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Too late to take back what I’d said. If I made light of it, it could be seen as making light of her love life. She deserved adoration and worship, not teasing. “Adam and I do. And if you’re helping me figure out how to keep the shop open, it’s only fair I offer something in return.”
Adam raised his brows, and his thoughts were almost audible. He was asking what the fuck I was doing. Why I didn’t just ask Brooke out.
I didn’t have to wonder about what Adam’s look meant, because it was a conversation we’d had before.
Brooke wasn’t my standard hookup. She wasn’t a hookup kind of woman at all. She was flowers and dinners and a real courtship and marriage and a family, and she deserved someone who wanted the same.
Regardless of how often I fantasized about handcuffing her to my bed frame and finding out how many ways I could make her scream in pleasure.
How did I know she wasn’t interested? Last time I’d cranked up the flirting, she tried to set me up with her brother.
“Me helping you keep your shop open has nothing to do with favors. You don’t owe me.” Brooke sounded wounded.
That was the last thing I wanted. “And me helping you get back into dating isn’t about favors either, but you’re looking for something, I’m looking for something…”
“Seems like a reasonable agreement to me.” Adam always had my back.
“I’d like your help regardless,” I said, “but this lets me do something for you in return.”
She chewed her bottom lip, making it look even plumper and rosier.Fuck, I wanted to be doing that for her. I’d settle for knowing someone else was.
Brooke’s soft smile returned. “All right. It’s a deal. But we start with your thing, because it’s more time sensitive and has greater consequences if we don’t figure it out now.”
Hard logic to argue with. “What have you got, idea-wise?” I asked her.
“It depends on what you need to do to your place, to bring it up to the new zoning requirements.”
I grabbed the tablet from under the counter that I used for inventory and shop notes, pulled up the research I’d done so far, and slid her the device. “I’d have to update the exterior and make some minor changes to the interior. The facade will be the bulk of the cost. Oh, and the new taxes.”
As I talked, I flipped through images Adam had worked up for me, to match the city’s new requirements, and finished on a rough estimate.
Brooke sucked on her teeth. “Ouch.”
Not encouraging. “Tell me about it.”
“Let’s start with what you have on hand.” She pulled the hair tie off her wrist and used it to tie back her black hair that normally trailed halfway down her back. Perfect length for wrapping around my fist and yanking while I fucked her from behind.
Considering how bright red she turned with light flirting, I was worried she’d walk out and never come back if I got even half as graphic with my words as my imagination wanted me to. I spent a lot more time than I probably should, thinking about the best way to ease her into a more intense conversation. Prodding at her edges and seeing if she was one of those good girls who could go bad. I suspected the answer wasyes.
That would wait. “I think you’ve seen everything in the main shop. Most of what’s in the back room is there because it either needs work or isn’t worth the work.” The back half of the building was dedicated to overflow. “What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know yet. Right now, I’m wandering to see what comes to mind,” Brooke said. “What about the basement? I’ve never been down there.”
I frowned. “I don’t have a basement.”
She stared back. “Yes, you do.”
“I think I’d know if I had a basement.”
Brooke held up one finger. “The building has a foundation showing above ground, rather than being on a pad.” She held up a second finger. “There’s a hollow sound when you walk across the floor… Okay, so maybe I don’t need to count my reasons. There are only two, but they’re good ones.”
“She makes some valid points,” Adam said.
Sure, her logic made perfect sense, with one tiny problem. “I’ve been through every inch of this shop, and I’ve never seen a basement entrance. My grandparents never mentioned one. I basically grew up in this place, and I’ve spent more of my life here than I have in my house. I’d know if there was a basement.”
“I swear to you, there’s a basement for this building.” Brooke extended her hand. “I’d bet on it. Five bucks.”
I wanted something tastier. Like Brooke. But not as a wager. Especially since I knew my shop, and I was going to win. “I want one of your pecan pies.”
