Read Bachelor Dad on Her Doorstep for Free Online Page B

friends at school. The five of them—Connor, Richard, Gwen, Faye and herself. They’d all hung out together.
    ‘Look, Jaz.’ Connor raked a hand back through the sandy thickness of his hair. ‘I can’t help feeling responsible for this, and…’
    And what? Did he mean to offer her a room too?
    Not in this lifetime!
    She strove for casual. ‘And you have plenty of room, right?’ Given all that had passed between them, given all that he thought of her, would he really offer her a room, a bed, a place to stay? The idea disturbed her and anger started to burn low down in the pit of her stomach. If only he hadn’t jumped to conclusions eight years ago. If only he’d given her a chance to explain. If only he’d been this nice then!
    It’s eight years. Let it go.
    She wanted to let it go. With all her heart she wished shecould stop feeling like this, but the anger, the pain, had curved their claws into her so fiercely she didn’t know how to tear them free without doing more damage.
    She needed him to stay away. ‘I don’t think so!’
    The pulse at the base of Connor’s jaw worked. ‘I wasn’t going to offer you a room,’ he ground out. ‘You’ll be happier at Gwen’s, believe me. But I will deduct the cost of your accommodation from my final bill.’
    Heat invaded her face, her cheeks. She wished she could climb under the counter and stay there. Of course he hadn’t meant to offer her a place to stay. Why would he offer her of all people— her —a place to stay? Idiot!
    ‘You’ll do no such thing!’ Pride made her voice tart. ‘I had every intention of arriving in Clara Falls today and staying, whether the flat was ready or not.’ She’d just have given different instructions to the removal company and found a different place to stay.
    No staff. Now no flat. Plummeting profits. What a mess! Where on earth was she supposed to start?
    ‘Jaz?’
    She suddenly realised the two men were staring at her in concern. She planted her mask of indifference, of detachment, back to her face in double-quick time. Before either one of them could say anything, she rounded on Connor. ‘I want your word of honour that you will bill me as usual, without a discount for my accommodation. Without a discount for anything.’
    ‘But—’
    ‘If you don’t I will hire someone else to do the work. Which, obviously, with the delays that would involve, will cost me even more.’
    He glared at her. ‘Were you this stubborn eight years ago?’
    No, she’d been as malleable as a marshmallow.
    ‘Do we have an understanding?’
    ‘Yes,’ he ground out, his glare not abating in the slightest.
    ‘Excellent.’ She pasted on a smile and made a show ofstudying her watch. ‘Goodness, is that the time? If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, it’s time to close the shop. There’s a spa-bath with my name on it waiting for me at the Cascade’s Rest.’
    As she led them to the door, she refused to glance into Connor’s autumn-tinted eyes for even a microsecond.
     
    When Jaz finally made it to the shelter of her room at the Cascade’s Rest, she didn’t head for the bathroom with its Italian marble, fragrant bath oils and jet-powered spa-bath. She didn’t turn on a single light. She shed her clothes, leaving them where they fell, to slide between the cold cotton sheets of the queen-sized bed. She started to shake. ‘Mum,’ she whispered, ‘I miss you.’ She rolled to her side, pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. ‘Mum, I need you.’
    She prayed for the relief of tears, but she’d forced them back too well earlier in the day and they refused to come now. All she could do was press her face to the pillow and count the minutes as the clock ticked the night away.

CHAPTER THREE

    J AZ let herself into the bookshop at eight-thirty sharp on Monday morning. She could hear Connor…She cocked her head to one side. She could hear Connor and his men hammering away upstairs already.
    She locked the front