Bad Taste in Men (Clover Park, Book 3) Contemporary Romance (The Clover Park Series) (26 page)

Rachel was fighting with him over the running of the café just to keep him at a distance, he was sure. She insisted on not spending any money and doing everything herself. It was ridiculous. And yet she let him in every night. Her brain and her body were saying two different things where he was concerned, and while he didn’t want to let go of her body, he wanted her brain on board too. She was making him crazy. This wasn’t how he ran a business.

The fact that he’d been running a successful ice-cream shop for six years seemed to mean nothing to her. He knew food. He knew how to keep customers coming back. He knew how to keep things running smoothly. He let out a frustrated breath as he drove home. He parked and walked over to the café as he did every night. He could see Rachel in there closing up shop. Tanya was already gone. Rachel was working too hard—opening the café early, helping with the morning rush, running both the café and the bookstore, staying late to close. He had a good team behind him at Shane’s Scoops, guys that did the morning baking and ice-cream base making, people to run the registers, serve customers, and close up shop, and a cleaning crew. He jumped in now and then at his shop when there was a rush or when he felt like it, but he was more a manager than someone forced to work shifts.

He knocked on the front door of the café so he wouldn’t startle Rachel. She unlocked it and let him in.

“Hey, how’d it go today?” He took a quick look around, making sure everything looked in order, clean and inviting.

“Busy,” she said, turning away and wiping down some tables.

He went behind the counter to see what needed doing, but she’d already cleaned up and restocked. She was getting the hang of the food business. Now they just needed to hire some staff so she didn’t have to do everything. He didn’t want to have that same old fight again. He had to work around her stubborn resistance.

“I got a lead on some fair-trade coffee that’s really good,” he said. “Almost a hint of pepper to it. It’s something really different that would attract real coffee lovers. We could even sell the beans. I was thinking we could sell stuff for the home too. Like personal coffee grinders, high-end espresso machines. What do you think?”

She kept scrubbing.

“Rach?”

She stopped scrubbing and slowly turned to face him. “I have to tell you something.”

Her tone sent alarm bells off in his head. This sounded bad. Was it the café? Another man? Was she in love with Barry?
Get a hold of yourself, man. Let the woman speak.

He crossed to her and sat down at the table. She sat across from him, took off her glasses, and cleaned them.

“Stop stalling,” he said.

“Only if you promise not to get mad.”

He crossed his arms. “How can I promise when I don’t know what it is?”

“Promise.”

“No.”

She shoved her glasses back on. “Fine.”

She stood and turned away, actually turned away from him and went back to scrubbing tables. Her arms were rigid as she took whatever was bugging her out on the table.

He knew how to soften her up. He slipped behind her, half bending with her, pressing his lips to the side of her neck where he liked to give her love bites when he was deep inside her. The position at once turning him on and loosening her up. She dropped her hold on the rag.

“Shane,” she whispered, straightening and turning in his arms.

He couldn’t resist kissing her. He cradled her face, momentarily forgetting his original purpose at the touch of her soft lips, her taste like the most delicious sweet honey, his personal nectar. He slowly pulled back, already thinking about taking this upstairs.

Then she said all in a rush, “The health inspector stopped by this morning, and we failed, but we get a second chance in two weeks.”

He jolted and stepped back, feeling a little dizzy. This was almost worse than Barry. His reputation was on the line with the café. He’d gone through all his usual suppliers, spread the word that it was his product at the café, and now a failed health inspection. The absolute kiss of death.

“Why?” he asked. “What was the score?”

She grimaced. “F.”

“F?” he roared. “How did we get an F?”

“Don’t yell!” she hollered.

“I’m upset. People don’t give you a second chance if they think it’s not hygienic to eat at your place. What did they say?”

“There wasn’t any soap in the bathroom dispenser. I forgot to refill it last night, and the morning rush was so busy I had no idea we’d run out.”

He hadn’t checked it last night either since Rachel insisted on handling the bathroom herself just to show him they didn’t need to pay a cleaning service. That damn bathroom. It was worse because it was the same bathroom the employees used, which made it look like no one had washed their hands before preparing the food. Even if it wasn’t true. Rachel and Tanya had probably been too busy to even think about taking a bathroom break.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “This wouldn’t have happened if you had let me hire the cleaning service.”

