“Sometimes sacrifices need to be made,” Gage said with mock solemnity, but he really meant it. “But first, we have to see if it’s good enough to make the list.”
“Oh, come on,” she scoffed. “If that other place made your list, this one certainly will.” She could talk smack with the best of them—and look good doing it. He watched her mount her bike and absently followed her lead, mesmerized.
“Last one to the bottom is a rotten egg,” she taunted in a singsong voice, speeding past him.
“Hey! Wait!” He pedaled to catch up, not about to let her win just because she’d surprised him.
And they were off, each of them overtaking the other on flat stretches, fighting to be in the forefront for the adrenaline-inducing jumps and twists. The chill wind breezed past Gage, cooling his sweat and carrying with it the scent of pine needles and damp earth, sharp and spongy at the same time. Flying down the path, he couldn’t think of any other place he would rather be or anyone else he would rather be with.
Chapter 13
It was Keenan and Avery’s last day on the project. Brynn left her duplex earlier than usual, taking a slight detour to swing by Basque in d’Light. Before going mountain biking the day before, Brynn had preordered cranberry-orange scones and hot chocolate as a thank-you for a job well done. She knew Mr. Konewko had already paid for their work on construction, but she wanted some way of personally expressing her gratitude. How better to say it than with Espe’s sticky-sweet heavenly scones?
Brynn unlocked the door to Owen’s Outfitters and managed to bring in all the treats without tripping or spilling even a drop—thank goodness for drink carriers. She just hoped everyone showed up before their hot chocolate got cold.
Biding her time, she sipped on her own drink—white chocolate this time—and retrieved email on her phone. She couldn’t wait to see Gage. She wondered if their nearly perfect day on the mountain bike trails would have any impact on their working relationship in the store. They’d spent the day laughing, talking, and competing, with very few involuntary dismounts. The only exception was one gruesome endo where Gage had gone over his handlebars and landed less gracefully than an elephant on snow skis. The look on his face had been priceless, and she’d tried—unsuccessfully—not to laugh. Luckily, he hadn’t been hurt and joined his own raucous laughter with hers. She’d never had so much fun on a mountain trail without snow.
Only one important email popped up. She braced herself when she noted the sender.
To: Brynn Caley
From: Joseph Konewko III
Expo Rundown
I thought I would pass along some of the more interesting things I saw at the Outdoor Expo. We may not want to expand our inventory too much until we get a better handle on our particular market this first year, but I found some products I thought we might want to check out. As the winter sports expert, and because it’s our first season coming up, your input would be more beneficial than mine. I’ve attached some links for your perusal. Not to rush you, but as you know, we don’t have a lot of time to order and receive before Thanksgiving. Do you mind taking a look at our current inventory and decide what you feel our needs are? Also, while we’re looking at ordering and inventory, we probably need to figure out a budget and discuss how we plan to work the ordering and payments.
I know it’s my fault we haven’t gotten together yet, and I take full responsibility. Never fear, I’ll add it to the list of things we need to talk about, which is getting a bit long. We should be able to get together soon. Until then, thank you for everything you’re doing. The remodel is going great, and it will look amazing when it’s done.
JGK
Something was definitely going on with Mr. Konewko. The tone had changed dramatically, and he was even using contractions. His emails now were so far from formal and demanding, she was beginning to wonder if she’d overreacted to them to begin with. Lately, Mr. Konewko routinely requested her input, and if she was reading that right, he was willing to cede purchasing power to her. Perhaps the two of them could make a go of this partnership thing after all.
Absently, Brynn clicked on a few of the links. One or two of them seemed worth some research, a couple more reminded her of other products she was already considering, and still others—well, she’d just ignore them for now. She opened a reply email and attached a few she wanted to propose to him that hadn’t been on his list.
Hoping to wrap up what was easily her least favorite part of owning a business so far, she re-read his email quickly, making sure she had addressed everything he asked about. This time, his last statement caught her eye. It seemed off, but of course, Keenan and Gage had been keeping him apprised of their progress.
At the end of her email explaining some of her suggestions for ordering, she ended with, It has been a pleasure working with Gage, Keenan, and Avery. They’re a great group, and really know their stuff. I, too, am excited to see how the store looks finished.
All she had left was to re-read her own response to make sure there weren’t any embarrassing auto-corrections before sending. With perfect timing, the small group of workers entered the shop, happy and excited and ready to wrap things up.
“I brought treats.” Brynn motioned to her stash. “Everybody grab some. And excuse me just a second. I need to finish up one email.” She scanned over the few sentences and sent it, returning her attention to her new friends. “How’s everyone?”
A phone dinged, and everyone looked to the source. Gage pulled his phone from his pocket. “Email,” he explained, his voice gravelly. He clicked a few times, and Brynn watched his gorgeous eyes flick back and forth across his screen as he read. He looked up, saw her watching him, and dipped his chin back toward his phone.
“You can reply if you need to.” While Brynn was excited to finished the project once and for all, she felt a slight dread for the project to end. Keenan and Avery didn’t seem too eager to get started either, instead whispering to each other and eating their scones.
