The Fight for Us by Elizabeth Finn Read Free Book Online

rattled Steph, and her voice was as sing-songy as ever when she mentioned that bit of hindsight Joss should have seen coming.
    “Of course I am. Show them on back, Steph.”
    “Will do, and it’s a him, not a them.”
    Steph hung up on her before Joss could say anything else inappropriate, and moments later, her blonde perky head bobbed around the corner. What she didn’t expect to see was Isaiah following her through the door, and when his attention found her, he looked just as shocked as she felt.
    “Joss.” He scowled for a moment before he took a deep breath. “I had no idea you worked here or that you were a realtor for that matter.”
    “You two know one another?” Steph’s comment was the biggest duh comment of the century, given the way Joss’s and Isaiah’s eyes were locked on one another.
    Joss forced herself to look at Steph. “Yeah. Umm… Perhaps Randall should take this one.”
    Steph’s focus bounced between Isaiah and her, and it was quite obvious she had no idea what to make of them.
    “That’s not necessary, Joss.” His deep voice pulled her gaze back to him. “Wouldn’t want you to lose a commission to the asswipe. Fucking Randall, right?”
    “I’m sorry?” She wasn’t apologetic at all—confused as shit really.
    “You said that the first day I met you. In the parking lot? In response to a call you’d gotten?”
    She was catching on. “Ah… The commission that got away. I had more important things going on that day.”
    “Yes, you did.” His tone was far more relaxed and warm on this day than a week prior when he’d verbally kicked her ass in the parking lot at the Landing. Hell, it sounded damn near seductive, though she was guessing he just had one of those deep, soothing voices that tended to trip that trigger in her more than anything. And she was guessing it was tripping so easily on this day because he wasn’t mad at her for once.
    “Well, okay then. Steph, I’ll take it from here.”
    Steph smirked at her before turning and leaving. When she was gone, Isaiah sat in the chair across the desk from Joss. She turned her computer monitor on its swivel stand, so they could both view the screen. As she jiggled her mouse to wake her sleeping screen up, she looked at him.
    “So, tell me what you’re in the market for. We have—”
    His throat clearing interrupted her, and she followed his line of sight to her monitor. She was confused for half a second until she caught sight of the Bristol help wanted page of the newspaper up on the screen.
    “Shit.” She muttered the word as she quickly and pathetically tried to close the window from her sideways vantage of the screen. Humiliation coursed through her body in waves of panic inducing trills. She finally managed to close the page and sat inhaling and exhaling, waiting for the embarrassment to pass. He touched the top of her hand, the one still clutching the mouse in a death grip.
    “Fucking Randall.” He muttered, but as she looked at him, he smiled gently.
    Her focus dropped to his chest. “I lost a rather large commission to him that day, and it’s a tough time of year for sales. I just…”
    “You don’t have to explain.”
    At first, she mistook his comment as his way to tell her to shut up. As deep and warm as his voice could sound, his inflection was still very hard to read and his well-controlled expression was too. As her embarrassment burned her cheeks and she studied his face, it was clearly sympathy she saw.
    “I’m sorry. It can’t be easy being a single mom who lives off a commission based job.”
    She said nothing. Part of her wanted to nod, part of her wanted to cry. She’d been worried as hell for a while now about how she was going to make ends meet this winter, and his warm palm against the top of her hand was making her want to melt into that touch and let the fear go for a bit. Instead, she sat stoically still. She couldn’t take sympathy from this man—not because she didn’t want to, but