Chapter 18 Rae
RAE
After a week of purging Davis out of my life with my best friend, I was starting to feel better.
We’d burned, cut, and laughed about almost everything inside my box, and the two others I found deep in the back of my closet.
I hadn’t mentioned what Carl had said about Davis, because it didn’t need to be mentioned.
Davis was nothing to me and always would be.
However, Nora had caught on to my demeanor the next day, and while I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about it, I knew her sudden interest in finding us dates had something to do with it.
My date, Blake, was a loan officer down at the bank.
He’d just returned from college, and based off the number of bad pickup lines he delivered, I had to assume he had been popular enough with the ladies.
They didn’t work on me, and by the end of the night, I bid him goodbye without setting up a second date or giving him a goodnight kiss.
My heart felt wooden, like it was heavy and old, cumbersome to carry within my chest.
Not to mention, Carl’s voice was stuck in my head, lodged deep down in my stomach, making it ache and hurt all week.
I didn’t want to think about Davis and Lydia, or him with whoever it was he was asking about in the diner, but it was as if a loop was playing in my head and I couldn’t get it to stop.
Thankfully, it was the start of a new work week, which meant I would have something to keep me distracted from the fact that Davis hadn’t reached out since seeing him outside the diner.
Even after discussing the misunderstanding, he’d yet to place another order, and while I had been making a few deliveries here and there, most of the mountain orders had stopped over the past week.
Maybe it meant I could focus on helping businesses with marketing or look for a place of my own.
“Rae! Oh good, you’re here.” My dad called out to me as his eyes met mine for only a second or two before returning to the berries in front of him.
I set my purse and jacket down on the small cabinet reserved for the employees.
“Morning, how can I help?”
My mother chose that moment to breeze out of the office, her face was flushed as though she’d been crying, and she had circles under her eyes. She was normally bright and happy, never worried unless something had actually happened.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, slowly crowding her. I waited to ensure we weren’t being listened to and then turned her around by her shoulders. Her eyes were watering, which made my gut sink.
“Mom, tell me what’s going on.”
Flicking her eyes to the side and then down to her feet, she sniffed. “We’re sinking, sweetie…and the regular delivery orders we used to get kept us afloat,” she murmured, keeping her gaze down. “I’m not sure what to do.”
Her brows furrowed, and I knew I’d fucked up. I was the reason he hadn’t been placing orders.
“Thomas hasn’t placed an order in over two weeks, and for whatever reason, the other mountain orders haven’t been coming through either. I know everyone is hurting right now, but we haven’t had a month this rough for as long as I can remember.”
I shook my head, trying to piece together a way to fix this that didn’t include me begging Davis. “But you have customers in here all the time; it feels like business is booming.”
Her slow shake of her head confirmed a tiny flicker of fear in my chest. “It started a few years ago. The cost of living increased, and more swanky people started moving here. There’s a fancy diner just twelve miles up the road, at a ski resort.
More and more people have started going there, along with the bigger chain restaurants popping up now. ”
My throat was tight with emotion as I pulled her into my arms. “It’s going to be okay, Mom. I promise.”
I’d make sure of that. I’d do whatever I could to help them, including making stupid deliveries up the mountain to the grump.
“What do you need me to do?”
My mom smiled, swiping at her tears. “Well, I don’t know how you’d feel about this, but I need to talk to Thomas—er, Davis—and see what the problem is.
I need to know if this is going to continue so we can start making contingency plans, but I don’t have the time to go up there, and it really needs to be a conversation had in person. ”
I didn’t feel great about it, but for her, I smiled and shook my head. “I don’t mind, I’ll take care of it.”
Because what else could I do?
Pulling up to his house with the sun shining down along the two-story masterpiece nearly had me rolling my eyes.
It truly looked like something out of a magazine.
The two beautiful huskies were out, lying lazily on the porch, soaking up the sun, just like the wildflowers near the porch and the evergreens standing like tall sentinels along his property.
I parked and lifted the back hatch, not waiting for Davis to come out. I gripped the box of goodies my mother had prepared for him, ducked my head, and started across the gravel drive. The sound of the screen door creaking open had my eyes swinging up.
