Paws and Prejudice

by Alanna Martin

  On that thought, since she wasn’t writing the words she wanted to write, she might as well check if he’d responded to her email.

  Lo and behold, he had. Kelsey was about to award him some minor redemption for promptness, but then she read what he’d sent back. “Nope. Still insufferable.”

  Puck dropped his ball at her feet and cocked his head.

  “He gave me one-sentence responses to everything,” Kelsey explained. “There’s nowhere near enough for me to work with if he wants something more than a terse, boring summary for the website. For a press release, it’s fine, I suppose. But for an entire newspaper article, or an About page that’s worth clicking on? Forget it.”

  A lifetime of assuming the worst about people’s intentions made Kelsey wonder whether Ian had responded the way he did on purpose. To annoy her. Obviously, he had to know how rich and detailed the information on the Florida brewery’s website was; he was the one who’d brought it up. Had he expected her to just plagiarize some of it, substituting his half-assed answers in where appropriate? But even that didn’t make sense. How the brewery had come to be opened in Florida had nothing to do with why Helen had been selected as the site for Northern Charm. Ian’s We were looking for an adventure in a new state did not explain why that state had to be Alaska.

  The husky whined in a questioning sort of way, so Kelsey picked up the ball again and waved it around in her agitation. “See? This is like me holding the ball up here where you can’t get it, making you think I’m going to throw it and play with you, but really just being insufferably rude because I’m not.”

  Now that Puck was as displeased as she was, he jumped up, trying to catch the ball, and Kelsey sighed. She’d trained her babies (as best she could at their age) to not jump, but this was her fault. She tossed the ball back into the hallway for him.

  “He’s even making me be mean to you when he’s not around.”

  Almost as bad, Ian was making her email him again, because damn it—if he was going to intentionally piss her off by not taking her questions seriously, she was going to piss him off by rejecting his answers.

  Truly, she was a glutton for punishment. The smarter choice, and the passive-aggressive one, would be to use Ian’s responses to write the press release plus something short and boring for the website, as well as a note that she was unable to produce a newspaper article with what he’d given her. But anything she wrote with the scraps he’d tossed her way would reflect poorly on her skills, and besides, Kelsey never liked to take the passive-aggressive option when the active-aggressive one was available.

  So nope. She’d suck it up and deal with the man face-to-face one more time in an attempt write something she wasn’t embarrassed by. She was no coward. She wasn’t afraid of Ian getting stuck in her head.

  Which was convenient, since he was already there.

  Then, to make herself feel better, she’d see if her father had a key to the brewery. For sabotage fantasies, that was. This time, she’d go into the meeting with him better prepared for dealing with the aftermath.

  6

  AS LUCK WOULD have it, Kelsey pulled into a parking spot by the Espresso Express at the same time as Ian was getting out of his truck. A second guy with long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail followed Ian from the vehicle. That had to be Ian’s business partner, Micah. Kelsey wasn’t expecting him to be at the meeting, but she wouldn’t be sorry about it if he was more forthcoming than Ian.

  That said, she also wasn’t exactly thrilled. If Micah did turn out to be like Ian, the meeting would be doubly troublesome.

  Ian must have pointed her out, because Micah crossed the short distance between their vehicles, holding out a hand. “Micah Bauman. You’re Kelsey Porter? Nice to meet you.”

  She wondered what Ian had told Micah about her. She’d assumed it was something along the lines of her being that bitch with the SHS pin, which made this cheerful introduction highly suspicious. “Nice to meet you.”

  Kelsey shook Micah’s hand and . . . nothing. No nerves in her hand woke up, no images flitted through her mind about licking him like a Popsicle. Interesting. Her body’s lack of reaction certainly had nothing to do with Micah being unattractive. He was, in a square-jawed kind of way, something like a rock star crossed with a lumberjack. But no part of her body, from her toes to her brain, gave a damn.

