Best of My Love (Fool's Gold) (16 page)

Shelby didn’t know how to answer the question. Oh, she had plenty of words, but no one ever believed them. “It’s an experiment,” she said at last. “I needed to learn to trust men and Aidan, well, he needed some time off his regular life.” Because what Aidan was dealing with was his business, she thought.

“We agreed to be friends for six months. To get to know each other and simply hang out and do things without letting sex get in the way.”

“But sometimes sex is the best part,” Fran pointed out. “Don’t you miss it?”

“Of course. Aidan’s totally hot and I’d have to be dead not to think about it. But doing without is better.”

“Why?”

“We’re focused on what’s important. I’ve really grown and changed in the past few months. I’m a better person.”

“Sure.” Fran sounded doubtful. “I guess that’s worth something. I’m not saying sex is the only thing that matters, but honestly, I don’t know how you’re doing it. I would simply throw myself at him.”

Shelby busied herself with smoothing the soil so that Fran couldn’t see her face. She
had
thrown herself at Aidan. More than once. And he kept telling her no. She knew why. At least, she was pretty sure she did.

Unless he was just being kind.

The concept was so shocking, she nearly fell over.

“You okay?” Fran asked.

“Yes. Sorry. I lost my balance. Let me start taking the flowers out of the plastic containers. You can put them in the pots.”

“That works.”

Shelby concentrated on removing the little squares of soil and roots, then passing the plants over to Fran. Her fingers were moving in one direction, but her brain was somewhere else.

Was that it? What if Aidan had no interest in her? What if he really did just think of her as a friend? Maybe he was saying all that other stuff to be kind. She knew that he liked her...at least as a friend. So he wouldn’t intentionally hurt her.

Was that it? She didn’t want it to be, but maybe it was. Maybe he was embarrassed by her behavior. Or worse—maybe he felt sorry for her! She couldn’t stand that. Just thinking about it made her face get hot. She wanted to run. She felt embarrassed and ashamed.

She watched him circulate among the groups and knew it was just a matter of time until he joined them. What was she going to say?

Whatever was most appropriate for the situation, she told herself. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Liking someone wasn’t bad. Wanting to make love with Aidan didn’t make her an evil person. She was attracted to him. There was no shame in that.

“You ladies doing all right?” Aidan asked.

Shelby forced herself to look up and smile. “We’re great. With so many people helping, we’ll be done in no time.”

“We still on to visit Destiny later?”

She wanted to say no. She wanted to say there’d been a change of plans. But after she’d moved to Fool’s Gold, she’d promised herself she would never react out of fear again. So she nodded. “We are.”

“Good.”

He walked away. Fran stared after him.

“You’re a stronger woman than me,” she said with an appreciative sigh. “I would so want me a piece of that.”

Shelby and Fran continued to work on their baskets. About an hour later Felicia returned with several guys driving trucks. The baskets were loaded up to be distributed and displayed around town. Shelby stripped off her gloves, got a bottle of water and started to walk home. She had an hour until Aidan would be by to pick her up and she wanted to shower.

But before she got to the end of the street, she heard a woman calling her name. She turned and saw Taryn Whittaker walking toward her.

Despite Taryn’s five-inch wedge heels, she moved quickly. Her white fitted dress emphasized her lithe figure. Her dark hair was pulled back in a braid that moved in time with her steps. She looked cool and elegant, not to mention totally at odds with the town. But that was Taryn. She didn’t let living in Fool’s Gold keep her from her love of all things designer.

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Taryn said as she approached. “Were you gardening?”

Shelby glanced down at her dirty jeans and smudged T-shirt. “Does it show?”

Taryn laughed. “I garden, too. At home, where I can give Angel instructions while I watch. I do enjoy watching that man lift and tote.” She sighed. “Which isn’t why I wanted to talk to you. Do you have a second?”

“Sure.”

Taryn pointed to a bench. They walked over to it and sat down. Shelby ignored the sense of being a peasant next to a princess. For all her extensive grooming, Taryn was a regular kind of person. At least on the inside.

“So I’ve heard about you buying the bakery. I think that’s fantastic,” Taryn began. “This town is all about female power and I don’t want that to change.”

“I’m not sure buying a small business qualifies as female power, but okay.”

