Page 37 of Undeniable You

“Good. She’s got a lot going on with her mom’s surgery and the bookshop and everything.” There, that was pretty neutral.

“It’s opening soon, right?”

“Yeah, in about a month. She’s really stressed out about it, but it’s going to be amazing.” Larison had showed me pictures of the shelves now that they were in and had told me her ideas for the murals that were getting painted next week. There would be no doubt that this was an establishment that celebrated all kinds of romance novels and reveled in the HEA. My kind of place.

“Sounds like it,” she said, and there was something in her tone that made me look at her.

“What?”

Reid shook her head and I had to focus to not trip on an exposed boulder in the middle of the path. “Nothing.”

“Oh come on. What is it?” Reid almost always spoke her mind. Not when it came to herself, but definitely about everything else.

“Just the way you talk about her,” she said slowly. “I was just wondering.”

Shit. I hadn’t been as casual and breezy as I thought. No surprise. I wasn’t great at secrets. Never had been.

“Just ask what you want to ask,” I said. Guess we were doing this now. It had only been a matter of time, really. Reid had my number and I had hers. This was payback for all of my teasing about her and Sophie. Now the shoe was on the other foot and I was reaping instead of sowing. This sucked.

“You’re into her, Jo,” Reid said. It wasn’t a question.

“I’m not…notinto her.” There. It was out now.

“Mmm, that’s what I thought. Must be tricky.”

I stopped walking and Reid almost crashed into me. “It’s hell, Reid. I thought I could handle it at first and it keeps getting worse, not better. I thought that over time my feelings would calm down, but they haven’t. I don’t even know what to do anymore.” All of my frustration and stress poured out of me and it was a huge relief to let it all out to someone I trusted. Reid might give me shit about some things, but she was an amazing friend.

“Well, kid, you’ve got yourself into a pickle,” she said while I panted as the trail got abruptly steeper.

“Yeah, no shit,” I said, wincing as my leg muscles burned. I guess chasing Juniper around at the park hadn’t made me a champion hiker.

At last the trail evened out again, but I had to stop and take a few breaths.

“So, what are you going to do?” Reid asked.

“I don’t actually know,” I said. “Because I can’t lose this job, and I can’t seem to make these feelings stop.” Not that I’d tried very hard. I mean, what was I supposed to do when Larison was so goddamn sexy? She didn’t even have to try. Her very presence was a shock to my system, a hazard to my libido. Like kryptonite. Clitonite? Was that a thing? If it wasn’t, Larison had created it.

“You there?” Reid asked, waving her hand in front of my face.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, very glad that she couldn’t read my thoughts.

“Do you think there’s a possibility she might feel the same way?” Reid asked.

“Honestly? I have no fucking clue. I’m terrible at reading signals and I have a hard time telling if someone is just being nice to me.” It had been an issue for me before, especially when I’d been younger. Girls were generally nice to each other and what was the difference between being nice and flirting?

“Mmm, I know what you mean. Okay, next question: if she did reciprocate feelings, what would that mean?”

It would mean I didn’t have a job anymore, that’s what that would mean. I’d be screwed.

“Well, that’s not an option. Honestly, I think I’m going to have to ride it out. It’s just a crush. I can keep a handle on it.” I’d just wear out my vibrators and spend all my spare time getting off. No big deal.

Reid nodded. “You should definitely talk to Cade.”

God, why hadn’t I thought of that? Cade had been in almost the exact same situation with Eloise. Except when they’d shared their feelings, Cade had been able to just work for someone else, so it wasn’t weird. I couldn’t exactly do that. No one was going to hire me to work for part of the summer for decent pay.

I was committed to this job. And it wouldn’t be fair to Juniper either. If I stopped being her nanny, Larison would have to find someone else and what if the new person didn’t get alongwith Juniper? The idea of someone else taking care of her made me sick to my stomach.

That absolutely was not on the table as a possibility.

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