After Her Flower Petals: A Second Chance Romantic Comedy (The Svensson Brothers Book 7)

by Alina Jacobs

  Hunter raised an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with breakfast?” he asked, gesturing at the room.

  I turned. There was an elaborate spread of food behind me.

  You’re supposed to be on a diet.

  Yes, but that was only because we ran out of food-budget money. Everyone knows free-food calories don’t count!

  “I had Girl Meets Fig cater. The health department cleared them after the smoothie fiasco,” he explained mildly, pouring a cup of coffee.

  “Wow, Hunter, we should have you at meetings more often!” Josie said, walking into the room, Mace behind her. He set down her things on the conference table.

  “Thank you!” she said, pressing a kiss to his mouth.

  “Look at Hunter making an effort,” Mace teased his older brother.

  “You’re going to be late for work,” Hunter told him in annoyance.

  Mace grabbed a breakfast sandwich and left as Judge Edna and the rest of the members of the Harrogate Foundation filed in.

  “We’ve never had such a nice spread before,” one of the older women exclaimed.

  “And I don’t think we’ve had such good-looking men here either!” another cooed over Hunter. He basked in their praise.

  “It’s the least I can do after the hard work you all have put into making Harrogate a better place to live,” he said smoothly.

  They ate it up. And just like that, Hunter had control of the meeting.

  “I hear there’s a festival coming up,” Hunter said. He was both relaxed and focused, making notes in neat handwriting on the notepad in the leather-bound book he carried.

  “Yes, for fundraising,” Josie said. “We have the initial endowment from Svensson PharmaTech but thought it might be fun to throw a big fundraising festival and educate people on the volunteer opportunities and initiatives we’ve organized for the community.”

  I took another bite of my breakfast sandwich and zoned out. Those types of festivals were what Barry usually did. If Hunter was now going to be in the mode of just showing up and shaking hands, he could stand there in the sun all day and do it.

  “Since you are both mayoral hopefuls,” Josie added, “we thought it would be fun if you participated in some of the activities.”

  “Of course! We’d be happy to.”

  “We?” I asked, standing up to select another breakfast sandwich because my week had just started, and it was already terrible.

  “It will be a fun bonding experience,” Hunter insisted.

  “I’ve spent more time with you in the last month than I particularly care to,” I told him.

  “Please! You can’t stop obsessing over me—that’s why you showed up at my house yesterday to surprise me.” Hunter smirked.

  There were giggles and exclamations of surprise from several of the Harrogate Foundation members. Josie clapped a hand over her mouth, and even Judge Edna seemed shocked.

  “I think Art owes me quite a lot of money,” she said finally.

  “I didn’t come like that,” I protested.

  Hunter caught his bottom lip in his teeth. “No comment.”

  “You. I—” I sputtered. “I was only over there because he didn’t show up to a meeting yesterday morning!”

  “It must have been an honest mistake,” Edna said, flipping to the next page in the festival planning document. “Hunter is always so put together.”

  “He’s just doing it to get under your skin,” Kate told me later that day in the campaign office after I finished ranting about Hunter. “He’s just trying to put you off-balance so he can win the mayoral election.”

  “Right,” I said, feeling slightly dejected.

  “What wrong?” Kate cried, giving me a hug. “Don’t let Hunter get you down.”

  “It’s not that. It just…” I ran my fingers through my tangled hair. Gosh, I was a mess.

  “A part of me was always hopeful that Hunter was acting like a jerk because he secretly, I don’t know, cared, or liked me. But he always has an ulterior motive. I just need to remind myself not to let my guard down.”

  Kate gave me a conspiratorial look.

  “Whatever it is, no.” I shook my head. “After that date with Josh or John or whoever he was, I’m not going along with any more of your other crazy plans.”

  “But you said it was the best lasagna of your entire life!” Kate reminded me. “So it wasn’t all bad.”

