by Quinn, Taryn
I caught Gideon’s gaze, but he was obviously somewhere else. His furrowed brow was back, and he was on his phone again. I was pissed enough to make the executive decision that he deserved to have to deal with his daughter and double chocolate cookies at eleven at night.
“Sure can. Two for you too.”
“Excellent.”
The paramedics were quick to pack Ivy up onto the stretcher and start for the door.
Dani raced back in with a little white bag. “Here you go.”
Ivy took the bag with a little wave.
Kinleigh was hot on their heels and August stood behind the wreckage of my former couch. I could tell he was torn between racing after them and helping us.
I nudged Rylee. “Come on, Mocha. It’s time to get our muscle on.” I crossed to the couch and pushed August aside. “Go. You should be with family.”
“But I can help first.”
“Go. We’re not helpless. I can make Gideon help if need be.”
Even if he was busy texting like a madman. Dani was happily stuffing chunky chocolate chip cookies into her face.
I gathered all the towels and threw them on the couch, then got out the trash bags I kept tucked behind the cans in the garbage stations.
“Why do we always get cleanup duty?” Rylee muttered.
I handed her a bag. “That’s a very good question.”
Gideon finally seemed to notice we were cleaning up and came over to help. Between the three of us, we managed to get the couch out back. I was pretty sure my customers didn’t need to see the crime scene the next morning.
Gideon was quiet and I didn’t know what the hell to say, so I opted for nothing.
“I’m going to go give all the things a quick mop.” Rylee looked between us and gave me a yikes look. “I’ll check on Dani.”
“Thanks.” Gideon raked his hands through his hair.
“I’m assuming that phone deal wasn’t awesome?”
“Not really.”
Since he didn’t elaborate, I sure as hell wasn’t going to beg for information. “Right.” I stalked to the back door of Brewed Awakening.
Gideon caught my arm. “Macy, wait.”
“It’s not my business.”
“Of course it is.”
“No, it really isn’t. Just because we got naked doesn’t mean I’m privy to all the details of your life.”
“What if I want to tell you?”
“Then tell me.” I put my hands on my hips.
“Jessica is coming back to town.”
“When?”
“I don’t know, she left a vague message and won’t reply to my texts. Typical shit she always pulls when I don’t jump and do whatever she wants when she wants me to.”
I fisted my hands in my jeans pockets. “She must have been a spectacular bang for you to put up with that.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m definitely not wading into those crocodile-infested waters.”
“Look, it’s fine. We’re fine. We got that itch scratched.”
He took two long strides and caught me before I could back up again. He curled his arm through my stiffened arms to drag me into him. “That itch isn’t going to be scratched from one fuck. I didn’t get to take my time with you.”
I flattened my hands against his broad chest. My heart slammed against my ribs and I had the strongest urge to run and to drag him up to my apartment at the same time.
He lowered his mouth to mine. The kiss was scorching and thorough. By the time he was done with me, he was lightly tugging on my lower lip with his teeth. Kind of the same way I’d done to start the night.
“Just because I have a crappy ex to deal with doesn’t mean I want what’s happening between us to stop.” He rested his forehead against mine. “I don’t want to lose this.”
I slid my hand up to tease the long ends of his hair he tried to tame. “Someone to scratch an itch with?”
“You know it’s more than a fucking itch. And can we stop saying itch? I want to touch you because I like it. If I just wanted to get my wick wet, I could do that easy enough.”
I stiffened. “Asshole.”
He lowered his hand to cup my ass, dragging me against him to show me just how hard he was. “I’m not that guy. No matter how much you want to slot me in there as a quick fuck and chuck, it isn’t going to happen.”
I rose onto my toes. My brain kept telling me to back it up, but my body leaned in. My instincts really wanted to embrace everything he was saying. “We aren’t supposed to get complicated.”
“Too late, Mace.” He kissed me again, then turned me toward the back door. “Now let’s get this place cleaned up.”
By the time we got the café back to rights, I was so exhausted I didn’t have to fight insomnia for once in my damn life.
Wasn’t that a bitch?
Thirteen
It had been a week since Ivy gave birth. I’d managed to get some time in with Macy once, but that had been more of a chilly makeout session. Literally chilly—in her freezer when I’d gone on the hunt for coffee.
That thing with cold and dicks shriveling wasn’t really a thing when you had a gorgeous Amazon crawling all over you. Jesus, she was going to kill me.
However, all the lingering good parts of the week were now absolute shit. Jessica was coming back to town on her way to New York City. She wanted time with me, and time with our daughter.
So much for believing the relative silence from her since she’d gone back home—after a quick visit with Dani, where she’d clucked over her sprained ankle and asked who had been watching her when she’d gotten hurt—indicated maybe she’d changed her mind.
Not so much.
It was important, she’d said. Would we be able to spend an evening with her later in the month?
Which meant she hadn’t changed her mind after talking to her lawyer and her handlers and the legions of other people who seemingly helped her to run her life.
I hated what she was doing. Hated that she was building in false hope that maybe she would back off. That she was confusing Dani. And I didn’t want that woman fucking with my head again. I’d made peace with the fact that she was the mother of my child and would never truly be cut out of my life.
