And her time was running out. In eight days, it would be exactly six months since the girls had arrived in Bliss. The pie shop was now fully renovated and open and doing fairly well. He didn’t know the specifics of their finances, but business had definitely picked up. Her sisters had met their relationship conditions. So Brynn’s dating mandate was all that was really left.
And Noah fucking hated even the thought of it.
He even hated that she’d smiled at Mitch with that sweet, almost surprised smile. As if she was trying to figure out if he was really flirting with her or not.
He wanted her sweet smiles. But it was that surprised part that jabbed him in the heart and made him tamp down the urge to punch Mitch right in his pretty face. Brynn should not be surprised when a man paid her attention. At least attention that had nothing to do with her being one of the foremost pharmaceutical researchers in the country. He was sure there were brilliant, geeky scientist guys all over the place that were impressed with and intimidated by Brynn.
But Mitch wasn’t appreciating her brain. He was looking at her as the beautiful, subtly-sexy-without-even-knowing-it woman who blended into the background until you got a good look at her. Then you couldn’t look away.
She’d been sitting on his truck, in his shop, hiding out in the shadows, literally. And Noah fucking hated that. Even while he loved it.
He felt divided in two. He loved that Brynn felt safe and comfortable with him. They didn’t talk much. They didn’t really do anything a lot of the time. They’d painted and redecorated the pie shop. And she sat on the hood of the truck and read while he worked. But he loved that she felt like she could just be with him, and he wanted to keep her all to himself.
But he also hated that even here in his garage—maybe especially here—she was hiding out from the world. How could she figure out that she was special and amazing and that people wanted to get to know her and be close to her if she was never with people?
“There are some rules that you should be aware of before you ask her out,” Noah finally said.
Mitch shrugged. “I already kind of asked her out.”
“Rules,” Noah said firmly. “Before you take her out.”
Mitch turned to face him, looking amused. “Okay, like what?”
Noah sighed. He didn’t love the idea of spilling the details of Rudy’s will, but Bliss was a small town. Dating here was different. It was harder to date casually than it probably was in the bigger cities. Like New York. Or Kansas City where Mitch had been living. Here, everyone knew everyone else, knew their pasts, knew their relationship history, and paid attention to current relationships. It was also harder to date multiple people. The guys Brynn would be going out with knew one another. And their mothers were going to be upset if they only dated her once or twice and then she “moved on” to another guy. Everyone needed to understand what was really going on and not assume that this city girl was coming to sweet little Bliss to break as many hearts as she could.
That was one reason he’d held off for six months on insisting she get out there and date. He wanted the town to get to know her a little first.
And, of course, because it had taken about two hours for him to realize that he didn’t want her dating anyone. Ever.
“It was important to Brynn’s dad that she meet and date a variety of guys. She’s…” He sighed. This was coming out wrong. “Brynn’s quiet. She’s sweet. She’s happiest with her nose in a book or calculating chemical formulas in her lab,” he said, starting again. “She’s not a social butterfly, she’s not a flirt, she doesn’t date much at all.”
“She’s inexperienced,” Mitch filled in.
Noah had to nod. “Yeah. She’s just had a lot of more important things to think about than relationships.”
Mitch nodded.
“So when her dad decided she should live in Bliss for a year with her sisters and run his pie shop, he also made it clear that it was important to him that she go out and have some fun, but also get to know different types of guys. So she could maybe figure out what her type is.”
Mitch nodded again. “That’s pretty much what dating is, right? Looking for the perfect fit amongst all the options.”
Noah had to admit he was surprised by Mitch’s perspective. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s just that with Brynn it’s actually spelled out that she has to date six different guys. And she’s only in town for six more months.”
“So nothing serious or long-term. Just fun,” Mitch said.
Noah nodded.
“Well, that takes a lot of pressure off,” Mitch decided. “It’ll be more fun if it’s just about showing her a good time and knowing that no one’s thinking marriage, right?”
“I guess.” Noah supposed that was true. If the guys all knew that it was more of a project to introduce Brynn to the world of dating and that it was casual and short-term and just for fun, then no one would get their hearts broken. And no one would be buying diamond rings. Noah felt like scowling even thinking about that. He knew, firsthand, how easy it was to fall for Brynn. Even with the “casual and fun” rule firmly established, he couldn’t guarantee that Brynn wouldn’t be proposed to. Six times.
So far the guys in Bliss had been staying away from her. Evan and Parker maintained it was because Noah had made it clear that she was his. But she wasn’t. He was simply her friend. Her guardian maybe. He’d promised Rudy he’d look out for her, and from day one he’d been determined to send her back to New York happier, more confident, and with her inheritance firmly intact. So he’d taken six months to help her adjust to small-town life, get her pie shop going, and get to know her so he could more effectively set her up with the right guys.
Not because he was a selfish, possessive asshole who had taken about one day to realize that he didn’t want to share her.
He just needed to establish with all of the single guys in Bliss between ages twenty-five and thirty-five—that seemed like a good age range for the twenty-nine-year-old Brynn—that they were just a part of a larger project to show Brynn how fun dating could be. To help her practice for when she went back to New York and had to pick the nice guys out from the dickheads.
