by Serena Bell
“Mason, this is Trey Xavier. He’s Carl’s grandson. Trey, this is my brother, Mason.”
Trey came forward, hand out for a shake, but Mason only acknowledged him with a slight nod, and Trey let his hand drop.
She’d have to explain her youngest brother to Trey later.
He leaned on the counter. “What are you guys doing?”
“Working on Auburn’s Bootstrapper page.”
“What does Auburn need a Bootstrapper page for?”
That was Levi, who suddenly manifested in the doorway to the office.
Oh, shit.
Chiara shot a look Auburn’s way. Which clearly said, You didn’t tell him?
Auburn closed her eyes and hoped her siblings would go away, but when she opened her eyes, far from having disappeared, they’d magnetically attracted Hannah, their youngest sister. “What are you guys all doing in here? The meat is coming off the grill, and it looks ah-maaaazing.” Then she caught the vibe of the room and froze. “What’s going on?”
No. This was not happening.
Auburn looked at Trey—who seemed shell-shocked at the sight of all of her siblings gathered in one place.
“Levi, Hannah, this is Trey. He’s Carl’s grandson. Trey, Levi is my big brother, and Hannah is the youngest.”
“I’m lots of things besides the youngest,” Hannah pointed out grumpily.
“The most beautiful, the smartest, and the least modest,” Chiara said, poking her little sister. Hannah poked back.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Trey said, shaking Hannah’s hand, and then Levi’s.
Levi was frowning. Hard. “What does Auburn need a Bootstrapper page for?” he repeated.
It was only a matter of time until Levi got his answer, Auburn knew. Easier to just give it to him upfront. “I’m going to buy Beachcrest from Trey and Carl.”
“But she needs to raise the down payment,” Chiara said. She shot Auburn a glance that clearly said: We’ve unleashed the big brother beast.
Levi swore under his breath. “You should have told me.”
His expression was fierce. He had one of those male faces that was hewn from stone. If Auburn didn’t know firsthand how much he loved her, she’d be scared of him. She figured he terrified most women—which would account for why he didn’t date.
That and the fact that dating would require him to take time for himself. Away from Cape House and the responsibilities that rode on his shoulders. And Levi had turned self-sacrifice into a fine art and a way of life.
When Auburn was a pre-teen, Levi had been a pretty fun guy. A bit of a partier, in fact. Auburn often wondered if that part of him still existed in there, buried deep under the seriousness.
“You know why I didn’t tell you,” Auburn said quietly.
They stared at each other for a long moment, during which the stubborn streak they’d inherited from their father burned in two sets of blue eyes. Then Levi looked away.
“If I hadn’t just done the renovations, Cape House would have cash,” he said, and Auburn could see the unhappiness behind his eyes. “But right now? I could maybe eke out another $25K. And it’s yours, for what it’s worth.”
“No way,” Auburn said. “That money isn’t just for you and Cape House. It’s for all of us.”
Levi—and Cape House—had put them all through college, paid their medical expenses, taken care of them through every possible bit of life drama. It had been the roof over all their heads at one time or another.
And Auburn, no matter how much she loved Beachcrest, knew Cape House came first. Protecting Cape House was paramount, at least until Hannah went to college in two years.
“I’ve got some financing possibilities lined up,” Auburn said.
“Tell me it’s not Patrick,” Levi said fiercely.
Trey shot an appraising gaze in Levi’s direction.
“Not Patrick,” Auburn said quickly.
“What about him?” Levi tipped his head in Trey’s direction.
“I’m not in a position to do that,” Trey said.
Levi gave a tight nod at that. “You want to sell and get out.”
“I do.”
“There’s one lender who’s, um, interested,” Auburn said. “Interested” was definitely too strong a word, but she wasn’t sure how riled up she wanted to get Levi right now. “But Kee and I thought we’d do this Bootstrapper thing as a Plan B.”
“I’ve got a little saved,” Mason said, startling them.
