Chapter 1
candy kane
“Uncle Rus––“ I started to say, but I knew he wasn’t going to let me finish.
“You’re doing great, kid,” he praised, though I knew what was coming. “But…” The big ole but he had seriously become famous for. Uncle Russ made a face, and the smile on my face tightened as I blinked away tears.
I couldn’t help but feel that I was being jerked around and wasting my time.
Frustration swam in my blood as I tore my gaze away from my uncle and looked around Rusty’s Hardware.
The place had been my very own home away from home.
When Uncle Russ offered to train me to take over because he was ready to retire, I didn’t think twice about putting my day-to-day life in limbo.
I worked at the hardware store during the day, because despite having basically lived there growing up and working there throughout high school, Uncle Russ wanted to make sure I didn’t run the place to the ground. And I’d understood.
At first.
For the last year, I had been more than understanding.
Flexible. But where last year, at the start of the holidays, I was excited about the future, this last year had been wearing me down.
Working mornings at the hardware, for free, and then at the coffee shop every night had started to chip away at me.
“You’re great, honey, and you know I want to hand over the place to you––“
“But?” I cut him off, turning around and meeting his caramel gaze that matched my own.
Enough was enough.
I hadn’t planned on doing this today, to be honest. I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to, but I had to do something.
Say something. I had to force him to be clear about what he wanted to do when it came to the hardware store, like Lola, my best friend and the new head librarian of our local public library, said I should do.
Afterall, there wasn’t anything I didn’t know about the hardware store that he could have left to teach me.
I knew the floor. How to take and restock inventory.
I had been managing the books since my senior year and doing payroll.
There wasn’t one thing I hadn’t been trained in.
Sure, I had left to work at a couple of different places throughout the years, but at the end of the day, he approached me about taking over.
“But…” He swallowed hard. His eyes connected with mine before they went over my shoulder and nothing but silence fell between us. My shoulders fell forward because I knew that look in his eyes.
He wasn’t ready to walk away.
I got that, too.
It was hard to walk away from things. From people.
“Right,” I whispered. He had kept the business running since he’d been a kid himself.
My cousins, his two sons, both grown men now, didn’t want anything to do with the store or Moonlit Pines after their parents divorced, and they moved back east. When he’d brought up this offer, I took it because I loved the store and the rich history of our small mountain town.
“I think I am going to leave early.”
“Awe, come on, Candy! Don’t be like that, girl. I’ll go get us lunch and—“
“I need a nap, Uncle Russ. I have a closing shift at Pine and Grind tonight,” I cut him off, feeling like a complete and utter bitch.
Then, because I knew just how hard it was to give up on people, I turned and looked at him.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” My voice was hardly above a whisper because that was all I could muster.
“Yeah, kid. See you tomorrow.” He nodded, and I turned to walk out. Just as I opened the door and took two steps forward, my eyes pinned on the cement sidewalk because I knew I was about to burst into tears, I bumped into a huge wall of hard muscle.
“Shit!” a deep all-too-familiar voice sounded, and my body stilled. Shit, my day definitely just got worse.
A strong arm wrapped around my body to stop me from slipping, and a big open-palmed hand rested against the small of my back. If I weren’t so upset, I would have been able to log the feeling, soak it all in for when I was home alone, thinking about the dark, almost black eyes that haunted my sleep.
“Onyx,” I mumbled, pulling back, but the tall, dark brewery owner didn’t let me go. Those usually hard-set dark eyes were filled with worry.
“What is it?” he asked. I opened but immediately shut my mouth.
I knew the moment I tried to speak, I would cry, and I didn’t want to cry.
Not ever, but more importantly, in front of the one man in town whom I couldn’t stop thinking about and seemed to hate me.
God, why was he so stupidly hot? She’s kind of a big girl, isn’t she?
His words still played on repeat in my head.
I tried to pull away, but he didn’t let me.
Then my dumb lips wobbled, and he turned slightly blurry as I shook my head.