“No, it’s okay.” Gage put his phone to sleep and shoved it back in his pocket. “It’s a reply to me. I can take care of it later.” He picked up the last scone and took a bite. “Wow. Where did you get this?”
“You’ve never been to Basque in d’Light?” Brynn didn’t have to fake shock. It was only the best shop on the street—at least until hers opened—and was quickly becoming the busiest in midtown. “And you’ve been here how long?” She placed a hand over her heart. “Well, I’m honored to have introduced you to it.”
Gage scoffed. “It’s good, Brynn, I give you that, but I’m not so sure it’s that good. And no way it holds a candle to Smokin’ Hot BBQ. Now there’s a fine restaurant.”
She took another bite of her scone, its texture the perfect mixture of dry and sticky with a touch of fruit without being overly sweet. “They aren’t even in the same category.” She made a show of licking her finger.
“Exactly.” Gage winked at her over his hot chocolate cup, and her insides melted.
“At least we agree.” Brynn knew her smile had taken over her face. The guy just made her happy.
“Plans for the day—” Keenan suddenly announced to the group, but stopped when he saw the expressions on their faces. “I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something?”
His teasing sarcasm was too much for Brynn, and she started laughing. “No.” She tried to stifle her laughter. “Please, do go on, Mr. Foreman.”
“Okay,” Keenan began again with puffed-up importance. “As I was saying—”
“The only things left on the to-do list,” Avery took over, and Brynn had to stifle another laugh, “are setting the counter and cash register in place—”
“Connecting the electricity and internet lines to it—” Gage interjected, “and—”
“Attaching the kayaks, canoes, and mountain bikes on the walls,” Brynn finished.
Keenan exhaled a puff of feigned indignation. “I’m glad we’re all on the same page. But y’all forgot attaching the shoe dis
play racks.”
“Glad you reminded us.” Gage tapped his forehead with the heel of his hand as if he’d forgotten.
“Fine.” Keenan finished his scone and wiped his hands on a paper napkin that shredded as it stuck to his fingers. “Gage, you want to help me carry the counter back out here?”
While the guys exerted themselves carrying in the heavy cabinet, Brynn and Avery worked on reattaching baseboards with the nail gun. The men had already positioned the counter off to one side and were fumbling with cash register wires when Brynn turned around. “Umm, I don’t think that’s where it should go.”
Brynn hadn’t taken a hard stance about any of the renovations so far, and decisions had ended up split fairly equally between the four of them. Whoever had the best argument and could convince everyone else always won, but not this time. Brynn had plans—and having the counter next to the front windows wasn’t going to work. At all.
Everyone stopped and looked at Brynn. Surprise, like mist, settled around them.
Avery turned to look at Gage, who paled slightly, but clamped his lips tight. “Well?” Avery asked him.
He sniffed and rubbed his nose with a tissue.
No one said anything, but no one started to move the counter, either. “I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” Brynn continued, “but why here?”
The air was so still that dust motes remained frozen in the weak sunlight. Brynn had no idea the tension could get so thick merely by bringing up something that she thought would have been an easy discussion. Avery and Keenan continued to stare at Gage, who had that deer-in-the-headlights look.
Keenan finally looked at Brynn and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m just going off the original plans.”
“One thing Owen’s didn’t have but that I think is super important,” Brynn said, “is something to catch the interest of the tourist crowd. Let’s say Dad wants to look for a new rod and reel.”
Gage started to grin, apparently liking this scenario, which warmed the room a degree or two.
Brynn continued, “He brings the whole family in with him—after all, he put up with Mom stopping in all the clothing and jewelry stores and the kids in all the trinket ones. And yes, I know I’m being stereotypical here, but bear with me.”
Brynn strode to the front middle of the store, not far from the front doors. “This is where we need to display T-shirts with our store name and logo—if we ever get them—and maybe a couple other outdoorsy-type souvenirs like ceramic mugs. If we make the front our local impulse-buy section and then position the rest of the products by season with winter on one side”—she held her arm out to her right—“fishing in the middle back since it can be either season, and camping on my left, it flows a lot better.” She moved her arm along as she referred to each. “Which means the register goes in the middle, right beside the up-front setup, don’t you think?” She walked a few paces behind where she’d been standing, planted her feet wide perpendicular to the street, and stretched out her arms. “I think the counter should go here.”
Gage looked at her, stone-faced for a moment, before nodding slightly. “You’re the boss.” It didn’t sound like it bothered him one way or another, and it shouldn’t have. Of the four of them, as he said, she was the boss, though that was the first she’d used that trump card. At his word, motion started again, buzzing around Brynn with caffeine-like energy filling the room.
Later that night, Brynn stood in the moonlight in front of Gage’s cabin. It had only been a few days since she’d been here for the hot tub, but so much had happened in between. She almost didn’t want to go inside again, but this time for a completely different reason. Instead of a celebration, this was a goodbye. The chill of the night seeped into her, and she was aware of nothing but the stillness of the cold air.
