s your first night back. And Eric Moore is getting married up at Willamette Valley Vineyards. He’s younger than us, but you might remember him. Georgia, Eric’s bride, reserved a spot for Josh, but he’s been clear he doesn’t want to go. You might see some familiar faces.”

“You’re inviting me to a wedding?” Her green eyes widened. “That’s your idea of having some fun together?”

No, he was still on the fence about more “fun.” But she could label it whatever she wanted as long as she said yes. “For tonight, yeah it is.”