Just One Fake Date: A Contemporary Romance (Flatiron Five Fitness Book 1)

by Deborah Cooke

  She came right to him, and he hoped it wasn’t all a performance as she reached up to kiss him. “I warned my tenants and they decided to go away for the weekend,” she said and he realized that she also had her camera. “So, you can make as much noise as you need to.”

  “Excellent,” Derek said and fitted Ty into a harness. Paul unloaded ladders, leaning them against the house with Aidan. Derek handed Ty a pair of heavy gloves and a nasty-looking tool. “First the old shingles come off. Let’s try to get that done before lunch.”

  “Are we saving the gutters?” Aidan asked. “What about the flashing?”

  “We’ll try. I’ll have a look and call it then. Let’s do it!” Derek shook his head. “The sooner it’s done, the sooner I’ll be able to scrape Paige off the ceiling.”

  Ty laughed and they got to work.

  It was the last time he laughed in a while. He wasn’t expecting it to be quite so hard.

  Shannyn took before pictures of the roof and some of the guys, sneaking a few shots of Tyler when he wasn’t looking. The best one was pure beefcake, when the guys broke for lunch. Tyler went to his car and changed his T-shirt, dropping the top of his overalls and peeling off his soaked shirt. His hair was wet and tousled, and he reminded her of those calendar shots of firemen. He wiped off the sweat, pulled on another shirt, and accepted a bottle of water from Aidan, tipping his head back to drain it.

  Derek was clearly intent on teasing him when the guys came into Shannyn’s kitchen to load up their plates for lunch. “Now you know what it’s like to work for a living,” he said to Tyler who smiled at Shannyn.

  “I’m going to sleep like the dead tonight.”

  “Better set an alarm. We’ll be back at it early tomorrow, too.” They paused to consider the spread and Shannyn named everything.

  “Italian today. Meatballs, buns, sautéed peppers and onions, hot peppers, extra sauce, mozzarella or provolone. Jalapenos because Aidan likes them on everything.” The guys laughed. She beckoned to Aidan, knowing that he’d set an example. He loaded up his plate, creating two meatball sandwiches that overflowed the capacity of the buns.

  “Damn,” Derek said, then gave Tyler a poke in the gut. “You’re going to get fat around here.”

  “Not if there’s more work like this,” he said they laughed again before they dug in. Paul took even more than Aidan, but Shannyn figured he was young enough to have a hollow leg. Tyler stopped with his plate before following the other guys, then backed Shannyn into the counter. His eyes gleamed as he bent down to whisper in her ear.

  “Pretend you like me,” he whispered. “And let me thank you for lunch.” He kissed her before she could argue and Shannyn didn’t have to pretend one bit. Derek and Aidan hooted from the backyard, but Tyler ignored them, taking his time.

  “Making sure my panties melt?” she asked when he lifted his head.

  “Making sure you consider the possibilities.”

  “You should stay over,” she suggested on impulse.

  “Funny. I was hoping you might say that.”

  “Just for appearances.”

  Tyler arched a brow, which made him look wicked. “Just for that?”

  “Aidan will be sleeping in the living room,” she chided. “He doesn’t need that much information about my life.”

  Tyler bent to nuzzle her ear. “It doesn’t look like a very big couch in your living room, certainly not big enough for Aidan and I to share, plus I don’t think we know each other well enough for that.”

  Shannyn smiled and brushed her lips across Tyler’s. “You have to sleep in my bed, with me, for the sake of appearances.”

  “What a terrible fate,” he murmured and kissed her back.

  Shannyn laughed. “You might think so. My bed’s a lot smaller than yours.”

  “I think I’ll survive. Kiss me like you mean it now,” he said and Shannyn did.

  By the end of the day, Shannyn watched Tyler wave as Derek backed out of the driveway, and saw him push a hand through his hair. Even dressed down, he looked expensive. There was nothing rough around the edges about him, although he’d worked just as hard as the other guys on the roof. He had a bit of a sunburn on the back of his neck and his forearms, and she knew she’d never seen him with a dirt smudged on his skin. He looked good enough to eat, in her estimation, his muscles flexed and his T-shirt damp, and his eyes lit when she opened the kitchen door for him.

