Return of the bad boy, p.3
Return of the Bad Boy, page 3
Asher poured Gloria’s coffee down the drain before he was tempted to finish it himself. Today was the last day of his cleanse, something he’d started so he could prep for the massive writing streak he’d have to do for his upcoming album. He wasn’t about to throw in the towel on the final day. No matter how good day-drinking and writing songs on the dock sounded.
This was a new beginning for him. Learning “how to dad” wasn’t exactly simple, and he needed to clear the decks. It was a bit of a California mind-set to start off this new chapter in life with a cleanse, but Cali had soaked into his skin since he’d become a resident more than a decade ago.
One more day and he’d be back to coffee and whiskey. He had this.
He dumped the rest of his blended shake into a glass and stepped out on the patio to look over his mini slice of paradise.
Evan was on point when he picked up with Lyon and moved here from Columbus. Evergreen Cove was in northern Ohio, right on Lake Erie. The town had a vacation feel and a family feel, and cycled through all four seasons. It was the perfect place to raise a family.
The town could at once feel traditional while not being small-time, and the Cove had the really cool vibe New York had where not every resident gaped because there was a model who lived on this block or a rock star who lived on that one. LA was a fine place to play and be and live, but with his son here, Ash couldn’t remain in California full-time. He needed to be here for his boy. Since the Cove had started collecting his friends, he figured he could crash with them whenever he came to town. Evan, Donovan, Connor—any of them would have taken him in for a few days. And, hell, Donny had a ginormous mansion Ash had crashed in several times.
But Ash didn’t want that for Hawk. He may not be here permanently, but whenever he saw his son, he wanted Hawk to feel that permanence—have his own room, his own things. Asher drank down part of the shake, chewing the larger bits and scowling. God. Coffee would taste great right about now.
His cell rang and he hoped it wasn’t Jordan again. Small doses was the only way to deal with that woman. Instead, it was Veronica, the Cove’s dog groomer. Wow. She wasn’t kidding when she said she wouldn’t be long. He’d dropped off Tank, what, two hours ago?
“Roni,” he answered.
“Oh! Hi…um…Hi, Asher,” she said with a laugh. He’d picked the nickname. She liked it. She was also a little starstruck, which he liked to encourage. “Tank is ready if you’d like to come get him.”
“Cool. I’ll be down in a few. Pick you up something from Cup of Jo’s?”
She giggled again. Veronica was fortysomething, friendly, and pretty. And married. But as flirting went, he was open to making every woman he came in contact with blush. That was his shtick and he was too good at it to stop now.
“I’m good, thank you,” she answered.
“It’s for the best. I’d be tempted to buy a double espresso for myself.” He made a face at the lumps sitting unappetizingly in the bottom of his glass. “I’ll be there in ten.”
“Okay.” Another giggle. “See you soon.”
He ended the call and rested one hand on the railing, the other closed around his glass.
The water sparkled, glitter on deep blue-green. This part of the lake wasn’t mud-bottomed, which was awesome. They trucked in sand instead. And since the boats mostly scooted along the other part of the lake where the vacation cabins were, this part was also clear. Yep. Best house in town. Without a doubt.
He needed to have a party. Kick off his arrival. Part-time or not, he was here and the band would soon be here, and no matter where he was, Asher left an indelible mark. When the band arrived, they’d be pulling twelve- to fifteen-hour days, so may as well celebrate while the gettin’ was good. Not that he was complaining. He loved song writing. He loved music. He loved his boys. And it wasn’t like his bandmates would disapprove of a party.
Beach party, he decided while he leaned over the railing. To his right, the massive wooden deck had a set of stairs leading down to the shallows. There was a beach there—or used to be anyway, before it had become overgrown with brush. One call to his friends and they’d have it cleared. Connor could take the trees out, and Donny could build a fire pit right there by the water.
Straight ahead, the deck led out to a long dock that stopped in the deep. Deep enough to park a boat and deep enough to dive. Which meant his party could also include swimming. Bikinis optional, of course.
