Chapter 16
Presley
Monday morning, there was a distinct possibility I’d dressed for West.
I’d picked out my girly, pink-flowered dress that hit high on my thigh and dipped between my breasts in a neckline that teased without showing too much.
I wore white sneakers with it and layered my cropped light-blue denim jacket over it.
Then I’d actually put some effort into my hair, giving it beachy waves instead of throwing it up on my head like I did so often.
I’d applied mascara and liner, then added pink lip gloss.
Sadly only Paul and Nathan had showed up to get today’s work started. They said West had a meeting with their boss and would be here soon.
I was meeting Magnolia at my shop for a long work session. We planned to talk logos, websites, marketing plans, and more.
The guys were in the bonus room installing flooring. I let them know I was leaving, then picked up my work bag and headed out the door into the garage.
At the same moment, West was walking into the garage.
The second I laid eyes on him, a thrill and a dose of hormones shot through my body.
I closed the door to the house and stood there on the single step, watching him as he approached, admiring the clean, prework version of him.
When his lips curved into a smile, his eyes sparkling with the knowledge of what I looked like naked, I tried to downplay how much I wanted to throw my arms around him.
“Morning,” he said in a low, private voice.
“Morning.” My smile widened. I couldn’t seem to tone it down or play it cool. “I almost missed you.”
He checked behind him, as if making sure his coworkers weren’t around, then said, “Glad you didn’t. You leaving?”
“I’m meeting Magnolia at the shop today.”
He frowned. “I’ll probably get more work done that way.” He moved closer, so he was facing me. Since I was still on the step, we were nearly at eye level.
“That’s important,” I said stupidly as my gaze dipped down to his lips, then popped back up to his alluring green eyes.
“You gonna be gone all day?” he asked.
“Probably most of it. So you’ll be able to get a lot done, I guess.”
“Pity.” The word came out as a sexy growl that curled through me.
Without giving myself a chance to think it through, I pulled his head to mine and kissed him fervently, dipping my tongue in to his mouth, seeking out his tongue, my body lighting up at his familiar taste.
Knowing it would be a problem if anyone saw us, I ended it quickly, a little breathless as I met his heated gaze.
“So much for being able to get a lot done,” he rumbled in a lust-filled voice. “You’re not supposed to do that.”
“Oops.” Trying to collect myself and act unbothered, I smiled, wiped a spot of pink gloss from his mouth, then said, “Bye, West.” I secured my bag on my shoulder and stepped around him to get in my SUV.
As I backed out, I saw him pause and rub his hands over his face before going inside, telling me he was affected by that kiss.
Good.
Because my blood was rushing through my body, pulsing into the center of me in a sharp ache of need.
To distract myself, I stopped at Sugar for donuts to share with Magnolia, then headed to my shop.
When I didn’t see her waiting, I went down the walkway on the side to peek into her space, knowing she’d found somebody to build it out for her. Sure enough, she and a guy who looked to be around twenty were inside. I caught her eye and gestured that I’d be waiting in my shop.
I went to the side door of The Bean Counter and let myself in.
I stopped just inside, taking in the feel of the place now that the walls were up.
We didn’t have the counter installed yet, but the front room for the public would be big enough for the lounging corner with the couch and armchair on one side and a counter with stools facing the window plus six tables on the other.
I couldn’t wait to see how the white brickwork we planned would look on the wall behind the counter and the self-serve area.
Leaving the door unlocked for Magnolia, I strolled to the back and entered my empty office.
It would fit a desk and a small sofa. The window brought in lots of daylight, especially in the morning.
I hadn’t purchased the furniture for the office yet, but I loved the feel of it now that it was enclosed.
I went past the restrooms—empty square rooms with plumbing stems for now—and into the kitchen where the patio table was, along with the ladder and the pizza box and our trash from last night.
I pressed my lips together in amusement, thinking how we’d basically dropped everything and hauled ass out of here.
Justified, I thought, breaking into a grin. Last night was worth every second of haste.
“Hello?” Magnolia called out as she entered.
I poked my head out of the kitchen. “Hey, Magnolia. The table’s in here now. We can move it out by the windows if you want.”