  “Why don’t you take a shower while I get dinner?” she suggested and he smiled.

  “Don’t mind if I do.” He fist-bumped with Aidan who razzed him a bit, and Shannyn went back to dicing onions. She couldn’t help thinking of Tyler in the shower, the water running over him, and kind of wished Aidan would disappear.

  No such luck.

  Her version of the chicken piccata was well received and Tyler was clearly impressed. The three of them did the dishes together and Shannyn was sure Aidan would go out in search of beer.

  Instead, he sat down at the table again and spoke to Tyler. “Shannyn said you’re a money guy, right?”

  Tyler flicked a glance at Shannyn, and she wondered if he was remembering her description of Aidan’s relationship with money. “Finance. Yes.”

  “Can I talk to you then? Like a professional consultation? There’s something I want to do, and I’m not sure how to start.”

  “Okay.” Tyler sat down opposite Aidan. “What do you want to do?”

  “Open a brew-pub.”

  Shannyn blinked at her brother’s first expression of any kind of ambition.

  “Why?” Tyler asked.

  “Because it’s a great idea,” Aidan said with a grin. “Because the world needs more beer and more brew-pubs.” He nodded. “All I need is an investor to make it happen, so I’m asking you how to do that.”

  Tyler frowned and cleared his throat. “Okay, you have a choice here,” he said and Aidan eased forward a little bit. “Option A is that I can tell you it’s a great idea and that you should go for it, and we’ll be done.”

  Even Aidan heard the warning in Tyler’s tone. “Or?”

  “Or, I can ask you questions, questions that might actually help you to make this happen. Option B is probably a lot less cheerful.”

  “Why?”

  “You have an idea. Millions of people have millions of ideas every day, and a lot of them are good ones. That doesn’t mean that even a small fraction of them become reality, much less that anyone invests in those ideas.”

  Aidan grimaced. “You’re going to talk me out of it.”

  Tyler shook his head. “Not me. It’s your idea and your choice. But if you really want to pursue it, I can show you what you’ll need to figure out to make it happen.”

  “Okay. I’m listening.”

  Shannyn leaned against the counter to listen. The house seemed really quiet now that the hammering on the roof had stopped. She could hear music from someone’s backyard and the distant hum of the traffic, and felt both satisfied and filled with anticipation. That seemed to be her usual reaction when Tyler was around. She watched as he did what he did best.

  “The first thing you need when you ask for investment is a business plan. It should answer all the questions.”

  “I can answer questions.”

  “But in my experience, banks don’t ask questions. If they don’t think the business plan is a strong one, they just say no and that’s the end of the discussion.”

  Aidan straightened. “Okay. What goes in a business plan?”

  Tyler looked around and Shannyn guessed what he was looking for. She gave him some paper from the printer and a pen. He wrote ‘who?’ then looked at Aidan. “Why you?”

  “Because I’m the one with the idea.”

  “But what makes you the best candidate to open a brew-pub?”

  “Because I want to?” There was a question in Aidan’s voice.

  “That’s good, but it’s not enough. What do you know about running a brew-pub, for example? Do you know how to make beer? D
o you know how to cook or run a restaurant? Do you have any experience running a business?”

  “I’m going to learn,” Aidan started but Tyler shook his head.

  “You need to offer proof.”

  “But this isn’t a job application,” Aidan protested. “My experience shouldn’t matter as much as my idea.”

  “Your experience is the only thing that matters when it’s the only asset you have,” Tyler said. “You’re asking for money. Your experience should be in your business plan, in an addendum, and every reference should be verifiable. Don’t just go and get a job in a brewery: figure out what jobs you need to get the experience required to run a brew-pub.”

  “That’s going to take a while.”

  Tyler nodded. He wrote some more questions on the sheet of paper—Why? Where? What makes it distinct? Who are the competition?—then turned around the sheet of paper and passed it to Aidan with the pen. Aidan started to make notes. Shannyn couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted something enough to pursue it.

