Chapter 20
Nash
“Here, I’ll grab our coats, and we can sneak away without anyone knowing.” I let go of Magnolia’s hand long enough to open the giant coat closet by the front door.
It’s the same size as the room I grew up in. Some things still take me back to my grandfather’s lifestyle. The lifestyle that my dad grew up in. He gave up his life of luxury because he loved my mom so much. I wish I’d had more time with him.
I flick the light on and am greeted by a pair of bright eyes.
“Hello. Are you the new valet?”
“Ha. You couldn’t pay me enough to wait on rich, entitled people,” Harper replies. She clicks off the flashlight she’d been using to read her book.
“Aha, spoken like a rich and entitled person,” I mutter.
I’m fairly certain I hear Magnolia snicker behind me.
Harper must have heard me too since she glares and folds her arms. “How does that make me entitled?”
I lean a shoulder against the doorframe, perfectly aware that Magnolia is still standing behind me. “Well…if you weren’t rich and entitled, then you’d have to work for a living. Some people don’t have the luxury of being choosy about their jobs. I used to be a valet.”
Magnolia makes a sound of surprise behind me, and I’m glad I’m able to shock her—at least a little.
“You learn a lot about people when you work in the service industry. Lots of people-watching. Lots of work. Builds character. It would be good for you, Harper.”
Harper stands up. “You’re not a very nice cousin—you know that?”
I shrug and she continues, “You’re the only one who would think being a valet would be a good idea.”
“As I said, it builds character—something many people in this family lack,” I mutter.
I just want to grab our coats and leave, not talk a nineteen-year-old through an existential crisis.
But I have no such luck, because now Harper is looking at me thoughtfully.
“But at least you’d still talk to me. Nicely, that is.”
“If you were a valet, I’d recommend you to all my friends,” I promise.
Dang, I hope I never have to parent a child through the teen years. Hopefully, little fairies will show up and somehow teach them everything they need to know.
Harper continues to stand in the way. “Do you suppose Dad would be mad if I wanted to be a valet?”
“Yes.” I don’t even need to think about that answer.
“Okay. Perfect. I’ll become one. I’ll make sure to tell him it was your idea.” She smiles brightly and flits out of the closet, brushing past Magnolia, saying goodbye as she leaves.
“I like that cousin,” Magnolia comments.
“Yes, I do too,” I reply as I pull our coats out of the closet.
I hold hers out as she slips her arms in. She turns around and looks up at me with those big blue eyes. I begin buttoning the gray peacoat from the bottom up. Her lips part, and her gaze focuses on my fingers.
I jerk my hands away and ask, “Did you wear a scarf?”
“No. The washing machine at the Laundromat ate my scarf.”
“Don’t you have another?” I pull on my own jacket and button it up.
“I’m holding out until next winter. I’d rather buy a swimsuit for my nonexistent summer vacation.” She grins as I pull open the door for her.
“Why no vacation?” I ask.
“I’m trying to start a business. Money is going to be tight. But I still plan on sunning myself on the roof of our apartment building—it’ll be a staycation.”
“Aren’t you afraid it will collapse?”
She reaches the car before I do and is already climbing into the passenger seat, ignoring my dig at her building.
The car seems hot compared to outside. The temperate air contrasts with the thirty degrees outside. Magnolia turns to me.
“If you keep making fun of my building, I’ll tell the doorman to keep you out.”
I smirk. “You don’t have a doorman.”
“That you’ve noticed,” she replies, too smug for my comfort.
“If you’re talking about the local neighborhood gang, that makes me want to call the police and tip them off to a little drug deal I witnessed the other morning.”
The idea of her staying in that apartment makes me want to do something drastic, like drive past her street and take her to the safety of my home.
I don’t like that there are people hanging around the front of the building. Or the strange smell coming from the first-floor apartments.
She deserves so much more than that.
The thought causes me to freeze. She already means so much to me.
How is that possible? We’re practically strangers.
I don’t have the right to give input into her life.
But I’d love nothing more than to take care of her and make life easier for her.
Especially when I’ve put her in this impossible position.
Sure, I’m paying her, but she could be doing literally anything else. She could be back at her job, making good connections for her upcoming business venture.
And the fact that she’s offered multiple times to help me for free? That tells me everything I need to know about her.
But I can’t fall for her. Bad idea, Nash.
I feel this way only because she’s a good person. Right. That’s the only reason I worry about her.
And I definitely worry. She has a gang hanging around her apartment building regularly. The kind of people you’d see in a movie that demand a block to pay them protection money.
