I laughed. “Oh, no. That’s this loser.” I pointed to Jayce. He rolled his eyes.
Her eyes sparkled and her mouth curled into a grin. She set the paper on the counter next to her computer and held her shoulders back, giving me the full view of her perky tits. “Good. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as she was out of sight, Jayce leaned forward and sniffed around my collar. “What do you do? Wash your clothes in pheromones? Carry catnip in your pockets? Seriously, it’s ridiculous.”
“You ever think maybe it’s my irresistible charm and undeniable good looks?”
Jayce lifted one eyebrow but stayed quiet.
“Fine. It’s the D. They love the D.” I made a show of adjusting my cock.
He laughed so hard I thought he’d burst a blood vessel. “I want to be there the day you fall in love,” he said once he caught his breath.
I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes at him. “Oh yeah? Why?” This should be interesting.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and challenged me with a stare. “So I can say I told you so.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”
It was sweet how Jayce thought that day would ever come. He’d had his share of hardships just like me, but our lives were nowhere near the same. His heart had always made room for Claire. He’d loved her since the day he learned how to spell the word. My heart was a cold, dark and empty space covered in vines and surrounded by weeds. Even if I opened the doors and let someone in, no woman in her right mind would want to get tangled up in the brush.
The salesclerk came from a back room with a handful of wine-colored fabric. “Can you lift your arms for me, hun?” she asked. Her voice was coated in sugar.
Jayce rolled his eyes and I chuckled. He made fun of me, but I’d been out with him enough to know he got the same reaction from women. He just never acted on it like I did.
I held up both arms, and she wrapped the silky fabric around my waist. Her hands lingered against my back longer than was probably necessary. Normally, I’d take her not-so-subtle hints and get her number, but I already had the only number I needed, and I couldn’t wait to dial it as soon as I got back home.
Jayce studied my reaction to the beautiful blonde. His cheeks puffed up as he sucked in a mouth full of air.
I shrugged. “What?”
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Five seconds later my phone pinged, so I pulled it out of my pocket.
Jayce: You see this? This is me… holding my breath.
I rolled my eyes and put my phone away. Whatever he thought he knew was going on, was definitely not going on. I didn’t fall in love—not even with feisty brunettes with gorgeous red lips.
Ten minutes later, I left with a nice, shiny cummerbund and no new phone numbers. As soon as I closed the passenger door of his SUV, Jayce pinned me against the leather seat with his glare.
“What the fuck was that?” he questioned.
I tossed the bag into the back seat then buckled my seat belt. “What was what?”
“You know what.”
I adjusted the air conditioner vents in front of me, hinting to Jayce to push the button and start the vehicle. It was summer in south Texas. We’d suffocate soon if he kept playing Sherlock Holmes with my love life.
He got the hint and started the engine. I reached for the volume on the radio, but he got to the power button first. “You didn’t even try to flirt with that girl in there. And she practically handed you her panties.”
“She was doing her job.”
“Whatever you say.” He pulled his seat belt strap across his chest and buckled in. The dashboard monitor switched to the rearview camera when he put the SUV in reverse. “There’s a girl. Maybe it’s the Saltgrass waitress. Maybe it’s not. But you’re not fooling me, Bennett Kane. I’ve known you too long.”
He was right. There was a girl, and she was changing the game. More like changing the player…
I wasn’t telling him that, not yet. Partly because I hadn’t even met her in person, but mostly because I wasn’t ready to admit it—to him or to myself.
Jayce and I spent the rest of the afternoon entertaining one of my new prospective clients. By the time he dropped me off at my loft, I was aching to hear Korie’s voice the way an insomniac yearns for sleep. I needed it. I felt incomplete without it.
She answered on the second ring. “Wow. Miss me already?” She sounded like she wanted to laugh. It made me smile. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”
What the fuck? Was there some sort of twenty-four-hour guideline that I didn’t know about? I didn’t know the rules. Not that I’d follow them anyway. I never called after a date, mostly because I’d rarely been interested in a second one.
It had just started to get dark out. The soft glow of the city lights spilled into the living room through the balcony doors. I flipped on the light switch in the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. The ceramic tile cooled my bare feet after a hot shower. A droplet of water fell from my wet hair onto my shirtless chest.
I filled a glass with juice. “I was just checking to see if you’d saved my number, and since you knew who it was when you answered, I’m taking that as a yes.”
A door opened and closed in the background on her end, and I wondered if she was alone. The possibility of her being with someone else pissed me off—which also pissed me off. Why did I care?
“Well, I don’t get many calls from eight-three-two area codes so…” she said, and it reminded me how far away she was.
And that just pissed me off too.
What the fuck was happening?
“I’m still taking it as a yes.”
“Does this whole cocky confidence thing normally work with your dates?”
As a matter of fact, it does.
I took a sip of juice, letting the cool liquid soothe my throat while I walked into the living room. “So you admit there’s a date?”
I had turned into a total cheeseball with this woman. Brock Lewis had invited Jayce and me for drinks after golf. Instead, here I was, on my sofa in a dimly lit living room with a glass of orange juice. The only sound around was the sweet echo of Korie’s voice when she laughed. And it made my dick throb.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” she said through a laugh.
