Page 5 of Connor

I groan as I sit up, looking around the room for Daisy, the curvy redhead, who not only didn’t look at me, but also didn't touch me. The sound healing treatment is something I’ve never heard of, but after about five minutes, it had me out like a light, so I guess they get a big check for relaxation, even if her hands didn’t make contact with my body.

As I wake fully, I roll my shoulders, feeling less tightness than I usually do and the familiar ache in my back now gone. Pain relief, stress relief, and relaxation, all things I want for the distillery spa. I’m impressed.

Voices are murmuring from down the hallway as I sit up, so I grab my things and walk back toward the reception area.

“I need to go. You need to lock up,” one woman says, whom I recognize as Rainbow, the witchy lady from earlier.

“Seriously? You’re just going to leave me here with him?” Daisy says, and I balk. Clearly, she doesn’t like me. My ego is getting more bruised by the second with this woman.

“Well, you’re the one with magic hands,” Rainbow says, and I begin to feel like a creeper just standing in the shadows of the hallway listening. But I’m not sure if I should retreat or walk out to meet them. Not wanting to interrupt, I remain rooted to the floorboards, scared to move in case they creak and give away my position.

“You gave him ginseng and ginkgo. You gave him ourtea!”Daisy exclaims.

I frown as I swallow past the dryness in my throat again. That tea was pretty awful I have no idea what ginkgo and ginseng are, but I hope they didn’t drug me. I lift my hand in front of my face, and I see it clearly, my vision not blurry, and I feel alright. Actually, I feel great. More energized than when I arrived here, that’s for sure. I don’t know how long I’ve been out for, but I feel like I’ve slept for days.

“So? I give it to your father almost every night, and he doesn’t complain,” Rainbow says, and I raise my eyebrows. Father? Is Rainbow Daisy’s mother? And is she drugging her father every night, or is it some type of health elixir that they’ve given me?

“Oh my God, my ears!” Daisy groans, covering her ears. And I wonder why she continues to cover her face so much when she’s so beautiful.

“He could be an axe murderer, for all I know, and you’re leaving your only child here like a lamb to the slaughter.”

I’m starting to see the family dynamic, and now as I watch them, they do look alike a little. I decide then to step out, because I don’t want either of them to be afraid of me.

“Not an axe murder,” I say, stepping out from the beaded curtain, putting my hands up like they’re holding a gun to my chest. Daisy is odd. She doesn’t want to see me, barely touches me, and now doesn’t want to be alone with me.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean…” She stumbles over her words, rubbing her face, looking flustered and remorseful.

“I need to go. Daisy will take care of things for you.” Rainbow, who I now know is her mother, says, before she glides from the reception desk and out the door like she’s floating on air. Maybe she is a witch. I look out the door after her, seeing my trusty driver still waiting outside.

“How long was I out for?” I ask and cringe, my voice rougher than usual, a clear indication my sleep was deep.

“Only about half an hour, but unfortunately, we need to reschedule the remaining treatment,” Daisy says.

“Remaining treatment?” I question, because I thought that was the treatment.

“You and your wife were initially scheduled for sound healinganda yoga flow. We’ll need to reschedule the yoga flow. Perhaps next time she’ll be able to make it?” she asks, looking up at me with those damn big blue eyes that do something to my insides.

“No wife. Just me,” I confirm firmly so she really understands my meaning.

“Oh, it’s just that today's booking was for two. A couples’ treatment.” Looking back at her booking diary, she frowns in confusion. Again, no computer to be seen.

“My staff were meant to come, but they got held up, so I’m here in their place. I own a whiskey distillery a few states over, and we’re putting in our own wellness spa,” I tell her honestly, waiting to see the penny drop of exactly who I am, but it doesn’t.

“So you’re spying?” Her hands find her hips in a defensive stance. My eyes narrow on the movement. She seems a bit feisty, I’ll give her that.

“No. Researching,” I clarify, sounding cocky, and her stance doesn’t soften.

“Potato, potahto.” She shakes her head.

“It isn’t like we’ll be taking any of your business,” I murmur sarcastically, looking around the room again. It needs remodeling, badly. She inhales in a sharp breath at my comment. Maybe I stepped over the line too far by insulting her clinic, but I’m a businessman, a successful one, and I certainly don’t need whatever lack of business sense they have here, regardless of how amazing that treatment was or how captivatingly beautiful the voluptuous woman standing right in front of me is.

“Oh, well, please enlighten me and tell me what you really think?” she retorts, crossing her arms over her chest. This conversation is moving into an area that wasn’t my intention. But I’m honest to a fault, so I look around again, before my eyes land firmly back on hers.

“This space needs remodeling,” I start, and her expression only hardens. “You need to introduce some technology for efficiency…” I add, thinking back to my form I manually completed. As I do, I swallow, my throat drying up from the incense again, and I cough. “And new scents are required, ones that don't make you feel like you’ve swallowed sandpaper.”

“I just don’t know how I haven’t noticed all that before. You’re obviously a very smart businessman.” Her tone is full of sarcasm and sass, and I clench my jaw.Yep, I overstepped.“There must be something good here at Sunshine to make you come all the way here?” She asks a valid question that I still don’t know the answer to.

“Clearly, it isn't the customer service.” Apparently, I can’t keep my mouth shut, and I see her mouth open in shock at me calling her out, her eyes burning holes into me, before her mouth closes and she takes another deep breath, like she’s steeling herself.

---