Caroline

On Saturday morning, I’m at the bookstore at six o’clock, helping Dad and his one employee, Ailish. She’s in charge of the coffee shop’s kitchen, and she’s a whiz, having worked at Starbucks for a year.

“Caroline! I’ve got all this,” she assures me. “Go finish the inventory.”

“I’m going, I’m going.”

At ten o’clock, we have our first customers—well, customers is perhaps not the right word. They are old friends of Mom and Dad’s who are here for company and gossip, not to buy anything, but at this point, I’m grateful for anyone coming in. An empty store is unnerving.

Later today, I’m hoping some of my school contacts will show up. I spent the entire week spamming the parents at pickup, talking their ear off about the bookstore. The problem is that most of them live near the school, and the bookstore is literally at the other end of the city, but here’s to hoping some will show up anyway.

Niall arrives shortly before lunch, and I greet him with a hug so tight, I almost suffocate him. God, how I missed my brother.

“Wow, you did a great job,” he says once I step back. He sweeps his eyes around the room as Dad gives him a shorter and manlier hug. “Great job. Looks even better than in the pictures.”

“Want a coffee?” Dad asks.

“Sure. I’ll drink it while you give me the tour.” Niall runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it a bit. Though my brother’s hair is as dark as mine, he has reddish hues because Niall favors our mother more than I do.

While Dad makes him coffee, Niall pulls me a little farther away. “How are the finances on this? Was the money enough?”

Niall and I both chimed in with an equal amount of money for the renovation.

“Yeah, it was just about right.”

“If he needs anything else, tell me. Dad doesn’t always tell me if he’s in trouble.”

Shifting my weight from one leg to the other, I say, “Could you call him more often? He misses you.”

Niall nods, swallowing. “I’ll try to. I don’t mean not to call him, but my schedule is insane. But I’ll try more. I promise.”

“Okay.”

As Dad hands him the coffee cup, we begin the tour, which ends all too quickly because Niall has to return to the conference.

I head to the back once he’s gone, going through the boxes containing the latest batches of books we ordered. I might finish in the back today, and tomorrow morning I’ll arrange the new merchandise on the shelves inside.

Several hours later, I’m neck-deep in lists and boxes, double-checking everything on my computer.

“Caroline, how are you doing in there?” Dad asks, poking in his head.

“My eyes will cross soon,” I answer honestly.

“Take a break, come out to the front.”

“Okay.” Stretching, I follow him out. “Whoa.”

The back door opens into the coffee shop area, and there are more people than I expected milling around, some sitting at the tables, others inspecting the shelves lining the walls. It takes me a few seconds to realize quite a few are named Bennett. How the...? I specifically didn’t invite them because I didn’t want them to feel obligated to come. But man, am I happy to see them. Daniel must have told them.

“Wait a second. I’ll go shut down my computer and join everyone for an extended break.”

Heading back inside the storage room, I barely pick up my computer when I hear Daniel’s voice through the open door, sounding as if he’s heading this way. “Martin, you did a great job.”

“Thank you, son.”

“Where’s Caroline?”

I jump at the sound of my name.

“In the back.”

Since I have my back to the door, I don’t see but rather feel him stepping inside the room. The air seems to charge instantly, the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. A current of awareness shakes my entire body as I spin around to face him.

“Hey! I was just finishing up here. Thanks for stopping by and bringing your family.”

“My pleasure.” He smiles, leaning in to kiss my cheek. Heat zings through me. Oh boy! My entire body reacts to his presence. The memory of our night together is still too fresh in my mind, the feeling of his touch imprinted on my body. Not to mention our midnight confessions; I’m not likely to forget those anytime soon. Between the memory of his touch, and his words, he’s pulling me in like a magnet.

“When’s Niall arriving?” he asks, instantly cutting the tension.

“He was here before lunch, but he couldn’t stay longer. We’ll see him tomorrow for breakfast again.”

“Come out in the front, you two,” Dad calls from outside the room. “Ailish just finished a fresh batch of cookies.”

I head out of the room, Daniel hot on my heels.

To my delight, the Bennetts even brought some of the little ones. Pippa’s twins, Mia and Elena, Sebastian’s kids, Will and Audrey, and Logan’s son, Silas, are all here, and I’ve got just the thing to entertain them.

I do an inventory of the adults too. Ava and Sebastian, Logan and Nadine, and Pippa and Eric are on one side of the room. On the other side of the room are Blake and Summer. Their parents, Jenna and Richard Bennett, are a few feet away.

I greet everyone fast, tripping over my own feet as I inquire what they want to drink.

After they’re all set up, I turn my attention to the kids.

“I’ve got some coloring books for you,” I tell the younger ones, who seem to be hanging on to my every word. “Come on.”

“Kids are well entertained,” I announce to no one in particular when I join the Bennetts again. God, it’s so good to have all of them here. I’m beyond thankful. That’s when I realize I haven’t thanked them. I’ve been so beside myself, I forgot to say it out loud.

