Chapter 2
onyx
Watching her run away from me fucking killed.
It felt wronger than wrong, but I couldn’t go after her, no matter how much I wanted to.
Candy Kane deserved someone better than me.
Someone who could set the world at her feet.
And sure, I had a great, thriving business and my own home, but the place was still a disaster zone under construction.
Not to mention the age difference between us.
Oh, and the fact she’d heard me say something ridiculously stupid, which in turn made her hate me.
I hated the guarded way she looked at me after that stupid thing this summer.
Four long damn months, I’d let her believe I’d meant it.
I shook my head and with it the thoughts of that disaster and made my way straight to the hardware store.
I knew she’d said not to mention anything to her uncle, but fuck, the old man had to know what he was doing to his niece.
The bell rang over my head as I stepped foot into the place I’d walked into countless times in my life as a lifelong Moonlit Pines resident.
“Onyx!” Russ called out from behind the register. The man was more weathered than I had noticed recently.
“What’s up, Russ? How’s your day been?” I asked, a little calmer than I felt. He’d upset Candy to the point of tears. From everything I knew about her, she didn’t do that. Not ever. Not even when I’d stupidly insulted her. Twice.
“Good. Good,” he mumbled, staring out the window. I could only guess he was staring at his niece as she hurried home to the apartment over the new bookstore that had opened in town. “You see Candy?” he asked, even though we both knew he’d probably watched her break down and cry in my arms.
Shit, I could still feel her warm, curvy body leaning against mine. Just the reminder made my cock stir behind the zipper of my jeans. Not the time for this shit, I reminded myself. I simply grunted with a nod, and he winced.
“Getting old is shit,” he complained. Maybe it was the tone he said it in that made me chuckle.
“No shit,” I muttered back.
“What do you know about getting old? You’re still a kid yourself.” He chuckled good heartedly.
“Uh, Rusty, do I have to remind you I’m thirty-five?” I grumbled.
I was eight years older than his niece. If he knew the shit I wanted to do to her, he’d kick me out or clobber me over the head with one of the snow shovels he had on sale and use it to bury me in a place no one would ever find my remains.
“Son, thirty-five is nothing.” He chuckled.
“You’re just starting out…” he said with wistfulness in his gaze before he shook his head and looked at me.
“What can I do for you? You in here to bitch that she messed up your paint again, or you here to pitch about the Christmas thing because I told Bash I would help with—“
“The Christmas thing?” A brow rose, and this uneasy feeling started to grow in my gut.
“Shit. Let me guess, Bash and Mayor Lindley haven’t talked to you yet?”
“Shit,” I cursed, closing my eyes as I counted to ten. “What did they say?” I asked as I opened my eyes. The old man looked at me with a smidge of sympathy. The man was known for being a hard ass, so I knew it was going to be bad. Or at the very least a huge pain in my ass.
“As you know, there have been budget cuts,” he started off, and I sighed with an eye roll.
“No shit. I heard all about them before Halloween,” I interrupted, but Rusty simply shrugged. “What now?”
“Look, kid, sugarcoating shit isn’t my thing, just don’t kick the messenger. Long story short, they want the brewery to help with a toy drive.”
“Oh.” I nodded. “So, what? Like, build a box to collect toys?” That wasn’t the end of the world. It was totally feasible. “That’s not so—“ I didn’t finish speaking because I saw the old man’s head start to shake.
“It would have been as easy as that, but you know the mayor’s new assistant? The Shephard girl?”
“Okay,” I sounded slowly.
“She suggested we help build a Santa’s workshop.”
“Santa’s workshop?” I repeated slowly.
“A cute spot at the brewery where people could stop by, take pictures when they drop off toys from the week before Thanksgiving all the way through to the fifteenth, and then...” There was something in the old man’s face that had me worrying.
“Then?” There was a then? What more did they want? “Then what, Russ?”
“Well… look, kid, I hate having to be the one to tell you this…”
“What?”
“Well… they need a Santa to have the kids come by and take pictures with him and tell him what they want. Almost like another fundraiser. A twofer, she called it. Two birds, one stone kinda thing.”
“Santa?”
“And they want you to dress as him.”
“Me? Why me?”
“That, I’m not sure about. Something about Bash taking your sister to Disneyland for Christmas, and Austin had something?