“We’ll probably get more done in here where there’re no distractions, don’t you think?” she asked as she peered into the kitchen. “It’s looking good so far. That’s the storage room?” She pointed at the doorway in the back of the kitchen.
“Right. It feels completely different now that we have walls, doesn’t it?”
“It feels like it’s getting real,” she said, her voice sparkling with excitement I knew was just as much about her business as mine.
“For both of us. I saw your guy showed up.”
She nodded. “Finding Jonas was a stroke of luck. I met him at the Lily Pad when he was shopping with his girlfriend. He’s trying to build up his handyman business. He used to build houses with his uncle in Mississippi, so he knows what he’s doing.”
“And you didn’t have to wait months to get started.”
“Exactly.”
After small talk about the weekend and Harper and Max’s wedding—Magnolia and others thought I’d left when Kemp did, so maybe no one realized my real reason for going home early—we sat down to get busy.
I had several logo designs to narrow down, created by someone I’d found online. As we browsed through the options, Magnolia decided to use the same designer for her logo.
A few hours later, we’d both gotten a lot accomplished, with her contacting Kennedy Clayborne about marketing for both of us and me doing a deep dive into how to run social-media ads.
“I’m treating for lunch,” Magnolia said when we realized it was nearly one and we hadn’t taken a break. “What sounds good? Humble’s? The diner? Bar food from the Fly?”
“The diner’s club sandwich sounds good, but you don’t have to treat.” I knew money was tight for her.
“No arguing,” she said. “You’ve been helping me all morning. I have no business experience and no clue.”
“You have a kick-ass business plan.”
“Thanks to Seth Henry. A year ago, I didn’t have the money to treat someone who was so nice to me, but now I can, and I want to treat you.”
It was just a sandwich, and it seemed to mean a lot to Magnolia, so I agreed.
She went to pick up our order while I finished watching another marketing how-to video for coffee-shop owners.
We took our food to the bench in the green area out the side door. There was enough shade from the tall trees that it was warm but not too hot.
“We’ve gotten a lot done, haven’t we?” she asked as we dug into our lunch.
“I’ve checked several items off my list.”
“Same. Thanks for helping me create my list. It’s sort of terrifying to start a business.”
“What made you decide to do it then?”
She pulled her long, thin legs up and crossed them under her. “That’s a long story.”
“I love stories.”
She glanced around as she chewed a bite. “Everyone who’s lived here for a while knows my story anyway, but it’s not one I’m proud of.”
I knew just enough of it to be curious.
“My dad controlled me for most of my life with money. Long story short, he cut me off and disowned me when I broke my engagement to the creep he wanted me to marry for business reasons. His business reasons.”
I frowned. I knew Chloe had found Magnolia the night she’d dumped the creep and that whatever had happened between Chloe and Magnolia had made Chloe more sympathetic toward her childhood enemy.
“Your dad wanted you to get married for his business goals?” I asked, unable to understand how someone could think that was okay.
“Yep,” she said. “Business is the only thing that matters to him, and as he constantly threw in my face, his all-important business bought me everything I could ever want.” Her tone was steady and almost nonchalant, but there was a flash of an expression on her face that told me she was anything but nonchalant.
“It turns out, I’m much happier without all those things and without him in my life. ”
“Nobody needs a blackmailing, bribing asshole trying to run their life,” I said.
“Amen, sister. My dad let me keep my car and the clothes I could fit into a trash bag. Then he locked my bank accounts, changed the locks to his house and the one he’d bought for me, and wrote me off. All in one night.”
“I’m sorry. What a piece of shit.”
“That’s an insult to pieces of shit everywhere,” she said, her lips flirting with a smile. “He was counting on me to fail, to come begging him to take me back in, to say I’d marry the cheating piece of scum he’d chosen for me—”
“An insult to pieces of scum everywhere,” I said.
“That’s true too.” She held out a hand for a high five, and I obliged her. “Anyway, I’m determined to succeed.”
“To prove him wrong.”
“You got it. Fuck him.”
“Fuck him indeed. He can fuck right off along with my dad, who was also controlling and manipulative, as well as a wife-beater.”
