No, she didn’t. “Yes,” she said, getting to her feet. Her back groaned, as she’d had a fifty-pound dog in the grooming van that day. Her website said the limit was forty pounds, but she was a sucker and couldn’t say no to a customer. Especially Nellie Ridgeway.
“You okay?” Dave asked, and Brooklynn looked back at him.
“Yes, why?”
“You seemed like you…never mind.”
She pulled her hand away from her lower back, where she’d been pushing to relieve some of the ache there. She didn’t need to hobble around in front of him like she was Aunt Mabel’s age.
Brooklynn put some distance between them, glad when he engaged in another conversation with someone else. In fact, she lost track of Dave entirely a few minutes later, and she wondered if he’d shown up to volunteer or just sit by her.
Warmth filled her from sole to scalp, because while she hadn’t accepted any of his invitations, the fact that he asked her out was flattering.
Brooklynn just wasn’t sure she could ever love someone as much as she’d loved Ryker. Not only that, she didn’t even go to the beach anymore. How could she be with Dave, a man whose job required him to go out on the ocean?
No, she couldn’t. It was easier to reject him than to even imagine that they could be together.
She signed her name to several papers and left the community center. If she hurried home, she’d still have time to make those caramel mocha brownies. And maybe, just maybe, the sweets would quell some of the anxiety in her gut that had been plaguing her since Ryker’s death three years ago.
The next morning, Brooklynn pulled in to the animal shelter, the plate of brownies beside her almost distracting her from the familiar SUV already in the lot.
She knew this car….
Brooklynn’s fingers tightened around the wheel. She had an appointment with a corgi in twenty minutes, and she was just stopping by for a moment. Just to give Laci the brownies. Her sister had just broken up with her long-time boyfriend, and she’d texted Brooklynn that she might not survive the day if she didn’t have chocolate.
So Brooklynn had plated up the cookies and left without putting makeup on. It didn’t matter. Her canine customers didn’t care what she looked like when she groomed them. The sky threatened to open up and dump rain on Hawthorne Harbor today anyway, and Brooklynn was considering canceling her appointments if the clients didn’t have a garage or something she could use.
She normally didn’t mind working out of the back of a van, but sometimes it got stuffy in there, and she almost always stood outside. But not in the rain.
“It’ll take two seconds,” she told herself, wondering why in the world Dave was at the animal shelter. She probably wouldn’t see him anyway, as her sister worked with the vets in a separate part of the building than the adoption center.
After grabbing the brownies, she headed for the door, not enthused by the drumming of thunder overhead when she touched the door handle.
Inside, the building felt much too bright compared to outside, and she glanced to her left, expecting to see Laci standing there in her pale pink scrubs. Instead, her eyes met Dave’s.
“Hey,” he said, his smile warming his whole face as he stood. Surprise laced the three-letter-word. “What are you doing here?”
“My sister works here,” she said, lifting the plate of brownies. Why was her heart tapping around like that? How did she make it stop? Didn’t it know Brooklynn had sworn off men?
Fine, it tapped out. But Dave is a captain. Not just any old man.
He was older than her, something she actually liked. He had silver coming in around his ears, and if he kept smiling at her with those white teeth, she’d be going out with him that weekend.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, reaching for her phone in her purse and navigating on it so she wouldn’t have to look at Dave’s handsome face.
Gorgeous, her brain reminded her.
“Oh, I’m taking a dog for the weekend.”
She lifted her eyes to his, finding him downright adorable with the way he tucked his hands in his back pockets. “A dog for the weekend?”
“Yeah, they let you take them for a few days,” he said. “Get them out of here. I think they think I’ll finally adopt one.” He chuckled.
“So you do this a lot.”
“Yeah,” he said evasively.
“And you don’t want a dog full-time?”
“I do, yes,” he said. “I love dogs. But my job isn’t very conducive to having a pet. I have to sleep on the boat sometimes.”