My heart skips a beat. “You’re not paying them, are you?” I snap as I turn down the car’s temperature. I work to open the buttons on my coat so I don’t roast alive.
“Paying who for what?”
“The gang!” I snap as I struggle with the top button while keeping the car on the road.
“Do you think I’m an addict?” The bite in her voice has the potential of lowering the temperature in the car all by itself. “Are you regretting not taking a full drug screening panel when you hired me to be your fiancée?” Her outraged voice fills the car.
“That is absolutely not what I’m saying. I’m just wondering if you give them anything to ensure your safety.”
She huffs and folds her arms across her chest. “The only thing I give them is cinnamon rolls, so you can take your judgmental attitude and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”
“You’re paying them for protection in cinnamon rolls?” I ask as I turn onto Magnolia’s block.
She turns to glare at me, but her pursed lips give way to a small smile.
Soon, she’s full-on grinning. Before I know it, she’s throwing her head back and cackling.
“Wait until I tell Piper. She’s going to think it’s so funny that we’ve been paying the biker gang for protection in cinnamon rolls.”
Her laugh is so contagious that even though I’m angry about the whole thing, I fight a sneaky smile. “Please let me find you another apartment.”
She slows down her laughing. “But they might not take cinnamon rolls as payment there.” She throws her head to the side as she laughs loudly at her own joke. She lightly bangs her head against the window, and that just makes her laugh even more.
By the time I park beneath the streetlight in front of her building, I have to nearly carry her from the car. She’s gasping for air, promising to be serious, then ultimately loses it all over again in a noise that sounds very similar to a hyena.
When I unlock her apartment with her key set, we walk in and find Piper on the couch. Magnolia has her laughter mostly under control.
Mostly. Until she looks at Piper.
Her face turns red as she tries to contain her laughter.
“What did you do to her?” Piper asks in a horrified tone.
“I don’t know, okay? She just won’t stop laughing. It worries me.”
Magnolia blurts out, “Protection cinnamon rolls!”
Then she laughs so hard that I’m pretty sure I see some spit go flying.
How can someone do that and still be attractive? Is this what a rebound feels like? There is no other logical explanation for my obsession with Magnolia.
Piper shakes her head slowly as she looks back and forth between my confused face and Magnolia’s laughing one.
“There’s no coming back from this one,” Piper tells me. “You might as well save yourself.”
I shake my head slowly. “She’s exhausted.”
“Yeah, that’s because she’s desperate to get our business off the ground.
She’s been searching for some kind of commercial space for a distillery and restaurant, and she’s been going into the office to get as many extra hours as she can.
She even started DoorDashing this week to make a little extra cash.
” Piper shakes her head. “She’s gone postal on this project.
I think getting fired showed her how fragile of a situation we’re in. ”
“She can’t keep going like this,” I mutter as I look watch Magnolia cross the living room.
She flops onto the beanbag couch, gasping for air as her laughter dies down. “You two realize I’m still here, and I can hear you talking about me?”
Piper and I ignore her.
“When are you going to move out of this place?” I ask Piper.
She shrugs. “Our ship hasn’t come in yet.”
“Do you have a dock?”
Piper pivots to glare at me fully, and I hold my hands up in surrender.
“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to micromanage, but the guys hanging around the building are part of a biker gang.”
Piper shrugs. “Fair enough. Everybody needs to have friends. Some men golf together, some have gangs. Who am I to judge? Anyway, yeah, maybe someday we’ll be able to get out of here. In my job, I rely on tips, and I haven’t felt like sharing my sparkling personality lately.”
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. It’s at that point I realize the laughing has stopped. I glance at Magnolia.
She’s already asleep on the couch.
“What the—” I start.
Piper asks, “Did you have a big social event tonight?”
“Yes…”
“Well, there you have it. Magnolia’s stress response is to fall asleep. If she’s emotionally drained, she sleeps.”
“I’ve never heard of that before.”
Piper shrugs. “I don’t know if it’s an actual medical thing or just a Magnolia thing, but if she’s stressed, she’ll just crash. Sometimes I get a little jealous because I have the opposite problem. If I’m stressed, I lie awake for seven days and think about it.
There’s nothing I can do tonight.
“I’ll look into something and see if I hear of any high-paying jobs or apartments available.”
I happen to know Grandpa has a few different places scattered around. Maybe I could get him to “lease” one to them. If I could, I would move them into my house. But Magnolia wouldn’t go for that.
So, I’ll have to help in a less obvious way.
First, I need to free her from this lie I’ve crafted. Right after I tuck my fake fiancée into bed.