From the Moment We Met Read Online Free PDF

burn. “But I think that the habitat is more in line with your . . . comfort zone.”
    “If it is the size of the project, I assure you that I am more than qualified to handle it,” Abby clarified, tired of people underestimating what she could handle. “If you’ll turn the page, you will see that I have handled budgets three times this size.”
    Babs closed the folder and placed it on her lap. “Yes, dear, but that was with your family’s money.”
    It was as though time stopped, rewound, and lodged itself right through Abby’s chest. She knew the look on Babs’s face, knew it well. It was the same look the paramedic had given her when she’d asked if her parents were going to be okay. The same look she’d received from the investors when she’d explained that Richard, and their money, had disappeared. It was the same look her family was going to give her when they discovered that Richard had returned—albeit in statue form—and was somehow her problem once again.
    “Are you afraid I won’t be able to handle a project this complex?” As the words left her mouth, a sick sense of dread made it difficult to speak. “Or are you afraid I’ll have a hard time keeping the money from disappearing into my pocket?”
    “Oh, no,” Babs said, her hand clutching her chest in genuine horror. “I would never think you could steal. From me or anyone. You’re not that kind of girl. Never have been.”
    Abby felt herself relax a little. Sometimes, when she was too tired to pretend everything was all right, she wondered if what happened with Richard was part of the reason people in town always went with other designers. She was relieved to know, whether she got this job or not, that wasn’t the case here.
    “No, dear, my concern would be that someone would sweet-talk you into gaining access to the account. Plus, my son would never allow it. Ferris was one of Richard’s original investors.”

    Tanner rested his arms on the top of the steering wheel to get a better view of the deserted parking lot as though he were a detective on a stakeout when, in fact, he felt more like a Peeping Tom.
    He had no idea how he’d managed to get stuck on Abby duty. Except, oh right, he’d lost big at last week’s poker game and the guys had called in their marker. Guys who happened to be named DeLuca.
    Not that it was a hardship, he thought, watching Abby roll on her toes to peer inside the abandoned bottling plant. Nope, not when her shirt shifted way up, emphasizing the sweetest ass in the history of the world and two very toned, very sexy legs.
    He reached for his thermos and took a pull of coffee, wondering A) what she was doing creeping around a dark construction site at night with her face pressed firmly against the window, and B) if she bent over just a little farther what color silk would he find peeking back. His brain already knew the answer to the first. Too bad his dick couldn’t stop thinking about the second.
    For a girl who’d spent the past few minutes diving behind an overgrown shrub every time a car drove by, she sure picked the wrong outfit to lie low. Her tight cream skirt and matching sweater set was like a freaking homing beacon, radiating under the parking lot lights.
    Drawing him in.
    He pressed speed dial, calling Abby’s brother Marco. Having a wife and new baby daughter to worry about should have calmed Marco down a bit when it came to his kid sister. It hadn’t.
    “Did you find her?” Marc’s voice filled the cab of his truck.
    “Yup.”
    “That’s it? Yup?”
    “Yup.”
    They’d had this argument less than an hour ago, when he’d made it clear that playing spy for a group of domineering brothers wasn’t going to happen. Tanner had only agreed to find Abby because they’d been worried sick since she’d decided to go radio-silent after the naked Dick appeared on her lawn. Then, there was the botched interview with Babs earlier—he should have known her brothers wouldn’t be able to help