“Did your mom teach you to cook?” he asked. He wanted to know all about her, every detail, but she was tentative so he was trying to go gently. Still, a man called Moose was not a man used to going gently. He was nicknamed for his size, his home state, and the way he just walked on in to most situations. Like this one, he supposed.
“She did. She’s a great cook. Very down home. Her biscuits and gravy taste like heaven.” She let out a wistful sigh. “I’ve tried to replicate them, but I just can’t seem to do it.”
“What does she say you’re doing wrong?” he asked, though he suspected he knew the answer.
“We don’t talk. She’s not allowed to have contact with me since I left. They love a good shunning.” Her eyes didn’t meet his, they were firmly on the stove top.
He reached down and placed a finger under her chin and turned her head. Her eyes were wet with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She blinked back the tears. “I’m fine. It’s been a big day, I guess I’m just a bit vulnerable. Look, dinner’s ready.”
He wanted to pull her into his arms and hug away all the hurt, and then maybe kiss it better, but he didn’t. “It smells great.”
Chloe made it through the bizarre evening with Moose. It wasn’t bizarre in itself. The truth was it was fun to have someone to eat with and make a meal for. She spent way too much time alone these days. And he was jovial and easy company. Quick to laugh and chatty. It was just the very fact that this millionaire hotelier was sitting in her house pretending to be her fiancé. That was the really odd bit.
“So,” he said as he cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, insisting she sit. “We will need a few ground rules, and eventually, you’re going to need to tell me a bit about the Viper situation.”
“The Viper situation, is that what we’re calling it?”
“It’s what I’m calling it,” he said.
“Okay, well ground rules then, like what?”
“I don’t know. Who do we tell? What’s our story? All that stuff.”
Ah yes, who did they tell? She was known to the whole town but she had not gotten close to anyone much beyond Marissa, the local librarian. “I might tell Marissa the truth if that’s okay. Everyone else can think we’re together if they like. The whole town was so excited when they thought Marissa was dating you. The diner will be abuzz with gossip if they think we’re actually engaged.”
He smiled. “Well, I better go have myself a burger in the next day or so. Actually, we should go together, hold hands, and look lovey-dovey. Much better effect.”
“Do you really think Viper is going to be back and snooping?”
“You tell me? He didn’t look like a guy who was going to be put off.” Moose was leaning against the counter. “Is it money he wants, by the way, because I can just pay him to go away?”
“I don’t think he wants money exactly. I mean, that’s part of it. He wants revenge.” She sighed. “And we can’t have him shaking you down for money, Tom.”
“Well, honestly, I’m sure I could give him enough to keep him off your back for a while.”
She shook her head. She knew money wouldn’t do it.
“Okay, well the offer stands.” He smiled at her. He was always smiling and he looked at her like she was beautiful. She liked that, and at the same time, it made her uncomfortable. She wasn’t the innocent she’d been when she left Texas, but her experience with men was limited to harmless flirting at the diner and ice-cream parlor. She didn’t date and, apart from poker night at Todd’s, didn’t spend much time with men, and none of them looked at her like Tom. In fact, she didn’t think anyone had ever looked at her that way.
“I might go call Marissa,” she said. She needed to get some space between them. “I’ll show you your room first, so you can settle in.”
“Please tell me I don’t have to sleep under an Elvis Presley comforter.”
“I could tell you that, but I’d be lying,” she said, leading him up the stairs. Behind her she heard him rumble out a groan.
She went to her own room to call Marissa. She was not sure exactly what to say to her, but she was happy when she answered quickly.
“Hey, Chloe, what’s happening?”
Oh nothing, I just have a strange pretend boyfriend living with me. What was she thinking? Surely this was all a crazy overreaction. Then she heard the distinctive rumble of a motorcycle in her quiet street and she thought, Nope, no I’m not.
“Well, it’s a very complicated story, but I just wanted to tell you Tom, I mean Moose, is staying with me and pretending to be my fiancé.”
Marissa took a beat. “What?”
“It’s a really long story, but someone not so fabulous from my bad-taste-in-men catalog reappeared, and so to keep him at bay . . .” She heard the motorcycle engine cut outside.
“Okay, I have so many questions, lady.”
And then a knock at the door. “I have to go. Can you play along and keep it a secret . . . ? I’ll explain tomorrow.”
And then she hung up on her befuddled friend and headed down the stairs.
Chapter 4
Moose peeled off his shirt as if he was heading for the shower or bed before heading to answer the door. He’d heard the bike and he knew it was Viper. This guy was persistent, and Moose had been right. He wasn’t taking their act earlier in the day at face value. He wanted proof of the engagement, or he wanted an opportunity to get Chloe alone.
“I’ve got it, honey,” he called purposefully as he flung the door open to Viper.
He watched the man’s eyes narrow as he came face to face with Moose’s chest. “Ah, Viper. Twice in one day.”
“I came to see, Chloe,” he said.
“Of course you did. I didn’t think you were here for me.” The girl of his dreams came down the stairs and stopped short.
“Viper?”
“Yeah, we didn’t get to finish our conversation today.”
