Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
When he stepped into the town hall, he saw that the chairs had been arranged in a circle, the way Agnes preferred them for this type of meeting. Jonah was seated next to Marianne, who worked at the library. Tessa and Finn were standing up front, talking with Agnes. Jonah motioned him over, pointing to the chair on his other side.
He’d just pulled his chair out enough to squeeze between it and Jonah’s when a low, booming voice called out, “Rhys, I want to finally meet you.”
Oh no. It was Caleb. What were the things he was supposed to say? He turned around to greet him, and somehow, his foot caught in the folding chair. He stumbled forward, and then Caleb was there, stopping his fall with a solid wall of muscle.
His big hands wrapped around Rhys’s upper arms, steadying him. For just a second, Rhys melted into him. He smelled so damn good, like coffee and caramel and sitting outside at night. His sweatshirt was soft and worn like he’d owned it forever.
Suddenly, the noises of the room—chairs squeaking, people talking, Agnes’s laugh—came rushing back, and Rhys realized he was in the town hall with all the other business owners. Anyone could see him. He jerked back, and Caleb let him go.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Caleb said.
Rhys felt the heat rush to his face. He was sure it was bright red. “I… um… I need to use the bathroom.” He turned and hurried from the room.
Once he was in the bathroom, he splashed some cold water on his face, but it still burned with shame.
How the hell had he fucked up so badly again? He should have just said something to Caleb like he’d planned, not that he could think of a single thing after falling into his strong, sculpted arms. And now that he’d run, there was no way in hell he was going back out there.
Apparently, he was incapable of being in the same space as Caleb and not making a fucking fool of himself. Tessa would just have to tell him what happened at the meeting. There had to be a way to sneak out the back of the town hall so no one would see him.
The bathroom door swung open, and he froze until he saw it was Finn.
“Are you okay?” Finn asked
“Yes. No. I will be. Tessa sent you, didn’t she?”
Finn nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. She told me I have to get you back out there.”
“No way. This is twice in one day I’ve looked like the biggest fool in front of Caleb. I’m not going back out there.”
“He’s sitting on the opposite side of the circle from us. You’ll be fine.”
“No, I won’t. I’ll have to look right at him.”
Finn frowned. “Do you usually look up much during these meetings?”
Rhys typically spent the meetings looking down at his notebook, pretending to take notes while he was bored out of his mind. “No, but—”
“Agnes is freaking out. She says everyone has to be here. She sent someone to go get Lisa from the gift store.”
The woman was acting even crazier than usual. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
He rolled his eyes. “I wish I was. You don’t want her to come back here looking for you.”
Great. He could face Agnes’s wrath or give himself another chance to show Caleb how inept he was. “Help me get out of here. I’ll find a place to hide where Agnes will never find me.”
Finn laughed. “Then I’ll be in trouble with Tessa. Why does Caleb make you so nervous?”
“He’s a hot, fun guy everyone likes who could ruin my business.”
“Hot?” Finn raised his brows.
“You know he is.”
“Well, yeah, I mean, I have eyes, but you don’t usually get flustered over things like that. You’re pretty cute yourself, you know?”
Rhys rolled his eyes. “You don’t see him falling down every time he sees me.”
“You fell down once, that’s all.”
“I suppose Tessa told you about this morning.”
“She did, but it’s all right. Just come back out there before she comes and gets us both. I promise I’ll make it really easy for you to get away at the end of the meeting.”
“Fine.” Rhys wished his heart weren’t pounding so hard. He felt like he might pass out. He was really not at all sure he was capable of handling this. What if he keeled over in the middle of the meeting? What if Caleb tried to talk to him again? Maybe he’d learned his lesson about that.
Just breathe and don’t look at him. You’ll be with your friends.
Tessa had made everyone move so Rhys could sit between her and Finn. She leaned over to whisper to him. “I’m proud of you.”
“For making an ass of myself again?”
She scowled at him. “For coming back out here.”
Before he could say anything else, Agnes called the meeting to order. “As you all know, the Seacoast Harvest Festival will be taking place in Frostwick Harbor on October tenth and eleventh. That’s only twenty-seven days away. This is such an important moment for our town. We’ve been slowly increasing tourism here, but we want to keep that up. I want to see all your businesses thrive, and I know you do too. One of the best ways to gain interest in our town is for us to win as many festival awards as we can.”