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Right now my world was turned upside down and I couldn’t afford the time and energy to figure out how she fit into my life, if at all. Grace Nolan was a distraction. And if I had any hope of discovering how I was going to move forward, I needed to keep her at a distance.
No matter how much I wanted her.
Chapter 3
Grace
This was not the situation I’d agreed to.
I had thought I’d been invited to my best friend’s house to clean out the junk we’d accumulated in the few years we’d lived together, thinking the hardest choice I’d have to make was whether to keep, donate, or trash.
But now Ben Lockwood sat across from me, and the only choice I had was to avoid eye contact, because I knew the moment I looked at him, my nipples would immediately harden into razor sharp points ready to cut glass. His long, blond hair was always out of control. I loved it. Loved the way it fell over his eyes, making him mysterious. Loved the way it had tickled my neck and chest when he’d paid attention to my nipples.
Because I knew how that felt.
Because we’d had sex six months ago. I’d let him own me, and it had been the best sex of my life.
But that was then.
I was no longer that girl.
I was moving on with my career, and I didn’t have time for frivolous sexual encounters.
No matter how good the memory.
“Not that I don’t enjoy the chitchat, but what the hell are we doing here?” Ben asked, leaning forward to place his empty beer bottle on the glass coffee table.
Everly was currently snuggled up on the couch in the family room with her boyfriend, Max Levin. They had been together for about six months now, the very dictionary definition of a whirlwind, opposites-attract romance. But she was happy. I saw it every time she looked at him.
Who knew the son of a porn star had it in him to sweep my friend off her feet?
And I wanted the same thing, damn it.
“I need all hands on deck.” She stood, releasing herself from Max’s embrace but not before giving him a kiss on the cheek. She paced the small room, moving to the long end of the coffee table to address us. “The grand opening party is only three weeks away and you two are going to help.”
Max had spent weeks renovating the hotel and it was now open for business. Most of the kinks had been worked out, so Everly was planning a grand opening event in the lounge attached to the hotel.
Ben groaned. “Everly I appreciate the magnitude of the event, but ever since asshole left to pursue his dreams I’ve been swamped. I’m not sure I have any minutes to spare.”
Selfish ass.
If Everly wanted to ply me with work, so be it. Idle hands were currently my worst enemy.
“Evs, you need a job or to go back to school or something.” Ben’s observation, although over the line, was dead on. “You’re practically vibrating from stress.”
“Just for that, you’re on swag duty.” Everly looked none too pleased. “Both of you.”
“The two of us?” Ben looked nauseated. “Like…the two of us?” He pointed between us with his index finger. His shoulders now taking up residence by his ears.
My relationship with Ben was amicable, but usually he played the part of jerk to perfection. And not once had we ever brought up the elephant in the room—the smokin’ hot sex session we’d had six months ago. Luckily, we were always in a group. So there was always a buffer.
“You need to make five hundred bags.” Everly sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, her own way of keeping herself in check. “I’ll have everything delivered to White Lace so you’ll have enough room to get it done.”
“Five hundred is a lot, Ev.”
She waved me off. “Totally doable.”
“So you want us to do this together?” Ben still wasn’t dropping the togetherness factor.
