Money Talks: A Small-Town Romance (Money Hungry Book 3)

by Sloane West

  Table of Contents

  Note from the Author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Books

  www.sloanewest.com

  MONEY TALKS

  Sloane West

  Copyright © 2018 Sloane West

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. This eBook is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the reader. It is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, copied, or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

  Cover Design by Sloane West

  eBook design by Sloane West

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Note from the Author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Books

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Hello, sweet reader! Can you believe we’re on the third book already? It seems like just yesterday I sat down to write Money Hungry, the novelette that started it all. Where has the time gone?! It flies when you’re having fun and making word love, it seems. I’ve taken a more lighthearted approach to Money Talks. Both Amy and Jen, the heroines from the first two books, had some pretty weighty emotions to wade through to find their happily ever afters. Beth’s journey, however, is all about happenstance and misunderstandings. She’ll bumble her way through love one delightfully embarrassing step at a time. I hope you enjoy this batch of sweet romance I’ve cooked up for you! Beth and Alex’s story made me laugh and swoon on every page. So, grab your fork. It’s time for lunch.

  After all, it only takes a few pages to fall in love.

  P.S. As you know, all my novelettes come with an extended bonus epilogue. As I was writing Money Talks, however, I lost my dog Sam to cancer, and I wasn’t able to complete the epilogue in time. It’s currently well under way, and I hope to release it soon. I know you’ll be eager to check in with this happy love story’s leading lady and her hero. As always, the bonus epilogue will be free and exclusively available to my newsletter subscribers.

  Make sure you’re on my list now so you don’t miss it! Join here:

  Sloane West’s Newsletter

  P.S.S. If you’re a fan of my after-release podcasts, that has been delayed as well, but stay tuned!

  Hugs and kisses,

  Sloane

  www.sloanewest.com

  www.facebook.com/SloaneWestAuthor

  It’s not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It’s the customer who pays the wages. —Henry Ford

  1

  Beth gazed out of Roust’s window with a sigh. She was so disappointed she couldn’t even read the paperback she’d brought. Why she was so disappointed, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if she wanted a boyfriend. She had only agreed to the blind date because she needed one. Needed in the most superficial of senses. As a librarian, her salary was modest, but it was more than enough to support her and her pet rat, Fidget. And she was emotionally satisfied all on her own, thank you very much. She required a man for purely practical reasons. Or, rather, one reason in particular. Her ten-year high school reunion was in one week, and as fulfilled as she was, facing the she-devils she’d graduated with as a single rat-mom was daunting.

  She had been hoping this date would result in friendship at the very least. A friendship through which she could convince him to attend the function with her. But the mystery man had yet to show. She’d been sitting alone, thumbing distractedly through her book for the last hour, and he still hadn’t darkened Roust’s door. No texts, no calls, no nothing. Had something come up? Or had he changed his mind about the date? Or, horror of horrors, had he seen her through the window and run away screaming? She dismissed the latter almost as quickly as she thought it. While she wasn’t a bombshell, she wasn’t dog food, either. Still, being stood up would make even the most confident of girls doubt themselves.

  “Ashley?”

  Startled, Beth looked up to see a tall, beautiful blonde woman staring down at her. Oh no, Beth thought. Was her date female? By design, the app had selected mysterious matches for Beth. Their minimal profiles were supposed to be part of the appeal. All she knew was that her prospective date’s name was Hayden, which could technically be male or female. She had set her preferences to heterosexual, but perhaps there had been a glitch. Heat crept into Beth’s cheeks, and she stared up at the woman with what was probably the world’s most deer-in-the-headlights expression. “Sorry?”

  What had the question even been?

  “Are you Ashley?” the woman repeated, looking slightly awkward herself.

  Relief washed through Beth, and she almost laughed. Instead, she smiled. “I think you must be looking for someone else.”

  Perhaps Beth wasn’t the only one getting stood up today.

  “Oh,” the woman said with a frown but then smiled politely. “Sorry.”

  As she walked away, Beth returned to gazing out the window, gripping her mug with both hands. That she might not be the only woman in the coffee shop waiting for a date to show up strengthened her resolve. This wasn’t the end of the world. There were worse things than attending a reunion alone. Like running out of ice cream. Or getting cancer. Everything would be fine. There would probably be lots of single alumni in attendance. It wasn’t 1980, after all. Going stag wasn’t as taboo as it used to be. In fact, some people prided themselves on being a party of one. She didn’t need a man on her elbow to hold her head high. She had nothing to be ashamed of.

  “Beth? Beth Davis, is that you?”

