Page 4 of Beautiful Harmony

Emma stared at her. “What? He’s not… how do you know that?”

Nora laughed. “He’s my brother, and he’s got tells when he’s into a woman.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll never say,” Nora said with a grin. “That falls under our sibling confidentiality pact. Anyway, I just thought I’d let you know if you’re interested. Cora said you weren’t currently dating anyone.”

“I’m too busy to date,” Emma said.

“That’s fair,” Nora said as the front door opened, and a blonde woman with an oversize bag and fake eyelashes so long they brushed against her glasses walked in.

“Welcome to Twisted Stitches.” Nora joined her. “Can I help you with something specific today?”

The woman waved a pattern at her. “I’m looking for this yarn. Do you have it?”

Nora studied the pattern and nodded. “We do. It’s down this aisle here.”

As Nora led the woman deeper into the store, Emma put her binder away and leaned against the counter. She didn’t believe Nora had any reason to lie to her about James being into her, but she still couldn’t quite believe it. James had a great personality, was good-looking, and could have his pick of women in Harmony Falls.

Yeah, he’s good-looking, but he’s no Lucas.

Her face immediately felt too warm, as did her crotch. Her crush on Lucas Wright was beyond dumb. Not only was he the hottest bachelor in Harmony Falls, but he was also the biggest flirt. Any flirting he’d done with Emma wasn’t because of an actual attraction to her. It was just who he was.

His flirting with her and insistence on calling her beautiful when she obviously wasn’t had upset her. She knew damn well that most people would have told her to be grateful that someone who looked like Lucas would even bother to fake flirt with someone who looked like her, but she couldn’t be grateful. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, least of all the town’s hottest bachelor. What she wanted was to be normal, to blend in with the crowd, to not stick out like a sore fucking thumb in every social situation.

To Lucas’s credit, when she’d made it clear she didn’t appreciate his flirting and she wanted a friendship only, he had knocked it off with the flirtation.

To her surprise, they’d become almost as close as she and Rayna in a very short period. Ironically, Lucas being such a good friend had led to her crush on him. A crush that was dumb and pathetic and, if she didn’t get control of it soon, would most likely ruin her friendship with him.

The door opened, and as three women stepped inside the store, Emma pushed aside thoughts of Lucas. She had a business to run.

CHAPTER2

“Here you go. Two beers and one order of jalapeño poppers to share.” The server set the mugs in front of Lucas and Connor and the platter of poppers in the middle of the table. “Can I get you anything else?”

“It’s perfect. Thank you, Sara. You’re my favourite server at the Beaver.” Lucas grinned at her, and a soft flush covered Sara’s freckled cheeks.

“You’re my favourite customer,” she said. Her flush deepened, and she walked away with another shy smile at Lucas.

“What’s up with you tonight?” Connor took a drink of beer before biting into a popper.

“What do you mean?” Lucas asked.

Connor motioned toward Sara’s retreating back. “The Sara flirting thing”

Lucas ate a popper. “Why are you acting like you have amnesia? We’ve been best friends since we were kids, Connor.”

“Fuck, these things are hot. I don’t know why I let you talk me into getting them every fucking time we come to the pub.” Connor drank half his beer in two big gulps.

“I can’t help it if you’ve got weak taste buds.” Lucas ate another popper, the spice and the heat barely affecting him.

Connor rolled his eyes. “And what I meant by the Sara flirting thing is how weak it was. In fact, you've barely flirted with anyone the last few times we’ve been out.”

“Not true,” Lucas said. “Last Saturday, I was a goddamn flirting machine at the baseball game.”

“Edna Bakersfield is eighty-one years old,” Connor said. “And you were only flirting with her because you forgot your Gatorade and wanted her to open the canteen early.”

“Hey, Edna is an attractive woman,” Lucas said. “Do you know she still has almost all of her original teeth? She showed me when she cornered me near the men’s bathroom after the game.”

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