Her eyes flashed. “I knew you would say that! Look, I’m handling it. We’ll be ready next time. It’ll never happen again. I’ll double-check everything every morning before we open.”

“Rach, this is not how I run a business.”

“Good, because this is how
I
run a business, and it’s fine.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Nobody will know,” she said. “They’re giving us a second chance.”

He shook his head. “I’ve tried to let things go. Let you have your way, but this I can’t stand for. This doesn’t just affect you. My rep is on the line. Everyone knows I supply all the food and drink here. I’ve got loyal customers from my shop and local restaurants I supply. I can’t have the threat of health code violations tied to my name.”

“They won’t be. Next time we’ll pass!”

“You’re the stubborn one who insists on making all the decisions when there’s two of us affected by it. I’m not going to stand here and let you ruin everything I’ve worked so hard for.”

She crossed her arms. “Then leave!”

Wouldn’t she just love that? Pushing him out and away like she did every other man in her life. He wasn’t going anywhere.

He crossed his arms too. “Make me. I’m a partner here. More than an equal partner.”

He knew he was pushing it with that last remark, but she was way out of her league with this café, and it was high time he took control.

She sputtered, her hands in fists, and he waited for some sharp retort.

Instead she shocked the hell out of him when she let out a primal scream and launched herself at him. They went crashing to the ground.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rachel’s fists were flying as she pummeled Shane’s chest, feeling like a crazed banshee. “You are not the boss! You will never be the boss! I hate bosses!”

Then he had her wrists manacled in each hand, restraining her.

“Rachel! Get a hold of yourself. Are you crazy?”

She struggled against him, breathing hard. “This is all your fault!”

He looked up at her from the ground where she’d flattened him. “How is this my fault? I’m flat on my back with a crazed woman trying to kick my ass.” He loosened his grip, and she instinctively reared back for one more good punch.

He grabbed her arm just before contact. “Stop beating me up!”

She stood and wiped at some dirt on her shorts. “I don’t care if you put up the money. I’m going to pay you back as soon as I can.” She glared down at him. “You knew that going into it.”

He stood and glared back. “I didn’t know you were going to fail health inspections or be so stubborn you couldn’t handle basic business decisions.”

“Basic business decisions! I know how to run a business!”

“So do I!”

Rachel was having trouble calming down. She eyed his hair, itching to give it a good pull. But violence wouldn’t solve anything. She shoved her hands in her pockets.

“Can we please talk about this rationally?” Shane asked in a typical superior male voice.

Her fist came out of nowhere. Shane ducked just in time. He pointed at her. “You stay there. I’m going over here so we can talk without anyone getting assaulted.” He walked to the other side of the table.

“You are not the boss,” Rachel ground out.

“Neither are you,” he shot back.

“I am the boss of this shop. I say who gets hired, how it's run…” Her voice rose in volume as she jabbed a hand in the air. “I say we get freaking reward cards with little mugs stamped on them!”

He shook his head. “I hate those fucking reward cards.”

She knew he did. Tough, it was her idea, and it worked. “Well, the customers love them.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I don’t want to fight. I just want to be sure this kind of thing never happens again. You don’t understand how important it is. One bad mark and people avoid your place like the plague. The reputation for my name and my food is everything. Nothing else matters as much as that.”

It was her reputation too. Did he really think that she would do anything to harm it? She had just as much riding on the success of this business as he did. Maybe more since her bookstore had nearly gone under only weeks ago. She couldn’t do this anymore. She hated having to answer to Shane, constantly having to defend her decisions.

“I can’t work this way,” she said. “If you can’t go back to just being my supplier, then I can’t do this.”

“I was never just a supplier,” he said evenly. “I’m an equal partner.”

“I’ll find a new partner. Maybe the bank will reconsider now that the shop is doing better.”

He regarded her with irritation. “Fine, go to the bank. Good luck with that. Maybe you should find another supplier too.”

She raised her chin. “Maybe I will.”