  Beth looked up for the second time and inwardly cringed. Was she being punished for something? Was this karma for not returning her grocery cart to the corral last week? Rylie Taylor-Reed, Beth’s high school frenemy, stared down at her with a smile that was too sweet for words. And by sweet, Beth meant fake.

  “Hey, Rylie,” Beth said. “It’s been a long time.”

  “I know, right?” Rylie waved her hand. “How you been, girl?”

  “Great,” Beth said, countering Rylie’s faux smile with one of her own. “You?”

  “Oh, just making babies and loving life.” She rubbed her rounded belly as if Beth had somehow missed it. “Any little ones for you yet?”

  Beth swallowed a sigh. They were Facebook friends, so Rylie knew Beth had no kids aside from Fidget. “No,” she said, making a mental note to defriend Rylie stat. Why had she accepted the request in the first place? “I decided to become a spinster.”

  The truth was that she had considered children, but she was happy as is. She loved her freedom. Her solitude. She had nothing against kids. She just didn’t want any of her own.

  Rylie’s expression became piteous, as if she assumed Beth just hadn’t found the right man to reproduce with. “Well, my babies are my world,” Rylie said. “They make life worth living, you know?”

  Beth fought an intense urge to roll her eyes. How many times had she heard that same line from women who felt like she was making a grave mistake by choosing not to have children? “Yeah.” She smiled. “I feel the same way about my rat.”

  Rylie laughed hesitantly. “You were always so strange.”

  In high school, that statement would have embarrassed Beth to no end, but now, it filled her with pride. She adored her non-cookie-cutter life. Weird or not, she had built it with he
r own two hands. She hadn’t plucked it out of the Handbook for Proper Women. “That’s me,” she said. “Strange Beth.”

  Visibly disappointed by her reaction—or lack thereof—Rylie eyed Beth’s otherwise empty table. “You waiting for someone?”

  Beth tried to hide her sudden embarrassment and showed Rylie the paperback. “Just enjoying my day off. No Prince Charming required.”

  Rylie gave her an oh, you look. “Well, I’d better get back to the girls,” she said, gazing over at the trio of women she was with. The Entourage sat at a nearby table, sipping cappuccinos and eyeing Beth with high school-level snobbery. “We’re celebrating Nicole’s ten-year wedding anniversary.” She paused as if to savor the rub. “Will I see you at the reunion this weekend?”

  This was Beth’s chance. She could claim any number of excuses and avoid the event altogether. She could say she had to go out of town on business. Or she could say she was getting a kidney transplant. Anything. But despite dreading the prospect of mingling with women like Rylie all evening—women who’d never given her the time of day when they were classmates—there were people she wanted to see. Friends she had lost touch with over the years. Teachers she had admired. And a tiny, testy part of her wanted to prove to herself that she wasn’t the same easily cowed girl she’d been back then. “Yes,” she said before she could stop herself. “I’ll be there.”

  Rylie’s smile turned predatory. “Will you be bringing a plus one?”

  Beth wanted to say she would damn well show up by herself with bells on, but what came out was, “Yeah, I will.”

  Rylie arched a precise brow. “Really? Daphne said she thought you were single.”

  Daphne Bell was one of the three harpies currently judging Beth from across the room. Daphne often brought her children into the library and never failed to ask Beth who she was seeing.

  Before Beth could reply, a man suddenly sat across from her.

  A very, very handsome man.

  Startled and speechless, she could only stare at him.

  He was gorgeous. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a rugged jaw and blue eyes. Slightly disheveled sandy hair gave him a mischievous look.

  Her blind date.

  He was so distracting that she forgot to be mad at him for being late.

  Rylie gaped.

  His smile was as polite as it was devastating. “Hey,” he said, aiming said smile at Beth.

  When she failed to respond, he glanced at Rylie almost as an afterthought. “How are you?”

  She seemed to recover from her shock and flashed him a dazzling smile of her own. “I can’t complain. Loving life.”

  Loving life must have been her go-to response to all questions.

  Beth tried not to ogle her late date and asked, “You two know each other?”

  He started to speak, but Rylie beat him to the punch. “Oh, Alex and I go way back.” She cocked her hip suggestively, a gesture that looked absurd in her pregnant state. “We’ve been friends for what? Couple years now?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Satisfaction bloomed on Rylie’s face, and she looked at Beth with a wink. “See you Saturday night. Can’t wait to meet your plus one,” she said as if it couldn’t possibly be Alex. With that, she returned to her gaggle of cronies, and a round of laughter rose from their table.

  Beth sighed and turned back to her date.

  “Friend of yours?” he asked, a trace of amusement in his tone.

