1. Naomi

"Please tell me this is a joke." I read the notice again, for probably the tenth time in two minutes. "He can"t sell the place without telling us, can he?"

Ellie spun the chair at her station and sat down. "Whether he can or can"t, it looks like he did."

"That son of a bi?—"

"Biscuit," she said, cutting off my curse with a pointed glance at the thirteen-year-old girl getting her hair highlighted in the station next to hers.

It was a slow day at the salon, a typical dragging Tuesday, but for once I was grateful for the reprieve. What I wasn't so grateful for was the nightmare I"d just been handed.

Harlowe"s Beauty had been doing business in this very location for twenty-seven years. My parents started the small hair salon back when they were ambitious newlyweds, and they ran it together through all the ups and downs that followed. I'd grown up in this place, spending countless afternoons with my schoolbooks spread across the worn table in the backroom, and more than a few summer days sweeping the floor and cleaning stations when I was grounded for talking back or sneaking out.

Even then, spending time in the salon never felt like a real punishment, and the love for hair and beauty my parents instilled in me eventually led me to beauty school and back home to help out in the salon. I loved every second of it.

So, when they decided they'd had enough of highlights, perms, trims, and updos five years ago, I was happy to buy them out and take it over.

"Maybe the new landlords will be cool," Kate offered from behind the safety of her half-foiled client.

Unlikely. With the way property values had skyrocketed in our little town, it was a miracle we hadn"t already been run out by the ever-escalating rent.

"Gavin wasn"t exactly doing us any favors." The landlord had been ruthless about raising our rent every time our lease agreement came up for renewal, despite the fact that he'd done nothing to maintain the property in… ever.

I wasn't foolish enough to hold out hope that whoever was willing to get in bed with someone like him for an off-market real estate deal would be any better.

"What are we going to do?" Ellie asked, dropping into her chair and looking worriedly between me and Kate. "I can"t go back to that hack shop over in Maverick." She shook her head, her shoulder length lilac waves swishing. "I won"t."

I set the notice on the counter. "Let"s find out who the new owners are before we get too worked up." Even though I was already firmly in panic mode.

Only it wasn't just panic. I was also furious. He'd sold the building without listing it or, you know, having the decency to give his tenants a heads up.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, I untied my black apron and draped it over the back of my chair. "I"m going next door." I snatched the notice off the counter, trying like hell not to crush the page in my hand.

At this time of day, I knew exactly where I could find Gavin Sullivan—drinking his way to an early death at The Fox Den.

Excitement lit Ellie"s light brown eyes. "Ooo, mama bear"s pissed. I"m in."

With one foot out the door, I shot her a look over my shoulder. "I need you here to answer the phone."

Her shoulders fell, but Kate piped up. "Just bring me the wireless. I can grab it if it rings."

True, but there were two problems with that scenario: One, she would be leaving the customer in her chair hanging while she answered the call. That was never ideal during a time-sensitive process like lightening. And two, I didn"t need an audience of my own employees for the conversation I was about to have.

"Just stay, Ellie. I appreciate the support, really, but I need to do this on my own," I said, letting the door slip shut behind me.

I marched my ass straight down the sidewalk to the front door of The Fox Den. Our two businesses shared the aging building, but I tried to steer clear of the bar these days. Partly because I wasn"t a huge fan of drinking, thanks to the fact that alcohol had a way of displacing the carefully crafted internal filters that kept my real thoughts and emotions firmly locked inside. And partly because of the Fox family.

They weren"t all bad. Their dad, for example, was awesome. He'd started the business around the same time my parents started the salon, and they'd all been good friends back in the day. Too bad that friendship and comradery hadn't been passed down to the next generation.

Pulling in a bracing breath, I pushed through the heavy wooden door into the dark, Celtic pub vibe of the bar. It took my eyes a minute to adjust from the relentless sunlight of the midsummer afternoon in Stonemore Heights, Colorado, but even in the dim I could make out Gavin"s familiar shape nursing a half-empty glass of something dark.

Probably cheap rum and Coke.

"You can"t do this," I called across the bar, waving the wrinkled notice.

He turned at the sound of my voice, his expression changing from curious to tired in an instant. "I can and I did, Naomi. That"s one of the perks of owning the building."

I bristled at the not-so-subtle dig. It wasn"t like he"d bought this building with his own hard-earned money. The spoiled bastard had inherited it from his grandpa ten years ago, and he"d put us all on triple net leases so he could do the bare minimum.

Then he hadn't even done that. No maintenance. No upkeep. I'd been asking him for years to do something about the crumbling parking lot, but it had only become more cracked, and now it was riddled with potholes big enough to swallow a tire.

To make matters worse, I knew for a fact Gavin spent a healthy chunk of his monthly rental income at The Fox Den.

And not a penny at Harlowe"s.

"It"s a done deal. The sale went through this morning." He tipped his glass to the bartender. "There"s no use getting your panties in a twist about it, Princess."

Princess?Could the guy be more of a douche?

I balled my hands into fists at my side, crushing the notice. "Tyler," I nodded to the guy behind the bar, my least favorite of the Fox brothers.

Tyler Fox was the kind of cocky that made most women swoon.