He could do that. He knew all the guys in town. He could easily spread the word that each date was a one time thing and that it better be fun for her and they’d better all be gentlemen.
Meaning no diamond rings.
And no sex.
He felt his chest tighten at that thought. Yeah, he could definitely spread that around.
He frowned at Mitch. “If you’re going to ask her out, it’s only one time and it’s just for a fun, casual date.”
Mitch didn’t say anything.
“You are going to ask her out, right?” Noah asked. He supposed he couldn’t scare all of the other guys off. But he could make sure they knew he was watching their every fucking move.
“Yeah. Eventually.”
Noah felt his frown deepen. “Eventually?”
“Yeah, definitely. Eventually.”
“What’s that mean?” Noah asked.
Mitch pushed away from the car, gave Noah a grin, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Just thinking, five other guys need to ask her out too, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, with a woman like Brynn, you don’t really want to be the first, knowing she’s got to date these other guys. You kind of want to be number six, you know?”
Mitch started for the door. Noah scowled after him. “You want to be number six?”
“The last guy? The one that can stick around? The one that doesn’t have to give her up to someone else? Um, yeah.” Then he gave Noah a little wave and disappeared through the doorway.
* * *
Kahlua milkshakes and pedicures.
Brynn knew what this meant.
Her sisters were staging an intervention.
Thank God.
She took a deep breath. It didn’t matter that Mitch hadn’t called her or come by the pie shop in the last two days.
It didn’t matter that Noah hadn’t said a word about Mitch’s flirting the other day or that he didn’t seem to care that it had happened.
Maybe they’d talked about her after she left. Maybe Noah had told Mitch that she was a nerd who preferred test tubes to people, and he’d decided not to bother with her.
It didn’t matter. This was all just one big experiment, and she had two of the best resources for men and dating right here in this very house with her. Her sisters were both gorgeous and confident and dated a lot. Most of Ava’s dates had doubled as business meetings, and Cori had been well-known for casual flings and nothing more. Still, they’d both had a lot more experience just being with and talking to men. Brynn was going to figure this thing out. Tonight. And drink a lot of Kahlua. Cori’s adult milkshakes were second only to her macchiatos.
“Hi, hon,” Cori said brightly from where she was sitting at the dining room table removing the bright pink nail polish from her toes.
“Hey.” Brynn swung her bag from her shoulder and dropped it onto one of the chairs. “How was your day?”
“Good. We’ve got about half of the loan Ava took out paid off.”
Brynn slid into a chair. That was good news. One of the most direct stipulations in Rudy’s will was that they turn a profit with the pie shop by the end of twelve months and that everything they spent on the shop had to come from the shop, no using their own private accounts. Three months ago, just as they’d paid off the loan Rudy had for the shop, Ava had come to Brynn and Cori asking if she could take out another loan. She’d wanted to open up a doorway between Parker’s diner and the pie shop and combine their two kitchens since Parker was going to be co-owner eventually. Cori and Brynn had trusted Ava to make that call. She was the business tycoon. She knew that you had to spend money to make money. And honestly, bringing Parker into the pie shop did seem to have increased business. The pies had improved—though Ava had finally figured out her own apple pie and it was amazing—and people apparently liked the idea that things were more stable and permanent with the shop now. Parker was a Bliss boy who had no intentions of ever leaving, and Cori was settling down with Evan. It seemed that knowledge had helped the town to start to invest more interest and money in the shop.
“So we’ve got six more months. If we pay that loan off, then everything becomes profit,” Brynn said.
“Well, after expenses,” Cori said. “Which have gone up a little. I had no idea how much more electricity that huge fridge and oven Ava put in would use.”
Yeah, Brynn had no idea what a normal electric bill would be for a house, not to mention an entire restaurant. Cori even took care of the bills at the house. Brynn was pretty clueless about that stuff.
They were heiresses to a twelve-billion-dollar fortune. Clearly none of them had ever really worried about things like budgets or balancing loan payments with electric bills. They’d never had to differentiate between the things they wanted and the things they needed. Brynn hadn’t really ever given a lot of thought to her finances. She had been given a monthly allowance from Carmichael Enterprises ever since she’d graduated high school. A lot of Brynn’s work was funded by grants and by her own trust fund, but because she’d never needed a regular paycheck, she essentially worked for the lab for free.
“Oh good, you’re here.” Ava swept into the room with glasses that were rimmed with chocolate sprinkles.
Brynn almost laughed. Sprinkles and garnishes and details like decorating glasses were usually Cori’s forte. But since Ava had been seeing Parker she’d become a lot more interested in food.
She accepted one of the hurricane glasses from Ava and held it out for Cori to fill. Ava dropped a piece of dark chocolate on top, slid a red and white striped straw into the drink, and then reached for her own glass.
Brynn sat back in her chair and brought the straw to her mouth, drawing a taste of the milkshake. It was delicious. And she was totally going to let her sisters lead this discussion. She had a few questions, for sure, but she was curious how they were going to approach this.
