Sweet Days by the Bay

by Kay Correll

  “Grandmere loves it here. I thought it would be a perfect place for her party.”

  “Did you get more help yet? I know you said you were here alone. We need a cook and some other help, of course.”

  He pasted on a smile while gritting his teeth. “Grandmere’s cook is coming on Monday. I do have a daily staff coming to Pink Lady Two, the house next to this one. I thought you and the girls could stay there.” He’d love to have his nieces here with him, but they came with baggage—his sister.

  “Is there someone to bring in our bags?”

  “I guess that would be me.”

  “We’ll help, Uncle Rick.” The girls rushed out the door and he followed them, escaping the look of disapproval on Christina’s face, even though he wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong now, except for having the party in his grandmother’s favorite town.

  He wasn’t trying to avoid his sister, really he wasn’t. He just thought the twins would like to go get some ice cream. The walk would burn off some of their extra energy. At least that was his plan. How could they still be going strong late afternoon after getting up so early?

  “Uncle Rick, can I have chocolate?” Taylor skipped along on his right side.

  “I want banilla.” Allison tugged on his left hand.

  “You can have whatever you want.”

  “Mom doesn’t like us to have sweets before dinner.” Taylor gazed up at him, concern covering her face.

  “Um… we’re going to eat late tonight, so it’s okay.” He’d told his sister he was taking the girls into town. He just hadn’t mentioned to her that they were going for ice cream. Oh well. What good was being the favorite uncle if he didn’t spoil them a bit?

  He carefully avoided even walking on the same side of the street as Whitney’s shop. Mitch was stationed outside her door and nodded at him when they walked by across the street. She was probably going nuts by now, cooped up in her shop. He hoped some new event would come along and the media would move along. As it was, he’d noticed a reduction in numbers of reporters hanging around. He guessed he wasn’t such a big story after all.

  He pushed open the door to The Trixie Cone, and the girls piled inside. “Hey, Rick. I see you’ve brought me some new customers.”

  “Trixie, these are my nieces, Taylor and Allison.”

  “How come you said Taylor’s name first?” Allison looked up at him, her eyes wide. “A comes before T. I think you should say my name first.”

  “I… uh…” He looked at Trixie for help.

  “I think your uncle probably rotates your names when he introduces you. So both of you get first billing.”

  Allison frowned. “Maybe. I’ll have to watch him.”

  “You probably should.” Trixie smothered a grin. “So what do you girls want?”

  “Chocolate.”

  “Banilla.”

  “Okay, one chocolate cone, one banilla.”

  He wasn’t even going to try to tell himself to avoid the calories. “I’ll have butter pecan. Make mine a double.”

  He led the girls outside, and Taylor immediately dropped her cone on the sidewalk and burst into tears.

  “Don’t cry over spilled ice cream.” He hugged her. “Come on, we’ll get you another one.”

  They headed back inside, and Trixie made another cone for Taylor. This time the girl carefully took dainty licks of the ice cream, making sure not to topple the scoop off the cone.

  There, he’d taught his niece a life lesson. His day was complete.

  By the time they finished their cones, he realized there was no way Christina wouldn’t know where he’d taken the girls. Taylor had a big chocolate stain on her t-shirt, and Allison had a sticky mess on her shorts that he tried to wipe off to no avail. Maybe he could sneak them into Pink Lady Two and they could go change their clothes?

  Or he could just take the tongue lashing he was sure to get from his sister. He sighed and took the sticky hands of his nieces and headed back to The Pink Ladies. He even managed to not slow down as they walked past Coastal Creations—on the other side of the street, of course.

  Whitney peeked out the front window of the shop and saw Rick walking down the street with two young girls at his side. Those must be his nieces. From across the street, she could still see them chattering nonstop to their uncle. Rick stopped once and bent down to tie the shoelaces of one of the girls. The other girl hung on his back while he did it. He laughed as he stood, one niece on his back, the other clutching his hand.