Me? Everything about the guy grated so hard I didn"t even want to be in the same room with him. It was just my luck that he would be the one running the bar today.

Still, I couldn"t help myself. "And how do you feel about this little development?"

Tyler set down the glass he"d been drying and leveled me with his trademark smirk. "Seeing as I bought it, pretty damn good."

"You what?" I sputtered.

No. Tyler Fox could not be my new landlord. No, no, no.

"He bought the building, Princess," Gavin said in a slurred voice that still managed to be so goddamn condescending that I seriously considered slapping his drink right out of his stupid hand.

That was when it hit me that I didn"t actually have to be nice to the asshole anymore.

I sauntered up next to him, pasting on my sweetest fake smile, and leaned in, bracing myself against the stench of day-old alcohol and stale cigarette smoke that always clung to the guy. "Gavin, do yourself a favor and never fucking call me Princess again."

I balled up the notice and dropped it into what was left of his drink. Tyler's responding chuckle lifted the hair on the back of my neck.

"Do you think this is funny?" I asked, throwing him a dirty look. I knew I should be nicer to him. He was my new landlord, after all. But I so wasn"t in the mood.

He picked up another clean glass from the rack beside the sink and started drying it. "I didn't say a word."

Yeah, but I hadn't imagined that deep chuckle. I might be laughing too if I didn't have to worry about negotiating a new rental agreement with my new, cocky-as-hell landlord in… I looked at the calendar hanging behind the bar.

Dread twisted in my middle. Three months? Was that really all I had left on my three-year lease?

I tracked the days of the week like a pro. My daily schedule was locked in with a series of alarms on my phone, including when to feed Sparrow, my sweet German Shepherd and give him his shot. I even knew when my regulars would be coming in without having to check.

Beyond that though? Let"s just say there was a reason I set up email reminders to check my monthly and quarterly schedules.

Now, I wasn't sure I would have a business to worry about in three months. There was no guarantee Tyler was even interested in renewing my lease.

"Are you planning on kicking me out?" I asked, fighting like hell not to let my growing panic show. The thing was, I was dealing with Tyler, and I wouldn"t put it past the guy to boot me the second he had the chance.

He hit me with an unreadable look. "Can't say just yet."

But he knew. I could feel it in my bones. The Fox brothers had wanted to expand their bar for years. Since we were the only two businesses in the building, knocking down the wall between my place and theirs was the only real option. Unless the architect of the bunch had a plan for building onto the back.

Wishful thinking.

That would mean taking out parking lot space. The Fox Den was the most popular drinking hole in town on Fridays and Saturdays, and parking was already at a premium. The only reason our two businesses worked well together was because we operated during different hours. When they were ramping up for the night, I was shutting down for the day.

Yeah, their patrons were a little rowdier than mine. The windows at Harlowe's had been broken a couple times over the years by drunks who"d gotten kicked out of the bar, but the Fox family always covered the damage rather than forcing me to make an insurance claim.

They were good that way. At least they had been, before now.

"What am I supposed to do? It"s not like there"s anywhere affordable to rent in town." I gripped the edge of the polished wood bar and leaned in. "If you kick me out, I"ll have to close up shop."

Nothing in his expression changed. He was just as impossible to read as he'd always been.

Well, except for that one night.

I"d had a little too much to drink at The Fox Den after a rough day at the salon, and Tyler had just returned from his sister's Costa Rican wedding. We spent the night trading barbs across the bar, then, in a rare moment of chivalry, he offered to give me a ride home.

I wasn't stumbling drunk, but I was tipsy enough to know better than to drive. I'd also had just enough to drink to forget all about my inhibitions.

And I made a move on him.

We had a five-minute, hot as hell make-out session, and then he did something that still stung my fragile feminine ego. The most notorious male whore of Stonemore Heights shot me down.

From what I could tell, Tyler's standards were low. So, where did that put me on the scale?

To add insult to injury, I didn"t see or hear from him again for a week after that. When I was finally brave enough to go next door and talk to him, I found him sitting at the bar with another woman hanging on him.

He never saw me. I backed out quietly and slinked back to my salon with a two-hundred-pound chip on my shoulder.

I still don't know what I was expecting to happen. He might"ve been the kind of snarky and darkly handsome that got my motor running, but he was a player. Everyone in Stonemore knew it.

So, yeah, it was stupid to make a move on him.

That was the day I decided drinking wasn"t the best thing for me, and I stopped going next door unless it was absolutely necessary.

It took me a while to forgive myself for making such a reckless mistake with my business neighbor. But here I was, months later, thinking about that night again, while he held the future of my business in his hands.

"How much time can you give me?"

Tyler shook his head. "It"s not up to me, Naomi."

I hated the way my name rolled off his tongue. It still did things to me. "You own the building. So..." I shrugged.

"Technically, the company owns it. I have three brothers to answer to," he said. "I don"t think Drew has any plans finalized yet, but they"re going to want to get started on things pretty quick."

I stared at him. The guy didn"t even have the nerve to look apologetic for what he and his brothers were doing to my business. To me.

Frustrated tears stung the corners of my eyes and stole my voice. So, I did the only other thing I could do. I turned on my heel and walked out, because there was no way in hell I was letting that asshole see me cry.