  “Oh, look. Puppies!” Micah waved through her SUV’s cracked-open rear window at her dogs. Since Kelsey didn’t intend this meeting to last more than fifteen minutes, she’d brought them along so they could go walking afterward. Helen had a few tiny parks interspersed among the residential streets, but the main park with all its winding paths was a couple of blocks from the coffee shop.

  Juliet and Puck vied for space to greet Micah while Kelsey looked on amused. Ian, she couldn’t help but note, hadn’t come closer. He was leaning against his truck with his arms crossed. Still insufferable. Still rude to her dogs.

  Still annoyingly eye-catching, despite wearing a heavy fleece today. The ends of his hair lifted slightly in the wind. He rubbed at the layer of similarly colored scruff on his jaw with one hand and raised his other an inch in greeting. The bare minimum of politeness.

  Kelsey mimicked the gesture rather than make an effort to goad him.

  Kudos to Micah for being friendly. Apparently he was unlike his business partner in multiple ways, and therefore more deserving of her attention.

  She introduced her dogs, including Romeo, who was cautiously observing Micah from afar. “I can’t take too long, since I brought them to go on a walk.”

  “No problem.” Micah glanced in Ian’s direction. “I’m sure we can wrap this up quickly.”

  Five minutes later, Kelsey brought her caffè mocha to the table Ian and Micah had claimed. The Espresso Express didn’t cater to sit-down business, so while there were a half dozen or so scuffed tables around the counter, they were small and packed together. In retrospect, suggesting they meet at Starbucks might have been better, but then, Kelsey hadn’t been expecting Micah to join them. So really it was Ian’s fault they were going to be cramped.

  With three mugs of coffee on the table, there wasn’t a lot of space to set up her laptop. Kelsey slid her chair over to get the best possible angle, causing her knee to bump Ian’s leg. He didn’t react, but she wasn’t so sure she was able to hide her own expression, which was problematic, since she also wasn’t sure what it was. She didn’t want to touch Ian, but the jolt she’d felt had suggested she had nerve endings in her knee that she’d been previously unaware of that could cause crackling sensations in her torso.

  Kelsey decided the smoothest way to play off whatever had happened was to pretend it hadn’t.

  “We brought you something,” Ian said as she opened her laptop. They were the first words he’d spoken to her, and he set a six-pack on the table. “We didn’t exactly get off to the best start last time, so . . .”

  Given the way he trailed off, Kelsey wondered if Micah had forced him to do this.

  She spun the closest bottle around to read the Northern Charm Brewing label, but that was all she got from it. Ales versus stouts versus IPAs meant nothing to her. She felt bad about that, since at least one of these men was trying to be a decent guy, but it just showed why she was absolutely the wrong person to help them.

  “Er, thanks. But I don’t actually like beer.” She made an apologetic face and slid the bottles back toward Ian.

  Ian cast a glance at Micah as if to say, Told you so, confirming to Kelsey that this hadn’t been his idea. “Of course you don’t. No beer, no outsiders. Is there anything you do like, besides dogs?”

  Oh, good. They were back to snark. She could handle that much better than she could handle knee jolts.

  Kelsey pretended to contemplate. “Small towns? Look, you don’t have to take any of this personally, you know.”

  “How am I supposed t
o not take it personally when you support people who are intentionally making my life and livelihood difficult?” Ian motioned toward the SHS pin that she’d never bothered to take off her jacket, and his stupid leg pressed into her knee.

  Kelsey could have told him she’d forgotten about the pin and that she’d never gotten around to looking into the group, but it was more satisfying to let him believe the worst of her. She reached for her own coffee, giving her the excuse to shift in her seat. Tall people were always taking up too much space. She would now officially hold Ian’s height against him, just because. “How about because I’m here, helping you?”

  “Are you though?”

  Was he serious? “Yes, and for free, I might remind you.” Her father deserved a good ass-kicking for that, but he’d never get it, unfortunately.

