Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
“Oh, she knows him more than anyone else does.” She motions to Lilah, who is blushing but shakes her head and looks down at her lap. The flutter I had in my stomach from seeing him literally plummets down to my feet. “Isn’t that right?”
“Oh, good lord, it’s not as interesting as it sounds. We dated,” she shares, and the dirty martini tastes like acid in my mouth. “How do you know him?”
“He is the one who is going to renovate the house.” I try not to say anything more. I especially don’t share that he handed me his business card and wrote his personal cell number on it.
“Oh, he does fantastic work,” Everleigh praises. “He rebuilt the bakery when it burned down.” I’m trying to listen to her, but my head is spinning that Lilah and Caleb dated. “He moved to town after that I think.” She takes a sip. “And then he dated Lilah.” Pointing over to her.
“Dated is a stretch,” Lilah now says. “It was a couple of dates, and it just…” She looks over at the bar, and I make the mistake of looking over to see Brock leaning on the bar with his elbows while he talks to Caleb, who is leaning with one elbow on the bar. His body is turned toward our table. “Even kissing him felt weird.” Lilah shakes her head and takes a sip of her drink. “That should have been my first clue to stop dating him.”
“How long did you date for?” I ask, but the sound of my breathing, or better yet panting, is now the only thing I can hear.
“It was a couple of months,” she says, and I feel like the air is taken from me.
“You never mentioned him,” I reply.
She shrugs. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal.” I wait for her to ask me if I like him. Or ask me why I’m so interested in knowing more about him. But she doesn’t. She just takes a sip of her drink before looking over and pushing away from the table. “I’ll be back,” Lilah says, getting up as I grab my martini glass and bring it to my lips.
My eyes go to the bar, straight to him, as his head goes back and he lets out a laugh that feels like it warms your soul on a cold day. Like the hug you need at the end of a shitty day. I exhale as I take a sip of my drink. “You’re into him?” I blink quickly and look back over at Everleigh.
“No.” I shake my head. “No.” I try to think of the words. “I just met him. Literally today less than three hours ago.”
“Well, that’s how it usually goes,” she quips. “By the way, he’s a thousand percent single.”
“Yeah, but…” I start to say, as my hand goes to the stem of my martini glass. I turn it with my fingers and look down at it. “There is a girl code that says you don’t date your best friend’s ex. The whole bros before hos but hos before bros.” I don’t even understand why I’m so bothered by this. Fine, he was good-looking, he made me smile, and his humor made me laugh, but seriously, I’ve known him for a whole hour.
“I mean, for sure,” she counters, pushing away from the table, “but does it count if she was in love with someone else the entire time she was dating him?” She picks up her glass. “Talk to her and tell her how you feel. I’m sure she’ll tell you it doesn’t go against the girl code.” She walks away from the table, leaving me by myself.
I watch Everleigh walk over to Brock and wrap her arms around his back before he looks over, and she gets on her tippy-toes to kiss his neck. I look over and see that Lilah is plastered to Emmett’s front as he looks at her, saying something, pushing her hair over her shoulder before smiling and kissing her through his laugh.
“Funny running into you here.” I hear his voice and blink once before looking over to see Caleb sitting next to me. His musky smell invades my senses as I fight to put my shield up.
“Why is that?” I ask.
“I didn’t know you and Lilah,” he says, and I smile tightly, “knew each other.”
“Yeah,” I reply, keeping the conversation short.
He puts his arm on the table, leaning forward. “Good news.” He looks at me with his golden-brown eyes. “We start work at the house tomorrow,” he informs me, and my eyes go big.
“I have a group of guys coming down, and we’re going to be finished by the time you move in.” My hand goes out, and I squeeze his bicep, feeling the softness of his sweater under my fingers and the tightness of his arm.