Page 6 of When You Blush

“Then we’d best go get some dinner,” I reply with a nod.

“Hold that thought.” She raises a finger and pulls her phone out of her pocket. “I have to let Ava know that I won’t be in tonight.”

I nod and give her privacy. I use the bathroom and freshen up from the flight. When I return to the living room, she’s just finishing her call.

“I know, it sucks, but I can’t control the weather, you know. Yeah, I’m safe.” She turns and looks at me and bites that plump lip again. “I promise I’ll keep you posted. I don’t have a return ticket, remember? You’ll get plenty of time with me. Jesus, Ava, you’re fucking needy.”

That makes me chuckle, and Harper smiles back at me.

Fuck, that smile.

“Yeah, yeah, love and blah, blah.” I lift an eyebrow, and she rolls her eyes. “Yes. Yes. No. Okay,Mom, eat some turkey for me. I’ll be there as soon as I can, clingy girl. Okay, bye.”

She lets out a gusty exhale, closes her eyes, and shakes her head.

“That girl needs a boyfriend. Hold on, I’m going to wash my hands.”

She strides into the bathroom, and I shove my hands in my pockets.

Jesus. I like her.

When she’s finished, we walk back down the hallway to the elevator.

“This place isn’t bad at all,” she says as we climb on the elevator, and I hit the button for the lobby.

“Do you stay in a lot of hotels?”

“Actually, yeah. I do.” She shrugs and leans back against the wall. “I’m a traveling nurse. I usually only stay in one place for about a month. Lots of hotels. Not all of them are awesome.”

“I bet they’re not.”

Traveling nurse.I’m intrigued. I can’t imagine being in a new place every month. That’s a lot of moving around.

“What made you decide to go the traveling route?” I ask after the hostess leads us to a table and leaves us with the menus.

Harper sighs and sips her water, eyeing me, and I can tell she’s trying to decide how much to tell me.

I’m a perfect stranger.

But I want to know everything I can find out about her in our short time together.

“I had a piece-of-shit ex who I needed to get away from.”

Fire.

Fire rolls through me at that admission, but she keeps talking, oblivious to the fact I’d like to hurt the idiot who made her feel that she had to run from him.

“That was two years ago.” She shrugs that shoulder again and looks down at the menu. “I like the job. And it’s not like I have anything permanent to get back to, so going where I’m needed is rewarding.”

She bites her lip as if she’s said too much.

“I think I’ll get the chicken Caesar.” She pushes the menu away and watches me for a minute through those glasses.

“Are you originally from Bitterroot Valley?” I ask. I don’t think she is. It’s a small community, and I know for a fact that I’ve never seen her before, even in passing.

“Silver Springs,” she says, and I nod.

That’s an evensmallercommunity just thirty minutes from Bitterroot Valley.