Everything I Need Read online

  Then before I knew it, a little more than six amazing years had gone by. They weren’t always easy, but they were ours, and I cherished them fiercely. Until the day he was taken from me much too soon in a car accident just one month after my twenty-second birthday. And the night he finally proposed.

  Lena’s voice breaks through the tension and my thoughts as she comes barreling between the bookcases. Campbell looking over at me in understanding. As if she knows where my thoughts just were. Her hand reaches across the counter and gives mine a squeeze before we look down to our little spitfire. I make sure to smile to hide my sudden sadness.

  “Auntie KeeKee, you were right. This book is awesome!” She holds up the children’s book with a picture of a puppy carrying a backpack on it.

  Coming around the counter, I offer my beautiful niece a high five and bend to kiss her cheek. “Nailed it,” I reply as I squeeze her tight. She giggles and my soul feels whole again.

  With another kiss to her cheek, I stand and look to Campbell. “You and LeeLee want to join me for some lunch at the diner? Toni already took her break, but I haven’t had time yet.” I ask.

  “Oh can we, Mommy? Pleeeeeeease?” LeeLee asks with her tiny hands clasped together under her chin. Blue eyes, just like her dad’s, pleading.

  “With a face like that, how can I say no?” she replies while smooshing her daughter’s cheeks together.

  “Yes!” Lena fist pumps the air then takes my hand in one of hers and her mother’s in the other.

  I holler out to Toni to let her know I’m leaving for a bit.

  “Got it, Boss Lady,” is hollered from the back. “I’ll hold down the fort.”

  I smile wide. “Then let’s hit it.”

  OOMPH.

  Taking a step back from the impact, a small body follows and lands on my chest. My hands instinctively release the few grocery bags I was holding to grab hold of lush hips, steadying whoever just knocked into me.

  “Oh crap. I’m so sorry!” A sweet, melodic voice floats through the air.

  Stepping back, I see the top of a dark head as she bends down to retrieve whatever she dropped on the sidewalk.

  “Gosh, I am such a darned klutz,” she mutters. Her voice causing my chest to do funny shit.

  I’m rubbing a hand across it, hoping to alleviate whatever the feeling is, when she stands to her full height. Which is short as shit compared to my six foot three frame. And she’s got curves for fucking days. My hands burn from the memory of what her hips felt like beneath them, even just for a second.

  She sees me rubbing my chest and her deep green eyes widen beneath thick black lashes. “Oh my goodness, did I hurt you?” She actually looks worried. The natural tan skin of her face pinched in worry.

  I almost smirk, almost, but opt for just shaking my head and grunting a “no” while my eyes scan her from head to toe and back again.

  “Oh, phew.” She actually wipes her hand across her forehead. “I know I’m small, but I’m mighty. So I was worried there for a sec.” A smile stretches wide across her pink lips. I just look at her unamused.

  “Oookay then. Well, I’m sorry for bumping into you like that. I wasn’t paying attention, obviously.” She chuckles.

  Then before I can say a damn thing, she’s back to bending and picking shit up off the ground. I look down to see a couple of apples rolled out of one bag and milk pouring from the busted jug.

  I squat down and grab the bags after she gathers the apples. “Don’t worry about it,” I reply as we both stand. And it takes all my willpower to keep my eyes on hers and not peer down the open neck of her top. Looking to my left to divert my eyes, I see a trash can a couple of feet away, so I toss the jug.

  “I’m sorry about your milk.” She rummages through the bag across her chest and comes up with a five-dollar bill. “Let me replace it, it’s the least I can do.”

  She smiles again. She smiles a lot if the lines around her eyes are anything to go by.

  I look at her and shake my head again. “Not gonna happen.”

  “Huh? I just want to replace your milk. It’s my fault it’s ruined.” Her smile dims and for some reason it bothers me. Someone as gorgeous as her should be smiling as often as possible.

  “Look, I obviously wasn’t paying attention either or we wouldn’t have bumped into each other. So don’t worry about it. I don’t need your money.”

  “Fine,” she huffs as she jams the money back into her purse haphazardly. “But if you’re ever in need of a good book, come by Between the Pages, it’ll be on me.” Her full smile is back in place.

