Free Next to You by Julia Gabriel Page A

not fucking well understand the first thing about me. But you’re about to.
    She set the photo album on the bench outside the cottage, the one where she had left all those baked goods. No treats today, not for Jared Connor. Just a little light reading.

Chapter 9
    I ’m an asshole .
    Not exactly breaking news, that. Jared turned the pages of the photo album she had left for him. So she was Phlox Miller, the CEO of Phlox Beauty. Not her daughter or sister or niece. She was his employer, the woman whose photograph—old photograph—was on the company web site. He tried to remember what his brother had said about her. A nerdy scientist type, he believed it was, and something about an accident. But Jared had cut him off before Jake had told him the whole story.
    Normally, Jared hated hearing stories of other people’s accidents, like it was some bond of brotherhood between them. He hated being expected to compare surgical histories to see who’d had more, like it was a fucking badge of honor. But now he wished he had let Jake finish. It would have saved him making a total ass out of himself in front of her.
    She didn’t look like a nerdy scientist type. She hadn’t really even looked like one before. She’d been reasonably attractive then, too. But now she was a knockout. Yeah well, clearly she could afford all the plastic surgery she had needed. That always helped, of course.
    “You could have it done now,” Jake reminded him far more often than Jared cared to hear. “Hell, you could have had it done last year or the year before or whenever you wanted to.”
    Yeah, Jared was stubborn that way. He didn’t want no stinking surgery anymore. This was the way he looked. This was who he was now. Yeah so it was his fucking badge of honor. Get over it.
    He couldn’t help himself though. When he got to the end of the book, he flipped back through and tried to calculate how many operations she’d undergone. It was hard to tell, but the number was easily “a lot.”
    Yeah, you got a way with women, Connor. Only you could meet a woman who’s been through what you have and still manage to insult her over it. Nice fucking job.
    It was all over, he knew. He’d been worried about losing his job when the property owner learned he had yelled at her guest. Hah. The joke was on him. Nothing for the property owner to learn when she was the person he had unloaded on. Well, it wouldn’t take him long to pack. Jared traveled light.
    Guess Jake’s kids are going to get that visit from their uncle, after all. Jake and Mina’s manny job didn’t look so bad now.
    Still, he knew what he had to do. He had to go apologize to Phlox Miller. She wouldn’t be giving him any employment references, that was for sure, but he owed her an apology. There was still some residual gentleman buried beneath all his asshattery.
    At least her boyfriend had left. Otherwise, Jared would be exchanging an apology for a punch to his sorry, scarred face.
    He closed the photo album and headed for the main house, rehearsing his words as he went. I’m very sorry, ma’am. No, nix the ma’am. She wasn’t that old. I was out of line. I never should have said what I did. Please accept my apology and my resignation, effective immediately.
    He rapped sharply on the wooden screen door. The interior door was open and Jared could see straight through the center hall to the back screen door. Clearly, she was around somewhere. Not that leaving the doors open posed any great security risk out here, especially with a caretaker on site. A scary-looking caretaker at that.
    He knocked again but still there was no answer. He looked down at the porch. He wasn’t comfortable leaving the photo album outside. The weather forecast was clear but it could change and there were plenty of curious small animals around.
    Slowly he pulled open the screen door and stepped inside, listening for any sign of her.
    “Ms. Miller? You home?”
    He let the door wheeze closed behind him, holding