A Place with Briar (Harlequin Superromance) by Amber Leigh Williams Page B

objective opinion.”
    Adrian nodded, pressing her lips as she picked up her mug again, this time holding it between both hands. “So...he kissed you, without really meaning to.”
    “Yes.”
    “Then he backed off, without explaining himself.”
    Briar thought about it. “Pretty much. But in a way that was almost...respectful.” She scoffed over the word. “You’d think I would appreciate that kind of behavior...but it made me a little mad.”
    Adrian lifted a brow. “A little?”
    “More than a little,” Briar admitted. “I didn’t sleep at all last night, I was so angry and conflicted.”
    “Briar...” Adrian’s gaze dropped to the coffee in her hands. “I need to tell you something.”
    “About Cole.” She took a deep breath, straightening in her chair. “Uh-oh.”
    “It’s nothing bad, really. It’s just that after I gave him that tour around town, we were standing outside the tavern, talking. Your name came up. He didn’t come right out and say it, but...I think he has feelings for you.”
    “No,” Briar said with an unbelieving shake of her head, even as her heart fluttered at the thought. “The man just got here. I’m his innkeeper. There hasn’t been time to develop anything more serious than a professional relationship. There’s hardly been time for that, really.”
    “Okay, if you really think that, ask yourself this. Do you have feelings for him outside of your professional relationship?”
    Briar’s lips parted then she snapped them closed. “I don’t know.”
    Adrian studied her in what looked like something close to pity. “Yes, you do.”
    She lifted her hands helplessly. “I have these little flutterings...and moments where I can’t particularly breathe around him. And, yes, when he looks at me it feels like my knees are melting into hot liquid. I’m dealing with it, though.”
    Adrian’s face softened into something of a smile. “You realize if Olivia were here, she’d be jumping up and down.”
    Briar rolled her eyes. “Last night she told me to sleep with him.”
    Adrian let out a short laugh and she shook her head. “So I’m assuming since you didn’t go to her, you need someone to talk you out of it.”
    “Not sleeping with him,” Briar clarified. “I know not to sleep with him. At this point. At any point...it won’t even come to that, I’m sure. I just need someone to tell me that this is all foolish, that he’ll go away and whatever flutterings and moments I’m having are just temporary.”
    Adrian narrowed her eyes. “Let me talk to him.”
    “No! What? I didn’t ask you to do that.”
    “Somebody’s got to,” Adrian insisted. “The man’s a good one, but there’s trouble there. I saw that a mile off.”
    “I don’t want anybody cornering him in the garden, interrogating him about his intentions toward me, Adrian,” Briar said sternly. “Frankly, I’m starting to think all this was better off in my head. And he is a good man. He’s a survivor because whatever trouble he came through to get here, he went through the brunt of it alone. I can see it in his eyes.”
    “Are you sure you need this right now?”
    “No, I’m not,” Briar admitted. “It’s the very last thing I need right now. But...you’re right. It’s there and I have to live with it.”
    Adrian’s frown deepened. “Just be careful. Please. In my experience, when a man’s hiding something, it’s not because he’s being respectful. It’s because he doesn’t want you to see what’s underneath.”
    * * *
    Y ES , SHE ’ D asked to be talked down. And she’d gotten a talking down to. Adrian had given her exactly what she wanted. But still she felt conflicted. Still she felt those angry dregs left over from her sleepless night humming under the surface.
    Briar decided to put it all aside and let it ruminate while she greeted the Josefstines at noon.
    To commemorate the Josefstines’ first evening at Hanna’s she planned a formal dinner, placing a roast into the