The Cinnamon Bun Book Store: TikTok Made Me Buy It (Dream Harbor, Book 2)
The Cinnamon Bun Book Store: Chapter 18

It wasn’t hard to spot Hazel at the town meeting since she always sat in the same seat next to Logan and Jeanie and because Noah’s gaze seemed to replace her no matter where she was in any room. He headed over to them, glad he wasn’t late. He’d rushed right here after his tour ended. It had been a mellow afternoon with a father and his adult sons out for an afternoon of fishing for their dad’s birthday and Noah had enjoyed spending the time with the family. Even when it brought back memories of fishing with his own father. Memories he usually tried to avoid. Memories from before he’d let his dad down.

He actually used to like spending time with his dad when he was a kid. Being out on one of their boats was always his favorite thing to do. His dad wasn’t a man who talked a lot but he showed Noah everything he needed to know about boating and fishing and weather and the tides. Watching him work, Noah had learned more than he ever had in a classroom.

Too bad his father couldn’t teach him world history while he was at it.

He wasn’t sure if it was the last few weeks with Hazel and wanting to show her he could be more than a fun time, or if he was thinking too much about his family lately, but he felt ready to finally share his plans with the town board.

Or at least his initial ideas.

He knew there would be plenty of paperwork to file and townsfolk to convince and licenses to apply for but he wanted to get the ball rolling. It was a good idea. A solid idea. And maybe it could be the start of something bigger for him here in Dream Harbor.

And if that just happened to make Hazel see him in a different light, then that would be a happy side effect. Because if the last week of fooling around with Hazel had taught him anything, it was that this woman wasn’t getting out of his system anytime soon.

She turned as he approached and a secret smile crossed her face, reminding him of exactly how much she was embedded in his system.

He really freaking liked this girl.

‘Hey, Noah.’

‘Hey.’ His gaze was stuck on hers until Logan’s voice cut in.

‘You gonna sit or just stand there and stare at Hazel all day?’

Noah grinned at his friend. ‘Hello to you, too, Logan. Hey, Jeanie.’ The café owner gave him a wave as he slid into the seat next to Hazel. Annie was in the row ahead of them, whispering furiously with Isabel.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, tipping his head toward Hazel.

‘Newbie.’

Noah glanced around the old meeting hall, only replaceing the familiar faces. He lifted a hand in greeting to Tim and Tammy before turning back to Hazel.

‘She’s not here yet, but supposedly she’s on her way,’ Hazel went on.

Noah chuckled. ‘Okay, so what’s new with you, then?’

‘Since you saw me this morning?’ she asked and heat zipped through Noah’s veins at the memory of what they’d done in her office before the bookstore opened that morning. Hazel on her desk, her legs spread wide…

‘I found another clue.’

‘Really?’ He’d almost forgotten about them, about how this had all started. About how lucky he’d gotten with those damn clues.

‘Yep.’ Hazel was looking at him now, studying him, like she was trying to figure out a puzzle.

‘So what did it say?’

Hazel pushed her glasses further up her nose. ‘Something about drinking hard cider.’

‘I know just the thing!’

‘You do?’ Hazel’s eyes narrowed like she was suspicious.

‘Yeah, there’s this great new brewery I’ve been wanting to try. They do beers and ciders. We could go this weekend?’

Hazel muttered something that sounded an awful lot like ‘how convenient’ but Noah didn’t have time to question it before Mayor Kelly was doing his damnedest to start the meeting.

‘Attention, Dreamers!’ he called over the din. ‘We have a lot to get through tonight so if everyone could settle down …’

Mindy’s whistle pierced through the noise and the mayor flinched. The crowd quieted and he cleared his throat. ‘Right. Thank you, Mindy.’

Pete adjusted his glasses ‘So, first order of business. We have a new resident in town. Ms Kira North recently purchased the Christmas-tree farm up on Old Spruce Road.’

The crowd started to glance around, whispers about this mystery resident were quickly circulating through the room. Noah couldn’t help his smile. This town was too much sometimes.

‘And where is she, Pete?’ Tim asked the mayor from the front row.

‘Well, I invited her tonight to discuss her plans for the land.’

‘Is she going to reopen the tree farm?’ Nancy asked.

‘The place is in shambles,’ Tim quickly pointed out.

The crowd took this as their cue to shout out whatever they saw fit.

‘I used to love going there as a kid.’

‘Used to have the best trees around.’

‘And Santa! Remember in the old sleigh?’

‘We have to convince her to reopen! Right Pete?’

Noah almost felt bad for the flustered mayor.

‘Now hold on!’ he shouted over the voices of his constituents. ‘I’m sure we’ll figure it out!’

The loud creaking of the back doors interrupted the room’s excitement. Heads turned just in time to see a woman enter the room. A woman who clearly had not expected to be facing half the town’s population.

She froze in the doorway. She had straight black hair with blunt bangs and holes in her baggy jeans. That’s about all Noah managed to notice before the crowd reared up again.

‘Dear God,’ Logan groaned beside him, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Mindy whistled again.

The woman held up a hand in greeting. ‘Uh, hello.’

‘Kira, welcome!’ Mayor Kelly beckoned her toward the podium and the poor woman had no choice but to make her way through the crowded room. ‘Thank you so much for coming.’

