Page 97 of Little Sunshine

When Ash had said I was going to work with him, I figured I’d be able to see something. Do something.

Instead, he’d locked me in the dull penthouse.

It hadn’t made sense. Not at first.

Then it’d hit me.

Given what’d happened at Moonlight, Ash might not trust me. He might not feel comfortable with me around the resort guests at his place of employment. And with all the valuables in his grand house, he might not trust me alone there, either.

A highly secure, barren hotel penthouse was the perfect place to stash me.

As depressing as it was, I couldn’t even blame him. Which somehow sucked even worse.

The rest of my bad mood was thanks to the damn iPad I’d returned to out of boredom. After scrolling through the wild number of options, I’d opened a book with a cover of a hot, shirtless man. Unlike the awful mystery I’d tried to read at his house—which was also weirdly on the iPad—that book had immediately grabbed my attention.

Then overheated me.

Then made me mad.

Because as much as I’d tried to ignore the voice in my head, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about little dove. Whether she had the same reaction when she read. Whether she went to Ash to help her.

And whether he kissed her when her thoughts pleaded for it.

By the time the elevator doors slid open, I was already standing. Only it wasn’t Ash who stood there. It was his coworker who’d come by the house.

Cole.

“Hey, Mila. Ash is downstairs, so I said I’d come get you.”

No alarm bells went off in my head. And based on what I’d seen at the house, he and Ash were friends.

“Okay.” I put my shoes on before impulsively grabbing the iPad so I could finish the damn book that I hated to love.

Cole used his thumb to open the elevator doors again, and we stepped inside. Once we were moving, he handed me something. “Your phone.”

“Thank…” My words trailed off when I actually looked at it. “This isn’t mine.”

Not unless his repair skills involve changing out the screen, body, specs, and every other damn thing.

He gave a sheepish smile. “Yeah, sorry, it was too damaged for even my abilities.”

I tried to hand it back. “That’s fine, I’ll figure something out.”

“No need. Now you have a new one.”

Something about his words made Ash’s previous ones float through my head.

Cole will make it good as new.

Realization dawned. “This was his plan all along.”

Cole didn’t deny it. Nor did his smile look anything but amused. “Take it up with Ash.”

“Oh, you better believe I will,” I murmured as I looked down at the shiny screen. It was pretty. And a nice gesture.

But nice gestures didn’t pay the bills.

My old cell was a piece of shit with spotty service, but it was a piece of shit for a reason. That was what I could afford. If I couldn’t add minutes that month, I wasn’t locked into a contract that would take the money anyway.

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