Too Close to Resist by Nicole Helm Page A

had kind of faded away since Barry. They’d all gotten out of Carvelle, and no one seemed to know how to talk to her after she’d recovered.
    Or maybe she’d stopped knowing how to talk to them. Letting those long-distance friendships fade had been easier than trying to bridge the gap of way different lives. Of the elephant in the room of her traumatic event’s silencing easy banter.
    It was still hard to open up to new experiences because all of that fear ruled her. Grace’s hands clenched into fists. “That sounds great. Count me in.”
    Kelly groaned again. “Well, I’m going to go back to work. Get me a list of prices you want for those pieces. Even better, an email with prices and pictures of each that I can forward on to Mrs. Martin. She’ll still want to see them in person, but we can maybe whittle it down, determine how many, et cetera.”
    “O-okay.”
    “Yeah, I need to get back, too,” Leah said. “I’m supposed to meet with Jacob at one about this new place in Council Bluffs.”
    “Yes, I’m a part of that meeting, too.”
    “You are?”
    “Kyle’s sending me to act as referee. Or, as he put it, so you and Jacob don’t kill each other.”
    The women offered waves and a chorus of byes and Grace was left in the wake, shell-shocked and not at all able to process everything. She might be selling a bunch of paintings. She might be making friends.
    Grace smiled. And then she flopped back onto her bed and laughed. Fear could take that and shove it down its throat.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    G RACE SAT IN the middle of her room, paintings sprawled around her, trying to make some selections and come up with a price list. To send to a customer. Who might want to buy more than one painting.
    She was giddy and terrified and it twisted up into a ball of complete and utter inability to do anything except alternate between staring at the paintings and staring at the notepad balanced on her knee.
    She wasn’t sure why this was different from putting her paintings up on Etsy, she only knew it was.
    The knock at her door made her jump; the three precise raps made her grin. “Come in,” she called, pushing herself into a standing position and starting to pile up the canvases so there was at least a path on the floor.
    When the door opened, Kyle stood there, as expected, but Jacob was right behind him. Not quite what she’d had in mind.
    “Uh, what is this? Some kind of intervention?”
    “We need to talk.”
    They looked so grim and serious, her stomach dropped. Whatever it was wouldn’t be pleasant. Were they kicking her out? She couldn’t imagine why they would, but if they were... Crap.
    “I have to go on a business trip,” Jacob said, sounding as though he were announcing a death in the family.
    Grace waited for the serious thing, but they both looked at her expectantly as if she was supposed to have some kind of response. “Um, okay?”
    “We’ve been working toward this deal for six months now. We can’t put it off. Now, I’d go myself, but they need the contractor.”
    Grace blinked at Kyle. She was missing some important key to this conversation, but they seemed to think she should understand what any of this meant. She didn’t. “Okay?”
    “With Jacob gone for a few business days, the likelihood of you being in the house alone increases. I have meetings off-site occasionally, and while some of them can be rescheduled, some of them are pretty well set in stone.”
    “Do you think the Abesso guys could come here?” Jacob said, turning to Kyle.
    Kyle frowned, now facing Jacob as though she weren’t in the room or part of this bizarre conversation at all. “But I wouldn’t be able to see the stock.”
    “Good point. Maybe—”
    “Okay, what the hell are you two chattering about and what does any of this have to do with me?”
    They shared a quizzical look.
    “I won’t be here. So we need to figure out what to do with you. Who will take care of you.”
    What to do with her? Take care of her.