Page 14 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
Her eyes narrowed as she placed her hands on her hips. “What are you up to now?”
“Not up to anything,” he said and flashed a grin. “But it looks like we’re going on a date.”
She stared him down, until she returned the smile with a sly one of her own. “You do realize that I’ve outsmarted you once already. Who’s to say I won’t do it again and get out of this date?”
He chuckled, leaning in closer, catching the fresh aroma of her floral perfume. He shouldn’t engage her—she was ruining his bar and she appeared to think the worst of him—and yet, he fought against the desperate urge to pull her into him. “Sweetheart, I’d say I’d be disappointed if you didn’t try to outsmart me again.”
Heat flared in her eyes. “Game on, cowboy.”
Four
Six days had passed since the auction night, and Charly still felt a warm glow from the twelve hundred dollars they raised for the shelter. Willow delivered the check, and Charly was swarmed with a sense of relief knowing that helping other women who had gone through what Willow had was helping her heal. Willow’s abusive ex-boyfriend, Niko, was still in jail, and Charly hoped it would stay that way without him finding out that Willow had moved to Timber Falls.
Rolling into the weekend again should have brought excitement, but frustration weighed on Charly’s chest like a lead brick. No matter that they brought in craft beer after she made the deal with Jaxon, the locals were still less than thrilled with their efforts. And she had no idea how to make any of them happy, which grated on her every last nerve. She hated this self-doubt rising up telling her:you have no idea what you’re doing and Marcel would have had this problem solved already. The word on the street was that the bar was a disappointment, and that simply could not do.
Seated at her desk in her office just off the small kitchen at the back of the bar, she knew she had to fix this. The bar could not fail. She couldn’t even consider it, because even she knew that she was barely treading water to stay afloat. Marcel had made most of the decisions with the bar they had owned, so if their endeavor in Timber Falls failed, it would mean she’d failed romanticallyandprofessionally too.
She needed a win. And she needed it badly.
Shaking the darkness that hung like a shadow away, she went through this week’s deliveries and menu items, making sure that she had everything Aubrey needed for the week ahead.
Right then, her cell phone beeped indicating a text message. She scooped it up next to her laptop and looked at her phone. Her heart promptly sank at Marcel’s text.
Charly, I’m begging you—please call me.
Why won’t he leave me alone?
She considered answering his text or possibly calling him. Maybe he deserved that much. Maybe he’d realized the mistake he made, and he’d give her some epic apology that would heal the fractures in her heart. The truth was, not only had he ruined her emotionally, but he’d also taken a financial toll on her too. She had wanted to break her connection with him, so rather than make him sell the lucrative bar they owned and divide the profit, she asked him for repayment of her original investment and made a clean break.
She didn’t regret it then. And she didn’t now.
Nothing he could say would fix any of this. She didn’t want an apology. She didn’t want an explanation. She wanted him to suffer, and if that meant ignoring him, then so be it. She left her phone alone and buried herself back into her work.
A solid plan that got her through her to-do list. She wrapped up her emails in the office, confirming the details for the divorcee’s party that was coming up on the weekend.
She was about to stand and head back into the bar, hearing the voices getting louder as the bar was thankfully getting busier, when her phone buzzed on her desk. She grabbed it, immediately recognizing her mother’s name on the screen.
“Universe, give me strength,” she mumbled before pressing the green answer icon. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi darling, how are you?” Her mother’s voice sounded as fierce as ever over the line.
“I’m great,” Charly said, not wanting to get into a full explanation of her current situation about a bar that was not taking off like her one back in Phoenix did.
“That’s good to hear,” Mom said.
Before Charly could say more, her father’s gentle voice suddenly filled the line. “Hi, Jelly Bean. Miss you.”
The warmth of his love washed over her, easing the tension along her shoulders. “Miss you too, Dad.”
Mom’s voice returned like usual, shutting her dad out of the conversation. Not that her mother wasn’t a good woman—she was—but she was also strong-willed, opinionated and always thinking she knew what was best for Charly.
Most times, she hadn’t a clue.
“We’ve been thinking about coming for a visit to see you and the girls,” her mother said.
Charly shut her eyes a moment, willing calmness. Her mother was one of the reasons she decided to go to school in California and not in Michigan. Charly needed a place to breathe and grow, without her mother hovering over her. “While I’d love to see you, I’m so busy with the bar right now. Perhaps if we could wait a couple months, I can take some time off while you’re here. We’ll make a vacation out of it.”
A long pause followed. A heavy pause that was full of all her mother’s worries and then some. “Should we be worried about you? Marcel said you’re not responding to him.”
