Beach Reads Box Set

by Madden-Mills, Ilsa

  Hugs are awkward and not all that enjoyable if you’re meeting a stranger for the first time. They’re reserved for people you know and like. And while I’m sure she’s lovely, a hug seems a little overkill.

  Holt chuckles beside me.

  “We’re glad you could make it, Blaire,” Rodney says.

  “I’m happy to be here.”

  “We’re happy you’re here too.” Larissa sticks a hand across Oliver. “You can call me Riss.”

  I give her hand a gentle shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  My shoulders relax as I take in Larissa’s genuine friendliness. I wasn’t expecting it, but maybe I should have.

  She’s about Sienna’s age and is as cute as a button. She has the same disarming way about her as Sienna too.

  I instantly like her, which is weird for me.

  “I’d shake your hand, Blaire, but—” Boone begins, but Holt cuts him off.

  “But I’d kick your ass.”

  “Oh, the hell you would.”

  The entire family laughs except for their parents. They’re engrossed in a conversation with a couple sitting behind them.

  I try to ignore the way my heart hiccups as Holt takes my hand again. I’m not even sure he realizes that he’s done it, but I’m sure as heck not going to pull it away.

  “I think Holt would take you, Boone,” Wade says. He takes off his black-rimmed glasses and looks at his younger brother. “You don’t have a whole lot going for you besides a lot of mouth.”

  “What?” Boone’s jaw drops. “You’re supposed to be on my side here, fucker.”

  “Everyone’s money is on Holt,” Oliver says. “Shut up, Boone.”

  Boone looks at me with the biggest puppy dog eyes I’ve ever seen. It’s ridiculously adorable.

  “You know what?” I say with a laugh. “It doesn’t matter because we can’t reach each other to shake hands anyway.”

  “They’re always like this,” Larissa says. “They’re a lot to deal with.”

  “I have three brothers and two boy cousins that are a lot to deal with too,” I say. “This doesn’t bother me.”

  “You should see it when Coy is around. It gets ridiculous,” she says.

  “He must be like my cousin Peck. The instigator.”

  “Totally.” She laughs. “He threatened to have me come on stage tonight and dance. I told him I will flat-out refuse and ruin his show.”

  Ruin his show?

  I don’t know exactly what my face does, but Larissa balks.

  “Oops,” she groans.

  “I …” I look at Holt, who is pointedly not looking at me. “Do you want to explain why your brother would ask your cousin to come on stage?”

  Holt bites his bottom lip. The lines around his eyes crinkle, making him look more like his father.

  My heartbeat quickens.

  He doesn’t say a word. Just works hard not to smile.

  “Fine.” I peer around him again. “Larissa, why would your cousin Coy ask you to come on stage tonight?”

  She looks at Holt. Then at me. Then at Holt again.

  “Hey, kids,” Siggy calls from the other end of the aisle. “I forgot to tell you. Coy has to leave town earlier than expected tomorrow. Can you all come at ten for brunch instead? I know you all have lives and things, but it would mean a lot to have you all at home for a quick meal.”

  Oh my God.

  They all turn to their mother except Holt. I think he’s too afraid to look away from me.

  “So, Kelvin McCoy is my brother,” Holt tells me.

  “What?”

  I put it all together before this, but to hear it out of his mouth is insane. My brain chooses this exact moment to replay all the things I’ve said about the band and the music and …

  Shit.

  “You jerk,” I say, my brain still processing all this.

  I’m not mad about this, just shocked. It’s kind of funny that I didn’t know because everyone probably does.

  Everyone but me.

  Damn him.

  Holt grins like the cat that caught the canary.

  “His name is Coy Kelvin Mason,” he says. “He goes by Kelvin McCoy, which is also the name of the band—which is weird to me, but I’m not in charge.”

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  Holt’s body rumbles beside me.

  “I mean it,” I tell him. “Why did you let me go on and on about him?”

  “It was funny.”

  “It’s totally not funny at all,” I say with a laugh.

  He lifts my chin with his finger, and I open my eyes. He’s peering into my face with a sweet sincerity that makes my stomach flip-flop.

  “Maybe I should’ve told you,” he says softly. “But it was adorable that you didn’t know. Besides, if I told you, I wouldn’t have anything to tease you about.”

  I study him. His eyes are sweet and concerned yet have the hint of trouble that I love so much. His thumb brushes over my knuckles.

  “It’s fine,” I tell him. “Just know that I might’ve chosen my words differently had I known he was your brother.”

  “I know. Which is why I didn’t tell you. I wanted the truth.”

  I grin. “I would’ve given you the truth either way. I just might’ve selected different details to share.”

  He turns his body so that he’s only facing me. “Is that so?”

  I nod. “I might’ve told you that his voice is sweet like honey and puts me in the mood to …” I lean closer. “Do things to you when we’re not surrounded by his adoring fans.”

  Holt’s eyes sparkle. “Keep it up, sweetheart, and you’ll miss the show.”

  “Only if you can put on a better one.”

  His lips part to say something when Oliver elbows him in the side.

  “Don’t worry about calling Wade—” Oliver says.

