Page 15 of Bottle Shock
“Not who you were hoping for?” Elyse asks, reading the disappointment all over my face.
“Not exactly,” I mutter with a sigh, tossing the phone back onto the table.
“Oh! That reminds me,” she says, a little too loudly, making me jump. “Did Gavin ever get in touch with you? I gave him your number.”
Just hearing his name has my face flushing. I fear I’ll never get over this embarrassment and I was the one wearing clothes.
Istart to shake my head, then pause, remembering a text I’d ignored earlier. A few taps later and there it is. An unread message from Gavin.
Sixteen-year-old me would’ve squealed seeingtheGavin Ledger’s number pop up on my phone. Thankfully, I’ve outgrown that ridiculous girlhood crush.
Gavin
Hey Scottie, it’s Gavin. Checking to see when would be a good time to meet and start looking at properties.
Short. Polite. Professional. No mention of nudity.
Leave it to Elyse to force Gavin to be my first client.
I fully intend to get the hell out of this town, but a girl’s still gotta eat—and I’m not one to take handouts, especially from my parents, who’ve already sacrificed enough for me. So the compromise is working for their real estate firm until I can land a paying gig back in Chicago, where I actually belong. I’m sure Gavin would rather work with someone who knows what they’re doing, though that’s about the only thing about him I am sure of.
It’s strange knowing someone most of your life and still feeling like strangers.He was just old enough to have zero interest in whatever Elyse and I were doing as kids, and by the time I was older and practically living at the Ledger house on weekends, he was already moved out.
Now that I think about it, we’ve probably exchanged three, maybe four conversations total? And that’s counting the bathroom. Honestly, there’s just something about him that still intimidates the hell out of me.It doesn’t help that he’s ridiculously hot—the rugged, chop-wood-and-climb-a-treeSurvivorkind of hot. Definitely not my type…but I’m not blind either.
I text him back quickly, keeping it neutral.
Hey! I’ll be in the office tomorrow. I’ll reach out to get someshowings scheduled.
I set my phone down, take a long sip of my Americano, and try really hard not to think about how firm his grip was when he pried that bathroom door loose. Or the way his back muscles rippled—deliciously, I might add. Or the sound of his grunting like he was doing a lot more than just opening a door.
I told him I wouldn’t look.
I totally looked.
And maybe I shouldn’t have, because there’s no erasing those images now.
It’s going to be real fun trying to look him in the eye and pretend I’m not picturing him in nothing but a hand towel.
Elyse is watching me with a curious look, and it hits me that I’ve been quiet too long—lost in a completely inappropriate daydream about her brother. I clear my throat and push a strained smile across my face. “It sounds like we’re coming up with a plan this week to look at properties,” I say, trying to sound casual, even as her eyes beg for more details.
“Do you even know how to be a real estate agent?”
I shrug. “Sort of. I grew up watching my parents, tagging along to their open houses. And I’m licensed. How hard can it be? Besides, I’m great at faking it till I make it.”
CHAPTER 4
Gavin
EXCITED ABOUT YEAST
“Hold still, Lily Bear,” I murmur, twisting a section of her hair between my fingers. “You’re not helping.”
“I am helping,” she argues, voice muffled around the spoon she’s using to shovel sugary cereal into her mouth. “I’m sitting still-ish.”
“Still-ish isn’t a thing.”
“It is now,” she says through a mouthful of milk.
