Melody Anne's Billionaire Universe: Refuse to Settle (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Stephanie Haefner

  She hated to admit it, but she liked hearing that. Even from an asshole. She wouldn’t tell him that though. Instead she dug into her apron pocket for her order pad and ripped off the top sheet, with its long list of pastries, and set it on his table.

  She turned to leave, but his voice cut through the silence again.

  “I’ll need you to add the rest of the lemon cookies in the case to my bill and box them up. And I’d like to place an order for tomorrow.”

  “For what?” she asked as she turned back?

  “More cookies, of course.” That damn smile again, teeth so bright they probably glowed in the dark.

  This guy was seriously testing her patience, but could she really afford to turn down a custom order? Not when invoices were starting to go unpaid.

  “Fine. But I gotta warn you. There’s a three dozen minimum on custom cookie orders.”

  “I want five dozen. And I’d like to make it a standing order. Every Sunday morning.”

  Jilly crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you serious?”

  “I never joke about cookies. What can I say? I have a sweet tooth.”

  The money would be nice. Specialty cookies went for four bucks each, forty for the dozen. An extra $200 a week would definitely help her financial situation.

  “Then I guess your sweet tooth is going to bring in a ton of cash for me.”

  But could she handle seeing him every single Sunday for the next who-knows-how-many weeks? The cockiness? The entitlement? The hotness?

  She was about to find out.

  * * *

  Colin had only planned to take home the rest of the cookies in the case, not the order for five dozen every week. It was a spur-of-the moment decision. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with sixty cookies each week, but he just had to have them. An excuse to come back to the café, maybe? He’d never in his life needed an excuse to approach a woman. If he wanted to talk to someone, he did it. He was far from shy.

  But Jilly was different. A challenge. And he liked it.

  He stood and fished through his wallet for a hundred dollar bill and handed it to her. “Keep the change.”

  “That’s like a thirty-five dollar tip.” She stepped behind the counter and pulled a twenty out of the register. “Here.”

  “I’m not taking that. You waited on me all morning. You deserve it.”

  “You’re right. You’re annoying as hell.” She stuffed it into her apron pocket. At least she’d smiled while she insulted him.

  “Have dinner with me tonight.” It came out of his mouth before he could give it serious consideration.

  “What? Are you high?”

  Just on you. “I think we’d have fun.”

  “Uh…no. I don’t even know you.”

  “Sure you do. I’m Colin Rutherford the fourth. Surely you’ve heard my family’s name before. We own half the city and corporations all around the world.”

  He watched her eyes bug out slightly. “Oh.”

  “But don’t be intimidated. I’m a nice normal guy.”

  And now the bugged-out eyes were rolling in their sockets. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”

  “Ridiculously awesome?”

  She tried to hide her smile, but was unsuccessful. And damn did that turn him on. She liked him. She just wouldn’t admit it.

  * * *

  Ho. Ly. Shit. He was one of those Rutherfords? The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. But it sure explained a lot. And she sure as hell wasn’t going out on a date with him. Not now. Not ever. Regardless of how cute he was. Er…how cute he thought he was. Assholes could be cute. That’s how they sucked women in. But Jilly was smart. She wouldn’t let him suck her in.

  He finally left and afternoon business came in spurts. She mixed her cookie dough in between making fancy coffees and plating or bagging desserts. By closing time at three, she was tired, but had to get five dozen cookies in the oven.

  An hour later, her text alert sounded on her cellphone. Jilly’s BFF and roommate, Charlene.

  Where r u?

  At the cafe. Custom order. Gotta get it done before I leave.

  We have plans with Eddie and Josh tonite, remember?

  Ugh. The sucky part of having a best friend who’s in a long-term relationship was that she was constantly trying to find a long-term relationship for Jilly, too. They’d already tried hooking her up with three of Eddie’s friends. Maybe the fourth one’s the charm?