They all turned to look at him.
“Fifteen thousand.”
“Holy shit, Mace,” Auburn said.
He shrugged. “Was thinking about getting myself a place. But it can wait. I know you’re good for it, sis.”
“No.” Auburn didn’t even hesitate. “I won’t take it. It’s time for you to have a place of your own.”
She could feel Chiara’s murmured assent. Auburn didn’t delude herself that owning a house would fix everything troubled in Mason, but it would at least help. Give him something to care for, or about. He’d been fourteen when their parents had died, and he’d never fully rallied.
“I’ve got ten,” Chiara said.
Auburn shook her head. “No. No to all of you. I’m going to do this some other way. I’m going to figure it out, but I’m not going to figure it out by stealing from your dreams.”
“My twenty-five is yours, though,” Levi said. “It’s investment money, and I think Beachcrest is a good investment, especially with you at the helm. I never thought Carl managed it as well as he could, but I know you would. I know you’ll pay me back.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Hearing him say that meant a lot to her. She and Levi had spent hundreds of hours talking business over the years; she’d been the closest thing he’d had to a partner and trusted advisor, and until she’d gone to college, she’d learned everything she knew about hotel management from him. He was a great businessman—so his praise? It felt damn good.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
It was less than a tenth of what she’d need—and she hadn’t told them, for very good reasons, that she had to have it by Monday—but it was an act of faith she’d craved without knowing it.
“Do you think this Bootstrapper thing’ll work?” Levi asked.
“We just added a bunch of incentives. We had a one-night stay, but Trey got some of his buddies to chip in other motivations.”
“Very good of you, dude, given that she’s buying the thing from you,” Levi said.
“Well,” Trey said, looking pained. “I, um, have strong reasons to want to make the sale to her. It was my granddad’s business, and I know she’ll do right by it.”
“You need a couple of other levels, too,” Levi pointed out. “You want to get the small donors, not just the big ones. You’d be surprised how much those add up. I did a Kickstarter a couple of years ago to run a Tierney Bay Warner Brothers Cartoon Marathon—” he explained to Trey. “The small donors ended up giving more than half the total. You need, like, Beachcrest T-shirts and tote bags. I’ve got some outstanding credit at Zazzle—”
“Flipflops and beach towels and sunglasses,” Hannah interrupted, with all the certainty of a teenager.
“You can give away a few weekends at Cape House if it helps,” Levi said.
“And something with sand,” Hannah said. “Sand from Tierney Bay’s beach. Like those little sand globes with teeny tiny shells in them they sell at Sea Shoppe. I’ll make them.”
“I’ll help,” Chiara said.
“Me too.”
It was Mason’s gruff and unexpected words that finally made Auburn’s eyes fill with tears.
“You guys,” she said.
“There’s no crying in baseball,” Levi said, eyeing her. “Can this wait an hour? The meat is off the grill and it looks—” he shot Hannah a teasing glance—“ah-maaaazing.”
28
“Your family is terrific,” Trey said.
She smiled. “They are.”
/> Her family had gone on ahead to the party while he and Auburn made some last tweaks to the Bootstrapper page and set up a few ads. When they were ready to rejoin the party, they walked toward the front of the inn and he held the door open for her.
“Your brothers and sisters are going to hate me so much when they find out the real situation.”
“They know the real situation,” she said. “You’ve offered to sell me Beachcrest, and I’m going to buy it.”
“Unless you can’t raise the money by Monday, in which case I’m going to sell it out from under you and ruin your life plans.”
“Let’s not go there,” she said. “This is the beach. Beach magic is in full effect. It’s going to work itself out.”
He thought of her saying, “It’s not that kind of magic,” but didn’t call it out. He didn’t want to corrupt her July 4th cheer with his hardheadedness. The fact that she’d already been turned down by one of the two lenders who’d seemed willing to consider her proposition boded ill, and James’s use of the term “long shot” had left a bad taste in his mouth.
