P A I N T T H E M O O N
Six years ago, her brother left me at the altar.
I bundled up my veil along with my stupid dreams of a picture-perfect small town life, and I headed back to the city.
I vowed to never leave again, but when the promotion of a lifetime at my interior design firm hangs on returning to the charming tourist town of La Cloche, I decide to brave the ghosts of heartbreak past.
I never thought I’d be designing for her.
Natalie Sinclair isn’t just my ex-fiancé’s little sister; she’s also the reluctant new owner of the most gorgeous historic home in La Cloche.
A mysterious inheritance has left her reeling. On the one hand, the house is the perfect opportunity to make her dream of running an artsy inn with her best friends come true.
On the other, her latest art show ended in a disaster she’s not sure her confidence or creativity will ever recover from.
If I can convince Natalie to believe in herself, I can lock down the job and get my promotion.
I’ll just need to remember our lingering glances mean nothing. The way her laugh feels like it’s bringing me back to life doesn’t matter at all. Neither does my urge to thread my hands in her hair and pull her into a dark corner of the house we’re both starting to love.
I already fell for a Sinclair. I won’t make the same mistake again.
E X C E R P T
“So, um, this is a little unorthodox, but I feel like I should let you know…she doesn’t actually know you’re here with me.”
I tilt my head and squint at her.
“This is, um, a surprise meeting,” she adds.
I have no idea what I’m supposed to say to that. I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.
Maddie starts speaking so fast I can barely keep up.
“You see, I didn’t think your firm would actually be interested in a project like this, especially when it’s so far outside the city. I really only got in touch out of, um, curiosity, but then I was told someone would be happy to come hear about the job, and I just thought, why not, right?”
Her lips lift in a frantic smile that I think is meant to reassure me.
It does not.
“But the property owner…” I say, turning her words over in my mind, “your business partner…she doesn’t know?”
Maddie winces. “She’s, um…a little hesitant. About the business. She just inherited the property a couple months ago, and the inn idea is still pretty new, and I thought maybe having a professional’s opinion about the house’s potential and what we’d need to do to get it ready would help.”
This is officially the weirdest consultation I’ve ever been to.
“I see,” I offer, even though I do not see. Not at all.
“We are very serious about it, though!” Maddie urges. “I don’t want you to think this is some kind of joke. I’m really grateful to you for coming out here, and I want to respect your time. I just…I haven’t had a chance to give her all the details yet, and—”
She cuts herself off as the bell above the front door tinkles. I hear footsteps cross the room, and a woman’s voice calls out a cheery hello from a few feet behind me.
I twist in my seat.
The floor drops out from under my chair.
I’m falling.
I’m falling straight back through the years to the last time I saw the woman in front of me now.
She was at the church, of course. I remember her pacing the foyer, her face a raging storm cloud as she bashed out a few messages on her phone before disappearing out the front door.
She left to go find her brother.
The groom.
Today, she freezes just a couple steps from my chair, her whole body going rigid.
She’s wearing a khaki bomber jacket and baggy jeans instead of a cocktail dress, but her hair is the same wild mass of golden-brown waves, her severe features still as striking as I remember. I watch her expression shift from confusion to shock to a glinting spark of something I can’t quite place.
“Brooke?” she says, my name a question, like she needs confirmation this is real.
“Natalie.”
I give her the confirmation. I give it to myself too, letting the syllables on my lips seal my fate.
My new client is my ex-fiancé’s little sister.
I watch Natalie’s gaze shift from me to the chair behind me. She fixes a sharp glare on her friend.
“Maddie, what the hell is going on?”
