Sweet Little Thing ~ Abbi Glines

by Abbi Glines

  “Good morning,” her voice was soft and almost musical as it floated through the morning breeze. I turned to see her standing just outside the door. A cup of coffee in her hands. For me. “I’m sorry you had to make your own cup.”

  “I was up earlier than normal. I can manage. You drink that one.”

  She took a sip then gave me that smile that did things to my chest and my fucking dick. When she stepped back to walk inside, the smart thing to do would have been to just let her go. But I didn’t do that.

  “Come have coffee with me. It’s early. Portia is gone. No need for you to start working yet.”

  That smile beamed brighter. If Stone came out here, he was going to be a bastard to both of us. And he should be. I had asked him to keep me in check with her. He had no problem ignoring women. When he wanted one, he took her. When he was done, he walked away. The dude was coldhearted and brutal. He was disgusted with my weakness where Beulah was concerned. He had also sensed it from day one. He’d warned me to keep a distance. I’d tried, but the more I’d tried, the more I wanted to know her.

  “Are you enjoying the view before all your friends arrive?” she asked me.

  I nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  “Then why have the party? Is it because Stone wants it? “

  Stone hated these parties. He wasn’t one to be around crowds. He also knew why I needed them. He was behind anything that would keep me at a distance from Beulah.

  “I like them. I drink, relax, and enjoy the company.”

  She didn’t respond to that. This would be a good time to start talking about what all she needed to do tonight. What I expected of her. What she needed to be prepared for. That would put her back on her side of the line I had eased her over. The invisible line that was keeping her from being in my arms right now. The line where I remembered she was a girl who was working to take care of her sister and go to nursing school. Not end up naked in my bed then feeling awkward around me until I have to let her go.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts. She needed me. I wasn’t going to let my desire for her screw things up. She needed the money, and after witnessing her with her sister I knew I’d do whatever was necessary to protect her. Which meant I wasn’t going to touch her.

  “Will the caterers be the same?” she asked and I saw her expression was serious. She was already working. Figuring out tonight before I could even start telling her what to do. She was the best kind of employee.

  “Yes. Did you like them?” I don’t know why I asked her that. Did it matter?

  She nodded. “Oh, yes. They’re excellent. I just wanted to know what to expect.”

  “Expect the same as last time. Pretty much the same crowd. You handled yourself well then. Just do the same thing.”

  She straightened her shoulders and looked determined. The relaxed Beulah who had walked out here to enjoy coffee with me was gone. That was my fault of course. I had steered us in this direction.

  “I need to take inventory of the bar—make sure the alcohol order is sufficient. I’ll have breakfast ready in an hour. Is that good? Or do you want it sooner?”

  All work. Like she should be. This would be what saved us both.

  “That will be fine. And Stone will be with me.”

  I wasn’t sure if he would be but I said it anyway as another hurdle to push her back from that line I had been easing her over.

  She gave me a tight smile that didn’t meet her eyes and went back inside. Her back was straight and her stride would have been determined but she seemed to be limping slightly. I’d ask about that later. Not right now. She needed some space and so did I, because all I wanted to do was go after her and make her laugh, smell her hair, and feel how her body would mold against mine.

  Fuck. I needed that alcohol now.

  Beulah

  PEOPLE WERE FILLING THE BACK yard before five in the evening. I’d been working with the caterer since two-thirty, preparing the poolside and stocking the bar. The caterer wasn’t ready for the crowd last time. Monique, the owner, said she had things under control for tonight. I was sure Jasper was paying extra for that.

  Jerry, the bartender, was taking college classes here in Savannah. It was his junior year, and this was his extra job. He also worked on a construction crew that was building the new condos in town. He’d left his home over five hundred miles away in south Alabama to attend college here on a partial scholarship. He needed the cash to pay for his books, lodging and food, but his tuition, was paid.

  He was a business major. His goal was to open his own restaurant and eventually have a chain of them throughout the southeast. I knew all this because Jerry was also chatty. I didn’t mind. We had to do a lot of prep work outside in the bar area. It was nice to talk while we worked. Jerry was also six-foot-three and had a runner’s build. Stood to reason his scholarship was for track. His almost black hair and olive complexion was striking set against his crystal blue eyes.

  Jerry also informed me he was single. I told him that he’d enjoy tonight because most of the females here would be topless by nine o’clock and they all looked like models.

  Jasper had a very elite group of friends. I thought all of his friends looked as if they had just stepped out of a magazine. It was intimidating and overwhelming.

  “Take these out to the monsters,” Monique said as she handed me a tray of food I didn’t recognize. “You don’t have to walk around with them. Jasper said that was unnecessary. Just place them over by the bar on the table I set up. We will keep food fresh in that area all night.”

  I nodded, I already knew this. She’d told me the plan several times. I let her keep telling me because either she was worried about my memory or she was forgetting herself. I didn’t look for Jasper or make eye contact with any of the people as I walked to the food area. Seeing Jasper with whatever female he was with tonight wasn’t appealing. I didn’t want to subject myself to that, which made me pathetic. But at least no one was aware of my feelings for him. I could suffer and save my pride at the same time.

