Bayside Evenings

by Stacy Claflin

  Dakota glanced up at him. "Looks like Charlotte's coming today."

  Thirteen

  Dakota, Sullivan, and Clay sat in the office. Clay and her brother were discussing sports. She wished the conversation would drift toward Lauryn, but so far she hadn't come up.

  Her phone buzzed. It was Charlotte on a video call.

  She took it out into the hall, where it was quieter.

  "Hi, Charlotte," Dakota said.

  Charlotte's expression pinched. "I said not so tight! Sarah, get the phone out of my face."

  The camera moved back, showing Charlotte wearing what looked like a green shag carpet.

  "Is everything okay?" Dakota asked.

  "Just getting fitted for this recycled rug dress I'm wearing to next week's charity event." She scratched her shoulder. "Green's in this season—in both senses of the word. Ow! Who hired you?" Charlotte glared at someone off screen.

  "Maybe I should let you go," Dakota said.

  "Yeah. I just want to make sure your tailor is professional. Not like this louse."

  "Excuse me?" came an offended male voice.

  "I speak it like it is." Charlotte turned back to Dakota. "I can't take getting poked another time today."

  "Yes," Dakota reassured her. "He's been doing this for years."

  "Good. We'll be there around seven. The—ow! Would you stop that?" She huffed and turned back to Dakota. "I'll call if we're going to be late."

  "We'll be here at The Chateau."

  "Perfect." The call ended.

  Dakota put her phone down and took a deep breath. She couldn't wait for the night to be over.

  When she got back to the office, Sullivan and Clay were laughing. She waited for them to settle down before speaking. "Charlotte says they'll be here around seven."

  Sullivan glanced at the clock. "I can squeeze in another showing or two."

  "No," Dakota exclaimed. She couldn't stand to be left alone with Clay. Before long, everyone else would leave for the day, and the two of them would be there, waiting for Charlotte.

  "Are you okay?" Sullivan arched a brow.

  She took a deep breath and forced a smile. "We don't spend enough time together. Stay."

  "Yeah," Clay agreed. "This is fun. I'll order some pizza since we're going to be here late." He left the room.

  Sullivan got up from his chair and came over to Dakota. "What's going on? The tension between you two is so thick, I can barely breathe."

  Dakota looked away and shrugged. "It's just… It's complicated."

  "You were so excited when we had dinner at Mom and Dad's. What changed?"

  She bit her lip. "Nothing," she fibbed. "I'm just on edge because of Charlotte. She bailed on us last time."

  Sullivan tilted his head. "Not buying it."

  Dakota gave him a double take. "Excuse me?"

  "I know you. Work stress doesn't get to you—you thrive on it."

  "Yeah, well, this is different." And that was the truth. "I've been stressed ever since I agreed to work with her. This could be the biggest thing for The Chateau. She could tell her friends about it. Or the media could catch wind of the wedding, then everyone will know about us."

  Her brother scratched his nose. "Maybe. But something else is going on. Are you getting along with Clay?"

  "Yes," she snapped.

  His mouth dropped. "You—"

  "Don't say it." Dakota's face rushed with heat.

  "You do."

  "Who does what?" Clay asked from the doorway.

  Dakota's face burned even more. She looked at Sullivan, pleading with her eyes. "Nothing," she said to Clay.

  "Just discussing Charlotte," Sullivan said. His eyes held a certain glow, letting Dakota know he couldn't wait to tease her about this. She shot him a glare, letting him know he'd better wait until Clay was out of earshot. The corners of his mouth curved up.

  Dakota wanted to curl up under a rock and never come out. Why had she thought having Sullivan there would help anything? She went over to her computer and busied herself with a list of inquiries.

  Marina poked her head in the office. "It's starting to snow. Mind if I head out a few minutes early, Dakota?"

  "Go ahead."

  "Thanks! You're the best."

  "She sure is," Sullivan agreed. "Don't you think, Clay?"

  Dakota glared at him. "I'm going to see if the pizza guy is here."

