“No, no, you sit. I’d like to do this for you guys.” Toni smiled at them and set to her task. “Are Wren and Joe home? Trying to figure how much I should make.”
“Wren went home with Billy last night,” Anna said, “and Joe’s still sleepin’. He was totally trousered by the time we got home around three AM, so I wouldn’t count on seeing him for a while.”
“Okay. Breakfast for three, then, coming right up.” Toni grabbed a pan from the overhead cabinet.
“So, Gavvy,” Anna said to her brother. “What would you like to do today?”
“Lots of nothing,” he said on a relaxed exhale. “Sit on the beach, stare at the ocean, eat at some point, take a walk, have some beers. That’s really all.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” Toni remarked.
“Aye, if he’s got an umbrella and a tub of sunscreen,” Anna said. “You be careful, Gavin, or your skin will burn to a crisp. I’m not kiddin’, ya hear me?”
“Awright, hen, I hear ya.” He teased.
Anna smacked his arm and he laughed, making Toni laugh too as she broke eggs into a bowl.
“Call me hen, will ya,” Anna groused.
“You sound like Ma!” Gavin said, shaking his head. “Ya think I don’t know I’ll burn? Like I’ve never been on a beach before. Chrissakes.”
“Well, the sun’s strong here. Don’t you remember what happened when ya went to Greece on holiday?” Anna said. “Sun poisoning, if I recall correctly?”
“Aye.” He nodded, but the grin slid off his face. “That was my first big holiday trip with Siobhan. Quite memorable, for several reasons…”
“Ah, shit.” Anna winced. “Didn’t mean to bring her up, Gavvy. Sorry.”
“No worries.” He shrugged and sipped his coffee.
Toni took in Gavin’s sudden mood change and surmised Siobhan was an ex.
“You ever hear from her?” Anna asked him.
“Nah.” He set his mug down, then sat back in his chair and stretched his legs in front of him. “Not since the day she came and got her things. No emails, no nothin’. Better that way.”
“Trash,” Anna said, shaking her head.
“Heard through mutual friends,” Gavin said, “that now she’s got herself a new boyfriend. Power to her.”
“But you’ve dated since you broke up,” Anna said. “Haven’t ya?”
His cheeks flushed a little and he looked down into his cup, as if something interesting was in there. “Nah. And work keeps me busy, so…” He shrugged again.
“She never deserved ya,” Anna growled. “Selfish, nasty bird.”
Gavin waved her off and took another sip of his coffee.
“She didn’t,” Anna pressed. “I say good riddance. You’re good to be rid of her.”
Then Gavin said, so quietly Toni almost didn’t hear him, “I didn’t get rid of her, Anna. She got rid of me.”
Toni’s heart did a little squeeze at his somber tone and his soft-spoken words.
“Which shows she’s a flat out tool,” Anna spat. “Well. We won’t talk about her again. You’re a free man, you’re on holiday for a whole month… you know what? It’s long past time for you to get out there again. I’m gonna find ya someone drop-dead gorgeous, and easy as can be, and get you laid while you’re here.”
Toni dropped the whisk with a clang into the big glass bowl. Whipping her head around, she saw Gavin was even more surprised than she was… and horrified.
“I—you—” He sputtered, staring at his younger sister. She laughed, taking obvious delight in his stunned embarrassment. “I don’t need your help meetin’ girls, thanks very much. Jaysus, you’re a lunatic.”
“Hey!” she cried. “C’mon Gavvy, I’m just tryin’ to help.”
“Just shut up already,” he said. As he swallowed coffee, she made a silly face that made him half-choke and almost snort it through his nose. He couldn’t help but grin. “You. I can never stay annoyed at you for long.”
“Thank goodness.” Anna leaned in and smacked a kiss on his cheek.
As they had breakfast, though Gavin thanked Toni for the meal and complimented her cooking, he barely met her eyes. Was he embarrassed by what Anna had said? Or just not a talker while eating? She hoped it was the latter.
“What’re your plans for the day, Toni?” Anna asked as she slathered apricot jam onto her toasted English muffin.
