Protecting His Home Read online

  When our order comes up Andrea nods toward a few chairs, “We’re going to stay here for a few minutes so I can eat this.”

  Troy smiles and grabs the drink carrier. “Cool, I’ll see you ladies back at the shop. I’m looking forward to seeing your vision come to life, Andrea.”

  When Andrea and I sit down she gives me the third degree about what Troy said to me and about my odd behavior. I try and shrug it off and change the subject. She’s relentless though, so I tell her what Troy told me about Beckett and I tell her I’ve noticed the change in his social media posts, too.

  Andrea knows me too well, “You really dig him, huh?”

  I shrug, “I guess, but it’s not like I know the guy. He’s hot, but he seems like a dick. I guess that’s better than him being fake and smothering us with faux charm. I just can’t get involved with another person who’s going to play games. I won’t get hurt again.”

  Andrea’s eyes soften, “Honey, you know that not all guys are like that asshole who hurt you. I’ve only met Beckett like twice before, but I thought he was really nice and genuine.”

  I nod because it’s true but tell my fear that. “I know that’s what you said before, but it doesn’t matter. It seems like he finds me annoying and he’s barely tolerating me. I won’t throw myself at someone who can’t stand me.”

  Andrea shrugs, “Maybe he thought you were flirting with Troy.”

  I chuckle, “Troy’s a flirt and fun. Nothing more and nothing less.”

  Andrea nods, “Yeah, I know that, and you know that. Hell, I think Troy knows that considering what he told you about Beckett, but maybe Beckett doesn’t know that. Troy did say he’s gotten hurt in the past.”

  “Then that sounds like his problem and not mine.”

  “True,” Andrea concedes as she finishes up her pastry and collects her trash.

  When we get back to the shop we sit on the couches. I love this couch. I seriously could spend an entire winter hibernating right here. Just give me a book or my hook and some yarn and check on me in a few hours.

  While we’re waiting another guy, this time with black hair and blue eyes, comes out and sits at the reception desk looking over the computer. He smiles at us and introduces himself as Walsh. So, now I’ve met three guys who work here and they’re all tall and hot as fuck. This really isn’t fair to the rest of the female population; this building should come with a warning label.

  It dawns on me that I haven’t seen a manager, receptionist, front desk person…whatever you want to call that position while we’ve been here. I take the risk of overstepping my boundaries, again, and ask Walsh about it.

  “So, do you guys have a receptionist or shop manager or whatever?”

  Walsh looks me over with an assessing look. “No, she left about 2 months ago. She had to move back to her hometown to help with her mom who was diagnosed with cancer.”

  I frown, “I’m sorry that she’s going through that.”

  Walsh smiles warmly, “Yeah, it’s a bummer. She was great at her job too. I think Banks is still looking for someone.” He wags his eyebrows at me, “Why? You looking for a job, Sweetcheeks?”

  I feel my eyebrows hit my hairline and of course that’s the moment that Beckett steps into the waiting area. He fixes a hard look at Walsh, whose eyes widen comically, before scowling at me.

  The chuckle that comes out of me is forced and awkward. Awesome, I continue to make an amazing first impression.

  “No, Snookums,” Walsh laughs and the scowl on Beckett’s face deepens. “I’m happy where I’m at. I was asking because Andrea is my assistant manager and while she wasn’t ready to be in charge a few years ago when I started, she is now. I don’t plan on leaving my job anytime soon and she doesn’t want to move to the new location in Boulder.” I shrug, “Just thinking of my friend.”

  Beckett gives me a look, like he doesn’t believe my intentions are noble or some shit. Yeah, well, fuck him. Andrea would do awesome here and they clearly need someone. I’ve taught her everything I know about running a shop, using social media to help drive the business and looking for additional avenues for sales. They don’t even have Banks Ink. shirts for sale in the waiting area; if they did, I’d totally buy one. Well, maybe not now that Beckett seems like an asshole, but I would have before.

  I shrug again and mumble, “Just thought I’d ask. Sorry.”

