Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Well, I was hoping Jess wouldn’t find the chickens until I was home so I wouldn’t have to open the door. Tough luck for both of us.”
She rolls her eyes. There’s the Sara I know.
Maddox sets his beer down. “I’m going to cut the shit and get right to it.”
“You do that,” I say, steeling myself against whatever he’s going to ask of me.
“The rental Sara was going to move into is having logistical issues,” he says.
“You said that at dinner.”
“The tenant won’t move out, and the eviction will take anywhere from a week to three or four, probably.” Maddox takes a deep breath. “We were hoping you had a place Sara could stay.”
I hold my arms out and gesture around the house. “What’s wrong with here?”
He stares at me.
I take a deep breath. “I don’t know anything off the top of my head. I’ll ask Tasha. Maybe she knows something.” Keep playing oblivious, Banksy. Walk away …
Maddox doesn’t blink.
Slowly, I turn to Ashley. She’s staring at me too. Then I pivot to Sara. With one hand on her hip, she blows out a breath like I’m a fool.
“What? Why is everyone staring at me? I didn’t kick her out.” I wasn’t fucking her either. Sadly. I shake my head and refocus. “I said I’ll ask around.”
“Banks,” Maddox says, sighing.
“What?”
No one speaks. No one moves. Not one of them does anything other than stare at me.
I gulp. They can’t seriously be thinking she can stay with me. It’s Sara.
Sara and Banks makes Sbanks, which is like Spanx, which means no one will be able to breathe because things will be so tight … No. Don’t think of Sara and tight in the same sentence.
This can’t happen.
Sara slowly makes her way across the living room. I’m not sure if she’s swinging her hips or if she always walks like that, but my eyes won’t detach from her midsection.
“Come on, Sparkles,” Sara says, smirking.
“Don’t start with that shit.”
She giggles.
Lord, help me.
My face heats as the reality of the situation bears down on me full force. Their stares. Their suppressed smiles. Their expectations.
No one has expectations of me. I work fucking hard to keep it that way. So why has that changed?
She grins, stopping just a few feet in front of me. “Breathe.”
I glance down. It’s impossible not to notice her cleavage pressed together by what looks like navy-blue lace beneath her shirt.
I suck in a breath. “You’re out of your damn mind if you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do.”
“What do you think I’m going to do?” she asks.
Pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I settle my gaze on her face.
A spattering of freckles dusts the bridge of her nose. A mole sits just below her right eye. It’s so tiny that it’s barely noticeable. It all complements the roundness of her cheeks and the soft line of her jaw. Dammit.
“I have nowhere to go, Banks,” she says.
“That sounds like a you problem to me.”
I refuse to say it. I’m not opening this particular can of worms even though it’s already cracked. If she wants to ask me, she’ll have to say the words.
She rolls her eyes. “Can I?”
“Can you what?”
“It will only be for a couple of weeks.”
“What will?”
“Banks,” she says, sighing. “Can I please stay at your house until the rental is vacant?”
“No.”
She throws up her hands and groans.
Maddox comes around the corner of the couch. I have half a notion to make a run for it—to jet across the lawn, dive into my house, and lock the door. But there is no privacy in this family—something I take advantage of daily. I’ve never looked at it from the position of being the one taken advantage of. Man, this sucks.
“Why won’t you help us out?” Maddox says. “I’ve helped you out a million times over the years.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Like when?”
I could easily rattle off a million and a half times when he’s helped me out over the course of my lifetime, but I need a second to think. To digest. To come up with a way out of this disaster—because it would be a disaster.
Sara and I barely got along long enough to get Ashley’s stuff from Orlando to Kismet Beach. She’s argumentative and headstrong. She’s beautiful and sexy. My attraction to this little pain in the ass grows every time I’m around her, and I’ve had enough experience with women to know that when someone drives you bananas from the beginning, you just walk away.
In this case, I need to run away.
“Do you really want me to answer that?” Maddox says.
I groan. “She can’t live with me.”
“It’s not living with you,” Ashley says, coming to Maddox’s side. “It’s visiting you for a couple of weeks.”
I glance at Sara. “It’s the same thing.”