Can’t Hurry Love by Nadine Millard (primary phonics books .txt) 📕

the valley, they’d walked and exchanged stories — Beth’s filled with memories of growing up in the small Colorado mountain town, and Josh’s of the pressures of working as an ER doctor in a busy Chicago hospital.

She remembered how his bright blue eyes had darkened as he talked about getting out and off the stressful hamster wheel…

She remembered how his golden hair had glinted in the streetlights…

And she remembered the riot of butterflies when he’d smiled at her…

When he’d kissed her with a passion that had shaken her to her core and gotten out of control from the off…

When they’d waited outside the hotel for a cab to arrive after he’d been the one to end that last kiss that very nearly didn’t end at all — a cab he’d called and insisted on putting on his own card — and his eyes had darkened again, this time with a desire that had made her stomach clench in excitement.

They’d only spent one evening together, but Beth had been halfway in love with him before the taxi had even pulled away from the door of the hotel.

She’d known that if Josh hadn’t acted the gentleman, things would have gotten a lot more hot and heavy in that hotel. Something that she had never done before, or considered since.

It was just Josh. Josh and that night.

Yes, she was a bit of a hopeless romantic. Everyone knew that. And yes, she very much wanted a fairy-tale love, complete with happily ever after. She’d known that night had been special. She hadn’t imagined it or wished for it. It hadn’t been an ordinary first date. Driving away in the back of the cab listening to Maury Jenson chatter away about his day, Beth had been one hundred percent positive that there was something special between her and Josh Larsen. The same something that she’d read in countless romance novels but hadn’t ever actually felt for herself until that one, magical evening.

Beth had spent the entire cab ride home letting herself imagine all sorts of scenarios: some wholesome and pure like her movies and others more like the books she kept hidden in her room far away from the prying eyes of her brothers.

And God, she’d been desperate for that call to come. The call he’d said he’d make the next day. It had been over a year, and she was still waiting for it…

“Hardly,” she snorted, her voice only trembling a little bit, her mind still playing that toe-curling kiss over and over interspersed with flashes of her humiliation every time she’d seen him since, and he’d acted like nothing had happened.

Brooke interrupted Beth’s not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane. “Why else would he be coming over here now?”

At Brooke’s whispered question, Beth whipped her head back around to see that she was right. Josh was making a beeline for them.

“Maybe he wants to talk to you,” she whispered back, ignoring the pang of hurt.

It had been over a year since only one date and only one kiss. Not enough to validate feelings of hurt that he’d be interested in the gorgeous brunette beside her.

Beth had no claim on Josh Larson, and she didn’t want one either.

Mom had always said that when someone showed you who he really was, you should believe him the first time. And she believed that Josh Larson was a cliched good-looking bad guy. Not romantic comedy material at all.

“Brooke.”

The sudden arrival of Damon Wakefield caught Brooke’s and Beth’s attention, and Beth took the opportunity to turn away from Josh and get her heartbeat back under some sort of control.

“Hey, Damon.”

“Hey, Beth. Great job on the desserts today. They taste almost as good as you look.” He winked and smiled the smile that had broken more than one heart in Rocky Valley.

Damon Wakefield and his twin brother, Asher, along with her own brothers could have given Jack Beckford a run for his free-wheeling money back in the day. And Beth wasn’t naïve enough to think he meant anything by his flirty comment. For one thing, he’d never shown an interest in her before, and for another, she would always be Grayson’s baby sister to him.

“Did you want something?” Brooke’s voice was icy as she answered Damon’s greeting.

Beth wasn’t altogether surprised by that though. Damon and Brooke were polar opposites. Damon was a millionaire developer who bought up properties and either tore them down or converted them into — well, all sorts of things: luxury apartments, five-star resorts, even shopping malls.

Everything Brooke hated, basically.

For every building that Damon bought up and pulled apart, there were ten that Brooke Winters worked to save.

“Now isn’t that the million-dollar question.” He grinned wickedly.

Beth watched closely to see if that famous smile had any effect on Brooke, but the brunette didn’t so much as blink, just merely raised her brow and waited.

God, that was cool. Beth wished she could act that coldly sophisticated.

Unfortunately, she’d always been annoyingly peppy. She’d never pull off that ice queen thing.

“Beth.”

Case in point.

As soon as she heard Josh Larson’s voice behind her, her heart skittered, and she could feel her face getting hotter. She stood completely still with her back turned on him, watching with growing humiliation as Brooke and Damon looked at her first expectantly and then as if she belonged in a nut house.

“Beth.”

It didn’t help that Josh’s voice sounded again, louder and even a little amused. She didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to look into his baby blues and feel her heart skitter. She sure as hell didn’t want to listen to anything he had to say. The inane chit-chat that he’d tried to engage in all year. The one that said he’d either forgotten about their night, or it had been so insignificant that it wasn’t worth talking about again.

And the worst part was that she couldn’t bring it up herself for fear of looking like a complete stalker, or worse, letting him think she was bothered. Which she was. Hugely. But she absolutely