Secrets Of The Tulip Sisters. Susan Mallery

if I’ve made you uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to.” Now it was his turn to be nervous. Kelly didn’t play games so he wasn’t going to, either. He was going to put it out there.

      “When I moved back, I noticed you right away. You were with Sven, so I figured I had to let it go. Then you two broke up. It’s been six months, so I’m hoping you’re over him.”

      Her eyes widened. “Okay.” The word was drawn out to three syllables.

      “So here’s the thing. I want us to get to know each other. I think we could have fun together. If I’m right, I’d like us to take things to the next level.” He looked into her eyes. “I’m a decent guy. I believe in serial monogamy. I’m not looking for love or marriage or happily ever after. But I am looking for a long-term girlfriend. I’m hoping you feel the same way and we can work something out.”

      Her mouth dropped open. She closed it before taking a step back. “Friends with benefits?”

      “Something like that, although I was thinking more lovers who are friends.”

      “You want to have sex with me?”

      He grinned. “Kelly, pretty much every guy who sees you wants to have sex with you, but to be clear, yes. I would like that very much.”

      “I don’t understand.” She held up her hand. “I take that back. I understand what you said. It’s just... Wow.”

      Wow was better than drop dead or hell, no so he would take it. “You probably want some time to think about it.”

      “Yeah. That would be great.” She looked more than a little shell-shocked. “You read Eat, Pray, Love to get me into bed?”

      “No. I read it because your book club was reading it and I thought it would be something we could talk about. I don’t just want to sleep with you, Kelly. I meant what I said. I’m looking for a relationship.”

      “But not love or marriage.”

      “Right.”

      “You’re very up front and honest.”

      “That’s the goal. You’ll think about what I said?”

      “I would imagine it’s going to be hard to think about anything else.”

      “No means no. If you decide to break my heart, I won’t bother you again.” Not that he wanted her to say no, but nothing about his invitation was supposed to scare her.

      She nodded slowly, as if stunned.

      “Why don’t I walk you to your truck?”

      She nodded again and began walking. He fell into step with her. “Thanks for coming by.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      They went outside. Kelly glanced around as if she wasn’t sure where she was. He pointed to her truck.

      “Over there.”

      She glared at him. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

      “Just a little. Wouldn’t you if you were me?”

      “Maybe.” Her brown eyes turned wary. “This isn’t a joke, is it?”

      The softly worded question cut him more deeply than he would have expected.

      “Kelly, no.” He moved close and took her hand in his. “I’m not kidding. I meant what I said. About wanting to get to know you, about us having potential together, about no meaning no. All of it. I swear. Please believe me. I have no reason to want to hurt you.”

      “Okay. Thanks.”

      She got in her truck and backed out of the parking lot. It was only after she’d turned onto the highway that he remembered what had happened in high school. How he’d dissed her in front of all his friends. He’d done it for the best possible reason but at the end of the day she’d been humiliated and it was all his fault.

      Well, hell. No wonder she didn’t want to trust him now.

      * * *

      It was rare for anything to keep Kelly from a good night’s sleep, but her conversation with Griffith had done that and more. The man had made it clear he wanted to sleep with her. In a way more troubling, he wanted her to be his girlfriend.

      Who talked like that? She’d never had a guy come up and baldly state his intentions. Not that she had huge experience with men. She wasn’t exactly a guy magnet. She’d had the requisite college boyfriend where she’d lost her virginity and had doodled Mrs. Elijah Mellon in her notes, but by her senior year, she’d realized she was more excited about returning to the farm than getting married.

      A couple of years after graduation, she and Sven had started seeing each other. Their relationship had started slowly. They’d been friends for nearly a year before they’d taken things “to the next level.” After becoming lovers, they’d settled into a comfortable, albeit not very exciting, relationship. She’d never pushed for more, nor had he. Still, she’d been surprised when he’d ended things six months ago. Not heartbroken but surprised. Which was too bad because on paper, she and Sven were well suited. She grew tulips, he grew plants for nurseries up and down the West Coast.

      So that was her romantic past—Elijah and Sven. Did she want Griffith as her third? And what did it say about her that Griffith thought she would be okay as only a girlfriend with no promise of more? Which she was, but why did he know that?

      She finished making her bed, then walked back into the Jack and Jill bathroom she’d shared with her sister growing up. After brushing her wavy hair into submission, she pulled it back in her usual ponytail, then studied herself in the mirror.

      Why her? She wasn’t pretty or glamorous. Now if she were her sister, Olivia, she could understand Griffith’s interest. Of course if she were Olivia, Griffith would have to get in line because there were always men interested in her younger sister.

      Not that Kelly was interested in that kind of attention. She didn’t want passion or the drama that came with it. She’d seen what uncontrolled passion did in the form of her mother’s destruction of their family. Kelly wanted something different. Not quiet and not sensible, just...safe. She wanted to feel safe. In her mind that was way more important than some fleeting hormone-induced excuse to destroy and abandon.

      She left her bedroom and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. The Murphy house was nearly a hundred years old, built when the land was originally homesteaded. All remnants of the classic farmhouse had been remodeled away until what remained was a U-shaped rambler.

      The front of the house had a big family room, a large kitchen and formal dining room. To the left was the study her dad used, and beyond that were the master bedroom and an en suite guest room. To the right of the main living quarters was another, shorter hallway, leading to two good-sized bedrooms with the Jack and Jill bathroom at the end of the hall.

      Funny how she and her sister had never fought over that shared bathroom, or much of anything else. At least not when they’d been younger. Despite their parents’ troubled marriage, the constant fighting and the way each parent had claimed one child as his or her favorite, Kelly and Olivia had been buddies. They’d played together, hung out together and had been close. That had changed. Kelly wasn’t sure when exactly, but by the time their mother had left, Olivia was different. Or maybe Marilee’s departure had caused the shift—which meant Kelly had even more responsibility for what had happened.

      She could tell herself she’d been a kid and it wasn’t her fault, but she knew the truth. Her fight with her mother had pushed Marilee into leaving and Kelly was the reason Olivia had been sent away.

      “Deep thoughts for a weekday morning,” she murmured as she crossed to the coffeepot.

      The coffee was already brewed—her father would have started it before he left for the diner. She poured a mug and inhaled the delicious scent before taking her first sip. In a matter of minutes