Chapter 21 Friends with Bennies
Chapter 21
friends with bennies
“How do you feel?” Wes asked, crouching down so he could meet her gaze beneath the rim of the neon orange parking cone. The poor thing looked miserable.
The second the ride’s bottom had dropped out, Summer’s stomach had also bottomed out. She’d puked all over his shoes, which was why he was walking around in trout-shaped flip-flops he’d bought at a tourist trap for way too much money. What a pair they made.
As for the other pair, they were standing in front of them in line for the Ferris wheel, making out. It was PG and he expected Summer to say something very librarian-like—“No kissing in the stacks” or “Keep your tongue to yourself”—but she was just staring up at the Ferris wheel looking like she was going to throw up again.
She wobbled a bit to the right.
“Whoa, stay with me,” Wes said, steadying her by the arm. It was clammy and shaking. “You’re going to be okay,” he whispered.
“No,” she clarified. “We’re going to die.”
“We don’t have to do this.” He pointed at the exit, the one near the front of the line where chickens bok-bok ed their way out.
She eyed that exit for a long while, as if weighing her options. “I am tired of being a wuss. So of course we have to do this. It’s Randy’s choice to pick his favorite ride. It just so happens to be a death trap. But I’m turning over a new leaf, sitting in the uncomfortableness of it, and giving your family another chance.”
He didn’t like that she considered herself a wuss, since she was the bravest woman he knew. But he liked the last part about giving him yet another chance. He’d blown it yesterday at the chapel, then again this morning when he’d phoned the chairman of the board in the middle of a conversation, so he’d come to apologize for pulling back and to explain his reasoning.
She was correct, he was sending mixed messages, and it was his responsibility to explain to her why he’d been acting that way. She deserved at least that.
“So you don’t like heights? So what? Everyone has their fears. Plus, remember, together we’re winning!” He pointed to the puffy paint on his shirt and smiled.
Summer pushed the cone back on her head so she could see his eyes. “What’s your fear?”
His gaze locked with hers. “That I’ll end up like my dad and hurt the people closest to me.”
She took a small step forward. “You don’t talk about him much.”
“There’s not much to say. I didn’t know him really well. I grew up in England and only saw once him a year.”
“How did he hurt you?”
“He made it clear that I was the least important person in his life.”
Her cheeks went red with rage. “He was wrong, and shame on him for making anyone, especially his son, feel like that.”
“Are you getting mad on my behalf, love?”
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
He liked it when she got spicy. Especially on his behalf. “That was a long time ago.”
“Maybe up here.” She pointed to his head, then his heart. “But not in here.”
Randy took that moment to stand on the railing right next to the DO NOT STAND ON THE HAND RAILING sign and shout, “I love this woman.” Then he hopped down and kissed Autumn. A crowd formed around them and cheered them on.
Summer looked from Randy to Wes. “What if Randy’s never ready to step up at the company?”
Wes had been asking himself that question for months now. He loved his brother, but it was as if Randy was living in an alternate reality where having the last name Kingston meant he could sit in an office practicing his golf swing and still make things happen.
“Then I’ll do whatever it takes to find him a job he’d be good at,” he said. “Well, look at this, we’re next,” he said with a smile.
“Oh god.” She clasped his hand hard enough that he winced.
“I can take the blame and say I’m afraid of heights,” he offered.
She snorted. “I know you’re just saying that to make me feel better. But it’s not like anyone would believe that you’re afraid of heights.”
“I’m afraid of plenty.”
“Like what, apart from turning into your dad?” She said the last part with compassion.
He could lie to her and come up with something comical, like spiders or the white tops of candy corn, but they were about to get loaded on to the Ferris wheel and he needed to distract her. Plus, a part of him wanted to tell her the truth.
He climbed into the swinging seat and tugged her to him and said, “You, love. I’m scared of you.”
She was so thrown off by his admission that she plopped down in the seat next to him. The gate locked in front of them. It wasn’t until they started to move that she seemed to realize what was going on, and she squealed and then clung to him like a koala on a eucalyptus tree.
He put his arm around her and pulled her close so he could whisper, “Breathe. I’ve got you.”
