by Jill Sanders
Once all the guests were gone, they helped the crew clean up and were closed up shortly past nine o’clock.
During the party, so many people had dropped off small mementos to place in the bar top.
She helped Brent set aside the best of the items and then arrange all of the pieces in the bar. Then he mixed the resin to pour over everything.
She’d never seen the process before and sat back and watched with interest.
“So that’s it?” she asked almost two hours later as he finished pouring the last small bucket of resin.
“After I smooth this out. Yes.” He was holding a small spatula tool. “I’ll run this over everything a few times and make sure all the air bubbles are out and then it will dry overnight. It may take a day or two to harden completely, but we’ll put the fans on it overnight.” He motioned to the two large fans he’d brought in from the back room.
“It looks amazing so far,” she said, seeing how nice and shiny the wood looked now. Even the items he’d placed in with the wood gleamed. There were a few military metals from locals and an old Haven police badge that a local cop by the name of Dale Alaqua had put in. He claimed it had belonged to his great-great-grandfather, one of the first cops in Haven back when it had been a mining town. The man had also brought a few of his great-great-grandfather’s arrowheads to represent the American Indian side of his family.
It wasn’t until she’d overheard TK talking that she realized the man was her younger brother. She wondered just how big the Alaqua family was.
She’d always wanted a brother or sister. Watching the McGowan brothers with their extended families had her realizing just how lonely her own childhood had been. Sure, she’d had a handful of friends throughout the years, but no one who had stuck. Throughout college, she’d been so focused on her and Ethan’s relationship, she hadn’t realized all of her own friends had faded into the background.
It wasn’t until after the divorce that she’d looked around and realized she had lost track of everyone close to her. And knowing her parents didn’t really care where she was or how she was doing left her even more depressed. All they cared about was that she returned home and fulfilled her wifely duties.
She’d tried to put those thoughts in the back of her mind over the past few months, but there were times they crept in and made her want to bury her head. That or eat an entire bucket of rocky road ice cream.
“There, that should do it,” Brent said a few moments later. “How about we have some ice cream to celebrate?”
She glanced over at him and smiled. “You read my mind.”
She followed him back into the kitchen and waited as he pulled out a large tub of ice cream. “There are three pieces of pie left over,” he said with a grin. “Makes me wonder what you’re going to have.”
She laughed and grabbed two plates and silverware for them.
“Let’s take this outside,” he suggested after giving them each a scoop of ice cream on top of their slices of pie.
Sitting under the stars once more with the fire crackling, she realized she could very well become accustomed to spending her nights like this, with Brent.
“Today was okay?” he said, making it more of a question.
“It was,” she agreed. “I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I overheard several people mentioning coming back after opening day.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I did too.”
“When do you think that will be?”
He glanced at her. “I thought you were making that decision?”
She laughed. “Is tomorrow too soon?”
He shrugged. “No.”
“Good, because I might have mentioned to the crew and to a few guests that we’d be open tomorrow.”
He laughed. “So, we’re open then?”
She nodded. “Looks like you are.”
“We,” he corrected, taking her hand in his own. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Sure you could have,” she said, feeling a little heated. “All I did was—”
“Hire all the employees, create the menus, place a ton of orders, organize the entire office system and cash register system—”
“POS,” she broke in.
“POS?”
“Point-of-sale system,” she answered with a smile.
“Right, the POS, not to mention training all of the employees.”
“Okay, you couldn’t have done it without me,” she admitted with a laugh, setting down her empty plate. He’d finished moments ago and was sipping a cold beer. He set it down and pulled her close and kissed her.
“Do you think you have the energy to head upstairs?” he asked against her lips.
“No,” she admitted, “but since it’s so nice here, under the stars…” She pulled him down onto the soft cushions of the deck chair. “I’ve never had sex under the stars.”
“Never?” he asked, pulling back slightly to look down at her.
She shook her head and smiled up at him. “Never.”
His lips moved down her neck as his hands pushed up her shirt and cupped her breasts. She moaned as she arched towards his touch, enjoying the way he took his time.
She felt her entire body heat when one of his hands moved lower and slid her pants down her hips. He cupped her through her panties. When he began rubbing her through the silk of her panties, her entire body bucked under his.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as he slid a finger slowly into her pussy. Then he was kissing her, and she realized she was no longer in control of her body, let alone anything else in her life.
She hadn’t expected to feel so much so quickly with Brent. Being around him every day and sleeping wrapped around his body at night made her realize just how out of control her life was now. She was no longer able to deny that she was falling hard and fast for him.
For the first time in a long time, she had something stable to cling to.
Closing her eyes, she tried to deny those feelings and just enjoy the best sex she’d ever had. She helped him pull his jeans off his hips, and the moment she had her hands on him, she realized this wasn’t just sex. Then he slid into her and she stopped thinking altogether.
