I knew this because I’d seen it happen. Many times with many men. They all fell at her feet. The ones who weren’t married or gay, and a disappointing amount of married men discreetly tried to fall at her feet too.
Fiona did not get tangled up with married men. The rest she was more than happy to get tangled up with.
But this man, this man who I’d imagined was my boyfriend long before I ended my engagement, the man who I looked at, fantasized about, and ran away from when he got close to the counter… He did not fall at Fiona’s feet.
I knew that because when she served him, I spied on them from the kitchen. She had tried, when he first started coming in, to flutter her eyelashes, just being the sex goddess that she was because anyone with an attraction to the male sex would be tripping over themselves in order to try to get close enough to that man to lick his biceps.
But he appeared to be immune to Fiona’s charms. The first man in history. Sufficiently rattled that a man did not find her mouthwatering, she had lamented over that, swearing he must’ve been gay.
She’d seen the disinterest as a challenge, ramping up her flirting to no avail… until she realized that I was infatuated with him. She realized this because of the way my entire chest, neck and face reddened when I was forced to interact with him, when I would practically sprint out the back when he walked in the door, muttering about ovens and timers going off.
Then, because Fiona was my best friend, she’d immediately ceased flirting and changed tactics, relentlessly trying to get me to commence flirting, even while I was engaged to Nathan. She’d given me a grace period since I broke the engagement and turned into somewhat of a mess, letting me run off to the back whenever he came in.
Which was exactly what I was about to do, after I’d bathed in his near presence for another handful of seconds.
I took a deep breath, imagining that I could smell him… a masculine musky, salty, outdoorsy scent that no cologne could replicate. On the few occasions I’d found myself brave enough to actually interact with him, I’d inhaled that scent. It had made my knees weak.
Or maybe my wobbly knees were caused by his eyes zeroing in on mine, so intense, so unnerving, it had been impossible for me to hold eye contact.
I dreamed of him. That scent. Even while Nathan was lying in bed next to me, smelling of expensive aftershave and the matching body wash I came to despise.
It was not healthy... For me to be infatuated with a man I’d only had a scant amount of interactions with. Who likely barely knew I existed, the intense stare just his default.
Rowan Derrick was somewhat famous in Jupiter. Not just because the construction business he’d opened with his best friend Kip was wildly successful and in demand, but also because everyone wanted the two muscled, badass, rugged, insanely gorgeous men to work on their houses. Kip was a notorious ladies’ man. He was handsome, for sure. Dirty blond hair that was always mussed. Striking green eyes. Tall. Ripped. A cheeky grin. A charm that came out of him as easily as breathing.
I appreciated all of that. But at a distance. It was Rowan who made my insides twist.
Interestingly, Kip and Fiona had never found their way into bed together, despite them both being devastatingly attractive and only ever after casual flings. Maybe that was why…They were just too similar.
That didn’t matter at this moment though.
“I’m just going to…” I pointed to the kitchen. “Check on the flour levels,” I said lamely, my eyes purposefully avoiding the place in line he was taking up.
“Nope,” Fiona replied as she stepped back, holding her hands up with a wicked grin. “I need to go on my break.”
My palms started to sweat as a customer stepped in front of the register. “No, you don’t need to go on your break,” I told her, my pulse spiking.
She leaned toward me, hands on her hips. “Yes, I do. It’s the law. I could sue you.” She looked purposefully at the place in line I was studiously avoiding. “You’ve gotta start doing things for you now, babe.” Then she winked and sauntered off.
I gaped at her in disbelief and horror.
Panic crawled up my throat as I dealt with the next customer on autopilot.
I looked at Tina who was banging at the espresso machine. “Why don’t I take over there, and you take the cash register?” I offered, my voice dry and scratchy.
He was getting closer in line.
Tina glanced at me with a twinkle in her eye. Normally, she would thankfully switch since she had a love-hate thing going on with the espresso machine, and she was firmly in the hate phase today.