“All right,” Charlie says. “I’ve got things to do.”
He slips out the door, leaving me alone with Beau.
“Go forth and plan,” I tell him. “You’re free.” Then I look back town at the stack of paperwork.
I feel him lingering.
“Beau?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Listen.” His expression is sincere. “Go talk to her. Let her out of the doghouse. You’re miserable, and it’s bringing everyone down.”
I look past him to the bullpen. “Everyone seems fine.”
“They’re—” He turns his head to look. “Maybe they’re fine, but the rest of us are worried about you. Even Huck.”
“Why did you tell Huck about this?” I groan.
“I didn’t. BuzzFeed did.” Not a single one of them told me that the picture made national news. I gape at him. “But that’s in the past now, Roman.” Beau draws himself upright. “The future can’t be as depressing as you’re making it out to be.”
“She’s gone. There’s nothing to do about...any of that now.”
Beau scoffs. “She’s not gone. She’s working at Little Soap Kitchen downtown.”
I look at my brother.
He’s serious.
“She stayed in town?”
“I don’t know why, but she stayed. She must be pretty into you.” He raises both hands in the air. “People tell me things, okay? I only relay them to people who need the information. And you need the information. Go talk to her.”
I wait until he’s gone, out of the bullpen, and hopefully out of the lobby.
Then I get up and go.
25
Jenny
I can feel Marjorie glaring at me.
I’ve been at Little Soap Kitchen for ten days, and I can already sense my time running out. Where’s my carefree attitude toward doing the right thing when I need it?
Not here.
“Look.” I cast a glance around for Marjorie and lo, there she is, standing behind the counter and shooting silent daggers at me with her eyes. I drag my focus back to the customer in front of me. “It would be better for my job if I sold you the soap and sent you on your merry way, but—” The poor woman standing in front of me does not need to know the whole story. “I’m trying a thing that can best be described as radical honesty. Not…total honesty.” I’ve already gone on too long, and I know it. “Some white lies make the world go ‘round.” She frowns at me, this petite woman with artfully gray hair and blue eyes that remind me of Roman’s.
“I just want to know if the soap is any good.”
I angle my body toward the front window, trying to keep my words from reaching Marjorie. “It’s not. It’s really not. I’ve tried it, and it leaves a film?” I rub my fingers together to drive the point home. “Plus, if you’re sensitive at all to fragrances, this one will be too strong.”
She drops the bar back onto the display. “Is there anything you can recommend?”
“The pure line.” I face the back of the store, pointing toward the finest corner. The door opens behind me, the brass bell chiming happily against the glass, but I don’t dare look. “It has no fragrances, no films, all-natural ingredients…”
“Isn’t everything in here all-natural?”
“Yes. Most of it. The only thing about the pure line is that it’s…limited. There’s only hand soap in a dispenser.”
“All right.” This customer, like most of the other customers who have asked me a question beyond how are you, goes hesitantly toward the back of the store. She does not look enthusiastic. Chalk that up to another sale lost.
I do my best to put on an encouraging smile for Marjorie, but her frown only deepens.
Yeah. This job isn’t going to last the shift.
But in an attempt to make another ten dollars, I slap a grin on my face and turn to face the next customer.
I feel the smile drop right to the floor.
I never expected to see him in here. To see me like this.
The days where I wore cute skirt suits are two weeks gone. I put all of that stuff away—all the high heels, all the eyeliner, everything. Those things belonged to a different woman. A woman who was playing a role that wasn’t rightfully hers. I’m done doing that.
Roman doesn’t appear to notice any of that. He’s looking at me with the same intensity he did on all of those precious days we spent together. I take him in with a sweep of my eyes and a wrench of my heart. He’s so sexy that he makes my mouth water. I keep my hands studiously away from my chest and my pounding heart.
“Excuse me,” he says, lifting the same bar of soap from the front display. “Do you work here?”
I motion lamely to my apron. “Yes. How—how can I help you?” The heat in my face is a dead giveaway, and I want to cover my cheeks with my hands. I don’t do it. I’m done hiding the real me from the world. I won’t hide it from Roman, as much as I’d like to.
“I wanted to know what you think of this soap.”
He steps closer, holding it out under some pretense of me reading the label, but I can’t look away from his eyes. They’re so blue. I could dive right into them and never come out.
“This soap,” he prompts. “I’d like to know whether it would be wise to purchase it.”
The essence of Marjorie wends its way to the front of the store, but I don’t care. I ignore her disapproval completely. I have to ignore it to survive, because my throat has gone tight and my eyes are damp with tears. “I hate it.” I mean to keep my voice even, but I fail. “It’s a good purchase if you like heavily scented soaps, but I didn’t—” Roman takes another step closer. “I didn’t like the film it left on my skin. There are others—” I can’t help breathing him in. I simply can’t help it. He smells so good, so fresh, so manly. My fingers ache to dig into his skin. My body aches to be his again.
He’s six inches away. Half a step, if that. It hurts not to touch him.
“There are others in the store you might like better.” I force the words out in a rush. “But don’t buy this one. Whatever you do.” I swallow hard. “That’s the whole truth.”
