Page 24 of The Reading

Never.

Chapter 1

Kit~

Istared at my hot neighbor, knowing that my face was probably beet red, but there wasn’t much that I could do about that. He was holding a very racy scene in his hand, and I had to have been stupid to use Lucas as the inspiration for my newest character. Granted, the heroine wasn’t described as anything like me, but there was no mistaking the six-foot-three, blonde-haired, green-eyed, six-pack having, deep voice riveting sex god of an inspiration standing in front of me.

“I’m really sorry,” Lucas repeated. “I thought he was eating dinner.”

I reached out and began rubbing Lawrence’s head. “It’s okay,” I muttered, more worried about those papers in his hand than my ruined books. “Lawrence didn’t mean any harm.”

“Yeah, but I know that you were looking forward to your newest release,” he replied, knowing what I did for a living. "I…I can pay for a replacement, immediate shipping.”

I waved away his offer. “Don’t be ridiculous. The release date is still a couple of months away, so I have plenty of time to replace the marketing merchandise.”

“Kit, I’m sorry-”

I looked up into those sexy green eyes of his. “It’s okay,” I repeated. “Besides, if you spend all your time apologizing for Lawrence, then you’re never going to get any work done.” I shrugged. “Maybe I’ll just have the books delivered to a P.O. box from now on.”

“At least let me pay for your next shipment,” he offered. “I insist.”

“How about you just…uh, give me…everything, and…uh, get Lawrence his dinner?” I muttered, trying desperately not to snatch the papers out of his hand. “After all, I imagine you have a lot to do before the Easter egg hunt tomorrow.”

Lucas grinned, and my ovaries swooned. “The guys have most of it takencare of,” he replied. “I just need to get the surprise eggs ready.”

Every year, Lucas made surprise eggs for every kid that showed up to his Easter egg hunt. They were these huge plastic eggs that contained a piece of clothing, a toy, and a twenty-dollar bill. It was very generous, and the kids loved it. Honestly, though Lucas was only thirty-three, he was so good with kids that I was surprised that he didn’t already have a wife and children running around. I knew that he had two older brothers and that they had kids, so maybe that’s why he wasn’t in a rush to start a family. Maybe he got his kid fix from his nephews and nieces.

Doing my best to distract him from the words printed on the sheets in his hand, I asked, “How many kids will there be this year?”

“Twenty-six,” he answered. “But a couple of my guys are bringing their families by, so I’m making extra eggs for them, too.”

I smiled. “Well, it’s always a good time.”

“Are you going to stop by?” he asked, and it was on the tip of my tongue to say something corny about his eggs in my basket, but I kept my mouth shut. I considered Lucas a good friend, and I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship by throwing myself at him. Besides, Madam Brousseau had been clear about us already knowing our soulmates, so it wouldn’t do well to hit on Lucas, only to have my soulmate show up later.

“Uh…I’m not sure,” I hedged. “My parents are in Aruba on vacation, but I’m not sure what Sloane and Reign are doing for Easter.”

That wasn’t true.

Sloane and Reign were going to spend Easter with his family, and though I had been invited to come along, Sloane and Reign were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, so I didn’t want to interrupt or find myself talking to some random family member because those two couldn’t keep their hands off one another.

Lucas just stared at me. “It’s two days away,” he pointed out. “How do they not know?”

Busted.

“Well, I mean…they know that they’re spending it with Reign’s family, just not…they don’t know if they’re staying all day at his parents or…visiting cousins…or whatever it is that people with large families do.”

“Oh.”

Giving Lawrence one last pat on the head, I reached for the papers in Lucas’ hand. “Uhm…I can take those,” I finally offered, but luck wasn’t on my side today.

*****

Lucas~

Kit was going to have to pry these pages out of my cold, dead, lifeless hands if she wanted them back.

Seriously.

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