Brynn shook her head. Her heartbeat quickened, her body on alert as she stood outside in temperatures below freezing. She felt an overwhelming desire to move, to exert her energy in airplane turns rather than banging a hammer, painting a wall, or even hanging out with friends. Sometimes she missed skiing so much, her mouth went dry at the thought. She craved it like ice cream. Now she was so close to the slopes and it had been so long since she felt that rush. The nice thing about this year was she would be able to spend every one of her days off on the slopes, and most evenings too, if she wanted. She wouldn’t have to travel or wait for a break from school. She wouldn’t be a slave to her parents’ work schedules. She would be free to make her own schedule.
But that wasn’t why she was standing here in the moonlight, breathing in the scent of real pine and musky earth and promise. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and knocked on Gage’s door. With the laughter and music seeping through the door, the group might not even hear her knock, but she waited for a response just the same. To celebrate the close of the construction and to say good-bye to Avery and Keenan, Gage had proposed a party at his cabin once again—this time for food and card games. Brynn was both looking forward to it and dreading it for the ending that it was.
She was startled with the door opened. “Hey,” Gage said softly. He was standing so close, she could have leaned in and kissed him.
She could hear his pleasure and relief at seeing her. So she wasn’t an intrusion on their last evening to hang out. Realizing this made her heart repeat its zipping beat, the adrenaline of attraction even more alluring than the call to skiing she’d just experienced.
Brynn’s eyes traveled upwards from Gage’s casual button-up shirt, over each feature in his now-familiar face, and stopped on the flecks of gold highlighted in his expressive brown eyes. His gaze held hers completely as he held the door for her. Reluctant to look away, she stepped through the doorway. Their arms and hands touched for the briefest of seconds as Brynn passed, the energy of their touch all the more significant because of the accidental intimacy of it.
“Do you know how to play Hearts?” Gage’s voice came out gravelly. She took that as a sign that he, too, had been affected by the look and the touch.
“Ugh.” Brynn groaned softly and rolled her eyes. “I’m horrible at card games.”
Gage looked stricken, like he was scrambling in his head for an alternative form of entertainment. She couldn’t bear to leave him like that.
Brynn dropped a hand to his forearm and gave it a light squeeze. “Just give me a refresher course—rules and strategy—and I’ll be fine.” Brynn peeled off her coat and laid it across the back of a chair. She walked toward the kitchen, giving Avery a quick hug and offering a wave to Keenan. “You all look so nice cleaned up.”
It was the first time since meeting them that she, too, had taken the time to apply more makeup than her typical simple mascara and lip balm, and she felt flirty in a blouse, nice jeans, and heels. She hoped Gage liked what he saw.
“I can’t convince you guys to stay through Thanksgiving?” Brynn asked, surprising even herself.
Avery laughed. “Thanks for the offer. You’re so sweet to say that, but we have our businesses to run. Keenan might be able to take time off from his, but I feel like I need to prove myself to my dad right now.”
Brynn gave her a quizzical look.
“I’m kind of in the apprentice stage. Technically, it’s his construction business, although I grew up learning the trade. He’s about to retire and wants me to take over, and I want to show him I’m dedicated and appreciate what it is he’s offering.”
“I can see that.” Brynn could easily summon that feeling—from both Avery’s and her father’s points of view—even if Brynn was just beginning her business experience. She leaned a hip against the breakfast bar across from Gage and smiled when she caught him staring. “I don’t know if Mr. Konewko told you guys, but we’ve been kind of forced into this partnership for a year to prove to Mrs. Bradshaw which of the two of us is more worthy to buy her store. It puts us in a bit of an awkward position—needing to work together to make the business succeed, but at the same time setting us as competitors.”
She sighed. “I don’t want to spend the next year pouring my heart and soul into a business only to have it yanked out from under me at the end. But I also don’t want to second-guess every decision we make together, wondering if he’s manipulating me or using me to make himself look good.” She shrugged and hoped she wasn’t trying to manipulate them by telling them this. “I want to trust him.” She laughed nervously. “Though it’s difficult to trust someone I haven’t even met. How do I know he’s doing anything to help us along? Does he even care about the store’s success? I don’t want to be the only one invested.”
The room was quiet; Brynn had shared too much. “I’m sorry,” she continued. “It’s my paranoia seeping through. I’m sure it will all be fine.”
She was suddenly exhausted and reached for a soda. Cracking it open, she put on a happy face. “Gage tells me we’re here for a rousing hand of Go Fish?”
That brought the laughter back into the room. Keenan and Avery grabbed the snacks and brought them to the table while Gage rummaged through a junk drawer until he found a deck of cards. Keenan sat first. As his elbows came to rest, the table groaned and leaned away from the pressure.
“Careful.” Avery laughed, stabilizing the table with a hand on either side of her closest corner. “One more move like that and we’ll have another project on our hands.”
The rest of them settled into their chairs.
“I hope all the cards are here,” Gage said, shuffling them with a whir and a smart snap. “Should we count them?”
“No.” Keenan grabbed a handful of mixed nuts. “Let’s live on the edge. Since we’re doing a practice hand first to remind everyone how to play, we’ll figure out if it’s missing any of the important cards at least.” He dropped the nuts into his mouth and chewed happily.
Kayaks and Kisses: A Romance Renovation Novel (Vintage Romance) Page 11