But she was persisting with this bullshit reason to take my daughter from me. Even if she was asking for more visitation—even if she was entitled to it as her mother—I couldn’t shake the pervasive feeling that this meant I’d failed. Despite busting my ass to take care of Dani and to keep her life stable, if the judge awarded Jessica more visitation, that would mean that I hadn’t done my job as well as I could have. Whether or not that was the reality didn’t mean jack.
Hell, it could be true. Otherwise Dani wouldn’t have thought she needed to get her poor old man a date, which had helped to lead to the whole situation with Macy.
Not including that kiss she’d planted on me the night Dani hurt her ankle. No wonder I’d looked for any way to lock her down. We’d already danced around each other for years. If I hadn’t grabbed her in front of the television crew, she probably would still be dancing away from me.
It was one of her best skills.
As amazing as we were right now, I was a realist. It wouldn’t last forever. As soon as Macy’s escape hatch opened up—one I had willingly given her—she’d be gone. I couldn’t even blame her. I had no desire to walk away from the good thing we had going, but I also wasn’t going to beg her to stay in a situation that obviously would never be truly what she wanted. She didn’t like kids. That she seemed to be meshing so well with Dani was just a bit of blind luck. It wasn’t a permanent situation, and it might not even make one bit of difference with the judge. But it had given me some moments I would never forget.
I was already pissed at Macy, and she hadn’t even left yet.
It didn’t make sense, but it did leave me short-tempered with everyone around me. My father had hung up on me twice this week.
One day soon she’d end this, despite
offering her a no strings situation. At the moment, we were in a holding pattern due to this visitation thing, but soon enough, she’d snip them and be gone.
And I had no say there either. I’d already had my say when I’d told her we could end things without a ripple.
Except now? There were ripples all over the fucking place.
“Hey, dude, I think it’s in.”
When I didn’t look up from hammering, Lucky tapped me on the shoulder. I’d heard him speaking to me, but the words had been nearly unintelligible over the Foo Fighters song blaring in my headphones. I’d turned the music up to the loudest decibel possible to drown out the construction noises surrounding me. Normally, those sounds were almost soothing to me.
Today, I was afraid any noise would set me off.
I reared back with an elbow to get some space, but Lucky had already moved back. He cocked a brow at me and motioned for me to take off my ancient headset.
“What?” I demanded, yanking off my safety glasses.
“You’re mangling the shit out of that fascia.” He nodded at the piece of wood I’d been unintentionally tormenting. “Unless you’re going for a different look for Macy’s shelving than we discussed.”
I looked closer at the wood and noticed the nail was crooked and I’d chipped off a corner of the decorative engraving.
“Fuck.” I tossed the board on the scrap pile. “Obviously, today isn’t the day for me to do anything requiring precision.”
“Think Robert needs some help in back.”
“You mean tiling the wall above the sink?”
Lucky shrugged. “Hey, it’s something even you can do.”
“Thanks.” I usually wasn’t the lame duck of the crew. Far from it. But today, I didn’t trust myself to do much.
Right now, my team would probably do better without me.
I turned off the music app on my phone and set down my hammer. It was probably better that I quit while I was ahead.
“You guys good here?” I called up to Moose once Lucky had ambled off to heckle Pamela, the newest member of the crew. He’d probably have asked her out by dinner.
Moose pulled off his protective ear gear and backed down the ladder he’d been stationed on to work on the top of one of the built-ins. “Looks good here. You taking off for lunch?”
“Yeah.” And maybe more than that if Macy could take a break.
“That’s good. You’ve been here long hours and no matter the job, it can make you cross-eyed after awhile.”
“You too.”
“Just trying to log as many hours as possible before the twins come. I really appreciate you being so generous with the time off afterward.”
“Well, first off, it’s the law, and secondly, it’s not every day a man has twins.”
“That’s a true statement, although thank fuck I’m not the one actually having them.” Moose swiped a hand over his dusty forehead. “Women are amazing, man. Once you see your wife give birth to your child, you never forget they’re basically like Wonder Woman. And two? Vee’s so small.” He shook his head. “I keep worrying they’ll get stuck.”
I smiled as I clapped Moose on the back. “It helps they don’t actually come out at once. She’ll do just fine. She’s a warrior.”
“Yeah, she is.” He wiped off his hands on the bandana hanging out of his jeans pocket. “You ever think about doing it again?”
“Having more kids?”
“Yeah. You know, the family deal.” Moose’s ears tinged pink. “Not that you and Dani aren’t a family.”
“No, I know what you mean. I haven’t really considered it.”
But now that he’d mentioned it, I was back on that track of being annoyed at the world again, specifically Macy. She hadn’t done a damn thing to me, and that was the problem.
Things were going too fucking well. We just worked. She made me laugh and got me out of my head and I liked to think I did the same for her. Being with her just felt easy and natural—with the added layer of snark and sexual tension that seemed to flow between us like oxygen. The only sticking point I’d anticipated involved her being with Dani, and those concerns had turned out to be unfounded. They’d been spending a ton of time together since Karen had been out of commission, with Dani coming by the café after school most days while I worked.
