The same damn woman who’d deceived him and swept him away for a romantic getaway for five days?
Anger slid right on in with all of his other jumbled emotions. Luke sent a text to his brother and Ava that he had to leave and he would get with them later. He assured them nothing was wrong just because he didn’t want them to worry, but everything seemed to be wrong right now.
He had no idea where Kelly was or what she was thinking. Her email had been so vague, other than the part where she quit on him without notice or logical reasons.
Luke tried calling her over and over and no answer. She was ignoring him, and he wanted to know why. Whatever she had overheard had made her jump to co
nclusions and he needed to fix whatever the hell was going on.
He went to his house, hoping to catch her if she went there to retrieve her things. Who knows how long she’d been gone from the party before he realized it?
The moment he pulled into his drive, he saw her car and a heady sense of relief spread through him. At least he knew where she was, now he needed to know what the hell had happened this evening.
He barely had the engine off before he was out of the car and rushing up the stairs to the front door. He couldn’t let her leave without finding out where her head was and who had hurt her.
And then he was going to have to tell her how he truly felt.
Twenty
Kelly heard the front door open and close, and she cursed herself for coming back here to retrieve her things. She should’ve just gone home and worried about her clothes and toiletries later.
A lump rose in her throat as the events of the night assailed her once again She had been a fool to believe they could have been more. For five years she’d slowly fallen for Luke, calling herself naive every step of the way for allowing thoughts of a relationship with her boss to creep in. She was not only foolish and naive, she was stupid and gullible.
And now she had to move on.
“What are you doing?”
Kelly cringed as she tossed her leggings into the suitcase on the bed. She pulled in a deep breath, willed herself not to cry until she was home alone and turned to face Luke.
“I’m packing,” she replied simply. “Did you get my email?”
“Of course I got your email, that’s why I’m here.” He took a step farther into the room, then another, but he didn’t come too close. “What happened at the party to make you want to resign? Did someone say something to you? Why wouldn’t you bring the issue to me instead of just disappearing?”
Kelly laughed bitterly. “The issue is you,” she stressed. “I’m just your assistant, Luke. That’s all I’ll ever be and what we shared wasn’t a big deal, right?”
Her heart started beating even faster when he took another step toward her. “What are you talking about?”
Swallowing her emotions, Kelly crossed her arms over her chest. “I heard you in the hallway talking to your brother. I was coming out of the office from checking on Gracie because she didn’t feel well, but I heard you tell him that I was your assistant, that’s what I’d always be and he didn’t need to worry about what we had going on because it wasn’t a big deal.”
When he started to take a step forward, she held up her hand. “No,” she commanded. “Don’t touch me and don’t come near me. I shouldn’t have let myself get so caught up in my own thoughts and fantasies.”
“Kelly—”
“Stop.”
She shook her head and went back to the closet to get a few more things. She really wished she would’ve taken this dress off when she’d gotten back, but she’d been in a hurry to grab her things and leave.
“I just want to get out while I can and save myself any further embarrassment,” she went on, grabbing clothes and giving them a toss into the suitcase. “I’m not upset with you, I’m angry at myself. You never promised me anything and you never acted like you wanted more than what we had. I should’ve made my feelings known so everything was out there between us, but I thought—”
“Kelly,” he bellowed to get her attention.
She jerked back and cringed. He was smiling at her. Smiling. How dare he smile when she was clearly torn in two and she just wanted to get out of here with some sort of dignity intact.
“What you overheard was just for my brother’s sake,” he stated. “Zeke kept grilling me on what was going on and I kept telling him it was nothing and you were just my assistant. I didn’t want to tell him that I was developing feelings for you, because I wanted to tell you first.”
Kelly stilled, her heart in her throat as she tried to process his words. “What?”
Luke slowly closed the gap between them as he continued to hold her gaze and widen that smile.