  “Okay. I can get a job in a brew-pub and learn how it works.”

  “So, you’ll have experience and credentials for having worked in a brew-pub. What would be even better proof that you could make beer?” Tyler asked. “What would prove you could do it alone?”

  “Doing it, but that’s why I’d need the money...”

  “But you’re more likely to get the money if you can prove that you can do it.”

  Aidan flung up his hands. “Then, there’s no point...”

  “Of course, there is,” Tyler said. “How can you prove it? Think outside of the box. Between having no facilities and running a successful craft brewery, there are incremental steps. Itemize them and list what you need to accomplish each one. Can you get a job as an assistant to a brewmaster? Can you begin to brew some small batches on the side? Can you rent equipment to brew your own? You need to move from never having brewed beer, to having mastered the skills to do it, to having evidence that you can do it.”

  Aidan nodded.

  “And then you might be able to answer my second question.”

  “That’s only the first question?”

  Tyler smiled. “Do you know how to sell beer?”

  “How hard can it be?”

  Tyler shook his head. “You need to prove that you can build a brand from nothing. You need a logo, a website, some bars serving your beer, blogs talking about your beer. You need customers and you need buzz. This will go so much better if the bank has heard of you before you walk in their door.”

  Aidan made more notes. “You’re making me start this business without any investment,” he grumbled.

  “That would be the best plan, then no one owns a piece of the result.”

  Shannyn saw the proverbial light go on.

  Tyler turned the paper around and flipped it over, then drew a timeline. “So, phase one, you get a job at a brew-pub and work your ass off. You learn every job.”

  “Which means it’s probably a small operation,” Shannyn said.

  “Two years? Three? You apprentice to the brewmaster, make connections, learn your craft.”

  “Then rent a fermenter from them,” Aidan said, nodding.

  “If you can. How long does it take to make a batch of beer?”

  “A couple of weeks. It depends. Call it a month from mash to keg.”

  “How long will it take to sell it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “The first one will be the toughest, because you won’t have samples to give.”

  “Unless I make a batch in a smaller fermenter first,” Aidan said, taking back the pen to make more notes. “Let’s say I can sell it in a month, while the next batch is brewing.”

  “All good. Be conservative and plan that you’ll sell it in two months.”

  “And if I sell it faster?”

  “That’s a good problem to have, but you need a solution for that, too.”

  “Maybe the company you work for will have strategies you can learn,” Shannyn said.

  “And then I buy my own?”

  “I’d wait until you had enough sales to need a second fermenter. Try to get an option on that first one to renew the lease for up to a year, maybe even longer. Then figure out where you’re going to put the first fermenter you buy.”

  “Along with all the other equipment. I’ll need a building.” Aidan smiled. “I was thinking of Cedric’s place back in Harte’s Harbor...”

  “A building!” Tyler said sharply. “And buying it outright? That’s a lot of capital.”

  “You did it with Flatiron Five Fitness,” Shannyn noted.

  “Because we didn’t have a choice. We needed to grab a site when we could and it was hard to swing. We had some cash, too. Is Harte’s Harbor a hot real estate market? If not, maybe you could make a deal for part of the building, maybe with a subsequent option to buy.”

  “No matter how much I save, I’ll run out of money in a hurry this way.” Aidan was scanning his notes with a frown. Shannyn was glad to see him thinking of the whole challenge.

  “Maybe he’ll give you the option in exchange for something else. A keg every sixty days.”

  “I get it.”

  “Be creative,” Tyler said to Aidan. “Money is the hardest thing to get. You can always work harder or put in more hours. You can barter for what you need. Your sister’s good at that.” He flicked a smile at Shannyn. “Just get everything in writing. Whenever you make a deal, you want to be able to prove exactly what the terms are, just in case someone tries to change them.”

  Aidan sat back, surveying his notes. “This is a shit-ton of work.”

  Tyler yawned. “Which is why so many great ideas never amount to anything.”

