“That’s good,” Sarah said. “I like that. It’s very admirable . . . but . . .”
“But nothing. There will be no buts.”
“Okay, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
“I cannot date anyone, and I definitely can’t date anyone who owns a bar.”
“That is a bit of a hurdle, but it’s also a restaurant and he serves an awesome bacon and blue cheese burger,” Sarah informed her.
“And the truffle fries,” Chloe added a lusty sigh.
“You two are not helping. I really like truffle fries.” She tried to hide the longing from her voice.
“Sorry. The point is. It’s a restaurant and a bar so . . .”
“Somehow the town gossips are unlikely to make that distinction when telling the tale. I have a coffee with Mitch and the word on the street is we’re having an affair. If I go to the bar, who knows what people will say.”
“You shouldn’t worry about what other people think,” Chloe said. She screwed up her nose in distaste. “Especially if one of those people is Patty.”
Patty was on the far side of the room with the country club crowd who Minnie was doing her best to avoid. Tori was standing beside her. She looked better than the day in the park, but she had clearly gone to a lot of effort to get ready. She had a deer in the headlights quality about her.
“I care what my kids think and that’s what matters.”
Her friends didn’t argue with that.
“Well, that bites,” declared Sarah.
“It does indeed bite.”
Chapter 13
Mitch wished Cheryl would stop touching him. He wanted to act like the petulant child in the back of the car with his siblings, and scream, “Stop touching me.”
He didn’t because he as a grown-ass man and Cheryl was providing a valuable service even if she didn’t know it. He was aware that Minnie was across the room. That was where he wanted to be, wherever Minnie was. She’d changed since he’d seen her at the field. She was wearing a red dress that had a fifties’ vibe to it. It cinched in at her waist and was tied with a bow. She had cute little heels on, and her golden hair was loose around her shoulders. She looked better than any woman he wasn’t allowed to look at should. How was he supposed to not look when she looked like that?
“I hope a lot of this crowd migrates down to your joint after,” Todd said.
“Me too.” He definitely wanted that. “I have some extra staff on because last week was so busy. I hope I need them.”
“I’m working there, too,” Cheryl announced, and looked at her watch. “Oh my, I better go, my shift starts in a few.”
“Okay,” was all he said.
“I’ll see you there, Mitchy. Bye, Todd.”
Todd gave her a chin tip in response. “That’s one clingy woman, Mitch-ee. Does she know you’re not actually dating and that you’re in love with the beautiful blonde over talking to my girl?”
“Firstly, I never said I was in love, and secondly, I have told Cheryl in no uncertain terms that she and I are not happening.”
“Well, I don’t think she’s buying what you’re selling. And if you’re not in love with Minnie and it’s just lust, then stay the hell away from her and let her be.” It was good advice, and it was also a warning. He respected Todd, and he knew he’d been raised by a single mother who had chosen the man over her kids every time. He’d seen it from the other side and now was with Sarah who had two young kids herself. Dating when there were kids involved was complicated. These days it felt like the phrase “life was complicated” played on a loop in his head.
Up to this point, Mitch would have said he didn’t do complicated. Cheryl was dramatic but she wasn’t that complicated. Racing was hard but not complicated. Walking away, starting a new life, that had been challenging but again not overly complicated. He wasn’t sure he even knew how to do complicated.
“And if it was love?” He couldn’t just let it be.
“Well, then you have to decide what to do about it.”
Minnie was in the foyer when he went to leave. She’d snuck out during Moose’s speech, no doubt not wanting to be there when he specifically thanked her for all her help, which he did. Minnie was rearranging the information kits on a table, so he crept up behind her and whispered in her hair.
“You look especially gorgeous today.” She also smelled like a tropical fruit bowl, like a trip to a deserted island.
He was right behind her, so when she turned, there were only a couple of inches between them. “Mitch.” His name was more of an exhale than a word.
“Well, I suppose any number of men might want to come and tell you that, but yes, it is me.”
She smiled a slow sexy smile. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Funny how you’re the only one who actually has.”
That’s who he wanted to be. “Lucky me, smartest man in town.”
She licked her lips. He really wanted to put his own where her tongue had just been, but he didn’t. There was too much at stake.
“Mitch.”
“Minnie. By the way, is that short for something?”
“Sadly, it is short for Minerva. Lucy was Lucinda. Our Dad apparently chose our names. If I ever see him again, my name is one of the decisions he made I’d like to question.”
“Oh. Anything else?”
“Yeah, why he ran off with a trapeze artist and joined the circus is another.” Her head was cocked slightly the side. She had her eyes on his mouth as she spoke. She wanted to kiss him, too. That was good. He didn’t want to mess with her, but he didn’t want to be alone with this either. She was distracting him, so it took a moment to process that comment.
“He ran off with the circus?”
“You can’t make this stuff up.” She shook her head.