Kira glanced around, a shell-shocked look still on her face. ‘I … uh … didn’t realize it was this type of meeting.’

Pete’s eyes widened in dismay. ‘Oh, I probably should have specified.’

Hazel sighed. ‘Oh, Dad,’ she whispered, shaking her head. Noah gave her hand a squeeze and she gave him a grim smile. ‘He has good intentions.’

Noah chuckled. ‘I know.’

‘The town has a rich history of discussing town business in a public forum.’ He smiled but Kira just scowled back.

‘And my property is town business?’

‘Well … uh…’ Pete cleared his throat. ‘We were so delighted when the land was purchased. That tree farm holds a lot of special memories for the town and…’

‘I’m going to stop you right there.’ Kira held up a hand and Noah was impressed with her bravery. But he also worried about how the town would react. His nerves swirled in his gut thinking about his own little presentation and how it would hold up under town scrutiny. The old shacks were technically owned by the town so if he couldn’t get the council on board, the whole idea was a non-starter.

‘I’m not reopening the tree farm,’ Kira said, voice firm. ‘That’s not why I bought the land.’

A hushed disappointment rolled through the room but no one spoke.

‘I’d love to discuss it further, uh, privately if you prefer,’ Pete pushed on.

‘There’s nothing to discuss.’

‘It’s just that you might change your mind. You see, I had a dream that…’

Kira shook her head, ignoring Pete’s bizarre dream-claims, a feat Noah found impressive. ‘I won’t be changing my mind. And I need to go. If that’s all?’

The mayor looked crestfallen, Noah really felt bad for the guy. ‘Of course. Sorry for the confusion.’

Kira gave a curt nod and made her way back down the center aisle, not bothering to glance at anyone else on her way out.

‘Yikes,’ Hazel whispered. She leaned over Noah’s lap toward Logan. ‘Maybe you should talk to her, grumpy farmer to grumpy farmer.’

Noah stifled his laughter in his arm, pretending he was catching a cough the way his nieces taught him.

‘Ha. Ha,’ Logan said.

‘Good one,’ Noah leaned down and whispered in her ear. He caught a whiff of whatever it was she put in her curls; it smelled the same as her pillow. He resisted the urge to breathe in. Not here. Not now, when he was already half hard just thinking about being back in her bed.

He shouldn’t be thinking about that right now. He should be thinking about what he was going to say about his short-term rental idea. Things had gone terribly with this Kira but the town was eager for that business. Maybe they’d be open to his, too.

But the mayor had moved on to the next item, something about a change in trash pick-up days, and the PTA was up next on the agenda to discuss bus schedules for the fall; and Hazel was leaning against him in a very distracting way.

When had she started tracing the designs on his arm with a single distracting finger? And why when he glanced down at her was she looking at him with that look in her eyes?

No. He had to focus. This meeting was the perfect opportunity to present his plan. He’d even looked up pricing comps and spoken with a realtor in the area that specialized in vacation properties. He’d done his homework!

‘Hey,’ Hazel murmured, sending goosebumps skittering along his skin. ‘Want to get out of here?’

Hell, yes, he wanted to get out of here. But for once in his damn life he was trying to be responsible. Hazel would want a responsible guy, wouldn’t she? One with more to his name than an old boat?

‘What would the townsfolk say?’ he whispered, trying to joke his way out of the situation.

‘Who cares?’

She cared. He knew that. But for some reason, she didn’t seem to mind the rumors that were circulating about them. That had to mean something good in his favor, right?

‘Don’t you want to stay for the rest? We might miss something important.’

Her head rose sharply at that, a furrow between her brows. ‘You don’t want to … I mean, I thought we could…’

God, she looked so sweet when she blushed like that.

His foot tapped nervously against the old floorboards. He could just tell her, explain that he needed to stay for the open forum part at the end so he could bring up his new idea, but he found his throat closing up at the thought. Who was he kidding? If he couldn’t even explain his idea to one person, how was he going to present it to a room full of people? Maybe he didn’t even want to. Isn’t this what he left behind in the first place? He had a good life right now, a fun one, filled with beautiful women and few responsibilities.

Why mess with that?

‘I just thought we could do something more interesting than listen to town business,’ she went on, quietly, ‘I know somewhere no one will replace us.’

Her voice was so tempting, her breath warm on his face. This was what Hazel wanted him for. This was all she’d asked for. Not a relationship. She’d been upfront about the whole thing: two months of reckless fun. He was the one blowing things out of proportion. He was the one who convinced himself she could want him for more.

But Noah knew where his strengths lay. And they sure as hell weren’t with business and certainly not with serious relationships. He could stay here and get laughed out of town by the terrifying residents of Dream Harbor, or he could go make out with this sexy woman. It was an easy decision, really.

‘Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get out of here.’

Hazel’s smile grew.

An easy decision.

You can’t always take the easy way out, Noah. It was the last thing his father had said to him before he left home for good. And here he was, still doing it the easy way.

Noah shook the old memory from his head and grabbed Hazel’s hand. They made their way out of the meeting hall, turning plenty of heads on their way. But the only opinion he cared about in this room was Hazel’s.

Even if she did only think of him as a good time.