  "I was going to pay for it," Clay said.

  "No, I've got it." She hurried out of the room and went to the main entrance. Sure enough, outside the window, little white flakes floated to the ground. They were sticking to everything.

  Hopefully this wouldn't be another excuse for Charlotte to bail. That was all she needed. No, the woman wanted an outdoor snowy wedding. A few flakes wouldn't put her off.

  Dakota watched as the dusting of snow turned into a good half an inch. Then a little beat-up, red car pulled in, screeching to a stop. He got out and carried three pizza boxes to the door.

  She opened it for him and handed him a credit card.

  He shook his head. "Already paid for. Someone called it in while I was on my way here." He handed her the boxes and turned around.

  "Thanks." She turned around and headed back to her office. Sullivan and Clay were laughing again. She kept her gaze away from Clay. "Do you guys want to eat this in here? We should set up the table settings—we need Charlotte to pick one before we head over to the tailor's."

  "Let's do that." Clay got up and took the boxes from her. His hand brushed hers as he took them.

  Her heart sped up. She hated what he did to her—especially since he had a girlfriend. Wasn't Sullivan being there supposed to help with that?

  Clay headed toward the main reception hall.

  Sullivan came over to Dakota. "You really like him."

  "Drop it."

  "Oh, come on. I haven't seen you this flustered over anyone in ages."

  She turned to him. "Have you seen the guys I've dated recently?"

  "So, you thought you'd try someone who's already taken?"

  Dakota hit his arm. "It's not like that."

  "Ow." He rubbed his muscle. "Well, if it's any consolation, you'd be a lot better for him than Lauryn."

  "Tell that to him." She sighed. "Wait! No, don't."

  "Maybe I should."

  "Sully." She glared at him.

  "Well, if he knew how you felt—"

  "Don't. I don't date employees, anyway." Her vision turned blurry from tears. "It doesn't matter."

  "Dakota…" Sullivan's voice now held a tone of concern.

  She wiped her eyes. "Don't. Just don't."

  He put his hand on her shoulder. "You should tell him how you feel."

  "I'm not going to be responsible for breaking them up."

  Sullivan snorted. "Trust me. You wouldn't be."

  "What do you mean?"

  "It goes beyond them having grown apart in college. When I brought her up earlier, his entire demeanor changed—and not for the better."

  "What'd he say?"

  "He started talking about the Blazers."

  She sighed. "Just don't interfere. Please."

  "I hate to see you this upset."

  "Then just leave it alone, okay?"

  "I can't say I'll discourage him from breaking up with her. That's been a long time coming."

  "Let's go. The pizza's getting cold." She marched down the hall.

  Sullivan caught up. "I'll put in a good word."

  "Don't."

  He sighed. "Fine. I won't do anything."

  "Thank you."

  They walked down the hall in silence. As they passed the main entrance, Dakota looked out the window. There was about three inches of snow on the trees outside.

  "Look at all that snow," Sullivan said. "It was barely coming down earlier."

  Dakota checked her phone. No texts saying Charlotte and Hugh had turned around to go back home.

  The night was still young.

  When they got to
the reception hall, Clay had already set out the pizza on plates. "Did you guys get lost?" he teased.

  Sullivan laughed. "You know me. Let's dig in."

  Dakota breathed a sigh of relief, grateful he hadn't said anything about Dakota. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd told a friend that she liked him. But that had also been when they were both teenagers.

  They dug into the food. After a few minutes, someone's phone beeped.

  Sullivan pulled his out and looked at the screen. "Severe weather alert." He paused, scanning the screen. His eyes widened. "They're calling for a blizzard. I've got to get my convertible in the garage. Sorry to bail, guys."

  Dakota's eyes widened. She begged him with her eyes to stay.

  "Sorry. I really wanted to meet Charlotte."

  "Take some pizza," Clay said. He piled some pieces into one of the boxes and handed it to Sullivan.

