Morning After (A Reynolds Security Novel)

by Hale, Melissa

  Morning After

  By

  Melissa Hale

  Morning After © 2014 Melissa Hale

  All Rights Reserved. This ebook is for your personal enjoyment and may not be resold

  All characters, locations, and situations in this book are fictional and a product of the author’s imagination.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form.

  Table Of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 1

  "Men suck!" Erica fumed, letting the back door slam shut behind her. She saw Zoe's face appear in the window of the door to the shop before she pushed it open.

  "So I take it the nightingale act didn't go over well." Zoe had a classic mild expression that betrayed nothing of her thoughts or emotions. Erica wished she could perfect that look. She tossed her purse into her office and it landed with a thud on the desk.

  "I caught the no good, lying bastard in bed with that twelve year old chippy from next door! In bed!"

  "Twelve?" Zoe looked horrified and Erica winced slightly.

  "She's not really twelve, more like twenty two," she grumbled. Zoe let out a sigh of relief. "But she acts twelve! All the bubbly giggling. It's disgusting!" Erica pulled her apron over her head and tied it with jerking motions. "I mean he was in bed with her, they were... you know..."

  "Fucking?" Zoe supplied. "It's okay Erica you can say the word, you're an adult."

  "Shut up Zoe," Erica said without heat. "I am so done with men."

  "Again."

  "I am going to switch to women. How 'bout it? You interested?"

  "Listen Honey I love you, I'm just not in love with you." Zoe patted Erica's shoulder gently. Erica felt herself smile for the first time since walking in on her now ex-boyfriend and the blond strumpet from across the hall. She took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh.

  "I love you Zoe. If you could just marry me and father my children I could live happily ever after," she whined.

  "Unfortunately, we all have our short comings and mine is that I don't have a cock." Zoe sighed. Erica actually laughed out loud at that.

  "That is a plus actually. It's the other gender that keeps breaking my heart."

  "Your heart's not broken," Zoe scoffed.

  "What are you talking about? I just caught my boyfriend in... in... in..."

  "In flagrante delicto?" Zoe supplied and Erica glared.

  "With another woman! What else would I be but heartbroken?"

  "You're not heartbroken. You're just pissed because he ruined your five year plan."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because if you really cared about the man you’d be in tears." Erica glared at her friend. She hated it when Zoe was right. Which was most of the time. Thankfully she was saved from having to admit it by the chime on the front door indicating a customer. They both turned and headed back into the shop.

  Together Erica and Zoe owned and operated 'The Morning After' a small coffee shop that had a great location in Edgepark California. A bedroom community of Sacramento. The location brought the best of both worlds, those looking for a fast cup on their way to somewhere else and the corporate suits that needed the fuel to get through the day. Erica felt her professional life was a success. She and Zoe had scrimped and saved to open this place two years ago and it was doing great. Zoe was her best-friend, had been since grade school. She was a great business partner too. She had majored in business while Erica herself had majored in marketing. Yeah her professional life was exactly as she wanted it. It was her personal life that was in disarray. It was more than the most recent dud of a boyfriend. She wanted a family. She had been a late in life 'surprise' to her parents. They were both gone now and there had never been any grandparents or aunts, uncles, and cousins. Zoe was like a sister but it wasn't the same. She wanted a child of her own. Someone to wrap her life around. Unfortunately, finding a father for that child was proving difficult. She refused to be a single parent, not on purpose anyway. She felt she owed it to her child to give him or her both parents. Now thinking about it she had to admit Marco probably wouldn't make the best father. It was his family that had drawn her anyway. He had a huge Italian family. There were so many of them, all loud and in everyone's business. It was great, exactly the kind of family she always wanted. As she sat there thinking about it she wondered if any of Marco's many brothers or cousins were available. She sighed shaking her head. Zoe was right her heart wasn't engaged in this.

  "That was an ominous sigh." Zoe commented as she handed a coffee concoction across the counter to one of their regulars. "One chocolate joe, extra creamy; thanks Karen, have a great day!" she finished, before focusing her intense green gaze back on her. Erica squirmed slightly not wanting to reveal what she'd been thinking.

  "I was just wondering if Marco was having fun scrubbing his carpet." Zoe's brows drew together in confusion. "I left a trail of pasta fagioli across his precious white carpet." Zoe's mouth dropped open, then she grinned.

  "Good for you! But I thought you were taking him chicken soup because he was sick?"

  "He doesn't like chicken soup."

  "How can anyone not like chicken soup?” Zoe cried, “That's un-American. Italian bastard!" Erica laughed. A customer approached the counter preventing her from commenting.

  "Welcome to Morning After, what can I get you?" The guy at the counter was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He wasn't bad looking but his eyes were glued firmly to her chest. She was used to it. In fact, in a tongue-n-cheek move she’d had their aprons made a form fitting black with white letters across the chest. Hers said ‘honey’ and Zoe's said ‘sugar’. Most people assumed it was her name. Not that she really cared.

