Bitter Truth (Hawthorne Vines #1)

Murphy seems like a generally happy person, but there’s definitely a side of her that seems a little lost as she tries to navigate whatever life will look like for her now that, according to her, the dream she’s always had is no longer an option.

Feels like just another reason that I’m so drawn to her.

There’s something inside of Murphy’s soul that mirrors my own.

That sense of loss.

Of all that hard work, gone.

This restaurant, being here and working as the head chef, creating the menu and building myself back up … that’s my redemption for everything I went through. Everything I did.

Murphy just needs to find hers.

When I finally push out of the kitchen, I’m surprised to see Murphy standing just outside the front door, peering in through the glass.

I cross the room and unlock it, opening it wide so she can come in.

“Sorry,” she says, giving me an embarrassed smile. “I forgot my phone.”

She scans the room, locating the phone sitting on the chair she’d sat on when she performed. She glances at the screen and then closes it out, her attention turning to me.

“You were incredible tonight,” I tell her, unable to keep how I really feel about it to myself.

Murphy gives me a shy smile. “Thanks.”

“No, I mean”—I walk toward her, wanting so badly to communicate to her the way hearing her sing impacted me—“really incredible.” I shake my head, coming to a stop a few feet away. “I mean, no wonder you went for it in LA.”

At that, her smile turns slightly sad, and I want to kick myself for bringing up that lost dream.

“Clearly it wasn’t enough.” She shakes her head slightly, and some of her hair falls forward from where it was tucked behind her ear. Like she’s trying to hide behind it.

“That’s not who you are.” I take another step closer and push her hair back so it doesn’t cover her face. “You’re not the one who doesn’t believe you’re enough.”

She looks at me, so much emotion swirling behind those beautiful golden eyes.

“You’re that brave girl who went after her dreams, remember?”

“It doesn’t feel very brave when you flee back to your hometown with your tail tucked between your legs. I don’t feel strong or brave or anything like that. I feel like a failure. Like I had to come back home because I couldn’t hack it on my own. Now I have to face the family that never believed in me and show them—” Her voice cuts off and her eyes pinch shut, a single tear finally breaking free. “Show them that they were right all along.”

I reach forward and take her face in both my hands, wishing with everything inside me that I could make her understand exactly how amazing she is.

“You wanna know why you’re wrong about everything you just said?” I swipe my thumb over the wet streak trailing down her face. “Because you were brave. And you are strong. You took on the world, you faced down someone who held your future in their hands, and you refused to cower. That is bravery. That is strength,” I say, wishing she had any idea just how deeply I know that truth.

Murphy doesn’t say anything, she just looks up at me. I lean in, still holding her face, and brush my lips against one cheek, and then the other, erasing the trail left by her self-doubt and turmoil.

When I pull back to look at her, I find her gaze locked on my lips.

It’s the final straw, the last movement to communicate to me that she wants to be kissed again just as much as I want to be the one kissing her.

So I lean down and press my lips against hers.

It’s somehow bigger than the kiss we shared on the tailgate of my truck weeks ago. It tastes like magic, and it feels like all the breath has been stolen from my lungs. I’d been captivated by Murphy that first night, but this is something else entirely. I don’t remember kissing ever being like this before. Or ever feeling anything like this before.

I dip my tongue into her mouth and twist with hers. I want to melt into the floor when I hear her quiet moan.

Her hands move, resting lightly at my waist as the two of us continue a slow, lazy, sensual kiss unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. And then she nibbles on my bottom lip and I nearly come unglued.

We separate, our heads pulling back, and I revel in the way her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are glazed.