Beloved in Blue_Sweet Contemporary Beach Romance

by Elana Johnson

  Gypsy, the golden retriever, tried to stick her nose through the metal mesh while Fable, the husky, sat on the seat and stared at Adam with his keen, blue eyes.

  Trent had secured the funding to start a K9 unit in Hawthorne Harbor, and he sometimes wanted the four German Shepherds he was training to have other dogs in the pack. Gypsy loved the added social time with the canines. Fable...not so much. He whined as Adam navigated toward the police station and parked around the block so he could take the dogs into the fenced yard.

  Gypsy paced at the gate while Adam tugged on Fable’s leash. “You’ll like it,” he told the husky. “Just don’t be so standoffish.” But it was in the husky’s nature to stare down other dogs and then snap if one got too close.

  Adam had explained all this to Trent, but he still wanted Fable to come socialize with the other dogs. It was definitely more for them than Fable, though Adam thought it was good for his husky to realize he wasn’t the only dog on the planet. Maybe the most handsome, but definitely not the only canine worth having around.

  Unlatching the gate, Adam waited while Gypsy streaked inside, her tail wagging her whole body. He took Fable in too and unlatched the leash. “Go on.” The husky started forward, almost like he wanted to see the other dogs. Adam lifted his hand to wave to Trent, who returned the gesture. The gate slammed closed, and Fable jumped and barked.

  Gypsy ran in circles around the four German shepherds, who all sat. Two of them had their tongues hanging out, and the other two had tails going bang bang bang! against the ground.

  Trent made a noise and the shepherds released from their poised position. Gypsy barked and all but one of the shepherds herded around her. The other one—the largest—came over to Fable and started sniffing him. A low growl started in Fable’s throat, and Adam snapped his fingers.

  Trent came over, and Adam said, “Maybe you can train him up.”

  “Huskies are a little finicky.” Trent shook Adam’s hand. “But look at the shepherds. They all sat there and waited. And they like other dogs.”

  Adam had not been trained in training dogs as part of his education. They didn’t have a huge drug problem in Hawthorne Harbor, or other reasons to have a fully trained police dog. “So show me something they can do.”

  Trent looked at him, an eagerness in his face Adam appreciated. “Wilson’s the best one,” he said.

  “Which one’s that?”

  “He’s the pack leader.” Trent pointed. “The one who went straight to Fable.” The German shepherd still hovered near Fable, his happy face inviting Fable to just relax and start to play.

  “So I’ll put on the suit.” Trent walked away before Adam could inquire further about the suit and what that might mean. Trent returned wearing a canvas-colored suit that made him look three times as big as usual.

  He whistled through his teeth and all four dogs came over to him, their desire to work obvious in their sharp eyes. “Wilson,” he said. He lifted his arm until it was level with his shoulder and continued with a sharp command in another language Adam didn’t understand, and the dog ran and leapt at Trent. The dog’s teeth landed right in the middle of Trent’s forearm, causing the man to stumble backward.

  He stayed upright, but the other dogs started to bark. He said something else and Wilson released, falling back into line with the other dogs. Another one inched forward, a whine in the back of his throat.

  “Wow,” Adam said. “That was amazing.”

  “They can find things too,” Trent said. “We’re still working on all of it.”

  “What language are you using?”

  “Danish.” He shook his arm, though there was no way the dog’s teeth could’ve penetrated it. “Hey, what are you doin’ tonight? A few of us are going down to the beach for a little barbeque before it gets too cold.”

  Sounded like just something Adam would do. At least his friends didn’t seem too worried about his position as Chief of Police—the reason he’d finally gotten from Anita about why she’d broken up with him.

  “The relationship was too public,” she’d said. Adam mentally scoffed just thinking about it. Yes, he was a public figure. Sat on the City Council. Everyone knew his face. And she didn’t want to be held to the same standard.

  Adam didn’t quite believe her. There was something else about him she didn’t like, and she was using his job as an excuse.

  “Adam?” Trent asked. “Tonight?”

