Sometimes Moments [Preview]

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

“I can’t believe you broke it,” Uncle John said.

Peyton leant against the steel bench of the kitchen and placed her palms on the cold top. Then she hung her head in shame. All the years she’d spent helping in the hotel and she had never done any of the hands-on jobs. Instead, she’d done the filing, booking, and anything that required technology. Working the industrial instruments of the kitchen was one of those things Peyton hadn’t done.

“I was just...” Peyton sighed. “I don’t know what I was doing. I can’t even work a dishwasher!”

A laugh escaped her uncle’s lips as he started to adjust the buttons on the machine. “It’s all right, Peyton. I don’t think you broke it. I think you were just the first to discover the switch problem. Maybe there’s a faulty wire or something. How are you going to be able to run this place on your own without your aunt and me.”

Peyton let her head hang low. She had hardly had the job of owner for a week and she had already started to ruin the hotel.

“It would be right for you to break something.”

Her head snapped up at the kitchen door to see Jay shaking his head. She definitely didn’t want Jay’s help. She was meant to be independent, able to run and maintain her hotel on her own.

“What are you supposed to be, my knight in shining armour or something? Thanks, but no, thanks, Jay. I’d rather be in distress,” Peyton teased.

She was met with Jay’s amused grin.

Jay held up his toolbox and shook it. “Darling, I’m the only kind of knight you need in your life. Step aside, John. I’ll take a look.”

There was a muffle from her uncle before he stepped away. “Jayden, I think it may be just the switch and the wiring. You sure you don’t want me to call your father, see if he’s free? You run a busy pub, son.”

Peyton crossed her arms over her chest. It was always typical of her uncle to call everyone ‘son,’ and he was never one to call people by their nicknames. He said that it was because “a mother chose her child’s name for a reason. It is the name the child’s soul was blessed with.” Peyton was never one to argue with her uncle.

“I’m sure I’ve got this, John. You go back and make your missus a happy woman,” Jay charmed.

“All right. Well, then, I’m off. Call me if you need anything, Peyton,” her uncle said before he kissed her cheek and left her with Jay.

“I swear to God, if you fix this, Jay, we’ll never hear the end of it.” Peyton shook her head.

Jay let out a chuckle and placed his toolbox on the kitchen floor. “Actually, Peyton, it’s you who will never hear the end of it. Would you like to help me?”

Did he just bat his lashes at me?

“I broke the damn thing. Like you need my help. And don’t look at me like that.” Peyton uncrossed her arms and hugged her cardigan around her tighter. He made her nervous—though she had been since Callum Reid had walked into her hotel.

“Like what?” Jay asked, taking out a screwdriver from the toolbox. He removed a screw from the front panel of the dishwasher and placed it on the steel bench. “Well?” he said over his shoulder.

Peyton watched his body movements as he pulled apart the dishwasher, fascinated by the way his shirt strained against his muscles. There would be no denying that she didn’t find Jay Preston attractive. Every girl did. But he was one of the rare ones who had stayed. The rest of the males had gotten out of Daylesford just before their last year of high school. Most of them had gone off and attended private schools in the city—made their résumés look impressive—before they’d attended university.