  Andrea smiles, “You’re awesome to be thinking about me. You know I’ve put in my application for some managerial positions and I know you’ll give me an awesome reference.”

  Walsh rubs the stubble on his chin, “Where do you ladies work?”

  Beckett, noticeably, still hasn’t said a word.

  Andrea pipes up this time, “Oh, we’re over at Green Space.”

  Both guys’ eyebrows shoot into their hair lines and their mouths open in shock. Yeah, I don’t look like someone who smokes or would manage a cannabis dispensary, even with a pot pun shirt on. See? Those stereotypes will bite you in the ass when you’re not careful. I fight back my smirk. Barely.

  Andrea laughs, “You guys know it?”

  Walsh starts grinning from ear to ear, “Of course! They have the best promotions and selection. I was planning to head that way after work, actually. Great shirts too.”

  I can’t help the smug smile that crosses my face. Walsh clocks it immediately, “You do the ordering?”

  “Yup,” I nod and pop the p. “Along all the other stuff it takes to run the shop including the promotions and social media stuff. I’ve designed some of the shirts myself,” I end with a shrug.

  Walsh lets out a low whistle and Beckett’s eyes are boring into me, but I refuse to look at him. He might be an amazing artist, but his behavior today has been kind of shitty.

  I fight it but can’t help myself and I glance at him before looking around the shop, “So, if you’re really looking for someone then Andrea would be a great person to talk to about the position.”

  Andrea smiles, “You ready for me, Beckett?”

  Beckett clears his throat and Walsh gives him an assessing look before looking back at me with a huge smile on his face. I try, really try not to roll my eyes, but I fail. I fail miserably and that only makes Walsh smile wider.

  Beckett clears his throat again. “Yeah, I’m ready. Come on back and we’ll get started.”

  We get up from the couch and Andrea follows behind Beckett while I bring up the rear.

  Walsh rests his hip against the counter of the desk and winks at me. “Nice meeting you, Sweetcheeks.” He points to his section in the front of the shop which highlights his traditional Japanese style, “If you like my style, I’d be happy to tattoo you anytime.”

  I can’t help but smile and laugh, “I’ll keep that in mind, Snookums. Thanks.”

  I round the half wall into Beckett’s station where Andrea already has her shirt pulled up and tucked into her bra and her jeans pushed down slightly to expose her hip. I point toward a chair along the wall. I try not to sound too cheery and fake, but I’m pretty sure I fail. What can I say? My customer service persona is my comfort blanket in this situation. “Is it cool if I sit there?”

  Beckett grunts at me as he prepares the stencil, “Yeah, you can move it closer once she’s settled in the chair.”

  I plaster my fake smile on, “Thanks! Let me know if I’m in the way.”

  Beckett shoots me a glare and I swear it’s like a slice to my fragile little heart. I don’t get why he doesn’t like me, but it doesn’t matter since I’m just here to support my friend. I can see the dream of Beckett putting his art on me evaporating right in front of me.

  I glance around the shop; I like that you can see the other artists and that their stations are just separated by pony walls. It makes it more communal. Troy is busy working on a client. There’s a woman sketching in another space and she’s gorgeous.

  She has lilac colored hair and I’m so jealous. My hair is boring and brown, but I’d love to get into the mermaid hair trend. I just do
n’t want to deal with the upkeep. I went through a stage in high school when I dyed my hair a lot and it did a lot of damage. I’m not sure I want to go down that road again, so I just admire from afar.

  The woman looks up from her sketch and sees me watching her. She smiles broadly at me and I return it. She seems nice. Women can usually tell, ya know? Well, at least I can and that’s probably from dealing with mean girls in school. Other kids had it way worse than me, but I’ve never had many friends and I’ve always been shy and awkward.

  My parents were shocked when I went into retail management since that means dealing with people a lot and I’ve been shy my entire life. I just told them I looked at like I was playing a part when I was at work and there’s enough other things to keep my mind stimulated with running the business.

  I bet if Andrea started working here, we could be friends with this lilac haired woman. Beckett finishes putting the stencil on and Andrea heads to the mirror to check it out. I give her a thumbs up and she gives me a wide smile.