She woke a while later and realized that she’d gotten chilled.
“You’re cold,” he said, his face still buried in her hair.
“No.” She denied it even as her body shook.
Chuckling, he got up from the lounge chair, pulled her up into his arms, and carried her inside, still naked.
“Our clothes,” she said, stopping him at the doorway.
“They’ll be here in the morning,” he said, but she stopped him again.
“We won’t have a chance to get them before someone sees them,” she warned.
He walked over, shifted her in his arms, and dumped everything into her arms before heading back inside.
“Just so we’re clear, I’m not opposed to letting everyone know what we’re doing,” he said as he locked the door.
“It’s not very professional,” she warned.
“Who cares. It’s my own business,” he said as he climbed the stairs, her and their clothes still in his arms. “We know what’s between us is separate from work.”
“Right,” she agreed.
“So, let them think whatever they want. I think my sister already knows. Which means a lot of other people know,” he said as he stepped into his room.
She tensed slightly, realizing he was probably right. She’d heard that in small towns it was difficult to keep secrets.
“Okay, so next time we’ll leave our clothes strewed all over the place,” she said with a smile before dumping the pile of clothes all over the floor in his room.
He laughed and kissed her, warming her entire body up quickly.
Chapter 15
The following morning, he stepped out onto the back porch and smiled at the strip of black silk that hung over the lounge chair. Part of him wanted to let it stay there, but the more practical part of him
picked it up and tucked it into his pocket before heading to the hardware store.
He had to get some more light bulbs to replace the ones in the stairwell that had gone out yesterday. He also wanted to get a few more of those lounge chairs and maybe an outdoor sofa. If people were going to spend a lot of time outside, he wanted to make sure it was comfortable for them.
The doors to the Hard Way were officially opening later that day. Mel and TK had come up with their hours of operations—eleven to ten, Monday through Saturday.
Since they had the day off tomorrow, he figured he would do something special with Mel, maybe take her into the city or into the hills on a hike. Did she even like hiking?
The more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn’t know a lot about what Mel liked and disliked. He knew a little about her past and what she liked sexually, but, otherwise, she was an enigma.
That was something he was determined to fix over the next few days. Once again, he bumped into people he knew or had worked with at the hardware store. Normally, it wasn’t an issue, but this time when he spotted Mark, he quickly darted down a different aisle and tried to avoid the man.
After his meeting with his lawyer, he’d been assured that everything was on the up and up, but he’d heard through the small town’s grapevine that Mark had filed an injunction to get his property back from Brent.
Don had assured him that there was nothing Mark could do at this point and had filed a counter injunction to reverse Mark’s injunction so that he could keep the Hard Way’s doors open during the legal battle.
But that didn’t keep Mark from running his mouth all over town, claiming that Brent had somehow stolen the land out from under him.
The way Brent figured it, the longer he avoided the man, the better. Someday soon, Mark was going to get the news that there wasn’t anything he could do to get his land back.
As far as Brent knew, Mark had known what he was doing that night. It wasn’t as if he’d been so drunk that he’d hadn’t been sound enough to get the papers notarized. Brent wouldn’t have known that he’d needed anything notarized, having never purchased property himself before.
The more he thought about it, the more the realization that he was a property owner hit him. Smiling, he walked up to the counter to pay for his items.
He was halfway across the parking lot, shuffling his three bags of items out to his truck, when he was blindsided by a blow to the back of his head. Two of his bags flew out of his hands. The next attack came from a completely different angle, causing the last bag to go flying and making him see stars.
Before he could turn around and defend himself, the attack continued from two different sides. His guess was that his attackers were two very large men. The only thing he had time to do was shield his head from the worst of it as he was shoved to the ground and kicked repeatedly.
Luckily, he never lost consciousness as the men continued to kick and hit him. He recalled the words thief and cheater being thrown around before someone yelled loudly to call the police and the hitting and kicking stopped.
“Are you okay?” someone asked him.
He glanced up through swollen eyes and saw Martha Brown, the mayor of Haven, standing over him.
He started to get up, but she held him still.
“Don’t move. The ambulance is on its way,” she said.
“I don’t need…” She gave him a look, and he shut his mouth. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to be looked at. His ribs ached so bad that he was having a difficult time breathing.
He sat up and waited on the ground, surrounded by his purchased items, for the ambulance and the police to arrive.
Dale arrived a few moments before the ambulance did. Thankfully, the man agreed with him that there wasn’t anything the clinic could do short of giving him an ice pack and an X-ray of his ribs.
When Dale asked him if he knew who had jumped him, Martha jumped in.
