Tomorrow, I’ll go and buy myself a fish.
***
Josh had thought about Mason’s renovation proposal for the last two days. He wasn’t sure if it was good to mix business with friends, but Mason had balked at the idea that Josh would do it for free.
So, here he was, walking through the dining room of Exquisite on Thursday morning, looking for the owner. He found Mason standing behind the bar with his head bent over, reading something. Josh walked over to the counter, and as he reached it, Mason looked up.
“Hey, Daniels. How you doing this morning?”
“Good, man, good. Yourself?”
“Can’t complain,” he told him, grinning widely.
Josh nodded as he lifted the folder he had in his hand to the countertop.
“Is that the bid?” Mason asked.
Pushing it toward his friend, he replied, “Yeah. I think I got it all in there. You wanted an estimate for the wall to be knocked down and the space next door to be brought up to code for the restaurant to be expanded, right?”
“You got it,” Mason answered, reaching out to grab the folder.
Lifting it, he opened it up and flipped through the pages. Josh turned and looked around the dining room, giving Mason a moment to look it over.
Damn, this place is something else. The tables were perfectly arranged, and the fancy silverware and crystal glasses made the place look refined and elegant. The beautiful big bar behind him also gave the place a cozy feel. Josh could imagine Friday and Saturday nights here were insanely busy.
He was about to turn around when he heard his friend ask, “So, ahh…Josh, you single? Dating?”
Turning back to face Mason, he chuckled and asked, “Why? You interested?”
“Sure, smart ass, that’s why I’m asking.”
Josh shook his head. He was pretty sure he knew where this was going, and he wanted to can it before—
“Well, I was just thinking it might be nice if you and Shelly got to know one another. You know, the good-looking blonde that was here the other night. She’s single,” Mason suggested with a devious grin.
Josh shook his head. “No way, man.”
“What’d you mean no way? Did you see her?”
Laughing, Josh pointed out, “I have eyes, don’t I? Of course I saw her. She was pretty damn hard to miss.”
“So, what’s the problem? Are you seeing someone?”
Crossing his arms, Josh narrowed his eyes. “No, I’m not, but I’m not going to start seeing her. I’m not going to do anything with her.”
Mason tilted his head to the side. “Why? What’s wrong with you? She’s exactly what you normally go for.”
“Oh, really? And is Lena what you always went for?”
Mason’s spine straightened, and he shrugged. “What do you mean?”
Josh answered, “People change. That’s all I’m saying. You found a woman who is wonderful, and yeah, she’s not what you used to go out with, but it works.” Josh knew Mason thought he was going to say something about models and beauty queens, but that’s not what he meant. “I’m looking for someone a little quieter than I think Man-Eater Monroe knows how to be,” he muttered, forgetting to drop the name he’d given her in his head.
Suddenly, Mason let out a loud booming laugh. “What’d you just call her?”
Shaking his head, Josh answered quickly, “Nothing.”
“Oh yeah, you did. Did you say ‘Man-Eater Monroe’?”
Rolling his eyes at his friend, he nodded. “Yeah. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed. The first thing she did when we met was size me up like her next meal.”
That set his friend off again. Mason was laughing so hard that he had tears coming out his eyes.
“Ah, man! Don’t you remember when we were in high school? We would’ve killed for a girl to look at us like that, and now, you’re acting like a horrified virgin.” Mason grinned. “Which I know you’re not.”
“Shut the hell up, Casanova,” Josh threw at him.
Mason’s mouth snapped shut, and he glared at him. “Alright, who told you?” Shaking his head, Mason narrowed his eyes. “Forget it, I know. Rachel’s a dead woman.”
Josh pointed at the folder. “So? What’d you think?”
Placing the folder on the counter, Mason asked, “When can your guys start?”
“How ‘bout Monday?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Josh reached over and shook Mason’s hand. Mason was about to pull back when Josh gripped his hand tight and said in the most menacing voice he could find, “If you tell Monroe I called her that, I’ll kill you, and I don’t even care that it’d make Lena cry.”
