Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 40942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“Sure, but I’ll warn you that I’m pretty good.”
Amusement danced in his eyes. “Well, best you resign yourself to losing, girl. Because I’m better.”
Stafford glanced down at the note in his lunchbox as he opened it up to wash it.
He hadn’t used a lunchbox since he was a kid. But Blakely had found one and now she packed him a lunch every day.
With a note.
He ran his finger over the note.
Have a great day! Blakely xx
It was likely inappropriate to write a note with kisses on the end to your boss. But for all he knew, she wrote notes like that to everyone.
Yeah.
He didn’t like the idea of that.
He was entirely too possessive of her.
She’s your housekeeper. Not your girl.
He still popped the note into his pocket. He would put it with the rest of them. For some reason, he was unable to throw them away. She’d been here three weeks now, so he was accumulating quite the pile.
After washing out his lunchbox, he checked in the oven for his dinner.
Yep. There it was.
No matter how late home he was, there was always a plate of food waiting for him. Blakely was an amazing cook, and the house was the cleanest it had ever been.
She and Grandpa Jack were even getting on. Well, from what he’d seen. It wasn’t like he’d been around much.
You’re busy.
That’s what he told himself, anyway.
It wasn’t that he was avoiding her or anything.
Yeah, sure, it’s not.
Avoiding her didn’t stop him from thinking about her or worrying about her. She had wedged herself inside him and didn’t want to let go.
It was maddening.
After he finished his dinner, he cleaned up and headed toward his bedroom. But as he passed the living room, he noticed that the door was slightly open and he could hear something inside.
He walked into the living room and saw her standing at the ironing board. There was a cartoon playing quietly on the television, and she let out a giggle.
He stood there and watched her. She set the iron down and turned. As she turned, she managed to stand on her untied shoelace and started to wobble with a scream.
Jumping forward, he grabbed her before she fell. “Blakely!”
“Oh my God! I didn’t see you there. You scared me.”
Yeah, well, she’d scared him too.
He could feel his heart racing. What was she thinking? She needed to keep her shoes laced up. She could have fallen and knocked over the iron. If it had landed on her . . .
Picking her up, he carried her to the sofa and sat her down. He turned off the iron before returning to stand in front of her. “What were you thinking?”
“Um. Sorry. Did I have the TV too loud?” She glanced at the television, blushing. “I was just watching some kids’ cartoons.”
“I don’t care what you were watching,” he said gruffly as he crouched in front of her and tied her shoelace. “You need to keep these tied. You could have really hurt yourself. If you don’t keep them tied, I’m going to confiscate all of your shoes with shoelaces, understand?”
“Oh.” She gave her shoes a surprised look. As if she hadn’t even realized they were untied. “Oopsy.”
Hmm. Did she realize that she sounded rather young? He decided not to mention it.
“And what are you doing ironing at this time of night?” he grumbled.
“I like to iron in the evenings. It’s relaxing.”
He shot her an incredulous look. “Lying on the couch and watching TV is relaxing. Taking a bath is relaxing. Ironing is work. You’re not to work after dinner. Do you hear me?”
“I’m not?” She gave him a surprised look.
Shit. He should have told her this already. “No, you’re not. You should be in bed.”
“You’ve been working,” she pointed out.
Stafford sat beside her. He should leave, but he just didn’t have the energy.
“Yeah, well, there’re endless jobs to be done and not enough hands to do it.”
“Oh. Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked.
He shook his head. “You do enough around here. Too much. You look tired. You should rest more.”
“Me? I’m fine. But I wish I could wave a magic wand and take all your jobs away!”
He had to smile as he took in her earnest face. “Thanks, darlin’.”
“I’m an amateur magician, you know.”
“Are you?” He found himself relaxing further as she nodded enthusiastically.
“I’m not very good, though. And Mrs. Flopsy and Mr. Whiskers don’t make the best audience.”
“Well, maybe Grandpa Jack and I could be your audience one day,” he offered without thinking.
“Really? You’d do that?” She bounced up and down on the sofa.
Shit.
He couldn’t take it back now.
And the truth was, he kind of wanted to see her do some magic tricks. Perhaps there could be more to his life than work, work, and more work.
“If you’ve got time, of course,” she said, calming down and chewing her lip.