“Shit,” he cursed, pulling me to the side and away from any prying eyes. For some reason, I let him. The heat from his massive hand was still there as everything started to turn blurry.
Oynx’ long legs didn’t stop until I was suddenly sitting in the passenger seat of his massive white truck.
“Talk me, snowflake, what happened?” He reached over to get me a napkin.
I wasn’t so upset I didn’t take the moment to breathe him in and let the scent of pine and man fill my lungs.
“Talk to me, sweets,” he ordered, dabbing the tears off my face with the gentlest featherlight touch. I sniffled and froze.
“Snowflake? Sweets?” I repeated. He stared at me. “Did you hit your head when I opened the—“
“Cut the crap, Candy. Why are you crying?” There was the charming, bossy brewery owner I’d grown to know and love.
Love. No. I hardly knew the guy.
“Nothing,” I denied. He didn’t want to hear about it. “I just… it’s been a long day.” I shrugged, and the semi-permanent scowl he wore every time he looked at me deepened. Without thinking, maybe from lack of sleep or too many emotions, my hand rose and smoothed out the lines of his brow.
“Better.” I whispered, not missing the way his dark eyes widened. “Anyhow, umm… I’m okay.”
“Talk to me, Candy,” he ordered again, the deep, rough tone a little softer, maybe even a little warmer than I was used to.
I don’t know what it was. Maybe the urgency in his voice or the softness in his eyes he usually never gave me, or the warmth of his body pressed closer to me than I was used to when the counter at the hardware store was between us, but I spilled the beans.
I told him everything.
All about the last year and how frustrated I was with the whole situation.
I couldn’t stop talking. It was like a damn had opened and everything simply spilled out.
And if he was annoyed, he didn’t show it.
No. Onyx Trejo just stood in front of me, his hands on my hips as he listened to me like I was the most interesting person he’d ever met even though I knew just how untrue that was.
Maybe it was a personality trait you automatically developed when you grew up with four sisters?
“It was just a moment. I’ll be fine and back there first thing in the morning,” I mumbled. Somehow, through my yapping, his hand had found mine.
“You bet it’s going to be okay. I’ll talk to Russ and—“
“No!” I laughed, wholeheartedly. “You will not talk to him.” He made a face, “Not about this,” I added.
“But—“
“I hate buts,” I cut in with a grimace. I didn’t want to hear another but for the rest of the day. “Thanks for this, though.” I sniffled and let go of his hand, hating how empty mine felt without his. “It really made my day.” I pulled away, and my eyes dropped to his shirt. “Oh no!” I gasped.
“What?” he asked, back to scowly face again.
“I stained your shirt with my tears and makeup,” I mumbled, pressing my lips together.
“It’s not a big deal.” He shrugged, and when our eyes connected, I was tempted beyond belief to lean in closer. Maybe even dip my head into the crook of his neck and take a good whiff of that yummy cologne he wore.
Get a hold of yourself! You’re not his type! He thinks you are a big girl. Aka FAT! Not only that, but he called you a snowflake! I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it didn’t sound like a good thing.
Onyx blinked, and his lips parted. For a split second, I could have sworn his eyes dropped to my mouth, as if all he could think about was kissing me. But that was stupid and hopelessly romantic of me to think. Hopelessly romantic and stupid.
The man could hardly stand me.
“I should go,” I blurted out before I did something crazy, like press my lips to his.
“Want to go get a hot chocolate? My treat?” he offered. I blinked. The temptation to give in was high.
Hot chocolate was my drink of choice and vice. I could have the sweet, comforting drink any time of the year and never get tired of it.
“No thanks.” I found myself turning him down and instantly hated myself for it.
Working two jobs where one was virtually free labor meant sweet treats like hot cocoa were few and far in between.
“You were heading into the store?” I asked.
My eyes bounced from where we stood to the front of the hardware store.
Guilt crept up my neck at the thought of leaving my uncle alone.