  The last thing Jilly wanted to do was get dressed up and go to dinner with another random guy who’d probably think she was weird for being vegan, wouldn’t understand her busy work schedule, and would probably ask why she had lavender-colored hair. Same questions, different douche. She should be used to it by now.

  I remember. Do I have to? Im really tired.

  YES! Eddie told him all about u and he’s totally excited to meet u.

  If this one says one word about what I order for dinner, Im walking out.

  Deal.

  Jilly got back to work on her cookies. Colin’s cookies. She boxed up the ones that were cool enough then moved the last batch to cooling racks. She had about twenty-five minutes before she could add those to the box as well.

  Leaned against the metal counter, Jilly pulled out her phone and typed Colin Rutherford IV into her browser. Yikes. There were a lot of articles that mentioned his name. Business pages, newspapers, a few car websites. And of course, society pages, with a different girl on his arm in every photo. So, he was one of those kinds of rich boys? She wasn’t surprised.

  The nerve of him to ask her out. To think she was like those high-society girls who got off on designer clothes and million-dollar houses. Whose only achievement in life was to look pretty on the arm of a rich husband. If that’s the kind of girl he thought she was—or thought he could mold her into—he was sorely mistaken.

  Men like him were useless. A waste of space. They took advantage of the women in their lives then tossed them aside when they weren’t pretty enough or young enough anymore. She should know. She’d experienced it first-hand. Her mother would still be alive if she hadn’t gotten tangled up with one.

  Cookies and coffee was as far as her relationship with Colin Rutherford IV would go. It would be an insult to her mother’s memory if she let it go any further than that.

  Chapter 3

  Colin finished his workout then hit the shower. The café didn’t open for another hour, and he couldn’t wait to get those damn cookies. Last night he’d scarfed the six he’d taken home and still wanted more. At this rate he’d need to double his gym time to keep up with the extra calories. They may be vegan, but they sure as hell weren’t low fat.

  But he didn’t care. It was damn worth it. And not just for the cookies.

  Another gorgeous spring morning, Colin arrived at The Rhubarb before Jilly and waited outside for her. He couldn’t stop looking in the direction in which she’d come from yesterday, checking every 10 seconds to see if she was there yet.

  He distracted himself with his phone, but when the hairs on the back of his neck stood, he knew she was there. He turned his head and watched her. As if in slow motion, she strode toward him, her hair shimmering in the morning sun, flowing over her shoulders in soft waves. Lavender was now his favorite color.

  “Hi,” he said as she approached, hoping he didn’t sound like a lovesick teenager.

  She avoided his gaze as she pulled out her keys. “Yeah. Hi to you, too.”

  “You’re in a pleasant mood this morning.”

  She stayed quiet as she pushed on the door and walked in then disappeared around the counter. A minute later she returned, bakery box in hand.

  “With tax it’s $217.50”

  He handed her his credit card. After punching his numbers into an iPad, she turned it toward him and presented it for his signature.

  “Can I get you anything else?”

  He might not know her well, but this was not her norm. He was compelled to ask. “Is everything okay?”
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  “It’s nothing. I’m fine. I had a rough night, but I’ll survive.”

  “I can listen if you need to talk.”

  “I don’t want to talk.”

  “Come on. Let me help.”

  She closed her eyes and breathed deep, but when she opened them, her fire was back. There you are.

  “You really want to know what happened? My best friend was totally fucked over by the guy who claimed to love her. He was screwing around behind her back and stole a bunch of her money.”

  “What? Did you have him arrested?”

  “No. She willingly lent him the money and he was supposed to pay her back, but now she’ll never see it.”

  “That’s her own fault then. You should never lend money to friends or boyfriends.”

  Jilly’s hands gripped the edge of the counter, jaw clenched tight. “You can go now. I don’t need someone like you giving me or my friend relationship advice.”

  “Someone like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Don’t pretend you’re some stand-up guy. I know different. And if I hadn’t, there are a million pictures online that prove it. You’re probably just like him. A fuck ’em and leave ’em kind of guy. How many women have you slept with, cheated on, and tossed aside?”

