Bad Taste in Men (Clover Park, Book 3) Contemporary Romance (The Clover Park Series) (6 page)

Rachel rang the bell at Liz and Ryan’s house the next morning and nearly jumped out of her skin to hear a ferocious barking on the other side of that door. What the hell?

Liz answered, holding the collar of a lunging, barking, huge black and white puppy. “Hold on, let me just get him back.”

Her friend’s usually perfect straight blond hair was in a drooping ponytail with frazzled pieces that kept dropping in front of her face. “Sit, Hagar. Sit.” Hagar jumped up on Liz and licked her. Liz giggled. “Thank you for kisses. Now sit. Sit, sit, sit.”

Hagar did not sit. Instead he started jumping all over Rachel. “My ankle. Watch my ankle!”

Liz dragged Hagar with her into the living room. “Have a seat. He’ll calm down in a minute.”

Rachel made her way to the living room. Liz sat on the sofa, and Hagar immediately put his front legs on her lap, half sitting on her.

“Did you walk here?” Liz asked around the huge lapdog.

Rachel sat a respectable distance away from the beast. “Yeah, I can’t drive yet.”

“Rach! You should’ve called. I’m driving you home.”

Rachel knew better than to argue. “Sure, thanks.” She stared at the slobbering creature with his tongue hanging out. “So you finally got the dog.”

Liz smiled and shook her head. “You know I’ve been wanting a nonshedding dog for a long time, and I just mentioned to Ryan that we should start thinking about a puppy. You know, see how we do taking care of that as sort of a practice run before kids.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. Like a puppy was the same deal. Her sister had four kids, the oldest only seven. You couldn’t just stick a kid in a crate and leave the house. “You remember Bryce as a newborn, right?”

Bryce was Daisy’s son. Liz had been helping her sister raise the baby before Liz had moved in and later married Ryan. Her friend had been a wreck with that colicky up-all-night baby.

Liz wiped dog drool off her cheek. “Of course I remember Bryce. That’s why I wanted practice.”

“You know that’s not a nonshedding dog. It looks part lab.”

Liz scooted Hagar over and held out her button-down pink shirt already covered in black and white fur. “I know! I wanted a cute little bichon frise or a miniature poodle, but Ryan found Hagar abandoned by the Little League field and brought him home. Hagar’s so happy to be here I couldn’t turn him away.”

Hagar, hearing his name, took the opportunity to lick Liz all over her face again. Liz closed her eyes, smiling with her lips closed.

Eww
. Did Liz know where that dog’s tongue had been?

“The vet says he’s eight months old,” Liz said. “He probably has some Great Dane in him.” She lifted a giant paw. “See these paws?”

“He’s going to destroy your house.”

Liz hugged him. Hagar nibbled at the ponytail band in her hair, pulling more hair out of its ponytail. “Hagar!” She put him on the floor, and he rolled over, showing his stomach. She gave him a belly rub. “He’s already chewed through Ryan’s phone charger and ate a remote. That’s why Ryan changed his name to Hagar the Horrible. Hagar for short. I had named him Dumpling.”

Rachel snorted. Dumpling? This huge guy?

“So what’s up?” Liz asked. “Tell me everything that’s new with you.”

“Well, you know how I wanted to open a café next to Book It?”

Liz’s eyes lit up. “Did you get the loan?”

“No.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Maybe try another bank?”

“I don’t think I’ll get a different answer from a bank that doesn’t know me from Adam. My financials aren’t great. Anyway, Shane offered to invest in it. He said we’d be partners. He’d loan me the money for my half.”

Liz’s brows shot up. “Really?”

“Yeah. It’s a generous offer.”

“Egg?”

The old nickname referred to the fact that Liz thought Rachel was an egghead, always in her head and not noticing life going on around her. Rachel called Liz “chicken” because she never seemed to go for what she really wanted, but look at Liz now—married to the guy she’d crushed on as a teen, living in a house with a yard, and the dog to boot. Everything Liz had always dreamed of. The two kids to go along with it would likely be happening soon.

Rachel sighed. She couldn’t call Liz chicken anymore. “What?”

“About Shane. I think he might have feelings for you, and maybe those feelings led him to offer to help you out financially.”

Rachel knew that. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t still go into business together. “I told him we should just be friends.” She lifted a finger triumphantly. “Actually I told him that before he made the business offer, so he definitely knew.”

