Page 29 of Tart
The kiss was burning hot, both of us wanting more than we were going to get tonight, but knowing the promise was there for more the next time we saw each other. And there would be a next time. Amber Larson was more than I ever dreamed of dreaming about when I thought about my perfect partner. I had steered clear of relationships for years, too afraid to repeat the same mistakes I made with Sam. I swore that I would never let my libido lead me again, but this soft, unbelievably beautiful woman under my lips was making that resolve extremely hard to keep. It was making other things extremely hard, too.
My thumb caressed her cheek while I slowed the kiss, and finally, with deep regret, let my lips fall away. I lowered my forehead to hers and gazed into her soulful grey eyes. “You’re incredible, Amber Larson, and I mean that exactly the way it sounds.”
Her eyes danced with the smokey hue of a turned-on woman, but I also saw fear and uncertainty in those eyes. I couldn’t make that disappear with just one kiss, but maybe, after one thousand more, the fear and apprehension would float away and leave her eyes clear and bright again.
“I think you’re rather incredible yourself, Bishop Halla. I admit that it scares me, but I can’t deny the truth. Now I have to try not to think about you and your lips for the rest of the night.”
“I will have to do the same, but the memory of your soft lips on mine will make that as hard as other parts of me are right now. Good night, Amber. Sleep well,” I said, dropping her hand and walking up the pathway. I turned to make sure she made it into the house safely. She slid the door closed and offered a wave through the glass that I returned before I walked back to my house.
She made my body throb with desire and want in ways no woman ever had before. That wasn’t an exaggeration or dramatization of what just happened. That was the truth in ways that cut to my core and forced me to rethink my life. I had spent the last eighteen years alone, save for a few relationships that I knew would go nowhere, which made them safe. I was focused on my work and raising my daughter to be a decent human being. Now, my job was established, and my daughter was a wonderful woman who made me proud every day.
It hit me that I was just given a new assignment to teach. That realization dawned when I walked back into my house, and the scent of Amber’s perfume still lingered there. It would be the most demanding assignment I’d ever taught, but if I did it right, the rewards would last a lifetime. I hadn’t known Amber long, but I knew she was worth the effort it would take to heal her. She would always suffer the consequences of that night, but she didn’t have to suffer them alone anymore.
I grabbed a fork and my computer then sat down at the table and opened the laptop. The cake still sat on the table, so I stabbed a piece, bringing it to my lips before I typed information into the computer. It wasn’t hard to find the brace that she was talking about earlier. I chewed and read, clicking through on videos and spec pages until I was well-educated about the product. She was right. It was ridiculously expensive, but what it could do for her pain and her mobility was startling and obvious. She needed that brace.
I surfed through some articles about the rods and nails they had put in her bones, so I had a little bit of background information about those procedures, too. Looking at some of those pictures, I couldn’t imagine the pain she must have been in after those surgeries. Needing one rod looked painful enough. I couldn’t imagine needing three. I had to force myself not to think about the asshole who decided to kick her just to hurt her more. His abuse was the reason Amber’s leg had gone downhill so quickly over the last few months. I could see why Brady and Haylee were scared shitless for her. When you love someone, you don’t want to see them in pain.
Yes, loved someone. It didn’t matter that I’d only known Amber a few weeks and only spent a handful of hours with her. Those few hours had been some of the best hours of my life. She made me think. She made me smile. She made me want more out of this life. That was the most surprising part of all. I had found in that little tart all the things I’d been searching for over the years but just couldn’t find. There is love there, and where there is love, there has to be action.
I rubbed my temple as I chewed absently on the sweet cake. I wanted to help Amber, but there wasn’t much I could do. She wasn’t going to accept money from me to help pay for the brace. I couldn’t bully her into going to the doctor to get the leg checked when her best friend couldn’t even convince her to make an appointment. All I could do was support her and try to understand the position she was facing. Her position was precarious, and that was the problem. It wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge, and she’d be lost forever.
