I couldn’t blame them. I would have probably lined up too. I looked at him wearing his white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his tie loose.
The black pants he wore added to the effect and a lock of hair hung over his sexy eyes.
“Thank you… thank you so much.” Thank God I could still talk.
“Don’t mention it.” A tentative expression washed over his face. “Do you mind if I talk to you for a second?”
He could talk to me forever if he wanted to.
“Of course not.”
“Cool.”
He placed a hand to the small of my back to usher me over to the side so we could talk in private. The touch was electric, sending sparks up and down my lonely body.
I swallowed hard and tamped down the swirl of emotion that zinged through me with a cool smile.
“Thanks so much for doing all this for me. You shouldn’t have had to. I can’t begin to imagine what the place must have been like earlier for you to have to step in and help like this. I’m really sorry.”
Nice as it all was. It made me look bad. And unprofessional
I couldn’t even remember what happened last night. I knew I worked myself into a coma. Didn’t even have time to think about Billy, like I did the night before.
“No need to apologize. I know what the place is normally like remember?”
“I swear you can have a lifetime supply of cinnamon bagels and cookies.” I offered knowing he’d like that.
“I may hold you to that.” He held my gaze and really looked at me. “But, what I really want to do is convince you to take the rest of the week off. To rest.”
I actually laughed. Then caught myself because there was nothing funny to laugh at.
“I wish.”
“Good, then your wish is my command. Take the rest of the week off. Stella said she can work for half the day and there’s two more like my waitress friends who’d be eager to help. They’re fully trained and come from an agency a friend of mine uses in town. I can check up on the place and let you know if all’s well.”
I blinked again, unable to accept that what he was saying was real. That he was real, and making such an offer.
Except Stella, no one helped me.
“Um…”
“I promise I won’t let the place burn down.”
“You can’t do all of that for me.” It was too much to ask of anyone.
“Not even if I insist?” A smile inched across his perfect lips. Lips I was sure would feel great kissing mine.
“Why would you insist?”
“Because it helps you.” He opened his palms and shrugged, looking at me like the answer was obvious.
“I have to pay you.” With what money? God I was so screwed.
“Yes, you can pay with a batch of chocolate chip and cinnamon cookies.” He nodded and did the sexiest thing by licking his lips.
Definitely not intended to turn me on, but he did. My nipples hardened and the butterflies that usually flittered in my stomach when I saw him flew a little further south than I wanted.
“Cookies.” The words fell from my lips in a mindless fashion.
“Yes, please.”
“You can’t do all this for cookies.” I smirked. It was ridiculous.
“I already have. Now go, line’s building up.”
I looked over at Stella. The line extended out the door and was starting to curve. She’d also started serving as well as taking payments.
“I don’t know how to thank you.” Tears stung the backs of my eyes. It was the kindest thing anyone had offered in a long time.
“Cookies remember.”
“Cookies.”
Getting some time away from work would give me the chance to brainstorm ideas and rest. The day before yesterday I had applied for a loan for eighty thousand dollars. Another secured loan that would consolidate Billy’s loans. Then I’d just have to find money to pay the business loan and everything else.
“I do need your digits, though.” He took out his phone.
“My number?” Oh my God, he was asking for my number.
Stella didn’t miss a beat. Her head snapped toward us when she caught sight of his phone.
I saw her overly intrigued reaction out the corner of my eye.
“Your number.” He confirmed, but the slow and purposeful manner in which he said it set off that nest of butterflies again.
I gave it to him, all the while trying not to show how nervous I was, or seriously acknowledge that Mr Delicious now had my number.
“Thanks again.” I felt like I should hug him, but could I do that?
The man had just given me the chance to rest. Time off.
A time out.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had a day off.
Screw it. I threw my arms around him and it felt like coming home.
“Thank you so much.” I whispered against the hard walls of his chest.
He held me closer, offering me more. A comfort I’d actually never experienced.
He lowered so he was close to my ear. “You’ll be okay Wren. Just give it time.”
Being so close I didn’t need to reach up to his height to plant the kiss I gave him on his cheek.
Then I left before the tears came.
Chapter 6
Adam
* * *
Got her number, a hug, and a kiss all in the same day.
That was a lifetimes payment. Definitely a lifetime’s payment.
A great fantasy if nothing else. I could still feel her in my arms even though that hug happened hours ago.
I stayed for the day and worked my ass off. It was fun though.
I set things up too so there was enough staff. Of course, they were paid staff from my restaurant in town and not people looking for work experience like I’d told Wren.
I hated to lie but I got the feeling she was the kind of woman who didn’t accept help too often, and from the way she responded when I offered it I felt too, she was rarely offered help.
I finished the day with a one on one game of basketball with Chad.
Chad and I met in college. He played pro ball. We met on Thursday’s to catch up and shoot some hoops.
