by Rachel Hanna
Brett cleared his throat and smiled. “Maybe I do.” He slid the book back on the shelf and turned to face her. “I assume you have a key.”
“I am the store manager, so yeah. Kind of important that I have a key.”
She had a biting sarcastic wit, and he liked that about her. But even more frustrating was her beauty. She was petite but had some muscle in her arms and toned legs that he was noticing as she stood there in her short cotton red dress and black flats.
“My eyes are up here,” she said, using his words against him from the night before. He looked at her and she laughed.
“Sorry. Aren’t you cold? The air in this place feels like you could hang meat in here.” Did she buy it? Or did she still think he was staring at her beautiful legs? Just for effect, he walked to the thermostat and messed with it.
“I’m from New York City, so this doesn’t bother me. Trust me, once you’ve experienced a winter up there, this is a piece of cake.” She walked behind the counter and pressed a button to open the cash register.
“New York, huh? I’ve never been there,” he said, watching her as she counted the money from a small metal box and started loading it into the slots of the register. “You don’t sound like a New Yorker.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I’m not originally. I was actually raised in a little podunk Tennessee town, but life took me… places.”
“Sounds like an interesting story.”
“Not so much.” She seemed guarded and wouldn’t look him in the eyes.
“So what brought you all the way from New York to January Cove of all places?”
She turned and started fiddling with something on the shelf behind the checkout counter. He was obviously making her uncomfortable.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry…”
She turned back to him and smiled sadly. “No, it’s okay. I just figured Miss Elda had already told you my story.”
“No. Not yet anyway. I kind of want to ask her now.”
Her eyes smiled at him, if that was even possible. They were blue with flicks of gray in them, and now his strong cowboy legs were feeling a little weak.
“No need to ask her. Short story is I was in love, got engaged and then my fiance was killed in a car accident. I came here to start over and get a break from the constant reminders.”
His heart literally ached for her. She was a tough cookie, that much he could tell already. But underneath that tough exterior seemed to be a hurting woman, and he had always been a sucker for hurting women.
Not. This. Time.
He wasn’t getting sucked in again. Every woman he’d tried to save in the past had ended up shattering him. Not again.
“Sorry to hear about your loss,” he said, repeating what his mother had told him to say as a boy. But he really was sorry for her loss.
“Thanks. Now, I’m sure you have some questions for me about the running of this place?” It was obvious that she didn’t want to discuss her private life any more than he wanted to discuss his, so he was thankful when she gave him an out.
“Right, yes. My aunt hasn’t really given me a lot to go on. I saw some of the financial spreadsheets, but everything looked like a mess.”
“Between you and me, I met her tax guy a few weeks ago, and I don’t think he’s been looking out for her best interests.”
“Taking advantage of an old woman?” She nodded, her eyebrow cocked up.
“I think so. He’s from Hilton Head, so not a local. I stayed late one night and looked through the books, and I would swear the guy has been costing her money over the last few years.”
She was smart. He liked that.
“We don’t have time to go over the numbers right now since we need to open, but maybe we could chat after we close tonight?”
She swallowed hard and nodded her head quickly, obviously nervous for some reason. She cleared her throat. “Sure. Not a problem.”
Brett leaned against the table to reach for one of the spreadsheets and flinched. His stomach was still hurting from her stun gun attack the night before.
“Are you okay?” she asked, looking at him as he rubbed his lower right side.
He smiled. “Yeah. Someone attacked me with a stun gun last night. It was weird.”
Paige laughed and covered her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry about that. Did it leave a mark?”
Brett lifted the edge of his t-shirt revealing two small raised red marks. He was almost as stunned as the night before when she suddenly reached out and ran the tips of her fingers across the marks before pulling her hand back just as quickly.
“Sorry. Reflex,” she said of her touching them.
“It’s okay. I won’t press charges for inappropriate touching… or for stunning me last night.”
She laughed. He liked the sound of it. “Not a great way to meet, huh?”
“Not the best.”
“Well, at least I can fix that,” she said, standing up and holding out her hand. “Hi. I’m Paige Emerson. Nice to meet you.”
He stood to face her, taking her petite hand in his and lightly squeezing it. Her grip was as tight as the night before, toughness being expressed in a simple handshake.
“Nice to meet you too, Paige Emerson.”
And then she smiled again.
Chapter 5
Why had she touched his abs?
The question rolled around in her head over and over all day. And now as she walked to Jolt on her lunch break, she continued mulling it over.
It had been months since Daniel had died. Maybe she was just longing for the touch of a man. After all, she and Daniel had been intimate regularly, and now she was in a self-imposed intimacy drought.
Falling in love with anyone was just too risky. Her heart had been broken, shattered really, into a million pieces. It wasn’t worth it.
Still, why had she instinctively touched a stranger’s abs?
And boy, they were nice abs. Cowboy abs. Six-pack, tanned, tight abs with those thick ridges usually reserved for serious bodybuilders. She had no idea that was hiding under his simple gray t-shirt, and she kind of wished she didn’t know now.
