Dean walked over with Kyle and when he put his arm around her right there in front of everyone, she melted a little. It felt so good not to hide their relationship anymore. It gave her hope for them.
And if she could just find a damn job, life would be perfect.
“You ready?” Dean asked and she nodded.
It took over fifteen minutes to say goodbye to everyone and collect all their things before they were finally seated in Dean’s truck. Resting her head back against the seat, Courtney let out a happy little sigh.
“Everything okay?”
Nodding, she turned her head and smiled at him. “Yeah. This was a good day.”
“Agreed.” He paused. “I was so worried about the baby coming early, but it seems like he’s okay.”
“Well, he’s still a preemie and even if his weight is good, they might want to keep him a couple of days to make sure he’s okay.”
“I have a feeling my sister will freak out if she has to go home without the baby.”
“She’s already announced that if he’s staying, she’s staying.”
Laughing, he said, “Typical Scarlett.”
“I know, right?”
They drove for several minutes in silence before Dean asked, “So what did she want to talk to you about?”
“I’m not really sure. I kind of think she was hinting that she knows about us…”
“What?”
Nodding, she said, “I know. But she was rambling and I think still a little loopy from the drugs they gave her during delivery, so…”
“Why do you think that’s what she was hinting at?”
Her gaze narrowed slightly. “Does it matter? We were going to tell her tonight anyway.”
“No, I know that. I just think it’s odd that she would bring that up, that’s all. She just had a baby, so why would that even be on her mind?”
“Like I said, I think she was loopy so I have no idea what she was really going to say. I’m probably looking deeper than I need to.”
“Maybe.”
It bothered her how freaked out he seemed. Earlier–before they had gotten the call about Scarlett being in labor–they were totally in sync about what they were doing and now he sounded like he did a few days ago. It was beyond frustrating.
But she wasn’t going to focus on that.
She wasn’t going to let it get to her.
Instead, she reached over and let her hand caress his denim-clad thigh. “I know it’s too late to grill the steaks, but are you hungry? Basically we only ate a little of the antipasto for dinner and some sad coffee. Should we stop at a drive-thru and grab something?”
“Nah. There’s plenty to eat back at the house. We can whip up some sandwiches or something.” He looked at her with a boyish grin and for some reason, it made her want to reach out and kiss him, touch him.
As soon as they were in the driveway ten minutes later, that’s exactly what she did.
Dean hauled her in close and it took several awkward maneuvers to get herself settled in his lap, straddling him. Her hands cupped his face as he squeezed her ass. Courtney couldn’t help but grind against him as she poured everything she had into kissing him–praying he’d be able to tell how she felt. The thought of breaking the kiss to talk to him wasn’t the least bit appealing because kissing Dean was like a religious experience and beyond addictive.
Shifting slightly, his hands snaked under her shirt, cupping her breasts. This time she did break the kiss to simply get air. “That feels so good,” she panted.
“It would feel even better if we were inside and I had you sprawled out on the bed,” he murmured, his breath hot against her throat.
Next thing she knew, Dean had the driver’s side door open and was sliding them out. Her legs wrapped around him once he was standing and she was the one to slam the door shut. “Hurry,” she whispered, peppering kisses along his jaw before nipping at his ear. “Please.”
Almost instantly, they were through the front door–with Dean kicking it shut behind them–and striding toward the bedroom. Pulling back slightly, Courtney whipped her shirt up over her head and tossed it aside, not caring where it landed. Her back hit the mattress seconds before Dean’s body covered hers. His mouth claimed hers and then it was madness all over again.
Something she loved.
Her hands raked up into his hair as she wrapped herself around him, holding him as close as possible even as she cursed the fact that they were both still dressed.
Well, except for her shirt.
With his hands roaming all over her bare torso, she wondered if it would always be like this or if the need and urgency would lessen over time.
It had to, right?
She’d never been in a relationship long enough to know. Plus, she’d never been in a relationship where she felt this strongly.
Hell, she’d never been in love.
And yeah, she knew without a doubt that she was in love with Dean Jones.
She had always been in love with Dean Jones.
As if sensing her thoughts, Dean broke the kiss, lifted his head and looked down at her. His expression was intense. “Every time,” he said gruffly. “I swear, every time you touch me, kiss me, I’m ready to lose control.”
She couldn’t hide her smile. “I love it when you lose control.”
His own smile was slow and sexy as hell. “What if I said I didn’t want to lose control just yet? What if I said I wanted to take my time and make love to you all night long–slowly.” He kissed her. “Sweetly.” Another kiss. “Until you can barely remember your own name.”
With a slight shiver, Courtney’s hand moved from his hair down over his shoulder and chest before dropping to her side. “I’m totally on board with all of that,” she whispered, her eyes drinking in the sight of him.
“Good,” he said with a curt nod, right before he slowly leaned in to kiss her again.
After that, everything changed–their movements became less frantic. Touches became soft caresses. Kisses lingered rather than devoured. It was all slow and sensual and unlike anything they’d ever done together.
