Chapter 28 Friennies with Bennies
Chapter 28
friennies with bennies
Summer’s phone pinged the second the front door to the shop burst open. She looked up from the window, which was a collage of all Sloan Chase’s backlist books. The publicist had sent an advanced copy of her new release, which was highlighted in the display.
Someone had already offered her a thousand dollars for the book. But Summer had politely declined, explaining that in her contract no one was allowed to read or purchase the copy. And Summer wasn’t about to do anything to jinx this signing. She had followed everything to the letter.
She had read the book herself to prepare for the interview and it was Sloan’s best work to date. She’d reread it three times—the juicy parts five.
The five thousand dollars had been painful to part with, and her bank account needed some serious CPR when it all was said and done, but it was going to be worth it. She could feel it in her bones. The podcast had sold out in under ten minutes, they already had over a thousand preorders of the hardback, and every single shop on the street had put a flyer in the window and a free bookmark by the register. She’d sent out two emails already and had a sixty-five percent open rate, and had done an email swap with twenty-two different bookshops in a three-hour radius—which was phenomenal.
Even more phenomenal was the person who was stalking toward her. A six-three wall of muscle dressed like a GQ model and looking like a powder keg ready to explode—with excitement. What a change from the man who’d tried to have her car towed. What a change indeed.
He glanced around the store and then his eyes went immediately to hers, as if she were the beacon he’d been looking for. His gaze raked her body up and down and she felt like prey about to be pounced on.
She slid her hands down her jeans and remembered that she was in her uniform she wore when dealing with stock. A work shirt, tattered old jeans, and tennies. No makeup and her hair must look like a squirrel’s tail, and she was covered in a fine layer of dust from moving around boxes in the back room to make space for the insane amount of Sloan Chase books that the distributor had sent out for the signing.
As he stalked toward her, he heard a collection of Oh my’s and I wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crackers , come from the Smut Club who had gathered around the reading section of the shop. Every eye followed him as he strutted toward Summer, shoulders back, chest puffed out, gaze set to I’m going to eat you for dinner.
Summer’s thighs began to tremble and her core became a furnace, radiating out to her limbs and covering her neck and face. She wasn’t blushing, she was preparing for the attack.
Without a word he slung her over his shoulder like caveman, walked her down the hallway into her office, and kicked the door shut.
“Babe,” she scolded. “Put me down.”
He gently set her on her feet. “Call me that again.”
“Babe?” she whispered, and it was as if she had unleashed an animal.
A primal look came over his features and his nostrils flared. He took her hands and pinned them to the door above her head. “I like it when you call me that.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s your name for me. It’s a statement that I’m yours.” He moved his body against hers and she could feel his erection pushing into her belly. “Am I yours, love?”
“Yes.”
His mouth came crashing down on hers and the way he kissed her made her knees go weak and her heart stutter to a stop. It was as if she were too afraid to move for fear that it would break the moment.
He ran his hands down her arms, over her breasts, gently cupping her hips.
“You’re shaking,” she said.
“It’s the adrenaline,” he said, and she felt a stab of disappointment.
“From the meeting?”
He pulled back. “From seeing you. Whenever I see you, especially when you’re smiling and doing what you love, it’s like I need to feel what you’re feeling. Be a part of it. Be a part of you. How does that make you feel?”
“Desired.” She unbuttoned his jacket. “Sexy.” She slid it down his arms and let it fall to the floor. “Precious.” She went to work on his vest. And when she had his tie undone, she yanked him toward her. “Yours.”
Then it was her turn to blow his mind with a kiss that led to another and another until there was no oxygen left to spare. His hands were everywhere, then suddenly she was magically shirtless and his mouth was giving her a love mark in her cleavage.
Summer’s head fell against the door.
“What does blue mean?” he asked, and she was a little confused.
“Blue?”
“The bra. It’s blue.”
“Oh,” she chuckled. “Blue is for bold. A Boardroom Barracuda who knows their worth. I wore it for you.”
He stopped, his hands gentling, almost worshiping, and his gaze met hers. He kicked out her office chair, took a seat, and pulled her onto his lap. “For me?”
