AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My heart throbbed in my chest. Was Marley the one meant for me? How could that be possible? The universe wouldn’t pair me with someone I had no business thinking about, much less spending time with.
My phone buzzed. It was Cal, one of the guys on the project I was currently working on. “I’ve got to take this.”
“Think about what I said.”
“Will do.” I walked out and pressed the phone to my ear. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about work or me finding someone to love. I had no intentions of entertaining anything more with Marley.
But my body was telling me I could have some fun before she left town, and my heart was remembering all the reasons why I loved her to begin with. She was fun and feisty, sweet and sexy. I compared everyone I dated to her.
“The stove won’t fit.”
“I’m on my way.” I needed to get Marley out of my system. I wasn’t sure if that meant avoiding her or seeing her as much as possible. Could we have a physical relationship and walk away when she left? Or was that playing with fire?
When Marley smiled, it reminded me so much of when we were younger, before I screwed everything up. Marley was always happy to see me. She liked me for who I was, not the jock that the other girls saw. She saw the boy underneath, the one who loved his family and supported his friends.
She’d always seen the real me, and that’s why she was attractive. Then there were her full lips, the way her hair curled over her shoulders and fell into her eyes, her long legs, and her sexy curves. I loved everything about her. The next few days and weeks would be challenging. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to resist my baser urges, even if I needed to.
When I left that note for Marley, I intended to honor my promises to Aiden and stop messing around with his sister. He wouldn’t have understood if I said I was in love with her. He wouldn’t have cared. I did something behind his back when he trusted me to protect her. I’d fulfill that promise now and not touch her again. No matter how much I wanted to.
I went to work at a job site on the other side of town. It was a newer home, and the repairs weren’t nearly as challenging as the ones I wanted to do at Marley’s inn. I had ideas for closets, built-ins, and maybe even outdoor landscaping.
But I couldn’t drown out the images of her in those barely there sleep shorts and the see-through shirt she wore this morning. I wondered if I’d touched her as soon as she opened the door, if she’d be warm from sleep. Did she sleep with her covers on, or did she kick them off?
Realizing I’d lost the battle with my thoughts again, I clenched my fists. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get her out of my head. If I didn’t do it soon, I’d get hurt, or someone on my crew would. I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
That’s what Marley was—a distraction. I wanted to say she was an unwelcome one, but she wasn’t. I’d always wondered how she was doing, what she looked like, and what kind of person she turned out to be. It sounded like she was doing amazing for herself. She had a whole life in California. Probably friends and maybe even a boyfriend. She didn’t need to reminisce about her past.
It shouldn’t hurt. I was the one who broke things off, and I stood by that decision. But I always wondered what if. We were young. The odds were stacked against us. She’d created a good life in California. She didn’t want to stay, and I didn’t want to leave.
We didn’t make sense on paper, but when we were together, all I could think about was how good we were together.
For the rest of the day, I managed to push her out of my head and focus on work. On the way home, I stopped at the main house to see Mom and talk to her about Marley.
I stepped inside without knocking. The holiday decorations were still up. Mom was reluctant to take them down each year, and she was supposed to be resting. It took all of us reminding her to slow down for her to do it.
I found her in the kitchen, adding muffins to a platter on the counter. She kept food readily available for us.
I grabbed a muffin before she could put the cover over the platter. “How are you feeling?”
Mom gave me a look. “I’m tired of my boys checking up on me.”
“We’re just worried about you.” Ever since our father died, we’d been extra careful with her. We missed the signs with Dad’s heart attack, but we wouldn’t with her. She was all we had.
Mom shook her head. “I know you are. But I can handle myself.”
I barely restrained myself from grunting in disapproval. She wasn’t someone who took breaks or rested. She was go, go, go all the time, whether it was working on the farm, in the shop, or making sure we were fed.
“Maybe we should hire some more help around here. Someone who could bake for us.”
Mom’s lips twisted. “I can bake. I’m not an invalid.”
I’d talk to my brothers about getting someone who could help in the shop and maybe even bake the cookies my mom was providing now. We’d need to approach it in a way that she didn’t feel like she was being handled. It might help if we asked someone she knew, like Sebastian’s friend, Hanna.
“What’s going on with you?”
“Nolan asked me to do an estimate at the Matthews place this morning. His little girl was sick.”
“Poor thing.” Mom knew everyone around town and loved hearing about their kids.
