Fall for You (12 page)

Before he could leave, Keith stopped him. “Wait! What's going on with you?”

Reed forced his lips into a smile to put him
at ease. “Nothing I can't fix.”

“
What?”

“
Never mind. I gotta go. See ya.”

Keith gave a nod and headed for the cookies.

* * * *

Sophie woke to the feel of a large, warm hand gently stroking her cheek. It felt solid and comforting, so she nuzzled into it. She was drifting back to sleep when she heard a man's voice. “Sophie, sweetheart, wake up.” It was a nice voice. It reminded her of Reed.
Wait a minute. This was either another great dream or there was a man in Tracy's apartment!

Sophie shot up so fast she almost knocked heads with him. He dodged back in just enough time to avoid a collision. Then she got a good look at his face and realized it really was Reed.

“
What are you doing here? How did you get in?” The adrenaline rush cleared away the cobwebs in a hurry.

He was crouched
down on the floor next to the couch looking sexy as sin. He was wearing a crimson red T-shirt and faded jeans. He smelled like a combination of citrus cologne and fabric softener. Sophie never thought of Reed doing laundry, but she wouldn't mind seeing it. A gorgeous image of a shirtless Reed washing clothes flashed in her mind. Maybe he could lose the pants too.
Hey, clothes get dirty…

“
Sophie.”

She reluctantly stopped staring at his gorgeous chest to get with the conversation.

“
Hmmmm?”

Reed raised his palm, showing off a house key. “Told you any yahoo could get in here.”

Sophie sat all the way up and moved over so he could sit next to her. “Are you a yahoo, then?”

He shook his head. “No, I'm not just any yahoo, now. This yahoo comes bearing good news and bad news. Which do you want
to hear first?”

Sophie hated when people asked her that. Who seriously wanted to hear bad news?

From Reed's expression, it was serious.

Putting off the inevitable, Sophie tried to lighten the mood.

“
Is this where you say, 'the good news is I don't have a
girl
friend, but the bad news is that I have a
boy
friend?' That's not a thing to tell a woman when she just wakes up.”

Reed breathed out
a startled laugh. “What?” He began with, “No, I…” Then went with, “You're kidding, right?”

“
Yes. I am. But the look on your face is priceless.”

“
Remind me later to prove that I like women, you in particular.” He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers so they were palm to palm.

“
So, the good news is that the cookies were delivered.”

“
That's a relief! What's the bad news? If the cookies
made it on time, there shouldn't be a problem.”

“
They weren't delivered to the MFLIC meeting.”

She stood corrected.

“
Why not? I thought you said they were delivered.” She pulled away and angled so she could see his face.

Reed didn't look happy. His brows were lowered and his mouth was set in a firm line.

“
There was no meeting. No one was there. The next meeting isn't until Tuesday, almost
two weeks from now.”

Sophie immediately shot off the couch and turned to face him. “What do you mean there was no meeting? I don't understand. Your mom told me herself that the meeting was today and to deliver fifteen dozen cookies. I made a hell of a lot more than fifteen dozen damn cookies last night, Reed!”

Shaking his head, Reed told her, “I know and I'm sorry to hear that. I talked to my
mom after I found out. According to her, the order got mixed up. She said that you must have misunderstood her.”

Sophie's voice rose an octave higher and gained in volume. “Misunderstood? How the hell do you misunderstand someone saying, 'I need these by tomorrow?'“

Standing up as well, Reed told her even worse news. “That's not all. Mom insists she ordered five dozen root beer cookies that
she still wants by the twenty-ninth.”

Mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, Sophie was at a loss for words. It took her a minute. “
Now
she only wants root beer float cookies? You're not joking?”

He gave his head a slight shake in the negative

Sophie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All of that work was for nothing. She did
not
mix up that order. Dot Sutton was seriously screwing
with her. On top of that, if Sophie wanted to keep the MFLIC's business, she would have to make that conniving woman the root beer float cookies too.

