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“What if—”
“What if is for tomorrow. We’re living today.” He kissed her nose. “You’re the one who made me believe we could do this. I couldn’t have walked away from the store if I hadn’t hoped to God you’d be waiting for me on the other side.”
She pressed her fingertip over his lips. “See, stuff like that will make me break my promise not to cry.”
“We’re going to make it, Kelly. We already have. Who else but us would open a bookstore in this economy? No one. Every banker we talked to said we were nuts.”
“They’re probably right.”
“But it didn’t stop us. We poured our savings into this, risked everything. Even with The Book Nook right across town, even starting from nothing with only hopes and dreams and plans, we didn’t give up. Because we’re about the books. Even as things change, people still want to read. And we’ll find a way to reach those people.” He turned her toward the glass door that still bore the name Funky Shoes. “We want to give the gift books have given us to everyone who walks through those doors. It’s not about profit margins and making a quick buck. We’re in this for the long haul, baby. And we can’t fail.”
Every time she started to get scared, he was right there, holding her up. Reminding her why they were doing this. Nail by nail, page by page, moment by moment, they would ensure nothing could shake the foundation they were beginning to build.
Right down the line.
“You know, some women might want to spend their first New Year’s as part of a real actual couple doing something couple-ish. Like going out for a fancy dinn
er and dancing. Or to a party. Not standing around in the sawdust spinning fairy tales.”
“It’s no fairy tale.”
“I know. But I love yanking your very big, very thick chain.” She patted his cock through his jeans—something he actually wore pretty often now, amazingly enough—and grinned.
“We could still go out. There’s time. I even have a tux somewhere.”
“Mmm. I’d like seeing you in a tux. And getting you out of it.” She shifted in his embrace to kiss his jaw. “Lucky for you, I’m not some women. And I couldn’t be happier if you rolled me in chocolate and licked me clean.” She tapped her chin. “On second thought…”
“We’ll do that for Valentine’s Day.” He laughed and tugged her toward the door. “But I do have something that I think you’ll like. C’mon. It’s out in the truck.”
She pretended to protest as he dragged her outside into the cold. “It’s freezing out here.”
“It’s good for you. Helps get the blood moving.”
He led her toward the parking lot, empty except for his exceptionally large pickup. He’d traded in the Acura for the truck last month, thinking it would come in handy since they were going to do as much of the rehab work on the place as they could. Considering neither of them were exactly experts in that area, Kelly considered it a damn good thing Adam had come up for Christmas and enlisted a bunch of his jock friends. He intended to stick around as long as they needed them. Which Kelly figured would be right up until opening day.
They weren’t lacking in other help either. Tony and Cale had signed on for as much manual labor as necessary. She’d forgiven Cale for picking up her PDA in the break room after he’d sheepishly apologized. He’d told her himself that he’d figured that would be a good way for Spencer to notice her—at least after Marcia had convinced him that it was. He hadn’t known Spencer had noticed her plenty even before he’d seen the list, thanks to her video session in his office.
Their hearts—all three of them—had been in the right place, even if their brains hadn’t. They were good people. And that both men seemed to hang around Marcia as if she’d spun the moon from strands of her golden hair didn’t concern her. As long as they were happy, she didn’t care what sort of thing they had going.
In fact, she and Spencer secretly hoped they’d be able to lure the guys away from the Nook once the store opened. But they would never ask. That wouldn’t be fair and pretty shady to boot. Besides, they already had the beginnings of a staff.
Well, they had themselves and Marcia. So building the staff would take some time.
In a way, she owed Marcia and Cale. They’d helped her out. Spencer had been so pissed off about her sex list that by the time they’d finally come together, he’d been ready to blow. So it was all good. Especially once she’d explained he hadn’t been at the bottom of the list, but the top.
He liked being on top. Most of the time.
For Christmas, Spencer had given her a new PDA, synced with all the data from her old one. He’d even left the list intact. But he hadn’t minded one bit when she’d been feeling particularly charitable after a memorable session in the shower and destroyed the list entirely, replacing it with one titled “The Only Man I Want To Fuck Forever and Ever, Amen”.
She’d been told she wasn’t ever allowed to delete that list. Worked for her.
“Close your eyes,” he said when she skidded around the back of the truck, nearly slipping on the ice.
“You trying to kill me?”
“All part of my diabolical plan. No peeking.”
She kept her eyes closed, only opening them when he gave the signal. She stared into the flatbed of his truck, blinking like an owl for a full minute.