  “They made me sing in front of his entire family, who I had just met. Who takes someone to meet their family on their first date?”

  “Didn’t you meet Hunter’s brothers almost immediately?”

  “That was different,” I protested. “He brought them over to steal my car!”

  “We need to stop playing defense and start playing offense,” Kate said, going to one of the cabinets against the wall. “Hunter is trying to throw you off your game by saturating your brain with sexy, dirty thoughts about him.”

  “I’m not having those kinds of thoughts!” I said, face hot.

  Kate raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because you spent like two hours yesterday over drinks describing in excruciating detail all the micro movements he was making when he was half naked at the meeting yesterday morning.”

  “He was flaunting his chest at me.” I crossed my arms.

  “Because he knows it drives you crazy.”

  “I wouldn’t say that.”

  Kate held out an outfit to me. “Your chest is more impressive than his. You have two nuclear weapons. Let’s use them.” She shoved me into the small office bathroom. “Change and let’s see what we’re working with.”

  I carefully peeled off my old suit and struggled into the new one.

  “It’s too tight,” I complained.

  The door opened, and Kate threw in a package of spandex shapewear. “Put that on underneath.”

  I wheezed as I pulled on the Spanx. It was the kind that was like a pair of cutoff overalls, and I was seriously regretting that third breakfast sandwich I had taken after the meeting was over. And the pastry.

  “Maybe I should try this tomorrow,” I said, struggling to shimmy into the skirt. “Maybe today is not my day.”

  “The big train ribbon cutting ceremony is in a little bit. Today is the first day of Hunter’s demise.”

  “This top is too low-cut,” I said, exiting the bathroom.

  “No, this is exactly how it’s supposed to fit, see?” Kate said, showing me a picture of a model in the outfit. “Now breathe out!” She grabbed the lapels and buttoned the suit jacket. It pushed my boobs up even higher on my chest. Then she fastened a belt around my waist and twisted my hair up into a bun on top of my head.

  “Oooh, yes!” My friend rubbed her hands together gleefully. “When Hunter sees you, they’re going to have to take him to the emergency room to have his jaw stapled back on.”

  “I bet he doesn’t even show up at the train ribbon cutting.”

  “Of course he’s going! It’s free publicity. The train serves his brother’s company, and Hunter’s going to try and keep you even more off-balance. But he’s the one who’s going down!”

  I pulled at the skirt. “I have to pee.”

  “Oh, for the love of—” Kate pulled a box cutter out of her purse. “Unfortunately for you, I bought the off-brand Spanx, and they don’t have a convenience outlet. So necessity is the mother of invention, right?”

  34

  Hunter

  The schools had let out early for the day so all the children could see the new train. My brother Tanner, who owned a train shipping company, had put up some of the funds to buy the new engine.

  “I can’t see how you’re not sick of small-town events,” he said, sunglasses obscuring his eyes.

  “He barely goes to any of them,” Greg said irritably.

  “You better step it up if you’re going to be mayor,” Mace said. “I think Josie attends more small-town events than you, and she is in Manhattan for work half the time.”

  “He’s going to be
in our fundraising festival!” Josie said. “He’s working on making it up.”

  I grabbed a drink. I was not looking forward to the festival.

  We had towers of champagne for the adults and sparkling grape juice for the kids. The whole town had turned out, lining the sidewalks, waiting for the new train engine to chug down the middle of Main Street.

  As we waited for the train, my brothers and I talked to people from town and from the state government. Mace had several of my teenage brothers handing out miniature train sets with the Harrogate logo and the Svensson PharmaTech logo on them.

  “I have your speech notes ready,” Karen said, handing me several cards. “You’re speaking first then Meghan. She’s not even here yet, so it might just be you.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “That sounds—”

  “I’m here! I’m here!” Meg said behind me.

