Chapter 10
Minions and Deer Ticks
Due to the holiday, the week flew past. By Friday I was a bag of nerves. Since Noelle and Hawk moved in together, my weekends had changed drastically. I would most certainly see Daire again that night and I was far from ready.
While I was aware of my loneliness before Noelle came home, I didn’t realize just how alone I actually was.
I only had Paul. Paul and work.
I no longer had close friends in town.
Noelle was gone. Hawk withdrawn. Max a workaholic.
With Noelle back, everyone came back to life, and I had more social life than I knew what to do with.
But I could not quite quiet the thoughts at the back of my head that prodded me to wonder why it took Noelle coming home to set things right. Why Hawkley and Max never saw fit to reach out to me.
It was petty.
And I dismissed it as juvenile.
Mostly.
A huge part of me wanted to spend the weekend quietly. A walk on the beach followed by a glass of wine, cuddled up on my couch with a good book.
But because Paul had to go and get engaged and everyone knew about it, I had to show up with a happy face, or risk them staging an intervention. Years of being left alone had in no way prepared me for the attention everyone suddenly paid to me.
And I was sick of faking it to show up the way everyone else needed me to be. “For fuck’s sake.” I threw my pen down on the desk.
“What did that pen ever do to you?”
My head shot up. “Daire! What are you doing here?”
His lips curved into a sweet smile. “Are you ever going to greet me any other way? So far I’m not allowed to be at your parents’, the beach, and now here?”
My mouth opened and closed. Opened and closed. What was it about this particular man that had me swallowing my tongue? I pulled up ‘professional Harley’.
I shook my head and smiled. “I apologize. For whatever reason, I’m always a little surprised to see you. Honestly, I’m even surprised when Noelle or Hawk drop in, and they work here.”
“Yeah? And why is that?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Why do they work here?”
He chuckled. “No. Why does it surprise you when they drop in? Are you going to invite me to sit down?”
“Of course. I’m so sorry. Come on in. Can I grab you a coffee?”
I jumped up and crossed to my selection of coffee pods. “I also have green tea, Earl Grey, or hot chocolate if you prefer?”
“What are you having?”
I laughed. “If you have to ask, you don’t know me very well. I’m having hot chocolate.”
“I’ll have the same.”
“Really? I don’t picture you as a hot chocolate kind of guy.”
“I have a wide variety of tastes. Hot chocolate is definitely one of them.”
A wide variety of tastes.
My thoughts raced straight for the gutter as I stood fixing our drinks with my back to him. Was he looking at my butt? Did I look okay?
I spun around quickly and caught him in the act.
He grinned. “Caught me.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I shook my head. “Well, did you like the view?” I asked lightly.
“Love it,” he replied seriously.
I snorted and carried our mugs over to my desk. “I think I’m about seven inches shorter and two sizes larger than your usual.”
His eyes widened. It was the first time I’d seen him in any way disconcerted. “My usual?”
“Yeah,” I replied, wondering why that took him aback. “I saw you out with Natalia at The Beaver Dam.”
His eyes skittered back and forth for a moment then he brightened. “The bitchy blond?”
I laughed. “Yeah. That’s the one. Noelle said if your taste was in your mouth you’d poison yourself.”
“Noelle said that?”
“Mhm.”
“Interesting.”
“Why is that interesting?”
He studied me for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision. “It’s interesting that not one of you gave me the rundown about who to avoid.”
“Well,” I sat back. “I’ll do it now. The list is not long. The queen bee bitch of the blond bimbo brigade commonly referred to around here as The Brady Bunch is Natalia. Your date,” I clarified.
Without waiting for him to respond, I continued, “Her minions are Tiffany and Brittany, also known as the ‘anys’ because they do anything she says. Tiffany is not a threat. She’s actually the nicest of the three.
She’s also married and has two little girls.
She didn’t usually partake in Natalia’s bullying.
Brittany, however, is recently divorced. ”
I took a small sip of my hot chocolate and closed my eyes to better appreciate the sweetness. Opening my eyes, I pinned him with my gaze before continuing, “She’d latch onto you like a deer tick.”
He lifted his mug to his mouth without taking his eyes off me.
This man undid me with a single look.
“It wasn’t a date.”
He had the most beautifully expressive mouth I’d ever seen. I was positive I would have been able to identify his mood based on his mouth alone.
His bottom lip was puffier, his upper lip firmly defined and boasted the sweetest most kissable bow.
I tilted my head to the side.
Frig. If he could undo me with a look, what would he be like in bed? I blinked the thought away. I bet he wouldn’t live up to that face. Not to mention his body.
I flushed just thinking about it.
He had pulled his hair back today. I liked it like that.
I smiled to myself. The man looked like a rockstar and taught kindergarten.
He swore like a sailor and flirted like a devil.
Fuck, he was pretty.
“Harley?”
“Hm?” I hummed. Oh, God! How long had I been staring? I gave my head a shake. “I’m sorry? What did you say?”
He grinned. That, too, was mesmerizing.
“I said, it wasn’t a date.”
It took me a moment to connect the dots and when I did, I barked out a laugh. “Really, Daire? You were at the Beaver Dam with her, but it wasn’t a date?”
“I was at the Beaver Dam. She was at the Beaver Dam. We didn’t go together. And before you jump to any conclusions, we didn’t leave together either.”
Flames lit my cheeks and a burst of anger at the very thought flared in my stomach. I shrugged and looked away. “That’s not my business.”
