The Next Season (novella) (7 page)

Zoe frowned. ‘Don't you want to interview me first or something?' She looked over to Shaun, who'd gone back to fixing frames to the wall and had his back turned. Big mistake. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of him lifting his arm to hammer a nail into the wall and her throat turned to sandpaper. Was there anything sexier than a man who knew how to wield a hammer?

Ignoring her question, which was a good thing because Zoe had forgotten what she'd asked, Hannah said in a lowered voice, ‘Shaun's been such a great help with the café. I think it's helping to keep his mind off what happened with Melissa. Did he tell you about that?'

She nodded, not wanting Shaun to overhear them talking about him and hoping Hannah wasn't about to give her the big sister
stay away from my brother because if you-break his heart again I'll break you
spiel.

Totally the opposite in fact. ‘I hate to see him so down and out,' Hannah whispered, ‘but I'm very pragmatic about it. Melissa obviously wasn't the right girl for him and once he recovers his pride, he'll realise that and it'll leave him free to find Miss Right.'

‘Uh huh.' Zoe didn't know what to say to that and she wished Hannah would get back to the task at hand. ‘So. The café,' she said, brightly, tearing her gaze away from Mr January. ‘If you're opening on Saturday, do you want me to start then? Will there be any training beforehand?'

Hannah blinked, then gestured to a table. ‘Right. Shall we sit? First I have some paperwork to go through with you and then we'll find you a uniform. We've got the most gorgeous t-shirts and you can wear a denim skirt, shorts or jeans with it. Closed-in shoes of course. I'll be back in a moment.'

As Hannah went out the back again, Zoe slid down into a chair at a table a good distance from Shaun. If she kept getting distracted while filling in paperwork, she was liable to spell her name wrong or something. Shaun didn't look up from his task and that was probably a good thing. She didn't know what was going on between them—probably nothing—but her body was certainly getting ideas. Before she could contemplate this worrying fact any more, Hannah returned with a tall, tanned, dark-haired man. He looked to Zoe like one of the alpha heroes from Sandee's Mills & Boon books come to life—all smouldering looks and the kind of stubble you imagined running your fingers along. If this was the fiancé Matt, she could see why theirs had been a whirlwind romance.

‘Zoe.' Hannah smiled and gestured to the man. ‘This is Toby, my chief pastry chef. You haven't lived until you've tasted one of his chocolate creations.'

Zoe stood as Toby stepped forward to kiss her on both cheeks. ‘
Hola,
bonita
. I cannot wait to cook for you.'

Zoe felt herself blush. She never been good at foreign languages but she guessed
bonita
was a term of endearment. ‘Thank you. But I'm here to work, not eat.'

‘No reason you can't do both.' Toby wriggled his thick dark eyebrows at her. ‘Work should be fun, should it not, Hannah
bella
?'

Hannah laughed. ‘I'm hoping this place will be fun for customers and staff alike.' She sat down at the table, placed a folder in front of her and gestured for Zoe to sit again.

‘I shall make something special for you to drink.' With that promise, Toby turned in the manner of a Latin dancer and flounced back into the kitchen.

‘Isn't he lovely?' Hannah asked.

‘He's quite a character, that's for sure.'

Those words had barely escaped Zoe's mouth when a shriek, followed by a curse, sounded from Shaun's direction. Zoe and Hannah snapped their heads to look at him, only to see a spray of bright red blood across Hannah's pristine wall.

‘Oh my God. What have you done?' Hannah leapt out of her chair and hurried over to her brother. Of course, Zoe followed.

Dammit
. Shaun dropped the hammer and clutched his throbbing thumb to his chest. He'd known it was a bad idea skiving off his real job to come hang frames for Hannah. It was a task he could have done after hours when Zoe wouldn't be here as well. He couldn't even explain why he'd come—it wasn't like Hannah would put Zoe through the ringer and he'd known the job was a done deal. And besides, after dropping everything to craft the furniture for the café, they had a backlog of work and orders at Elliot's. But…

‘Let me take a look at it,' Hannah demanded as she landed beside him.

Wincing, he drew his thumb from his chest and held it out. Bright blood dripped from beneath his nail.