  "How 'bout a last night?" The guy grinned at his own joke but Erica wasn't amused and after the day she’d had, she didn't feel like faking it. She had worked as a bartender before opening her shop. It was good training for dealing with guys like this. She didn't smile she didn't even blink just continued to stare at him until he awkwardly placed his order.

  "Moo joe and make it sticky." She called out the code for a Carmel latte.

  "Aggie is out early today." Zoe observed a short time later. Erica looked up and saw an elderly woman pushing a shopping cart up the sidewalk. Aggie was a homeless woman who had been walking the same route as long as they'd been in business. Erica poured a cup of coffee and put two sugars in it just like Aggie liked it. Then she grabbed a cellophane wrapped sandwich from the cooler case and walked out the front door.

  "You know I can't take that child." Aggie rasped as she approached.

  "Now Aggie; you know I have to throw them out at the end of the day. You are just helping me out, saving me the effort."

  "Just this one time." Aggie relented.

  "Okay, see you tomorrow." Erica called cheerily. She turned back to the shop just as one of the regulars was approaching. He waited and held the door for her. Erica smiled her thanks.

  "Joe." she called the minute she stepped in. The man smiled and made his way toward his usual table by the wall. She wa
tched him while Zoe got his coffee. Boring Joe. That was the name of his order since it was straight black coffee but it had become his name as well. He was always impeccably dressed in a dark colored suit. Never a hair out of place or a spot on his tie. If nothing else he was a creature of habit. His order was always the same. He always arrived promptly at four thirty and left promptly at five thirty when they closed. He would spend the hour on his laptop. He didn't say much but he was unfailingly polite when he did speak. She couldn't complain about his presence though, he was certainly nice to look at. He was handsome without being pretty. With short dark hair and eyes so blue you could tell they were blue from across the room. She was sure he didn't have any trouble finding a date. But his ring finger was bare. He was husband material, he was steady and dependable but he was boring. Having recently realized that she would have to figure love into her plan she knew she could never be happy with straight laced and boring. She was going to need a little excitement a little spontaneity. He screamed predictability.

  "Here you go." She placed the cup on the small round table beside his laptop. "Can I get you anything to eat to go with it?"

  "No thanks." He smiled and pushed the five dollar bill on the table toward her but she waved him off.

  "It's on me today," she said as she walked away.

  "Uh-oh, bad day?" Surprised by the statement she turned back. He must have read the surprise on her face because he elaborated. "I've noticed you are very philanthropic on bad days." philanthropic, she thought there's a ten dollar word. Unfortunately, he was right. Giving things away made her feel good and she did it when she was feeling down.

  “If you knew what the markup was on black coffee you wouldn’t think I was a philanthropist,” she grinned. "Besides it isn’t anything a night out won’t cure.”

  “I know a great place on the edge of town. They have live music.” Erica felt a spark of interest even as she was shaking her head and a blush was creeping up her cheeks.

  “I wasn’t fishing. I don’t date customers.”

  “That’s too bad. It’s hard to find good coffee.” She smiled but beat a hasty retreat before those bright blue eyes made her forget he was all wrong for her.

  Ethan watched her go, cursing his lack of tact. He'd never felt so ill at ease. It was driving him crazy. He prided himself on the ability to stay cool and collected in every situation and yet one cute blond serving coffee flustered him. From the first moment he had seen her, she had tied him in knots. His company had been operating from the building across the street for well over a year but he hadn't set foot in the coffee shop until a month ago. He'd had to cover for one of his guys and pulled an all-nighter. By the late afternoon he was dragging. He just needed a pickme up to get through the last couple hours of his day.

  He went into the little shop because it was close. He expected it to look like every other yuppy coffee shop, not his speed at all. But it wasn't what he expected. The name of it was Morning After and as part of the décor there was a section of the wall dedicated to hangover remedies. Some of them were downright outrageous, but it added to the ambiance of the place. The two blondes behind the counter were a definite plus as well. Their aprons said ‘Honey’ and ‘Sugar’ lettered in such a way as to draw attention rather than dispel it. Not that he needed any help. They were both very attractive. Both blond though 'Sugar' was tall and willowy whereas 'Honey' was shorter and curvy. He was attracted to her immediately. He was also tongue tied immediately. She teased him about coming to a coffee shop to order straight coffee and for once, he couldn't give what he got except to say if the coffee was good it didn't need any embellishments. He found himself drawn back day after day, though he quickly realized she wasn't there on the weekend. He still couldn't bring himself to have a real conversation with her. Instead he did what he did best, he watched and gathered intel.

  After a couple of days he learned that despite the aprons their names weren't Honey and Sugar. Though they answered to them. He also learned that they were owners not just workers and seemed to genuinely enjoy each other's company. The only thing he hadn't figured out was how to break the ice. Now he seemed to have fumbled it. He watched her going through her closing process and mentally regrouped. This wasn't over. He would have her and maybe once he'd gotten her out of his system his life could get back to normal.

