Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 108846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
He grins. “Been keeping tabs on me?”
“Yeah, so I can avoid you.”
His glee curdles. “Of course I got a reference. A good one too,” he scoffs, and I know he’s lying. I can hear it in his voice.
“Then you don’t need one from me.”
“The Depot is grunt work. But seeing as I helped run things around here—”
“Are you serious? ‘Helped run things’?” A maniacal laugh escapes me. “You want my reference? Okay, here it is: You were the laziest person to ever work for the Sea Witch. How’s that?”
“Come on. Just ’cause we didn’t work out doesn’t mean you have to be so bitter.”
I take a deep breath to stop the urge to scream. “I’m not bitter, Cody. I’m relieved that I dodged a giant, lethal bullet. But that doesn’t change the fact that you did not help run anything around here, and I’m not lying to whomever you are going to fool into hiring you—oh shit.” It dawns on me. Right. It’s Friday. “The job fair.” Frank said he heard Cody was aiming for a position there.
“Yeah. And it would really help me if you could tell them how great I was as an employee. Come on, Sloane. How about it?” He’s shifted to wounded-animal mode, with pleading eyes and a docile tone.
“You mean lie?”
He sighs with exasperation. “Yeah, sure, fine, if you want to call it that. But what do you care, anyway? It’s Wolf. You hate that place.”
“What’d it ever do to you?” a deep raspy voice calls out.
My head snaps to where Ronan fills the doorway between the two sides, still shirtless but with runners on. How long has he been standing there, listening?
He meets my gaze, long and steady, before sizing up Cody through a sip of his coffee.
“Who’s this?” Cody asks.
“Nobody.” My life is none of my ex’s business, and I want him out of here as quickly as possible.
Ronan scoffs, presses a hand over his bare chest. “After all that we’ve shared?”
Cody’s chuckle is dark. “You couldn’t have shared too much if you didn’t know what a hate-on she has for that place.”
“To be fair, we didn’t spend a lot of time talking.” Ronan winks at me.
“You’re not helping.” Seriously, why is he here?
The back door creaks open. “Am I mistaken or is that Dead Man Walking’s truck in our lot?” Frank appears behind us, his presence eating up space in my tiny shop like a grizzly bear entering a small cabin. “Oh, look. Hey, Dead Man Walking. What, you don’t need your arms anymore?” His voice booms.
I could kiss Frank right now.
“Whatever.” Cody backs away, shaking his head. “Sloane, I thought you’d have the decency to get over yourself by now, but if not, fine. They’ll hire me without your help. I mean …” He holds out his arms as if presenting himself. If there’s one thing he doesn’t lack, it’s self-confidence.
“Good luck with that.”
His responding smile is smug. “I’d say the same to you and the Sea Witch this year. Not sure how you’re gonna run things without staff.”
“Fuck you. We have staff.”
“You sure about that?”
“I already know about Dave and Teddy leaving.”
His eyebrows arch. “Dave and Teddy too?”
A swell of panic hits me. “Why? What do you know?”
He shrugs. “Nothin’ about nothin’.” With one last wary glance at Frank, he yanks the door open. The bell jangles noisily with his departure.
I’m relieved that he’s gone, but my mind spins as I run through names. I employ sixteen seasonal staffers here, and I’m already down seven. Who else might be bailing on me?
“Ex-boyfriend?” Ronan asks casually.
“Ex fiancé,” Frank answers for me, earning my glare as he passes by, on a mission for a cup of coffee.
Ronan lets out a low whistle as he shifts out of the doorway, closer to me. His shorts are damp from his swim and, while not clinging to his groin anymore, hang low enough to highlight the V of muscle cutting downward into his pelvis. It’s not helping my concentration.
“Come on.” I gesture at the No shoes, no shirt, mediocre service sign on the wall while inhaling the scent of clean sweat and salt water that follows him.
He sets his coffee cup on my counter and pulls his shirt on, allowing me one last admiring gaze at a torso that should never be covered. “The hotel hasn’t even opened yet. Seriously, what’s the hate for?”
“That hotel has haunted me for the past five years, and it won’t stop. First, it came after my peace, and now it’s trying to ruin my business.”
A strange flicker of recognition passes across Ronan’s eyes. “Fuck … You’re the crazy rooster commune lady.”
“Crazy rooster commune lady?”
Through the open door, Frank barks with laughter.
“You own the property next door to the hotel,” he amends, and it’s followed by a muttered curse.
“Employees have heard about me?” That’s surprising. Despite all my efforts, I assumed I was nothing more than a gnat on a horse’s ass to them.