Sweet Sunshine (19 page)

I was officially done.

“I know this is your house and you’re going to do what you want to do in the end, but I’d appreciate it if you’d get out of this room.”

“But we need to talk about this.”

“I’m all talked out,” I said with a defeated shrug. “I’m exhausted and feel like shit. I just want to sleep.” It was a lie, but I knew playing the sick card would work. Derrick was nothing if not insanely protective.

“We’ll talk in the morning,” he proclaimed, his shoulders squaring as his chin came up like what he’d just said was definitive. “You’ll get some sleep and we’ll talk this through in the morning. Everything’s going to be just fine, Chloe. You’ll see.” I stood, frozen in place as he came close and pressed a tender kiss to my forehead. “Rest, baby. Then we’ll talk.”

It took ten seconds for my feet to come unglued from the floor once the bedroom door closed behind him, then I was a flurry of motion, dumping all of my stuff into my duffle bag haphazardly as I snatched up my phone and dialed.

I spoke as soon as the line connected. “I’m so sorry for calling this late,” I managed to get out just before the sobs broke loose, “but can you come get me? Please?”

Derrick

HOLY SHIT, WHAT
did I just do?

That sentence had been the only thing floating around in my head since walking out of Chloe’s — well, technically
my
— bedroom fifteen minutes ago.

I froze.

When she asked me what would happen between us come morning, if we’d still be friends, I completely fucking froze. And I hated myself because the tears in her eyes and the pain etched across her beautiful face were all my fault. All because I’d been too much of a coward to admit there was something between us, something so much more, and it terrified the shit out of me. There was no way in hell she’d have been discarded. She’d managed to burrow herself under my skin, and I was starting to come to grips with the fact that she was there to stay. Hell, I
wanted
her there!

But did I
say
any of that?

Fuck no.

I locked up and managed to break her heart in the process, even though that was the last thing on Earth I ever wanted to do.

I needed to fix things between us
now
. I couldn’t wait until morning. I knew pushing when she was sick was a shitty thing to do, but I couldn’t let her fall asleep thinking I wasn’t totally and completely fucking in this with her. She had to know the truth. I stood from the couch, prepared to grovel like my life depended on it — which felt about right considering the tightness in my chest — when the glow of headlights poured into my living room through the opened curtains, lighting up the once dark space. I made it to the door just as a knock sounded.

“Noah?” I asked once the door was opened. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at his stony expression. “Man. What’d you do?”

With that one quietly spoken question the blood in my veins ran ice cold. “No,” I stated with finality once it dawned on me why he was at my house at such an ungodly hour.

“Don’t have much of a choice man.” He gave me a pitying look. “Can’t force her to stay.”

“I’m ready,” Chloe’s voice sounded through the room, stabbing straight through my chest like a goddamned knife.

“You’re not leaving.”

Panic. Bone chilling panic began coursing through me as she moved closer to the door, eyes focused on her feet as she moved, refusing to look at me. “Please move,” she said quietly once she stood a foot away.

“Chloe, look at me.”

Nothing.

“Please, baby. Just look at me.” I was begging. Christ, I’d never begged a woman for anything in my life. Not even Layla when we were married. But I wasn’t above doing anything and everything in my power to get her to hear me out. “I’m sorry. Look, we need to talk, okay? I need to explain—”

She cut me off. “I want to go home.”

“Sunshine, you’re not leaving,” I whispered. I reached up to touch her only to have her head snap up, eyes narrowed as she glared. Her normally gorgeous jade eyes were so full of pain and anger, I felt it all the way down to my bones.

“Fine!” she snapped. Her little hands hit my chest and she shoved with all her might, rocking me back a foot, just enough clearance for her to make it through the open door.

“Goddamn it!” I shouted, darting out after her, oblivious to Noah’s wide-eyed stare as his gaze darted between us. “You’re not fucking leaving!” I latched on to her upper arm and tried to pull her against me. Despite her struggle, I was convinced, if I could just touch her, hold her, kiss her, I could calm her down enough to make her see reason. But she wasn’t having any of that.

“Let. Go.” Luckily her kick went wide, missing my shin by a couple inches. I couldn’t imagine how badly that would have hurt had she actually connected with my leg. I loosened my hand just enough for her to pull free as I tried to keep away from her flailing foot.

Before I had a chance to grab her again, Noah was in front of me.

“Just give her time to cool off,” he spoke. But my gaze was riveted to the tiny woman with strawberry blonde curls walking away from me. My lungs felt like they were being squeezed in a vice. I couldn’t get enough air as she closed herself in Noah’s truck.

“I can’t,” I croaked.

“Look, just let her sleep it off for a few hours, all right? There’s no reasoning when they get like this. It’s like talking to a brick fucking wall, brother.”

“I need her to let me explain.

“Don’t we all.” He patted my shoulder compassionately before adding, “Welcome to the club, you poor son of a bitch.”

I finally pulled my attention off his truck and looked down at him. “Huh?”

“You’re sprung my friend. Wrapped around her little finger. In other words, officially fucked. Sucks feeling like you aren’t in control of shit anymore, doesn’t it?”

All I could do was stand there as he turned and made his way to the truck that was going to take Chloe away from me.

“I’m screwed, aren’t I?” I asked his retreating back.

“Absolutely!” he answered far too cheerfully. The bastard.

Chloe

FOR THE FIRST
time in my life, baking wasn’t helping calm my frayed nerves. From the moment Noah dropped me off at my place, I’d been in the kitchen, mixing, icing, decorating, you name it, and nothing had helped.

