Charmer (Havenbrook #1)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

WILLOW

I stewed at my desk for long moments after Finn left my office, my heart racing like a jackrabbit, beating so forcefully I could feel it in my lips. It was like someone had lit a sparkler and set it under my skin, lighting me up from the inside out. That’d always been what it’d been like being in his presence—intense and raw and all-consuming.

Thankfully, I was older now. Wiser. Had a hell of a lot more life experience under my belt than that na?ve seventeen-year-old girl who’d fallen for him in the first place, or the equally na?ve eighteen-year-old I’d been when he’d left me. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again, wouldn’t get caught up in his orbit. Wouldn’t allow myself to.

“Holy shitballs.” Avery wasted no time hurrying into my office as soon as the trio of new business owners left. “It’s not often we get eye candy like that in here, but to get two of them at once? Damn, girl. It was like Christmas .” Her eyes sparkled, her smile huge.

I feigned nonchalance, dropping my gaze to the papers on my desk. “Oh, were they good-lookin’? I didn’t notice.”

Avery snorted so loud, she slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes dancing with laughter. Shaking her head, she dropped her hand as she fell into the chair in front of my desk. “How long have we been friends, Willow?”

She knew exactly how long we’d been friends, so I just raised a brow. “You gettin’ at somethin’?”

“Um, yeah,” she said with a sharp nod. “How about the fact that you’re lying through your teeth? There’s history there—that wasn’t the first time you’d seen those fine-ass specimens. So, spill. I need details, and I need them right-fucking-now.”

Since Avery was a transplant to Havenbrook, having only lived in our little pocket of paradise for a bit less than three years, she hadn’t witnessed the presence of the Thomas boys. And as I didn’t like to talk about the boy who’d flipped my whole world upside down, ripping my heart out of my chest in the process, Avery—even as one of my best friends—had no hope of knowing who Griffin Thomas was. Least of all, who he was to me.

I stared at my best friend, seeing the resolve on her face, and sank back into my chair. As much as I definitely didn’t want to rehash the abysmal history, I couldn’t deny it’d be nice to have another ear, besides my younger sister Mackenna, to listen.

“All right. I’ll give you a condensed version right now, but all the gory details’ll have to wait until I’ve got at least three glasses of wine under my belt.”

Her eyes brightened as she rested her elbows on my desk, leaning forward. “I’ll bring the wine. And I can deal with condensed right now. Although there was nothing condensed about either of those boys, am I right?” She waggled her eyebrows, bringing a levity to the situation that I desperately needed.

With a laugh, I shook my head. “How can you make me laugh when I’m ready to crawl out of my skin?”

“One of my many redeeming qualities.”

“Too true.” I bit my lip, then let out a long sigh. “You remember me telling you about my high school boyfriend?”

She nodded. “The one who bailed after he took your virginity? Hard to forget that story. What an asshole.”

“Yeah, well. Now you know why I called him that.”

“Wait, what? Those guys…?” She widened her eyes and slapped a hand down on my desk. “ No .”

“’Fraid so.”

“Which one? Baseball Hat or Gray T-shirt?”

I tried and failed not to think about the gray material stretching over the broad muscles of Finn’s chest, the sleeves banding tight around thick biceps. I heaved a sigh. “Gray T-shirt.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Damn, girl, you hit the virginity jackpot. That boy is fine .”

“What I hit was the asshole jackpot.”

The awestruck look dropped from Avery’s face, and she frowned. Reaching over, she patted my hand. “I’m sorry, hon. We’ll save the rest for after you’re good and toasted. Wine and pizza tonight. Sound good?”

I honestly couldn’t think of a better end to this truly awful day. Except maybe a chance to go back in time and avoid it entirely. “Sounds fabulous.”

“Okay, but can we talk about how you actually called him an asshole? Is that discussion on the table? Because I have questions. Like, were you maybe having an out-of-body experience? Do I need to perform an exorcism on you?”

“Shut up.” I laughed.

“Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear around…well, anyone but me and Mac.”

Mackenna was going to have a freaking coronary when she found out Finn was back in town. Which, according to Havenbrook standards, was going to be in, oh, about seven minutes. Nothing much stayed silent in our sleepy little town, especially not gossip as juicy as the Thomas boys being back. Them being back and opening the very first bar Havenbrook had ever seen? Yeah, that was going to spread like wildfire.

My daddy was going to be madder than a hornet when he found out. He’d fought the wet county law tooth and nail, had heavily rallied against it, saying it’d sully our town. And even though it’d passed, he’d thus far somehow managed to keep any restaurants in town from carrying alcohol.

But a brand-new bar in Havenbrook owned by Finn Thomas ? Heaven save us all. Daddy had never been Finn’s number one fan—had, in fact, done all he could to keep Finn and me from seeing each other. In the end, he hadn’t needed to do anything. Finn had left all on his own.

“He definitely brings out the worst in me,” I finally said.

“I don’t know about that.” Avery stood from her chair, shifting toward her desk in the outer office as the phone began to ring. “I sort of loved seeing that fire in your eyes. Rage looks good on you, Will.”

As she answered the phone, I straightened my shoulders, arranging the paperwork on my desk into some semblance of order. My day had been upended, and it wasn’t even noon.

“Hey, Will?” Avery called.

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna run and grab a couple of cupcakes from The Sweet Spot.”

My mouth immediately started to water. They had the best cupcakes in Havenbrook. The menu changed with the season and with the day. A Wednesday in May meant Triple Chocolate Raspberry. The divine chocolate concoction, topped with heavenly ganache and filled with chocolate raspberry buttercream, was Avery’s and my guilty pleasure, reserved for the very worst of days. And today definitely qualified.

I smiled my first genuine smile of the day. “You’re a mind reader. I could use one. Or a dozen.”