They went down the front steps and around the side of the inn. The festivities were in full swing. Long tables groaned under the weight of food—some cooked in the inn’s kitchen, but much of it catered by Auburn’s brother’s hotel, and the staff produced plate-loads of burgers and dogs on gas grills. People—a sea of them, red, white, and blue—flowed around the yard and up and down the sandy path to the beach, chatting and laughing and clutching plastic drink cups.
Trey eyed the yard. It was charming, actually, the grass tufts in their sandy foothold rolling down to real low dunes with longer beach grass. And the flower gardens—they were unruly, true, but in the style of Auburn’s hair, wild and beautiful. He reached out and plucked a daisy and tucked it into her curls. Surprise flashed in her eyes, and she froze under his touch. He drew his hand back quickly, but not before he heard her sharp intake of breath.
He wasn’t sure where today’s revelations left them. He only knew he didn’t want to be Patrick. “Sorry—”
“No. It’s okay,” she said quickly.
There was both interest and caution in her expression. She was very still, her eyes moving over his face, falling to his mouth. A wave of heat rolled through him.
And of course, just then, his phone vibrated and tolled in his pocket.
She stepped back.
Damn it.
He pulled it out. Doug. Shit. This was going to be one hell of a call. “I have to get this,” he said apologetically. He swiped the call and headed for the edge of the party, where he leaned against one of the porch pillars. “Hey, Doug.”
“Any news, man?”
“I think I have a solution that will take care of our problems.”
“Yeah?” Doug said eagerly. “I like the sound of that.”
“I’m going to sell the inn to Auburn Campbell.”
He heard Doug take a breath on the other end of the phone. “As in, the woman who’s been making your life miserable since you got there?”
“She’ll quit making my life miserable if I sell her the inn.”
“True,” Doug said. “True enough. She have the financing lined up? Because you don’t have time to fuck around. And the Royal Life Group people are going to be pissed. You’ll have burned that bridge to the ground and then some. They’ve been calling me twice a day to try to get the deal inked.”
“I can’t afford to worry about that,” Trey said. He had managed, somehow, not to answer Doug’s other question, but Doug was too smart for that kind of evasion.
“The financing, Trey,” Doug said quietly.
“Not yet, but—”
“Then I’m not going to burn the Royal Life bridge yet,” Doug said. “Let’s call it Plan B. If she doesn’t get the financing—”
“She’ll get the financing,” Trey said shortly.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.
“Xavier.”
“Yes?”
“Who is this woman?”
“She’s—”
“Are you fucking her?”
Trey squeezed his phone so tight he could feel it flex. “No. Asshole.”
“Do you wish you could fuck her?”
“Step the fuck off, Doug.”
“Because when I said everyone had a price, I didn’t mean you should sell your body.”
Trey took a deep breath. Losing his temper with Doug, who wanted the same thing Trey did, wouldn’t help anything. “She’s the reason my grandfather won’t back down. That’s what this is about. It’s about doing what’s simplest and most expedient. Selling to her is the fastest, most elegant solution to a complicated problem.”
He’d never lied to Doug before.
That last part was true. But it wasn’t the whole reason he was selling to Auburn. It wasn’t even the biggest reason he was selling to Auburn.
He was selling to her because he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her.
At the other end of the phone, Doug, who was no idiot and knew Trey as well as anyone on earth, took another deep breath.
“There are a hundred and fifty jobs at stake here, Xavier, including mine,” Doug said. “You’ll excuse me if I’m not exactly feeling secure about the way things are going over there.”
“You don’t need to worry.”
The thought of it—of Auburn not getting the money, of Auburn not getting Beachcrest—made him sick—but Doug was right. There were a hundred and fifty human beings at the other end of this deal.
“I’ll call you when I have news,” he said gruffly, and ended the call.
29
Trey came back to where she stood, loading her plate with side dishes, carefully framing her burger. She was ravenous. She hadn’t managed to eat breakfast this morning—trying to get Beachcrest’s breakfast served, setting up for the parade, the Bootstrapper thing—time had gotten away from her.