After they all had their milkshakes in hand and the scent of mocha overpowered the scent of nail polish remover, Ava said, “Brynn, we need to talk.”
Brynn nodded and drew on her straw again.
“Tomorrow is six months we’ve been in Bliss,” Ava said.
“I know,” Brynn told her. She kicked her shoes off and propped her feet on the chair beside her. She studied her toes. Yeah, she could use a touch-up.
“And that means there’s only six months left to…get everything done,” Cori said.
“I know.” Maybe she’d let Cori and Ava pick the color of her toenail polish. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure she knew what she was doing in any area other than her lab. She waited on people in a tiny pie shop in a tiny town in Kansas and still needed to escape for an hour or so once or twice a day. How was she going to handle dating?
“And there’s really only one thing that we haven’t even started on,” Ava said. Almost carefully.
Brynn looked up and was alarmed to feel her eyes stinging.
Both of her sisters immediately sat forward. “Brynn?” Cori asked.
Brynn took a long drag of her milkshake and then sniffed and set her glass down. “I need to start dating.”
They both nodded.
“And I have no idea how to do that.”
“Oh,” Ava said, glancing at Cori.
“Yeah, we were wondering about that,” Cori admitted.
Brynn sniffed again. She was a brilliant scientist. She was an avid reader. She was well-informed and had a strong social conscience. But she had no idea about men. Her father hadn’t even known what to do with her.
Sure, she’d tried to avoid him as much as possible so some of the lack of interaction had been her fault too. But it had really made her life so much easier.
It had made Ava happy to follow Rudy Carmichael’s footsteps in business, and Cori had indignantly rebelled against just about everything that had been important to him from his company, to his money, to the importance he placed on social connections and making things “look good”. Brynn hadn’t taken either approach. She wasn’t gung ho about Carmichael Enterprises as a whole and had no desire to spend her life in an office and conference rooms. So she’d never faked any interest in her father’s business or social life. But neither had she fought him. If he wanted his daughters at his birthday party, she showed up. If he wanted to take her and her sisters out for ice cream after their spelling bee, she went.
But that meant that she didn’t spend much time with him and almost never one-on-one. He’d tried to spend some time with each girl on her own, but Brynn could still remember how awkward that first dinner between them had been. They had nothing in common other than her mother and sisters. And DNA she supposed. And Brynn never had understood the idea of small talk. She still didn’t. And she was pretty sure that meant she was going to suck at dating.
“I guess we were kind of thinking that Noah was going to be the one setting you up with guys he thought you’d get along with,” Cori said.
“He hasn’t said anything about it,” Brynn told her.
“Shocking,” Ava said dryly.
Brynn frowned. “What’s that mean?”
Ava gave her a small smile. “Noah doesn’t want you to date anyone, honey.”
“He doesn’t?” Brynn felt her heart trip slightly. Then frowned. She couldn’t let her heart get all worked up over Noah. Her libido, sure, but hearts were different. “Why not?”
“Because he’s in love with you,” Cori said. “Obviously that’s going to make it hard to set you up with anyone else.”
Crap. She sucked in a quick breath. “You think so?”
She had very little experience socializing with men, and she certainly had never had one in love with her before. Or vice versa. She didn’t know the signs.
“You really don’t know that he’s in love with you?” Cori asked. She was looking at Brynn with a mix of wonder and affec
tion.
“He tells everyone we’re just friends.”
“Sure. Because that’s what he’s telling himself too,” Cori said.
“But you don’t think it’s true?”
“I think he wants it to be true,” Ava said. “And I think you are friends. But yeah, there’s more.”
“And obviously that’s a problem,” Cori said.
Yeah, it was a problem. Because she was leaving in six months. And he was staying. Noah would never be happy in New York, and, as lovely and quaint as Bliss was, she couldn’t be happy here long-term. She was a scientist. Her contribution to the world happened in beakers and test tubes. And there were so many people here. There weren’t, really. Especially not compared to New York City. But it seemed like more here because in New York she did not have fourteen hundred and sixty-three people interested in her.
That’s where Noah and his garage came in.
There were days she and Noah barely talked at all. She’d walk into his garage, say hi, he’d hand her a bottle of iced tea or root beer, she’d climb onto the truck, open her book and just stay there for an hour or more. It was the least pressure she’d ever felt around another human being.
She was very aware of him. She loved watching him. Loved being around him. But she didn’t feel the need to talk to him. He was her haven. In the midst of a day full of Cori and Ava, in the middle of town that wanted to know every detail about her and her sisters, Noah just let her sit there and stare at his ass.
“It’s definitely a problem,” Ava agreed. “And you still have to date five other guys.”
“Six,” Brynn corrected her.
Cori lifted an eyebrow. “You’re still maintaining that the time you’ve spent with Noah isn’t dating?”
“It’s not.” Brynn shook her head. “We’re friends.” Cori started to protest, but Brynn said quickly, “Maybe it’s become more.” Like a pretty strong case of lust on her part. “But we’ve never formally decided to date.”
“It doesn’t have to be formal,” Ava said.
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