“I’d like to hear more of that story.” Voices were heading their way, the reception was breaking up, Mitch needed to get to work, but he didn’t feel overly compelled to move. She put a hand behind her, grabbed a brochure, and swung it deftly toward him as people entered the space. Her line of sight was clearly better than his. “Your parents would no doubt like the Wisteria Room, but if they’re coming for the holidays, my advice is they should book early.”
“Thanks, Min.”
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Houseman. Thanks for coming along.”
The Housemans were part of an older, well-heeled crowd that Todd referred to as the country club set. Mitch only knew the man from the bar, he’d never met the wife. The way she was looking down her nose at Minnie told him he probably didn’t want to.
They didn’t reply, they just nodded.
“They seem nice,” he said to her, his blood boiling at the way they’d shunned her.
“Delightful.” She rolled her eyes. “You need to go now.”
“Yeah, I have work.”
“Not exactly what I meant, but okay.” He didn’t want to go. He also didn’t want to be anyone’s dirty secret. He was a national celebrity, albeit a minor one, he was used to people clamoring to be seen with him not scuttling away. He didn’t like it. Not one little bit.
More voices approached. “Thanks for coming, I know it meant a lot to Moose.”
“Just Moose?” he whispered as he passed her. He didn’t need to hear her answer.
Why did the man have to be so damned cute? It was ridiculous. It was after nine by the time she got home and she was exhausted. Her first real week back at work had been an exciting and exhausting one. Still, she felt like her life was gaining some momentum, some traction.
She wished she could just fall into bed and sleep, but she couldn’t, so she had peeled off her pretty red dress and was sitting in sweats and a T-shirt playing her guitar. She’d picked up some new music and was learning a few new songs, songs that didn’t have memories and feelings attached to them. Songs that didn’t have her going back to times when she hadn’t screwed everything up, where she had a lovely husband and family. Times she wasn�
�t alone in a borrowed apartment playing the guitar on a Friday night after a long week at work.
There was a light tap at the door, and she took a peep through the peephole to see Mitch standing on the other side. After the towel incident the other night, she needed to be more security conscious.
She pulled the door open.
“Did you get lost again? You live down the hall.”
“No, I brought you some fries.”
“You brought me fries?”
“Truffle fries, actually. Sarah said you kind of moaned when she mentioned my truffle fries earlier.”
“She said I moaned about you?”
“About my fries. So, I brought them and myself to your door.”
“Well, come on in then, although I don’t recall moaning.” She absolutely did but he didn’t need to know that.
“Maybe you smiled. I’d rather make you moan than smile but I’ll take either.”
“And I’ll take the fries.” She held out her hand so he could hand them over.
She lifted one from the bag and took a bite of the crunchy salty goodness, and then she really did moan. “Okay, mission accomplished, you made me moan, you can leave happy now.”
“You want me to leave?” He was standing real close to her. “I just got here.”
“Okay. You want a fry?” He shook his head. But he watched her mouth very, very intently as she took another. “They’re really good. Is all the food at the bar this good?”
“It’s pretty good. We have a good chef, and I worked really hard on getting the menu right. It’s all the foods I missed when I was traveling abroad. Burgers, nachos, fries, plus some New England delicacies.”
“You missed fries? Aren’t they French?” She knew he traveled all over the world, although to be honest, she didn’t know exactly where that entailed.
He took a step closer. “I missed seeing pretty all-American girls eating fries.”
“You don’t like French women?” She felt her nose wrinkle.
“Not as much as I like you.” He was but a French fry away.
“Mitch.” She had intended her voice to sound like a warning. It didn’t. It had a sexy edge of invitation to it. She blamed the intoxicating fries, or maybe it was the proximity of the intoxicating man.
“Minnie.” He inched closer so that he was just an inch away. She could feel the warmth of his body in front of her, so close and so enticing.
“Mitch, you don’t know the real me.”
“So, let me get to know you, then.” He reached in the bag she was holding and took a fry. “I know you like my fries. And you play the guitar. I know you’re good at your job. I know you can cook. I know you’re beautiful and you make my heart race when I see you. I know I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Mitch waited. Maybe it was too much, but all through his shift at the bar all he could think about was Minnie. It probably made him a selfish bastard because she’d asked for space, but it was true he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He wanted to see her, more than see her, but that was a start.
When he’d taken a break and sat down to have a quick drink with Todd and Sarah, Moose and Chloe, and Mike and Marissa, it occurred to him that she’d had to go home alone even though he knew, from what they were saying, that she’d been so instrumental in not just this evening’s reception but in getting the Inn opened complete and on time.
And she had no one to celebrate with. Not her kids or her family or even her new friends. No, she’d done the job and gone home to that empty apartment. It had really bothered him.
“I wanted to invite her along,” Chloe had told him quietly. “I explained this place was as much a restaurant as a bar but she begged off.”
“I don’t think it was the bar that stopped her,” he said. “It’s that people will talk.”
Chloe had growled out Patty’s name. “She can’t help but cause trouble, bless her heart.”
Mitch loved the way she reverted to her southern roots when she had something unkind or judgmental to say about someone. Bless her heart was as close to an expletive as the woman got.