Reed stood a few feet away appearing braced for any type of blow up. It wasn't his fault even though she knew Dot did this as a power play.

“
Do you believe her?” She peered expectantly into his eyes, waiting to hear that he thought she confused
the order too.

To her surprise, he said, “No. I don't know what's going on, but I believe you took the order correctly. It doesn't make sense to me either.”

It made perfect sense to Sophie. Dot was trying to keep her away from Reed by messing with her livelihood.

A new thought occurred to her. “Where were the cookies delivered?”

“
Sutton Construction.”

“
You bought all of those cookies?”

Reed shrugged. “Dad brings some in on Friday. I gave them to the crew a day early.” Sophie sank back down onto Tracy's couch. “Reed, that was more than double what your dad buys and you know it. I appreciate what you did, but you shouldn't have to pay for them.”

Sitting down next to her, Reed took Sophie's hand in both of his. “My crew ate them so I paid for them.” He ducked his head down to look
her in the eye. “Trust me, Sophie, it wasn't a hardship. Buying a double order was an excellent morale booster for my workers. Besides, you shouldn't have to take the loss or try to resell something when my buying them was the perfect solution.”

She was going on less than three hours of sleep so it was hard to keep her eyes from welling up with tears for the second time today. Her emotions were
so close to the surface right now. Anger, frustration, fatigue, and gratitude were a potent combination of feelings. Sophie wouldn't cry. Not now. She didn't have the time.

“
You know Sophie, you don't need to make that other order. If I were you, I would cancel on her.”

She pulled her hand free to get her shoes on to go back to work. “I can't. If I cancel, I lose future orders with any of the
MFLIC members. My credibility will be suspect so I have to make them.” Dot Sutton knew that and was manipulating her.

“
Right now, I have to get downstairs so I can finish out the day. Sarah was kind enough to fill in, but she needs to get back to the bar.”

Reed helped her stand and put his arms around her waist. “Since you're my boss, I have to ask for a favor. Can I have the night off?”

“
Of course. Why?”

“
I know someone who's had a bad day and I want to make it better.”

“
Me?”

He grinned. “Yeah, you. How about you catch a nap after work and then I'll come over later?” His smile turned sexy. “I promise to take your mind off cookies.”

“
In that case, absolutely.” Her day was already looking up.

“
Call me when you wake up.” Reed handed Tracy's key back to Sophie. “Told you about
those yahoos, didn't I?”

He opened the door for her and checked the lock. “See you soon, Sophie.”

Under the circumstances, Reed thought Sophie handled the bad news rather well. He'd braced himself for a bigger blow up considering how hard she worked and how tired she'd been. It was like a punch to the gut when he saw tears well up in her eyes, but Sophie didn't cry. She'd only even raised her voice a little bit. What happened to her hadn't been fair but instead of giving in to her
feelings, she straightened her spine and went back to work.

Sophie Brandon was an amazing woman.

He didn't want to lose her now.

At the town hall, Reed had had a small hope that there was a logical explanation for the mix-up. He knew Sophie was telling the truth, so that left his mom as the person responsible for this clusterfuck.

What would motivate someone to pull a dirty trick like that?
It didn't make sense, but he wouldn't bother talking to her anymore today. He'd deal with his mom tomorrow after he cooled off.

Tonight, his main concern was Sophie. Reed would try to make it up to her. He wanted to ease that worried look in her eyes and put a smile back on her face.

If he had any hope for a relationship with her, Reed was going to have to break out the big guns. Time to talk
to the person who knew her best.

* * * *

A small nap with Max did wonders for Sophie's mood. At least she no longer felt homicidal. That was a bonus. Now that they were both awake, Max wouldn't let her out of his sight. He was suffering from a slight case of separation anxiety. Her poor puppy dog followed her everywhere as she went around the house trying to get ready for Reed's visit. It was
cute at first, but Sophie was starting to trip over him. At this rate, they were both going to end up getting hurt.

She stroked his fur and bent down to talk to him. “I'm sorry, buddy. I had to work. I didn't want to leave you, but I'm home now. Everything's okay.”

