Bent Not Broken (A Cedar Creek #1) (10 page)

Very frustrating.

With a pile of t-shirts at my feet I gave up and chose a simple three quarter sleeved see through black blouse with little white fox heads on it, put a light blue camisole under it, and deemed it good enough. My hair was still a little wet from my shower at Macy’s, but I left it the way it was. Blowing it out took forever, and I really wasn’t in the mood for it. So it got to do whatever it wanted today, which was being all wavy and wild and ending up in my face every few minutes.

Also very frustrating.

But trying to tackle my hair would not be successful in the state I was in. I knew that much.

I had been running late due to my inability to get dressed, so I didn’t have enough time to make coffee or get breakfast, nor to stop at
Lola’s
to get something on the go.

That was most frustrating.

If there had ever been a day when I should not be let lose on the public without coffee, today was that day.

Opening
Serendipity
, stupid little things kept happening that set me more on edge and made me feel unbalanced. First, I couldn’t find my keys and started getting mad at myself for having to go back up the mountain to retrieve them, when I thankfully found them hiding at the bottom of my purse. Second, I tripped over an invisible snag in the carpet and almost ended up on my hands and knees before I caught myself on a chair. Third, I couldn’t find the CD I had decided to put on in the hopes that the Black Stone Cherries would get me out of my funk. Not being successful in that endeavor, I decided on MuteMath, an excellent alternative band from New Orleans, whose energy you could feel coming through the speakers. Since I most definitely needed some help with my energy today, I thought it was a good pick.

I was going through my upcoming book order on my computer, listening to
Typical
—a kickass song that always put me in a better mood—when the bell over the door announced a customer coming in. When I looked up from my screen to greet whoever had come in and saw who it was, I instantly looked up to the heavens and sighed a deep sigh.

Great. Not sure I could deal with this right now.

Cal and Tommy wandered into my store, both of them smiling, all four eyes on me.

I got up off my little stool and waited for them at the counter. Tommy was carrying a carton of chocolate milk and a white bag with grease stains on it that emitted a delicious smell and made my stomach growl. I furrowed my brows at the reminder that I hadn’t had breakfast. Cal was carrying two white plastic cups that I could tell by its also delicious smell was coffee. I had a hard time taking my eyes off the cups, but managed when they arrived at the counter.

“Morning, sunshine,” Cal greeted me. His eyes were amused and something else. What exactly, I didn’t have the energy to interpret. All I knew and cared about was that he was making fun of me by calling me
sunshine
when I knew I looked exactly like I felt.

“Hey,” was all I replied snottily, trying to tell him with that one word that I was not happy to see him. This made him chuckle, which in return made me more grumpy, so I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes on him to convey this feeling. In reaction to this, he threw back his head and burst out laughing.

Really?

I made a harrumphing sound and looked over to Tommy, who was grinning at me. “Can I help you with something?” I asked rudely. I really wasn’t on my game today and needed them gone.

“Nope,” Tommy replied.

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Having breakfast with you,” this came from Cal.

Tommy put his chocolate milk and the white bag on the counter and started unpacking it. My eyes went back to Cal. “I’m not having breakfast with you,” I was getting really annoyed now. I was starving and needed a coffee, but I couldn’t let Cal think that I was going to give in to him. If it was true what Larry and Macy said last night, I had to shut this down before it started.

“You are,” Cal sounded determined and amused at the same time.

“We brought you a breakfast sandwich from
Tom’s
with lots of bacon on it. Dad says it’s the best hangover food in the world,” Tommy enlightened me.

He was right. It
was
the best hangover food in the world. But I didn’t share that with him. No way was I going to surrender, no matter how charming they were. Cal pushed one of the coffees towards me, and when the intense smell hit me, I almost gave in just to have one sip.

Yes, I needed coffee that bad.

Cal apparently could read my reaction, because he again started chuckling. I put my hands on my hips and leaned in to give him my super glare.

There. That should do it.

What I didn’t expect him to do was raise his hand to grab me by the side of my neck and pull me towards him until we were nose to nose. Now that I was that close, I could see what that was in his eyes.

Heat.

I gasped.

“Baby, that attitude you’re handing out to try and get rid of us, just saying, it’s not working. It makes you hot as hell and I’m having a hard time controlling the urge to kiss you senseless,” Cal’s voice was low and growly.

My eyes went wide and my body locked. I was drowning in his eyes. There was so much heat in them that I thought they would consume me. That heat combined with the words he said stunned me so completely that I missed the fact that he had called me
baby
.

Holy. Hell.

Cal held my eyes for a little while longer, then brushed his lips across my forehead and released me. I leaned back, gulped in some air, and gave in. It looked like the smarter play would be to let him feed me. Him kissing me senseless would do me no good. Thinking about him kissing me made a shiver run through my body.

I snatched up my coffee and took a long sip to hide my body’s reaction. Then I looked at Tommy and held out my hand for my breakfast sandwich. He handed it over with a big smile on his face and said, “You’re welcome,” to which Cal laughed under his breath.

Realizing I really had been too rude, I apologized to Tommy. “I apologize for being so ungrateful, Tommy. I’ve had a rough night and am out of sorts today, but that’s no excuse. Thank you for thinking of me and bringing me breakfast.”

“You had a rough night?” Cal asked with concern in his voice.

I had taken a bite of my sandwich and was savouring the flavour of eggs and bacon exploding in my mouth., which gave me a few seconds to decide how to answer his question. I didn’t want to give him too much information—I wanted him to back off, not give him more fodder to be interested in me—, so all I said was, “Couldn’t find sleep,” which was only a half-lie.

“Why?” he kept interrogating me.

“Don’t know. It happens sometimes.” Also not a lie.