Horror snaked right through her, leaving a cold, wet trail in its wake. “That sounds terrible,” she said at the same time her brain put dog lover in the pro column for Dave. Why it kept reminding her how wonderful and good-looking he was, she wasn’t sure.
He cocked his head and studied her with those eyes that could undo all of her defenses. Her phone buzzed, and she flinched as she looked at it.
“Laci’s coming out.”
“How’s she doing?” he asked.
“She just broke up with her boyfriend,” Brooklynn said. “Thus, the brownies.”
“Is that why you made brownies?” Dave asked, just enough interest in his voice to know his question wasn’t casual.
“No,” Brooklynn said. “I don’t date, Dave.”
“Just checking.” He looked toward the door Laci came through, smiling at her too.
“Dave,” she said with surprise. It was no surprise that Laci knew who he was. They’d all grown up together in Hawthorne Harbor, and Brooklynn had certainly spilled many of her traitorous secrets to Laci in the middle of the night.
Laci looked from Dave to Brooklynn, and then gave him a quick hug. “It’s good to see you. Are you adopting?”
“No.”
“So you’re following Brooklynn now.” She cocked her hip and folded her arms, glaring at the man she’d just hugged.
Brooklynn wanted to crawl in a hole and curl into a ball. “Lace,” she said at the same time Dave started laughing. How he could make such a joyful noise, she wasn’t sure. Brooklynn hadn’t felt that level of happiness in a long, long time.
Thirty-six months.
Three years.
Over one thousand days.
“No,” Dave said again, still chuckling. “Though I’d love to go out with her. I know when a woman’s not interested.” His eyes flicked to hers for a moment. There, then gone. He ducked his head, a hint of a blush entering his face, before turning and going over to the counter.
“Here,” Brooklynn said, thrusting the plate of brownies toward her sister. “That was so embarrassing. Why’d you say that?”
Laci took the plate. “I don’t know. He hasn’t asked you out again?”
She watched him take the leash from the adoption aide. “Not for a couple of months.” She didn’t mean the words to come out coated in so much sadness. Regret lanced through her. What if he never asked her out again?
He turned toward them, the light in his eyes dimming when he saw them still standing there. He took the mutt around the couch away from them, saluting her with, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He’d almost moved out the doors when Brooklynn’s mouth caught up to her brain. “Wait. What’s in the morning?”
“The planning meeting for the bachelor auction,” he said. “I guess we signed up for the same thing.” And with that, he walked out, his dog for the weekend in tow.
Chapter Three
Dave couldn’t help stopping by the bakery in the morning on his way to the community center. Brooklynn liked to bake, he knew that. She always had. She’d had a birthday party when she turned thirteen, and it had been at the community college kitchens. Everyone had participated, and though Dave’s brother’s cake had been wet in the middle, it had still tasted good.
When they’d gone to their junior and senior proms together, she’d baked cookies each time. He could still smell them as he drove in his car, though this was a vastly diffe
rent vehicle than what he’d driven in high school.
They hadn’t had a real romance in high school. Not by his standards. They’d gone out a few times, and he’d kissed her twice. But the call of the ocean had been stronger than waiting in town for two years for her to finish high school, and Dave had left. In fact, nothing had ever called as strongly as the Coast Guard, a ship, or being out on the water.
Until now.
Now, his bones ached a bit more in the morning. Now, he wondered why he didn’t retire and just teach water safety classes to kids on the weekends in the summer. None of this going out on the ocean in the winter stuff. No sleeping on ships. Or dealing with men twenty years younger than him who thought they knew more than him.
He pulled a peanut butter bar out of the bag and took a bite, the rich chocolate frosting mixing with the sweet and salty bar. A moan started in the back of his throat.
This morning, the parking lot was just as full as last night. People going in and out in exercise clothes, earbuds in, told him that the New Year’s resolutions had quite worn off yet. “Give it another month,” he said to himself as he parked.