Max gazed at her with big loving eyes and thumped his tail in response. She walked to her dresser and instead of following her,
he hopped up on the bed to watch her find something to wear.

Now for the hard part. Sophie wasn't sure she had any sexy bras and panties that matched. The only clean underwear she had were,
oh no
, “days of the week” panties.
Seriously?
Add the bananas and cartoon monkeys covering them and her chances of looking sexy were shot. The bright side, if you could call it that, was that these panties
had a matching bra.
Of course they did.
That should drive Reed wild with lust. Sophie didn't have time to do laundry so it looked like she would be sporting the “Thursday” monkey panties. She hoped she got points for wearing the right undies on the right day.

Of course, it would be irrelevant if he didn't have sex in mind. Reed didn't
say
he was coming over to ravish her. That was wishful thinking
on her part. Technically, he said that he wanted to make her feel better. Some good ravishing would definitely do the trick. Sophie would even settle for a foot rub and some ice cream.
Maybe just the ice cream
.

Time was wasting so she grabbed her monkey underwear and headed for the shower. Max stayed put.

* * * *

By the time Reed got there she was as ready as she could get, wearing an indigo
blue tank top and white denim shorts. Cute but not overly fancy. The main reason Sophie picked the top was because the yellow bananas all over her bra didn't show through the dark blue material.
Just in case he wasn't here to see her bra. Or ravish her.

Max was with her when she opened the door for him. This time, Max minded his manners and sat still instead of jumping all over him. Reed's hands
were full so it was lucky that her dog behaved.

“
Reed, what is all this?” Sophie led him to the dining room table where he set everything down. He looked gorgeous in a black fitted T-shirt and jeans that were light blue. He was clean-shaven and his dark brown hair was a little messy in the front. It looked like he'd tunneled his fingers through it. She wanted to run her fingers along his scalp
and mess up the rest of it, preferably while kissing him.

Reed held up a quart of peanut butter passion ice cream. “Tracy said that this was your favorite. It's still pretty hot outside so it's a little melted. I want you to be able to enjoy it so we need to get it in the freezer before it turns into soup.”

She wanted to kiss him for his thoughtfulness, but Sophie didn't want her ice cream to
go to waste either. It was a tough choice, but she headed for the kitchen to put the carton in the freezer. When she came back into the dining room, Reed held out a bouquet of pale pink roses. “These aren't nearly as beautiful as you, but I wanted you to have them anyway.”

Another favorite!

This time Sophie stood on her tiptoes and was about to pull him down for a kiss when she smelled…pizza?
How did he manage to hide that?

Max had already figured it out since he was parked right in front of the table. Reed lifted the lid with the Pizza Palace logo to show her a pizza with ground sausage and extra cheese, also her favorite.

“
You had quite the conversation with Tracy.” Sophie was impressed.

Reed looked pleased with himself. “Tracy was very informative. Are you hungry?”

Sophie wasn't
until she smelled the delectable aroma of the pizza. She grinned. “Oh, absolutely! I'll get some paper plates and napkins.” While she was in the kitchen, Sophie put her flowers in some water.

When she came back out with a few drinks too, Reed was standing in the living room next to the coffee table. He had a two candles lit and placed in the middle of the table. “I thought we could have a candlelight
dinner out here.”

“
I'd like that.” She tossed some throw pillows on the floor next to the table. He led her to one and sat across from her. Sophie took a bite of her pizza and practically moaned. “Mmm, so good.” The sausage was spicy and the sauce was sweet. It was the perfect combination of flavors. She chewed and smiled at the same time, which wasn't easy.

* * * *

Reed hadn't taken a bite
yet. He was too engrossed in watching Sophie eat. She'd looked happy when she ate the hamburgers last time. This time she looked downright orgasmic. He never thought he would be so jealous of a slice of pizza. Sophie opened her eyes and his thoughts must have shown in his expression because she blushed and started chewing more slowly.