Booktree.ngIt-Starts-with-Us-Colleen-Hoover

I open my office door and find Brad sweeping the kitchen. I’m confused,
because the kitchen is cleaned after closing, and the damage done to the
restaurant overnight was contained to the outside. “Did they not clean the
floors last night?”
“Kitchen’s fine—I’m just pretending to sweep,” he says. Brad clocks the
confusion on my face, so he elaborates. “I wanted Theo to have to clean up
most of the mess outside since he hates doing it so much. It’s a dad thing.”
“Oh. Makes sense.” It makes no sense, but I leave Brad to fake-sweep
and head back outside.
Theo is grimacing as he uses his thumb and index finger to barely lift a
piece of trash. “This is so gross,” he mutters, dropping it into the bag. “You
need to hire a private security guard or something; this is getting out of
hand.”
That’s not a bad idea.
I hold my phone in front of Theo’s face so he can see the picture of Lily
I just screenshotted.
He pulls his neck back, surprised. “That’s Lily?”
“That’s Lily.” I slide my phone into my pocket and take the trash bag
from Theo.
“That explains it.” He drops down onto the top step.
“Explains what?”
“Why you get so tongue-tied around her and say the stupid stuff you
say.”
I disagree with his belief that the things I say to her are stupid, but he’s
right about one thing. She’s so beautiful, I do sometimes feel tongue-tied
around her. “I can’t wait until you start dating,” I say. “I’m going to give
you so much shit.”