Chapter 16 Noah
NOAH
Avery’s shirt was a mess. She was beautiful.
I held the door to the Common Ground open and followed her out of the shop and onto the sidewalk.
I looked down at her. “Walk to the lake?”
Running into her at the Common Ground had been a happy accident, and I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity.
I’d been fighting off jealousy ever since Beck took her to the bakery the day before, and since I was elbow-deep in mulch and soil most days, I wasn’t going to blow my chance at some one-on-one time.
“Sure.” She peered up at me in the sunlight as we started walking toward the lake, shimmering at the end of the road.
She’d pulled her long brown hair into a ponytail that made her look extra adorable, and I tried not to stare at her thighs, full and bare, under her shorts. “I feel like I got caught cheating.”
“Cheating?” I wasn’t following, although that might have been on account of Avery’s face, which made me want to stare until I figured out why she was so appealing, or maybe her tits, which spilled into the neckline of her coffee-stained shirt just enough to make my dick hard.
Or both. Probably.
I was suddenly thankful for the constraint of my jeans even though it was more than a little uncomfortable to sport a hard-on in denim.
She held up her iced coffee. “On the bakery.”
I laughed. “Yeah, what’s up with that?”
Beck served coffee at the Golden Crumb. The drink menu didn’t include all the fancy stuff Rosie sold at the Common Ground, but Avery was drinking an iced coffee straight up.
Not exactly gourmet.
She avoided my gaze as we passed the inn and started across Foxglove Lane. “Thought I’d get the lay of the land.”
I sensed there was more to the story. Had Beck made an unwanted move? The thought pissed me off, but it didn’t ring true. Unwanted moves weren’t Beck’s style.
Or mine.
Which was why I was treading carefully, walking the line between my professional relationship with Avery and my desire to kiss her until she was gasping for air.
And let’s be honest: professional wasn’t at all the word that came to mind when I thought about Avery Hart. Not because she wasn’t capable but because I’d never wanted to fuck my boss before, and now I very much wanted to fuck my boss.
“What’s the verdict?” I asked as we approached the footpath that wound around the lake.
We were past the shops on Main. The park stretched to the left, winding around the lake. Across the overflow parking lot near the boat launches, Walter Finch’s property lay between the shops on State Street and the vacant land where Hearthstone’s proposed gated community would be built.
Avery laughed, a bright ring that reminded me of a bell. “I didn’t get very far. I need coffee first.”
“Understandable.”
“What about you?” she asked. “You were cheating too.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to let you in on my deepest darkest secret.”
“Well, now you have to tell me,” she said.
I sighed. “My favorite coffee isn’t on the menu at the Crumb.”
“Intriguing,” she said. “What’s your favorite coffee?”
I hesitated. “Iced strawberry matcha latte with vanilla sweet-cream foam.”
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide. “You’re kidding.”
I shook my head.
She looked at the regular iced coffee in my hand. “Why didn’t you get what you wanted?”
“There was a lot going on,” I said. “This seemed easier.”
“Wow…” She shook her head. “Not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
She chewed her bottom lip, turning her eyes to the sky like the answer lay in its cloudless blue expanse. “Maybe just a black coffee? No, that would be Dane.”
We’d started down the footpath that wound through the park and around the lake and I stopped at one of the benches that lined the path.
“Dane does like his coffee black.” I gestured to the bench and she sat like we’d taken this walk a million times before.
Like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Knew it,” she said. “Okay, I would have pegged you for an oat milk latte, no sugar.”
“Sounds boring.” I felt an absurd wash of happiness when she laughed again. I’d done that. I’d made her laugh, and I wanted to keep doing it. “I’ll take my iced strawberry matcha latte with vanilla sweet-cream foam, thank you very much.”
“Does Beck know?” she asked, like it was a deep dark secret just between us.
“Yeah but he doesn’t like it.” I held up the coffee Rosie had handed me on our way out of the Ground. “Is this your favorite?”
I didn’t want to tell her it sucked ass.
“I never really had a favorite, but this might be it from now on.” She looked at the cup. “It was supposed to be an iced coffee with cream and sugar, but I think there’s something else in there.”
“Lavender.”
“Yes! It’s so subtle. And delicious. I didn’t ask for it though.”
“Rosie likes to take liberties with customer drink orders. She says she gives them what they don’t know they want.”
“Points for Rosie. She was right. I didn’t know it, but I definitely wanted this.”
“You sure you’re not just desperate for caffeine? That was quite a scene back there.”
The Common Ground seemed a million miles away. The bench was shaded by the trees that towered above us, and the lake lapped at the sandy bank on the other side of the path. Every now and then, someone walked or jogged by, flashing a smile or a wave before continuing on.
It wasn’t as good as being in the garden, but it was damn close, especially with Avery sitting next to me.
She grinned. “Boy was it! I take it Lyle and Rosie aren’t members of a mutual-admiration society?”
“Don’t let them fool you. They live for their rivalry.”
“Have they always been like that?” she asked.
“At least as long as I’ve lived in town working for Evelyn.”
“Where did you live before that?”
“Just outside of town, on my family’s farm.”
“You have a family farm?”
“Did.” I let my gaze travel over the water. “We did have a family farm.”