Of course, there was no way I could beat a pro baller.
I was good with my height and speed but had too much muscle.
That was my take on it anyway.
He was well versed on my Wren obsession and pleased with the update from today.
“I’m done man.” Chad leapt into the air and dunked the ball. “Fuck, you give me a run for my money every time. Why didn’t you play pro again?”
I laughed. “Thanks for the compliment bro.”
“It’s true. I’m actually out of breath.” He was breathing hard.
We walked over to the bleachers and grabbed our towels. I was sweating like a pig. It was running off my body and I was pretty certain there was steam coming off my back.
He sat down on the bench trying to catch his breath. “Time to talk again anyway.”
“Nothing more to say.” I held my palms up.
He ran his fingers through his spiky blonde hair and laughed.
“There’s always more. What do you have up your sleeve oh friend of mine?” He chuckled, then downed the rest of the water in his bottle.
“Seriously, I got nothing.”
“You?” He looked at me in disbelief. “It’s a woman and you seriously have nothing?”
“Been awhile.” I confessed.
“In terms of what?” Again, the look of disbelief and a smirk.
His next question was going to be when I last had sex.
“Eight months ago.” I answered his silent question.
“Liar.”
“Nope and that’s not what I meant, by awhile. I meant It’s been awhile since I felt like this, and it’s weird that I feel this.” I made a swirling motion around my heart. “It’s weird because I don’t even know her.”
She didn’t even know my
name.
Chad looked me over with interest. “Did I ever tell you how my grandparents met?”
“Oh God Chad, is this going to be one of those stories that somehow involves animals. Someone trying to catch a pig then they both caught the pig and fell in love.”
He started to laugh but I wasn’t far from wrong. His family came from Oklahoma, had a farm that ran in the family, too, for generations.
“No. No animals.” He dabbed his sweat drenched hair with his towel and started munching on a protein bar. “My grandpa first saw my grandma when she was six years old. Her parents took her to the spring fair that year and every year after. My great-grandpa ran the fair. Anyway. All he did was look at her and watch her from a far year after year for a good eight years. He’d look at her, and she’d look at him. That’s all. Neither had the courage to actually meet each other. Then she stopped coming.”
He waved his hands for dramatic effect.
“Chad is that the story?” Better not be because it sounded like there was more. Like he had a point.
“Yes. The end.”
“That’s a terrible story.” I frowned. “Worse than the animal ones. How’d she become your grandma then?”
He laughed. “Now that’s the part of mystery. And I was joking, of course the story didn’t end there. Would have been lame otherwise. Okay, so she stopped coming and he didn’t see her for five years. At twenty years old, he literally ran into her in England. The other side of the world. He was studying law at Oxford and she was on a tour with the Russian ballet.”
“No way.” He’d just saved the story. I shuffled then straightened up eager to hear what happened next.
“Yes. He bumped into her at the supermarket and they both recognized each other straightaway. That was the first time they spoke, and they set a date for a date. He took her to dinner after one of her performances and saw her every day for the week she was there. Then she went to Russia and he followed her deciding she was his. He’d travel between England and Russia on a weekly basis to see her and she visited him every chance she got. They got engaged months later and literally lived happily ever after. You should see them now.”
My God, my skin tingled and something about the story gripped my heart. “Why have you never told me that before?”
“I don’t know, thought I did. I guess it’s really sentimental and you aren’t exactly a sentiment guy.”
I gasped. “Neither are you.” I hit him with my towel.
“Adam come on. At one stage you changed women like you changed clothes.”
“I’m not like that anymore.”
“Fair dues. I’ll give you that. You’ve changed a lot.”
I had. “It was different after Ava.” That was a name I’d avoided mentioning for the last five or so years. But, before her I was probably the typical billionaire bad boy who enjoyed having his pick of the bunch of women.
“Ava… can’t really say I missed that bitch. She was a nasty piece of work.”
“But I loved her.” I pointed out.
“Good you can say loved. As in past tense.”
“Yeah.”
It was past tense. Took me awhile to get over her. As is expected with an ex-wife you actually loved.
Sometimes I couldn’t believe I’d gotten married. It felt like it was in another lifetime or like I was watching a version of myself from an alternate dimension.
It was nothing like I expected it to be.
Ava and I had been seeing each other for close to a year when she got pregnant. I thought marrying her was the right thing to do. I loved her, so I thought why not?
I thought we were happily in love and awaited the birth of our child. Then I found out she’d lost the baby but never told me. We’d lost our child two months into the pregnancy, but she continued to act like she was pregnant. Too scared I’d want a divorce.
When I found out about the lie it crushed me that she thought she had to do that to me, but I forgave her. I loved her enough to forgive her.
We stayed together for another year and one day I came home and found her fucking her tennis instructor.