Hannah's face went pale. ‘I think I'm going to be sick,' she gushed before covering her mouth and fleeing towards the shop's convenience. Fat load of help she was.

Zoe appeared in her wake and winced along with him. ‘That looks painful,' she sympathised. ‘I'll see if I can find some ice and something to wrap it with in the kitchen.'

Nodding, he flopped back into a seat and wrapped his good hand around his bad thumb while she went off to seek first aid supplies. It was an effort not to wince too much at the throbbing pain. How could he have been so damn careless? He'd been using a hammer and far more dangerous tools since before he could even read, and unlike his older brothers he'd never had a work-related injury. Still, the idea of Zoe nursing him wasn't altogether bad.

As a matter of fact he'd been having a lot of ideas about Zoe since she waltzed back into town. He didn't know how—or even if—he could be just friends with her, but in the short time she'd been back he hadn't been able to get her out of his head. The last two nights he'd barely slept because every time he closed his eyes, images of her haunted him. Memories that had been buried somewhere deep in the back of his mind reared up and reminded him how into her he'd been seven years ago.

They'd been
the
couple of Wildwood Point High School from almost the moment she'd been farmed out with Sandee. They'd met at the school swimming carnival, where Zoe had swum better than most of his class. Even the boys. Her skill and determination in the pool had wowed him, and the way she'd looked in her swimsuit hadn't hurt either. They'd got chatting and he'd asked her about surfing. She'd said she'd never tried and he'd offered to teach her. One thing had led to another until not only could Zoe wield a wave almost as well as him, but somehow they'd become inseparable.

In addition to their love of the water, they'd shared other interests. They liked the same bands, the same TV shows; they both loved mushrooms on their pizza but hated anchovies. Academic subjects bored the bejesus out of them, but they thrived at Technology and Enterprise, Home Economics and Phys Ed.

And then there was the chemistry. Fuck! The chemistry had almost blown his seventeen-year-old red blood cells into outer space. They'd been each other's firsts so granted they didn't have anything to compare with, but he hadn't been able to imagine how sex could ever be better with anyone else.

If he were honest with himself, it never had been.

Of course his mates had teased him about being under her thumb, and his parents had worried about him getting serious too young, but he'd known his mind and nothing could put a dampener on the feelings he had for Zoe Bennett.

Maybe it was these feelings of old and the fact she'd returned so soon after what had happened with Melissa, but he didn't trust himself around her.

He found it hard not to flirt with her, and in the short time they'd spent together he'd already had to tamp down that instinct a number of times. The last thing he wanted was get carried away and say something he'd regret. Like begging her to go out with him. Because she'd rejected him once and a sucker for self-punishment he most definitely was not.

Despite the pain and his tumultuous thoughts, Shaun managed a smile as Zoe emerged from the kitchen looking victorious.

‘I went for ice, but I found something even better.' She grinned and then stepped sideways, gesturing behind her like a model on some cheesy TV game show. ‘Apparently Toby is trained in senior first aid.'

Holding up an icepack and what looked to be some sort of first-aid kid, Hannah's new chef smiled in a way that grated on Shaun's nerves. ‘Let Toby have a look, now,' he said, referring to himself in the third person as if Shaun were a two-year-old child who needed things spelled out.

The last thing Shaun wanted was Toby touching his injury. It was his fault he was in this predicament in the first place. If he hadn't been flirting with Zoe, accentuating his ridiculous accent and kissing her cheeks, Shaun would never have been so distracted as to hammer his thumb instead of a nail.

‘I'm fine,' he said through gritted teeth as he shot into a stand.

‘You have accident like this before?' Toby asked, leaning forward to peer at Shaun's mangled thumb.

‘No,' Shaun hissed, but Toby didn't appear to notice. He'd already turned his attentions to Zoe. So much for being all gung-ho about applying first aid.

Toby smirked. ‘Some men not so good with their hands,' he all but purred in her ear.

She giggled as if Toby was the funniest comedian on the planet.