  She smiled to herself when she saw how he was with the girls and what fun he was having. He seemed like just a normal guy, an uncle spoiling his nieces.

  But he wasn’t a normal guy. He was famous. There would always be people watching him.

  He stood and looked toward her shop. His eyes were covered with his usual dark sunglasses and his hair hidden by a red baseball cap, but she’d know him anywhere, even in his disguise.

  She stepped away from the window, wishing she could go out there and say hi to him, meet his nieces, but she couldn’t take that chance. Someone might see them. Start taking pictures again. She wanted the whole thing to go away. Well, she didn’t want him to go away. She wanted to see him again. But she didn’t know how or when that would be possible.

  She headed back to the counter to set up some new displays. She couldn’t concentrate on jewelry making today. Hardly any customers had come into the shop all day. She didn’t know if Mitch was scaring them away, or if it was just a slow day.

  She looked up at the sound of the bell over the door. Vicki Tanner swept into the shop. “Whitney, there you are.”

  “Here I am.” Vicki had never purchased a single item from Coastal Creations, so Whitney wasn’t sure why the woman was here now.

  “I saw your photo in the paper. So, you and Rick Nichols. Who would ever guess he’d want to go out with you?”

  She wanted to give Vicki the benefit of the doubt, that she didn’t know how mean-girl she sounded, but knowing her, she meant it just the way it came out. “Did you need something, Vicki?”

  “Victoria. Really, you’d think after all this time, you’d remember a simple thing like calling me Victoria. I gave up the name Vicki years ago. It’s just such a… plain name. Doesn’t suit me at all.” Victoria swept her hair away from her face.

  “Did you want to purchase a gift?” She made sure she had on her best may-I-help-you face.

  “What? No, of course not.” The woman’s face held an incredulous expression. “I don’t shop here. I just wondered… if you and Rick would like to come to dinner one night this week.”

  She sank onto the chair in disbelief. Vicki rarely spoke to her, much less invited her to her home. “I… I’m not sure what his schedule is. And I’m not really seeing him.”

  “He kissed you. I’d say that was seeing him.”

  “Well, I’m sure he’s busy this week with the party for his grandmother coming up. I’m not sure when or if I’ll see him again.” It hurt her just to say the words because she didn’t know when or if she’d see him again.

  “Well… that’s… disappointing.” Vicki frowned. “If you do see him, you’ll be sure to extend my invitation and call me if he says yes.”

  “Sure thing.” Not a chance.

  “Well, I better run.” Vicki twirled around to leave. “Oh, and I can’t believe you, of all people, have a security person.” She left with a rustle of skirt and a slamming of the door behind her.

  She rolled her eyes. What a charming person Miss Vicki-Victoria was. She doubted if Vicki would ever invite her to anything again, not that it was a great loss.

  She went back to work on setting up a new display. She took out a necklace and bracelet she’d made a few weeks ago and settled it into the front of the display. She grabbed a cloth and wiped some fingerprints off the glass with more vigor than needed.

  The stress and pent-up frustration from the last few days made her want to go racing to the beach, plunge straight into the surf, and swim until s
he could no longer move her arms.

  Maybe then she’d find some peace. Maybe then she’d be too tired to think about Rick every single waking moment.

  Chapter 14

  “Grandmere.” Rick walked over and kissed his grandmother on the cheek. “You made it.”

  “Of course I made it, Richard.” She looked around The Pink Lady and smiled. “It still looks the same. I do adore coming here. So much sunlight.” She swept across the floor and stood in front of the bank of windows. “I’ll never tire of this view.”

  “The sunsets on the bay are pretty spectacular.” He walked over to stand beside her. “Did you have a good trip?”

  “I did.” She turned to look at him. “Everything going okay here?”

  “You mean about the party?”

  “I was actually asking about you and Christina. You two getting along?”

  “Of course.” He wasn’t about to tell her about the fight he’d had with his sister last night after returning to The Pink Ladies with his ice cream-covered nieces.