  Aidan didn’t look deterred. “When I have a business plan, would you look at it?”

  Tyler blinked with surprise. “Sure.”

  “It’s going to be a couple of years.”

  Tyler handed Aidan one of his cards. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Aidan offered his hand. “Thanks. I hadn’t even thought of most of these questions.”

  “Glad to be of help.” Tyler stood up and glanced toward the window at the falling darkness. “I’d better get some sleep. I have a feeling morning will come early.” He came to Shannyn’s side and kissed her. “Thanks for lunch and dinner,” he said quietly, looking into her eyes.

  “Thank you for making my roof happen.”

  He smiled, just a little, and brushed his fingertip across her mouth before turning to head into her bedroom.

  “Can I use your computer?” Aidan asked with enthusiasm. “I’ve got so much work to do.”

  Shannyn put the last of the pots away, not wanting to appear too hot to get into bed with Tyler, then left Aidan working on her computer. Fitzwilliam was asleep on that keyboard when she eased open the door to find Tyler sound asleep in her bed.

  She smiled, stripped down and pulled on a nightgown, then eased into the bed beside him. He rolled over, spooning behind her, the weight of his arm around her waist and his breath in her hair.

  Shannyn dared to believe for just this night, then fell asleep with a smile on her lips.

  Ty didn’t want to open his eyes.

  He just wanted this moment to stretch out to eternity.

  He was in Shannyn’s bedroom. There was no mistaking that with her softness curled against his side and her head on his arm, her breath fanning his hand. Her bed was smaller and softer than his, but he had no complaints. He wanted to lie there forever, just holding her as she slept.

  Then he wanted to make love to her another thousand times.

  And a thousand after that.

  He could hear birds, which was another clue that he wasn’t downtown in his apartment. There were faint sounds of traffic, but nothing like in the city. Her house creaked a little as the furnace came on and the hot water radiators heated, but it was wonderfully serene.

  Ty felt a conviction that he was exactly where he should b
e, that this was home. He ran his hand down the length of Shannon and she nestled closer, prompting him to smile in recognition of why he felt that way.

  Home was, after all, where the heart was.

  Even if he hurt in places he hadn’t even realized he had.

  And it would take another day to finish the roof. He’d gone to bed in his briefs and a T-shirt and fallen asleep before Shannyn had joined him. He didn’t even know when she’d come to bed, but she was nestled against him. Ty didn’t care whether that had been for the sake of appearances or because there was nowhere else to sleep. He stretched and groaned a little bit, knowing he’d have to do some stretches to warm up before he got on that roof again.

  But still, he wouldn’t have been anywhere else for the world.

  Tyler rolled to his back, trying to keep from disturbing Shannyn, and a weight landed hard on his chest, driving the air out of his lungs.

  His eyes flew open just as he was batted on the chin. Fitzwilliam was sitting on his chest, his green eyes glowing in the half-light. Ty saw that lush tail flick, then Fitzwilliam reached out and patted him on the chin again.

  This time, it punctuated what was obviously a request with a yowl of complaint.

  Apparently, the cat had gotten over his shyness.

  Shannyn wiggled a little closer, rubbing her butt against him in a very arousing way. Ty glanced down to see a mysterious smile curve her lips and knew she was well aware of what she was doing.

  She rolled over and slid a hand over him, her fingers closing around his erection with a surety that made him catch his breath. When she looked up at him, her eyes were sparkling and he knew she was going to mess with him.

  He couldn’t wait.

  “And there’s the third thing I miss,” she whispered, her tone mischievous. “Morning erections that demand immediate attention.” She gave him a caress that made him forget his aches and pains, then sat up. She stretched, giving him an enticing view when she tugged off her nightshirt. “Sex in the morning is the very best.”

  Ty might have taken that as an invitation, but he heard Aidan coming down the hall to the bathroom. “Good morning, Viet Nam!” Aidan roared in a very bad imitation of Robin Williams, then pounded on the bedroom door. “Rise and shine, people. There’s hard labor to be done.”