Too Distracting

by Bethany Lopez

  “If you thought that, why did you guys ask her to go with me to Chicago?”

  “Gabe started it,” Reardon said, then grinned. “Plus, I thought it would be fun to fuck with you.” Then his grin fell and he added, “I never expected you to literally fuck her.”

  “Hey,” I warned. “It’s not like that.”

  “What’s it like then?” he asked. “You guys dating now?”

  “No, it was just for the weekend, we both agreed to that upfront, but I’ve realized that I’ve been misjudging her. She’s not like she was as a kid, she’s grown up and is actually pretty great.”

  “Well, no shit, I could have told you that,” Reardon replied; they’d always been friends. In my defense though, it was because she didn’t prank him, or Gabe for that matter. She’d always saved that side of her personality just for me.

  Shit, had I been totally oblivious all these years? Had she picked on me because she always liked me? Did she still? Is that why she’d suggested spending the weekend together? Cause, if so, that complicated things.

  I didn’t want to be the dick who used her emotions against her, then walked away without looking back.

  “So, it was just the weekend, huh? No residual feelings?” Reardon asked.

  Distracted, I glanced at him, then looked back down as I worried about Laurel and whether she was really okay when I’d left her, or if I’d inadvertently broken her heart.

  “Yeah, we’re just going to be friends,” I replied, but had to wonder … is that all I wanted?

  26

  Laurel

  I allowed myself to sit in my apartment and mope after Dillon dropped me off, but after an evening of snuggling with Princess, watching This Is Us, and eating a pint of Chunky Monkey, I decided enough was enough.

  I’d made a deal and stuck to it, time to move on.

  So, rather than feel sorry for myself any longer, I decided it was time to put my plan into action.

  Although, now that I was standing on my parents’ front porch, I found myself missing my earlier bravado. Now, I was terrified. What if they hated my ideas? What if they still thought I was flighty and foolish?

  What if they said no?

  I rolled my head back and tilted it from left to right, then stood straight and took a deep breath.

  Then, I knocked.

  Yes, I knocked. On my own parents’ front door.

  People often found this to be very weird, but my parents and I did not have a come on in kind of relationship. When I was younger, I thought this was normal, then I spent time at Jazzy’s house and saw the way her family interacted with each other, and realized it was kind of sad. As I got older I just got used to it, so now, I knocked without even really thinking about it.

  “Oh, Laurel,” my mother said when she opened the door and found me on the stoop. “Did you call and tell us you were coming by?”

  I bit back a sigh, because, no, I hadn’t, and forced a smile.

  “Uh, no actually, I realized it had been a while since we’d seen each other, and I have something to show you, so I thought I’d stop by.”

  My mother forced a fake smile, then reluctantly stepped aside.

  Wow, que the lack of warm fuzzies.

  “Why aren’t you at work? Your father and I have lunch plans, so we can’t visit long,” she informed me as she shut the door.

  There was really nothing to say that she would actually hear, so I followed silently behind her as she led me to my father’s office. When we walked inside, my father looked up from the paper he was reading and looked questioningly from my mother to me.

  “Did we have an appointment?”

  “No,” I replied, jeez. “Sorry, I just wanted to show you both the business plan for the shop. It is finished, and once I have your approval, ready for the bank.”

  “Why aren’t you at the shop?” he asked.

  “Mary and Lisa switched shifts because they have an event at school tonight. I plan on going in this afternoon.”

  He raised an eyebrow, then shot a look I didn’t like to my mother, and held out his hand.

  I realized I was clutching the folder to my chest as I took a couple steps toward his desk. Reluctantly, I peeled it away and placed it in his offered hand.

  I tried not to shift from foot to foot as I watched him peruse the pages. My stomach was in knots and I felt slightly nauseous.

  Two seconds later, he looked up at me and said, “No,” then slapped the folder shut and held it back out to me.

  I blinked.

  “What?” I asked, quietly. “But, you didn’t even read it.”

  Seriously, he had it for like, two seconds.

  “The answer is no, Laurel, but I’m pretty sure we told you that already,” my father said simply, then looked back down at his paper after my mother took the folder out of his hands.

  I’d been dismissed.

  “Tea?” my mother asked, holding the folder out to me.

  I snatched the folder out of her hand and spun on my heel, stomping out of the office as I tried to wrap my head around what just happened.

  I realized there was a song playing in my purse as I paused in the hallway to catch my breath, struggling to hold back tears. Without thinking, or looking at the screen, I grabbed my phone and pressed it to my ear.

  “Hello?”

  “Laurel? Are you okay?”

  It was Dillon. I didn’t wonder why he was calling, all I knew was I felt utter relief that he was.

  “They said no,” I muttered, losing the battle on the tears.

  “Who said no? Where are you?”

  “My parents,” I stated numbly, my head starting to pound as my dreams collapsed around me.

  “I’m five minutes away,” he stated. “Don’t leave.”

