Page 45 of More than Fiction (Misty Springs #1)

Sophia

I tapped my fingers aimlessly as I leaned on the front desk at Elijah’s. The events of last night replayed in my head over and over again.

Corbin had decided that it would not only be efficient, but also environmentally conscientious, if we showered together before dinner.

His shower was massive, with jets that caressed our bodies in warm water and a waterfall feature cascading a steady stream from above.

We were very efficient with him pressed up against me, his warm, wet body trapping me between him and the cold marble wall. But with the amount of time we spent there, I don’t think we saved many gallons of water.

I recalled how the suds trailed down his chest, bumping over the muscles of his stomach. I tracked them with my fingertips. Following the tiny bubbles lower and lower until I wrapped my hands around his…

“Earth to Sophia.” Cassie slapped her hand on the desk.

The move knocked me out of my daydream. I straightened, pulling at the wrinkles on my Elijah’s polo.

“You said you wanted to talk to me.” She crossed her arms, reminding me of how Brent, her brother, always looks when trying to appear intimidating.

Though she’s a fraction of his size, she's probably twice as mean.

All of my friends were upset with me. They still didn’t know the details of where I stayed in New York, and despite their constant pressing, I didn’t have an answer for them .

I couldn’t tell them I was with Corbin, for more reasons than one.

I didn’t want them to think I was repeating the same Landon-shaped pattern again.

Also, I feared for the small-town knowledge and rumors that could easily circulate regarding Corbin and me.

I trusted my friends implicitly, but the fewer people who knew about us, the better.

Besides, Corbin and I agreed that everything between us would stay in New York. Though the decision tore at my heart in an uncomfortable way, it was how it had to be.

Cassie and I stepped into the backroom. It was a semi-unfinished area with a couple of vending machines, two round linoleum tables with a few mismatched chairs from different eras scattered around them, and a Mr. Coffee machine.

I looked at it longingly, recalling that I had never figured out how to use Corbin’s spaceship coffee machine.

Cassie looked at me expectantly. “Out with it.”

I took a deep breath. Here we go.

I hated disappointing my friends, and leaving Cassie was going to be tough. Working at Elijah’s wasn’t exactly a dream job, but I loved the people here—Julio, Pam, Cassie, and even Elijah, who, despite his unpredictable nature, was a great guy to work for.

Before I could start, she held up her hand. “But if you’re not in here to tell me you got that new job of yours and you are quitting here ASAP to pursue your dream, then it better be something better—because the look on your face is killing me.”

Tears sprang up in my eyes. Working with one of your best friends was a privilege, one I would forever be grateful for. I gave her a tight hug.

She wrapped her hands around my waist and hugged me back.

“I quit.” I sobbed.

“I accept your resignation,” she said smoothly. Cassie wasn’t one to wear her emotions on her sleeve like me. “Are you quitting Boomer’s too? Devyn will be so disappointed.”

“I will eventually. I just haven’t decided when yet. I have some financial catching up to do. I especially need to work through Thanksgiving. I can’t pass up those Thanksgiving Eve tips.”

“Oh, shit!” Cassie exclaimed as she threw her head back.

“What shit? What? ”

“No, it’s nothing. I just…” She looked at me and then looked away quickly.

“Tell meeeeee,” I said as I shook her gently.

“Next week is Thanksgiving.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed, then recognition struck. “Oh.”

Thanksgiving was one of the busiest times of the year for Elijah’s, too. People came from all over the country to visit loved ones for the holiday in Misty Springs. Not to mention, most of the staff requested time off to spend with their families—most of them, except me.

With the holiday season approaching, the entire downtown looked like a Hallmark movie—with the soft glow of wreaths on every streetlamp and cozy shops with Christmas decor lining their windows.

Cassie had already started dazzling up the lobby with the elaborate decor Elijah insisted on every year.

“It’s fine. We’ll be fine. I can make it work.” She started chewing on her thumbnail.

That move meant she was not fine, and she was not going to make it work.

“I’ll stay,” I told her, touching her shoulder. “The least I can do is give my current employer two weeks.”

“Are you sure they won’t care?”

“I haven’t signed a thing yet. I haven’t even told them a start date.”

“Thanks, Soph.” She wrapped me in another tight hug.

