Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
My heart is thundering in my chest. I’m doing my best to keep that wall up around my heart, but he’s making it really hard. I should tell him no, turn around and walk out of here, and be done with all of this. I push my hand through my hair and let out a breath. “I’m supposed to be paying you back, Dom, not digging myself even more into debt.”
He lifts his shoulder in a shrug. “We used to be friends—”
I don’t even try to hold back the spurt of laughter. “We were more than that, and you know it.”
He takes a step toward me. “Yeah, we were a lot more than friends, and I fucked it up. Trust me, I know, Lucky. And I know I can’t fix the mistakes I made, but I can at least try to make things easier for you while you’re here.”
I’m about to say no, but Dom takes another step toward me, and now we’re so close that I can’t even concentrate. He puts his hand on the desk beside me, blocking me in. “I’m guessing that you’re having trouble working at your mom’s house. I mean, I may be wrong.”
The look I give him tells him that he’s absolutely right. Since I’ve been home, my mom has been pressuring me to give Ray another chance, and it’s been impossible to get anything done. “No, you’re right.”
He taps his hand on the desk. “So work here. You’ll have the office to yourself. I told the guys to use the restroom out in the bay. No one will disturb you… I can put in a phone line if you want me to.”
I reach up and put my hand on his shoulder. “No, don’t do that.”
We both freeze, and Dom’s muscles tense under my palm. His eyes burn into mine, and I know I should pull my hand off him, but instead I let my fingers curl into his shirt and I just hold on to him. I want to say to hell with it all and just let him hold me. Just for five minutes I want to forget about anything and everything except how it feels to be in his arms.
He puts his hand on my chin and lifts my face so I’m looking into his eyes. “Lucky.”
I grimace at the nickname, but I look into his eyes. “Do you ever feel like your life is falling apart and you’ll never be happy again?”
His face softens. “Yeah, I felt that way when I watched you walk away. I knew then that I’d never be happy again. Not truly happy.”
He moves his hand to cup my face, and I tilt my head into his palm. He’s searching my eyes. “You’re the strongest woman I know, honey. You’re going to come out of this… you’re going to find your happiness.”
I start to shake my head, and he stops me by cupping my face in both of his hands. “He won’t hurt you again. I know your heart is broken, but you’re going to heal.”
He has it all wrong. He thinks I’m brokenhearted about Ray, and I’m not. If anything, I’m pissed. I reach up and lift his hands off my face and then move and put some distance between us. “You’re right. I am strong, and I’m going to put my life together, but you’re wrong about one thing. I gave up on happiness when I left this town seventeen years ago. So yeah, I’ll move on… I’ll get my part of the business back and I’ll put my life together, but no, I won’t ever be happy. Not truly happy.”
I pull my bag off my shoulder and pull out my laptop, setting it on the desk. “Thanks for the use of your office. This will be helpful.”
He nods his head, but before he can ask me any questions, I pull out a pen and paper. “Can we go over a few things about your garage now?”
“Sure.” He gestures to the pink chair. I sit down, and he rolls me up to the desk. He pauses next to me for a minute and then walks across the room and sits down, resting his elbows on his knees. “Let’s do this.”
For the next few minutes, I ask him questions about his garage, and the more he talks, the more ideas I have. “Would you be interested in allowing customers to book appointments online?”
He scrubs his hand through the scruff of his chin. “Is that a good idea?”
I smile softly at him. “It would mean less time taking phone calls. You would have all the things you do on the site, how much it costs…”
He interrupts me. “But parts…”
“Your website would connect to where you order parts, and the price would include that. And every job will have a timeframe so all you’d have to do is make sure that all jobs are entered into the system. You could even have people pay online.”