Megan helped me set the cake up in our assigned spot, then stepped back to admire it.
“It’s pretty kickass,” she said.
I had to agree. It looked even better out here amidst the festivities of the fair than it had on the counter of my café. I managed a smile. I had done my best, and at least I had made a cake I could be proud of.
“Thanks,” I said. “Now go have some fun.”
Megan looked at me, her eyes filled with concern. “Where will you go?”
“I think I’ll head out to Barnacle Beach and go for a swim.”
“That far? It’s the other side of the island.”
I shrugged. “I know. But what else am I going to do all day? Besides, it’ll be completely empty thanks to the Fair. I love that beach when it’s just me and the ocean.”
“Okay. Well be careful. You have your cell phone, right?”
“Yes. I’ll call you if I need anything, but I’ll be fine, I promise.”
I gave Megan a hug and scurried back to my car, eager to get out of there before Logan showed up. Part of me hoped that he had decided for some reason not to enter a cake in the contest after all, but deep down I knew better. I was just early. The contest had only opened to drop your cake off twenty minutes ago, and there were still about two and a half more hours until entries were due. The longer I hung around, the more likely I was to run into Logan bringing in his cake. Time to get out of here.
I whistled to Decaf, who stood and hobbled slowly to my car. I winced as I watched him. He was getting so much worse, and part of me felt guilty for even bringing him out with me. Maybe I should have just left him at home to rest. But I knew I wouldn’t be happy sitting at home right now—I needed fresh, salty air. And Decaf wouldn’t be happy at home if I wasn’t there with him. He’d be much happier at the beach with me, even if it did require a bit of hobbling.
I drove out of the fairgrounds, past all the traffic trying to enter the parking lot, and continued on to the open coastal road. I floored the accelerator, going way too fast and not caring. There was no one else on the road right now. Even the cops were all down at the Summer Fair, so I wasn’t worried about getting a ticket. I opened the windows and let the fresh air whip my hair into even more of a mess around my face. Decaf barked happily in the backseat, and life almost felt right.
If only I could get Logan off my mind.
It was maddening how attracted I was to him. I did my best not to think about his perfect, godlike body. I tried hard not to think about how he might have been my first, if I’d wanted it. Instead, I focused on the road ahead and sang country tunes at the top of my lungs in hopes that my voice would drown out the inexplicable heartache I felt deep inside.
The closer I got to the other side of the island, the grayer the sky became. In the distance, I could see storm clouds gathering. They were still far away, but I knew from past experience that summer rainstorms could roll in with surprising speed. I wasn’t too worried for myself. I could always retreat quickly to the dry safety of my car if a storm caught up with me. But I hoped the rain would steer clear of the Fair. A downpour would put a big damper on everyone’s fun, and most of the attractions outside of the tents weren’t really set up to be easily rain-proofed. Big rainstorms were so rare here this time of year.
I pulled into Barnacle Beach and parked as close to the sand as I could, just in case I needed to make a quick escape. I wasn’t that worried, though. The clouds were still far away, and were just as likely to blow away as they were to blow in. Odds were good I’d be fine.
Decaf looked somewhat doubtful, but I rolled my eyes at him.
“Come on, buddy,” I said. “The worst thing that could happen is that we’ll get a little wet before we make it back to the car. I’m planning to swim, anyway, so that’s no big deal.”
With a longsuffering sigh, Decaf let me lift him out and place him down on the soft dirt beside the car. I found myself wishing I’d brought a six pack of beer. I had water and snacks in my car, but a day like this really called for a cold one on the beach. Oh well. I could at least enjoy the sun and the water. With a whoop, I ran to the sand and started doing cartwheels, just like I was five years old again.
And for a moment, I forgot about everything in my life that was worrying me, and truly felt like a carefree five year old once more.
