With This Kiss by Bella Riley Page B

his question?”
    Her flush disappeared as her face paled. He felt bad about poking holes in her plans, but looking for problems—and solving them before they happened—had been a big part of his career.
    “I suppose I’ll have to deal with that if it comes,” she said slowly. “And hope that it doesn’t.”
    He shook his head. “You should hire someone to deal with the festival and focus on your job at the inn.”
    She frowned at him. “No. No way. The festival is mine. It’s the first thing besides running the inn that I’ve ever really felt proud of.”
    He couldn’t believe the way she continually spilled her innermost thoughts and feelings. He would never—ever—admit to anyone the kind of things she was admitting. Was it some sort of trick to get him to back off on asking questions about Stu?
    Telling himself it had to be a trick, that no one could possibly be this devoid of pretense, he said, “I’m afraid I don’t see how the situation can continue for much longer. You’re clearly exhausted. And I’d hate for the inn to suffer because you’re focused on some festival.”
    Anger lit her delicate features. “First of all, Stu trusted me with the inn while he was gone. I would never let any part of it suffer. Second, it’s not just
some festival
. The Tapping of the Maples Festival is going to do great things for this town and the inn. And third, considering Stu is the owner of the inn, I’m going to ask you to respect his wishes and let me run the inn as I always have, thank you.”
    Her strength surprised him, yet again. And the way her cheeks were flushing, her eyes flashing as she held her ground, made her even prettier.
    Sean knew why Stu hadn’t told her the full truth. He’d asked his brother to keep his involvement in the inn quiet. Just another half-lie to add to all the others.
    Looked like it was time for there to be one less secret.
    “Actually, Stu and I own the inn together. All these months, you’ve actually been working for both of us.”

Chapter Six
     
    R ebecca felt her eyes widen at the news. She narrowed them again as she glared at Stu’s far-too-attractive brother.
    It was just one surprise after another around here, wasn’t it?
    “Why didn’t Stu tell me you owned the inn with him?”
    She wished Sean looked guiltier about the way he’d sprung the news on her. He was clearly a very astute businessman, and yet he hadn’t found a very nice way of giving her this information, had he?
    “I never planned on coming back to run it, so it wasn’t relevant.”
    Last night, he’d told her he’d sold his business and that he was looking for something new to work on. Is this what he’d meant? Oh, no, she wasn’t sure she could work with a man like him bossing her around.
    She dropped her untouched scone back onto the china plate with a loud clack. “No, I suppose it wasn’t relevant to you,” she said, not bothering to keep the sarcasm, or anger, from her voice. “Only to your employees who had no idea you were Stu’s silent partner all these years.”
    A muscle began jumping in his jaw and she waited for him to defend himself, to point out to her that Stu was just as much at fault for not telling her the truth.
    Instead, he said, “Now that the situation has changed, I’ll need you to show me everything about running the inn.”
    She couldn’t stop her eyes from widening at the thought of having to spend big chunks of time in close quarters with Sean, teaching him the ropes of the inn he owned but clearly never had any interest in learning about.
    For the first time since Stu had left, she finally let herself be good and angry at him. How could he have done this to her, to Sean, giving them no other choice but to have to deal with one another?
    Just then, a couple came down the stairs carrying a baby. “I hope we didn’t keep anyone up last night,” the woman said, an apologetic smile on her face. “Janie has some trouble sleeping out of her usual