And now some neighbor wants to buy this place. That couple talked like they wanted to start negotiations immediately.
So much for a peaceful vacation, let alone figuring out what’s next.
But there’s a lot to love about this moment, just me and the whispering lake and not a video conference with people I hate in sight.
It’s an excuse to get outside and do nothing important.
Best of all, despite the coolness in the air, my old leg injury isn’t flaring up.
I usually dread the cold when temperatures plunge.
Like always, I stretch it out, but something stops me from going through the entire stretch routine my physical therapist drilled into my head.
No, not something.
Her.
Margot damn Blackthorn.
There’s a prickling sensation at the back of my neck. I resist the urge to turn around.
If I do, I know I’ll catch her watching me again.
She’s up there now, creeping away from the big bay windows on the first floor, making me feel like the unwelcome party crasher I am.
Just my luck we’re stuck with her—a dash of extra chaos the Saints didn’t need on their first real family trip inyears.
I call her type the Evil Blonde.
Bratty, affluent, annoyingly hot in that cool, sophisticated way, with long legs and big blue eyes that hypnotize men who let their guard down.
She’s a human cobra masquerading as a minx.
The sort of wicked witch who breaks hearts and doesn’t think twice about it before moving on to her next sucker.
She’s also an heiress to billions, which does make her different.
I’m no slouch in the money department, but I’m damn sure not old Blackthorn money. Much less Maine royalty.
Danger, my mind warns.
All my nerves bristle with the knowledge that being stuck with her has the potential to get all kinds of shitty.
Hell, the way she looked at me after breakfast when I rescued her from a blueberry bone fracture keeps replaying in my mind.
“Fucking stop that,” I growl, slapping my cheek.
She’s taking up too much real estate in my brain.
Annoying.
Everything I’ve been through, and the dumbass boy inside me still simps for a pretty face.
But she’s attractive in all the wrong ways, like she was made to wreck my defenses. That extra splash of feistiness that hooks under my skin doesn’t help.
Thank fuck the kids are around.
If I’d come up here on my own, just me and Little Miss Fancy Heels, it could’ve been catastrophic.
