I turn toward Wyatt’s table just as he’s standing, his brow furrowed with concern as he puts his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders and guides her out. She’s crying.
“Excuse us,” he says as he passes me. “I left enough to cover the bill.”
I follow a few steps behind, watching them go. I don’t think they had a fight or broke up because she wouldn’t want him touching her. He guides her through the front dining room, opens the door for her, and then they’re gone.
I’m not going to spy on them. Not my business.
I make my way to the front dining room, just doing my job, checking if everyone’s happy with their meal. There’s two tables with couples deep in conversation. Probably date night out for the parents. I glance toward the parking lot, but it’s too dark to see.
He seemed kind of concerned and caring. The complete opposite of the way he is with me. I exhale sharply and push him to the back of my mind.
Where he lingers for the rest of the night. Dammit.
A week later, Harper’s back in town. To see her two weeks in a row is a surprise, but I’m happy. She and Garrett just showed up at The Horseman Inn for lunch.
I meet them in the front dining room, where they’ve been seated. Harper stands to hug me. “Are you trying to singlehandedly keep this place in business?” I whisper jokingly.
She smiles and pulls back, holding my arms. “The food’s so good I told Garrett we had to drive out here for lunch.” She says it extra loud for the benefit of our Saturday lunch crowd. All three tables full.
Truth is, most of our profit is in the bar, but I want to keep this a family place too. It’s important for the whole community to feel welcome here.
Garrett stands to greet me, and I give him a hug too. He’s like a big muscled teddy bear despite his tough-looking exterior. His dark brown hair is clipped short, emphasizing the sharp angles of his cheekbones and square jaw.
“Taking good care of our girl?” I ask, socking him on the shoulder.
“Sure am, and vice versa.”
They take their seats again.
“Sit with us for a few minutes,” Harper urges.
I take the chair next to her. “No guard today?” Usually Harper’s bodyguard sticks close.
“I don’t worry so much about security here, but he is with us,” she says. “We left him at my grandmother’s house. They’re watching an old cowboy movie.”
“Really?” My mind conjures her cantankerous eighty-seven-year-old grandmother sitting in her old high-back chair, while across from her, big muscled Joe with his neck tattoo sits on her plastic slip-covered floral sofa. An unusual pairing.
“Yeah,” Harper says. “Once Garrett told her Joe was cool, she gave him a chance. Garrett can do no wrong in her eyes.”
“Aren’t you special?” I ask him.
He lifts a massive shoulder. “What can I say? Chicks dig me.”
I laugh. “So will you guys be around a while? I could check if Jenna and Audrey can meet up with us.”
“Sure, that’d be great,” Harper says. “After lunch, we’re heading over to Wyatt’s place to check out the renovation. You want to come along?”
“He invited you over?” I blurt. Stupid question. Of course he invited them. They wouldn’t just show up, driving all the way out here from the city.
Harper’s brows lift. “Yeah, he wants Garrett to check on the progress and give his opinion on stuff. He’s like an expert on every aspect of construction.” She smiles at him, hearts in her eyes, and he brushes a kiss over her knuckles. Her lips part, and it looks like a kiss is about to happen.
I turn away, feeling like I’m intruding on a personal moment. “So, I should—”
“I just can’t wait to see the inside of the place,” Harper says. “Aren’t you dying of curiosity? Remember how scared we were of that old house growing up? No one ever went trick-or-treating there.” She turns to Garrett. “We thought it was haunted.”
“Naturally,” he says. “Big empty house on top of the hill with a lighthouse on dry land. What else could it be?”
Harper nods once and continues. “People said that the old man who used to live there was nuts, building that lighthouse. You’ve got to come with us, Syd. We’ll finally see what all the fuss was about.”
My heart pounds. What is wrong with me? It’s not like I’m afraid of ghosts. Why does every part of me want to scream no? It’s that woman. I don’t want to witness more of Wyatt with his beautiful girlfriend, all kindness and caring. Everything he’s not with me.
Am I actually jealous? Hell no. It just rubs me the wrong way because he goes out of his way to antagonize me.