Not sure. Just heard that part of the conversation.
” I opened my mouth, but Rusty held up a hand in front of him.
“And please don’t yell. I’m just telling you what I heard yesterday.
” A muscle twitched under my eye. Yesterday.
Fuck, my best friends were a pain in my ass.
“This is crap.”
“And I hate to tell you I can donate the goods, but I won’t have time to help you build it.”
“What?” That made my eyes widen.
“Well, I’m seeing someone, and my nights are… busy.”
“You’re seeing someone?” I leaned against the counter, curiosity getting the better of me. I had four sisters and knew good tea when I heard it. Sue me. “Anyone I know?” I asked.
“Probably.” His pepper-and-salt brows bunched, “You remember Pearl Lynch?”
“You mean Mrs. Lynch, the third-grade teacher at the elementary school?” Holy shit. Rusty was seeing someone.
“Yes. Her,” he muttered, looking around the store as if someone had unexpectedly snuck in to overhear us talking.
“Why haven’t you let Candy take over this place?” I asked plainly. The words slipped past my lips before I could find a better way to ask him.
“What?” Rusty crossed his arms over his chest.
“You heard me.”
“Look, kid, I don’t know if this is your business.”
“She was upset, Russ,” I said quietly. Guilt shined in his stare. “She never gets upset. She might wreak havoc, but she doesn’t cry,” I unnecessarily reminded him.
“Candy’s great, but… she’s not ready.”
“That’s bullshit, and we both know it.”
“Really?” His eyes widened, and he chuckled. “She’s been adding glitter to your paint,” he said. I wasn’t sure why it surprised me he knew about that.
“That’s because she’s mad at me,” I shared.
“What you do to my niece?”
“Nothing,” I grumbled and ran my hand through my hair. “That really why you won’t hand over the place and finally retire? You genuinely think she’s not ready?”
“She’s pissed,” he stated the obvious, but I didn’t do anything other than look at him. “Not completely. Not at all,” he admitted. “I know she’s capable even if she’s messing with your paint, but I know it’s because your place is…”
“Is what?” I asked when he didn’t say another word. He scratched his neck while looking guilty as hell for talking a little too much.
“Special to her, son.”
“What?” I blinked.
“She grew up there. Before her parents split up, she used to live there.” I blinked.
“She did?”
“Yeah. They split, and her dad hardly ever came back. The piece of shit,” he shared even more.
“Holy shit.” I’d purchased her childhood home. Now it made sense why she knew what would work where better than I did without ever having been there with me.
Because she’d lived there.
“Just don’t tell her I told you that. She doesn’t like to talk about her old man. He was alright when he lived here, but the moment he met someone else and left, he turned into a deadbeat dad. A real freaking piece of work.”
“I won’t say anything,” I promised.
“Look, I know she’s capable. But I didn’t see myself retiring on my own. I had a plan. Pearl was supposed to retire at the end of the school year but then changed her mind last minute.”
“Oh…” I wasn’t sure what to say. “Wait, does Candy know? That that’s why you haven’t—“
“Hell no, kid! She doesn’t even know I’m seeing Pearl. No one does. She’s a very private lady. This is a small town. I don’t want her caught up in the gossip mill.”
“Look, Rusty, I know you didn’t ask for my opinion or advice, but…”
“But you’re going to give it to me anyhow?” He smirked. “Fine. Lay it on me, kid.”
“I think you need to talk to Pearl. Tell her where you stand. What your plans are.” Rusty looked at me like I’d suddenly grown an extra head.
“You know… your intentions. What you want. And you need to talk to Candy, too. The sooner the better. Make her understand the situation so she stops taking it personal because right now, she’s been running herself ragged for a year working here and trying to prove herself to you, then working evenings at the coffee shop. ”
“I know,” he muttered then sighed. “You’re not going to go running off to tell her about this, are you?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you look at my niece like you want to be her very own Prince Charming,” he laid out. I tried to argue, but nothing came out. Not a grunt or a fucking peep. “Yeah.” He chuckled. “Look, I don’t know what’s held you back from asking her out but—“
“I can’t. She deserves better—“ I didn’t say another word because Rusty started to laugh. Loud and hearty, so boisterous he had to wipe tears from the edges of his eyes.
