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Shit. For a weekend last summer, I knew Kennedy. Her family had a compound on the southwest side of the island. A great location and incredible views, skinny dipping in the heated pool at two in the morning. “What are you doing here this time of year?”
“Tia, my grandmother, is redoing the guest cottage before the season, and I came up to meet the decorator. I'm afraid I’m only in town for one night, but I’d love to catch up.” Her hand slid down my arm.
Jo turned back to the bar. Kennedy was hitting on me while I was out with another woman. Ballsy or pretty damn rude. It wasn’t officially a date, but she didn’t know that.
“We have plans tonight.” My smile was cool, polite, no dimples.
“I see. Well, next time.” She winked.
Nope. “Have a good one.”
I ran my hand through my hair and looked at Jo. “Sorry about that.”
She still faced away from me, her eyes looking in the mirror above the bar. “If you want to go with her, you can. This isn’t a date.”
“Jo, I’m not sure what sort of men you’ve had dinner with in the past, but I came with you, date or not, and I’m not leaving with someone else.”
“She thinks you will, and she’s ready to bang you on this bar to prove it.”
That was a mental picture, except in it, I wasn’t banging Kennedy.
15
JO
I tried notto shudder when that Kennedy looked at me, her hand resting on Lucas’s shoulder like they were sitting for an engagement portrait. She wanted him, and she was going to have him.
Then Lucas said he wouldn’t leave me. Those words bounced around in my head for a moment. They sounded so good coming from him.
Our burgers and fries arrived. Sometimes, you had to have fried food. The key was small doses.
“You said you had a bad day. Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.
“It’s not important.”
“Did something happen at the farm?”
“No, the farm’s fine. Resort’s fine. Great, actually. This problem’s mine.”
His eyes roamed around my face, and I blinked. He cleared his throat, snapping out of it. “I had a disappointing phone call.”
“What was that about?”
“I told you I was here to help with the farm, but that’s not the complete story. I quit my job in Seattle right before Christmas when the project I was consulting on got canceled. A party involved was being investigated for IP infringement.”
My eyebrows shot up. “That’s bad.”
“Yeah.”
I lowered my voice. “Are you in trouble?”
“Nah. The infringement was before my involvement, but I worked on the deal when the investigation started, and that doesn’t look good, so I stepped away for a while.”
“What happened on the call?”
“I talked to the detective on the case. She emailed a few days ago and told me it had expanded, and then she called today with more info. I thought I’d be getting back to my real life soon, but it looks like I’ll be here for a while longer.”
Unbidden, a smile bubbled up, and I looked down to keep Lucas from seeing it. I was just happy I would be making two-hundred bucks an hour for a little longer. That was the reason. It had nothing to do with spending time with him and how much I liked it.
