All You Can Handle (Moments In Maplesville Book 5) (14 page)

“How long are you planning to stay out here with Kiera?” Ian asked.

“Until her assistant, Macy, shows up to relieve me. She should be here in about an hour.”

They arrived at the food truck, and he finally let go of her hand.

“I’m heading out,” Ian said. “I need to catch a few hours sleep before I head to work. I’ll see you later. Thanks for the near-heart attack.”

“I was just getting your heart pumping,” Sonny said.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “We know from experience that you have a much better way of doing that.”

Flames shot through her bloodstream. Sonny knew her face must be red as a beet. Ian confirmed it with his rich, throaty laugh.

“That blush is the best thing ever.” He winked. “I’ll catch you later.”

She waved goodbye, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth as she watched him walk away. Sonny released a strained sigh as she tugged on the handle and opened the food truck’s back door. When she walked inside, Kiera was waiting, her arms crossed over her chest, a sardonic lift to her brow.

“What?” Sonny asked defensively.

“Nothing going on between you two?” Kiera snorted. “And I married my husband for his cooking skills.”

Sonny rolled her eyes even as she chuckled. She’d been lucky enough to find a job that would allow her to hone her baking skills, but to have Kiera as a boss was a bonus she’d never expected. Sonny was pretty sure this is what it would have felt like to have a big sister.

It was funny. When she was with Kimmie, it seemed as if the younger girl looked up to
her
as the big sister. She’d been in Maplesville for a few weeks, and already was beginning to feel as if she were part of a big family.

She suppressed a sigh. Leaving this place would be so much harder than she ever anticipated.

Macy arrived a half hour later, smack in the middle of the evening dinner rush. Sonny stayed on until six o’clock, because there was no way she could leave them to handle the high demand on their own. An hour later, Kiera had to practically push her out of the food truck when she offered to stay and help them with clean up.

As Sonny made her way to her car, her cellphone trilled to the sound of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. A cluster of nervous curiosity bubbled up in her chest. There was only one person with this ringtone, and she hadn’t talked to him since she’d moved to Maplesville.

She backed up against her car door and answered, “Hi Dad.”

There was no
‘How are things going, honey?’
There was barely even a hello.

The brief spurt of hopefulness Sonny had allowed herself to feel died a quick death. Dr. Carter White’s time was much too precious to bother with banal pleasantries, not even for the daughter he had not talked to in nearly a month.

No, this call had nothing to do with her father’s concern over her well-being. Sonny soon discovered that he’d only called to request that she attend a banquet where he was being honored. Had to keep up the appearance of the accomplished, overachieving White family.

What else was new?

“When is it?” Sonny asked.

“Next Saturday.”

She grimaced. Next Saturday was Kimmie’s party.

Sonny dropped her head in her hand and massaged the space between her eyes. She was so not up for this fight, but she didn’t have a choice. She and Ian had worked too hard on this party. She was not disappointing him or Kimmie.

“I can’t, Dad,” she answered.

“This isn’t a request, Madison. It’s a requirement. This is important. You’re expected to be there.”

“I live in another state. You can’t call me a week before an event and expect me to drop everything and come to Houston.”

“Yes, I can,” he said. “You know this banquet happens every year.”

“Yeah, and last year
you
even missed it because you were at that medical conference in Vancouver. Why am I obligated to go? It’s not as if I’m receiving an award.”

“Madison Elise White, this is not up for debate.”

Oh, he went for the full name. Well, she was not a little girl anymore. She was not dependent on his money, nor did she need the prestige attached to his name to further her career. So he could shove that award up his ass.

Sonny felt ashamed the moment the thought popped into her head. Although his persistent demands for excellence had become downright debilitating, she still loved her father. He wasn’t the warmest person in the world, and he would never win top prize for most involved parent, but Sonny knew he always wanted what was best for her.

They just so happened to completely disagree on what that was.

It no longer mattered what her father wanted. She’d taken her life back, and she was not giving up control again.

