Love to Hate You: An Enemies to Lovers, Best Friend's Brother Romantic Comedy (The Fillmores Book 2)

by Melissa Schroeder

  She pushes her sunglasses up on top of her head and looks around searching for me. Anticipation thrums in my blood, heating me, and I wait. The moment our gazes connect, my cock twitches. She makes her way over to me, her eyes never moving from mine. It’s oddly arousing, but I’ve realized that with Nancy, anything she does is arousing. Even when she throws things at me and calls me a dumbass, it turns me on.

  Without a word, she slips into the booth. Sheryl, the waitress who has been paying way too much attention to me, comes over.

  “Oh, hey, Nancy.”

  Nancy smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. I hate that. I hate it even more that I am probably the cause of it.

  “Hey, Sheryl,” she says, her voice cool. They did graduate together, so I wonder if something went on between them. It’s hard to keep secrets in Juniper, but the one person who could do it is Nancy. She’s always held certain things close to her chest, like when she looks so sad whenever she talks about her family.

  “Know what you want?”

  “Just got here, but I’ll take some coffee when you get a chance. Lots of cream.”

  “Sure. Travis?”

  I shake my head, my gaze focused on Nancy. I’m not sure why, but something is off. Once we’re alone—or as alone as you can be in public in Juniper—I lean forward.

  “What’s up?”

  She frowns. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s something going on with you.”

  “Other than the fact that you’ve been an asshole to me for about six months?”

  I can’t refute that because I was an asshole. Still, there is something bothering her, and it has nothing to do with me. “Yes. This isn’t that. There’s something else.”

  She looks out the window.

  “Nancy.”

  She sighs and finally turns back to me. “They think someone knifed my tire. I know it is probably random, but it just…it’s creepy.”

  I frown. The tone in her voice is one I’ve never heard before. Before she can say anything, Sheryl is back with Nancy’s coffee.

  “Thanks, Sheryl.”

  Again, nice, but her voice is cooler than usual. I’ll have to ask my sister about that.

  “Do you guys know what you want?”

  “No, we don’t. Jesus, Nancy just got here.” My tone is harsh, but I’m bothered by Nancy’s comment and I want to get back to that conversation.

  “Travis,” Nancy admonishes.

  I roll my eyes and look at Sheryl. “I’m sorry. Give us a few minutes please.”

  She nods and walks away.

  Nancy’s eyes are dancing as she looks over at me. “You broke her heart.”

  I snort. “Please. She called me trailer trash when we were high school. She can suck it. Now, tell me what you were talking about.”

  “They think someone targeted my car. Which is insane, right? The only person who hates me would…”

  She looks out the window and I get a sinking feeling she’s talking about me. God, what did I do this year? I made her think I would do something like that.

  I don’t know what to say at first. “I would never do that. Jesus, I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole.”

  Her gaze narrows. “Promise?”

  I nod without breaking eye contact and her expression relaxes, relief trickles through me. At least she believes me.

  “Then who the fuck did it?”

  “Nancy Howard you shouldn’t talk like that,” Georgette Smith says from the booth behind Nancy. You can’t go anywhere in this town without running into an LOL. “I should tell your grandmother.”

  “Please tell her. I hope she’ll disown me completely.”

  I chuckle and we share a smile before hers fades. “But seriously, who? I mean it’s…”

  “Yeah, bad. It could have been just some random asshole, right?” My stomach churns.

  She nods. “Josh says he’s worried about it though. We’re known and he thinks I could have a stalker. I think he’s just blowing it out of proportion.”

  “Why would he instantly think that?”

  She hesitates for a long moment, then says, “Apparently, people come into town looking for us. Then, he had to bring up my family. We are a target a lot of times and now that I’m becoming better known, I could be targeted for that. But really, that’s silly, right? I mean, what could a flat tire do but piss me off.”

  I frown as a cold tingle slips down my spine.