  “All right, kids.” Micah held up a hand between them. “Let’s focus and calm down. Kelsey, we appreciate your help.”

  Uh-huh. Possibly one of them did, but as much fun as it might be to continue trading jabs with Ian, she didn’t have time for it. Especially not with her dogs sitting in the car. “Can I just get some answers to my questions. Real answers instead of the equivalent of manly grunts?”

  Micah chuckled and tried to hide it behind his coffee mug.

  Ian scowled. “I don’t understand what additional information you need.”

  “Have you even read your aunt and uncle’s website? If you want me to write something similar, I need a similar level of detail. Obviously. Who are you both? Where did you come from? Why did you open the brewery in Helen? Where did you learn the business?”

  And why did her freaking knee tingle when it brushed Ian’s leg? If she was going to get all tingly over a guy—and frankly, she’d rather not—couldn’t it be for the rock-star-slash-lumberjack who liked her dogs and wasn’t completely insufferable?

  Those last couple of questions were between her and the universe, though, and it was just as well. She had enough questions for the men as it was.

  Ian rubbed the thin layer of stubble on his cheeks in obvious frustration. “Like I said in the email, I’m originally from the Boston area. I moved to Florida to live with my grandparents when I was twelve and went to work for my aunt and uncle at their brewery after college.”

  “Yeah, I got that. Those are the what answers. No one gives a shit about the what. What is boring. It’s the why that makes a story. That’s what gets people interested.”

  Ian sipped his coffee thoughtfully. “Why? I like beer. Obviously.”

  If it wouldn’t have ruined her laptop, Kelsey would have tossed the remains of her mocha at him. For a second, she’d almost thought she’d gotten through to him. Instead, she closed her eyes in frustration. Freaking men.

  Freaking insufferable Ian. Even if she did drink beer, a six-pack would not have been enough to thank her for her time and patience.

  Micah started to say something, but Ian cut him off, setting down his mug with so much force that coffee sloshed over the sides. “The whys aren’t that interesting. Can’t you make something up if you want to?”

  Oh, she was tempted to make something up, but she was pretty damn sure Ian wouldn’t like what she wrote. It might entertain her enough that she didn’t dream about suffocating him though.

  Micah might have read some of those thoughts on her face, because he raised his hands a second time. “Your life isn’t that boring, my friend. How about this? Why don’t I take a look at the questions Kelsey sent, and at your answers, and I can fill in the blanks?”

  Ian gave his friend an unreadable look but finally nodded. “Okay. Fine.”

  Kelsey shrugged. “Whatever works.”

  Despite not wanting to write something for them in the first place, she’d always intended to do a decent job. But that was only because of her pride, since the newspaper piece would bear her name. But maybe she could sit down with Micah—and just Micah—sometime to talk about the article.

  Micah was not insufferable, even though he was still an outsider. He was friendly to her dogs. He seemed to appreciate her help. Talking to Micah would likely be much more productive and perfectly boring.

  For some reason, that greatly disappointed her.

  * * *

  * * *

  A FEW MINUTES later, Kelsey transferred the rest of her coffee into a thermos and left. Finally able to stretch out his legs, Ian did so as he cupped what was left of his drink. There were only a couple of other people in the coffee shop, but it had felt alarmingly claustrophobic when Kelsey had been sitting across from him.

  That had nothing to do with the overall tight space or dark wood decor and everything to do with him being exceptionally aware of her presence. Her leg under the table, where if he wasn’t careful, he brushed up against it. Her face peering out over her laptop screen, emphasizing how small the space between them was. Her hand mere inches away when she reached for her coffee. Sitting down, Kelsey had seemed a lot larger than she really was. Ian wasn’t sure if it was because she took up her share of the table, or because she was taking up too much space in his head.

