Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
T wo days. For two days, Serenity had been sitting in a chair in the middle of her shop while Luca brought her boxes of inventory. Her spreadsheet was impressive, if she did say so herself, but the job was beyond tedious.
Or, it would’ve been, if she hadn’t been working with Luca.
If she’d ever doubted that she still had feelings for the big lug, there was no denying just how much her heart leapt every time he came back into the room with another box…and she knew it wasn’t just because she was still struggling with fear.
Yes, he made her feel safe…but he also simply made her feel .
She found herself wishing he would sit by her side, instead of crouching across the box they were working on. She wished his touches when she struggled were because he still loved her and wanted to touch her, rather than because he was comforting her fears.
She wanted to smile, joke, laugh, and talk to him for hours…but she couldn’t let herself do it. That way would only lead to more heartache, and Serenity was nearly positive that she wouldn’t survive this time when he walked away again.
Luca had given her no indication that he felt anything but obligation for her. He’d never said anything about having feelings for her or wanting to rekindle their old relationship. The only clue he’d given about the future was that he’d eventually move on.
And that was something Serenity knew she’d never be able to handle.
“How many t-shirts you got in this place?” Luca muttered, opening another box at her feet.
“What can I say?” Serenity asked. “They’re popular.”
“A body can only wear so many clothes,” he continued.
Serenity couldn’t help but smile at the boyish pouting. “You should see how many mugs I go through,” she told him. “That’ll really get your knickers in a knot.”
Luca snorted. “I don’t think I’ve ever worn knickers.”
She laughed. “I should hope not.”
He looked up at her from under furrowed brows. “Don’t tell me you sell those too. Aren’t they like old pants or something?”
Serenity tried to keep a straight face, but knew she was failing miserably. “Yeah, but they’re also an English slang term for women’s underwear.” Her laughter and smile grew when Luca’s ear turned bright red. “You still blush,” Serenity teased.
Luca cleared his throat and stood up. “Let me grab some more boxes,” he said.
Serenity let her laughter die out naturally, rather than trying to stop it. How such a big, masculine guy could be so shy about feminine things never ceased to amuse her.
It was yet another thing he obviously hadn’t changed about.
When Luca came back, he was carrying a cooler rather than a box, and Serenity frowned. “I thought you were getting more inventory.”
“If I don’t eat, my stomach’s gonna eat itself.” Plopping down on the floor, the hardwood shook for a second. “Is yours in your bag? Or are we sharing?”
The thought of sharing a lunch with Luca was tempting, but Serenity quickly put the thought out of her head. “I’ve got mine right here.” She grabbed her backpack and pulled out her lunch, along with a small baggie of pills. “And more meds. Yay.”
“How long did they want you to take them?” Luca asked around a mouthful of sandwich.
Serenity stared at the pile of small white pills. “Only a few more days.” She sighed. “But they make me dizzy and tired, and I want to be done.”
“You’ve got two choices,” Luca said bluntly. “The headache or the dizziness. Which one can you handle better?” He tilted his head, watching her.
“Do you always have to be so practical?” Serenity snapped. One side of his mouth curled up so deliciously that Serenity had to look away. Otherwise she might give into the temptation to run her finger along the outside of his lips.
She was in so much trouble.
“As I recall, I had to be the practical one.”
Both of them froze, and Luca’s good eye was wide as a dinner plate. Both of them had very purposefully never mentioned their past lives together and with one slip of the tongue, Luca had broken that barrier. And it was clear he hadn’t meant to do it. The shocked and panicked look in his brown eye was easier to read than a neon sign on the freeway.
“I hear Tate and Jett are doing well,” Serenity threw out. “Every time I go past a construction site, I swear it says McCoy Construction on it.”
Luca dropped his gaze to his half eaten sandwich. “Yeah…I think they’ve been doing well. They’re getting jobs around the region, not just Lighthouse Bay.”
Serenity nodded. The tension thrumming through the room was enough to make her skin crawl. They’d almost crossed a line just now that was one neither of them wanted to cross.
Just being friends until the renovation job was done should be their goal. Luca wasn’t staying, and he wasn’t interested in her, even if he was.
“So…you’re living with Shiloh?”