  “I’ll worry about that later,” she says. “Josh is keeping my car though and doing fingerprints. So, I guess I would appreciate a ride home.”

  “Sure,” I say biting off my need to demand she take it more seriously. I want to argue with her because it is weird, but I know she has moved on. One thing about Nancy is that she believes in the rolling stone gathers no moss. She has always been like that. Always moving on to the next challenge, and it is one of the things I admire most about her. She comes from money, but she doesn’t work like it.

  “So, your grandmother wants you to get married?” I probably shouldn’t ask, but I am still irritated with the discussion from earlier.

  She sips her coffee before answering. “Best damned coffee. Yeah, the old bitch even had someone picked out for me.”

  Anger surges to the front. “The fuck?”

  “You two deserve each other,” Mrs. Smith says.

  Nancy giggles and the light sound eases some of my rage. She has the best laugh. It isn’t a titter, but a full-on belly laugh. Everyone on set smiles when she’s laughing.

  “Don’t worry, Travis. I’m not getting married to Date Rape Reggie.”

  “Who is that?”

  “Just some other one-percenter my grandmother thinks I should marry. Ain’t happening.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  She opens her mouth, but Sheryl has returned, and I figured if I don’t want spit in my food, we need to order. Once we do, we’re finally alone to talk.

  “So, sell it.”

  I cock my head. “Sell it?”

  “Yeah. Prove to me that I should come back.”

  I stare at her trying to gather my thoughts, but they bleed from my head. It’s always like this if I spend time staring into those blue eyes of hers. They are dark blue with flecks of gold within the depths. God. She’s so fucking gorgeous. Of course, thinking that, my cock twitches again, need racing through me. It doesn’t help that her t-shirt is stretched across her generous tits. I wonder if her nipples are pink or more like a dusky rose. How would they feel in my hands? How would they taste?

  “Travis? I’m waiting.”

  I roll my shoulders and draw in a deep breath. “I promise to not be an ass.”

  “And?”

  “I mean, I don’t know what you want, but whatever you want, I will do it. Anything.”

  Her smile turns evil. “Does this include streaking?”

  Every time her or my sister brings that up, I blush. Ten years ago, I was young and stupid and more than a little drunk when we decided to streak through the streets of San Marcos. “That was once in college and I was drunk.”

  She laughs and I feel something dislodge in my chest. If we can still laugh together, there is a good chance we can save our show. Save us.

  “Any other requests?”

  Her smile fades. “I have no idea.”

  “You must have some kind of idea what you want.”

  “I really don’t. I’ve talked this over and over with Marty for the last few months.”

  When she mentions her agent, I remember what Syd told me. “Why didn’t you tell me about the Target deal?”

  Sadness moves over her expression and I hate that I caused that. Made this all bad, and maybe I shouldn’t have asked her about it. But I need to know.

  “I…this season has been hard for a lot of reasons. Howard was such an ass and if At Home didn’t fire him, I was going to walk anyway.”

  “He did suck.”

  “And, well, I wanted to make sure you didn’t
try and talk me out of it.”

  I blink. “You thought I would do that?”

  She jerks a shoulder and I realize I might have damaged our relationship more than I ever thought. Truth is, I deserve it. Before this season, she probably would have told me right away. But my behavior didn’t inspire confidence. “I would never do that. To tell you the truth, I’m really proud of you.”

  Surprise replaces the sadness and I feel like an even bigger jerk. The fact that faint praise makes her feel like that means I haven’t been good to my partner.

  “Thanks,” she says, her entire body seemingly more relaxed. “I had a few others offer, but the deal Target gave me was the best. Plus, I can keep the price low for consumers.”

  “That’s fantastic.” I’m so damned proud of her.

  Sheryl arrives with our food, but so does a stranger. I study the guy who approaches us. He’s tall with short, blond hair, and he’s dressed like he’s late for a country club dance. It isn’t that weird. We’re both celebrities and while Juniper is a small town, we do get tourists who come in for the springs just outside of town. I smile, ready for the request for a selfie, but he pays no attention to me. Instead, his attention is on Nancy.

