Tempting Prince Charming, page 3
“I wanted your opinion.” Thad nodded subtly at the brownstone around them.
Jared didn’t pick up on his hint. “On?”
“This place.” Thad pointed a finger upstairs. “It’s got a residence upstairs.”
“Yeah? Have you seen it yet?”
“No. I will this weekend, though.” He grinned. “I love the feel of this place.”
Jared seemed to notice the change in Thad as he spoke of the brownstone. “So you’re thinking of living here? What about the penthouse?”
“I’ll keep it open for fun, but it would be nice to have a place that’s out of the way.”
His friend smiled. “You want a real home.”
He hadn’t thought of it like that but that was indeed what this was going to be. A real home. He could leave his wild party days and endless women for the penthouse.
“Let me get this straight. You, Thad, the man who only gives a girl one date, is thinking of settling down?”
“No,” Thad laughed. “I just want to keep that part of my life separate. When I own this place, I want it to be my private sanctuary.”
“You mean No Girls Allowed.”
“Not quite so Calvin and Hobbes, but yeah.”
Jared shook his head. “You and your damn models. You know none of those women are real, right? Real women are sweet and sexy by being themselves, not acting like a man’s boyhood fantasy. You should try dating a real woman if you want a real home.”
Thad played with his empty coffee cup. “You stole the real woman I wanted. You also knocked her up and married her.”
Jared’s laughter died. “Don’t forget I got there first. I staked my claim on Felicity before you ever met her.”
Thad watched his best friend turn all caveman over his wife. Felicity had been the first woman to tempt Thad into changing his ways, but it had been clear from the moment they met that she was never going to be his, and he’d done the honorable thing and helped get her and Jared back together.
Thad wasn’t even sure if he would ever fall in love the way Jared had. He’d thought he’d been in love once, but he’d been wrong. Ever since then, he’d kept his emotional distance.
“You know what? You need a real date for a change. Not with the usual girls you date. You need someone who isn’t pretending to be someone else.” Jared looked around the coffee shop. “You need to date someone… like her.” He gave a subtle jerk of his head toward the Chi-Bean’s counter.
Thad followed his gaze to the woman currently smacking a possibly broken smoothie machine with a furious yet adorable snarl on her face. She had the most stunning black hair pulled into a ponytail that he remembered from the first night he was here. He’d introduced himself to her earlier when he’d realized she hadn’t recognized him from the GQ magazine interview. It had been refreshing for a woman not to know who he was. She’d still given him that adorable “deer-in-the-headlights” look like other women did though.
“You know that she’s not a challenge, right?” Thad said. Seducing a girl like that would be all too easy.
“Oh, but that’s not the challenge. The challenge is you can’t sleep with her until fifteen dates in.”
The gauntlet thrown, Thad stared at his best friend. “You think I can’t make it fifteen dates without sex?”
“I know you can’t.” Jared’s smug smile made Thad lean in to growl in response.
“Want to bet on it?”
“What’s the point? You’d only lose.” Jared shot back.
“Fine, if I win…” Thad grinned eagerly. “You have to name your next little tyke after me.”
“And if I win, you name your next new hotel ‘Jared’s Place.’”
Thad snorted. He could make it fifteen dates just hanging out with a woman.
“Deal.” He thrust his hand out and Jared shook it.
Thad glanced over at the young woman in question. She’d abandoned the smoothie machine and was now on the phone, still angry. She looked kind of cute when she was pissed. His eyes moved over her body, noting how the baby blue apron hugged her curves.
“Batter up,” Jared chuckled and sat back to watch Thad go to work.
Thad headed for the counter, catching snippets of the woman’s conversation.
“The warranty’s still good. Yes, that’s why I’m calling. I need a replacement. It’s been giving me trouble since the day I bought it. It’s a lemon, okay?” She paused, then closed her eyes and sighed. “Yes, that’s my address. Please expedite the shipping if you can. Thank you.” She hung up and turned to face him only to gasp and go red.
“Oh gosh! I’m so sorry. Can I get you something?”