“So you wouldn’t be alone in that meeting. How did it go? Did you kick ass?”
“By the time I was done they were pissing themselves. I’m still CEO, the man behind the push to get me out is gone, and Randy and I even talked through our differences. He found out about the NDA.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no. How did he take it?”
“Hard at first, but instead of walking away and playing tough love like I would usually do, we talked it out. And he is officially the VP of business development.”
“That’s a great job for him.”
“I know. His first assignment is to get more sponsors for our grand opening.”
“That’s only a week away,” she said.
“He can do it,” Wes said confidently. “And I will be with him every step of the way.” That confidence slipped a little and his face flushed. “Speaking of steps.”
Oh no, she thought, this was it, the this-isn’t-going-to-work conversation. Something had felt different last night when he’d dropped her off at her door and chosen to sleep at his penthouse rather than stay with her. For that matter, he’d never invited her to his place. They’d always stayed at hers.
“I felt like last night we took a step backward,” he said. “Maybe it was because everything was going too good or I was so focused on the meeting that I retreated, but I didn’t like how it felt.”
“And how did it feel?” She cupped his cheek, on which a five o’clock shadow was already forming even though it wasn’t even lunchtime.
He wrapped his arms around her middle and hugged her hard. “Lonely. So fucking lonely and I hated every second of it.” His mouth wandered down her neck. “I was up all night thinking strategy and about you and what you’d feel like beneath me. Next to me. Jesus, I can’t think when your tits are out.” He grabbed her shirt off the floor and stuffed it over her head.
“That bad.” He pushed up against her and it was rod-of-steel bad. “I can take care of that.”
She started to fumble with his buckle and he placed his hand over hers. “What I have to say is important. I need to be working on all cylinders.” She wiggled her ass. “You aren’t helping.”
“Because you won’t let me.” She batted her eyes.
“Summer.” His tone was serious and her heart dropped painfully.
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, and panic and fear knotted inside her.
“Is this about the meeting, or us? Because you said the meeting went great. So then it must be about us. God, it’s about us?” That knot tripled in size and constricted her chest because he seemed uncertain and uncomfortable like when someone was about to break her heart. “Did I do something wrong?”
The tiniest of smiles creased his lips. “No love, you did everything right. So right I can’t imagine going back to London and leaving you here.”
She blinked—twice. “Are you asking me to move to London? What about my shop?”
Love was worth every sacrifice —wasn’t that what she’d said?
“I’m asking if I were to stay here, make this my home base, how would you feel about that?”
Ecstatic. Overjoyed. Deliriously happy. “That depends.”
His face went blank, as if holding a raw emotion in check. “On what?”
“Why you want to stay.”
She knew it had only been a few months and they’d argued most of them, but she needed some reassurance that he was heading in the same direction as she was. He didn’t have to be in love with her right now, like she was with him, but there had to be a possibility. What was the point of dating, uprooting his life, if marriage wasn’t the endgame?
“Because Randy helped me see that I can have it all,” he said, and that wasn’t what she really wanted to hear.
“All what?” She tried to keep her fragile control.
He ran a hand down his face. “I’m overcomplicating things.” He cupped her cheek. “Bottom line, I love you. I’m in love with you and I want to be with you. Every night and every morning. I want to share my day with you and listen to yours. I want to make love to you all the time.” He ran his hands down her sides, his thumbs brushing her breasts. “Like now. You drive me crazy, in the best kind of way, and you make me feel like I finally have a place. You’re my place. I just hope I’m yours.”
“Of course you’re mine.” She brushed a gentle kiss on his lips. “You’ve been mine since the first time you called me love.”
“Thank Christ,” he said and fused his mouth to hers.
When they came up for air she asked, “If you’re wanting to spend every morning and night with me, does that mean you’re asking me to move in with you?”
“I’m asking to move in with you.”
She stammered in bewilderment. “Why? You have a beautiful penthouse overlooking downtown. My bed is tiny, my place is small, and old and—”
“Home. It’s your home, and I want it to be mine. I know how much the apartment means to you, so it means something to me. Unless you’d rather...” He said the last few words tentatively, as if maybe he’d gotten it wrong.
