Read Online Every Little Kiss by Kendra Leigh Castle - Free Book Online Page B

off, frowned, and then shook her head. “She had a rough time in school. Especially after Dad died. People can be really awful.”
    “Yeah, I know how people can be.” He wondered what had gone on with her sister, but the look on her face said he shouldn’t ask. As far as he knew, Sam Henry was a talented, respected local artist who was about tomarry one of the town veterinarians. But the old stories and rumors were insider information. He was still just a curious outsider camping among the locals.
    “What about you?” he asked, curious.
    “What about me?” she asked. “I’m the boring one. I already told you that.”
    “No, I mean, why do you stay if it’s so much harder for you here?”
    She seemed surprised at the question. “It’s home,” she said simply.
    “But if you don’t like it . . .”
    “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Emma said, a faint smile curving her lips. “I just know how things work in the Cove. There’s plenty of good to go with the bad, like anywhere else. How can I change the bad things if I leave?”
    He had to appreciate her hardheadedness, even though it meant he’d be dining alone. Again. He’d been joking when he’d called her a force of nature the other night, but the steely glint in her eyes made him wonder if he’d really been that far off the truth. Still, with everything she’d said, and some of what she hadn’t, Seth wondered if the town’s perceptions were the only thing she was fighting.
    She had a father who’d passed away, a mother who was thought of as eccentric, and a sister who’d been absent, from what he understood, up until last year. And yet here was Emma, rock solid and working her ass off to create something that would last. A lot of people would have run. She’d sunk her roots in deeper.
    Hell if it didn’t make her that much more fascinating. Not that off-the-charts stubbornness portended a healthy match, but she was so
different
from the women he was usually interested in. It occurred to him that this newswould thrill his mother, a thought he shut down immediately.
    Overpriced cupcakes and a dinner-date rejection weren’t anything to call home about.
    “So,” Seth said, “the upshot of all this is that I’m probably going to hear a story about you, a tiger, and Mike Tyson at some point in the next few days.”
    Her eyes crinkled a little at the corners. “Probably.”
    “Real life should be so interesting.”
    She shook her head. “No, I’m really just as happy it’s not.”
    He wondered if it was that awful to her, that people might think they’d spent the night together, and decided the answer probably wouldn’t do much for his ego. He also decided that it was time to cut his losses and head out, living to fight another day.
    “Tell you what. If I start hearing any tiger stories, I’ll make sure to set the record straight.”
    That finally earned him a laugh, soft but genuine. “Thanks.”
    “Enjoy the cupcakes. And good luck with the wedding thing. I’ll see you around,” he said.
    “Seth?”
    He turned back to look at her just before he hit the door, already making silent promises to himself to just let this one go, to find some other way to occupy his free time. But the woman he saw, standing all by herself in her shop and looking a little like she’d lost her last friend, turned all his good intentions to dust. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was seeing the real Emma right now, not the image she’d so carefully cultivated and put on every day. If that was true, the real Emma was about as alone as he was.
    It was just a single shared thing, one connection, but right that second, it felt like everything.
    “Yeah?”
    “Thank you. Again.” She held up the cupcake box. “For these, and everything else.”
    He smiled, even as he wondered what he could possibly do to clear his head of her, and decided he might need a longer ride than usual. Like maybe to Alaska. Out loud, though, all he could do was tell