Chapter 20 Beck
BECK
I came down to the kitchen the next morning hoping to find Avery. I’d barely slept, the memory of our make-out session in the kitchen enough to keep me tossing and turning, dreaming about the sweet heat of her pussy clenched around my fingers, the plushness of her mouth under mine.
I was still annoyed Noah had cock-blocked me from making her come again. I’d been looking forward to burying my face between her thighs, bending her over the kitchen island, making her come again.
At least once more.
Now I wanted more time with her, not just to eat her pussy and fuck her senseless, but just to be with her. I wanted to hear her laugh and teach her how to make Evelyn’s lemon-lavender cookies and talk more with her about her life in the city.
Most of all, I wanted to know why she was so anxious to sell the house and bakery and get back there.
I imagined her with a vibrant social life, men lined up for days to take her out. It made me more than a little crazy, but I was too far gone to even lament the fact that I already wanted her to stay in Blackwell Hollow.
I tried not to think about it, but my pulse raced like a fucking teenager at the thought of seeing her again, which ended up being pointless because when I got to the kitchen she wasn’t there.
Damn.
Sun streamed through the open glass doors, birds chirping from the trees and bushes outside. I started a cup of coffee, then cocked my head when I caught a sound from the terrace.
Talking. Someone was talking.
I followed the voices to the terrace while my coffee brewed, but when I stepped outside, it wasn’t voices plural, but one voice.
Noah’s, to be exact. And he was bent over, his head in some kind of flowering shrub, his voice coaxing.
“I’m listening. Just tell me who it was.”
“Who what was?”
He rose too fast at the sound of my voice and pulled away from the shrub with twigs and a smattering of tiny pink flowers in his short blond hair. “Fuck! You scared the shit out of me.”
“Serves you right after last night.”
He grinned. “I’d say I’m sorry but I’m not. I mean, I’m sorry it wasn’t me, but it was worth it just to see it go down.”
“You made that pretty clear.” Willing to let me third-wheel next time? “Stalker.”
“I was just minding my own business, looking for cookies. Not my fault you decided to get down and dirty on the island.”
My blood heated when he said the word “cookies,” and I had a flash of Avery, sitting on the island, her legs spread around my hips, her tongue darting out to lick a crumb off her full lower lip.
“It was a spontaneous decision.”
“I don’t blame you for making it,” Noah said.
“What was a spontaneous decision?” Dane asked, stepping onto the patio from the kitchen.
“Nothing,” Noah and I said at the same time.
I was actually relieved Noah and I were on the same page.
Dane wasn’t our boss exactly — that title had been Evelyn’s before and was technically Avery’s now — but I had a feeling he wouldn’t love the fact that I’d been on the verge of fucking Avery last night or the fact that Noah had been eager to join.
“Who were you talking to?” I asked Noah.
Honestly I was more than happy to change the subject, which may or may not have been thanks to the echo of Noah’s words the night before. I wasn’t eager to share Avery with anyone, but I’d meant what I’d said the night before: it was her call.
Plus there was Dane, looking at us both through narrowed eyes like he knew we were keeping something from him.
“Penny,” Noah said, like it was obvious.
I sighed. “Which one is Penny?”
He scowled like I was being dim. “The pink peony next to the Boxwood?”
“Right.”
“What is happening right now?” Dane asked.
“I was hoping Penny might know who was on the property yesterday,” Noah said, moving some of the mulch around the base of the flowering bushes.
Dane frowned. “What do you mean who was on the property yesterday?”
“Someone was here,” Noah said. “Someone who wasn’t us or Avery.”
“And you know that how?” I asked.
“Because of the footprints on Gerald.”
Dane looked to the sky, like he was praying to a god he probably didn’t believe in for patience. “And Gerald would be…?”
“The patch of grass I cordoned off.” Noah straightened and peeled off his work gloves. “It was his turn to rest, and there was very clearly a footprint.”
I ignored the part about Gerald needing to rest because it wasn’t unusual.
Noah routinely pronounced that certain areas of the lawn — areas that looked perfectly normal and healthy to Dane and me — needed to “rest.” Once he’d made the announcement, there was no talking him out of it: the patch of grass in question was marked with stakes and twine, preventing any of us from walking on it, no matter how inconvenient.
Last spring it had been the grass next to the driveway. We’d had to jump over the stakes like hurdles for three solid months just to get to our cars.
“Maybe Avery accidentally stepped on it,” Dane suggested.
Noah shook his head. “It was a dress shoe. A man’s dress shoe.”
“You can tell?” Noah was pretty particular about the garden, knew all kinds of shit I didn’t know, but he wasn’t some kind of bush tracker.
“Obviously. I know every inch of the garden, every blade of grass. Someone was here.”
Dane furrowed his brow as he rubbed at his jaw. “I told you we should have installed cameras.”
“Evelyn didn’t want to,” I pointed out.
“Evelyn’s not here anymore.” Dane sounded as sad about it as I felt.
“Talk to Avery about it,” Noah said. “It’s her house.”
“Maybe I should talk to her,” I suggested.
“Why you?”
I had a feeling from the way Dane looked at me that he knew. Or suspected at least.
“Because he’s fucking her,” Noah said.
I glared at him. What was the point of keeping Dane out of our earlier conversation if Noah was going to drop this bomb five minutes later?
“I’m not fucking her,” I said.
“He’s almost fucking her,” Noah said.
Dane’s jaw twitched. “She’s our boss.”
It was technically true, but “boss” wasn’t the word that came to mind when I thought about Avery.
Especially now.
“I know.”
“It’s a bad idea,” Dane said.
I folded my arms over my chest. “It’s none of your business, is what it is.”
We didn’t usually nose around in each other’s shit, which meant there was only one reason Dane had an opinion on this particular issue.
“Just because you want to fuck her doesn’t mean you get to tell us what to do,” Noah said.
Bingo.
Dane’s nostrils flared. “Us?”
Noah shrugged.
Dane looked at the sky again. “Whatever. The point is, Pembroke was murdered on the property and now someone’s been nosing around. We need security.”
“I’ll talk to Avery,” I said.
Now Dane was the one folding his arms. “I’ll talk to Avery.”
We stood facing each other like two bulls trying to decide whether to charge or retreat.
“Fine,” I finally said. I wasn’t afraid of Dane, but there was no reason to make our living situation any more complicated. “But it would be better coming from me.”
“I don’t give a shit who talks to Avery about the cameras,” Noah said. “All that matters is that we protect her from whoever killed Harold. Agreed?”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
We looked at Dane.
“Obviously,” he said, turning his back on us.
“That went well.” Noah’s voice dripped with forced cheer. “Don’t you think that went well?”
I didn’t bother replying. Noah was right: all that mattered was that we protected Avery.
Whether she wanted us to or not.