Burned (Cunningham Security Book 5)

by A. K. Evans

  Because it felt good to be around him.

  And that was wrong.

  So wrong.

  An empty, hollow feeling settled inside me and longing consumed me. I couldn’t explain any of what I was feeling and I certainly didn’t understand it.

  But it wasn’t like it mattered much anyway. He came here, asked his questions, and left. I hadn’t seen him since, not that I expected to.

  Nor did I want to.

  Because, again, it felt good to be around him.

  And he was already taken.

  I would never, ever go there.

  So, I did my best to get on with my days.

  I kept myself surrounded by my flowers and I worked myself to the bone to create stunning bouquets. My floral arrangements were striking. I wasn’t being arrogant; I just knew what I saw and what my customers wanted. And that made me feel good because I knew that I finally had something I was giving to the world that was beautiful.

  The world needed that.

  Mine did, that’s for sure.

  The biggest thing consuming my headspace at the moment was Mother’s Day. It was Saturday, a week before the big day, and I knew this upcoming week was probably going to be the week that I regretted not hiring any help.

  Leading up to today, I’d been making all of the necessary moves to have the week go as smoothly as possible. I had sorted out my flower suppliers and sourced extra supplies like vases, containers, baskets, buckets, and the like.

  My plan for the remainder of the day, after helping the two remaining clients in my shop and any others that strolled in before I closed, was to sort my supplies, set up my workstation, and have everything ready to go so that when Monday rolled around, I’d be ahead of the game. I was going to work late tonight doing just that, so I’d be able to give myself the full day off tomorrow without having to worry.

  Fifteen minutes and two orders later, I was alone in my shop with ten minutes left until I officially closed. Just as I turned around, preparing to head toward the back to get things set up, the bell chimed indicating I had a last-minute customer.

  Spinning around on my heels, I almost went crashing down. I struggled to catch my breath at the sight of Pierce walking toward me.

  “Hey, Zara,” he greeted me with a smile on his face.

  I swallowed and rasped, “Hi, Detective. Is everything okay? Do you have more questions about the fire?”

  He shook his head. “Please, call me Pierce. And no, I don’t have any fire-related questions. I’m just here to order some flowers.”

  A pang of jealousy coursed through me.

  I ignored it and walked toward the counter as I replied, “Sure. What were you looking to get?”

  “Honestly,” he sighed. “I have no idea. I just know I need two arrangements.”

  “Mother’s Day, I assume?”

  He gave me a nod. “One for my mom, and one for a new mom.”

  I held his eyes a moment, pushed past what I was feeling, and responded, “Great. Did you have a budget?”

  “Do I need one for flowers?” he countered.

  I raised my brows and shrugged my shoulders. “I guess it really depends. Depending on the flowers used, it can get expensive. Does your mom have a favorite flower?”

  “The ones that are shaped like circles with the petals that stick out from the center,” he said, looking around the shop.

  I walked over to one of the displays and held the flower up as I asked, “Daisies?”

  He smiled. “Yes, those are the ones.”

  Why did he have to be so good looking? His smile took him up another couple notches.

  “Should I mix in some other flowers or just daisies?”

  “How about you do whatever you think is best and cap it at a hundred bucks?”

  “So fifty dollars for each bouquet then?” I confirmed.

  Shaking his head, he clarified, “No. A hundred on each.”

  Apparently, not only was Pierce good looking, but he also spared no expense for the special women in his life.

  “Perfect.” I forced a smile on my face. “And for the new mom? Any particular flower preference?”

  “Roses,” he replied without hesitation.

  “Was it a baby boy or girl?” I wondered.

  Pierce’s face warmed. “A boy.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.”

  I worked out the rest of the details with Pierce for the pickup time for the flowers. He was going to pick them up next Saturday, which was likely going to be a day that would have me pulling my hair out.

  “Is there something else I can help you with?” I asked when he made no move to leave.

  He took in a deep breath and let it out. “Is there any chance I could talk you into joining me for a cup of coffee sometime soon?”

  My blood began to boil.

  “Excuse me?” I clipped.

  “Coffee,” he stated. “I’d love to take you out some time and get to know you.”

  He said it like it was no big deal. Like he didn’t have a wife who just had a baby at home. Did he think it was okay to just walk in here, buy her flowers, and ask me out?

  “I think I’ll have to pass,” I refused.

  A look of genuine disappointment washed over him.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, I couldn’t control myself. I had once been a woman scorned and I felt it was my responsibility to the sisterhood, the good part of it anyway, to say something.

  “You’ve got some nerve,” I snapped.

  He jerked back as though my words had physically assaulted him. He still managed to ask for an explanation. “Pardon?”

  I slowly started taking steps toward him, my finger pointed at him. “You. How do guys do it?”

  Pierce’s brows pulled together. “I’m sorry? Do what?”