“Thank you all for being here.”

Blake puts a hand on my shoulder. “Anytime. Besides, we were all waiting for the day Daniel would come to his senses. Made a bet with Summer on when that would happen. I lost by about three years.”

This isn’t awkward at all....

“What... no, we’re friends,” I mumble, feeling my face go up in flames. At least Daniel is not within earshot, but at the other end of the room, inspecting the middle shelf of the Travel section. Thank heavens for small mercies.

Summer steps closer. “Yeah, you’re blushing worse than ever. Friends, my ass.”

Oh boy.

If I thought my face was hot before, now I’m expecting steam to come out of my ears. Between Blake and Summer, I’m toast. I’m out of practice fending off curious Bennetts, but I need to polish those skills until they shine like silver.

Summer grins, giving me a knowing look. Pippa, on the other hand, appears to be surprisingly uninterested in the topic, perusing the Lifestyle shelves. This is so unlike her that I instantly realize she’s up to something.

Ah, man. If any of the Bennett women get wind of what happened in the marina hotel, I’m a dead woman. And I’m not being dramatic. It’s the honest-to-God truth.

I don’t have time to dwell on this alarming idea because Ailish brings everyone cookies, and we dig in. My eyes sweep around the room, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see a set of parents from my school.

I immediately rush over to thank them, giving them a tour of the bookstore.

“Nice place,” the woman comments. “Pity it’s so far away from where we live.”

“It was nice of you to come by. Can I tempt you with another coffee on the house?”

They smile. “Won’t say no to free coffee.”

Once I’ve set them up with steamy cups, I retreat in the corner between the Lifestyle and Healthy Living sections, surveying the room. If at least ten percent become paying customers... I start to mentally crunch numbers and am so absorbed in it, I startle when Daniel walks up to me.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

“I hope the cafe addition will work out,” I confide. I feel like I’m going to implode if I don’t voice my concerns soon, and Daniel has a sharp business acumen. “We already lost out on the back-to-school sales because we weren’t open. I hope we’ll make some decent sales centered around Halloween items.”

“You’ll do great. Just make sure you have a system in place so people can’t stay in the coffee shop for hours just paying for one drink.”

“What do you mean?” I ask in alarm. “I don’t want to be one of those places hazing customers to order something every half hour.”

Daniel strokes his chin, seeming to carefully weigh his words. “It’s not hazing—it’s not letting people take advantage of you.”

Protest rises in my throat. “But this is a place for people to come and relax.”

“Yeah, but relaxation shouldn’t come for free. You have twenty seats here. If you get ten people who come in regularly to buy two drinks and spend six hours, half of your shop is gone. No way can you turn a profit.”

My protest turns to panic. “But won’t people hate the nagging?”

“Those worth your time won’t, trust me. The customers who value what you have to offer won’t mind paying for it. You don’t need the rest.”

“That’s something Mom would say,” I admit.

“Your mother was a great businesswoman.”

I slash the air with my finger. “I know what you mean... how Dad and I are lousy at business.”

“You’re not lousy, but you’re not exactly profit-oriented either. You care about people’s experience, which is great. That’s how it should be, customer first and everything. But you still need to fend off the moochers. Don’t be afraid to demand what you’re worth.”

I nod. In theory, he makes sense, but I’m not sure how this translates into practice.

“Can I run a few ideas by you?” I ask.

“Sure. You can run anything you want by me.”

I laugh, warmth spreading through me. “There are plenty other Bennetts I can ask for advice.”

“Yet you chose me. I have plenty of evidence that I’m your favorite Bennett.”

“Like what?” I challenge. God, it’s so easy to get caught in his banter, his playfulness.

He trails his fingers up and down my spine as if it’s only natural for him to touch me. I’m playing right into his illusion, though, by not moving away. 

“One word: marina.”

“I was on Benadryl,” I counter, but the argument is weak. Daniel wastes no time pointing it out.

“Not when we made love.”

No, no, no! He can’t go there again. He won’t. This shameless, merciless man. I had a few hours of weakness, and he’s using them against me like a weapon.

“Daniel... can we just forget about that?”

He pushes a strand of hair behind my ear, tilting his head to one side. “I don’t want to. And you don’t either. You were kissing me like you never wanted me to stop.”

“Of course I didn’t want you to stop. You were giving me fabulous orgasms.” I wink, keeping my tone light and casual. Maybe if I can keep this focused on the sexy part, I’ll convince him that it was nothing more than a blip in my control.

“I remember every detail, every sound you made, and fuck, I want to hear them again. Just remembering how you felt in my arms, how you opened up for me, brings me to my knees, Caroline. Tell me you don’t think about that night.”

“I do. Every night... and day. Basically all the time.”

Daniel cups the right side of my face in his hand, resting his thumb at the corner of my mouth. A memory flashes in my mind, when he touched me the exact same way. The memory is so vivid that I instantly ache on the inside.

