His eyes flew wide and he huffed out a shocked breath. Well, that was direct. “I don’t dislike you, Tess.”
“Really?” Her gaze narrowed on him, her bright blue eyes as intense as lasers. He bet that look cut lesser people to shreds. “I’m pretty good at reading people. Your whole demeanor when you’re around me . . . you’re curt with me sometimes. Like you’re tolerating me. You didn’t used to be that way when we first met. I’ve noticed it.”
He scowled. Shit, she was right. But still. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” She stared at him evenly as her long hair danced around her shoulders, the spiral curls carried by a gust of icy wind. “You just think I’m some entitled, spoiled rich bitch, don’t you? Like most of the affluent people you work with here. Right?”
He shook his head no, but her words that had cut him last year echoed in his head. She was wrong that he didn’t like her, but she wasn’t wrong about his assessment of her after that chat, that things had shifted for him. It didn’t help that, on top of his conflicting opinions of her, he was crazy attracted to her. His thoughts about her, his . . . feelings . . . were tangled. He didn’t even totally understand them. So he was short with her sometimes. And her nailing that now made him feel like an ass.
He only said, “No.” But it had no conviction, and he knew it. He just couldn’t lie.
She nodded very slowly, gaze unwavering, her lips flattening into a hard line before she said, “Yeah, you do. You think I’m . . . well. Forget it. You don’t know me after all. That’s a shame.” She cradled her dog and started to walk away from him, toward the main entrance of the hotel. Without a look back, her head held high.
In a flash, he realized he had to clear the air once and for all. She’d opened the door, he had to man up and walk through. “Tess, wait.” His long legs had him at her side in just a few strides. He stepped in front of her, making her stop. “I didn’t think that, what you just said. Not at first. But you . . .” He huffed out a breath, forming a quick white cloud in the frigid air. She looked prim and proper and totally pissed off. “You said something last year that insulted me, and yeah, I didn’t shake it off. It . . . changed how I saw you. Even though you apologized. So I guess that’s on me, not you.”
Her eyes, so blue, held his gaze as she clearly tried to recall what she might have said. Then they flew wide open and she almost sputtered. “I’m here defending myself because you think I’m some spoiled, hapless woman, and why you’re really pissed is because I said I didn’t know you had a master’s? Which, by the way, made me cringe for hours afterwards because it was one of the dumber things I’ve said in the last few years. I regretted it deeply.” Her chin lifted in defiant irritation, making her look every inch like his mental nickname for her, a princess. “Yes? Is that what we’re talking about?”
“Yes.” He didn’t move, just gazed down at her as he stood there holding her things. Jesus, he was an idiot. He was the judgmental one after all.
“I apologized for that!” she cried.
“I know you did. But it still bothered me,” he admitted. “Your assumption that a man working a physical job like I do would only do it because he wasn’t educated enough, or smart enough, to do something else . . . got under my skin. But yeah . . .” He shook his head again and admitted, “I’ve been holding that against you. I’m sorry.”
“You know,” she said, “it was uncharacteristically stupid of me to say something like that. I don’t consider myself to be a judgmental person . . . but then I suppose most judgmental people don’t, do they.” She sighed and Bubbles barked in her arms. Her hand shot out to stroke her dog’s head. “Regardless, that was a major gaffe on my part. I’m sorry it bothered you so much.” She stared up at him, her gorgeous eyes filled with remorse. “I respect you, Logan, and I like you. I always have. Especially after all you’ve done tonight, more than ever. So please forgive me for insulting you so deeply.”