  “Cheat!” I exploded before I started pacing. Then, I ended up going on a rant where I was mostly venting my frustration, but also hoping some divine intervention would give me an answer. “I don’t understand. If you’re with someone and you aren’t happy, you should tell them. Leave them before you decide to move on to someone else. Don’t step out on them so they find you sitting at a restaurant two months before your wedding with another woman in your arms and your tongue down her throat. Because that, in turn, sends the woman you were supposed to marry over the edge of a cliff she was just barely balancing on to begin with!”

  I was worked up and breathing heavy when I finished. I closed my eyes and brought my fingertips up to my temples, where I began massaging them.

  “Zara?” Pierce’s voice invaded the silence in the room.

  I dropped my hands from my head and looked up at him.

  He raised his brows and said, “I’m not cheating on anyone. I’m as single as they come.”

  I rolled my eyes. “At least be honest with me. I don’t know your wife, so it’s not like I can tell her anyway.”

  Shaking his head, he insisted, “I’m not married.”

  Glancing down at his left hand, I saw it was bare. That didn’t mean anything, though. Lots of men didn’t wear wedding bands.

  “I saw you with her.”

  The look on his face was genuinely curious now. “Who?”

  “Your pregnant wife,” I began. “I was at Tasha’s Café the day she went into labor and you ushered her out of there.”

  “Alexandra?”

  Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows at him.

  “Sweetheart, Alex is my sister.”

  “What?” I whispered.

  “In fact, she’s actually my twin sister.”

  “You kissed her.”

  His head jerked back before he corrected me. “On the cheek.”

  Crap. He was right. It was on the cheek. Suddenly, I started not feeling well. I just had a complete meltdown in front of a gorgeous man I had only just met. Dizziness washed over me as my body began to sway.

  Within seconds, I felt Pierce’s fingers wrap gently around my bicep. “Are you o
kay?”

  “I’m…I’m so sorry,” I apologized. “You must think I’m crazy.”

  “Not at all,” he assured me as his thumb moved softly across the skin of my arm. “It’s okay not be okay.”

  Wow.

  Was it? I thought.

  I felt not okay more often than I cared to admit.

  Having remained silent for too long, Pierce went on, “From what I gathered, some guy jerked you around and fooled around on you. The only reason I can come up with that he’d do that is he’s a jackass because, from what I just heard, he missed out on being married to you.”

  My lips parted at Pierce’s words. After several seconds had passed, I shared, “I’m not sure he sees it that way.”

  “Doesn’t matter to me what he sees. It sucks you had to go through that. I’m sorry to hear it, babe, but I’m not a man who’s going to let a golden opportunity pass me by. There’s an attraction here. We shouldn’t ignore it.”

  “What makes you think I’m attracted to you?” I scoffed.

  He gave me a disbelieving look.

  I stood my ground. “I’m serious. I never gave you any indication I was attracted to you.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “I did not.”

  “Beautiful, you just went on a massive rant and followed it up by you telling me you saw me walk into the café and kiss a pregnant woman, who you mistook to be my wife, that I ultimately ushered out of there shortly afterward so she could deliver her baby. If I wasn’t on your radar, you wouldn’t have even noticed me walking in.”

  “I like people watching,” I huffed.

  “Zara.”

  “Pierce.”

  “Let me take you out on a date,” he urged. “No pressure. Just a date. If you want to rant again, I’m cool with that. But, to be honest, I’d really like to get to know you.”

  Part of me was beginning to wish that Pierce had been a cheating husband. Not really, of course, because I didn’t want to see a woman hurt by those actions, but I also wasn’t sure Pierce was on the same page as me.

  He was extremely good-looking, which was a good thing. There was no denying that. And clearly, he didn’t think I was crazy even though I lost my cool in front of him mere moments ago. That was also a very good thing.

  But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t set myself up to be hurt.

  I was also living in a new town and hadn’t really made friends with anyone. That was part of the plan, though.

  Even still, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few connections.

  Considering Pierce was a private investigator, I didn’t think he’d be a bad person to have in my corner.

  “If I agree to this,” I began. “It’s only to get to know each other as friends. That’s it.”

  “Fair enough,” he returned.

  I blinked. “Really?”

  “Zara, the rant you just had is indication to me that you’ve still got some hurt lingering from what you went through. I get it. I’m willing to wait and just get to know you. I was serious when I said there was no pressure, but I was also serious when I said that there was an attraction here that I wasn’t willing to deny either. If you need time, I can give you time.”

  Satisfied with his response, I agreed, “Okay, then. We can go on a date, but we need to wait until after Mother’s Day. My shop is going to be too crazy and too busy for the next week.”

  Giving my arm one last, gentle squeeze before he let it go, Pierce decided, “We’ll work out the details when I stop in next weekend to pick up the flowers. Does that work for you?”

  I dipped my chin and gave him a smile.

  “Good. I’m going to get going then. Take care of yourself, Zara,” he instructed.

  “I will. See you next week, Pierce.”

  With that, he left.

  For a long time, my eyes didn’t leave the space he had just been standing in. When I finally snapped out of it, I ran over and swiped my phone off the counter. Two rings later, Gwen answered, “Hey, Zara. What’s going on?”

  “I met a man,” I stated, my voice devoid of any emotion.