But the only bikini he wanted to see was Gloria’s—preferably tossed over the edge of this railing and her out of it. Just thinking of her in a black string bikini, gorgeous, thick thighs and breasts barely contained, black hair blowing in the breeze and a pair of mirrored sunglasses hiding those blues…
Damn.
He received a nudge from his southern hemisphere and blew out a breath of defeat. He was so weak for that woman.
“Okay, then. Beach party,” he said aloud. Cleanse or not, he could still fantasize about things he couldn’t have: coffee, booze, Gloria Shields.
He finished off his green drink and turned for the house, depositing the glass in the sink and sweeping his keys from the counter. Off to get his accidentally acquired dog.
He seemed to have a lot of things in his life he hadn’t expected to have years ago.
A son.
A dog.
A gorgeous agent with killer curves…
So far he was handling two out of three with ease. Two out of three wasn’t bad.
Chapter 2
Gloria pressed a button on her cell phone and rubbed her overly warm ear. She’d been on back-to-back calls for the last three hours. She looked at the clock—scratch that, four hours. She really needed to invest in a headset.
It rang again, and she gritted her teeth, unable to spend another minute on the phone. Without looking to see who was calling, she silenced it, opened the drawer on the left side of her desk, and shut it inside. Done. She was so done with this day. It felt like it’d lasted two days already.
What had started with visiting Asher, then hearing about his lovely family, had been topped off with phone calls and contract negotiations and consoling one client who was crying because of bad reviews. The thing was, she enjoyed every part of her job. It hurt her when her clients were hurting. She believed in them so very much that when they hurt, she sort of absorbed it. She wished she could take it and hold it for them. Gloria could handle it. She could handle anything.
Asher and his offspring included?
Hmm.
She pushed out of her chair, stretched her arms overhead, and considered taking a break to tidy her office. She’d leased Sofie Martin’s former office for Make It an Event. After Sofie relocated her business to the mansion with her hot mansion-owning bad boy, Gloria snapped up this downtown location. It wasn’t a lakeside house with a wall of windows, but it was in the center of Endless Avenue, which had its own charm.
Once the business site was settled upon, Glo rented an apartment within walking distance. It was just a few blocks away, nothing too spectacular. But then after mentally crossing off what was now Asher’s house, she figured where she rented wouldn’t matter.
She’d buy a house on the lake eventually. Evergreen Cove had tons of houses on the lake. Wasn’t like that was the only one.
But you wanted it to be.
That was the tired talking.
She rubbed her weary eyes and strolled to the coffeepot by the door. She fired up the machine and looked out the front window. She was comfortable behind that pane of glass, watching women in colorful dresses carrying shopping bags and smiling. Sometimes there were friends chatting over coffee from Cup of Jo’s and sometimes there were families going in and out of the multitude of restaurants lining Endless Avenue.
Gloria had made plenty of friends here, which was part of the draw, but she’d admit, as they settled down one by one—Evan and Charlie, Sofie and Donovan, and now Faith and Connor—she’d begun to feel almost…lonely.
Yeah. Definitely, she was tired. She never let her feelings get to her this much. She poured a mug of coffee, sipped, and smiled as a couple walked by—vacationers by the look of their jaunty beachwear and floppy hats. She should be happy for what others had instead of pining for what she didn’t have. Maybe she just needed to get out. She’d been working a lot lately.
Or maybe she needed to go on a date.
It’d been four months since her last “real” date, and that evening had ended with a one-night stand she’d chosen to keep that way. Thankfully, it was while she was in New York. She’d met a decent guy at the hotel bar. They’d parted with a wave and never exchanged phone numbers. The sex had been as sad as the story sounded in her head right now. Gloria hadn’t been able to enjoy herself, and she suspected it showed.
Asher’s fault. The last sex she’d had before casual New York sex had been with him, and it was the pinnacle of great sex. Hotel Bar Guy had a lot to live up to and he fell drastically short.