Serenity almost sighed out loud. Her construction comment hadn’t helped much, but here was a topic that would. “Yeah. We figured we’d save in rent and become the sisters we were always meant to be.”
Luca grinned softly and stuffed the rest of the sandwich in his mouth.
“She’s a real estate agent. Did you know that?”
He shook his head.
“Yeah…took over the office across the street.” Serenity pointed toward Main Street. “Only about five doors down.”
Luca’s eyes went to the front windows, and he nodded.
“I’ve heard she’s broken some records over there.” Serenity laughed softly, picking at her PB and J. “Apparently, she’s really good at what she does. She got us our cottage for a steal of a deal.”
“You own it?” Luca jerked back a little.
“Shiloh did,” Serenity explained. “Technically, the place is hers, and I rent from her. But really I’m just paying her mortgage for her.”
“Huh. Smart girl.”
“She’s flipped a couple houses,” Serenity explained. “With the help of a few of your brothers’ subs and her contacts with other workers, she seems to be the go-to person for unsellable real estate.”
Luca chuckled and pulled a second sandwich out of the cooler. “Good for her.” He paused. “And good for you. You always wanted to run your own store.”
Somehow, that little nod to the past didn’t seem to hurt as much as the first one did, and Serenity found herself smiling. Maybe they really could get through this.
“It was harder than I thought it would be,” she said. “Having a business degree didn’t do a lot to help me really learn how to run the day to day stuff, or how to deal with customers when they’re upset or in a bad mood.”
Luca chuckled. “I can just imagine some of the old ladies who come through here. There were always a ton in the summer.”
Serenity couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh yeah. Everyone wants something for nothing. I have people fight on my prices, or try to get a two for one, all the time.”
Luca shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. It’s a store. It’s supposed to make a profit.”
“Yeah, but the only bank account the customers are worried about is their own. They want the souvenir, they just don’t want to spend the money.” Serenity shrugged. “And they assume the store can easily take the hit.”
Luca grunted.
Serenity reached out her foot and nudged his knee before she thought better of it. “I’ll bet if you were standing next to the cash register, no one would argue with me at all.”
Luca couldn’t help but laugh. His size and his new look with the eyepatch definitely got a lot of attention, but it wasn’t until he’d come back to Lighthouse Bay that he’d been told he resembled an assassin.
Military, tough, giant…those he was used to, but working at the facility, he blended in better than most other places because so many of the clients and employees had “extras” on their bodies.
Luca’s just happened to be on his face, which people noticed first.
“So…” Serenity tilted her head, her hand dropping to her lap. “Can I ask about the hair, again?” She took a bite of her apple. “You didn’t answer before, and I can’t believe it’s really gone. The twins still have tons of hair, and I don’t recall your dad going bald.”
Luca rubbed the top of his head. “There’s still plenty of hair,” he said. “But it gets caught on the eyepatch.”
Serenity nodded. “Huh. Understandable. So you just get rid of it all, huh? Easier that way?”
Luca nodded. He could feel the blush crawling back up his neck and ears. One of the bad parts of shaving his head was that there was no way to hide it. He rubbed the back of his heated neck. He needed to get the attention off of him. “So…besides penny pinching customers trying to steal t-shirts, what else is a big seller?”
Serenity looked around the store. “Uh…lots of magnets.”
Luca nodded.
“Candy bars and taffy.”
Luca laughed. “Of course. What’s Oregon without saltwater taffy?”
“Seriously,” Serenity said with a wide smile that made Luca’s chest ache. “Lilyana makes it fresh just down the street, and I let her put bags next to my register on consignment.”
Luca pursed his lips and nodded. “Seems to me that most stores could benefit from something like that. All it takes is a little thing to get the interest moving in the right direction.”
Serenity frowned, and her eyes dropped. “I hadn’t really thought of that. Candy seemed like such a good fit, but I wonder if…hm…”
Luca raised his eyebrows. He remembered that look. It meant an idea was churning. It was nice to see something other than restrained fear on her face. Luca had seen it so many times, a body going through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Serenity had definitely been experiencing it during the last couple of days.
