Bailey
Jesus,how did he get even better-looking?The kitchen light catches the dark stubble along his jaw, and his button-up fits just right across his shoulders.
Silas looks up at me and his whole face lights up like I’m the best thing he’s seen all day.“Hey, you!”The enthusiasm in his voice makes me want to roll my eyes and swoon simultaneously.
“Hi.”My cheeks heat with a blush, and the lace teddy shifts against my skin like a secret promise.So much for playing it cool, because it’s like there’s a giant sign over his head that says HE’S TOTALLY SEEN YOUR PANTIES.
And judging by the way his gaze drops to my mouth before snapping back up?He’s thinking about it too.
He walks into the kitchen and sets dinner on the counter.I wash my hands as he pulls out plates, and I sit at the kitchen counter.One pizza is mushroom and preserved lemon, and the other eggplant miso, the special of the day.
Silas pops the caps from two beers and offers me one.Then he holds his up in a toast.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he says, holding my gaze.It’s too intense, too ...swoony.
I tap his bottle with mine and quickly look away.
I pick a slice of each while Silas fills Echo’s food bowl and sets it down on the floor.The cat ignores it, instead sitting at Silas’s feet and talking to him.
Silas looks up, not even slightly embarrassed.“We have a dinner routine,” he explains with an unselfconscious joy that should be illegal on a grown man.
He swoops down and picks Echo up.Then he proceeds to aggressively smooch her head—a dozen rapid-fire kisses while she purrs like a motorboat—and I have to physically restrain myself from saying I volunteer as tribute.
After maybe a dozen kisses, Silas finally lets her go, gently dropping her to the floor where she shakes off and saunters over to her food bowl and chows down.
I’m swooning.The man brought me pizza and loved on his cat and now I have to make polite conversation while wearing a sexy lacy teddy underneath my clothes?What was I thinking?
I turn away and pick up a slice.The first bite of the mushroom pizza makes me close my eyes.The crust is perfect—chewy and crispy simultaneously—and the preserved lemon adds this bright, almost floral complexity that makes me want to moan.
I catch myself before the sound escapes.The last thing I need is to make sex noises while eating pizza in front of Silas.
Too late.When I open my eyes, he’s watching me with an expression that makes my stomach flip.
“Good?”His voice comes out rougher than normal.
“Really good,” I manage, taking a sip of beer to cool down.“Though I’m pretty sure making food-porn noises in your kitchen wasn’t part of today’s agenda.”
His smile goes crooked.“I don’t mind.”
Of course he doesn’t.
I can’t believe I’m sitting here, on Valentine’s Day, with Silas.Tattooed, slutty-glasses-wearing, my-brother’s-best-friend Silas.
Silas hoists himself onto the chair next to me.“So, what is it like to be a successful manager at a renewable energy start-up?”He’s parroting my words back to me, carefully remembering what I said I do for work.
I shake off the swoon and relax, because it’s easy to talk about my job, which I love.It’s challenging to be the only female manager in a small company, but I’m proud of the work I do.And I do get paid really well, which makes living in the city so much easier.I just asked for—and got—a ten percent raise.
We talk about my job, then his, and then our mutual friends.
“...even if Morgan and I found a place that works for him to open his own bar, he can’t get a liquor permit right now.Rance snatched the last one that went up?—”
“Wait, Joseph Rance is still around?”
Silas rolls his eyes.“Sadly, yes.”
Rance is my parents’ age, and rumors have always swirled around that he’s involved with the Mafia or drug runners.It’s ridiculous, because why would either group care about a tiny small town barely supported by an old ski resort?
Regardless of the rumors, what is true is that Joseph Rance owns plenty of property in Here, property he does nothing with.Like I’d seen last time I was in town, several of the downtown storefront buildings are empty, and I’d bet good money most of them are owned by Rance.