  Dakota's heart raced out of control. She was going to be alone with Clay until Charlotte and Hugh arrived—if they did. It was hard to imagine Charlotte wanting to deal with a severe snowstorm.

  Before she knew it, Sullivan was gone and she was alone with Clay.

  "I better call Charlotte," she said.

  "Don't tell her about the blizzard. She'll turn around for sure."

  "No kidding."

  Dakota pulled out her phone and called Charlotte.

  "I'm glad you called," Charlotte said. "There's a road closed up ahead, so we have to turn around. Guess we'll have to reschedule."

  Just as she figured. "I understand. Drive safely."

  "Yeah, thanks." The call ended.

  "She's not coming?" Clay asked.

  Dakota shook her head and put her phone away.

  "I'm really sorry, Dakota." Something in Clay's tone told Dakota he meant much more than Charlotte not showing.

  "It's just the way it goes." She rose, keeping her gaze averted from him. "We'd better get this cleaned up. Aria's showing the reception hall in the morning."

  Clay glanced out a window. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Looks like another inch accumulated. If this keeps up, I don't think anyone will be going anywhere tomorrow."

  A loud crack sounded outside.

  "What was that?" Dakota exclaimed.

  The lights flickered and then everything turned black.

  "That would be a branch knocking down a power line. Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine, but we'd better get going."

  A little light shone from where Clay had been sitting.

  "You have a flashlight?" she asked.

  "My phone."

  "Oh, right. I would've thought of that." Eventually. She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight app. "Let's just take the pizza with us. I don't want to open the fridges. Who knows how long the power will be out?"

  "I don't have much room on my bike. Why don't you take it?"

  "But you bought it."

  "Take it."

  She just wanted to get out of there. He was probably worried about Lauryn and wanted to get to her, not be stuck in with Dakota. "Oh, all right. I'm going to get everything put away."

  Clay looked outside. "You think anyone's coming tomorrow?"

  Her face burned. She was glad for the dark. "Well, whenever someone does come to see The Chateau, they don't want to see all the things we put out for Charlotte." She got up and grabbed some stuff and hauled it to where it belonged.

  When she returned to the reception hall, Clay wasn't there. She breathed a sigh of relief and took another armload of things out of the room. When she came back, the rest was gone.

  Dakota went over to the front window and looked out. Even more snow had accumulated, and it was coming down faster than before.

  "We should get going before this gets worse," Clay said from behind.

  She jumped and turned around.

  "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

  "I'm fine. Are you going to be able to drive your motorcycle through this?"

  "Depends on how clear the roads are."

  "They're probably not, given the way it's coming down." She could barely see past the walkway.

  "It doesn't look like either one of us are going anywhere."

  "What do you mean?" she asked.

  "There's a tree blocking the entrance to the parking lot."

  Fourteen

  Clay walked over to another window to get a better look outside. The snow seemed to be coming down even faster than it had a few minutes earlier. He couldn't see any other lights anywhere. "Seems like the power's out everywhere else on the street."

  "What are we going to do?" Dakota asked.

  "If you have a chainsaw or an ax, I could cut enough of the tree to get us out of the parking lot."

  "The maintenance staff keeps stuff in the closet in the laundry, but I don't recall any chainsaws or axes."

  "I'll go check, anyway. You okay here?"

  "Fine." She turned to the window and looked outside.

  Clay frowned. She hadn't been the same since Lauryn showed up—not that he'd had much time to talk to Dakota, having barely even seen her all week.

  He used the flashlight on the phone to find the closet in the laundry room. She'd been right. There wasn't anything he could use to break apart the tree blocking them in. Not unless he wanted to use a mop or a broom.

  "Did you find anything?" Dakota asked when he returned to the front entry.

  "Nothing that would help."

  "I guess we're stuck here."

  Clay could think of worse situations to be stuck in. "Looks like it."

  "We may as well go in the Bailey room. It has a fireplace."

  "Bailey room?"

  "Named after the mountain. It's a small room for private ceremonies. We almost never use it."

