 by Annabeth Albert.jpg)
Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83039 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83039 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I’ve inherited my aunt’s historic house in small-town Oregon, and I need to fix it up and sell it fast before I move on to my big-city dreams. I’m one of the navy’s best investigators, but twenty years of living in base housing means DIY isn’t part of my extensive skill set.
Luckily, my best friend has the solution: his twenty-three-year-old son. Knox recently graduated from college, needs a room for the summer, and comes with a giant cat and years of remodeling experience.
Not only is Knox all grown up and hot as sin, but I recognize him. He’s the bossy, bearded guy I shared the hottest kiss of my life with. No way can my buddy find out I’ve got it bad for his son. But with all the stripping, hammering, and drilling, my defenses crumble one dance break at a time.
As our sexy secret summer fling continues, Knox also proves himself handy at fixing my grumpy mood and wounded heart. Now I can’t imagine a future without him. I can solve any problem the navy throws at me, but I have no clue what to do about loving Knox or the damage this could do to my decades-long friendship.
Can we build a forever together, or are we destined to go our separate ways?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Monroe
One summer. I could make it one last summer in Safe Harbor. And if I gave myself that pep talk frequently enough, maybe I’d actually start believing it.
“Monroe! Hold up!” Rob’s voice sounded behind me as I reached for the door of the Blessed Bean coffee shop. My lower back tingled a warning, but when the chief of police called my name, I generally listened. Also, he was my good friend, so I slowed long enough for him to huff up beside me. “I have the solution for your problem.”
“Which one?” I groaned. I doubted Rob’s ability to help with anything on my lengthy to-do list.
“Wait. What do you have on?” Rob turned on his cop voice as he cast a skeptical eye to my black T-shirt. I had decades of law enforcement experience, yet his stare made me squirm like a naughty teen. I had to make a concerted effort to resist the impulse to cross my arms over my black T-shirt proudly proclaiming I DO CREW, with colorful stick figures of two grooms. Rob’s expression turned comical. “Something you want to share?”
Lord, save me from small-town gossip. It wasn’t just Rob. Rob would talk to his wife, who would talk to Rob’s parents, who would, in turn, talk to the rest of Safe Harbor. They’d have me married off by sundown. I should have known better than to give into my cold-brew craving. It had only taken a few weeks of being back in Safe Harbor to get me mentally packing. Bring on some good urban anonymity.
“I’m going to an old NCIS friend’s bachelor party tonight in Portland. The organizers mailed out shirts to everyone.”
“Oh, that’s right. You mentioned your trip to the city at the station the other day. Number three for this friend, right?” Rob seemed in no hurry to enter the coffee shop. I was doing a favor for him and the woefully understaffed police department by reviewing old cold-case files while I was in town. Thanks to advances in forensic science over the last few decades, some previously shelved cases had new possibilities for being solved, and my work was to sort out which cases most warranted a fresh look. Rob wasn’t exactly my boss, and we’d known each other enough years that I could give a loud snort.
“Jorge says this one is true love.” I added an eye roll before stretching my triceps out, getting ready for my drive into the city. “Hope springs eternal and all that. And I wasn’t stateside for the other two weddings, so I don’t mind that Jorge and his new love, Tyreece, are going all out.”
“I mind that shirt.” Rob cackled. He looked all official in uniform, his closely cropped brown hair starting to show some silver.
“Says the guy who wears the same thing every day.” I still struggled to reconcile this particular version of Rob with the skinny freckled teen who’d befriended me in high school.
“Says the guy who did his twenty in navy blues and should have better fashion sense now that he’s out.” Rob shook his head at me like he knew anything about fashion himself. He was such a dad now. “Anyway, back to my great idea.”
“That sounds ominous. Last great idea of yours in high school led to a cracked collarbone and food poisoning.” Chuckling, I risked a discreet glance at my watch. Portland was only an hour or so away, but the navy had made sure I hated tardiness of any kind.
“This is a way better plan. Promise.” Rob grinned, a hint of that teen prankster still there behind his wire-rimmed glasses and rounded more fatherly face. “And you’re cranky because you’re only in town to get your aunt’s big old house on the market, and you want to be in the Bay Area by fall.”
“Ideally.” An image of the condo I had toured in the Castro flickered in my brain. Urban. Anonymous. No one to tease me about my attire, and plenty of options to keep busy beyond DIY lists for my aunt’s old house. I was grateful, if a little befuddled, as to why she’d picked me to leave it to.
“If you want to meet that goal, then you, my friend, need a roommate.” Rob beamed like he was the first to make this suggestion.
“I tried telling him that idea.” Our mutual high-school friend, Holden, wheeled up the short sidewalk to the coffeehouse, not even pretending to give Rob and me privacy. “I said he should put up an ad. Offer a room in exchange for someone who can actually use a drill.”
“I am not entirely helpless.” I gave them both my best, hardest officer glare. I’d scared plenty of new recruits, but my old friends weren’t having it. “So what if home repair isn’t my usual skill set? I’m learning. I don’t need some random person responding to an ad.”