“You sure could. Especially when I tell you Rory’s on line one.”

Apparently, my original guess of the gossip taking seven minutes to spread through Havenbrook had been a bit generous. I dropped my head back on my shoulders and closed my eyes, exhaustion cloaking every inch of me. After my morning, I didn’t know if I had the strength to put on a good face for my older sister. But I didn’t have much of a choice. I’d learned long ago not to let Rory see me sweat.

“Of course she is,” I said to the ceiling. “Maybe later the grim reaper’ll show up to take me to lunch.”

Avery laughed, grabbing her purse and waving as she headed out to grab the treats. “Be right back with enough sweets to keep you in a sugar coma for the rest of the day.”

I took a deep breath before picking up the phone and pressing the button to connect the call to my line. Pasting a smile on my face, I answered like I had no idea what would prompt my sister’s call. “Hey, Rory. How’re you doin’ today?”

“Will, you’re never gonna believe what I just heard,” she said, diving in without pleasantries. Very unlike her, which meant she deemed the gossip juicier than usual. She wasn’t wrong. “Mrs. Thompson was out waterin’ her flowers—honestly, she waters them fifteen times a day just so she makes sure not to miss Edna with the daily gossip.” She tsked, despite the fact that it was the same reason she sat in her porch swing all day, even when it was twelve thousand degrees outside. But as it was Rory, of course her hair always looked perfect, her makeup precisely applied, neither daring to step out of line despite temperatures rivaling hell. “ Anyway , you’ll never guess what she heard.”

Oh, I probably had a couple good ideas.

Without waiting for me to say anything, she continued, “Rumor has it, the Thomas boys are back in town.”

“Yep, they sure are.”

“They got in—wait, what?”

“I said, yep, they sure are. The Thomas boys are back in Havenbrook. You heard right.”

The number of times I’d thought about saying those words… Lord, I’d dreamed about it for months after Finn had left. That it had all been just a misunderstanding, that he was coming back any day. I’d spent my time daydreaming about it. But at some point, I’d stopped dreaming about it, stopped hoping. And I could honestly say I hadn’t ever thought I’d be uttering them ten years after the fact.

“How do you know that?” Rory asked.

“Because they just left my office.”

“What in heaven’s name were they doin’ in your office ?”

I felt every ounce of disdain she put into the word office, like me having dared to pursue a career instead of finding a nice man and popping out babies was akin to peddling drugs on the elementary school playground. I took a deep breath, knowing it was a delicate balance, playing this game with my sister. Especially when our daddy did not need to be informed of all the plans just yet. But word was going to get around to her one way or another, whether I delivered the news or not. It might as well be the truth coming straight from the source…

“You know Pete’s place in the Square?”

“The old soda fountain?”

“That’s the one. I thought it was just Nola who bought it, but it turns out Drew and Finn are her partners.” I paused, closed my eyes. “They’re opening a bar.”

Rory gasped. “A bar ? For heaven’s sake, Daddy’s gonna throw a fit. Does he know?”

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind he had no idea, because if he did, there was no way he’d have been gone at his conference this week. He’d have done everything in his power to make sure he was here to keep an eye on the Thomas boys while they ran around in his town.

“No, and I’m not tellin’ him. Neither are you.”

She made a sound that managed to project irritation and superiority all at once. “I can’t believe you’d ask me to lie to Daddy, ’specially on account of them.”

“I’m not askin’ you to lie, Rory.” I rolled my eyes. Our daddy wasn’t even there to see her suck up, and still she did it. “I’m just askin’ you not to say anything right this second.”

I would rather pull out each of my eyelashes, one by one, than admit defeat to my perfect older sister. Because of that, I couldn’t tell her how challenging my job had been lately, how letting our daddy in on this was going to do nothing but make my life even more of a hell than it had been the past few weeks. So I fibbed.

“Daddy needs to focus on this conference. It’s important. He can’t afford any distractions. And the Thomas boys are a big one.”

She hummed. “I suppose they are. Especially Finn Thomas. At least where you’re concerned.”

I didn’t say anything in response—didn’t need to. Of course she knew about my history with Finn—at least the basics. Daddy had made sure everyone in the family knew of my misguided path…and how far I’d fallen when the boy I’d thought was the love of my life had bailed without so much as a Post-it note stuck to my window.

“You’re not gonna do anything stupid again, right?” she asked.

Again. Because of course she wouldn’t let an opportunity pass to remind any of her sisters of their multiple failings, and Finn would forever and always top my very long list.

And do something stupid? Like falling head over heels for a boy who had trouble written all over him? Yeah, I’d been there, done that. And I had absolutely no desire to do it again. Not as long as I lived.

I took a sip of my coffee in an attempt to hold back the heated reply sitting on the tip of my tongue. When I was sure I wasn’t going to bite my sister’s head off, I said, “No, I plan to stay away until they do their disappearing act again.”

She hummed. “You don’t think they’ll stay?”

The words Finn had said to me so long ago—words I’d worked damn hard to forget—came rushing back. Be very sure of what you’re saying right now, Willowtree, because if I take these last steps between us, it’ll take Jesus himself to tear us apart.

Apparently, our Lord and Savior had made a trip to Havenbrook that day all those years ago because from my vantage point, it’d seemed like Finn had left with little thought to what—or whom—he was leaving behind.

So, did I think he’d stick around now? Not a chance in hell. He’d do whatever he’d come here for—to make sure Nola was set up with the building and the construction plans were on track, then go back to being a distant partner, just like I had caught Drew mumbling about as they’d been signing papers.

I shrugged to no one, as if talking about the only boy ever to break my heart didn’t cause the old scars to rip open at the seams. “They don’t have a reason to. Their life isn’t here anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. We’ll see the dust of their rental car as they drive off in a day or two. Mark my words.”