Home To You by Robin Kaye Page B

would give you a landing pad for a few months until you knew exactly what you were doing, and it would give him more income. It’s a win-win.”
    He barely kept himself from shaking his head. What the hell was he doing? If Kendall knew who he was, he’d be lucky if she’d even talk to him again. And once Graceand Teddy came home, he’d be outed. At least they were on a long cruise—he remembered giving them the longest option available when he had his assistant book it, since there wasn’t much for them to do around here this time of the year. Plus, as much as they denied it, the cold got to them, and who wouldn’t want to get away from the harsh New Hampshire winters?
    He just wasn’t sure how much longer he had before they were due to return.
    *
    Jaime stood examining the Range Rover in the first bay of his heated garage on Main Street. He took a deep breath, and where he should have smelled only grease, motor oil, and quickly melting slush—something that smelled all kinds of gross even this far away from Boston—he smelled freakin’ green apple shampoo.
    Hell, he hadn’t thought his day could get any worse, and now this. Now not only did he have to replace the whole hydraulic system in a twenty-year-old Range Rover—fuckin’ Brits; every single one of their cars was a nightmare to fix, and getting parts was a royal pain in the ass—but he had to deal with her too. “What do you want, Addie?”
    “How do you always do that?”
    He didn’t need to look to know that her lips were pursed as if she’d just eaten a particularly sour lemon, or that she probably wore all beige, unless this was one of her gray sweatshirt days. Both colors made her look like she was three weeks past her expiration date, not that she cared.
    Addie Lane dressed in shapeless, colorless clothes.She had all the style sense of a body pillow, and that was just fine with him. She might fool the rest of Harmony’s male population, but he knew how she looked when Kendall dressed her up—he’d seen her at a bar in Boston, and it had taken half a night of drooling over her for him to realize it was Addie. Now he knew what kind of body was hiding under all those layers of ugly, oversize clothes, and he wasn’t about to tell her that the last time he snaked her shower drain, he’d sniffed every bottle of crap she had in there to discover the culprit—she smelled like her green apple shampoo. “I’ve got eyes in the back of my head. Happy now? What the heck do you want?” He heard her blow her bangs out of her eyes in exasperation. Fine. The sooner she told him off, the sooner she’d leave.
    “You have to promise not to say anything to anyone.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I promised, and I swear, if you tell, I’ll cut your balls off with a rusty nail clipper, Jaime Rouchard.”
    He winced at the thought—knowing Addie, she’d figure out a way to do it. “Then don’t tell me. Far be it from me to force you to divulge a secret. I’m not that interested.” Besides, he already knew what she was going to say.
    “I need to. I need help.”
    “Now, that’s interesting. What kind of help, and why me?”
    “It’s a logistics thing. Besides, as much as I dislike you, you’re the only one in town I can trust.”
    “Damn, Addie, you certainly have a way of sweet-talking me into doing your bidding.”
    “Look, if you help me out, I’ll owe you one. Okay?”
    “And just what do you think I need from you? You’re a kindergarten teacher. I already know my numbers and letters, thanks.”
    “I can help in the office.”
    “Not interested.”
    “I can clean the place up a little.”
    “Next.”
    “What do you want?”
    Yeah, he wasn’t even going there. It wouldn’t be at all gentlemanly, and there was no way she’d ever agree to it.
    “Come on, Jaime. It’s for your own good. Aren’t you still best buds with Jax?”
    “Yeah. What does he have to do with anything?”
    “I can’t tell you unless you promise me.”
    “Fine.