  Lilac haired girl puts down her sketch pad and comes over and offers me her hand to shake, “Hi! I’m Olivia.”

  I give her another smile and shake her hand. “Hi. I’m Amelia and this is Andrea. I love your hair.”

  Olivia gives me a big smile, “Thanks!” She checks out the stencil on Andrea. “That’s going to look awesome, I can’t wait to see it finished.”

  Andrea grins and Beckett tells her how he wants her to lay on the table. Olivia gives a little wave and goes back over to her station. Troy glances up, catches my eye and gives me a wink. I shake my head in admonishment and he chuckles before going back to concentrating on his client.

  I take that opportunity to move closer to the table, on the opposite side that Beckett’s working. I look at my best friend and smile. “This is going to be awesome! You doing okay?”

  She nods, but I can see the nervousness in her eyes. “Yeah.”

  Beckett’s gotten new gloves on and he already had his inks set up. “Okay, I’m ready if you are Andrea. First, I’ll start with the outline starting with the simple geometric bird. If you need me to stop, just tell me. It’s not too large, so the outline should take me about 45 minutes and then it might take me about an hour to do the color work.”

  Fuck. His voice does something to me. It’s deep and raspy and it does something deliciously wicked to my insides. I probably shouldn’t like it, considering he’s been so short with me, but I can’t help it. I can’t help it at all.

  Andrea nods, but her nervousness seems to have increased. I smile brightly, “You got this, girl! Just remember to breathe so you don’t pass out!”

  She giggles and takes a deep. “I’m ready.”

  Beckett starts up his machine and gets started on the outline. Andrea and I chit chat and I try to engage Beckett in conversation here and there, but I get one-word grunts in response. Okay, fine, he doesn’t want to talk. I get it, but he doesn’t have to be an ass about it. It sucks when you learn the truth about people sometimes.

  Beckett is almost done with the outline when he starts talking to Andrea about the management position in his shop. He tells her about the requirements, and I find myself forgetting about how gruff he’s been and the excitement over my friend getting this opportunity takes over.

  I pipe up, my voice a little overenthusiastic and fake. “If you need a reference, I’d be happy to give it. She’d be great here. She’s a fast learner, smart and organized!”

  Beckett narrows his eyes at me. His eyes look so cold that it hits me straight in the heart for some reason. I can feel it shrivel up right then. He snaps, “Are you always this cheery?”

  I can’t help it; I rear back like he’s slapped me. He might as well have. No, I’m not always this fucking cheery and it’s taken me a concerted effort to be upbeat for my friend and now I’m, honestly, exhausted.

  I look down at Andrea and force a smile, but I’m pretty sure she can see the tears in my eyes. I stand up quickly, “I’m going to head to the bathroom, you need anything?”

  Andrea shakes her head slightly and then glares at Beckett who looks…guilty? Ashamed? It doesn’t matter.

  I stand up and walk back to the bathrooms which I noticed when Beckett took us into the back room earlier. Olivia smiles at me as I pass and I try to return it, though I think it was more like a grimace. I notice another guy in the private room as I pass. He looks at me with his mouth hanging wide open before I move past the doorway. Has he never seen a curvy girl trying not to burst into tears before?

  I don’t know what that look was about, but I don’t even give a shit. I lock myself in the bathroom and hope that I can fight off the tears threatening to fall right now. I don’t know why, but this feels even worse than when Caleb was cutting me down and even worse than when he hit me.

  Trust me, he cut me down about all sorts of things too, so it was a lot of pain for one person to take. He’d tell me how fat I was and yeah, I might be heavier than I should be, but I’m not going to apologize for that. He’d tell me how awkward I was or how much he hated how shy I was. He’d tell me I needed to push myself to be more because I wasn’t much—to look at, to be around, to love.

  I can tell you this, fuck Beckett Banks and his gorgeous face. He’s an ass. Now my only regret is bringing up Andrea working here because after today I don’t want to ever see him again.

