Page 15 of Ravished By Her

“Oh, like one of those vanlife things?” she asked, seeming interested instead of judgmental.

“Yeah, she did that for years. Fixed it all up herself and traveled around. She came to Arrowbridge to crash for a while, met her girlfriend and the rest is history.”

“How did you end up here? I can tell from your accent you’re not local,” she asked, her eyes lasering toward me. Lacey might have been quiet, but those eyes missed nothing. I’d done my best to tamp down my southern accent, but it had gotten thicker now that I’d started spending more time with my sister.

I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to talk about it, but something about Lacey made the words spill out of my mouth.

“I grew up in Virginia, moved to New England for college. Lost my job in Boston, couldn’t get another one. Sterling offered to let me use her van and I didn’t see any better options,” I said, cutting out a lot of the details that she didn’t need to know. I’d given her the highlights. Or lowlights, in truth.

“Shit, that’s rough. I’m sorry,” she said.

I shrugged, because what else was there to say? I’d been dealt a bad hand and now I was going to turn it into a good one. I’d get back to where I was. I’d get back to the huge apartment and the drinks after work and the life I’d had and built for myself in the city.

“Thank you,” I said with a sigh.

I wondered what she thought about me. About what I’d told her. She didn’t say anything as we finished our lunch and went back to work.

I wasn’t going to see her during the weekend. She’d said that she needed some days off and to be honest, so did I. My body stopped feeling like it had been repeatedly run over by a train, but I was still exhausted. Every night I barely made it through dinner and a bath before I was ready to pass out, and only woke up when my alarm went off.

“We’re so close,” I said as we finished the first bedroom and the only bathroom upstairs.

The only room left was her grandfather’s bedroom and Lacey didn’t seem eager to get to it.

“Don’t worry about it now. We’ll deal with it next week,” I said. She nodded and clenched her jaw. The door to that room had remained closed the whole time I’d been here, and she hadn’t even let me look inside.

Next week might be hard for her and I was going to prepare for that. Not that I was the right person to handle grief and all that came with it, but I’d do my best. It was my job.

Lacey seemed to linger as we finished for the day.

“I’ll get the paint so we have it for next week,” she said.

“Perfect,” I said as she leaned against the bed of the truck. She looked good. She looked so good. Her legs were on display in a pair of ripped black jean shorts, and her shoulders were looking delicious. It was official: I had a crush. They could strike anywhere, at any time, and this was truly inconvenient. The timing was bad, but I’d recover. Even though it had been a long time since I’d felt attraction like this to anyone, it would pass. I’d move on and she’d sell the house and that would be that. I just had to get a hold of myself until then.

Chapter Six

That night, Sterling and Kai had decided to have dinner out in Castleton with their friends. I’d been invited, but I claimed I was too tired from work and wanted to just take a bath and go to bed with a book. It wasn’t a complete lie, but I was also looking forward to some solitude.

I shopped for food and then brought it back and loaded up the small fridge and freezer in the van. It held a surprising amount, and at least I had backup in the house if I needed it.

I made a quick salad with a pre-made mix and shredded a rotisserie chicken. The van felt so cramped, so I let myself into the house and ate on Kai’s pink couch with random TV before getting in the bath with my ereader to have a nice long soak.

My current read was a riveting tale of an assistant falling for her boss who was the head of a fashion magazine. The chemistry and yearning were sizzling, so I had to force myself to get out when the water got cold. I changed into my pajamas and went back to the couch with my book.

The next thing I knew, Sterling was touching my shoulder and informing me that I’d fallen asleep on the couch, my ereader resting on my chest.

“Sorry,” I said, trying to wake up.

“We brought you back some fried pickles from the restaurant. They’re not as good as Nick’s, but I knew you’d still want them,” Sterling said as I sat up and pushed my damp hair back from my face.

“Thanks,” I said as she sat next to me and Kai joined us.

“Looks like you had a good night,” Kai said, nodding at my ereader. “Good book?”

“Yeah, the one you told me about with the assistant,” I said.

Kai’s eyes lit up. “It’s so good, right?”

“Shhhh, no spoilers, I haven’t read it,” Sterling said, covering her ears.

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