“Uh…” Erin murmured from her place a few feet away as I banged on the espresso machine like it owed me money. “Are you
sure
you should have come in today?”

“Yep!”
Bang
. “I told you, I’m fine.”
Bang, bang
.

“But Derrick said—”

“Derrick’s an idiot!” She took a step back at my banshee-like yell. People sitting at the tables enjoying their breakfast and coffees paused to stare. “Sorry,” I grumbled before sucking in a calming breath. The last thing I needed to do was bite my employees’ heads off when they’d done nothing wrong. “I’m just tired. I didn’t get any sleep and the stupid delivery guy called this morning and informed me the new convection oven isn’t coming in for another two days.”

She still sounded hesitant as she shuffled toward the kitchen door. “Well, I’ll uh… just let you get to it,” then she made her escape like her ass was on fire.

“You’re just a regular ray of sunshine this morning, aren’t you?”

I shot a heated look over my shoulder at Harlow, who’d shown up at Sinful Sweets as soon as the doors unlocked an hour and a half ago. “Don’t you work?”

“Nope.” She made an annoying popping sound on the “p”. “Maternity leave is in full effect. Now you get to see my smiling face every day until I push this little bundle of joy out of my body
Alien
style.” She gave her belly an affectionate rub.

“Lucky me,” I deadpanned.

“You know, you can’t avoid the subject forever—”

“Watch me,” I interrupted, refusing to tell her what went down between me and Derrick that warranted a rescue call at the butt crack of dawn.

“Chloe,” she said in a warning tone just as the bell over the door rang.

“Oh, sorry,” I fake winced. “Looks like you’ll have to wait, I’ve got a new customer.”

She crossed her arms with a “
hmph”
and pouted as I turned to see who had just walked in. “Fletch!” I said in surprise, choosing to ignore the shit-eating grin that suddenly spread across Harlow’s face, as well as her mumbled, “Well this morning just got a lot more interesting.”

“Chloe,” he smiled sweetly as he took the barstool next to Harlow, turning to offer her a nod. “Harlow. How are you lovely ladies this morning?”

“Well I’m twenty-months pregnant,” Harlow answered, “so every time I sneeze, I pee myself. And its allergy season. How do you
think
my morning’s going?”

“For crying out loud,” I rolled my eyes, “not everyone needs all the gory details of pregnancy, Low-Low.” I gave a startled-looking Fletch an apologetic smile.

“But if cooking another human being in my belly for months doesn’t give me the right to say whatever the hell I want, then what will?” she asking indignantly. “Surely pregnancy gives you certain perks. Why else would women do it?”

“Um… for the joys of bringing a baby of their own into the world?” Fletcher asked on a laugh.

Harlow waved him off. “Oh, what the hell do you know?”

I turned my attention to Fletch. “Ignore her. Pregnancy makes her cranky. What can I get you?”

“Well, since I hear you’ve got the best coffee in Pembrooke, why don’t we start there?”

“On it,” I smiled my first genuine smile of the day. “Black?”

“That’d be perfect. To go, if you don’t mind.”

I set about making his coffee, pouring it into a travel cup and snapping a lid on before sliding it his way. “First cup’s on the house. Hopefully you’ll like it enough to come back. Then I’ll start charging you.”

He smiled again. God, he had a really great smile. “I appreciate it. I’m sure it’s as good as everyone says. But I actually came in here for another reason. Coffee was just a bonus.”

“Really?” Harlow and I both propped our elbows on the bar, leaning in closer, me because I was curious, her because she was a nosey pain in the ass.

“Um, yeah.” His cheeks turned just a touch pink as he reached up and scratched his jawline. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to have dinner with me one evening.”

I stood straight, caught off guard by his unexpected offer.

“Oh,” I said.

“Like on a date?” nosey-ass Harlow asked.

“Well,” Fletch chuckled, “if she’s interested. If not, we’ll just call it a meal between friends. But for the sake of full disclosure, I’m kind of hoping dinner has more of a first-date vibe to it.”

My mouth dropped open, but before I had a chance to respond, a low, menacing voice spoke up.

“She’s not interested.”

All three pairs of eyes shot to where Derrick was standing, just a few feet away from us. I hadn’t even heard the damn bell of the door!

“Ooooh.” Harlow practically clapped with glee. Damned woman really needed to get a life.

“For the love of God!” I snapped, throwing my hands wide. “Does no one work in this freaking town?!”

Derrick ignored my dramatics and stated, “I need to talk to you.”

“Well I’m busy, so unless you came in to buy coffee or pastries, I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

“Um… are you two together or something?” Fletch asked.

“No!” I answered at the same time Derrick shot, “Yes.”

“Have you lost your mind?” I shouted at him. “We are
not
together!”

Derrick’s eyes stayed firmly rooted on Fletcher as he confided. “We’re just having a little fight, you understand.”

Fletcher actually nodded in understanding.

“For Christ’s sake! We are
not
together!” I cried, drawing the rapt attention of every single person in the bakery.

“Yes, we are.”

“No. We. Are. Not!”

“This is better than Maury,” Harlow breathed, grabbing a cookie from the display case and munching down happily.

I pointed at her. “You’re paying for that!”

“You know,” Fletcher started as he stood to his feet, “I should really get going. Thanks for the coffee, Chloe. I’ll see you around.” He turned to Derrick and held out his hands. “Sorry for the misunderstanding, man.”