Free Something of a Storm (All in Good Time Book 1) by Brooke St. James

hurry, but I couldn't think of anything else to do but walk away.
    "Wait up," I heard him say when I was about halfway down the hall. I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer that I wouldn't say anything ridiculous.
    "I saw the first window," he said, falling into stride next to me. I didn't look at him. "It's amazing. Did you have anything to do with it?"
    I let out a little laugh. "Oh, goodness no, I haven't even seen it yet. It's my first day working with Mr. Craig. I just moved here from Washington."
    "I go to Seattle quite a bit," he said.
    "Oh, that's cool," I said. "I've actually never been there."
    He laughed a little as if he thought I might be joking, but when I didn't laugh back, he said, "What brings you to San Francisco?"
    "I came to work with Mr. Craig," I said. "Or maybe I should say I came to study with Mr. Craig. I'm not getting paid or anything."
    I started to reach out to open the door to the sanctuary as we approached, but he jumped in front of me and held it open. "You're supposed to let the gentleman open the door for you," he whispered as I walked past him.
    I smiled but couldn't think of anything clever to say, so I just stayed quiet. Peter caught sight of us entering the sanctuary. "I heard you peeked," he yelled from across the room.
    "Was I not supposed to?" Zack asked.
    "They're your windows, you can look at them if you want," Peter said.
    "I just saw one," Zack assured him.
    They had a conversation about how blown away Zack was and how his mother was going to cry her eyes out when she saw them. Peter smiled several times during the whole exchange, which gave me hope that maybe one day he'd smile for me too.
    Peter told Zack that the second window would go in that day and that all five of them would be installed by Friday. Zack assured him that he was happy as long as they were ready for church on Sunday, and Peter and Freddy both promised him that would be the case.
    They spoke for about five minutes before Zack said, "I guess I should be letting you guys get back to work. I'll drop by again later this week to see the progress."
    Peter and Freddy both told him goodbye, but I stayed quiet. Zack turned to leave, but as he did, his gaze shifted to me.
    "I didn't catch your name," he said.
    "Laney, Delaney, Laney." I said like a babbling idiot.
    "It was a pleasure, Laney," he said, smiling and extending a hand, which I shook. "Welcome to San Francisco."
    "That boy could run for governor," Freddy said, when the door closed behind Zack.
    "President," Peter said. "Don't you think so, Laney Delaney Laney?" He phrased it as if that were my first, middle and last name and then he cracked a smile. He was teasing me, and I gave him a fake little warning glare. This made his smile broaden a bit, which pleased me greatly.

 
    Chapter 9
     
     
    I wish I could say that Zack Martin succeeded in taking my mind off worrying about my sister, but his gorgeousness was only able to distract me briefly. Thankfully, I had other distractions with getting to know Peter. He started to warm up to me that afternoon. We had a good conversation about art and composition, and I learned a lot even though we didn't talk about glass at all.
    I made it home at 2pm that day and was relieved to find Lexi there when I arrived. "I almost called Andy to see if he'd gone with you to look at shoes," I said, smiling with relief as I walked in.
    "Hello to you too," she said smiling back. "How'd it go?"
    "It was good," I said. "Peter Craig is a piece of work, I'll tell you that right now."
    "Uh-oh," she said with a worried expression. "Not in a bad way, I hope."
    "It's gonna be fine, he's just a little hard to read. I thought at first he wasn't happy to have me there, but by the end, he seemed to be having fun talking to me." I paused for a second. "Did you go anywhere?"
    "Can't you tell?" she asked, pointing at the shoeboxes that were stacked near the couch.
    A wave of anxiety hit me imagining everything that could have gone wrong. "Did Andy