I froze, mid-step.
Davis walked out, shirtless, dripping wet, wearing a pair of low hanging basketball shorts. His feet were covered by a pair of white running shoes, and the way he ran his fingers through his dark hair was making my brain short circuit.
Nothing marred his skin. Not a single tattoo or scar, from what I could tell. Just bronzed, golden skin, likely from working out in the sun. It was enough to make a reformed Davis addict fall off the wagon and pull out a notebook detailing every minuscule thing about him.
“Rae, hey…” he said, sounding breathless.
“Uh…hey.” I swallowed, and tried to regain focus. “Did you just get done with a workout or something?”
He smiled, his navy eyes working their way down my frame. It made my skin prickle with goosebumps.
“Yeah, just got off the treadmill.”
I nodded, too transfixed by the delicious V on his lower abdomen. There was no happy trail of hair leading into his shorts; it was all just bare, muscled, tan skin.
He was the grumpy, recluse Mountain Ken doll.
“You’re staring awfully hard,” he mused, with a smirk. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed past him. “You’re just awfully pretty for a mountain man. You should have a beard and be wearing flannel. And my mother sent me.”
He followed on my trail. “I thought you liked pretty guys.”
I dropped the box on his porch and stood, turning toward him. “Who said I liked pretty guys?”
He shrugged, toying with the tips of his mussed hair.
I smiled, intrigued that he seemed to know about my dating preferences.
“Tell me.”
Firming his lips into a thin line, he dipped down to see what I had brought with me, then muttered, “I saw you out the other night with someone who looked the type. So, your mom sent a care package, huh?”
The air nearly burst from my lungs as I tried to catch up to what he’d said. “Wait a second. You—”
He grabbed the box from the porch with an audible sigh.
I was on his heels. “Did you follow me?”
His scoff made my heart jolt. “Nope. Just saw you sitting outside. I passed by on my way to a friend.”
A friend? Did he mean a female friend, maybe the one he’d been asking about in the diner?
He shouldered through the screen door. “So, you want to explain this random visit? Thought you were done with me.”
“My parents noticed you haven’t been placing any orders…” My eyes were unfocused, my thoughts spinning—settling in on the conclusion that he’d gone and seen a girl the other night.
Davis tilted his head in my direction, with a small smirk playing across his deliciously evil mouth. “Did they now?”
Asshole.
His teasing tone brought me out of the tailspin, reminding me why I had stopped the orders when I had.
“Yeah, I guess they’re used to catering to you so much, they notice when you up and disappear.”
He let out a small laugh as he set down the box on the kitchen counter. Memories of when I was last in his house popped into my head, a tiny reminder that I was completely alone with him. In his house.
I awkwardly hung in the doorway, loving how the sun filtered in through the tall windows along his living room wall. The backyard was lush, green grass and a patio set to die for.
“You going to stand there all day?” Davis suddenly asked, walking toward me.
Remembering myself, I blinked and shook my head. “I should get back.”
I hadn’t exactly talked with him in the way my mother likely hoped, but my actions spoke loud enough, right? It was clear what my showing up had said—start ordering again, I won’t do anything to mess with it. I could leave now and feel as though I fulfilled my duty.
“You have more deliveries?”
Taking a step back as he crowded me, I tried to find my voice. “No, but I—”
“Then come have lunch with me.”
“Uh…” I watched his eyes nearly sparkle as he grabbed my hand and tugged me toward a door that would lead to the beautiful patio.
I pulled, putting up resistance, trying to stop our trajectory, even though all I wanted to do was see the full scope of his backyard. “I should get back. Rain check? Thank you.”
Turning on his heel, he gave me a devious smile. “Speaking of check, don’t you need to talk to me about more deliveries?”
Fuck.
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you finally connecting the dots that I don’t order so they’ll cater to me?”
He glued me in place with a glare as he let his statement drop between us. He knew I wouldn’t respond because I was too proud to admit that I had connected those dots and had realized that I was being unfair to him regarding his relationship with my parents.
In silence, I followed him outside to the back, at which point my breath stalled in my lungs.