“Yeah, I was.” He nodded but never took his eyes off mine.
“Oh? Did you need more paint?” I asked and hated how warm my face turned in that moment.
“Something like that.” He pulled away and stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his pants.
“Huh.” I nodded, fighting the urge to bite my bottom lip.
I wondered when he’d catch on that I hadn’t stopped mixing in glitter. It was softer than the kind I’d originally used. He was on the fourth gallon and kept coming by for more.
“Still working on that kitchen?” He opened his mouth, but I cut him off before Onyx made a sound. “Or are you ready to listen to me about living room colors?” I asked with a little more attitude than I ever gave anyone.
There was something about Onyx Trejo that brought it out of me.
Maybe it was the fact I knew he’d never see me the way I had him.
I still remember growing up and going to school with his younger sisters and seeing him show up to things.
Onyx Trejo was always larger than life. Even as a teenager, I remembered how he’d walk into a room and dominate it.
Every girl, and even some guys, would turn and swoon at how handsome he was.
He was this older seriously hot guy who had always been really nice. But a couple of months ago, I’d discovered that his charm was nothing but a smoke show.
Something to make people believe he was this really great guy when… I shook my head. No matter the fact that Onyx saw me as too big to date or as his type, it didn’t take away the fact he was a good guy.
He just wasn’t for me.
No matter how much I wanted him or how my heart turned all mushy around him.
“Actually.” He leaned his narrow hip against his truck, settling his huge body next to mine. “I think that would be a good idea.”
“Oh?” Shit! Had he called my bluff? “So, you’re done painting the kitchen?” I cleared my throat. There was something in his gaze as it locked with mine before it dropped to my mouth again and back to my eyes that made me want to press my thighs together for some relief.
“Yeah. Maybe you wanna come over? I have hot chocolate mix there. You can look at the living space and the natural light that comes in and decide something for me.”
“A hunter green,” I blurted, and his eyes widened.
He had no idea he’d bought my childhood home.
He was clueless about the invisible string that pulled us together because he now lived and owned the very place I had loved so much until my parents split up and my dad had run off to Los Angeles and hooked up with some actress.
I saw my dad on tabloid covers more than in real life.
“Hunter green?” he repeated.
“It would be perfect,” I stupidly doubled down.
“And how would you know that?” He stepped forward, moving closer to me until he could reach me. His hand rose, and the tips of his fingers held my chin up. “You spying on me, snowflake?”
“Don’t call me that.” I frowned, shaking my head away from his gentle grip.
“Why? I think it suits you.”
“Why?” I croaked. “Why would you think anyone, much less a woman, would want to be called snowflake.”
“Candy, I didn’t mean it in a bad way, baby. I just—“
“I should go,” I cut him off. Then, because I couldn’t help myself from trying to get that big, beautiful house that kept so many of my best memories just right, I repeated, “Hunter green. But order the Benajmin Moore one. Semi-gloss,” I said, thinking about the life Onyx would breathe into the place.
I could see it so clearly in my head. Him with little dark-haired kids running around and being the best dad one day.
That of course would mean he’d meet someone, and I’d have to watch from afar, but even as emotion clogged my throat, I added, “It will last longer, and the shade is better than the rest of the other brands. Uncle Russ will get it all mixed up for you. He’s at the store. ”
“But will he add your special concoctions into it?”
“The living room shouldn’t have glitter,” I said before I could stop myself. We both froze, and that’s when I saw it.
Onyx Trejo smiled. Brightly. Easily. He knew. Not only that, but a smile directed at you after going over eighteen months without sex, it would mess up anyone, And, man, did it do things to my insides I had no business feeling. I doubted a nun would blame me for getting all warm achy and fuzzy.
“I’ll see you!” I waved and turned around, hurrying the hell out of there, and went straight to my studio apartment, where I took out my battery-operated boyfriend and relaxed before my shift at the coffee shop.
All while thinking about a man I had no business fantasizing over.