Page 16 of Wanting More

"Hayden presumably being the other owner?" Sapphire couldn't keep the annoyance from her tone as she mentioned his surly brother.

Either not hearing her contempt for Hayden, or ignoring it, Joel nodded. "Yep, and another good friend of ours, pretty much like a brother, too, Vic."

"So why a coffee shop?" she asked as she took his empty mug and put it in the deep sink hidden behind the counter.

"Come here," he urged, signaling her to come around to the window.

As she stepped toward him, where he now stood by one of the large picture windows that sat on either side of the front door, Joel reached out for her. He gently pulled her by the shoulder until she was standing even closer to the window.

Sapphire tensed automatically at his touch.

She was used to men trying to touch her. Teachers, fellow students, her mother's boyfriends—all of them tried to use any and every pretext to try and touch her. Always hoping that if they could somehow conquer the initial gesture, it would somehow lead to more. Disappointment and dread immediately ignited within her chest. She would have to turn and give him her most practiced hateful look. She would have to set the boundary immediately that she was not to be touched and that there would never be anything more. But just as her mind began to use the fuel of her ignited anger, Joel's hand disappeared, and he was speaking again.

"You see that fancy new building a little ways down the street?" he asked, leaning hard toward the glass and pointing.

Sapphire blinked and looked at him for a second before following his finger. Leaning into the window like he was, she tried to focus on his words. It was hard, though. All she could think about was his expression as he looked out the window and back to her. He was just honestly showing her what he wanted her to see. No guise. No heavy-lidded look filled with sexual meaning and want. And though he was standing close, it wasn't inappropriate. There was no unwelcome heat of his crotch against her backside nor enveloping touch of his body trying to wrap around hers and trap her against him. Just him standing behind her pointing down the street.

Focusing, Sapphire looked at the building he was pointing at. She nearly had to flatten her face to the window to see it from inside, and she smiled. It would have been just so much easier to just open the front door that was two feet away and step outside to look, but regardless, she saw it. How could she have missed it before, she wondered? It was the tallest building in Holter, standing five floors tall.

Sapphire nodded. "Yeah, I see it."

"That is going to be a new apartment dormitory for the university in Stardust," Joel informed her as he stepped away from the window.

Shocked, she turned to him. "Way out here?! I thought Stardust Cove was nearly an hour away."

Joel frowned slightly and shook his head. "It's about a forty-five-minute drive to be exact," he surmised. "They don't have a lot of options for extra student housing in Stardust, due to strict city codes that try to keep the city preserved. Also, it's expensive in Stardust."

"You're telling me," she grumbled. "The prices are insane."

Joel nodded. "So, they built a dormitory out here that comes with a shuttle bus to and from the campus. And we opened this right down the street from the dorms."

"Ah, I get it, capitalizing on the opportunity."

"Exactly," he said, shooting her a finger gun.

Sapphire stamped down a smile at the gesture. Only men used finger guns when they talked, and it always made her laugh.

"Will there be other businesses doing the same, you think?" she asked, indicating the other empty storefronts down the street.

Hooking his thumbs in his jean loops, Joel leaned back on the back of one of the couches. "Most likely. We own that building, too," he said, pointing to the other three-story building across the street. Unlike the tan color of the coffee shop, the other building was a dark mauve. "Right now," he continued, "we use it as a personal gym, but we've been thinking of turning it into an actual gym."

Looking again at the mauve-colored building, she noted its dark windows on the top two floors while the ground floor windows were covered in yellowing newspaper. Sapphire could imagine the two bikers working out in a gutted-out replica of this room, lifting weights and doing whatever else jacked guys did in gyms.

She was about to speak, but the sudden roar and the appearance of a large motorcycle directly in front of the window made her jump. Sitting astride the large bike, Hayden glared through the window. His arctic grey eyes moving from hers before settling behind her, presumably on Joel. With a thunderous expression, he signaled for Joel to hurry up.

"Well, that's my cue," Joel announced from behind her. "We got a game tonight, so that means I got to do all the shit that I usually save for after closing now."

Game? But she didn't get a chance to question what he meant. She watched as he pulled open the glass door and stepped outside. Their muffled voices were indiscernible as the two men said something to one another before Joel jogged around to the side of the building. Still parked out front, Hayden looked at her once more, and Sapphire felt her chest tighten as he held her gaze for a second and then looked away. With a twist of his wrist, he lifted his foot off the ground and rode away, leaving her to think on Joel's last words.

Agame? What did he mean by that?

Chapter eight

Sapphirewasunlockingherroom door when she heard the phone ringing.

"I swear I get more calls on this thing than I do on my cell," she muttered as she gently kicked the door closed and headed toward the phone.

"Hello," she said, though she was positive it was just Herman calling her like he did every night she started the job.