Mason grinned unrepentantly as Josh let go of his hand, placing his palm on his chest. “You’re breaking my heart.”
“Do I look like I care?”
“Cold, Daniels, cold.”
Smiling at his old friend, Josh replied with a grin, “You live in Chicago. Suck it up.”
Chapter Three
It was Monday evening when Shelly finally sat down after a grueling twelve-hour shift in the Intensive Care Unit. She looked at the messages on her desk and picked one up.
Memo: 4:25 p.m.
Dr. Lawrence Monroe called.
Please call him back.
You found some time for me, did you, Father? Squeezing me in, probably somewhere between the nurses or maybe an intern? Sorry but not right now.
Folding it up, Shelly stuffed it into her pocket and picked up the second one.
Memo: 11:52 a.m.
Paul Worthington called.
Oh, he did, did he? Shelly thought, sitting back in her leather chair. She hadn’t heard from Paul for almost three months. What on earth would he be calling about now? Who knew? she dismissed as she heard a knock at her door.
Looking over, she saw Dr. Roger McKinney, leaning against the frame with one leg crossed over the other. He had his glasses on, and his hands were stuffed into his lab coat. Shelly gave him a stiff smile, hoping he wasn’t here for round three of what Shelly liked to refer to as Uncomfortable Moments, starring Dr. Roger McKinney and Dr. Shelly Monroe.
She watched as he pushed away from the doorframe, walking into her office. At five-feet-six, he wasn’t a tall man by any means, and Shelly knew that in a good pair of heels she was most definitely taller than her boss. As casually as he could, he moved around the chair opposite her desk and took a seat. He crossed his legs and smiled at her, and Shelly noticed for the first time his mustache was gone—an improvement by any standards but still by no means someone she envisioned herself dating.
Shelly sat silently, hoping whatever was about to come out of his mouth was work-related.
“Are you finished for the night?” he finally questioned.
That did not sound promising, she thought as she turned to face him directly. Nodding, she forced a full smile and held up a yellow memo note, waving it back and forth.
“Just going through my messages before heading out.”
“Great, great,” he said, placing his hands on his knees.
Please don’t ask me, please don’t—
“So, I was wondering if you’d like to grab a drink with me tonight.”
Annd he did, Shelly groaned internally.
No matter how many times she said no, he kept coming back. It was getting to the point where she was running out of creative and polite ways to refuse a drink with this man. Wincing, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the note from her father.
“I’m sorry. Dad called to tell me he was coming into town, so I really need to get home.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
“Oh. Oh, okay,” he stuttered as he stood and brushed his hands over some imaginary lint on his lab coat. He then quickly put his hands back in his lab coat pockets and nodded. “Maybe some other time. Be sure to say hello to Dr. Monroe for me.”
Shelly forced a grin onto her face, refusing to be mean or rude, and nodded once. “Will do.”
<
br /> Sitting in her chair gripping a yellow piece of paper, she watched as her boss left. She hated the fact that her father had just inadvertently saved her.
Oh, my father would love Dr. Roger McKinney, Hospital Administrator. Even though her father was forever telling her she made bad choices in her relationships, he’d think McKinney was the perfect man to settle down with.
Dr. Lawrence Monroe was convinced his daughter would end up with someone she would have to support for the rest of her life, and Shelly was determined to prove him wrong. That’s why it was such a shame that McKinney was about as appealing as a root canal. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t flip her switch, but…well, he just didn’t.
Sighing, Shelly bent down to pick up her purse and looked at the other piece of yellow paper.
Paul Worthington. Lawyer, self-made man, educated, smart—maybe he was worth another shot. After all, what do I have to lose?
***
On Tuesday morning, Josh pushed through the front doors of Exquisite with the blueprints for the building next door and a tray holding four coffees plus a bag of doughnuts. As the front doors closed behind him, he saw Lena look up from the table she was sitting at.
