Playing With Trouble (Desire Bay)

by Joya Ryan

  “Uncle Jake!” his niece Bella yelled and ran in his direction to give him a bear hug around the leg. It had been a whole week since he’d seen his sister last, and like clockwork, every Saturday morning, she came.

  “Hey, doll face!” he said and lifted his niece up. Her six-year-old smile made his chest warm.

  “I have bear claws!” his other niece, Lexi, announced. She was on her mom’s heels, carrying a pink box. “They aren’t from real bears, though. Just called bear claws.”

  “Good thing,” Jake said and patted Lexi’s head as she strutted by, heading straight for the table, clearly ready to devour the pastries in the box she was guarding.

  He kissed his sister’s cheek, happy to see the twins today and needing to regroup and refocus and figure out what the hell to do for this coming week. Priority number one—stop thinking about Laura naked. Priority number two—figure out a way to make Laura happy without losing any more of Baughman’s warehouse money.

  “You look grouchy this morning,” his sister said.

  He was. He glanced at the trailer. Everything that woman had ever said was lurking in his mind. Like the fact that his house was . . . what had she said? Sparse?

  Everything looked sparse compared to her camper. Especially since he thought of how warm and inviting it was. Or how warm and inviting her body was.

  His house was fine. His job was fine. So why was he seriously considering digging out his old Larry Bird poster from the garage and hanging it on the wall just to liven the place up a little? He then decided against it, because even if he could find the poster he’d had at thirteen, it probably didn’t belong in a man’s home.

  It was a cool poster, though . . .

  Maybe if he got it framed it would work better. Framed posters were classy, right? And Larry Bird was the best basketball player of all time. And then maybe Laura would come over and see he had some taste in art and then she’d want to hang out instead of saying things like how his house was empty and making him acknowledge she might have a point.

  Priority number three—get Larry Bird poster framed and hung.

  Smart plan.

  “How could I be grouchy with the two greatest sidekicks of all time right here?” He ruffled Lexi’s hair right as she bit into her pastry. But neither she nor Bella looked thrilled.

  “You’re our sidekick, Uncle Jake. Bella and I talked.”

  “Ouch, so I’m demoted to Robin?”

  “You can still have a bear claw, if that helps,” Lexi offered.

  “It does,” he said and took a fresh claw from the box.

  “Well, sidekick, any chance you can hang out with these two while I run to the clinic? There’s a half shift needing coverage and . . .”

  And she could use the extra money.

  It was the one statement Erica said often, but never out loud. Because she said it silently with worry in her eyes. Jake knew her situation. She was a hard worker, raising two kids on her own and doing a damn fine job. And it tore at his heart that she took on extra shifts just to have a bit of financial wiggle room. He offered her money, help, anything, any time, but Erica was proud and would always take extra shifts before his money.

  “Of course I’ll watch them. My favorite nieces ever, after all.”

  “Aren’t we your only nieces?”

  “Yeah, and the best.”

  Bella preened. Lexi didn’t care—she was way into her bear claw. They were a lot like Jake and Erica. The same in some basic ways, yet totally different with how they went about their personal situations.

  “You’re a lifesaver,” Erica said and hugged and kissed the kids good-bye.

  A few hours and peanut butter sandwiches later, Jake and his favorite kiddos were making an epic fort out of blankets and couch cushions when his phone rang.

  “Hang on, Empress Master Fiend,” he said to Lexi, who insisted she be called that when referring to her fort self. “This is Jake Lock,” he answered his cell.

  “This is Russ,” the grouchy voice rang out.

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  “Well, not great, considering I don’t have my sawdust that was supposed to be here an hour ago.”

  Jake frowned. His crew of four was working today to deliver the sawdust. It was the only delivery, and otherwise Mannie, his crew leader, was just going to oversee the warehouse today.

  “I’m sorry, Russ, my guys should have been there.” They never missed an order, especially one like Russ’s—a recurring, large, and lucrative order.

