Charmed at First Sight

by Sharla Lovelace

  That was the catalyst that propelled me off the door, into the shower, clothes flying. I wasn’t having any part of that train of thought. I’d unengaged myself the night before—disengaged—whatever the hell I did—and men needed to be off my radar for a while. Especially men who looked like Leo, making me think of things like how he smelled.

  I stayed in that shower till the water ran cold, wanting nothing more than to be new. Ten minutes later, my hair up in a ponytail to dry of its own accord, my teeth finger-scrubbed with the toothpaste, and with not a stitch of makeup on my face, I headed downstairs.

  If not for the boob bounce (that unfortunately wasn’t as disguised as I’d hoped, but still wasn’t worth the strapless from hell) under the tank top, I could have passed for a tall twelve-year-old. Or then again, maybe that was me feeling a little too new. Probably more like a frazzled soccer mom with no time for makeup or laundry.

  I didn’t care. I wanted coffee and maybe something to curb the growling in my belly, and then I could go buy a few basics to tide me over before meeting up with Thatcher tonight. Things like a toothbrush. A bra.

  By the time I hit the bottom of the stairs, I was rethinking the strapless. It was evil and tight and belonged to yesterday’s Micah, but I could hear people talking in the lobby and I wasn’t a free-swinging kind of person.

  “Micah!” Gabi exclaimed from somewhere I couldn’t see, and then I did. In a mirror they had on the far wall, probably for this very reason. “Come here, we were just talking about you.”

  Crap. Fabulous.

  I folded my arms across my chest, pasting on a smile as I rounded the entryway into the bright and sunny lobby. I hadn’t paid that much attention to the aesthetics the day before, but I found it very pleasing to the eye. Being a corner building, the windows wrapped around, bathing the counter and the lighter, freshly cut delicate flowers in morning sun. In the afternoon, the roses and hardier blooms would get the light. It made for a beautiful palette against pale yellow walls and brick accents, surrounding the refrigerated case behind the counter. Very enticing. I wanted to pull up a chair and breathe in the gardenias. With a cup of coffee, of course. And no people talking about me.

  “Oh?” I responded, as I approached Gabi with a tall hunky man with hair that swung sexily around his eyes. “Should my ears be burning?”

  “This is Sully Hart,” she said, as he held out a hand and I was forced to uncross my arms. “Owner of the Lucky Charm.”

  Well, well, high company. As I shook his hand, a blonde woman who was perusing a catalog at the counter turned and walked over, holding out hers.

  “Hi, I’m Carmen Frost,” she said, an air of professionalism about her. His hand landing on the small of her back said they were together, but something else said I’d heard that name before.

  “Micah,” I said, shaking her hand. I couldn’t throw the last name in. Not this early, before my coffee. I wasn’t up to the—

  “Roman,” she said, however, making that decision for me. “I know. You created quite the buzz in Cherrydale yesterday.”

  “Great,” I whispered, withdrawing my hand to fold my arms back where they’d been, protecting my core. Holding me in. “You were there?”

  “We were,” Carmen said. “At least until it was pretty official that you weren’t.”

  I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Carmen is—” Gabi began, making a tiny grimacing twist with her bottom lip.

  Of course. The best friend. I remembered now. Shit.

  “Jeremy’s dad’s lawyer,” I said, nodding and taking a deep breath, staring at the floor as I released it. “Wow, they didn’t waste any time.”

  “Wait—oh no, no, sorry,” Carmen said, laughing as she put a hand on my arm. “I’m not here in that capacity. Sully and I are just ordering something special for tonight, and I told her about yesterday and she said you were here—blah blah blah.”

  I pushed down the panic that had risen to my throat. It never occurred to me that the Blankenships might go legal on me until that very second. Even though it evidently might not be the case right now, I felt like a yet was hanging over my head.

  “And the house?” Sully prompted.

  “Oh, shit, I’m so scattered today,” Carmen said. “I have a rental house here in town that I’m not using,” she said. “It’s nothing special, two bedrooms, hardwood floors. My landlord won’t let me out of the lease and I have another six months, so I’m essentially paying rent—”

  “To shack up with me,” Sully finished.

