Sneak Peek Secretly Mine

She"s back in town with no time for the rebel who stole her heart long ago…but now he"s playing for keeps.

Dash Stratton had just picked up his welder when he heard his name hollered from the front of the house.

Recognition flooded him, and he swore, spinning around. That voice sounded familiar, but there was no way Leila Sheridan would be at his house, bellowing his name.

But he"d thought he"d seen her in that car outside Wright"s.

That was twice in the span of an hour.

What the hell was going on?

She, whoever it was, shouted his name again, and something prickled along his skin. He would have sworn it was Leila.

He set down the welder and strode out of his studio. He jerked his sunglasses down over his face, and headed across the lawn around the side of his house, moving with an instinctive urgency.

He practically sprinted around the side of the house, and then stopped dead, stunned.

Leila Kerrigan was in front of the house, her hands on her hips, staring right at him.

Emotions flooded him, so many emotions he couldn"t sort them out. He couldn't take his gaze off her. She was a woman now, not a scrawny, scared eighteen-year-old. She was wearing shorts and sneakers, and a blue tank top, looking like she was ready for a day on the lake, like the old days.

She had curves now she hadn"t had before, the curves of a woman. Her sunglasses were on top of her head, revealing those glorious blue eyes and dark lashes that he"d begun to think he"d imagined.

She sucked in her breath. "Dash."

"Fuck." He grimaced. That was all he could think of to say after all this time. "I mean, what the fuck are you doing here?"

Her eyes widened. and he swore under his breath. "Sorry. I"m just stunned to see you in my front yard. You look great." Suddenly, he realized why she was there.

She wanted a divorce. The time had come.

Fuck. This time, he meant it.

A cute little frown furrowed between her eyebrows. "You don"t know why I"m here?"

Double fuck. Had her lawyer served him? Had he missed an email? "No."

"You don"t know about Bea"s will?"

He narrowed his eyes. Bea"s will? Not a divorce? He was annoyed by the relief that shuddered through him. "What about it? I know I got the house, because she told me many times that"s what she was doing." He frowned. "What did she put in there for you?" Was there something at the house that was for Leila? He hadn"t seen anything with her name on it, but Bea might have hidden it well. "Do you need me to find something for you?"

Leila stared at him, then understanding dawned on her face, and she burst out laughing. "I swear to God, I"m going to kill Eppie. And Clare!"

Ah…Eppie. He knew what kind of chaos she could cause. "What did they do?" Eppie was as much trouble as Bea had been.

"Clare gave me a letter for you." She fished around in her back pocket, then held up a folded envelope. "I suspect she explains it here."

He didn"t move. If it was a letter from Bea, he didn"t want to read it, hear her words, feel her presence. It was too soon for him. "You explain it."

Leila waved the letter at him. "No, thanks. Here."

Swearing under his breath, Dash walked over to her to take it, but as he neared, he felt like his world was spinning. Leila Sheridan was back, and she was unfinished business. His unfinished business.

He took the envelope, and his fingers brushed against hers, sending a shock reverberating through his system. Yeah, the attraction was still there, but this time, she wasn"t an eighteen-year-old he had to protect from a piece-of-shit stepfather.

She was a woman, and their age difference no longer mattered like it had when she was barely eighteen and he"d been twenty-five.

When his hand touched hers, she sucked her in breath and jerked her hand back. "Letter," she mumbled.

"Letter," he agreed, as he took a step back, folded it, and put it in his pocket. "I"ll read it later."

Leila"s brows went up. "You need to read it now."

"I"m good. You need anything from me?"

She stared at him. "You"re as stubborn and difficult as you were back then."

"Probably."

She folded her arms over her chest. "Read the letter, Dash."

"Nope." There was no chance he was reading Bea"s words right now. He missed her like hell, and he wasn"t in a place to read a letter she wrote to him in front of Leila. Or anyone. Or even himself. "Anything else you need?"

She stared at him. "Really?"

"Yeah. Whatever you need." This conversation felt awkward and distant, nothing like how he"d envisioned it might be all the times he"d thought about her over the years. "Want a drink? I have water and beer." And other stuff he didn"t feel like mentioning.

