Page 15

Chapter 13

Miles

“ H ello?” I murmur into my phone, my eyes still closed since it's the middle of the night. Just then, Stella shifts, rolling back over toward me, her head landing on my chest as she drifts back to sleep.

“Good morning, sunshine,” a deep voice says through the phone.

“Whoever this is, it's the middle of the night. Fuck off,” I groan.

“It's nine a.m., you moron.”

That's when I realize it's Rex on the phone. My best friend is calling me while I'm naked.

In bed.

With his sister.

“Shit. My bad. I was up late last night, so I guess I slept in. What’s up?” I mumble into the phone, hoping not to wake Stella up.

That’s just what I need—Rex calling me and waking me up, only to hear his sister’s voice on the other end of the line. Yeah. No, thank you.

“Not much. I was just calling to see if you brought Stella to the airport. She stopped responding to my texts after telling me I was being too controlling, so I just wanted to make sure she made it there safe.”

“Yeah, I got her to the airport. I’m sure she’ll call or text you later. Didn’t you say she was on vacation?” I mumble, trying to remember what he said while also hoping to throw him off and leave her alone all at once.

“You sound like my parents,” Rex says.

“They're smart people. You should listen to them,” I joke quietly. “I'm going to get coffee now, though. Anything else?”

“Nope. Tell your mom and dad I said hi.”

“Will do. Bye, man,” I say, hanging up the phone and throwing my head back on the pillow.

What the fuck.

“Who was that?” Stella mumbles, adjusting and stretching out a bit.

“Your brother,” I say quietly, and she jerks upright.

“My brother? What did Rex want so early?”

“Well, first off, he informed me it’s nine in the morning. Apparently, we slept in,” I say. She looks down at her phone, her eyes widening.

“I never sleep in like this. Seriously, five is the latest I’ve seen in so long, and usually, it’s much earlier than that, as you know,” she says with a sleep coated smile, probably thinking back to the last couple of nights.

“Me neither. I guess we were tired,” I say with a chuckle, memories of last night flooding my mind. It was like the moment we gave ourselves permission to touch each other, we couldn’t stop. We did everything we possibly could, without actually having sex. Our mouths were everywhere, hands everywhere. We couldn’t get enough.

After falling asleep last night, I woke up an hour later to Stella sucking my cock, starting the cycle all over again. The need to learn and enjoy each other’s bodies quickly became more important than sleep, but I think we did manage to get a few hours of rest.

“So, what’d he want?” she asks, the sheet around her tits slipping just enough to give me a glimpse, and my cock wants her.

We can’t.

“To see if I took you to the airport. Apparently, you’re not responding to his texts,” I say, and she looks embarrassed.

“Yeah…I’ve just been avoiding them. Too many questions, too many demands. Sometimes it gets to be too much,” she says with a shrug, but her demeanor changes. She’s more…cagey.

“He’s just worried about you, Stell. Rex really cares about you.”

“Oh, it’s never been a question of if he cares about me. It’s just that having him constantly question my every move is a nuisance. I always feel like he’s judging me, even though, rationally, I know he just wants to help.”

“I get that, but have you tried talking to him about it? Or are you just hoping that if you ignore it long enough, he’ll get the hint?” I ask, trying to get the full picture. I know Rex can be overbearing—he’s a big brother and a dad, so it makes sense he’d be a little protective of the people he cares about.

But when you’re trying to make your own path, carve out your own dream, on your own terms , it can be a real shit show with people constantly intervening.

“I just wish he knew when to back down. I’d be more willing to accept his help if it didn’t feel like he was judging my choices.”

“I’ll be honest, Stell, I don’t think Rex has a single negative thing to say about you or the way you run your business. He’s always raving about how impressed he is with your baking skills and how you’ve absolutely killed it running your own bakery. He’s amazed.”

She looks up at me, her eyes hopeful. “Really?” she asks quietly.

“Absolutely. So talk to him, let him know how you’re feeling, and I’m sure he’ll let up a bit. But don’t let the guy sit there stressing out over whether you’re okay just because you’re annoyed.”

“Okay,” she says, looking down, and I feel guilty. I feel guilty about so many things—how I’m hurting everyone around me, especially because I can’t let last night repeat. That’s not something I want to talk about, but it’s probably necessary if I want to preserve feelings.

“Speaking of your brother…” I start, pausing as she looks up at me. “I…I made him a promise, and I broke it last night,” I say, immediately seeing the hurt in her eyes, but I push on. “I’d repeat last night every day if I could, but we can’t. I promised your brother I would never cross that line, and even though we definitely crossed it more than once already?—”

“So why stop now?” she says, her tone clipped. “Besides, it’s not like we fucked or anything.”