  He hung up, but I didn’t realize it. I stood there, holding the phone up to my ear as I wondered what I was going to do now. What was my plan B? Run the flower shop the way my parents always had? Or leave the flower shop, risking damage to my relationship with my parents and finding my own space to open my business?

  Neither sounded great, although how much worse could our relationship really get.

  “Really, Laurel, are you going to stand there all day, or come and have some tea before you leave?” my mother asked from behind me. Just then a loud pounding sounded on the door, causing her to ask, “What in the world?”

  I followed her to the door, and when she opened it, we were both faced with a devastatingly handsome, but fuming, Dillon Lewis.

  God, I’d missed him.

  27

  Dillon

  I ignored Laurel’s mother when she opened the door, instead, zooming in on Laurel, who looked devastated.

  Which really pissed me off.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her, clenching my teeth when she shook her head sadly.

  “Dillon Lewis,” her mother began haughtily. “What’s the meaning of this?”

  I brushed past her, not bothering to respond, and did what I’d been wanting to do since I left her standing on the street. I pulled Laurel into my arms and held her tightly against me. My hands came to her back and I rubbed my hand in small circles as she sagged against me.

  “What’s going on?”

  I looked over Laurel’s head to see her father striding toward us, his glasses slightly skewed.

  “You’ve upset your daughter, Mr. Turner,” I replied angrily. “Although I shouldn’t be surprised, it seems the only way you know how to treat her is badly.”

  “Well,” her mother huffed, while her father’s face grew tight.

  “I should think your parents taught you better than to come into a man’s home and be disrespectful, son,” her father said.

  “I’m not your son,” I bit out. “And, if you treated Laurel with an ounce of respect, maybe you’d get some in return.”

  “And who are you to Laurel?” her mother asked, crossing to stand next to her husband. “You’re that Jasmine’s brother, right, so this is none of your concer
n. It’s family business.”

  The way she said my sister’s name had me gnashing my teeth, but I reeled in my temper and turned my attention back to Laurel. Putting my hands on her shoulders, I eased her back slowly and looked down at her face.

  Luckily, there were no tears, but the misery there still made me want to punch something, or someone.

  I looked back up at her father.

  He’d do, I thought, but pushed the violence from my mind and replied, “I’m her friend, and the person who helped her with her business plan. It’s a solid plan, although I’m guessing from her reaction that you didn’t see it that way.”

  “They said no,” Laurel stated, then took a deep breath. “Looks like I’ll have to find another way to start my business.”

  “You’ll run the flower shop like you’re told,” her father said.

  “It’s your duty,” her mother added. “We thought you’d marry Travis and stay in Houston, but since you couldn’t make that work, it’s only right that you take over the family business so your father and I can take a much-needed break.”

  “I never said I didn’t want to run the flower shop, I just want to expand it. To use my expertise to offer more than just flowers, is that so wrong?” Laurel asked, standing up tall as she spoke, her tone becoming stronger.

  “I didn’t sign my business over to you so you could throw parties,” her father retorted. “It’s a good business the way it is, a part of town history. There’s no reason to change a thing.”

  “Wait,” I said, putting a halt to the conversation after Mr. Turner’s admission. “Laurel, are you managing the shop, or did your dad sign it over to you? Legally change the deed from his name to yours?”

  I saw her father’s lips flatten into a thin line of displeasure.

  “Yes, we changed it over about a month after I got back. They had a trip planned and wanted everything out of the way so that I could legally take care of any issues that arose. Luckily, nothing did.”

  I locked eyes with her father, who knew what I was going to say next, and didn’t like it one bit.

  “What that means, then, is that Laurel doesn’t need your permission to make any changes or additions. You gave her the shop free and clear, and it is hers to do with as she wishes. Expand it, update, hell, even sell it, if that’s what she wants.”

  “How dare you…” her father seethed.

  “We gave it to Laurel and expressed our wishes carefully; she knows better than to go against her father,” her mother put in, while Laurel looked back and forth between the two of them with traces of hope.

  “Dad, Mom, I did want your approval before I moved ahead, and I guess I was missing the point of what those documents that I signed meant, but if what Dillon is saying is true, then, I’m sorry, but I’m going to run my business as I see fit.”

  “We’ll run them by Reardon, just to make sure everything is as it should be,” I told her, then looked back at her parents and said, “I guess we’ll be leaving…”

  “Laurel, don’t you dare change one thing … not even a splash of paint,” her father warned. “You know how we want the shop to be run, and, as our heir, you need to heed our wishes.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad, but I swear, you’ll see, this expansion is going to be great for business,” Laurel said, pleading with her father to believe her. To believe in her.

  “Get out of my sight,” he said, his tone low and firm. Ugly. Then he turned and walked back the way he’d come.

  “If you do this, Laurel, if you go against your father and I, you’ll be banned from this house. You won’t be welcome here anymore,” her mother said nastily.

  I heard Laurel gasp, and felt a fresh bout of anger slash threw me.

  Placing my arm around her shoulder, I said, “Come on, Laurel, let’s go,” turned her around, and led her out of the house.

