When Fences Fall: Small-town, grumpy sunshine romance, page 17
Her eyes squint, giving me the distinct impression that I’m stepping onto a minefield. And I’m loving it. Does she get this fierce everywhere?
“You already paid. By cleaning my driveway,” she clarifies with a sharp tone. “I owe you now.” We’re holding a stare-off, and her insistence throws me off more than I want to admit.
“I like paying it forward.” This is true, and it’s practical, but I’m already sensing the shift in her mood. I know this is about more than breakfast.
Her eyes narrow even further, turning into little slits of suspicion. That precipice I was on? I’m now fully over it. And yet, I don’t know how. “Do you? Paying or playing?”
Ah. There it is. The misstep I made is now glaring at me in bold neon colors.
“Paying, Nora. I don’t play.” I say it firmly, knowing full well that this isn’t enough for her. So I add, on impulse, “Actually, I do. But different games.” I’m expecting that to lighten the moment, show a bit of humor, maybe diffuse what’s brewing between us. But I can see instantly, in the hardening of her jaw, that I’ve only fueled her fire.
“I bet you do.” Her lips turn white around the edges, pressed together in accusation. How the hell did we get here? Not fifteen minutes ago, she was laughing, and I was feeling something goddamn close to joy. Now it’s like the air has been sucked out of the room.
She’s saying nonsense just for the sake of the fight, and another guy would probably just walk away. But I take a pause to look at her. Really look at her.
And when I do, I see that she’s hurt. By the things she thinks she saw, and I just keep playing into it. I don’t want to see her hurt. That game is not fun anymore.
So I decide for the both of us to move on from the situation. I step closer to the counter and lean toward her.
“Nora?” I say, and it’s not a question. It’s a decision.
She lets out a breath and instinctively leans forward, exactly what I’m hoping for. Her eyes flash, like she knows something’s about to happen, but she won’t let herself believe it. That’s all I need. My hand shoots up and grabs her chin, quickly sliding to her neck. She’s tiny against me; my rough palm is fuckin’ giant, and it holds her neck and her chin—and her attention. Her cheeks are pink like cherry blossoms, and when her mouth falls open in shock, her eyes wide and waiting, I know my timing is spot on.
Slightly pulling her toward me, I lean even closer to her face and cover her lips with mine. Not gentle. Not savoring. My tongue quickly enters her mouth, meeting hers and doing a rough swap. She tastes like peppermint and sugar. She tastes like Christmas morning. And fuck, how I want to unwrap that present.
I hear her breath hitch, feel her body melt, and all I can think is that it’s about fuckin’ time I made a move. The way she kisses me back, the way her tongue fights with mine, her lips soft and hungry—it drives me insane and makes me want more. The kiss lasts maybe three seconds, if that. Three seconds that shift the whole universe, then I pull away from her lips but not from her face.
Still holding her neck, I find her eyes and look into them as I speak.
“We’ll talk about it later, Little Witch.”
I place another quick kiss on her lips before I pull away and grab my jacket. I walk away, not letting her see how much my hands are shaking. When I reach the door, I turn and watch her standing there. Jaw dropped. Her hands frozen over the counter. Her cheeks pink and her expression fucking priceless.
I haven’t seen her so speechless before, and I’m glad it was me who made her that way. By the end of tonight, I sure as fuck hope that this woman’s thighs will be wrapped around my face.
26
Nora
“Looks like I’ve missed nothing,” comes Roman’s voice from the entrance. “Nothing at all.”
Blinking away the fog from my eyes, I turn toward his voice. Having no idea how long he’s been there makes my cheeks heat up. How long have I been spacing out since Jericho left me in this speechless, horny state of mind?
It started as my desire to simply thank him for his help and maybe to put an end to this feud. Like maybe we still could be friends. I didn’t want to be just friends with him, but I also wasn’t willing to step on anyone’s feet.
Once the memory of his possible girlfriend resurfaces, my mood goes right under. I don’t want to be the other woman, not after what happened with Dick, and even though Jericho has never struck me as the cheating type, I can’t ignore what I saw.
“You are late,” I bark, trying to avoid his further questioning.
“You’re stalling.” Roman takes off his jacket that’s covered in snow and shakes it right by the door while keeping his stare on me. “Even though it looked,” he winces as if in pain, “consensual, I gotta ask. Was it?”
“Yes!” I shoot back. “Jericho would never do something like that!”
Roman pauses, squinting his eyes at me. “Yeah? How long have you known him? Two days?”
“Longer than that, and you know that.” I purse my lips. But there’s truth in his words; we haven’t known each other that long. And there are parts of his life that he has avoided talking about, but I’m willing to bet my money on him being as decent as good men come.
Roman walks up to the counter and takes a seat across from me. “Pour me that witch brew you made for yourself.”
With still pursed lips and feeling slightly offended on Jericho’s behalf, I pour him a cup of my stashed coffee and place it in front of him. After the first sip, he closes his eyes with a moan.
“I needed that.” Another sip. “I’ve been shoveling our driveway the whole damn morning and nearly froze my fingers off. I figured you’d be snowed in down that side street of yours.” He’s watching me from the brim of his mug. “Imagine my surprise when I see you already here, and with a man no less! After I calmed my horses and figured you were not in danger, I decided to,” he chuckles, “get some fresh air.”
