Chapter 7
SAM
I walked up to her on the other side of the kitchen island. When she downed the last glass, she sighed loudly.
"That's good. I feel like I'm reborn. I was running around like crazy today."
"You could've told me. I would've sent one of the Maxwell bozos to help you.”
She laughed. "Oh no, that's fine. Trust me. It was just crazy busy. But good busy, you know?"
I wanted to ask her what bad busy was, but I refrained.
“So, what do your brothers do? I know Tyler plays hockey, but what about the rest?”
“Each of us went on a different path. Tate owns a wine business, Declan is a lawyer, Luke has an architecture company, and Travis sold his software company a couple years ago and has now opened a hotel. It’s in the same building as The Happy Place.”
“Your grandmother kept the bookstore?”
“Yes. She still goes there a few times a week.”
The Happy Place was the first store Gran and Grandfather ever opened, and she’d wanted to keep it.
“Beatrice always was a spitfire.”
“Travis opened his hotel above it, so he’s keeping an eye on Gran too.”
“Oh, that’s right. I read that in the news." She frowned. "Did I upset him earlier by mentioning the press?”
“No. We’re all holding a grudge since they called Bonnie, his wife, a gold digger.”
Avery gasped.
“And a few years ago, they targeted Reese," I continued. "She had to cancel her wedding at the last minute, and the press was all over it.”
“That sounds terrible. Poor Reese. As if canceling your wedding isn’t bad enough.” Glancing around, she added, “Should we set some house rules?"
I detected a tinge of nervousness in her voice.
"Rules?" I asked blankly.
"Yes. You know, boundaries or guidelines.” She moved her shoulders playfully, and it reminded me of her dance moves at prom.
"How do you usually do things with your roommates?" she asked.
“I bunked up with doctors mostly. We barely saw one another, and no one had a private life. There was no need for guidelines. How about you?”
"All right, so…"
Am I making her nervous? I rounded the kitchen counter, coming closer to her.
"Avery?"
"Yes?" she asked, jumping a bit.
"You don't have to be nervous. It's me."
She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "How do you know I’m nervous?"
"Instinct," I replied. " You still have the same cues you had back when we were together."
"Aha!" She pointed at me. "So… some things should be off-limits."
"What?" I asked, confused.
"We shouldn't talk about the fact that we dated in high school."
"Why not?"
"I just think it's easier, you know?"
I didn't, but if it made her comfortable, I was willing to go with it.
"Okay. Next topic. I printed my schedule for the week." I pointed to the fridge. "Do you mind if I keep it here? I like to have it at a glance."
Her eyes widened as she looked at it. "You’re gone a lot."
That made me laugh. "I told you that you wouldn't see much of me."
"Right, but… a lot, a lot. Do you ever sleep?"
"Yeah," I said.
"It doesn't look like it."
"The shifts can change, but I still like to print it out and have it here. It's better than always looking at the calendar on my phone."
"I see you always start at the crack of dawn. That means I'll have no competition for the bathroom in the morning." She smiled nervously. "We do need guidelines for that, right? So we don't accidentally…"
"Walk in on the other one naked?" I finished for her.
She gasped. "Sam, do you enjoy putting me on the spot?"
"I fucking do," I replied on instinct.
I tilted a bit closer. She bit her lip. Fuck me. Travis was 100 percent right about the sexual tension.
She narrowed her eyes. "All right. We also need a code of conduct for when the other person has a guest."
"What do you mean, a code? We just have to be civil."
"No, I mean a sexy guest. Should we use the college code of a sock on the door or something?"
I felt like she'd smacked me right in the face. For the first time, the implication of living with her fully hit me. What if she brought a dude home and took him into her room? I’d go insane.
Absolutely not. I wanted to make it a code of conduct that she wasn't allowed to bring a man home ever. Not even once.
Logically, I knew I was being absurd. What did that even say about me?
She smirked. "Oh, you like to give but not get, huh? You forget, I have just as much sass as you. That hasn’t changed from high school."
"Good to know. I always loved that about you."
She pointed at me, but I shook my head. "You brought it up first.”
“I didn't." Closing her eyes, she shrugged. "Fine. I hinted at it. My bad. Won't happen again."
“This is going to be fun," I said.
"Oh yeah?" she murmured.
We'd only officially moved in together a few minutes ago, and we were already verbally sparring. I liked where this was going.
"Okay, so since we settled that, how about I take you out to dinner?" I asked her.
"I’d take you up on it, but I'd have to change, and I have no energy for that. How about we order something in and christen this place?" she asked and then covered her mouth. I started to laugh and couldn’t stop. "I did not mean that as a double entendre."
I put a hand on the kitchen counter, close to her waist. "You didn't? Are you sure? Not even a little bit?"
She groaned, lowering her head. "I’m not sure what's happening to my brain right now."
"I don't know either, but I like it," I admitted. I was close enough again to smell her perfume. For my own sanity, I took a huge step back.
She pulled out her phone, licking her lips. Her fingers trembled slightly as she brought up a food ordering app.
"What are we in the mood for?" she asked.
"Pizza?"
"Yeah, let's do that."
I didn't care. I was more eager about the christening part.
“I have drinks," I said.
She snapped her head up. "You went shopping?"
"Nah. Courtesy of Tate."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot. Maxwell Wines. I love them so much."
