Sutton

Over breakfast, Mark glared at Martha like he wanted to knock her flat on her backside. It was endearing that he was so defensive of me. After all, we had only met the day before. That thought was completely lowering. How was it that it seemed I had known Mark for ages when, in actuality, it was merely twenty-four hours?

Am I making a mistake trusting this man?

When he had returned from his shower, he looked every bit of the impressive Wall Street mogul that he undoubtedly was. I had just finished brushing out my long dark hair after applying some light makeup.

He stared for a moment and I felt my cheeks heat before he said, “I shall arrange for us to fly home in a few hours. Would that be sufficient time for you to make arrangements?”

I felt a slight moment of panic. What did I really know about this man? “You want us to leave today? What about my job?”

“You are a wealthy young woman, Sutton. You don’t need to work for a bastard with tiny dick syndrome.”

That caused me to snort with laughter. Without a doubt, Gabriel had to have the tiniest dick around. “Mark, what about my friends? I will need to say goodbye and make some arrangements to be sure that Earl, Alice, and Reena are taken care of.”

His jaw ticked again. I wondered how irritating this all had been to him, coming to Otterville Falls and telling me personally about this inheritance. I know that this wasn’t anything like the life he left in New York.

“Listen to yourself, Sutton! Damn, do you take care of the entire town?”

I bristled at his statement. “No, just a few friends.”

“Fine,” Mark snapped. “If you wish to make arrangements for your friends, we could leave tomorrow. Will that be enough time?”

I knew it didn’t make any sense to him, but this was important to me. I didn’t live in a world of windfall inheritances. If I left this job and Mark Williams ended up being a scam, what was I left with? Nothing—that is what I would have.

sorry. I don’t need to rush you. It’s only that there is so much to do and we only have thirty days. The longer we spend here, the

“Who do I have to prove myself to?”

board of directors will vote on it, but the CEO has the final say.”

what he said rang a bell

He nodded slowly.

you?” I asked,

“I can’t in good conscience tell the board that you will be coming on unless I truly believe that you can handle the responsibilities. We have hundreds of employees that need their jobs as well as thousands of clients that expect the highest standard that we can give them. I need to make sure that when I give

Hollingsworth Sutton, a man that I never knew. I wondered what his story had been with my mother. Had he been one of her clients, or something more? There were so many questions

do some things. This might not seem like anything to you, Mark. But there are people that depend

“I can understand

his hand in my own. “Shall

widened until it reached his eyes. “Of course. Here is

but the word together seemed to linger after

away, but he didn’t release my hand. Instead he pulled me forward and kissed the side of my cheek. “Thank you for allowing me to stay the

blushed wildly and waved him off. “It was nothing. Please don’t worry a moment about it. Let’s go out to the kitchen.”

entered the kitchen, Martha was sitting at the table with a nasty expression on her face. Ignoring whatever insult she slung at me under her breath, I began to mix up some pancakes. Earl chattered on

“There is too much sugar in this batter, Sutton. I swear you are trying to give me the

of the death grip that she had on it. The woman was all piss and vinegar. Mama said that one day I

I used the same pancake recipe that you gave me ages ago. Do you want me to

syrup, I don’t

Earl grumbled as he took the

help the smile that formed on my face when Earl joined in. Martha sat there with her usual sour

Mark and asked, “are you going to

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