“Thank you, Cassie—for everything. I wouldn’t have survived these last few months without you.”

“I’m always here for you, Soph.” She backed away, looking at her watch. “Now, go do your job. You’re on the clock for another ten minutes.”

We walked out of the backroom giggling. Cassie’s arm was slung around me in a lazy embrace when I looked at the front desk—and stopped dead in my tracks.

Cassie found the words that were lodged in my throat. “Oh, it’s the ever-charming Mr. Buescher, back to annoy us again.”

Okay, maybe not the exact words I would have used.

“Ah, hello, Red. Nice to see my time away hasn’t lessened your superb hospitality skills,” Corbin quipped back .

He turned to me. My breath hitched as I drank in those eyes—my body priming at just the sight of him.

“Sophia,” he said as he nodded in my direction, his throaty voice sending shockwaves through my system.

How was I going to work with this man? I could barely control myself when he was around.

“So… now you’ve taken to poaching my employees,” Cassie remarked, crossing her arms and leaning across the front desk from him. “Hope you don’t expect me to be nice to you just because you’re one of my best friend’s bosses.”

“Actually,” Corbin proclaimed as he leaned across the other side, “I’m not her boss. I’m her boss’s boss’s boss’s boss.”

“Not yet, you aren’t,” Cassie said, straightening and placing her hand on her hip.

“You’re right, not yet .” His voice dropped low as he looked at me, causing my thighs to squeeze involuntarily together. “I need to check in,” he said as he rang the front desk bell that sat between us.

His eyes slid to mine, his full lips spreading into a “playful Corbin” grin that made my heart feel squishy.

Cassie’s eyes bounced between Corbin and me before narrowing slightly. Of all my friends, Cassie had known me the longest—she could read me better than anyone, so I tried my best to school my features.

She glanced at her watch. “Shoot, I have to meet the delivery driver.” She glared once more at Corbin. “You’ll be happy to know that I ordered it.”

Corbin’s face lit up. “About time. Is it here?”

I stood curiously near Cassie, silently watching their exchange.

“I’ll check today’s truck and let you know. Elijah is going to kill me. It was like four hundred dollars.”

“I’ll buy every single glass from your bar. You can sell it for twenty bucks an ounce, and I’ll gladly pay it. You’ll easily make at least eighty percent off that bottle from me alone.”

“Fine, but you’re buying me some too.”

“Fine.”

It seemed like they must have encountered each other more than I realized.

“What is happening?” I finally chimed in .

Cassie turned to me, resting her arms on the end of the counter. “Mr. Bossy pants McNeedy over here has been begging me to order some Macallan whiskey.”

Corbin rolled his eyes.

I couldn’t hold in the elated chortle that escaped my throat.

Cassie’s joking face shifted to her serious one, the two nearly indecipherable to the untrained eye.

“Treat her good, okay?” she said to Corbin, swallowing as if forcing down words she wanted to say but either couldn’t or wouldn’t. “She’s my best employee.”

“Of course.” Corbin nodded, his face resolute.

Cassie disappeared behind the kitchen's swinging door, and I once again focused on this confoundedly perplexing man.

He was leaning over the counter again, his face level with mine, our mouths inches apart.

All my thoughts abandoned me, replaced instantly by nothing but a throbbing need. A need that followed me from New York. A need that was obviously not going to be defined by geography—though a part of me hoped it would.

“I need to check in,” he reminded me again, his breath hitting my lips.

I reluctantly backed away from him and entered the prompts on the screen to get him checked in. What should’ve been an easy process was increasingly difficult with my shaky hands and coiling core.

I reached across the counter to hand him the key, his fingers grazed mine as he took it, sending a jolt through my body.

Would this ever subside?

Would my body ever stop kicking into overdrive every time he spoke to me, innocuously touched me, hell—even looked at me?

Corbin stepped back, picking up his leather duffel bag off the floor.

“Room 215, Mr. Buescher.” I wet my lips, still partially dry from my earlier mouth-breathing daydreams of our time together in New York.

He tracked the movement, watching as my tongue darted out to meet my lips with a heated intensity.

“Will there be anything else?” I asked, a teasing edge to my voice .

“Yes, actually,” he smirked, hoisting his small duffel bag on the counter between us. “I need help carrying my luggage to my room.”