"Which one's your favorite?" I asked, heading to the box my brother had deposited on the kitchen counter.
"The chardonnay."
"I've got one of those."
"Perfect. I take it as a good omen," she said as I rose to my feet, putting the bottle on the counter.
"For what?" I asked.
She hesitated before answering. "Starting over." She took two glasses from the cabinet as I opened the bottle. While I poured our wine, she ordered pizza. Then we clinked glasses.
"To new beginnings, then," I said. "What exactly are you trying to put behind you?" I asked after she took her first sip.
She closed her eyes, opening them again after a few beats. "I thought this might come up."
"We don't have to talk about it. I just wondered.”
"Oh, I think we do," she replied. "Otherwise, it kind of feels like there's this big thing, you know? That makes things awkward now and again."
"Like when Travis put you on the spot?"
She shook her head. "I just wasn't expecting it, that was all." She looked at me speculatively.
"I’d love to know what you’ve been up. Want me to go first?" I offered.
"You've read my mind. Why are you back in Chicago?" she asked.
"Initially, I wanted to come back because I was in a long-distance relationship. Thought moving back would be the only way to give it a real try."
She grimaced. "And judging by the fact that you are now living with a roommate, it didn't work out."
"Turns out she still wanted to play the field. I found out the hard way. She was in bed with another guy."
She covered her mouth with her hand. "Sam, that's awful. I'm so sorry."
"It is what it is," I said, shrugging and taking another sip. "So, that's my story."
She played with the stem of her glass.
"Mine’s about betrayal too," she mumbled. "Except it wasn’t a romantic thing. My friend and business partner cheated me out of my own business."
"What?" I asked. "Wait, what is your business?"
"I'm a jewelry designer, even though I have no designs left to my name and no shop."
She rolled her shoulders, holding her chin high.
"You always said you wanted your own jewelry shop."
"Yes, I did."
I remembered that conversation after prom, when she said her mom got sick, so they had to move out of Chicago, relocate somewhere less expensive. She told me dreaming wasn't for people like her, that she had to put her head down and get to work, focus on getting through the day.
"I went to community college while I took care of Mom, and once she was back on her feet, I transferred to a jewlery design program."
“Smart. How is your mom?”
“Great. She’s retired in Florida.”
I nodded. “She always talked about moving back there. And Jamie?”
“Lives in Maine. She’s an accountant. I should've taken her up on her offer of doing my accounting.” She kept playing with the stem of her glass.
"About five years ago, I finally started my jewelry business.
I had an online shop, but it wasn't really working out, so I opened a small location with a moderate amount of inventory.
It was great. For a while. Anyway, I met this woman, Sophia," she continued.
"She was saying all the right things, even giving me ideas for expansion.
She wanted to be my partner, and I didn't give it another thought. I was excited to build something together with her. She’d had successful companies of her own, and it just made sense.
Fast-forward two years, and I found out she was using the company as her own personal ATM. There's nothing left,” she murmured.
"Fuck it. Let's go after her. Let's sue her," I said.
She smiled, but it was sad. "Oh, Sam, you're a doctor."
"Declan is a lawyer. He's a damn good one, and he's making it his priority to protect the family."
"I'm not family. I'm just a fool who didn't even think about hiring a second lawyer to look over the contracts. Sophia was in cahoots with our lawyer. She was very thorough and apparently had it all planned so I couldn’t go after her.
Believe me, I tried. There's a clause saying we can’t sue each other. "
"Avery—" I started, but she shook her head.
"Let's not get into it. I just wanted to put it out in the open so you don't think I'm a fugitive from the law or something."
"I didn't think that," I replied.
She smiled playfully. "Are you implying that you don't think I can be up to no good?"
"Oh, I know you can be."
She closed her eyes. "Okay. Before…my brain had a slip, but now I'm blaming the wine."
"I wonder what you're going to blame next time," I said with a wiggle of my eyebrows.
"There will be no next time. Anyway, now it's me and an online store, and I’m very excited about it. I was going to create a website myself, but I think I’ll just end up using Etsy. It’s easier to draw traffic there.”
I furrowed my brow. "I don't understand. What happened to the physical store?"
"There was no cash left in the company for paying the lease, or the inventory, or anything."
Fuck me. I was going to ask Declan to look into this Sophia person. She couldn’t just get away with it.
Avery shook her head. "Please, let's not talk about it. This evening was off to such a great start."
"Despite all the innuendos and slips?" I added, making her laugh.
Her cheeks went pink. "Yes, despite that." She chuckled. "I think it was foolish to think there would be none of that."
The bell rang, making us both jump.
"The pizza was fast," she said.
I went to the door, opening it and paying the delivery boy.
When I headed back to the kitchen, Avery was taking the plates from a drawer.
I thought her ass looked perfect before on the stairs, but it was nothing compared to now.
She was bending at the waist, her ass up in the air, and I had no idea how I managed to stifle a groan.
She straightened up with two plates, completely red in the face.
Her hair was wild around her head as she turned to look at me, and my mind immediately went to a dirty place.
I imagined her looking exactly like that while she moved up and down on my cock.
Sam, don't be an asshole.
We'd just moved in, and I was already having trouble controlling myself. She'd opened up to me. She was in a vulnerable place, and I wasn't going to take advantage. I was going to be the perfect roommate, an exemplary gentleman… for now.