The Valentine’s Day Disaster by Lori Wilde Read Free Book Online

“Money woes?”
    “Always. That’s why doing a good job with this bachelor auction means so much to me. If I can’t get legs under my event planning business . . .”
    “It’s back to the B&B?”
    She nodded.
    “Would that be so bad? You used to love working there.”
    “It’s not that I don’t like working at the B&B.” She hesitated, jiggling her foot back and forth against the creaky wooden flooring of the old building. “It’s that I need to find my own place in the world. Make a mark that’s separate from my parents.”
    “Breathing room from Jim and Marcie. I get that.”
    The office door opened and Jana came bopping inside, but stopped in midstride when she spotted him. “What are you doing here? Not that I mind. In fact . . .” Jana sent an approving gaze over his body. “I don’t mind at all.”
    “Slave labor.” Josh winked.
    Jana boldly winked back. “So what are you guys up to? Need any help?”
    “We’re making the set designs,” Sesty said. “Sawing and sanding and painting. With your asthma, you might want to avoid the office of the rest of the day.”
    “Thanks for the heads-­up. I have a situation I need to handle anyway.”
    “What’s up?”
    “The stage manager called. We’ve run afoul of some stagehand union rules that will impact the budget for the auction. I’m going over there to see if I can’t smooth things over.” Jana unbuttoned two buttons on her blouse, revealing an abundance of cleavage.
    “Jana!” Sesty exclaimed.
    “What?” Jana grinned. “The stage manager’s got a crush on me. I’d be dumb not to use that in negotiations.
    “Please do up at least one button.”
    “Okay. For you.” Jana sent her a tolerant smile and buttoned one of the buttons she’d just undone. “I’ll send you a text to let you know how it goes.”
    She left with an over-­the-­shoulder wave.
    “She’s just going to unbutton it again when she gets outside,” Josh predicted.
    “I know.”
    “She’s not the kind of partner I would have pictured you with.”
    “I know that too. But I like Jana. She pushes me out of my comfort zone.” Sesty slipped out of his jacket and handed it to him. “Let’s get down to work.”
    Her soft fragrance rose up from his jacket, sweet and flowery. God, she smelled good. He had a driving impulse to bury his nose in her hair and take a long deep whiff. Over the years, whenever he thought of Twilight, this was the scent that came to him—­honest, clean, homey. Unnerved and suddenly way too warm himself, he draped the jacket over a high-­backed chair and cleared his throat.
    She went to the closet, flung it open and started dragging out three large plywood planks.
    “Hey, hey, let me do that,” he said, high-­stepping over to wrestle the plywood from her hands. His knee twinged a warning. Watch it.
    “I can do it,” she insisted.
    “I didn’t say you couldn’t.”
    “So let me do it.”
    “While I admire this independent streak of yours, I’m the man, and I’ll be doing the heavy lifting,” he insisted. “Isn’t that why I’m here in the first place?”
    “Actually, you’re here because you busted Miss Pendergarten’s lips.”
    “True that.” He loved the saucy look on her. She should tease more. “But when you put it like that, my crime sounds dastardly.”
    “My mother always said you were on the road to ruin.” Her smile, tender with amusement, crinkled her eyes and his heart.
    “So did mine.” He chuckled.
    They stared at each other, three sheets of plywood between them. Good thing too, otherwise he just might have kissed her, and that would have been really stupid. They both were on the rebound, and even if they weren’t, there was too much history here.
    Sesty was the first to look away. “We should get to work.”
    “Yeah,” he croaked. He wished he came equipped with a bleeder valve so he could release some of the sexual pressure building inside him. “What are we doing