So… I knew a thing or two about liars and cheats. I was a thirty-five year old man who’d gotten married at twenty-eight, and divorced before I turned thirty.
The reason, dishonesty.
“Don’t get stuck thinking about her man. There’s a new woman you’re hooked on. I say if you want Wren, take her.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Right. I think I have to give her time to get over the ex-first.”
Although, from what I could tell seemed like she was over him already.
It was just her debt.
Yesterday I’d gotten my lawyers to draw up a contract to hand over the title for the coffeehouse to her. It would take a few days or so before they finished. I also arranged to refund the money she’d already paid, deposit and all.
What I was checking out was the other debt.
Yup, I’d gone mad trying to think up ways to make this woman happy, but hey it felt good and money was no object for me.
“He’s an ex. Sucks to be him. Does it look like she’ll take him back?”
“No. She doesn’t seem the type to be fooled like that.”
“Then take my advice. If you want the woman take her.”
Oh, I wanted to, and I would. It was just a matter of how.
While I thought that up, I wanted to be respectful and not move in on her while she wasn’t ready.
If there was one thing today had taught me, it was that there absolutely was a hundred percent something special about Wren; because my heart had been closed for business for years.
* * *
Wren
* * *
My heart caught in my chest when I looked at my phone and saw a text from Mr. Delicious.
I’d previously been talking to my mom telling her what happened. As expected she gave me the I told you so lecture I knew she’d wanted to serve me for years.
Seeing this text was a most welcomed treat.
It simply said hi.
I was about to type back when the little blue dots started jumping around on the screen of my phone.
Mr Delicious: Don’t you want to know if the coffee house is still standing?
I had saved his contact name as Mr Delicious. It was only when I keyed it in that it dawned on me that that wasn’t even his name.
Wren: Is it still standing?
My breathing stilled when the dots started jumping again.
Mr Delicious: Yup. Please tell me you’re resting.
Wren: I’m resting and watching Fashion Police.
It had been awhile since I felt like this, and the rest helped. It was Sunday night and I could feel my brain working again. No longer was there a fog of darkness even though I was no closer to sorting out my debt situation. I was still waiting to hear about that loan and kind of had my fingers crossed I’d get it and everything would just work out. The quote I was given showed I’d have to pay a higher rate of interest because I already had so much debt, but it was something I’d do if I got the chance.
Stella came by last night and advised me against taking it, pointing out it would take me fifteen years to pay it all off. Nearly the same length of time as a mortgage.
I looked at the phone again and sat up on the sofa when the dots jumped again. This time my heart warmed at the thought that Mr. Delicious was thinking about me. A man like that.
Mr Delicious: Me too.
I texted back immediately.
Wren: You like Fashion Police?
Mr. Delicious: No. I’m lying I don’t know what that is. There’s an actual fashion police? I better make sure my socks match.
I started to laugh. Actually laughed from deep within. From the place that used to be me. The old Wren.
Wren: They’re not that strict. Your socks are fine.
Dots jumped and so did my heart.
Mr Delicious: Glad I pass. Enjoy your show and get some sleep.
&n
bsp; Wren: I will.
Mr Delicious: Let me know if you need tomorrow off. Also, I ate all the chocolate chips, had to order more.
I laughed again. This guy was funny and gorgeous. It had to be a dream I was talking to him.
Wren: I will be in tomorrow, and don’t worry about the chocolate chips. Thank you so much for everything.
Mr Delicious: Anytime. Sweet Dreams…
Wren: And you.
No more dots. I calmed a little, but I couldn’t wait for tomorrow. To see him.
I’d get his name the minute I saw him. It was crazy I didn’t know it. I couldn’t call him Mr Delicious forever.
My phone rang and vibrated in my hands. It was Billy.
Great. Just when I was relishing in my fantasy.
I rejected the call then unlocked the phone so I could go to his number and block him.
Should have done that days ago too, but this was the first time he’d called.
A voice message came through, but I deleted it. There was nothing that man had to say that I wanted to hear.
Except for sending me a check for what he owed.
The next time I spoke to him was going to be in the presence of the attorney I would get as soon as I was able to afford one.
I planned to sue Billy’s ass for all the shit he put me through. His fraud and whatever else I could sue for. Stress and inconvenience.
Couldn’t do it now as much as I would have loved to, but it was in the plans.
No way was he getting away with what he did to me. No way.
He’d pay one way or another.
Until then I just had to survive.
Chapter 7
Wren
* * *
I went to work the next day feeling more positive.
While I saw Mr. Delicious early in the morning at the usual time I never got to speak to him properly. No more than hello. The place was super busy.
I was rushed off my feet all day, even with the work experience guys who were heaps better than my actual staff. There was only my chefs and Selene today from my team. Jami and Priscilla were missing as usual.
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