Edge of Desire by Rhyannon Byrd Read Free Book Online Page B

chest, lift up onto her toes, and cover the grim, beautiful shape of his mouth with hers. And maybe, just maybe, he’d have the power to breathe some life back into her.
    “Hope?”
    Gasping, she jumped about a foot when Millie called her name as she came through the doorway that connected their house to the industrial-size kitchen they shared with the café.
    “Christ,” she wheezed, pressing one hand to the center of her chest as she stared over her shoulder. “You scared the hell out of me.”
    “Sorry,” Millie said, the gleam in her eyes warning that she was up to something. “I was just thinking that you should run up to the cabin and see if there’s anything those boys might need.”
    “Stop,” she murmured, turning back toward the window to press her forehead against the cool glass. It surprised her that the heat in her skin didn’t leave condensation on the icy panes.
    “Stop what?” her aunt asked with just the right amount of calculated innocence.
    “I know what you’re doing, Mil,” she said with a shaky sigh.
    “Oh? And what’s that?”
    God bless Millie, she thought. After things had gone south with her ex, it had been the recently divorced Millie who had stepped in and saved her. Who had somehow put the broken, jagged pieces of her back together and kept her from just slipping away. “Nothing is going to happen between Riley and me, so you might as well get those crazy thoughts out of your head.”
    “Well, if that’s the kind of attitude you’re going tohave, then of course nothing is ever going to happen. Happiness isn’t something that comes easily in this world, Hope. You, of all people, should know that. If you want it, you have to be willing to work for it, to take risks.”
    “Some risks are just too much. I still have too much toxic damage from how things ended before. There isn’t enough left to risk a second time around.”
    “There’s always enough,” Millie insisted. “You’re just being stubborn.”
    Looking back over her shoulder, she struggled to keep her tone even as she said, “He isn’t here to stay, Millie. He lives in Colorado and I live here. So what are you suggesting? That I try to have some kind of hot, sordid affair with him before he walks out of my life again?”
    Millie’s gray eyes gleamed with a womanly knowledge. “When that boy walks out your door, you’re going to regret it one way or another. Might as well get what good you can out of it while he’s here.”
    “He isn’t a boy, Mil.”
    The older woman waggled her brows. “Noticed that, did you?”
    She pressed her forehead to the cool glass again, her sigh leaving a fogged patch. “Of course I noticed. My eyesight works just fine.”
    “And?” Millie pressed her, making Hope want to groan.
    “He’s gorgeous, I’ll give you that. But I have too much self-respect to make a fool of myself over him for a second time in my life. Like I said before, I’m still stinging from the first time.”
    Millie gave a ladylike snort. “Nonsense. You’re letting your experience with Neal color your attitude toward men. And you’ve been doing it for too long now.”
    “You know what I think?” Before her aunt could answer, she straightened her spine and forged ahead, saying, “I think you should stop lecturing me, and start taking your own advice.”
    Eyeing Millie’s reflection in the window, she watched as a frown tipped the corner of her aunt’s mouth. “What does that mean?”
    “You still haven’t jumped Hal’s bones, and I know you want to.” Hal Erickson was a retired widower who lived in town and worked part-time as a local carpenter and handyman. He and Millie had become friends the year before, when he’d done some beautiful work remodeling the kitchen for them. And while Hope knew there was a mutual attraction between them, Millie had led Hal to believe that she was only looking for a platonic relationship.
    “Hope!” Millie gasped, sounding flustered. Ha. As if the idea