Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
I nibbled on my bottom lip and then suggested, “Shouldn’t we meet up before then?”
“Why?”
I rolled my eyes, trying not to be offended by his obvious lack of interest in spending any more time with me than he needed to. “So that we become more comfortable with one another?”
“Star, you yelled across a busy street that I’d left peanut butter and jelly in your bedsheets. To me. A man you’d met once. I don’t think a person could be more comfortable with another person than you are with anyone you meet.”
I burst out laughing at his droll tone. “Okay, I’ll give you that. I sometimes forget about boundaries.”
Something like amusement hummed in his voice as he replied, “That is a very diplomatic way of putting it.”
“How would you put it?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Hmm, you’re probably right.”
“So, according to my calendar”—he was abruptly all business again—“next month’s family dinner is May fourteenth. I’ll drop by your apartment the Saturday before. I work Saturday mornings, so if you can clear your schedule for late afternoon, I can drop by then.”
I typed it into my calendar. “Will I text you my address?”
Rafe cleared his throat. “I have it.”
Right. Because he’d investigated me. “Of course. How is Bob?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your PI guy. Aren’t they all called Bob?”
“You are the strangest person I have ever met.”
“Then you haven’t lived much. Also, I’m sending you a link right now to a calendar app we can share. I’ll set everything up. You just download it, okay?”
“Right. Thank you. So . . . I guess I’ll see you in four weeks.”
I felt that strangely deflated sensation again, but ignored it. This—Rafe—was a job. A very well-paying job. Nothing more. “Okay. I’ll see you then.”
“This was productive. Good night.”
So brusque and formal. I shook my head. “Try unbuttoning the second button over the next few weeks, okay?”
“What—”
“Talk soon.” I hung up before our conversation turned antagonistic again.
Rafe texted a few minutes later to tell me he’d downloaded the app, so I set everything up until we could both see our shared calendar. Amusement filled me as I considered setting dates like Rafe’s Surgery—Operation Remove Stick from Ass, but I wasn’t sure that’d go over so well.
My amusement died, however, as I came out of a text with Rafe and my attention lingered on the conversation with Dawn, my mom. I tapped on it, noting the text message I’d sent a week ago that had still gone unanswered. That wasn’t unusual. My parents were self-proclaimed hippies. The only reason they had cell phones was because it was almost impossible to navigate modern society without one. Plus, it was the easiest way for us to stay in contact, what with them in Colorado and me in New York.
Not that they were good at the keeping-in-contact thing.
With a heavy sigh, I tapped out of the conversation and got ready for bed.
After I’d cleaned up, changed into my PJs, and lowered the Murphy bed, I sank into it and my eyelids slammed shut. The music from downstairs had quieted and so the last sound in my ears before sleep took me was that of Rafe Whitman’s low, resonant voice.
Chapter Six
There were many times over the next four weeks when I almost talked myself out of the job with Rafe Whitman. I was used to dressing up as characters and pretending to be someone else; however, it hadn’t really occurred to me how different it would be to deceive an entire group of people for an extended period.
When I thought too hard on that, on how nice Philippa Whitman had been to me and how I was going to lie to her and her family, I almost chickened out.
Jude would encourage my doubts, still adamantly against the whole thing. Kendall would remind me that if Rafe wasn’t concerned about lying to his own family, then I shouldn’t have a problem with it. She said, and I quote, “You’re defending his right to live his life however he pleases, and that is an ethos we all live by.” Roger wasn’t so lofty in his encouragement. He merely reminded me about the ten thousand dollars a month and, I wouldn’t lie, for the first time in my life the green stuff swayed me.
I just . . . I guess I was more restless than I’d thought. Something was missing in my life and I was positive it was traveling. The ability to just pick up and leave and wander the country, free of commitment. It had to be that.
So, for once, money was important.
I just had to live with the fact that I had fallen to its temptations.
Something that I now reminded myself as I wiped my hands across my jeans and waited for Rafe to appear in my doorway. I’d just buzzed him in so we could go over everything I needed to know about his family before dinner tomorrow.