  “Basically,” Carmen said, laughing as she backslapped him in the belly. “I asked Gabi if she knew of anyone interested in taking over the lease or subletting. She said you might be?”

  Oh, God. Oh, God. Committing to a few days was tripping me up already. Committing to rent? I felt the heat of a thousand volcanoes rise up my neck as my heart triple-timed it. I barely heard the jingle above the door over the rush of blood in my head.

  “Oh, um, I—” Full sentences, Micah. Use your words. “I can’t really commit to something that final right now,” I said, chuckling. “And I realize that probably sounds weird to call subletting a rental house final, but—”

  “No, truly I get it,” Carmen said, holding out a hand. “Your life flipped all over the place less than twenty-four hours ago.” Was that all? It felt like twenty-four weeks. “You need to figure things out. No problem, I’ll keep asking.”

  “I’d be interested,” said a deep male voice behind me that brought goose bumps to my skin.

  I wheeled around, my arms dropping before I thought about why they shouldn’t and I came face to face again with Leo. He sat on a stool against the wall, one leg cocked up at the knee, one arm thrown lazily over the counter. A pen casually rolled over the fingers of his left hand, knuckle by knuckle, almost as if he wasn’t aware he was doing it.

  “Shit, where’d you come from?” I said under my breath.

  His eyes were soft as they met mine, lowering to see what was way too outlined and defined in that tank top. I folded my arms again, and to his credit, he blinked away.

  That was it. I was going back to my dorm for the strapless from hell.

  “Upstairs, same as you,” he said, continuing the pen roll.

  “Well, warn a person next time,” I said, rubbing the goose bumps on my arms. Really? What the hell was that? “Don’t just sit back there like Yoda and scare people.”

  An amused smirk pulled at his lips. “I’ll be sure to announce the next time I’m sitting here minding my own business.”

  “You have to be Nick’s brother,” Carmen said, adding a self-deprecating little shrug. “Sorry, Lanie’s my best friend and she kind of filled me in. Plus, you have the same—” She wiggled her fingers at him. “All of it.”

  “Just to be clear,” Leo said, standing and letting the smirk turn into a grin that made my toes go numb. “He has the same as me.” He held out a hand. “Leo McKane.”

  Carmen burst out laughing. “It’s like that, is it?”

  “Do I still get the house if it is?” he asked, moving from Carmen’s hand to Sully’s and locking eyes with him, doing that silent sizing-up thing that men do. Like there was some weird ancient caveman trading of respect arcing back and forth between them.

  “Can you fix things that break?” Sully finally asked, not letting go. “Her landlord is worthless and I’m tired of playing Handyman Hank all the time.”

  “Not a problem,” Leo said.

  “It’s yours.”

  Sully let go of his hand and slapped him on the shoulder. I felt like we needed to eat a side of beef or something. Smoke some jerky.

  “Hey, Handyman Hank,” Carmen said. “If you’re through swinging your hammer here, maybe I can make my own deal.”

  I nearly choked on my own spit and had to turn around to pretend to cough. I liked this girl.
She had spunk. She didn’t take any shit. She was who I wanted to be when I grew up.

  Sully lifted his hands, surrender style. “Deal away, baby.”

  Carmen lifted her chin toward Leo. “It’s yours,” she echoed, pulling a card from her back pocket. “You have a job? You sticking around for a while, or are you just looking for a month to month?”

  Leo looked to be mulling that over, and I found myself leaning in to wait on his answer. Instantly, I backed up a step, mentally slapping my brain. Why the hell would I care?

  “I have a job waiting for me,” he said finally. “More than one, possibly. But I should probably do a month at a time right now. Till I get a feel for things.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?” he asked. “You being Nick’s wife’s friend?”

  She handed him the card. “Dude, I don’t care what happened between you and Nick; that’s your business. If you have a job and want a place to stay, I can have it ready for you by next weekend probably.”

  “Sounds good,” he said. “Thank you.”