“Insecure men are such a pain in the ass,” she said with conviction, and something about it made me laugh. Because it was absolutely true and yet seemed out of character for this pretty girl who I’d never heard swear before.
Magnolia laughed with me. “For real though,” she insisted. “They’re likely trying to compensate for small penises.”
“I’m not arguing in the least.” I was starting to understand her better, and in spite of the mean person she’d apparently been as a child, I was beginning to feel a kinship with her, between our asshole bully fathers and our new business aspirations.
“You’re going to succeed. We are going to succeed.
Which reminds me, I’m going to need someone to plan my grand-opening event. You know anyone?”
She let out a restrained squeal. “Oh, my goodness. I’d love to do it. Tell me what you have in mind.”
The day passed quickly, with both of us getting a lot accomplished, including the beginning ideas for my grand opening.
I was just finishing up ordering furniture for my office when I heard the front door of the shop open.
I stood, alarmed because we hadn’t unlocked that door, and went out to the front room.
My heart raced for a reason other than alarm as soon as I saw West, the dirty postwork version that I liked as much as the clean prework one.
“Hey,” I said, “what are you doing here?”
“Told you I was gonna do the second coat of mud after I finished at your house today.”
“Right. You’re already done for the day?”
“It’s four thirty,” he said. “Let me guess. You forgot to eat lunch?”
I laughed as Magnolia appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. “Thanks to Magnolia, I did have lunch at an appropriate lunch time.”
“Hey, Magnolia,” West said.
“Hi, West. I need to get to the inn for my evening shift. I still need that job while I build up my empire.”
She’d told me she only had four shifts left at the Lily Pad, as she’d finally found the courage to give Dotty her notice.
She’d explained how Dotty had taken her in when she had nothing, given her a job and a place to live, and how bad she felt, but Dotty, being the sweet woman she was, was totally supportive of Magnolia’s ambitions.
Magnolia packed up her things, and I shut down my laptop as West sauntered into the kitchen with his impossible-to-ignore presence.
“I’ll run home and change and come back and help you,” I told him.
“Have a good evening, both of you,” Magnolia said. Then she gave me a one-armed hug. “Thank you for all your help.”
“Thank you for lunch,” I told her. “I’ll see you soon.”
“We’ll talk later this week about your event. Bye, West.”
“Later,” he said as he gathered the tools he’d left out last night when we took off in a hurry.
Once she was gone, he said, “Sorry to leave my tools all over. That’s not my usual MO.”
Unable to keep in my smile, I said, “No need to apologize. I guess we had better things to do than put tools away.”
He peered down at me with a knowing smirk. “I guess we did.” He dropped the smirk and said, “You don’t need to help me tonight. I’ll be halfway done with the mud before you can get back here.”
“Is there anything else we can work on after that?” I was anxious to get my shop finished so I could open, but I was also craving time with West and maybe a repeat of last night.
“Sorry, but I’ve got plans with three little princesses.”
Of course he did. It was Monday. He was doing a quick coat of mud before relieving his babysitter.
“What do those lucky girls have planned for the evening?” I asked, trying to tamp down on my disappointment.
He chuckled. “We’re taking a picnic dinner to the marina, then renting some kayaks.”
“Ugly orange ones?” I asked, acting scandalized.
“Ugly orange ones that float just fine. I better get started.” He turned to his tools and got busy.
What had I even been thinking?
I’d been thinking I wanted round two with West. Like, wanted it a lot.
But we weren’t a thing. We weren’t going to be a thing. We were fun and no strings and a one-nighter.
I’d obsessed about him during the night after he’d left, then woken up to thoughts of him this morning. Throughout the day, I’d caught myself thinking about him, remembering last night, wondering what he was doing at my house at that moment.
Rein it in, girlfriend, I thought. You might have all kinds of ideas and dirty thoughts, but the fact is, he’s a dad of three. His girls come first. As they should.
Somehow in less than twenty-four hours, I’d lost my damn mind and turned us into an ongoing fling when we weren’t one. I’d do well to remember that.
“Have a wonderful evening with your princesses.” I forced nonchalance into my voice. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Night, Presley. See you tomorrow.”