Loose Ends (Magnolia Series Book 1) (4 page)

“You’re probably right. But I could take you out maybe get to know you a little better,” he offered.

“Luke, I’m sure you’re a super nice southern guy and all, but I’m not looking for a relationship.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to marry you. I just want to take you out. Have a little fun.”

“I think I’ll leave you two alone.” Brandi grabbed her drink and fled the table.

“Lovely,” Ava huffed.

“Scared to be alone with me?” Luke asked in a teasing tone.

“I’m not scared of much.”

“I doubt that.”

Yeah, she was attracted to Luke with his southern drawl, his slightly forward behavior and his earthy/manly scent. But starting anything with a man wasn’t a good idea. She needed to keep her focus on her business and staying safe for the time being. It wasn’t even a guarantee that she’d be around a week from now. Ava decided it was time to put him in his place.

“Here’s the deal. I don’t date guys who refuse to tell me about themselves. You seem to fall in that category. So if you think pouring whiskey down my throat will get me to have a romp in the sheets with you…you’re
wrong
.”

“Fair enough.” He stood and began to walk away.

Damn it. Hurting his feelings wasn’t on the agenda. She only wanted him to back off a little. Ava threw some bills on the table to pay for her drinks and tossed her purse strap over her shoulder. She followed Luke out the door and tried to catch up as he stomped through the gravel parking lot ahead of her.

“Luke, wait.” She jogged up next to him but he kept walking. “I’m sorry.” Ava stopped, out of breath.

“Hey, no big deal. You made it clear you have zero interest in me. So it was nice meeting you, Ava.” He walked over to a jacked-up Chevy pickup truck.

“I never said I
wasn’t
interested in you!” she yelled while throwing her hands in the air.

He turned around and looked at her with a serious expression. “Do you think I’m sexy?” He did a little hip wiggle.

“Are you joking right now?” 

“Do you want to kiss me?” 

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Have a good night, Ava.” He did that cutesy wink thing again and climbed inside the truck.

Oh, hell no. No one walked away from her like that. She’d show him. She ran forward and went to the passenger side of the truck. After flinging open the door she hopped in the cab with him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing in my truck?”

“This.” She scooted over to him and grabbed the back of his head. Her lips crushed to his as she waited for him to relax. When he did, their mouths melded together like they’d been kissing each other their entire lives.
Wow
. Ava felt the kiss all the way to her freaking DNA. Time seemed to halt as they became tangled in the kiss together. Unfortunately it ended abruptly when Luke pulled away with a look of shock on his face.

“Jesus, woman.” His breathing was uneven and he grabbed his chest.

“Goodnight, Luke.” Ava gave a little wave and climbed down from the truck. She didn’t look back when she began walking to the doors of the bar. That’d show him.

***

What in the hell just happened? Luke sat in the idling truck in the parking lot of Bo’s. His body was still zinging with the feeling of his lips pressed against Ava’s. Son-of-a-bitch. This wasn’t good. He’d only wanted to spark her interest enough that he could keep tabs on her for the next few weeks. He’d never had the intention of doing anything beyond a fake friendship with her. Sure he flirted in the bar. But that was a way to open a line of communication with her. Now the only talking he wanted to do was with his body, on hers, for hours upon end.

“Fuck!” He smashed his palm on top of the steering wheel. Not only did he have the complication of being extremely attracted to someone he was being paid to watch— and in the end murder— he now had a raging hard-on that probably wouldn’t go down with an ice bath. “Fuck me,” he cursed again.

Chapte
r
Thre
e

Monday morning came
and Ava dragged her sorry ass into the salon just a little before eight a.m. That was the bad thing about owning your own business and being the only one working there. You had to be there constantly to be able to make money. Not that she didn’t want to work, she did. It was all she really kept from her former life. It was the only thing that kept her grounded and made her feel just a fraction safer in her chaotic life. And of course there was the money. She needed to have some sort of income. Dipping into the stash of money she’d brought with her wasn’t a good idea. Eventually it would come back and kick her in the ass. No, using more of that money wasn’t going to happen. She’d already used a huge chunk of it to pay for her home. She wasn’t going to be stupid and blow every cent. They would want their money back eventually. At least this way she would still have some left to hand over when the time came.

“Good morning, sunshine!” Brandi breezed through the salon door as soon as Ava flipped the sign around to
OPEN
.