When she spoke again, her voice was soft. “What happened?”
“My mom got cancer,” I said. “The treatments were expensive and insurance didn’t cover everything.
Things were already tight before that — competing with Big Ag is tough — but it pretty much decimated my dad.
He managed to hold on until my mom died so she could die at home, but the bank took it over two months later. ”
“Noah…” I was surprised to feel her reach for my hand. “I’m so sorry.”
I turned my head to look at her and got lost in her brown eyes. I saw my own sadness reflected in their depths, like she’d absorbed some of it for me.
“Thanks.”
Our gazes were locked, my heart pounding like a motherfucker. Would it be unseemly to kiss Avery after the revelation about my mom? I discarded the thought almost as soon as I thought it. I could almost hear my mom laughing, telling me not to be silly, telling me to live my life.
And right then, I very much wanted to live my life, starting with kissing Avery Hart.
I leaned in.
“I kissed Beck!” she blurted.
I froze an inch away from her face. “You… what?”
I was horny as fuck, desperate to feel her mouth under mine. I wasn’t sure I’d even heard her right.
“I kissed Beck yesterday.” She sounded miserable.
Now it all made sense. Avery had gone to the Common Ground for coffee instead of the bakery to avoid Beck.
That lucky bastard.
“Is this a confession?” I asked. “Want me to give you a couple Hail Marys or whatever the fuck it is that Catholics do to unburden their souls?”
Her brown eyes clouded with confusion. “I just… I just thought you should know since we were about to kiss.”
I grinned. “Thanks for the news flash, sweetheart. Can I kiss you now?”
“You don’t care?”
“Not enough to keep me from kissing you myself, but if you’re a one-man kind of girl…” I trailed off, very much hoping she wasn’t a one-man kind of girl.
Not unless I was going to be the man in question.
“I don’t know what kind of girl I am,” she said. “But I’m willing to keep an open mind.”
I chuckled. “Music to my ears.”
I closed the distance between us. Finally.
Her lips were absurdly soft, and she exhaled gently against my lips, like she’d been holding her breath.
You and me both, sweetheart.
She opened for me readily, her tongue meeting mine in a hungry dance that made my dick hard all over again.
I groaned and leaned closer, felt the rise and fall of her chest, and sank into the heat of her mouth. She tasted like coffee and lavender and I had to force myself not to devour her.
Because that was the crazy thing: I wanted to take it slow. Wanted to make it last. I didn’t know when I’d have her alone again, and I was determined to savor every sweep of her tongue.
I reached out to lay my hand on her velvety cheek, controlling the tilt of her head so I could take the kiss deeper. Slow was A-OK with me, but I wanted deep too, wanted my tongue to be enveloped in the heat of her mouth.
She gasped out a little moan between kisses and my dick got harder, the desire to pull off her clothes becoming more urgent. I dropped my hand to her shoulder instead, then covered her tit with my palm, stroking her pebbled nipple under my thumb.
She was as turned on as I was, and I got harder still when I imagined pulling off her T-shirt, unfastening her bra, closing my mouth over the swell of her tit.
I was seriously considering it — caution be damned — when footsteps sounded on the path in front of us.
Avery pulled away, glancing at a middle-aged guy in high-end athletic wear as he jogged past, his headphones stuffed into his ears. A tourist probably. Or one of the Hearthstone executives who landed in the town from time to time to work on the development.
I returned my attention to Avery. She was the only thing I wanted to look at, like the first bloom in the garden in spring, a miracle no matter how many times I saw it.
She buried her face in her hands and made a sound of frustration that sounded something like “ugh.”
“You okay?”
She took a deep breath and lifted her head. “This is all a lot more confusing than I’d expected.”
“I’m sorry.” I tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear and had to force myself not to keep touching her. “There’s no pressure.”
“What do I tell Beck?”
“That you like his cupcakes? That he should expand the coffee menu at the Crumb?”
She rolled her eyes. “About us. About…” She gestured between us. “… this.”
I grinned. “That I’m a better kisser?”
She gave me a playful shove. “You’re not helping.”
I pulled her close and caught the bright, sweet smell of apples in her hair. “I’m sorry, but you have nothing to worry about. You don’t owe me — or anyone — anything.”
It was hard to get the words out. The truth was, I wanted her all to myself, but I also knew it wasn’t my call. And if sharing Avery was the only way I could have her, I was willing to consider it, which was a first for me.
“I just don’t want anyone to get hurt,” she said, looking up at me.
“Do what’s right for you,” I said. “We’re big boys. We can handle ourselves.”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
“I need to go to the nursery to pick up some supplies for the garden,” I said. “It’s probably not exciting — actually that’s a lie, the nursery is always exciting — but you’re welcome to join me.”
“That sounds really nice, but I have to make some calls. And also, I should probably schedule a time to sit down with Dane and go over all the accounts and stuff.”
I laughed. “Lucky you.”
She flashed me a weak smile. “Yeah.”
I stood and pulled her off the bench, then took the opportunity to hold her close one more time. “You can handle Dane.”
“Are you going to tell me he’s all bark and no bite?”
I grimaced. “Can’t. I’d never lie to you. Dane’s got plenty of bite.”