Once downtown, Nell pulled into the tiny lot behind Hannah’s bakery. Hannah waved from the back window, gestured to the front of the store. Nell met her and Tom out front just as Hannah closed the door behind her, waving to Bliss behind the counter.
“So handy that she’s home for spring break,” Hannah commented, then pursed her lips as she looked Nell up and down. “Someone’s on the prowl today.”
“What?” Nell looked down at herself, then back at Hannah. “It’s jeans and a t-shirt.”
“Fuck me jeans and ‘rip this off of me’ t-shirt more like.” Hannah swapped out her purple-framed glasses for sunglasses. “Tell me you’re not going to try to seduce poor Paul on opening day.”
“No,” Nell said, exasperated, leading the way down the sidewalk to the plaza. “Sheesh. Are you horny, or what? This is not my on the prowl look. I’m not even wearing heels.”
“Tom?” Hannah looked up at her husband, who held out his hands in surrender.
“Do I look like an idiot? I’m so not weighing in on this.” He peered down at her. “Are you horny though? Because we could be late to the opening…”
Hannah laughed, slid her arm around his waist. “Later, honey.”
He sighed, dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Okay.”
“Adrian’s going to be there, so that must be why then.” Hannah clapped her hands. “I’m so excited you’re going after that sex on a stick. Yay, you!”
Tom brightened. “I knew it. Totally going to collect…um.” He stopped, looked off to the side.
Nell narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, collect?” She poked him in the chest. “Tom. Are you guys betting on me?”
“What the hell is this, some boys only betting club?” Hannah poked Tom, too.
Nell was about to thank her when Hannah added, “If you’re going to bet on my best friend, then I want in too. What are the terms? She caves to Adrian’s seduction? Because she so totally will.”
“No,” he said with a wary glance at Nell. “It’s not so much a bet as a….um. Hypothesis. With money attached.”
“Hypothesis about what?” Nell asked between gritted teeth.
“That you’ll…um. Break Adrian’s heart.”
“Tom!” Hannah tipped down her sunglasses, glared at him. “That’s terrible. I mean, she totally could, but still. He’s just a fuck buddy, right, Nell?”
“That’s right.” Nell nodded, then shook her head. “I mean, no. We’re not having sex. No matter how often he tries to seduce me.”
“I’m really uncomfortable with this conversation,” muttered Tom.
“Too bad. I’ll let you live only because you put your money on me. But, no one is breaking anyone’s heart here. You men. Just a bunch of gossiping little girls.” Nell swept by him, shaking her head.
After a few moments, Hannah caught up with her.
“You’re on your own, buddy,” Hannah called over her shoulder. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“I saw you slip him a twenty,” Nell said, glancing over at her. “Honestly.”
Hannah patted her arm. “My money’s on you, honey.”
“It’s not a game,” said Nell. “Jesus. This is why I don’t do on-Island flings.”
“Speaking of Adrian, look.” Hannah pointed.
Ahead, at the entrance to the plaza, sat a bronze sculpture—several pairs of hands formed a deep bowl filled with berries, grains, greens and fish. A thin piece of hammered metal arched over the hands like the handle of the basket, with “Lopez Farmers’ Market” engraved on its surface.
“Hi!” Amy waved at them from the plaza, pointed at the sculpture with a huge grin on her face.
“Beautiful,” Hannah said as they got closer.
“I know!” Amy bounced up and down on her toes. “He donated it.”
“And, Ben auctioned off a signed copy of his latest screenplay,” Hannah reminded her.
“Tom built the kiosk,” Amy said, pointing at the wooden display that featured brochures from Island businesses and farms.
“And Paul is the mastermind behind it all,” Hannah finished. “Aren’t our guys fantastic?”
“Oh, please. Those guys couldn’t have done it without you.” Nell rolled her eyes. “Amy, Ms. Vice Chairman, got the Chamber to support it, helped recruit the farmer vendors and was probably here at some godawful hour of the morning today to help set up. Hannah delivered flyers to the other Islands, and I know she was also up at some godawful hour this morning baking for the crew.”
