Page 12 of The Maine Attraction

Chapter 8

Luke

“Corbin and Sons, this is Miranda, how may I direct your call?” The woman on the other end of the telephone recites the line like she’s said it a thousand times.

“Hi, Miranda. This is Luke Donovan. Could you please put me through to Charley or give me her cell phone number?”

“One moment please,” Miranda replies.

A moment later, Charley answers the phone. “I guess you’ve seen the photographs. So much for that drone yesterday not being about us.”

I sigh. “It’ll blow over soon.”

“That’s what your sister said.”

“Well, she’s right. The paparazzi haven’t bothered me in months. They’re just interested now because my ex-girlfriend recently got engaged to Toby—”

“I know who your ex is,” she snaps. “I don’t live under a rock.”

You may have died on the rocks if I hadn’t saved you. But I decide it’s wisest to keep that thought to myself. Not just becauseshe’d probably bite my head off if I mentioned it, but also because the thought of her falling fills me with an overwhelming sense of dread and I get nauseas just thinking about it.

“Look, I’m calling because I have a bigger problem. My mother is coming to Maine to visit, and my house is falling apart. It needs some serious work before she gets here next week. We can save the lighthouse job for later, but I really need renovations to the house ASAP. I’ll pay your crew extra for the rush job, of course.”

“My crew is busy with other projects that I can’t pull them from,” she says. “Your house needs basic maintenance, which I can do myself. It’d be hard to get it done in that timeframe, though.”

“I can help you,” I say quickly.

“Even so, subtracting time for sleeping, eating, and commuting to your house—”

“Stay here,” I say quickly. “In the guest room. We’ll be able to accomplish more if you’re not driving back and forth every day.”

“People already think we’re together,” she says in a voice that’s barely above a whisper.

“Maybe we can just let them believe that for a while? It gives you a reason to be at my house around the clock, and it’ll make my mother happy.”

“You want me to lie to your mom?”

“It’s a white lie, and it’ll make her happy. She’s already seen the pictures and is convinced that we were kissing.

“The whole world is convinced we were kissing.”

“So, what’s the harm in letting them believe it for a bit longer?”

Chapter 9

Luke

Charley arrives at my house the following morning with the back of her truck loaded with tools. A small suitcase is in the front, passenger seat. I pull it out, marveling at how tiny it is.

“This is all you need for the whole week?” I ask. Gemma would have had at least five suitcases for one trip. Two of them would have just held shoes.

Charley purses her lips. “Since I’ll pretty much be working around the clock, I didn’t think I needed to bring my entire wardrobe.”

I lead Charley through the living room toward the guest room. She bends to pet Beauty along the way. She freezes when she spots my crochet materials. I’ve left them out on the coffee table for anyone to see. If she’s going to be living with me for the week, she’d find out eventually.

“Do you knit?” she asks.

“I crochet.”

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