“I just got you on the phone, and you’re already talking about my bedroom habits... and I won’t even touch the cock reference.”
“Goodnight, Bennett.”
“I’m kidding. Don’t hang up…” I waited a second to make sure she hadn’t already ended the call. I heaved a sigh of relief when I heard her breathing. “I’m sorry.”
Old habits die hard. The girls I dated didn’t have standards or care about morals. When they looked at me, they either saw dollar signs or a good time. Korie wasn’t the average girl. She was so much more. She deserved better.
“It’s okay. It’s just… I just don’t usually…”
“You don’t know me. I get it. So, let’s change that. Tell me about your day.”
I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know what she had for breakfast. I wanted to know if she’d spent the afternoon watching Grey’s Anatomy re-runs and eating macadamia nut cookies or if the guy in line behind her flirted with her at the deli while she ordered a turkey club on sourdough. I wanted it all, every last detail of her day. I knew I wasn’t entitled to it, but fuck if that didn’t keep me from wanting it.
“Well, let’s see… I had breakfast with my parents. Then went shopping with my best friend. Then I dropped off some leftover blueberry muffins at the library for their Monday morning book group. And when you called, I was in the middle of taking out the trash.”
That explained the door opening and closing.
I propped my feet up on the coffee table in front of me, stretching my legs out as I leaned back into the sofa cushion. “Shopping for more black dresses?”
She laughed. “You wish.”
Wrong. I didn
’t wish. I didn’t want her anywhere near anymore little black dresses until I was there to stand at her side with my hand at the small of her back making sure that every pair of eyes that landed on her also landed on me.
“Your turn,” she said like it was some kind of routine for us or some shit.
I splayed my arm across the back of the sofa and stared up at the ceiling. What. The. Fuck. It had finally happened. I sat here having a conversation with a girl about my day. Un-freaking-believable.
“I ran a boring errand then spent the afternoon at Top Golf.” My afternoon sounded pale in comparison to hers.
“So, now I can add golfing to your list of many talents.”
Baby, you have no idea what’s on my list of talents.
I leaned forward and grabbed the glass of orange juice. “If you call schmoozing clients a talent, then yes.”
“Work? On a Sunday?” She said the words as though I’d just told her I had a body in my trunk.
I finished off the juice then closed my eyes and pictured Korie on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The strap of a yellow sundress with tiny white flowers hung lazily off one shoulder while she sat on a porch swing. Her bare feet dangled, not quite touching the ground while she sipped sweet iced tea and watched the day go by. That’s the kind of girl she was—the kind of girl who left muffins for study groups… and so much more. She was also the girl who wore bright red lipstick and posed in bathtubs full of books. She was sexy without trying. There was a quiet confidence in her innocence that I just couldn’t stay away from. The more she gave, the more I wanted. I wanted to take that innocence and fuck the shit out of it.
“Bennett?” she asked as though she’d repeated it for the hundredth time.
“I’m here,” I replied, and the daydream faded away.
Fuck. Now my dick was hard.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she said.
You couldn’t lose me if you left me in the forest without a trail of breadcrumbs.
“Sorry. I didn’t hear what you said.”
I was too busy mindfucking your innocence away.
“I was just saying that’s a shame. That sometimes you should press pause. You know, enjoy the view…”
She didn’t know it, but that’s exactly what I’d been doing. Imaginary views were still views, right?
“You ever take your own advice? Stop and press pause?” I asked.
Her answer was quick, like she didn’t’ even have to think about it. “Of course. Every time I read.”
Right. We never would’ve met if she didn’t read.
“One day, I want to have my own bookstore,” she added, and it was hard to miss the excitement in her voice.
I fucking loved that she shared that dream with me. I wanted more. Her hopes, her dreams, her smiles, her laughs… her moans, her breathless cries for more… Jesus.
I palmed my dick, praying it would behave for at least another ten minutes. It throbbed underneath my hand as if replying, No promises, buddy.
“No more coffee shop?” I asked, trying to focus on the actual conversation.
“Oh, no. Books and coffee go together like tacos and Tuesdays.”
Right, because everyone knew that.
She cleared her throat then continued. “I want to combine the two. And after today, I think I might finally be able to.”
Was that a squeal?
I grabbed the glass from the table and walked into the kitchen. “Something special happen today?” I set the glass in the sink and smiled. “Besides talking to me, of course.”
She chuckled. “My parents are selling me the coffee shop.”
“Wow. Smart, beautiful, and successful… I might have my hands full with you.”
“Hopefully you have big hands.”
The better to touch you with, my dear. She had no idea what my hands wanted to do to her. I held my tongue and kept the conversation light.
“Your parents sound like great people,” I said as I walked down the hall to my bedroom.
“They are. What about your parents? You’ve never said anything about them.”
My blood ran cold. “That’s a layer for another time,” I replied as I pulled back the covers on my bed.
If she only knew how deep that layer ran…
I crawled into bed and changed the subject. “So, tell me more about this bookstore.”
