Unbreak My Heart (Strawberry Inn Book #4)

Chapter 13

ELIZABETH

I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. Even the time in high school when my skirt got caught on the chair in the lunchroom and I exposed my thong-covered behind to the entire school was less embarrassing than this. I don’t know what came over me when I was with Dalton. After telling him all about my dad, there was just this weird emotional letdown. He was so close and he smelled so good. The kiss was great, up until the point that my brain registered what was happening. 

“Elizabeth,” Dalton said my name after softly knocking on the bedroom door. “Please, come out here.”

I shook my head, not that he could see it, and stayed firmly seated on my bed. If I stayed here long enough, Dalton would give up and leave, right? God, I hope so. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I smack a pillow against my forehead.

“I’m not leaving until we talk about this, Elizabeth. I’m stubborn as fuck, so I have no issues sitting here all night until you come out there.”

This was so immature of me. I was a grown-ass woman with a post-graduate degree and I was hiding in my bedroom from a man instead of facing the situation head-on. I grumbled at the only option I had here and then finally walked over to the door and opened it. I couldn’t face Dalton, so I hurried away from the door and stood on the other side of the bed. I needed the buffer so I didn’t do anything stupid like kissing him again.

“I’m sorry, Dalton. That was just so,” I start shaking my head, “it was dumb and stupid and I promise it won’t happen again.”

Dalton chuckled and that almost made the situation worse. I was having a panic attack and he thought the situation was hilarious. Not only did the kiss not bother him, but he also was clearly not into me the same way I was into him because he was crushing it off with a laugh.

“Stop apologizing, Elizabeth. I kissed you just as much as you kissed me.”

“Can we stop talking about it now? I kissed you, it didn’t mean anything, now we can just move on.”

He winced at my words, “It didn’t mean anything?”

“Yeah,” I wave my hand around. “One of those things that just happens in the moment and then we forget about it until somebody brings it up years from now and we laugh at it because the entire thing was stupid.”

He chuckled again, “You’re rambling, Elizabeth.”

“Noooooo,” I tried to play off the entire thing. I was rambling though. I was a mess and sharing space with Dalton wasn’t helping right now. The more time we spent together, the more attracted I became to him. I should have put up better boundaries, look where that got me.

Dalton was staring at me and I couldn’t read his reaction. He started moving around the bed, closer to the side I was on. That was the last thing I wanted. I needed space, I needed to think, and my brain was a mess when he was too close. It didn’t matter what I wanted though, before I knew it, Dalton was right in front of me, reaching out to grab my hand.

“Liz,” he grinned, “Can I call you Liz?” I just nodded my head. He tugged at my arm and even though my brain screamed to resist his touch, my heart didn’t care. I wanted to be close to him. I didn’t care how wrong and irrational it was. “You’re thinking too much.”

“I’m not thinking enough,” I retorted.

“That’s always been my problem, you know? Thinking too much.” His free hand moved to cup my cheek and he ran his calloused thumb across my jawline. “I’m done thinking and you should be too.” His lips gently touched mine and then he whispered against them, “Kiss me, Elizabeth.”