Page 39 of The First Deal

“I need to be alone,” I said, my head was a mess, and honestly, I wanted to sleep, not have a conversation. What was a night anyway, he could wait.

“I won’t push, Cariño, but I wish you’d let me speak,” he said softly.

“Tomorrow,” I promised. “I’ll be at the bar helping with the refurb, you can find me there.”

He dipped his head, kissed my cheek, then walked back to the car. I watched him from the doorstep as he got back inside and waved along with Bo as they drove away. I had no idea where he was going, but I knew where I was headed. Up. Into my bed, and off to dreamland. A wonderful place where nasty old bitches didn’t corner you in bathrooms to tell you they’d been fucking your boyfriend behind your back.

Had she?

9

Idreamed of Shane. Nice dreams. Happy dreams. He had cut off Violet, and we were living our happily-ever-after life. We had been on a beach, him tanning, me hiding under a parasol. We were drinking fruity cocktails, and when the other people on the beach had gone home, leaving us tipsy and alone, he had dragged me down onto the sand, pulled down my bikini bottoms and eaten my pussy until I had squirted all over his gorgeous, tanned face.

I woke up wet, naked, and surprisingly hot considering it was the middle of winter. I decided that I should have naughty dreams more often if this was how I’d wake up. Or, I should sleep with a warm body beside me, a warm body like Shane’s.

No. NotlikeShane’s.

Just Shane’s.

Rubbing my eyes with balled-up fists, I groaned at the crunch of mascara. In my tired, confused state last night I hadn’t bothered to remove my makeup, a habit I had annoyingly been keeping up more often than not recently.

Wrapping my duvet around my body, the chill of the room finally finding my skin, I headed to the bathroom and started cleansing and toning my face as the shower water heated up.

Fresh-faced and smelling as sweet as a cinnamon roll, I dressed in comfortable clothing and threw my hair up into a messy bun, then found my phone—luckily fully charged—on the floor beside my bedside table.

“What’s the plan, Batman?” I asked as I dialled the bar.

The guy heading the renovation answered, sounding half asleep. “I’m going out to get breakfast, and then I need to get timber. I’ll have to drive quite far out for it, I doubt I’ll be back until this afternoon. Are you coming in to help today?”

Looking down at the baggy, black overalls that I had pulled on over a sage-green t-shirt, I nodded, then remembered that he couldn’t see me. “Sure am.”

“Reckon you can get that shoddy stage deconstructed and out into the skip?” he asked.

“Of course I can.” It wouldn’t be a difficult job. Juno had built it from pallets, it was barely a stage. “I’ll get that done and start clearing out the supply closet.” I decided, knowing that he needed that cleared too. He had big plans. And I needed a distraction because I knew that at some point, I’d have to see Shane, and I’d have to talk to him about everything that had happened last night.

I didn’t want to dwell on it. I didn’t want to consider that we wouldn’t make it.

So I slipped on a pair of battered trainers, grabbed my bag and coat, and headed down to Kim’s.

I walked faster than I usually would’ve, the crisp air a little too icy for my liking. I expected that I’d arrive before anyone had left, but when I walked through the doors of the bar, I found it empty inside.

Plugging my phone into the new sound system that had been fitted while I was away, I blasted a pop-punk playlist as loud as it would go, poured myself a glass of coke, and located a pair of thick gloves that had been left behind.

It didn’t take me long at all to get the ‘stage’ ripped to pieces, then I took a saw to it to make it more manageable before dragging pieces through the bar and out the back into the already half-filled skip.

I was about to break for lunch, having managed to empty a decent bulk from the supply closet. I had found treasures from way back before this place had been turned into a bar, back when it was one of the most popular restaurants on the seafront. There were a few things that I had put to one side, not wanting to get rid of anything sentimental to Juno.

Flopping down on a barstool, I sipped my coke and wiped at my forehead with my sleeve. I was hot, sweaty, and starting to feel a little achy.

“I need food,” I sang to myself, leaning over the bar to grab my phone, turn my music down, and pull up a delivery app.

“What do you fancy?” A voice came from behind me.

Looking over my shoulder with my ass in the air, still hanging over the bar, I found the man who had stolen my heart standing in the middle of the room.

He was dressed in a smart suit, as usual, but not the one he had worn last night. This one was new; a colour I wasn’t sure I had ever seen him wear. The jacket and trousers were a deep plum, and his shirt was black. The colours suited him well, and as I slid back onto the stool and turned to face him fully, I realised that he was holding a small, black bag. One that I knew, from the embossed logo, was from a jewellery store.

“I fancy a burger and chips. But I doubt there’s one of those in there.” I pointed at the bag.

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