A Lot Like Home by Kat Cantrell

Author:Kat Cantrell [Cantrell, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Published: 2018-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven

After that catastrophe of a campaign speech, Havana wanted to crawl in bed. But Damian walked her back to the hotel and for some reason didn’t dash off like he usually did. Instead, he followed her inside, his expression unreadable.

He probably felt sorry for her and wanted to be sure she wasn’t going to fall apart after essentially being told Caleb belonged here and she didn’t. It was fine. Old news. Definitely nothing to cry over. At least not in front of anyone.

“Well, I’m sure you have calls or something,” she said with false brightness, pausing inside the door. When she turned to say goodbye, he was a lot closer than she’d anticipated, and her arms brushed his chest. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Damian murmured. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

He was such a sweet man, more concerned about her than the shopping center that slipped further and further away the longer she couldn’t get her act together. She smiled up at him and shook her head. “I’ll figure something out. Don’t give up on me.”

“I won’t.” His gaze roved over her face, and that’s when she caught a glint in his eyes that she’d never seen before. “I have to admit, I think you’re really brave, taking on the entire town in the name of this project. You were pretty great.”

“Oh.” Rattled, she shook her head and took a step back from his earnest praise. “No, I was a flop.”

She laughed self-consciously. There was a weird vibe here she couldn’t put her finger on. Damian was always nice to her, but she’d never picked up the sense that he’d singled her out for any special treatment. He was nice to everyone. This was the first time he’d complimented her with such fervor though.

“Havana.”

He reached out and snagged her hand, holding it in his, which he’d done before. Lots of times. Usually when they were pretending to be a couple. No one else was around at the moment though since Serenity had opted to stay behind at the diner to talk up her golden boy to the crowd.

So Damian had no reason to be stroking her knuckle with his thumb.

“Havana,” he repeated huskily. “You tried to hug me at the diner, and I messed up. I didn’t realize— Well, I see now that you’ve been using this fake engagement to get closer. I’m sorry it took me this long to clue in.”

“I… what?” She stared at him, her hand hanging limply in his as she scrambled to figure out where this conversation had gone off the rails. “That’s not what I was doing.”

“It’s not?”

His brows drew together in confusion. Oh, man. Oh, this was not good. This was an even worse disaster than the campaign speech. Her pulse hammered in her throat.

“No! I mean…”

She took a deep breath and bit back all the things she’d been about to spew out because first and foremost, she couldn’t hurt his feelings. He meant a lot to her, and she’d always considered him a dear friend.

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