  “I’m sorry, too. Obviously your business is already going in the crapper. I need my supplies today, and if you can’t deliver like you said you would, then I’ll find someone else who will.”

  “I can,” Jake said. “I’ll have this straightened out and the sawdust to you this afternoon. I’m really sorry about this, Russ.”

  Russ grumbled and hung up, and Jake wanted to throw his phone. What the hell was going on? He called the shop, but it went to voice mail. Then he called Mannie, his lead guy, and got his voice mail, too.

  “Okay, kiddos, you have to come with Uncle Jake to the warehouse for a minute,” he said to the kids.

  Packing them up, he got to the shop and it was dead. Not a soul in sight, and sure enough, Russ’s sawdust was lying there, not even loaded on the truck.

  “What the ever-loving hell?” Jake said, going through the warehouse. No one was there.

  “You said a bad word, Uncle Jake,” Bella said. Shit, he had.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Don’t tell your mom.”

  He needed to find where his guys were and fast. Had something happened? Maybe they were at the job site with the gravel that was due Monday and got confused? Not likely, since this shipment was like clockwork every month, and Russ was one of their biggest moneymakers. But he had to start somewhere.

  He didn’t have time to look around for his crew, so he got his nieces some safe tools to play with—a.k.a. some Sharpies—and let them color on a two-by-four while he hopped in the bucket and moved the sawdust onto the dump truck in record time.

  “Okay, who wants to ride in the big dump truck?” Jake asked, already sweating and thanking God he had a spare key to all the rigs at Baughman Home Goods on his key chain.

  “Yay, dump truck!” the twins said. Jake hustled to get their car seats switched over to the truck and headed toward Russ.

  Nothing about the situation was right. His anger was rising, and after having his ass chewed by Russ, only for Jake to smooth it out by offering a discount and ensuring this wouldn’t happen again, he was back in the truck with the kids and pissed as hell. He’d never had to fire anyone before, but this was crazy. Mannie was his most trusted guy. So something had better be wrong, or Jake was going to lose it.

  His afternoon was already shot, and Erica would be back at his place in an hour to get the kids. But once again, he had to go back to Baughman Home Goods to switch out rigs and get the kids back in his regular truck.

  “It’s like ring-around-the-rosy today, only with cars,” Lexi said when Jake finally had them fastened in and heading back to his place.

  “It really is, huh, kiddo?” He glanced in his rearview mirror and winked at his sweet nieces. “You two have been so good while I had to work. What do you say to some ice cream when we get back?”

  Their little arms shot in the air and happy exclamations burst out.

  Heading back through town, he was trying to tamp down the pissy confusion rising in his gut. He was going over what the hell he was going to say to Mannie when the SOB finally did call him back. But then Jake saw a Baughman Home Goods utility van—one of the vehicles they used to move tools and smaller lumber loads, especially when it was raining—parked outside Goonies. And wouldn’t you know, there was Mannie’s truck parked next to it.

  So his crew was at a bar in the middle of the day, and that’s why they’d missed an order?

  Fuck. No.

  Jake peeled out a little harder than he meant at the stop sign and
parked at Goonies. His sister wouldn’t love the idea of his taking the kids to a bar, but it was still before happy hour and lights out, and he had to figure out what was going on, so . . . the bar it was. Besides, there weren’t any other cars in the lot, so it should be pretty empty inside.

  Carrying Bella in one arm, he held Lexi’s hand with the other and stomped toward the bar.

  “Uncle Jake is mad,” Bella said to Lexi. “Whoever Goonie is better watch out!”

  Lexi nodded. “Yeah . . . Uncle Jake’s muscles look angry.”

  Oh, Uncle Jake’s muscles were very angry. It was time to figure out what the hell was going on.

  “Thank you for your help, Mannie. You can set that last one right there,” Laura instructed the crew who’d just unloaded the centerpieces. They were really great help today. Loading the flowers in the van, then driving them over and now setting up. Granted, she might have told them that she was the boss just as much as Jake was and needed their help, but it was only for an hour, two tops, and then they could go back to the shop.