  CHAPTER 3

  BECKETT

  I have absolutely no excuse for my behavior toward Amelia and it sits like a weight on my chest. I can’t explain what’s come over me since she’s walked into my shop. When I walked into the front of my shop and saw Andrea with her, it took me about five seconds to take in all 5 feet 4 inches of her, and I wanted her like I’ve never wanted another woman before. Then, I shut down completely.

  Why? Well, that’s the thing. I had just drawn her. That pinup I was working on when Dex came and talked to me this morning? It’s Amelia. Yeah, she’s wearing a cute as fuck cannabis pun shirt today, jeans and a cardigan that makes me think of sexy librarians instead of the curve hugging dress I put her in in my drawing, but it was her face and features I drew. I drew her curvy body, I drew her dark curls, her brown expressive eyes. I drew her cute button nose and her pouty lips.

  I happened to draw sunflowers on the pinup’s dress and I just know that if I could figure out how to ask, her favorite flower would be a sunflower. I think I may have fucked myself already and I’ll never get the chance to ask her now.

  She looked so hurt when I asked her if she was always so cheery. It was like I slapped her and, I guess, maybe I did. I don’t know what came over me, I just snapped. I pride myself on being a professional and being even keeled. I know she’s just been trying to put Andrea at ease and be supportive.

  Hell, she’s been so nice to everyone she’s met, including me when all I’ve done is scowl and brood. That’s not like me at all, well, maybe it has been more like me for a while now. I’ve been missing something and been a little moody, but not this bad before.

  The moment I saw her I thought that maybe I had finally found something, but I clearly walked into some heavy flirting between Troy and my girl. My girl? Fuck. I just treated her like complete shit.

  She was flirting with Troy though and then later she was flirting with Walsh. I won’t let myself get sucked into another girl who’s just going to cheat on me. Bri was a flirty girl too and I just wrote it off as her being nice. It was way more than that though.

  What the hell is it with Troy and Walsh giving my girl cute fucking nick names? Doll? Sweetcheeks? I mean, yeah, both are fucking accurate, but it made me seethe. She gave it right back calling Troy ‘Superman’, though I don’t get the reference, and Walsh ‘Snookums’. Okay, maybe she was making a dig at them for their endearments with both of those. Maybe. I just don’t know if I can trust that.

  I didn’t listen to the alarms in my head when it came to Bri and it fucking hurt when I found out about her betrayal, especially since I walked in on it. I ne
ed loyalty. I need someone by my side who will be faithful and give me just as much love, support and comfort as I give to them. I need someone who puts others first; Bri was never that person. She was always selfish and was always looking to see how to get herself ahead.

  Is that what I’ve seen from Amelia? She did tell Troy that she wasn’t interested in getting inked by him and that he wasn’t her style. Hell, she pointed right at my flash and said that I was her style. She was looking right at me when she did it and her eyes couldn’t lie to me even if she tried. They were sincere and there was something else in her gaze. She’s attracted to me. Damn it, I might have fucked up big time before I even started.

  When I think about Amelia no alarm bells sound in my head. Not fucking one. She even asked about the manager position for her friend, not herself. It would put her in a position to train a new assistant if Andrea left Green Space and that means more work for my girl. That didn’t even make her pause, she just wants her friend to have the opportunity to move up and the recognition for her work that’s deserved.

  I try and shake off the feeling of dread. Olivia catches my eye and she’s looking at me like she’s disappointed in me. Yeah, I get it, I’m a little disappointed in myself right now too. I sigh.

  Andrea’s eyes are narrowed at me and I can feel her judgement too. “Look, Beckett, I don’t understand what’s going on and why you’re acting like someone I’ve never met before, but there’s something you need to know right fucking now. Amelia is special. She’s amazing, kind, smart as hell and beautiful, which I’m sure you noticed.” I sigh and nod because Amelia is stunning. “Maybe this isn’t my place to say it, but she dropped out of college a semester before graduating because she had to get away from a guy who was emotionally and physically abusive.”

  I feel anger swamp me. How could anyone hurt that gorgeous woman? “What? He’s not around, is he?” I feel my fist not holding my rig clench at the thought. I’ll kill that fucker if he ever comes near her again.