Fairy Tales and Cappuccinos (Everyday Love #1) - Taylor Rylan Page 0,47
we normally opened at nine, but it was now Christmas season, and I couldn’t help but be excited about it.
“Well, I figured that if we opened early today, we’d have even more traffic come through, and that would mean more sales.” I shrugged as I unzipped my coat.
“We’ve never, and I mean never, opened before nine. Even this time of year.”
“Well, there’s always a first time for everything, right?” I asked over my shoulder as I walked down the hallway. When I was outside Hudson’s office door, I stopped and waited. It was shut, so I assumed it was still locked. He came up behind me, and instead of unlocking the door like I expected, he wrapped his arms around me and started kissing down the side of my neck. I couldn’t help but moan. It was my natural reaction to the man.
“Mmm, that feels wonderful. But later. You had a surprise for me, and I wanted to talk to you about something. And we still need to discuss opening early.”
Hudson stopped and stood up immediately. “Yes, we certainly need to talk about whatever it is that upset you so much on Wednesday. But opening early, I’m not so sure there’s anything to discuss.”
I was pushing, I knew I was. But like Chris, there were lots of people already out, and we were missing out by not being open.
I tossed my coat onto the love seat and walked over to Hudson, who was leaning against the doorframe. He was so damn sexy, and I couldn’t believe that for at least the time being, he was mine. It was early yet, but I was willing to see where things went with Hudson.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking how sexy you are and that I’m lucky that you’re kinda sort of with me at the moment.”
“Hmm, yeah, we should talk about that.” Hudson stood up and gestured for me to leave the office, so I did. When I walked by him through the door, I might have made sure my hand brushed against his crotch. Sure, if I were working anywhere else, I could certainly be brought up for sexual harassment, but the dynamics here were completely different. Hudson was my boss, sure, but as far as I knew, we were more.
“Yep, I was right. You’re trouble.”
I smirked over my shoulder. “Yeah, but I’ll behave and be completely professional when we’re open for business. You wanted to talk?”
“I do. About many things. Come on. You can make me a cappuccino while we talk,” Hudson said as he put his hands on my hips and gave me a push to get me going.
“Cappuccino? I can’t do that. We have basic coffee. That’s it.”
“Hmm, are you sure?” Hudson said as we exited the hallway and into the bookstore.
I looked straight ahead and was immediately drawn to the front door and the window display. I glanced at Hudson before I walked to the door. Even backward I could read the small lettering on it. “Fairy Tales and Cappuccinos?” I asked. But instead of looking at Hudson, I turned my attention to the window display. It was cute. Hudson had set out fake snow and some small flocked Christmas trees. Under the one tree was a bunch of books that had bows and name tags on them. But on the other side was a small counter and various coffee-looking drinks on it.
“Hudson? What’s going on?” I stared at the vinyl lettering on the window, and it was a much larger version of the sign on the door.
“Well, you see, there’s this guy who has some amazing ideas, and he said I should add a coffee place to my bookstore. And after thinking about that—and running several ideas by my cousin—I decided that he was right and I should. So I did. With his help of course.”
Hudson was standing there, his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. He looked a bit uncertain, and that wasn’t really what I wanted. Ever.
“Your sign says cappuccinos though. We only have a basic coffee machine,” I reminded him. Hudson held out a hand, and I quickly took it. When he tugged on me, I went with him and saw the addition to the coffee counter that hadn’t been there when I’d left Tuesday afternoon.
“Oh wow. I’ve used one of those before,” I said absently.
“Great. You’d said you used to work for a coffeehouse while you were in school. So I really hoped you knew how to use that thing.”