Free Just My Luck (A Shamrock Falls Novel) (Entangled: Bliss) by Kelley Vitollo Page B

so sorry,” she said again, having no idea what else to say. So instead she turned and tried to walk away.
    Jace’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. “No harm, no foul. It’s my fault for walking around like this. I bought new razors and forgot them in a bag in the living room. I thought I could run and grab them before you came out.”
    Deep breath. Take a deep breath, Betsy, and try to forget Jace is holding onto you while he’s half naked.
    She couldn’t get his bare chest out of her head.
    “Okay…well, I’ll let you…” She tried to twist free, but for some reason he hung on. “Get back to dressing. I mean shaving. You probably finish shaving before you get dressed…” Why couldn’t she stop talking? Betsy almost bit her tongue just to make herself shut up. Her hands shook and she wanted to melt into the floor.
    “Yeah, I do usually shave before I— Hey. Are you okay?” Suddenly Jace let go of her and took a step backward. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, B. You know that, right?”
    Oh great. Now she made him think, what? That she felt like he was hitting on her or something?
    “I’m fine. I didn’t think. I mean, I know.” Betsy still had her back to him. She took a couple deep breaths to calm herself. I need to relax. There’s no reason to be so embarrassed. It’s not that big a deal.
    After repeating the words a few times, she managed to settle her shaking hands. To make her heart slow again. It was hard, but she made herself turn to face him. “I’m okay.” Pride pumped through her veins as she looked him in the eye. She could do this.
    “That’s good.” Jace studied her. Watched her in a way she’d never seen from him before. As though he was trying to find out some secret she didn’t know she held. “I guess I better go get dressed so you don’t beat me to the office by much.” He watched her for a few more seconds.
    “See you soon…” It felt like a silly thing to say, since he’d only be in his room getting ready. She didn’t even have to wait for him. It was just something they did—go to work at the same time.
    “See you.” Jace stepped around her, stalled, and she sent up a silent wish that he would stay. But he didn’t. Jace walked away, stopped, but didn’t turn around before he started moving again.

    “What do you mean? Why would the doctor want to change her medication? Mom’s been on this regimen for a while.” Betsy sat at her desk, twisting the phone cord around her finger. Jace was out meeting with a possible witness who could corroborate a client’s story, so she’d decided to take this time to call and check on her mom.
    Shame curled inside her. She shouldn’t hide her mom—it wasn’t her fault she was sick. But it felt so good to have people in her life who didn’t know all her baggage. Betsy had been good at keeping it a secret when she was younger. It made things easier on them both and when things did get bad enough where she couldn’t hide it, when people looked at her, it had been with pity. There were times her mom almost lost custody of her. It hadn’t been easy on either of them.
    She couldn’t stand the thought of Jace looking at her with that same pity.
    Or Sidney, Rowan, Breck, or Kade. It’s not just about Jace , she reminded herself.
    “Excuse me? Ms. Harris?” The soft voice in Betsy’s ear startled her. Jeez. How could she have forgotten she was on the phone?
    “I’m sorry. I missed what you said.” She needed to keep her head on straight and stop focusing on Jace.
    “She’s doing okay, but I think you’ll admit there’s room for improvement. That’s part of the reason I called. We had an…incident this morning with one of the staff.”
    Oh no … Betsy closed her eyes. So not only had she been experiencing increasing problems with her mom, but the staff had too.
    “We nipped it in the bud before it could get out of hand, Ms. Harris. It was only verbal, and if this were the only incident like