Page 76 of Small Town, Big Storm

“Fuck off, Shep,” Storm mutters, yanking him back and shoving the menu at him.“Figure out what you want.I need to talk to Poppy.”

Shep holds up his arm, showing off a mark that can barely be considered a scratch.“But I’m wounded.”

I open my mouth?—

Yet before I get the chance to ask Shep for the details of Gerald’s latest crimes, Storm is suddenly beside me, snagging my wrist and tugging me out from behind the bar, drawing me toward the hall.

“Wait,” I mutter, feelingallthe eyes on us.Shep’s.Tommy’s and Roger’s.Gertie Walkins and her crony of book clubbers (or rather, asIlike to call them, the Cocktail Cacklers because there’s not a lot of book discussion that happens when they hole up in their corner of Sully’s every Thursday night).“Everyone’s watching.”

He stops.Looks around.Then huffs out an aggrieved breath.“And how is that new?”

“I—” But I don’t finish my protest.

Because itisn’tnew.

“You’re right.”

He tilts his head toward the hall, brows lifting in question.

I nod but turn back to the bar, narrowing my eyes, silently ordering my patrons to behave.

Then, knowing this is probably hitting the Cedar Hollow Gazette as I speak—or ratherthink—I lead Storm to my Uncle Sully’s office.

Well, reallymyoffice, though it feels weird thinking of it as anything other than Sully’s.

Once inside, the door securely closed, Storm pauses and looks around, as though taking in the room for the first time.

And I suppose he is.

“Sully’s space,” he says quietly.

My mouth quirks.“His office.But really”—I shrug—“I think it was an excuse to put off paperwork—if he had a place to shove it”—I point at the file cabinets, the big pine desk with its many drawers—“then he didn’t have to deal with it.”

“That was your first job,” he murmurs slowly, as though the memory is floating back to him.

“Yeah,” I say.“I learnedallthe things during my time organizing the chaos Sully created.Though”—another shrug—“I’ve come to understand a lot about my uncle over the last few years.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yup.”I nod.“Mainly, that it’s a lot more fun being out on the floor than doing paperwork.”

He laughs, and I feel that sound inside me.

Deepinside me.

Somewhere soft and dangerous and hopeful and?—

Easy, Pop.

“What’d you need?”I ask, shoving the memories aside and focusing brusquely on the present.

Focusing on all the problems that Storm Harrison created by showing back up in my life.

The biggest of which is happeningrightnow.

Because he’s stepped closer, his eyes going half-mast.

And I feelthatdeep inside too.Just in a different place.Instead of my heart, I feel it in the spot that reminds me it’s been far too long since I’ve had an orgasm that wasn’t courtesy of my battery-operated friend.