Page 17 of True Honey
“You sniff out trouble like a bloodhound, you know that?” She threw a pen at me and I caught it up in my hands against my chest with a chuckle.
“I’ll make sure she can start on Monday?” I asked Susanna, by passing the grumbling coming from the old lady.
“Best make it the end of the week, I need help organizing the season ticket holder mail for next season's renewal.” She barked the order as I set the pen down.
“You’re a dream, Susanna. I love you,” I said, backing away and leaving her office.
SHORE
Finding myself in Hilly’s during the day for the second time that week was going to cause some irreparable blows to my ego but I was on a mission. It had been two days since I’d seen Drew and the irony of having her in my thoughts wasn’t lost on me. I had spoken to the guys upstairs about creating a secondary secretary position to help out Susanna until retirement, and none of them had batted an eye at the request.
I knew they wouldn’t. I’d been running that office for three years—no title, just word of mouth. But Drew could change that. I just need to convince her that it was a deal worth taking. A quick, flirty phone call with Kayla had secured whatever job Drew thought she was losing, at least for the time being. The hope was that once I offered her the job at the stadium she would stop working here…around grabby hands.
It had taken everything in me that night not to ask who touched her, but it wasn’t my place. She wasn’t mine to defend.Yet.
Besides, it would be easier on both of us if I didn’t have to explain to my mother that I was marrying a waitress from Hilly’s, especially since I was already fighting an uphill battle. It was like climbing Everest, or at least, that’s what my heart rate kept insisting... I hadn’t been sleeping, eating wasn’t important and everything was work. Constantly. If I stopped working then I had time to panic about everything else going wrong in my life and I didn’t have the spare time to panic. So I worked.
“Hey Si,” Kayla cooed and waved from the table she was serving.
“Is Drew around?” I asked and her face turned sour before she pointed to the back hall that led into the kitchen. I followed the sound of crashing dishesthrough the back to where Drew was filling out paperwork in the back office. “Hey Georgie, can I steal your office?” I asked as I walked by him cutting vegetables, he looked up momentarily before giving me a silent nod and going back to work.
I slipped into the office and shut the door behind me before Drew even looked up from what she was writing.
“You never came to see me,” I said to her as I sat down in George’s chair on the other side of the desk. She looked up at me, fire flashing behind those glassy green eyes and I watched her jaw tighten in disbelief of my presence.
“You’re too persistent for your own good,” she said under her breath and looked back down at her papers.
“It’s for the good of Harbor, I promise,” I said and she trained her eyes on me again.
“That sounds ominous,” she said.
“I have another question to ask you and you’re probably going to think I’m insane but I need you to listen to me before you run out of here screaming or calling the cops on me,” I said.
Drew paused, an awkward, nervous laughter falling from her lips.
“It’s a business proposition,” I told her and she eased a little.
“Haven’t you handed out enough of those in the last few days?” She questioned.
“One more,” I said, inhaling slowly and preparing myself to tell her everything.It’s just a total stranger, I thought.What’s the worst that could happen?
In an instant about fourteen worst case scenarios flashed before my eyes.
I watched as she set the pen down and gave me her undivided attention. In the harsh light of the office I could count the freckles of brown that danced around in her irises and it was distracting. Drew’s lips pressed together in a tight, pensive line and she crossed her arms over her chest as we sat in silence. She was waiting for me to ask my question but I couldn’t seem to word it properly in my head without making an absolute fool of myself.
“I’m sure by now you’ve googled my name,” I said.That sounded pretentious.
“Nope,” Drew said.Yep. Definitely pretentious. You idiot.
“Bad start,” I said, “Well if you had you’d know that I’m Silas Shore, and my family owns the majority of this town.”
“I thought you were a doctor?” She questioned and for a second I missed the sarcasm in her voice and thought she was serious.
“Right, I mean I am, but…” I relaxed a little bit as she teased me. “The next part is going to freak you out,” I warned and she waited, still sitting quietly. “My father is in jail for embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion among other things… currently he is the sole heir of my Grandfather’s share to our fortune.”
“You’re right, that is a little concerning. What does renting me an apartment have to do with any of this?” She asked and I huffed, eyeing her for a moment. “Sorry, I’ve always been the kind of person that asks questions about the movie…”
Her confession was sweet and funny, it eased the tension that resided between my shoulder blades without warning or trouble.
