Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Read Online Books/Novels: | Third Time Lucky (Finn's Pub Romance #3) |
|---|---|
Author/Writer of Book/Novel: | R.G. Alexander |
| Language: | English |
| Book Information: | |
Ever had a thing for the man next door? My sexy new neighbor is confusing the hell out of me. Elliot Ransom is a baseball player and a single dad, but he doesn’t know his butter beer from a snozzberry. It’s clear he needs my professional help with the young daughter he’s just getting to know. What isn’t clear is what else he’s after. Did I mention he’s straight? At least, I think he is. The midnight balcony meetings, awkward glances and affectionate bro-hugs are starting to throw me off. But I can’t let my guard down with yet another man who isn’t sure who he is or what he wants. All I know is, I don’t want “Great with kids, Unlucky in love” to be my epitaph. So Joey + Elliot? It’s not going to happen. | |
| Books in Series: | Finn's Pub Romance Series by R.G. Alexander |
| Books by Author: | R.G. Alexander Books |
Chapter One
Joey
Today is brought to you by the letter B and the word Balls.
That’s the best five letter description of the day I’m having. The clock started as soon as I stumbled downstairs for a hot cup of cockblocking my brother JD in his own house, getting an eyeful in the process that may have scarred me for life.
An eyeful of Marine balls.
I guess five days is the limit of company they can take before their restraint gives out and things get freaky outside of the bedroom. Like I couldn’t already hear them through the walls. God help them if they finally decide to become parents.
They’ll appreciate Uncle Joey then.
After calling a car to drive me to the new offices instead of hitching a ride with my embarrassed brother-in-law, I found the painters already hard at work, and the lifestyle reporter lying in wait, two hours early for our scheduled interview and armed with enough questions to fill a few biographies.
She’s sitting across from me in the only finished office that has furniture. The walls are a soothing light blue-grey. Spring Thaw, I think they call it. There’s a cluttered desk I’ve been using for work calls, a few chairs, and my thinking trampoline. I pushed that into the corner in the hopes she’d think it was some weird piece of pricey, modern art.
I’ve seen stranger things in galleries.
I should have rescheduled when the place looked more polished, I know. But I wanted to get this over with, get the keys to my new apartment and start settling in.
Leona—the blonde, suspiciously smirking interviewer—starts out exactly the way I expect her to, with several softball introductory questions like, how did I like the city so far and do I have any pets. Then she dives deeper.
“How did Joey Redmond go from afterschool babysitter to an under-thirty millionaire and owner of one the most successful professional nanny placement agencies on the West Coast?”
My only answer for her interview is, “Big question. I suppose the short answer is hard work, good timing and a dedicated team.”
The fact that the initial seed money came from my first team member, best friend and silent partner is not something I’m allowed to disclose yet. If ever. I’m working on it.
I also don’t tell Leona that in my opinion, at least some of our success had to do with changing our company’s name. The Nanny Hub was what we originally called our service, and it’s still the name I privately prefer. Hubs are the nerve center. The heart. I was convinced I was a genius for coming up with it in high school.
Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to make it official, it had also become synonymous with porn. You do not want to know how many emails and phone calls we got from people expecting X-rated Mary Poppins action. Some of those requests were traumatically specific.
We ended up changing it to the more generic J&T Nanny Placement, and that did the trick. Seven years later, we’ve got multiple offices dotting the West coast, over a dozen skilled managers in charge of our large stable of childcare professionals, and a long list of satisfied customers.
She doesn’t blink at my brevity, but moves on to her next question with a spark in her eye that makes me wary.
“J&T is nearly as well known for its charities and community outreach to at-risk children as it is for your league of extraordinary nannies. How important is it to you to give back? And does it have anything to do with your own traumatic background as The Redmond Rescue back in Washington, before you were taken in by your foster parents?”
The woman has obviously done her homework and is looking for her Barbara Walters/Oprah moment, waiting for me to tear up and share all the horrors of my past. I’m not falling for it. Outreach is hugely important to me, and of course my own childhood has shaped that. But I don’t like to think about life before Rick and Matilda took me in. They are the reason I thrived, and they’ve been my biggest champions for most of my life.
I make sure they get the praise they deserve, name drop several youth programs that could use the plug and stymie Leona at the same time. If you could see the way she’s looking at me, you might want to stymie her too.
She’s making me so tense I’ve already gotten my small suede juggling balls out of the desk drawer and started squeezing.
What? I juggle. Some people bite their nails. At least my anxiety is entertaining.
“Why did you decide to personally oversee the opening of this new office on the other side of the country, Mr. Redmond? It can’t be for our mild winters. Are you simply looking for a new challenge?” She looks at me with an innocent smile and the eyes of a shark scenting blood in the water. “Or does it have something to do with Senator Stephen Finn’s rather notorious wife? Natasha Finn has been very vocal in her approval of your relocation. How long have you two known each other? This city has fallen in love with their adorable twin boys, as I’m sure you’re aware. Has she already requested your services?”