by Ally Blake
Unlike Rach, who’d set her treadmill up in his office, a small TV hooked to the front of it so she could watch the Kardashians, Avery soaked every moment in. Whether it was sitting on the jetty at Charter North watching him tinker with a dicky engine or on a bed of sketchy beach grass on Crescent Cove beach throwing a stick to Hull. She’d immersed herself in Crescent Cove.
Watching the cove through her eyes reminded him why he’d worked so hard to work himself back into the fabric of the place. And how little time he spent savouring it. What was the point of living in the most beautiful place on earth if you never even noticed?
Avery turned as he neared, hands wrapped around a cone. At the sight of her tongue curling about the melting ice cream, he missed a step and near ended up ass up. She looked up as he righted himself, grinned, and lifted her melting ice cream in a wave.
Hull peeled away to say hello and she crouched down to give the dog a cuddle about the ears. Even offered him a lick of the ice cream from her wrist and laughed when he took it.
When she stood Hull bounded back to join Jonah but from that point Avery’s eyes were all on him as he jogged on the spot. He knew her odd eyes were dilated, even from the other side of the street. Knew they coursed over him, paused on the parts of him she liked best.
The urge to go to her, to kiss her, to throw her over his shoulder, and lock her up in his shack on the cliff was so thick, so all-encompassing, so disquieting he gave her a quick wave then kept running, just to prove he could.
“You!” said a woman who appeared as if from nowhere—her face red as a tomato.
Jonah only pulled up when he realised she wasn’t talking to him, she was talking to Hull. “Ma’am, can I help you?”
“Don’t you Ma’am me, sonny! Is this your dog?”
Jonah’s cheek twitched with the urge to say no, but when Hull started whimpering in a way that made Jonah’s insides go all squidgy, he heard himself say, “I’m his...main person.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
It’s all I’ve got for you, lady.
“Whatever you are, your...mongrel has been sniffing around my Petunia and you need to make him stop.”
“Your—”
At that moment Avery appeared at his side. He caught her scent, her warmth, the zing of her travelling down his left arm before she even said a word.
“Hey, little thing. Petunia, is it?” she cooed, leaning towards the crazy woman’s handbag where Jonah only just noticed a bald-headed little thing so overbred it could barely be labelled canine. Avery reached out to pat the thing’s head, but it grew fangs and went in for a nip. She pulled back and sank down an arm around Hull’s head, muttering loud enough for all to hear, “Really, Hull. Her?”
Jonah barely had a moment to note how much calmer Hull was with Avery all snuggled up to him before the woman stuck herself back into his line of sight. “Petunia is in heat.”
Jonah snapped back to the present. “Do not tell me she’s knocked up.”
“No, she’s not carrying! Thank goodness. And the last thing she needs is for your mutt to ruin her chances of producing champion offspring.”
“My dog’s not a mutt. While yours is—”
“Cute as a button,” said Avery, standing at his side. “And champion, hey? Wowee. If she was my dog I’d take extra special care to keep her away from lusty male suitors. They can be temptation incarnate when they’re all big and hairy like this guy.”
Her voice was so kind, consoling, with that sophisticated New York measure, that the woman’s face twitched as though she had a glitch in her regular programming. Then her eyes slid away from Avery and back to Jonah. And she looked at him as if she hadn’t really seen him before. More precisely, looked hard at his big and hairy chest.
Jonah took a step back and the woman shook her head as if coming out of a trance. “Just keep your mutt on a leash. Or I’ll sue. Or I’ll have him put down.”
At that Jonah regained his lost step and more, leaning in and forcing the woman to look up and up and up. “Hang on a second, lady. If you kept your Pansy—”
“Petunia,” Avery muttered.
“Petunia—whatever—at home while she’s in heat rather than schlepping her out in your bloody handbag, then my dog wouldn’t have looked twice at her. And I’ll have you know he’s not a mutt. He’s a superb dog. A smart dog. A loving, loyal, kind dog. You and your little rat would be lucky to have him in your life!”
The other woman stormed off with her shivering critter in tow.
“Wow,” Jonah said, running a hand over his sweat-dampened hair, knowing not all the sweat had been from the running. He glared down at Hull, who looked up at him with a kind of despair as the object of his affection was whisked away.
“Your dog.”
Jonah glanced at Avery to find her back to licking her ice cream, a rogue smile gleaming deep within her mismatched eyes.
“I’m sorry?”
“You said Hull was your dog. There’s no going back from that.”
She tipped up onto her toes, placed a cool hand on his bare chest, and kissed him, a seriously hot lip lock that tasted like summer and ice cream and everything sweet and wholesome. Everything about the cove that made it feel like home. Then her hand trailed down his chest, her nails catching in his chest hair in a way that was the opposite of wholesome.
She walked backwards, back towards the resort, the frill of her bikini bottom bouncing up and down as if it were beckoning him to follow. Then said, “Your dog’s a big softie, Jonah North. Just like his owner.”
“Didn’t I just hear you tell that woman I was temptation incarnate?”
