Page 1 of The Bad Boy's Homecoming
CHAPTER ONE
Missy
Good Girl Gone Wrong
Waking up tothe smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves was not something Missy was going to get used to.Even after living with Mrs.Hart for almost five months, she was still pinching herself.She knew the only reason she had landed the job as Mrs.Hart’s companion was because the woman had the town so well networked that her grandsons had no way of advertising it properly, but she still counted herself lucky.Not many law school dropouts ended up with such a cushy job.And she doubted any who decided to pursue art made a hundred grand in their first month selling watercolor paintings.Or went on to successfully sell their art via social media and an online gallery.
In short, her life was currently crazy and amazing.Which was why lately she’d been burning sage, trying to read tea leaves, and carried an ominous feeling something bad was going to happen.It was like when her Aunt Honey died, right after she’d been accepted to law school.Or the time she met the other girlfriend of the man she’d thought was the man of her dreams.Something bad always happened to remind her life was unpredictable and happiness wasn’t guaranteed.
Rolling over to look out the large windows on the opposite side of her spacious room, she could see the ocean in the distance, and based on the amount of light pushing in, it was already after seven.With a final stretch, she got up out of bed.It was time to start her day, and her turn to brew the coffee after checking on Mrs.Hart.They’d developed a companionable routine, and she actually looked forward to their afternoons together, when it was usually too warm for Missy to work in the sunroom, and she started to feel like a caged animal.
Standing in front of her large wall-length mirror, Missy looked at her mussed curls, piled high in a bun, and peeled off her nightshirt.But just as she kicked off her sleep shorts, her bedroom door flew open, and a giant man—with a scruffy beard, sandy blond hair that hung just above his shoulders, and tattoos—appeared in the doorway.
So she did what any sane woman would do: She screamed bloody murder, then picked up the closest thing in reach, a vase of wildflowers, and threw them at her would-be assailant.
“Who the hell are you?”the man shouted as he moved to the side in time to dodge the vase that crashed on the hallway floor.
Missy grabbed her shirt off the bed and tried to cover up before she threw a pillow at him.“Get out, or the sheriff will shoot you when he gets here,” Missy yelled as she scrambled to stand on her bed.“Mrs.Hart, call Wesley!”she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“What in the world is happening?”Mrs.Hart suddenly appeared in the doorway holding a shotgun.
“Oh my gosh, she’s armed,” Missy said.
“Gran, if you shoot me you won’t get a chance to yell at me or this intruder who broke your vase,” the stranger said.
“Wait, did you just say Gran?”Missy asked, now standing on her rumpled bed.
“Levi Hart, you rascal, you don’t come home for an entire year and then you barge in like you own the place,” Mrs.Hart said but pointed the shotgun down at the floor and looked at Missy.
“Missy honey, you’ll have to put on more clothes, or my grandson is liable to think I’m running a nudist colony now.”
“I’m not opposed, for the record,” the brute said, then had the nerve to wink at her.
Unarmed she reached down to grip another pillow and threw it at him, but he easily caught it.
“Stop throwing my pillows around.These cost a fortune,” the stranger said.
“This is my bed,” Missy snapped.
“Is that right, beautiful?Well, I happen to know I bought that bed, and I don’t like to share.”
Her heart had the nerve to flutter at his compliment, and she would have to be blind not to notice his handsome face beneath his scruff.Not to mention his navy-blue eyes that twinkled like he could read her thoughts about him.
“That’s enough, Levi.You’ll scare her off.Now come on downstairs, and we’ll make some coffee and let Missy find her clothes.”
“Levi Hart, the other brother?”Missy said, still leaning against the wall and covering herself with her shirt.
“In the flesh, and your shirt has a hole,” he said pointing to her chest.
Looking down she discovered she had grabbed her shirt so fast the neck hole hung open, not covering one entire breast.
The heat of a blush raced up her neck, but she didn’t miss the smile on Levi’s face as he slowly walked out of her room.
“Oh my…no, this is not happening,” she said to herself.
“Already happened,” Levi called out from the hall.She could hear him kicking the glass out of his way, then his head peeked back in the doorway.“You better clean up this mess you made before someone gets hurt,” he added before closing her door.
“Son of a—”