And it was erotic on a whole different level that she never knew existed.
She lost track of time and her focus was solely on Dean and the pleasure he was giving her–and on giving it back to him.
Much later, when they were tangled together, breathless and exhausted, she felt him place a soft kiss on her cheek before he dozed off. She waited, holding her breath to make sure he was asleep before whispering, “I love you.”
Then she fell into a deep and satisfied sleep.
“What are you doing?”
Dean didn’t even look up. He was focused and knew he’d put this off long enough. “I’m fixing Courtney’s car. It’s time.”
Beside him, his father nodded. “I agree. Scarlett’s going to need her car back now that the baby’s here.”
“That’s not the only reason I’m doing this, Dad. I never should have agreed to this stupid plan. I had no right to lie to Court this way.” He tightened the last bolt and took a step back. The car was up on the lift and he just finished securing the trailer hitch.
Guilt had eaten away at him all day yesterday and had him getting up earlier than usual so he could get into the shop before anyone else arrived. It was still dark out when he left his house, but considering he hadn’t slept much, he didn’t mind.
“Something happen?” Domenic asked, his tone mildly concerned.
Yeah, something had happened. Courtney had said she loved him.
Logically, he knew she was half asleep and more than likely thought he was asleep, but he wasn’t. He’d been right on the verge when he heard her softly spoken words and they kept him up for longer than he thought possible–especially considering how exhausted he had been.
Still, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
Yesterday, while she went up to the hospital to visit his sister and the baby, he worked on Scarlett’s place. Both Kyle and Hunter
showed up to help him finish installing the new flooring in the kitchen, as well as the rest of the cabinets. Both tried to talk to him about Courtney, but Dean was a bit of a hard-ass and told them to focus on getting the house done.
So they did.
Sort of.
They both took turns ribbing him about his feelings, but he didn’t take the bait.
Now the inside of the house was just about done–all that was left was to touch-up some spots on the walls with paint and a good cleaning. After that, they only had to take care of the exterior and some landscaping. Hunter had mentioned getting Sam Westbrook’s company in to handle the landscaping and Dean suggested to Mason that they hire a company to paint the siding and replace the rotten wood. Not that he couldn’t do it, but he knew it would go faster at this point with an actual paint crew.
It felt good to know the job was almost done and although it wasn’t a particularly big job–and it wasn’t on the same scale as what he’d done to his own place–he was proud of himself for what he’d accomplished.
Well, with the help of his brothers and Courtney.
“Dean?”
Oh, right. His father had asked him a question.
Shaking his head, he wiped his hands on the rag he kept in his back pocket. “No. It’s just been weighing on my mind, that’s all.”
“You sure?”
He nodded and let out a sigh of relief when his father walked away. While it might have helped to talk to someone about how he felt, right now he just wasn’t ready to.
She loved him. At least…she had said that while she was half asleep. Still, if it were true, how did he feel about it? Was he in love with her? Was it possible to feel that way so soon? Okay, it’s not like she was a stranger who he just started a relationship with; they’d known each other for years. Their history with each other went way back even if their romantic one didn’t start until recently. That shouldn’t matter, right? Their past, who they know, that shouldn’t have anything to do with how they felt about each other. So again, was he in love with her?
For more than twenty-four hours he’d been obsessing over it and he still couldn’t bring himself to answer that question.
“Dean! Charlie called in sick and we’ve got six cars slated to be done by lunch. You done working on Courtney’s?” his father called out.
“Yeah. I’m taking it down now. Whose car am I doing next?”
“Jack Seddon’s! It’s the black Nissan. Keys are at the desk!”
“Got it!” he called back and walked over to lower Courtney’s car down. Within minutes, he had it parked out back and figured he’d either call her at lunchtime or wait and tell her when he got home later.
Once he pulled the Nissan into the bay, he put all his focus on getting the work done. The car needed an oil change and a tire rotation. Neither were particularly challenging and he knocked it out in less than an hour. After that, he had to do a brake job on Mrs. Henderson’s Chevy. They all fought to do any work for her because she always gave the mechanic who did the work a box of cupcakes. Today, he would gladly accept them and bring them home to share with Courtney–after he gave his father a couple too.
At lunchtime, he thought he’d have time to stop and call her, but his grandfather had shown up and asked Dean to join him for lunch across the street at his newly-renovated bar and grill, the Mystic Magnolia. A year ago, it had been a hole-in-the-wall bar on its last legs, then Mason Bishop stepped forward and offered to help redo the place and he breathed some new life into it.
Unable to say no to his grandfather, he joined him for lunch–along with his father, his brothers, and his nephew Eli.
“I can’t believe there’s going to be another boy at the table,” Hunter said. “I really would have thought Scarlett was having a girl.”
“Why? Because she’s a girl?” Kyle asked with amusement.
“Well…yeah,” Hunter replied. “Didn’t you think that too?”
“No,” Kyle said, laughing. “One has nothing to do with the other. Clearly, the male genes are strong in this family. And I think it’s cool that Eli will have a male cousin to play with. Right, buddy?” He smiled at his nephew who simply stared at him like he was weird.