“She’s trying to protect the kids,” Marissa explained. “Growing up, the stuff that people said about Minnie and Lucy’s mother, well, it was usually accurate but it was often hurtful for a kid to hear. Lucy told me back then that it hurt more to hear what people said than living with her mom. She could handle her mom as long as she thought it was private, but when people were gossiping, she felt humiliated.”
That made perfect sense to him. When he was an athlete, it wasn’t his own screwups or failures he hated, it was the media and the commentators and even his peers weighing in that he found hardest.
“It doesn’t seem fair,” he’d said with a head shake.
“Of course not, but on the plus side, she’s doing the right thing, making the right choices, and the kids will notice.”
“Olly already talks quite cheerfully about her, and Sophie seems okay, too,” Sarah added. Okay, so the conversation was no longer just him and Chloe.
No one mentioned Katie, who clearly was not getting on the forgiveness train just yet.
“She just needs to hang in there,” Marissa advised.
“And so do you.” Chloe had given my hand a sisterly pat. “Although, you know I’m sure she’d appreciate some truffle fries.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Moose had interjected. Mitch had taken that as his cue to go order a round for their table and a bag to take with him.
And now here he was, looking into the beautiful face of the woman who he was supposed to be avoiding because he couldn’t quite seem to help himself.
“That’s only the good stuff. There’s other stuff . . .” She looked so sad and cast her eyes downward
“Do you snore?” he asked.
She blinked up at him, and a small smile played at the corners of her mouth. And she shook her head.
“Do you hog the sheets? Do you have morning breath?”
“Why are all your questions about my sleeping habits?” she asked, the smile widening.
“I can’t possibly imagine.”
He reached out and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her shoulder. “Mitch.”
And then he decided to try his luck. Just one kiss, maybe the way the other one had felt was just a fluke. Physical attraction was fine but maybe that was all this was or maybe it was nothing.
He leaned in and kissed his name off her lips. It was, at first, just a gentle sweep of his lips over hers. Their bodies touched nowhere else. But she didn’t retreat, so he swept his tongue along the seam of her lips, which she parted for him, and his tongue met hers. He heard the bag of fries hit the floor as she reached for the front of his shirt and held on for dear life as the kiss swept over them and engulfed the room. He put his hand in her hair and tilted her head just a little for better access to her beautiful mouth, and because he’d been aching to do so for days.
For Mitch, it was the best kiss of his life, the kiss that stopped time, the kiss that confirmed what he had already suspected. This woman was meant for him, and despite what she might think or what the town might think or even what her kids might think, it didn’t matter what path she’d taken to get here. She was here now. She’d found him, and he was not letting her get away.
Chapter 14
Holy wow. That was some kiss. Minnie was not a blushing schoolgirl by any means. She had been kissed before, she’d been well-kissed and often, but that kiss, that was a world beater.
When she broke the kiss, she stood there staring at him, a small pile of fries scattered and squashed beneath their feet. They were good fries but they were worth sacrificing for that one kiss.
“That was . . .” Her words fell away.
“Yeah, it was.” Mitch’s voice was full of awe and more than a little pride. “I knew it would be awesome . . .”
“It doesn’t change anything.” Who was she kidding? It changed everything.
He blinked at her, trying to comprehend that
ludicrous statement. “Yeah, it does. It changes everything.”
It could not change everything. “Mitch.”
How many times could she repeat his name like that? It made no difference anyway, he didn’t seem to want to be warned off.
“Honey, are you really going to tell me that kiss, that epic kiss, means nothing?”
“I did not say it meant nothing, I said it changed nothing.”
He made a buzzing sound. “Buzzzz. Wrong answer.”
“Did you just buzz me?” She felt her eyebrows heading toward her hairline.
“Yep, that’s what happens when you get the answer wrong.”
“And if I’m right?”
“You get a prize,” he answered with a cheeky smile.
She had a feeling she knew what that prize was, another one of those kisses. “Look, Mitch, my situation is unchanged.”
He buzzed her again. He was ridiculous. “It has changed because before you didn’t have me.”
“And now I have you?”
“You do.” He gave a firm nod.
“Even though I have told you I can’t have you, which hasn’t changed.” I held up my hand. “Do not buzz me again.”
“Look, I get that you want to protect your kids, and actually, that’s one of things that I really admire about you, the fact that you’re giving them the space to get used to you again and not charging in there, guns blazing, when I know that’s what you want to do.”
He had that right.
“But now you have me, which means when you’re not with them you don’t have to be alone.”
“Mitch, I think you’re oversimplifying this.”
“And I think you’re overcomplicating it. I like you, and yes, I’m attracted to you, but I like you as a person and I want to spend time with you. It’s not that complicated.”
“Except you own a bar.”
“We’re not in a bar,” he countered.
“And I shouldn’t be seen in the company of men.”
“Did I bump my head and wake up in the eighteen hundreds?” He rubbed his head for dramatic effect.
“You know what I mean.”
Any Way You Spin It: An Upper Crust Novel (The Upper Crust Series Book 7) Page 12