  Beth did her best to appear diplomatic. Obviously, he was friends with Rylie, and Beth didn’t want to appear hostile. “We . . . went to school together.”

  “Ah,” he said.

  Silence grew between them, and nervousness clamped her. Naturally, she responded by blurting, “You’re late.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

  Her cheeks warmed, and she knew she must be ten shades of red. She didn’t back down, though. No matter how good looking he was, it had been incredibly rude to keep her waiting for so long without so much as a text. “Yes.”

  He considered her, laughter twinkling in his eyes. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “Seems I was right on time.”

  The lack of apology miffed her. She appreciated his timely intervention, but that didn’t mean she appreciated his tardiness. She had some dignity, after all. “Do you always stand up your blind dates and then neglect to apologize?”

  Again, his eyebrows rose, and she couldn’t tell if he was amused or confused. “No, I can’t say I do.”

  “Well,” she said, straightening the bookmark in her tattered copy of The Lucky One. “It’s rude.”

  His mouth quirked. “Do you always jump to conclusions without giving your blind dates the benefit of the doubt?”

  Annoyed, she blinked and then promptly felt guilty. In fact, she did jump to conclusions. Rapidly and often. Perhaps he’d had car trouble or a family emergency. Maybe he’d lost his phone. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re right.”

  Her answer only deepened his grin, and he eyed her mug. “What do you think of the brew?”

  Feeling as though she’d bungled the date before it had even started, she was glad for something else to talk about. “I’ve had better,” she admitted, taking a sip. “It’s too bitter. And not enough whipped cream.”

  Her response inexplicably made him laugh. It was a throw-your-head-back, couldn’t-care-less-who’s-watching kind of laugh. If it was possible for her face to redden further, it did. What had she said? And was that a dimple on his right cheek? Could he be any more handsome?

  He started to reply, but a harried barista suddenly appeared at their table.

  “Excuse me, Boss,” the young man said awkwardly. “But we’re out of cinnamon sticks.”

  Alex glanced at the barista. “Don’t panic, Derek. Just grab the ground from the back. I’ll pick more sticks up in a few.”

  Derek nodded, offered Beth a quick, relieved smile, then hurried off.

  Dread washed over her. Oh God. It was a horrifying moment before she could form words. “You’re the boss here?”

  If he worked here, she’d not only insulted Roust’s coffee, but she’d also likely mistaken him for her date.

  He shrugged. “Technically, I own the place.”

  A new level of shame saturated Beth. The insult to the coffee seemed so much worse now. “I’m so sorry,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. “I didn’t realize.”

  “I know,” he said. “That’s why it was so hilarious.”

  Wishing she could crawl under the table and disappear into a sewer, she asked, “You’re not my blind date, are you?”

  “No,” he said. “If I was, you sure as hell wouldn’t have been stood up.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she gasped, ignoring the way his declaration flattered her. “You let me act like a fool!”

  He grinned again. “You didn’t ask, and I was having too much fun.”

  She groaned and covered her face with her hands. “This day cannot get any worse.”

  “I noticed you sitting alone,” he explained, not sounding the least bit ashamed. “And then I saw the silicone vulture over there zero in on you. Thought I would lend a hand.”

  Beth nearly choked. “Silicone vulture?”

  “That’s what I call her and her friends.”

  This time, it was Beth who laughed. “And here I thought it was the pregnancy that made her boobs so huge.”

  He laughed, too, and Rylie glanced over at them, her expression burning with curiosity and, unless Beth imagined it, a tinge of jealousy.

  “No,” he said matter-of-factly. “Those donuts are a hundred percent jelly-filled.”

  To Beth’s knowledge, Rylie had been happily married for the past decade. Or, at least, that’s what she portrayed online. The notion that she and Alex had indulged in an illicit fling on the side turned Beth’s stomach. Though he wasn’t hers, he seemed like too nice a guy to have had an affair with the likes of Rylie Taylor-Reed.

 
But that was none of Beth’s business. Nope. Not even a little.

  “I’m Alex Buchanan,” he said, offering her his hand. “Maker of substandard coffee.”

  Her face flamed, and she wished she could travel back in time to avoid the whole awkward situation. “Beth Davis,” she said, reluctantly shaking his hand. “Champion of sticking my foot in my mouth.”

  He laughed, his eyes twinkling. “I’ll just consider creating your perfect brew a challenge. I love a good challenge.”

  Though her cheeks were already warm, the insinuation in his tone sent them into hot-coal territory. Pretending she wasn’t the slightest bit affected by him, though, she said, “Good luck. I’m hard to please.”