You Can't Hurry Love Read Online Free Page A

Goldilocks?”
    â€œGoldilocks?” Elisabeth flicked her braid over her shoulder. “Very funny. The front-desk clerk must have given you the wrong room. You need to go back—”
    â€œAre you sure you’re not in the wrong room? Maybe you’re the one who needs to be talking to the desk clerk.”
    â€œI was in bed. Asleep. I am not going down to the lobby in my pajamas—” Elisabeth stopped mid-tirade. She was arguing with Jamie, standing there in her red T-shirt and matching red flannel pajama bottoms decorated with smiling snowmen that Bellamy had given her last Christmas. Lovely. She snatched the blanket off the bed and held it up in front of her. “You need to go straighten this out.”
    â€œOkay, okay.” Jamie held up his hands, a grin splitting his face. “I admit there’s been some sort of mistake. But it’s not often I walk into a room and find a woman in my bed.”
    â€œNow you’re being obnoxious.” She tightened her grip on the blanket, refusing to smile back at him.
    â€œYou’ve got to admit, it’s funny.”
    â€œOh yeah, it’s hysterical to barge in on a defenseless, sleeping woman—”
    â€œAren’t we cranky when we just wake up?”
    â€œI’m not cranky—” Elisabeth sidestepped over to the bedside table, setting down her cell phone and reaching for the hotel’s phone. “I’ll call the front desk and let them know you’re on your way.”
    â€œCall them and report me for a creep, you mean.”
    â€œThe sooner you leave, the less likely it is that I’ll need to do that.”
    â€œPoint taken.” He wheeled his suitcase in a circle and headed for the door. “Tell them to be on the lookout for the soggy guy that you fended off with a water bottle and a cell phone.”
    â€œGood night, Jamie.” Elisabeth sat on the edge of the bed, moving the base of the phone into her lap. “Calling the receptionist now.”
    â€œNo need. I’m outta here.”
    As the door closed again, Elisabeth set the receiver back on the base and tried to catch her breath. How on earth had Jamie Travers ended up in her hotel room? Should she call the front desk and complain about the mix-up? But what good would that do? No real harm had been done.
    Except now she was wide awake. And the sound of Jamie’s voice, which often had a laugh lurking somewhere in it, seemed to fill the corners of the room. And how was she ever going to banish the image of him all grown-up, no longer the twenty-year-old guy she’d broken up with? He didn’t swagger, but his stride had a confidence that only came with age and the knowledge that he knew what he was doing—even when he ended up in the wrong hotel room.
    After setting the phone back on the table, Elisabeth groaned and pushed herself up from the bed. She’d worried Jamie Travers might appear in her dreams tonight—and the man had shown up, live and in person, in her hotel room.
    She wouldn’t fall asleep anytime soon. Might as well post some of those photos to Instagram.
    â€¢ • •
    The Brown Palace was certainly putting on the Ritz, Christmas-style. Not that he didn’t enjoy Christmas lights and music, or even the sight of a towering decorated tree in the lobby. But the presence of Elisabeth Straker was like an unwelcome ghost from Christmas past that prompted a “Bah, humbug!” in the midst of the upcoming wedding weekend.
    After frightening Elisabeth in her hotel room last night, there was no need to inform her that the front-desk clerk had given him a room right across the hall from her.
    What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her—and keeping quiet would also prevent her from throwing another bottle of water at him.
    He had three days to spend in close proximity to his first love. No. His ex-girlfriend . He would not think of Elisabeth as his first love, even if