Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Aspen, Colorado
Early Wednesday morning
“How’s it going? Is there anything I can do to help with the designs?” asked Dan from the doorway of Rachel’s bedroom. She had set up a small desk in the corner and was working through some planning regulations for the local area. Her newly arrived printer/scanner sat on the floor.
Kellie had left for work earlier, leaving Rachel home alone with her brother-in-law for the first time since she’d arrived.
This was Dan’s third ‘pop in and check on Rach’ visit of the morning, and it was getting on her nerves. She wasn’t used to people constantly asking about her design work. It was bad enough having to work in someone’s home rather than her old office, but when the person who kept interrupting her was the man who had caused her sister such pain.
Rachel puffed out her cheeks.
Be nice to the ass. Be polite.
“No. I’m fine, thanks, Dan. I’m fixin’ to get some more work done, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather be left in peace.”
He lingered in the doorway for a moment, muttered something about needing to get to work, then disappeared. Rachel was relieved when the sound of his SUV’s engine starting up and the crunch of tires on ice-covered ground signaled his departure.
“Thank heavens, he’s gone.”
She was grateful for the job Dan had helped to arrange for her, but it didn’t fix what had happened between him and her sister. Nothing fixes the past.
She was in a grumpy, restless mood, and Dan was only partly to blame.
“I’m homeless, and relying on the charity of relatives,” she muttered.
This was not how her life was meant to pan out. If things had gone according to her well-laid plans, she would still be running a successful design practice in Atlanta. Still have her own house. And by now be married to Anthony.
The fingers of her right hand brushed over her ring finger. They touched only skin. The diamond solitaire she had accepted from him was long gone. Occasionally she wondered whether he had taken the ring back to the jewelers or if his new wife wore what had once been hers.
Don’t sit and stew over the things you can’t change.
Her mother’s words of advice had Rachel pushing back from the desk and getting to her feet. Constantly mulling was a bad habit she was trying her hardest to break. It was all too easy to sit and ponder what her life might look like now if the nightmare hadn’t happened.
Too easy to start clicking on social media sites and seeing what her former fiancé and old friends were up to back in Georgia. Not that any of her so-called friends had bothered to check in on her. The moment her father’s trial was over, she’d been ghosted by many of the people who’d sworn they would stand by her no matter the cost.
Rachel sucked in a deep breath. “I need to get out of here and go find coffee.” It was Wednesday, and her hopes for a brighter day were all pinned on seeing Matthew. Of sitting across the booth from him, staring at his black rimmed glasses while he filled her in on his exciting trip to New York. And all the while she would be wondering if and when he was going to kiss her again.
She might have her issues with Dan but at least the boots her brother-in-law had donated to her, gave Rachel a sense of freedom. Being able to walk around town on the days when Kellie needed the car was a godsend. Muscle memory soon had her standing out the front of the Manhattan Escapee bakery, banging out the snow from her chains on the metal blade of the boot-scraper which was positioned to one side of the door. She was already picking up the local habits.
Inside the café, Rachel made her way to the booth that she and Matthew had somehow claimed as theirs. They barely knew one another, but she still had a bone-deep need for him to walk through that door. To see him. She went to slide into her usual seat, ready to watch the door, waiting for his arrival, but someone else had already claimed the booth.
A pair of gloves and a notebook sat on the table. Disappointment stirred in her heart at the thought of a stranger taking what in her mind already belonged to her and the hunky accountant. She was still getting over them not being able to find a seat on Sunday morning.
Then again if we had found one, he might not have taken the chance and kissed me.
“Rachel?”
She turned. Matthew was standing in the hallway which led from the bathrooms. He pointed to the table. “I sat down before I realized they hadn’t had time to wipe the table. The last customer had spilled some ketchup and I put my hand in it. Had to go and wash it off. Sticky fingers.”
“Ew! The only thing I can think of that would be worse would be a slick of cold pimento cheese.”
A flutter of foolish emotion raced through her at the sight of him. The three and a bit days since they’d last met seemed like an eternity.
She took in Matthew’s chocolate brown knee-length car coat. It was a change from his usual black puffer jacket. And while it looked a little out of place for a ski town, she had to admit, it suited him. The three rows of double buttons and the quality cut, quietly hinted at this being an expensive coat.
He ambled over to her. When he reached the table, Matthew gifted her with one of his panty-dropping grins. “Howdy stranger, why you’re as pretty as a peach, fancy some company?”
Rachel laughed, enjoying the warmth of his smile. And what it did to her body. His attempt at a southern accent was laughable, but so damn cute. It was always said that a man could laugh a woman into bed, and from the way Matthew made her positively giddy with delight, she sensed it wouldn’t take more than a chuckle or two, for her to get naked with him.
“Why, sir, I hardly know you. An Atlanta lady doesn’t just eat her grits with any old gentleman.”
Matthew snorted. “Old, why I’ll have you know I’m a spring chicken.”
Rachel shook her head. “You don’t sound much like a southern gentleman, and you certainly don’t dress like one. How was your trip to New York?”
“Busy. I was in the office until late on Monday and then all day Tuesday. Caught up with some family members over dinner on Monday night, which was nice. What have you been up to since I last saw you Rach, any mischief? ”
The only mischief I want to get up to is with you, skin to skin.