“I don’t know if I can get away,” I say, gesturing around us. “Lots of work to do.”
“He told us to stop by any time,” Harper says. “We can go late afternoon. Don’t you close for a few hours between lunch and dinner?” This is true. There’s a gap in shifts and two hours of dead time.
I blink, the walls closing in on me. “Yes, but there’s still work to do.”
“Oh, Syd, are you still fighting with him?” she asks.
Like it’s my fault? Wart is the one who nonstop criticizes everything around here. He can’t even remember my name! It’s not that difficult. I work hard to sound calm. “No. I was never fighting with him.” He antagonizes me, and I respond in kind.
She exchanges a look with Garrett before turning back to me. “This might be a good opportunity to mend fences, you know? Meet him on his home turf, find something nice to say about his place, and you’re on the first step to the road of…friendship.”
My head snaps toward her, instantly suspicious. “Why did you pause there?”
“Pause where?” she asks innocently.
She’s a fantastic actress, but I know her too well for that. “Before friendship.”
She leans close. “It’s no secret that tension between a man and a woman is often…” She mouths sexual.
I fight back a blush. All those sexy dreams. “Nope. That’s not what’s going on here. Besides, he has a girlfriend. I saw her last week.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.” She turns to Garrett. “Did you know?”
“No, but guys don’t share as much by text as you women do.”
“What exactly did he say in his text?” Harper asks.
Garrett shrugs. “He said come up and see the place, and I said, okay, when? No further sharing happened. Other than some renovation stuff.”
Harper smiles, grabs him by the shirt, and pulls him close for a kiss. “I just love how you get it, honey.”
I look away. Harper is not normally mushy like this. She was raised by her tough grandmother. This is what love does to a person. Makes them completely unaware of how ridiculous they sound. Not me. I’ve been in love before, and not once have I been as ridiculously mushy as she is.
I clear my throat. “I’ll, uh, text Jenna and Audrey. Maybe they’d like to see the old place.” I send a text through our group text and stand. "Back to work for me. I’ll let you know if I hear from them.” My phone chimes, and I check the screen. "They hit the mall for the January sales."
"Bummer,” Harper says. “At least we’ve got you. Maybe they’ll be done by late afternoon, and we can all go to Wyatt’s place together."
“Why does everyone have to go see Wyatt?” I ask with more bite than I intended. It just feels like everyone and everything is pulling me toward the one man on earth who makes me nuts.
Her eyes widen. “I just thought it would be cool to see the haunted house we were terrified of as kids together. What’s your problem with Wyatt?”
I clench my teeth. “I don’t have a problem with Wyatt.” Except that my friends keep pushing me to make nice with him. It’s as if everyone’s forgotten how much he’s insulted me and my place, all with a smirk on his face. He knows very well what he’s doing. Even ignoring all that, I’m not sure I can work with him, given how he takes a piece of every business he invests in. Unfortu
nately, I still need to consider approaching him, but I’m not ready to do that until I can figure out a deal that leaves me as full owner of my restaurant. I’m just not sure what I can offer that he’d want.
Everything with Wyatt is so damn difficult. The man knocks me off balance in every way, which is why I’m not ready to visit him and “make nice.”
“Mmm-hmm,” she says. “Tension.” But she says it like sexual.
My cheeks heat, and I quickly turn away to hide it, waving over my shoulder as I go back to work.
How did I get conned into this? I’m sitting in the back seat of Harper’s black Mercedes SUV with Jenna and Audrey on our way to Wyatt’s place. Audrey’s in the middle seat because she’s the smallest.
Adrenaline races through me as the car makes its way up the winding hill to his house. It’s a large two-story with gray clapboard siding. The gray lighthouse with a white top is to the right of the house. I stare at the lighthouse. Why?
“I only have an hour before I have to get back,” I say.
“We know,” a chorus of voices returns.
“The place is mostly empty,” Garrett says from the driver’s seat. “We’re just going to take the tour. I doubt he even has anywhere for us to sit.”
“Aren’t you guys dying of curiosity?” Harper asks with an enthusiastic smile at those of us trapped in the back seat.
