Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

as I walked on the porch, trying to wipe those images from my brain. It was bad enough that I saw Eric’s ass, but Kat was like my sister. I didn’t need to see her boobs hanging out.

The door opened and Eric stepped out, tucking his shirt into his pants.

“Yeah, too late. I already saw way too much. You could warn a guy.”

“Warn you? You’re at my house. Uninvited.”

“Yeah, but put a sock on the knob or something. I swear, I’m never gonna recover from seeing Kat’s boobs.”

“You saw her boobs?” he shouted.

“Well, yeah, they were hanging out! When did they get so big?”

“Seriously? You looked at them before?”

“Well, yeah, before the two of you were really an item. They’re huge now. Is that because of the baby?”

He sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Just…pretend you didn’t see anything. The last thing I need is for her to be embarrassed.”

“What? You think I would say anything to her? I don’t want to ever remember what I just saw. In fact, if there was a way to bleach it from my brain, I would.”

“What are you here for anyway?”

“Sofia made dinner.”

As if that said it all, Eric waved me inside. “You’re lucky Kat made lasagna stuffed shells.”

“Two pans?”

“What do you think?” he asked as he opened the door.

I nodded to Kat and she grinned. “Hey, did you get a nice view of Eric’s ass?”

I rolled my eyes and turned to Eric. “I thought you said she wouldn’t say anything.”

“No, I said I didn’t want her to be embarrassed.”

“Why would I be embarrassed? It’s my house,” Kat said.

“Look, I just came for the food. Can we just pretend that didn’t happen?”

“Sure,” she smirked. “Just let me find my bra.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, rubbing at my eyes.

I sat down at the table and did my best not to look at Kat as she placed two hot dishes of shells on the table. Scooping them onto my own plate, I inhaled the delicious scent and cut into the first shell, ready to devour it.

“So, Lorelei said that she met you today,” Eric said, just as I put a shell in my mouth. I sucked in a sharp breath, only to choke on the damn shell. Kat came over and started smacking me on the back. I flinched away from her. I didn’t want her hands on me after what I had just seen.

“Yeah, I met her.”

“She said that you were skittish.”

I chuckled nervously. “Skittish? That doesn’t sound like me.”

“That’s what I thought, but she was pretty certain about it.”

I didn’t say anything, not wanting to bring on more conversation. After all, Eric didn’t know I was investigating her, and if I told him, he might not work at her house. What if she was innocent? Though, judging by the looks of her, I would say that was a big fat no in the innocence department. The woman was most definitely a seductress.

“She’s really nice.”

“Yeah, until she marries you,” I muttered under my breath.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing. Great shells, Kat.”

“Thank you.”

“So, why were you so skittish around her?” Eric pressed.

“Around who?” I feigned ignorance.

He sighed irritatedly and dropped his fork on his plate. “Lorelei.”

“The woman from the store?”

“Yes, the woman from the store,” he snapped.

“Why would you think I was skittish?”

“Because she told me,” he practically shouted, his irritation growing by the second.

I shrugged like I had no idea what he was talking about. “I don’t know, man. I met her, we chatted, and then she left.”

His eyes narrowed in on me and I started to sweat. I was so terrible at this lying thing. How the hell was I ever going to trick Lorelei into talking to me?

“She seemed really nice to me,” he continued. “She brought all of us baked goods from the bakery.”

“Of course she would,” I muttered under my breath.

“What’s that?”

“I said, that was really nice of her.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, but before he could say anything, Kat jumped in. “Why would she bring you baked goods?”

“She said that she came from a small town. I think that’s just the way they did things there.”

“Funny, she doesn’t seem like the small town type of girl,” I said before I could think better of it.

“Why would you say that?” he asked.

I thought back to the pictures of her, the way she stood in those nice dresses and killer heels. She fit into that world better than I would have ever thought. She looked like she belonged there. Then again, she looked like she belonged here. How the hell was I going to figure out who she really was?

“She mentioned that she asked for your help with picking out samples for paint.”

“Huh?” I looked up at him, lost in my own thoughts.

“Paint samples? She asked for your help?”

I nodded. “Oh, right.” And that was my in. I just needed to meet up with her, pretend to be her friend. I could get to know who she really was and then take what I knew about her from her files and compare the two. That should give me a better insight into the woman before me. Hell, maybe I could even get her to open up to me and tell me about herself. I grinned to myself, happy that I finally had a plan in place.

“He likes her,” Kat muttered. “Look at that smile on his face.”

“Well, it was only a matter of time,” Eric sighed. “He’s the only one left.”

“No, it’s not like that,” I corrected them. “I was just thinking that I should be more neighborly. I think maybe I’ll go over there tomorrow and see what she needs help with.”

“Why didn’t she ask you for help?” Kat asked Eric.

He shrugged. “I think she’s worried I already have too much on my plate. Honestly, I hate picking out paint samples. I like the clients to already know what they want, so if Andrew wants that job, he can have it.”

I finished eating my shells, ignoring the rest of the