Moose watched her face. “It’s not a great time, honestly.”
“You owe me a conversation, Chloe.”
“I don’t owe you a thing.” He loved the way she stuck her pretty little chin out in defiance. She was trying to look brave.
“I say differently.”
“Come in then. We’d love to hear your version.” Tom held the door open wider.
“I want to talk to her alone,” he said, his beady eyes never leaving Chloe. He hands were clenched and Moose was aware of a waft of beer and tobacco.
“Well, Viper, I’m kind of the possessive type and I was about to enjoy a bath with my girl and you’ve interrupted my plans, so you can talk to us both or neither of us. Your choice.”
His eyes cut from Chloe to Moose. Whatever he had to say was clearly meant to be vile and threatening and wasn’t appropriate for an audience. “I’ll be back.”
“Call first,” Moose said to his retreating back before shutting the door on him.
“You shouldn’t provoke him,” he heard Chloe say in a soft voice.
“I’m not provoking him.”
“You came down shirtless, you told him we were having a bath, and you chased him off.”
“I was shirtless already, and I’m here to chase him off. The bath thing, I concede, may have been provocative.” Moose smiled at her and took a step closer. Her eyes bugged, like his presence made her nervous.
“Well, I just want him to go away, not upset him further. He came a long way for me.”
“Chloe, I’m trying to make it very clear that we are not scared of him and that you have a very nice life that doesn’t include him.” He leaned in and brushed a thick strand of hair over her shoulder.
“I am scared, though,” she said in a small voice.
He wanted to pull her into a hug but he wasn’t sure how she’d feel about being pulled against his naked chest, instead he put a hand on each shoulder and looked into her chocolate eyes. “I know. But I’m here and I’m going to protect you.”
“I don
’t want you in danger, Tom,” she said.
He loved when she said his name. “Chloe, I’m big enough and ugly enough to take care of myself.”
She gave a snuffled laugh, and her voice came out in almost a drawl. “Well, you are big but you sure ain’t ugly.”
“Thanks, darlin’. I appreciate that. You’re a mighty fine-looking woman yourself.”
Chloe placed a hand on his chest. She was looking at his body like she’d never seen a half-naked man up close before, and it then occurred to him that maybe she hadn’t. She was in her early twenties but her life experiences had clearly been a little unusual.
“It’s okay to touch,” he whispered.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” She turned on her heels and ran up the stairs.
Okay, they clearly had a lot to discuss. The many eyes of Elvis fell on him as if to say, “Don’t go there.”
“Well, crap,” he muttered. He really wished they were taking that bath together. Now the warm feeling of her hand was imprinted on his chest. Moose would be taking a very cold shower, very much alone, and even that he wasn’t sure would help.
Chloe woke to the smell of coffee. She was not a morning person. In fact, she often got out of bed at 9:30 and opened the ice-cream parlor half an hour later. She glanced at her clock radio. It was before six o’clock. It took her a minute to piece together her life again. Tom was staying here. He must be up. She couldn’t hear him.
She was mortified. First, she’d dragged him into this mess, then she’d manhandled him, and finally, she’d run away like an embarrassed schoolgirl. And then the dreams she’d dreamed. They all involved that man and his delicious body. The longer she stayed cloistered in her room the better. Clearly twenty-three years of keeping her hormones in check were taking their toll.
Still, she was curious to know what he was doing downstairs all alone with only the company of the many Elvises. She crept to the top of the stairs in her stocking feet and there he was, shirtless again, doing an intense exercise routine. Did the man have an aversion to clothing she was going to have to deal with? He finished a rep of crunches, then began one-armed push-ups. His back was to her, thankfully, so she sat silently on the top step and watched. He truly was magnificent. His muscles and sinew rippled as he finished that set and moved on to the other arm. He was strong and fit and huge. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was in proportion. She knew she was blushing. She was ridiculous.
The truth was she had grown up in a community where no one was half naked ever. What she’d learned about men had been from romance novels and television. In a way, her observation of him was almost scientific, she told herself, and it certainly did something to her own body chemistry.
Obviously, she’d flirted with a few men and she’d made out with Viper, but he’d been clothed at the time and he was a different kind of animal entirely. Tom was all man. This huge muscular entity had put his life on hold to help her. He liked her, in fact, she suspected he liked her a lot, but first of all she was sworn off of men, whatever her hormones had to say on the matter, and second, he was wrong for her. She didn’t know all that much about him really but she knew he had gone to Yale and she knew he’d done further study beyond that. He was a smart guy and she was a girl with a barely legal high school diploma. The stuff she didn’t know was astounding to her still. Plus, he was one hundred percent upright. Not her, she’d fallen for a common criminal who was now bringing his nasty self and bad reputation to this town. Moose could not be associated with Viper. His lovely parents who wanted him married off to a nice, smart girl would be mortified if they knew
She could not fall for this man. He was so far out of her league it wasn’t funny. She shouldn’t even be letting him help her.
Then he turned and spotted her on the stairway and gave her that smile. The one that made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world and it made it very hard for her to remember reason.