  “Nancy, darling.”

  She blinks up from her food and her lips turn down in a frown. “Reggie. What are you doing here?”

  His smile widens. Jesus, how many teeth does this guy have in his mouth? It’s like he had some added. “I was in town visiting my grandfather.”

  Nancy is not impressed. “Well, good to know. Go away.”

  Then she goes back to her food, completely dismissing him. He doesn’t take the hint. Instead, he grabs a chair from a nearby table and settles into it.

  “Your grandmother wanted me to look you up. Thought we could spend some time together.”

  “Not the first time that old bat was wrong about something. Go. Away. Or, I’ll have Travis break you in two. He can do it.”

  He glances over at me as if he just noticed I was here. “Reggie Andrews,” he says, holding out his hand for me to shake. I stop eating, then look down at his hand, then back up at his face.

  “Oh, wait, Reggie?” He nods with that same toothy grin. Some people might find it charming, but it has a carnival look to it. Like…a sadistic clown. There is something definitely off about him. I glance at Nancy. “Date Rape Reggie?”

  Her eyes dance. “Yep,” she says, popping the “p.”

  “Oh.” I look at him. “Go away or I will fuck you up.”

  I say it without raising my voice, but from the way he pales, I take it Reggie gets that I’m not lying. And I would. Women already have too much shit to deal with, they definitely don’t need an asshole like Reggie bothering them.

  He tears his gaze away from me. “Fine. I’ll stop by your house so we can chat.”

  “Fuck off,” Nancy says to his back. Then she turns back to me. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Why would your grandmother even suggest such a goof?”

  “She’s friends with his grandpa.”

  “Do people really call him Date Rape Reggie?”

  Her smile fades. “He got the reputation at college. No one wanted to go out with him. I figure that his grandfather thinks a woman would settle him down.”

  “Fuck that. He’s a monster. He will always be a monster.”

  “Agreed.”

  “So,” I say, picking up a piece of bacon and loving the way the syrup drips off of it. “Gonna give me another chance?”

  “Not sure.”

  “I get it. But know that I will do anything to get you back.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  I shove the bacon in my mouth and enjoy the salty sweet mix. After I swallow it down, I say, “I never make a promise I can’t keep. Not really. I just need you to kick my ass when needed. But I will wait until you’re ready to talk about it.”

  “Are you going back to San Antonio tonight?”

  I don’t miss the thread of hope I hear in her voice. It cracks my heart just a little to acknowledge, but it’s nothing new for me. She will never want me as much as I want her—or at all. That should have me running as fast as I can out of town. It’s why I was so horrible all season to her. If she hated me, then there was a good chance I would never take that final step and take a chance. I know she doesn’t have those feelings for me. She will never want a romantic relationship with me, so I was trying to save our partnership. In the end, as usual, I took it too far and almost ruined it with my actions.

  “Travis? Are you heading back to San Antonio?”

  I shake my head. No way. Not without her agreement and definitely not with Date Rape Reggie hanging around. I also need to have a chat with Josh to find out about her car. “I’m gonna hang out in Juniper for a while.”

  I’ll fix our relationship and make sure we save our show. And that’s all I need to concentrate on right now.

  After breakfast, Nancy heads off to Nerdvana to talk to Everly and Becca. She wants to see if they noticed anyone hanging around last night. I head off to see Josh. I tell her I have to talk to him about something else, but I know she doesn’t believe me.

  “Hey,” he says as I walk into the police department. I was just here a few weeks ago when I had to bail both Nancy and my sister out of jail.

  “Just had breakfast with Nancy.”

  “Yeah, heard you took her home last night.” The smile he’s giving me makes me want to slap him upside the head.

  “Good to know that you need the LOLs to keep you entertained. Sad, Josh. Really sad.”