“But allowing it to happen once is different from letting it continue. At least now, my hope is that he wouldn’t hate me too much if he found out,” I try to explain, watching as she grows more frustrated with every word. “I don’t know, Stella. I’m trying to figure it out, but I know I can’t do that while fooling around behind his back. I’m?—"

“Don’t apologize,” she snaps, her voice sharp. “It’s disrespectful. Don’t apologize to me because of some duty to my brother. Just put me back in the ‘friend’s little sister’ box where I belong and leave me alone.”

“Stella, I—I really am sorry,” I start, wishing I hadn’t caused her so much hurt. But she’s already standing, letting the sheet fall from her body. She looks perfect as she turns to walk away, grabbing her bag as she goes.

Without another word, she steps into the bathroom and shuts the door, leaving me questioning if this might just be worse than having to explain everything to her brother.

I think I finally understand the phrase “stuck between a rock and a hard place” because that's exactly how I feel right now. I’ve spent years building my life in New York City, surrounded by my hockey team and my friends, who quickly became my support system.

When your family is small, you really value what you have. So, when you move away from the only people you’ve ever loved, you inevitably become attached to the ones you find.

But that’s what makes this so terrible. Through the team—this found family—that’s how I met Stella, even before I knew she was my teammate’s little sister. I immediately connected with her in a way that I’ve never connected with anyone before.

It was weird, and I’ve always felt silly trying to explain it. It just felt like we understood each other. We instantly meshed, and I immediately thought she was amazing. I mean, she is —she’s out of this world cool. Plus, she’s so much fun to hang out with. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, whether she's cooking, helping me with a puzzle, or even when we’re throwing on a trash TV show. We always end up laughing and having a good time.

Mix that with the undeniable tension between us, and it's a damn travesty that she's been forbidden from me.

I'm not exactly good at listening, though. Never have been. You can ask my elementary teachers; they'd all agree.

Which is obviously how I ended up in this situation—spending the entire night touching and tasting her. But now, as we’re headed to meet with her realtor, I can’t help but realize how much of a mistake it all was. I’m supposed to be taking care of this girl. Rex made us promise we’d look out for her, and I took that shit seriously.

Which is why I took it upon myself to call Dennis after he kept ignoring Stella’s phone calls. Being an agent, I figured he’d have no issue answering a random phone number. When I introduced myself and told him who I was, he started the conversation off friendly.

That is until he realized I was calling about the bakery.

The second I mentioned Stella, he quickly became less pleasant, which annoyed me even more. He agreed to meet us at the bakery, but that was only after I mentioned getting my lawyer involved. At that moment, he understood this wasn’t a game to me; I wasn’t going to be walking away from Nashville without Stella owning this bakery.

I spoke with my lawyers and filled them in on the situation, just in case. They told me to go ahead and make the repairs on the floors. Once we’ve done that, there’s nothing they can do about it. We have possession now—or at least we will when Dennis shows up—so we can spend this next week working on the repairs, though I’m hoping they’ll only take a day or two.

Not a problem, though. All it will take is a call to my dad and maybe my friend Levi. We used to play hockey together, and I remember he was good at construction, especially electrical work. If there was a lot of flooding, there’s a chance the wiring has been damaged, so it’ll be nice to have someone I trust check it out.

Especially considering the amount of equipment they’ll be using for the bakery and café.

“Mr. Henderson.” I hear as an older, balding man makes his way to the front of the bakery, briefcase in hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he says, holding out his hand. As I shake it, I glance at Stella, who shoots him a glare that I’m surprised hasn’t killed him on the spot.

“Hello, Mr.…?” I say, waiting for him to introduce himself.

“Mr. Sherman,” he says quickly, grabbing the keys from his pocket and completely ignoring Stella.

Strike one, asshole.

She rolls her eyes and follows him in, noticing the standing water on the floor. He’s already waiting in the only dry spot. These assholes let the water sit here this long? Knowing the damage it would cause? Absolutely not.

Strike two, motherfucker.

“Why is there still water in here?” I demand, my voice booming in the empty bakery. “You’ve known about the damage for how long? And you refused to provide possession until today—a day after she was supposed to have it—because you decided not to show up or answer her phone calls. Which means we couldn’t even get utilities turned on until today. It would’ve been nice to have had the extra day to start working on the repairs. You have allowed the damage to get to this point because of your neglect.”