“Good afternoon!” Rebecca called as she walked into Jolt. She’d met Rebecca on her first day in town when she was lost trying to find her way to the B&B.
Rebecca had seriously red hair and a fun personality from what Paige could tell. She was older, had a teenage son and dated one of the town’s favorite sons, Jackson Parker.
The Parker family was known to be the foundation of the town, with five siblings and a strong widowed mother who had raised them all. From what she understood, all of the siblings lived in January Cove while the mother was traveling with her new husband.
“Hey, Rebecca,” she said as she walked in. “Can I get my regular please?”
Rebecca smiled and nodded. “Coming right up.”
Paige sat down at her favorite table, the one that gave the best view of the beach across the street, and sighed. January Cove was beautiful, like heaven on Earth, but she was still lonely.
Life had been hard for her. From her very earliest memories, life had been nothing but one struggle after the next. One loss after another. One disappointment after another. It was becoming harder and harder to trust that things would work out… one day.
The loneliest part was that no one really understood. Most people had parents, even if they didn’t get along. She had no foundation, no stability. Daniel had been her rock, at least for the few months she’d known him, and now he was even gone.
Sometimes she let herself think about him. Although she tried to think of happy memories, Madeline’s face often popped into the memory and ruined it like a wet blanket.
But as time passed, her memories were becoming cloudier and cloudier, like those moments late in the day when a person tries to remember their dreams from the night before. Parts and pieces. That’s what she was remembering now.
She could no longer feel what it felt like to have his lips against hers. She
couldn’t taste his coffee-tinged breath. She couldn’t smell his expensive cologne, although she’d gone to the local department store on more than one occasion trying to find it amongst the samples.
Gone were the feelings of his hand on her back, guiding her into a room. Or the sound of his heart beating against her ear as she laid her head on his chest at night when they watched TV.
He was fading away, and it killed her.
“How’s your day going so far?” Rebecca asked as she slid a grilled cheese sandwich and iced coffee in front of Paige.
“Busy,” Paige said. That was kind of a lie since the bookstore was anything but busy. She’d only seen about six customers the whole day so far.
“You looked a million miles away,” Rebecca said with a knowing smile as she sat down across from her. Paige was starting to think of her as a big sister of sorts, but she really didn’t know much about her. “You know, January Cove tends to be a safety net for a lot of people?”
“Oh yeah?” Paige took a bite of her sandwich and savored the richness of the butter and cheese, trying not to think about how it was clogging up her arteries.
“It seems like a lot of people end up here on their journey through life, and everyone has a story. I think you have a story.”
“We all have a story, Rebecca,” Paige said.
“Who did you lose?”
“What?”
“I know that look. Pain. Loss. Trying to reach back for those memories.”
“Okay, what are you, a psychic?” Paige was fidgeting in her chair. “Mind reader?”
“No. Just a woman with a past full of loss.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Paige said.
“My husband died in the September eleventh attacks.”
Paige’s heart began to race. Anytime she thought about her beloved New York City going through that horrible event, it made her emotional. She hadn’t lived there at the time, but she knew a lot of people who had lost loved ones.
“I moved here from New York City,” Paige said softly. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Leo was just a baby at the time, so he really doesn’t remember his father. And honestly, I struggle to remember things now.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?” Paige asked.
Rebecca bit both of her lips and then smiled. “Sometimes. It did at first. I can remember things we did together, big moments, ya know? But those little things like the way he hummed his favorite songs or the sound of him cheering on his favorite sports teams in the living room… I can’t see them or hear them anymore. It’s like they slipped away as time went on. And then Jackson came along.”
“Did you feel guilty?”
“Very. I felt like I was betraying my love for my husband, but I wasn’t. He would’ve wanted me to go on with life, to find love again. I know that much. I know he would’ve told me life was short and to move on, but it took time.”
“Thanks for telling me your story,” Paige said. Rebecca reached out and touched her hand.
“When and if you’re ready to tell yours, I’m here. Okay?”
Paige nodded and smiled.
A week passed by, and Paige was getting used to her new boss. He seemed nice enough, but she hadn’t spent a ton of time talking to him.
Elda had invited her over for dinner one evening, but the focus of the conversation had been on the business, and Brett seemed determined to get things in order for the bookstore.
Still, Paige couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to share the same feelings which made it even easier to just stare at him when he wasn’t looking. She wasn’t ready for romance, not even close. Maybe she never would be.
She stood in front of the travel section at The Cove and stared at all of the books. Places she wanted to go, places she’d probably never see. Her one chance at being a jetsetter had been dashed the moment Daniel took his final breaths.
Not that she had loved him for his money. She wasn’t a material person at all. She did love the freedom that money bought, though. She loved knowing that she was safe, even if it had meant occasionally seeing Madeline.
The thought of her made Paige’s stomach churn. Maybe she needed some counseling.
