Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(56)

God, she missed that place. Up until The Bean Gallery, she’d always hated her jobs. But, thing was, running the coffee shop had never felt like a job to her. She’d loved her workers and the customers. She’d loved ordering inventory and the ever-changing puzzle of scheduling. She’d loved the badly painted “masterpieces” on each table. Loved jumping behind the counter and whipping up a latte when it got too busy for the baristas to handle it on their own.

Maybe when the arson investigation ended and her insurance paid out, she’d buy a new place. If the arson investigation ever ended. They didn’t seem to be getting very far with it.

With the apartment so silent, she needed a distraction from her thoughts, so she found a Japanese monster movie on Netflix and huddled down on the couch to watch it. Sam the Cat snuggled up next to her, apparently having decided to completely ignore her bird’s existence. A step in the right direction, she supposed. At least Sam didn’t view Poe as lunch anymore.

She’d taken Poe out of his cage when she got home, and he now sat on his perch by the window, happily imitating the sound effects on the movie—one of his favorite pastimes. And with the background noise of her bird’s mimicry and the cat’s purring, she didn’t stand a chance of staying awake and drifted off long before the movie ended.

She wasn’t sure what woke her, but Shelby opened her eyes sometime later to find someone had covered her with a blanket, and the cat was now curled up on her stomach.

Coffee. That was the scent that had awakened her. Freshly brewed coffee.

She propped herself up on her elbows and peeked over the back of the couch. Reece was pouring himself a mug from the pot, but his attention was focused on a notebook laid out on the counter, and every once in a while he’d mutter to himself and scribble something down. He was shirtless, in pajama pants and his glasses, and his hair stuck up from multiple passes of his hands. Definitely had a little bit of a mad scientist look going for him right now.

He walked away with his notebook in hand, completely forgetting his coffee on the counter.

Smiling, she picked up the cat, set him aside, and went into the kitchen to fix herself a coffee because it smelled too damn good to ignore. She gathered Reece’s mug and followed him to his office. “You forgot something.”

He glanced up, wide-eyed. “Shit. Did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet.”

“No, I don’t think it was you. Just a general sense I wasn’t alone anymore. And the smell of coffee.” She set his mug on his desk before taking a sip from her own. “It’s my catnip.”

He nodded and went back to whatever it was he was doing on the computer. “I hope you don’t mind I put Poe back in his cage. I was a little worried Sam might wake up feeling peckish.”

“Actually, they seem to be getting along. Or at least they’re tolerating each other. Did you find Greer?”

He looked up again, startled. “How’d you know we’re looking for him?”

“I had lunch with Libby. She mentioned it.”

“He’ll turn up. He always does.” Reece’s mouth kicked up in the corner. “I noticed we have some new paintings. Take it you also went shopping with Libby?”

She shrugged. “This place needs some color. Hence the pillows. And now the paintings. I just have to figure out where to hang them.”

Another quick flash of a smile. “I’d like one in here if you don’t mind.”

Pleasure bloomed in her chest. “Really?”

“Yes, really. I agree this place needs some color.” He pushed out a sigh, shook his head. “I didn’t even realize I was living in a high-end institution instead of a home until you bought those crazy pillows.”

“Wow. I feel like I just won some kind of war. What’s all this?” She eased a hip down on the edge of his desk and studied his spread of notebooks. She picked one up. “Hey, wait. Aren’t these the notebooks you took from your parents’ house?”

Reece felt like a kid caught with his hand in the candy jar. “It’s nothing.” He started to close his laptop, but stopped short when she flipped through the notebook she was holding.

“Reece! These drawings are awesome. Did you do these?”

Heat crawled across the back of his neck. “Just sketches.”

“They’re damn good for sketches.” She sent him a sideways glance. “What exactly are you working on so late? I have a sneaky suspicion it’s not anything for DMW or Wilde Security.”

“It’s…nothing.” He didn’t know why he was so embarrassed to have been caught, but there it was. He snatched the notebook from her. “A hobby.”

“You actually have time for a hobby?”

“Not as much as I’d like.”

She craned her neck to better see the screen of the half closed laptop. “What is it? C’mon, we’re full of secrets already. What’s one more?”

He sighed. If anyone deserved a peek into this part of his life, it was her. After all, she was the reason he’d started pursuing this particular “hobby” again. Being with her, he realized he’d let go of too much of himself in the past few years, and he wanted to get back to a version of the person he used to be. These notebooks, retrieving them from his old bedroom, had been his first step in that journey.