Cal stared at me quietly. I expected him to keep asking intruding questions, but thankfully he let it go, though I could tell that he really wanted to know what gave me sleepless nights.

“Guess what we’re doing today?” This came from Tommy after neither Cal nor I had said anything for a few moments. He seemed very excited to share their plans with me. I turned my eyes to him, grateful for the subject change.

“No clue,” I answered.

“Guess!”

“Going for a hike?”

“Nope.”

“Going to the movies?”

“Nope. Keep guessing!”

I thought for a while. My mood lifting thanks to the coffee and food and Tommy’s exuberance, I joined Tommy’s “Guess what?” game and tried to be funny. “Going on an expedition to Greece to research if the myth of the sunken city of Atlantis is really a myth?”

Tommy laughed. Mission accomplished.

“We’re going to a farm to pick a puppy!” He shared loudly. Yeah. He was excited. Which he should be. Everyone would be excited at the prospect of choosing a puppy. Hell, I was excited for him!

“Wow! That’s great! I love puppies!” Both of them were looking at me, smirking.

“What? Puppies are great!” I tried to explain my exuberance, which clearly outclassed Tommy’s.

“Glad you think so, ‘cause it’s your puppy we’re picking.” Cal said.

Wait. What?

“Huh?” I asked them, confused. My head kept whipping back and forth between them, trying to decide if they were full of it.

“We’re getting you a puppy,” Tommy repeated what his dad had said.

“You’re getting me a puppy?” I was still confused.

“Yup,” Tommy answered proudly.

“Why would you do that?” I looked at Cal.

“‘Cause you need one,” he responded.

“I don’t need a puppy!”

“Yeah. You do.”

“Cal—”

“Ivey, you need a dog. You live up the mountain by yourself with no protection. I’m assuming you don’t own a gun, so a dog is the next best thing,” Cal’s voice was firm.

He assumed right. I didn’t own a gun. That didn’t mean I needed a dog for protection. I was perfectly fine.

“Cal—,” I started again, but was again interrupted.

“Remember what I said about that attitude?” That was a warning.

I clamped my mouth shut, but glared at him. He glared back at me.

Great. Now what did I do? I couldn’t serve up attitude or he would kiss me senseless and I couldn’t give in on this and let him buy me dog. I decided I needed more time to think about a plan of action, so I said nothing and just kept glaring at him.

“You’re gonna snap my control,” he said, his voice strained now.

I kept glaring.

“Ivey,” a warning. His hand was coming up towards my face again, and I took a step back, still glaring.

“That counter is not gonna save you.” Another warning.

Thankfully, I was saved by the bell so to speak, when the door opened. I could see Cal clench his teeth in annoyance. I smiled at him smugly. Big mistake. The heat was back in full force, this time mixed with determination.

Oh shit.

Now what had I done?

I escaped his eyes by quickly walking over and seeing to my customer. This took a while. Ruth was one of my old biddies, who had come in for a chat about the latest book she had finished. She was really old, my guess, in her late eighties, but believe it or not, she was into romance novels big time, not the fluffy ones either—steamy romances with gruff and hot cowboys were her favourite. When I teased her about it once, she gave me the stare and deadpanned, “My dear, I’ve been a widow for more than a decade. Doesn’t mean I don’t have certain needs. Gonna have to wait until I meet my Herb again, but until then this has to do.” I had been speechless. Who would have thought that eighty-year-old grannies still had ‘certain needs’ and were open about sharing that information? Something to look forward to, I guess.

Our conversation apparently took too long for the boys to wait out, so they got ready to leave after about fifteen minutes. Looking over Ruth’s shoulder, I could see Cal approaching. When my eyes didn’t come back to her, Ruth stopped speaking and turned around.

“Young man, it’s not polite to interrupt a discussion,” she seemed disgruntled. “Wait your turn,” she finished, then turned back around to facing me and resumed talking. Cal completely ignored her and came to stand at my side, pulling me towards him with one hand at my hip. He then brushed his lips against my temple softly and said, “Later, babe,” then let me go and walked out the door.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

“See you finally got yourself a man,” Ruth mumbled under her breath happily. “A hot one.”

“He isn’t my man.”

“Looked like it to me. Judging by his manner, he considers you his woman.”

“That’s ridiculous. He can consider all he wants. That doesn’t mean that’s what’s actually happening.”

Ruth harrumphed. “My dear, if I had a man like that pursue me, I would
definitely
not run the other way. Take the advise from an old biddy like me and tap that.”

“Ruth!” I exclaimed, appalled.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“I can’t believe you just advised me to
tap
Cal Bennett!”

“Why not? Perfectly fine man.”

“That’s not what I meant. I can’t believe you would advise me to
tap
any man.”

“Told you, dear, I am old, but I am still a woman,” she said, then dove back into telling me all about the hot cowboy from her last romance novel.

*****

This was getting ridiculous. For nine years I had hardly seen Cal in town at all, and now it felt like he was everywhere. He was at the diner when I got my lunch, at
Lola’s
when I got my daily morning fix—where he insisted on paying for my coffee—, at the grocery store, even at the damn post office. And he always stared at me with those hot eyes of his, no matter what I was doing. I could be waiting in line somewhere and he would walk in, just look at me or come over and ask me how my day was going. Or I could be standing on the sidewalk talking to somebody and he would stop and stand beside me, joining the conversation for a few minutes, then give me a warm smile and a kiss on my temple or forehead and leave with a “Later, babe”. I couldn’t escape him. Those little touches and sometimes warm, sometimes heated, sometimes amused looks were driving me absolutely insane. Okay, they did turn my insides to mush as well, but I decided to focus on the first. I even tried and switched it up and went for lunch at different times, but he was always there. It was almost as if he knew when I would be there. Like a freakin’ clairvoyant-pain-in-my-ass.