Until Trevor (Until, #2)(7)
“Hey Mom,” I say, walking into Temptations. After Mike left this morning, I pulled myself together, finished my coffee, and picked up the check from next to the front door. I wrote Mike a long thank you note, not only for the money, but for always being there for me after my dad passed away. Then I went downstairs, showered, and got dressed in a pair of wide leg jeans, a black ribbed tank, and my black cowboy boots. Around my hips, I looped a wide black belt with a huge turquois buckle that I also sell in my store. I stopped at the bank on the way to the store and deposited the check. I paid my business loan three months in advance, the same with my car payment. Then I called the owner of the building we lease our shop from and paid the back rent and a few months in advance.
“Hey, honey. These came for you.” She points to a large vase of assorted lilies. I noticed the smell when I walked in the store but thought they were from her fiancé. I walk toward the counter and find a card. My heart is in my throat when I open it, wondering if they’re from Trevor. My name is written in a woman’s handwriting on the outside of the card. I slide my finger under the edge of the small envelope, pull the card out, and flip it over.
“Crap!” I mumble. The flowers are from Bill; not that Bill isn’t a nice guy, but the thing is, he just does nothing for me. When I hired him to find my brother, I tried to make things clear that this was going to be a completely professional relationship; but he is constantly asking me out, or flirting in a way that makes it clear that he’s interested.
Bill was my first. All my life I have been reading romance novels. Those stupid books ruined me. I’ve always wanted that fire that every book I ever read talks about. There was no fire with Bill; and afterwards, I thought that the fire described in books was a whole bunch of made up mumbo-jumbo until I was with Trevor. Then I found out that not only is it real, it is consuming. Unfortunately, only he could give me that feeling, but I'm not the only one to give that feeling to him. The women in town are constantly talking about him or his brothers, and the amount of women they go through. Well, all except Asher. He was just as bad as them until he met November; she turned his ass upside-down. Now they’re one of those couples who are constantly touching or whispering to each other, completely head-over-heels in love; and now that they have their daughter, they are even more in love. I couldn’t be happier for them. But naturally, I'm jealous. Who wouldn’t be? Really, what woman wouldn’t want one of the hottest men this side of the Mississippi banging down your door, confessing his undying love, while begging to take care of you, and then giving you a perfect family?
“Well, who are they from?” my mom asks, and I look up at her hopeful face. I know that she thinks I need to find a man. She had me at twenty, and was with my dad for two years before that.
“Bill,” I say, wondering if I should give him a shot. I'm sure thousands, no millions, of women are in relationships with people who don’t cause them to catch fire with just a look.
“Oh,” she says, her face falling. “I thought they were from Trevor; he is such a nice boy.” I shake my head; my mom has no idea the kind of guy Trevor really is.
“I'm going to unbox the new shipment and stock the shelves. Let me know when you’re going for lunch and I’ll come watch the front for you,” I say, kissing her cheek.
“Okay, honey,” she says, sliding my hair behind my ear and kissing my forehead.
I am in the back room going through the new shipment, when my mom comes back to tell me she is going to lunch. I make my way to the front of the store, carrying some stuff to put on display, when the bell over the door goes off. I turn my head to see Trevor standing near the cash register. I raise an eyebrow at him, wondering what the heck he’s doing here.
“You got time to talk?” he asks, while looking around. I take a deep breath, let it out, and shrug my shoulders. “I talked to Mike this morning, and he told me what happened with your brother.” I feel my chest squeeze. I didn’t want anyone to know about what my brother did. “Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“Seriously?” I ask, glaring at him.
“Shit, I know I f*cked up. I just—” He stops talking and runs his hands over his head. When his eyes come back to me, they look confused. “You’re you; I care about you.”
“You, Trevor Mayson, are full of it.”
“What?”
“You don’t care about me, Trevor,” I say, turning my back on him, going back to putting out the new stock.
“We were good together,” he says next to me. I look over at him, my eyebrows drawing together.
“What are you talking about? We were never together.” I shake my head. “We hung out. I had considered you a friend; then we got drunk, fooled around, and you showed me that I was nothing but just another woman, just like all the others.” I blow a piece of hair out of my face, feeling myself turn red from embarrassment. “Now if you would just leave and not talk to me any more like you did before, that would be great,” I say, turning around to finish what I was doing.
“Why’s this Bill sending you flowers?” I look over and see him standing in front of the flowers, looking at the card.
“What’s with you?” I walk over and snatch the card out of his hand.
“You’re coming with me to go see July Saturday when you get off.” I look at him like he has lost his damn mind. He shrugs. “I already told Asher that you would be there.” “Well, then, I guess you have to call and tell him that you were confused,” I snap, just as the shop door opens and my mom walks in.