Liz looked at her sympathetically. “People don’t just turn their feelings off and on that quickly.”

Rachel felt a stab of guilt. She really needed this to work. She couldn’t lose Book It.

“Is there any way I can do this without being a total jerk?” Rachel asked.

Liz considered, pulling her ponytail smoothly back into place. “You’d have to be very clear. Spell it out. This is a business deal, and you don’t want to mix business with pleasure.”

“Strictly business. Firm boundaries. That’s what I’ve been thinking.”

“Absolutely. You’re a professional. Pretend it's some fancy-pants rich investor that came along. You’d have papers drawn up, get a lawyer to look it over, and never once take your clothes off.”

“Well, if he’s rich…”

They cracked up.

“You can do this,” Liz said. “Just…be careful with Shane. He’s special to me too. I don’t want to see him get hurt.”

Shane was Liz’s brother-in-law now. Geez, Rachel was surrounded with O’Hares. And now it felt like Liz was with them instead of her.

“I thought you’d be on my side,” Rachel said.

Hagar leaped up and barked at something by the front window. Liz joined him. “Bird,” she said over her shoulder. She coaxed Hagar back with a huge bone. “Of course I’m on your side. I love you both. Now be the professional businesswoman you are and make your café the most exciting thing to hit Clover Park since the O’Hares.” Liz grinned.

“You are definitely drinking the Kool-Aid now. I remember when you couldn’t bear to even look at Ryan. All you could think about was The Humiliation.”

The Humiliation was what they called an embarrassing incident at Grand Lake one summer when Liz was only thirteen with a monster crush on Ryan, the seventeen-year-old lifeguard.

Liz smiled mysteriously. “You never know when love will sneak up on you.”

Please
. Spoken like only a newlywed could get away with. Rachel stood. “I’d better get back.”

Liz jumped up. “Let me just put Hagar in his crate, and I’ll drive you.”

Hagar leaped up at his name, tail wagging hard. Liz took him back toward the kitchen. A few minutes later, Rachel and Liz headed out the front door.

“Stop by on Sunday for a barbeque,” Liz said as she unlocked her car. “One o’clock.”

An O’Hare family barbeque. Rachel had been to many. They were a fun crowd, but Liz was right, she had to be careful to keep firm boundaries with Shane, personally and socially, if this business partnership was going to work.

“Can I bring Janelle?” Rachel asked.

Liz started the car. “Absolutely. We’d love to have her.”

Rachel marveled over the changes in Liz as they made the short drive to Book It. The Liz she used to know would never have let a giant, slobbery, shedding dog into her meticulously neat home. Yet here she was, a happy mess. What happened to her cool, calm, and collected friend? Liz had changed so much since getting together with Ryan last year. She fell in love and got married. Was that what love did to you? Turned you into a different person?

Rachel had never been in love, and for that she was glad. She liked her life just as it was, surrounded by books, being her own boss, coming and going as she pleased. Only cleaning up after herself.

“You need any help with the street fair?” Liz asked. “I’ve got time this summer. I just have a few kids for tutoring.” Her friend taught third grade at Clover Park Elementary.

“That would be great!” Rachel enthused. Why hadn’t she thought to ask her best friend since sixth grade? Liz had always been there for her. She realized with a start that as Liz had spent more time with Ryan, Shane had filled the space left behind by her best friend. Shane had become her closest, best friend.

Just one more reason to keep things strictly business. She couldn’t afford to lose another best friend.

~ ~ ~

I am a professional businesswoman
, Rachel reminded herself as she waited for Shane to arrive at her apartment the next night for their planned business meeting. She’d called him yesterday after her talk with Liz and then gone straight to her lawyer. She had a business plan copied and bound for Shane, as well as the paperwork for a partnership and a loan contract that spelled out the terms of the loan. She set the interest rate to the same as the bank would have offered (if she’d actually gotten the loan) to keep everything at a fair market value.

She hadn’t dressed for a business occasion, thought that might be taking it a little too far; instead she wore the
Readers Rock
T-shirt she’d designed, with shorts. She sat at the kitchen table with the papers all laid out. She’d left the door unlocked so they wouldn’t have to go through that awkward
Officer and a Gentleman
routine again. She was so over that petite feeling with those strong, muscular…
professional
arms. No, not professional arms. Geez. Who ever heard of professional arms?

