Page 9 of Forbidden Dreams

I think he surprises even himself when he reaches out for it. “We aren’t looking for anyone at the moment,” he says, taking it, and for a split second, he looks sad telling me that.

“Have a great day, Brady,” I say, turning and walking out of the bar. I head straight to my car, get in, and only when I make it home do I let the defeat take over. I walk up the steps, practically dragging my ass. I know I should take a nap, but instead, I look around the house, wondering what else I could do to make it a home. The whole thing is so run-down it should be gutted. “You can do this,” I tell myself before walking to the kitchen when my phone rings.

“Hello,” I answer it right away, wondering if maybe it’s for a job.

“Harmony,” she says quietly, “it’s Ms. Maddie.”

“Hey,” I greet, and my stomach sinks, hoping like fuck she isn’t going to give me bad news.

“We sold out of the cakes in one hour,” she announces. “Do you think you can double up tomorrow?” A month after leaving Winston, I walked into the bakery, and when no one was there, I quietly asked Ms. Maddie if she would sell my cakes there. She was the donut queen, but she didn’t have anything else but donuts. She refused, but the next day I brought her a raspberry white chocolate cake. It took two days before I went back in, and I knew she was debating even hiring me since she didn’t want the headache of the Cartwrights. But she ordered five cakes for the next day. The only catch was I would have to deliver them before sunrise so no one would see me.

I close my eyes. “I can do that,” I tell her. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” I confirm, and she hangs up right away. “At least I still have that.” I look out the window. “It could be worse.”

CHAPTER 7

Brady

“What’s that?” My sister, Autumn, picks up the white paper behind the bar when she comes out of her office to the front. A small baby bump shows under her sundress. She’s about five months along, and if it was up to Charlie, her husband, she would be carried everywhere. Of course, Autumn being Autumn, she doesn’t listen to anything anyone says.

“It’s a résumé,” I answer, pouring a glass of whiskey and putting it on the tray for the server to take to the table that just came in.

“Harmony Cartwright?” she questions, her voice in a whisper, as she looks at the paper and then at me.

“Yup. You hungry?” I ask, hoping she just drops the piece of paper I should have put in the garbage.

“She’s looking for a job?” she asks, and I shrug, trying not to show her how irritated I am about this conversation. I’ve been trying to push down the aggravation I’ve had since she walked into the bar, asking me for a job. Then, I tried to tell myself it wasn’t my monkey or my circus, but she lingered in my thoughts anyway.

“Guess so.” I walk around her and head toward the kitchen. “You want something?”

“I’ll take a burger with cheese and bacon, ohh…” She puts her finger to her chin. “And fries with ketchup and vinegar.”

“Coming right up,” I say, walking to the kitchen that one year ago was empty and collecting dust until Autumn returned to town after being gone for eight years and decided to get it going. It started with a couple of hours at night, but then it blew up. Now people are coming in for lunch, and when we have tours in the back, they always want lunch, so now we have someone in full-time.

I get her a burger, and when I head out, she’s sitting at the bar looking at the piece of paper. “She took business classes and accounting,” she informs me as I place the burger in front of her. “Was she looking for office work?”

“I have no idea,” I finally say, annoyed at myself that I didn’t throw the paper out. “She came in, asked for a job. I said we weren’t looking now, and she left.”

“Heard that she had to move again,” she shares, taking a bite of her burger. “Even though Winston has been fucking his way through the town, even while married. He’s been giving her a hard time since she finally left him.” I haven’t told her yet she’s my neighbor.

“Stop listening to town gossip.” I walk behind the bar. “Besides, who gives a shit about a fucking Cartwright?” My tone is tight. “They’ve made our lives hell for the past fucking ten years, and if I never see any of them again, it’ll still be too fucking soon.”

“God, someone is grumpy,” she huffs, grabbing a french fry. “How’s the new girlfriend?”

My eyebrows pinch together at her question. “New girlfriend?”

“Dad was saying something about your neighbor baking you a pie.” She smirks, taking a bite of her burger. “A woman only bakes a pie for a man if he’s given her orgasms.”

I shake my head. “I can confirm that fact is untrue.” I point at her, a vision of Harmony on top of me naked—while my hands grip her hips—and her long blond hair moving side to side over my thighs fills my head for a split second before I push it away. “She was just being neighborly.”

“No one is just being neighborly.” She shakes her head. “I’m a woman, trust me. I bake a pie for a man, I want something. I didn’t even bake Charlie a pie,” she jokes, and I look up when I see someone else walk into the bar. “Speak of the devil,” she retorts as Charlie walks in, his face filling with a smile when he sees Autumn.

“Hey, baby,” he greets her, kissing her neck and sitting down beside her, grabbing a french fry. “What’s going on?”

“If someone baked you a pie, what would that mean?”

“It would mean I would have to bail my wife out of jail.” He smirks at her. “She does not like to share.”

“Facts.” She holds up her finger toward him while nodding in agreement with his statement. “But before me.”