by Jill Sanders
His eyebrows rose. “By a shade, if that. Speaking of hair color…” He reached over and touched a long lock that had fallen over her shoulder. “Trying something new? Blonde?”
She glanced down at the blonde hair between his fingers and gasped. “My hair is blonde!”
He laughed again, and she smiled. Then he brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.
“I like it, it suits you.” He leaned closer. “Of course, the dark natural look was hot too.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
She had never had the breath knocked from her lungs. She’d always thought it was a fable, just like slipping on a banana peel. But as she struggled to pull oxygen into her lungs, she actually felt herself growing light-headed as his green eyes scanned her.
“Um…” She swallowed slowly. “Thanks.”
Just then the back door to the alley flew open and Riley poked her head out.
“What’s taking you so—” When her cousin saw who was occupying Lilly’s time and that the pair of them were standing so close together, Riley smiled. “Oh.”
Corey took a step back and Lilly thought of a million ways to kill her cousin.
“Next time, watch where you step.” He winked at her. “See you around, Lillian.”
“Lilly,” she corrected quickly. Corey nodded, then turned and disappeared through the back door of the pizzeria.
She watched the door shut, then felt Riley standing beside her, their shoulders touching. Glancing over, she saw that Riley was looking at the back door to Baked, her arms crossed over her chest.
Lilly’s eyes narrowed slightly as Riley turned to her, a blank expression on her face.
“Soooo.” Riley dragged the small word out. “You and Corey?”
“Shut up.” She laughed and turned on her heel, making sure to avoid the black peel as she marched back into their store while Riley chuckled at her back.
2
“What took you so long?” Carter asked as Corey stepped through the back door. Carter was standing at the counter, pounding the shit out of a massive roll of dough, which meant his brother was in a mood.
“Ran into our new neighbor in the alleyway.” He pulled on his apron with the name tag pinned to the chest.
“Oh?” Carter stopped his flying fist and smiled. “The pretty blonde one?”
“Yeah.” Corey thought back to how much the new lighter hair had changed Lillian. Lilly, he corrected in his mind, letting the name roll over and over as he thought about her. She’d piqued his interest since the moment she’d walked into Baked that first day. He tried not to stare and drool over her every time she walked through the door, but there was a pull that he’d never felt before. Especially after talking to her and getting to know more about her.
His brother remained silent and when the sound of pounding fists didn’t return, he turned and leaned on the counter. “What?” he asked when he noticed the frown on Carter’s face.
“Nothing.” Carter seemed to wake up from a daydream.
Corey laughed. “Dude, we are wearing each other’s face, you can’t hide it. You’re annoyed at something.” His brother’s green eyes flashed up to lock with his own. “Me?” He pointed at his chest. “You’re annoyed at me? Why? What did I do?”
“Shove it,” Carter said clearly and started pounding again.
“Nope. Remember rule number eleven?” Corey added with a smile.
Carter stopped pounding and narrowed his eyes further. Now his brother was really pissed. When Carter opened his mouth, Corey held up a finger.
“Don’t forget rule number four. No cursing,” Corey added.
“In front of women,” Carter said quickly. “So, fuck off.” Carter smiled and picked up the rolling pin and got busy on the dough.
“What’s got your panties in a bind?” Corey asked as he walked around the store, getting the chairs down from the tops of each table.
“Nothing,” Carter added.
“Rule eleven,” he called out and he heard his brother curse again.
“It’s getting harder to follow all these damn rules,” he bitched.
“Hey, don’t blame me. You came up with half of them yourself. Remember?” Corey heard his brother groan and smiled. “So, was it because I was talking to the long-legged, sexy blonde next door?”
“Fuck off,” Carter said again.
Corey saw his opportunity to egg his brother on further and leaned on the counter until they were almost eye to eye. He’d seen the way Carter looked at Lilly’s cousin Riley. “She has those sexy pouty lips, you know, the kind that you just want to—”
A puff of flour hit him mid-chest and he laughed.