She didn’t even pretend she was talking about Hull. “I’m in PR. Which more often than not means taking not naturally pleasant products and talking them up till they smell like roses. Now you know I’m good at it.”
Hips swinging, hair swaying, cheap thongs slapping on the hot concrete, she left him feeling anything but soft.
With a growl he turned and ran. And ran. And ran.
* * *
Avery headed into the Tropicana Nights, all aglow after her little run-in with Jonah.
Intending to take a long cool shower to wash off the sunscreen and ice cream and smirk before checking in with her mother, she took a short cut past the pool. Middle of the day and there was nobody there. So she gave her sticky hands a quick wash in the crystal-clear pool, then nearly fell in when she saw she wasn’t alone—Claudia was all curled up on a white sun lounge.
“Hey, stranger!” Avery called out as she neared.
Claudia came to as if from far away. “Hey, kiddo! What’s the haps?”
Avery parked her backside in the lounge next to Claudia’s and filled her in on the unlikely Petunia.
“So you and Jonah are getting along quite well, then,” Claude asked.
“We are,” said Avery, and even she heard the sigh in her voice. So she qualified, “I mean, if you could create the perfect man for a summer fling, he’d be it, right?”
Claudia nodded wistfully. “Can’t fault your logic there.”
Avery nudged Claude’s chair with her foot. “Which is why it kind of shocks me that he was engaged once upon a time.”
“That he was,” Claude said, the nods slowing. “Are you digging?”
“Frantically,” Avery admitted.
“Her name was Rachel.”
“Got that.”
“She lived here, with him, for several months.”
Months? Several?
“She was gorgeous, too. Uber-tanned, luscious dark hair, legs that went on forever. Amazonian, really. Like a half-foot taller than you. Fitness freak too, a body that would make you weep. And charismatic! Reserves of energy like nobody I’ve ever met—”
“Right, okay,” Aver
y said, leaning over and slamming a hand over Claude’s now-laughing mouth. “I get it. She was perfect.”
Claude ducked away, grin intact. “She was a cool chick. But she was totally wrong for Jonah.”
“How?” she asked, wondering how much it had to do with her being a city girl, him being a beach boy. Wishing she didn’t care about the answer so very much.
“Turned out she was only waiting out her time here till her boss back in Sydney offered up a big enough package to lure her back.”
“But weren’t they engaged?”
“I think she’d have happily taken him back to Sydney and kept him there if he didn’t do that big, strong, tree man thing better than any man I’ve ever known. She never saw beyond the hotness and the stubbornness to his big heart.” Claude’s eyes narrowed a fraction, then she said, “You see it, though, don’t you?”
“What?” Well, sure she did, but that was beside the point. “No. Don’t you go getting ideas now.”
“I had to try.”
“Wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”
Claudia took Avery’s hands and squeezed, as if making sure Avery was paying attention before she said, “You need to know, though, that I’ve never seen him smile as much as when he’s with you. While you...” Claude’s eyes roved over Avery’s face. “You, my friend, are glowing.”
Avery flapped a “shut up” hand at Claude, and lay back in her sun lounge. Staring up at the cloudless blue sky, more questions came to her only when she looked over at Claude it was to find tears streaming down her face. She leapt to Claude’s sun lounge, wrapping an arm about her shoulder. “Claude! Are they happy tears? Tell me they’re happy tears!”
Claudia perked up, swiped under her eyes, and smiled. It was a pathetic effort. At least now her friend might be ready to tell her what the hell was really going on.
“That’s it,” Avery said, “enough of this stoic crap. Tell me. Are your parents okay?”
Claude shook her head so hard her wispy ponytail slapped her in the cheeks. “No, nothing like that. It’s just while you’re having the best summer of your life I can safely say this has been my worst. The resort... You must have noticed how quiet we are.”
Avery looked across the vast pool that curled beneath the balconies of dozens of empty rooms. “When I said I was coming you said something about renovating, so I just thought—”
Claudia laughed, and sniffed. “We can’t renovate. We have no money. The resort’s bust, or near enough. I’ve been scraping by since I took over, but so much needs fixing and there’s nothing left to fix it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”
“Because I wanted you to have a good time. And I’m pissed off at my parents for not being here to give me any advice. And now I just don’t know what else I can do.”
Avery’s stomach turned at the fear in Claudia’s big blue eyes. “Luke’s the advertising guru, right? What plans has he put in place?”
“Robot just sent me an email,” Claude said, flashing her phone at Avery before curling it back into a tight grip. “He’s given me an ultimatum. Get the resort in the black or he’s taking over.”
“What?”
“He wants to turn it into some flashy Contiki-style resort with a swim-up bar, and toga parties catering to hordes of drunken twenty-somethings.”
“He does not!”
“He has figures, graphs, a business plan.”
“But that’s not what the Tropicana Nights is about. It’s kitsch. Family fun. Like a cruise ship without the seasickness.”
“Yes! You get it and you’ve only been here twice. He grew up here and still—” She couldn’t get the words out.
“What an ass,” Avery said.
And Claude coughed out a laugh. Her laughter turned to more tears, but it was better that than staring into space as she had been the past minute. “Wasn’t this the same man you were set to ride off into the sunset with not that long ago?”