  I turned. “That sounds—” It was as if my brain had short-circuited. Meg looked hot and fuckable. Her suit accentuated her curves, giving her that perfect hourglass figure. Her tits looked amazing with the wide belt pushing them up. I wanted to stick my cock in between her cleavage. My eyes traveled down. The skirt had a slit up the side, and her heels were taller than normal, making her ass perky. My brain beat me over the head with the image of the last time I had fucked her from behind.

  Her tight, wet pussy, hot around my—

  “Hunter, look out!”

  Meg grabbed my arm, hauling me toward her. Wind ruffled the back of my hair as a two-hundred-twenty-ton train engine rolled past me, pulling to a stop a few yards away.

  “What the fuck?” I cursed. “Did that train just come out of nowhere?”

  “It’s battery powered,” my brother Tanner said happily. “State of the art. That’s why all the train clubs in the area traveled to see it. Even Tech Biz is reporting on it. It’s perfect for the Svensson PharmaTech deliveries because it doesn’t have to travel as far, just to the major harbor. Also, since it goes through town, the fact that it’s fairly quiet is great!”

  “Yeah, that’s an accident waiting to happen,” I remarked.

  “Can we add some bells on it or, like, a megaphone that plays a happy song?” Mace asked.

  “You’re not turning my train into an ice cream truck!” my brother exclaimed, hugging the gleaming black engine.

  We took pictures with the train for the newspaper. I tried to focus and not look like I had just been lobotomized. But Meg kept wandering into my peripheral vision.

  “Can we take a picture with the soon-to-be mayor of Harrogate?” one man asked. He was wearing a polo with an embroidered train and model train club on the breast pocket.

  I recognize him…

  “Hi, Ken,” Meg said.

  That’s right. She dated him.

  “Meg!” He gave her a dopey grin, his eyes sliding from her face right down to her tits.

  “The deputy mayor is busy,” I grumbled, shoving him over to my brothers. “Why don’t you take a picture with the designers of the train?”

  “Are you free tonight, Meg?” Ken asked desperately.

  “She is not,” I informed him.

  He looked between the two of us.

  “I might be free…” Meg began.

  “Trust me,” I said to Ken, smiling, though it was more of a show of teeth. “She is busy.”

  He gulped and nodded.

  Meg turned to me, irate. “You can’t just keep scaring off my potential dates.”

  I narrowed my eyes, reached up, and slipped two fingers down the front of her suit, pulling her toward me. The skin of her breasts was soft and warm on the back of my fingers.

  “I will never,” I told her, my face inches from hers, “give you up.” Then I helped her up into the train car attached to the new engine in which we would ride down Main Street.

  My little brothers hopped in behind us and hung out of the windows.

  “Do not fall out,” Mace warned, grabbing one kid who was more out of the window than in.

  The train lurched, and Meg half tumbled against me. I used the opportunity to slip a hand around her waist. God, she felt perfect against me. I wanted to unwrap her from those clothes.

  “If you need help removing that suit later,” I whispered in her ear, “I can come by to offer my assistance.”

  Please let her say she wants me to come by. It was driving me crazy. I needed her.

  “Oh, that’s too bad,” Meg said, turning and patting me on the arm. “I’m really busy tonight, remember?”

  Before I could stop her, she went to take some photos with the state senator and Mace.

  Damnit.

  The kids all cheered as the train glided down the tracks. I should have been reviewing the notes of my speech. But all I could think about was Meg.

  When the train came to a stop at the last cross street before it would have continued to Svensson PharmaTech on a dedicated spur track, we all disembarked then climbed onto the temporary stage set up at the end of Main Street.

  “Ready, Hunter?” Karen asked, an edge of annoyance in her voice.

  “Sure.”

  “Did you review your notes?”

  “Notes?”

  “The notes I gave you ten minutes ago.”

  I blinked. “Uh, sure, notes.” I patted my pockets absently. Meg was being helped off the train by Tanner, who I was going to kill and bury in the backyard later for staring at her tits like that. For fuck’s sake, does no one in my family have any manners?

