Chapter Nine
Kady
Pumpkins light up the window of Bite, welcoming Halloween with a flickering glow
My favorite holiday is just days away and now, with some help from Chantel and Keegan, my place looks the part. Most of Main Street is decked out too after other shops joined us. Chantel’s shop is cute with colorful bats covering her windows, bright cobwebs on counters and tables, and pink and white pumpkins everywhere.
Keegan and I went darker with Bite’s décor. I carved a few more pumpkins and he painted them black and red, hung some red and purple lights here and there, and we covered the tables with flickering bloody candles and cobweb silk tablecloths. Creepy chic.
“I love it. I ought to leave it this way all year,” I laugh as I spin around to take it all in, hopping up on the front counter.
“I like this look,” Keegan cocks his head at me, “it suits you I think. But I think just about everything suits you, babe,” he says with a wink and a crooked grin.
Every time he looks at me that way, with that smile, and that sparkle in his eyes, I fall a little more. Didn’t know I could fall more for him, but here I am. Every single day it’s bigger, wider, and deeper than it was the day before. My heart flutters as he takes slow steps towards me, closing the distance between us.
“You look...happy.” He steps between my knees, sliding his rough hands beneath my skirt. “Is this you happy? If so, does yourhappyhave a single thing to do with me?”
My arms circle his broad shoulders as my legs wrap around his waist to drag him close. I nod my head becauseof coursemyhappyis because of him. I wasn't unhappy before him, but he makes me feel everything bigger, better, and more completely. This is a new kind of happy and I owe it to him.
“I mean if it makes you feel better,” I laugh as he grunts at my sass. My eyes flicker past him when I see movement out front.
Oliver is there, looking uneasy at the doorway although he’s been here a dozen times. He says the best thing to come out of us seeing one another is how good he gets to eat. He clears his throat and Keegan turns with a smile before I feel him tense. Without words, they speak and even though I don’t know their language, I know it’s bad.
“Is everything okay?” I ask as I slide from the counter to put distance between us.
Though we’ve not been together long, I feel as if I know him better than I know anyone else. Besides Chantel, of course. With him it’s different though. I sense his moods before they shift, and I don’t know if I like this one.
“Nothing is wrong,” he starts to reach for me but drops his hands, “at least, nothing we can’t fix. It doesn’t even matter.”
“It matters,” Oliver sighs with a look at us both, “but it doesn’t matter enough for this...” he waves a hand at us before rubbing at the back of his neck.
“Do either of you plan to tell me why it feels as if someone is pissing in my cheerios?”
He repeats the same thing with different words, “Baby, don’t get upset, it’s nothing important. It’s just a mistake and one we can fix.”
My heartrate skyrockets. “What did you do?” I aim the words at Keegan because for once in my life, I know I’m not the villain.
Since we met, I’ve spent so much time on him,on us, this thing I hoped we were building. I come here to cook, cater to my people, and then I go to him. It's been weeks since I looked at my plans for the expansion because I can’t decide on layouts and all my time is spent with him.
Their build next door is nearly complete and Oliver told me they’re doing another just down the street. I think it’s a boutique shop. I can’t remember and right now, I don’t care. The man I've spent the past months giving everything to watches me with guilt in his eyes.
“I promise I wouldneverdo something that might hurt you, Kady,” he moves towards me cautiously, “I was hoping to protect you from this.” He shoots a look at Oliver who puts his hands up.
“Protect me from what?”
“Listen to me before you lose it.” He’s close now, his fingers wrapping around my wrists, “We all thought you beat me to filing the permits. It turns out we were all wrong. Until you paid that day at the courthouse that space was fair game. When we started our build, we paid for all our permits in advance. Because I got there few minutes ahead of you to turn in the paperwork...” He sighs as I yank my hands from him and shove away.
“It meansyougot the permits, so my expansion is impossible. You both told me the bookstore is done! Why do you need those permits now? Just to win, tobeat me?” My voice is weaker than I want it to be and my eyes sting with tears.
Keegan has told me how competitive he can be—how he’s learned to be cutthroat over the years when needed. He’s told me tales of how he cut competitors out for bids by charming the pants off the contractors. Suddenly I feel sick to my stomach as my tears spill over.
Was this all about him getting in my pants just to win?
Growing up, it was always just my parents and me. Until Chantel came along, I’d had friends come and go through the youth home. I learned at young age not to trust people to stick around. I tried so hard to keep people in my life for so long.
I was angry when my parents died because they were the people I trusted most and even they left me. I managed to get over that anger because their death was an accident, but I never trusted the same again.
Until a pair of pretty blue eyes and a crooked smile made me give something as scary as falling in love a shot.