His eyes widen, and his face turns red. He looks like a cartoon character about to explode with anger. But the surprise will be on him because I may look calm on the outside, may look like I have it all together. But inside, I’m seething. The thought of fucking his face up with my fists nearly overtakes me.

“I’m sorry, no one was able to make it over to take care of it. Yesterday, I had a meeting with a client that ran late.”

“That’s unacceptable, Mr. Sherman,” I growl. “Her date of possession was yesterday. Everything before that should have been on you or the seller. My lawyer is already looking into the legality of the extra contract you had added, because we found out they were separate. One for the sale of the bakery to Ms. Lockwood,” I say, gesturing to Stella, who, unfortunately, is hearing this for the first time. I only got the email this morning and had other things on my mind—things we needed to talk about that didn’t involve the bakery. “The other contract is just between you and Ms. Lockwood, stating the seller will remain the rightful owner of the property if it doesn’t pass inspection. Is that correct?”

“Yes, it, uh…yeah, that’s correct,” he says, stumbling over his words at the mention of the second contract. That means this whole thing is probably not legal, although the actual sale of the bakery seems to have already been pushed through.

“Yeah, that won’t be happening. First off, we will pass inspection. Second, this is Stella’s bakery, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone take it from her—fucking her over because you don’t know how to do your job,” I seethe. I notice Stella standing beside me, barely looking at me, but I catch the hint of a smirk at the corner of her lips. At least she’s entertained.

“We’ll see about that, Mr. Henderson,” Dennis says, finally turning to look at Stella. “I’ll call with the exact date and time, but the clock starts now. You’d better get to work.”

“You may leave now,” I snarl, startling him into action. Once he and his tacky briefcase are gone and the door shuts and locks behind him, I take a moment to assess the damage at hand.

While it doesn’t look too terrible, there’s a lot that needs to be replaced. Thankfully, the floors are easy, as well as the baseboards, but it looks like one wall got wet, so we’ll need to drywall and repaint.

The bathroom where they thought the pipe burst is actually fine; it looks like a connection broke below it, so the upstairs apartment doesn’t need any repairs after all.

“What do you think I should do?” Stella says, looking around, her big doe eyes watery as she takes in the damage.

From the perspective of someone who’s never done construction, this would seem overwhelming. But truthfully, the floor won't take long. While taking stock of the damage, I texted my dad and Levi, who said they could be here in the morning to lay the flooring and see what else needs to be done.

It shouldn't take us more than a couple of days, and this place will be as good as new. I just need Stella to pick everything out first.

“I don’t think it’ll take long to get this place ready for inspection.”

“Really? But I don’t even have anyone hired to do the work. I don’t know where to get the materials. There’s so much to figure out and no time to do it,” she says, her voice rising with panic, the words tumbling out as she starts to worry about everything that could go wrong.

“That’s what I’m here for,” I say. “There’s a place right down the street, about a block away, that has all the supplies we’ll need for the repairs. They’re waiting for you and are ready anytime you show up. They’ll go over everything you need and have it delivered here tomorrow morning.”

“Then who’s going to do the work? Am I supposed to tear out the floors and try to put it all together myself?” she says, her tone still frantic as her eyes dart around the room.

“No, silly. Again, that’s what I’m here for. I’ve already texted my dad and an old college friend, Levi. I’ve done construction with both of them before. They’ll be here tomorrow, and we’ll have the floors done in no time. Levi also said he’d take a look at the electrical to make sure everything’s up to code. It’d be a shame to overlook something stupid that we could’ve easily fixed.”

“Why?”

“Why would that be a shame?”

“No…why are you all doing this for me?”

“Because you’re you, and I care about you. All I had to do was tell my dad and Levi I had a friend who needed help, and they were more than happy to come pitch in. Regardless of what happened, you’re one of my favorite people, and you’re my friend. But that’s all this is right now. There’s a lot going on, Stell, but I’m still here for you.”

“Sure. Cool,” she says, her voice flat as she looks away and grabs her bag. “Where did you say that place was? I’ll just go do that right now and be back a bit later?”

“Uh, okay,” I say, immediately feeling the shift in her. Her usual warm demeanor is gone, now replaced by a cold, icy presence.

I can’t blame her, though; self-preservation is a powerful thing, and I can’t be upset that she’s just trying to protect herself.

It just hurts that she has to protect herself from me.

After giving her quick directions, Stella is out the door and on her way, leaving me to clean up the mess of the bakery—and possibly the mess of my life—by myself.