“Nothing much,” Toni said. “Already got my suit on under here. Figured I’d get some color, out on the deck or the beach. Jump in the ocean at some point. Read a book. Be lazy because I have five days off, so I can.”
“Sounds similar to my plans,” Gavin remarked.
“Why don’t we all hang together, then?” Anna said. “Make a day of it?”
Gavin glanced at Toni, and she could swear a hint of a grin curved the side of his delicious mouth. “Absolutely. If you want to?” His eyes seemed to sparkle at her.
Her heart skipped a beat, but she said casually, “Sure, sounds great.” So much for keeping a bit of distance between herself and Gavin.
Chapter Three
‡
Friday and Saturday were spent as a holiday weekend by the beach should be—time on the beach, time in the water, time sitting out on the back deck, eating, drinking, and enjoying. Wren spent most of the weekend with her boyfriend, but promised she’d be there on Monday morning to help set up for their big Fourth of July BBQ. Joe had been too hung over to do the beach with Toni, Gavin, and Anna on Friday afternoon, but went out with them on Friday night and joined them for fun in the sun on Saturday.
But on Saturday evening, Joe left to go out with other friends, and with Anna and Wren working, that left Gavin and Toni alone.
While Gavin showered, Anna cornered Toni. “The two of you should have dinner somewhere other than the Nest before coming down, you were there last night. You know what? Don’t even come to the Nest tonight. Take him out so he can see some other things,” Anna implored. “Even if it’s just a drive, or the other part of Long Beach, anything. A walk on the boardwalk, I haven’t brought him there yet. Would that be okay?” She stared into Toni’s face and grasped her arms, hope crossing her features. “I know asking you to take my brother out isn’t your responsibility, but I’ll make it up to ya, I swear. He needs to really unwind. Gavin’s not bad, right?”
“God, no,” Toni said. “He’s great.” She hoped that sounded casual. Because she didn’t feel very casual about Gavin. After only forty-eight hours with him, she already was fighting ridiculously strong urges. Like, trying not to think about how much she’d been secretly swooning over his gorgeous face and his sexy, lean body that she’d gotten to gaze on the beach. Or his charming accent, his innate sweetness, and his compelling intelligence.
Once they’d realized they had a mutual love of history, the conversations had flowed easily. His brains turned her on as much as his looks did. And yes, he was slightly reserved, but not at all dull. Most of the guys she’d met recently loved to talk about themselves, or about things she had no interest in, or both. Gavin wasn’t chatty, so when he spoke, she paid attention. Not to mention how damn hot he looked with those silver-rimmed glasses over those bright blue eyes and… yeah, dammit, she liked him. “I’d be happy to take Gavin out tonight. If he wants to go out with me, that is.”
“I’d love to go out with you tonight,” he said from behind her.
Toni turned to see him standing only a foot behind her, hair still damp, face freshly shaved, cleanly handsome in a pale blue polo shirt and khaki shorts. His eyes caught hers and held, and he smiled softly. She felt herself blush as the butterflies flew loose and commandeered her stomach. “Great. Then we will.”
“Fantastic!” Anna cried. She practically ran into the living room and grabbed her bag. “Here…” She dug out her wallet and pulled out some bills. “Dinner’s on me.”
“Put your money away,” Gavin said sharply. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
With a harrumph, she shoved the money back in
to her bag. “I just feel so bad that I have to leave ya almost every night while you’re here,” she said.
“Don’t,” Gavin commanded. “You’re my host, not my babysitter. I’m here to relax. You don’t have to entertain me, Anna. At all. I’m fine on my own. I’m used to bein’ on my own.”
“I know that, but—”
“But nothin’. So stop it. Go to work before you’re late.” He slanted a grin in Toni’s direction. “Besides, you all but hired me a companion for the night, didn’t ya?”
“That’s me,” Toni joked. “A hired escort. Don’t tell my parents, they’ll flip.”
