It's a Wonderful Wife Read Online Free PDF Page B

away. “I’m not hurt.”
    Jesse sat back on his heels. “Then why are you lying on the floor?”
    She looked around as if to confirm she indeed was on the floor, then went back to scowling at him. “Because it’s impossible to lie on the bed or couch of a moving camper,” she said, turning her scowl on the couch beside her. “I know because I kept getting bounced off before I finally smartened up and just stayed on the floor.”
    â€œWhat are you doing here, Cadi?” Jesse asked as he fought a grin, already knowing the answer but curious to hear hers—only to be surprised when he did.
    â€œIsn’t it obvious? I’m getting drunk,” she said, lifting her hand on the side away from him to expose the empty wine bottle clutched in her fist—which explained the pale pink spots on the front of her shirt. “I don’t have a car anymore, so I don’t have to worry about drinking and driving. And I
thought
hitching a ride in your camper would be a good way to leave town.” She dropped her hand and closed her eyes on a soft groan. “They don’t need to keep building bigger and scarier roller coasters; they just have to load people up in a camper and haul them over a hilly, crooked Maine road.”
    â€œDid you have any plans beyond reaching Castle Cove?” he drawled, quickly stifling his grin again when her eyes opened and shot to his. “Other than spending the night in jail?”
    â€œIn jail for what?”
    â€œTrespassing.”
    â€œTrespassing
where
?”
    He gestured around them. “The business I’m in has zero tolerance for stowaways.”
    Those beautiful eyes narrowed. “That’s right,” she said over the sound of the wine bottle hitting the floor as she rolled over and awkwardly rose to her hands and knees. “You own some big shipping company with your brothers. Tidal-something-something,” she muttered, weaving slightly as she grabbed the corner of the slide-out and tried to stand before apparently deciding to simply sit on the floor and lean against the couch.
    â€œIt’s Tidewater International.”
    â€œAnd you really have poor, desperate stowaways arrested?”
    â€œOnly those who don’t die from dehydration,” he said, turning serious and even angry. “You could have been badly hurt. Why didn’t you just hide in my truck until everyone left?”
    She dropped her gaze to her lap, a telltale blush rising to her cheeks. “Because I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone, including—no, especially—you.”
    Jesse was instantly contrite for teasing the obviously embarrassed woman. “Why especially me?” he asked gently. “I would think dealing with a stranger would actually be easier.
Especially
if he happens to be a slow-witted bear,” he added, wanting to lighten the mood.
    She lifted her gaze and smiled sadly. “No one can spend three months building a man’s home one wall and window at a time and not get to know him inti . . . intimately,” she ended in a whisper, her blush deepening as she looked down again.
    â€œYou can’t know me very well if you don’t even know the name of my business.”
    She looked up with a frown and waved that away. “What you do to earn your millions isn’t even close to who you really are. The model I built wasn’t for the high-powered executive who tried to crush his competition by stealing their boat captains with outrageous salaries; it was for the man who asked an architect to design him a home that would instill wonderful childhood memories in a passel of kids who aren’t even born yet.” The smile she suddenly shot him held hints of the interesting Miss Glace—or else that of a woman who’d just downed an entire bottle of wine. “You know the guy I’m talking about?
That
Jesse Sinclair?”
    Jesse could only stare at her,