Page 31 of Give & Take

“You’re going to thank me!” Chris says, trying to remain calm.

I get the thing in its box, but don’t bring it back up on the table.

“So, you were saying, your super-hot nanny might be living with you?” she asks.

“Who says he’s hot? You’ve never even met him!” Sweat spreads across my temples. “I mean, Oh my God, Chris, I’m still holding this…thing.”

Chris rolls her eyes. But not about the second thing. “Please. The whole town has heard about ‘Lana’s handsome young man-helper’.”

I balk.

Chris takes a sip of her soda. “Fred told me Ida Clark nearly rear ended Miles’ delivery van on Main Street yesterday afternoon because your nanny bent down to pet a puppy on the sidewalk.”

“Oh my God,” I breathe.

Fred—Winnifred to her mother only—is our chief of police, who comes by the Rusty Dinghy only to deal with obnoxious drunken tourists and for Mac’s Thursday night brisket. Fred suffers no fools. Neither does Ida, the local realtor, for that matter, or Miles, the coffee shop owner.

Still, some sick part of me wishes I could have seen that whole thing transpire. I mean,Iwould like to see him pet a puppy. Somehow I doubt Raphael even noticed.

When I look back at Chris, she’s grinning mischievously. She just spotted me staring into space, daydreaming about Raphael. “Please,” I say. “He’s notthathandsome.”

“Liar.”

I sigh, closing my eyes. Resting the box on my lap I cover them with one hand. “Okay fine, I guess he’s a little handsome.”

My pulse and skin say,Liar. He’s beautiful.

“But he’s a child,” I continue. “Younger than you.”

Two things happen at once then. Chris kicks me under the table, eliciting a little yip from me as pain shoots through my shin. And a male voice says, “A child? Damn.”

I blink, opening my eyes, and instantly forget thepain in my shin. Nausea pulls into first place in my bodily sensations.

Because there, leaning over the railing of the patio, is Raphael. His arms are crossed across his chest, his twinkling eyes pinned on me.

While I’m holding a dildo.

Chapter 10

Lana

“How long have you been standing there?” I ask, my voice tight with panic. My hands shake under the table.

“Long enough to hear you call me a child, Sunshine.”

I groan. That means he heard the other part too. Then I blink. “Sunshine?” I snap, suddenly stiff.

Raphael laughs. To Chris, he says, “She’s like a ray of sunshine, isn’t she? I’m not kidding. It’s like when it’s cloudy and the littlest slice of sun pops out, it’s even better than a sunny day.”

Chris laughs out loud. Then she sees my face and schools her expression. “Sorry.”

I go to stand up, then I remember the box. Under the table, I shove it onto Chris’s lap. Then I stand up abruptly, the chair chirping across the pavers. “I need to get back to work.”

“I’m Raphael,” Raphael says, extending his hand to Chris.

I swallow, embarrassed I forgot to introduce them.But not as embarrassed as I am by the way it takes her a minute to get a free hand. Since she’s now holding the dildo.

But she manages. And when his hand meets hers, for the briefest moment, a spike of white-hot jealousy streaks through me. Chris is gorgeous, with her honey-blond hair and freckled cheeks. She’s also much closer in age to Raphael. She’d be perfect for him, actually. I should encourage them to date.

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