Hope Awakened by Charlene Hartnady
Chapter 13
Act normal.
Be cool.
You’ve done nothing wrong.
Reece wasn’t even there yet, and she was feeling stressed out. Her stomach churned. Hope had decided that she wasn’t going to hide away. Reece could go to hell!There! She sucked in a deep breath, feeling marginally better.
Locke appeared from down the hall. He had a light travel bag slung over his shoulder. There couldn’t be much more than a toothbrush and t-shirt in that thing. “Packing light?” she asked.
Locke nodded. “I’m sure we’ll spend plenty of time getting reacquainted.” He bobbed his brows.
She laughed. “That may be so, but every woman loves to go out for a nice dinner as well as lots of…you know.”
He frowned. “Sex, Doc. You can say the ‘S’ word, you know.”
“I’m an Ob-Gyn. I’m quite familiar with sex and how the reproductive organs work. Sex…sex…sex!” She grinned. “See, I—”
“I’m not sure that’s an appropriate conversation to have, Dr. Bristol,” Reece said from the door. She hadn’t heard him come in.
Great! Just freaking great.Something else for Reece to take out of context.
“I’ll go and…” Locke pointed at the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “I forgot to pack…something.” He sauntered off.
“You needed to hear the whole conversation,” she tried, regretting her words instantly.
“I doubt it.” He had a leather bag over his shoulder. It was significantly fuller than Locke’s had been. “Just to be clear, you might talk about inappropriate subjects and walk around in inappropriate wear while Locke is living in this house, but that’s not going to happen while I’m here.”
Holy shit, he was too much. Too damned much! “That’s not fair.”
“Lots of things aren’t fair, Dr. Bristol. The fact that I have to fledgling…babysit you for the weekend isn’t fair either, and yet here I am.”
“I’ll stay out of your way,” she said.
“Sounds like a plan.” He started walking away. “I’ll take the room across the hallway from you.” With that, he was gone.
Asshole!
Talk about a bad mood. Screw him! If he wanted to be in a bad mood and to have a shitty weekend, that was on him. Hope wasn’t letting him get to her. She’d planned to make him pizza as a peace offering, but he didn’t deserve any.
She’d make pizza for herself. Forget Reece! Hope had half a mind to put her little pink pajamas on and walk around like that. No bra! The asshole would immediately assume that she walked around that way in front of Locke. He’d think less of her. Not possible! That jerk couldn’t think less of her if he tried.
Things couldn’t possibly get worse. A whole weekend with that sexy asshole was too much to comprehend. What was wrong with her? She didn’t like him, and yet she was still attracted to him. The whole thing was just plain crazy. Surely it wasn’t normal for there to be such a big disconnect between a person’s brain and their body? Her phone dinged. Come to think of it, the device had dinged a couple of times in the last five minutes. Her stomach churned. Three missed calls from Emmet. There were two messages from her sister saying that the baby was fine, asking her to call them. At least her sister used the word ‘please’. Emmet left one message.
Call me! Now!
Another jerk who thought he could order her around. Emmet could go straight to hell. Pizza! She needed one badly. Claire got back to grating the mozzarella. She wanted extra cheese with bacon. Lots of bacon. Then, there was ice cream for dessert. Double chocolate. All would be well after that.