“I have to go, Dad.” Sonny said. “Oh, and by the way, everything is going just peachy with me. I have a great job, a great apartment, and I haven’t been arrested. You should be proud.”

“Goodness, Madison. I don’t know what caused this change in your attitude, but I wish you would drop it,” her father said. “I’ll see you next weekend. Make sure you tame that hair before coming around your mother.”

And then he hung up.

Sonny stood next to the car for at least five minutes; she was too upset to trust herself behind the wheel. She took several deep breaths. She was
not
going to let him get to her, dammit!

She’d spent her entire life twisting herself into knots, studying every textbook until she could recite the material on demand, swallowing down caffeine pills with espresso chasers; trying her hardest to live up to his standards.

She’d freed herself from that life. He could no longer make demands on her.

Back in control of her emotions, Sonny got into the car and started it up.

Twenty minutes later, she pulled into the driveway next to Ian’s pickup truck. She saw the lights in the garage shining through the side window. Even if Kimmie had not already told her that she was spending the night at Anesha’s, Sonny would have still known it was Ian in the garage. She could hear the rhythmic thumping of hip-hop music, despite having her car windows rolled up.

Why isn’t he at work?

“It doesn’t matter. Just say goodnight and go upstairs,” Sonny said to the empty car.

Grabbing her purse from where she’d stashed it underneath the passenger seat, she locked up her car and headed into the garage.

Her feet came to a halt the minute she walked through the door.

The huge bike that sat in the center of the garage was uncovered, the fluorescent lights above gleaming off the shiny chrome. Ian leaned over it. Shirtless.

Good Lord
.

Despite seeing him damn near completely naked just a few days ago, Sonny’s mouth still went dry at the sight of all that glistening sun-kissed skin. He cranked a wrench, causing the muscles in his back and shoulders to undulate. She licked her lips and swallowed back a desperate moan.

Suddenly, Ian raised his head and turned to her. He pulled a slim remote control from his back pocket and lowered the volume on the music.

“You done looking?” he asked. “Or do you need a few more minutes?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and jutted out her chin. “I was not looking.”

He pointed to the bike’s chrome plate. “I could see your reflection in the bike. You’ve been staring at me like you want to have me for breakfast.” He wiped his hands on a filthy rag. “It’s okay. I know I’m hot.”

Busted, Sonny burst out laughing. “And cocky as hell,” she said.

His grin broadened. “That, too.” He tossed the rag on a side table and sauntered toward her.

“I thought you would be at work,” Sonny said, keeping her arms folded across her chest. She needed the barrier.

“I called off. I have too much work left to do on Dale’s bike. I promised him I’d have it fixed by Monday.”

Sonny shook her head. “You actually used up a vacation day to stay home and work on an old bike?”

“My goal is to do this full time, remember?”

“I guess that’s true,” she said. “So, why didn’t you display your bikes at the car and bike show out at St. Michael’s? It would have been a great way to pull in potential buyers.”

Ian shrugged. “I never even thought about it. My dream is to see them on my own showroom floor, with spotlights shining down on them.”

“What? No spinning dais in the middle with a gleaming Harley on display?”

“That’s a good idea.” He grinned. “I’ll have to look into that.”

“I get the showroom thing, but you should think about other venues, too. Places you can use right now. You could get some interest even before you open your shop.”

“
If
I ever get to open the shop,” he said.

“Did something happen with the loan?”

“No,” he answered. “And that’s the problem. I figured if they were going to approve it I would have heard something by now.”

“That’s not necessarily the case, Ian. These things take time.”

“Except I don’t have time. I can’t shake this feeling that Vanessa is going to call any day now to tell me that she’s listing the Miller place.”

His casual shrug didn’t fool Sonny for a minute. She could sense the tension in him.

“So, how’d it go once I left the fair?” Ian asked. “Did the food truck sell out of everything?”

“Just about,” Sonny said. “I’m exhausted. I swear I made a thousand tacos today.”

“That’s a good thing. Kiera donates half of her sales to the church.”

“That’s what she told me. It sounds like Kiera makes it a priority to help out the community.”