  I can’t help but stare at her as she smiles.

  She looks around for a second before her green eyes come back to mine. “You new around here? I don’t remember seeing you before.”

  I nod. And continue to look at her. I probably look creepy as fuck, but this woman has me looking twice for the first time since my world was ripped apart, and now I can’t seem to look away.

  “You don’t say much, do you?” she asks.

  I shrug. “Not unless there’s something that has to be said.”

  The deep timber of my voice has her smile stretching wider if that’s even possible. “Well, I’m Keelynn. Keelynn Masters. I own Between the Pages. It’s the bookstore in town.” She sticks her hand out for me to shake.

  I shift bags from my right hand to the left before extending it out to hers. My large, rough hand engulfs her tiny, soft one. “Merrick.” I shake her petite hand in mine. Her grip surprisingly strong for such a little thing.

  “Merrick?” she asks.

  “Merrick,” I reply. Not giving her my last name. Not taking the chance. When I decided to take things into my own hands where Corsetti and the Palombo family were concerned, I didn’t bother taking on an alias. I’m not a fucking coward. I want those motherfuckers to know who it is that’s taking them down. But I’m still cautious with how much of myself I reveal so I don’t blow what I’ve got going on.

  “Okay then. Well, Merrick, welcome to town.” A light blush covers her cheeks, and it’s then I notice I’m still shaking her hand. I release it quickly then step back.

  She clears her throat again. “I meant what I said, come by the bookstore and any book is on me. We’ve got a wide selection of thriller and suspense novels. The new Stephen King, too!” Her eyes light with excitement, enhancing the green to an emerald color. Vibrant and bright. “Ya know, because I don’t think YA would be your thing.”

  She giggles lightly. A hand covering her mouth. I still just look at her while I wonder what the fuck YA is.

  “Well, I better get back so Toni doesn’t send the cavalry looking for me. I’ve been longer than I planned.”

  My chest tightens with an unexpected and inexplicable pull that feels a lot like jealousy. How the fuck that’s even possible when I literally just met her is beyond me. But it’s there nonetheless. And all she did was mention some guy’s name.

  Fuck, I’m losing my mind.

  “Well, it was nice meeting you.” Keelynn smiles wide. Showing all of her sparkling white teeth and one dimple. In her right cheek.

  Damn, that’s cute.

  “Yeah,” I grunt. Focusing on that lone dimple denting her cheek. Thinking about how fucking screwed I am already.

  “Don’t forget, Between the Pages,” she reminds me before she turns and walks down the sidewalk.

  I watch the curve of her ass and the sway of her hips as she walks away and turns the corner before I turn around to head back into the store for another half-gallon of milk. All the while thinking about how I could get lost in a sea of green and that her smile makes everything hurt a little less.

  I TURN AWAY AND TAKE a deep breath. Holy cow, that is the sexiest man I’ve ever seen!

  Rich, dark brown hair that’s rumpled and just makes your hands itch to run through it. Deep brown eyes the color of melted dark chocolate; so dark they seem black beneath the darkest and longest lashes. A square jaw spattered with dark stubble and chisele
d cheekbones. His face is a work of art.

  And he’s tall. So tall. I’d say at least a whole foot taller than my five foot two. Long, lean yet strong legs. And big. Like big, big. Wide, strong shoulders, bulging biceps beneath his dark waffle knit Henley, and what I can tell must be a six-pack. Or maybe even eight going by the ripples beneath the cotton.

  But he’s also the grumpiest I’ve ever seen too, I think. Such a shame. Such a stunning man should smile more.

  Before I round the corner to make it back to the bookstore, I look over my shoulder to see his black eyes still on me, tracking my every move. Hard glare still in place. Broad shoulders tense and large hands clenching at his sides.

  I can’t help but wonder what has him so on edge and angry.

  Walking through the door of the shop, I give a holler to Toni and she comes rushing over. “Oh dear goodness, goodness, me,” she rushes out. Hand to her chest. “I thought something happened to you!”

  Toni has always been eccentric. She was best friends with my gramma so I’ve known her my whole life. But since her husband, Earl, died, she’s gone a little more off her rocker and tends to worry even more.

