Loving You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 2) (10 page)

Silence filled the room.

“It’s not a matter of handling anyone…” Pastor Steven was using his counselor’s voice. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“Ready for what?”

“For what a relationship means.” Jeremy had his Einstein brain switched on. “It wasn’t that long ago that you didn’t like being touched.”

“I’m working on it. And just in case you didn’t hear it the first time - I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Pastor Steven stood up. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving. Let’s eat.”

William and Jeremy didn’t need to be asked twice. Both of them stood up and walked toward the dining table.

Logan hung back. “You never told us who’s looking at houses with you.”

Dylan waited until Pastor Steven was standing beside William and Jeremy. “You mean Tess hasn’t told you?”

“Tess doesn’t tell me everything. I know for sure you’re not taking
her
anywhere, so it must be one of her friends.” Logan frowned. “It’s not Annie is it?”

Dylan nodded.

Logan shook his head. “She’s too young. She can’t be more than twenty-four years old.”

“What difference does that make?”

“You’ve lived through things that most people never experience.”

For the first time in a long while, Dylan started to get annoyed. He took a deep breath, determined to hold onto the anger bubbling inside of him. “You think I’m not allowed to fall in love and have a normal life?”

“I’m not saying that.” Logan’s voice was low and urgent. “I’m saying you should be careful. Annie’s your typical girl-next-door. I doubt she’s ever had to deal with anything major in her life.”

“You think I need special handling? I’m not going to break into pieces if someone touches me.”

Logan raised his eyebrows.

Dylan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Nothing has happened. She looked at a few houses with me.” He glanced at the dining table and lowered his voice. “She’s helping me with my touching issues.” Dylan wasn’t prepared for the stunned horror that crossed Logan’s face.

“Are you crazy?”

If Dylan had been angry before he was doubly pissed off now. “It’s my life. Butt out.”

Logan took a step forward, straight into Dylan’s face. “Annie’s a baker and a receptionist for Pete’s sake. You couldn’t get more average if you tried. You’d better be sure about what you’re doing or Tess will be after me, and I’ll come looking for you.”

“Pizza anyone?” Pastor Steven shoved a slice of pizza between them. “You’d better get something to eat or Jeremy will devour the lot.”

Dylan growled low in his throat. “I’m not hungry. And just for the record, Annie isn’t your average person. She didn’t write me off as beyond help, she doesn’t judge me or tell me I’m a misfit. People like that are hard to find. I’ll see you later.” For better or worse he picked up his jacket and left.

He needed to get some fresh air, go for a run and deal with the bitter disappointment weighing him down. If his best friend thought he was making the biggest mistake of his life, then maybe he should do everyone a favor and walk away from Annie.

But if Logan was wrong, if there was something worth holding onto, then surely it was worth the risk of losing everything?

***

Two days after viewing the house that was too much of everything, Annie sat in Dylan’s truck, staring at the brown siding on the building in front of her. Dylan and his boss, John Fletcher, were standing beside a big metal door, talking with a local realtor.

From what Dylan had said, Fletcher Security was considering buying the property as another secure storage facility. Annie couldn’t see how the building would ever be as secure as the other fortress they had at the moment, but Dylan seemed to think it could work.

After they’d looked through the building, Annie was taking Dylan to the bowling alley. He’d seen her bowl a couple of months back. This time it was all about him. If they were going to conquer his touching issue, they needed to build his confidence around groups of people. And unless they wanted to hang out at bars, the bowling alley was the best place Annie could think of.

Dylan glanced back at the truck, then ran toward her. “The realtor’s left the keys with us. Do you want to come inside and have a look?”

Annie gazed uncertainly at the building.

“You don’t need to do anything except look.”

She grabbed her bag and got out of Dylan’s truck. “Okay, but I’m scared of rats. If any big, hairy, beasts scuttle out from the walls, I’m jumping on your back.”

Dylan’s mouth didn’t move, but his eyes laughed at her. “Then you’ll get
me
running for cover.” He locked his truck and started walking toward his boss. “What do you think of the building from the outside?”

“It’s brown.”

He huffed out the beginning of a laugh. “At least you’re honest.”

Annie grinned. “That’s why you like me so much.” Dylan didn’t say anything and Annie’s smile dimmed.

“Hi, Annie. I’m John.”

Annie stared at the man in front of her. He was as tall as Dylan, but any other resemblance ended there. John Fletcher was polished, sophisticated and oozed confidence. His firm handshake and direct stare told her he was a man who knew what he wanted and was getting there.

John glanced at Dylan. “The realtor’s gone inside to turn the alarm off.” He turned to Annie and smiled. “Has Dylan told you anything about what we want to do here?”

“You’d like an extra storage facility.”

“That about covers it. We won’t have the same level of security in this building. What we’re looking for is a facility we can alter to meet our needs going forward.”

Annie followed Dylan into the building. “And you think this is it?”

John took his sunglasses off. “Could be.”

As they walked through the empty warehouse, Annie listened to John explain how they’d create individual storage units within the big cavernous space. She didn’t want to think about how much money it would take to complete the project.

Dylan opened a door on one side of the room and waved her through. “I thought you might be interested in seeing this.”

Annie poked her head around the doorframe, half expecting to see an office draped in cobwebs. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the bright fluorescent lights her mouth dropped open.

“Wow…” She walked into the commercial kitchen, running her hand along the stainless steel counter. She stopped in front of two ovens that were as tall as she was. “I can’t believe it. These are top of the range combi ovens.” She opened one door and looked closely at the steel trays waiting for a lucky chef to fill them.