Anna snickered as she scooped up her bag, tossing her cell phone into it. She headed for the door. “All right, all right. At least I’m at ease knowing you’re in good hands for the night.” She turned around, eyed them together for a moment, broke into a wicked smile, and said, “I don’t want to see ya down at the Nest. At all. That’s an order. Go out somewhere else, somewhere nicer, somewhere you can dance, anything. All right? Good. I’ll see you two in the mornin’.” She opened the door and singsonged over her shoulder. “Have fuuuun!” And closed it behind her.
Gavin turned to Toni and said, “I’m sorry about that. Look, you don’t have to take me out for the night. I’m not a puppy, for Chrissake, or a charity case. And it’s a Saturday night—you probably had plans anyway, I’m sure.”
“Actually, no, I didn’t have any plans tonight,” Toni said. “I was just going to get some dinner somewhere, then go down to the Nest.” If he only knew how glad she was for the chance to spend a few hours alone with him. Somewhere they could talk—where he was fully dressed so she wouldn’t be distracted, unlike when they were on the beach or the deck all day—and have a few drinks. She wanted to know what lay beneath that calm, composed exterior. The quieter men always made her wonder what really made them tick.
She took a deep breath and said, “I’d really like to take you out tonight, Gavin. It’s not a chore. It’d be nice.”
His eyes lit as he studied her face. “Really.”
“Yes. Unless…” A thought occurred to her, and it made her stomach do a quick nervous twist. “Well, maybe you don’t want to spend the evening with me? You just said yes to placate Anna?”
His gaze intensified as he said in a low, warm tone, “Toni, there’s nothing I’d like more than to spend the evening with you.”
*
Gavin looked out the window as Toni drove them down Park Avenue, through the central part of Long Beach. The other part of the beach town was mainly residential, with a few stores nestled among the houses and apartment buildings. There was a church, a synagogue, a school with a playground. Toni told him that the tallest apartment buildings were a few blocks down, along the beach, prime real estate with unobstructed views of the sand and ocean.
He asked her about the neighborhood, the people, what the winter was like there. Conversation with her flowed easily and he felt comfortable with her, despite the fact that he was wildly attracted to her. Sometimes, just looking at her made his brain turn to mush.
He wondered if Toni knew she was beautiful. Aye, she was physically pretty, but it was more than that. He watched her face as she talked about the town, animated, ebullient. She was open, quick, and radiated light from the inside out, which made her appeal to him all the more. All that, along with her curves, made her sexy as hell.
When she asked him where he wanted to have dinner, he asked for someplace casual. Her face lit up when an idea struck her. “Oh! I know! Do you like seafood?”
“Aye, sure.”
“Okay, then! I know exactly where we should go.”
They drove down Park Avenue, passing several beach clubs on the right, to what seemed to be the end of the strip. But it led into a smaller neighborhood of smaller houses, and she explained they were actually in a different town now, called Point Lookout. The houses were set very close together; it kind of reminded Gavin of where he’d grown up.
“There’s a lot of Irish folks in this little town,” Toni said, as if hearing his thoughts. “American Irish, of course. Not the real thing like you and Anna.”
“Ah, any Irish folk are the real thing, lass,” Gavin said, overexaggerating his brogue. He got the big smile from her that he’d hoped for.
She made a left onto a side street, then down another street that looked to be by a body of water. “That’s the bay,” she said. “The towns of Long Beach, Lido Beach, and Point Lookout are all sandwiched by the ocean on one side, and the bay on the other.” She slowed the car as she searched for a parking spot. “Which is nice, but it’s also why this area got slammed so hard when Hurricane Sandy hit.” She glanced his way. “Do you know about that?”
“Aye, Anna told me. Sounded terrible. She said the whole West End was a pure disaster.”
“It was. So much was just completely destroyed. The first floor of our house was flooded, they had to rip out and redo the floors, the basement… it was chaos. You can’t imagine… it was one of the worst times of my life.” She found a spot to park, maneuvered her car in, cut the engine, then turned to him with a huge, determined smile. “But, thankfully, most have recovered. And tonight, we’re here to have a good time. So I’m changing the subject now.”
They got out of the car and a strong, warm breeze blew, lifting her curly hair with invisible fingertips. She grabbed at it with a wry laugh. “It’s always windier by the water. I should’ve brought a ponytail holder; I’ll end up eating my hair if I’m not careful.”