He’d been up since five, and the six miles he’d put in on the beach were history. He loved running on the beach as the day woke up, though he couldn’t get himself to go later in the winter and ended up running in the dark for months.
He had a headlamp and this morning, he’d had Valkerie, the cute pit bull mix he’d picked up the previous morning. She’d run and run and run, and if Dave was going to get a dog, he wanted one that could run as far as he did.
But he wasn’t going to get a dog, even if it would curb his loneliness at night.
Inside the community center, he went past the front desk with, “I’m here for the Spring Fling meeting.” The woman seated there barely looked up, and this time, Dave wasn’t late. In fact, the only person in the room was Brooklynn Perrish.
His stomach tightened at the sight of her, of all that blonde hair he wanted to rake his fingers through. “Morning,” he said, his voice perfectly pleasant and not giving away any of the raging hormones in his forty-year-old body.
“Good morning.” She smiled at him, more than she’d done in the last six months.
He took the seat next to her and held out the bag. “I stopped and got you something.”
“You did?” Her eyebrows went up and she looked at the bag and then him before taking it from him. The smile returned as she peered inside. “A peach bearclaw. These are my favorite.” She removed the pastry from the bag and took a bite. “Mm.”
Dave’s whole body heated up so fast it was like someone had doused him with gasoline and tossed a lit match at his feet. “They’re better in the summer, but Jean says she uses frozen peaches from last summer during the winter.” Why was he talking about peaches?
“I love them,” she said. “I haven’t had one in a while. Thank you.” She touched his hand, and a zing of electricity shot up his arm. Their eyes met, and for once, she didn’t look away. And she didn’t look frustrated or guarded either.
As Dave gazed at her, he realized he was seeing the real her. The one she kept hidden behind notebooks and brownies and rejections.
“Maybe—” he started just as someone said, “There you are. We’re meeting in room two-oh-two. Come on.”
Brooklynn broke the spell between them by looking away. “Oh, I didn’t realize.” She jumped to her feet and started down the aisle toward the exit.
Dave sat there and tried to get his pulse to return to normal. He couldn’t believe he was four words away from asking her out. Again.
Had he not learned anything from the previous half a dozen times he’d asked and she’d said no?
She didn’t date. He knew that. And yet, the invitation had been right there, so willing to come out.
He also knew why she didn’t date, and he’d been hoping that three years would be long enough for her to move past the death of her first husband. Heck, it would be four years in June.
But Dave had no idea what it felt like to lose a loved one in a freak accident, and he couldn’t judge her. Couldn’t push her.
He also didn’t need to open himself up to get his heart shredded, and as he got to his feet, he told himself, “You will not ask her out. You will not,” over and over again as he followed her and the woman who’d interrupted him to the right room for the meeting.
Entering last again, he found himself in a room full of women, each with a notebook like Brooklynn’s. His heart sank to the bottom of his boots, but he pulled up a chair to the round table, his knee practically touching Brooklynn’s.
“Okay,” a woman said. “Let’s go around an introduce ourselves. I know most of you.” Her eyes landed on Dave, and no, he didn’t know her.
“I’ll start,” he said. “I’m Dave Reddington. I work for the Coast Guard.”
The ladies went around, and he managed to remember Delaney and Michelle before the names started to blur. Delaney had almost black hair that had to come from a bottle, and she ran the meeting. He’d be fine if he could remember her name.
They talked about a theme for the bachelor auction, and it was decided that “Spring for your Fling” would be the tagline for the event. While Dave sort of hated it, all the women seemed excited about it, even Brooklynn. Honestly, the only way he’d be excited about the bachelor auction at all was if they had dozens of boxes of pizza there, and there was the possibility of eating it with Brooklynn.
“So now we need men,” Delaney said, her pen poised to write. The woman on her left started naming names, and Dave could barely keep up.