  The bar was closed for the party tonight. So aside from Laura and the crew, they were the only ones setting up, and it was going to look beautiful.

  The door boomed open, and Laura jumped. She turned to see who had just entered the bar.

  Oh my goodness . . .

  Baby ducks were cute. Basket of puppies? Super cute. But the hulking Jacob Lock, covered in a light sheen of sweat and wearing a tight T-shirt, all rippled muscle, holding a pigtailed little girl in one strong arm and the hand of another blue-eyed girl in the other, was about the cutest damn thing she’d ever seen.

  That was, until she caught the look in his eyes. Which appeared to be irate.

  “What’s going on here?” Jacob said, and the entire crew stilled like they’d been hit with some invisible freeze gun.

  “Hey, boss,” Mannie said and set the last centerpiece down and made his way to Jake. “We were just heading out.”

  “That right?” Jake said. She could tell by the strain in his jaw he was trying to hold back but was clearly pissed about something. “Heading back to do your job that you missed. Like Russ’s sawdust order?”

  “I’m sorry,” Mannie said. “We had to help Miss Baughman.”

  Jake’s eyes shot to hers. “The engagement party tonight,” he said and looked around.

  “Yeah,” she replied. “How did you know about that?”

  “My buddy Wayne is the one getting married, and I was invited.”

  A sting shot through her heart. Of course he was. The entire town loved Jacob Lock, and he was the kind of man that had an open invitation to anywhere.

  “So let me get this right,” Jake said to Mannie, and set the little girl in his arms down. “You blew off a job that brings in thousands of dollars a month from one of our longest-standing customers to bring flowers over here?”

  Mannie’s mouth dropped open, and he looked like he was ready to wet himself. Honestly, so was Laura. She’d never seen someone look so beyond angry. It was more than raw fury, it was disappointment. Which hit her own rib cage hard, and she felt the need to explain.

  “I asked them to help me,” Laura said, which was true. Okay, she’d told them, was more like it. “And they can still do the job today. It’s not even three in the afternoon yet.”

  Jacob’s icy eyes hit her. “You can’t do this,” he said.

  That made her own anger rise and that fire she had been chasing burn hotter. Jacob needed to stop telling her what to do and stop underestimating her. “Yes, I can. They’re my crew, too.”

  “No,” he said. “They are people who work for Baughman Home Goods.”

  “Which I’m a part of.”

  “Don’t you get it?” he snapped in a low whisper and closed in on her so only she could hear his words. “You won’t have anything to be a part of if you keep this up. We’ll go under.”

  “No, we won’t,” she said with shock. She’d seen the bank account. They were stable. In the black. Surely one order being late this one time wasn’t an issue. Was Jacob trying to get a rise out of her? Scare her into his goals of always putting the warehouse first?

  Well, she wasn’t going to give in to that.

  “The finances are stable. The cost analysis great. You just don’t like that I have a different goal for Baughman Home Goods.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “I don’t. Because it’s not what your father would want.”

  “What he wants is for us to figure it out and show him who should run the entire shop as a whole,” she snapped. Everything Jake and her father had built was wrapped up in the warehouse. Hell, it was wrapped up in Jake’s house, too. But the flower shop was the only part that remained of her mother and her past, so she was clinging to it. The part she knew. The part that had anything to do with her and gave her hope. Because Jacob was right—she didn’t know anything about the warehouse.

  “Look,” Jake said, clearly trying for calm. “Your little flower endeavor aside, it’s bad business to be unreliable to your biggest client. He pulls his business and we’re a grand shy from being in the red every month. We already have to earn back the five grand you took. That’s a man’s one-month salary, you know.”

  She swallowed hard. She had no idea that this one order brought in so much revenue. She’d never meant to cause a problem. She was trying to make this all work. Trying to take the business to the next level, to bring in more revenue, not less.

  She wanted to say this to Jacob, but he’d already stomped away, clearly uninterested in anything she could have said.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” he said quietly to Mannie.

