Love Under Two Jessops Read Online Free Page B

back at Andrew. She shrugged and said, “I guess I’ve been spending too much time in the past these last few months.”
    “No.” Grant leaned forward and covered both her hands with one of his. “You needed time to deal with everything that happened—not just what happened here, but what happened before you even arrived in Lusty. We both understood that, Chloe.”
    She’d expected Andrew to be the one to say something, to more or less get the ball rolling. “I don’t understand. You were the one who said ‘Thank God.’” She would never forget that moment. These two men had insisted their way into her apartment. Andrew had just called her love, and she’d countered that she wasn’t his love. He’d said “yet” at the same time Grant had said, “Thank God.”
    Her gaze was locked with Grant’s as her own words echoed in her ears. For a long moment he didn’t even blink. Then she saw the corner of his mouth twitch, just a little, and it hit her.
    She’d been pretending they didn’t exist except in the most academic of terms, and doing a fairly credible job of it, too, ever since she’d arrived in Lusty.
    And I just put paid to all that hard work with that one sentence.
    Chloe shrugged, mentally. She had been trying to find a way to let them know that she was interested in them. She’d just accomplished that, totally unawares. Somehow she thought it more than fitting that on this night, when she’d decided to take a first step toward these two men, that she’d done so by invoking the memory of that night.
    For some reason, thinking about that evening when the brothers Jessop had steamrolled their way into her temporary apartment made her body hum and her nipples peak.
    “I changed my mind.” Grant’s quietly spoken words pulled her back to the present. Before she could even think of a response to that, Emily Anne came out of the kitchen carrying a small tray.
    The waitress grinned when she saw the Grant and Andrew. Chloe paid attention, because she’d never noticed, one way or another, whether or not these two firefighters flirted with Emily Anne, too. She’d seen it all her life. Some men were just serial flirts.
    “Well, hello there, boys. I didn’t see y’all come in.” She set Carrie’s meal down in front of her, and then took out her order pad. “Do y’all need to see the menu, or do you know what you want?”
    “We know exactly what we want.” Andrew’s gaze never left Chloe’s while he answered Emily Anne.
    Chloe felt all her female bits react to not only his stare but his deeply intimate tone. Just when she thought she might actually combust, he winked, and then turned his attention to the waitress. The heated male look disappeared, replaced by one of friendly politeness.
    Not a serial flirt, then.
    “I don’t need to see the menu, Emily Anne, thank you. I’ll have a hamburger, well done, with fries on the side, and a Coke, please.”
    “I’ll have the same, but hold them until you bring out the rest of Chloe’s dinner, okay?”
    “Oh, Chloe’s already got all the dinner she ordered. Dull, naked salad, fat-free chips, and salsa—all with a water chaser.”
    Chloe didn’t think she imagined the cat-eating-canary grin that Emily Anne wore as she sold her out. It did surprise her some that her friend seemed pleased with herself, as if she’d given away a cherished gift—or done a good deed. Chloe could feel both men staring at her.
    “That’s not enough food to keep a bird alive,” Andrew said.
    Chloe bristled. She sat up straighter in her seat. “This is plenty of food for someone like me. Do you know how many calories there are, right here?” she used her hands to indicate the salad and chips with dip.
    “Yes, I know exactly how many calories there are right there,” Grant said. “Not nearly enough.” He looked at Emily Anne. “Make my order two burgers, please, and cut the second one in half.”
    Emily Anne wrote it down, grinning. Then she nodded and headed