  As we crossed the threshold, I vowed that Laurel would not darken their door again unless they both got their heads out of their asses long enough to be parents and realize what an amazing daughter they had.

  I wasn’t going to let them, or anyone else, hurt her again.

  28

  Laurel

  “You must think I’m a total idiot,” I said as we stood on the path in front of my parents’ home. “I mean, I feel like one. Gosh, to not have realized when they had me sign those papers that they were signing over the company and as the owner I have carte blanche to do what I want?”

  Dillon reached out and took my hand, squeezing it slightly to get my attention as I rambled on.

  “All this time I spent trying to get their approval, all the comments and nasty looks, and I didn’t even need it.”

  “Laurel,” Dillon said, but I didn’t look at him, so he said more firmly, “Laurel.”

  I stopped and looked toward him, not quite catching his eye.

  He moved his hand to my chin and made me look at him.

  “They’re your parents, you wanted them to be on board with the changes you plan to make to the shop they’ve been running for decades. That doesn’t make you an idiot, it makes you a good person. A good daughter.” He moved his thumb to stroke my cheek and said, “The only mistake you made was thinking they’d change, after a lifetime of letting you down. The good news is, you don’t have to get their permission to do anything. The world is yours, babe.”

  Oh, I liked that … Babe.

  I basked in the warmth of that word for a moment, then said, “I’d better get those papers to Reardon first, just to be sure, before I plan world domination.”

  Dillon chuckled and asked, “Want me to go with you?”

  “Sure. Wait, don’t you have work?”

  “I’m allowed to break for lunch, which is actually why I was calling, to see if you wanted to grab some.”

  My stomach fluttered.

  “Oh,” I said, unable to hide my surprise. “You were?”

  “Yeah,” he began, then he said something that rocked me to the core, “I missed your face.”

  My mouth dropped and I know I gaped at him for a full minute.

  I couldn’t believe he just said that. What did it mean? Did he want to hang out as friends? Did he want to reboot what we’d started in Chicago?

  Not wanting to make too much of a big deal over his confession, I closed my mouth to normal proportions and admitted, “I missed your face too, and yes, I’d love to grab lunch. Oh, but the papers are at the flower shop.”

  “That’s okay, I’ll follow you there then we can take my car to drop the papers with Reardon, then go to lunch.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  I resisted the urge to look back at my parents’ house as I got into my car and drove away, Dillon pulling out behind me.

  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but if I was honest with myself, I wasn’t terribly surprised. They’d never had my back growing up, so I don’t know why I always expected them to change.

  I was relieved and grateful, albeit a smidgeon embarrassed, that Dillon came to my aide when he did.

  To think I’d held the power this entire time, but had still been letting my parents dictate my future, was humiliating. But, at least I knew now, and could begin moving forward, just as I’d hoped when I’d gone to their place this morning.

  Sure, it wasn’t with their backing, and I’d basically been disowned, but I found that I was leaning more toward relieved than devastated.

  Didn’t I promised myself I’d keep toxic people out of my life?

  Unfortunately, my parents had always been the most toxic… which was probably why I’d stayed with Travis as long as I did. He treated me the same way they always had. Like I was worthless. Expendable. Stupid.

  I shook off those residual feelings and checked my rearview mirror.

  He’s still behind me.

  I didn’t bother hiding my wide grin as I checked him out. I couldn’t believe he’d been calling to ask me to lunch, but I was so happy that he reached out. Because I wouldn’t have, no matter
how badly I wanted to.

  I promised myself to take things as they came, to not overthink things, and see how they played out, as I parked and got out of my car.

  I waited as Dillon pulled up by the curb and rolled down his window.

  “Do you want to come inside?” I asked, wondering if I could lie and say they were actually up in my apartment, so I could get him alone.

  Focus, Laurel.

  “Better not, so we have time to hit Reardon’s and get a bite before I have to get back,” he replied, and I nodded, although somewhat regretfully. Dillon must have read my mind, because he shot me a sexy grin and said, “Maybe later tonight, after I get off?”

  I grinned back and said, “Sounds good. Be right back.”

  I hurried inside and into the back office, grateful that I’d gotten my organizational skills from my father and knew right where I had the documents. Once I had them in hand, I went back out to the front and asked, “Everything good?”

  Lisa looked up from her phone, then swiveled her head to take in the empty storefront.

  “Yup, it’s been this quiet all day.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, clutching the paperwork to my chest. “Once the business loan gets approved, we’ll be going forward with party planning and things will get much busier around here. Plus, we have the shower to work on this weekend.”

  “They said yes?” Lisa asked, her face conveying her excitement. I’d hired her when I took over, so she knew all about my struggles with my parents.

  “It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you later. I have to run these over to the lawyer, and I’ll be back after lunch.”

  “Hot date?” she joked, since I’d never had a lunch date since I’d been back.

  I could tell I shocked her when I replied, “Yup.”

  I hurried out the door with a laugh as I heard her call out behind me, “What? Wait, you have a date?”

  29

  Dillon