Page 6 of Haunted Hearts
I shake myself loose from his grasp. I’m about to tell him that telling a woman to relax willneverscore you any points—and neither will physically moving her out the way—but then I lookup into his face again, and I forget everything I was going to say. His eyes are the deepest blue I’ve ever seen, and they’re fixed on mine.
“We’re good,” he repeats. “Okay? That… came out worse than I meant it to.”
It seems like he’s trying to apologize, but at this point I don’t care. I’m too embarrassed, too annoyed at the world, and I’ve hadwaytoo little coffee to be dealing with this kind of shit. I’m also still stuck on this guy’s eyes—and his perfectly chiseled jawline, which I’m pretty sure could cut ice if he’d let me test it out. Come to think of it, there are a few other things I’d like to test out with him.
But the guy’s a jerk, and I’m not here for snarky remarks. I’ve got to get to the library. The stakeholder meeting is about to start, and if I want any hope in hell of getting them to hear my side of things, I’d better not be late.
“I don’t have time for this,” I say, pushing past him and out the door without a look behind. He’s even more built than I thought, and the solid pushback of his shoulder as I pass him almost makes me wistful.
But it takes a lot for me to let my guard down. And now’s not the time to start getting soft. I’m going to need every ounce of fight I have to take on whoever planned this restoration-turned-modernization project.
That library’s my wholechildhood. It’s my safe place. And it needs to be preserved, exactly the way it’s always been. Mom wanted it that way. It’s the last connection I have to my mother, and if it’s changed—if it becomes unrecognizable—I don’t know how I’m going to hang on to her.
Which means I don’t know how I’m going to hang on tome.
five
WILL
I’m the most embarrassed I’ve ever been in my entire fucking life when I leave Brewed Awakening. It’s a good thing the air outside is cool because as I stomp to my truck and climb into the cab, I’m pretty sure I’m hyperventilating. That woman wasbeautiful—and I made a goddamn fool of myself.
Breathe in.
Keep it together, Will.
Breathe out.
You’re a grown ass man.
I roll down the windows, letting the morning breeze drift through the cab as I drive. The cobblestones rumble beneath my tires, and I let the rhythm soothe me.
Then I bang the heel of my hand on the steering wheel. I am anidiot. A goddamn fucking idiot. When I picked up her phone and saw that text about sucking cock and pulling hair, I swear something in me turned feral. The way her jeans hugged her ass, the way she blushed when she knew that I’d seen, and her hair—god, her gorgeous silky hair. It was too much. I honestly thought I was going to have to jerk off in the restroom, just to make it out of there intact.
But even more than that, I feel like I violated her. She was clearly mortified—and then my stupid fucking mouth had to come out withthatline, about being hot and bothered.
Way to make a woman feel good about herself, Will. You’ve really done your part in demonstrating whatnotpigs men are. Great—well done!
Fuck.
I’m pulling up to the library when my phone buzzes. I whip my pickup into a parking spot out front and flick through my phone’s lock screen. It’s a call from Ethan Wilde, one of the board members on the library project and the single wealthiest guy in Hawthorne Bay. When Ethan Wilde calls, I answer.
“This is Will.”
“Will, hey,” Ethan says. “Are you on the way?”
“Yeah, just pulled up.”
“Great. Listen—before you get in here, I wanted to give you a heads up that we might get a little pushback during the meeting.”
“Pushback?”
Ethan sighs. “Yeah, the assistant librarian has a bee in her bonnet about securing landmark status for the building—which isn’t going to happen—and Eliza Corey from the Historical Society spilled the beans.”
I frown. This is the first I’m hearing of this. “Spilled the beans?”
“Oh, we’d been trying to keep things under wraps,” Ethan says. “Nancy, the head librarian, knew Lydia Chandler wouldn’t go down without a fight, so we’ve kept things pretty mum regarding the design plans. And Lydia’s notwrong. Itisa gorgeous building. It’s just that it’ll be even better as an updated facility. It’ll be good for the community.”
“Right.”