“It does. Trust me.” Taryn lowered her voice. “I’ve been very fortunate in my career. Score is successful and with success comes financial reward. Jack helped me when I was young. He didn’t have to, but he did. Ever since, I’ve made it a point to do the same. Help other people. Buying a business is expensive. Rumor is you want to lease the space next door and add a commercial kitchen. Also not cheap. I absolutely think you should go for it. To that end, I’d like to offer you a loan. My terms are fair, slightly better than the bank, and I require less paperwork.”

Shelby sucked in a breath. “Taryn, that’s so generous. And shocking.”

“I’ve done it before,” the other woman said. “To be honest, I have my finger in a few pies around town.” She laughed. “Pies is a fun metaphor considering you’re going to buy a bakery, but you know what I mean. It’s up to you. Just think about it. I don’t want to be your business partner. We’d make sure there was a buyout strategy. I’m just saying, if you want it, the money is yours.”

Shelby didn’t have all the numbers yet, but she’d gotten some preliminary estimates from a contractor and the remodel was going to be over seventy thousand dollars. When added to how much she would need to buy out Amber, it was a lot of money. She thought about asking Taryn if she was prepared to offer that much, then realized the question was silly. Taryn would have done her homework before seeking her out.

“You’re even more well-off than I’d thought,” Shelby admitted.

Taryn laughed. “Like I said. I’ve done well. I want to pay it forward. Or whatever that phrase is.” She smiled, then rose. “Think about it.”

“I will. I promise.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Y
OU
’
RE
GOING
TO
let him run the meeting?” Destiny asked, her voice teasing.

As the question wasn’t directed at him, Aidan didn’t bother answering. He wasn’t concerned with what Destiny thought about him. Instead he found himself oddly relieved that she seemed so much better.

“Aidan is a very capable party planner,” Shelby murmured in a low singsong voice. “Isn’t he, my beautiful girl? Yes, he is. Yes, he is.”

Had she been anyone else, he would have totally freaked at her obvious affection for Destiny’s baby. Even from across the living room, he could hear the
tick-tick
of her biological clock. But it wasn’t his problem, he told himself. He and Shelby weren’t together that way. She wasn’t going to look to him to be her baby daddy.

A good thing. He wanted to improve his character. Not settle down. At least that was what he’d always told himself.

Destiny sipped what looked like a disgusting green smoothie and eyed him. “A party planner, huh? How many parties have you planned?”

“My entire business is about getting people from point A to point B and back safely, on skis or bikes or while parasailing. I can handle a birthday party for a sixteen-year-old.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Aren’t we confident?”

“Aren’t we feeling better than we were last time?”

Destiny laughed. “Okay. Point taken. I’m giving you sass because I’m feeling pretty good. I’m sorry about the meltdown the other day.”

“You’re a new mother. You have a lot going on.” Shelby touched the gurgling baby’s face. “Your mommy is a famous singer. Yes, she is.”

“I’m not famous.”

“Not yet. You will be.”

“Maybe. I’m not sure I want that,” Destiny admitted. “I saw what too much fame did to my parents. But some kind of success would be nice.” She sipped her drink and looked at Aidan. “Let’s talk about the party.”

She was completely different from the last time he’d seen her. The dark circles were gone and she seemed more relaxed. He knew that in addition to letting them take care of Starr’s party, Destiny had started sharing the responsibility of Tonya a little more. She’d also told her manager to back off for the next month while she continued to recover from childbirth. An impressive turnaround.

He supposed the lesson was that everyone was capable of changing, when motivated. Look at him. He’d come a long way.

Tonya began fussing. Shelby rocked her. Destiny took one more sip of her green drink, then stood.

“Sorry, guys. She’s hungry. I was hoping she’d eat before you got here, but we’re having another schedule shift. Give me ten or fifteen minutes and I’ll be back.”

She collected the baby and walked out of the room. Shelby watched her go.

“She has to be so happy,” she said wistfully.

“Feeling the need?”

“A little. I always knew I wanted kids, but I was scared. If that makes sense.”

“Sure. You wouldn’t want anyone to go through what you went through. Why wouldn’t you be cautious?”

“You’re becoming so insightful.”

He gave any exaggerated sigh. “I know. Perfection looms. Soon I’ll be a demigod.”

She laughed. “If only that were true. I could say I knew you when. Do you want kids?”

And they were back to that.

For a second, he felt a tightening in his chest. The precursor to panic. But there was no need for worry. Not with Shelby. He would trust her the way he wouldn’t trust other women.

“Sure. Kids would be great. I like kids. I come from a big family, so more is better.”

