Read Online The Bachelor's Sweetheart by Jean C. Gordon - Free Book Online Page A

programs.”
    While she should have been prepared, his words knocked the breath out of her. She reached for Josh’s arm, and he jumped from the chair, opening a hollow space in her chest.
    â€œSorry. I need to go. I have to get some air. Maybe I’ll swing by for the movie Friday night.”
    Tessa couldn’t remember the last time Josh hadn’t shown up on Friday night to help her show the weekly feature. “Wait. I’m done for the night. I’ll walk down with you.”
    Josh held the door for her, tension radiating from him. When they got downstairs to the main door, she asked, “Will you consider what I said about your father making amends?”
    He turned on her, his mouth drawn in a grim line. “No more questions. All I know is that I don’t need any drunks in my life.”
    * * *
    Tessa scrubbed the grout between the tiles surrounding the bathtub at the garage apartment as if her life depended on it being sparkling white. Josh hadn’t stopped by the Majestic for the Friday or Saturday evening shows or the Sunday matinee. Nor had he sat with her and her grandmother at Sunday morning church service as he often did. In fact, if he was at church at all, he must have sat in the back and left before she and Grandma made it up the aisle.
    But that’s what she wanted, wasn’t it, to be less dependent on Josh’s friendship? His avoidance could be God’s way of weaning her, which was why she hadn’t contacted him since she’d seen him last Monday. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t on her mind. Constantly. Sunday evening on her way home from work, she’d checked the apartment to see if he’d been there. He was supposed to be moved in, except they’d never finished the cleaning. She’d found new boxes on the living room floor, air fresheners plugged in a few of the electrical sockets and the carpeting no longer had the muddy look the several years’ accumulation of dust had given it.
    She sprayed more cleaner on the wall. So what had she done? Instead of texting or calling Josh to get together to finish the cleaning, she’d come over to the apartment late the past three afternoons and cleaned, thinking Josh might stop in after work. Pitiful . She needed to get a life, which was what she’d been trying to do with the Majestic renovations, and redirect her relationship with Josh to a working one. She didn’t need the grief of getting in the middle of him and his father. Josh needed to work that out himself.
    The click of the apartment door opening made her drop the scrub brush in the tub. It landed with a thud that echoed through the apartment. The only people who had keys besides her were her grandmother and Josh, and Josh would be at work.
    â€œHello, what brings you up here?” she called to her grandmother, rising and walking to the doorway to the main room.
    Josh and Claire Delacroix stood by the entry door. “I didn’t expect you to be here,” he said.
    â€œWhy aren’t you at work?” she blurted. And why is Claire with you? “I mean, I thought I’d finish the cleaning.” She dug the toe of her sneaker into the corner of the doorjamb. As of last Thursday, the apartment was his. She was the one who didn’t belong here.
    â€œI appreciate it, but I was caught up at work for the moment, so took off a couple of hours this afternoon to move. I didn’t get it all done over the weekend.”
    Right, because the only time you had was the hours I was working and you knew you wouldn’t run in to me.
    â€œI can finish. You’ve got better things to do than clean my apartment,” he said.
    Of course he could finish—him and Claire . “Sure, I’ll get my stuff. There’s not much left to do.” She went back into the bathroom. What was with her? She never got tongue-tied and uneasy with Josh. Nor did she pay particular attention to who he was seeing,