Shaun glowered, fighting the urge to point out his hands had been responsible for the counter and most of the furniture in this place,
thank you very much
. ‘I'm very good with my hands, I just…' He stopped speaking abruptly. He could hardly tell them the truth—that the way Toby had looked at Zoe had made his blood boil and his fists clench. It wasn't any concern of his who the chocolate guru flirted with, and if Zoe wanted to get suckered into rebound sex in her tender post-break-up state that wasn't his concern either.

‘Fine,' he relented. ‘Take a look, but be quick, I've got things to do.'

Shaun slumped back into the chair, gritting his teeth as Toby examined his hand as if he were some kind of elite surgeon. He cleaned the wound, applied ice and then wrapped a gauze bandage around the thumb. Halfway through the application of the bandage, Hannah returned from the bathroom looking somewhat shamefaced.

She pulled a chair up alongside his. ‘Sorry. I'm nauseous at the best of times at the moment, but it seems blood is the trigger to push me over the edge.'

‘It's fine,' Shaun said, trying not to wince as Toby wrapped the bandage far tighter than was surely necessary. ‘And I'm sorry about the wall. I'll clean it up before I go and I'll come back and finish hanging the frames when the swelling's gone down.'

Toby laughed as if this was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. ‘With that thumb? I don't think so,
amigo
.' He turned his smile on Hannah. ‘
Bella
, I will hang the frames myself so they are ready for our grand opening.'

Over my dead body,
Shaun thought.

‘Oh, that's so lovely of you,' Hannah said, fluttering her eyelashes and looking as if she were about to cry at his kind-heartedness. ‘Is there anything you can't do?'

Toby rubbed a finger along his jawline and frowned slightly as if pretending to think a moment. ‘Not much,' he said eventually and then laughed along with the women, who appeared to be hanging on his every word.

Shaun had to get out of there before he went the way of his sister. He could already feel the bile bubbling in the back of his throat. Cradling his injured thumb against his chest, he vomited out a quick ‘thanks' to Toby without looking at the man, and then shoved back his chair.

‘Should you get a tetanus shot or something?' Zoe asked, looking away from Toby and back to Shaun before he even had the chance to stand.

He shook his head. ‘I'll be fine.'

‘Maybe she's right,' Hannah said, biting her lip a little. ‘When was the last time you had one?'

Women
. It was like they were programmed to fuss or something. As if this wasn't mortifying enough. ‘A couple of years ago,' he lied, hoping they'd buy it.

Hannah didn't look convinced. ‘Still, maybe you should get checked out at the medical centre?'

‘I could take you,' Zoe piped up, her eyes seeming to light up at this suggestion. For a second he thought he saw something there and he swore the air crackled between them, but then she added, ‘You might not be able to drive properly.'

Her words dashed his stupid hope and he decided the pain was getting to him, making him think crazy thoughts and contemplate doing crazy things. Zoe was merely showing polite concern; offering to help him out like he'd helped her when she'd driven into town on an empty tank. Only problem was…he was beginning to question his motives for doing anything where Zoe was concerned.

‘Thanks, but I'll be fine,' he snapped, before standing and striding towards the door. It was time to drop the Good Samaritan act, and steering clear of Zoe while he finished sorting himself out wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Six

Early on Saturday morning, the OPENING SOON signs in the window of the new Chocolate Dreams Café were ripped down and replaced by a large, bright, welcoming OPEN sign on the front door. Zoe was glad she'd chosen comfortable shoes when she'd dressed in her uniform that morning, for within half an hour of the local mayor cutting the ribbon to officially open the shop, the place was swamped.

Aside from training the last two days with Hannah's other staff and helping finish prepare the café for today's grand opening, Zoe had kept a low profile in town since her return, so this also felt like a reunion of sorts. At almost every table she took an order, someone recognised her. Mostly this was a good thing—people remarking over how good she looked and how pleased Sandee must be to have her back for a bit—yet she tried not to get too hung up in conversations as she was on Hannah's clock and didn't want to get a reputation as being slack.

‘It's fine,' Hannah told her after she'd apologised for lingering at the table where she'd been chatting to her old high school English teacher. ‘Part of good customer service is making small talk and making the customers feel important. You're good at that.'