Bad Taste in Men (Clover Park, Book 3) Contemporary Romance (The Clover Park Series) (25 page)

Liz giggled. “Did he bring you candy? That’s so sweet. You know, Ryan got me Godiva chocolate truffles for my birthday even before we officially got together. It was so thoughtful.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.
Yes, Ryan is dreamy, move on.
“No, he didn’t…never mind. All I’m saying is he seems to have some kind of hold over me, and I just, I don’t know, cave or something.”

“You said he was
amazing
in bed.” Another giggle. Obviously her friend couldn’t picture it. Hell, Rachel wouldn’t have guessed it either.

“I know!” Rachel cried. “I cave, and I like it!”

Liz giggled again. “I don’t see the problem here, egg.”

“Stop calling me egg! I don’t call you chicken anymore!”

“Okay, sorry. I meant it affectionately.”

There was a problem. It was too much, too fast, and she needed him to back the hell off, but he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. They worked together. They lived across the street from each other. This was why she didn’t want to get involved in the first place.

“I screwed this up so bad, Liz. He’s such a big part of my life with work and living so close.” Her voice dropped to a pained whisper. “When this goes south, and you know it will, I’ll have to close shop and leave town to get over it.”

“Maybe you won’t have to get over him. Maybe Shane is
the one
for you. Don’t you remember when you told me to give Ryan a fair chance? When I was running scared, afraid to get my heart trampled on?”

Rachel went quiet. She remembered. But that was different. Liz had been into Ryan for as long as she could remember, Rachel had just given her the push she needed to go after what she wanted.

“This is different,” Rachel insisted.

“You’re scared, and I understand that, but now I’m telling you what you so wisely told me. Give Shane a fair chance.”

Rachel murmured noncommittally. “I’m beat. I’d better go.”

“Okay, call me anytime. Bye.”

“Bye.” Rachel hung up and went to bed, her hair still damp from Shane’s gentle shampooing. She buried her face in the pillow and groaned.

~ ~ ~

The next morning Rachel woke early after a long, good night’s sleep and decided to help Tanya open the café. By eight a.m. there was a line out the door. Rachel was thrilled. She chatted up each customer and on the spot decided they would hand out reward cards—buy ten coffees, get one free. She wanted to keep people coming back. She told each person about the reward program and promised to bring the new reward cards soon. If they kept getting more people every morning, they might even need to hire another barista.

Things finally slowed down an hour later.

“Woo,” Rachel said. “I’m glad I came down early to help you out.”

“That was insane,” Tanya said.

“If that keeps up, I’ll have to hire another you. Know anyone looking for a barista job?”

“I’ll keep my ears open.”

“I’m heading next door. Call if you need backup.”

“Will do.”

Rachel headed to Book It with her latte, feeling really good about her new venture. At this rate, she’d be able to keep Book It and pay Shane back even earlier than they’d agreed. She really wanted to be a full partner, not just in name only with a huge loan hanging over her head. Not that Shane had ever once complained about the money, but she didn’t like the imbalance in their relationship. Their business relationship. She wouldn’t call a couple nights together a relationship. More like a long overdue…hookup. Yes, a casual hookup.

She opened her shop and helped a few customers. Some retired people came in, browsed, and bought nothing. A few young moms came in, looking for children’s books. Rachel helped them and told them about the kiddie corner at the café. They headed over there, and she sent a silent thanks to Shane for thinking of it. There was a lull at noon, so she closed the shop for an hour and went to the small office supply shop in town to put in an order for some reward cards. They told her the cards would be ready by the end of the day. She made one more stop at a hobby shop in Eastman and bought a rubber stamp with a coffee mug on it to mark the cards.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly as she dove back into
Crime and Punishment
, the man was so guilty from what he’d done. Rachel could relate. She felt guilty for breaking her promise to herself to keep things strictly business with her and Shane. Maybe Dostoyevsky would have some answers by the end of the story. She’d read it once in college, but the details were fuzzy in her mind. She greeted a few people who wandered over from the café to her store. Maybe she’d add a bargain-book section near the entryway to draw more people over. She got a small wheeled cart from her supply room and made an arrangement from a variety of genres meant to entice.

