Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)(41)

“I’m envious,” she admitted. “I know Amber understands the business better than me but I keep thinking about all these other things we could be doing. I’d love to expand. The space next door to ours is going to be available in a couple of months. We could do so much with that. I think a tea shop would be fun to open. Tourists would enjoy it and we could limit the hours so we only needed one shift of servers.”

“Have you talked to Amber?”

“I mentioned it and she wasn’t that interested. I’ll try again in a few months. Maybe during the summer, when we’re flooded with tourists.”

He crossed to her and put his arm around her. “Sorry it’s difficult. For what it’s worth, I value your opinion and I’m about to take advantage of our friendship by asking you to share it with me.”

She leaned into him. They fit well together, he thought, realizing a second too late that what he’d meant as a friendly, comforting gesture was so much more. At least to him.

He wanted to take the wineglass from her so her hands were free. He wanted to turn her so they were facing each other, then he wanted to pull her close, the way a man drew in a woman he desired. He wanted to kiss her and touch her and—

“So the mock-ups are finished?” she asked.

The question—so at odds with what he was thinking—pulled him back to the moment at hand. He carefully dropped his arm and stepped away.

“They are. I want to know what you think.”

They went into the dining room. He’d put place mats, napkins and flatware at one end of the table. At the other, he had a stack of eleven-by-eighteen-inch sheets of paper. Shelby sat at the end of the table and he took the seat next to hers.

The first poster mock-up showed a photograph of a parasailer over a huge blue lake. His company logo was on top with information on the website and the Fool’s Gold address on the bottom.

“It looks both thrilling and terrifying,” she admitted. “People really do this?”

“They do. Del and I did it at Lake Tahoe last fall. Lake Ciara is a lot smaller, but still plenty big. You start on a platform and the boat pulls you out onto the lake. It’s awesome.”

“If you say so.”

The oven dinged. She got up and put in the casserole, then returned to the dining room.

“Let’s see what the others are like.”

He spread out the different posters and they studied the options. Shelby had some good suggestions about what she thought would work and what wouldn’t.

“This one draws me in more,” she said. “And the one with the kids is great. You want families to be doing this. They make up a large percentage of our tourist population.”

They picked the three they like best. Aidan marked up the changes he wanted while she checked on the casserole, then they headed out to take Charlie on a quick walk before dinner.

The little dog walked along, sniffing and stopping to mark his territory. Aidan had to admit that even though it had only been a few weeks, he couldn’t imagine not having the bichon in his life.

“I’m glad it’s warmer now,” he said. “No coats for Charlie.”

Shelby laughed. “You’re such a guy.”

“Dogs have dignity. They shouldn’t have to be humiliated by clothing.”

“I don’t think Charlie minded.”

“That’s not what he tells me.”

She grinned at him. “So now you two are keeping secrets from me?”

“Just man stuff. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh, you are so going to pay for that.”

Most of the snow had already melted. There were still big piles in parking lots from all the plowing, but here in the neighborhoods there were signs of spring. He pointed out the first hints of crocuses and tulips.

“The Tulip Festival is one of my favorites,” she said. “All the flowers are so beautiful.”

“Then we should go.”

“I’d like that.” She glanced at him. “Aidan, I need to talk to you about something.”

Her tone warned him that he wasn’t going to like the topic.

“What?” he asked warily.

“I’m worried about your sex life. Or lack of sex life.”

Dammit all to hell. “No.”

He turned back toward the house. Charlie trotted along with him. Aidan didn’t bother checking on Shelby. His luck was such that she would be right there, too.

“We have to talk about it,” she said when she’d caught up with him.

“No. We don’t.”

“Aidan, I’m serious.”

He stopped and stared at her. “So am I. I like what we’re doing here. It’s helping me and I think it’s helping you. Just go with it.”

“But you have needs. I worry.”

“There are a lot of things to worry about in this world. Poverty. Climate change. Me having sex isn’t one of them.”

Her blue eyes were so wide and earnest as she twisted her fingers together. “We could brainstorm some solutions.”

Why him? That was the question of the day. Why did this have to be happening to him?

“No. Listen to me, Shelby. No. We are not having this conversation.”

“We could—”