Read Online Naughty in November (Spring River Valley Book 11) by Clarice Wynter - Free Book Online Page B

pretended I was okay with that.”
    She nodded slowly. “Even if I did want something…complicated, it’s way too soon to tell if this could be it.”
    “I know. That’s my bad. I should get over that. Problem is, by the time we figure it out, it might be too late for one of us.”
    Now her eyes clouded. Her beautiful, melodic voice choked up. “Well, it’s not too late to cut our losses. That may be the best thing to do to avoid either of us getting seriously hurt in the long run.”
    Taylor dropped his gaze. That was exactly what he’d hoped she wouldn’t say, but she was right. There was no point in torturing each other. “Is that what you want?”
    “I don’t know what I want. I just know what I don’t want. I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want anything complicated. I’m not ready for it.”
    “I guess standing on a street corner in the snow trying to decide what’s complicated is already too complicated,” he said.
    “Damn straight.”
    He nodded and stepped back, dropping his hands. “And walking away is simple.”
    “Very.”
    “So this is done?”
    “I guess so.”
    “Okay.”
    Taylor turned and headed back toward the music store. It was all so civilized, so easy. So how come walking away from Dani felt like the hardest thing he’d ever done?
     
    * * * *
     
    “I should just call him. I don’t know why I can’t,” Dani complained to Brenda as they made their way through the revolving door leading into EBD’s expansive, glass-enclosed lobby. They’d decided to skip the cafeteria and do lunch at the local diner on Monday afternoon to take advantage of what would probably be one of the last unseasonably warm days of late autumn.
    Ahead of her in one wedge of the slowly revolving door, Brenda shrugged. “The more I think about it, the more I think maybe you did the right thing.”
    “What? You’re the hopeless romantic here. How can you say that after you just spent the last hour trying to convince me he I should give it another chance?” Besides Brenda’s uncharacteristic change of heart, it just sounded so wrong to suggest she shouldn’t be with Taylor when she’d thought about him nonstop for the past forty-eight hours.
    Once through the door, Brenda rounded on her. “And you just spent the last hour telling me that he’s looking for the happy homemaker which you’re convinced you’re never going to be. So maybe you should stop torturing yourself and let it go before you go completely bonkers.”             
    Dani studied Brenda’s pretty blue-green eyes, looking for a hint of deception there, but she saw none. Her friend wasn’t trying to use rever se psychology on her. Had she actually won the argument and convinced Brenda that she and Taylor would never work out? “You’re serious?”
    “Yes, I’m serious. Anyone who spends this much time thinking up reasons why something won’t work has already decided it’s not going to work. Why keep trying?”
    Digesting Brenda’s words, Dani slowed her pace through the lobby. It made sense. She’d always been the type of person who believed in plunging ahead and letting the chips fall where they may. So why was she so certain now that the chips could never land in the right spot for her and Taylor?
    She joined Brenda in front of the elevator just as the door slid open. A pretty blonde rushed out, nearly colliding with Dani in her haste.
    “Cassie?” Dani recognized the woman who provided home-baked snacks for the company’s break room, though today she was dressed in a smart business suit rather than her usual “uniform” of jeans and a pink apron bearing the name of her dessert catering business.
    “Hi , Dani, Brenda. How are you? Sorry I almost plowed you over. My mind is six steps ahead of my body these days.”
    “We’re fine,” Brenda said. “How about you? I hope you brought more red velvet cupcakes. I live for your cream cheese icing.”
    Cassie grinned. “Not today, but I will when I