Sealing the Deal Read Online Free Page B

your decorator anymore,” Beth replied.
    His stomach knotted at the words he’d hoped he’d never hear from her. He struggled for what to say. It boiled down to one thing.
    Robert needed Beth.
    He went with humor, hoping to ratchet down the anxiety clearly flowing through her. “You think I’m letting you off that easy?” He added another wink in an attempt to lighten the discussion—even though to him, it was pretty damned important.
    Didn’t she realize how much she meant to him? It wasn’t as if the realization snuck up and clubbed him over the head. He’d been warming to her for quite a while, beginning to see more and more in her that he found utterly appealing.
    She was the only true friend he had now, and he depended on her, both personally and professionally. Once teachers left the school, they seldom saw the people they left behind. Building houses meant people came into his life and then went right back out again.
    None ever stayed.
    He couldn’t help but smile when he remembered her first year at school. God, she’d been so young, so very green. Only twenty-one and right out of college, while he’d been thirty and an eight-year veteran. Like most newbies, Beth had thought she could change the world. Perhaps in some ways she had. She’d changed Douglas High for the better.
    Beth had created the Peer Board, a group of students who helped deal with problems in the school. If kids were having trouble with anything, from bullying to being habitually tardy, they often went to the Peer Board for advice and assistance. Not only did the group take a lot of pressure off the administrators by solving problems in the early stages, but the climate of the school had improved dramatically.
    Her room was right across the hall from what had been Robert’s engineering classroom. He’d been an industrial technology teacher before his side business of constructing custom homes took off with a population boom in the community. But for six years, she’d been his neighbor. They’d talked, laughed, and shared every school day. When he’d decided to walk away from teaching, leaving her friendship behind had been one of the hardest obstacles.
    His color blindness had been what brought Beth into Ashford Homes. The first house he’d built he decorated himself, using neutral colors and relying on his contacts at the paint store and flooring supplier to help him choose. The house had been constructed beautifully, but it didn’t sell. Feedback from potential buyers was unanimous. The inside was dreary and dull. The buyers couldn’t look past the colors and emptiness to see the fantastic amenities.
    Beth had gone to an open house. Robert had followed her through the rooms, hoping she’d like what she saw. Instead, she’d shifted from her bubbly, positive personality to dead silence. He’d had to nag her to get her to admit what she thought, and it wasn’t good.
    Yet in her typical style, she’d set about helping him. After she chose new colors for the interior walls, changed up some of the floor treatments, and meticulously staged the place, it had sold in a multiple-bid war.
    He’d hired her right after, and they’d worked together ever since.
    “I… I need you, B.” Robert inwardly kicked himself for sounding as though he was begging, even if he was. “I c-can give you m-more m-money.”
    Fuck .
    He hadn’t stuttered in years. After getting counseling when he was in middle school, he’d been able to get a hold of himself and stop his lifelong stutter. The only time it popped up was when he was really upset.
    Losing Beth’s friendship would leave him devastated.
    “I don’t want more money, Robert.” Beth was still flitting around the place, picking up.
    Robert strode over to her and stilled her movements by gently grabbing her wrist. “Stop. Please. I n-need to talk to you.”
    Her big brown eyes were full of resignation. She looked overwhelmed and defeated.
    Beth was facing a war, and she didn’t even