“The whole truth?” He tosses the bar of soap to a nearby table and reaches up to cup my chin. “Well, Jenny, here’s my whole truth. Every day that you’ve been gone has been a terrible day.” A sob escapes my lips. “Every day that you’ve been gone, I’ve cared less about a stupid photo and more about throwing a way a chance at the love of my life.”
“The love of your life?” My lips are shaking, unsteady. “Don’t bullshit me, Roman.” I briefly leave my body at how romantic this is, then slam back in when he brushes his fingertips over my arm. “I’d deserve it if you took revenge, but I don’t think my heart could take it.”
“You want the whole truth?”
His face, this close to mine, is everything. I don’t care that we’re in Little Soap Kitchen and that Marjorie will probably fly off the handle. I don’t care about anything at all, except his hand on my skin, his eyes on mine. “Yes. The whole thing.”
“I love you. And I don’t care if it’s stupid. And I don’t care if you spent the last decade researching who you wanted to become. You were always that person on the inside. The outside is just window dressing. It’s fucking gorgeous window dressing, but it’s you I want. No matter what.” I gasp in a breath. “I love you, in case you didn’t hear me the first time.”
“Do you want the whole truth?”
He laughs, and if I could, I’d bottle up that sound and sell for an insane price. It’s pure joy. “I think I’ve made that clear.”
“I’ve loved you since I was a freshman in high school,” I admit, and the last wall around my heart crumbles into dust. “You’re my dream come true. I tried to convince myself that you were the enemy, but it was me. My hesitation was the enemy.”
“You still love me now?” He searches my eyes. I know he sees nothing but truth.
“I love you.”
He closes the gap between us and then his mouth is on mine, drinking me in, and I’m crying and laughing at the same time. “I’m so sorry about…about the dick pic, Roman,” I cry into his mouth.
That’s the last straw for Marjorie. She comes thundering up from the back, throwing words like missiles, but all of them bounce right off me. Roman is kissing me too hard for me to care all.
“—over! Give it over,” she says from close by.
“I’m so sorry, ma’am.” Roman releases me, then reaches carefully around and unties my apron. It’s such an intimate motion that it takes my breath away. He lifts it from my neck and hands it reverently to Marjorie. She scowls at him, but there’s no disguising the pink in her cheeks. He’s that hot.
“Out. Out.”
“We’d love to have you at the Bliss Resort,” says Roman smoothly. He takes a folded paper from his pocket. “A discount coupon for our hotel restaurant.”
She snatches it from his hand and stomps toward the back, still muttering under her breath. The customer caught in the crossfire cowers in the back of the store.
Roman takes my hand, and I look back up at him. “I’m really sorry, Roman. For all of it.”
“You know what?” He sticks his other hand in his pocket. “I think we’ll have plenty of time to talk about that, as long as you come home.”
He’s going to make me cry again. “Home with you?”
“Home with me.”
He wraps his arm around me and steers me toward the door, pushing it open so we can step out into the summer sun. “Anywhere you are is home,” I tell him, and it’s true. “But can we please go back to Bliss?”
He smiles down at me, then lifts my chin. “Yes,” he says. And then he says it again, with a kiss. And again, and again, and again.
26
Roman
The microphone squeals with feedback when I lift it toward my mouth, which makes everyone at Beau’s beach party flinch. He runs up from the center of the crowd, mouths sorry! and adjusts something on a speaker at the front of the stage. Then he gives me two thumbs up.
“Sorry about that, everybody. My name is Roman Bliss, and if you don’t know me already, I’m the oldest of the Bliss brothers. You’ve probably seen a picture or two of me online.” That earns a laugh from the crowd. “I wanted to take a minute and welcome you to the best summer in Bliss history, and no, it’s not because of the photos.” Another laugh. It could get addictive, being in front of a crowd like this, but I dismiss the idea as soon as I have it. Entertaining is what Beau does. I’m not about to step on his toes. “Let’s give a round of applause to all my brothers. We run this place together. It takes all of us.” Driver’s back in town again, and I catch him nodding from his post by the bar. He forgave me for missing the meeting with Greyhound, but not until I got him another meeting and bought him an entire apology dinner at Bellissimo. “And a special round of applause goes to my brother Beau, who heads up all these fantastic events.” The crowd is more raucous for Beau, and he waves down the cheer benevolently. I’m still watching him when the applause dies down, and I can’t help noticing that when nobody’s looking, the smile slips off his face. Is something going on? I missed things, back when everything with Jenny was new and turbulent, but maybe I missed more than I thought. He looks back up from the ground and raises his eyebrows. Get going, the look says. I get going.
“One last thing. In all the excitement of the last few weeks, a new detail about my life has gone…unannounced. Come on up here, Jenny.”
Jenny’s shoes are sharp on the stairs as she climbs up next to me, wrapping an arm around my waist. Her smile is so big and bright. I never want to forget this moment. She tugs my wrist to bring the mic down to her level. “I killed a spider today,” she says, and god bless that crowd. They cheer without hesitation. It also probably helps that we’re two hours into the event and there’s an open bar.