  “Shit.” Holt whirls around to face his brothers. “I forgot. I’m sorry.”

  “Oliver called me anyway, and we worked it out,” Wade says. “I have a solution. Never fear …”

  His voice drifts off as the lights fade, and music begins to play.

  The crowd roars to life. The giant black screen behind the stage turns on, and the words Kelvin McCoy flash in green.

  I settle back in my seat, but not before Holt leans over the armrest. With his mouth hovering over the shell of my ear, he whispers, “I will give you a show tonight that you won’t forget.”

  My skin erupts in goose bumps as I look at him. His eyes are hooded. His lips damp. His cologne chooses this moment to trickle through the air and attack my senses.

  “Promise?” I ask.

  It’s all I can say. One word is my max.

  Holt’s grin turns devilish before the lights fade to black, and Kelvin McCoy comes on stage. Anything either of us would say would be deadened by the noise filling Barridge Stadium.

  Instead of talking, I rest my shoulder against Holt’s. He rests our locked hands on my thigh. And as I listen to the opening lines of Kelvin McCoy’s hit song, “Backroads,” I wonder if maybe it’s not wrong to have a little hope that things might work out.

  Crazier things have happened in life.

  Right?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Holt

  The sound of the shower is soothing.

  I sit on the edge of my bed, a towel wrapped around my waist, and listen to water cascade off Blaire’s body in the other room.

  I’m so tired.

  The concert was entertaining. Coy put on a hell of a show. It was fun being in the middle of the chaos and watching Mom cheer on her son as he danced and sang his way across the stage. It was more exciting to sit next to Blaire.

  She watched every piece of the performance with rapt attention. A smile sat permanently on her face. She cheered, sang along to a few of the songs, and looked the part of a happy concert-goer. And then, after the show, we raced back home.

  My heartbeat picks up as I rememb
er the sound of her back hitting the foyer wall. The way she moaned into my mouth as I pushed into her tight body. The feeling of her smile against my neck before I put her feet back on the floor.

  “Fuck,” I whisper.

  Tonight was too much—too much of everything.

  Mom and Blaire had a conversation I couldn’t follow about dishes. Apparently, Blaire’s grandmother collects the same type as my mother. Wade fell into a conversation with my date about bridges. She talked whiskey with Boone and chatted away with Larissa about country music all the way back to the car.

  It was surreal—not because Blaire could hold an effortless conversation with everyone in my family, but because it seemed right.

  She fit in. She blended right in with the familial dynamics, even going as far as to silence Boone with a look when he started to get out of hand with a story about a woman named Gia. She acted the part of a member of the Mason family, and I liked it.

  “You’re getting in so deep,” I warn myself.

  I know she’s leaving and going back to her career. It’s more than a job to her. It matters. She has a fucking degree to practice law. She’s not going to throw all that into the wind and stay here.

  I don’t even necessarily want her to stay.

  Do I?

  I don’t know what I want.

  I know that having her in my home makes me want to come home. I know that seeing her hanging out with my brothers settles me. I know that the idea of curling up in my bed next to her in a few minutes is something that I’ve looked forward to since I left this morning.

  But I also know that all of this shit has caused my work to slip. And I can’t have that.

  “And that brings me right back to reality.”

  I tug on my wet hair and feel the burn in my scalp.

  There are a million things I need to be doing tonight instead of going to bed with Blaire. I need to go over our proposal to Landry. I need to call Wade and see what he decided to do today. I need to pore over the dollars and cents and make sure I’m investing my family’s wealth in the right way.

  No woman is worth losing millions of dollars over.

  Period.

  I can’t risk it.

  My heart sinks as the water shuts off.

  Just enjoy it while you can.

  Blaire comes around the corner with a white towel wrapped around her body. Her hair is still wet, but towel-dried enough that it’s not dripping. Her skin is flushed from the heat of the shower, and I want nothing more than to pause time.

  “Hey,” she says softly. “I figured you’d be asleep by now.”

  “I have to go downstairs and work a little bit first.”

  “I get that.”

  She walks across the room and stands in front of me. Her lips twist around as if she’s trying to figure out what to say. It’s only when she glances over her shoulder and then back at my bed that I realize what she’s thinking.

  She doesn’t know where to go.

  “Come up here,” I tell her as I scoot back toward the headboard.

  A few seconds later, she’s crawling across the mattress. I stretch out and open my arms so she can curl up next to me.

  She doesn’t hesitate. Her body molds to mine as her head rests on my shoulder. My fingertips trickle down the length of her arm, taking in the softness of her skin.

  The room is quiet. The air is humid from the shower but cool. I kick the blanket folded on the edge of the bed up and tuck it around us.

  Blaire yawns. It’s a quiet, sweet sound that lulls me into a state of relaxation too.

  “Thank you for taking me tonight,” she whispers. “It was a lot of fun.”

  “It was, wasn’t it?”

  “I’d forgotten what it was like to have fun.”

  Her body moves as I chuckle.

  “How can you forget how to have fun?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. I remember doing fun things a long time ago. I guess it’s been so long that I forgot how.”

  “That’s sad, Blaire.”

