Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven by Erin Nicholas Read Free Book Online

to show Tessa his good-guy side. Not that he’d ever mean to insult a woman doing any job, but he’d put his foot in his mouth before when he hadn’t been careful. Sometimes both feet. Around Tess, he wanted to be completely respectful, maybe even chivalrous.
    Unless that was chauvinistic. He remembered some friends of his bitching because women didn’t want them to hold doors open anymore.
    Damn. He was going to need to check with someone on that. His sister, Caitlyn, would know. Or Lauren or Hailey—also both Bennetts now—would definitely know.
    Bryan pulled his phone from his pocket and started to dial Hailey, but just then he heard his name. From Tessa.
    “Hi, Bryan.”
    He turned, his best charming grin in place. “Hey, Tess.”
    “We’re all so happy you signed up to help with this.”
    He narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t sure he believed that at all. “Are you now?”
    “I am. TJ said you were very adamant about being a part of this.”
    “Yes. Of course.” He looked around. “What do you need from me?”
    “Oh, so much,” Tess said.
    But she was already walking away from him by the time he debated making a suggestive comment to that. It was his nature to be flirtatious and a little naughty. He loved to make women blush and maybe even stammer. But this was Tess. Sweet, forever-girl Tess. He needed to behave.
    “I’m all yours,” he told her, following with one crutch. This was a full standard crutch today. For one thing, it was early. He didn’t generally need both crutches until later in the day when he got tired. And, while he preferred the forearm crutches in the bar because they stayed connected to his arms even when he was using his hands, he liked the full crutch otherwise.
    “Oh, I know,” she said. “TJ told me.”
    TJ had told her Bryan was all hers? He liked the sound of that.
    “You can sit right here,” she told him, stopping next to a wooden armchair sitting in front of the stage. At the moment, the chairs for the audience had been removed and there were sawhorses and building materials scattered through the room, but Bryan knew at some point they’d have to move all the padded folding chairs back in and arrange them in rows.
    He looked around. “I don’t need to sit. I thought TJ said something about building some backdrops?”
    “Oh, Delaney’s got that handled,” Tess assured him. “We need you right here. You need to be able to see everything clearly.”
    “See everything? The talents?” It just occurred to Bryan that there weren’t any kids in the room. That was strange, considering it was a kids’ talent show.
    “Talents?” Tess laughed lightly. “I guess you could call them that. The girls refer to them as assets .”
    “Assets?”
    But Tess had already moved off toward a group of ladies who were gathered on the far end of the stage. Bryan knew every single one of them, and not one was what anyone would call a kid.
    Unfortunately for him—and fortunately for Tess—he couldn’t go running after her. So he took a seat. Though tentative definitely described his mood now more than excited.
    He sat and tapped his thumb against the arm of the chair, trying not to stare at the group of women thirty feet away. Of course, that was an impossible task, considering he was incredibly interested in what was going on, and considering Tess was one of them.
    He let his eyes wander over her profile. She had long blond hair that hung in soft waves to her mid-back. The first time he’d touched it had been when they were five. He remembered her hair was the first thing he’d noticed about her. It had been long enough to touch her lower back and had been the color of sunshine. Which he’d told her when he’d been standing behind her in line to go out for recess. And he’d run his hand over it. Soft as silk. He’d never forgotten that. He’d taken advantage of the chance to touch it again two nights ago when he’d kissed her in his office. It was the thick, lush kind of