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ELEVEN
The next morning, Eden rolled over lazily and opened her eyes to glance at the clock, only to have them open wide when she realized she was on the verge of running late. So much for her fears of not being able to get any sleep. After watching the movie with Chandler, she’d slept like a rock.
Hurrying to her feet, she raced for the bathroom to get ready. She had a full schedule ahead of her at the salon and needed to make sure everything was prepped and ready before the clients started arriving.
Finally, she padded out to the kitchen. She knew Chandler was awake—she could hear him bustling around in the kitchen. Hopefully, he was ready to go. She was a little nervous about having him come with her to the salon. On the other hand, she’d probably be even more nervous about going without him. She wasn’t going to take any more chances with her security. If the same person who broke into her home did anything to poison or tamper with her supplies at the salon, there was the risk of her or Lena or a client’s dog getting seriously ill. That was not a risk she wanted to take. Anything Chandler could do to secure the place would be fine by her. She valued her independence and liked to run the show on her business, sure, but she wasn’t about to be foolhardy.
When she entered the kitchen, he was sitting at the breakfast bar, drinking his coffee and checking his emails on his laptop. All of which would have been fine, except he hadn’t gotten dressed yet. And he apparently slept shirtless. Very, very shirtless, with acres of bare chest and shoulders and arms and abs on display. Yum.
“Morning,” he said as Eden walked past him to the counter with the coffeepot, refusing to allow herself to look back and enjoy the view. “Sleep well?”
“Too well,” she grumbled, pouring herself a cup of liquid energy. “I’m bordering on running late already and my schedule is jam-packed today.”
“Right.” He stood and brushed by her to set his cup in the sink. Eden did her best not to look at all the muscled, tanned man chest in her view because, yeah. The man looked fine. Way finer than any human should be allowed to that early in the morning. And he smelled good too. Like soap and spice and a hint of warm male. Part of her, without her consent, wanted to bury her face in his neck and stay there forever.
Whoops. No.
Eden scowled down into her coffee and took a step back, away from temptation. Attraction was unavoidable. Involuntary. Nothing more than a chemical reaction. But giving in to that attraction was something else entirely and Eden wasn’t going to go down that road with Chandler Ruthven, no matter how enticing he might look.
“Give me five minutes to get ready and we can go,” he said, finally heading down the hall, allowing her space to breathe again. And if she happened to sneak a glance at his ass retreating down the hallway, it was no one’s business but hers. “Maybe on the way to the salon, we can discuss plans about how we proceed from here. Can you stick in some toast, so we can eat it on the way?”
She mumbled a vague assent before turning away from his too gorgeous form to rifle through the cupboards to find the bread. After sticking a couple slices into the toaster and jamming the button down harder than necessary, Eden took a seat at the breakfast bar to gather her thoughts before Chandler returned. It was weird for her, being here, living with someone else. Ever since she’d moved out of her parents’ house, once she’d finally gotten her business going, she’d gotten very used to living on her own. In truth, she relished it. But privacy was a luxury she couldn’t afford right now. Not until the trial was over and her life was her own again.
And yet even though she was grateful to Chandler for letting her stay with him, it was still a difficult adjustment to get used to sharing her space with anyone. Especially someone like Chandler.
By the time he came back out, fully dressed this time thankfully, Eden had her shoes on, her coffee finished, and four slices of buttered toast ready to go. They divvied up breakfast, then headed out to her salon.
She gave him a hurried tour, then left him to his own devices while she did the prep work for the day. By the time Lena showed up, she’d gotten everything ready to go and no longer felt like she was running behind. Good thing, too, because Lena certainly wouldn’t have let her do her supply checks. As soon as she walked in the door and realized Chandler was there, Lena was grabbing Eden by the wrist and dragging her into the break room.
“Honey, what happened?” she asked. “I know you and Chandler decided you’d be working together to try to jog your memory,” Lena was, in fact, the only person Eden had told, “but since when does he come into the salon? Did something happen?” Her eyes widened in glee. “Did you two get together? Oh my god, that would be so amazing. You’d be the most gorgeous couple and I always thought—”
The fastest way to quiet her friend was to literally put a hand over her mouth, so that’s what Eden did. “Something did happen,” she admitted. “But not anything good.” She explained about the poisoning and watched all the excitement in Lena’s expression give way to horror and shock. She hadn’t even finished her story before she was swept up in a massive hug. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed one. Her best friend rocked.
“I’m glad you’re staying with Chandler,” Lena said when story time was over. “I don’t think I’d be able to get a wink of sleep if you insisted on staying somewhere on your own. But I know Chandler will make sure you’re safe.”
They were interrupted by the ringing bell over the front door, signaling their first customer for the day had arrived. Time to get to work.
Around eleven, Eden had a break between clients and Chandler pulled her aside to discuss the findings from his security assessment. They went into the small office in the back where Eden mainly worked on the accounting stuff. There wasn’t much in there other than a tiny desk, a file cabinet, and a chair in front of the desk, currently stacked with mail and boxes and books.
“So, couple things,” Chandler started, once he’d cleared a place on the chair to sit and Eden was perched on the edge of the desk. “First, I think we need to install security cameras in here. That way if anyone suspicious shows up, we’ll have a record of them we can share with the police, maybe do some facial recognition. Second, I’d recommend you maintain some distance with the clients who aren’t your regulars. We don’t know who we’re looking for—it would be best not to let strangers get too close, just in case.”
“That makes sense, but I’m struggling to remember who my regulars are. I just don’t always know,” she said. It bothered her so much, but there was nothing she could do about it until her memory came back.
He shook his head. “I know it’s difficult at the moment when it comes to more recent regulars, but until those memories return, have Lena help you determine which people they are, okay?”
“Okay.” Eden had to admit she found both of those suggestions highly practical. “There’s actually something I wanted to bring up, too,” she said. “I’ve already gotten a couple of questions from clients about who you are and what you’re doing here. I mean, it’s pretty clear you’re not working for me since you hung back the whole time and didn’t try to interact with the dogs. We’re going to get more questions. What should I tell people?”
Chandler frowned. “We’ll need a cover story. It seems like it would be very bad for business to let your clients know you’re dealing with attacks. Besides which, I know you don’t want to run the risk of word getting back to your family. So that means that the truth is out.”
Eden cringed “Well, I did tell Lena, but I know she’ll keep it to herself. The question is what to tell the clients. And we’ll need to let Lena know, too, so we can make sure we’re both giving the same explanation.”
“Well, I think we should tell them I’m your boyfriend.”
“I’m sorry?” She just stared at him, thinking she must’ve heard him wrong.
“We tell people we’re a couple.” At her stunned look, he held up a hand. “It’s the cover story we’re already using with Adam, and believe me when I say it’s better to have one consistent cover story you use with everyone rather than a bunch of different ones you have to try to keep straight.”
“I…okay, I guess that makes sense,” Eden admitted. “But still, won’t it seem weird? A boyfriend might stop by the salon to visit once in a while, but why would you hang around here all the time, day after day?”