“Why, dear little brother, don’t tell me you have a thing for the blonde next door.” He faked a gasp and put his hand to his throat.
“You know what…” Carter started as he set his rolling pin down.
Corey held up his hands in defeat. “I give,” he called out, knowing that if it came to a physical battle, the winner would be whoever could last the longest, and since Corey had been up all night preparing for the quarter tax returns, Carter had a few extra hours of sleep on him at the moment.
“Besides”—Carter picked up the rolling pin again— “she’s only twenty.” Now Corey knew for sure that Carter was talking about Riley instead of Lilly, since Lilly had just celebrated her twenty-fourth birthday last month at Baked with her friends and family.
“So?” Corey went back to flipping chairs again.
“In case you missed it, we turned twenty-six just two months ago,” Carter pointed out.
“What’s six years if it’s true love?” Corey smiled and batted his eyelashes.
Carter growled, actually growled, and Corey chuckled out loud.
“Don’t you have prep work to do?” Carter finally added.
Seeing that his brother had hit his limit for the day, Corey decided to keep his mouth shut on the topic of the ladies next door for the rest of the day.
When he finally opened the front doors at Baked, a line of people rushed in. It had been almost six months since they had opened the restaurant, but he still got a rush of pride when he saw a line of customers waiting for them each day.
Most of them were kids on their lunch break from the local high school that had just started back up, but still, business was booming. When he’d approached his brother with the idea of opening their own business with their life savings last year, he’d never imagined that Carter would already have his own idea of what he wanted to do.
Carter had always loved cooking. Even when they hadn’t been allowed in the kitchen, he’d sliced up his PB&J sandwiches and pretended that he was a chef making a four-course dinner instead of a kid eating stale bread with second-rate peanut butter and runny jelly.
Corey had been the one with the more logical brain. His time was spent crunching numbers. He’d found one of his mother’s old checkbooks when he was seven and had spent his free time balancing the numbers he’d seen written in it. He’d known exactly, to the penny, when she’d overdrawn and had even made suggestions to his parents about how they could get out of debt.
To him, manipulating numbers was child’s play. Of course, as with any other time he’d tried to help his parents out, his advice had gotten him nothing but a bruised butt.
After the noon rush, he cleaned up the front area and helped his brother prep some more for the afternoon rush.
When the bell chimed above the door, he glanced over and smiled as Lilly and Riley walked in. Both ladies were covered in dust and sweat and looked as if they would fall over soon. Still, he had to admit as he watched Lilly’s hips sway when she walked, they almost dripped pure sex.
They fell into a booth along the front windows. Corey dropped the rag he was using to wipe the countertop and walked over to them, taking two menus with him.
Smiling, he watched as they both looked up at him.
“Ladies.” He set the menus down, and his eyes lingered on Lilly’s. “Looks like you two have
been hard at work.”
He leaned over and swiped a finger down Riley’s nose. When it came away covered in dust, Riley quickly took her napkin and started scrubbing her face clean.
She looked at her cousin. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she hissed, looking towards the back where Carter was trying hard to look like he wasn’t watching the pair.
“Sorry.” Lilly shrugged and rolled her shoulders.
Corey chuckled and did the same to her, but his finger lingered on her cheek for a moment. “She’s not the only one.” He showed her the dust on his finger. He’d enjoyed the softness of her skin under his touch. He’d seen her eyes grow wide and her skin flush, then she too was using her napkin to wipe away the dust. “I’ll bet the place is coming along.”
They women looked at one another, then nodded. Riley sighed heavily, then groaned.
“Not really. What we need is men. Lots of men. A pack of them. Do they travel in packs?” Lilly added.
He chuckled and smiled bigger. “Shopping?”
Riley set the napkin down and started blushing. The cousins had that in common, but on Riley, it was just cute. On Lilly, the blush caused his entire body to go into overdrive. “Can I get you two something to drink?” He needed a moment to cool down and tried very hard to avoid looking over at Lilly again.
