Chapter 21
Magnolia
My eyes snap open as I’m lifted from the couch. I don’t remember falling asleep. Somewhere between Nash’s indignation and him realizing I was paying for protection in cinnamon rolls, my exhaustion caught up.
“You’re going to bed. Now.”
Oh, right, Nash is still here.
He witnessed my unfortunate laughing fit.
Crap.
Only best friends should get to witness something so embarrassing, not fiancés.
Now I have to wonder for the rest of my life if I said something mortifying. I can’t believe I fell asleep on the couch so fast. I mean, I can, because sometimes when I’m emotionally tired I just can’t do anything else but sleep…I didn’t want Nash to witness that though.
My eyes are heavy, but I’m aware that Nash is holding me in his arms as he walks slowly down the hallway.
“Which one is yours?”
His footsteps are steady, and it doesn’t cross my mind that he might drop me.
“The room on the left,” I whisper. “You don’t have to carry me.”
“Yeah, I think I do. You’re tired. I’ve asked a lot of you. And that’s not fair of me to put this on you.”
“It’s fine,” I say quietly, letting my head rest against his shoulder.
“It’s not fine.” He adjusts his hold on me and opens the bedroom door. He carries me in sideways and toward the bed. “We need to be done with this.”
“You’re right. I’m probably hurting your back,” I mutter.
He chuckles and bends down to lay me on the bed. He pulls the covers back and lifts them up over me. “You’re still not awake.”
I’m not even sure what he’s talking about or if I need to be awake. “Is this a serious conversation?”
“No. I just meant you don’t have to worry about this anymore.” His hand rests on my head, and then his fingers brush the hair away from my forehead.
A warm shiver runs down my spine at his touch, and my eyes feel heavier than before.
“Go to sleep and don’t worry about this mess anymore,” he whispers.
And the last thing I think before I close my eyes is that I trust this man enough to fall asleep in his presence.
I wake in the morning to the alarm on my phone going off. I’ve been trying to join the 5 a.m. club…and I’ve decided it’s horrible. But here we are. I slap my hand around, looking for my phone to turn it off. It’s not on my dresser where I usually put it.
I sit up and realize I’m still wearing my clothes from yesterday.
Oh, right. Nash carried me to bed last night. How embarrassing. And sweet. And why oh why does he have to occupy so much of my thoughts? There’s no way I can walk away from this fake engagement without some feelings for him.
It’d be easier if he were an awful person. Instead, he’s exactly the kind of person that I would want to be with. The only issue is, I’m not even remotely interesting enough to hold his attention.
Yes, he’s kind and polite, and fun to be with…but he’s going to be someone who wants to marry a woman as ambitious as he is.
I stumble out to the living room and stop short when I see Piper sitting on the couch, holding a cup of coffee.
“What are you doing up so early?” I yawn as I sit down beside her.
“I never went to bed,” she admits. She has her laptop open on her knees and is staring at the screen as she takes another long sip of coffee. “I need to ask you something.”
“Uh, this sounds serious. Let me get coffee first.” I head into the kitchen and fill a mug with half cream and half coffee, then make my way back to sit next to her. “What is it?”
“We’ve been approved for a business operating loan.”
I blow on the hot mug of coffee as I let her words sink in. “We have? How?”
“I sent in an updated business plan and balance sheet. They approved us this time.”
“You didn’t tell me that!”
“I didn’t want you to be stressed about it. It was right when you got fired,” Piper says with a grimace. “I figured I’d let things ride out and see what happened.”
“And something good happened.”
“Yeah, well, you might not think that when I’m done explaining,” Piper grimaces.
I’m scared, but I do my best to keep a calm look on my face as I sip my coffee and wait for Piper to talk.
“I made a few tweaks to the business plan to increase our profitability.”
“That’s not a bad thing…”
“Well it is when I made changes that would rely on you.”
“What did you do?” I ask quietly.
Piper mumbles something that I can’t hear.
I shake my head and wait for her to say it again.
“I added a bakery. To the brewery.”
“A bakery?!”
“Yes, I know. It’s weird. A brewery-bakery. It’s ridiculous. If we designed our space to have a separate front for the bakery…That could increase the revenue, especially while we’re getting the first rounds of brewing done.”
A bakery. My heart does a little flutter. “And I would run the bakery?”
Piper nods. “You know I can mess up cold cereal. And I know this puts a lot of pressure on you. But if you don’t want to do it, just say the word.
Don’t feel like you have to be backed into a corner here.
In fact, I wouldn’t blame you if you just wanted to get out of business with me after all of this.
” She groans and tilts her head back to stare at the suspicious brown stain on our ceiling.
“Piper, I’m not mad at you. You know I love baking. And goodness knows I’ve joked about opening a bakery before. I think I’m more excited about the bakery part than I am about the brewery part.”
Piper’s head snaps forward, and her eyes light up. “Really?”
“Really.” I shake my head. “It probably makes me the most basic girl ever. I want to live in a small town, run a bakery, fall in love, and have a family.” I laugh humorlessly. “I’m like a bad ad for a B-rated romance.”
Piper giggles at that. “And who cares? Who flippin’ cares? Your dreams are your own. And they’re all good things. If it makes you happy, then that’s good enough. If people have enough time to talk down about your life’s dreams…then it means they’re not busy chasing their own.”
I lift my coffee cup in the air in a toasting gesture. “Here, here. When did you get so wise?”
“My wisdom only makes an appearance after an all-nighter.” She grins and closes her laptop. “Oh, by the way, with this operating loan, there’s no way we can afford a place in Bend. We’re going to have to go farther out and find something less competitive.”
I sigh. “Honestly? That sounds amazing. Maybe we can find a cute little town that has enough tourism to keep us in business and zero competition. Is that too much to ask?”
“Probably,” Piper mutters.
Ever the realist. Piper only says what she means. Her saying that my dreams are my own and worth pursuing? That holds weight because she is painfully honest.
I should probably have her talk me out of falling for Nash. She’d give me a hundred reasons on why it’s a bad idea.
Which is why I don’t ask her opinion.