Page 3 of Tempting Fate

Charlotte Reece

I haven’t beenable to get Beau out of my head since I left him in front of my shop. I tossed and turned all night thinking about him and his dark penetrating stare. I finally fell asleep around three. My alarm went off at seven and I needed a few extra minutes. I thought I had hit snooze, but I inadvertently turned my alarm off entirely. When I finally woke up, I had enough time to throw on some jeans and a black t-shirt, brush my teeth and walk out the door in enough time to open my shop on time for our first clients.

When I got home last night, he’s all I could think about. Even now, three hours into my twelve-hour shift, I can barely pay attention to what Julie, one of my regulars, is talking to me about. Bless her heart, she’s a stay at home mom with two kids under two. So when she parks her butt in my chair every six weeks to get her hair colored, she talks my ear off.

“Charlotte. Charlotte, you okay hun?” Julie asks me.

I grin down at her, “Mmmhmm.” I check her head to make sure I haven’t missed a spot, and don’t need to put any more foils in her hair for the highlight job I’m doing.

“Nope. I know that look. You’ve met someone.” she says excitedly and claps. When I say nothing, her eyes go wide and she jumps out of her seat to look me in the eyes, instead of my reflection in the mirror. “You have! Who is it? Did you finally talk to Jackson?”

I make a face. I’m about to tell her that I would never in a million years ago chat up Jackson Margis, the boy who used to put worms in my lunchbox when we were in kindergarten, but I don’t get a chance.

“Who the fuck is Jackson?” Beau growls, walking towards me.

I shake my head, knowing in my head that Jackson is no one important, but I’m caught off guard by Beau standing in my shop. He’s walking towards me with a severe look on his handsome face. He looks even hotter today than he did last night, with his ball cap snug over his new cut, white t-shirt, and worn jeans snug against his thighs and ass.

Standing before me, he uses the edge of his index finger to lift my chin, so my eyes are on his. “Who is he Charlotte?”

I shrug and shake my head. I have no words for him. I’m still in shock. “No one, he’s no one,” I mutter.

“He better be.”

My heart beats hard in my chest and I’m utterly lost in his deep brown eyes. When Julie clears her throat, she breaks the spell and I tear my eyes away from Beau and look at her. The lovable bitch is smirking as she winks at me. Jesus.

I take a step back, putting a few feet between Beau and me. When I’ve gathered enough composure, I look at Beau. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m installing some floodlights out in the parking lot. These are top of the line, solar powered so it won’t impact your costs. Just let me know when a bulb needs to be changed, I’ll come out and do it. Now, if they sense movement, they’ll turn on. This way when you or one of your girls are walking out to your cars late at night, you’ll be able to see anything coming at you.”

I look around at my busy salon. My girls and their clients have all stopped talking and everyone is listening in on our conversation, their eyes on us. Not one to have my business, personal or otherwise, discussed in front of people, I grab him by his shirt, pulling him with me to the back and out the back door.

“You can’t just come in here and tell me you’re putting lights up around my building.”

“Why the fuck not?” He growls, his hands on his hips and his eyes boring into mine.

I throw my hands into the air. “Because it isn’t your fucking shop Beau, it’s mine!”

He starts laughing and the serious look on his face from before is gone. Now he’s looking at me in an entirely different way, making my tummy flutter.

“You’re too fucking adorable when your pissed Charlotte.” He steps towards me, but I step back, keeping a safe distance from the man who, if I’m not careful, will get anything he asks for.

“Don’t patronize me, Beau. I own this building and the business that’s in it. No one gets to tell me what happens with it.”

He nods. “You’re right, but I’m not going to be able to be here every night. There will be nights that I’m working a late shift and can’t be here to make sure you make it home safely.”

“That’s not your job. No one asked you to look out for me. I’ve been doing it for a long time. It also doesn’t hurt that everyone in this town knows who my uncle is. No one messes with me, ever.”

“No one has messed with you yet baby doll, and I’m fucking stoked about that. It doesn’t mean someone won’t get a wild hair up their ass and do something stupid or what if a stranger wanders in from out of town?”

“I highly doubt that will happen. This isn’t the big city where there’s a crime on every corner. This is Rolling Hills, Beau. It’s safe.” I tell him, enunciating the last bit.

“Fair enough. It’s been so long since I’ve lived here, I forget what small-town living is like.”

Wait, what? How do I not know this? “You’re from here?”

“Born and raised. I left for college in two-thousand-four. I’ve only been back a dozen times to see my parents, other than that I’ve stayed in the city.”

“Why did you come back then?”

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