“Veronica, right?” He was fairly certain that was what she told him half an hour ago.
“Yeah…” Veronica’s eyes were that lovely storm blue and held a hint of gray. She was very pretty, and he was going to enjoy proving Jared wrong. He had self-control. He could make it fifteen dates with this girl. She couldn’t be more than twenty-three or twenty-four. He’d be careful not to break her heart. She looked so damn innocent, not like some of the women he’d dated. Those girls he’d been with always tried to look older than they were, sophisticated and sexy…but Jared was right about them. It was all a performance, completely unreal. It hadn’t bothered him, though, until today.
God, he’d become jaded, hadn’t he? Maybe it would be nice to be with a real woman for a while, someone whose beauty was natural, who wore clothes not designed to seduce, and whose unguarded smiles were its own reward.
“Sir?” Veronica broke through his thoughts.
He smiled at her but didn't lay it on too thick. Go slow, he reminded himself. “This is going to sound crazy, but can I have your number?”
“For the Chi-Bean? Sure it’s—” she started to pick up one of the coffee house business cards on a little stand. Thad reached out and gently caught her wrist.
“No, your number.” He never let his eyes leave hers. He was beginning to become obsessed with that shade of blue. What would those eyes look like when she was gazing at him in full arousal, her body writhing beneath him as he covered her with kisses? Thad slammed the door shut on that mental image before he got too carried away.
“My number?” Veronica stared at him. Her gaze darted toward the table with Jared and then back to him.
“Yeah, I’d take you out for coffee, but you seem to have that covered here. How about drinks instead?” Thad gave a charming chuckle that made her flush an even deeper red.
Veronica continued to stare at him. Suddenly the other employee, the cute college kid who’d tried to flirt with him earlier materialized next to Veronica.
“Here’s her number.” She nodded toward Jared as she handed Thad a slip of paper with a number on it. “We both thought you were taken.”
“Thanks. I’m definitely not taken. That’s a friend of mine.” He glanced at Jared who was watching him intently, a smile twitching at the corners of his lips.
“I’m Zelda,” the girl said and nudged Veronica out of her state of shock.
“Look sir, I’m sorry. I really don’t think—”
“Don’t,” Thad smiled. “Think that is. This is just a drink, a chance to get to know each other when you’re not on the clock. It’ll be fun. How about tonight?”
“I…” Veronica’s expressions were so easy to read. She was trying to find a way out of this. That was interesting…
“We close at ten tonight, but she can meet you here at eight,” Zelda said.
At this, Veronica shot her a glare. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I need to be home at nine, remember?”
Zelda shrugged. “Talk to Katie. She can cover for you for one extra hour, right?” Zelda’s face had hardened to stone, but there was nothing mean about the expression. More like she was determined to win the argument.
“It’s one hour,” Zelda continued.
“I won’t keep you past that. Scout’s honor.” Thad winked at her.
“Okay,” she agreed slowly. “But I really have to be back by nine.”
“Excellent.” He typed her details into his phone and sent her a text with his name.
“I’ll be here at eight to pick you up, Veronica.” He turned and went back to his table, excited but also curious about the woman’s hesitation. Was his game off?
Back at his table, Jared was grinning even more smugly than before.
“Real women aren’t so easy, are they? Even starstruck, she still had to be pushed into it. You might make it fifteen dates after all. I think I made this too easy for you.”
Thad clenched his jaw. He definitely hadn’t expected so much resistance from the girl and while a challenge was fun, he didn’t want Jared to think he had a chance of winning.
“I can’t wait for you to tell Felicity her next kid is going to be named Thaddeus or Thadosia.”
“Thadosia?” His friend laughed, startling a few of the customers drinking their foaming lattes.
“Shut up before you scare your kid.” Thad grumbled as they got up and left the Chi-Bean.
“You are so off your game. I have to call Angelo. He has to hear this.” Jared pulled out a cell phone to call Angelo, Thad’s other best friend.