Chapter Eight
* LOGAN *
I wasn’t sure when I’d last felt so nervous. I wasn’t accustomed to feeling anxious or out of place anymore. Something about being a billionaire gave you an unshakeable confidence. After all, if you have enough money, you can pay someone to help you overcome just about any shortcoming you can imagine. Expensive clothes, world-class personal trainers, tutors knowledgeable about every subject imaginable, the finest equipment for any hobby you might wish to take on…it was all there for the taking when you were a billionaire.
But even with private tutoring, the one thing money couldn’t seem to buy me was the ability to become an expert cake sculptor in less than a week. I had done my best, and I had worked with the best equipment and ingredients. But despite multiple practice attempts, my final product still looked almost comically the same as something I might have made when I was a little kid.
Oh well. I’d done my best.
I carefully carried my cake box into the tent where the judging would take place. I’d had to park far away, and sweat was pouring down my neck by the time I reached the tent. Thankfully, the tent was equipped with fans and some sort of overhead air circulation system, so it felt quite a bit cooler than it had outside the tent. I could have had someone deliver this cake for me, but I wanted to do everything for this contest myself. It had been a long time since I’d taken on a project without a thousand assistants helping me, and it felt good. Even driving myself here instead of using a driver had felt like a glorious burst of freedom.
I checked in for the contest and was assigned a spot to put my cake. There were only fifteen minutes left until the contest closed for entries, and I winced when I realized how closely I’d timed things. I had thought I would have a lot more time, but I hadn’t counted on how much traffic there would be for the Summer Fair. I hadn’t even realized it was possible to be stuck in traffic on Driftwood Island, but I was learning a lot about the place I’d never known before.
I could feel curious eyes on me as I unpacked my cake. I suppose everyone wanted to know what type of a cake a billionaire was capable of making. Not a very good one, apparently. When I looked around at the other cakes, I realized I had some serious competition. There were cakes shaped like all sorts of things—a guitar, a palm tree, a bonfire, a dolphin, and so much more. The best by far was Julia’s cake. I nearly gasped out loud when I saw it. She had managed to make an almost perfect replica of the secluded beach where I had kissed her. The best kiss of my life. Had she been thinking of me when she made that cake?
Probably not. She’d grown up here, and surely had a thousand memories of that place. Why would I make the cut?
“Wow. You made a cake yourself.”
I turned at the voice to see a petite blonde in a hot pink tank top staring at the cake I’d just unboxed.
“I did,” I replied. “I’m afraid it’s not much to look at, but I did my best.”
The woman shook her head. “Damn. Julia was wrong. She was sure you were going to just hire someone to do it for you. But wow. You made quite an effort. Is that…Decaf?”
I looked down at the lopsided chocolate lab I had sculpted. He was supposed to be drinking from a coffee cup, but he looked more like he was about to topple head first into the also lopsided coffee cup shaped cake.
“Yeah, it’s Decaf. I thought Julia might like it, but it looks like she’s not here yet. You know her?”
“Um, yeah. I know her. I’m her best friend, Megan.”
“Oh. Hi, Megan. I’m Logan.” I extended my hand, which she eyed warily, but in the end she shook it.
“You’re not like I thought you would be,�
� she said.
I almost laughed. “What did you think I would be like?”
She shrugged. “A jerk.”
Before I could respond to that, the judges were calling for the official cake sculpting contest to begin. I looked around and still didn’t see Julia. Megan knew who I was looking for before I even asked.
“She’s not going to be here. She thought you were going to waltz in with an expensive cake you bought just to steal the contest from her.”
“What?” I was shocked. It had never crossed my mind that Julia would interpret my entry into the contest that way. “But I was only trying to show her that I cared about her, and the Fair! I—”
“Order! Quiet amongst the participants, please,” one of the judges shouted. I clamped my mouth shut for the moment, but I was going to have a lot of questions for Megan later. For the moment, Megan just shrugged again and then walked over to stand by Julia’s cake as the judges began to look at it. I rubbed my forehead, and wished I could just leave. My foolproof plan hadn’t been so foolproof after all. Why was everything in life so easy to get except the one thing I wanted most: Julia’s heart.