  Karen reached in my breast pocket and pulled out the crumpled cards. “Your notes. Try to sound intelligent.”

  I nodded, but all my brain cells had liquefied and melted out of my nose.

  Meg took a seat on one of the chairs set up on stage. She crossed her legs, giving me a glimpse of her creamy inner thigh.

  “The speech,” Karen hissed at me.

  Garrett snickered.

  “Are you having a stroke?” Mace asked me in concern, reaching for my forehead.

  “I’m not having a stroke,” I snapped at him and tried to gather myself as I walked up to the microphone. “Thank you for coming to the unveiling of the new train that will be serving Svensson PharmaTech,” I said then glanced down at my notes. They were upside down.

  I shuffled the notecards. People in the audience coughed. “Uh…” What am I doing here? I swore I could hear Meg behind me shifting around in her seat. How wet do you think she is?

  “Thank you for coming…”

  “You said that!” Karen hissed at me.

  My brothers snickered.

  Shit. What was I doing?

  Meg appeared under my arm. I started and bit back a curse.

  She laughed. “I think the heat is getting to him,” she said and fanned herself slightly. The domes of her tits were starting to redden.

  “Thank you all for coming to this exciting event! We all love trains, and they are a big part of why Harrogate became such a major player in the industrial era of America. Hunter, you can sit down. I think everyone took enough pictures of you.” She patted me on the arm.

  I grabbed my notes and took a seat next to Greg, who looked like he was going to strangle me. I barely registered what Meg was saying. I was seated slightly to the left of her, and I just stared at her as she talked. Every so often she would shift her weight on the balls of her feet, sometimes slipping her heel out of her shoe. She had made that same movement the time I had held her up against the wall in her old office and fucked her…

  “You are a complete disgrace,” Greg told me after the event was over, and we had all drunk champagne. I drained my glass then poured another. If all these state senators weren’t there, I would have drunk the entire bottle.

  “You think you’re going to win the election after that shit show?” Greg demanded, grabbing my arm.

  But I didn’t care about the election. The only thing I wanted to win was Meg.

  35

  Meghan

  “My feet hurt, and I’m sunburnt,” I compl
ained when we returned to the office.

  “But Hunter was looking at you the entire time!” Kate said excitedly. “It was so epic. He could barely even talk!”

  “Maybe it was the heat,” I said, attempting to undo the belt around my waist.

  “No way! Your tits looked killer,” Kate said happily while I went into the bathroom to struggle out of the clothes. “You should leave the outfit on!”

  “I have a meeting in a little bit with the Rural Trust. I am wearing pants and comfortable boots to a meeting with farmers.”

  “I mean, is Hunter going to be there? You don’t want to ruin all your hard work, do you?”

  “My boobs are sunburnt and itchy,” I said, walking out and grabbing my work boots from the cupboard. “Besides, Hunter’s probably going to go home and lie down.”

  “He’s going to go home and jack off, you mean,” Kate said with a snicker.

  “Sure you don’t want to come talk about composting and organic farming?” I asked. “You’re missing out!”

  “Er… I’ve got some work to do for Walter,” my friend said, backing away. “I am still technically his assistant.”

  I snorted. “City girl.”

  Kate waggled her eyebrows. “Walter did say to tell you to call him when you have a free moment!”

  My mind wandered as my old station wagon trundled down the road. Unlike my other car, which had been repossessed, the station wagon could not go faster than forty-five miles per hour without shaking and vibrating. I was a few miles out from Ernest’s farm when the engine rattled, and a chunk of something fell off onto the asphalt. I peered into the rearview mirror. It didn’t look like anything important. And the car was still running, so I chose to ignore it.

  The farmers were all waiting with Remy and Sadie in one of Ernest’s barns.

  “Hunter’s not coming?” I asked Remy, adjusting my ponytail. The bun had been giving me a headache.

  “He’s coming apart,” Remy told me seriously. “He’s under a lot of stress.”