“More fresh air?” I raise a brow.
He laughs again. “Can never get enough of this around here, I’spose. So, the new guy in town, huh.”
“What are you talking about?”
He carefully places the mug on the table and looks up at me. “I’ve always thought you’d go to some big city because this place is too… stuffy for you.”
“The diner?”
“The town.”
“You wanted me gone?” I didn’t know it would hurt so much hearing that.
“God no,” he replies with a laugh. “I want you right here, where I can watch after you. But you’ve never been happy here. Especially not since you came back.”
I feel my brows drawing together in confusion. “I’ve been happy here.”
“Have you?” He tilts his head to the side, drilling a hole in my brain with his eyes. “Ever since you came back, you’ve been a shadow of your old self. Hiding behind this diner and your crystals.”
“The diner is my life.”
“Exactly.” He throws his hand in the air. “It shouldn’t be. You are young. You need love. You live in Big Love, for God’s sake. You need something to melt your heart. Someone,” he adds meaningfully.
“And you think it’s Jericho?”
“I haven’t seen you throwing yourself out there to protect a man you barely know like that. It must say something about your feelings.”
My eyes roll backward and stay there to prove my point. “P-p-please, it means nothing.”
“You can bullshit anyone but not me, Nora. You’ve taken to the man.” Roman lets out a weird noise that sounds almost like a giggle. Which is extremely odd to hear since you don’t expect a giggle coming out of a six-foot man with a bushy mustache and tatted arms. “Plus, there’re not many men in this town willing to take on Dick the dick.”
I pick up my mug again and bring it to my lips to hide behind, because I have to admit, Jericho standing up to my ex did something to alter my brain. Karina was right. It was hot.
But what was hotter was him claiming me right here, where the whole city can see. Well, maybe not the whole city, given the early hour, but still, anyone could walk in. My lips still tingle from his kiss, and my neck aches sweetly from his possessive touch. My hand twitches to touch the place where Jericho’s hand was holding me, but I pause just in time, remembering that Roman is sitting right here, watching me with a hawk eye. I can relive the moment when I’m out of his sight.
Suddenly, Roman’s brows draw together.
“There’s something about him though. Something I can’t quite pinpoint.”
“What do you mean?” I ask carefully, probing the ground if he’s thinking that the man might be already taken since it’s the only thing on my mind.
“It feels like he’s hiding something.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“True, I’spose. We all are.” His shoulders relax, but the worry doesn’t leave his eyes. “You do tell me if something feels off, all right?”
“You say that like we’re a couple or something.” I wave him off, embarrassed, despite loving the sound of it. I haven’t been part of ‘a couple’ for a long time and miss all the attributes it brings.
“Humor me,” he replies with a serious face, ignoring my coyness.
I know he’s just worried about me, so I say, “Of course. I will tell you if anything is wrong.”
He nods and gets up to disappear into his domain, leaving me alone with the scorching memories of the kiss and a tingle of worry deep, deep in my chest.
27
Nora
The day is crazy. The snowstorm shut down a lot of local businesses because no one needs to buy insurance during a blizzard, so naturally everyone goes out to get coffee and food.
The diner is busy—I don’t think we’ve had an open table since seven thirty, which is incredible for business but bad for my staff. Karina and Letty are ready to bite someone’s head off after another complaint about coffee not being black enough, Roman is ready to throw knives if someone tells him the runny eggs are not runny enough, and I’m ready to throw snowballs at everyone so they finally go home to their families.
Because I need to go home to mine—Grams’s waiting for me at home. She’s been there alone the whole day. I called her a few times to check on her and offer her a ride to Cheryl’s because her place is around the corner from the diner, and it’s easier to check on her, but she refused, saying she’s bingeing a new show and wants to be left alone. Cheryl did drive to the house to deliver her a hot meal from the diner and check on her just to be sure, but everything looked fine. So I’m leaving her be.
The snow has been going strong, and the plow trucks have been working relentlessly. Every time I hear a plow scraping the road, my head shoots up to see if it’s Jericho. And every time it’s been hard to tell.
Every time the door chimes, my gaze darts toward it in hopes it’s Jericho taking me up on my offer of having a hot lunch on the house.
But he never comes.
My mood gradually plummets. Is it because I’m tired or my expectations of the day haven’t been met? I’m not sure. The only thing I do know is that by seven p.m. the hope has died out, and my eyes have stopped jumping to the door with every new customer walking in.
No one has noticed my specifically sour mood because everyone has the same, so we all blend in.
“Why is everyone still here?” Karina complains, planting her butt on a free chair at the counter. “Don’t they have shit to do at home?”
“What shit?” I say. “It’s snowing in Big Love. Everything’s closed.”
“I don’t know.” She throws her hand in the air and hides her face on her shoulder. “Go home and have sex. Get busy.”
“Are you talking about Miss Lenny?” I laugh, glancing at the lady’s direction who’s currently standing next to the table of a man half her age.
Karina snorts. “That woman gets more action than I do.”
