Sweet Heart (The Hearts of Sawyers Bend #2) - Ivy Layne Page 0,71

out next.

Most days I headed to Heartstone for lunch unless Daisy could get away to meet me. She was oddly reluctant to talk details on the bakery expansion, but she was eager to test new recipes for the planned lunch menu, and I loved being her guinea pig.

Evenings, when I was done working with Griffen and Hope, I'd drive back into town for Daisy. Sometimes we'd cook dinner together and eat in her little apartment above the bakery.

Other nights we'd order dinner up to my office and eat at The Inn. One memorable night I brought her back to the watchtower, this time armed with more supplies, and Bryce safely secured at the big house. We didn't get much sleep, but it was worth it.

Every once in a while, we ate with everyone else at Heartstone Manor. My family was a lot to handle on a good day, and while Daisy didn't seem to mind them, I didn't want to scare her off. I couldn't. I'd only been seeing her for a short time, and I already knew I couldn't live without her.

Everything in my life was better with Daisy. Everything. Being with Daisy somehow gave me more patience with the little things. Not that my family and the problems at The Inn were little things.

Bryce and Ophelia had moved into Heartstone, but the sabotage hadn't stopped. Deliberately broken plumbing in a vacant room that caused thousands in damage and lost room charges. An attempt to switch supplies in the kitchen that might have spoiled dozens of meals if the sous-chef hadn't tasted the salt before seasoning her sauce.

As much as I wanted to blame Bryce for the problems at The Inn, we had to acknowledge that he wasn't the culprit. He'd admitted he locked us in the watchtower, sneering that it was just a prank, and we should learn to take a joke.

Ah, the refrain of petty bullies everywhere. I was only joking. Bryce was more of an asshole every day, but he wasn't the one fucking with my Inn, so I mostly ignored him.

My cheerful whistle died as I passed through the back of the lobby and spotted Sterling talking to Forrest in the restaurant. An early lunch? She was wearing a suit, a file folder on the table beside her, looking as professional and composed as I'd ever seen her, but something about the way she leaned in and smiled at Forrest struck me as off. His returning smile was the same. A little too friendly. A little too personal.

So far, he seemed like a good enough guy. He was a great fit for The Inn and got along well with Tenn and me. But being a decent guy didn't mean he was right for my baby sister. She was vulnerable, trying to start a whole new life, drinking less, and working full time. So far, so good. I didn't want some guy to fuck it up for her.

Not your business, I tried to tell myself as I walked past the restaurant and opened the door to the stairwell. A man in an Inn uniform brushed by me, his shoulder knocking me back a step. I turned to say something, and he disappeared around the corner, leaving me with the impression that I knew him from somewhere, and not The Inn.

I might have thought about it longer, but one of my desk clerks caught me, asking me to take a look at a problem before I headed upstairs.

I had a few minutes before Daisy would be here, so I followed the clerk back to the front desk, sending Daisy a quick text to let her know where I was. Good thing, because the small problem turned out to be a major IT snafu. By the time we figured out what had happened and our IT guy was on the case, Daisy had arrived.

She stood across the desk, dressed in khaki shorts and her pink Sweetheart Bakery polo shirt, carrying a big, twine-handled paper bag with the bakery logo on the side.

I shouldn't kiss her in the lobby. That would be inappropriate.

That's what the stairwell was for.

“Ready?” she asked.

I knew she only had an hour for lunch, her afternoon packed with custom projects she had to finish. Fortunately, the IT guy was on top of the problem and the reservations system would be back up soon. How someone got in the system to mess with the settings was a whole other issue. One I'd deal with later. After