“Have they named him yet?” his grandfather asked. “Last I heard Scarlett was still staring at him trying to figure out the perfect name.” He shook his head. “In my day, it didn’t matter what they looked like; you gave them a good, strong family name.”
“Gramps, no one does that anymore,” Kyle said.
“Courtney saw her yesterday and said they decided to name him Asher Ezekiel,” Dean said before taking a bite of his burger. “Damn, Gramps, this is fantastic. You’re going to give The Sand Bar a run for its money!”
Tommy Flynn beamed with pride. “That’s what we’re hoping for. I’m telling you, Mason’s sister Peyton really has a gift. She’s a fantastic cook and she’s got a good head for business and what works. She redid our entire menu and trained the kitchen staff. She’s been a real godsend.”
“I thought I remember hearing that she owned another place here in town,” Hunter commented.
“Her great-grandfather left her Café Magnolia in his will but she hasn’t done anything with it yet. The place is holding its own and I think she’s afraid to rock the boat. I was more than happy to let her test her wings here. Hopefully she’ll gain some confidence and feel like she’s ready to take control over there.”
“Aren’t you worried about the competition?” Kyle asked.
Shaking his head, Tommy said, “Nah. Totally different clientele. Even with all the changes we’ve made here, our menu is still your typical pub food–burgers, sandwiches, and all that. The café has a little more of an upscale vibe to it. Apples and oranges.”
They all nodded.
“When’s the big grand opening celebration?” Domenic asked. “It looks like you’re already open but I thought you were going to do a big thing.”
“We are. Next month. We’re still fine-tuning everything here. I don’t want to invite the press in and have all the attention on us until everything’s perfect.”
“That makes sense,” Dean commented. “Although I’ve yet to see any issues. Everything you’ve let us taste is delicious and the place has never looked better.”
Tommy’s smile only grew. “This is the kind of place your grandmother envisioned. Back then, we didn’t have the money to make it look like this. I know she would have loved this. Especially seeing all of you here enjoying it.”
They all fell silent and ate for several minutes before speaking again.
“Just let us know if there’s anything we can do to help,” Domenic said. “You know we’re all more than willing to lend a hand.”
“I know,” Tommy replied, “and I appreciate it. It’s still a little mind-boggling how much the town’s changing and how different everything’s looking. I never thought I’d live to see the day when this end of town looks as good as the main drag. This was like no-man’s land for so long.”
“We’ve got Mason to thank for that,” Domenic said. “He’s a good man. He works hard and he’s got strong roots to this area. It’s nice to see him giving back to the community the way his great-grandfather did.”
They all nodded.
“You ever think of expanding the garage?” Tommy asked. “You’ve got more than enough business and you have the property for it. Seems to me your lot’s been full every day for the last several months. Or maybe you should consider a second location.”
Dean looked at his father and grinned. It was something they’d talked about, but business had been exceptionally busy and they couldn’t seem to find the time to do more than just casually talk about it.
“It’s something I’d love to see happen,” Domenic explained. “I figured I’d continue to run this shop and if we did a second location, that would belong to Dean.” He shrugged. “Life’s just keeping us all too busy to do anything more than just think about it.”
In al
l honesty, Dean knew he’d love a shop of his own. He enjoyed working with his father, but he had some ideas of his own about how he’d like his own garage to be laid out and there were some new tools he’d love to invest in. But as his father mentioned, there just never seemed to be the time.
“Well, maybe now that Dean’s done working on Scarlett’s place you guys can sit down and hammer out the details,” Hunter suggested. “I know Magnolia’s not a huge town, but it’s not like you guys would be competition. You’d just be setting up a second location to move customers through faster. Same-day service is a big perk when it comes to car repairs.”
“And the cost of property is only going to go up now that the town is getting so many upgrades,” Kyle said. “Maybe talk to Mason and see if he knows of any property you can look at.”
“Why not just talk to a realtor?” Dean asked. “Mason’s not in real estate.”
“No, but you never know if he has some insight into what’s being built here in town and where the best spot would be for you to set up shop,” Tommy explained.
Just the thought of it excited him. How cool would it be to have a shop of his own? To be a full partner in the business with his father was something he always dreamed of rather than just working with him or for him. Of course, there would be loans to take out and a lot of hours to put in to get it all up and running, but he wasn’t afraid of hard work–never had been–especially if all that work was leading to him doing something he always hoped to do.
“You know those warehouses down at the south end of town? The ones that used to be part of the old cotton mill?” Hunter asked and everyone nodded. “You guys should look into them.”
“That’s a lot more than we would actually need,” Dean replied. “What would we do with the rest of them?”
“Maybe get some investors and see about making it into something more,” Hunter said. “You know, you make space for a garage, put a few other businesses on the ground level and then see about converting the upper levels into either office space or maybe even apartments.”
“You can’t put apartments over a garage,” Dean commented. “I don’t think that would work.”
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