Hannah tipped her sunglasses down, peered at her. “What did you do?”
“I’m no sucker,” Nell said, smug. “I slept in, and now I get to do the best part—spend money on all the fantastic fruit and veggies.”
When both Amy and Hannah gave her the evil eye, she shrugged.
“Hey, cut me some slack, I just bought an entire second business. And, my moms are getting married. They called me last night at 11 p.m. to discuss centerpieces.”
“Ooh, what are they going with? I was so happy with the florist your mom recommended.” Amy beamed.
Nell pointed at her. “Why the hell did I stay up until midnight talking to her about this? She should be talking to you. If you find my mother today, and tell her you want to go out to coffee and talk flowers, I will be in your debt forever.”
“Hmm.” Amy tapped her chin with her finger. Nell found it sweet that her other hand rested protectively on her still flat belly. “I’ll definitely take that into consideration.”
“Okay.” Nell squared her shoulders. “I’m off to talk to Paul.”
“Are you going to make up?” Amy smiled, laid a hand on Nell’s arm. “Because I’ll totally take both your moms out to lunch and talk centerpieces and the music list if you’ll help Paul have a great day today. He’s worked so hard on this market, and I know he’s miserable that things aren’t right with you two.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Nell sighed. “I’m on it.”
She strode off into the crowd, stopping here and there to talk with neighbors and friends. Twenty minutes later, she spotted Paul near the stage, hooking up speakers.
“Need a hand?” she asked.
He turned slowly, raised his eyebrows at her. “Not really. But thanks.” He paused. “So. How are you?”
“Fine.” Nell looked down at her feet. “The market is…nice.” She blew out a breath. “Oh, for god’s sake. Nice. It’s more than nice. It’s fantastic. Listen, can we talk? I mean, I can come back if you need to finish up here.”
As if by magic, Tom appeared at Nell’s side.
“Great crowd. Need some help there?”
“Yeah, actually. Can you finish setting up for the band? The high school’s going to play after the Mayor says a few words.”
They left Tom unraveling extension cords and walked over to the edge of the plaza, where a row of evergreen trees screened them from view of the crowd. Nell met Paul’s eyes, all the carefully scripted things she’d been about to say flying out of her mind. She took a deep breath.
“So—”
“Nell—”
They both stopped. Paul gestured for her to go ahead.
“Thank you for giving me some space,” Nell began. “I know it was hard for you to do, but I really needed time to think.”
“It was hard,” Paul agreed. “I missed you. As a friend,” he added hastily.
“Right. I got that.” Nell sighed.
“So you did some thinking,” he prompted, watching her carefully.
“You might want to pay special attention,” she warned him, trying for a bit of humor. “Because I’m about to admit that I may have been wrong, and you know how often that happens.”
Paul grinned, tentatively. “That’s true.”
“I guess that I wanted what my moms have. What Amy and Ben have. I love you. I like you. I respect you. I thought that would be enough, a great start to a relationship, and so I talked myself into believing that I’m in love with you.”
He
said nothing, just watched her with steady brown eyes.
“Then you turned me down, and you know how often that happens.” She got another smile out of him and smiled back. “I thought my friends would be outraged on my behalf, right? Instead they were incredulous at the idea of us being a couple. So, I had to really think about it. I realized what I missed about seeing you was the joking around, the advice, the friend stuff. Not the sexy stuff. So….” She shrugged. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry, because I felt what I felt, or at least, I thought I felt that way. And, I guess I’m glad that I brought it up instead of pining away longer.”
Paul waited a minute, and when she didn’t say anything else, he just opened his arms. Nell felt tears burn in her eyes as she flew forward and wrapped her arms around him. He held her for a while, rocking back and forth, then kissed the top of her head and let her go.
“So, we’re okay?” she asked him.
“Yeah.” He shrugged, avoided her eyes. “I mean, I’m a bit weirded out that you and Adrian are a thing.”
“We’re not a thing,” Nell insisted.
“But you slept with him.”
She looked away, tightened her lips.