“No mischief to speak of, just doing bits for my sister,” she replied, taking off her coat and gloves. One of the first lessons she’d learned during her father’s trial was that giving people vague answers was the best way to get them to stop asking questions. If you didn’t fuel the fire, the flames tended to die.
She’d just dropped into her usual seat in the booth when the waitress appeared at Matthew’s side. “It’s a bit quiet this morning, so I might as well take your orders here. The usual for you two?” She nodded at Matthew. “Sorry about the mess before, some people have no table manners. Like how hard, can it be to get the ketchup on the plate?”
Rachel’s finishing school matron would have had a fit if someone had done that during their dining etiquette classes. Then again, she’d expect people to use knives and forks, and cloth napkins even in a coffee shop.
As soon as the waitress had gone to place their order, Matthew unbuttoned his coat and slipped it off, placing it on the seat beside him as he slid into the booth. Rachel caught a glimpse of his Breitling watch as the sleeves of his sky-blue sweater rode up.
That timepiece wasn’t the sort of thing an accountant working in a hotel would be able to afford. Anthony owned a Breitling and he’d always been at pains to let her know just how much it was worth. Matthew’s watch had to have cost somewhere in the vicinity of forty grand.
It might have been a gift, stop judging people by their appearances.
She didn’t know all that much about Matthew. He may well have rich relatives back in New York. Generous rich relatives.
An awkward silence fell between them. It left her wondering what had happened while he was home in New York. Was there someone who held a special place in his life, and the trip had been a quick one to reset things between them? Was she just a friend, and that’s all she’d ever be?
Did he decide that our kiss was a mistake?
Her cell buzzed in her jacket pocket. She pulled it out, then read the name on the screen.
Matthew.
Huh? Rachel hit the receive button, watching with interest as Matthew gave her a wink and lifted his phone to his ear. She followed suit.
“Hi.”
“Oh hi, Rachel, this is Matthew. Remember me from such places as the café, the airport, and the streets of Aspen. I was calling to see if you might be free to join me for dinner tonight.”
She grinned at him. “It’s lovely to hear from you, Matthew, but I’m already on a breakfast date with a hot guy and I think I might be in with a good chance of seeing him later this evening. You know how the saying goes, you snooze, you lose.”
He placed a hand over his heart. “You crush me. But since I’m currently having breakfast with a beautiful girl who’s blessed with a fabulous smile, it’s okay. Call me if your date doesn’t work out.”
Laughing, Rachel hung up, before setting her phone on the table. “Who’s this pretty girl and where are you hiding her?”
He slowly licked his lips and her core clenched. It tightened even further as he brushed his fingers over hers. “I said she was beautiful not just pretty, and she’s sitting across the table from me.”
Oh boy. He was deliciously smooth. Rachel couldn’t remember the last time a man had affected her in such a primal way. Matthew’s smile had her thoughts running to wicked places. When she looked into his gorgeous brown eyes, all she saw was the promise of hot sweaty sex. Rachel didn’t quite know what to do with herself. He had her and if the grin on his face was anything to go by, he damn well knew it.
If the server didn’t appear with their food and soon, there was every chance she was going to crawl across the table and start to feast on Matthew.
His fingers continued to brush over her skin, sending sparks of lust racing up and down her spine. “So what do you think about dinner this evening, beautiful Rachel? I know a very nice restaurant here in town. I can pick you up from your place. How does seven o’clock sound?”
How does it sound? It sounds like my luck is finally changing. And about time.
Their food arrived, and while the server set down their plates and coffees, Rachel and Matthew sat stealing awkward glances at one another.
Dinner. He was asking her out to dinner. All her worries about him having second thoughts of their connection fled her mind. He said I was beautiful.
Rachel let out the breath she’d been holding. “How nice a restaurant are we talking? I mean, is it a wear your best cowboy boots nice, or is it a dress and good shoes nice?”
Matthew’s brows lifted. “Well, ma’am, somethin’ tells me that you’re the sort of woman who not only owns more than one dress but also knows how to rock a pair of killer heels.”
His southern accent wasn’t improving, but his pick-up lines were.
I’ll rock more than a pair of heels if you give me half a chance.
The waitress caught Rachel’s eye and gave her a look that all but screamed, ‘I’ll buy you a dress and heels if it means you’ll go out with him, come on the sisterhood is waiting.’
“So this would be a proper date? I mean I just need to understand the parameters of things.”
Parameters, seriously? Next, you’ll be wanting to talk post-industrial design.
“Yes, Rachel. It would be a date. With all that those things usually encompass.”
Oh snap. Mister Highfalutin Fancywords.
“I can be ready just before seven. I’ll text you the address. I’m looking forward to our first official date, Matthew Jones.”
“Yes!” squealed the waitress as she dashed back into the kitchen.
A sneaky tear found its way to Rachel’s eye. She blinked it away and lifted up her coffee cup. It humbled her to know that someone else was so invested in her love life.
Matthew turned from watching the waitress. “Well okay then. But if you break my heart, I’m calling dibs on this bakery in the bust-up.”