* * *
Three hours later, I was surprisingly exhausted. I was used to a fast paced lifestyle, but nothing had quite prepared me for the energy it took to keep up with the Driftwood Island locals at their Summer Fair. I had eaten so much fried food and gone on so many ridiculous rides. I’d watched pig races, and bowed out of a hot dog eating contest as gracefully as I could. Most of all, I’d talked with the locals. A lot. My mouth was dry from talking so much, and I escaped to one of the food tents to find something cold to drink. After purchasing a soda, I stood watching the crowd while I sipped.
At first, people had been quite wary of me. But when they saw that I genuinely wanted to hear what they had to say, they had warmed up quite a bit. I’d had a lot of fun, and I’d seen that pretty much everyone here just wanted to make a decent living, have a comfortable life, and enjoy the island. I had some ideas for how to help with that, and I hoped that after meeting me in person today the locals would be willing to work with me on those ideas.
The day had been good, even though it hadn’t been exactly what I’d hoped for. I’d wanted to see Julia, but she had escaped to the other side of the island, to a spot known as Barnacle Beach, according to Megan. I’d been ready to hightail it out of the fair and go find Julia, but Megan convinced me that that was probably the worst thing I could do right now. Julia just wanted to be alone. Megan, on the other hand, was the opposite of alone at the moment. I could see her across the food tent, sitting at the bar and laughing loudly, surrounded by several of the local men. Megan was sloshed, probably thanks to every guy here insisting on buying her a drink.
Every guy in here but me. I hadn’t tried to join the crowd buying Megan drinks. She was good looking, yes. Any objective observer could see that. But Julia was the one who had truly caught my eye. Julia was the gorgeous one. The one who undid me with her smile.
The one I was determined to make mine.
I was disappointed that Julia hadn’t been here today to see the cake I’d made, and to witness for herself that I hadn’t been trying to steal the contest from her. Hopefully Megan would vouch for me and tell her that. The judges were set to announce the official winners of the cake contest later this evening, but I had no doubt that Julia would win. It had been obvious from the way everyone oohed and ahhed over her cake that it had been the best.
Mine wasn’t likely to get a ribbon, but that was okay. I just hoped that I’d get a chance to show it to Julia, and that she would like it.
A sudden, loud clap of thunder reverberated across the tent, drowning out even the loud noise of the raucous conversations. Several girls shrieked at the thunderclap, but most people were just laughing and too drunk to care. I hadn’t had anything alcoholic to drink—I’d wanted to be sober and on top of my game just in case Julia showed up. But she hadn’t, and I was wondering if perhaps it was time to make a graceful exit. I doubted Julia would show at this point, and unless I wanted to join in the drinking, I was going to start sticking out even more than I already did. I figured my first foray into interacting with the locals of Driftwood Island would probably end better if I didn’t make a drunken fool of myself.
I took the last sip of my soda and tossed the cup in the trash, then started heading toward the parking lot. The sky outside had turned a dark, inky black. It was just past sunset, that time of day when the sky normally tends to take on a gray-blue tinge, but right now all that could be seen were dark storm clouds. The moon and stars were hidden, but an occasional flash of lightning did illuminate the sky now and then—always followed by a booming thunderclap.
I picked up my pace as I walked toward my car. The air smelled like rain, and I was beginning to worry that I was about to be soaked to the bone before I could make it back to my vehicle. I was parked in just about the furthest possible spot, and I was already feeling an occasional raindrop. I broke into a run, and managed to make it into my car and slam the door behind me just before the torrent let loose.
“Damn.” I could hardly see in front of me, even when I turned on the car and put the windshield wipers on as high as they would go. I thought of Julia, and wondered if she was still out on the beach. What if she was stranded in this monsoon?