At the end of the day she closed her register and went to relieve Tanya from her long day. Tanya was already cleaning up the prep area.

Tanya handed her a slip of paper. “Shane left a note for you.”

Shane must have stopped by when Rachel was out running errands.

Rach,

I noticed a line out the door this morning. You need to either open earlier or get another barista to move things along. We don’t want to turn people away. Cleaning service starts tonight at seven. I gave them a key to get in, so make sure you’ve locked the register, though I’m sure it’s fine, they’ve been cleaning my shop since the beginning.

Got a family thing tonight. See you tomorrow.

Shane

She read the note a second time, her irritation growing. He acted like he was the boss. They were
partners
. Maybe he did think he was the boss since he put up the money. She knew they might need another barista, but she wasn’t going to rush into hiring someone only to have to let them go when business didn’t keep up. Fine, she’d open earlier. That meant she’d have to do it, she already had Tanya putting in eight hours a day. And how dare he hire that cleaning service! She said she’d take care of it. And he copied the key and gave it out? How many keys would the cleaning service make? Anyone could get in here now! Was this how he ran his shop? Well, it wasn’t how
she
ran a business.

She crumpled the note. She couldn’t wait to pay him back her share. In fact, she’d love to buy him out entirely and take complete control. She’d wanted it to be her business from the beginning. She knew she couldn’t have gotten it off the ground without him, but now she wanted it back. She couldn’t take this micromanaging. She’d had enough of that from her demon boss. It was why she owned her own business. She answered to no one but herself. She threw the note in the garbage; then she called the cleaning service, asked for the key back, and cancelled the job.

She poured her aggravation into cleaning the café. Then she restocked everything for the morning and headed out to the supply shop to pick up her reward cards. She knew how to run a business very well, thank you very much.

~ ~ ~

The next morning Rachel was gratified to see another line out the door of the café. She changed the store’s hours on the sign to an hour earlier and told each customer as she handed them their order. Tanya gave out the reward cards already stamped with one mug. Everyone seemed happy with the reward program, and several people said they’d come by at the earlier time to avoid the rush.

She smiled to herself as she headed over to open Book It. Hopefully some of the people who stopped by the café during the day would notice her new bargain-book display and stroll on over. Maybe she’d even have some readings at Book It after hours and leave the café open. Her mind was humming happily along with ideas for boosting the bookstore and café together, until Shane walked in holding a reward card.

“What is this?” he asked, holding up the card accusingly.

She smiled and said calmly, “It’s a reward card. I just started giving them out this morning. Everyone loved them.”

He slapped the card down on the counter. “We never talked about this.”

The inklings of anger crept into her voice. “We never talked about the cleaning service, but you went ahead and did that. I’m running the shop how I see fit. That’s my job.”

“You cancelled the cleaning service. Why?”

“I told you I’d handle it. We’re just starting to make a profit. I don’t want the expense right now.”

He blew out a breath. “Rach, I don’t do coupons. People come back for a quality product, not coupons. This is the kind of cheap sales crap that Barry has to pull with his fro-yo. Our coffee is superior, so are the baked goods. We don’t need it, and it makes us look bad.”

She lifted her chin. “We might not need it, but people love it. It inspires loyalty.”

His mouth formed a flat line. “We should talk about stuff before you do it.”

His attitude was really getting under her skin. She managed to hold onto her temper. Barely.

“You supply the food,” she said in what she hoped was a cool, professional voice. “I run the shop. That was the deal.”

His jaw tightened. “We’re partners.”

She really should just ignore him and go about her business, but she couldn’t let him act like the boss.

“You’re the silent partner,” she said. “I’m the one who runs things.”

He fixed her with a calculating look that made tingles run down her spine in anticipation. He moved fast. One minute he was across the counter from her, the next he was behind it, his hands boxing her in. Her pulse quickened. He spoke in a low tone, not touching her, just hovering close. “I am
not
a silent partner.”

Her body heated, and she felt weak in the knees. She couldn’t just cave because she wanted him. This was all mixed up and messed up, and she was torn between stomping on his foot so he’d back the hell off and stripping naked right there in full view of Main Street.

