Love For Hire: The Helena's Grove Series Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

thought for a few seconds. “Something Italian would be fun.”
    He smiled. “I’m not sure I could pull off Italian.”  He gestured to his light curly hair.
    “Oh yeah, good point. Ok what about… Harrison?” Annie suggested.
    “That could work. Marcus Harrison…” He let it hang in the air for a few seconds.
    “I’m not sure I like it,” Annie admitted.
    “Ok, what about something a little more common; something like, Summers?”
    “Marcus Summers,” Annie said quietly, thinking it over. “That has a lot of S’s in it.”
    “You pick one then,” he offered.
    “I like Everett,” Annie told him after thinking a moment.
    “Marcus Everett. I like it – very nice. Okay now tell me, what does Marcus Everett do for a living?”
    “Mechanical engineer.”
    “Whew.” He made a low whistle. “Mechanical engineer named Marcus Everett. No wonder your family wants to meet him, he sounds classy.”
    His easy going nature both unnerved and excited Annie for reasons she couldn’t understand. “Stop it – you’re not being serious,” she said as she giggled at him.
    “Well, the way I see it, this is a business partnership, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. And we might as well get along since we are going to be working very closely with each other. Don’t you agree?”
    “Well, yes but…” She paused and then shrugged. “I guess I hadn’t expected you to be so, agreeable.”
    “Well I’m delighted that I’ve exceeded your expectations.”
    “Me too,” Annie laughed. “So what exactly am I supposed to call you? I mean you can obviously call me Annie.”
    “Marcus.” He beamed a great smile that made her feel warm inside. “You can call me Marcus.”
    “Marcus,” she said quietly. “Alrighty then, well Marcus, is there anything else I should know or that you should know?”
    “I’ll give you my number. I buy a temporary cell phone for every job so you’ll always have a way to get a hold of me.” He took Annie’s phone and put in his number. “Christmas is a month away so that will give me plenty of time to brush up on some things,” he continued. “Let me know about flight plans and where to meet you and I’ll be there.”
    Annie nodded as he stood and shook her hand. “I look forward to working with you Annie.”
    “You too,” she said smiling.
    Marcus turned to leave and stopped. “One more thing,” he said, turning back to face her. “It would probably be a good thing in the next few weeks to take pictures together. So you have some to show to people.”
    “Oh yeah, great idea, I didn’t even think of that. Should we take one now or…?”
    “No, we’ll take some in the coming weeks. I’ll contact you.” He smiled and turned to walk away.
    “Wait,” Annie called after him, “you don’t have my number.” She held up her phone.
    “I do,” he said confidently.
    “Oh, one more thing.” Annie got up and walked to him, looking around nervously. “I just um, I wanted us to be clear on one more thing.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “I don’t expect… that is, our arrangement is totally, um, professional. So, I’m not paying you for like…” Her hands moved around frantically as she tried to express herself clearly.
    “Annie,” Marcus said, putting his hands on her shoulders, “our relationship is completely platonic, apart from the hugs, kisses and other basic signs of affection that a couple would show.”
    “Oh good.” Annie breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad we cleared that up.”
    “I know that what I do seems odd, but I’m not a hooker. I treat this as any other professional would treat their job. And please feel free to ask any questions. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I can tell you, I’ve heard just about everything there is to hear.”
    “I can only imagine,” Annie remarked. “How long have you been doing this?”
    “Let’s put it this way, I have one client whose parents still sends me a Christmas card every