Free One Night with a Star (Second Chances Book 2) by Merry Farmer

business from head to toe. “You didn’t give me much to go on, so I used my own judgment to guess.”
    “Perfect.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and leaned over the table to see what she had. Standing that close, he could smell the fresh, flowery scent of her. Was it perfume? Her shampoo? How he would love to find out.
    “There are a couple further inland, closer to Twin Pines,” she went on.
    “Good,” he said. “Not sure I want to live that close to work, but we’ll see.”
    “All right,” she went on. “There are a few beach houses too.”
    He nodded, scanning the papers she spread out. “Which one is closest to where you live?”
    “No,” she answered.
    All right, then. He shrugged. “I haven’t ever bought a house before,” he confessed. “How should I go about doing this?”
    She looked at him, frowning. “You’ve never bought a house?”
    “Nope.”
    “But you’re, what, how old?”
    “Thirty-eight.”
    “And you’ve never owned a home?”
    He took his hands out of his pockets and spread his arms in a gesture of surrender. “I’ve lived in flats my whole life. Hotels.” Houses had always been for the normal people, the people who actually knew how to live life. Up until last year, that hadn’t been him.
    “Okay.” Jenny blew out a breath. “Why don’t we look at a few houses and as we do, you can give me an idea of what kind of environment you want to live in.”
    “Or you could just choose a house for me,” he suggested. The temptation to play with her was too much. “Seeing as you’ll be spending so much time there.”
    She turned a look on him that could wither an oak. “No.”
    “You like that word, don’t you?” He grinned.
    “Where you’re concerned, it’s the only word,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how much I need the business, if you cross the line, I’m out.”
    A twist of concern settled his playful spirits. She had sounded down when he first called her. “Things tough at work?”
    She opened her mouth, but instead of whatever answer she started out with, she said, “None of your business.”
    So that was a yes, then.
    He shifted to lean against the table. “You’ll be spending time at whatever house I buy because of Daniel,” he said, perfectly serious. “I told you I want to be part of his life, and I do. That means that when he spends time with me, which I hope he will, you’ll need to come and go from my house. I want you to have a say in the environment where your son will spend time.”
    She stared at him. The anger that had been in her eyes softened to something hesitant. She looked at him as though seeing him differently. That was exactly what he wanted.
    “Fine,” she said at length. “I’ll give you my input. I won’t choose for you, though.”
    “Works for me,” he said. “So when do we get started?”
    She turned back to the table. “Let me know which of these listings you like and I’ll set up appointments to view them. I’ll also give you a logon to our website so that you can go through listings yourself and save them to a queue. If you find one you like, you can make an offer, and we’ll take it from there.”
    “Sounds good,” he said and nodded. He turned to her. “Now that that’s done, why don’t we go pick up Daniel and make a day of it?”
    She blinked at him. “What?”
    He shrugged. “Your work here is done. We’ll go see some houses. I like the look of this one.” He picked up a paper that showed a large house with a beach view, memorizing the address listed at the top of the page. He’d log on to Jenny’s website and get serious about picking houses to view later. Right now, he had other plans. “Your boss thinks you’re out working. You are. But let’s go pick Daniel up from wherever he is and—where does Daniel stay during the day anyhow?”
    Jenny’s scowl had grown throughout his speech. “My mom watches him during the day. She’s retired. It saves me money.”
    “Brilliant,”