Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) (20 page)

“If you’re sure he wouldn’t like to do it…”

“Thank you for suggesting it, but I don’t think
that would work out.”

As Myrna reached the outer door, Zach pushed it
open from the other side. “Hello, Myrna. How’s it going?”

“A beautiful day, Zach. I can’t complain.”

“It’s hot as blue blazes, Myrna, but whatever you
say.”

“I’m just happy the good Lord has blessed me with
another day to enjoy the sunshine.” She moved past Zach and then turned to
address Harper. “I’ll email you a list of names and ideas in a few days.”

“Thank you. I’ll look forward to it.”

“Do you have a minute, Harper?” Zach held up a
thick folder of papers. “There are some urgent issues the council needs to have
addressed regarding the renovations to the breakroom.” He waved to Liam up on a
ladder and offered pistol-shots with his finger and thumb to two other guys
painting in the stairwell.

She checked her watch and pretended reluctance. “I
think I do.” She headed to her office in the second-floor alcove. “Come
upstairs where we can spread out these urgent issues on my desk.” She tried not
to smirk as she said it.

Stepping behind her and ogling her ass as she
went, Zach murmured, “My most urgent need is spreading you out on your desk.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun,” Liam said.

“What?” Zach’s head snapped around to view his
friend on the ladder. “What are you talking about?”

Liam shrugged. “I heard what you said.”

Harper stopped mid-step and covered her face with
her hands. “Oops.”

“How?” Zach asked.

“There are some weird-ass acoustics up here, man.
I’ve noticed it several times when people are on the stairs. But this is the
first time I’ve overheard anything interesting.” Liam swiped his roller through
a paint pan. “You know nothing stays a secret in this town for long.”

“Keep this one to yourself, buddy.” Zach gave Liam
a hard stare.

“No one will hear it from me.”

Harper scooted up the stairs and left Zach to deal
with his friend. When he followed her inside her office, she shut the door and
leaned her back against it, sure he’d lost interest in the purpose of his visit
now that their secret affair was out of the bag.

She chewed her thumbnail, waiting for his
reaction. “Sorry about that.”

“Not a big deal.” After tossing the folder on her
desk, Zach pressed into her, caging her between his arms and legs. “Liam won’t
care or tell.”

Leaning forward to kiss her, his mouth covered her
lips. His hunger and desire fired hers until she was climbing his body to get
closer to him. Looping her arms around his neck, her legs crossed behind his
back, her skirt slid up to her thighs, and his hand was in her pants before
Zach’s phone beeped.

He groaned and pulled the annoying interruption
out of his pocket. When he read the display, he looked incredulous but thumbed
to answer. “What, Liam?”

With her head against his shoulder, Harper heard
the other man’s low response. “The Mayor and Bert are here.”

“What?”

“Just came in the front door. Thought you might
want to know.”

Harper’s feet hit the floor. Zach released her and
sank into one of her visitor’s chairs. She zipped around her desk, plucked a sleeping
cat off her desk chair, and dropped into the seat with Calliope in her lap.

Of all the weird things currently happening, it
was the presence of the cat that Zach found amusing. “You bring Calliope to
work with you?”

Taking a deep breath and pressing a hand to her
chest, she switched gears from sex kitten to cat-owning librarian. “She doesn’t
like being at home all day by herself.”

“That’s why I got you a cat instead of a dog. Cats
are not generally social by nature, and kittens sleep a good portion of the
time anyway.”

She hugged the cat to her and stroked her fur.
“She’s always happy to see me when I get home. And she adds a nice homey touch
to the office.

“Do you bring her every day?”

“No. Sometimes I bring her back with me after
lunch.”

“And she doesn’t get tromped on by the workers?”

“I keep her in here when there’s anyone else
around.”

“It’s probably all right for her to be here.”

“Of course, it is.” The sweet kitten licked her
hand. “Why wouldn’t it be all right?”

“Was it all right for you to take a pet to work
with you in Chicago?”

“I didn’t have a pet.”

“Did
anyone
bring a pet to the library with them in Chicago?”

“No, but there were policies against it. Are there
policies against it here?”

“We’ll have to check.”

A knock on the door interrupted them. “Come in,”
Harper called out, and Zach reached behind him to turn the knob.

“Hey, Mick. Bert.” Zach nodded and shook hands
with them.

“Mayor, Bert. So nice to see you today.” Harper
stood up to greet them more formally. “Please have a seat.”

Since there were only two visitor’s chairs in
Harper’s small space, Zach stood and propped himself against a file cabinet to
let the senior councilmen members be seated.

“We wanted to go over bids for the new computers
but weren’t expecting to see you here, Zach,” the Mayor said. “That’s handy.”

Both men turned suspicious gazes on Harper and
then Zach.

Zach leaned back,
perfectly at ease. “I had a call from Fredricks. The specs for the proposed breakroom
had to be changed to allow for new ventilation where the closet was originally
planned. If Harper wants a closet in there, it doesn’t allow for as much space
for the appliances and counters she picked out. I brought the plans to show her
an idea about opening the room up by expanding into the area behind the south
wall. I want your input, too, before I call Fredricks back.”

Mick scratched his head and considered the idea.
“The back stairs are behind the south wall. You can’t move those.”

Zach reached for his folder and pulled out the
floor plan of the area in question. “Right, but some of the space under the
stairs can be used for the closet, freeing up more square footage for the
breakroom.”

“How much square footage do they need to hang
their coats and store their lunches?” Bert asked as all three men bent their
heads over the plans. “It looks plenty big enough to me.”

Harper and Zach had discussed all of this the
night before in her bed after a vigorous bout of lovemaking that made the topic
much more interesting than the current surroundings. But it was just like Zach
to come prepared with an excuse for his presence.