He smiled and made his way over to her. She had some kind of account book with columns and numbers running up and down the pages open in front of her.
Numbers—I hate crunching numbers.
Lowering his knees a little, he dumped the bag on the table as she stood and reached for the tray.
Smiling up at him, she whispered, “What’s in the bag?”
Looking around the empty dining room, Josh answered in a conspiratorial whisper, “Doughnuts. Why?”
Lena shook her head from side to side. “Have you ever been around Rachel when she’s seen store-bought doughnuts?”
Josh felt a huge smile spread across his mouth as he placed the rolled-up prints on the table behind him. Pulling a chair out, he sat down and shook his head.
“Nope. But if it’s anything like the time she was caught looking at Mason’s porn magazine collection, I have a feeling I’m in trouble.”
Lena’s mouth fell open, and he wasn’t sure if she was shocked at what Rachel had been caught doing or the fact that the magazines had belonged to Mason. She quickly seemed to regain her composure though as she leaned forward.
“Really?” she asked, grinning at him in a way that let him know she was cooking up some way to use this new information.
“Really. He hid them in his closet in a shoebox.”
“How original,” she muttered.
Laughing, Josh nodded. “Better than under the bed.”
“True, that’s the first place Catherine would’ve looked.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he tilted his head to the side. “That’s where all the naughty boys hid them. Did you know her well?”
His question must have hit a nerve because she stiffened, and then nodded. “Yes, I did.”
Okay, message received. No more questions about Catherine.
Josh reached up and ran his fingers through his shaggy brown hair, wanting to get back to a more comfortable topic. “Yep. Rach had just turned sixteen, and Mason and I had walked in and found her in his closet with magazines scattered all around her. She had them opened on all different pages, displaying various…” He paused, looking for the right word. Grinning, he winked at Lena. “Positions.”
Gasping and bringing her hand up to her mouth, Lena burst into giggles, and Josh couldn’t help but laugh with her.
He was about to continue when he heard Mason ask, “What are you two laughing about?”
Turning around in his chair, he saw Mason walking across the dining room, smiling at his fiancée and him.
Josh glanced over to see Lena watching her man as he made his way toward her.
See, Josh thought, that right there. That look she has in her eyes—the one that shows when Mason’s in the room, no one else exists, except the two of them and the connection they share. That’s what he wanted. That’s how he wanted a woman to look at him.
Then, that sweet look she had on her face turned mischievous, and in the most matter-of-fact tone Josh had ever heard, she informed Mason, “Josh was just telling me about your porn collection.”
Wincing a little, he watched Mason stop in his tracks and look at him.
Then, he turned back to Lena. “Oh? And what did he tell you?”
Lena stood, and with her eyes only on Mason, she made her way toward him. “That you had an extensive collection hidden in your closet.”
Josh watched Mason’s eyes flick in his direction, so he shrugged and shook his head. “I was actually telling her about catching Rachel. You were just part of the story.”
Lena had finally reached Mason and wrapped her arms around his neck. “A big part of it. He told me about lots of different positions,” she whispered in a husky tone.
Mason’s head turned toward him so fast that Josh stood quickly, knocking the chair back. “Ahh, she said that wrong,” Josh assured Mason, coughing.
That was when Lena started to giggle and kiss Mason’s cheek. “Relax, Casanova. He said you two caught Rachel with your magazines open, showing all different positions, and she went nuts.”
Josh watched as Mason leaned in, kissed her lips hard, and then pulled back. “I’m confused. How did you got on the topic of porn again?”
Josh reached behind him and grabbed the bag, holding it up. “Doughnuts?”
“Doughnuts?” Mason repeated.
Lena grinned and let him go, moving back to the table. “Yep, doughnuts…” She paused and looked to the front door. “I was checking to make sure he knew that he was risking the wrath of Rachel because of the store pastries, and he told me her reaction could be no worse than—”
“Us finding her with the pornos. I got it.” Mason stated, ending her sentence for her.