“It could be.”
I didn’t want to ask but frig, I needed to know. “If it wasn’t a date, what was it?”
He regarded me steadily. “Her youngest child is starting kindergarten. She was asking me about tutoring.”
“For kindergarten? And how would you know any tutors? You just moved here.”
“She wanted me to tutor him.”
“Oh,” I scoffed. “I bet she did.” Jealousy tightened my chest. Ugh. I hated that. Hated it more because it was elicited by her. “Wait. You met her at The Beaver Dam to talk about tutoring?”
“No,” he leaned back in the chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. “She was there with the ‘anys’, I was waiting for Max, and she came over and invited herself to sit down. What were you doing there?”
“Me?” I squeaked.
“You,” he repeated firmly.
I flushed further. By this point, I probably resembled a cherry tomato.
He took another sip of his hot chocolate. “I saw you, too.”
“You did?”
“Yes. Did you go home with him?”
My jaw dropped.
“What’s good for the goose, Harley.”
“No. No, I did not.”
“Did you see him again after that?”
I shook my head. “No. It, uh, turned out I wasn’t ready to start dating again.”
“Good.”
“Daire—”
“The reason I’m here is to see if Sage Ridge Resort can help with a situation at the school.”
I came alert. This is what I’d been working toward, community outreach, providing recreational activities for the community, not just serve as another employer in the community but actually serve to strengthen the community.
“What’s going on?”
He smiled slyly. “Having been a competitive swimmer in university—”
“Oh my god. You tricked me.”
“You didn’t ask, little Spitfire. You just strolled in and started throwing down.”
I laughed. “I did, didn’t I?”
He grinned. “You did.”
“You knew I couldn’t beat you,” I accused.
“I knew.” He winked and promised, “And one day I’ll pick up that raincheck.”
I shook my head but couldn’t help my smile. “You were saying?”
“Right. The school asked me to coach the swim team, grades seven to twelve. The problem is the recreation center pool is out of commission for six weeks. We have nowhere to practice.”
“What’s your timeline like?”
“Our competition is the week before Halloween. Altogether, there are four schools involved. We can petition to have the meet at one of their facilities, but it’s our turn to host.”
I slammed my hand down on the desk excitedly.
“This is exactly the sort of thing I want the resort to get involved with! You know, we have this beautiful facility, and so many people in the community work here, but they rarely get to enjoy it with their families. And why not? Why shouldn’t they?
We’re a small community and we do such good things together. ”
I got up and rounded my desk to perch on the edge in front of him.
“Okay, this is not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking more of a Halloween party. But still. This would be great,” I ran on. “I’ll talk to my parents. They don’t tend to get on board with my ideas, but I’ve never had one go sideways yet.”
“What ideas have you had, little one?”
I wiggled backward, planting my butt firmly on the desk, my legs swinging back and forth.
“Weddings. I started that whole enterprise.” I scrunched my nose. “I probably wouldn’t have had I known it was bridezillaville.”
I shook my head and carried on.
“I love doing fundraisers. Every year we throw a huge family affair. There’s a little girl in town with autism.
You’ll see her at school, I’m sure. You can’t miss her.
Big yellow lab follows her around like a sunny shadow.
Anyway, service dogs are insanely expensive.
They’re funded, but not entirely. The first year, we raised enough money for her mom’s portion of the cost.”
A smile creased his cheeks. “That’s amazing, Harley. You made a huge difference in that child’s life. How long have you been doing fundraisers for the community?”
“This will be our fourth year. I’ll speak with Pearl at the rec center. Maybe we can donate to the rec center this year.”
“What did you do the other years?”
“The second year we raised enough money to kickstart the animal shelter. The third year we set up an underground railway style women’s shelter aptly named ‘Safe at Home’ with five safe houses situated around town.
Luckily, we’ve never run out of room.” I grimaced.
“At the same time, we usually have three homes filled at all times.”
I shook off my distress. “This year I want to add an evening component, adults only. Maybe have a silent auction. Wine and cheese. Hors d’oeuvres. Childcare on-site just for that evening.” I deflated. “But my parents are wary. They don’t think it will fly.”
“But it always does.”
I met his eyes steadily. “Always.”
“I bet,” he murmured, then dropped his ankle and stood up, towering over me and far too close.
Slowly I tilted my chin back to look at him.
And my fucking panties flooded.
He studied me for a moment, his eyes hooded. “I’ll leave it with you. I don’t want you to get all out of sorts if it can’t happen, okay? I understand.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promised.
“Excellent. We can meet to discuss the outcome tomorrow. Is afternoon or evening better for you?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I need to get a plan together by the end of next week. The sooner I get moving on this, the better. I hate to inconvenience you…”
I waved away his concerns. “No, no. Don’t worry about it.” I stared off into space. Time was ticking toward that day, and I didn’t want to take my mood out on Daire. The afternoon would be easier.
“Is tomorrow afternoon okay?”
I’d only have to keep up the pretense for a few hours. Saturday night I’d stay home and prepare. Because Sunday was my day. My day to let go and give in to the grief I bullied into submission every other day of the year.
“That’s great. I’ll pick you up at your place at two.”
“What? I can just meet you somewhere.”
Stepping back, he was suddenly all business. “It’s no problem. I gotta jet. Thanks so much, Harley. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I sat on my desk staring after him as he strode out of the room.
I gave my head a shake.
What the hell just happened?