Slow Burn - a Novel: The Elite

by KB Winters

  “He’s so hot…”

  I jolted at Alesha’s purring voice and jerked to face her, my cheeks turning a bright shade of pink at her having caught me staring after Nick. My tongue might as well have been hanging out of the side of my mouth.

  Alesha laughed at me. “Come on. Admit it.”

  “He’s not really my type,” I lied.

  “Right,” Alesha laughed and set down the pitcher of iced tea on the counter. “What’s your type then? Short, fat, and bald?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Totally hot.”

  Alesha smirked at me.

  She wasn’t buying it. Not for a second.

  The problem was, neither was I.

  * * * *

  “Hey there, gorgeous!”

  I smiled as Aaron sauntered through the front doors at half past three. “Hey, trouble.”

  “Trouble?” He grinned. “What’d I do?”

  I arched a brow at him. “Aren’t you always trouble?”

  “Good point.” He laughed and came over to lean against the counter. “How’re things around here?”

  He was fishing. I could sense it. But, I wasn’t about to bite at the bait he was setting out.

  “Things are good. A little crazy, but that’s par for the course it seems. Alesha’s behaving herself…mostly.”

  Aaron shook his head. “I didn’t even recognize her yesterday. What’s with the haircut and the fancy-ass clothes?”

  “Who knows. Seventeen going on thirty-seven is apparently all the rage these days. I got curious and went over to her Facebook page and all of her friends look like that. Made up like they’re going to some high society charity ball. I don’t get it. What’s wrong with a t-shirt and a good fitting pair of jeans?”

  “Absolutely nothing,” Aaron replied, a twinkle in his eye.

  “You’re engaged,” I reminded him with a smirk. Aaron was always like that and Gemma knew it. We’d met several times since their engagement and I knew she wasn’t threatened in the least.

  “Just messing with ya. But, you know who sure appreciates the way you look in jeans?”

  My eyes went wide at his suggestion. I didn’t need him to fill in the blanks to know who he was talking about.

  “What do ya think, Carly? You interested?”

  I shook my head. “You’re worse than the old biddies over at Jenny’s,” I replied, referring to the only salon in town. It was a watering hole for town gossip, crockpot recipes, and the occasional diet tip.

  “Well, like you said, I’m taken, so I gotta get my entertainment matching others now.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Almond spice latte?”

  He just grinned.

  I went to the espresso machine and started pulling a shot, tapping out the count with my toes. Twenty-two seconds. Perfection. I could feel Aaron’s smile on me as I went through making the rest of his drink. When I turned to present him with the finished product, he laughed. “Just say yes or no.”

  “To what?”

  “To Nick.”

  “Are you asking me out for him? God, last time I checked I was twenty-eight, not sixteen. This isn’t the Homecoming Dance for fuck’s sake.”

  Aaron laughed harder but held up a hand. “All right. I’ll let him do the asking.”

  “I’m calling Gemma. She needs to know that you’ve gone full blown cupid. Maybe she can get you in for an emergency CAT scan.”

  “Oh she threatens that at least once a week,” Aaron retorted, still grinning at me as he tossed a twenty-dollar bill onto the counter and backed away towards the door. “Thanks for the lunches, and this,” he said, holding up his drink.”

  I put the twenty into the till and shook my head at him. “Goodbye, Aaron.”

  He left and I watched him go, still chuckling to himself as he went out to his Jeep. “Good Lord,” I mumbled to myself.

  Small town at its finest.

  Chapter Six

  Carly

  “Wait, wait. The Player was trying to play cupid?” Holly asked in disbelief before dissolving into a fit of giggles. “Oh man, I can’t believe I’m stuck over here and missing all the fun.”

  “Yeah, fun.” I rolled my eyes but smiled at her over the video chat call.

  Holly leaned forward and propped her chin on the back of her hand. Her long blonde waves fell forward and she tucked them back. “I’m still getting over the shock that he’s engaged.”

  I laughed and nodded. “I think everyone is.”

  “To be honest, I figured you and him might hook up at some point.”

  “Oh, hell no.” I shook my head. “He’s hot as sin, I’ll give you that, but he was never an option.”

  “Why not?” Holly asked, cocking her head to the side.

  I sighed. “Because up until he met Gemma, he wasn’t exactly the type of guy you could build something with. I had no interest in trying to tame a wild horse. Not my thing.”

  “Well, is that what you even want though? To settle down?”

  I shrugged. “I suppose eventually.”

  Holly smiled and my heart sank. I knew where her next question was going before she even opened her mouth. I held up my hands and cut her off. “Not with Nick either, if that’s what you were about to ask.”

  She clamped her mouth shut and shot me a dirty look. “Why not?”

  “Because…” I searched the corners of my mind for the right words. The right explanation.

  When I hesitated a beat too long, Holly pounced. “Because? Hmm, that’s very convincing.”

  Brat.

  “I don’t know, Holly. I’m just not ready to go there, ya know. Right now I’m cool with my singleness. Occasional drunken night of fun with an out of towner, and generally being able to do whatever the hell I want without some man breathing down my neck.”

