The Red Door Inn by Liz Johnson Read Free Book Online Page B

where her childhood dreams had always begun?
    At least here she was free to leave, to find another place to hide until that ache in her heart began to ease.
    She began to take a tiny step away, but stopped with her foot still six inches off the floor.
    â€œRose would have wanted me to take that girl in. She has nowhere else to go. I can see it in her eyes. And I won’t turn her out just because you’re worried that she’ll abscond with two stories of a badly painted, half-renovated bed-and-breakfast.”
    â€œThat’s not what I meant and you know it.” Though hiswords were no softer, Seth’s tone hummed with a compassion she hadn’t heard in him before. “I’m just worried about you. I want to make sure that Rose’s dream lives on for years and years.”
    Apparently she owed Rose for the roof over her head the night before, but it didn’t mean she had to stick around to accept any more hospitality.
    As she finally stepped back, her foot found the worst groan in the floorboard. Like her weight caused the house to weep, it went on for hours, loud and painful.
    She closed her eyes, wishing that the old boards would open up and swallow her into her basement, where she could pick up her backpack and run until her legs wouldn’t carry her any farther.
    She wasn’t quite so lucky.
    When she opened her eyes, Seth stood before her, eyeing her with more disdain than the day before. She wouldn’t have thought it possible then, but there was no doubt now. The glint in his eyes meant she was in for it.
    His nostrils flared, lips disappearing in his anger.
    â€œMarie, so glad you’re back.” Jack efficiently cut off Seth’s ire with a quick motion for her to hurry into the kitchen. “I need your advice on this color.” He held up two color swatches, one in a family of orange and the other in the seaweed green clan.
    This was her chance to run. She could put distance between them until she couldn’t see the blue of the bay or smell Caden’s pastries. It was time to go. Time to run.
    But her feet refused to move.
    Seth’s gaze swept over her as goose bumps exploded down her arms. She grabbed the lapel of her sweater, tugging itclosed beneath her chin and covering every inch of skin. The rush of fear that zipped down her spine had nothing to do with being in this house, but there was no denying that the hazel gaze trained on her sent her pulse sailing and her mind racing to a dark night and a midnight morning.
    â€œWell? Which one?” Jack waved the cards again. “I need ya, kid.”
    Run.
    She just had to put one foot in front of the other and run.
    Before they sent her packing. Before it broke her heart to have to leave.
    Instead, she followed the lines on Jack’s face like streets on a map and ignored the steam nearly coming out of Seth’s ears. She hugged the door frame, calculating each movement to ensure she wouldn’t brush even a hair against Seth, and slipped past his broad chest. When she reached the older man, she accepted the outstretched cards, her hair swishing with each shake of her head. “Neither.”
    â€œNeither?”
    â€œThey’re all terrible kitchen colors.”
    Jack’s face fell, his eyes jumping back and forth between the cards in her hands like he was watching a never-ending tennis match. Finally, he pointed at the middle color on the green swatch. “What’s wrong with this one? It’ll match the dining room.”
    â€œYou say that like it’s a good thing.”
    Seth, who still stood at the open door, coughed, but his eyes crinkled at the corners. Was that a smile? She hadn’t even known he knew how.
    â€œIt’s not?”
    Again her hair swayed. “No.”
    â€œNeed to paint the dining room again?” His eyebrows curved to match the frown tugging at the corners of his mouth.
    â€œOnly if you want your guests to enjoy eating in there.”