“A lot of the businesses do,” Ian said. He leaned his backside against the worktable that was littered with various tools, and folded his arms over his chest. “Maplesville has grown quite a bit over the past few years, but it hasn’t lost that sense of community that it had back when it was a small town.”

Sonny joined him at the table, mimicking his pose. “So this isn’t a small town?” she asked with a chuckle.

“Compared to the way it used to be?” Ian shook his head. “At one time I knew everyone in town, or at least knew their family. Not so much these days. It’s hard to keep up with all of the new people moving in.”

“Like me?” She playfully nudged his shoulder.

“Hey, I never said I had a problem with you transplants,” Ian said. He leaned closer, and with challenge in his brown eyes, said, “Figuring out a way to keep you here as long as possible has become one of my new goals.”

His declaration caused a ribbon of panic to twist around her chest. Yet, despite his direct threat to the very thing she held most dear—her freedom—Sonny heard herself ask, “How do you plan to do that?”

He grasped her chin between his fingers. “Like this,” Ian whispered against her lips before connecting his mouth with hers.

What started as an innocent peck quickly turned into her guiltiest pleasure.

Sonny cradled the back of his head in her palm, pulling him closer as she devoured his flavor. She swept her tongue inside his mouth and wanted to cry out at the sheer taste of him. Honey with a hint of spice. The warmth of his mouth, the softness of his lips, the skill in which he worked that tongue. It caused a frustrated ache to settle over her entire body.

God, she wanted him.

But she also knew she had to put a stop to him. Encouraging Ian’s kiss would only make him more insistent in his pursuit to convince her to stay, and she would not allow her hormones, of all things, to dictate her future.

Sonny swept her tongue along his lips a final time before pulling back. She rested her forehead on his, her breaths coming out in erratic pants. “Ian, we can’t keep doing this,” she whispered.

“You mean stopping? Yeah, I think it’s stupid too.”

She chuckled softly. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

Reluctantly, they pulled apart. Sonny settled back against the table, her breathing still unsteady as she tried to calm her rapid heartbeats.

Her cellphone, which sat face up on the table between them, trilled. She was momentarily stunned when she looked down and saw her ex-fiancé’s face staring back at her on the screen. Sonny snatched the phone from the table.

Moving to the other side of the motorcycle, she whispered fiercely into the phone. “Douglas? Why are you calling me?” She hadn’t heard from him since she’d called off their engagement a year ago.

“Hello to you, too, Madison.”

“Hello,” she bit through clenched teeth. “Now what do you want?”

“I’m calling on behalf of your father. He said you were planning to skip the banquet, and was hoping I’d have better luck talking some sense into you.”

A hysterical laugh shot out of her mouth. “Is this a joke?” Sonny asked. “Are you my father’s new lapdog now? Oh, wait, that’s exactly what you always wanted, isn’t it? You must be thrilled.”

“This type of pettiness is beneath you, Madison.”

“Actually, it isn’t. Haven’t you heard? Petty is the new black. I excel at it.”

The familiar, irritated sigh that came through the phone grated her nerves. She’d been the recipient of that sigh on more occasions than she cared to remember. And the reminder of the way it made her feel, as if she were a recalcitrant child he didn’t have time to deal with, just irritated her further.

This time
she
was the one who didn’t have the time for this.

“I already told my father that I have prior commitments,” Sonny said. “If he had any respect for my time he wouldn’t give me just a week’s notice. And if he has something more to say, he needs to call me himself. I don’t want to hear from you again, Douglas.”

Sonny ended the call and threw her head back, releasing an exasperated sigh toward the ceiling. Working in the food truck all day had her ready to collapse. Add in calls from both her father and Douglas, and suddenly Sonny was exhausted. When she lowered her head, she found Ian staring at her, his expression unreadable.

“So?” Ian asked. He gestured to her phone. “Was that your brother? A family friend?”

Sonny remained mute. She wasn’t sure she could handle this conversation in her current state. She felt completely drained.

“The phone was face up,” Ian added. “I noticed the picture on the screen.”