“Beer,” Lilly said, “lots of it.” She was leaning back in the booth, still trying to wipe her face clean with a napkin.
He nodded, then turned to Riley. “I’ll have what she’s…”
His eyes narrowed down at her, and Riley sighed. “I’ll be twenty-one next month,” she argued. When he continued to just look at her, she gave up. “Root beer.”
“Coming right up.” He turned and walked to the back area to get their drinks.
“What are you doing?” Carter hissed at him when he stepped behind the counter.
Corey’s eyebrows shot up. “Getting our customers drinks.”
“You’re flirting with them,” his brother accused.
“So?” He shrugged and filled the glasses.
“So…” His brother dragged the word out. “We talked about this. She’s too young.”
Corey’s eyes narrowed. “Says you.”
Carter sighed and leaned on the doorjamb. “I’m calling the Code of Ethics on this one, bro.”
Corey and Carter had drawn up their Code of Ethics at the tender age of eleven when both brothers had fallen for Scarlett Allen, the twelve-year-old in their class who, overnight, had sprouted the best pair of boobs either of them had ever seen. Their Code of Ethics was such: no brother would knowingly pursue a girl if the other brother requested that they didn’t.
“Seriously?” Corey frowned at Carter. “Why this one?” He nodded to the two ladies who were softly arguing about what pizza to order. He knew that Riley was a meat lover, while Lilly leaned towards vegetarian.
“Age,” Carter said quickly.
“Bull—”
“Rule four,” Carter interrupted and nodded towards the ladies.
Corey hissed. “Fine, you want to call Code on them…”
“Not them, just her,” Carter added, causing Corey’s eyebrows to shoot up.
“Her?” He nodded. “As in…?” He waited, not sure why he wanted—no, needed—his brother to say her name.
“Riley,” Carter added quickly, causing Corey to relax and smile.
“Deal.” He nodded quickly and turned to serve the ladies their drinks.
“Wait…” Carter stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. “Who did you…” It was then that his brother’s eyes traveled to Lilly for the first time. Corey chuckled as his brother’s eyes widened with understanding. “Oh…” Carter smiled. “I get it… blonde.” He chuckled and went back to work.
Corey took a deep breath before taking the tray of drinks out to the front.
He took their order of a medium half-veggie, half-meat lover’s pizza and tried to stay busy as the cousins chatted. He couldn’t help overhearing them talk about knocking out a brick wall and agree to use the sledgehammer. When he returned, he stepped in.
“I don’t mean to pry, but are you two really thinking you can knock down an entire brick wall by yourselves?” He took a chair from the table across the booth and turned it backwards. He sat on it, leaning forward on the back of the chair.
“Sure,” Riley jumped in. “It’s not…hard.” Her eyes moved to Lilly’s.
He chuckled. “Nor is dying.”
The cousins’ eyes narrowed at him and he watched both of their chins rise slightly.
“Don’t you think we can knock down a wall?” Lilly asked.
“Sure,” he answered truthfully. “Knocking a wall down is easy. Not getting buried under the rubble is the hard part.”
“How would you know?” Riley asked.
“My brother and I remodeled this place ourselves.” He nodded around. “Our father worked construction. He used to drag us to job sites, and we’d help out. At first it was just picking up nails and screws or clearing trash, but when we finally grew tall and strong enough, we had to throw the hammer and sledgehammer.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Lilly asked.
“Can’t anyone in your family help? Your dad or your brothers? Maybe Parker? He’s a contractor, right?” he suggested.
“Yes, but he and Sara are busy, and Jacob and Conner are out of town. This wall needs to come down if we are going to move forward,” Lilly said with a frown. “And I can’t exactly expect my dad to take a break from his practice to come help us. People don’t stop getting sick because I need help,” Lilly pointed out. “The Oar is busy too. Iian can’t just leave.”
