Bought His Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

field and under attack. He dropped the watch and bent to pick it up at the exact the moment a bullet whizzed an inch above his head. He swears if it wasn’t for that watch, he’d have taken his last breath that day.”
    “What happened to the watch?”
    “He gave it to a friend of his to hold while he went on a mission and never got it back. Pops said his friend needed the luck more that he did.”
    “Your Pops is a special and generous man.” A twinkle danced in her eyes, then she raised her brow and smiled.
    “He always says you can’t be too lucky.” Emily pulled her coffee mug across the counter and wrapped her fingers around the warm ceramic. “He’s lucky, and I’m lucky to have him.”
    “He’s the most optimistic man I’ve ever met.”
    “He might be turning seventy-five, but he doesn’t act a day over fifty. I could set something up, Betty.”
    Blushing, the waitress swatted Emily with a towel and stood. “Stop it. You need to set that matchmaking mind on yourself, not an old woman past her prime.”
    “You’re not past your prime, and you’re not old.”
    “I have tables to see to.”
    Emily laughed, watching the woman she loved like a mother turn away. If only Betty knew how Pops asked after her during each phone call. They’d make a great couple—a couple of nutty hoots to spice life up.
    With clean tables and a pot of fresh coffee brewing, she flipped over a placemat and created a ‘Help Wanted’ sign. She’d run out to the hardware store and buy a real sign later in the afternoon, when things quieted down.
    Holding some scotch tape between her teeth, she walked to the door and saw a gorgeous specimen of a man coming toward her. Dark, tall and handsome echoed in each step he took in his booted feet. His broad chest was clad in a Fruit of the Loom style white T-shirt, which tucked neatly into a pair of rugged khaki cargo pants.
    A wicked ebony gaze locked on hers, and the sign slipped between her fingers as her heart skipped from the recognition. He was one of the peculiar guys from the estate sale. Two of the most handsome men she’d ever seen in one place, and they had to be new to Marathon, or maybe tourists, because there was no way she’d forget a man like the one making her skin sizzle just by looking at her as if she was his answer to his every freaking dream.
    She grabbed the paper back up and immediately focused on taping it on the glass. Securing the top of the handmade sign, she reached for more tape as the door swung open and a large muscular hand covered hers.
    “Not necessary, ma’am. I can fill any need you have.”
    The rich masculine voice matched the man who towered over her, heating every cell in her body to the boiling point. Corny? Yeah, but as his essence burned into her, she found it strangely refreshing to look up at a man for a change.
    Emily moved her five-foot-ten frame a step back from the eye-catching stranger and squared her shoulders before responding to his arrogant announcement. “What I need is a busboy and a dishwasher,” she said. Flipping her ponytail, she headed for the counter, calling over her shoulder. “You got someone?”
    “Jack, at your service.”
    He followed her, and she started when his large callused hand skimmed against her thigh as he reached beneath the counter for an apron.
    It was an accident. He didn’t really reach for me. Telling herself the intimate touch was merely a coincidence, a chance brushing, she held her breath and gathered her composure.
    “Jack, you said?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Well then, Jack.” She liked saying his name. It was a real man’s name, not like some of the ones her friends had come up with for their sons. “Jack, I’ll be happy to get you an application, and if you meet the requirements, I’ll call you for an interview.”
    Who was she kidding? He more than met any of her requirements. Who cared if he could load a dishwasher when she could spend the whole day admiring those washboard abs