Page 10 of The Beachside Rental

He arched a brow.“No.”

She walked around her half of the porch and didn’t see it.“I don’t understand.It was here a moment ago.I’m certain of it.”She worried her bottom lip.

“I know sometimes when I’m in a hurry, I’ll think I did something because it’s part of my routine, and then later I’ll realize I was mistaken.”

Was that what had happened?She didn’t have time to contemplate the answer.Time was ticking.

She had some more aprons, but they were already put away upstairs.She unlocked the door and ran inside.She took the steps two at a time.

A minute later, she was back outside.She couldn’t help but notice how muscular her new neighbor was.In fact, he was in really great shape.Other adjectives also came to mind like handsome and sexy.

He stopped stretching long enough to ask, “Did you find it?”

“Uh.”Did he notice her staring?She hoped not.“No.I had an extra.”As much as she wouldn’t mind standing there while he finished his warm-up routine, she had to get going.

She arrived at the market at 8:03.The market didn’t open until nine.She rushed to the conference room where the meeting was already underway.And of course, everyone noticed she was late.

Neil merely arched a brow but kept the meeting going.He was going over the financial results.

“Why were you late?”Myra whispered.

“I lost my apron.”

“You lost it?”Myra gave her a funny look.“What’s with you lately?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You keep misplacing things.”

“I do not.”The denial came out a little louder than she’d intended.But then she recalled the high heel that had gone missing too.

“Jenna, do you have something to share?”Neil glared at her for interrupting the meeting.

“Uh, no.”She turned and shot Myra a dirty look for getting her in trouble.

Amusement danced in Myra’s eyes.

Jenna didn’t find it amusing at all.And now that Neil was all grouchy, he wasn’t going to take anything she had to say seriously.But that wouldn’t stop her from trying.

After the meeting concluded, she waited for everyone to leave, and then she approached her big brother, who was also her boss.“Neil, can we talk about the front of the store?”

He lifted his head from where he was gathering the papers he’d brought to the meeting.“We had this talk before, and I don’t see a reason to change things.”

“But things keep bottlenecking up there.Not every checker works at the same speed.And not every order is the same quantity—”

“And no one has complained.”

“Not to you but—”

He stopped what he was doing and looked directly at her.“Jenna, you walk in late to the meeting, and now you want me to take your concerns seriously?I’m starting to get the feeling you don’t want to be here any longer.”

“I never said that.”

“Maybe not.But you seem distracted lately.And I’m not the only one to notice.”And with that he took his papers and walked away.

Was she distracted?She didn’t think so.He was just upset that she’d been a few minutes late today.It couldn’t be helped.

She thought about going after Neil and explaining about her missing apron, but then she’d thought it might make matters worse.He already thought she was distracted.She didn’t need him to think she was irresponsible too.