I take the mic back as Jenny laughs, delighted. “She did, folks. I was there to see it.” Charlie rolls his eyes. He’s standing right at the front of the stage, so it’s impossible to miss it.
“Turn the music back on, Roman!” Huck calls from somewhere in the middle of the crowd.
“Ladies and gentleman, let’s welcome Jenny London as Bliss Resort’s permanent PR director and social media genius!” I rattle the words off into the mic, and the crowd gives us another, louder cheer. They are excited to get back to the party. “And my girlfriend. It’s not nepotism,” I say into the mic as the music blares from the speakers.
“I don’t think they heard you,” Jenny shouts into my ear.
“I heard you,” says a voice from the front of the stage. Unlike the rest of the people at Beau’s event, this woman looks…perturbed. I glance at Jenny to see if she knows who it is, but when I look back down for her, she’s gone.
Jenny pulls me to the side of the stage and wraps her arms around my waist. “Are you ready to dance?” She’s lit from the inside out with happiness, and I can’t wait to make that happen for her every single day. She doesn’t know it yet, but I have plans for an enormous celebration of our own. Not this summer—the Bliss Brothers rarely take up guest space for personal events during peak season—but a winter wedding at Bliss could be, as Beau would say, off the chain.
Speaking of Beau…
“Not yet. I have to talk to Beau.”
“Okay,” she says, rising on tiptoe to kiss me. The kiss deepens and heats, and Jenny’s about to jump into my arms and wrap her legs around my waist when someone taps her on the shoulder.
“Wow,” says the woman. She’s a blonde, shorter version of Jenny. “You guys should get a room.” She cracks up at her own joke.
“Celestia,” says Jenny with an affectionate shake of her head. “You want to dance?”
“Hell yeah,” her sister says, hooking her arm through hers and dragging her toward the crowd. Everything in my soul wants to follow her.
That’s okay. I’ve got a lifetime to do that. I’m sure of it.
Epilogue
Beau
They’re all having so much fun.
I look out over the crowd, scanning for any sign that someone’s not enjoying themselves. My brothers think I spend all my time drinking and dancing, but in reality I spend the bulk of every event trying to create joy. Trying to create…a kind of magic, I guess.
They don’t know that it’s a magic I don’t feel.
The lights swirl in their holders on the stage, illuminating the crowd, and as hard as I look, I can’t find a single person who’s not having a great time. There’s Roman’s girl, Jenny. They’ll make you believe in love even if nothing else does. I will never forget having to break that news to Roman. It was a job I did not relish.
Secretly, I don’t relish this job, either. But how am I supposed to tell them that?
After all, when it comes to the Bliss Resort, I am the entertainment.
And that’s all I am.
“Hey, Beau.”
The voice at my elbow is level, and I can tell from that one word that he’s not drunk. Not even buzzed.
“Roman.” I lift my cocktail in a salute. “Excellent speech, man.”
“It was good, wasn’t it?” My oldest brother looks pleased with himself for a moment. He looks out at the dance floor and it shifts to something hot and deep when he catches sight of Jenny. Then he turns back to me, and his expression settles into something more serious. “I’m not here to talk about that.”
I take another sip of my drink. I had the bartender make it a virgin cocktail. Don’t tell anyone—it would ruin my image. “What are you here to talk about?”
“You.”
“What about me? Are you unhappy with the event?”
“The event is great.” Roman’s looking at me too seriously. “But what about you?”
“What about me?” This kind of questioning makes me want to disappear into an even louder and more packed club to get away from it.
“You seem…sad.�
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“Sad?” I laugh out loud. “I’m not sad. How could I be sad? We’re at my party?”
“There is that ancient saying, it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.”
It makes me wildly uncomfortable, how close he’s come to the truth. “Roman, if I wanted to cry at a party, I would do it.” I drag the last two words out so long they echo into a cheer from the crowd. “I promise.” I nudge him with my elbow. “No need to worry about me, old man. Focus on not throwing your back out on the dance floor.”
He rolls his eyes. “See? This is what I get for caring.” He pats me on the back. “You threw a good party. You should be proud.”
“I’m very proud.” Roman gives me a little bow, then turns back toward the crowd. He’ll have his hands on Jenny inside a minute, and inside five they’ll be sneaking off to a private room. A bloom of jealousy fills my chest.
“Hi!” Buzzed girl incoming. She’s tall and blonde and shrill. “Beau! It’s Beau, isn’t it? My friends and I want to dance with you!”
I should feel good about this. I should feel great about this. But instead, I feel nothing.
I put my drink on the bar and wrap an arm around her shoulders. “Lead the way, gorgeous.” It’s an act. It’s an act, and I’ll never be able to stop playing this part for as long as I live. “I’m your entertainment for the night.”
* * *
Thank you so much for coming along with me on this all-new adventure in 2019! In case you weren’t counting, Roman Bliss has five other brothers with their own unique stories. Boy, does he ever.
If you’re dying to read Beau’s love story, don’t wait to preorder STUCK ON YOU, releasing March 21!
It has everything.
Crush On You Page 13