  Chapter 2

  Erica walked into the salon and a woman with dark spiky hair met her at the door.

  "I got your text. What's your hair emergency?" The other woman's eyes were glued to her head as if looking for a bald spot.

  "Calm down Suz. I just want to go back to my natural color." Suzy looked at her thoughtfully for a minute.

  "You finally kicked Marco to the curb?" Erica winced slightly.

  "That obvious?"

  "You should change your hair to please yourself. Not to please a man." Suzy walked past her, locked the door and turned off the front lights.

  "You closed up just for me?"

  "Of course darling, we don't need any witnesses for our debauchery." Suzy laughed and swiveled a chair for Erica to sit in.

  Once Suzy had the color in Erica's hair to set; she handed her a glass of wine and sat down.

  "So, are you done for good this time?"

  "Yes."

  "Thank God!"

  Erica gaped at her friend. "You didn't like him? You never said anything."

  "Oh darling it wasn't so much that I didn't like him it's just that he never seemed genuine. Always peppering everything with Italian like English wasn't his first language. Hello, he is second generation American. 'Ciao Bella'." Suzy's imitation of Marco made Erica laugh. Suzy's expression sobered slightly as she met her friend's eyes.

  "What does this mean for the five year plan?"

  "I guess I start over." Erica sighed.

  "Remind me the steps of the plan again."

  "Year one is getting to know the person and dating. Year two is living together. Year three is getting and being engaged. We'll get married at the beginning of the fourth year and by the end of that year we'll start trying for a baby. So by the end of the fifth year I'll be holding my baby." Erica could see the skepticism in her friend’s eyes.

  "Erica, you do realize that some things you just can't plan?"

  "Everything important I've done in my life has had a plan and a timeline."

  "Darling, this isn't like getting a degree or starting a business. This is far more complex and it's forever. Stop obsessing about timelines. Find yourself a man that treats you right and makes your toes curl in bed." Erica burst out laughing at that.

  "That would be even harder. I have never met a man that made my toes curl in bed."

  "Well darling if you are going to say forever to a man make sure it's one you're going to want in your bed forever."

  "What's got you so distracted?" Ethan dropped his brows in a frown as he squirted water into his open mouth.

  "What are you talking about? You haven't gotten in a single good shot." He scowled across the ring at his closest friend. They had been through hell together. He knew Jace could read him like a book but that didn't mean he was going to admit anything.

  "You haven't wiped the floor with me yet."

  "Maybe I decided to go easy on you."

  "That'd be a first!" Jace snorted, "Come on something's been up for weeks. You'd tell me if you were planning to fire me wouldn't you?" Ethan had to laugh at that.

  "Jace this place would be boring without you." It was the truth. Jace brought a little levity to every situation. But the fact was, he and Jace were partners. He couldn't fire him even if he wanted to, which of course he didn't. "Besides no one else will let me kick their ass on a regular basis."

  "Let's go another round. I think I can kick yours today."

  "Mr. Reynolds, you need to hit the showers or you'll be late for your one o'clock."

  "Saved by the bell," Ethan grinned. "On my way Norma," he called over his shoulder.

  "Hurry up, mommy's calling."r />
  "You're just jealous because my assistant actually has skills, whereas the ones you keep hiring for their legs are completely useless."

  "They aren't completely useless. They are very nice to look at." Ethan laughed as he walked from the gym to the elevator. There were showers in the locker rooms off the gym but he preferred the shower in the private bathroom off his office.

  "Thanks for the heads up Norma," he said as he crossed through her office to get to his.

  "No problem, sir. Here are your messages." He knew Norma mothered him but he didn't mind. He had served with Norma's son. He'd been killed in action in the same attack that had earned him a medical discharge. She no longer had a son to mother and he'd never had a real mother so it worked out well for both of them. Besides, he understood her. When she did it, it was called mothering and nurturing. When he did it, it was loyalty and protectiveness.

  He finished his shower with five minutes to spare and it occurred to him he didn't know what his one o'clock was. He sat down in front of his computer and saw an instant message from Norma.

  "One o'clock is a job interview, details in your inbox." He had to smile, she knew him so well. He opened the resume in his email and did a quick scan. Lou Santiago recently finished a tour with the Army where he'd served in the weapons depot. Ethan liked to hire ex-military not just out of a patriotic duty. But because he knew what it was like to be dropped back into the civilian world and wonder what you were going to do next. That's why he started Reynolds Security, to hire guys just like him. He IM’d Norma to show him in and rose to greet him. He barely managed to hide his surprise when he realized Lou was a woman.

  Chapter 3

  “Good afternoon Ms. Santiago. I am Ethan Reynolds.” He put his hand out and the young woman shook it firmly. “Please have a seat.” He resumed his seat behind his desk and noted the young woman in front of him. She looked very young, but he knew she couldn’t be as young as she looked because she’d been in the army. She was petite and obviously a Latina. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun at her neck.