That had been a close call. Thank heavens Liam had
given them a heads up or they would have been going at it like ferrets when the
mayor and councilman knocked on her door. That would have been a difficult
activity to disguise.

As it was, they barely had time to slow their
heart rates before having to make rational conversation with Mick and Bert.
Zach was better at the charade than she was. And he’d been a champion at
calming her down with their cat-chat before the other two men entered.

By the time they’d discussed the breakroom remodel
and the computer issues that had brought Mick and Bert to the library, Zach
received a call from the hospital. The other two town officials got up to walk
out with him. “We’ll get out of your hair, too.”

“You’re not having any more trouble with vandals,
are you?” the Mayor asked.

The Mayor looked around to see if anyone was
listening but dropped his voice nevertheless. “We’ve got an independent
accountant going over the books. I’m not saying you were right about some of
the shady stuff Whitherford and Nelson had going on with town money, but it’s
not looking good for them.”

“I’m sorry I had to be the one to point it out.”

“Not your fault. We’re too trusting sometimes when
it comes to the people we know.”

And not trusting enough of people you don’t know,
Harper wanted to say but managed to keep her mouth shut. She was amazed they’d
admitted that much to her. One step at a time.

“Call us if you have any other concerns,” Bert
told her.

“Or me,” Zach inserted. “I’ll get back to you
about the new breakroom plans, but call me if you need something before then.”

Bert and Mick shuffled their feet and waited him
out. They seemed determined not to leave until Zach did.

“Yes, thank you. All of you. You’ve been great
throughout this whole process. On Monday, I’m going to start interviewing for
some of the positions.”

“Do you want any of the council to sit in? We do
have veto or approval power over staffing.”

“Yes, but you may have prior opinions about the
people you know, and I want to meet them initially without any preconceived
notions. This round is just to weed people out. Before I make any appointments
or offer any positions, I’ll run my choices by the council.”

“Sounds good.” Mick gave Zach’s shoulder a gentle
shove. “Come on, boy. We don’t want to take up any more of Harper’s time.”

“How’s the truck doing? Have you brought it in for
maintenance lately? The left rear tire looked low the last time I saw it.”
Bert’s voice floated back to Harper as she stood on the steps and watched them
leave.

Zach pounced on Harper as soon as he stepped
through the door that night. A SWAT team couldn’t have stopped him. Or the
appearance of the entire town council. His tongue was down her throat and his
hands under her shirt before she said hello.

“God, I’ve been needing you all day. That aborted
encounter at the library nearly killed me. I wanted to throttle Mick and Bert
when they came to your office. When you leaned over your desk to look at the
plans, I could see down your top to those amazing tits. I wanted to take a bite
out of the tender curve of your neck.” He feathered a finger over the spot.
“Right here.” Other than a shiver of desire, he noticed she wasn’t
participating in the fun.

His hand slipped down between her legs and cupped
her. “I hope you’re ready for me, Harper. I can’t wait.”

“Lordy, if she’s not ready, I am.” A throaty voice
came to him from the door to the living room.

Whoever it was might just as well have poured a
bucket of ice water over Zach’s head. Or Gatorade. Or kerosene to light him on fire.
Something—anything to put him out of his misery. He sighed and lifted his head.

One of the most beautiful men he’d ever seen
stepped into Harper’s kitchen. Not that he normally thought of men as
beautiful, but this one was. Except that he used way too much hair product and
maybe went to a tanning salon. His teeth looked artificially white against the
tanned skin of his face. But overall, he sported movie-star, over-the-top,
metrosexual good looks generally reserved for top models. Hopefully gay because
what man could compete against this guy for women?

Zach looked down at Harper, whose eyes beamed up
at him with humor, desire, and resignation.

“Sorry about that.” She waved her arm in the other
guy’s direction. “Meet Nathan. My best friend from Chicago.”

“The librarian? Really?” Teenage girls probably
flocked in to get the latest best sellers and a good look at this paragon. “Did
you tell me he was coming?”

“He was a surprise.”

“He certainly was.”

“And you must be Zach.” The tanned and toned
vision moved to the refrigerator to fill a glass with ice. “If you have some
unfinished business, I could go outside and wait on the porch with the kitten.
But it’s stifling hot. I guess I could go take a really long shower. With loud
music, if that would help.”

Zach almost took him up on the offer, but this was
Harper’s friend and she’d been missing her friends, even though she pretended
she didn’t. They must have lots to talk about. “That won’t be necessary. I just
stopped in to check on Harper, but I’ll catch up with her later.”

“What were you checking with your tongue down her
throat? Her temperature?”

Harper moved out of Zach’s embrace. But when she
turned around, he put his hands on her shoulders to keep her in front of him.
The condition of his pants could still cause him embarrassment if she moved
away. “Nathan! I never gave you a hard time about your guys.”

“You should have. You know I have absolutely no
sense when it comes to men. But even I can see this one looks like trouble.”

“Leave Zach alone. I can handle him on my own.”

“So you
do
want me to wait outside?”

“No! The eggplant parmesan is just about ready.
Let’s sit down and eat. Zach will stay, too.”

“No, he won’t.” Zach edged toward the door. “I
don’t want to horn in on your reunion. I have to go back to the hospital in a
little while anyway. How long are you going to be here, Nathan?”

“Through the weekend, if Harper doesn’t mind.”

Of course, Harper didn’t mind, but Zach nearly
turned over the table in frustration. He bent over to give her a quick kiss.
“Enjoy the visit with your friend. Text me if you need me.”

He left as quickly as he came in. Twice today he’d
been revved up and shot down. He was so horny he couldn’t see straight, but it
wasn’t Harper’s fault they hadn’t been able to finish what they started.
Groaning in frustration, he returned home prepared to take the longest, coldest
shower of his life.