Kiss Me, Katie! & Hug Me, Holly!

With newfound determination, she stalked across the street, but Riley wasn’t in his office. Jud told her he wasn’t at the ranch either, but he could be reached by radio.

Great. Radio would have to do.

Jud handed it to her, then sat on the edge of his desk instead of leaving her alone.

“I know how to work it,” she said, hoping he’d take the hint and go.

He smiled and crossed his arms, settling in.

“You can…go do whatever it is that you do.”

“This is about it,” he said.

She sighed and called Riley.

When she heard his deep, husky voice, she had to sit down, she was so nervous. “Hey,” she said into the radio. “When are you coming back?”

“Later.”

Later. Okaaay. “I…um, have an emergency at the cafe. I was hoping you could come check it out.”

“Break a nail, Princess? Call your beautician.”

So distant. So hurt. She bit her lip and thought. Connived. “No, it’s…another gas leak,” she said brilliantly.

Jud snickered.

“Call the gas company,” Riley said.

Call the gas company. She wanted to stomp up and down and force him to take her seriously. She wanted him to talk to her in that sweet, sexy tone that made her melt. She wanted…to take back all the things she’d said and done to cause his hurt.

But Jud was watching.

“Thanks,” she said quietly, and she went back to the cafe.

Jud swore.

LATER, Holly came up with a new plan, a better plan.

Riley was there now, in his office. She could see his truck.

Perfect.

She entered his office as coolly and calmly as she could with her heart racing as if she’d just run a marathon. “I have something I thought would interest you,” she said in a purposely sexy voice.

He pushed up his hat, leaned back in his desk and studied her quietly. “I doubt it.”

His distant tone was almost more than she could handle. She thought about the chocolate cake she’d asked Dora to bake, topped with extra, extra frosting. “I’ll give you a hint,” she said. “It’s yummy and covered in chocolate frosting, just waiting for you to-”

“Not hungry, thanks.” He picked up his phone and started dialing.

“But-”

“I’m really busy right now.”

Her own words, echoed back, thrown in her face.

Heart in her shoes, she left him alone.

She went back to the cafe, where she polished off three huge pieces of the cake all by herself.

THE NEW OWNERS arrived right at the dinner crunch. They wanted an inspection before entering escrow. Holly was a wreck.

“I’m going to mess this up,” she whispered to Dora, hiding out in the kitchen.

“You?” Dora laughed. “You never mess anything up, you’re too sure of yourself.”

“No, you don’t understand. I mean I’m going to mess this up so I can stay.”

Dora went still. Then her smile spread. “You mean, you want to buy the cafe for yourself?”

“I can’t let it go, it means too much to me. You mean too much to me. Riley-” she swallowed hard “-Riley means too much to me. Oh, Dora, I’ve blown everything, all because of stupid pride, and I want to take it back. I want to stay. I want-”

Dora turned and picked up the phone. She dialed seven numbers then thrust the receiver at Holly.

“Who is it?” Holly asked, staring at the phone because she knew, oh Lord, she knew, and she’d never been so scared in her life.

“You’re telling the wrong person,” Dora said. “Tell him. Tell Riley.” She waved the phone beneath Holly’s nose. “Hurry, before you lose your nerve.”

She’d already lost it!

“Hello?”

It was him, oh God, it was Riley. “Hello,” she said as calmly as she could. “I, um…”

“Yes?”

“There’s a huge garden snake here in the kitchen,” she said quickly. “It’s big and mean and it’s going to get me. Can you come-”

“I’ll call the exterminator for you.”

“But-” Holly looked at Dora helplessly.

“Tell him!” her friend hissed.

“Riley?”

“Yes?”

“There’s not really a snake here.”

“Do tell,” he said wryly.

“I didn’t have a gas leak, earlier either.”

“Big shock.”

“I just wanted to tell you something.”

“Holly, I think you already said everything you wanted to say.” He sounded weary. “You’re leaving. It’s best just to let it go.”

“I can’t,” she whispered. “Riley, I can’t. I was wrong before, so wrong. I thought I could walk away and it’d be no big deal. I thought I could go back, start over and forget about Little Paradise, about you. But I was wrong about that, too!” He was silent and she rushed on. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, I did it because I was too afraid to admit the truth, to tell you how I felt about you, that I love-”

She got a dial tone. She stared at the receiver in shock. He’d hung up on her! And for the first time, a sincere, bone-crunching panic set in.

He wasn’t falling for any of her tricks! How was she going to get him back?

“I failed,” she whispered to Dora, setting her head down on the counter and closing her eyes. “I pushed him away because of my own stupid fears and pride and I never got to tell him I love him.”

“You could tell me now.”

“Riley.” She whirled around to face him. He was at the back door; hair wild, body tense, chest heaving from his run. His eyes were warm and suspiciously damp.

He cleared his throat. “It occurred to me on my mad dash over here that I haven’t been completely fair to you.” He came closer, then closer still, so that they were barely an inch apart. “I never told you how I felt about you, either.”

“You could tell me now.” She was breathless, her heart in her throat.

“Oh yes, tell her now,” Dora breathed.

They both looked at the redhead, but she refused to budge. “Oh, let me stay! Please?”

“Dora-”

She lifted up a hand tipped with purple fingernails. “I’ll be quiet, I promise.”

Riley looked at Holly, who shrugged.

“She has to stay,” Holly said. “Because I can’t wait for the amount of time it would take me to wrestle her out of here.”

“Exactly.” Dora nodded and flexed her muscles. “Besides, I know how to fight. It would take far too long.”

“Dora?”