“See, what I tell you? You’re nothing but a kid.” He grinned with cocky arrogance.
“I’m a grown man, Rusty,” I mumbled.
“If that were true, son, you would know life’s too fucking short to wait around.”
“Rusty—“
“Look, I’m saying this as her uncle and the only father figure she’s had since she was about seven. You probably aren’t good enough.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, but the asshole simply smiled warmly while his eyes that looked so much like Candy’s shined brightly.
“But then again, no one would be, Onyx,” he added, and I frowned. “No man would be good enough other than the one who wants to be.” As confusing as that sounded, it made sense. “The question is, do you want to be?”
Yes. The word was on the tip of my tongue, but the bell rang over the door, and a couple of guys walked in before I could answer.
Shit. I wanted to be that man for her. I’d known that, but had I actually let myself believe it?
How could I go back to how things were before knowing what she felt like in my arms as she trusted me enough to cry around me?
“I’ll see you later, Russ,” I said, my voice deep and grave.
I wanted to be that man for her. She was mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. The idea of someone else swooping in and taking what was mine terrified me and made me feel a little unhinged. Fuck. Russ was right. Life was too damn short. What the hell was I thinking even wasting a minute, much less four months?
“Wait, what did you need today?” The question was heavy and loaded.
What had I come for? What had I needed? Candy. My girl. To see her. Talk to her. Be around her. It felt like a palette of bricks dropped on my head at the realization. If I was honest, it was the only reason I kept working on the house the way I had been.
Candy. She was the reason for everything.
When I didn’t answer, Rusty got a look in his eye that told me he knew. He nodded and went on to talk to his other customers, and I hurried the hell out of there. When I stepped out of the hardware store, the cooler air helped me breathe, but I felt a tight knot in my throat.
Candy had been upset and left. Ran away from me. And I had stupidly let her.
Shit.
My phone buzzed and then rang, but I let it go to voicemail.
It was Austin and Bash. I knew what they were calling for.
The pains in my ass. Just as I approached the little drink cart by the park, I stopped.
Taking my cell and not bothering to look which one of my business partners it was, I answered.
“I heard,” I muttered. “You guys owe me. Big.”
“Fuck,” Bash’s voice said. “Who told you?”
“Does it matter?” I countered and heard Austin laugh in the background.
“Look, we will all pitch in and help.”
“But I’m the sad sack stuck playing Santa? Since when are you and Rave going to Disneyland?”
“Since I found out she’s been dying to go, and I want to make her happy and maybe tell her I love her in front of the fucking castle. That okay with you?” I blinked. I was happy one of my sisters was dating one of my best friends. But Jesus, couldn’t he have picked a better time than this?
“That’s fine with me. As long as she’s happy, I’m happy,” I muttered and heard him chuckle.
“Oh, I’m making sure of that.” I frowned. I didn’t need to know the details of how he was getting the job done. “Look, it won’t be that hard,” he said, and I was thankful for the change of subject. “I even have a volunteer list ready. We had some people reach out online when they heard about it.”
“You did?” This shouldn’t have surprised me. It was Moonlit Pines, after all. Everyone pitched in when they could with however they could. I’d seen it throughout my childhood but had been reminded of it during the whole Halloween maze thing Austin had roped us into.
“Yeah, man, this is important.”
“What’s it for again?” I tried to rack my brain to remember if Rusty had mentioned what the funds were for.
“The kids’ athletics department the city runs,” he shared.
Shit. It was important. I remembered playing in those when I was a kid.
It had made a huge difference in my own life.
My parents didn’t have a lot, but they’d been able to swing baseball gear all throughout my childhood because I’d been obsessed as a kid.
Hell, the brewery sponsored a couple of soccer teams this year.
“Email me all the details, and I’ll look at it when I get into the office,” I muttered.
“Already done. Including the volunteer list.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. There was something in Austin’s tone that made me suspicious. “Why is that important?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because less than five minutes ago, a certain hardware store employee signed up to help out?”
“I’m not in the mood for games, Austin.”
“Candace Kane,” he said, and I swallowed hard.
Staying away from my snowflake wasn’t going to happen. Not anymore.
No, maybe this whole fundraiser thing could work to my advantage, after all?