Sweet Hill Temptation (A Short Story) by Joya Ryan Page A

choice. A fact she should be used to by now.
    Her phone rang, and she silenced it and dug into her ice cream again.
    Then a knock sounded at her door.
    “You can ignore my calls, but I’ll stay out here all night, Annabelle.”
    Her eyes shot wide. Luke was on her front porch.
    He knocked again. “Wouldn’t want me to make a scene, would you?”
    That got her attention. She put down the carton on the coffee table and opened the door, trying to mask her sadness.
    She refused to look Luke in the eye. She couldn’t risk it. “No, Luke, I don’t want a scene. Do what you need to do and go.”
    She’d never felt so broken. So hurt she couldn’t see straight. Luke reached out for her. She pulled away. Tears streamed from her eyes.
    “Don’t,” she sobbed. Her chest felt like it was splitting down the middle. “You were right the first time. We said everything we needed to already. So go. I told you, I don’t need your charity.”
    “I’m not going anywhere, baby.”
    “Fine, do what you want. Stay out here all night. It’s your town, apparently.” She couldn’t compete with him. Didn’t want to. She went to shut the door, but he stuck his foot in.
    “I mean, I’m not going to New York. I’m staying here.”
    She opened the door slightly. She didn’t know what kind of game this was, but her bones were heavy and exhaustion overcame her. She couldn’t keep up any longer. It just was too much to bear.
    “I can’t do this, Luke. It hurts. I thought I knew what I was getting into with you but—”
    “Will you shut up?” he said, stepping inside. “I love you. I didn’t know how to say it before, because I didn’t know what it was. There are all these things I thought I should do, should be, but when I’m with you, I get to stand still and just be me.”
    His words only made her tears fall harder. The tough girl that Luke called her, that everyone thought she was, was nowhere in sight. Standing in her living room staring down Luke Jacobs, she was nothing more than a woman on the brink of obtaining something she’d never thought she would ever have: acceptance.
    “You love me?”
    He cupped her face and nodded. “So much.”
    “What about the contract?”
    He smiled. “ You are the opportunity of a lifetime, baby. There’s no way I’m walking away from that.”
    With a watery smile, she hugged him so hard it hurt her arms. And he clutched her back, kissing her mouth, her cheeks, her nose. For the first time in her life, Annie felt like she had finally found a solid place to call home.
    And his name was Luke Jacobs.