“It was Everett and Matthew Phillips,” Martha said firmly. “If I hadn’t been coming out of the store at that moment, I wouldn’t have believed it myself. Two of Haven’s long-standing residents beating up a person in broad daylight.” She shook her head. “First we had an explosion, then a drug ring busted up, now thugs.” She closed her eyes. “What is this town coming to? I’m going to have to get tougher on people around here.” She turned towards Dale. “Correction, you’re going to have to do that. You can bet we’ll be discussing this at our next city council meeting.”
At this point Dale turned towards him and groaned lightly. “I’ll go bring them in. Do you think this has to do with the Hard Way?”
“Most likely,” he said with a twinge when one of the EMTs poked him in the ribs.
“You might need an X-ray,” the kid said.
“Yeah, I might, but for now, I’m heading home to put some ice on it.” He stood up slowly. When he didn’t pass out, he considered it a win. Martha and Dale had gathered his purchased items and had set them in the bed of his truck.
“I’ll be around later to fill you in on what I find out from the Phillipses,” Dale said to him.
“Thanks.” He shook the man’s hand and then climbed into his truck and drove back to his place. His entire body was aching, but no more than it did after a long day’s work, with the exception of his ribs, which stung each time he took a deep breath.
Someone must have called Mel because she was waiting for him in the parking lot. Before he could put the truck in park, she was opening the door.
“Martha called TK, who told me what happened.” She ran her eyes over him. “My god.” She reached up and cupped his face. “You’re bleeding.”
“Again?” He groaned, wiping his nose, but then she touched the side of his left eye, and he winced, feeling the split skin there.
Mel helped him out of the truck and wrapped her arms around his waist as they walked towards the back door.
“Here,” TK said. She handed him a raw steak as they walked through the kitchen. “For your eye.”
“Thanks,” he groaned and placed the steak over his left eye as he followed Mel upstairs.
When she nudged him down onto the bed, he fell willingly. Even though he hadn’t even had a chance to raise a fist, he was completely exhausted.
He sat there, motionless, as she peeled off his boots and pants and removed his shirt carefully.
When she hissed at the sight of him, he glanced down and noticed the deep red marks all over his body.
“They kicked me,” he said. He leaned back as she placed the raw steak over his left eye again.
He closed his eyes and jumped slightly when a cold washcloth landed on his chin.
“Sorry, I’m just cleaning the blood,” she said softly.
He kept his eyes closed. They were aching and, at this point, his vision was a little blurry. While she gently cleaned up his face, he thought about his plans for the following day and held in a groan.
“Sorry,” she said again, making him realize he hadn’t held it in as well as he’d thought.
“It’s not you.” He cracked one eye open. “I had plans for us tomorrow and now I doubt I’ll be able to even crawl out of bed, let alone climb up a mountain.”
She stilled, her eyes meeting his. “You wanted me to climb a mountain?”
“It’s more like a steep hill,” he supplied. “Do you like hiking?” He frowned a little, which had the split in his lip cracking open. She reached up and wiped it with the cloth.
“I do. It’s just…” She paused.
“What?” He took her hand so that she’d stop wiping his lip.
Her eyes met his again. “I didn’t think… I thought this was more of a casual…” She motioned between them with her free hand.
He felt his heart take a dive in his chest.
“It is if that’s what you want,” he said quickly, feeling stupid. Of course she wouldn’t want more with him. He’d been foolish to think so.
“No, I mean, I…” She shrugged. “At this point, I’
m not really sure what I want.” She pulled her hand free from his and stood up to walk into the bathroom and clean the cloth. Then she was back with a fresh one and started dabbing at his hair. “You have dried blood in it.”
“Leave it,” he said, taking her hand again. “Mel, I like spending time with you. In and out of the bedroom and outside of work. If you want to keep what we have between us in just those two zones, let me know now.”
She sucked in her bottom lip and bit it gently, a move he knew meant that she was thinking.
“I can’t promise anything. My ex left me pretty messed up,” she said after a moment. “My parents’ betrayal cut so deep. I don’t think I could take being jerked about emotionally like that again.”
“I get it,” he said, wanting to take the sadness from her eyes. “Then again, I can’t promise you won’t fall in love with me.” He smiled. Her instant smile made his smile grow, but it was worth splitting his lip open again. “But I will make you a promise right now.” He took both of her hands in his and pulled her down to hover just above his lips. “I won’t hurt you. If we tire of one another, we’ll make it a mutual separation that has nothing to do with our friendship or our work arrangement. We’ll promise to be honest with each other at all times. Deal?”
She sighed lightly and then nodded in agreement.
He nudged her until her lips laid gently over his.
“Why don’t you get some rest. I’ll bring you up some lunch in a while. I need to go open the doors,” she said, leaning back a little.
“I could use some aspirin,” he said as she stood up. “It’s in the bathroom cupboard.”
She got him the pills and a glass of water before heading downstairs.
He wanted to be there for the first official day of being open, but he just couldn’t keep his eyes open and his ribs ached so bad, he doubted he would be able to make it down the stairs by himself.