Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
No, that had happened.
Almost certainly.
Well… probably.
But then there had been Brady’s awkward woman comment, and—while I was pretty sure he hadn’t been trying to offend me—for me, at least, it had certainly cooled down all the heat that had come before.
Probably for the best. Especially since the way he had fallen all over himself to backtrack and reassure me had been at least a little endearing.
Maybe more than a little, actually.
But no matter how unbelievably and undeniably sexy my new boss was, I had to stay focused. Getting Brady up to speed with the business had to be my number one priority. He was my boss, for God’s sake, and no doubt doing his best to deal with his own grief.
The little fantasies I had been letting myself indulge in for the last twenty-four hours were really going to have to stop.
Soon.
For now, waking up in the morning, going to work, and making the best of the situation was what I needed to do—it was all I could do, really. I just needed to stay focused on settling down into a normal routine again.
It was just unnerving not knowing what the new normal would be, or exactly how Brady would fit in with Naomi and I’s comfortable little world.
For all the little similarities I had immediately spotted between Brady and Henry—the intense look; the quiet determination; the dry, almost dark, sense of humor—there were apparently some pretty big differences, too. Brady had made it seem so, anyway.
I just hoped the differences wouldn’t be too much for me to handle.
I’d spent nearly every minute since the boss had left the shop the morning before thinking about it—how to handle things, what to do, what to say—but by the end of the day, I still didn’t have any clear answers.
I’d kept myself up for most of the night worrying, too.
And then I had spent a little extra time thinking of… other things with Brady.
When my alarm had gone off that morning, though, I’d reminded myself that I would get through this new transition. I might even—as hard as it was to imagine—like Brady’s way of managing things, just as much as I had with Henry.
And if I was feeling really ambitious, I might even be able to push aside my hormones and get over the distraction of Brady’s chiseled, sculpted looks and mouthwatering body for long enough to get some work done.
I wouldn’t know until I gave it a shot, anyway.
That was the mindset that I'd woken up with, and I’d tried to hold onto it as I’d gotten ready for work that morning.
“Just give it a shot. Just see what happens.”
I drummed my fingers on my steering wheel as I sat in front of the flower shop, psyching myself up to go inside.
“Just. Give. It. A. Shot.”
With a brisk nod to myself, I got out of the car, threw my shoulders back, and raised my chin. I could at least look confident, even if I wasn’t exactly feeling it yet.
Fake it till you make it, right?
I’d been doing my best to carry on and put one foot in front of the other since Henry’s death, trying to deal with my grief and still hold things together at the shop. But with Brady suddenly there—not just an abstract idea anymore, but actually there, making decisions and figuring out his role in the business, it reminded me yet again that nothing was certain. Not even the things I’d thought were most stable in my life.
Brady could fire Naomi or I at any minute, and in the blink of an eye, the job I loved so much would be taken away… just like Henry had been.
It wasn’t until I was halfway from the car to the front door of the shop that I noticed the lights were on inside the building. That was… weird. I never left the lights on overnight, but maybe I’d been so distracted thinking about Brady and what my new normal would look like that I’d forgotten?
Possible, but I still approached the door cautiously. With one hand on the door handle and the other on my phone, I pushed it open just enough to peek inside.
“Hello?” I called out, trying to make my voice sound a little deeper and more authoritative than it was by default. “Is someone in here?”
“Oh, hey, Joanne,” Brady answered, appearing across the room in the office doorway. “Good morning. I hope you don’t mind that I came in a little early.”
“I, um, no, not at all.” I stumbled over my words, feeling relieved… and then suddenly nervous again for a whole new reason.
Damn, Brady really was as good looking as I’d remembered from the day before.
I was staring, and after a minute, the corners of Brady’s mouth twitched and turned up slightly.
Is he smiling?
At me?
I tried to bring back the confidence—real or fake, whatever—that I’d left my car with a moment ago, but… nope. It wasn’t happening. With Brady looking so hot and smiling like that?