“Yes,” Audrey says.
“Totally,” Jenna says.
I’m so tense I’m about to leap out of the vehicle.
“Syd?” Harper asks.
“Yes, of course I’m curious. That’s the only reason I’m here.” I stare out the tinted window. Almost there.
“Syd and Wyatt have a thing,” Jenna says.
My head snaps to her. “We do not have a thing.”
“You kinda do,” Audrey says.
“It’s sexual tension,” Harper says matter-of-factly.
“He has a girlfriend!” I exclaim.
My friends titter.
“Syd has a huge buildup of tension,” Jenna says. “It’s been what…” She starts counting on her fingers.
Months. Too many months.
I glare at her. “Would you shut up? Garrett doesn’t want to hear about my sex life.”
He grins. “Pretend I’m not here.”
“Six months!” Jenna crows. “Right? Since Todd.”
Todd was the guy I briefly dated when I lived in Hoboken before I came home to take over the restaurant. And I’m not going to share that it never got that far. I tried, I really did. But he touched me so gently, with barely there feather-like touches, I felt like I was with a girl. I need a man who’s not afraid to grab on and take. That’s how I am. I probably scared Todd away with my boldness. So, yeah, it’s been more than six months. Whatever. There’s more important things in life than sex.
I’m just so sick of crappy lovers. At my age I know what I like and don’t like, and why is that so hard for a guy to get? I’m tired of directing—harder, no, not there, here. More of that, a little to the right.
It’s a basic problem of incompatibility for the most part. It’s not me.
The car comes to a halt alongside a red Jeep. There’s also a silver BMW SUV. I bet his girlfriend’s here. Welp, he must’ve made her feel better after she cried, or she wouldn’t have stuck around. I force myself to take a deep breath over the tightness in my chest. It doesn’t make sense to feel hurt. So he’s a beast to me and a sweetheart to her. Why do I even care what he does?
I get out of the car and shove my hands in the pockets of my black down coat. The faint sound of a dog barking catches my attention. There it is, by the front window. A little white shih tzu with its front paws on the windowsill, barking like it means business. Must be his girlfriend’s dog. I imagine Wyatt would have a big tough-looking dog like my brother Adam’s bulldog.
Garrett reaches the blue front door first, and we all gather behind him. I spot Wyatt scooping up the dog before walking toward the door.
I slip to the back of the group, standing behind tall Jenna.
“Hiding?” she asks.
I don’t respond. I don’t know why I want a buffer. I don’t know why my pulse is racing and my mouth is dry. I must be coming down with something.
6
“Welcome to Casa Winters,” Wyatt says when he answers the door.
I follow behind as everyone greets him warmly. I’m going to do the same, blend with the crowd. Just a warm hello. Or hi. Keep it simple.
But the moment we come face-to-face, his mouth curves up into a small smirk, his whisky eyes sparkling, and not one thing comes out of my mouth. Worse, my stomach flutters, actually flutters. It must be because those eyes feature in all my sexy dreams.
Damn you, Satan man!
He sets the little dog down, who immediately starts sniffing my boots. “Cindy, you made it. I didn’t know if you ever left The Horseman Inn.”
He’s deliberately goading me with the Cindy, and I refuse to rise to the bait. “Yes, I do have a life.”
“She’s due back in an hour,” Harper puts in helpfully.
“Thank you for the reminder, Harp,” I say, my gaze locked on Wyatt in some kind of staring contest.
Wyatt blinks first. “Well then, let’s get on with the tour.” He gestures for us to follow, and then looks down at the dog. “Snowball, come.”
Snowball? The dog obediently trots after Wyatt as he walks over to Garrett.
It has to be a shared couple dog. I can’t imagine Wyatt would get a white shih tzu and name it something cutesy like Snowball. He’s Satan. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. I laugh to myself at my little joke.
I follow the group as Wyatt gestures around the living room just off the foyer. It’s a large empty space with cream-colored walls and an ornate fireplace with a white carved wood mantel and surround. “We took out the dividing wall from what used to be a parlor and living room, so it’s one large living room now. Under the tarps is original wide plank oak flooring. I plan to restore it.”