Right, I need him to stop touching me. Otherwise, I’ll never whip my thoughts into a coherent sentence. I swear the spell this man has on me should be illegal. Everything about him is just too intense. Too overwhelming. I step back, sizing him up.

“But we’ll get over it eventually.”

I do a mental fist pump because my voice sounded strong, and firm. It wavered a teeny tiny little bit, but I’m sure only I could tell that. Except Daniel is smiling.

“Why are you smiling?” I ask.

“Never mind, go on. I’m listening.”

“Well, I—for the love of God, stop smiling. It makes me feel like you know something I don’t.”

“Maybe I do.”

I poke his ribs with my finger. “You’re infuriating.”

“Can’t disagree there.”

“Wanna share what’s got you smiling so much?”

“You’re so fucking adorable trying to convince yourself, it makes me want to kiss you right now.”

I take a giant step back, hold up a finger menacingly. “Don’t you dare!”

Daniel smiles even more broadly. “I’d believe you don’t want it if you weren’t licking your lips.”

Whoops.

I open my mouth, close it again, unsure what to say. Do I want to feel the warmth of his body again, hear him murmur sweet nothings in my ear? Of course I do. But the failure of our last rendezvous still looms over me. Besides, I’m not a catch. I’m not whole anymore, and there’s no way around that. No point deluding myself... or him.

“Let’s go back to your family,” I say.

For a split second, he looks like he’s going to call me out on the change of subject, then nods. I take that as a sign he’s going to drop this. Grudgingly, but will drop it.

But as the day goes on, I’m not so sure anymore. Every time we’re next to each other, he touches me relentlessly: my hand, the small of my back, my shoulder.

The Bennetts spend the entire afternoon with us, right up until we close at six o’clock. Afterward, Dad insists on inviting the family for dinner. I use all my cunning to convince him to order pizza, instead of him “whipping up something quickly.” It would be a poor repayment to the Bennetts to torture them with one of my father’s cooking attempts.

“It’s good to have the house full again,” he comments excitedly. “Feels like when you kids were little.”

Guilt gnaws at me. Dad is lonely, and I have no clue how to remedy it. I can always stop by for dinner more often, but I suspect he needs company of his own age. 

The dining room in Dad’s house is far too small for so many people, so we decide to host dinner in the newly built coffee shop. We push the small tables together to form a long one, arranging the chairs around.

“Here you go,” Daniel says, and I nearly jump out of my skin. My arms are full of pizza cartons. They were taking up too much space, so I decided to take them to the trash cans outside before eating. Daniel is carrying the boxes I couldn’t fit in my arms. I was so lost in thought, I didn’t realize he was right next to me, opening the back door.

“By the way, I had an idea,” I say as we step outside. “I could talk to nearby schools and preschools, tell them about our kids’ corner, invite them to do readings.”

“Excellent idea.”

“It just occurred to me because I told the parents at my school, but obviously no one’s gonna cross the city from Richmond to Excelsior for this. But this is a family-friendly neighborhood. Lots of kids. Parents can bring them and enjoy a coffee while the kids play in their corner.”

Daniel nods thoughtfully as we walk the distance to the trashcans. “That’s the best way to position yourself—as a meeting point for your local community.”

“I’ll think about more activities we can organize here. How do you come up with ideas for new stuff to add in your business?”

“In the beginning, it was just in-house brainstorming, but now we have a large pool of customers, and we listen to their feedback and ideas. Right now I’m looking into opening a gym because so many of our clients want to do indoor activities.”

Unfortunately the trash cans are almost full, so stuffing the cartons inside takes a bit of creativity and a lot of brute force. I hold the lid open while Daniel does his best to press the boxes over the existing mountain of garbage. After a few ridiculous tries, we finally manage to close the lid on the cans again.

“What kind of activities?” I ask on our way back.

“Everything from climbing to team sports.”

“How about kickboxing?” 

He shakes his head. “Not on the list, but Krav Maga is. Why?”

“A friend of mine is a trainer. He does kickboxing, maybe Summer told you.”

“Yeah, she did mention you roped her into this.”

“He offers Krav Maga too. If you need a trainer, I could introduce you to him. He owns a small studio, but he moonlights at other studios too. I’m training with him tomorrow. Would you like to come?”

“What time? I’m working in the morning.”

“Seven o’clock in the evening.”

“Works for me. I’ll bring my equipment too, test it out myself. I don’t like offering activities I’ve never done.” 

Swallowing, I tell myself this is a good thing. This would be beneficial for both Daniel and Theo.

But seeing Daniel training is a dangerous temptation. All those muscles flexing, all that sweat, the manly sounds. Not to mention seeing him in his training clothes.

“I’ll text you the address,” I tell him. “My friend will be over the moon at the chance of having a new customer.”

That’s right. I’m inviting him along because it would benefit both of their businesses, not because I want a front row seat at seeing Daniel flex his muscles.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.