CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Of course,” I said in response, my words echoing in my ears. Of course. Pretend. All a big show. Yep.
So why was I still in his lap with no one out there, my lips still tingling from his kisses. Kisses that in just mere seconds had rocketed me further than years of being kissed by Jeremy.
“You okay?” he asked softly, blinking logic back into his expression again.
I blinked, too. Maybe that was the trick. “Why?”
His hands traveled down to my calves. I felt the trail of every finger. It was a bold move for something supposedly pretend, and it drove me to slide my own hands slowly up his neck. I felt a rush go through me as my fingers found his hair and his breathing quickened, but I couldn’t look away from the—something. The need, the want, the raw desire mixed with this is a bad idea—that, I understood. That was probably all over me, as well. This was something else.
“You’re trembling,” he said.
Shit. He was lucky I wasn’t pole-vaulting. It was like a supermagnet was pulling me to his mouth, and I couldn’t breathe until I tasted him again.
The door squeaked open again, and I inhaled sharply through my nose.
God, get it together.
“See?” came Jeffrie’s voice from somewhere over the rainbow. “I told you.”
“Micah!” Katrina Bowman exclaimed.
“Who’s Micah?” Jeffrie asked.
A nervous laugh escaped my throat, and Leo chuckled too, as his hands spanned my hips and helped me off him. The weirdest disappointment washed over me as we separated, like the missing contact was needed. Too needed.
“You know, if you’re just going to make a mockery of everything here,” she said, all the nicety of earlier, gone, “why don’t you just go back where you came from?”
“Relax,” Leo said, standing with me. “We were just blowing off a little steam. Not that it’s your business.”
“Not my business?” Katrina asked, her voice moving up an octave as she put her fists on her hips. In that pose, in that leather outfit, she looked like a cross between a pissed-off Viking and a dominatrix. “I’m running a dating event tonight if you haven’t noticed. And when the featured contestant skips off to get nasty with the bartender—”
“Hold on, there was no nasty,” I said. Not yet. But, oh man, my body was still thrumming with the trip that direction. “It was a show so that John-boy there would stop stalking me.”
Yep. Pretend. Blowing off steam. All pretend.
“What?” Jeffrie said, his voice rising, too.
“And two,” I said, holding up fingers. “This isn’t a reality show, Katrina. This is a one-night event in Charmed. Calm down.”
“I gotta get back,” Leo said, one hand on the small of my back as he moved past us. Goose bumps trickled across the area after he left it. “Break’s over.”
“Yeah, why don’t you do that?” she said.
“And three,” I continued, watching Leo shake his head as he disappeared through the door. Breathe. “I never asked to be a featured anything. In fact, I asked you not to do that. So leave me out of it.”
I went back in, leaving Katrina and Jeffrie there to do whatever they needed to do. I didn’t care. In fact, that going back where I came from wasn’t sounding all that bad at the moment. That garage apartment I saw in Thatcher’s neighborhood couldn’t be that bad, and I could kiss and fondle whoever I wanted.
Holy fuck, I kissed Leo.
Big time.
He kissed me back. Just as big time.
And God help me, I wanted more of it.
* * * *
I couldn’t stomach any more date night. After what just happened, I was useless. I was—I don’t know what I was. I could still taste him. I could still feel his hands on my body, his hair under my fingers, his—yep, all that. All up in my grille.
I hadn’t touched or kissed anyone except Jeremy in years, and the fact that I’d not only done that but climbed on him without a plan or a forethought—it just blew me away. Kind of like running from a church and saddling up on a stranger’s motorcycle.
Who the hell was I?
I texted Gabi, but she was all into playing the game, so I ordered myself some queso and chips, found myself a dark corner, and hid. I watched Leo work the bar, smiling politely, laughing sometimes, but mostly there was a quiet trouble about him. Was that because of me? Was it about his brother? And why did it matter? I couldn’t stop staring at his mouth and I was about to start pulling off my own fingernails to distract myself when Katrina made it back up to the microphone.
“Okay, y’all, that was the last round!” she said, giggling. “We lost a couple of people,” she added sourly. “But that’s okay, feel free now to mingle and meet back up with ones who tweaked you!”
“Really?” I muttered.
“Oh!” she continued, stepping back like she forgot something. “And don’t forget tomorrow night!” She circled an imaginary lasso over her head. Calf roping? “The bachelor auction!”
“Oh, wow,” I said.