  Now it was his turn to get defensive. “You don’t know anything about me. You don’t know how I treated the women I dated. You’re just pissed off and taking it out on me. Some guy must have really messed you up. That explains why you’re so hostile toward me.”

  “I’m hostile because you’re a jerk. Now take your damn cookies and get out of my store.”

  He grabbed the box. “You’re gonna have a really lonely life if you keep judging people based on things you know nothing about.”

  “Fine by me, as long as it keeps assholes like you out of my life.”

  He walked away but as he got to the door, turned back. “See you next Sunday.”

  The look on her face was pure hatred.

  * * *

  Jilly wanted to hurdle the counter and pummel Colin like she was kneading bread dough. The nerve of him. Did he seriously think she was still going to bake cookies for him?

  After her awful night, and now this, she was ready to collapse. She’d only managed two hours of sleep, spending the majority of her night consoling a hysterical Charlene and brainstorming ways to get away with murder.

  When Charlene had finally calmed down and fallen asleep, Jilly tried, but couldn’t find her own peace. She kept thinking about her mother and how many nights she’d listened to her cry. It had been a while since she’d thought about her, and almost ten years since her death. Jilly wasn’t even eighteen yet when it happened, still in high school. A kid should never have to come home to find paramedics at their house, mom on a stretcher with a sheet covering her.

  Jilly’s dad had taken off when she was four, so it was just her and Mom for a while. She worked two jobs to keep them in shitty apartments, but then, just like in the fairytales, a white knight had saved them. When Jilly was eleven, her mom married the super rich hotelier who owned the property she worked at as a bartender. He swept them away into his fancy lifestyle and her mom never had to work a crappy job again.

  But the fun didn’t last. The arguments started and she heard her mother accuse him of having girlfriends. He didn’t deny it. And Jilly wasn’t stupid. She knew what that meant. She saw how hard it was for her mother to fit in, to keep up with the snooty women in their circle. The plastic surgery she endured, the bruises she hid that didn’t come from the surgeries. She watched her mom drink and do drugs to cope.

  Jilly’s mother may have taken her own life that dreary winter day, but her husband had put the gun in her hand.

  The bell above the door dinged and Jilly wiped her tears with the palms of her hands. She grabbed her apron and looped it over her head. Time to stuff it all back down where it belonged and get on with her day…her life. Like she’d been doing for the last decade.

  “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t stay home by myself.”

  Charlene stood in the middle of the café wearing polka-dot fleece pants and a ratty tee from a concert they’d gone to years ago. Her eyes were ringed in black and there were still remnants of her lipstick. She’d spent too long making herself pretty for that jackass. A jackass that was too stupid to erase naughty texts from his piece of ass on the side.

  “It’s okay.” Jilly took her into her arms and held her tight as she cried.

  When she calmed down, she sat her at a table in the corner with some coffee and a few cookies. Jilly hated to leave her, but she had a business to run.

  After a late morning rush, she looked over and Charlene had fallen asleep on the table. She decided to leave her there. She wasn’t bothering anyone, and she surely needed the sleep.

  Jilly moved a stray ringlet that had fallen over Charlene’s cheek. Her tear-streaked face brought back too many awful memories. She couldn’t save her mom, but she could try her damnedest to make sure no one else she loved was hurt by a selfish piece of shit.

  And that included herself.

  If Colin Rutherford wanted cookies, he’d get them, but she didn’t need to see him to make it happen. That’s what delivery services were for. He could afford it.

  * * *

  Colin slammed the door on his 55 Chevy pick-up, and stalked toward the back entrance at Ragtop Restorations

  “Hey, man. Don’t take it out on the truck.” Joe, his top upholstery guy, was making a trip to the dumpster with a garbage bag full of leather scraps.

  “Sorry.”

  Joe tossed the bag in and joined Colin. “Shitty morning?”

  “You could say that. Cookie?” He offered the box.

  “Don’t have to ask me twice.” He took it and Colin followed him into the shop. He set it on the break room table and took one out. “Damn, that’s a good cookie.”

