Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Jay took a few steps back, set the mug down, and said, “I need to thank you for helping me with Nelson. Why don’t I take you to dinner?”
Dinner. Normally when a man asked her out for dinner, it was a date, but the way he framed it, it was just one friend thanking another for doing them a favor. Although of course she’d loved every minute of staying in his beautiful home with his adorable rescue dog.
“Sure, that would be great. I’d love to.”
Jay grinned, obviously relieved she wasn’t going to try and dodge his offer. “How’s tomorrow night?” he asked.
Erin had to hold back a bemused expression. Tomorrow was Saturday, which was a total date night. And yet she had no plans. Neither, it seemed, did he.
She said she was looking forward to it and then gathered the rest of her things. Dinner with a family friend thanking her for doing them a favor, she told herself as she made her way home. That’s all it was, even though deep down, her feelings for Jay were much more than friendship.
Chapter Fifteen
Erin dropped Boswell at home, then walked over to meet Mila and Tessa at Anna’s Cafe. Tessa glowed in her quiet way as she told the sisters that a very prestigious art journal was doing a piece on her work this month. She was so modest that Erin felt she was almost embarrassed to share such exciting news, and probably would have kept it to herself if Archer hadn’t already outed her on the family WhatsApp group. When Mila chastised her for downplaying the whole thing, Tessa simply shook her head as though she couldn’t believe her good fortune.
“A year ago, I was a paid caregiver keeping my art a secret. I never thought I had any talent, never mind that people would pay to put my paintings on their walls or that a top art journal would want to feature me. So sometimes I feel like I’m dreaming and if I pinch myself, I’ll wake up.”
Mila had always had incredible confidence and Erin could see she was struggling to understand Tessa’s point of view. But Erin got it. “Imposter syndrome.”
Tessa nodded eagerly. “Yes,” she said, “and then on top of it, I wake up every morning beside a gorgeous, loving movie star. Honestly, how can I not be dreaming?”
They all chuckled at that. While Mila also visibly cringed at the notion that her brother was gorgeous, half the population thought as much. Harder for Erin to get her head around was why you’d choose to live with Archer—she’d spent eighteen years sharing a bathroom with the guy. But apparently it was different if you were married.
Erin couldn’t help sharing her own experience. “I’m having kind of a fantasy experience myself right now. I woke up this morning in Jay Malone’s bed.” She waited for the two women’s exclamations of shock and surprise to subside, along with, in Mila’s case, a certain smug I told you so expression, and laughed. “He wasn’t there. I was sharing the bed with his new rescue dog, Nelson.”
She nonchalantly took a sip of her coffee and let the other two digest this news. Mila got there first.
“Wait. I don’t get it. You’re telling me that Jay Malone lets you sleep in his bed when he’s not there? And he got a dog?”
“Those two things are actually related. I was house-sitting for him and looking after the dog he rescued a couple of days ago. And it’s no hardship. Mila, you really did find him the perfect house.”
Mila was never unwilling to take a compliment. Her lips curved in a very satisfied smile. “I know. Honey, if you had a few more millions in the bank, I would have loved for you to get that house, but since you couldn’t afford it, and Jay could, at least it’s sort of in the family.”
Erin cringed. To the rest of the Davenports, Jay was family. But after the last week, to her he was anything but. She couldn’t hold the truth in any longer. She needed to tell the women in her life how she was really feeling. Who else could help her deal with such conflicting emotions?
Mila was looking at her with what she could only call a penetrating stare, so Erin put her cup down on the saucer with a slight clink and said, “I am so screwed.”
Tessa immediately looked sympathetic. “I’m sure you’re not. What’s going on?”
“I think I have feelings for Jay Malone.” She didn’t say it like I like him and I hope he likes me, it was more a cry of despair. How was it possible that the man who could not be a worse match for her was making her feel like a horny teenager?
Mila laughed, and her earlier smug look intensified—almost as if she’d been certain all along that this crazy pairing would work. “Don’t look so tragic,” she said. “I told you before I could see you two together. He’s super hot, and he’s in your dream house. Go for it. Have a whole bunch of hot sex and worry about the details later.”