Last night, Bennett and I talked until my eyelids were heavy and I’d caught myself saying things I had no business telling a man I hardly knew. We talked about my senior prom and how Craig Whittenburg thought the price of admission into my lady garden was a bottle of Boone’s Farm and a burger from Mabel’s. Bennett told me he never went to senior prom because he’d graduated early.
I got the feeling Bennett Kane lived his life in fast forward. I also got the feeling he lived it that way because he ran from something and was afraid if he slowed down long enough, it just might catch him.
We talked about my love of books and why I’d started Rie’s Reads. He told me why he never ate sushi (apparently there was a two-day battle with food poisoning, and the sushi won) and why he started writing. He’d never meant to be this successful at it. It was—like most things I would imagine—just something Bennett was good at.
When I woke this morning, he’d posted a new picture on his Instagram—a dark, cloudless Houston night. Buildings towered into the air, some higher than others but each one majestic in its own way. The lights from their windows looked like thousands of stars falling from the sky. Underneath, he captioned it with a simple hashtag.
#pause
It made me smile. He heard me. I pulled on my favorite jeans and light gray T-shirt, then went on my back porch and snapped a picture of the sunrise. The sun peeked her head over the mountains in the distance. Oranges and reds blurred together to cast a blanket of warmth over the earth. It was peaceful, different from Bennett’s peace, but peaceful just the same.
As soon as I hit share, a warmth filled my soul.
Korie_Lawson
When what’s ahead scares you and what’s behind hurts you—Look up. #underthesamesky
Even though we were hundreds of miles apart, it felt like we’d shared something. He gave me a glimpse into his world, and I gave him a glimpse of mine. And even though our worlds were so completely different, they still felt connected.
“What’s his name?” Alyssa questioned the moment she walked into the kitchen.
“Holy crap. Does the bell not work anymore?” I clutched my hand to my chest and took a deep breath.
That’s what happens when your coworkers catch you singing Taylor Swift while you slide muffins into the oven. I was so wrapped up in instant replays of last night’s phone call that I didn’t even hear her walk in.
Alyssa laughed. “Oh, it rang somewhere between Romeo taking and Juliet waiting.”
I grabbed another pan and opened the oven door. “You do realize I could fire you, right?”
She tied a black apron around her waist then took a bag of coffee beans from the shelf beside her. “Then what would you do for entertainment?”
“Read. And for your information, there is no him.”
I wasn’t ready to tell anyone about Bennett yet. I’d never really had anything that was just… mine. Every boyfriend I’d ever had was a product of Stella’s own Extreme Makeover: Love Edition. I got the guys she didn’t want and believe me when I say that list wasn’t long. When we went out, she targeted a gorgeous guy across the room, and I ended up stuck with his wingman—nursing a drink I didn’t ask for and listening to stories about college sports and failed relationships.
Until now, I’d always worked for my parents. I lived in a house my parents owned. The only thing I’d ever truly had was my blog. Now I had Bennett, and I wasn’t ready to share him yet.
Alyssa poured the beans into the grinder then popped a blueberry into her mouth. “You’re a horrible liar.”
I turned on the dining room lights and set the overhead music to low. I’d alway
s turned it up after we closed. It made cleaning up go by so much faster.
“Okay fine.”
She pressed brew on the regular coffee pot and her face lit up with a grin. “I knew it.”
“Take a good look.” I twirled around and flipped my hair off my shoulders. “Because you are now looking at the proud new owner of Common Ground.” I could hardly get the words out without squealing.
Alyssa cleared the space between us in .03 seconds flat. She threw her arms around me, squeezing the air from my lungs. “Rie, this is fantastic news. I’m so happy for you!”
“Thank you,” I said once I could breathe again. “I’m really excited.”
The bell over the door rang. I guess it wasn’t broken. Mr. Davis walked in with his morning paper tucked under his arm, followed by Mr. Jensen and Mr. Fredericks. I glanced at the clock above the back counter. Six-o-two on the dot.
The timer went off on the oven letting me know the last batch of muffins was done. I waved my finger back and forth between the table of men and the kitchen. “Eeeny, meeny, miny, mo.”
Alyssa laughed. “I’ll get the guys. You grab the muffins… and a chocolate croissant for Mr. Fredericks.” She winked.
Oh, yes. I’d learned that lesson the hard way. His free muffin days were over. “Deal.”
She looked over her shoulder as she started to walk away. “And don’t think you got away with anything just now. People don’t walk around singing songs like ‘Love Story’ because they bought a coffee shop.”
I threw my head back and groaned. I guess I wasn’t as convincing as I thought.
Today was a typical Monday at Common Ground. Mrs. Stevenson came in after her weekly manicure appointment. She sat at the table closest to the counter so she could fill Alyssa and me in on the weekend gossip she’d gotten from Isabelle Clark. The two of them knew what was happening in Hickory Falls before it even happened, and they made sure to sit next to each other every Monday morning while they got their nails done and compare notes. Alyssa and I always got a front row seat to the recap. Mrs. Stevenson whispered as though she cared if everyone else heard, but we all knew she enjoyed every minute of being the first one to spread a juicy rumor.
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