  “Nope. All’s good.” I smile to reassure her. “I bumped into this guy when I was leaving the diner. So I stopped to help him pick up his few groceries, since it was my fault,” I explain.

  “A guy, hmm?” Her eyes light with mischief. “Tell me more. Who was it?” She claps her hands for added effect. All worry about earlier forgotten.

  Laughing, I wave her off. “Don’t go getting any ideas. I actually don’t know who he is. He’s new in town.” And with a face and body like that, no way will I be forgetting him anytime soon.

  I shake my head of my last thought and smile wide, trying to hide the flush of heat I can feel creeping into my cheeks.

  Toni gasps. “A newbie? And one that has you blushing brighter than fireworks on the Fourth of July? Do tell. Come on, let me have it.”

  Said blush grows hotter and I turn from her. Hiding. Because I don’t have this reaction to men. I never have, except once. And that once lasted six amazing years before it was ripped from me. And in the almost two years since Trevor’s been gone, not one man has piqued my interest in the slightest.

  Until Merrick.

  “There’s nothing to tell. I bumped into him because stupid me wasn’t paying attention. I offered to buy him a new half-gallon of milk since I made him spill the one he bought. We introduced ourselves. And then I was outta there.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Merrick.” His name comes out in almost a dreamy sigh. I snap my mouth shut quickly before rounding the counter to shove my purse underneath. Getting back to work.

  “Hot diggity dog, that’s a sinful name if I ever heard it.”

  My thoughts exactly.

  “I wonder if he’s the hunk Betsy Sue saw in the hardware store the other day…she said she almost had a coronary right there in the paint aisle he was so yummy looking.”

  Betsy Sue is an eighty-year-old woman, married for sixty-two years, with eleven cats. So you can imagine why I’m staring wide-eyed at Toni like she has snakes coming out of her head like Medusa.

  “What?” she asks with an innocent shrug of her shoulders.

  Shaking my head, I can’t help but let out a belly laugh at the mental picture she painted of Betsy Sue drooling over Merrick.

  Toni’s wide smile softens. “Ya know? You never lost your smile for very long, but that laugh of yours has been few and far between the last couple of years. It’s real good to hear.” She places a motherly hand to my arm before continuing as tears fill her eyes. A look crossing her face. “And you know your grampy and gramma would be so proud of you,” she whispers.

  I’m not sure what has her bringing up my grandparents, but I smile nonetheless. I miss them so much every day, despite them being gone for so many years. That ache just never goes away. And it’s the same for the hole in my heart that Trevor’s unexpected passing left. Two years later and some days it feels like yesterday. I loved that boy so much, thought we’d spend a lifetime together, but God had other plans. I can’t help but believe that. Because if that’s not the case, then it’s all for not, and I refuse to believe that.

  I lean in and squeeze her tight. “Life hasn’t always been easy, but there’s still a whole lot to be happy about,” I whisper on a final squeeze. “And I sure do hope I’m making them proud.”

  Stepping back, I fight the sudden surge of tears filling my eyes. “Now”—I clap once—”let’s get back to work.”

  “Right-o, Boss Lady.”

  WALKING INTO THE DINER EARLY Sunday morning, I see the place is packed. Which I guess is to be expected on a rainy morning.

  I find a stool at the very end of the bar that overlooks the kitchen. When I sit down, a waitress scurries by, flipping my mug over. Her eyes lift to mine in question, I nod, then she starts filling it with coffee.

  As the person next to me stands up, I see from the corner of my eye a familiar face sitting in the next spot over. Smiling at me. Since we literally bumped into each other earlier in the week, I hadn’t seen her again. Until now.

  “Morning.” Keelynn beams as I look over at her. Her fresh face makeup free, her dark hair piled high on her head. A loose sweater hangs from one tan shoulder. So simple, but so fucking pretty.

  Damn it.

  “We gotta stop meeting like this,” she jokes through her smile.

  I look at her for a beat before turning and going back to drinking my coffee. Trying to ignore the way just looking at her has my chest feeling funny shit.

  “I see you’re not a morning person either,” she mumbles over the rim of her coffee mug.