  There were likely dozens of people in the SHS. It shouldn’t bug him so much that Kelsey was one of them, and yet it did. Because of that, Ian had thought responding to her emailed questions quickly had been the best option. Get it over with and he wouldn’t have to run into her again. Obviously he’d done a fantastic job of misjudging that play.

  “You see what I mean?” he said to Micah as Kelsey disappeared through the door. “She’s not very personable.”

  Micah shifted his chair, also taking the opportunity to spread out. “I don’t know. She seemed friendly until you started arguing with her.”

  “I didn’t argue.”

  “Whatever you want to call it, you started it. Which is interesting.” Micah tapped his fingers against his mug.

  Ian narrowed his eyes. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you’re not usually the kind to start shit with people.”

  “Call it what you want, but I’m not the one who started anything.” He lowered his voice even though the coffee shop was noisy with the sound of the grinder in the background. “The SHS started it, and you saw her pin. That means she started it by association.”

  “I did see the pin. I also saw her, and you were holding out on me. She’s cute.”

  More like hot, especially when she did that kind of sneering thing at him. Ian wasn’t even entirely sure she was aware that she did it, and he had no idea why it activated the dirty thoughts portion of his brain. But damned if he hadn’t been fighting alarming thoughts about her mouth during this entire failed conversation.

  The lower half of his body stirred as he recalled them. “I didn’t say she wasn’t.”

  “But you didn’t say she was. That, combined with you starting shit, is what’s so interesting.”

  Ian rubbed his face in his hands, grimacing, and not only because he needed to shave. “If you want me to admit that I find her attractive, then fine. I find her attractive. I think lots of people probably would.”

  Micah chuckled quietly, as he’d been prone to do too much of this afternoon. “Agreed. She’d got a kind of sweet-and-sour thing going on. It’s deceptive.”

  Sour wasn’t the word Ian would have chosen, although he wasn’t sure what was. He tried to think of one to counter Micah, though, because he didn’t like that his friend’s interest in Kelsey was making him as grouchy as Kelsey herself could. Eventually he gave up and finished his coffee. Not discussing Kelsey further was probably the best choice for his peace of mind.

  “She also has a great ass,” Micah added after a moment.

  “Are we done?” He wasn’t sure if he was asking about the coffee or Kelsey, or if it mattered.

  Micah drained the rest of his mug. “Yup. Because we have more work to do.”

  “You mean Kelsey’s questi
ons? I’m finished. That was you volunteering, not me.”

  “Not the questions. I mean our sign.” Grimacing, Micah held out his phone. “We just got an email from the town saying they’re denying our proposed design for not meeting their guidelines.”

  Ian stared, but Micah gave off no suggestion of this being a bad joke. And of course it wasn’t. No doubt the Save Helen Society had struck again. That was why it didn’t matter how hot Kelsey was. The SHS was a menace, and Ian was ready to hit someone.

  “Doesn’t meet the guidelines?” He attempted to keep his voice down as he gathered his and Micah’s empty mugs. “Yes, it does.”

  “No, it met the guidelines they originally gave us, which are not the same guidelines they’ve attached to this email. They either changed them or gave us the wrong information before.”

  “Or they’re giving us the wrong information now to screw with us.”

  “Or that.” Micah shrugged. “Luckily I hadn’t ordered the sign yet.”

  “There’s nothing lucky about any of this.” Ian carried their mugs over to the dirty dishes spot at the serving counter, trying to hide his bad mood in case anyone was watching.

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that he and Micah stood out everywhere they went in town these days. They were the newcomers, the outsiders who’d pissed off a sizable percent of the town without realizing it. During the summer months when tourists flooded Helen, he’d felt comfortably anonymous most of the time. But as August had given way to September and the raging stream of tourists had slowed to a steady trickle, that comfort had drained away too. It was becoming ever clearer to Ian who the locals were and who was just visiting, and yet he was neither. Not really. Not yet. And unless a local was wearing one of those bright yellow SHS pins, it was impossible to determine what they thought of him and his business. Excitement? Or resentment?