“Don’t you have a job to get to?” Ava groaned. It was sickening how cheerful Brandi was in the mornings. That type of behavior shouldn’t be allowed until one was filled with at least 15 cups of coffee.

“Not until noon.” She plopped down on the small sofa in the waiting area.

“You suck.”  

“Only on days that end in Y.” She smirked.

“Gross. I don’t need to know about your sucking skills.”

“I have great sucking
and
blowing skills, I’ll have you know.” Brandi giggled.

“Ignoring you,” Ava called as she went to the back of the shop to finish turning on the lights.

“I’ve been thinking about your painting situation for the new house,” Brandi called.

“And?”

“I have the name of a company that would do it. They could come in and have it done in no time. That way you wouldn’t have to kill yourself trying to get it all done and be here, too.”

“No, thanks. I’d honestly rather do it myself.”

“Fine, be that way.” She stuck out her tongue and put down the out-of-date Cosmo mag she’d been flipping through. “So, what was with the hottie Friday night?”

“Nothing.” Ava shrugged nonchalantly.

“Oh, come on. I saw the way he was looking at you. He wants you…baaaad.”

“He does not. Luke is just another pain in the ass redneck looking for a piece of ass.”

“And the problem with that
is
?”

“I don’t want to be someone’s booty call, Brandi.” Ava plopped down in the styling chair.

“Didn’t sound like you wanted a relationship, either.”

“Maybe I don’t
know
what I want.”

“I think you want Luke and you’re too afraid to admit it.” She waggled her eyebrows.

“It’s so damn complicated.”

“Complicated is what people say when they’re being a pussy about life. Grow a pair and figure out what you want. No one’s going to do it for you.”

“I’m not a pussy!” She grabbed a comb and launched it across the room, nearly pelting Brandi in the head with the toothed plastic.

“Uh, yes, you are. Look at you. You’re gorgeous. I would give my left tit to look like you.
And
you have a great personality. Jeez, Ava, you’re the complete package.”

Ava swiveled the chair around and glanced in the mirror. She didn’t really look at her reflection much. Even when she was standing behind the styling chair she avoided the mirror as much as possible. Her appearance had drastically changed when she left Chicago. Her normally light brown hair was changed to a golden blonde, her soft blue eyes were masked by contacts that turned them a rich amber and her face, well, she didn’t change anything about it but she had a pair of glasses she’d throw on if she felt like someone recognized her. But as far as feeling beautiful, she didn’t. She felt invisible, which was the one thing she was going for. Anonymity was key when running for your life.

“I think you should give Luke a chance,” Brandi added while Ava was still looking herself over in the mirror.

“I don’t know.” All she could think was how things might turn out if who she was running from found her here in Mississippi. Luke could get hurt. “I’ll think about it.” She stood and went to the back of the salon to grab a stack of clean towels for the day.

“You’d better think fast because he’s on his way in here, now.”

“What!” Ava shouted as the white pieces of fabric flew from her hands and landed in a heap on the floor. “Dammit!” she yelled.

“Is Ava here?” Luke’s voice rang through the shop and caused Ava’s skin to prickle.

“Yeah, she’s in the back getting naked for you.”

“Brandi!” Ava reprimanded. She scooped up the pile of towels and carried them to the front of the shop.

“Bummer, she’s still got her clothes on.” Luke smiled brightly.

“Don’t you have someplace to be?” She pinned Brandi with a stare hoping she’d get the hint that she needed to
go.

“Yup, sure do. Catch y’all on the flip side.” She jumped from her seat and darted through the door.

“Sorry about her. She’s an odd duck.” Tucking her hair behind her ears in a nervous gesture Ava began to work on folding the towels again. To her surprise, Luke joined in. “What are you doing?”

He stopped halfway through folding and raised his eyebrows. “I’d say brain surgery, but you’d know I was lying.”

“You don’t have to help me,” she said politely.

“I know I don’t have to. I want to.” He flashed a toothy smile that had her thinking back to the kiss they’d shared in his truck just a couple days ago. He must’ve had the same idea. His eyes dropped to her lips but quickly went lower to her chest.

“Uh, up here.” Snapping her fingers she got his gaze to return to her face. “What can I do for you today?"

“Right. I’m here because I wanted to ask you out. On a date,” he added.

“You came by on a Monday morning to ask me out?” She eyed him suspiciously.