  “Beulah,” Jerry called after I sat the food down. I walked over to him because the music was too loud to hear from any distance.

  “You need something?” I asked him.

  “Could you tell Monique that the ice is already melting. We need a cooler out here.”

  “I’ll get you one.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jerry was pleasant to work with. If Jasper was going to have these parties often I hoped he used Monique. The three ladies cooking in the kitchen with her inside didn’t speak much English, but they were nice. When I asked if it was feta cheese or blue cheese crumbled over a vegetable on a piece of toasted bread because a girl outside had asked me, all three of them just nodded and smiled. I realized then that only Monique could answer questions about the food.

  “Why are you limping?” Monique asked as I walked back into the kitchen. “Did you hurt yourself or is that an affliction I didn’t notice last time.”

  The shoes were taking their toll. My toes were bruised, and it was harder to walk without limping. I needed to use some of my next paycheck to buy shoes that fit. I’d been putting it off thinking I could just deal with it, but as soon as I had Heidi’s month paid for, I’d shop for new shoes.

  “It’s the shoes. I’m getting new ones soon. I’ll try not to limp.”

  Monique frowned and looked down at the tennis shoes I was wearing. “They’re not heels, darling. Why would tennis shoes make you limp? They don’t look new enough to give you blisters.”

  I needed to get Jerry that cooler and I didn’t want to talk about it. “Just uncomfortable,” I replied. “Jerry needs a cooler for the ice. Do you have one in the van outside?”

  She was still frowning at me. My answer hadn’t been sufficient. “Yeah. I meant to grab it. Go ahead and take that next tray of food out, and I’ll get the cooler,” she said glancing down at my feet one more time before walking away.

  I picked up the tray of wha
t I recognized as calamari and headed for the door. One of the ladies called out something to me in Spanish, and I stopped to find out what she wanted. She was running after me with slices of lemon, and placed them around the calamari on the tray as she continued to speak in a language I wished I understood. Then she smiled at me, and gave me a nod and a wave of her hand that it was okay for me to go now.

  When I stepped back outside this time, I was careful not to limp or wince. Which I wanted to do both. I thought about putting on my flats that fit me, but they wouldn’t work coming in and out of the house carrying food. I could slip and fall. They had no traction and the area around the pool was wet from all the splashing.

  I dropped off the tray, then stopped to let Jerry know a cooler was on its way.

  “Monique is getting the cooler,” I told him as he was shaking a cocktail.

  “Great. Thanks,” he said as he handed me a can of cherries. “Could you open those and put them in that bowl over there that only has one left.”

  “Sure.” I did as I was told, and just when I was about to toss the empty jar I heard a female squeal Jasper’s name. I looked up, I didn’t mean to. It was an impulse.

  Jasper was carrying a gorgeous blonde around the pool that he had tossed over his shoulder. He had a hand on her bottom that was bare due to the thong she was wearing. She was enjoying it while she slapped at his back. My chest ached. If I could make it not feel anything that would make life so much easier.

  “You’re so much more appealing than her,” Jerry said snapping me out of my thoughts. I had been caught staring.

  “Do you need anything else?” I asked him not wanting to focus on what he’d just seen.

  Jerry smiled then. He had a dimple in his left cheek. “Guys like that aren’t good enough for someone like you. He’d never treat you the way you deserve. I’ve been around you for a couple hours, and I have spent ninety percent of that time trying to figure out how to ask you on a date or if you were already taken. That guy sees you all the time and he doesn’t notice you. And that’s because he only sees himself. It’s how they are.”

  I opened my mouth to say something. Although I wasn’t sure what.

  “That’s beautiful. Now Romeo, if you could get me a Maker’s Mark that’d be great,” Stone’s annoyed voice stopped me from having to say anything at all.

  “Sure thing,” Jerry said with his easy smile. He’d just bashed Jasper and the rest of them, but he was smiling at Stone like he’d said nothing wrong.

  “Don’t you have a job to do?” Stone asked me. His tone condescending as usual.

  I wanted to point out that he wasn’t my boss. He worked for Jasper just like I did. But I kept my mouth shut and gave him a short quick nod. With my head held high, I walked away.

  I didn’t look at Jasper. I didn’t look at anyone. I focused on my job.

  Jasper

  I PUT SASHA DOWN AND watched as Stone said something to the bartender and Beulah. She looked upset. I wasn’t sure what he’d said but he had been rude. That much I could bet on.

  I had barely looked her way all night. There was no reason for him to be a jackass. Annoyed, I walked over to Stone just as he was getting his whiskey. “What did you say?” I asked him, glancing back at the house where Beulah had walked inside.

  “I didn’t say anything to her. Jesus. I was ordering a fucking whiskey. God knows I need one to deal with this shit. Bunch of elitist shits.”

  He always acted like he wasn’t from the same crowd. From the same home life. He was just like us, only he was angry about it. “I saw you. She walked off looking like she’d been slapped. Lay off all right? She isn’t doing anything to deserve that.”