  “Sometimes it’s nice when they breathe down your neck,” Holly retorted with a wink.

  I laughed. “You’re just love sick. That’s all. I don’t blame you, I blame Jack.”

  Holly and I had met the summer before and had become fast friends. Even though she was now thousands of miles away, living with her boyfriend Jack “Boomer” McGuire in Germany while he finished a station at a naval base, we kept in touch and had semi-weekly video chats where we drank wine—well, I drank wine, Holly drank coffee as it was early morning her time—and caught up. She was my only real friend out of a sea of acquaintances and I was dying for her to come back to Holiday Cove again.

  “I get that, Carls. I thought the same thing before I met Jack. I mean, I went three years without dating after my divorce and just when I was even starting to think about dipping my toe back into the pool, bam! I meet Jack and everything clicked into place.” Holly smiled dreamily, her thoughts obviously drifting through her memories of last summer. “I’m not trying to push. My friend Rachel was pushing me at the time and it didn’t do any good. I just want you to be happy and if this Nick guy is interested and you like him too—even just a little—then maybe it’s worth a shot.”

  “I don’t know.” My gaze slid past the computer screen to the interior of the dark coffee shop. I’d closed down a few hours ago, and after spending a couple hours tinkering in the kitchen, had finally called it a day. I’d made myself a large salad and plopped down at one of the outdoor tables with my dinner and laptop to call Holly. “It’s not like I have a ton of free time.”

  “Yeah. I know.” Holly nodded, but kept her lecture about working myself to death to herself. Mostly because I’d just turn the tables on her. She was a workaholic herself and knew she had no ground to stand on. “How are things going with your sister being there?”

  I shrugged. “We’ve had our good moments and our bad ones. The first day she was total diva brat. Locked herself in her room. Wouldn’t eat or come out to talk or anything. But the next day, things got better. I guess her boyfriend broke up with her.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. Although, from what she told me, he was in college, so I can’t say I’m too heart
broken that didn’t work out. She’s in too much of a hurry to grow up anyways.”

  Holly laughed softly. “I understand that bug. That’s what makes people do crazy things like get married when they’re barely finished being a teenager.” She shook her head at herself.

  That was one of the things I liked the most about Holly. She was one of the most authentic people I’d ever met and didn’t try to downplay or hide her mistakes. She owned her past and made the most of those experiences—good and bad—to move forward. I liked to think I’d done the same thing, escaped a bad situation and turned it into something better for my future.

  “I think she’ll be okay. It would be nice if we could bond a little while she’s here. In some ways it feels like I don’t even know who she is.”

  Holly returned her gaze to the screen and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll get closer. Three months is a good amount of time to spend together.”

  I nodded. “As long as I can keep her away from Nick.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I think she has a crush on him. I don’t want her thinking he’s gonna be her rebound guy.”

  “Wait, wait. How old is he?”

  “I don’t know…but he said he did eight years in the Marines, been out for another one. So, what does that mean? He’d have to be close to thirty.”

  Holly did the mental math and nodded, confirming my guess. “Sounds right.”

  “Whatever he is, he’s way too old for her. Which, is another reason why I’m not going to go there. I’m trying to get closer to her. If I swoop in and run off with her summer crush, that’s certainly not going to win me any points.”

  “But, Carly, you can’t let that stop you…”

  “At least while she’s here. Okay?”

  Holly grinned. “Okay.”

  Before she could push me for more details about Nick, her chocolate lab puppy, Hunter—now fully grown and nearing eighty pounds—came crashing into the room, howling. Holly jumped away from the chat to deal with him and Princess, Jack’s yellow lab, as they paraded through the small apartment. I laughed at the chaotic scene and the pressure from the day melted away.

  When she got the pooches wrangled, she came back to the computer, and the thread of conversation was lost. We moved on to talking about Holly’s crazy neighbors and their loud rap music that they blasted at all hours of the night, and wrapped up the call a little after that so I could finish closing the shop and get home to check on Alesha.

  * * * *

  A few days passed and everyone settled into a new routine. Alesha worked with me at the shop—mostly without complaint—for four hours each morning, and left at lunch to go hang out at the beach with some new friends she’d made. They were her age and while I still worried about her getting into trouble, I still had the assurance that if things went crazy, I could threaten her with the green Jell-O ultimatum.

  Nick came into the shop twice a day. Once in the morning for his cup of joe, usually a huge house blend, black. And then again in the afternoon to work his way through every item on the lunch menu. In the mornings, Alesha would practically bowl me over to get to him first and be the one to make his drink. I swear, as soon as he’d walk through the doors, she’d be calculating the line in front of him and work her way to be done with whatever she was doing just as he stepped to the counter.

  It would have been impressive if it wasn’t so damned annoying.

  I tried to tell myself I was annoyed by it because she had no business flirting with him, but slowly I was admitting to myself that there might be a hint of jealousy underneath my sisterly protectiveness that was more to do with my motivation.

  From what I could see, Nick was polite and smiled a lot, but he didn’t cross any lines with Alesha. But his niceness was all she needed to convince herself—and anyone who would listen—that he had a crush on her too.

  Eventually I stopped reminding her that he was too old for her. My warnings only fell on deaf ears.