Show me, Shane. Show me how you’re not a silent partner.

Yup, I’m a slut.

“Rachel, great idea with these reward cards!” a cheerful voice called.

Rachel turned as Barry walked into Book It. Shane released her and narrowed his eyes at his nemesis.

Rachel took a deep breath and smiled at Barry, who appeared completely oblivious to the tension between her and Shane. He strolled over with two to-go cups in hand and handed her one.

“Thanks, Barry, you didn’t have to do that.”

He waved his card. “Got two mugs, only eight more until my free one! And I love the mug stamp too.”

Shane tensed by her side.

Rachel beamed. “Thanks, it’s been going over really well.”

“Where’d you get them?” Barry asked. “I’d love to do the same for my shop. Maybe with a cow stamp. Hey, Shane, you could do one with an ice-cream cone.”

Shane stiffened even more, if that was possible. “I have to get back to work.”

He left, stalking out of the shop, tension in every step.

Barry sipped his coffee. “This is the best café mocha I’ve ever had. And I’ve tried them all.”

“Thanks,” Rachel said, her eyes following the man who knew how to make divine food and drink happen, but didn’t have a clue how to deal with a business partner.

Chapter Twenty-One

The next two weeks left Rachel frazzled and working harder than she ever had in her life. Word of mouth made both the café and her bookstore suddenly popular, attracting people not just from Clover Park but from nearby towns too. It was everything Rachel had ever dreamed of for Book It. Every night at closing Shane stopped by the café to help her get things ready for the next day. And every night they fought. Every damn night. It wore on her. The long days, the fights.

She would close out the register, which tied into their inventory system, then get the bank deposit ready to go and put in the order for the next day’s supplies. Shane cleaned the prep area. As they worked around each other, Shane would say, “Another employee and we could get this done a lot faster.”

To which she’d reply, “I’m managing just fine. Besides, we haven’t made enough money to justify one.”

“We have money,” Shane always said. “Besides, you have to spend money to make money.”

“I have to pay my debt. I don’t have to do anything else. I know how to run the shop.”

“You don’t. You’re still learning.”

“You can stop
teaching
me. I’ve got this.”

“We’re
partners
.”

“The deal was I run it. I’m the boss.”

“Dammit, Rachel!”

She knew he’d take over if she let him. So she never gave him even one inch.

Then before she moved to clean the bathroom, he’d say, “If we had a cleaning service, we’d be outta here.”

To which she’d sing, “Money, money, money.”

“You’re just being stubborn.”

“You’re just being a nag.”

Sometimes it varied. Sometimes Shane got irritated enough to huff and puff and threaten to call the cleaning service anyway. She ignored this because even if he did, she’d just cancel it again. Sometimes her temper flared over his constant micromanaging over pricing and inventory, and she ended up hollering at him. He always hollered back.

Maggie had said Shane didn’t like fighting, but he didn’t seem to mind with her. They went toe to toe, round and round, every night about the way the café should be run. Every freaking night. Honestly, she didn’t know why he kept coming back. He didn’t have to help her close the shop.

Then again…

Every night when the café was clean and ready for the next day, Shane would take her hand and walk her out the back door and up to her apartment. And every night she let him. They had an unspoken agreement to leave work and their fights over the café downstairs. Upstairs was just for them.

They always took a long shower that left her squeaky clean and boneless, made love, and then she’d kick him out. She needed her space and told him so. He accepted this without argument.

But his scent, his remembered touch, lingered with her as she dropped into a deep, exhausted sleep.

~ ~ ~

Shane spent Friday at a workshop for coffee roasters, hoping to glean some new contacts for high-quality beans. He was thinking about targeting health-conscious, socially responsible customers with fair-trade coffee. The beans were superior in many ways, as he’d discovered from the cupping he’d done today at the workshop. When he’d left Clover Park this morning, he’d seen another line out the door at the café. And while it was great to see all the business, it was grating on him the way Rachel was fighting him on hiring more people. If they couldn’t keep up with demand, those customers would go elsewhere.