“I saw the error of my ways just in time.”
“Thank goodness for Jonah.”
Yeah, thank goodness for Jonah. But she didn’t have time for that now. In fact she’d been a horrible friend all summer, letting Claude get this far without bringing her into the loop.
Avery took Claude by the arms and gave her a shake. “What do you need me to do?”
“You can’t do anything.”
“I can do quite a lot, as it turns out. I didn’t get a first-class education for nothing.”
“There’s no time.”
“Not for a complete turnaround, sure. But what if we could stall Luke? To convince him to give you a stay of execution?”
A flicker of hope came to life in Claude’s eyes. “But you’re busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Jonah.”
“Funny girl.”
Claude gave a watery smile.
“Claude, I’m not about to walk away from you for some hot summer loving. You’re family.” And family comes first. How many times had her mother said that, using it as a hook to drag Avery back into the fold any time she looked ready to stray? This time it was true.
Claude’s mouth flashed into its first full smile. “Is it as hot as I imagine?”
“Hotter. And yet, here I am. What do you need?”
Sighing long and hard as her glassy gaze wafted over the huge, near-empty resort surrounding them all sides, Claude admitted, “A miracle.”
* * *
“A party,” Jonah repeated as Avery used his warm bare chest as a pillow. Together they lay on a massive hammock strung between two leaning palm trees down on his secluded private beach at the base of his cliff while the tide lapped a lullaby against the big black rocks cradling the small patch of sand.
“Not just a party,” Avery said on a blissful sigh. “The party. I’m a New Yorker, Mr North. One who has spent nearly every August of my life in the Hamptons. My mother is on so many charity boards it would make you wince. And I am quite the PR savant. So I, Mr North, know how to throw a party.”
Ironic, considering a party was why she’d fled her home country in the first place. Another reason why the party to relaunch the Tropicana Nights Resort was going to be the most upbeat party ever thrown.
“And it’s you, young Jonah, who gave me the idea.”
“I seriously doubt that,” he murmured, his deep voice reverberating through her chest.
“Way back when, you told me the cove was more than a tourist town—it’s a real community. I figured, why not let that community rally around the idea of an ‘under new management’ icon? So we’ve invited everyone who has any influence on where people stay in this town. And, using one of the great secrets of the human condition, we’ll make them desperate to come by charging an absolute packet for tickets, thus giving Claude’s coffers an immediate boost! We are going to put the Tropicana Nights Resort back on the map.”
He lifted his head and cupped her chin so he could look her in the eye, clearly less excited than Claude had been. “So what you’re really telling me is that you’ll be busy the next couple of weeks.”
Oh, that’s why. “Some.”
“Hmm,” he growled, lowering himself back down. And wrapping her up tighter. She was near sure of it.
And even while every inch of her craved nothing more than to spend every second of her summer she had left in the arms of this man—converting him to her beloved Yankees—Go Yanks!—watching him let himself love Hull, and just swimming deep in the tumble of feelings she’d never come close to feeling before, Claude was her oldest friend.
And thus, miles from home, she’d once again found herself caught in the perennial tug of war between responsibility and aspiration.
In the past responsibility won, every time. It wasn’t even a question. She
’d lost count of the dates she’d broken because her mother had called her on her way to a nervous breakdown. But far from the epicentre of that life, she could see that she’d been perfectly happy to indulge in her mother’s emotional blackmail. The ready excuse had been a relief. Beneath the Pollyanna effervescence, she’d been paralysed by fear of getting hurt.
But here, now, for the first time in memory she felt as if the choice was totally up to her. And while helping Claude in her time of greatest need was a no-brainer, she was all in with Jonah for as long as she had him.
“I’ll be busy,” she said, shuffling till she fell deeper into his grooves. “But not all the time.”
Getting her meaning loud and clear, Jonah ran a lazy finger up and down her bare back, making her spine curl.
“In fact, I foresee many more days like this before my time here is at an end.”
His hand stopped its delicious exploration as she felt him harden beneath her, and not in a good way. She shifted to look at his face to find the muscles in his jaw working overtime and his eyes glinting with silver streaks.
She took a careful breath, and had even more careful thoughts. They didn’t ever talk about her leaving, but only because they hadn’t needed to. It was simply there, a big beautiful prophylactic against the times she found her softer self wondering if being “all in” was less about time and more about the connection between them. Those moments when she caught him looking at her in a way that made her feel something sweet and painful, when it bloomed so sudden and bright within her it took her breath away.
Needing to change the subject, Avery said, “Speaking of hammocks.”
“Were we?”
“Yes,” she said, waiting for him to agree to pretend they hadn’t both been thinking about The End.
With a short expulsion of breath he nodded. “Hammocks.”
“Can we borrow yours?”
“For what?
“The party! Have you not been listening to a word I’ve said?”
“Hard when you keep wriggling against me like that.”
This they could do, Avery thought, curving her spine to meet his hand, breathing out long and hard when it went back to its lazy trawls up and down her back. The sexy stuff left little room for thinking, much less over-thinking.