In several areas.
She quirked her lips in thought as the bell over her door rang. A man walked in, dressed in a slim navy suit and light blue shirt underneath, the collar open. He had a twinkle in his hazel eyes and enough blond licking through his medium brown hair to make him look harmless. That façade was his best and greatest asset.
Brice McGuire, one-man show at his own Chicago firm, Encore Music Agency, breezed into Gloria’s life right when Asher landed the cover of Rolling Stone. He’d been at the magazine when Asher was doing his photo shoot and Glo had attended. They’d made small talk, learned they lived in the same city and that their careers had the potential to overlap. Since then, Brice had sent her a few of his clients who were writing books and she’d helped them along with contracts. Brice was a good business contact to have.
“Gloria Shields.” Brice smiled but it didn’t quite hit his eyes. His stubble was prominent and intentional. As was the tattoo of his family crest on his right shoulder. Dealing with clients who were rock ’n’ rollers meant he wanted to be viewed as one of them. Staying dressed to the nines while having an edge was absolutely on purpose. Brice had the ability to be one hundred percent salesman, yet ninety percent likable. As averages went, they didn’t get much better than that.
“Mr. McGuire.” He’d called her a few weeks ago and said he was planning a trip through Evergreen Cove. One of his new signs—an up-and-coming band she couldn’t remember the name of—was here playing a few local bars. “This is a surprise.”
“I called, but it went to voice mail, so I decided to crash in on you.”
Ah. That was the call she’d ignored.
“You promised to buy me dinner if I came to see you,” Brice said. “Where are you and your gorgeous legs going to take me?”
And then there was the endless flirting. Brice was interested in her. She knew because he made a move every time they talked. She’d never taken the bait. As tempting as it was to bed a very attractive, highly successful man, she had to draw the line at a man she worked well with. She’d blurred those lines between work and play with Asher and the result was not pretty. She did not want to climb back into that sinking boat.
“I have a few Lean Cuisines in the freezer back there.” She shot a thumb over her shoulder. “You, me, and the microwave make three.”
He plunged his hands into his pockets and shot her a grin that lit his eyes. And there it was. The reason Brice was tolerable. He wasn’t exactly a sweet guy, but he did let his guard down every once in a while. “No way am I letting you pay me back for my generosity with a microwave meal. You’ll have to do better than that.”
He walked to her desk and picked through the papers there. She rushed over and snatched the corner of a contract, but he pressed his hand flat, keeping the paper trapped beneath his palm.
“Excuse me,” she said.
“Professional curiosity.” He moved his fingers over hers. “I’m personally curious as well, you know.”
“Like you may want to try dating a man for a change?” She slipped the contract out from under his hand.
“Not that kind of curious.” He shot her a look of derision. She was purposefully changing the subject and he knew the tactic too well. “I’d like to take you on a date, Gloria. I’m here for the night.” His eyebrow lifted subtly.
“Well, I’m sorry to break your heart, but I’m not into the hookup scene.”
“Who said hookup? It’s a date.”
“Playing dumb doesn’t work for you, Brice.” She used to date. But ever since she’d heard Asher was coming to town, she hadn’t been out with anyone. The thought made her frown. Surely she wasn’t subconsciously holding out for him. She tucked the papers into a manila folder she then filed on the other side of the room.
“But you’re not really asking for a date,” she told Brice as she slid the file cabinet drawer shut. “You’re asking me to sleep with you.”
“I am. But I would take you on a date first.”
Gloria laughed. So much nerve in this one.
He grinned. “That sounds like a yes.”
“To dinner, maybe, but not to the second part.”
“What if I extend my stay?”
She shook her head, but she was still smiling.
“What if I told you”—he came to her but this time hid his hands in his pockets—“that I plan on making you an offer you can’t refuse.”
“I’m not sleeping with you,” she stated more firmly, meaning it.
