Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“Yes, please.” Veronica turned over the plain white mug on the placemat in front of her.
“Can I have almond milk please?” I asked.
“Sure thing. Give me one sec.” Ari poured two cups of coffee and left the menus, but since I knew everything on it by heart—not much changed from year to year in Cherry Tree Harbor, and the menu at Moe’s was no exception—I covertly studied Veronica instead. She licked her bottom lip as she read the menu.
She was so fucking pretty. Would it be so bad having her across the table from me all summer? The kids liked her. My brother and sister liked her. Even the town grump liked her.
And she was so down on her luck—I understood that. She needed a break. I could give her one, and she’d be helping me out too.
It would only be for eight weeks, since I’d taken the last two weeks of August off for vacation. I could resist temptation for eight weeks and do a good thing, couldn’t I?
Ari returned with the almond milk and took our orders, and when we were alone again, I leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Veronica, I’ve been thinking. Maybe—”
“Oh, no.” She was looking at her phone.
“What is it?”
“My phone. I think it’s been shut off.” She handed it to me, and sure enough, it was completely dead.
“You charged it last night?”
“Yes. Mabel left me an extra charger and it was plugged in all night. When we left your house, it was at one hundred percent. It’s Neil—he must have cut service to my number.”
“Seriously? He controlled your phone?”
She nodded tearfully. “He’s punishing me.”
I wanted to show up on this guy’s doorstep and fucking punch his rich-ass lights out. “Okay, that’s it. You’re hired.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not going back to Chicago or anywhere near that apartment he owns. You’re staying here.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can. You are.” My jaw ticked. “It’s final.”
“I don’t need to be rescued, Austin.” She shook her head. “And I’m not trading one bully for another one.”
“Sorry.” I took the edge off my tone and eased up on the commands. “I didn’t mean to order you around. I just don’t like the idea of sending you alone back to Chicago to face him.”
“I’m not afraid of him.” Her blue eyes were bright and clear, her chin lifted.
“I believe you. But I’d still like you to stay.”
“What about clothes?”
I thought for a moment. “Can you get along with what you have for a few weeks? Once the kids are out in California, I could take you to Chicago to get what you want.”
Her eyes widened. “You’d do that?”
“Yeah. I’m making a table for a couple in Saugatuck that will be ready by then. I’ll deliver it on the way.”
“You make furniture?”
I shrugged. “Here and there. So what do you say? The job includes room and board, and I’ll pay you weekly on top of that. You’d have to commit through the middle of August. You’d have time off when the kids visit their mom next month.”
She appeared to think about it, knotting her hands together on the tabletop. “Okay.”
“So you’ll take the position?”
“I’ll take it.”
“Good.” Our eyes met, and my body hummed—a warning. “But I think we should probably . . .” I glanced over at the kids. “Set some boundaries.”
She sat up taller. “Definitely.”
I lowered my voice. “What happened last night can’t happen again.”
“I agree completely.”
“It was just . . .” I grappled for what it was. The full moon? A moment of weakness? A fear deep in my gut that my brother was right and I was indeed a fucking idiot?
“I don’t think it was any one thing,” Veronica said.
“Whatever it was, it stays between us.”
She mimed zipping her lips, then smiled at me, her eyes twinkling.
Great, now we had a secret. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a secret with someone. It made me feel closer to her, which was precisely the opposite of how I wanted to feel.
Maybe that’s why I said what I said next.
“It never should have happened in the first place.”
She looked a little taken aback. “Probably not, but—”
“It was my fault,” I interrupted. “Completely.”
“I don’t think we need to assign blame, Austin.”
“You were lonely and vulnerable and confused. It affected me.”
“Okay, wait just one minute.” She held up one hand. “Maybe I was lonely, but I wasn’t vulnerable and confused. I knew what I wanted.” Those eyes pinned me with an icy stare. “And you did too.”
“Not really.” I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip without tasting it.
“You’re saying you didn’t want to kiss me?”
“I’m saying it was late, it was dark—”
“Dark?” Her eyebrows shot up. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Lower your voice, please.” I set the mug down, frantically trying to think of a way to extricate myself from the mess I’d just made. What the fuck was my problem? “All I’m saying is that I got carried away. I felt sorry for you, and I acted totally out of character.”