Time of Possession (Seattle Lumberjacks #5) by Jami Davenport Read Free Book Online Page B

can’t. I’m busy. I’m sorry. I’ll call
you tomorrow.” Estie touched the end button. The familiar feelings
of guilt settled in. She’d been a shit to the man she was about to
vow to love and cherish forever. How many kinds of messed up was
that? Or was her insistence on marrying him what was really messed
up? Especially when she couldn’t wait to see Brett tonight.
    But Brett was just a friend, a guy she had
tons in common with. It was opposites that attracted. Right? Wrong,
in Brett’s case. Very wrong. But then so was her ridiculous crush
on her brother’s temporary replacement, a man who’d be a free agent
at the end of the year, most likely signing with a different team
and moving far away in a few months.
    She couldn’t destroy her future plans for a
temporary fling.
    Estie rubbed her eyes, but the pressure
behind them didn’t subside. God, her problem had to be cold feet.
It had her fixating on another man, a man that didn’t figure into
her ordered life or her carefully laid-out future plans.
    Yeah, that was definitely it. Her feet were
encased in blocks of ice, and she needed to get over it and get
beyond the Harris sibling curse, the one put on her and her sibs
because no one could top their parents’ years of happy marriage.
Why get married at all? Why try when you’re destined for
failure?
    For a woman who’d spent her entire life
second or third at everything, stuck in the middle of the family
hierarchy, just one time Estie wanted to be first at something.
This wedding would do it. She’d be the first Harris sibling with
the guts to say “I do.” Once she succumbed, the next two would
follow along with a passel of kids and animals and—
    They’d all retire to the Harris estate in
Washington’s San Juan Islands and live happily ever after?
    Who the fuck was she kidding?
    A powerful car engine rumbled in the
distance, and she peeked out the window. Brett’s large SUV rumbled
down the long driveway to her little home. Unbidden, a smile spread
across her face and anticipation lifted the gloom. Okay, so she
might be harboring a harmless little crush on the Jacks’ backup
quarterback to go with her cold feet. So what? She was entitled to
look, even fantasize. She’d never take it further. Not her.
Nuh-uh.
    Estie rushed to the door and opened it wide,
standing on the porch as Brett got out of his car. She hurried down
the steps to greet him.
    “Hi,” she said, sounding way too breathless
and excited.
    He gave her a shy smile. “Hi.”
    Estie looked past him through the tinted
windows of the blue SUV, the same blue as the Jacks’ uniforms. “Oh,
you brought a dog?”
    “Yeah, that’s Risky. He loves to go for
rides, so I take him when I can. Besides, my cat beats up on
him.”
    Estie laughed. “Risky? There must be a story
there.”
    “There is. To make it short and sweet, I
took a big risk rescuing him, but it paid off.”
    Estie started to ask more, but the guarded
expression in his pale blue eyes stopped her. “Does he get along
with other dogs?”
    “Yeah, sure. He’s pretty passive.”
    “Let him out then. Unless he’ll run
off.”
    “He won’t run off. He doesn’t leave my side.
He’s scared of strangers, but I’m sure he’d like to get out.”
    Just then Dozer bounded down her front steps
followed more leisurely by Marilyn, butt swaying like her namesake,
ball firmly clutched in her mouth. Brett knelt down and let Dozer
barrel into him, covering him with sloppy dog kisses. Brett just
laughed and hugged the dog.
    “He’s wonderful. What’s his name?”
    “Dozer, as in Bulldozer.”
    “It fits.” Chuckling, Brett stood and wiped
his face off with the bottom of his sweatshirt. Estie’s gaze
dropped to the man’s washboard abs, and she swallowed. Dang. He was
gorgeous with the kind of muscles a guy gets from hard work, not
just in a gym.
    Marilyn sauntered up, and Brett stroked the
top of her head. The golden leaned against his legs and stared up
at him as if he