  “I know.”

  Colin didn’t have the energy to rave about them, the café, or Jilly. He was still too pissed off about their encounter. And the worst part wasn’t that she’d wrongly judged him. She’d tapped into his biggest fear and hadn’t even known it. His dad was the kind of guy she accused him of being. The playboy type who thrived on female attention, regardless of the ring on his finger. He was the kind of guy Colin tried so hard not to become. But people saw what they wanted. He’d known that for a long time. He just expected her to be different.

  “Hey, boss.” One of the engine guys came in and snagged a cookie. “I got that Bizzarrini running yesterday.”

  “Yeah?” That perked Colin up. He’d found the rare gem last month in a junkyard outside Venice. It cost him five times the cost of the vehicle to ship it to the States, but when it was done, it would be worth a whole lot more. “Let me hear it.”

  He took him to the car, still in desperate need of bodywork and a complete overhaul of the interior, but when Rico sat inside and turned the key, she roared to life. A thrill raced through Colin’s veins and he yearned to get his hands on her. Get them dirty. He didn’t know nearly as much as these guys, but he was learning.

  After changing into some work clothes he kept in his office, Colin checked in with each of the current projects. He hated making his staff work on Sundays, but the demand for their services was so high, he had to. They didn’t mind though. He paid them well, and double time on a Sunday was something few of them passed up.

  Colin watched Joe sew together pieces of beige ostrich leather for the driver’s seat of a black ’61 Jaguar. The man was a God in the car upholstery world and worth every cent. Then he helped Tommy install the exhaust on a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird. He just loved being there, observing, helping where he could. This is what calmed him, centered him. It was his happy place, for lack of a better term. It was just him, his team, and the cars they loved. No one judged him. No one compared him to his father, either on purpose or accidentally.

  Colin sat with his crew for lunch—pizza and chicken wings on the company
’s dime—and checked his phone. A voice mail from an unidentified number. He hit the triangle to play it.

  “Um. Hello. This is Jilly…in. Jillian. From The Rhubarb. I’ve decided to have your weekly cookie order delivered each week, so you don’t have to come to the store. Please call me back at your earliest convenience and let me know where you’d like them delivered. Thank you.”

  Unbelievable. She couldn’t even stomach seeing him once a week for five minutes? He should just cancel the whole order. He didn’t need her damn cookies.

  But the thought of not seeing her made his gut twist. And so did knowing she hated him for reasons that weren’t his fault.

  Man, the Internet really sucked sometimes. Being a member of a high profile family meant your life was constantly under a magnifying glass, and the paparazzi just love to snap away. He had dated a lot of women, and had a lot of fun, but that didn’t mean he was an asshole like his father. In recent years, he’d actually dated a lot less. The women in his circles were looking to snag a rich husband and he wanted no part of the Stepford trophy wife thing, despite urging from his family to pick one and “settle down.” It felt more like settling in general. Not his style.

  If he was going to marry someone, she needed to excite him, challenge him. Be an equal. And it had nothing to do with money. It was about attitude. He needed someone with drive, determination. Not a high society snob who did nothing but sit on her lyposuctioned ass and spend his money. Someone independent and smart.

  Someone like…Jilly.

  But she also needed to see past exteriors, and Jilly obviously had no desire to do that.

  Maybe it was best if he did cancel his order. Forget about her. But as his finger hovered over the button to return her call, he stopped himself and put his phone away.

  Chapter 4

  Jilly’s week flew by in a blink. Probably because she was exhausted beyond belief. She’d spent too many nights staying up way too late with Charlene, burning Eddie’s things, crying, cutting his face out of photos, more crying. She’d hit a breakthrough in the breakup process midweek and entered the I-hate-him and revenge-sex phase. So there they were on a Thursday night, downing too many drinks so Charlene could find some liquid courage and a guy to take home. It was all drunken fun and games until they saw Eddie and some girl making out on the dance floor.