Make Me Read Free

abs.
    “Could you possibly put on a shirt?” Rebecca asked, her state of shock morphing back into anger. The last thing she needed was to add lust to the mix.
    Manny Tescadero smiled at her in a knowing way that made her want to prove him wrong.
    “I mean, I don’t even know you,” she went on. “It’s not…uh…it’s not civilized.” That was the best she could come up with.
    He raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sure it’s perfectly OK to be shirtless in my own place.” His grin widened. “Matter of fact, I think they passed a law in this city that says it’s OK for a woman to go topless too, if they want. Women’s liberation and all that.”
    She frowned at him. “Do you think you’re funny?”
    Manny shook his head and chuckled softly. “No, ma’am.” He swiped his thumb a few times over the screen of his phone and then tapped it. “Here you are. Isn’t this your number?”
    She leaned forward, peering at the display and catching a nice whiff of him. Cedar, sweat, and maybe even a slight hint of motor oil filed her nose. Manly smells, all of them. Manly Manny , she thought despite herself.
    The display read: Mystery Girl. Below, a phone number that was only mostly correct.
    “The last two numbers are supposed to be 78, not 16.” As much as she hated to admit it, this nightmare was real.
    “I told you my Nana wasn’t great with records,” he said quietly. “This number was scribbled on a tag attached to the key she had for the apartment. There wasn’t a name. Just the phone number and the initials R. S. She kept everything up here.” Manny tapped his index finger against his temple. “But that didn’t do me much good after she passed on.”
    Another sweep of sympathy flooded through Rebecca. “Were you close?”
    “Yeah, pretty close. Before I deployed, I used to visit her all the time in this apartment.”
    “Deployed? Were you in Afghanistan?”
    “Six years, on and off. Mostly on.”
    “Hmm. How long have you been back?”
    “About two months. I had a chance to see her happy again. Did you know she had a boyfriend she was living with?” He smiled. “The funny thing is, she told me that she had someone I should meet, someone who was keeping her apartment warm for her. I think Nana was cooking up a plan to introduce us.”
    “She really was a romantic.” Rebecca shook her head, musing over the memory of Jeanette and the impression the elderly woman left on her. But this wasn’t a time for musings or getting to know you chitchats. This was a full-on shit storm she’d been thrust into, and after twenty minutes of talking to the gorgeous, shirtless grandson of the woman she’d counted herself so lucky to have met, there was still no clear answer to what the hell she was going to be able to do about it.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Manny watched Rebecca’s eyes twinkle when she said the word romantic and then cloud over again as her gaze left him and flitted around the apartment. He tried a tentative smile. “Listen, I had all of your things put into storage. Moved it myself. Everything is safe and sound and paid up for three months.” He sniffed. “Don’t worry.”
    Her eyes grew so big he thought they would pop out of her head. “Don't worry?” Her hands flew up above her head and fell down, palms first, to her thighs with a hard clap against the cotton twill of her pencil skirt.
    Manny lingered on the sight of those shapely thighs and silently thanked the genius who first designed that particular article of clothing.
    Rebecca’s eyes continued to blaze. “I come home from a month-long work assignment to find out that I have no place to live and you’re telling me to get over it?”
    “Wait, I didn't say that.”
    She continued to glare.
    “Hey, I really did try to get in touch with you.”
    “How long before you moved in?” she asked.
    Manny folded his arms over his chest. He didn’t like what her tone implied. “I stayed in a hotel for two weeks and blew through a chunk