Today was going to be a long day. But tonight… Tonight he was taking Veronica, a cute coffee barista out for drinks. A nice, normal girl on a nice, normal date. How hard could it be?
3
“Zelda, I’m going to kill you.” Veronica snapped the moment Thad and his gorgeous plantonic friend walked out the door.
Zelda turned wide and guileless brown eyes on her. “What? Me?” she asked before dissolving into giggles.
“You know I don’t want to go out with him.” Well, that was a bald faced lie. There was something about Thad—a lot of somethings, honestly—that made her skin tingle. That hadn’t happened in a long time. She really didn’t need this, not today when everything was going wrong.
Their blender had broken and she’d yelled at the customer service rep when they’d tried to avoid honoring her warranty. Veronica began stacking cups aggressively. Now she was going to spend the next several hours freaking out over a date she never asked for and worrying about whether Katie would agree to watch Lyra a little longer this evening.
“How long has it been since you dated?” Zelda was more serious now, and that didn’t make Veronica feel any better.
She paused before she answered, her mind already replaying the succession of failed attempts to get back out there. “Two years.”
Two years and half a lifetime ago. She’d tried a couple of online dating apps, but the men there had inspired nothing in her but dread when she’d actually met with them. She’d even thrown up in the bathroom of one of the restaurants after her date was over because she’d panicked when the man asked to see her again.
But the truth was, there’d been nothing wrong with the guy; she’d merely freaked out at the thought of committing to a relationship again. She wasn’t ready yet. Hell, she might never be ready.
Veronica could hear Parker’s voice in her head. “You know what I love about you, babe? You love with your whole heart.”
She did, and that was her curse.
But this Thad guy…well, he didn’t seem to be a guy who would be around long term. He was clearly a one night kind of guy. It wasn’t like he would want to marry her and start a life with her. What did she have to lose? Maybe she could just enjoy herself. That little realization sparked a flair of excitement deep in her belly.
Fun. She deserved a bit of that, didn’t she?
“Just have drinks with Chris Hemsworth and bask in the beauty of that manly scenery. I know I would.”
“You have to stop calling him that.” Veronica tried not to laugh. “Or else I might accidentally call him that too.”
“Just think.” Zelda twirled her counter wiping cloth playfully. “He could speak to you in an Aussie accent, or maybe he could dress up in a Thor costume… Talk about some seriously hot role-playing.”
Zelda ducked as Veronica chucked a dishrag at her. “His name is Thad.”
“Thad? That sounds sexy.” Zelda was still giggling.
“I think it’s short for Thaddeus,” Veronica mused. A rare name, for sure, but it fit the handsome, mysterious man.
“Now it sounds almost Roman — oh! Dress him up in a gladiator costume and—”
The next dishrag smacked Zelda right in the face.
The coffee shop door opened, and Katie came in with Lyra, who was bouncing with excitement. Her preschool was five days a week from nine to four and Katie’s high school was only a block away, which made it easy for the teenager to walk Lyra home. Plus, it saved Veronica from trying to make time away from the shop to pick her up.
“Mommy!” Lyra marched up to her. Her backpack, which was almost as big as her, bounced against her tiny body, reminding Veronica how small her baby was, even though she’d grown so much in the last year.
“Hey, honey. How was school?”
She struggled to open her bag. “Cool! We had drawing lessons.” Katie rushed to get her away from the counter before her backpack exploded, as it tended to do the moment Lyra got home every day.
“Let’s go get a table, Lyra. We can show some of your drawings to your mom there.”
“Thank you.” Veronica told Katie. “Zelda, can you manage the counter for a minute?”
“Sure thing.”
Veronica removed her apron and joined Katie and Lyra at an empty table to see her daughter’s most recent artistic masterpieces from daycare. Most of them were very crude stick figures. They had circles for hands and tiny lines for fingers, which made Veronica smile. She tried to keep track of the basic developmental milestones, but overall she was a pretty relaxed parent. Probably because working so hard at the coffee shop meant she didn’t have the energy to become a tiger mom.
“What did you draw?”