“I’d like four,” she told him.

“That’s a lot.”

“I like the idea of happy chaos and noise. Plus they’d be there for each other the way Kipling was there for me. That was always a good feeling.”

Aidan nodded. “When I was growing up, Del had my back. We both took care of the younger ones. Especially the twins.” He paused. “I’m never going to think of them as anything other than the twins.”

“Does that have to change?”

“They’re not twins. They never were.”

“But it’s how you think of them. I wonder if it’s how they think of themselves.”

Aidan had no idea how Mathias and Ronan had worked things out. Or even if they had. “They live in the same town, work in the same studio space. They must have come to terms in some way.”

“It had to have been hard, though. One second they thought they knew who they were and the next, their whole identity had changed. Ronan lost his family and Mathias lost a part of himself.”

He wanted to say she was being dramatic, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe she was the one who had it right. Ronan must have felt like a fraud, or at the very least, an interloper. Mathias would have, as Shelby had pointed out, lost a piece of who he was. He knew for his two youngest brothers, their “twinness” had defined them. What had it been like to find out it had never existed?

“Look at us, all philosophical,” Shelby teased. “Next thing you know, we’ll be solving global problems.”

“Or attempting to.”

She laughed and stood, stretching her arms over head before bending down to touch her toes.

She was petite, with small bones and a slightness about her that belied her internal strength. He should have realized how tough she was when she’d first approached him about her plan. That had taken guts and determination.

“What are you thinking?” she asked when she’d put her arms at her side.

“About how you stalked me back in January.”

“I didn’t stalk you. I considered you a good candidate and I was right. We’re good together.”

“We are.”

He wouldn’t have guessed that they would become such good friends. When the six months were over, he knew things would change between them, but he hoped they would still spend time together. He liked being with her.

But wanting it might not be enough. She would be busy with her new business and he would be in the high summer season. Plus they would probably each be looking for a relationship. Shelby had been very clear about what she wanted. A man she could fall in love with. While he was looking for—

“Okay, that’s a serious expression,” she said. “What?”

“I don’t know what I want.”

“In life?”

“When this is over. You and me. You’re going to go find Mr. Right, get married and have four kids. What am I going to do?”

“What do you want to do?” She raised a hand. “No, that’s the wrong question. Does being in love still mean you’re stuck?”

A question he hadn’t considered in a long time. When he’d been a kid, he’d seen his mother’s devotion to her husband as a bad thing. Now he was less sure. He didn’t agree with her choices, but he thought maybe he understood them more.

Shelby sat next to him on the sofa. She angled toward him and took his hand in hers.

“She could have stood between you and Ceallach, but she didn’t. That was her decision. That decision speaks to her and not to the entirety of being in love.”

“You’re saying I learned the wrong lesson?”

Her blue eyes were wide and filled with compassion. “Yes. Love simply is. Each of us reacts differently to the feeling. Your mom and my mom are a lot alike. They both fell in love with difficult men. They both chose to sacrifice their children in the name of that love. We saw what happened and made connections. You learned that love makes you stuck. I learned that love makes you weak. We’ve been unable to trust in love ever since. At least not romantic love.”

“And now?” he asked.

She smiled. “I trust you.”

“I trust you, too.”

Simple words. Easy words, yet they hit him like a freight train. He was momentarily immobilized by their impact. He trusted her. Wholly and without reservation. He’d never trusted a woman before. Not that way. In fact, outside of his brothers, he wasn’t sure he’d ever trusted anyone as much.

He reached for her just as she leaned into him. She went into his arms as if she’d always belonged in them. In the second before their lips touched, he felt desire mingle with certainty. This was right. Being with Shelby was right. He wasn’t sure why he’d resisted for so long.

At the first brush of his mouth against hers—

“Ha! I knew it.” Destiny walked into the living room with her baby on her shoulder. “All this we’re-just-friends crap. You’re not just friends. You were
kissing
!”

Shelby scrambled to the other side of the sofa. “We weren’t.”

Destiny’s smug expression never changed. “Really? Did Aidan faint and you were giving him mouth-to-mouth?”

“It was an accident,” Shelby amended. “We really aren’t together.”

“It’s my fault,” Aidan said. “Leave her alone.”

Destiny stared at him. “Is that how it is?”

“Yes.”

She studied him for a second. “All right. Let’s talk about the party.”

Shelby looked between them. “What just happened?”