She always struggled when she arrived, but once Luca got her settled, she’d be fine until a loud sound surprised her or she was left alone too long.
He was sure she would get over it soon. Her episodes were already shorter than they’d been in the beginning, but if something of interest could take some of her brain energy, like a collaboration with other store owners, it could only help.
“I’m gonna grab another box,” he said softly, jumping to his feet while she was distracted. Once Luca was through the doorway, he winced and shifted his arm. It hurt like the dickens, but he hadn’t been taking any pain medications because he didn’t want to be sleepy while he was taking care of Serenity. One of them needed to be sharp, and it was going to be him. He’d allow himself to be shot again before he asked her to go through any pain.
As he walked, he studied the floor, finally crouching down and putting his hand on the floor. The top of the wood was finally feeling dry. He’d need to get his moisture meter out of the truck and take a reading later this afternoon.
Ignoring the pull in his arm, Luca grabbed another box. This one was heavier than most, and it likely had glass or metal in it.
“Probably mugs,” he muttered, walking back into the main room.
“Luca,” Serenity breathed, smiling again.
Dang, he was in so much trouble. How in the world was he going to walk away when this was over if every time she saw him she smiled like that?
“This one’s heavy,” he said, setting the box at her feet. “Ten bucks says it's mugs.”
Serenity laughed. “Probably. That or shot glasses.”
Luca looked over at her, eyebrow raised. “Big seller?”
Serenity shrugged. “Among certain crowds.” She leaned over, the light catching on the purple bruise on her cheekbone.
Anger churned in Luca’s gut again. He wanted another chance at that perp. Shaking his head, Luca forced himself to focus. The guy was gone. Serenity was healing. End of story.
“Mugs,” he announced after opening the box. “I don’t think the water should have hurt these too bad.”
“Probably just the packaging,” Serenity agreed. “I might have to just price tag them all individually, but that’s better than losing the lot.”
“You could have a pricing party,” Luca joked.
“Provide the right food, and that would definitely work,” Serenity agreed.
Luca glanced up, then straight back down. The sunlight coming through the window was just in the wrong place right now. It kept hitting her hair, causing it to look like a sunrise, and her eyes were bright as she watched him, the blue hitting straight to his core.
If he didn’t get some distance from her soon, he was going to grab her and become reacquainted with her kiss, which Serenity would definitely not appreciate. She liked his protection. That didn’t mean she wanted his affection.
“Let’s grab another one then,” he said, standing back up. “We’ll save this one for the pricing party.”
“Okay.” Serenity dropped her apple core into her lunch box. She wiped her hands on her jeans. “I’ll come help.”
Luca started to object, then stopped and nodded. It would probably make her feel better to move, and she wasn’t as shaky as she was two days ago. He wanted for her to catch up with him, then walked slowly to the backroom.
“I have an idea.”
Luca looked over, raising his eyebrows.
Serenity’s brows were pulled together as she grabbed a box out of the corner and shuffled it in her arms.
Luca almost lunged over to grab it from her since it looked heavy, but she settled down, and he clenched his fists. “An idea?” he pushed.
Serenity nodded, still not looking at him. “I’m wondering about getting all the shop owners together,” she said softly. “Maybe forming a neighborhood watch? Or even some kind of business swap group, where a watch is part of what we do? Kind of secondary.” Serenity stopped walking and looked at Luca over her shoulder. “Several of the shop owners on this street are women,” she explained. “I don’t want what happened to me to happen to them.”
Luca held his tongue, but his brain answered her immediately. And that’s why I still love you.
“What do you think?” Serenity asked.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Luca said.
Her face lit up, and Luca’s heart skipped a beat. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We’re always stronger in numbers than alone.”
Her smile continued. “Then I think I’ll make up some invitations this evening. It’ll give me something to do when…” She trailed off and cleared her throat, causing Luca to frown.
What didn’t she want to tell him? What would she be doing that she didn’t want him to know?
“I’ll take this to the front,” she said, walking away from him quickly.
Luca watched her, eventually grabbing his own box to follow, but his mind wouldn’t leave the conversation. She was hiding something. He wanted to know what.
Problem was, he didn’t have the right to know what, and that bothered him as much as the mystery did.