“I hope everyone got their votes in for the esteemed victims—I mean bachelors!” she said, laughing at her lame joke. I’d never heard about any voting, but it all could have happened before I landed in Charmed. “I’ll read out all the names now, and, guys, if you’re here, be sure to show up at the Lucky Charmed pavilion tomorrow at six to practice your strut!” She giggled again, doing a little shimmy thing that made me want to hurl.
One by one, names were read and catcalls were done. I didn’t know any of them except Sully, who wasn’t there, and probably was exempt from the shenanigans. If he wasn’t, I was pretty sure that Carmen would change that.
“And one more who was written in recently,” Katrina said, her voice teasing. “Give a hand to the new boy in town, Leo McKane!”
My jaw dropped. My gaze shot to the bar, where Leo turned from a bent stance at the sound of his name and frowned. Women whistled, and I could almost hear the plans and strategies being devised in the seconds that followed. In fact, I could hear them. The table next to me started arguing over whether his bidding should start at $100 or $200.
Gabi was laughing as she approached my clandestine little table.
“Could you be more hidden?” she asked. “I was beginning to think you left.”
I barely heard her. All my senses were spinning out of whack as I watched the vultures descend upon the bar. “Nope. Just—um—how’d you do?”
“Idiots,” she said, dropping into a chair. “All of them. Hear about your boy?”
“My boy?” I said, probably way too fast. “What—he’s not—why are you calling him that?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Breathe.”
I rubbed my temples. Breathing had gone by the wayside long ago.
“This day is just eating me alive.”
“So, are you going to bid on him?” Gabi asked, gesturing with a tilt of her head and a glance backward.
I followed her line of focus, not that I’d been looking at much else.
“I don’t think—” I began. “I mean, I probably should take a night off. Stay in.”
“It’s not here,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “Out at the pavilion. Fresh air.”
“Still,” I said, giving her a smile that she probably wouldn’t understand meant Let it go, seeing that we’d known each other for about a minute.
“Speaking of fresh air,” she said, “want to have a picnic tomorrow?”
I blinked, aiming all my focus back on her. “I’m sorry, what?”
“There’s something I want to show you,” she said. “Some land out across the pond. I have an idea and I want to see what you think.” She shrugged. “We can grab some burgers to go and eat lunch on the boat.”
“Boat?”
“A rowboat.”
I nodded. “Of course it is.”
“So, you up for it?” she asked.
“Why not?” I said. “Sounds awesome.”
Gabi narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I smiled stiffly. “I’m awesome,” I echoed.
She gave me a sideways look. “Uh-huh. Be at the shop at eleven?”
I would likely already be there, since I planned to go home tonight and stay there till it was time to meet her tomorrow. That or stick a glass to the door and listen for Leo to leave so there was no chance of running into him in the hallway or the bathroom. This is what my life had come to—running away from men, hiding in new towns, making out with them, and then hiding again.
My brother might have a point. I should be past this shit.
“See you then.”
* * * *
I didn’t actually have to listen with a glass, but I did hear Leo come home. This, because I was lying on my couch wide awake and staring at the popcorn texture on the ceiling when I heard his footsteps down the hall.
Did I imagine the pause by my door? Probably. Did I know what I would do if he would have knocked? I would love to say no, or even an emphatic yes that I would ignore it. But every nerve ending in my body tuned in to those footsteps, especially when I heard the door squeak open to that secret back patio. I was pretty sure what those same nerves would do if given the opportunity.
My nerves were absolute sluts.
But he didn’t knock. And I didn’t leave.
And the next morning, I didn’t either. I slept till past when I knew he’d probably be gone, and I snuck out like the big kissing chicken coward that I am.
The Grahams were downstairs when I went down, Gabi’s dad lugging in some flowering plants while her mom directed.
“Perfect, Martin,” Wanda was saying. “Those begonias are the perfect swatch of color for that corner. They catch the afternoon sun.”
“Agreed,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and smiling as she looked my way. “Something else that would really draw the customers’ attention would be tiger lilies.”
“Tiger lilies,” Wanda said, looking surprised. “You sound like Gabi. She likes the wild blooms, too.”
I shrugged. “There’s something magical about natural beauty. Independent of us. In spite of us, even.”
Drew wandered in with a big white binder that said “Weddings,” followed by Gabi and a young woman with a pink streak in her hair. Wanda pushed her glasses up on top of her head and gave the young woman a double-take before looking back at me like I was something to study.
“That’s quite a perspective,” Wanda said, the studied look turning to a frown as she peered closer. “Honey, what happened to you?”
It wasn’t as bad as the previous day. Less purplish and more just a weird red with a little bit of brownish green. Makeup helped, but it was still there.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “Everything’s okay, though.”