“No. I love my apartment and it just so happens I’m looking for a roommate.”
“You mean a bedmate, because there’s no way you’re wearing Wild Orchid and I’m sequestered away in the other bedroom. Although we will have to get a new bed. A sturdy one that can fit my large frame.”
“Deal.” And she sealed it with a kiss. Then another and another until her shirt was on its way over her head. Just then, there was a banging at the door.
Then another.
“Not sure what you guys are doing in there,” Cleo said. “But I will be honest and say there’s a poll going on with the book group and, man, can romance readers get creative. Do you have any cucumbers in there?”
“Um, no,” Summer said, covering her mouth to keep from laughing.
“Sorry, Mable, no cucumbers involved.”
A chorus of disappointed moans echoed through the door.
“I wouldn’t be interrupting if it weren’t important, but there’s a very beefy and tattooed man in a construction hat here for Wes saying that a pipe burst and he has some major plumbing problems.”
“When Aunt Cecilia said that, I thought she meant your—” She looked at his lap. “But you’d proven that wrong.”
“My downstairs plumbing is in Olympic shape, which you will see tonight after we get off work.”
Cleo opened the door, one hand covering her eyes, but the pointer and middle finger were parted so she could see through the slit. When she saw they were both clothed she dropped her hand with a disappointed sigh. “He says it’s flooding the storage room and has the potential to ruin your book inventory.”
“Go,” Summer said, standing up.
“But—”
“Go, we can finish this later.” She kissed him on the lips and smacked his butt.
Summer was tying a bow around the gift bags that held a bookmark, pen, and magnet for the first thousand customers when the front door of the apartment opened. Thinking it was Wes, she turned with a big smile, which fell the moment she saw Autumn.
Her twin looked as if she’d just come from a photo shoot. Her hair was perfection, her makeup was flawless, and her outfit was runway-ready. She looked like a bona fide influencer.
The two hadn’t spoken since the beach house and Summer had refused to make the first move. She’d always been the one to go to Autumn, apologize for fighting even when she hadn’t been the cause or initiated the disagreement. Well, this wasn’t a disagreement, it was a battle of moral compasses, and she didn’t know how to navigate that.
Wes had taught her her worth, and she wasn’t willing to be a doormat anymore. Not even for her sister. Which was why she didn’t run over and embrace Autumn, even though that was what every cell in her body was telling her to do. Autumn seemed disappointed that Summer hadn’t made her usual first move.
“Hey,” Autumn said tentatively, her face clouded with uneasiness.
“Hi.” Don’t you dare move! This is her doing. She needs to come to you.
“I went to the shop to see if you were there and Cleo told me to go eat a bag of dicks. So I figured that meant you were in the apartment. And still mad at me.”
“I’m not mad, Autumn. I’m hurt and devastated and, yeah, angry. But mostly I’m just sad. You lied to me, broke a promise to me, and blindsided me. That’s not how sisters treat each other.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I put my dream above yours. Which is why I have this.” Autumn held out an envelope that was so stuffed it barely closed.
Summer looked at it like it was a scorpion ready to strike. For all she knew it was a letter explaining all the reasons why Summer couldn’t be in the wedding. “What’s that?”
“Me paying off my debt.” Autumn took out a wad of cash and fanned herself with it.
She walked over, but the island was between them. She set the money on the tile counter.
“It’s all there. Ten grand plus interest.”
“Where did you get this?”
Autumn smiled. “I listened to my really smart twin sister and came clean with my fiancé.”
“He just gave you ten thousand dollars?” Oh, to be a Kingston.
“No, I wouldn’t take his money. But I did take his help. He co-signed my loan that will give me enough breathing room to go after my dream the way you’ve gone after yours, and really make it as an influencer. I already have a photographer and lighting guy set up. They come highly recommended. One even worked for the Kardashians for a bit. And I made a business plan, a real one that you would be so proud of. I’m going to make this work. I promise.”
“That’s great, Autumn,” Summer said with no emotion. Once again, her sister was making it about herself.
