Jace: The Pride of the Double Deuce Read Online Free PDF Page B

been…hurt.”
    It sounded lame even to her ears. But holy Christ, six of them looking like this guy was going to overload her senses. She decided that Mr. Clarke was going to deal with these guys. There would be no way she’d be able to get a lick of work done if they were…she wondered if any of them would be shirtless, and had to stop that train of thought right then and there. She looked at Mason when he gave a little laugh.
    “I’m going home to rest. For a few days. Alone.” She snapped her mouth closed when her dad looked at her oddly. “I’ll be at home resting. If you want to go over the list…perhaps it would be best if you called Mr. Clarke. He’s…he’s….”
    “I understand.” Did he? Because she wasn’t sure she did. When Mason nodded to her she thought the relief should have been just a little more. But when he spoke again, she wanted to whimper. “But I’m not going to have time this morning anyway. Jace, my brother, is going to help you. Mr. Clarke doesn’t know it as well as you do. He told us last night.”
    “At dinner,” her dad clarified. “Remember, we had dinner together. And I’d forgotten about Clarke having that thing today.”
    “Thing?” Her dad nodded and turned from her. Holly had a feeling she was being had but wasn’t sure why. Her dad had never lied to her before, but she had a feeling that was exactly what was going on. And Mason, for whatever reason, was in on it. “This Jace person, he’s only in charge of equipment. What does that mean for me?”
    The smile on Mason’s face was mirrored on her dad’s, and for some strange reason she felt the need to blush hotly. When Mason only nodded and tipped his hat at her, she returned the nod, still extremely confused. Maybe it was her injury, but she felt out of sorts.
    It took the doctor another ten minutes to come in and release her. He gave her strict orders not to do any driving for two days, and to see her own doctor in a week. She just needed to get out. The walls felt like they were closing in, and she wanted to scream at both the men. By the time she was buckled in the car, she had an appointment with Jace.
    “And you say he can answer my questions?” Mason nodded and grinned again. “What the hell is going on? Why are you acting like you have the best kept secret in the world and I’m going to be the butt of it?”
    “No secrets from me, Holly. As for you being the butt…well, ma’am, you’re going to have to wait and talk to Jace about that one.” The urge to smack him was great. And even more so, she didn’t believe the good old boy thing he was doing anymore than she believed there was nothing going on. They were being too weird.
    By the time she was home, she felt like she’d been run through a wringer. Her body hurt and her head was pounding. Her dad didn’t even ask her but led her up the stairs to her room and had Sally, her maid, come in and help her get into bed. She thought maybe she was asleep before the lights were turned off.
    ~~~
    “You’re doing this on purpose. You think that you can get me around her and I’ll…I’ll do something stupid.” Mason snorted and Jace crossed his arms over his chest to wait. “I’m not caving.”
    “I have an appointment with her too. All of us do. Each of us have to help her figure out what we’ve purchased at the mill, and I don’t know the entire list.” Jace didn’t believe that either. His brother could remember what he’d bought for his first girlfriend way back in kindergarten. He more than likely still had the receipt too.
    “You have a file cabinet that is in more order than my sock drawer. You keep every receipt we get, have them filed, copied, and scanned into the computer that is backed up onto a thumb drive and a disc. You even have a ledger that has this neat row of numbers that you always add up and balance daily. What the fuck do you think I’m going to be able to tell her that you couldn’t?” Mason climbed up on the