She blinked a couple of times as if trying to decide if she believed me.
“Gabi tells me you’re one of the Romans from the Cherrydale Flower Farm.”
“I am,” I said on a sigh. “My brother really runs it. I work in the nursery. I’m more of a hands-in-the-dirt person than sitting at a desk.”
“You and me both,” Wanda said, to which both daughters guffawed.
“Since when?” Gabi said. “That’s Dad.”
Their dad lifted his eyebrows in a little chuckle and left the room, and that’s the most noise I’d heard from him yet.
“Well, whatever,” she said. “I couldn’t sit at a desk for a living, either.” She laughed. “I couldn’t sit anywhere. My dream is to take off one day. Sell the house, leave the business to the girls, and see the world.”
Gabi smirked, but Drew looked like her mother had just sent down a life sentence.
“The business is with the girls, anyway,” Gabi said under her breath.
“I heard that,” Wanda said.
“It’s not a secret,” Gabi retorted. “So, Drew will finish up your paperwork, Macy,” she said, turning back to the nodding girl who’d been standing there taking it all in. “Micah, you ready to go?”
“You’re coming back, right?” Drew asked. “We have to finish designing the Honey Games set.”
“I’m aware,” Gabi said. “Relax. Just taking an early lunch.”
We left, and instead of heading for Gabi’s car, we walked toward the Lucky Charm. Rides loomed ahead, and I wondered what her plan was.
“You mentioned a boat?” I asked. “Are we talking a real boat or the theme park version?”
“Oh, real,” she said. “But there’s a pizza kiosk out here that is to die for. You up for that?”
“I’m always up for that.”
We grabbed a small pizza from a little artisan pizza place called Jimmy’s, eyed an old-fashioned ice cream parlor along the boardwalk, made plans to come back for the two-scoop special, and then loaded ourselves into an old dilapidated rowboat that might have seen better days. Like maybe before we were born.
“How far are we going?” I asked. “Because this thing looks to have about a ten-minute shelf life.”
“It’s fine,” Gabi said, taking up the oars. “Better than it looks. And it’s just right around this corner.” She gestured with a tilt of her head.
I looked where she was pointing.
“Like this bend?” I asked, squinting to take in a pile of flora and fauna that gave way to a kind of sandbar and then a wild-growing field.
“Yep,” she said, pulling the first stroke and sending us on the move.
There were people over there, standing by a truck.
“It looks accessible by road.”
“It is,” she said, pulling again.
I blinked at her. “Then why are we going this way?”
“Because it’s more fun,” she said.
Couldn’t argue with that. Until we got closer and I saw the truck and people more closely. It was two men. Sully and—
“Damn it.”
“What?” Gabi said, stopping her action.
They looked our direction as we approached by water, and I saw the double-take on Leo’s face. I was pretty sure his expletive was the same.
“Did you know they would be here?” I asked, making her twist around.
“No.” She turned fully around. “What are they doing here in my field?”
“Your field?”
“Hey,” Sully said, making his way down the sandbar to pull us in before we’d even touched. “Throw me your line.”
Gabi did, and he hauled us up on the sand and tied the boat to a stump.
“What are y’all doing here?” she asked.
“Working out the clearing plans for Bailey,” Sully said.
“Clearing?” Gabi said.
“He wants this cleared out for development next year,” Sully said, thumbing over his shoulder toward Leo, who was strolling up behind him.
Or as much as you can tell when you’re trying not to look at someone.
“No, no, no,” Gabi said, clamoring out of the boat. “I thought you owned this.”
“Not this parcel,” Sully said. “He hung on to this little piece for some reason, and he’s wanting to develop it. Put houses here or something—”
Sully stopped talking when Gabi started pacing.
“Crap, that’s not good,” she said.
“Gabi, what’s up?” I asked.
“It’s what I wanted to show you,” she said. “Look at what’s growing already. The soil. The proximity to the water. The proximity to the shop. Wouldn’t this be an awesome place to do a controlled wildflower field?”
I looked around with a different eye. With Gabi’s perspective. With mine, if I was truly a Roman and meant to do what I do. I walked past the guys and shut down the magnetic pull coming from one of them. This wasn’t about that.
The field was thick with weeds and needed an overhaul, but it also grew Indian Paint Brush wild, along with buttercups and a very wild daisy strain. I stooped to dig my fingers into the earth. It wasn’t sandy like the bar; it was rich and pungent. It was good soil and looked to go back for several acres. With a careful clean-out and flower mapping to get just the right types together, with cross-pollination and natural nutrients feeding back into the soil—Gabi was right. She could have a gold mine here.