She did and he tightened his arms. Damn, she felt good—vulnerable and relying on him to protect her. Wes was learning more and more just how much of a protector he was toward the people in his life. And even if they couldn’t be more than friends, he wanted her to be in his life—for good.
“Talk to me,” she said, her face buried in his armpit. “Distract me.”
“Like how I’ve been dying to tell you all day that I didn’t know about the early opening.”
She blinked up at him, looking at him through those dark lashes. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ve given you plenty of reasons to doubt me.”
“I was so mad when Cleo told me. I felt like a fool. Like you were being nice to me to distract me from what was going on back home. Like you played me.”
He took her hand in his and placed them in his lap. “I’d never play you. Maybe once upon a time I would have done anything to win, but I’d like to think I’ve changed.”
“So what did Harper say?” When he didn’t speak, she said. “That was me being nosy. You don’t have to answer that.”
“No, I want someone to bounce ideas off of.” And for some reason he wanted that someone to be her. “The board made a unilateral decision to up the opening knowing that it would be nearly impossible to make the date. They’re doing whatever they can to sabotage Randy and me.”
“I just don’t get why the board would want you to fail. They still stand to make money with you at the helm. And you’re so good they’d be at a loss without you. They make me so mad I want to slash their tires.”
“Love, are you getting protective over me again?”
“Damn straight,” she said, and something inside him warmed. “I hate bullies, and they’re bullies.”
“It’s hard not to be conniving and cunning when there are billions at stake. I mean, just look at the tricks I played on you. I really was just having fun with it all, but I knew that it was messing with your head. And for that, I’m sorry.”
“It was all fair play. I did my share of sneaky things to tick you off.”
“Some of your pranks were ingenious. Like walking your dog through the wet concrete, leaving paw prints all over the pad near our front doors.”
“Well, Princess Buttercup is very particular about her potty spots, and your land used to be a vacant lot. Potty Utopia.”
“Uh-huh,” he said with a grin.
“It took the crew two extra days to re-pour that concrete. I had to pay a security guard to watch it overnight. And there is still a big print right in front of my door.”
“Jeremiah was a nice guy. I bribed him with my nonna’s molasses cookies and he let me get in one last word.”
“I think it had more to do with the baker than the cookies. One look at that smile of yours and any guy would be toast.”
He loved the way she got flustered when he said things like that. What he didn’t like was that she didn’t know how to take a compliment, as if other men in her life had deprived her of them.
He could tell by the way she stared off into the distance that it was topic over. He’d let her have this one. But at some point they were going to talk about how she deserved to be treated for when the next guy came around.
An unexpected flash of jealousy and anger raged through him and he felt his arms tighten, pulling her closer at the thought of some other douchebag holding her hand, kissing her, touching that amazing ass.
“You okay?” she asked.
He tucked her into his side. “I am now.”
They were quiet for a long moment, but it was that comfortable kind of silence that only happened when two people had a special kind of connection. And he felt theirs growing every day.
“If it was that serious of a call, why aren’t you on the road back to Ridgefield?”
“I’m heading that way tomorrow.”
“I have to go back early too,” she said. “I have a podcast to do.”
“I have an idea, why don’t we wake up early and drive together? We can get done what needs to be done.”
“It would be nice to have someone to argue with,” she teased, and he laughed.
The Ferris wheel came to a stop to let another party on, and she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his shoulder.
“Are we falling? It feels like we’re falling. Oh god, we’re falling, aren’t we.”
“Open your eyes and you’ll see that we just came to a stop to let someone off.”
“I want to get off. How do we get off?”
“I have a few ideas on that, but we’re in public,” he said in a sexy voice.
She elbowed him in the ribs but laughed. She was terrified to her bones and he’d made her laugh. It felt as if he were on top of the world. And they were. They were just a few feet from the peak of the ride.
The top of a Ferris wheel was like mistletoe, right? It came with a kiss?
He looked down at her shrink-wrapped around him and decided that while he’d love to kiss her, this was enough. Her trust was a treasure to hold close to his vest.
“What happens when the project is done?” she asked quietly. “I mean, when the store opens up, what happens to you?”
