Sold As Is by Holley Trent

Author:Holley Trent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, contemporary
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2013-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

“I’m sorry to call you so late, Abi. What is it, three A.M. there?” Mandy watched the bar from her corner booth. None of the CTW staff was paying her any attention there in the dark nook so her whispering was probably unnecessary.

“What happened? Is it Archie? I’ll kill him.”

Mandy stifled a giggle. “Put your pistol back in the nightstand. Not Archie this time.”

Abi sighed on her end. “What’s wrong, abejorro?”

Mandy chuckled. Bumblebee. Abi had started calling her a bumblebee when she was three because she wouldn’t sit still during a transatlantic flight. She stared down into her glass of red wine and swirled it while she got her words together. “There’s a man I like.”

“Oh! Well, he must be some kind of man for you to wake an old lady from her beauty sleep. Rough night. Somebody’s dog is out on the terrace barking every time a bus goes by.”

“Well … yes. It’s a complicated situation. His father is a public figure so he makes a point of not dating.”

“So he’s making an exception?”

“I don’t know if I’d call it that. Not an exception and not dating. I think under different circumstances we’d probably hang out for a while before making any moves, but something seems different about him. Well, us, when we’re together. It feels right and good and — ”

“And super secret.”

Mandy sighed. “Yes. That.”

“And you like him more than that?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

Silence stretched in the distance between Mandy in Suffolk and her grandmother in Madrid. After what seemed like an hour of not talking, Abi dispensed her usual brand of no-nonsense psychiatry in the manner Mandy had become accustomed to.

“Does he like you more than that?”

“Seems like it. But, you know it’s always hard for me to read men. I always think I know, then I get dumped.”

“Men are stupid. Sometimes women are, too, but I don’t count you in that lot. Listen, I’ll tell you what I told your mother before she married that American and ran away to the U.S. at seventeen. You want a man who is willing to break some rules to get you. If not, it’s too easy for them to let you go.”

“That sounds pretty Romeo and Juliet to me. I don’t want anyone to end up poisoned or stabbed. I just want to be with a guy I like a lot.”

Abi yawned. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“I do, but there’s another complicating issue.”

“What is it?”

“The man is kind of my boss. I got a new job.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah. See?”

“It doesn’t have to be a problem. Your grandfather and I worked together for years and spending that time together in the shop was one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. We learned a lot about each other that way. You’ll figure out the boundaries. We always left work at work and kept our personal lives outside of the office. Everything will be fine, te lo prometo. I promise. When can I talk to him? See if he’s good enough

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