When the Talker paused, Brooklynn said, “Let’s add Dave to the list.”
“What?” he almost shouted, horrified as Delaney started writing his name. “No, let’s not add Dave to the list.”
Brooklynn looked at him, her eyes wide. “Why not?”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“It’s for a good cause.”
“Is it? The community center does need new carpet, but come on.” He nodded to Delaney’s paper. “That’s not my thing.”
“It’s just an interest list,” Brooklynn said.
“I’m not interested.”
Delaney and the other women switched their gazes to Brooklynn, anticipating her next argument. Dave felt a swarm of bees gathering in his chest, but he was ready to die on this hill. He would not parade in front of the single women of Hawthorne Harbor and hope one of them would bid on him. Not happening.
“What about for a maybe?” Brooklynn asked.
A growl started in the back of his throat. “Maybe I’ll have to work that day.”
“You don’t work the weekends.”
“Sometimes I do.” Dave folded his arms, and he’d be blind if he didn’t notice that all the women glanced down at his biceps and back to his eyes. “Let’s move on.”
“This is the last thing,” Delaney said. “Then we’ll split up the list and make contact with the men. We need at least twenty, you guys. Last year, we only had eleven, and it wasn’t enough.”
Dave wanted to say that perhaps the lack of men willing to be bid on said something. Maybe they shouldn’t be doing this event as part of the Spring Fling.
“We’ll just need to make it really fun this year,” Michelle said, and that was another maybe Dave hadn’t considered. He had no idea how it would ever be fun for a man to go out on stage and hope someone found him attractive enough to pay to go out with him.
Dave already had plenty of pressure in his life, thank you very much.
“These are your men.” Delaney slid a list with five hand-printed names on it.
“I have to ask other men to do this?” He wasn’t even sure how to do that.
“Which is why it would be better if you did it too,” Brooklynn said with just a bit of bite in her voice. “Then you can tell them how much fun it will be and how things will work.” She gave him a cocked-eyebrow so-there look.
He wanted to throw her sass
right back in her face and then take her to lunch. Neither of those were going to happen, so he remained silent. He practically smashed his list in his fist and got up. “Are we done?”
“Yes,” Delaney said. “Can you meet next Saturday?”
Dave really wanted to say no, but he nodded instead as the other women gave their assent.
“Good,” Delaney said. “Try to talk to as many men as you can this week. Then we’ll have a better idea of where we are for next week.”
Dave turned to leave, even Brooklynn’s presence not as comforting as he usually found it. After all, she was the one trying to get him to do the auction. Why? So he could fetch the lowest amount? Or not be bid on at all? What was her goal in making him put his name on the list?
It didn’t matter. He drove home in the pouring rain to Valkerie, who sat in front of the window and watched the water flow down. “Sorry, girl,” he said to her as he kicked his feet up on the ottoman in front of him. “Maybe it’ll clear up and we can throw a ball in the backyard.”
Hours later, the weather hadn’t cleared at all. In fact, it seemed like Mother Nature had parked her storm clouds right over Hawthorne Harbor and had no plans to move them. He’d watched more football and basketball games than anyone should watch in one day, and he was bored.
Until his phone chimed out a message from Brooklynn.
His heart caught somewhere in his throat, making breathing and reading difficult.
Hey, so I have a big favor to ask you.
A favor? He could barely type, and he had to go back and fix the word favor like four times before it was right.
Yeah, she messaged back. There’s this bachelor auction for the Spring Fling, and you’d be perfect for it.
He frowned at his phone. “Who does she think she’s talking to?” She surely had his number. He’d called and texted her before lots of times. Too many times, in fact.
I might be willing to break my no-dating rule if you’ll do it.
Dave’s breath went right out of his body. “Oh, she’s not playing nice,” he said, but his lips curved up into a smile. He hated texting when he could call, so he pressed the phone button and lifted his device to his ear.
The Captain's Second Chance Page 2
