Now she was trying to keep from smiling at the man who was not supposed to be talking about marrying her.
“Goodnight, Paige,” he finally said.
“Goodnight, Mitch.”
They still just stood looking at each other.
“You need to go to your room,” he said, his voice a little tight.
“I will. You too.”
“Yeah, but—” He sighed. “You’re right by my door.”
She looked at the closed bedroom door again. And smiled. “I guess I am.”
She didn’t want to torture the guy. He was trying to be noble. Or something. But she wouldn’t deny that she liked that resisting her would be difficult.
“You need to move away from my bedroom door, Paige.” His voice was a little gruffer.
“You’re in my way of getting to my bedroom too,” she pointed out.
“But are you tempted to throw me over your shoulder and say to hell with all of your good intentions? Already? Within twenty minutes of deciding you even have good intentions?”
She laughed even as warmth filled her. Not just heat. Not lusty heat anyway. But a feel-good warmth that she didn’t quite understand. But she liked it. “Kind of.”
He swallowed hard. Then said, “Go to bed, Paige.”
She moved to the right, away from his door. As he came forward, she playfully pressed her back against the far wall.
He smiled, in spite of himself, and went to his bedroom door. He twisted the knob but paused and looked over at her.
She inched her way toward her bedroom, still against the wall. When she got to her door she reached for the knob and shot him a smile. “Goodnight, Mitch.”
“’Night.”
“And I’m just right here if you have any nighttime needs. Bad dreams.” She paused. “Good dreams.”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what? Just being a good friend.” She grinned.
“My dreams might include white dresses and tuxes,” he warned.
Again, no sense of oh shit. Instead, she tipped her head. “You’re pretty good at bringing all of that up without asking the four-word question.”
He didn’t comment on that. “See you in the morning.”
“Okay.” She gave him another smile, then slipped into her room, feeling his eyes still on her until the door shut.
She slumped against it, pressing her hand to her stomach.
Dammit. She really liked him.
It was really too bad they weren’t going to kiss anymore.
Maybe she should just head to Colorado now. She didn’t have as much money as she’d intended to have when she showed up in Steamboat Springs in August, but she could figure something out.
If she was here for a fun, flirty fling, and now Mitch had decided not to fling with her, then maybe she didn’t want to stay here.
This town was full of Landrys. According to both Mitch and Tori, the Landrys believed in romance on a very grand scale. When you fell for one Landry, you got them all. Tori had told her all about how they’d accepted her and brought her into the family without question and how she couldn’t help but love them.
Just the kind of thing Paige wanted to avoid.
But those people who made strangers part of their family so easily had apparently talked Mitch out of the fling idea. And they hadn’t all descended on the house when he’d showed up without her. And now she was in her own bedroom.
Well, damn. Maybe she wasn’t going to have to avoid them. Maybe they were going to avoid her.
That was good.
Right?
It was. Probably. Mostly. She didn’t want to deal with his family wanting to know when they were going to get hitched.
It looked like they had decided that not only was that not going to happen, but it shouldn’t happen.
She frowned and pushed away from the door. Huh. They didn’t want her and Mitch to be together forever?
She definitely wasn’t used to that.
But this was good. She could stay here, work the job Mitch had set up for her, save up the rest of the money she wanted to, and avoid the whole topic of marriage. To anyone in Appleby and, evidently, to Mitch Landry.
Yeah, that was good.
The niggling what-the-hell feeling that accompanied her to bed and kept her from concentrating on her book was just her being ridiculous.
She was getting exactly what she wanted.
It just didn’t feel that way.
8
That night was hell.
Mitch tossed and turned and second-guessed his decisions and wondered what Paige was doing. And what she’d do if he walked down the hallway and joined her in… whatever it was.
The next morning was even worse.
He came down the stairs to find Paige doing yoga in his living room.
Which was bad enough, but she was also wearing the half sweatshirt that fell off one shoulder and showed teasing peeks of her bare stomach and back as she moved. She’d worn that shirt the first time he’d spent the night with her at her apartment in Appleby. She’d been wearing it when he’d showed up to surprise her a week ago at her yoga studio.
He loved that shirt.
He also fucking hated it.
He gritted his teeth, averted his eyes from her ass as she bent to stretch, and headed for the kitchen.
But he didn’t get far.
“Morning.”
He turned back. “Morning.”
She looked so good. Sexy. Sweet. Right. Waking up to her in his house was an exquisite torture that he’d never experienced before.
“Griffin made coffee,” she said, seeming lost about what to say.
“He makes good coffee.” Yeah, he had no idea what to say either. Then he frowned. “You saw Griffin this morning?”
“Yeah. He came down as I was starting.”
Starting yoga. Dressed like that. Mitch felt a very stupid rush of jealousy.
Griffin was a good guy. They’d been living together for two months, and Mitch hadn’t had a single problem with him. He was a fucking grouch, but that didn’t faze Mitch. It had nothing to do with Mitch. He didn’t love the way Griffin clearly felt that being in Autre and working with Tori was a step-down, and he wanted more. But who was Mitch to judge?
Griffin had messed up at his last job. Mitch thought he’d done the right thing from what he knew about the situation. Some big donor to the zoo had been at a fundraiser with his wife. They’d been on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour. They’d been shown the new baby tiger that had been born. A huge boon to the zoo because the species was endangered. It had been Griffin’s project and the main reason he’d gotten the job.
Then the donor’s wife had touched the baby tiger. Which was a huge no-no. The baby could have been rejected by its mother if handled by humans.
Griffin had informed the woman that she needed to get away from the cub and reminded her that she’d said she understood the rules laid out ahead of the tour.
Of course, he hadn’t said it quite like that.
Or in any kind of normal tone of voice or volume.
He’d been fired that same night.
Griffin was now here because his friend from vet school, Tori, had been appalled that he’d been fired and had offered him a job as her partner in her vet practice, which had been growing steadily since she’d come to Autre.