AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Grace. The beautiful woman from the lobby with long brown hair lifted a hand to shield her eyes. She was in my room. She was inmy bed.Typing on her laptop.
Or, my childhood bed, anyway. I didn’t sleep here all that much anymore.
“You?” I said, my voice sounding gruff. “What are you doing in my room? Junie!” I boomed, not giving Grace a chance to answer.
I called Junie’s name like we were kids again and she’d hidden a frog in my sock drawer.
She did that once. Junie had laughed so hard because I had squealed like a little girl when I’d opened my drawer only to have the frog leap into my face.
In my defense, I’d been twelve, and my voice hadn’t yet dropped.
I took in the sight of the suitcase in the middle of the floor between the bed and the door. I wanted to kick it for tripping me twice.
“Junie!” I called again.
“Dookie!” I heard from down the hall.
“Are you Boone? I’m so sorry,” Grace said behind me, rising out of the bed. She set her laptop back where she’d been sitting and hurried to straighten the blankets. She wore a pair of pink shorts and a tank top that she readjusted before facing me. “I didn’t mean to intrude. She told me no one was using this room.”
I glared at her as he gaze caught mine. As her beautiful eyes raked their way down my bare chest—and lingered.
While the woman upstairs checking me out with unapologetic lust had been repulsive, something flickered in my chest at the way Grace looked at me. I couldn’t tell if she liked what she saw or not.
Frankly, I didn’t care. This heat coursing through me was because I was upset—not because I liked her looking at me.
I nudged the suitcase aside and went to the door just as Junie appeared wearing pajamas with fat candy cane stripes all over them. Her hair was tied up in pigtails. She looked ridiculous.
What if a guest needed something? Then again, she probably had someone who worked the nightshift.
“Boonie,” she said breathlessly. “You scared me to death. What’s wrong? What are you doing here?” She glanced down at my jeans. “And why are you half soaked and half naked?”
Grace cleared her throat. Heat slammed into my face all over again. This only made me tense, which only flexed my muscles, which only added to the problem.
“Leaky faucet,” I said, keeping my attention on my cousin. “It took longer than I thought to fix so I didn’t make it home.”
Junie’s eyes bugged wider than a cartoon princess’s. She groaned and sank against the wall. “Not tonight of all nights.”
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” I gestured as Grace pushed her suitcase toward the closet and joined Junie’s side. She was a few inches taller than Junie, and where Junie’s curls squiggled in all directions from both of her pigtails, Grace’s hair was sleek and straight, curling only at its ends.
“This is Grace,” Junie said.
“We’ve met,” I said, trying to curb my frustration.
I didn’t need to be an all-out jerk over this.
“She got stranded and needed somewhere to stay.”
“Okay,” I said, my annoyance lowering. “But that still doesn’t give you the right to put her in my old room.”
Junie’s typical defenses flared. “Why? You’re not using it.”
“Obviously, that’s not the case.” I opened my arms to her.
Both women looked at my torso. Junie quirked a disbelieving brow while the prettiest shade of pink splotched Grace’s cheeks, and she looked away. She was near enough that I could smell something fruity. Something that stirred that dormant longing in the pit of my stomach.
“I thought you’d gone back to the cottage already,” Junie said.
“Again, no.”