  “Oh, right.” He shook his head. “I can’t. I have a...a date.” He wasn’t sure how Janey was qualifying their dinner tonight, but in Adam’s mind, it was a date.

  “Oh, yeah?” Trent grinned at him. “Who are you goin’ out with?”

  Adam balked, his voice suddenly mute.

  “I see how it is.” Trent shook his head. “You don’t have to say.”

  “It’s just a little early,” Adam said. Especially because he wasn’t even sure how Janey was classifying their dinner that evening. He realized now he shouldn’t have said anything. He should’ve just said he couldn’t make it to the beach and left it alone.

  The door slammed, and Adam looked up to find himself alone in the yard with six dogs, one of which was a husky whose growl indicated he really didn’t want to be there.

  Chapter Five

  Janey could barely focus at work. Luckily, she wasn’t working with any groups today—those usually happened on the weekends, when the lodge was fully booked. She worked in her office on the main floor of the lodge, tucked behind the reception desk.

  Music filtered into the room from the speakers set into the ceiling, and the whole place smelled like pine trees. But she couldn’t focus on the report she was supposed to be reading about the reintroduction of the char that had once been native to the lake just a few hundred yards from the lodge.

  “Heya.”

  Janey yelped and spun from her desk to find Maya standing in the doorway. “Oh.” She pressed her palm against her heartbeat. “You scared me.”

  Maya giggled and bounced into the office. She sat down in the chair opposite of Janey, her black, curly hair still springing once she’d settled. “You’re still reading that memo about the char?”

  Janey slapped her hand over it. “Yes. No. I’m....” She didn’t know how to finish, and she exhaled with a small laugh. “Distracted today.” She’d wanted to text Gretchen until she figured everything out, but Gretchen was way too close to Adam for Janey’s comfort. She’d asked her friend not to say anything to Drew, but the man was Gretchen’s fiancé. Neither of them should be caught inside Janey’s insanity, so she’d been on her own.

  And she’d obsessed all day yesterday about texting Adam. Should she? Was that too eager? But if she didn’t, was that being rude? Was it conveying some silent message to him that she wasn’t excited about their dinner that evening?

  It wasn’t even dinner. More of a soup tasting.

  “Why so distracted?” Maya asked, reaching for the package of gum on Janey’s desk. “Can I?”

  “Sure, yeah.” Janey looked at Maya, oscillating between spilling everything and keeping her mouth shut. She’d worked with Maya for about six years, and the two were good friends. “Can I ask you something?”

  Maya leaned forward and nodded, her mouth full of gum.

  “So if you were coming up to the lodge with a man tonight, would you consider that a date?”

  Maya blinked and glanced over her shoulder to the open doorway. “Depends on who the man is.”

  That was what Janey had thought too. When she’d come to the lodge with Matt, it was a date. She didn’t have anyone else to reference, and part of Janey liked that and part of her surely didn’t.

  “So who is it?” Maya asked.

  “Adam Herrin.” Janey’s heart skipped a beat just thinking about the man.

  Maya sucked in a breath and her eyes rounded. She started nodding, her curls bouncing with the movement. “If a woman goes to dinner with Adam Herrin, it’s a date.”

  “I’ve known him my whole li
fe. Like, my entire life.”

  “So what?” Maya cocked her head like she really didn’t understand.

  “He’s my friend.”

  “So how did the dinner come about?”

  Janey told Maya about it, and then said, “And I can’t decide if this is a date or not.”

  “So the real question is, do you want this to be a date?”

  Before Janey could answer, Maya’s phone rang and she squealed as she saw who was calling. “It’s Aaron. I’ll catch you later.” She answered as she left Janey to decide if she wanted her soup tasting with Adam to be a date.

  She hadn’t decided when it was time to go home. Nor when she took Jess out to the Loveland’s where he’d spend the night with Joel and Donna, Adam’s parents. If that wasn’t ironic, Janey wasn’t sure what was.

  His mother worked in the kitchen when they arrived, and she turned as Jess entered. “There he is.” She beamed at him. “I hope you’re ready for this.” She gestured to the recipe book sitting on the counter.