I suppose I could try to find her parents. I had their phone number, given to me by Mrs. Larson in case I ever needed anything. Contacting them felt wrong, though. She was an adult, and from what I could gather tonight, they weren’t great at accepting her issues since the tornado had ripped through their lives. I didn’t want to make that worse for her.
I tapped my chin with my finger while I stared at the Google search bar on the screen. It waited for me to tell it what to do next while I waited for some grand vision to tell me what that was. A thought struck me, and I hit a bookmark at the top of the page, waiting for it to load.
The frequently asked questions page came up, and I searched for the information I was seeking. A plan was forming in my head as I read the information, clicking through other pages to find the exact information I would need to convince Amber even to consider the crazy plan I’d just hatched.
SLEEP HADN’T COME EASILY. Between thinking about Haylee and the bakery, and lusting after my kind, sexy neighbor, I spent most of the night staring at the ceiling. I had come to a few conclusions about the bakery, but conclusions about Bishop were more elusive. The pros and cons were easy to delineate when it came to the man. He was sweet, gentle, a good listener, understanding, supportive, sexy as hell, and after that kiss we shared last night, obviously interested in me.
The cons were more complicated because they had nothing to do with him and everything to do with me. My life was a dumpster fire, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon. Not to mention, he was a gym teacher. He’s not going to date someone like me for very long. Not when the only physical activity I can manage is sitting at a campfire. The cons of Bishop Halla don’t outweigh the pros. The cons of how Amber Larson would destroy Bishop Halla’s life do.
My previous dating experience was a nightmare. I wasn’t in the mood for round two. Did I think Bishop was going to hurt me? No. Not even a little bit. That didn’t change the fact that I was experiencing too much upheaval to trust myself right now. It wasn’t fair to draw someone else into my nightmare, either.
My fingers left the steering wheel and traveled to my lips.Why were you kissing him last night, then?I asked myself for the nine hundredth time since the kiss.It wasn’t like anyone was forcing you to stand there and let him stick his tongue down your throat.
I growled and banged my head on the headrest. This morning was starting the same way last night ended—too many questions, too few answers, and not enough patience. I pulled the key from the ignition and unbuckled my seatbelt, deciding the only thing I could do was start trying to solve my problems instead of making more for myself. The only way to do that was not to be run roughshod over. I know my best friend and her beau had nothing but good intentions, but that didn’t mean I had to agree with them completely.
The one thing I did agree with them on was we needed to change how we were doing business at The Fluffy Cupcake. We were all run down, short with each other, and running on fumes. If we didn’t make some changes immediately, we weren’t going to survive another year at this pace. That was the reason I was at my business this morning. I had worked out a plan last night that would mostly satisfy everyone. We’d all have to give a little on our demands to be successful, though. Having spent the last twenty-six years with my bestie, I already knew she’d agree to the changes I’d come up with during the night. Her forte is baking. Mine is business.
I pulled the door open to the bakery and stepped in, immediately enveloped by the loving scents of fresh bread and sweet pastries. The sun was shining, the coffee was brewing, and Taylor was loading the bakery case with the last of the fresh Danish.
“Hey, Taylor,” I said, crutching behind the case to greet her. “How are things this morning?”
“Hi, Amber,” she said, standing upright from the case. “Busy as always, but that’s good, right?”
“Busy is good, but overworked isn’t,” I said, deciding that honesty was the only thing that would start to sort out where we were going with our business. “I think we’re all feeling the overworked part.”
Taylor shifted nervously, uncomfortable with the situation, her answer, or both. “It’s always this way in the summer.”
“Tactful,” I said on a chuckle. “I know you’ve only worked here for three summers, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it hasn’t always been like this.”
I shifted the crutches under my arms better to take some weight off my leg. “We’re in a bit of a crisis here, Taylor.”
She motioned at the crutches with a slight grimace to her brows. “I’m scared to death about your leg. It’s not getting any better, is it?”
“It needs some work,” I said, deciding that going into how bad things were would only muddy her decision. “Nothing I’m not used to. I’ll be seeing a doctor about it this week. I do have a question for you.”
She leaned her hip on the edge of the cashier’s counter and nodded. “Sure, hopefully, I can answer it.”
