Call Her Mine (Harmony Pointe #1)- Melissa Foster Page 0,24

of their directors. He managed several of their investments and had always done a top-notch job. He had a stellar reputation and was trustworthy and loyal. But this deal was happening because Ben had brought it to the table. He’d spent the last eighteen months working every angle to make it come to fruition, and there was no way he was going to hand it over to anyone.

“I’ve got this, Aiden, and I’m not going to let anything stand in my way.” Not even the adorable little peanut in the basket.

“If this kid is yours, you’re going to have a hell of a lot more to think about than this deal, and, Ben, that’s okay. Look, you’ve spent years making things happen. You’ve got more money than you could spend in several lifetimes. You don’t need this particular deal or the international travel required to make it a success added to your portfolio.”

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to keep from losing his cool as he said in a tone that left no room for negotiation, “I am not going to hand this off to anyone.”

“Okay,” Aiden relented. “Then let’s get down to business.”

Two hours, one bottle, and one diaper change later—thank God for speakerphone—Ben ended the call with Aiden and read the text that had finally rolled in from Aurelia. Sorry to bail. I had to meet Piper at the bookstore.

“That was an awfully fast escape for just meeting my sister,” Ben said to B, who was looking at him like she knew who he was, which he was pretty sure was impossible. “I think it’s time we paid our friend Relsy a visit.”

After showing up at Vic’s without proper baby supplies, Ben wasn’t taking any chances. He packed everything he’d bought for the baby—and the bags of peanut M&M’s, because chocolate went a long way with his tormented girl—into his Land Rover and drove to Harmony Pointe.

It was official. There was no place on earth Aurelia felt more at home than in a bookstore. It made sense, since she’d practically grown up in her grandparents’ bookstore in Sweetwater, and she’d worked for Pages, the largest bookstore chain on the East Coast, in its flagship store in New York City for the past several years. After her grandfather had suffered a stroke, an attorney named Mick Bad had purchased her grandparents’ bookstore. He’d kept it intact and allowed Aurelia to open it every few weeks, when she could find the time to return home from the city. When she moved back to Sweetwater after a nasty breakup, she had intended to buy the store from Mick and combine it with Willow’s bakery. But being around Ben all the time had proven much more difficult than she’d anticipated. They’d always had a love-hate relationship, at least in her mind, and she was pretty sure it was because she loved being with him and hated that he wasn’t the type of guy to settle down.

This was where she belonged, surrounded by fictional stories—and hopefully soon by people who loved reading them—not playing house with Ben. She had to stop letting her heart lead the way and start thinking with her head again and remember all the reasons she couldn’t spend every minute of her free time with Ben. He needed her now because parenting was hard, but what would happen if he found out he wasn’t B’s father? She knew exactly where that would leave them. He’d go back to his one-night stands, and she’d be his buddy when he wasn’t out carousing.

Buying this shop was definitely the right thing to do.

Piper’s construction crew was hard at work putting up shelving, repointing the front and rear brick walls, installing the bakery display cabinets, and refinishing the checkout counter. In her grandparents’ shop, one thing she’d always loved was that the checkout counter had an area that was just above knee height, so children could set their books down and feel like they were part of the whole bookstore experience. She was having that done in Chapter One. Piper was in and out, managing several jobs at once, but her burly project manager, Kase Force, was always on-site, and he was currently heading Aurelia’s way. The guy’s arms and legs were as thick as tree trunks. Tattoos snaked out from beneath his short sleeves, and the blue baseball cap he’d worn every day since he’d begun working there was firmly in place, a hint of brown hair poking out in