The Truest Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 4)

e Burger Shack from her grandmother and won’t sell it to me because she’s planning on running a business there. Idiot child. You know she’s moving here under a false name. Thinks the businesspeople here are too stupid to do a background check. But she’s not who she says she is. She’s a society princess with more money than brains. Woman is worth a mint.”

When Cooper told him about Emery Saunders converting the place next door, Jack hadn’t told him that the woman was from money. No one needed to know her business, and while he trusted Cooper, he didn’t trust his friend wouldn’t tell Dana.

And if Dana knew, everyone would know.

“And when I say shy”—Iris leaned toward them conspiratorially—“I mean shy. We need to break this one in gently.”

Jack snorted and shot the woman another look. “She’s not a horse, Iris.”

“Trust me, Jack.” Iris sighed. “I know what I’m talking about.”

It was then, as Jack flicked another look at Emery, that she turned around.

And his typical evening at Cooper’s Bar went completely atypical.

His heart raced like he’d just run a marathon. His mouth felt dry.

Holy shit.

Emery Saunders was the most beautiful fucking woman Jack Devlin had ever seen.

“She’s only twenty,” Iris said. Her voice filled his ears as his eyes locked with Emery’s startling light blue ones. A blush stained her pale, smooth cheeks, and her lips parted as if she were surprised.

His gut tightened.

“And if the way she reacts around men is anything to go by, the girl is innocent as Snow White.” Iris tapped Jack’s shoulder and he reluctantly pulled his gaze away. She smirked at him. “She’s not a tourist you can mess around with—you hear what I’m saying?”

Jack frowned at her but before he could respond, Iris was walking away. She led Emery and Ira across the bar to their reserved booth. Emery shot Jack another shy, quick look over her shoulder before sliding onto the bench seat, her long hair swaying across her slender back.

“She’s a beauty,” Old Archie observed.

Swallowing hard, wondering why his heart wouldn’t slow down, Jack tore his eyes away and stared unseeing at his half-empty plate.

“Jack?”

He looked up at Cooper. His friend was amused.

“You might want to wipe your chin. You got a little drool right there.”

“Fuck off,” Jack muttered good-naturedly.

However, as the minutes passed, Jack couldn’t get back into the game. Instead, he kept looking toward his right shoulder, wanting to glance at her.

Finally, he lost the struggle and looked across the bar at her.

She was smiling softly at something Iris said.

Jack itched to get off his stool and cross the room to introduce himself.

He’d never been one for settling down. He’d expected to later, maybe in his thirties, which was only a couple years off. He wanted kids eventually. Someone to come home to.

But since the age of thirteen, he’d been content to play the field. Jack had enjoyed his and Cooper’s standing in high school. They were on the football team. Girls thought they were good-looking. He’d never had a problem getting a date.

Living in a tourist town was excellent for a guy who didn’t want to settle but also didn’t want to hurt a woman’s feelings. Born with a natural charm that he used to his advantage, Jack would see an attractive woman, approach, and make easy conversation that would eventually lead to a sexual relationship lasting only as long as their vacation in Hartwell.

He firmly steered clear of local women.

However, staring across the bar at Emery Saunders, Jack did not want to steer clear. The opposite, in fact. Some caveman-bullshit need to scoop her up before any other bastard got to her fired his blood.