  “What’ll it be for ya, hon?” An older, different waitress walks over to me. Her nametag reading Sandra.

  I look down at the menu before ordering two eggs over easy, bacon, and a side of wheat toast.

  “Anything else, hon?” she asks.

  I shake my head in reply.

  “That’ll be right up.” Then she walks away, checking on customers down the row.

  From the corner of my eye I can see that Keelynn is still trying to discreetly look over at me. But failing.

  “Did you need something?” My voice rumbles between us before I look over at her. I spin on my stool and put my back to the wall, coffee mug in hand.

  Taking a sip while she turns to face me, she crosses her legs before talking. “You’ve got me curious, Merrick.” Her voice holding a hint of softness and her eyes flashing something that looks a lot like unease.

  I feel my brows dip low in confusion. I look at her, waiting for her to elaborate. But she doesn’t. She just smiles again, the look disappearing as her plump, pink lips stretch wide and she changes the subject.

  “So…enjoying what our little town has to offer?” She sips her coffee, expectant eyes on me. Waiting on a reply.

  I wouldn’t exactly say enjoying is the right word. If I’m not working with Jenson and his brothers for their repair company, I’m doing surveillance on Mario’s men. They rent a shop on main street where they run their “business.” They also rent a huge, old beach house down by the water on Hampton Beach and that’s where they’re staying. From what I’ve gathered so far, Mario isn’t in town yet, but they’re planning his arrival. And so am I.

  I shrug as I take another sip of my strong, black coffee before I reply. “You could say that.”

  “Been to the beach yet?”

  My eyes hold hers. Mine unamused, because I’m not the going to the beach type. And hers full of mirth, because she damn well knows it.

  I shake my head and spin back on my stool to face the kitchen, but I see in my periphery that she hasn’t moved. Neither has her smile. Her shoulders shake with a silent giggle. No doubt revealing that sexy as hell dimple in her cheek. Who would have known expressive green eyes, a big dimpled smile, and deep, winding curves would have me feeling things I never thought I’d feel again toward a woman.
Things like lust and want—a physical attraction that has me wanting to kiss that bright smile clean off her gorgeous face.

  When I don’t respond she changes the subject. “Alrighty then. Well, what has you coming into town?”

  Before she even finishes her question, I’m wishing that I just entertained her beach question. Because why I’m in town is something I can’t, and won’t, talk about. “Just needed a change of scenery.” My short answer doesn’t seem to surprise her, since I’ve been nothing but short and clipped with her since I met her the other day.

  “You chose a great town then. And I’m not saying that because I’m biased. We really do have a great town here. Small town feel, but not too small,” she says through her signature smile.

  “Good to know.” As soon as I reply Sandra walks by, placing my breakfast in front of me. Along with refilling my coffee.

  Seeing my food arrive, and sensing our conversation being over, Keelynn tosses some money by her plate before addressing the waitress. “Thanks, Sandy. Tell Marv it was delicious as always.” She smiles at the older waitress as she stands and slides on her raincoat.

  Sandra replies through a smile of her own. “You betcha, honey. He’ll be tickled as always.”

  Keelynn turns to me before she leaves, her eyes assessing. She doesn’t say something for a few beats, which has me wondering what she’s thinking about in her pretty little head. Something crosses behind her eyes. A brief flash and then it’s gone. Then she speaks. “Next time you come you should try the French toast. It’s delish.” Another smile.

  I just look at her, again, unblinking. I’ve never been much of a talker, but it seems around her I speak even less. It’s her happiness and cheer and smiles. They catch me off guard and hold me captive while they shine around me. Bright like fucking sunshine. The way she looks at me throws me off-kilter, too. Like she can see something below the surface, which unnerves me even more.

  “Well, always a pleasure, Merrick. Stay dry, and I’m sure I’ll see you soon.” Her lone dimple flashes deep in her cheek she’s smiling so wide. Then she winks and walks away. And I can’t help but watch as she goes. Watching her curves roll and sway as she moves. My cock twitches in my jeans so I shift to ease the tightness all while thinking how she’s the first woman to affect me this way in over three years. I swallow hard.