Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“What are you all talking about?” Ava asks.
“Molly was house hunting today.” He waves to someone in one of the back booths. “There’s nothing good available.”
The next thing I know, Brayden’s standing beside me at the bar. Brayden, who was so sweet with his mom at the banquet center this morning. Brayden, who wasn’t annoyed at all to see I brought my wild child into the office, but instead lit up at the sight of Noah running through the place. I didn’t realize he was here.
“How’d the house hunt go?” he asks.
“Bad,” Jake says.
“The place on Crawford was actually pretty nice,” Teagan says. “If you don’t mind rats.”
Jake mimes puking into his hand.
“I was hoping you’d get lucky.” Brayden scans my face like I’ve been in some awful accident and he’s looking me over for injuries. “Are you okay?”
“We’ll be fine.” Dear Lord, if I have to take one more pitiful, sympathetic stare aimed in my direction, I might lose it. Those looks make me feel like I’m six again and being told my father isn’t coming home. I hate pity. I’d prefer a high school full of assholes calling me Blowjob Molly to even a handful of people feeling sorry for me.
“What kind of guy kicks his tenants out before Christmas?” Anger twists Ava’s normally smiling face. “Did he really just now find out his niece needs a place to stay?”
“Who knows?” I shrug. I’m too ashamed to admit what I believe to be the real reason behind my sudden eviction. “Maybe I can make it up to Noah and find a hotel with an indoor pool.”
“The hotel on the interstate has a pool. A slide, even,” Jake says.
Brayden shakes his head. “Didn’t they shut down for some sort of asbestos removal?”
I grimace and take a deep breath. “Somewhere else, then. There are plenty of vacation homes in this town. Surely one of them has the holiday available.” I can already feel my credit card groaning at the possibility of paying holiday rates to stay in a Jackson Harbor vacation rental.
“Why don’t you just stay at Brayden’s?” Ava asks.
I stiffen at that, and Brayden stills beside me—just enough of a reaction that I understand exactly how he feels about that possibility. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I say, trying to wave away the words like she never spoke them—because I’d prefer that to the awkwardness that’s settled between my boss and me.
“He’s in that big house all alone,” Jake says. He turns to his brother. “You probably wouldn’t even notice Molly and Noah were there.”
I’m surrounded by crazy people.
I’m pretty sure all the Jacksons know that Brayden and I hooked up in New York last spring. Secrets are a rare commodity in this family. Given that, you’d think it would occur to someone that it’s not a great idea to put us under the same roof.
“The whole reason you didn’t sign a lease with Tom was because you were looking for a house to buy, right?” Ava asks. “If you just move in with Brayden temporarily, you don’t have to worry about finding a place to stay until a house comes on the market.”
“It would be ideal,” Teagan says softly, breaking her silence, but from the way she’s looking at me, I feel like she understands why this “ideal” solution would also be complicated in ways I don’t want to admit out loud.
I meet Ava’s eyes, trying my best to silently communicate that this is a bad idea. Am I the only one who’s noticed how still Brayden has gone? God, he’s probably desperately trying to come up with a polite way to take Ava’s naïve offer off the table.
I do it before he can. “I wouldn’t intrude like that.”
“We don’t want you to spend your Christmas at a hotel,” Jake says.
Ava chimes in, oh so helpfully, “The last thing you need is a vacation rental gobbling up your hard-earned down payment, should you finally find a house you want. Staying at Brayden’s is a logical solution. And since you could put all your rent money into savings, you’ll be that much closer to buying your own home.”
“Noah and I will find our own place.”
Ava leans forward on the bar, her expression serious. “The Jacksons are going to drag you and Noah to the cabin with them anyway, and every other family event they have. It’s their—our way,” she says, seeming to remember that she’s a Jackson now too. “There’s room for everyone, whether you want them to make room for you or not.”
“And it’s really sweet.” I keep my eyes on Ava. I can feel Brayden watching me, but I don’t want to see what’s in his eyes. “It really is, but it’s unnecessary.”
Making an excuse about needing to get Noah, I pay my tab and hurry out of the bar before they can subject me to any further attempts to convince me, and before Brayden’s silence can slice into me any further.