  “What?!” she shrieked. “Who is it? What does he do? Give me all the details!”

  “I’m totally freaking out, Gwen. And by that I mean, I just completely lost it on the guy while simultaneously and accidentally spilling my guts about Brad.”

  “Oh no,” she replied, her voice quiet. “What happened?”

  So, I launched in and told my best friend all about what happened with Pierce from the very first time I saw him until he left my shop only minutes ago.

  When I finished, she encouraged me, “Just go out with him and have a good time. You deserve to enjoy yourself and you haven’t done that since you’ve moved out there. Don’t let what happened with Brad ruin your chances at having a good life with good people in it. He took enough away from you already; he doesn’t deserve to have that, too.”

  I let out a sigh. “I know, babe. I’m going to try. But it’s so much more than him. You know that.”

  “Yes, Zara, I do. That’s even more of a reason that you need to give yourself a little slice of happiness while you can. Enjoy it for whatever it is and don’t think too much about it.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Gwen and I stayed on the phone for a little while longer while I locked up my shop and started preparing for next week. After we disconnected, I worked to get everything set up at my prep station. I stayed at it for hours, only stopping for dinner, until I finally finished at just after nine o’clock.

  By the time I crawled into my bed, I was wiped out. Despite my exhaustion, I couldn’t help but give myself the opportunity to allow my thoughts to drift to Pierce.

  And when they did, I found that I slept better than I had in months.

  It was Sunday and it was the day before my week of craziness was going to ensue.

  I woke up early to give Callie her breakfast but quickly made my way back to my bed, where I climbed under the covers and drifted back to sleep for a bit.

  Eventually, I pulled myself out of bed and made my own breakfast. As I ate, I decided that I wanted to do something different.

  I had been spending entirely too much time cooped up inside since I moved, and it needed to stop. For the most part, I considered myself to be a homebody, but this had gotten slightly out of control. Other than the few times I’d stop down at Tasha’s Café or the trips I made to the grocery store, I rarely left my building.

  This also meant that I’d gained some weight since I made my move. And that bothered me. I couldn’t remember a time in my life where I was confident in my body, and the extra twenty pounds I was now sporting didn’t make me feel any better.

  And if I was being honest, the extra twenty pounds was on top of the few I hadn’t lost prior to calling off my engagement with Brad. Truthfully, once we got engaged, I did try to get back to exercising regularly. I wanted to be a beautiful bride.

  Of course, with such a long engagement and so much keeping me busy between work and wedding planning, I occasionally fell off the workout wagon. When I did, I sometimes found it difficult to get back on. Five weeks before I caught Brad, I had just gotten back to working out after having had nearly a two-month hiatus.

  I’d been stressed a lot about the details of the wedding, work, and my family. During those two months, I’d put on twelve pounds.

  Brad noticed.

  He let me know he noticed, and I set about making some changes to rectify it. I managed to get most of the weight off as soon as I started exercising again, but then Brad’s infidelity sent me right back to square one.

  I stopped working out and put all of my effort into getting out of town.

  Now that I was here, I needed to snap out of it again. I could still fit into some of my clothes, but others were getting too snug and too uncomfortable to wear all day. The extra weight made me even more unhappy with myself, so today was the day I was going to do something about it.

  I promised myself I’d get out and
see what Windsor had to offer. My plan was to spend my entire day out. In fact, I was going to forbid myself from coming back home before it was dinnertime.

  With my mind made up and my breakfast finished, I put my plan into action. I got myself dressed in my favorite pair of yoga pants, ones that I loved so much I’d purchased in five different colors, and a scoop neck tee. Gathering my mass of curls up in my hands, I secured my hair in a ponytail with an elastic band. I slipped on a pair of sneakers, packed a lunch, and bent down to pet my cat.

  “Mama’s got to get out of here for a little while, Callie girl,” I explained when I realized she’d been watching my every move with a curious look. My Sunday routine did not normally, or in Callie’s case, ever, involve being motivated to go anywhere other than from the bed to the couch. “I need to get some fresh air and get myself moving. I’ll be back before it’s time for dinner,” I continued.

  She let out a meow.

  I took that to be Callie’s approval of her mom doing what she had to do to take care of herself. She knew she was my girl and that I’d come back to her.

  After spending a few more minutes cuddling her, I grabbed a backpack and tossed my lunch, aluminum water bottle, and cell phone inside.

  Before hopping in my car to head to my ultimate destination, I decided to walk two doors down from my shop to the yoga studio. I had met the owner, Lennox, shortly after I moved, but I hadn’t ever stopped in to her studio. After the fire at the hardware store happened, she stopped into my shop to thank me. She also told me that because I’d reacted so quickly and saved her studio along with the rest of the businesses on the block from ending up a pile of ashes that I was to stop in to take a free yoga class whenever I wanted as a thank you.

  I hadn’t ever done yoga, but I wasn’t opposed to trying something new. She assured me that she taught classes for all levels and that I wouldn’t look like the fool I was certain I would be.

  Given my newfound motivation to get back to myself this morning, I decided this was the perfect time to take her up on her offer and try a class out.