Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey Read Free Book Online Page A

going?”
    “Good.” Weird, but good. “You gotta minute?”
    “Five or six, even. I’m in Chicago, getting ready to drop an old office building, but we’re waiting on paperwork right now.” Mitch’s childhood obsession with wrecking balls had led to his being one of the more respected controlled demolition experts in the country. “What’s up?”
    “I’ve got myself into a little situation here and, since I don’t have time to explain it over and over, I thought maybe you could spread the word.”
    “In other words, you don’t want to tell Liz.”
    “Pretty much.” Fierce was a good word to sum up the only girl of the five kids. “I don’t want to be the one to tell Rosie, either.”
    “Does it involve bail money?”
    Sean laughed. “No.”
    “A shotgun wedding?”
    “Um…not exactly.”
    He told Mitch the story, starting with Emma knocking on his door and leading up to the present—him at Kevin’s apartment to grab his few belongings and make the dreaded phone call.
    “Holy shit,” Mitch said when he was done talking. “That definitely qualifies as a situation. Is she hot?”
    “Very. But she can’t cook worth a damn.”
    “That’s what take-out’s for.” His brother was quiet for a few seconds, then chuckled. “So this hot chick’s going to pay you to be her man for a month. Is that legal in New Hampshire now?”
    “Screw you, Mitch. She’s paying me to do landscaping. The fiancé thing is…whatever. She’ll be sleeping on the couch in the bedroom. I’ll be in the bed. It’s strictly hands-off.”
    “My money’s on a week.”
    His brothers would have the betting pool in place by the end of the day, no doubt. “Throw me in for making the whole month. Got no problem taking your money.”
    “She’s hot and single. You’re a guy. Sleeping in the same room? You’re as good as half in the sack already.”
    Not a chance. “Look, I’ve got to get going. Get my toothbrush in her bathroom before we head to the airport and all that.”
    “I think I’ll call Liz first,” Mitch told him. “I might even record the conversation.”
    “The important thing is that you get the story straight. If any of you come over for the Fourth of July, you need to have your shit together.”
    “Oh, I’ll be there. You can bet your ass on that. And speaking of the Fourth, what do Uncle Leo and Aunt Mary think of all this?”
    Sean winced. “I don’t think they know yet. The rest of them do, though, so it’s only a matter of time before Aunt Mary comes after me. I’ve been putting it off.”
    “That only makes it worse.”
    “I know. But if it’s already a done deal by the time she finds out, maybe she’ll go along.”
    That made Mitch laugh out loud again. “Sure, buddy. You keep telling yourself that.”
    “I’m hanging up now.”
    “Good. I’ve got phone calls to make.”
    Sean shoved his phone in his pocket and made one last trip around the apartment. Since everything he owned fit in his duffel and he’d only been there a few days, it didn’t take long to make sure he had everything.
    Five minutes later, he was on the road and it wasn’t long before he was turning into the driveway. He glanced at the mailbox and shook his head as he parked in front of his temporary home. The one with daisies on the mailbox and Emma under the same roof.
    It was just a month, he reminded himself. One month and then he’d be on his way, with his brothers’ money and a few paychecks in his pocket and no strings trying to hold him back.
     
    Emma knew a few things about Sean Kowalski. She knew he was tall and outrageously handsome and liked salt-and-vinegar potato chips. She knew he had a body designed to trigger female double-takes everywhere he went. She knew he’d served his country, wasn’t afraid of a day’s work, loved his family, played with his cousins’ children and was, no doubt though she hadn’t seen it yet, kind to animals.
    What she hadn’t known was how much impact seeing him