Love Is More Than Skin Deep (A Hidden Hearts Novel Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

humor me here.”
    “You do know that you wouldn’t work the equation backwards?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.
    I chuckle lightly. “Yes, I think I remember that. I might make my living with words, but I still remember rudimentary facts about pre-algebra,” I reply. “Just for the sake of argument—”
    “Oh, good gravy, I should’ve remembered you were one of those fancy lawyer types before I started this conversation—” Shelby grumbles under her breath.
    “I did try to warn you that I have several occupational hazards,” I tease.
    Shelby pops another French fry in her mouth as she leans back in the wrought iron chair and crosses her arms and waits for me to speak. “I’ve got to hear how you think math is going to save me from skin cancer,” she challenges.
    “I don’t know that math is going to do any of that. However, breaking your problem down into small pieces might make it easier to handle. For example, you said that you don’t have anybody in your life that cares about you. I happen to know that that’s wrong. Jade and Rogue are very concerned about you. Come to think of it, so am I. By my count, that makes at least three of us and I bet by the response that you got a few weeks ago at the shop that there are probably several more people who care about you. That number doesn’t even include the people that you went to school with or the people that live near you, or the people that you’ve worked with —”
    “Mark, what kind of person you do think I am?” Shelby exclaims shaking her head in disbelief. “I can’t take advantage of people like that. I don’t know these people. I just wandered into Ink’d Deep a few weeks ago to get a tattoo. These people don’t know me from Adam. They certainly don’t owe me anything,”
    “What if they want to help?” I argue.
    “Why would they want to do that?” she counters. “People just aren’t that nice — unless they want something.”
    “What if they were?” I press.
    Shelby grows quiet for a moment before she answers, “I don’t know that I could trust that.”
    “Shelby, I know you don’t know me very well, but I have reason to believe that we have many connections between our souls. Can you find it in yourself to trust me?”
    I inwardly cringe as the words come out of my mouth, I don’t know what I’m actually saying, but that doesn’t stop me. I watch as an expression of disbelief crosses her face and then something akin to resignation follows.  
    Finally, she’s slowly nods as she responds, “I don’t know why I’m even saying this, but I think I can trust you.”  

I’M STILL NOT SURE what happened to me that night. One moment I was having an existential meltdown next to a couple smelly dumpsters, and the next minute my life was being systematically put back together by the singularly best-looking man I have ever seen in my entire life. He didn’t even seem to notice that I was a sniveling mess of snot and tears. How he could’ve missed that, I’m not exactly sure. In retrospect, I’m just glad he didn’t make a big deal out of it.
    It was the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life. I went inside Ink’d Deep to wash my hands and by the time I was done, it appeared that several people had a committee meeting about me and essentially sorted out my entire life. Some people might have taken exception to that level of planning — but at this point, everything is out of my control and I am grateful that anyone actually cares enough to step up and do something to help me.
    Apparently, Jade’s parents want to do some traveling and they would like someone to live on their property. They’re willing to let me live there in exchange for me keeping an eye on their pets and plants while they’re gone. It seems almost too good to be true — there must be a catch. When I ask Jade about it, she just quietly smiles and says, “I went through a dark stage as a teenager. Some of the posters are pretty