23. Honey, It’s Time For Bed
Honey, It’s Time For Bed
Missy
‘You’re insane.’ Bree rolls her eyes and points her paintbrush at me. Cara has Jonah while Bree helps me get some last-minute painting done in the salon before the grand opening.
‘Nice, thanks.’ I laugh.
‘Miss, he’s a good man. You’re an amazing woman. Would it be so bad to make it official with him?’
I take a breath. No, it would be amazing. I’ve honestly thought of not much else but sharing a life with Nick since Christmas, almost a week ago. We had amazing sex twice that night, but that didn’t even come close to being the highlight of the evening. No, that was leaning up against his body while we laughed and offered our own commentary to the reality TV show I can’t wait to watch with him again. It was the vulnerability he showed when he talked about his relationship with his dad. It was laughing with him, just talking to him, and listening, and the connection I felt like we made. The sex was mind-blowing, but the spark between us was what left me vibrating for days afterward.
‘I just can’t let someone in, Bree.’
‘He’s not your ex, Miss.’
I chew my lip while she gets back to painting. Nick couldn’t be further from Bax, but that’s the problem. Bax was easy to let go of in the end because I didn’t love him, and Jonah didn’t, which is awful to say, but he never had a real relationship with his dad. Jonah already seems to care more for Nick than he ever did his dad. Both of us could easily fall in love with him, and I can’t protect us from that.
‘I’m not like you, Bree. You want to meet somebody. I’m happy with this arrangement.’
‘So just sex, right, no complications?’ she calls the question out over the music while she paints the wall with her back to me, and I finally start to paint the opposite wall.
‘Yes. He wants the same thing. We’re friends now, and that’s progress from where we were. The sex is a benefit of that friendship.’
‘And it was good?’
‘Breanne, it was fucking life-altering.’
She laughs. The thing about Bree is she’ll tell you if she thinks you’re a fool, but she’ll enthusiastically support your choices anyway .
Bree has to work in the morning, so she left me to it. As Jonah is staying at Cara’s place for the night, I’m burning the midnight oil and getting shit done while I can. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and then, once we’re into January, I need to get this place open and earn some money.
The walls are painted, the furniture has been delivered, and once I get the space decorated, I can give everything its place and get this salon ready to go.
I turn my music up a little and sing as I work, hanging up the artwork I picked out and laying out the three stations. I have another girl coming to work with me, washing hair and helping me around the salon, and then I’m hoping to advertise a station for rent to another stylist until I can afford to actually take someone on myself. So, I have more stations than I need for just me, but I want this to be a success, so I’m planning ahead. I also have a beautiful reception and coffee area at the front of the salon that I’m in love with.
I’m up the ladder putting up a shelf when my new friend scares the shit out of me.
‘Nope,’ Nick says loudly over the music, and I remember the last time he interrupted my late-night DIY session. Nerves unfurl in the pit of my stomach. I don’t want to fight with him anymore .
‘Jesus, Nick . Will you stop scaring me when I’m up a ladder?’
He smiles and reaches out for my phone on the counter, turning down the volume.
‘Why are you up a ladder, at one in the morning, on your own?’
‘Because I have a lot of shit to do.’ I climb down the ladder, and he inspects my handiwork.
‘What if you fell?’
‘I’m not going to fall.’
‘What if you did?’
‘Then I guess I’d die alone.’
‘Missy.’
‘I’m fine, Nick.’
‘You need help. What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing. I’m fine.’
‘Miss, don’t be stubborn.’
‘I’m not being stubborn. I just don’t need help.’
He smirks and walks over to me, and instinctively I back toward the opposite wall as he advances slowly. My body instantly reacts to him, knowing what he can do to it. He reaches out and pulls me toward him, then moves around me into the space behind me and points over my shoulder at the shelf I just hung.
‘That shelf isn’t straight, honey. I don’t know what you’re planning to put on there, but it’s going to slide right off. You can’t do it all on your own, Missy. Let me help.’
‘Shit.’
‘It’s okay to accept help sometimes.’ He taps my ass and steps out from behind me, then, with one foot on the ladder, points to my cell phone. ‘Put the music back on, and let’s get this place fixed up.’
Nick
She’s so fucking hot like this, working her ass off in dungarees and an old t-shirt, her hair bundled up on her head. She’s determined to make this something special, and I believe it’s going to be.
We fixed the shelf she hung and got the rest up. We attached the mirrors to the walls, and now I’m watching as she puts the reception desk together. I’m banned from helping, so I’m happily watching because she’s incredible .
She doesn’t want a relationship, she was as clear as glass about that, and I worked my ass off to school my features and convince her I was on the same page. But the truth is, I had already started to think we were heading toward more when she hit the brakes, and I had a millisecond to decide — get on the same page and be okay with casual, or let her go — so here I am, watching the woman I agreed to casual with, despite wanting the complete opposite, on her hands and knees putting together furniture at three a.m.
‘Honey,’ I say without meaning to, and she turns to look back at me. Holy shit, I like the way she looks right now. ‘It’s time for bed.’
The flare of her eyes and the way she catches her bottom lip between her teeth alerts me to the fact that that came out way more suggestively than I intended, but her reaction tells me that isn’t a bad thing.
‘It is?’ she asks after pushing herself up to standing and walking over to stop in front of me.
‘Yes, it is.’ I grip her chin between my thumb and finger and tip her head back before lowering to press my lips to hers. ‘Your bed or mine?’
She smirks and reaches for the waistband of my jeans, hooking her finger in and tugging me toward her.
‘Mine,’ she says softly before turning and walking away.