“Hey.” Paul laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not judging you. I mean, yeah, my ego deflated a bit because you seemed to get over me pretty dang quickly.”
“It’s not really like that,” Nell said, feeling awkward. Normally she was pretty straight up with Paul about her dating life but admitting to him that Adrian had been a fun roll in the sheets didn’t seem like the best idea, given the situation.
“Normally women pine after me for months,” Paul said, grinning. “Wasting away to nothing, writing terrible poetry, serenading me outside my window.”
“Right.” Nell grinned, feeling some of the tension unwind from her shoulders. “Lucky for you, I’m used to men doing the same for me, so my sexy superpowers must cancel out yours.”
He draped his arm around her shoulders, squeezed. “Someday you’re going to—”
“Oh my god,” Nell rolled her eyes. “Please don’t say I’ll make some guy very happy. Come on. You’re better than that.”
“Actually fall in love,” he said, smug. “And, it’s going to be fun to watch.”
“Well. Enough of all this shit. Let’s just put it behind us, okay?”
They headed back. Nell snuck a look over at Paul.
“So, did you bet for me or for Adrian?” She snickered at his guilty look. “Oh, yeah. I know all about it.”
Paul held up his hands in surrender. “For the record, I bet on you.”
“That’s good because I’d have to kick your ass. I should kick your ass anyway for participating in something so stupid…” she trailed off, narrowed her eyes. “Wait a minute. Did Adrian bet?”
Paul laughed. “He bet that you two would have a mutually satisfying adult relationship and move on, no hearts broken. He’s the only one who took that bet, by the way.”
“I’d take that bet,” Nell nodded. “Smart man.”
“I thought you guys weren’t a thing. You just said that, like, five minutes ago.”
Nell bit her lip. Shit. Good point.
Paul started to laugh. “I’m starting to feel less weirded out and more totally amused.”
“Har har.” Nell squared her shoulders. “Anyway. This is all super cool.” She waved her hands to encompass the market, now teeming with people talking, laughing, bags filled with vegetables and fruit. “I’m proud of you, Mayor Timble.”
“Shut up.” He said it half heartedly, socked her in the arm. “I have to go help the actual Mayor get ready for the speech.”
“Yawn. Seriously though, thanks for making our town better. You’re pretty amazing.”
“Don’t fall in love with me again,” he warned, then winced. “Shit. Too soon?”
She threw her head back and laughed, the last remnants of tension leaving her shoulders. Leaning over, she kissed him on the cheek. “I love you. Thanks for being my pal. Don’t ever stop.”
He smiled into her eyes, gave her a quick hug. “Right back at you.”
Nell started to make the rounds of the booths, quickly filling up her bag. She didn’t cook much, but she was a sucker for fresh salmon and could throw that on the grill. Maybe add some kale, too, so it got crispy and she could forget she was eating something healthy. She ran into Zane, Ryan and Mellie, who had also snagged some salmon, and were on the hunt for fresh baked bread. They made plans to pool together their purchases for a dinner later.
Nell leaned down under the guise of fixing the ribbons on Mellie’s pigtails. “Ask for rhubarb,” she whispered. “Daddy Ryan will make it into a pie that tastes super yummy.” The irony being, that Ryan didn’t like the pie, but made it so damn well that it was a favorite amongst all his friends.
“Treat?” Mellie whispered back, her eyes lighting up.
“Yep.” Nell gave her pigtail a gentle tug, then stood up. She waved goodbye and chuckled when she heard Mellie pipe up, “I want the barb! The rooberb! The burbpie!”
She shot a look back at Ryan, who looked up and shook his finger. “Sneaky bitch,” he mouthed.
Nell laughed and continued on her way. She added local goat cheese to her bag along with her favorite bottle of red, and then, knowing the Mayor’s speech was coming up, snagged a giant cookie. The man was a sweetheart but dearly loved to hear himself talk. She joined the crowd gathered near the stage, searching for Hannah and Amy. Being much nicer people than she was, they had picked a spot right in the front, and Nell wanted to give herself the option to sneak away, so she stayed put.