“Doesn’t sound too appetizing.” He grinned.
“No, it doesn’t.”
He followed her up the block to what looked like a large white house, with both stairs and a ramp for handicapped access. The line of people was long, and she tugged him along to stand at the back of it.
“Be right back,” she said, and walked away.
He noticed he was more dressed than most of the others, many of whom looked like they’d come straight off the beach, still in their swimsuits or with T-shirts thrown over them. Buckets of brightly colored flowers hung from unseen hooks, adding splashes of color against the plain white wood. The small, white plastic tables and chairs on the front wooden deck were all already filled with customers, eating what looked to be delicious food on paper plates, and using plastic utensils. It was definitely casual, as he’d requested. The air hummed with the quiet chatter of patrons and old time swing music that played softly from a hidden sound system.
Toni returned to his side within a minute.
“Crowded,” he remarked. “Don’t know that we’ll find a seat.”
“There’s a big deck out back,” she said. “Right on the bay. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a table there.” She handed him a folded piece of pink paper. “This is the menu. The line moves pretty fast, so you can decide what you want beforehand. We order it up at the window—” she pointed to the front of the line, where two girls were taking orders—“then we wait ’til our number is called and they give us our food.”
“Got it.”
“It’s not fancy here,” she said, sweeping her curls back from her face, “but it’s got some of the best seafood around, I swear. And eating outside is just nice.”
“I trust you.” He smiled, and scanned over the paper in his hands. “Wow,” he said. “They’ve got good choices.”
“Yup.” She edged closer to him to peek at the menu. Her shoulder pressed against his arm lightly, and her nearness made his skin heat. Then he caught her scent, light and floral, and his blood started to hum and pulse through his veins. She made his head swim with longing and plain old lust.
“Do you like baked clams, or fried calamari, or shrimp cocktail?” she asked, looking up at him with no idea that her closeness was unleashing chaos in his body. “We could split that as an appetizer, if you wanted, then each order our own dinner.”
Clearing his dry throat, he managed, “I like ’em all. You pick.”
Twenty minutes later, they were sea
ted at a tiny table by the railing of the back deck, sharing a shrimp cocktail. The shrimp were fresh, and Gavin noted the high quality of the food for such a small, casual place. Before Toni was a plate of grilled salmon with rice; Gavin had gone for the fried combo platter. Fried shrimp, clams, scallops, and flounder sat atop a bed of French fries.
“This is amazing,” he said as he ate. “The food is delicious, and being right out on the water like this… it’s grand. Thanks for bringing me.”
“Glad you like the food. I cooked all day,” she joked. She lifted her large plastic cup full of Sam Adams and tapped it to his. “To a nice evening.”
He blinked, then smiled softly. God, she was lovely. He lifted his cup. “Sláinte mhaith,” he said before sipping.
“Means ‘good health’, right?” she said. “I’ve heard your sister say it many times.”
“She’s a good girl,” he grinned.
“I know there are eight of you.” Toni picked up her napkin, wiped her fingers, then took her plastic fork and knife to her salmon. “That had to be wild growing up.”
“Aye, it was.” Gavin grinned wryly as he set down his beer. “I’m the sixth of the eight. Four boys, four girls. Pure chaos.”
“But interesting, I’ll bet.” She took a bite of salmon.
“Aye, true enough.” He laughed low. “We all survived. There were tough times, sure, but a lot of love there.”
“Your mother should be commended,” Toni remarked.
“My mother should be sainted!” Gavin laughed. “You have any siblings?”
“I do,” Toni said. “One older sister. Belle.”
“Whoa,” he said, studying her.
“What?” she asked, unsure.
“You. You should’ve seen the look on your face just now.” His eyebrows lifted. “That was a scowl if I’ve ever seen one. Don’t get on well, I take it?”
Toni snorted out a laugh. “No. No, we don’t. We never have. We try, but we’re just… oil and water, you know? Very different. We’re not friends. Not like you and Anna are. You’re lucky, you know.”
His Love Page 3