“Everything okay?” she asked him.
He nodded.
Auburn’s emotions were high. It was the excitement of the party, for sure. All the red, white, and blue, the cheerful, drunk partygoers, the free-flowing beer and wine, the tables laden with food, the smell of charbroiled meat.
And of course it was her family, and their heartfelt offers to help. She still felt a little weepy, in the best possible way, thinking of the lengths they would go to protect one another.
But she was old enough and had been around the block enough times to know that it was also this. His eyes on her face, hot and intent. The flower—still in her hair—and how she’d felt that innocent little caress in every cell of her body.
How he’d touched her the other night on the beach.
His willingness to back off when she’d told him about Patrick, but even more than that, what he’d said about it.
I meant what I said. I don’t want you to take his money, because—because I have nothing but respect for the fact that you walked away from him. And the last thing I want is for you to have to turn to him.
The fact that he was going to sell her Beachcrest.
(He’s going to try to sell you Beachcrest.)
“Uncle Trey! Uncle Trey!”
There was an explosion of small-boy activity around their knees, Trey’s nephews pulling on his hands and trying to convince him to do a wheelbarrow race on the beach with them. Hannah was in charge of the party games; Auburn could see her mingling with the guests and recruiting anyone willing to participate.
“I’ll do Tyler, if your Mom can do Jakey.”
Brynn was shaking her head. “I did something to my back. There’s no way I can bend over like that.”
“I’ll do Jake. If he’ll let me? Will you, Jake?” Auburn asked. Brynn’s youngest was six-ish, gray-eyed and earnest, with unruly hair that fell over one eye. Auburn imagined Trey must have looked a little like that, as a boy.
“Okay?” Jake agreed uncertainly.
They followed Hannah—who was the Pied Piper, kids
trailing behind her in a chain—down to the beach and gathered near the start line. She’d set up two cones to be the finish. Tyler and Jake got down on their hands and knees and kicked their feet up. “Okay, Jake,” Auburn said, stealing a glance at Trey. “We’re going to win this. Your brother and Uncle Trey don’t have the kind of teamwork it takes for an operation like this. You and I? We’re golden.”
“Are you going to let her trash talk us like that, Ty?” Trey demanded. The look he gave her reminded her of their first showdown in Carl’s hospital room—only now she could see the gleam of humor behind it.
“You guys are going down,” Ty informed them, just as Hannah counted off, “3 … 2 …1 … go!”
Auburn and Jake came out of the gate slow but sure. Having quite a bit of previous experience with wheelbarrow races in the sand, she made sure she didn’t push him faster than he could move his stubby little arms on the uneven surface. Trey on the other hand, got Tyler going so fast he collapsed in a heap. By the time Ty had shaken the sand out of his hair, stopped laughing, and put his feet back in Trey’s hands, Auburn and Jake were almost to the finish line.
“Slow and steady wins the race,” Auburn called over her shoulder.
“We’re going to win!” Jake cried.
“Don’t let her win!” Ty yelled up at Trey.
Obediently, Trey tried again to speed things up, but succeeded only in dumping Ty over again, and this time, Ty’s momentum brought Trey down with him. Jake, full of piss and vinegar from his win, tumbled down on top of his brother and uncle, and the three of them wrestled until they were all covered with sand.
Hannah and Chiara, who had come down to watch the race, flanked Auburn, who had retreated to a safe distance to avoid getting sand in her eyes and mouth.
“They’re really cute,” Hannah said.
“Are your ovaries okay?” Chiara whispered.
“Shut up,” Auburn hissed back. But they weren’t. They really weren’t. They’d imploded at some point while Trey was laughing and rolling around with his nephews, small boys all over him like puppies. It was maybe fifty percent the nephew-puppies, though, and fifty percent the amount of sand in Trey’s hair and on his clothes.
