Read Online Lucky Break by Carly Phillips - Free Book Online

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    Sharon shook her head. “As far as I know, he’s never told anyone what happened. He’s just maintained his innocence, and frankly, I believe him.” She lifted her wine and took a long sip.
    â€œNo argument here.” Jason might be competitive and dedicated, but he was honest.
    Sharon laughed as she drained her glass.
    â€œMore wine?” Lauren lifted the bottle.
    Sharon nodded and Lauren topped off their glasses.
    She stared into the golden liquid as she explained her problem. “He’s the only contractor available to work on this house.”
    â€œI’m assuming from the look on your face when you talk about him, he’s still good with his hands?” Sharon rose and stretched her arms into the air,unsteady on her feet thanks to the alcohol she’d consumed too quickly. Thank God.
    â€œToo good for me to get any real work done and that’s the problem.”
    â€œAnd you want me to tell you it’s going to be okay, right?” Sharon flopped back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. “It’s a good thing Richard is picking me up after his meeting because there’s no way I can drive.”
    â€œI know what you mean.” Lauren’s head spun from the wine and her stomach swirled at the thought of hiring the one man she didn’t trust herself to be around. “And you’re right. I want you to tell me I can work side by side with him and not fall in love.”
    â€œYou can do it.” Sharon sounded like a cheerleader, obviously too buzzed to think clearly.
    Which was fine. Lauren didn’t really need her friend to tell her anything. She already knew the score. Her nerves tingled at the thought of him. Her body still craved him. And her heart was already softening toward him.
    Deep down, Lauren knew it didn’t matter what Sharon said. Working with Jason was a risk. A risk she had no choice but to take.
    Â 
    W ORKING WITH HIS HANDS used to provide Jason with a means to pay for his snowboarding andOlympic dreams. After being forced to give up the sport professionally, he’d fallen back on what he knew in order to make a living. But painting and fixing things didn’t provide the creative challenge that snowboarding had, nor did it give him a goal to work toward.
    Since he’d moved back here, his life had become stagnant, but Lauren’s return had given him new purpose and a new goal—winning the Perkins job. He’d even cleared his schedule in anticipation of working at Lauren’s house, but she hadn’t called.
    Three days and not a word, although he knew she’d been in touch with Mark and Greg, and they’d both turned her down. He was tempted to stop by the house later today and check on her, but she’d been so resistant to them working together, he thought it would go better if she came to him.
    To kill time, he turned to working on his own living space. He hadn’t had a chance to put his mark on the place yet, so he’d spent the past few days priming the walls in the lower section of the loft so he could paint over the gray his uncle had chosen. The sun didn’t shine in the windows until late in the afternoon and he needed a brighter color to perk up the place.
    His sisters, Ruthie and Allison, lived close to each other in New York with their husbands andkids and had opened up an interior design business together. They’d both offered their advice, suggesting navy or hunter-green walls with white trim and had sent him photos of offices in their portfolio to back up their advice. Since this was the first permanent place Jason had lived in, as opposed to hotel rooms and short-term rentals, he’d chosen stark white instead. Like snow. He’d be surrounded by proof he was no longer hiding from his past. So here he was, standing on a ladder painting his new home, and waiting for a girl to call.
    A few more broad strokes of the brush and he decided to take a