“What do you think?” she persisted. “Am I crazy?”
“Oh, you’re crazy,” I said, chuckling as I rose to my feet. “But that’s separate from this.”
“So?”
“I think it would be perfect.”
She made a squeal of joy and hugged me, and then just as abruptly left me and wheeled around.
“It would be perfect, except that Mr. Bailey owns it,” she said.
“BBG owns it,” Sully said. “The corporation he set up recently to protect his assets.”
BBG. Where had I heard that before?
“Was he being threatened?” Gabi asked.
Sully gave a side shrug. “He hasn’t been as private lately as in past years, so he’s more exposed. I think he’s just being careful.”
“Do you work for him?” I asked, realizing then where I’d heard it.
The big guy standing behind him with his arms crossed like a bouncer had once told me he came here to work for BBG, along with other things. Like bartending and taking nonsmoking breaks with old unlit cigarettes so that you end up with your tongue down the throat of the town’s latest gossip sizzle.
To his credit, he wasn’t looking at me, either. He looked very casual, and even lowered his hands to rest in his pockets, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Least of all about me. Well, that was fine. That was good. He shouldn’t have a care in the world about me. I’d be willing to bet that he didn’t sit in his living room listening for me in the hallway. Or spend half the night thinking about every nuance of those five seconds kissing me.
“No,” Sully said, as if answering that question. I had to blink a couple of times to remember that I’d asked him a whole other one. “Not in any official capacity. But he’s sort of a family friend.”
“Like the kind of friend you could ask not to develop this and instead rent it to me?” Gabi asked, looking a little off guard that the words came out of her mouth.
Sully regarded her. “If you’re serious about it,” he said. “Bailey’s a—different kind of person. To the point. He doesn’t have the best people skills,” he added with a chuckle. “But he’s fierce when it comes to helping the tiny circle of people he considers family.”
“How did you make that circle?” Leo asked, speaking up for the first time. His voice sent a sensuous trickle down my spine.
Sully licked his lips and raked back his hair. “I’m where I am now because of him,” he said. “Bailey had an odd kind of kinship with my father, the details of which are too bizarre to explain now, but in turn he took me under his wing when I left the carnival circuit and came back here. He offered me the land for the Lucky Charm at an insanely cut price. And he’s helped me out a couple of times personally as well.”
Gabi was nodding. “So, in return…”
“In return, I’m there for him.” Sully shrugged. “Some might say he engineered it that way so that I’m always indebted to him, but that’s okay. End result—his business sense is sharp as ever, but his health isn’t, so I’m sometimes the front man.” He smiled softly at Gabi. “So if you’re really serious about this, I’ll approach it, but get something together to back it up. He likes numbers.”
She nodded and suddenly looked a mix of euphoric and nauseated.
“Want me to hold off on this then?” Leo asked. “Just in case?”
Sully gave a small nod. “Yeah, I’ll tell him you’ll start in a week or so, pending what Gabi comes up with.”
“This guy has millions, I gather,” I said.
“Probably,” Sully said, chuckling.
“So why would he hire a one-man contractor to clean this up and level it for development?” I asked, ignoring Leo’s indignant look. “I mean, he can afford a professional team to come in and do it in a week.”
Sully grinned. “My guess? Family.”
Leo frowned. “What?”
Sully slapped him on the shoulder. “I think you might be in the circle, my friend, because of Lanie.”
“Lanie?” Gabi asked.
“Lanie Barrett,” Sully said. “Married Nick, who is Allie’s right-hand man at the diner.” At what was probably a group look of confusion, he continued. “BBG is Bailey, Barrett, and Greene. Ruby Barrett and Oliver Greene—Lanie’s aunt and Allie’s dad—were Bailey’s best childhood friends. His only family.”
“Ohhhh,” Gabi said under her breath.
Sully turned back to Leo. “You’re attached to Nick.”
Leo looked at him warily. “How would he know that? I literally just answered an ad.”
Sully laughed and walked back up to the truck. “We should probably have the Albert Bailey conversation soon. It’s kind of like questioning the universe.” He nodded our way. “I’ve got to get back to work, but keep in touch on this, Gabi.”
“Will do,” she said. “And thank you.”
Leo gave a half-hearted wave and followed Sully, so I turned and climbed back into the boat. I wasn’t going to give him any more than he was giving me. And I had pizza to eat.
Gabi watched me sit and unwrap the food, and then nodded.
“Okay,” she said, climbing back in and sinking onto her seat. “This works.”