Garrett goes over to inspect the fireplace.
The windows are tall and start low to the ground, letting in lots of light. I look around. I can see the potential as a modernized space. Everything’s light and bright. There’s no creepy haunted feeling either. I guess when you don’t know what’s up with a place, it’s easy to make up a story. It wasn’t just us kids who thought an eccentric old man used to live up here in a haunted house. Everyone talked about it like that in town.
“I’m going to put some cool chandeliers in here,” Wyatt says from across the space.
“You need three,” Garrett says. “Unless you add in additional lighting.”
We continue on to a large modern kitchen with white cabinets, sleek light gray granite on the counters and the large center island, and stainless steel appliances. Across from the island is a large light wood kitchen table with matching wooden chairs with seat cushions. It’s all surprisingly homey and not at all what I expected he’d have. How does Satan decorate hell? Ha-ha. Considering how old the house is, I thought it’d be drafty too. Even my feet are toasty warm.
“Did you put in heated floors?” I ask.
“Yup. Kitchen and bathroom,” Wyatt replies. “Not hard to add when you’re putting in new flooring.”
I stare at him, and then realize I’m staring and belatedly nod. It’s just that he seems so different standing in this beautiful space. Relaxed and at home. Well, duh, Syd! He is at home.
“Right through here,” he says, gesturing for us to follow him through an archway.
This next room has only a brown leather sofa. Another fireplace, less ornate than the first, and a hardwood floor with a few scratches. A pillow and blanket are folded neatly on one end of the sofa. Is this where he sleeps? Where does his girlfriend sleep? There’s no way they both fit on that sofa. Wyatt’s as big as my brothers, more than six feet and broad shouldered. His long-sleeved black cotton shirt seems to emphasize those wide shoulders and the curve of
bicep. The black really brings out those whiskey eyes.
“I call this my sofa room, but it’ll eventually be the dining room,” he says.
Stop staring! He has a girlfriend. Not that it matters because, even if he was single and not irritating long enough for something to happen, I’m never crossing the line with someone I hope to have a professional relationship with.
“Next is the future library,” he says, leading the way to the next room.
Audrey gets excited and dashes ahead to see. Our little bookworm.
I follow them. It’s just an empty room, but it has a bay window deep enough to sit in and a fireplace. I could imagine curling up in a comfy chair to read on a rainy day.
“What’s your plan?” Audrey asks Wyatt eagerly. She’ll probably want to arrange all his books for him, and then stay to read as many as possible.
Wyatt gestures to the wall across the room. “Built-in bookcases with cabinets on the bottom for storage here.” He gestures to the adjacent wall. “And here.” His eyes meet mine suddenly, giving me a jolt.
He raises his brows, looking at me expectantly.
“Sorry, what?” I say when it seems I must’ve missed something.
One corner of his mouth quirks up. “I said the library is part of what Adam will be working on.” That’s my brother, the master carpenter.
My mouth is so dry. I lick my lips. “Cool. I’m sure you’ll be happy with his work.”
“That’s why I hired him.”
I rub the side of my neck, looking away. It’s the nicest thing he’s ever said to me, complimenting my brother.
“This is so wonderful,” Audrey says in a breathy voice. “A real library at home.”
“The bay window will be a reading nook.” Wyatt gestures toward it. “Shelves all the way to the ceiling, and a ladder on wheels to reach the high stuff.”
Audrey claps, beaming and looking around. She especially would appreciate a rolling ladder since she’s short at five feet one. “I can’t wait to see it!”
Wyatt gives her a genuine nonsmirky smile, and my breath catches. That kind of smile lights up his face. “You’re all welcome back for the grand reveal, which will hopefully be in March. So, back to my humble living space. Upstairs has nothing going on yet. There’s one finished bathroom and, once we can get the permit cleared, I’m having a master bathroom and powder room installed. Can you believe this huge house only has one bathroom? Obviously the old guy didn’t have daughters.”
Fetching: A Frenemies to Lovers Romantic Comedy (Unleashed Romance, Book 1) Page 5