Every time, I went next door to make sure she wasn’t driving Macy too crazy, I found her being put to work either decorating something or helping clean up or even to shepherd the little kids in the reading nook. And Dani talked about Macy and the coffee shop constantly, so she was clearly enjoying herself.
Which only pissed me off more.
Everything with Jessica just reaffirmed the ticking clock with Macy. If somehow the visitation problem went away, would Macy vanish too?
She agreed to date you before Jessica showed up. You don’t know she wouldn’t keep it going even after the whole Jessica thing goes away.
If it did.
Fuck.
Why didn’t Macy know we were so fucking good together? We could be even more so if we didn’t have these supposedly reasonable dating parameters boxing us in.
No strings, my ass.
“Look, man, I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject.”
“It’s not sore. Who says it’s sore?”
“Well, just was figuring with you dating Macy, but Macy being Macy, we all know that’s not really her bag. So, I have to figure more isn’t your bag either. Or you’re not thinking about that. Christ, can I step in it any more?” Moose let out a laugh. “Sorry. It’s just been long enough I’ve been married that I forgot being single is a different thing. And also, that all guys aren’t like me.”
“No, not every guy wants to get married on the first date if he could.” I regretted the sharp tone I’d used as soon as the words were out, but Moose simply nodded.
“I knew she was the one before the first date actually. She was it for me from the first moment.”
“Oh, Christ on bikes. Is it time for tiny harps and hearts shooting out of asses again?” Lucky swung by to borrow Moose’s ladder.
Moose put his bandana away. “You’re just jealous.”
I nearly laughed out loud at that until Lucky grabbed the ladder and took off.
He couldn’t be, could he? A guy like Lucky who seemed to absolutely love the single life and going after every woman he wanted?
“Hmm, speaking of sore spots.” Moose raised a brow. “I guess no one likes being alone. Even Lucky. No matter how many nights you’re with someone, there’s always one where you gotta face yourself.”
“Psychoanalyze someone else, would you?” Lucky called from the back, slamming around tools for emphasis.
Moose shot me a look.
I said nothing. I had to agree on the being alone part. It fucking sucked.
I was tired of it. I didn’t want any more of it, not when I was realizing exactly how much better it was to have the right person in your life.
Macy and I were still so new. I didn’t know for sure she was the right person. But I was beginning to think so more and more with each passing moment.
I grabbed my plaid flannel and shrugged it on. “I’m going next door.” Saying it aloud felt like a declaration.
Fuck time limits. Fuck safety. Fuck artificial dating arrangements that felt more real than anything else ever had in my life. And if Macy needed a reminder of that, I’d be happy to provide one.
As many times as it took.
“Good idea. Fucking the boss will make her feel more charitable about you screwing up her fascia.” Lucky gave me a thumbs up as I passed, and I flipped him a middle finger.
“Hey, while you’re over there, can you pick up our lunch—”
I went out the back door, letting it swing shut behind me. Nope, I wasn’t picking up any orders. I didn’t know when I’d be back.
Hopefully, not until lunch was long over with.
The two buildings were joined by a parking lot and separate loading d
ocks behind each building. I didn’t really want to go around the front of the café to find her. Somehow she was always busy.
Then I spotted cardboard flying. What the hell?
I jumped off the loading dock to cross the parking lot. Another huge piece of cardboard shot up into the air. Guess someone was recycling. Maybe I’d be in luck after all. At least I could sneak in the back door to Brewed Awakening and maybe convince Macy to take a long lunch with me.
The clunk of a pile of cardboard hitting the recycle bins was followed by a very familiar grumble. I leaned against the pole on the edge of the dumpster gate.
“Whatcha doin’?”
She jumped and whirled with her box cutter out.
“Easy, Killer.” I held up my hands.
Macy sagged. “You do not sneak up on a woman.”
“This is Crescent Cove, Mace.” I moved into her space.
She wiggled back. “I’m a hot mess.”
I buried my face into her neck where loose pieces from her ponytail slid along the neck of her light denim jacket. “You smell delicious.”
“Yeah well, my newest employee—former—just spilled a new order of coffee beans everywhere. I’ve been cleaning it up for an hour.”
I straightened, digging my fingers into her tight and grip-worthy ass. “No second chances?”
“Not when you look at me and say, ‘My bad’ after spilling four hundred dollars worth of coffee beans.”
I pressed my lips together. “Guess I should have fired Lucky awhile ago.”
“That’s a true statement if I’ve ever heard one.” She tried to twist away.
I held her still. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, just feel gross.” She looked down at her hands. “Pretty sure I’m going to be scrubbing coffee out of my nails for days.”
“Thinking that’s not all.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Did I mention the triple digits loss?”
“Come on, spill it.” She crossed her arms in between us. Damn, she was stubborn. “You can vent to me.”
“I’m freaking out, all right? It’s middle of September and I’m so behind on everything.”
“No, you’re not. We’re right on time based on the schedule we put together last year.”