  “Somehow I doubt the two of you have been in the same town for twenty-four hours without a row or two.”

  She knew him too well. “No, everything is fine.” A little white lie wouldn’t hurt anything. It was Grandmere’s week, and he was determined that everything was going to go smoothly.

  “Now, I see there are more photos in the press of you with this Whitney we talked about. Did you invite her over for drinks like I asked? I was actually thinking maybe she’d like to come to dinner.”

  “Um, not yet.”

  “Well, I expect you to. I want to meet her. How about tomorrow night? I’ll have my cook make up something for all of us. She brought an assistant with her.”

  Just then the twins burst through the door, letting him avoid answering his grandmother.

  “Grandmere!” The twins rushed over to hug their great-grandmother.

  “Well, look at you two. I swear you’ve grown a foot since I saw you at Christmas.”

  “That’s ‘cause we’re getting older,” Taylor said gravely.

  Rick marveled at the differences between the girls. Taylor so serious and Allison always acting like she didn’t have a care in the world. Allison drove Christina nuts, he could tell. His sister much preferred the ever-serious, ever-learning, always trying to do her absolute best so her mother would notice her, Taylor. A carbon copy of his sister like she’d been as a young girl, trying for their own mother’s attention. Only, so far, Taylor was a nicer human being than his sister.

  Oops, that wasn’t a very charitable thought.

  Allison drew herself up to her full height. “But I’m older than Taylor.”

  “You are, my dear. You’ll always be twelve minutes older than Taylor.”

  Taylor scowled. “Yeah, I don’t like that.”

  Rick laughed. “I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do to fix that, kiddo.”

  She let out a sigh that was way too big for her small frame. “I guess not.”

  Christina followed her daughters inside, crossed over, and kissed Grandmere’s cheek. “Was the trip as torturous for you as it was for me? I don’t know why Rick insisted the party be here.”

  “Because I love it here?” Grandmere gently corrected his sister.

  He smothered a grin. Grandmere didn’t let Christina get away with much of her the-northeast-is-the-only-real-world nonsense. Not to mention her tendency to be a… well, a snob. Grandmere was ridiculously famous, used to fine things, and always had cooks and assistants, but she was the kindest, most down-to-earth person he’d ever met. Her employees were more friends to her than helpers. She’d never been the diva movie star.

  He took a good look at her. She did look a bit tired around the eyes. The wrinkles on her face showed a long life lived well. She’d scoffed at anyone who’d suggested plastic surgery. Though he admitted, and not just because she was his grandmother, the woman was gorgeous, even at eighty… or however old she actually was.

  “How about I take you two to town and we’ll let Grandmere unpack and your mom can have a nice break to herself.”

  “No more ice cream right before dinner.”

  Allison scowled. “Just one scoop?”

  “They’ll eat their vegetables, they promise.” He winked at the girls.

  “Really, Rick. You’re just spoiling them.”

  “It’s what favorite uncles do.”

  Grandmere opened her purse. “Here, girls, here’s some money for your ice cream.”

  Just like that, the ice cream argument was settled.

  “Don’t forget to invite Whitney to dinner like I asked. I’d love to meet her.”

  “You want him to invite that local girl over?” Christina rolled her eyes. “Whatever for? He’s going to mess things up with Shawna Jacobson if he keeps getting his photo taken kissing other women.”

  “It wasn’t women, it was one woman. And there’s nothing between Shawna and me.”

  “Well, there should be. She’s a good match for you. Directors love it if the press runs with stories of the hot new couple in their movie.”

  “Well, that’s too bad. Because we are not a couple.” As if his sister was ever going to think he was going to be good enough at acting, or famous enough.

  “You should be. Why you’d go out with this local woman instead of Shawna is beyond me. Shawna is beautiful. Plus, dating her is good for your career.”

  “Such a good reason to date a woman.” He wasn’t sure if his sister caught his sarcasm since she was really just listening to herself, not to him.

  “If you’re going to have a fling, you should at least do it in private.”