“Aidan won’t let me tease you,” Destiny said. “He’s being protective.”

Shelby relaxed. “He does that all the time.”

“Interesting,” her sister-in-law said. “Now, about the party.”

Shelby pulled a notepad from her bag. “We’re still thinking about a 1950s-music-themed party. I saw the most creative cupcakes online. There were a couple of ideas that I really liked. My favorite was cupcakes in the shape of a guitar. They were iced to look like one, too.”

Destiny grinned. “Starr would totally love that.”

“We’d have music from the fifties,” Aidan told her. “There are plenty of playlists we can buy. For games, we’ll do old-fashioned board games like Scrabble and Candyland. Along with Twister.”

“It’s girls only, right?” Shelby asked.

“That’s what she says she wants,” Destiny told them. “Kipling and I are so grateful. I didn’t want to have to sweat that much supervision.”

“You could also do fun manicures.” Aidan took the notepad and read from the list he and Shelby had put together. “The supplies would be easy to assemble and then the whole kit could be put in some kind of pretty bag. That could be the party favor.”

Destiny’s mouth dropped open. “You know about parties like this having a favor?”

“I was at your baby shower.”

“I know, but...” She looked at Shelby, then back at him. “Um, sure. The manicure kits are a great idea.”

They talked about the party for another few minutes. When it was time for Destiny to put Tonya down for her nap, they said their goodbyes and left.

“The party is going to be so much fun,” Shelby said as they got in his truck. “Starr is going to love it.”

“I hope so. Plus we’ll enjoy putting it together.”

“I’m very excited about the cupcakes.”

He wasn’t surprised. Shelby would enjoy the challenge of creating something that special.

“You could play around with different kinds of cupcake cakes,” he said. “Take pictures and offer them to your customers. Especially for kids’ parties. Cupcakes are easier than having to cut up a cake. You could make some kind of template for the design. Like if somebody ordered a dinosaur cake. You make it out of cupcakes, then number the individual cupcakes on the bottom so the parents can use the template to re-create that shape and design wherever they wanted it. A park or someone’s house.”

She looked at him. “That’s a great idea. I love the template. I’ve used them myself, but I’ve never thought of offering them to customers. They would be easy to do on the computer and then print out.” She laughed. “You’re so much more than a pretty face.”

“Thanks.”

He drove without thinking and found himself pulling into his driveway rather than the office, where he’d left Charlie and she’d left her car. She looked around.

“I thought you were taking me home. Did you want to do something instead?”

An innocent question. He knew how she meant. He also knew exactly what he wanted to do.

“I’d like you to come inside,” he told her. “Then I’d like to make love with you.”

She swung her head back to meet his gaze. Her eyes were wide, her expression surprised. “But you said...”

“I was wrong.”

“About us being friends?”

“About me being able to resist you. I can’t. But I need you to be sure. It’s going to change everything.”

* * *

S
HELBY
KNEW
HE
was right. That their relationship would forever shift.

She wanted him. That much was clear. And she loved knowing he wanted her, too. But what about the risks? She liked Aidan so much—she liked how they were together. She most especially liked how he always looked out for her. Even now, he wanted her to be sure. If she said no, he would back off in a second.

“Do you have condoms?” she asked.

He laughed. “Yes. A large box.”

She smiled. “Is that a large box of condoms or a box of large condoms?”

“I guess you’re going to have to wait and find out.”

He turned off the engine and they both got out of the truck. Shelby waited for him to walk around to her side. In that heartbeat of time, she poked at her emotions to make sure she was completely comfortable with her decision. There were nerves, but they were the anticipation kind. More pole-dancing butterflies than frightened ones.

He reached her side and took her hand. Their fingers laced together with an ease that made her relax, even as his touch warmed her.

“About my reputation,” he began as they walked to the front door. “You seem to have a certain expectation.”

“I do,” she teased. “I’m going to see stars and touch the moon and all that stuff.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“Pressure?”

He opened the door and let her go first. “Some.”

“So I shouldn’t expect too much?”

He walked in behind her, then closed and locked the door. He turned to her and pulled her close.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

The confidence in his voice sent a shiver through her. The feel of his body against her caused her to start melting from the inside out. And when he lowered his mouth to hers...well, thinking became impossible.

They’d kissed before. Friendly kisses, brief kisses, even a kiss or two with passionate undertones. But they’d never kissed like this. She hadn’t known what it was like to be claimed by Aidan.