“I take it you’re impressed?”

Annie looked across at Dylan. He was leaning against a set of cabinets, watching her move around the kitchen. “These ovens are one of the best on the market. You can have multiple cooking options happening at the same time and they even clean themselves. Who used this building before it went on the market?”

“No one’s been in here for at least ten months,” John said from behind Annie. He opened an oven door and peered inside. “It used to be owned by a local catering company. They went into receivership and now the bank’s selling the building.”

“Do the ovens come with the sale?” Annie asked.

John opened a cupboard and frowned at what he found. “Everything you see is part of the deal, including two dead mice.”

Annie stepped away from John, but not too far that she couldn’t continue to admire the ovens. She was nowhere near ready to start her own business, but if she had been, she would have been tempted to ask John what plans he had for the kitchen.

Dylan walked across the room and stood beside her. “Go on. Ask.”

She stuffed her hands inside her jacket pockets. “There’s no point. I’m not ready.”

“But you could be if the price was right?”

Annie glanced across at John. He’d lost interest in the kitchen and had headed across to the back door. As soon as he disappeared outside, Annie turned to Dylan. “I can’t afford to lease the kitchen. Most spaces this size cost more than I’m earning each week.”

“Would it make any difference if I told you John doesn’t need a kitchen for what he’s planned here?”

“He could lease it to someone else. It’s too valuable to leave empty. Just make sure the ovens are included in the sale price. They’re worth a small fortune.”

John came back inside and locked the door. “There’s enough parking out there for at least a dozen vehicles.”

Annie took one last look around the kitchen and sighed. “It’s a great space. What else haven’t we seen?”

John opened another door. “This is the main access point for all of the service areas for employees. The only rooms you haven’t seen are the main reception area and office space.”

Annie followed John down a long corridor. Dylan followed quietly behind them, opening and closing a couple of storage cupboards along the way. When they reached the front of the building, Annie looked behind her to see what Dylan thought of the room.

“It’s functional.” He walked behind a tall front desk and looked along the floor. “There are enough data cables and power sockets for six computers. We could reconfigure this area to make it more user-friendly.”

Annie followed another corridor behind the desk to four more rooms. The offices were spacious without being enormous. Apart from the musty smell of old carpet, dust, and months of neglect, the building looked okay to her.

By the time she’d made it back to the reception area, Dylan and John were standing outside the building, deep in conversation. She didn’t know what price the bank wanted for the property, but it wouldn’t be in most people’s budget.

Dylan had told her there was a large parcel of land surrounding the building that was included in the sale. With the option of converting some of the land into a residential subdivision, she imagined there’d be lots of reasons why this would be a good investment.

She watched Dylan as he pointed toward the roof. He was quietly explaining something to his boss. John listened intently, adding a comment or two as Dylan stepped back to get a better view.

Dylan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and made a quick call. Whatever plans they were hatching, they both looked satisfied with the outcome. They walked back toward her. John had a smile on his face and Dylan looked his normal, mysterious self.

“What did you think of our next storage space, Annie?” John watched her closely, as if her opinion really mattered.

“It will need a lot of work to bring it up to the same standard as your other building, but it’s in a good location. The extra land is a bonus, too.”

John nodded. “That’s what we thought. Once we’ve met with the realtor tomorrow, the property will be ours.”

Annie frowned. “Ours?”

Dylan cleared his throat. “As in Fletcher Security. Are you ready to hit the bowling alley?”

John grinned. “Dylan Bayliss? Bowling? That I’d like to see.”

“You can come with us, if you like,” Annie said. “We’ve booked a lane for a couple of hours.”

Dylan snorted. “Don’t be fooled by the innocent expression on Annie’s face. She’s a star in the State bowling league. She came second in their last competition and she’s only been bowling for eighteen months.”

“How did you know that?” Annie hadn’t told Dylan about her competition results. Ten pin bowling wasn’t exactly major league baseball. It didn’t make the news headlines on TV or even a photo in the Bozeman Chronicle.

“Tess mentioned it the other day.”

If Annie didn’t know better, she would have sworn Dylan just told a little white lie.

He covered some of the blush on his cheeks with his sunglasses and stuck his hands in his pockets. “We’d better get to the bowling alley. Are you coming, John?”

“Not today, but keep me in mind for next time. I’ve already got plans.”

“Try not to work too hard,” Dylan said.

John passed him a look that told Annie he wouldn’t be listening to Dylan’s advice. “It was nice meeting you, Annie.” He shook her hand and turned back to the building they’d been looking through. “I’ll lock up. Be gentle on Dylan, he doesn’t like losing.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Dylan said as they walked around the building to his truck. “He’s worse than I am.”

“I have a feeling you’re as bad as each other.”

Dylan opened the passenger door on his truck. “You could be right.”

***

Dylan held his bowling ball to his chest and focused on the pins standing upright at the end of their lane. He tried to visualize his ball smashing into the front pin and scattering the others to the floor. But all he could see was Annie, sitting quietly in their red vinyl booth, waiting for him to throw a gutter ball so she could win their first game.

Her competitive streak and tight blue t-shirt were getting in the way of his concentration. He was just damn lucky that the speed of his shots had made up for his lack of direction.

He took three steps forward, swung his arm back, and with a low sweep of his body, let go of the bowling ball. It flew along the wooden floor, took the first pin out with a resounding crack, then annihilated the rest of the pins. Except one.