The Secret Ingredient (Love Around the Corner) by Rae Lynn

Author:Rae, Lynn [Rae, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Liquid Silver Book
Published: 2014-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

June had always liked the hardware store. She liked the uneven wood floor, the endless shelves of mysterious parts, and the flats of cheerful pansies that appeared early in the spring. Once Simon had started work there, she’d lost a measure of her old pleasure whenever she’d entered the building. Today, her dread at seeing her brother was magnified even more than usual. The combination of guilt over the altercation at the bar and her subsequent desertion of her brother in favor of staying with Nate gnawed at her.

“Hey there, June. How are you?” Kurt, Simon’s nonroommate, greeted her from his place behind the paint counter. Before she could speak to him, he switched on the paint mixer, and its loud thumps filled the air. She could take the hint. Kurt pointed toward the entrance to the annex.

She made her way into the section of the store holding bulkier items like fence posts, rolls of wire, and tires. She heard Simon before she saw him in the power equipment aisle. He was making more noise than the paint mixer as he shoved cans of lawnmower oil onto a metal shelf. Hopefully, he wouldn’t fling one at her.

“Simon.” She struggled to sound calm and sure of herself as she waited a few feet away from him. He hesitated but then continued emptying the box. Once the last can was askew on the shelf, he turned to her and frowned.

His cold gaze made her break out in goose bumps.

“What do you want?”

“To check on you. See how you’re doing.”

“Why?”

June let out a breath of pent-up tension. Why did she keep trying? “I wondered what you’d arranged for a place to stay.”

“Like you care all of a sudden? It’s not like you’re here to offer me your stuffy sofa to crash on, is it?”

June shook her head. There was no way he was ever staying with her, and he knew it. “Are you okay?”

“What? Now you’re worried your boyfriend hurt me? Again? As you can see, he didn’t manage to break my other arm last night.” Simon illustrated his point by waving his hands around, and June flinched back automatically.

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

Her brother rolled his eyes and kicked at the empty box, the hollow sound of impact echoing in the aisle. “God, June, you’re so lame.”

Fine. He wanted to be angry. “Grandma’s turning the keys over the realtor. You need to be out before she shows it.”

“Or what?” Her brother narrowed his eyes and took a step her way. “The two of you are tossing me out on the street, and I’m supposed to just go along with it? What kind of wuss do you think I am?”

Straightening her back, she faced him, suddenly sure she wasn’t going to retreat and let him tell himself he’d won. “I’ve known you all your life. I know exactly what kind of person you are.”

He swelled up his chest and clenched his hands on his hips. “Just like I know you. Acting like you’re doing everything right, everything according to schedule, when we both know what a fraud you are.

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