Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Josie smiled at Aria. “I hope we’ll get to read together again someday soon.”
“Daddy,” Aria called across the bookstore, “can Josie come over and read with me sometime soon?”
Tom smiled at her. “Of course, honey. Josie can spend as much time at our house as she’d like.”
At that, Malcolm all but yanked her up off the carpet she and Aria had been sitting on.
She shot him a confused look, clearly wondering what the problem was.
“Bye, sweetie,” Malcolm said to Aria, giving her a kiss on the cheek before he dragged Josie out of the bookshop, barely giving her time to wave and call a good-bye to Mari.
“Are the painters waiting to be let in? Is that why we’re suddenly in such a crazy rush?”
He knew better than to tell her that Tom had been acting interested in her. What if she preferred his brother over him? And why wouldn’t she, when he hadn’t exactly been all sunshine and rainbows? Tom had a lot of charm. Even Malcolm could see that.
“We were losing track of time in the bookstore.” Again, he was a gruff jerk. Not exactly winning her over, was he?
Though she was still frowning slightly at him, she let his lame explanation go. “Your niece is so sweet,” she said. “And your brother seems like an amazing father.”
“Aria is great,” he agreed. But he wasn’t in any mood to say nice things about Tom.
Fortunately, by the time they got to the cottages, the painting contractor Malcolm knew was just pulling up in his van. Malcolm went to speak with him while Josie unlocked all the buildings.
Within minutes, all systems were go. The decorator Fiona had recommended showed up, alongside his sister, who was there to explain what needed to be done with the remnants she had begun to collect. The hours flew by as they answered questions from Fiona, the decorator, and the painters, and continued to clear out the cottages ahead of them. Alice came by during her lunch break, bringing them sandwiches, which they wolfed down before getting right back to work.
The painters would begin the next day, painting the ceilings and trim white. Then Mari, Josie, Fiona, and the professional decorator would decide on wall colors. Meanwhile, there were curtains and soft furnishings to arrange. Mari had been disappointed when she realized there wasn’t time to prepare bedrooms, but she’d asked Malcolm and Josie to work out a plan and schedule for when they could be ready. She was definitely feeling optimistic that there would be future retreats.
Malcolm couldn’t help noticing how good Josie looked, how he’d catch the faintest whiff of vanilla and know she was near. He couldn’t get the feel of her, the taste of her out of his mind.
When she ran upstairs to grab a tape measure she’d left up there, he found an excuse to follow her. She turned an inquiring gaze on him when he shut the bedroom door. Okay, so there was no bed. It was an empty room with boxes of old dishes and junk that needed to be cleared out, but he still found himself in a bedroom with the door shut, alone with Josie. She must have interpreted the expression in his eyes correctly, for he saw the way her breath huffed in, causing her beautiful breasts to rise and her lips to part. He felt as though she were pulling him toward her.
“Malcolm,” she said. It was as far as she got before he was pulling her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around him, opening her lips, letting him taste her, tease her.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about kissing you,” he said. “It’s been driving me crazy.” She tasted so damn good. Hot and sweet, and when she made little moans deep in her throat, his desire ratcheted up to a burning need.
“The bedrooms are quite a shambles,” he heard Fiona say just before she threw the door open.
He barely had time to pull away from Josie and walk to the window, pretending to be studying the windowsill while he tried to get his body under control.
“Oh,” Fiona said, surprise packed into the single syllable. “I didn’t realize you two were up here.”
“Just grabbing the tape measure,” Josie said in a tone that was probably supposed to sound breezy, but to him sounded guilty. He’d bet his first million that she was blushing.
“Hope we didn’t interrupt anything,” his sister said as soon as Josie’s feet could be heard pounding down the stairs.
“Not at all,” he said, hoping his casual tone sounded more believable, but suspecting it didn’t. Not to a woman who’d known him her whole life. “I was just making sure there was no dry rot in the windowsill.” It was the lamest excuse he’d ever come up with, but why else would he be staring at the window?