  Besides, he never stayed for long in the mornings. In the afternoons, he always came in later than most of my regular lunch crowd. Which worked well for two reasons. One, Alesha was almost always gone for the rest of the day. And two, the shop was bustling and humming with guests, but they’d already been served and didn’t need much attention.

  Regardless of what I’d told Aaron, Holly—and dammit to hell—even myself, I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t like this man—or the attention.

  We’d reached the first weekend since Alesha and Nick had arrived in town, and I wasn’t sure what to expect as I let myself in the back door and flicked on the lights. It was still dark and chilly outside, so I’d dressed in warm, cozy layers, knowing that as I got busy working, I’d want to strip them off. I very rarely ran the heat in the building. Mostly because my industrial sized oven more than took care of the job.

  Alesha was still sleeping when I’d checked in on her before leaving. She’d been out late the night before with her new friends—doing God only knows what—and while I fully planned on asking her about it, I was relieved to have the shop to myself that morning. When Alesha worked with me, she had the tendency to run her mouth the entire time. Rarely did she have any topics that interested me. Most of what she talked about was clothing, her friends back home, and her new obsession with gel eyeliner.

  The silence of the coffee shop this morning was more than welcome.

  I quickly slipped into my normal—before Alesha—routine, and went about firing up the oven, prepping a few trays of premade scones and muffins to pop in the oven once it reached the correct temperature, and then turned my attention to stocking the case and making wraps, sandwiches, and salads while everything baked. Closer to opening, I went out front and started the massive coffee pot to made the house blend and the carafe of decaf. Turned the espresso machine on to get it warmed up and humming. And lastly, went to check that the bathrooms were stocked and cleaned.

  While a lot of people would complain about working on the weekends, I actually preferred the weekend shifts. The shop opened an hour later than during the week which left me with more time to get ready and I could take things a little slower and more relaxed. The energy of the guests was different as well. Everyone was more relaxed and at ease, soaking up their laid back weekend, and most people were more patient and easygoing since they weren’t in their normal rush off to work.

  A tap on the back door pulled me from the beat of music I’d been lost in, and I went to open it, brushing my hands off on my apron as I went. Alesha was standing on the back steps, shivering like a purse-dwelling Chihuahua, in nothing but a pair of denim cut off shorts that were so short the liners of the pockets hung down an inch below the hem and she’d paired them with a crop top halter tank that displayed at least three inches of her stomach.

  I crossed my arms and stared at her. “I’m not a prude, Leash, but what the hell are you wearing?”

  She rolled her eyes and pushed past me. She went to stand near the oven, warming herself as though it were a fireplace. “I just came by to tell you that I’m not going to be able to work today.”

  “Oh really?” I closed the door and went back to the work bench.

  “My friends are going paddle boarding in Stallion Bay.”

  Stallion Bay was a very hoity-toity resort town a few hours up the coast. “Is this gonna be like last time when you quote, unquote went surfing and ended up stoned out of your mind on the Santa Monica boardwalk?” I asked, my tone pointed as I turned to look at her.

  She scoffed and threw her hands in the air. “That was a year ago, Carly. You have to let it go sometime! I’m just going out to have some fun. Hanging around here with you all day is getting old!”

  Her words stung, but I masked the lash of pain and stared at her. “I know it wasn’t your choice to come out here for the summer. I get that you’re pissed about it and working through some stuff right now. But, Dad left you under my care, and I’m not going to let you run all over and do whatever the hell you want. Even if
that would make me your cool big sis. I care too much about you to not worry and ask questions. So deal with it.”

  Alesha sighed. “I just don’t get why you don’t trust me…”

  “Alesha,” I said softly. I didn’t want to unpack all her transgression. We’d been there, done that. It would only make her angry. “I want to. Okay?”

  “Then let me go with my friends.”

  I considered her for a long moment, mentally weighing my options. If I refused to let her go, I’d have to send her back to my house, since she’d just sulk around the coffee shop and bring down the good weekend vibes. And if she was at the house, I couldn’t keep an eye on her, anyway.

  “All right. Let’s start with a clean slate then. You can go with your friends, but you have to promise me that you’ll keep your cell phone on you. And be back by ten. And if anyone starts drinking or smoking pot, you are to call me right away and I’ll come and get you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Okay, mom.”

  I ignored her barb and picked up a still-warm muffin and handed it to her. “Here, take something for breakfast.”

  She waved off the offered muffin in my hand. “No. I already feel fat…”

  “Fat?” Both of my brows shot sky high and I gave her another once over. She was probably a buck ten soaking wet. How could she possibly think she was overweight?

  She pressed her hands to her flat stomach. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just bloated. Too many carbs around here.”

  I rolled my eyes and broke off a piece of the muffin and popped it into my mouth. The buttery cinnamon flavor burst on my tongue and I held back a moan of delight. “Have a good time,” I said around the last of the bite. “I’ll just be here in carb heaven.”

  She rolled her eyes and stalked from the room, back out into the crisp morning as the sun started to rise.

  “Oh, Leash, please don’t make me regret letting you go…” I muttered into the empty kitchen.