“That’s not the offer. I have a professional offer.”
He had her at “professional.” Gloria loved business. Loved deals. Loved offers. Just hearing the old “offer you can’t refuse” bit was like waggling raw meat in front of a hungry lioness. But she wasn’t about to show him her eagerness. That was a surefire way to get the short straw in any deal.
“Let’s talk about it over breakfast,” he amended. “I saw a cafe a few doors down. Interested?”
“Sun Up?” The diner was good, simple, and had outdoor seating. Plus great coffee.
“We can discuss my offer. I’ll even pay.”
She twisted her lips. It seemed simply having the thought about going on a date had called the Dating Fairy out of hiding. The perfect opportunity had just descended in the form of Brice McGuire. Even a business date was better than sitting in her office staring out the window. But Gloria was no dummy. She knew strings were attached to every part of his offer.
“This better not be a sex proposition,” she said, letting him know she knew his tricks all too well.
“Come on.” He gestured to himself as if to say, Would I do something like that? And the answer was unequivocally yes.
She rolled her eyes but accepted with, “Brunch tomorrow. Two o’clock too late?”
“For brunch, two is way too late, but for you, I’ll make an exception.” He gave her a quick nod, turned and pulled open her door, and walked out of it.
Gloria shook her head. Brunch was harmless. And nothing sexy happened at two in the afternoon. And it was a business date. Perfectly safe.
But the mystery offer was one she wondered about the rest of the evening.
* * *
“Shitty craftsmanship. Gotta love it.” Donovan Pate, resident of the Cove and resident mason, pulled his head out of the fireplace. He used to build custom fireplaces for the hoity-toity Hamptonites in New York, but now he lived in his inherited thirty-five-room mansion with his event planner fiancée, Sofie. His talents were greatly underutilized in Evergreen Cove, but Donny himself had said he was tired of living like a nomad. Once he fell for Sofie, his life took a drastic left.
Asher tried not to be jealous, but he was.
Donny dusted his hands on his jeans. “I can fix it for you.”
They’d been friends since Asher and his family used to vacation here when he was a kid. Donny was one of the few people who knew the real him: the Asher the tabloids would never see. Donny and Asher raised a lot of hell together. He, Asher, and Evan palled around and caused trouble during their vacation week for several years running. Evan’s and Asher’s families visited the same week every summer, but Donny was a local. The three of them spent as many days as possible attempting to drown each other in the lake and flirting with girls—hell, Evan had met his late wife, Rae, here. The three boys had later become christened by the local librarian and the newspaper as “the Penis Bandits.”
Good times. He felt himself smile.
“I’d rather rebuild it for you.” Donovan was frowning at the fireplace again, craning his head to take in the chimney, clearly unimpressed. “I can make it work, but fixing something this shitty isn’t going to make it any less shitty.”
If there was one thing about Donny, it was that he appreciated quality. He liked to suffer for his art. To be fair, the guy had done a lot of suffering as a kid routinely abused by his late asshole father, so that the man had any values and reverence for life at all blew Asher’s mind. Asher would be lucky to have his friend fix or replace anything in his house. The man was a master.
“Don’t get your hopes up for me returning in the winter,” Ash told him. “I bought this vacation home for summer.” He was hoping to get partial custody of Hawk and take him back to LA for the colder months. God help him if Jordan wanted to fight to keep his son full-time.
“Good luck.” Donovan chuckled. “Everyone who comes here thinks they’re here for the short-term.” His eyes widened in comical horror. “No one escapes the Cove.”
So Asher had noticed. The Cove sucked them in and morphed them into family men. Evan, Donovan, and Asher’s new pal Connor had each paired off with a gorgeous woman. And now the Cove had another drop-dead gorgeous woman in its clutches—Gloria. Unfortunately, Gloria wanted Asher to drop dead, so them becoming anything resembling a pair was as unlikely as Asher grabbing a can of spray paint and decorating the library with penises again.
