Page 106 of Booked for Summer

Requirements: must be creative, smart, compassionate, light up any room with a smile, able to get on with anyone, including the surly resort owner. Be willing to build a life with said surly owner.

Her heart tripped. Holy cow.

Quickly, before she let the balloon of hope become untethered, she messaged Jeremy.

Was this advert your doing?

A reply pinged straight back.

Joint effort with boss man. Are you going to apply? Pretty please??? He’s back to being an asshole again.

* * *

He didn’t know what the hell he was doing. The job ad was out there. He’d shown his hand. The safe option was to wait and leave the next move up to her.

But what if she didn’t make a move?

It was the question that had sent him flying three thousand miles across the Atlantic. Fuck safe, he had to know if he had a chance of persuading her to come back.

The taxi came to a halt and Liam climbed out, eyeing the red-brick terraced house warily as he paid the driver. What if Jade wasn’t in? She could be out on a date. Or she could be at home with a date. Or just at home and not want to see him.

Or…

Goddammit.

He squared his shoulders and, holding tight to the package he’d brought with him, strode up the steps, heart galloping a million miles an hour.

He wasn’t expecting her sister to open the door.

‘Oh, it’s you.’

He took a moment to regret being so curt with Lauren the one and only time he’d talked to her. ‘Is Jade home?’

A slow smile spread across Lauren’s face. ‘She is. But we’re in the middle of dinner. I guess you can come and wait while we finish.’

‘Who’s that, dear?’ A voice echoed from inside.

‘Just someone trying to sell something.’ Lauren raised a brow. ‘I assume that’s why you’re here? To sell Jade on the idea of going back with you?’

His heart felt like it was about to explode, his emotions were on a knife edge. He wasn’t in the mood for games. ‘I’ll wait outside.’

‘Oh no, Mum would go mad.’

‘Why would I go mad?’

Holy Mother of God. If he wasn’t in the mood for games, he certainly wasn’t in the right frame of mind for polite conversation. Even with this short, smiley-looking woman with eyes that reminded him of Jade’s.

‘You’d go mad if you knew Jade’s boss, or should I say, ex-boss?—’

‘Boyfriend,’ he interjected, feeling like a fucking fourteen-year-old.

Lauren smirked. ‘If you knew Jade’s ex-boyfriend was waiting outside for her while we finished dinner.’

‘Oh, well.’ Those blue eyes swept him up and down. ‘If you’ve come here to upset her, I will be the first to throw you out. Then her father will try and rough you up, though he’s got a bad back and is unlikely to make much of a mark, but you need to pretend that he’s hurt you.’

‘And don’t forget me,’ Lauren added. ‘I’ve had self-defence training and I know exactly where to put my knee and my elbow to inflict maximum pain.’

‘I get it,’ he said. ‘Upsetting Jade is the last thing I want to do.’

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