  Well, homeboy here just got his life issues worked out and solved in under thirty seconds. I needed something to work in my favor like that.

  “Hart,” Leo continued, lifting his chin toward Sully. “Like the carnival line?”

  Sully chuckled, looking surprised. “There’s a shot in the dark.”

  Leo shrugged, his body relaxed as he looped his thumbs in the tops of his pockets. “Heard someone talking about it.”

  Sully nodded, but something in his eyes went sad. “Once upon a time. My brother runs Lucky Hart now, God help them all.” He took a deep breath and smiled as he let it go. “Now I have the Lucky Charm entertainment park keeping me busy.”

  “So, we’re good for tonight?” Carmen asked Gabi, moving on.

  “All set,” Gabi said with a wink. “I’ll have it ready by four.”

  Drew came in with a piece of paper and Leo took it, holding up his hand in a silent wave on his way to the door.

  “Gone, I am,” he said under his breath as he passed me.

  How fucked up was I that that turned me on? I clapped a hand over the chuckle that bubbled up my throat.

  “Nice to—okay then,” Carmen said as the door shut behind him, widening her eyes at me. “Well, he’s mysterious.”

  Why was that directed at me? Why would she say that, looking at me all cat-and-the-canary and wiggly-eyed, insinuating that I would have any idea about his mysteriousness? Just because I was acting like a silly girl?

  “Is he?” I asked. “Huh.”

  Because that was better.

  “What are you, his dealer?” Gabi asked Drew when she sauntered behind the counter.

  Drew cut her eyes toward her sister. “What are you, thirteen?” She picked up two wholesale catalogs, setting them back on a shelf behind her. “He needed a bike repair shop, and I know a guy, nosy.”

  “What’s tonight?” I asked, thankful for the distraction to move things off of Leo.

  “Well, we’re—” Carmen began, then looked at Sully. “We’re just doing something fun for a friend, and tonight starts the whole honey clusterfuck extravaganza, so…what better time?”

  “The Honey Festival is in a couple of weeks,” Gabi said. “It’s kind of a big deal around here.”

  “This year, Katrina Bowman is chairing it,” Carmen said with an eye roll.

  “I—think I met her yesterday,” I said. “At the Blue Banana.”

  “Red hair, giant tits?” Carmen asked. At my chuckle, she nodded. “Yeah. She’s hard to miss. Especially now that she’s deemed herself professional.”

  “She’s doing a prefestival festivity week,” Gabi said, gesturing with her hands. “All kinds of zany things. Some of it sounds fun, though.”

  “Then why don’t you meet us tonight?” Carmen prodded.

  Gabi laughed out loud. “Yeah, karaoke isn’t one of those things.”

  “Oh, Lord,” I said behind my hand.

  “And you can be in charge of getting her there,” Carmen said, wheeling on me with a wink. “Bring Gabi to Rojo’s tonight,” she said. “Y’all need to come have some fun. I know Gabi needs it, and I suspect you could maybe stand to relax for a minute, yourself.”

  Did I look that tightly wound? Maybe the death grip I had on myself gave that away.

  “In my invisible car?” I said, chuckling. “Nah, I have to meet my brother to get some of my stuff. Is there Uber here?”

  “Oh, that’s right, you just climbed on big brother’s bike and sped away,” Carmen said to my dismay. “Did you know Nick had a brother?” she asked, turning to Sully.

  “Yes,” Gabi said, touching my arm to answer my question and bring us back to sanity. “But seriously, just take my car, and meet me back here. Rojo’s is literally right around the corner, less than a block from here.”

  “But I don’t know how long that will be,” I whispered.

  “Even better!” she whispered back.

  “Hey, if I can get behind the celebration of bee vomit,” Carmen said, “you can suck it up through a few drunk rounds of ‘Feelings.’”

  “I know,” Gabi said. “Just—things get so insane this time of year with the festival, the Honeycomb Dance, the Wars. Everybody wants fresh flowers, everyone wants something different, and right now. I have no time for drunk karaoke.”

  “The Wars?” I asked.

