“Two weeks and then he’s opening it up for other offers.”
“You’d need more employees,” stated Zane, cutting up bites of the breadstick and setting them on Mellie’s tray. She threw one onto the floor and laughed her patented evil villan laugh.
“Ignore her,” Ryan said under his breath, glaring at Ben, who tried unsuccessfully to stop laughing. “We really need to cut back on her screen time.”
“I ran some preliminary numbers—”
“Of course you did.” Ryan shook his head. He smiled at Adrian. “Numbers nerd.”
“Hmm. You don’t strike me as the nerdy type,” Adrian drawled, and the image of his naked body entwined with hers as he thrust into her flashed through her head.
“I don’t like numbers. I’m just good at them.” Nell tried to will away the thoughts of him bending her over the couch and fucking her. See, this was why she kept her sexy times off island. It was just too weird. To distract herself, she dipped her breadstick into some marinara sauce. “Anyway, not sure I can make it work to hire more people. I’d be stretched thin to buy him out as it is.”
“Honey, you’d need help.” Amy leaned in, her brown eyes concerned. “You know as well as I do how much work it is to run a business. Hell, I hired someone part time, and I just have a handful of rooms to deal with.”
“A full inn of guests, cooking, cleaning, marketing, reservations,” corrected Ben.
“We love our college and high school student cashiers,” echoed Zane. “Gotta have help, or you won’t have a life.”
Nell sipped her wine, looked over at Adrian. “No opinion?”
He shrugged, winked at Mellie when she glanced shyly at him. She giggled and made to throw a piece of bread at him, but Adrian, with one lightning fast move, captured her wrist and shook his head. “Nuh uh. No, thank you,” he said, gentle but firm.
Mellie pouted, but put down the bread.
“Wow.” Ryan and Zane stared at him. “She listened. There is hope!”
“She just likes straight men, apparently,” Nell commented. She looked again at Adrian. “Really? No advice?”
“You want advice and opinions, go to my mom,” he said with an easy grin. “She’d love to tell you what to do. Me, I’m no business owner.”
Nell rolled her eyes. “I can hear the ‘but’ you know. Just because you don’t say it doesn’t mean you’re not thinking it.”
“Well, you asked for advice from other business owners. They told you not to do it unless you can hire more help. Of course, you’re so damn stubborn that you’ll probably try to do it on your own, and find yourself in a world of hurt three months from now when you’re overwhelmed.”
Amy coughed into her napkin, and Ben’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. Zane and Ryan laughed outright.
“That’s our Nell.” Ryan patted her on the shoulder when she pouted. “You’ve got her number.”
Nell ground her teeth, tried to scare Ryan with the power of her patented death ray stare, but he just smiled. The hell of it was, that had been her reaction—to dismiss their advice as impractical. Of course, now she couldn’t without proving Adrian’s point. Damn the man. Just because they’d slept together a few times didn’t mean he had insights into how she ticked.
“Look sweetie, you’re going to have to get a loan, right?” Zane made room on the table for the two huge pizzas. “Get a line of credit for a bit more than you think is necessary. You can draw out what you need as you need it, and if you end up not needing more help, great. But if you get stuck, the money will be there.”
“And think on it a few weeks,” advised Amy. “Why rush into it?”
“Like you did when you decided out of the blue not to sell the Inn, quit your job and moved up here?” asked Nell, amused.
“That was different. Kind of.” She smiled. “In hindsight, I would have had an easier time of it if I’d taken the time to write out my business plan.”
“Ugh.” Nell snagged a slice loaded with sausage and pepperoni.
“Her ‘business plan,’” Zane paused in cutting up Mellie’s pizza to make air quotes, “is a joke.”
“Is it scribbled on a napkin somewhere?” Adrian asked.
“This is all super helpful,” Nell retorted. “I’ve been doing just fine, thank you very much.”
“No one’s saying you aren’t rocking it,” remarked Ben. “I think you should go for it. You’ll kick ass, but I agree if you don’t do it thoughtfully, you may get your ass kicked.”
