Happily Ever His (Singletree #1)

on my part that it was totally normal behavior. She was giving me an out.
“I’m really sorry, Tess. I shouldn’t have touched you like that. It was just… it kind of felt like there was a moment out there, and …” I wanted to tell her how my blood rushed when I stood near her, how my mind stopped turning when that light scent of hers wafted my way. “I guess both Manchester sisters are pretty irresistible.”
Her face smoothed, becoming an inscrutable mask as her shoulders stiffened. She blew out a little breath that sounded a lot like frustration, and I had the distinct sense I’d put my foot in my mouth. “I mean, no. That isn’t what I meant.” But it was too late. Her eyes blazed as she took a breath and fixed me in my seat.
“Can I ask you a question?” She said after a brief silence.
“Yeah, of course.” My voice revealed just a hint too much of the longing I felt for her. I wasn’t sure if she heard it.
“You came here dating my sister, nearly kissed me earlier, and just told me the Manchester sisters are essentially interchangeable in your mind. Don’t you think that makes you a bit of an asshole?”
Oh God. Is that what I said? It wasn’t what I’d meant to say at all. “I think it came out wrong.”
The light did not come back into her eyes and I had a sudden desperate churning feeling in my stomach, like I needed to fix this immediately.
“I’m not sure there’s a right way for that to come out. This is a small town, Ryan. Maybe we do things differently here than in places like Hollywood. We’re careful with people’s feelings.” She paused, straightening her shoulders. “And if you hurt my sister after everything she’s been through … or if I find out you’re just using her…” she trailed off and the warning in her words lingered in the air between us.
“I don’t want to,” I told her, guilt flooding every cell in my body and sending the semi-erection I’d had all through our baking adventure wilting like an ashamed flower. Because wasn’t that the deal I’d made? I was going to use Juliet, with her permission, to advance my own career, to land myself the financial security I hadn’t found so far. “Of course,” I said, my stomach twisting with what felt a lot like a lie.
“Good,” Tess said, standing and carrying her cup to the sink. “Well, thanks for your help with the cake, movie star Ryan McDonnell. I can get it from here.”
I was being dismissed. And even though it made my heart ache to realize it, maybe it was for the best. I made a promise to Juliet. And I needed to keep it. Spending too much time with her sister, no matter what my soul seemed to be telling me, would only complicate things.
“Okay,” I said. “Okay, sure.”
I turned and left the kitchen, heading back upstairs to try to get my head on straight.
I couldn’t let my heart move closer to Tess Manchester and still honor my contract with Juliet.

Chapter Eight


Tess
I finished baking the cakes myself, feeling the quiet and emptiness around me—it almost felt as if things had gone back to normal. Just me here on my own, Gran screeching intermittently at her computer, and Chessy flapping around here and there. Though Chessy had been distracted since Juliet’s entourage had arrived. But even with four guards and two movie stars in the house, it was easy to feel at this moment that I was just as alone as usual.
I let my mind trace over the events of the day so far. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the moments in the barn and tent were the most exciting I’d had in years. Maybe ever. But Ryan’s words, about both Manchester sisters being irresistible, kept coming back to me too. And I kept reminding myself what a shitty thing that was for him to say—or at least how shitty it was to act on it, to assume that just because he was Ryan-fucking-McDonnell, he could almost-kiss whomever he liked.
What bothered me most was that some part of what he’d said didn’t feel entirely true. And he didn’t really seem like an asshole.
I couldn’t explain it, but something in my gut had clenched at his words, had signaled that something might be off. But I doubted I could trust my gut where hot movie stars were concerned, and besides, it was unlikely that anyone interested in my sister would look twice at me. In fact, I’d had plenty of experience with guys who’d seemed interested in me at first then suddenly became interested in my sister after meeting her.
I’d even had a guy I was dating fall in love with my sister after she’d moved away. He’d fallen for her when she wasn’t even here—when there was no real possibility of him even meeting her. He’d found out my sister was the famous Juliet Manchester, and become convinced that if he could just hang around long enough to meet her, she’d fall for him too. Gran had taken care of that guy for me, ushering him directly back out the front door with the gun in her hand after I’d told her what was up.
“You deserve better, Tessy,” she’d said, waving the barrel around over our heads as if to make her point.
I’d taken the gun from her and tried to smile, wishing my heart could believe her words as much as she seemed to. I didn’t know what I deserved exactly. But maybe years of being jealous of my sister had poisoned karma against me. Maybe I deserved to be alone.
I hoped that wasn’t true. And I was tired of being alone. Being with Ryan today had been strange—but nice. I was wildly attracted to him, sure. But even as the initial shock of hanging out with the actual human version