  “What are you guys making today?” Janey asked, hoping to keep the conversation away from her and why she needed a babysitter. When she’d called Donna yesterday morning, all she’d said was she needed someone to watch Jess tonight, and Donna had offered for Jess to sleep over.

  Janey had taken it, because she had no idea how long her...outing with Adam would last, and this way, she didn’t have to explain anything to Jess.

  “Pumpkin pancakes,” Donna said, beaming at Jess. “Did you know your son loves anything with pumpkin in it?”

  Janey tousled Jess’s head as he grinned. “Yeah, he gets that from his dad.” She sucked in a breath, wishing not every single thing about her life reminded her of her husband.

  “We need three eggs from the coops.” Donna smiled at Jess, and he practically ran from the back door. She chuckled after him and asked, “So where are you going tonight?”

  “Oh, uh, just up to the lodge,” Janey said, swallowing past the hitch in her voice.

  Donna turned back to the fridge. “Adam said he was going up there too.”

  Janey almost choked, but she managed to turn the noise into a cough. “What did Adam say?”

  Donna barely glanced over her shoulder. “Said he was meeting a friend.”

  “Oh, that sounds fun. That’s what I’m doing too.” A nervous giggle escaped her lips and she wiped her hands down her thighs. “I better go.” She made a hasty escape, sighing once she made it out of the farmhouse.

  Then her anxiety turned to getting home before Adam arrived to pick her up. Turned out, he was already sitting in the driveway when Janey pulled her Jeep in beside him. She was glad she’d done her hair before taking Jess out to the lavender farm.

  Adam straightened from his police cruiser and gave her a long look, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. “You look great.”

  Janey could barely remember how to breathe. Adam Herrin had never told her she looked nice. He’d been friendly, sure. But this felt...that statement...everything was like this was a date.

  He wore a dark pair of slacks and a dark green shirt, not his usual police uniform. He was stunning and magnificent, and Janey’s mouth felt like someone had stuffed it with cotton balls.

  She’d felt like this with Matt, that night at the Fall Festival. Could she have similar feelings for Adam, now, all these years later? How had she never seen him before?

  “So compliments are bad,” he said, the smile slipping from his face.

  “What?”

  “I said you looked great and you’re just staring at me.” A blush crawled up his neck as he gestured to her front steps. “There’s something there for you.”

  Her eyes flew to the porch, where sure enough, a pastry box sat. It wasn’t the first time she’d found exactly what she needed sitting on her porch. Her anonymous angel had been leaving food, diapers, clothes, and gifts since Matt’s death. She’d asked her neighbors, and they all denied it. No one had ever seen someone dropping things off at the house.

  Janey took a step toward the box, knowing that there were fruit tarts inside. Her mouth watered, but she paused. Looking up into Adam’s penetrating eyes, she touched his collar. “Compliments are always good. Thank you. I think you look great too.”

  His smile returned and he lifted his hand as if he’d touch his hat—if he were wearing one. “You want to run that box inside before we go?”

  “Yes, I’ll throw it in the fridge.” She swiped the box off the top step and hurried into the house. She resisted the urge to stuff something in her mouth so she wouldn’t be so hungry at dinner. Taking just a moment to center herself, she drew in a deep breath. So her stomach felt like she’d swallowed jumping beans. And her hand itched to hold Adam’s.

  So what?

  She was allowed. He was only a couple of years older than her, and he was single. A tremor shook her fingers at the thought of really becoming involved with him. Matt hadn’t had a dangerous job at all, but Adam’s job required him to carry a weapon and wear protective gear. What if he passed away too?

  Janey swallowed, her fear irrational. She knew that much. And still it tumbled through her with the power of water falling over a cliff.

  She turned when she heard the door creak. “I’m coming,” she said.

  “If this is too...weird, I get it,” he said, filling the doorway with his height and his broad shoulders. Matt had been tall and skinny, and Janey wished she wasn’t comparing the two of them.

  “It’s not weird,” she said. “I was just putting the tarts in the fridge.”

  “Tarts?”