“Good morning.” He grabbed a towel and wiped sweat from his brow. “Did I wake you?”
“I smelled coffee,” she conceded. “What are you doing up at this hour?”
“I don’t sleep much. I’m mildly ADHD, so I get up and exercise, wherever I am.”
“Always?”
“Occasionally I have been given a very good reason to stay in bed, and then I do.”
“What do you . . . oh.” He was talking about sex. “I’m not a morning person.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She was still sitting on the top step, half hiding. “Do you want to come down for a coffee or I can bring one up?”
He was not coming up near the beds. “I’ll come down.”
As she got closer to him, she could smell man and sweat and something spicy.
“You look very cute,” he said. Only then did she remember she was wearing Mickey Mouse all-in-one pajamas. How embarrassing. Well, she certainly wasn’t sending out any sexy signals in this getup. That was something.
How could the woman look this delectable in those ridiculous pajamas? Moose had no idea. If someone had gone out to design unsexy sleepwear, they would have invented these. They had built-in feet and a zip front. It was a onesie for god’s sake, with a cartoon character on it. He had told the truth when he said he’d exercised daily but thoughts of her curled up in the next room had made sleep impossible. He’d had excess energy to burn this morning, so he’d done an extra hard workout. For some reason, those stupid pajamas that should have sent any man’s libido into a nose dive were having the opposite effect on him. Man, he was screwed.
He went first into the kitchen and got down two mugs, both emblazoned with Elvis.
“I was thinking, if it is okay with you, that I might spend an hour or two this morning putting some Elvis memorabilia in the basement. I think a little less might be a good thing.”
She smiled at him over the coffee cup. “Sure. I guess it is time.”
“Great, and then when you go to the ice-cream parlor, I’ll come and install that coffee machine.”
“About that?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t really accept such an expensive gift from you.”
“Of course you can.”
She shook her head. “And why did you buy it anyway, I mean before all this?”
“Well, a couple of reasons. I’m a businessman and I could see your business is quiet in the winter.”
“That’s true.” She sipped her coffee.
“I think good coffee will bring people in,” he said. “I saw the machine and I thought of you and then I kind of had already bought it.”
“So you’re a fairly impulsive guy then?”
He nodded. “Yes and no. I usually think a lot about things, but when I leap, I go straight over the edge.”
“Still, it’s too much. You hardly know me.”
“Yeah, well, that was my ulterior motive. I wanted to get to know you, so I thought the coffee machine was a good device.”
“You did?” she asked, her eyes huge over the mug she seemed to be clutching like a lifeline.
“I did.” And before she could question it further, he took his coffee with him up to the bathroom. He was going to be the cleanest man in New Hampshire with all the cold showers he was going to need to get through this experience.
Two hours later, the living room had almost no Elvis left. It seemed that way to Chloe anyway. In truth, most of the framed movie prints were still on the walls and a couple of small figurines sat on the shelves, but life-sized Elvis was gone, as were all the Elvis-related soft furnishings and most of the other kitchenware.
She stood beside Tom at the front door and surveyed the room. It definitely looked less weird.
“I think we did a great job,” he declared. Seriously, the man worked like a mule lugging stuff to the basement and boxing it up with great care. He was sure not to damage anything. As he’d explained, her uncle might change his mind and together the collection would be worth a lot of money to some other collector if he wanted to se
ll.
“It definitely looks homier now,” she agreed.
“Now you just need to put your own stamp on it a bit,” he said.
“My own stamp?”
“Yeah, you’re a girl. Don’t you want to go to Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel and buy rugs and cups and pillows like all the other girls?”
She’d never thought about it. Those things had been considered frivolous in her community. Then her existence in Austin had been fairly subsistence, and now, well, this hadn’t been her home to decorate until now. “Maybe.”
“Definitely, we can go together if you like, just like all prospective newlyweds.”
“That’s taking it a bit far.”
He looked hurt. “Okay maybe, but I’d be happy to take you.”
“Well, this is great for now. Thank you.” She patted his arm. She was aware of the warmth of his bicep through his shirt and the muscle rippling. Too aware.
“You do love to touch me, don’t you?” he teased.
“I do not. Come on. I have to get to work.”
“Do you have Wi-Fi?”
“Only the library has Wi-Fi.”
“Honey, we’re changing that, too. Good coffee and Wi-Fi and you’ve got a whole new business for the winter.”
That would be great, she thought, if she didn’t have to leave town to outrun Viper.
They drove together to the parlor. Because “that’s what a fiancé would do,” he had said. It was apparent he wasn’t leaving her alone today, and of course that being the case, they would carpool.
She unlocked, then flipped on the switch to the standard coffee machine she’d set up the day before. The new copper machine was on the bar.
At 10:05, Marissa texted her.
Are you in?
I am.
Pour my coffee.
And within minutes, her friend had swept in, giving them each a kiss on the cheek.
“Okay, spill,” she said, planting herself on a stool.
“Her creepy ex showed up and I’m the beard,” said Moose.
Any Way You Want It : An Upper Crust Series Novel (The Upper Crust Series Book 5) Page 3