  “Whitney is not a fling.”

  “What’s a fling, Uncle Rick?” Allison asked.

  “Your mother will explain that.” He cocked his head and looked at his sister.

  “Never mind, Allison.” Christina turned away from her daughter.

  Grandmere interrupted their ever-present disagreement. “If Richard likes this girl, that’s good enough for me. I’d like to meet her while I’m here.” She turned to him. “So you’ll ask her to come?

  “I’ll try. I’ll see if she’s free.” He turned to the twins.

  “Come on girls. Let’s go.” The twins grabbed his hands, and they hurried out of the Pink Lady and into the welcoming sunshine.

  “Are we going to get some ice cream even though Mom doesn’t want us to?”

  “You bet. Grandmere said yes. She wins.”

  Whitney hadn’t seen Rick in two days now—except for the brief glance through the window. He’d called her last night, though. They’d talked for a long time, into the wee hours of the morning. She’d paid the price all day and bolstered herself with coffee throughout the afternoon.

  Tonight, she’d put some peanut butter on crackers and sliced an apple for dinner. She really needed to go to the market, but that involved Mitch following her around the store, and she couldn’t picture herself doing that. But she’d have to do it soon, or go out to eat… which brought with it another set of problems.

  She sank onto a chair at the table and looked at her rather pathetic meal. Her phone rang, and she snatched it up, ready for the interruption.

  “Hey.” Rick’s low, sexy voice made her smile.

  “Hey, yourself.” She pushed away her plate and leaned back in her chair, stretching out her legs, hoping for another long conversation.

  “Did you have a good day?”

  “I was kind of tired.”

  He laughed. “Yep, me too. It was a late night.”

  “It was.” Though, she’d do it again tonight if he wanted. But what she really wanted was to see him.

  “So… if I wait until after dark, how about I sneak over to your house? I’ll come in the beach way.”

  “That would be great.” Either he was reading her thoughts, or they were just in sync with each other. “I’ll unlock the slider door for you.”

  “After we have supper here tonight, I’ll esc
ape and come over. I could use the break from… well, I’d like to spend time with you.”

  “That sounds wonderful.”

  “I’ll let Mitch know so he can keep a watch. See you soon.” Rick hung up.

  She got up from the table and brought the plate of food, uneaten, over to the counter. She’d go change clothes so she didn’t look like such a rumpled mess from the day. She slipped on khaki shorts and a fresh shirt and padded back out to the main room. She’d sit on the couch for a few minutes to rest, then maybe, just maybe, she’d have enough energy to go back in the kitchen and finish her so-called dinner.

  Rick slipped in the sliding door from the deck. He’d made sure no one was following him and knew that Whitney would have all her blinds closed, keeping out any onlookers. He slid the door closed behind him and saw Whitney sound asleep on the couch.

  He quietly walked over and stood gazing down at her. A peaceful look covered her face, and her long, tanned legs stretched out on the couch. It was the most relaxed he’d seen her since this whole media mess had started. He took a step back and knocked into the coffee table. Her eyes flew open wide, and she sprang upright.

  “Oh, it’s you.”

  “It is me.” He sat beside her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

  “I guess I fell asleep.” She adjusted her top and smoothed out her shorts. She quickly ran her fingers through her short hair, rumpling it into place, if that made any sense. But to him that seemed exactly like what she did.

  She rubbed her hands over her face. “I must look a mess.”

  “You look adorable.” He leaned over and kissed her.

  She made a purring noise deep in the back of her throat that almost drove him insane. He deepened the kiss, and she wrapped an arm around his neck. “I’ve been wanting to do that for two days. Whose idea was it to stay away from you for so long?”

  “Wasn’t mine.” She leaned against him and pulled him into another kiss.

  He finally pulled back and looked at her, sitting beside him, her cheeks flushed. “I know we just met a little over a week ago, but… well, I like you. I have a great time with you. I feel like you spend time with me, just because I’m me. Not because of my being an actor.”