“But what I really came to ask is if you’re okay. I know you’re with Wes, how is that going?”
A little brick of her emotional wall crumbled at the sound of his name. “He said he loved me.”
Autumn took a step closer. “He did? I knew you two were a match when you made the bet for him to pack up and leave.”
“You knew about that? How?”
“You two were talking so loud the whole house heard. That’s why we all voted for him to win.”
“So you rigged the game?”
“Yup. And it worked.”
They were both smiling but still neither of them moved. It was as if they were on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon, reaching out to each other. But both were afraid to fall in and get hurt.
“I’ve missed you,” Autumn said. “Like my soul has a Summer-sized hole in it, and no matter what I do, or how I try and distract myself, it won’t heal.”
“Me too.”
“Did you know that we’ve gone nine days, six hours and fifty-two minutes without talking. That the longest we’ve ever gone without speaking to each other.”
“I know. It feels like a part of me is missing too. I’ve had all these amazing things happen and I haven’t had anyone to talk to them about,” Summer said. “And it sounds like you have too.”
Autumn hopped on the island counter and crossed her legs like she was a little kid. She patted the tile next to her for Summer to join. So she did.
They sat like that, knee to knee, silently staring at each other and looking for any differences. Any new scars, pimples—residual anger. There was none. They were still the mirror image of each other. And something so right filled Summer’s chest.
Completeness.
“I heard you landed a mega author,” Autumn said.
“I did. Sloan Chase,” Summer said with pride. “Wes helped some, but I used our family history to win her over.”
“I’m not shocked. You’ve always been great at connecting with people.”
“No, that’s you. I have my nose in a book.”
“But when you look up there is this genuine quality to you that makes people want to be near you. You’re like a warm summer’s day.”
“Ha ha,” Summer deadpanned.
“Seriously, why else would Mom and Dad have called you Summer?”
“Because I was born on the last day of summer and you were born on the first day of autumn.”
“There you go, holding that big-sister thing over me again,” Autumn teased and Summer laughed, a real, from-the-belly laugh. Autumn joined in, and before they knew it, they were forehead to forehead, their hearts synced.
As it should be.
“I heard you went wedding-dress shopping,” Summer said, trying to hide the hurt she’d felt when her dad told her. The hurt she still felt.
“I did, but the second I walked into the store I walked right back out. It wasn’t the same without you by my side.”
Summer’s eyes blurred with emotion. “Really?”
“And I’m not having my wedding in Mystic. I’m having it in Paris under the Eiffel Tower. Randy is flying everyone out.”
“You didn’t have to change your mind because of me.” Even though she was touched that she had.
Autumn took Summer’s hands. “It wasn’t my wedding. It’s yours. And I only wanted it because I wanted the day to be perfect and you are the queen of romance. So who better to plan the perfect wedding?”
“That’s why you wanted to get married in Mystic?”
“I wanted to be like my older sister who believes in love and destiny and magic. I wanted to be like you. But let’s face it, I need a glamorous affair for my big day. Something nobody else has done. The event of all events.”
Summer didn’t bother to tell her that when it came to the Eiffel Tower, many had come and gone before her, because all that mattered in her sister’s mind was that she’d found her perfect venue.
“Do you know what your color theme will be?” Summer asked.
Autumn shook her head. “I couldn’t pick that out without my romance guru by my side.”
“Barbie pink,” Summer guessed.
“That was at the top of my list!” Autumn said with enthusiasm. “But before we talk about me, I want to hear all about you.”
Summer pulled her twin’s hands into her lap and locked eyes like they used to when they were kids.
“Oh, I think we’re going to need some chocolate ice cream for this talk.”
“You can tell me while we finish tying up these swag bags.”
“God, I need the help. I have four days to finish a thousand and I just started.”
“Well, I’m the queen of swag, and now you have her at your service and she already can tell you you’re doing it wrong. The bookmark goes in first, then the pen, and lastly the magnet. Now at the top, a pretty bow.” Autumn demonstrated, and it looked a hundred times better. “I will commend you on choice of bag color. Wild Orchid. How risqué.” Autumn waggled her brows.
“It was a no-brainer.”