Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
He stood up and stretched, shaking his head. “Nah. I’m fine. For real.” He had his arms over his head, arching his back, and the movement hiked his shirt up just enough to reveal a tanned strip of skin peeking above his low-slung shorts. I tried, and failed, not to stare.
“How are you?” he asked.
I dragged my eyes up to his, knowing he must have noticed me ogling him. But if he did, it didn’t seem to elicit any reaction. Maybe I’d been hoping to catch a glimpse of heat in his eyes, something to indicate he was still thinking about our time together as much as I was.
I was relieved not to feel any awkward tension between us after last night, but I had to admit to also being a little disappointed. Maybe if he’d been as blown away as I had been by the connection between us, he’d at least feel a little weird this morning.
But then again, most men were able to have sex without it being anything other than sex. I, apparently, wasn’t that guy. I was the guy who looked at a man I’d slept with as a potential partner. Maybe that wasn’t the right way of going about it. Maybe that was old-fashioned or something equally nerdy, but… I didn’t see sex as a playful transaction I could happily walk away from. It was one of the things Richard found so archaic about me. Sleeping with Sawyer was kind of my attempt to try it on for size.
So far, it didn’t fit. Thinking of Sawyer as a transaction or a one-night-only situation was uncomfortable and made my skin itch.
“Okayyyy,” Sawyer said, moving around me. “Forget I asked.”
I blinked at him and shook my head, realizing he thought I’d rudely blown off his question. “No, sorry. That was just me being… weird.” I winced at the word choice. Usually I was much better on my feet than this, but something about Sawyer constantly threw me off my game. I took a breath, trying to slow my racing thoughts. “I’m good. Thank you. And this coffee is better than expected, so thanks for that too.”
The lobby door slammed open and a frazzled man came rushing in, looking in every direction. “Is he here? Did he come in here? Please, god, tell me you have the Lovejoys’ Reginald.”
Sawyer and I stared at the man. Sawyer was clearly not awake enough yet to answer, so I stepped forward.
“Sir, I’m not sure what a Lovejoy’s Reginald is, but I didn’t see anyone come in here except for a young local woman.”
“Did she have a shaggy brown dachshund with her by any chance? Hot turquoise leash?”
“Definitely not. Unless it was wrapped in a napkin and covered in chocolate sprinkles.”
“Damn!” he snapped and turned on his heel to race back out.
I glanced over at Sawyer, who shrugged. “Wedding photographer. Don’t ask.”
He took another long sip of coffee before nodding and turning back to the reception counter where his papers were clearly no longer scattered around. He patted his hands against the empty counter in a panic. “Fuck. Shit. Fuck.”
I stepped forward, pointing. “I put them under the counter. You were… drooling on them.”
As soon as he spotted them, he grabbed them and clutched them to his chest, closing his eyes in relief. “Thank you.”
“Maybe you should make copies of them and put them somewhere safe.” I clamped my lips together in hopes I hadn’t sounded as bitchy as my father. “Never mind.”
“No, you’re right. I should. It’s just hard to declare them done.” He let out a little nervous chuckle. “But I guess they need to be. It’s now or never, right?”
He didn’t seem to be asking me, so I simply made a sound of agreement and continued to sip my coffee. It was none of my business, I reminded myself. Except that it sort of was, another part of my brain countered. If these were Sawyer’s plans for what he wanted to do with the inn, it might affect the terms of the sale. Really, it would be in my client’s best interest if I took a look at them.
My interest had nothing to do with Sawyer personally. At least that’s what I kept telling myself as I opened my mouth and asked, “Would you be willing to let me take a look?”
10
Sawyer
Not only no, but hell no. If James hadn’t been smart enough to sneak a peek at my designs while I was resting my eyes, then too bad for him. He was still the opposition in this real estate deal, and even I knew better than to show my hand to the other side.
“No, thank you,” I said drily, as if he’d been offering some kind of help.
He sighed. “I’m not trying to steal your designs, Sawyer. I don’t have anything to do with the development side of Dunning. I’m a lawyer, not an architect. Even if I spent hours studying your designs, I wouldn’t know how to relate the information on them to a designer other than saying ‘this one part is a box and has a kind of stick thing on it.’ Does that make you feel any better?”