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She giggled at the thoughts and turned the grill off. She and Lauren were hosting the Supper Club that evening, but Lauren had gone into town for a job interview at a real estate agency. Joy wasn’t sure if Lauren wanted the job or simply needed it. It wasn’t exactly in her field of expertise, but Lauren was smart and could do anything.

The listing had said they were looking for someone with “an eye for marketing,” and that had been why Lauren had applied. She was probably terribly overqualified for the position, and Joy worried she’d be bored in a matter of days. A bored Lauren was never a good thing, and Joy was actually surprised she’d made it this long without a job.

It was mid-July now, and that meant Lauren had been unemployed for almost three weeks. She had been busy moving in here and dealing with her house in Sweet Water Falls from a distance. She’d been out with Blake every night since she’d deemed them “strings-attached,” and listening to her talk about him madeJoyfeel like a college freshman with her first serious boyfriend.

He did treat her well, despite their rocky start, and as Joy slid the grilled watermelon into the fridge, she glanced at the clock. Still a few hours until Supper Club. She still wore her swimming suit from her lunchtime picnic on the beach with Lauren, and she snatched her sunhat from the dining room table and went back outside.

Harrison didn’t have a pool like some of the houses in this community, but his access to the beach was spectacular. He did have a hot tub, but it was far too hot to use it right now. Joy thought it would be amazing in the cooler months of the year, and a pang of sadness hit her that she wouldn’t be here then to try it.

She played with the strap on her suit, her cover-up falling off her shoulder, as she moved to the steps that led down to the beach. Was she really going to go back to Texas when autumn arrived?

“Why wouldn’t you?” she asked herself. She had a house there. She’d lived there for over twenty-five years. She had a job at an elementary school, working with students and teachers whom she loved.

The very idea of returning home to her house, alone, made her head ache. Her fingers went round and round the strap on her shoulder, and then with one loudsnap!it came apart in her hands.

Stinging shot down her arm, and Joy looked at her wrist as if the injury emanated from there. Her strap hung down her bicep, the clasp holding the front part of it to the back part separated. She finally realized what had happened, and she picked up the end of the strap. It didn’t look broken.

She couldn’t quite reach the back strap, as it had fallen down her ribcage on the left. Her arms weren’t long enough to reach it, and she twisted and turned in a full circle, trying to get it. Anyone who saw her would think her an inept fool, and she sighed in exasperation. Not only that, but Joy was well-endowed enough to require two straps on her swimming suit. This one was particularly low cut, and she was practically hanging out on the left side.

Deciding she’d attempt to get the strap one more time before she headed inside to switch suits, she stretched and reached, groaning as she did. She could not reach it, and to her great horror, a man said, “Let me help you.”

His warm hand slid along her back to the strap she was so desperately trying to reach, and he caught it and lifted it over her shoulder to hand it to her.

She’d frozen upon the introduction of his voice to her life, and she could only stare at him.

Taller than her, but that wasn’t hard to do. Tall for a man, probably at or just over six feet. His light brown hair shone with a slight red sheen, and Joy’s mouth dropped open. Was God trying to torment her or send her a gift?

She was a real sucker for a ginger, she knew that. The Lord knew it too. “Mercy,” she whispered as the man smiled.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was spraying the weeds when I saw you in real trouble.” His eyes slid down to her chest, and pure humiliation filled Joy from top to bottom. She spun away from him, but that only made her girls bounce a little too hard. She pressed her eyes closed and drew in a deep breath.

She got the clasp back together and pulled the straps up and tight before she faced him again. His blue eyes twinkled with mischief, and dare she think it? Desire? Attraction?

Don’t be stupid, she told herself. This man wasn’t attracted to her. She knew, because she’d met him before.

“I’m Scott Anderson,” he said, clearly not remembering meeting her. Why would he? Joy had been invisible to men for years now. “I own—”

“Anderson Landscaping,” they said together. “I know,” Joy added. “We’ve met before.”

His eyebrows went up. He shook his head as his smile grew. “I don’t think so. I’d remember you.”

“You came to a barbecue at this very house. I was here too.” There were a lot of people, but not so many that she hadn’t met them all. “Oliver Blackhurst was here. Bea and Grant. Cass and Harrison. Lauren was here. Bessie. Sage.” She held up her fingers as she counted. “Blake Williams tried to come in, but Lauren didn’t want him to. You were here. I think I even sat beside you while Grant told us about that one renter who’d wadded up wet toilet paper and thrown it against all the walls and the ceiling.”

She cocked her head at him and folded her arms, practically challenging him to contradict her.

His expression shifted, but his smile remained in place. “I was there for that party,” he said. He glanced around as if trying to see her out on this very patio. “I don’t remember you though.”

Joy exhaled and rolled her eyes. She’d lived with her invisibility her whole life, and she was tired of it. Tired of fading into the wallpaper and wishing the men around her would see her.

Today, she took a step closer to him and looked right into those pure blue eyes. Even the ocean wasn’t this blue, and Joy would have a hard time getting them out of her head tonight.

“Here’s a hint, Scott.” She reached up and patted his chest in a semi-condescending way. “When you don’t remember meeting a woman, you don’t tell her that.” She stepped past him and started for the house. Suddenly, she didn’t want to spend any more time in the sun today.

“What’s your name?” he called after her.

Joy kept going, only pausing when she got to the French doors that led inside. “Ask your friends,” she said over her shoulder. “They all know my name.” With that, she went inside, and she did not look back at the gorgeous Scott Anderson standing on the back patio.

She didn’t want to think about what he’d seen as she’d struggled with her strap and then spun around. She held her head high as she grabbed her phone from the counter and headed for the steps. Lauren lived in the master bedroom here on the main level, as she’d be staying here for longer than the summer. Joy only had about five weeks left in paradise, so she’d taken the largest bedroom upstairs. It had an attached bath and essentially functioned as a second master bedroom.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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