Lena grinned as she sat down, and Josh breathed a sigh of relief while his friend walked over and took a seat. It had been so long since he’d hung out with Mason that he wasn’t sure if he was joking or not about the whole situation.
As Mason reached for a powder-covered pastry, he bit into it and said around a sugary smile, “I’m not scared of Rachel, and neither is Josh. We have way too much on her for her to threaten us. Ever. Isn’t that right?”
Josh nodded, picking up his own doughnut, as the lady in question walked in.
Her blue eyes, the same color as her brother’s, zoomed in on his hand holding a doughnut, and then her gaze moved up to lock onto his.
“Put it down, Daniels,” Rachel warned.
“Aw, come on, Rach. Just one little bite?” he asked, winking at her as she moved closer.
“Don’t try and charm me. You’re too much like my own brother for it to work. So, put down the doughnut,” she enunciated slowly.
Josh watched as she made her way across the dining room with a Hessian bag. With her purple hair braided into pigtails, she was dressed in tight black leather pants and had a bright red hoodie zipped to just between her breasts.
Josh tried to look at her as a woman, someone he’d never met, just to see if he could. But no such luck. She was Rachel—his best friend’s baby sister. She would always be the little brat he’d picked on. It was a shame really because she was extremely attractive in an in-your-face wild kind of way.
She stopped in front of him and held her palm out flat, looking down at him with twinkling eyes full of mischief.
“Give me that horrible excuse for a doughnut.”
Josh lifted it slowly and licked right across the top of the powdered sugar, winking at her. That was when she reached out and pushed it into his nose. Coughing, he pulled it away, hearing both Mason and Lena laughing behind her.
“Don’t mess with her pastries, Josh,” Lena told him through a fit of giggles.
Looking up at Rachel, he watched as she grinned and reached out to swipe his nose with her finger.
“Powdered sugar doesn’t look right on y
ou. You aren’t that sweet.”
Josh frowned. “Aw, come on, Rach. Now, you’re just trying to hurt my feelings.”
Turning, she moved around the table and took a seat, putting her feet up on the chair opposite her.
Josh watched as she crossed her arms, and then he asked, “How can I make it up to you?”
She sat forward before questioning him. “Do you still like to dance?”
Groaning, Josh shook his head and rolled his eyes. Back in the day, Rachel, Mason, and himself all use to frequent the clubs. Sure, now I do it a lot less, but I’ll go if she really wants me to. Plus, I might meet someone.
“Yeah, I don’t mind it. Got a place in mind?”
She nodded, putting her feet on the floor. “Friday night. We’ll all go to Blue Moon.”
From across the table, he heard Lena cough a little, so Josh turned to look in her and Mason’s direction.
“You don’t like Blue Moon?” he inquired cautiously.
Mason reached over and took Lena’s hand. He squeezed it, and then said, “We’ve only been once.”
Josh watched Mason turn to Lena, speaking softly, “Let’s go and change that memory, huh?”
Lena nodded, and Josh could tell there was more going on than he knew about. He turned back to Rachel, who was sitting quiet and pensive, lost somewhere else in her own thoughts as she stared out the window.
Josh kept his eyes on her, wondering what was on her mind. Instead of asking, he told her, “Okay, count me in. Friday it is.” He paused, reaching for the doughnut. “Now, can I eat my doughnut in peace?”
Rachel turned back to him, plastering on a too happy smile, and took the offensive doughnut, dropping it on the table. She opened her bag, pulled out a cling-wrapped plate with what looked like homemade beignets, and placed it on the table in front of him.
Josh pulled his eyes away from the plate, moving them back to Rachel. He grinned. “You’re an angel. Anyone tell you that?”
“Stop sucking up, Daniels. Just know that when this melts in your mouth, I saved you from polluting your taste buds.”
Picking up one of the tasty morsels, he took a bite and groaned, looking over at her smug face.