They stared at each other, each refusing to budge one inch.

Shane shook his head. “Suit yourself.”

He stalked out. Rachel sagged to a chair, suddenly exhausted. It was nothing less than she’d expected all along. The end of their partnership. The end of their friendship.

Being right had never felt so wretchedly wrong.

~ ~ ~

Shane was in a foul mood when he woke on Sunday morning after two long weeks of not being with Rachel. Without any prompting from his uber-fit brother, he went for a run, hoping that physical exhaustion would help him stop thinking about her. He’d stayed away from the café. He couldn’t bear to go in these last weeks, knowing it had failed the health inspection.

He couldn’t stand watching Rachel run the café like she ran the bookstore, oblivious to the fact that selling books was very different from selling food and drink. Not to mention the fact that she’d tried to beat him up. Clearly she didn’t trust him. She’d rather knock him out cold than let him help run the café, even with the great success he’d had with his own shop.

He was starting to wonder why he’d ever thought he could get past her defenses and into her heart. He beat feet up the hill to the high school, the journey not difficult anymore after all the morning runs he’d done with Ryan. Now that it was October, the cooler temperatures made it much more comfortable. He bit back a groan at the sight of Ryan and Liz standing at the top of the hill in their running shorts, Hagar at their side. He knew they’d bug him about Rachel, and he didn’t want to go there.

“Shane, look at you!” Ry hollered. “Running on your own. And not even winded.”

Shane stopped, hands on his hips. “Yeah, you got me in the bad habit.”

Liz stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Morning, Shane. You want to join us for breakfast? It’s no problem making extra toast.” She grinned and looked sideways at Ry. “We’ve got a four-slice toaster.”

Ry grinned and shook his head.
Inside joke
, Shane figured. But he wasn’t doing himself any favors brooding in his apartment, so he accepted the invitation.

They jogged back to Ry’s place. Hagar tried hard to pull on the leash with Liz, so Ry took him, keeping up a brisk pace so the dog could naturally run at his side. Liz and Shane trailed behind.

“The café’s doing well,” Liz said. “They just had their new health inspection. There’s a big ol’ A on it in the front window.”

She watched him for his reaction. Rachel must have told her about their fight. He wasn’t going to tell Liz anything. If Rachel wanted to talk to him and actually admit that they had something special together, then she’d have to do it herself. He missed her a lot, but he was giving her space to decide what she really wanted. If she wanted him fully on board as a partner and as a lover, then she had to let him in. Their lives were all wrapped up together. He was unwinding them because, if it came down to fists, she wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Yup, I heard that too,” Shane said. “It’s great.”

He’d called a guy he knew over at the inspection department to be sure they’d passed last Friday. Now he was back to sending a delivery guy over with the supplies. He was the supplier, period. He figured Rachel hadn’t gotten a bank loan either because she hadn’t tried to pay him back.

He blew out a frustrated breath. Rachel just didn’t get it. He didn’t give a shit about the money, as he’d told her more than once. It was his reputation. His name was everything when it came to good food.

They were getting close to Book It. Shane purposely didn’t look in that direction. Rachel wouldn’t be there at this time of morning, but lately even looking at her shop was difficult.

“Rachel says you haven’t been at the café for more than two weeks,” Liz said.

Shane stopped short. “She doesn’t need me there.”

Liz stopped next to him. Ry kept going with Hagar. She put a gentle hand on his arm. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“If she wants to see me, then she can talk to me herself,” he gritted out.

Ry turned. “Come on, slowpokes!”

Shane began a slow jog with Liz at his side.

“Be patient with her,” Liz said. “Rachel’s never had a real relationship. Only a long history of disasters. She probably doesn’t know what to do with a great guy like you.”

Shane grunted in response. He had been patient. Hadn’t he patiently waited for
two years
, ever since Rachel moved back to town, and bided his time while she went through a string of losers? Hadn’t he patiently waited for seven months of hanging out as friends until he was sure she was ready for more? He liked spending time with her, true, but he’d always wanted more than friendship. He loved her, but he was out of patience. Their relationship couldn’t be so one-sided.