I glance at the local legend, and sure thing, she’s already sitting down at the guy’s table, who looks a little petrified, with her hand on his shoulder. I consider if I should go and save him but then decide against it—we could use some entertainment tonight, in whichever form it comes in.
“What should the rest of us do?” I ask, starting another pot of extra black coffee per someone’s request.
She looks at me like I’m an idiot. “Still go home and have sex. Get into that magic drawer of yours and get your partner out.”
My cheeks heat up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She tsks. “P-please. Everyone has one.”
At eight p.m. my eyes start twitching. And they nearly fall out of their sockets when a woman enters and approaches the available space at the counter. I’ve seen her around town, but she usually doesn’t come here, preferring Dick’s new place. I heard she moved here a couple of years ago and works in city hall and that she’s not the locals’ favorite.
I’ve never encountered her because we move in different circles, but it’s odd that we’ve never actually talked. Roman is usually the person who goes to city hall if we need anything since he has a buddy who works there, and when I see her in the grocery store, she’s usually talking on the phone, ignoring people around her.
She has a reputation of being a rather unpleasant person who hangs out with Dick sometimes, but what’s nagging me about her is her sleek, dark bob and the way she carries herself. I’ve seen that before. At Jericho’s doorstep and then through the window when I was peeping at her walking around his place like she owned it. I have no idea why I didn’t recognize her. Of course, it was dark out, and I saw her only from her back the whole time, but it’s hard to misplace that short, sleek bob.
So Dick’s friend is Jericho’s girlfriend.
She wipes the stool before lowering her ass in silky pants onto it and places her black leather purse on the counter, then her attention focuses solely on me.
“Hi. What can I get you?” I start in the friendliest tone I can muster.
She doesn’t say anything but keeps watching me with narrowing eyes. At some point, they turn into tiny slits, making her suddenly look older.
“Nora, right?” Her voice is sweet like poisoned honey.
Shit, does she know I kissed Jericho? Are they a couple? Am I in trouble?
Those are the first thoughts that run through my mind. But only for a second. Then I recall who I’m talking about and instantly change my narrative. Jericho, a man who cleared the snow from my doorsteps so my grandmother wouldn’t slip. The very same man who told me to follow him so he could clear the road before me. The man who protected me from Dick.
No, this is not the man who would be doing the cheating or putting me or his girlfriend (if he had one) into this kind of situation. Fueled by this new resolve, I square my shoulders.
“Yes, Nora. Welcome to Moons’. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”
Her nose scrunches as she looks around. “Do you know how to make a latte?”
I do. “I don’t,” I reply with a sad face. “Sorry.”
“Figures.” Her nose remains wrinkled and perched as if she sniffed something foul while her eyes keep flickering to the carnelian stone on a golden chain on my chest.
We have all sorts of coffee and a very fancy espresso machine because we get a lot of tourists, but it’s a small-town diner where the local regulars prefer drip coffee with an ungodly amount of caffeine. I could make her a cup, but her attitude of a big-city-person-stuck-in-this-small-town stinks, so I’ll just play into the stereotype.
Not to mention, I still remember her face smooshed onto Jericho’s, so the only mixed coffee she’d get from me would be mixed with dirt.
“Get me whatever you have then.” She points her finger to the sink at my right. “But wash the cup.”
“All our cups are clean.”
“Yeah,” she replies with a quick roll of her eyes. “Wash it anyway.”
I pointedly take the cup and rinse it with water before placing it in front of her. The desire to splash coffee into her face is strong, but then I remember my promise to Cheryl to not embarrass her anymore because she’d be the one to book me, so I disregard the idea.
Even though her cup is full, she doesn’t touch it. It sits right where I placed it while her gaze doesn’t move from my face. She knows something, I’m just unsure what exactly.
“Nora,” Karina comes to me, “I might need your assistance with table five. Can you take over? And I’ll help your guest.”
The woman’s head whips toward the voice, and before she says something nasty to set Karina off on her warpath, I give her a gentle shake of my head.
“I’ll help you in a few if you don’t mind.”
Karina’s gaze jumps between me and the woman. “Are you sure?” We both know she felt the tension in the air and came to my rescue.
“Yes. Thank you.”
She gives the woman a long stare before returning to the floor to already yelling customers while my ‘guest’ follows her with a narrowed stare.
“How are you liking your coffee?” I ask, totally aware that she hasn’t touched the cup.
Her face stretches with an evil but very sexy smile. I bet she uses it on a lot of men who fall to her feet. Is Jericho one of them?
“How are you liking this diner?” she asks back in a sweet voice.
“Love it. It’s a family business,” I reply with a neutral smile.
She glances around. “So I’ve heard.” Another evil smile plasters on her face before she focuses her attention back on me. “You’ve got a lot of violations in your family business.”
A sudden wave of panic steals my breath. I don’t know exactly what she does at city hall, but it very well could be something that could ruin the diner.
“My cousin was right,” she continues while running her watchful eyes over every single surface. “The place needs to be shut down. It’s not safe.”
“Your cousin?”
“Richard. You know him, right?” her smile turns into a self-satisfied one as if she just fulfilled her life-long goal.
