Page 34 of Me and Mr. Just Right

“Why not?”

“I’ve been used too many times. People think I can help them get ahead. Or forget I’m a person with feelings.”

He felt his brows furrow with confusion. He was realizing how little he knew about her. She was great at asking questions and getting him and his brothers to open up, but she clammed up whenever they asked her about her life. He’d assumed it was because of the painful breakup she was still reeling from, but maybe there was more. “Is this through your job? Or do you just have really crappy people in your life?”

“Both?” She let out a short laugh.

“I’m realizing I don’t know what you do.”

She didn’t say anything, and the silence turned awkward. He realized that she might not answer—that she might not want to let him in as easily as he’d just let her in. And who could blame her, if she’d had people treat her so poorly?

“I don’t want to lie to you,” she finally said. “But I also don’t want to tell you what I do.”

He frowned. Rosie thought she was running from something—was it the law? He couldn’t see Lia doing anything illegal, but he also would protect his family first and always. “Is it legal?”

“Yes. And I’m making it sound really dramatic.” She let out a huff, but it seemed like it was directed toward herself and not at him. “People treat me different when they realize what I do.”

“I won’t.”

“You will,” she promised him, sounding sad.

Disappointment flooded him, and he realized how much he wanted her to trust him. To let him in. But he also knew, from Rosie, that banging around someone’s emotional issues like an elephant in a sandcastle competition wasn’t going to convince her of anything. Only his actions would—showing her he could be trusted. That they all could.

So he shifted away from asking her what she did, and went back to his original question, knowing his concern was as apparent as the red slash of paint on the dinghy’s hull. “Who do you have in your life, Lia?”

Her shoulders eased with relief, and she released a self-deprecating laugh. “My assistant is pretty cool.”

“What about someone not on your payroll?” he asked hesitantly.

“I had my ex and my best friend, before …” She shrugged. “I have to be careful, even with family. I’ve had to set boundaries with my mom, who tends to speak before she thinks, and will say things at my expense if it gets her attention. And my dad is remarried with a twelve-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son. They’re cool, and I love them to pieces, but my dad’s busy.”

“Too busy for you?”

“I don’t know. I’m afraid to test it.”

He struggled to imagine what it would be like to not have anyone you knew with full certainty was in your corner. He trusted his brothers implicitly, and Rosie might drive them all nuts with her romcoms, money-making schemes, and general bossiness, but if any one of them showed up at her boat with a body, she’d grab a shovel, no questions asked.

“I know you don’t know me well yet, but you can trust me. And Jules and Bennett. And even Rosie—despite what this housing situation might lead you to believe about her.”

Lia smiled softly. “I like her spirit. And how you all love her so fully.”

“Do you want to hear my favorite Rosie story?”

She nodded, and he wondered if she was wanting to lighten the mood as much as him.

“When she was in seventh grade and I was a senior, she went to each of my friends secretly and separately, and convinced them she needed help on her homework for a different class. For an entire semester, before I caught on, she had my friends doing all of her homework—one writing her English essays, one doing her math, and on and on. She wasn’t happy when I put a stop to it.”

“How did she convince them to do all that for her?”

He shook his head. “Rosie is our family’s evil genius. She has a kind heart, so her intentions are usually good, but her results are a mixed bag.”

“She’s lucky to have the three of you.”

“Lucky. Cursed.” He put his hands to the side as if balancing a scale.

Lia reached forward, brought the hand he’d held up when he’d said “lucky,” and pushed it up higher. His skin sizzled at her touch. They stared at each other for a long, heated moment.

“Lia,” he whispered, his voice hoarse, but he didn’t know how to finish that thought.

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