  His smile fades, and he motions with his head to his office. I know he rarely uses it, so this is serious. I shut the door behind us.

  “So, Nancy’s tire?” I ask.

  “Not sure, but it’s shifty. It wasn’t a slow leak, and Mitch is convinced the hole is manmade. She just had it replaced a couple months ago.”

  I think back to where we were at the time. “Yeah, we were in Wichita Falls. So, you think someone did it.”

  “Could be they mistook her car for someone else’s. I’m hoping we can see something on the video from Wyatt’s.”

  “He has security?”

  He nods. “A couple years ago he installed a better system. When we get overrun with people during our peak times, vandalism and break-ins increase. He was sick of it happening. Most people learned to behave.”

  As if cued up by our conversation, there’s a knock at the door and I see Wyatt. “Can I interrupt?”

  “Not interrupting. We’re talking about Nancy’s tire right now.”

  “Okay, I emailed the link to the video.”

  He cues it up on his computer and we crowd around it. It’s black and white. “I made sure to send you the few minutes before and after. Also sent you another one with the entire night.”

  Josh nods as we watch someone walk into the lot. He’s dressed in a hoody, all in black. There isn’t anything visible on his body. He’s faced away from the camera and the bastard is wearing black gloves. From the body type, it looks like a man, but there is always a chance it’s a woman. We watch as he pulls out a switch blade and stabs her tire. Rage burns through my blood. The reaction is not one I expect as he looks a little agitated when the tire goes flat.

  “What the hell was his reaction about?”

  Josh sighs. “I think he wanted to cause a slow leak to make sure it happened when she was on her way home. Whoever it was, he wanted her alone on the side of the road.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Nancy

  I watch as Travis walks down the sidewalk and sigh. He’s getting all big brothery (it’s a word!) on me. But, if Josh assures him there isn’t anything going on, it will go a long way with Syd. She finds out about the tampering; she will freak out. Not to mention my family. My grandmother and father will try to give me a security detail again. I had one when I was in high school for a while, and they tried again while I was in college. With our wealth, I was seen as a t
arget. I hated every minute of it.

  I slip on my rose gold sunglasses and head off to Nerdvana. I think about the tenure of our relationship and realize that for the first time ever, we are having to deal with each other. Just us. In the past, Syd was the glue or maybe the buffer. Now that she has Grady—which I am so happy for her—Travis and I have to deal with each other.

  I get a little uncomfortable on the walk. It’s particularly sunny and humid today, which makes it hot as a mofo, but it is South Texas in July, so there is that. I might have been born and raised in Texas, but I have never liked the summers here. I think the only creatures who like it are lizards and little dogs. Well, and Travis. As a big guy, you might think he would hate the heat, but he loves it. And it isn’t just the heat. He is normally happy in any kind of weather.

  As much as I hate summer in South Texas, I love my little town. Juniper Springs marches to the beat of their own drum that’s been somehow tie-dyed. The remnants of the old frontier town are easy to see, but they have been appropriated into the new downtown area that’s thriving.

  The story goes that a group of Texas hippies didn’t think Austin was weird enough. They made their way down here in the early seventies and started a commune outside of town near the springs. The town had only a few hundred people living in it at the time, and most of them were ranching families. Over time, the commune dissolved and their members either left or became permanent residents in town. They helped turn it into a tourist spot with the natural hot springs nearby. Add in the diverse restaurants, nearby winery, and multitude of bed and breakfasts—not to mention the world class resort just outside of town—and you have a funky little town. I absolutely love it.

  People litter the sidewalks, but I just smile. Many small Texas towns have struggled in recent years, but we have been doing steady business. Part of it is our proximity to both Austin and San Antonio. Our city board has been fantastic also. They were one of the first on Instagram, and their social media game is pretty good. It was one of the reasons Travis and I wanted to open our headquarters here. This is home for both of us, and we wanted to add something to the town we love.