“I’ll stay on for a few months to make sure it’s solid, and then I’ll head back to London and see if I can breathe life into my own business.”
She sat up straight, and he could see the shock on her face. “You own your own business?”
“A robotics company that specializes in building medical equipment.”
“Was it successful?”
“It still is. I hired a good pal from university to be president in my absence. I’m still CEO and am very hands on from a distance.”
“Where do you find the time?”
“I don’t get much sleep.”
“You gave up your country and business for a dad who sounds like a jerk?”
Even to himself he sounded resigned. “What was I supposed to do? What would you have done?”
She shrugged. “The same thing.”
“Look at us, a pair who would do anything for family.”
“So the Grinch does have a heart.”
“Don’t mistake my single-mindedness for the lack of a heart. It’s just the single-mindedness wins out most of the time.”
“Funny, my heart is always running the show.”
“I know,” he whispered, taking her hand once again. “It’s why I pulled back yesterday. I don’t want to mislead you so that when I leave you feel blindsided.”
She laced their fingers together. “I know who you are, Wes. And I know what you’re capable of, even if you don’t.”
His Grinch-heart didn’t just grow two sizes that day, it nearly exploded out of his chest. He soaked up her praise like he was a dying man in the desert, desperate for a drop of acceptance. A sliver of connection. And she was giving him that without expecting anything in return.
It had been a long time since he’d had someone who had that amount of unconditional faith in him.
“And what is that?”
“You have the world in your hands, Wes. Whatever direction you choose to go you will find success. You just have to have the courage to make a decision that is good for your soul and not just the bottom line.”
“Like this?” he asked, cupping her chin and tilting it up so he could see her face when he lowered his mouth. He went slowly, giving her time to pull away. And just when he thought he was going to make contact— Houston we have a problem —she said, “Wait.”
He prepared himself for the “too little too late” lecture, but instead she took off her Cone of Shame and set it on the bench next to her. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered against his lips, “Even though it would make for a funny meet-cute, this moment calls for something that doesn’t fit into a love guide. You deserve more than a Cone of Shame kiss. You deserve this...”
Before he knew what was happening, her arms had tightened around his neck and her lips were on his. Soft and tentative, as if she wasn’t sure what his reaction would be. If he was into this. So he RSVPed immediately by threading his fingers through her hair to cradle the back of her head, while the other hand went around her back, pulling her so close she was practically on his lap.
That’s when the kiss went from a sweet get-to-know-you to volcanic. The blast of chemistry and sexual awareness was heard around the world. She tasted minty from the gum she’d chewed and felt as warm as the sunny breeze.
She dug her fingers into his hair and tugged a little while she gently nipped at his lower lip. Just enough to let him know that beneath the sweet bookstore owner was a woman who liked a little kink when it came to romance. Wes wasn’t normally a kink kind of guy, but with Summer he’d be whatever she needed. Especially when it felt like this.
He wasn’t sure how long the kiss lasted—it was a single kiss that didn’t even give them time to take a breath. Like they needed each other more than they needed oxygen. Then her hands were on the move, palms sliding down his chest, over his pecs and lower, to his abs.
“What happened to crossing the line?’ she said against his lips.
“Love, we crossed the line that night in your store when you told me to get my ass out of your shop. I was just in denial.”
She pulled back, her eyes sex-hazed. “Is this just a kiss or is it more?”
“I’m moving back to London, so these next few months are all that I can offer.”
“So like a friends-with-benefits thing? Then we’re just long-distance friends?”
“Lots of benefits. And yes. But before you agree, I really want you to think about it. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“Friends with benefits is one of my favorite romance tropes.”
And that was his fear, that she’d get caught up in the romance of it all, believe that they would somehow beat the odds and it would work out.
“This isn’t a book. This is real life, and my life is jam-packed and chaotic and about the bottom line. And it’s across the ocean. So before you answer, I want you to really be sure.” She opened her mouth to answer, and he could see the yes in her gaze. “Don’t tell me now, when we’re both worked up and hormones are running high.” He brought her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “You’ve had a lot of disappointment when it comes to men. I refuse to be another.”