Page 74 of Just My Luck

Tears pricked my eyes. If it weren’t for Abel agreeing to marry me, I could never have accessed my trust fund. I knew I had to find a way to make it up to him—to make the lie worth it in the end.

This is really happening.

I glanced across the yard. The cabin was barely visible down the path and through the trees, but my heart ached. It was going to take work to pick up the pieces after the fire, but I could dothis for my granddad and prove to myself that Jared could knock me down, but I would always stand back up.

Beckett began shuffling the paperwork on the table as he packed to leave. “If it’s official, I can start drafting plans.”

Kate wrapped her arm around my shoulder, and my heart clunked. “So, Sloane, how do you feel about being on television?”

Abel

You’re late for work.

Am I fired?

Yes.

Fantastic. My boss was the WORST.

That’s not what you told him last night.

I grinneddown at my phone and scrambled through Abel’s house to find my keys and purse. He’d known my meeting with the Millers might make me late for my shift, but it still made my tummy flutter that he cared enough to keep tabs on me.

Maybe it meant that he missed me. I missed him too.

We were still waiting on JP to draw up the paperwork for the brewery acquisition, and I knew Abel was getting antsy. Neither of us knew why his brother was dragging his feet with the deal. Most days, I didn’t let it bother me, because it meant more time in our little bubble pretending.

Nothing’s changed.

It had been weeks since those words slipped past my lips, and I still regretted them. Sure, what I had meant was that going from broke and desperate to a literal trust fund babydidn’t change who I was on the inside. The immediate hurt that had flashed across Abel’s face haunted me. In the heat of the moment, he’d stuffed it down, but there was no denying that it had been there.

Since then, I was still too chickenshit to admit that I was falling in love with my husband. After the deal went through and the brewery was his, there was no need to continue tying himself to me. Once our agreement was satisfied, I didn’t want him to feel guilt or shame or beholden to me in any way.

Still, I didn’t know how I was going to ever let him go.

Flying through the house, I put those thoughts on a shelf and would have to deal with them later. I was already late. I breezed past the table and into the kitchen. Abel and I had spent another night tangled in the bedsheets, and my ass was dragging. A coffee to go was the only way I was going to make it through my afternoon shift at the brewery without falling asleep in someone’s beer.

I yanked open the cabinet and pulled down a ceramic travel mug and lid. I made quick work of dumping in too much creamer and popping in a new pod of coffee before pressing the button to start the brew. Hurrying down the hallway, I had planned to check my makeup one last time when something in the hall bathroom caught my attention.

I stopped, facing forward, unable to make myself look into the bathroom. I swallowed hard and turned my head. My vision narrowed and a whooshing sound filled my ears, my heart thundering. Breaths sawed in and out of me as I stared at the open shower curtain.

Isn’t it better to have them open? You never know if someone’s hiding behind it.

The hair on my neck stood on end, and my fingertips tingled as I listened to the silence of the empty house. I stepped forward, my eyes never leaving the portion of the tub still coveredby the shower curtain. I walked into the bathroom, my pulse thrumming at the base of my neck. My ears pricked, but I heard nothing. My eyes scanned the tub. I prayed it was empty and that my imagination was simply running wild.

When I reached the tub, I reached my hand out and gripped the shower curtain, clamping my teeth together as I checked to find the tub empty. The scrape of metal across the bar shrieked as I yanked the curtain closed.

Surely one of the kids had left it open after their showers last night, and I simply hadn’t noticed. Kids did that shit all the time.

Right?

Unease rolled through me. Suddenly my safe haven, with its large windows and long backyard, felt isolated yet exposed.

Secluded.

Forgetting my coffee, I dashed toward the unlocked front door, then threw it open and yanked it closed behind me. I fumbled with my keys to unlock my car, and I raced toward it at lightning speed. The early-afternoon sun beat down on me as I tugged on my seat belt and peeled out of the driveway.

In the rearview, Abel’s sweet little ranch faded into the background. By the time I hit Main Street, my breaths had evened out, and I had almost convinced myself I was imagining things. Surely there was no way Jared would have somehow entered Abel’s house and then left the shower curtain open just to mess with me.

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