"Water?"

"Yeah."

She put her hands on her hips. "Dash."

"Leila."

She sighed in aggravation. "Bea didn"t leave you the house. She left us the house."

Dash stared at her. "Us?"

"Yes." She pointed back and forth between them. "You and me. Co-heirs. We have to both live in the house together for thirty consecutive nights before either of us can do anything with it. I"m moving in now."

"No." His amusement fled. Oh, wait, he hadn"t been amused by anything about her sudden appearance. "It"s my house. I"ve been living here for the last six months. She told me it was mine, repeatedly." He"d been counting on this house, and not just for himself.

"Well, it"s also half mine. I need the money from selling it, and we can"t sell it until we both live here together for thirty days."

Sell it? No one was selling this house. He couldn"t afford to buy out Leila. He swore under his breath, then pulled out his phone and called Clare.

She answered on the first ring. "You read the letter?"

"I"m co-heirs with Leila, and we have to live in the house together for thirty consecutive nights before we can do anything with it?" It had to be wrong. It didn"t make sense.

Clare sighed. "Yes, look, I"m sorry I didn"t tell you, but Bea"s will specifically said Leila had to be the one to tell you."

All thoughts of his attraction to Leila vanished in a surge of irritation. He ground his jaw. "So it"s true?"

"Yes, it is."

He glanced at Leila, who was watching him, chewing on her lower lip. Why did she look so damned adorable chewing on her lip like that? Why did he care? He didn"t have time for this. "I need this house. You know I do."

"Thirty days, Dash. You can have it in thirty days, as long as Leila agrees to give up her share."

Fuck. He couldn't afford to buy her out. "What else is in the will that you didn"t tell me? There"s more, isn"t there? More games that Bea put in there?"

Clare cleared her throat. "It"s a rather complicated will, but that"s the gist of it."

He swore under his breath. "Clare?—"

"Look. You could probably contest some of the provisions, but it"s Bea," Clare said softly. "You loved her. She loved you. Don"t you want to let her do this her way? Would you deprive her of that joy?"

"No." Dash rubbed his forehead and cursed again. Bea had changed his life in many ways, standing by him when his parents disowned him. He"d spent the rest of his life giving back to her, and he couldn't stop now just because she was gone. "I"d never let her down," he admitted grudgingly.

"Bea spent a lot of time planning this," Clare said. "It"s her gift to you. Not just the house, but all of it."

Dash looked at Leila. Was Leila a gift that Bea had decided to hand him? Another chance at the woman he"d let go? He ground his jaw. A year ago, cohabitating with Leila to compete for the house would have been very different than now.

Now, it didn"t work for him. "Clare, she wrote the will before?—"

"No, she didn"t. She updated it afterwards."

That stunned Dash into silent. "She wrote it after?" After his whole life had changed. Rocked to its foundation. Shattered into a thousand pieces that he was still struggling to put back together. She wrote the will after that had happened? What the hell, Bea?

"Yes," Clare said. "It"s your choice, Dash. You can contest it, and drag Bea"s last moments of joy into question, or go with it."

He sighed. "You"re very manipulative."

Clare laughed. "I know. You"re welcome. Eppie and I have to confirm every night"s sleepover, so you"ll see a lot of us."

Roomie. Living with Leila Sheridan for thirty days. Thirty days in which to convince her to give him her half of the house. Not sell it to him. Give it to him.

Fuck. He didn"t like needing charity from her. Bea"s promise to give him the house had been his key to getting free. To have that compromised… What the hell were you thinking, Bea?

He didn"t have a backup plan. He"d put everything into this house on the assumption he would get it.

And in those thirty days, he also had to avoid having Leila ask for a divorce. And…he to resist the temptation that she"d been to him for a long time.

Three bedrooms.

One and a half bathrooms.

One shower.

Hell. This was going to get rough fast.

And a part of him was looking forward to every minute of it.

How hot does it get when Leila moves in? And what secret is Dash hiding?