On the Ropes

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Book: Read On the Ropes for Free Online
Authors: Holley Trent
waiting for Stephen’s response. How would he define their relationship? She’d never had a reason to try.
    “Don’t go fishing, Derrick.”
    “Come on, tell me. She’s not local, so that means either you brought her or she met you here.” His eyes went wide, and he turned back to Janette. “Where are ya staying?”
    “Um…” Technically, she didn’t know where the house was, only that it was nearby. Was she supposed to obfuscate, or…hell, she didn’t know what Stephen was up to—what he’d want her to say. She suspected, though, that he wouldn’t be so candid about the fact the vacation would probably end up being a weeklong hook-up. He may have had a dirty mouth, but he tended to run it only at the right times.
    “You’re staying with him , aren’t you?” Derrick’s grin was downright predatory. Sharklike. She pitied anyone who counted him as an enemy.
    The waitress bobbed past at that moment and flicked a rag in Derrick’s general direction. “Out of stuff to cook?” she asked over her shoulder.
    “Put in an order and I’ll cook it.” He rolled his eyes and looked at Janette again. “You know, she doesn’t have to work for me. When I left law, I figured she’d find something else to do. Nope. She followed me down here and came begging for a job.”
    “That was your paralegal? Your cousin?”
    “Yep.”
    “She’s a good waitress.”
    “Better waitress than she was a paralegal. But let’s not get distracted. You staying at this guy’s house?”
    “Drop it, Derrick. Shit,” Stephen said.
    “No, no, no, you can’t just leave me hanging like this. How long have you and Meg owned that place? Way longer than I’ve had this restaurant. You’re the one who introduced me to the area.”
    “Ten years, I think.”
    “You bought a beach house at twenty-seven?” Janette asked. A similar property in Bermuda would be very expensive. She thought she’d be renting for the rest of her life. Suited her since she probably wasn’t going to get her white picket fence, anyway.
    “Not exactly,” Stephen said. “My mother’s mother left me and Meg a little cottage when she died. It got pulverized in a storm when we were teenagers. For a lot of years, the lot was vacant. I didn’t give it any thought until right around the time I was settling in at my first firm. Meg was here in North Carolina finishing up college, and it didn’t look like she was going back up north. I figured I could dip into my trust and put a little something on the lot.”
    Derrick guffawed. “ Little something , he says.”
    “Come on, it’s not exactly a mansion.”
    “If you say so.”
    “Well, I wasn’t going to put a tiny little house on a lot that size. And it’s only four bedrooms.”
    “Mm-hmm.” Derrick directed a conspiratorial side-eye at Janette. “He’s not counting the loft, I guess.”
    Stephen shrugged. “Maybe I would if there were a bed in it.”
    “I keep forgetting that you’re rich,” she mumbled.
    “You say rich like it’s a curse word,” Derrick said. “Nothing wrong with a little money if you’re spending it right.”
    He had a point.
    “I don’t think he’s never brought any other chick to the house. So…I’m going to take a wild-ass guess that you’re not the kind of woman who goes panning for gold.”
    She felt her face scrunch with her confusion at his turn of phrase, and he barked his laughter. “Oh, shit! Steve, does she know your parents are sitting on their own little Fort Knox?”
    Stephen pulled out his wallet and tossed a couple of twenties on the bar top. “For fuck’s sake, man.”
    “What? We’re in a recession. Your solvency makes you a catch you wouldn’t otherwise be.”
    “I’m starting to understand why your wife left you.”
    “Some friend you are.”
    “Indeed.” Stephen turned to Janette. He’d looked tired before, but now he looked positively drained. Forget sex, she wanted to force him into his jammies and tuck him in for the night. She

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