  She didn’t know if Mannie was trying to keep quiet, but Laura heard him clear as day when he leaned in to Jake and said, “She’s the boss, too, boss. We had to do as she said.”

  With that, Jake’s eyes hit hers again, and she didn’t like the feeling that came with being on the receiving end of a glare like that.

  “We’ll leave now to get the sawdust,” Mannie said.

  “Don’t bother, I took care of it.”

  “We took care of it,” the little girl with pigtails announced. “And we rode in the dump truck with Uncle Jake!”

  Laura smiled. She was cute. And Uncle Jake had a nice ring to it. Made him softer than he was currently being at the moment.

  “Uncle Jake?” the other little girl asked. “I’m hungry.”

  Jake nodded. “Let’s get home then, kiddo.”

  Mannie and the guys followed him out, and no one said a word to her. Laura looked around at the empty bar. She was once again alone, only this time she was surrounded by flowers and wondering how badly she might have just screwed up, all while trying to figure out a way to stay above water.

  Because if she was one wrong move away from sinking the company, maybe it, the town, and Jake were better off without her.

  “No,” she whispered and traced her finger along a dahlia perched on the vase nearby. The silky petal reminded her of when she and her mother had made bouquets from the garden every weekend. There wasn’t a single dahlia that was alike. All so different in size, color, and composure. You never knew exactly what you’d get. Which was why she’d loved them. Why her mother had loved them. Why Walt had a garden full of flowers waiting for her mother. At least, he had before he’d sold it.

  She just wanted to stop feeling so small. Her mother had been larger than life and the strongest woman she knew. The past ten years felt like a track she’d gotten lost on. And now Laura wanted to somehow feel her presence. Feel her love.

  She couldn’t give in yet. She had to try to make this work. Maybe if she just spent a bit of her time understanding the warehouse, made a calendar or something to keep track of all the orders so she wouldn’t make this mistake again, everything would be okay. Her father would see she could run everything, and Jake would see she was capable. She also needed to show Jake she could bring in money and support herself and the shop.

  She grabbed
her phone and made the one call she’d been mulling over.

  “Hi, Cal, this is Laura Baughman. I understand you’re looking for a landscape designer and floral supplier for the new subdivision. I’d like to set up a meeting . . .”

  She grabbed a pen out of her purse and wrote down the meeting time and date Cal suggested. This was her shot.

  She glanced around again, her short breaths echoing in the stillness. And she didn’t know if it was the drafty bar or the spot in her chest that was more hollow.

  “I’m back!” Erica announced happily, walking into Jake’s house. “How was your day?” she asked. Jake looked up from the coloring book he was working on with the kids at the kitchen table.

  “Great!” the twins said in unison and ran toward her.

  “It was a good day,” Lexi said. “We rode in the dump truck to a bar so Uncle Jake could be mad at a pretty lady.”

  Erica’s eyes went wide; then she glared at Jake. “What?”

  Jake pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. The bar was technically closed.”

  That didn’t seem to make Erica feel better. “Seriously, Jake?”

  “I had no choice,” he said. “Russ called and the sawdust didn’t get dropped off, and I couldn’t find my crew, so we took care of it.”

  “We?”

  The twins nodded, and Bella piped up, “Yep! We helped. It was awesome.”

  “They were perfectly safe the whole time,” Jake assured.

  “Why don’t you two go wash up and you can watch cartoons for a few minutes while I talk to Uncle Jake.”

  The kids ran down the hall, and Erica took a seat next to him.

  “I’d never put them in danger,” he said. And he meant it. Those kids and Erica meant more to him than anything.

  “I know that,” she said and nudged his arm. “I get that you have to work, but what’s this about going to the bar to be mad at a pretty lady?” she asked. “Care to elaborate on that?”

  “Not really,” he said.

  “Well, too bad, do it anyway.”

  With a deep breath, Jake replayed the situation and how he’d ended up staring at Laura Baughman at Goonies. While he left out the sleeping-with-her part, he did say that she was living in the camper outside.