“Well said, handsome.” Ryan raised his glass of wine in salute. He nudged Nell. “You get what you needed, sweet pea?”
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks, everyone. Really.”
“Good. Because I’d like to move on to whatever is going on with this.”
Nell watched, amused, as he gestured towards Amy, who had loaded her plate with two huge slices of pizza and a breadstick, and was now heaping salad onto another plate.
Amy looked up, flushed. She looked over at Ben. “Oh. Um.” He grinned, gave her a slight nod. She beamed around the table. “Don’t give me crap. I’m eating for two.”
Everyone erupted into cheers, except Mellie, who looked up from her pizza with confusion. She smiled and started to clap, yelled, “Yay!” at the top of her lungs.
Nell smiled at her friend as the noise died down. Amy grinned from ear to ear. “Man, with you two as parents, that’s going to be one pretty baby. When are you due?”
“October 22,” she said, laying a hand on her still-flat stomach.
Ryan and Zane began to pepper her with questions about names and nursery decorations, then gave advice about baby registries. Nell sat back, enjoying the sweet way Ben subtly interjected himself into the conversation while encouraging Amy to eat, the love shining in his eyes when he brushed a strand of hair off her face. And, she made a mental note to check in with Hannah now about baby shower dates and plans.
The last piece of pizza had just disappeared when Mellie began to squirm in her chair, demanding to go home. Amy yawned, and sheepishly admitted she needed to head home, too. Nell watched Ben help Amy out of the booth, and Ryan and Zane pack up the diaper bag, wipe down Mellie’s sticky hands. Since she was escalating in to full on tantrum mode, Nell waved them on.
“Save yourselves. I’ll walk home. I’ve got the check.”
When they all protested, she shooed them off. “It’s my thanks for the advice, that yes, I admit, I may ignore, and congrats to the new baby.”
But when she went to the counter, Adrian was scrawling his name on the receipt.
“Hey,” she protested, as he turned and waved goodbye to everyone. “I said I’d take care of it.”
“I beat you to it,” he said with an easy smile. “I crashed the party, so I’ll treat. You’re about to buy a new business. Save your money.”
Nell opened her mouth to argue, just on principle, then closed it. “You did butt in. And, according to Amy, you make a crap ton of money. So, okay.”
He laughed, and Nell couldn’t help but check out his ass as she followed him through the restaurant. Yep, it was still excellent. She congratulated herself on resisting grabbing it. Outside, Nell looked at the time. Not even 7, and the mild spring evening air scented with cherry blossoms made her feel…restless. Or maybe it was the thought of going home, alone, again, while all her friends headed off to be with their partners and kids.
“Hey.” Adrian, hands in his pockets, nudged her, tilted his head down the street in the direction of the wine shop. “How about a glass of wine?”
When she narrowed her eyes, started to shake her head, he pulled his hands out of his pockets, held them up.
“No funny business. I just thought—they’re all off with their families. So, we might as well live it up.”
Nell took a closer look, and while his words were light, she swore she could see the same shadow of loneliness in his eyes that she felt. Damn it.
“Okay,” she said after a long pause. “But, I’m not sleeping with y
ou.”
“When have I heard that before?” he asked, turning to lead the way down the sidewalk. He turned to look over his shoulder when she didn’t follow. “Kidding! Come on. I promise I’ll be a gentleman.”
“When have I heard that before?” she asked and had to sigh at the sexy sound of his deep chuckle.
As they drew near to the wine shop, a couple got up and vacated one of the small sidewalk tables. Adrian tilted his head towards it, raising his eyebrow, and Nell nodded.
“I’ll order inside. What’s your pleasure?”
Nell peered in through the plate glass window to see the by the glass selection and selected a local pinot noir. Adrian grabbed the empty wineglasses from the previous customers and took them inside, while she sat down. Tipping her head back, she surveyed the darkening sky, dotted with a few drifting clouds, then closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of the Island—water, pine, and now, the heady perfume of blooming flowers.
“Don’t go to sleep on me,” Adrian noted, setting the glass of wine in front of her.