“Yup.” He rocked back on his heels. “And I wanted to know if you do, uh…”

“Do what?” she prodded.

“Waxing,” he whispered.

“Waxing?”

“Yeah, you know where you put the hot wax on and then rip it off with a sheet of paper or whatever.” He wouldn’t make eye contact.

“Yeah, I do waxing.”

“I need something taken care of,” he said sheepishly.

Ava’s eyes became wide and she sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh. I don’t do
that
sort of waxing. Uh…just…uh…”

What? No! Oh, God! I don’t want
that
waxed!” He jumped back and grabbed the crotch of his jeans. “Holy hell, are you crazy?”

“Me crazy? You’re the one asking for hot wax poured on you,” she defended.

“I was hoping you could take care of this.” He stepped forward and pointed to the area between his eyes. There were a few stray hairs there, but hardly enough to qualify as a uni-brow.

“Oh. Yes, I can take care of that.”

“Do men really have their junk waxed?” He looked mortified.

“Some do.” She shrugged. “Come back to the shampoo bowl, I’ll take care of your
issue
.”

“Is this gonna hurt?” He sat in the shampoo chair and leaned his head back into the bowl.

“Hurts like hell.” She began to spread the wax on his skin. He flinched at the warmth suddenly touching the delicate area between his eyes.

“I think you’re gonna enjoy this
way
too much.” Luke closed his eyes, waiting for her to yank the cloth strip off of his face.

“It’s payback for the whiskey incident.”
Yank
. And off the strip went. And with it, the six or so errant hairs that used to reside between Luke’s eyebrows.

“Holy shit!” He shot straight out of the chair and began to rub in between his eyes. “Damn, that smarts.”

“Quit being a baby. Man up.” She shoved at his shoulder to force him to lie back down. Once he was relaxed again she began to rub lotion on the freshly waxed area.

“Ahhhh, you can do that all day.” He smiled.

“Fat chance, buddy. I have better things to do than rub lotion on your face.” She laughed.

“It puts the lotion on its skin,” Luke did his best
Silence of the Lambs
impression.

“Don’t quit your day job,” she joked. “What
is
your day job anyway?” Ava stood to throw the used waxing materials in a nearby trash bin.

“I’m an independent contractor,” he stood, still rubbing his face.

“Like building things?”

“I do more tearing down than building, but I’d like to get more into construction.”

“There’re some amazing homes here in the south. You’d probably make a killing restoring some of them,” she mentioned happily.

“Let me get done with my first building project and I’ll see how that goes.”

Ava dropped the subject; it was none of her business what Luke did with his days. She needed to worry about herself. She finished cleaning up her mess in the shampoo area and went to the front of the salon. She took a seat in her chair to have a short break before her first client of the day showed up in thirty minutes.

“So, what’re your thoughts on the
date
situation?” Luke asked while rubbing his waxed face.

“Can I get back to you on that?” She turned away, not wanting to answer him. Yes, she wanted to go on a date with him, but her inner voice was screaming at a high pitched wail ‘D-A-N-G-E-R!’

“No,” he shot back.

“You’re not much of a southern gentleman are you?”

“Do you want me to be?” he teased.

“I want you to be…
you
.”

“This
is
me. So go on a date with me.” Now he sounded like he might be begging a bit.

“On one condition.” She spun around in the chair.

“This doesn’t sound good…”

“Just listen would you?”

“Well?”

“I don’t want to go to any chain restaurants. And I don’t want to go to Bo’s.”

“That puts a bit of a limit on things.” He scratched his
head.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You look like quite the resourceful guy.” She looked him up and down wondering just how resourceful he
could
be.

Luke looked as if he were in deep thought. “Got it. I’ll pick you up here Friday after you close.” He rubbed his hands together.

“Where’re we going?”

“It’s a surprise.” He gave a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.

“At least tell me what kind of clothing I need to wear. Casual? Semi-formal?”

“Comfortable. I’ve got this covered.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll see you Friday.”

“Have a good week, Ava.” He went to the door and pushed it open. “Oh and by the way…I had to take care of myself when I got home Friday night. That kiss was sweeter than all the sweet tea in the south.” He winked and was gone.

Ava sat in her chair, her face blooming with color.

Did he really just say that?
Holy Moses
. The image of Luke Daughtry “taking care”
of himself was for some reason a welcome image in the drought that was her brain.