Heirly Ever After, Vernon, Magan [best thriller novels to read .txt] 📗

I help a friend out. We’re friends, right?”

I nodded slightly. “Um…I guess?”

“Tell ye family that we met by happenstance and hit it off, even if you did accuse me of trying to get into your knickers.”

My face heated, but I tried not to look away and show him he was right. “That’s a good story. But I’m not going to introduce you to my family as my boyfriend. If I was even considering this…you’re just my friend going with me, okay?”

He seemed to wince, but as quickly as I saw it, the expression was gone and that assured smile was back. “Just a friend. One odd duck helping another. What do you say?”

His eyebrows rose in challenge.

I put my hand to my temple. “This is way too much to think about this early in the morning.”

He nodded then slid off the bed. “All right, then how about you get ready and I go pick us up breakfast? When I come back, we can talk?”

My damn stomach decided to defy me at that moment and growled loudly at the mention of food.

Jacob grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes. Quack, quack?”

“Quack, quack,” I muttered.

…

I wasn’t much of a bath girl, but the lavender soak the inn supplied along with the soothing hot water was like a dream to my sore muscles. Even though I could have stayed in there forever, I didn’t know how long Jacob would be gone and needed to get ready as soon as possible.

I had a relative stranger spend the night with me, and now I was letting him go out to get breakfast. This was how a lot of horror movies started.

Wrapping myself in a fluffy towel, I poked my head out of the bathroom, making sure the main room was empty before I headed toward the bed where my clothes were laid out. Next to it was my phone, blinking with an ungodly number of missed messages from my sister.

Guilt curdled in my stomach as I realized I’d never messaged her or Mom as soon as I’d arrived in town. I could blame the train arriving late because of the rain, but well, more importantly, I still wasn’t exactly sure how to explain the breakup, dropping out of school, and now possibly bringing a stranger as a wedding date.

Closing my eyes tight, I took a breath then opened them again slowly and checked the first text in a string of messages.

Natalie: Hey, did you make it into town?

Natalie: Haven’t heard from you, everything okay?

Natalie: Did Chris get lost or use your phone battery and wifi to stream one of his games? Seriously, message me when you get this.

I winced at the last note.

My fingers hovered over my phone screen before I finally typed back an answer.

Madison: Hey, yes, I’m here in Webley. We got in late last night, though, and it was raining pretty bad. I didn’t want to bother anyone, so we stayed at a place in town. But it’s not Chris with me.

I hoped maybe I could gloss over that last part, but that was the first thing my perceptive sister picked up on.

Natalie: Who is with you???

I stared at the wooden beams of the ceiling, trying to come up with the right response.

Did I tell her the truth?

No.

I couldn’t do that.

It wasn’t the right time.

Maybe after things calmed down with the wedding. The longer they stayed focused on this date, the longer we wouldn’t have to talk about the other skeletons I was hiding.

Madison: His name is Jacob. He lives in Scotland. I didn’t want to spring it on you and Mom yet that Chris and I broke up, but when Jacob heard, he offered to be my date for the wedding, and we took the train together last night.

I hovered over the send button for far longer than I should have before I finally swallowed hard and pressed send.

Shit.

What had I just gotten myself into?

He hadn’t agreed to be my date, just to help me out.

Now it was too late to delete.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Dots appeared, letting me know she was typing.

Then they disappeared again.

The dots appeared.

Then disappeared.

Over and over.

“C’mon, just give me some sort of response,” I grumbled.

Maybe it wasn’t too late and I could say, “KIDDING he’s not coming. Ha. Got you.”

The sound of the doorjamb jiggling had me springing up.

I froze as the door opened, and Jacob stood there with a large brown paper bag and two steaming foam cups. The door shut behind him, but neither of us moved as if we were in a standoff.

Me, still soaking wet with my hair dripping down my shoulders and onto the towel, the only thing covering me.

Him, with his pressed button-down and slacks, looking like a GQ model before he even showered.

But it wasn’t just what he was wearing that had heat curling in my stomach. It was the way his mouth formed a perfect O, the way his eyes flashed with interest or something. Something that had me thinking about dropping the towel.

What? No.

We were friends. Right?

Friends didn’t drop their towel.

Finally, he shook his head and looked away, setting the food and drinks on a side table before fully turning his back to me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know ye’d be…”

Clearing my throat, I tried to come up with the right thing to say. “Just grabbing my clothes. My sister messaged me, so I was responding to her.”

“Oh?” he asked, keeping his back to me as he grabbed one of the cups from the table.

I looked from the drinks to my clothes on the bed, wondering if I should grab my stuff and run back in the bathroom or continue with this conversation.

“Yeah. She was wondering where I was.”

“And what did you tell her?”

Okay, I guess we were having a conversation.

I grabbed my underwear, sliding them on while trying to keep the towel wrapped around me. “That I wasn’t bringing my ex, but a friend from Scotland to the wedding.”

“I’m a friend now? And your wedding