A few minutes into the Mayor’s speech, warm breath at her ear sent tingles down her spine.
“Are you going to share that thing of beauty?”
Nell didn’t bother looking over at Adrian, but felt him in damn near every cell of her body. “Get your own,” she mumbled around a mouthful of chocolate chip. When he didn’t reply, she snuck a glance over at him. Dark jeans hugged his delicious ass, and like her, he wore a short sleeve black t-shirt that made his dark eyes look bottomless. A woman could get lost in there, so she resolutely tore her gaze away.
He nudged her. “Hey. We’re twinsies.”
She had to laugh when she realized they were basically wearing the same outfit. And, like her, he had a tote slung over his shoulder stuffed with produce. He leaned around her to peer into her bag and also started to laugh under his breath. Adrian reached into his bag and pulled out the same bottle of wine she’d selected.
“That’s it. We’re soulmates.”
“Sexmates, maybe,” Nell snorted, then clamped her lips shut, not having meant to say that out loud.
“Oh, really?” Adrian inched closer so his hip brushed against hers.
Her traitorous body responded instantly, goosebumps breaking out on her arms when he slid his hand across the small of her back, rested his splayed fingers on her hip.
“I saw you with Paul earlier. It looked like you guys cleared things up?”
Nell ordered her body to cooperate and ignore the sex on a stick that was right up in her personal space bubble. “Yep. We’re good. By the way.” She turned and met his eyes. Big mistake. She stared into them, momentarily speechless as she drank in the deep brown. Focus, she ordered herself. “I know all about that asinine bet you guys set up.”
Adrian squeezed her hip gently. “Care to join in on my part of the bet?”
“No.” She couldn’t bring herself to move away. “You’ll lose.”
“I don’t think so.” He grinned at her, then turned his attention to the Mayor’s remarks.
Nell tried to focus, knowing that Paul and Amy were sure to get recognized but it was hard to concentrate when Adrian’s body radiated heat next to hers.
After a moment, Adrian sighed and murmured to her, “He’s very nice, but damn, a terrible speaker.”
Nell hid a smile. “I know. Why do you think I’m hiding out back here?”
“So
wise.” Adrian moved his hand over her hip in a slow caress. “So what’s new with you?”
Oh, not much. I have a crazy sexy red thong on and am debating whether you get to see it. What’s new with you?
“Getting things figured out at the new office,” she said instead. Thinking about work put a hard knot in her stomach—she’d done nothing in the past week but run from one branch of her business to the next, drowning in paperwork. Not once in that week had she been able to get up in the air. “How’s work on your exhibit going?”
His fingers danced over her hip, edging just close enough towards her center that she drew in an involuntary breath. Adrian moved his hand to rub in lazy strokes up and down her back, leaving trails of pure pleasure in his wake.
“My buddy Marcelo is visiting next week to check it out,” Adrian said, leaning closer so she could hear him over the murmur of the crowd, both of them now ignoring the Mayor’s speech completely. “He’s basically my manager at this point. His gallery was the first one to show my work, and both our careers took off at the same time. So, I’m a little nervous to show him my work.”
Nell turned toward him slightly, met his eyes, lust spiking through her at the endearing twist in his smile. “Why are you nervous? I don’t know shit about art, and even I can tell you’re brilliant.”
The way he continued to lightly caress her back reminded her just how damn good his hands felt all over her body. When he reached out with his other hand and stroked her cheek, she found herself leaning into him.
“This work is so different. Much more personal.” Adrian shrugged, even as his eyes stayed intent on hers and his hand trailed down her neck and his other arm pulled her ever so slightly closer.
“Is it good or is it a self-indulgent mess?” Nell asked, letting him continue to pull her close until they were nearly touching.
He laughed. “See, you know something about art after all.”
She shrugged, smiled. “You know Brooke—my mom’s fiancée—is a watercolor painter. So I know the things she worries about. I figure it’s probably the same.”
“True.” Adrian bent his head slightly, his lips cruising across her jawbone. “I’ve seen some of her work. She’s very talented.”
Love in the Air: Lopez Island Series #2 Page 13