Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
When she said so, Mila laughed. “Sadly, that’s true. He even demonstrated it to us once.”
Tessa glanced between the sisters as though they were teasing her. “I don’t believe you.”
Erin couldn’t resist the opportunity to make the two women laugh. She put down her cappuccino, stood, and tried to make her five-foot-three frame as tall as possible. She pushed out her chest and swaggered up to Tessa, whose pretty blue eyes had widened slightly. She tilted up Tessa’s chin with one finger. Then she said, in a husky voice that badly imitated Jay, with her best smoldering gaze, “Has anyone ever told you that you have the most beautiful blue eyes? No, don’t look away. It would be a crime. Like covering up the Mona Lisa.”
Mila laughed so hard she clutched her stomach. “It’s true. That’s what he does. Jay says it works often enough that he’s never changed his pitch. Except sometimes he compliments a woman’s smile, or her skin. He’s so used to making deals that he even looks at getting laid as closing the deal.”
Tessa stared at Mila, aghast. “But you’re in sales and you’re not like that.”
“I am altogether classier than Jay. But I do think he is mellowing, Erin.”
Tessa looked over at Erin as she seated herself once more. “I don’t know. I could see you with someone like Jay. Don’t they say opposites attract? I mean, look at me and Arch.”
Erin shook her head. “You guys are the unicorn romance—the perfect couple.”
“And what about Mila and Hersch?” Tessa continued, a sweet, sly grin forming at the corners of her mouth.
Erin threw up her hands. “Okay, okay, you’ve given me two examples of people who lucked out. I’d say that’s way above average.”
Mila shook her head. “Actually, if you count all of Smith Sullivan’s siblings and cousins, it seems that finding true love isn’t all that crazy, even when the odds seem stacked against the couple.”
Erin sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. “The Sullivans are the ultimate anomaly. All so blissfully in love. I mean, I’m thrilled for them, of course, but I’m just not convinced it’s going to happen for everyone. Especially me.”
“Good things come in sets of three,” Tessa said quietly.
Erin didn’t share her optimism. She wasn’t like Mila, who was more than happy to be the center of attention, and she wasn’t an artist like Tessa, who had to accept some degree of public interest in her work. No, she was much quieter than both these women and sometimes that meant she faded into the background. But the background was where she liked to dwell. There she could people-watch and try to understand her fellow humans a little better. Those observation skills made her good at her job, writing about people all day long in the newspaper. Even if she wanted to step into the limelight, it would never work. No, it was best to remain exactly as she was. Single and quiet and in the background, watching and learning. The true love Mila and Tessa had found was nowhere in sight, and that was fine. It wasn’t her turn.
She played for a moment with a silver ring she wore. “I would never, ever in a million years be with Jay.”
“When did you get to be so tough?” Mila wanted to know. She put her coffee mug down and turned to Erin as though there were something she was missing.
The only person she’d nearly told about that awful experience in college was Mila. But she’d never quite found the words. Instead, she’d buried that memory deep, deep down and felt most of the time as though she’d recovered and moved on. . . except that pushy alpha men who tried to get close to her tended to get pushed away fast.
Erin took another sip of her cappuccino and decided to divert the attention back to the house sale. “Well, maybe I’ll be invited to the housewarming party and I’ll finally see inside that house.”
“No need to wait. I have to drop off the extra set of keys. Do you want to come and have a private viewing?”
She couldn’t imagine anything she wanted more. So long as she didn’t have to see the new owner. “Will Jay be there?”
“No. He’s in LA until tomorrow. That’s what he told me.”
Erin couldn’t turn down an opportunity to see inside the home she’d admired from afar for so long—especially before it got into the hands of Jay Malone and he filled it with lingerie models. She had a relatively flexible schedule at work, and today the editorial meeting wasn’t until one.
The temptation was too great to resist.
“I’d love to,” she said with a grin.
Chapter Two
Since Erin had walked to their morning coffee date, Mila drove her to Jay’s new house. She always felt at home in her sister’s SUV because it was the perfect encapsulation of Mila’s personality: smart enough that she could impress clients and take them to view houses, but with plenty of room for surfboards and wetsuits. Anywhere Mila could be herself, Erin felt more like herself, too.