Keep It Together by Lissa Matthews Read Free Book Online Page A

time to heal.”
    Should she confess? Should she let him off the hook? “I wanted to jump you out on the porch when I saw you that morning.” She was embarrassed to admit it, but he deserved to know. It didn’t make her sound very upstanding to want to crawl up the body of her ex-fiancé’s brother the day after she’d been jilted. However, it was the truth, and if he was man enough to admit an attraction to her, she was woman enough to do the same.
    “Thank God.” He seemed relieved, and Chrissie laughed.
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. Glad I’m not alone in this.”
    Chrissie ducked her head. “Me too. It’s probably not a good idea though to…” Her breath shuddered when she saw the toe of his shoes in her line of sight to the floor. Her breath fairly stopped when he reached out with his fingers and lifted her chin. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it that day but it affected her just the same as if it were.
    “You said you were over him.”
    “I-I am.”
    “You said you wanted me.”
    “I do,” she said softly.
    “It’s a damn good idea then.” They stared at each other. His blue eyes darkened and up close, in the bright kitchen, she could see her reflection staring back. He was so handsome, so sexy… Could she be lucky this time around? ”You’re doubting me.”
    “You are Russ’s brother.” That’s it, Christina. Hide behind some good, old Southern sarcasm.
    “Brother, yes, but I’m not him.”
    “Prove it,” she countered, tossing out the challenge. It hadn’t been planned, but with him right there, offering her something she’d been dreaming about for months…
    “Oh, I will.” He leaned down again, pressed his lips to hers a second time, and then stood to his full height and stepped back. “I’m not sure you really want me to, though. You did continue to reject my offer of dinner.”
    “Work.”
    “Yes. Work. I know all about that. Where do you work? I don’t believe you’ve said.”
    “Promise not to laugh?”
    He considered her for a moment, and she fidgeted. “You keep asking me that every time you start to reveal something. Why on earth would I laugh?”
    Chrissie ran her finger through the condensation on the glass. “You have a high-powered job and I…I manage the hunting department of an outdoor store.”
    “Come again?”
    She looked up from under her lids. “You said you wouldn’t laugh.”
    “No. I asked why would I laugh, not that I wouldn’t. But I’m not laughing.”
    “You have a smile on your face,” she said indignantly.
    “And that’s not a laugh. Did I hear you right? You work in retail?”
    “I do.”
    “Why? I know you said you wanted to find your own way and not depend on the family money, but retail?”
    Chrissie shrugged. “There isn’t much I am professionally trained to do. A liberal arts degree only goes so far for someone who wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life, but I do know how to hunt and shoot. I’m good at it. I know more than the average guy about guns, and they were mighty impressed with me. It’s not my dream career, and it’s definitely not flashy.”
    “There’s more to life than flash and exotic.”
    “You’re sweet, but you don’t have to patronize me. I’m okay with what I’m doing right now. It pays the bills.”
    “I’m doing nothing of the sort, but if it’s not your dream career, what is?”
    She wondered how much more she could reveal of herself before he took off running. She hadn’t been frilly and too terribly feminine before or during her engagement, and she’d become even less so since. She had her little girly secrets, but if Colt hightailed it out of her life before they got to that point… “I do some engraving. Custom work on guns and knives and even some swords for reenactors.”
    “Engraving?”
    “Yeah. I’m just full of surprises, huh?” She stared straight into his eyes lest she miss the moment he decided enough was enough and she was one arrow short of an outdoor show.