Tempting Love - Haley & Eddie Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘we all.’” For some reason, Eddie just wanted to hear her say it. He wanted to hear her say that she missed him.
    “Oh, well, I just meant”—Haley cleared her throat and then surprised him by sitting up a little straighter—“that I miss you.”
    There it was. What he’d wanted to hear. They silently stared at each other across the small wooden table for what felt like forever before Eddie felt his phone vibrate once again in his pocket.
    Shit .
    Standing, he said, “I should be home by midnight. Is that okay?”
    Haley smiled but there was a hint of sadness Eddie knew hadn’t been there a moment before. “I’ll be here.”
    He nodded and grabbed his keys off the counter. Just before he made it to the front door, he turned back around. “Hales.”
    “Yeah?” She looked up at him, still seated at his kitchen table.
    “I miss you, too.”
    He quickly turned and headed out the door, but not before he’d seen the shock that had immediately covered her face. What the hell was wrong with him? He should kick his own ass for saying that. He’d always been so careful not to give anyone the wrong idea. He’d learned his lesson early on that giving a woman false hope ended badly for both parties involved.
    So what had he been doing asking her a question to try and get her to reveal that she missed him and telling her that he missed her too?
    He jumped in his truck and turned the key in the ignition, making sure that the air conditioning was on full blast. As he pulled out of the driveway, he decided that the more time he spent with Haley, the more his resolve was crumbling like a house of cards.
    If he was going to keep his hands and other, more insistent, parts of his body to himself, then he needed to distance himself from her. No more sending Em to clean her room, take a shower, do the dishes, or any other of the hundred tasks he’d sent his daughter on to get a few precious moments of alone time with Haley Sloan.
    That all needed to stop. Now.
    If it didn’t, Eddie wasn’t sure he would be able to stop himself from doing something he couldn’t take back, something that would change not only his and Haley’s life, but Emily’s too.
    He wouldn’t let that happen. No matter how tempting it was.

Chapter Three

    “D o you have a boyfriend?” Emily’s soft voice snapped Haley out of her obsessive replaying of Eddie’s parting shot. “ Hales, I miss you too .”
    He does?!
    She still wasn’t completely convinced that those five words hadn’t been a figment of her overactive imagination. The more she played it over in her head, the more it seemed like a very un-Eddie like thing to have come out of his mouth. And even if he had in fact uttered those lovely words, what did that mean exactly? Missed her how? Did he miss her like he missed Emily or his sister Chelle? Oh lord, she hoped not.
    “Do you?” Emily asked again, her tone more insistent.
    “Oh sorry, sweetie. I was zoning out for a minute.” Haley took a deep breath as she continued running the brush through Emily’s wet hair, which hung to the middle of her back. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. Do youuu?”
    Emily whipped her head around and looked at Haley like she’d just bit into a lemon. “Eww, no. That’s gross!” Then, turning back around, Em pulled her knees up to her chest and focused her attention back to the movie that starred transforming cars.
    Haley bit back a smile. She remembered exactly what it had felt like to think boys were gross. In fact, she’d stayed in the boys-have-cooties stage much longer than all of her friends. Which was sort of odd because she was very much a romantic, always had been.
    Part of her late blooming had had to do with the fact that Haley had what everyone had always referred to as an ‘old soul.’ When she was growing up, her favorite pastimes were reading and shopping for antiques. Not a whole lot of crushing usually happened during those activities. With the exception, of course, for book