If they were going to go into business together, she couldn’t have any weirdness between them. The success of Book It was everything to her. After being in business for only two years, she wasn’t ready to see it shut down. Clover Park needed a bookstore. Otherwise it was just food and antiques, doctors and dentists, nothing soul-satisfying the way a good book like
Pride and Prejudice
could be.

The doorbell rang.

“It’s open!” Rachel hollered.

She heard Shane’s footsteps on the stairs, and then he stood in her kitchen, smiling his dimpled smile at her. “I got the money.”

She did a double take. “How did you get it so fast? My business loan application took two weeks.”

Shane grinned. “I had something stashed away for a rainy day, and it came through in a big way.”

“You’re not gonna tell me?”

“What’s all this?” he asked, pulling up a chair and gesturing to all the papers.

She pushed the laminated business plan toward him. “It’s everything you need to know to be a partner in Something’s Brewing Café. Business plan, partnership papers, loan contract.”

He picked up the business plan and flipped through it. “Not much on the type of coffee or food you’re going to offer.”

“I was still figuring that part out.”

He closed the business plan. “I’ve got plenty of ideas for that. I’ll come up with a menu.”

“Aren’t you going to read it?”

“I’ll read it later.”

“O-kay.” She gave him a pen and pushed the partnership papers toward him.

He looked it over. The lawyer had spelled out a fifty-fifty split with Shane supplying the food and coffee as well as training the baristas while Rachel ran the shop.

“Do I need to get Gabe to look at this?” Shane asked, referring to his lawyer friend. Gabe Reynolds had been in their grade and recently moved back to town.

“Gabe’s the one that handled it for me.”

Shane’s brows shot up. “What’d he say about it?”

Rachel played with her braid. “Just that he thought it was interesting that we would be business partners.”

“Interesting how?”

Gabe had given her a knowing look and his exact words were: “So you and Shane, huh? ’Bout time.” But Rachel wasn’t about to share that with Shane. That would be unprofessional.

“I don’t know,” Rachel said casually. “I figured he meant interesting as in something different since we were never partners before.” She pushed the loan papers toward him. “I set up a loan repayment schedule too.” She pointed out the interest rate. “Same as the bank’s rate.”

Shane rubbed his temple. “You don’t have to pay me interest.”

“Yes, I do.”

He blew out a breath and looked over the numbers. “You really think we need all this? Can’t we just shake on it?”

“This is business. We have to do it right.”

“Ten-year loan? We could do twenty if you want.”

“Ten,” she said firmly.

He studied her. She wasn’t budging on this. She didn’t want any special treatment just because they were friends. Part of keeping things strictly business was having all the paperwork in place. She didn’t want any hard feelings and definitely no misunderstandings about exactly what they were getting into here.

Shane grabbed the pen and signed everything with a flourish. “Done.” He flashed a smile. “Partners.” He held out his hand.

She shook it. His hand was surprisingly warm in hers. Their eyes met, and the moment hung between them as they just stared at each other.

“Rach, I…”

She yanked her hand back. “Janelle wants to go out with you,” she blurted.

It wasn’t true. Janelle had never mentioned any interest in Shane, but Rachel needed a buffer and fast.

Shane’s brows crinkled in confusion. “Janelle from your store?”

Rachel nodded. “She’s into you. She asked me to ask you if you’d ask her out.”

Shane narrowed his eyes. “Why does this sound like something out of junior high?”

“She’s shy.”

Janelle had never been shy. Rachel grabbed a napkin from the fruit bowl and scribbled Janelle’s number on it. “Call her, okay?”

Shane stared at the napkin. “Rach—”

“Just do it!” She shoved the napkin in his hand. “You have to. I already told her you’d call.”

“What’d you do that for?”

“I knew you’d take forever to ask her out, and I was sick of hearing her moon over you.”

“I wouldn’t take forever if I actually…” He stood abruptly, shoving the napkin in his pocket. “I’ll look over the business plan tonight. We can hammer out the details tomorrow. My place.”

“Actually I have my family Shabbat dinner Friday night. I can’t miss.” The Sabbath dinner was the only time her parents were in perfect accord, which made it her preferred time to visit. Plus she’d get to see her sister and her nieces and nephews. She loved the little guys to pieces.