She reached for one of the books with pictures of Greek Revival homes. She loved that style of home and the time period associated with it. As she was driving through Savannah on her way to January Cove, she’d seen such beautiful homes with the large moss-adorned oak trees lining the sidewalks. It was like a fairytale, and she hoped to take some time one day soon to do some sightseeing.
“Reading on the job?”
She whirled around to find Brett standing there holding a brown paper bag and wearing the whitest smile she’d ever seen. Dang, he was even better looking during the morning hours. She briefly imagined him just waking up, hair askew, the first hint of stubble peppering his jawline…
“Paige?”
“Oh. Sorry. You scared me.”
“You don’t seem scared…” Brett normally didn’t come to the bookstore while she was working, so the shock of seeing him standing there made her breath catch in her throat for a moment.
“Well, I am.”
“Hey, I’m not questioning you. I really wasn’t trying to scare you. Where is that stun gun, by the way?”
“Very funny,” she said as she walked past him and behind the counter. It was best to put some distance between them. Her body and mind were betraying her.
“Care for a snack?” he asked.
“What is it?”
“Only the best bagels in the world. Have you had breakfast?”
“No, I haven’t, actually.”
“Come on,” he said, walking to the small back room. With the bell on the front door, they could hear any customers who might wander into the bookstore.
They sat down at the small table and Brett began to pull out the food. She noticed his well-worn hands. They were definitely the hands of a hard-working man, and they were so different from Daniel’s. His hands had been the hands of a man who shuffled papers and got expensive manicures once a week.
“Cinnamon-raisin or blueberry?”
“Blueberry, please,” she said. He slid a napkin in front of her and placed the bagel on it. “These are huge!”
“Yeah, they are kind of big.” He smiled. Her stomach fluttered. “I got them at Al’s. It’s a little breakfast place over near Savannah.”
“Isn’t that pretty far?”
“Only about thirty minutes one-way, but they are so worth it. Here, try the homemade cream cheese.”
She swiped the plastic knife across her bagel, slathering it with a mound of the cream cheese, and then took a bite. It was one of the best things she’d ever tasted, and that included all of those fancy restaurants Daniel had dragged her to in the city.
“Oh. My. God. This is heaven…”
Brett laughed, his dimples on full display. “Told ya.”
“But I don’t understand. You would’ve had to leave at six this morning to get there and back.”
“I’m a cowboy, remember? We get up earlier than the sun.”
“Cowboy, huh? I thought you said Elda was over exaggerating about that.” She took another big bite of the bagel.
“Hey, I wear cowboy hats sometimes and cowboy boots most of the time. I own a farm. I train and board horses. I like plaid shirts and strong coffee and country music, so I guess I’ll accept the title of cowboy.”
Paige nodded. “Sounds like you’ve earned it.”
Just then, the door dinged. Paige stood and walked to the counter.
“Good morning. Welcome to The Cove. Can I help you with something?”
The young woman smiled sadly. “I’m looking for books about Alzheimer’s. I just found out my father has it.”
Paige walked from behind the counter and touched the woman’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. You must be devastated. We have some books right over here.”
She led the woman
to the proper shelf and pulled a couple of books out. “I really like this one here. There’s a lot of information about the latest treatment options, and there are some other resources about the support you’ll need as a caregiver as well.”
“Oh, that sounds perfect.”
“And make sure to call the local hospital. They have some support groups there and can also point you to any clinical trials that your father might qualify for.”
“Wow. You’re so helpful. Thank you!” the woman said. Paige rang her up and turned to walk back to her breakfast, but she found Brett standing in the doorway looking at her with a smile on his face.
“What?” she asked as the woman left.
“That was amazing.”
“What was amazing? I just helped her find a book.”
“No, you made her feel safe, Paige. You made her feel not so alone. You took time with her and didn’t just rush her out or try to make a sale.”
“I think you’re over analyzing this,” she said laughing as she walked past him and sat back down.
Brett rejoined her at the table. “You don’t like compliments, do you?”
She thought for a moment. “They’re hard for me, I guess.”
“Why?”
“Who are you, Dr. Phil?” She finished the last bite of her bagel and stood up, walking to the refrigerator and pulling out her iced coffee from an early morning run to Jolt.
“Point taken.” He stuffed the last bite of his bagel into his mouth and then tossed the napkin into the trashcan behind him. “So, I need a favor.”
“A favor already? We just met a week ago.”
He laughed and nodded his head. “True, but I’m still going to ask.”
“Okay…”
“Well, you seem to be doing well managing this place for my aunt, and I need a little female perspective on something at my farm.”
“At your farm? I’m sorry to say I don’t know a thing about farming, Brett.”
“Actually, I’m thinking of opening part of the property up for weddings and other events, but I need a woman’s eye to see if it’s even possible. I thought we’d stay there for the weekend.”
Paige froze in place. Did he just ask her to take a trip to his farm and stay the weekend? She was torn between feeling excited and ticked off that he’d think she would just run off with her new boss for a weekend of raucous farm sex or something.