Real Men Knit(26)
Kerry agreed. “Okay, I hear you. I think I can get you up to speed pretty fast with how things have been running so that you can get going. Sort of a crash course, since there’s a rush.” She let out a low breath and looked around. The shop was in good physical shape, as far as an establishment of its size and age went. Mama Joy did a great job keeping it clean and tidy. Though it was maybe just a little outdated, if she was being honest and considering the updates of the newer establishments of the neighborhood. But she didn’t know about bogging Jesse down with all that right now. “Let’s see if we can do a surface cleanup and I’ll take you through what I know about Mama Joy’s organization systems. We should be able to get back up and open right away, and in no time you’ll be running things and I can get out of your hair.”
“Hold it,” he said stopping her. “I do want to get going fast, but maybe just making do won’t do.”
“What? Didn’t you just say we need to open ASAP? With this plan, the money won’t be rolling in, but at least you’ll have something coming through.” She paused, thinking of the current traffic flow. “Well, hopefully. I’m sure there are more things we can do to drum up business as time goes on.”
Jesse frowned. “Yeah, but don’t we want to do better than that? I don’t think it’s going to cut it. Not for Damian. We need to push harder.”
Kerry was surprised. She thought she was making it easier for him; frankly, she had expected him to just go along with what she was saying. She took a sip of her coffee and put it down on the worktable, careful to grab one of the knitted coasters that Mama Joy insisted everyone use. “What do you mean?” she asked. “You’re starting to lose me, Jesse. Is getting the shop open as quickly as possible your priority or not?”
He was quiet for a moment as he looked at her, his stare doing nothing to ease her feelings. She swallowed, then remembered she hadn’t taken another drink. Quicker was better. Opening and getting running quicker would mean her moving on and getting out of his hair and their lives just that much faster. There was no reason for him to be against this plan.
“It is,” he finally said, “but if I’m going to do this, then I want to do this right. A surface clean and just going with the status quo won’t cut it. Not now. In order to make a splash and turn this into a business that, at the least, makes enough for us to stay in this location, we’ve got to amp things up.”
Kerry looked around the shop again. Crap, he was right. And it wasn’t like she wasn’t just thinking the same thing. Besides, continuing on with things just as they were in the shop and without Mama Joy to pull in the customers, they would probably be out of business in six months, if not three. “Okay, I’m listening. So tell me, how are we going to do both?” She was nervous. Though Jesse was right, he couldn’t go too far and sink them further. She could easily imagine an all-out war between the four brothers if the shop failed.
Jesse moved from where he was behind the counter and walked toward her. He reached out his hand, coming at her faster than she expected, and her instinct was to dip back and out of the way, but for some reason she didn’t. Not even a flinch as he softly pressed his thumb across the middle of her brows and gave her a smile. “Stop with the hard looks and the frowning so early in the morning, Kerry. You don’t want these frown lines to turn permanent, now, do you? Because if you end up getting somebody’s bootleg Botox and it goes wrong, I can’t promise not to laugh right in your face.”
Kerry slapped his hand away and stepped back. Could the man stay serious and focused for at least a ten-minute stretch without making her the brunt of his jokes? And why didn’t she duck away from his stupid lethal touch?
They looked at each other for a few tense beats, expressions suddenly more serious than with their normal back-and-forth banter. The tension in the air was now swirling around like fine dust. Finally, Kerry found her voice, if not her full senses. “As if this melanin would need Botox. Wait! You think I need Botox?”
With her comment Jesse’s eyes softened; of course he was just messing with her. She watched as the sparkly hazel went all mossy and soft. She liked it when his eyes went soft like that. She coughed again. Hold up, she should not be thinking about his eyes. Soft, hard, in any way. It was bad for business and bad for her heart. She knew she could take a lot off Jesse. The teasing, ribbing, even the pain of long-legged women with heavily adorned toes exiting his bedroom in the early-morning hours. Those things were almost welcome because they kept her at the distance of right where she needed to be. But when his eyes went soft and his smile turned true—she sucked in a breath. That she couldn’t take. That was her kryptonite.
A soft Jesse stripped of his usual mask was truly a dangerous thing.
His gaze went roaming down to her lips, her neck, her collarbone and back up again to her eyes. Kerry swallowed as he licked his plump, peachy lips and grinned. She felt like an idiot, but dammit if she wasn’t waiting with bated breath for the next words that were about to come out of his mouth.
“What is this about Botox? Kerry, you better not do anything to that pretty face of yours. Besides, if they jack it up, you know we’re all gonna laugh at you, and then we’re going to have to kick the doctor’s ass on top of it,” Lucas said as he bounded around the corner from the back staircase.
Kerry let out the ridiculous breath that she was holding as she turned toward Lucas, who had changed into black sweatpants and a sleeveless black cotton tee that showed off his taut, lean but well-honed muscles. He had his baseball cap turned backward, signaling he was ready to get down to work. But then she noticed the duffel bag he’d dropped on the floor by his feet.