“Just enjoying the evening. It’s nice to be outside after the winter.”
“Pretty much my favorite season,” he said.
“Really?” She studied him over the rim of her glass as she swirled the wine, then took a sip. “I picture you as a summer kind of guy—shirtless on the beach, that kind of thing.”
“Do you picture me shirtless a lot, honey?” He grinned at her, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners.
Nell rolled her eyes. He laughed, toasted her with his glass.
“You’re not that far off. I guess that would be the caveat—hot summers are my favorite. But, you don’t get that up here in the Pacific Northwest, so I’ve changed my favorite to spring.”
“If the heat is your favorite, why are you living here?”
“Family.” Adrian leaned back, stretched his legs out under the table so his feet rested next to her chair. “They make this home for me. And, I had plenty of hot summers—after college, my first residency was in New Mexico, then I moved down to Brazil, then Italy.”
“And lots of women in bikinis, right?”
“Love me a string bikini.” Adrian’s gaze traveled up and down her body. “You’d look amazing in one.”
“Please.” Nell snorted a laugh. “Not enough curves for that. So, you’re telling me you’re giving up the hordes of bikini women and are ready to settle down?”
“There weren’t hordes,” he protested, then seemed to reconsider. “Maybe there were. I like women.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” she said dryly.
“Yeah, I’ve given it all up. Mostly,” he said with a grin at her. “It’s hard to go cold turkey, right?”
She shrugged, since that hit a bit too close to home. They sat in silence for a moment.
“You know, my brother Alex and I, we’re very similar. He always dated a lot, never wanted the long-term thing. He’d fly out to visit me several times a year to wherever I was living, and we’d talk about how we were living the good life. I could always count on him for an adventure—zip-lining through the rainforest, parachuting out of airplanes, para sailing. Sometimes we’d go on our own, other times we’d hook up with women and bring them along. He was the master at picking up women anywhere—didn’t matter if we were at a bar or a library, he’d find the hottest woman there and convince her to drop what she was doing and spend the weekend with him. And then she’d bring her friend…”
“I can imagine,” Nell murmured, thinking the two daredevil brothers—twins no less—would present a package of raw sexuality that would be hard to resist.
“So, imagine my surprise,” Adrian continued, a smile quirking the corners of his mouth, “when he starts emailing me about this cop who won’t go out with him. He met Olivia when a waiter who worked at his restaurant got arrested for a parole violation. Alex went to testify on his behalf, and there was Olivia, this hard nosed cop who wasn’t the slightest bit interested in dating a player. He wore her down, and I figured he’d get tired of the chase. But, five months go by, and they’re still dating. Four months after that, oops, she finds out she’s pregnant. He tells me they’re getting married. I fly home, completely freaked out.”
“Thinking he’s making a huge mistake,” guessed Nell, nodding.
“Right. And, he shows me the receipt for the engagement ring dated a month after their first date. He knew she was the one from the beginning and had been waiting to propose because he knew she wasn’t ready.”
“That’s sweet. But I have to admit, I’ve never understood that love at first sight shit.” Nell shook her head when Adrian grinned. “I mean, come on.”
He shrugged. “I had my doubts. But, here they are, more than two years later, and I’ve never seen my brother happier. He treats her like a queen, and you can see the total love in her eyes when she looks at him. Let me tell you, I can say this being a twin myself and watching them parent those two girls—it is insanely difficult. They still hold hands when they walk down the street, and they still kiss each other hello and goodbye.”
“Yeah. Reminds me of my moms.”
“Your mom talked me into buying way too many plants for my house,” Adrian said with an easy smile. “I still like her though.”
“I didn’t realize you’d met.” Nell shifted in her chair, squirmy at the thought of the man she’d been naked with buying flowers from her mom. She waited for him to ask her what made her decide she didn’t want to be single anymore, and damn, she just didn’t want to talk about it. But he didn’t, and she decided to shift topics in case he changed his mind. “So the traveling and exotic locations, that all figures into your art, right? How’s that going to work with you living in one place?”
