Let Me Be The One Read Online Free PDF

all but falling open, she joked, “Yup, I’d say your place is definitely at least a couple of steps up from my motel.”
    He grinned at her. “I had a pushy Realtor, one of my Seattle cousins who was working in the city for a while. She knew I didn’t have a prayer of saying no to her.”
    Vicki grinned at that, knowing exactly what kind of sucker Ryan was for his female relatives. It was so sweet, sweet enough that her heart did more of that melting thing it had already done way too much of tonight.
    “When I told her the place was too big, she swore the value would double in under ten years. But she was wrong.”
    “How wrong?”
    Another grin came. “It tripled.”
    “In that case, Chinese is on you tonight.”
    He grabbed all three of her heavy bags and she followed with her purse. She’d noticed the way he favored his non-pitching arm when they’d been leaving the motel earlier. Now, she caught his slight wince as he adjusted one of the bags over his right shoulder.
    Knowing he was too much of a guy to let her take it from him, she said, “Hey, Ryan, there’s something I want to make sure I remembered to pack in that bag. Could you put it down for a sec?”
    “I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything left in your room,” he said as he set it on the garage’s cement floor.
    “You know how disorganized I can be. It might take me half the night to root through everything I stuffed in here.”
    “I’ll put these in the guest room and come back for that one.”
    As soon as she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore, she started dragging the bag across the floor, only bothering to lift it up when she stepped inside the house and hit hardwood. She’d planned on bringing it all the way into the guest room, but as soon as she saw the view from his windows, her feet stopped moving.
    Water had always been her weakness. It was why she’d chosen to go to Prague after leaving her ex-husband. The river had soothed her as she walked for hours along it, out of the city and then back again when her mind had been quiet enough to return.
    As Ryan came down the stairs, she said, “Your view is incredible.”
    “It’s better from over here.”
    He reached out a hand for her and she forgot all about her bag as she moved toward him. As she put her hand into his, warmth sizzled all the way up her arm.
    He pointed with his free hand. “Farallon Islands to the left. Alcatraz to the right. Heaven's straight up.”
    She could feel his grin without needing to look at him. All those years she’d never forgotten the beauty of it.
    “I’m so happy for you,” she told him, “that all of this is yours.”
    Even better was that she could tell how much he appreciated it. Ryan wasn’t one of those guys who bought something as a status symbol. Regardless of what he’d said about his Realtor cousin pushing the place on him, if he hadn’t also loved it, they wouldn’t be standing here now.
    “I’m glad you agreed to stay for a while, Vicki.”
    She’d been so worried about being alone with him, but now that she saw how huge the house was, she realized they could probably go several days without seeing each other if they wanted to.
    Not, of course, that she wanted to not see Ryan. But if he needed some alone time—say, if he had a woman over—she could easily disappear. If nothing else, she could always happily head down to the beach to get out of his hair.
    “I am, too.”
    He picked up her remaining bag. “Come on, I’ll show you your digs.”
    Silly her. Even after the little pep talk she’d just given herself, her heart was still flipping around at the thought of being in a bedroom with Ryan. Silently reminding herself that she wasn't a teenager any more, she was starting to follow him through the house when her mouth fell open in shock.
    “You’ve been collecting my sculptures?”
    He had several of them placed throughout the main level of his house. Not just that, but they were some of her favorites.
    “I’ve