  “Honey wars,” Gabi said. “All the local honey makers—from Anderson’s Apiary down to the one-hivers making it in their garages—come out of the woodwork to shove honey in your face for two weeks for votes on the best honey.”

  “It’s disgusting,” Carmen said.

  “She doesn’t like honey,” Sully said.

  “It doesn’t matter if it’s on a card table on the side of the road,” Gabi continued, “they want a wildflower arrangement or petals or a jar of daisies or something to bring the whole freshly pollenated visual home.”

  Carmen shook her head and did a little shiver. “Disgusting.”

  I knew this time of year was heavy for us as well, but I never knew why, in particular. I wasn’t that involved in the customers and the ordering. I only knew I couldn’t harvest fast enough.

  “Is it wildflowers your customers want especially?” I asked.

  “Mostly,” she said. “I can have the most beautiful exotic flowers in here at the ready, but this time of year all they want are daisies and blue violets. I order from three different suppliers and still have trouble getting them in.” She sighed. “One day, in a perfect world, I can have an entire field of it in my backyard. Problem solved.”

  Carmen glanced at her watch. “We need to get going, babe,” she said softly. Then, turning to Gabi, “I’ll see you at four, then again tonight, right?”

  Gabi’s expression faltered just the tiniest bit. “If Micah’s able to get back in time, sure.”

  Carmen and Sully said their good-byes, and Gabi took a customer call. Drew was in and out again from a back hall. In the span of seconds, life was normal again in Graham’s Florist.

  Except I was still me. In my little aura, normal felt like a hundred years ago.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Bra…check. Two of them, in fact, just because they were better than anything I had. Some makeup I needed to replace anyway, and a brand-new shiny cell phone using my upgrade, making the one Jeremy had a useless rock.

  I also bought a couple of shirts and some capris, a fedora hat in a boutique because I could, an ankle bracelet, a chunky-funky necklace, a retro jean vest, and some cute slip-on shoes. Just in case. I knew the one outfit that Thatcher had in my backpack, and it was a sundress. So if Jeremy didn’t let me have my clothes…

  I knew that was a crazy thought. And I knew that everyone I spoke to had to be thinking I was a loon for not just going to get my
things. Or, hey, just going home. Like normal people would.

  But they didn’t know Jeremy. They didn’t know that he was a master mind-game player and would easily hold my shit hostage just to jack with my head a little longer, punishing me for embarrassing him. Not in a mean way that would be obvious to anyone. But with a smile or a hurt look or guilt, or worse—being understanding, giving me time, with that underlying seething time bomb I could almost hear ticking.

  I didn’t trust myself not to fall for it. I’d allowed him to work me for so many damn years, it was like the air was just sweeter outside that bubble. I didn’t want to chance losing it. If I had to face Jeremy, I needed a tether of some sort. Something to pull me out when the bullshit got too rainbowy.

  I didn’t know what that tether was. It couldn’t be Thatcher. I mean, clearly he’d always come to my rescue, he was hard-wired for it, but only if I asked. He’d been friends with Jeremy now for too long to see the problems for himself. His wife, Misty, had even pointed it out once, to me, to both of us, but neither of us believed her at the time. That’s how good Jeremy was.

  Now Misty was gone, and there was no one with enough degree of separation to hold my ankles while I dove into the deep end. Maybe Gabi now. The woman I’d known for a little over a day, yet had lent me her car and told me she didn’t trust men. She might definitely be a good candidate.

  I passed a garage apartment for rent that had seen better days but was only a few blocks from Thatcher’s house. No. I wasn’t ready to go there, yet. I turned down the road I could find if I was struck blind tomorrow. The one I used to race my bike down and once rolled Jackson down when I convinced him to get inside an old tire.

  I’d decided to just go to Thatcher’s instead of meeting him somewhere. If Jeremy suddenly got a notion I was in town, well, good for him. I was visiting my brother, in the house where lies once shielded everyone from anything real. It had its own force field.

  When I pulled into the driveway, Thatcher was outside pressure washing the garage door. He turned questioningly until he saw it was me, then went back to spraying off dirt and mold and God only knew what else.