Playing With Trouble (Desire Bay 1)

“Whoa, hold up,” he said, coming after her and shutting the front door. Clearly he didn’t want the woman inside hearing or seeing Laura. “Want me to give you a ride to work? Or at least back to your car you left at the bar last night?”

“No.” She was not going near that truck again. Or him. “Enjoy your morning.” She glanced over his shoulder to his house, where she saw a beautiful, dark-haired woman walk by the window. Like she knew where she was going. Like she was comfortable there. “And you’re right. You certainly are a problem solver.”

A wide grin broke over Jake’s face, and she wanted to smack it right off him. He glanced behind him, then back at her, realizing she could see the woman through the windows.

“Hold up,” he said with a small chuckle. Which did amazing things to those cut abs of his. “Are you jealous?”

“No!” she shot out quickly. “I just have work to do, and clearly you have something to do as well, so I’ll be on my way.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “You’re jealous.”

She huffed and got in his face. “Understand one thing right now, Jacob Lock. I’m a lot of things. Including resourceful, driven—”

“Stubborn,” he said.

“Smart,” she continued.

“Sexy.”

She shook her head. “My point is, jealous is not one of them.”

“Oh, I think you are.”

“Well, perhaps you should keep one thing in mind when you’re doing all that thinking.” She took a step closer until her breasts touched his bare chest. She was going for intimidating but had to stifle a gasp at the contact and stay focused. “I am a Baughman and my name is on the business. Literally. And I’m going to make this shop work. With or without your help.” She gave a hard glare to drive her point home. “So keep that in mind.”

He smiled and leaned in. Just when she thought he might try to kiss her, he brought his coffee cup between them and took a sip.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She nodded once and turned to walk off. The morning was cool and thankfully it wasn’t raining and she needed to clear her head. Especially when Jacob called after her.

“Have a good day, Miss Baughman.”

Chapter Five

Laura was rethinking her outfit choice about an hour into scrubbing out the coolers. So much for looking professional. She was on her hands and knees getting God knew how many years of filth out of the flower coolers. Good news was there was plenty of space for various flowers and arrangements. Just a little tidying up was all it’d take to get the shop looking niceish. And not like an office.

Okay, so it was a bit dated. Sure, you walked in and saw the old couch in the seating area and drab decor and it gave the vibe of 1987, but she could work with that. Mostly because she had to stay positive. With some fresh arrangements and the coolers and cases full of colorful options, it would set off the front desk and simple seating area.

She hoped.

She glanced over her shoulder to said seating area and calculated new chairs and an area rug into the mental budget she had in her mind.

She kicked off her heels and finished scrubbing the last cooler.

Next task was tackling the desk, which held dust—sawdust, more specifically—a computer from the nineties, and an even older printer.

Mentally calculating a laptop and Bluetooth printer . . .

Which would help the warehouse, too, so Jake could suck it. She glanced around, and anger flared at Jacob. Partly because she was still thinking of him naked, and the fact that she hadn’t actually seen him fully naked—not that she cared. But she was more upset that he’d let this place go. He only cared about the dumb warehouse of mannish supplies in the back. But flowers were a part of this place, the legacy of her mother, and she’d be damned if they were left by the wayside.

The little bell over the front door dinged, and Laura turned to see the door swing open and Hannah walk through.

“Hannah?” Laura said, standing and dusting off her hands.

“I just wanted to come check this place out. You took off in a hurry last night.”

Laura took a deep breath. “Yeah, just needed some fresh air.”