  Stone smirked then, and turned his eyes toward the bartender who I realized was listening to us as he made a martini. “She might be working, but she’s flirting too. I just heard this guy ask her out.”

  What? I noticed the guy then. He had my complete attention. “You asked her out? She works three jobs. She can’t go out.” As I said the words, I felt like a jerk.

  His eyebrows shot up. “Really? I told her I had two jobs. She never mentioned she had three. Damn she’s really something.”

  He was impressed. The admiration was obvious in his eyes. As it fucking should be. He was smart. Any smart man would ask Beulah out. She probably got asked out a lot.

  “Did she say yes?” I asked.

  “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Stone growled beside me. “What is wrong with you? Jesus she’s the help.”

  “You need better friends,” the bartender said and Stone ignored him. He wasn’t one to get worked up over other’s opinions.

  “I’m going to find her.” I didn’t have to explain myself. Stone would bitch about it, reminding me why I shouldn’t run after her, and he would be right. But I was going after her anyway. She’d been upset by something Stone had said. I knew he did.

  “Whatever,” was Stone’s response.

  I was almost to the door when the caterer came walking out with food instead of Beulah. She paused when she saw me. “Is something wrong Mr. Van Allan?”

  “Where’s Beulah?”

  The lady frowned. “I sent her to change shoes.”

  Change shoes? “Why?”

  She didn’t look very pleased with me but she was trying to hide it. “Because the shoes that have been provided for her uniform are two sizes too small. She’s struggling to walk around.”

  Holy hell! That was why she was limping. Motherfucker! Why didn’t she said something? “Where is she?” I asked, walking inside not waiting for a reply.

  “Her room, I believe, sir,” I heard the her say as I stalked through the house to the stairs leading to the room she slept in.

  I should have asked her this morning when I saw her limping. I’d been so wrapped up in keeping my distance that I ignored it. She hadn’t said anything. How long had she been wearing shoes that were too small? Was this something Portia did? I had more damn shoes than any man needed, and she was walking around in cheap tennis shoes that didn’t even fit her. This was why I wasn’t good for her. I was selfish and self-involved. She needed protecting and someone to care for her.

  The bartender, however, wasn’t good enough. He couldn’t take care of her the way she needed. He was a fucking bartender. Frustrated with my thoughts, I jerked the door open and started down the stairs.

  “Hello?” Beulah’s voice sounded worried. No one ever came down here I assumed.

  “It’s me,” I told her as I reached the bottom step and turned right into the room where her bed sat along with the washer and dryer.

  She was standing with one shoe in her hand and one shoe on her foot. Her eyes were wide with what looked like worry. “I was coming right back. I just needed to change shoes.”

  At seeing me, her first thought was to explain herself. As if she’d done something wrong. What kind of monster did she think I was? Had I acted in a way that she expected me to yell at her over changing her shoes?

  “How long have you been wearing shoes that are too small?” I asked turning my attention to her feet.

  She curled her toes under on her barefoot but I could see the blisters and what looked like bruises. My stomach felt sick. I’d been letting her walk around all day, working to get ready for tonight so I could entertain a bunch of my friends while her feet looked like this.

  “For a while,” she said her voice was just above a whisper.

  “How long?” I repeated.

  She sighed. “Since I started working here.”

  Almost seven months. She’d been working in those shoes for almost seven months. “Why? Did Portia not ask your shoe size?” Portia was a lot of things but cruel to employees wasn’t one of them. Indifferent, yes, but not cruel.

  “They were new. She’d just bought them for Ms. Charlotte before she quit. They’re part of the uniform. She asked me if they would work and I said yes. She said I could buy some if not. I didn’t have money for that. I was making sure Heidi
was taken care of so I kept putting it off. Thinking I’d break them in.”

  Rage, frustration, and something else pounded in my head. She was the most selfless person I knew. She didn’t deserve this—this shit life she’d been given—but she smiled and lived it happily. I listened to people bitch about their investments and the pressure their parents put on them and not fucking being able to travel when they wanted to. And here was Beulah doing all she could to take care of someone else, never complaining.

  I pointed at the bathtub. “Get in there. Soak. Rest your feet. I’ll get you some ointment and bandages and soft socks. But for now, relax. Use some fucking bubbles. Take a long time.”

  “Your party, Monique needs me up there. She gave me shoes that fit—”

  “Beulah. Don’t. I need you to get your sweet little ass in that tub and take a motherfucking bubble bath. A long one. I need you to get off your feet and pamper them. Or I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.”

  She stood there frozen. We stared at each other and her eyes looked like they were damp. I didn’t think I could take it if she cried. I was holding on by a thread. I wanted to undress her and put her in that tub myself. I wanted to bath her and touch her and smell her because I’d let myself sink. She was impossible not to love. How was I supposed to fight this?

  “I’m going to get you some things. You’re going to bath while I’m gone. I’ll be back down in an hour with the things I said. You just . . . please just soak in that tub. Do you have body wash? Bubble bath?”

  She shook her head slowly. “I have a bar of soap.”

  “Let me get that. Don’t get in there yet. Unless you want me to come down here and see you naked. If that’s the case, I won’t argue.”