Page 10 of Say it Ain’t So

“Rylan Dennis. I like the sound of that.”

“What’s yours?”

“Monroe.” She stepped out of my grip, disappearing into her dressing room again while I tasted the sound of her name on my lips.

Joss Monroe.

I’d only just met her, but I swore I was falling in love.

4

JOSS

Years ago, I’d somehow convinced Peter to go shopping with me at the mall. I’d picked out a few items to try on, and he offered to hold my coat and purse while I went to the dressing room. When I came out, he was nowhere to be seen.

He’d gotten bored waiting for me and left me to go to the movie theater with his friends. He left me at the mall in the dead of winter, with no coat to stay warm, no purse to pay for anything, no phone to call for help, and no way to get home.

My best friend, Cheyenne, had driven over an hour through crappy weather to come rescue me. The entire drive home, she’d tried to convince me to break up with Peter, but I never did. I thought I was in love. I thought it was a misunderstanding. I made excuse after excuse for him and couldn’t even confront him when he finally rolled in the next afternoon because he was drunk, and I didn’t want him to hit me again.

I should have listened to Cheyenne then.

I wished I had Cheyenne here with me now. Because as Rylan had gathered up all the clothes from my dressing room to go pay, he’d snagged my purse and boots as well.

Flashbacks of that night pummeled me as I stared at myself in the full-length mirror, and panic gripped my chest. I was wearing the shorts and tank top we’d decided on for ziplining—clothes I didn’t own but Rylan said he was going to include in what he bought. The sundress I came in was nowhere to be seen, and I was hundreds of miles from the best friend I needed to rescue me.

Worst of all, I’d peeked out a few minutes ago and I couldn’t find Rylan at all.

On wobbly legs, I pushed out the dressing room door, sure I was going to have to call Peter and beg him to send JaCinda to help. I’d gotten myself into a mess—all because I finally broke up with that cheating bastard and tried to do something that made me happy for a change. I stumbled toward the front of the store on bare feet and nearly fell to the floor with what I saw.

Rylan was on one knee near the doorway, smiling up at me, and relief greater than any I’d ever felt swept through me before I gasped and raised my hands to cover my mouth. For a split second, my mind played tricks on me, and I thought the thing in his hand was a ring. That this man who’d swept me off my feet was proposing to me.

Instead, he knelt there with a shoe in his hand, the box it came from on the floor at his side.

“Found you some shoes,” Rylan said, his eyes doing that thing again—where he’d drag his gaze over the entire length of my body, leaving me feeling like he was stripping these fancy clothes off me one item at a time. When he brought his attention back to my face, I swore my knees shook. “Thought it might be safer to zipline in something that was secured to your foot.”

He held the shoe up to me like it was a ring, and I had to blink multiple times to convince myself I wasn’t seeing things. He was here. My purse was sitting beside dozens of bags bearing the boutique’s logo. He was on his knee in front of me, and for some reason, my ribs clenched.

Even when he motioned me forward, even when he smiled at me in a way that made my panties melt, I still had one thought running through my head: You’ll never be loved.

Hadn’t Peter already proved that to me? I hadn’t been gone two days and he’d already found someone else to fill his bed. He couldn’t love me, and I didn’t need a therapist to tell me I didn’t really love him either.

“What’s wrong, gorgeous?” Rylan snagged my hand and dragged me closer, until I was staring down at him and the shoe he was still holding.

Shaking my head, I let out a shaky breath. “I’m just… overwhelmed.”

His lip twitched at one side, the corner pulling up minutely. “You need a minute?”

A weak smile creased my lips. “Maybe.”

“I was thinking.” Rylan let go of my hand and gripped the back of my thigh, sliding his palm down my leg as he sent shivers of pleasure through every inch of me. “There’s a gelato stand right around the corner. Why don’t I send all this stuff back to the hotel and we can go get that sweet treat I promised you?”

He tugged gently at my calf, shoe ready in his other hand, and I shifted my weight to let him take my ankle and put the fancy white tennis shoe on. Somewhere between him lifting my foot and me sliding my toes inside, my balance left me. I let out a squeal and grabbed the first thing I could to keep me steady.

Rylan.

I grabbed Rylan.

His soft black hair felt like satin between my fingers. His strong hands felt steady as he dropped the shoe and grabbed the backs of my legs. And his eyes, as he removed his face from my stomach where I’d smashed it and peered up at me, glimmered with mischief and something more.