  “I know.” She burrows closer. “But tonight was fun. That’s what matters.”

  I bend my face toward her hair and breathe her in.

  I know she has to leave, but I’m going to miss this.

  “Your brothers remind me of mine,” she says. “Yours are better mannered. Aside from that, they’re really cut from the same cloth.”

  “You mean they’re all heathens?”

  She laughs. “Yes. Except Wade. I like him a lot.”

  “You don’t like the others? Wait until Boone hears this.”

  “That’s not what I meant. I just mean that Wade is really interesting. We had a nice conversation.”

  She traces the lines on my stomach. Each stroke makes me shiver.

  “I had a thought while I was in the shower,” she says cautiously.

  “What’s that?”

  She leans back and looks at me. “I don’t know anything about what you guys do. I want to make that clear.”

  “Go on …”

  “Well, Wade was talking to me a little bit about your Landry project and how you need to maximize the revenue to justify the cost.”

  I pull my brows together.

  Is she actually going to talk shop with me?

  “I read an article on the flight here,” she says. “It was saying how the Observation Decks create more revenue for the Empire State Building than the office space. I understand that the views won’t be the same. I mean, the Empire State Building has views of New York City. But, Wade mentioned needing an environmentally-friendly design, and I just thought that maybe you could implement something like this …”

  I stare at her. My jaw is probably dropped.

  Holy shit.

  “Do you think that could work?” she asks.

  “Oh, absolutely.” I twist in bed so I can see her better. “You might be on to something. Depending on how we position the buildings …” I imagine Wade’s latest set of plans. “If we move the one structure to the other side, there would be a clear view of the ocean. If we raise the building a few more stories …”

  We could use the roof space like an observation deck. Maybe even turn it into a venue for events. There’s nothing like it in Savannah.

  Wow. Why didn’t I think of this?

  Blaire lays her palm flat on my chest as she watches me think. Thoughts pour through my brain like an open faucet, and all I see are dollar signs in our pockets and my father’s smile at a job well done.

  “You might have just fixed our problem, sweetheart,” I tell her.

  She grins. “I hate to tell you, but it wasn’t that hard.”

  I take her hand off my stomach and press it against my cock.

  “Say it isn’t hard again,” I tease.

  Her eyes grow wide as she palms me. “I stand corrected.”

  I brush a strand of hair out of her face. “You, Miss Gibson, are the total package.”

  She tries to look away, but I don’t let her. Instead, I take her chin and tug it gently toward me.

  When I look into her eyes, the strangest feeling comes over me. I want to make her feel good, to know how amazing she is. I want to protect her from the assholes of the world that might try to make her feel less because they have low self-esteem.

  I can see all kinds of things hidden in the depths of her gorgeous blue eyes. Summers in the sea. Winters in Aspen beneath the giant Christmas tree my mother sources and has decorated before we ever show up to the ski lodge. Falls walking through the city, drinking apple cider and handing out candy on the front steps at Halloween.

  I can see so much by looking in her eyes that it terrifies me.

  How all of that would ever fit into my life, I don’t know.

  To do something well, you have to focus on it. Dedicate yourself to it. You can’t expect something to have a one hundred percent result when you put in only a partial effort. Life doesn’t work that way.

  What would happen if Blaire and I extended this arrang
ement?

  Would she come and go from my house freely? Would it interrupt my schedule? Would she read too much into it and end up broken?

  And knowing how hurt she’s been in the past by not being heard and supported, do I have the faculties to supply her with what she needs?

  I don’t know.

  Blaire pulls away from my hand and places her cheek against my chest again. I pull her as close to me as I can.

  “Are you sleepy?” I ask.

  She nods.

  “I do have to go downstairs for a little bit.” I bend down and kiss the top of her head. “I need to call Wade and give him your ideas.”

  “Make sure you give me credit,” she jokes.

  “Of course.”

  She yawns. “How is your project going besides the part you needed my help with?”

  I chuckle. “It’s going pretty good. It’s been a family affair, for sure. We’ve all had to put our heads together.”

  “If my brothers had to put their heads together, there would be bloodshed.”

  “Well, Coy isn’t involved, so that helps.”

  I can feel her smile against me.

  “I like it when we all work together,” I admit. “The camaraderie is nice.”

  “When will you know if it all works out?”

  “We’re waiting on confirmation, but in two or three days. Graham was going out of town this week and wasn’t sure when he was coming back.”

  She swallows hard. “So about the same time as I go home?”

  The words hang in the air. It’s a simple question with a simple answer. But saying it out loud feels like I’m shoving a boulder off the side of a cliff.

  “I need to check with Yancy and see if she’s bought me a ticket,” she says softly.

  Instead of replying, I snuggle her tighter.

  Moonlight floods my room. Shadows cast across the walls and dance as the tree branches move in the breeze outside my window.

  Imagining Blaire not being here in a couple of days already feels lonely.

  I’m not ready for that yet.

  “Hey,” I whisper, unsure if she’s asleep or awake.

  “Yeah?”

  I force a swallow. “I’m meeting my family at my mom’s tomorrow for brunch. Would you like to go with me?”