She refused to let her brother frighten her out of her own shop, so despite the boarded window and mess outside, she prepared her candy for the day and opened for business.

* * *

Three days passed before Jason was able to give his undivided attention to Faith. He didn’t want to approach her with something heavy on his mind, and with his mother’s divorce going on in Florida, her sudden spate of phone calls to Jason, his brother Alex’s follow-ups, and Sienna’s added distress, combined with the business issues, Jason had had his hands full. When he saw Faith again, he wanted to be wholly focused on more than just asking her to contact Izzy about Noah’s birthday party favors.

He wanted a game plan about them.

Gabe’s comment about Jason’s actions when it came to Faith stayed with him. Letting her go easily doesn’t sound like the Dare way. Jason was well aware that Gabe had waited a long time for Izzy, and when he’d finally gotten his chance, he’d had to let her go find herself before she could truly become his. However, Gabe had kept a silent eye on her the entire time.

With Faith’s face and sexy body in his dreams and firmly entrenched in his mind, Jason had been fighting his instinct not to get involved when everything inside him screamed out for him to check on her. See her again. Make sure the tire was a fluke and she was safe and okay. Now, he finally had a reason to seek her out, and he’d decided to push harder to see what could be between them.

He might not want to add someone else to the list of people he had to worry about, but in one short night, she’d gotten under his skin, giving him no choice.

He headed for his car and typed her store name into Waze, ready to put his plan into motion. Except when he approached the shop, located on the left, as his direction-voice told him, he saw graffiti covering the windows and the door to her store boarded up.

“Fuck.” Stomach churning, protective instincts growing inside him, he drove around, searching for a parking spot, finally settling on a lot a few blocks away. He gave his car to an attendant and rushed down the street and over to Sweet Treats.

He opened the door, which still worked, and stepped inside. The sweet smell immediately assaulted him, a delicious, welcoming scent that reminded him of his candy girl. Inside, there was no hint of vandalism, thank goodness, but he didn’t see Faith.

“Hello?” he called out.

She immediately popped up from where she must have been kneeling down by the counter. “Jason!” she said, obviously surprised to see him.

“What the hell happened here?” he asked, knowing he sounded pissed because he was. Who would terrorize a woman this way?

She sighed. “The store was vandalized on Sunday and nobody’s been willing to come out and fix it until sometime next week.”