  “Fruit tarts. They’re my favorite.”

  “Oh, right. I think I’ve heard you say that. Who brought them over?” He fell back to the porch as she approached.

  “I don’t know. Someone just drops things off from time to time.”

  His right eyebrow quirked, which elicited a giggle from her. “Oh, yeah? A secret admirer, maybe?”

  “I doubt it,” she said. “I think it’s Nana Sophie on the corner, but she keeps denying it.”

  Adam waved for her to go down the steps first. “I hope it’s not lame that I brought the cruiser. It’s either that or an old truck that smells like dogs and doesn’t have heat.”

  Janey laughed, glad some of her earlier tension had fled. “It’s fine.” She slipped into the passenger seat, all of his police equipment between them. He closed her door behind her and sauntered around the front of the car with all the confidence of the police chief.

  He exhaled as he got behind the wheel. “So, I’m dyin’ to know how we’re classifying this.”

  The moment had come, and Janey had to define the thrumming of her pulse and the way he smelled like a musky version of heaven. She looked at him, and he met her gaze with something sharp and heated in his.

  Something zinged along her skin, and she couldn’t believe that this attraction between them was one-sided. “It’s a date,” she said, her voice hardly her own. She cleared the frog from her throat. “Is that okay with you?”

  Adam grinned and flipped the car into reverse. “I was hoping you’d say so.”

  Janey relaxed into the seat after that, the conversation between them as easy as it ever had been. Everything about Adam was the same as it always had been. He was strong, and kind, and while he spoke, he didn’t use words he didn’t need to. When things fell silent between them, that was okay too.

  He pulled into the parking lot at the lodge, and Janey got out to the dusky sight of pine trees, the sound of water lapping the shore in the distance, and the scent of cooking meat. She ran her hands up her arms and said, “Mm. I love this place.”

  Adam glanced left and right as he came around the car to join her. “I don’t get up here much. It’s beautiful.” His movement was sure, and his fingers warm, as he drew her hand into his. “You work here, right?”

  “My office is just behind reception,” she said. “We could stop by and I’ll show you around after we eat.”

&n
bsp; He flashed her another grin as he opened the door to the restaurant. “Sure.”

  The restaurant seemed filled to capacity, but Adam stepped up to the hostess and took her hand again as they were led to a booth in the back corner. The noise wasn’t quite as intense here, and Janey ordered a soda and a water when the waiter appeared mere moments after she’d sat down. She mourned the loss of Adam’s hand in hers as he settled across from her, and new fantasies swam to the front of her mind.

  But she would not be kissing him that night. She’d never kissed on the first date, and she wasn’t going to start now. She had to be careful. Cautious. Go slow. Be sure. After all, this wasn’t just her life anymore.

  “So you didn’t tell your mother about us going to dinner together,” she said.

  Adam’s eyes flew to hers, a fair bit of panic in them. “I didn’t know what to tell her.” He lifted one shoulder into a shrug, the surprise fading from his expression. “Plus, I keep things pretty close to the vest until I have all the facts I need to start talking about them.”

  “She’s watching Jess tonight.”

  “She and Joel love Jess.”

  Janey nodded, a ball of emotion forming in her throat as quickly as it took to blink. “They do, yes.”

  “Good thing my brother got that started for me.” Adam graced her with another smile. “My mom says Jess likes to cook with her. Maybe he’d like to come help me with the soup recipes for the Fall Festival.”

  “And you can keep an eye on him that way,” Janey said.

  A flicker of emotion ran across his face, but he erased it quickly. “Yeah, that too.”

  Janey had said something wrong, but she wasn’t sure what. Maybe she shouldn’t have brought up her son. Or Adam’s parents. Or something.

  The waiter arrived with their drinks, and Janey attacked her diet cola so she could give herself a few seconds to cool down and think things through before she said something else to make Adam’s handsome features furrow in confusion.

  Chapter Six

  Adam studied the menu, though he already knew he wanted to order all the soups. Janey had talked a lot on the way into the National Park. Adam liked listening to her talk, and for the most part, he’d liked what she had to say.