  "Apparently. I can build a fire as long as you don't need me to chop down a tree."

  He thought he heard her chuckle quietly.

  "No, we have some prepackaged logs and matches in there." She led him to a door that he'd assumed was a linen closet. The room was smaller than her office, and the fireplace and a small desk took up most of the room. "The stuff for the fireplace is over here." She went around, opened a small trunk, and pulled out a log in yellow paper.

  Clay took it from her and put it in the fireplace.

  "There are some matches in here somewhere." She moved stuff around in the trunk.

  He pulled out his lighter. "Save those." He lit it and then put the flame on the edge of the yellow paper. The flames grew, and moved toward the center of the log.

  "You carry a lighter?" Dakota asked, looking both impressed and flustered. She was gorgeous.

  He cleared his throat and checked the log. "Yeah. You never know when you'll need one."

  She moved closer to the flame and shivered.

  "Got any blankets?" he asked.

  "Yeah. There's a linen closet with all that stuff. I'll grab them."

  "You're cold. Stay here and let me get them."

  "I'm not helpless, you know." A look of indignation covered her face.

  Clay held back a smile. "The thought never crossed my mind. Where's the closet? 'Cause I always thought this was the closet."

  "It's two doors down on the right."

  He went out into the hall and brought in a pile of blankets. "Is this enough to keep you warm?"

  She cracked a smile. "I think it's enough to keep a small village warm."

  "Good. Have a seat."

  Dakota sat and he wrapped a couple blankets around her. She was close enough that he caught a whiff of her sweet perfume—she smelled as good as she looked.

  "Is that enough?" he asked.

  She pulled them tighter and shivered. "I think so."

  He wanted to put his arms around her, but knew better than to try that when she'd so clearly been avoiding him. She'd even gone so far as to bring Sullivan so she wouldn't have to be alone with Clay.

  "Okay. I'll put the rest here, in case you change your mind." He plopped the pile down next to
her and then took the top blanket for himself. He sat about a foot away from her and wrapped himself, keeping his focus on the fire.

  They sat in silence for a while. There was so much to say, but he didn't know how to broach the subject without scaring her away again. Would he be better off saying point-blank that he'd broken up with Lauryn, or would she think that was too forward? And what if he was completely wrong about Dakota being upset over her?

  "Do you need to call anyone?" he asked, studying her profile. She seemed to get prettier each time he looked at her.

  She shook her head. "My mom texted me and said everyone is safe and accounted for. Do you need to call Lauryn?" There it was—the clue he'd been looking for. Her tone held a bite in it when she'd said Lauryn's name.

  His mind raced for the right way to respond. Finally, he just said, "No."

  "Are they getting the blizzard, too?" she asked, still staring into the flames.

  "I wouldn't know."

  She turned to him, her eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

  He shrugged. "I haven't spoken with her."

  Dakota tilted her head and studied him. "You haven't talked to her?"

  Clay shook his head.

  "Hmm." She seemed to want to ask more, but didn't. At least she was looking at him now.

  "I'm sorry she came by last week. I didn't realize she was coming. It—"

  "You have nothing to apologize for." She turned back to the fire.

  He held back a sigh. "Well, I was at work. I shouldn't have even told her where I was in the first place. I did tell her not to come later, but…" It felt like he was hitting a brick wall. He had feelings for her, but she was his boss, and obviously annoyed with him.

  Dakota turned back to him. "What do you mean?"

  "Nothing." He turned to the flames. They danced around, casting a glow on him and Dakota.

  Could he tell her how he felt without risking both the friendship they'd built and his job? There had to be a way he could bring up the topic and feel out her response.

  Based on how she'd been before Lauryn's appearance, it seemed like she would be open to discussing the possibility of a relationship. But after the way the last week had gone…

  He sighed.

  "Sorry you have to be stuck with me."

  "What?" he exclaimed.

  She continued staring at the fire. "I'm sure you'd rather be anywhere but here."