She didn’t mention she’d spent close to an hour online the other night looking at his art, mesmerized by the way he’d sculpted metal into landscapes that captured the essence of a place. In particular, she lusted after a sculpture of waves cresting to a peak—the metal seemed to move, ready to come alive and tumble down. “That’s your thing, right? You make art about the place you’re living in.”
“Well, I did.” Adrian shrugged, swirled the last few sips of wine in his glass. “But right around the time Alex got engaged, it wasn’t flowing the same way. I discarded more than half of what I created. Found myself sitting and staring at my sketch pad more often than not. I started to get freaked out. Here I was, not only getting to do what I loved but making money, too. What if I’d lost my touch? And all the stuff that seemed so fun—the fancy art galleries, the gala openings, the reporters, photographers, constant jet lag—seemed like a giant pain in the ass.”
“I’d have hated all that to begin with,” Nell agreed.
“I was right on the verge of calling my agent to confess that things weren’t going well, but I decided to fly home for a while first. I’d been home a few weeks, and I was babysitting the twins, who were about six months old at the time. I’d seen them before, of course, but this was the first time I’d been alone with them for any prolonged period of time.” He smiled, his eyes warm and soft at the memory. “It’s not like babies were my thing, right? But I fell head over heels. Total goner.”
Nell laughed. “Adrian Perez, sophisticated jet setter and world famous artist, smitten over some drool and big baby eyes.”
“After I finally got them down for a nap, I pulled out my sketch pad and started drawing. The next day, I went to my aunt’s studio—she’s a photographer, and let me store tools and supplies there for when I was in town—and created a small bronze of the twins, as a gift for Alex and Olivia. When it was done, I felt like it wasn’t enough, so then I did something bigger. Then I was fascinated by my mom’s hands, holding the hand of a scared refugee at the non profit she runs. Next my brother’s arm nestling little Zoe close. My aunt’s eyes.” He shrugged, finished off his wine. “The ideas kept coming, and I decided it was time to come home.”
“Is that going to be the focus of your exhibit this fall
?” Nell fiddled with the stem of her wineglass, enjoying the way the setting sun glinted on Adrian’s black hair, warmed his dark eyes.
“If it’s any good.” He smiled. “My agent’s coming up to look at what I’ve done so far.”
“I want to see.” Never one to be interested in art, she found herself eager to see the sculptures he’d described. “Would you show me how you make it? Is there a blowtorch? Can I use it?”
Adrian tilted his head like he was thinking about it. “Now, that’d take me some time to show you how I make the sculptures. And if you’re going to use my blowtorch…” he paused, leered at her suggestively, and she couldn’t help but laugh, “seems like we should have a trade.”
Nell thought, here it comes. Typical man, can’t help but bring up sex again.
“I get to fly one of your planes.”
She blinked, then said the first thing that came to mind. “Oh, hell no.”
He laughed. “Then you can’t use my blowtorch.”
“Is it the same thing?” she leaned forward, genuinely curious. “Because you could not only kill us both but also set me back hundreds of thousands of dollars if you wreck my plane. Are you that possessive about your tools?”
“Not really, I’m just giving you a hard time.” He grinned at her, and the mischievous light in his eye made her want to lean forward and nibble on his bottom lip. “What if you take me up and give me a tour? And throw in all your tricks. I’ve seen you doing the loop de loops.”
“Hmmm.” Nell considered him. “Okay. It’s a deal.”
He gestured to the wine shop behind them, where the owner was sweeping the floor. “It seems we’ve closed the place down.”
Nell laughed. “It is 8 o’clock on a weekday, Adrian. This is life on the edge in Lopez.”
They got up and strolled down the street.
“Need a ride?” Adrian asked her as they neared the pizza place where his car was parked.
“I can walk. It’s a nice night.” Nell squared her shoulders, certain he would try to talk her into the ride, so that he could then talk his way into her house, and finally, her bed. The hell of it was, she was wet already at the idea of Adrian, naked, his tongue tasting of wine tangling with hers, hands sliding over her breasts.
Love in the Air: Lopez Island Series #2 Page 10