Lyra pointed a tiny finger at the scene. “Me, you, and the beach.”
She pointed a figure beside her in the drawing. “And who is this?”
“That’s my daddy.”
A lump formed in her throat. “That’s Parker?” She’d had the talk with Lyra last year about where Parker was, but children processed death so differently than adults. She wasn’t sure if Lyra understood it.
“No, this is my second daddy. My first one’s in heaven, remember?” Lyra’s nose wrinkled as she looked at Veronica.
“Your second daddy?” Her stomach plummeted at the thought. Then, completely unbidden, her thoughts strayed to Thad and how crazy it was she’d agreed—under duress—to go out with a man who had a definite effect on her.
“Uh huh,” Lyra said with the distracted confidence of a child who was certain it would happen.
Katie’s eyes met Veronica’s. The girl was only sixteen, but she was mature for her age. She could tell how sensitive the whole subject was. Veronica tried to smile at the teen without making the girl pity her any more than she already did. She jerked her head, motioning for Katie to join her a little away from the table.
“Katie, can I ask you for a favor?”
“What’s up, Mrs. Hannigan?” Katie’s voice dropped, her head inclined toward Veronica, concern clear in her eyes.
“I…have a date tonight.”
“What? Oh my God, that’s wonderful!” Katie was hugging her before Veronica had even finished. “Sorry!” Katie released her. “So what time? Do you need me to watch Lyra?”
“Could you? I promise I’ll only be gone for an hour, from eight to nine pm.”
“No problem. Lyra is good about reading her stories or watching a movie if I need to do homework. We’ll be fine.”
“Thank you so much, seriously.”
The teenager blushed. “It’s no trouble. I’m really happy for you, Mrs. Hannigan.”
“It’s just one date,” Veronica murmured, blushing.
“Yeah, for now, but if this guy is smart, he’ll want you forever.” Katie said this with such certainty that Veronica almost believed her. Katie was a young, hopeless romantic, much like she’d been at her age.
“I’ll take her upstairs and get her settled in, Mrs. Hannigan.” Her daughter waved at her as they went through the door marked Private, which led up to the residential part of the brownstone.
By seven-thirty that night, Veronica was digging through her closet in a panic. She had nothing to wear for a date. What was even appropriate for dates these days anyway?
“You need some help?” Katie asked.
Veronica gasped and turned to see her on the doorjamb just a few inches away, a hopeful smile lighting up her young face.
“Oh God, yes. I have no idea what to wear.”
“Do you know where he’s taking you?” Katie bent to pick up several discarded pieces of clothing from the floor before she joined Veronica in the closet.
“Drinks? That’s all he said.”
“Drinks, huh? That could go either way. How was he dressed?”
“In a nice suit.” Veronica watched the teenager with bemusement, wondering how the girl knew anything about dating.
“So we can likely count out a seedy dive bar where they serve hot wings. He’ll probably take you somewhere decent, but not too fancy, if he didn’t warn you ahead of time. How about this?” Katie plucked a few items off the hangers and tossed them to Veronica. Skinny jeans, a bright pink, loose-fitting, silk blouse with a somewhat low neckline, and a pair of leopard print ballet flats.
“Leave your hair down and try this on.” Katie handed her a long golden necklace that had a locket on it.
Veronica eyed the old necklace. It was one she’d had forever. The necklace was nothing fancy, but it had been a gift from her mother a year before she died. “Really?”
“Yeah. Lockets are super sexy. They imply you’ve got a secret. Guys love that stuff.”
“Oh they do, do they?” Veronica teased. They were only eight years apart, but it felt more like decades sometimes.
“Trust me.” Katie chuckled and left the room.
Veronica changed into the clothes and stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror. She looked…not bad, really. At least it didn’t scream “exhausted, single, working mom” or “overworked coffee shop owner.” She looked normal, nice. Not nice enough to date a man like Thad, but she wasn’t worried. This was just a date. Worst case scenario, they’d have a nice conversation and that would be the end of it. Best case scenario, she might have a bit of fun.