I knew she didn’t want to see me, and that she thought I’d only entered the cake contest to be a jerk. But right now, I didn’t care if she hated me. My protective instincts were once again kicking in, and I knew I had to go make sure she was alright.
I pulled out my phone and looked up Barnacle Beach on the GPS. Megan hadn’t been kidding when she said it was on the complete opposite side of the island. Luckily, the island wasn’t obscenely huge, so I should be able to get there within about twenty minutes, as long as the roads weren’t too awful. I pulled out onto the coastal road and starting driving as fast as I dared in the crazy storm.
Chapter Nine
* LOGAN *
I was the only car on the road. The rain didn’t seem to have dampened the party spirit at the Summer Fair too much, because no one else had been leaving when I drove off. Everyone just crowded into the tents. About ten minutes into my drive, I lost my cell signal. The cell signal wasn’t always terribly reliable out here, and the storm seemed to be messing with it somehow. I gritted my teeth and slowed down a bit, trying to see through the darkness whether there were any signs for “Barnacle Beach,” or if I could catch a glimpse of Julia’s car anywhere.
No such luck. I had driven fifteen more minutes, and was sure I must have passed it. I pulled off the road on a gravel path, intending to turn around, when I realized that my headlights were pointing straight ahead onto a vehicle that I recognized as Julia’s beat up old coupe. So this must be Barnacle Beach! It had taken me longer than I would have thought to get here, but I’d made it.
I drove right up next to Julia’s car, hoping that she was inside of it safe and warm, and was just waiting out the rain so she didn’t have to drive in the worst of this storm. But when I parked beside it, Julia’s car looked empty. I felt fear grip my heart. Was she out on the beach still? She hadn’t been swimming during this rain, had she? Surely she wasn’t that foolish.
I jumped out of my car without a second thought, and went to peer in the windows of Julia’s car. There was definitely no one in there. With panic rising in my chest, I started running toward the beach. The darkness was overwhelming, but the lightning gave me glimpses here and there of the rolling sand. I squinted out at the water each time the lightning flashed, terrified that I was going to see Julia out there, struggling against the waves. To my relief, there was no one out there. Hopefully that meant that she was at least on dry land. If you could even call the land “dry” at this point. The rain was continuing to pour down.
I started scanning the beach, looking for any sign of her. It took a few more flashes of lightning, but I eventually spotted her. She was up ahead and a little to my l
eft, and it looked like Decaf was with her. They were sitting huddled together on the sand, not attempting to move forward at all. Something was wrong. There was no way anyone who wasn’t in some kind of trouble would just be hanging out in this kind of rain when a dry car was available a few minutes’ walk away.
“Julia!” I yelled, even though I was too far for her to hear me over the noise of the storm. I kicked off my expensive leather loafers, which were probably totally ruined at this point anyway, and started running toward her.
“Julia!” I called again, and again. I was almost to her when she finally heard me and looked up. It was hard to tell in the flashing, irregular illumination of the lightning, but it looked to me like her face was red and puffy from crying. She looked relieved to see me, which was at least an improvement over our last interaction. Decaf’s fur was matted to his skin and his eyes had never looked so sad, but he managed to give me a half-hearted tail wag anyway. I gave him a reassuring pat on the head before turning back to Julia.
“Are you okay?” I yelled. “Are you hurt or something?”
“I’m alright, but I can’t get Decaf to move. He insisted on following me out here, but I couldn’t get him to walk back, even when the rain started. He’d take a few steps and flop down. I think he’s in a lot of pain.”
She sounded like she was going to break out into sobs at any moment, and I didn’t blame her. Decaf’s predicament was heartbreaking. It hurt my own heart quite a bit to see Julia, refusing to leave her pup and trying to cover him from the rain. Without another moment’s hesitation, I bent down and lifted Decaf up into my arms.
Craving Him: A Billionaire Beach Island Romance (Billionaires of Driftwood Island Book 1) Page 6
