My Beautiful Neighbor (The Greene Family Book 1) by Piper Rayne (phonics reading books TXT) 📕

“Oh, I can cut you a check.”

He waves me off. “Just hold off on that. I’ll grab you the quote first.”

“I’m really anxious to get this going.” I’m not going to divulge that I need to get this store open so I can actually make some money.

He chuckles. “Okay, well, we can start the drywall repair and paint tomorrow.” He presses some numbers on his calculator and gives me a figure that I write him a check for. “I gave you a discount on account of you having to deal with my mother trying to push you and Cade together. She’s a meddler and her friend Dori isn’t any different.”

I laugh. “It’s okay. I actually have a whole box of spools of thread and fabric. I’m not sure if they’d want it, but Midge helped herself to three spools the other day.”

His shoulders deflate and he shakes his head. “I’m not surprised.”

I wave off his concern. “Dori paid for it, not that I wanted any money.”

“I think they’d love it.” He turns away from me. “Cade.”

Cade walks over and Adam follows. “Yeah?”

“Presley has a box of thread and fabric that needs to go to Northern Lights. You know your grandma is in that sewing club. They could use it.”

“Oh no.” I shake my head. “I can do it. I’m staying in Lake Starlight. I can just stop there on my way home.”

Hank tucks his clipboard under his arm and holds up his hands. “Now, I’m not meaning you’re not strong enough when I say this, because if I were, Marla would be over here and smacking me on the back of the head in an instant. But let Cade do it. Where are you staying in Lake Starlight?”

“Um. Glacier Point.”

“Fancy,” Adam says under his breath.

My cheeks redden in embarrassment. “I’m looking to stay someplace else. I didn’t know where to stay when I first came. It’s just a lot of things in Sunrise Bay are houses for rent and they’re all looking for long-term leases. I’m not ready for that kind of commitment just yet.”

“I have a place,” Hank says and turns to his sons as if he’s getting their opinion. Adam raises his eyebrows as though his dad is crazy and Cade’s eyes slowly shut. “The boys live in my old house. Above the garage, there’s a small apartment. We used it for guests back in the day. You’re welcome to stay there.”

“Oh no. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I shake my head, eyes wide.

“Why not? You’re a client and I treat my clients like family. I haven’t been up there in a while, so I’ll have the boys clear it out. But I can’t imagine how hard it is for you to upheave your entire life to come here. You’ll have to get a car and this place is costing a small fortune. Think of it as a welcome wagon gift.”

Cade chokes but recovers before his dad notices. The whole welcome wagon discussion from before rings in my head.

“I’ll think about it,” I say.

“Okay, I don’t want to force it on you,” Hank says. “But just a disclaimer, it’s out of the boys’ area. It has its own bathroom and kitchen, so you’d never have to see their mugs unless you wanted to do laundry in the main. I’ll install black-out curtains myself, so they don’t act like peeping toms.”

“Dad!” Cade screeches.

I giggle at how he turned into a thirteen-year-old boy at his dad’s remark.

“I better get to my next appointment. I can’t go getting bad Yelp reviews.” Hank laughs all the way out the door, stopping short when he sees the boxes. “Cade, don’t forget these boxes.”

“I won’t.”

Adam and Hank both leave.

Cade eyes me for a moment, his gaze fixated on the metal clasp of my overalls. “You should think about it.”

“And have you or Jed kill me in my sleep? No thank you.” I cross my arms.

He groans as if I’m torturing him. “At least let me take you home since I’m driving to Lake Starlight anyway.”

“I can take the boxes. Your dad wouldn’t be the wiser.”

He grabs a box. “You don’t understand how things work in the Greene family. Let’s go.”

So I grab my purse and follow because I have yet to rent a car—mostly because I didn’t want to waste the funds if I wouldn’t be setting up shop. But now that I am, I really need to figure out the logistics of a car and a place to live. As good as the apartment sounds, there’s no way I can live that close to Cade. My life grew infinitely more complicated when I came here, and getting involved with him would only make it worse.

As we hop in the truck and head toward Lake Starlight, I have to say, I’m a bit afraid of seeing Ethel and Dori again. They apparently tend to get people caught up in things they wouldn’t normally do—and Cade is very much one of those things. But I can’t deny that the attraction between us is growing no matter how much I try to convince myself I don’t like the man.

I might as well just add up all the people who are in on trying to get me together with Presley Knight. My dad must be one of them since he’s offering up the apartment over the garage.

Nikki tried to stay there when she first returned from college, but quickly moved in with the girls. She didn’t like being alone in the apartment since our house is set deep in the woods.

“We get in and we get out,” I tell Presley when we pull into the Northern Lights parking lot.

I never should’ve touched the metal clasp on her overalls, but the visual of them falling to the floor and me finding out what color her panties are was nearly unbearable. I expected her to smack my hand away, but she didn’t. The entire ride from Sunrise Bay to Lake Starlight, all