He sighed. “Why must the wall come down today?” He looked between them.
“Because…” Riley started.
“We sort of damaged it,” Lilly added, causing Corey’s eyebrows to shoot up.
“Damaged…” He tried to steady his heart when he thought about the two women trapped under a heavy brick wall. “How bad?”
“Bad enough that we aren’t sure it won’t fall down while we eat.” She nodded to his brother who had just set their steamy pizza on the countertop.
He sighed and stood up, then walked across the room. “I’m going to call Robin in to finish up tonight,” he told his brother. Carter stilled.
“Why?” he asked, his eyes shooting over to where the ladies sat, watching them.
“They were going to tear down a brick wall themselves.” He sighed heavily. “Someone’s got to help them out.”
Carter was silent for a while. “I’ll call Robin and Jim. I could hammer a wall.” He shrugged and turned away.
Robin and Jim were part-time workers they called in to cover them occasionally. Corey didn’t argue; they worked better as a team. Walking the pizza over, he set it down, then sat back down.
“Okay, we’ll help. Give us about half an hour to get coverage, then we’ll head over with you.” He turned and watched a group of teenagers enter the front door. He stood up. “Don’t go back over there without us,” he warned. “It’s probably not safe.”
They both nodded and then dug into their pizza. Less than half an hour later, Robin and Jim both walked in through the back door.
“We’ll be just next door,” Corey said quickly. They hadn’t left the two of them alone to run the place yet, but he was confident in their work.
“We shouldn’t be long,” Carter added. “We’ll be back to close up.”
Corey started to push his brother to the front of the restaurant where Riley and Lilly waited for them.
“We’ve got this.” Robin waved them off.
Robin was a grandmother of two and had run the kitchens of several restaurants in Edgeview before finally retiring sometime last year. Corey trusted the older woman, but Jim he still had his doubts about. The guy was a few years younger than he was and had at times shown an attitude towards customers.
“Keep him in line.” He motioned to Jim. Robin quickly nodded.
“Why do I feel like I’m leaving a kid on the first day of school?” Carter mumbled as they made their way across the now-crowded dining room.
Corey chuckled and then stopped at the booth to look down at the ladies. “Ready?”
Lilly was biting her full bottom lip, which had a strange hold on Corey. He felt himself freeze as he watched the movement with interest.
“Are you sure?” Riley asked softly.
“We’ve taken down a few walls in our time,” Carter explained, leaning in to pick up the empty pizza pan.
“I’ve got this.” Jim rushed over and took the pan, then continued to clear the plates and trash from the table.
“We hate to take you away…” Lilly started.
To stop her, Corey held out his hand for hers. She hesitated, then reached up and softly lay her hand in his. Once again that day, he was pulling her up. This time, however, he planted his feet and had her less than a breath from him.
“Let’s go tear down some walls,” he said softly. He heard her breath hitch, and a slow smile formed on her lips. Then it was his turn for his breath to catch.
He followed the cousins out of Baked and into what would become their store, which he’d heard was going to be called Classy and Sassy, a name that matched the cousins perfectly.
Stepping through the glass front door, he glanced around. He thought he heard Lilly sigh and looked over towards her.
“It’s not that bad,” he assured her.
“We’ve seen worse,” Carter agreed. “Why don’t you show us your plans, then we can—”
“We don’t have any,” Riley blurted out, causing both brothers to turn towards her.
“No plans?” Carter asked.
Riley and Lilly both shook their heads.
“Okay,” Carter said slowly, glancing around.
“What are your ideas? How do you want this all to end up?” He waved his hands around the messy room.
“That’s easy.” Lilly flipped open a laptop sitting on a folding table. “This.” She turned the screen around and an image of a ladies’ boutique showed on the screen. The room in the image was full of clothing but he looked past the clothes to the old hardwood floors and the classic brick walls. There was also a high, open ceiling with white globe lights hanging down, as well as track lighting.
