The One Real Thing (Hart's Boardwalk)

by Samantha Young

  “I don’t think it loses anything. It’s us that lose something.” I wondered what it was that he had lost that made the place special. Was it his ex? And why did that thought make the hot dog in my stomach turn to ash?

  Cooper nodded. “You’re right.”

  When he didn’t elaborate I felt a surge of disappointment. I hoped to God he wasn’t talking about his ex.

  “So tell me about the bar,” I said, changing the subject.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “How did you come to be the owner of a bar on the boardwalk? From what I hear that’s prime real estate.” I grinned cheekily.

  He chuckled. “You been talking to the Devlins?”

  “No. Bailey.”

  “But she’s been talking about the Devlins. Everything she said is true. They’re a pain in the ass.”

  “Have they been bothering you about the bar?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing I can’t handle, Doc.”

  I frowned at that because I hated the idea of anyone trying to disrupt the contentment Cooper seemed to have.

  “The bar used to be called the Boardwalk and it was owned by my mother’s brother. My great-grandparents owned it and it’s been passed down since. My uncle died in a car crash when I was just a boy and he left the bar to my mom. She kept the same management on to run the place for her and then when I was twenty-one she gave it to me. I wanted to make it my own. The place was dog tired, needed a face-lift. I did all that and renamed it Cooper’s. I added a menu and hired a cook and the place is doing well.”

  “It’s hard work owning a bar.”

  “It’s hard work owning any establishment, but at the same time I get to hang out with people I like every night.”

  I grinned at the way he looked at it. “So no downsides?”

  “Oh, there are a few.”

  “Such as . . .”

  He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly looking uneasy, and he leaned in closer, his voice quieter as he said, “I currently have a waitress who is constantly late for work. She’s a good girl, though, just a bit of a flake. I don’t want to fire her, but my bar staff has to carry her weight. I’m stuck on what to do. I’ve fired waitstaff before if they weren’t keeping up, but Lil is different. She’s a good worker when she is there, and she gets great tips. I keep going back and forth on it because I hate the thought of taking away anyone’s livelihood—especially a kid who does do a good job when she actually makes it in on time.”

  At that moment I found myself completely lost in the blue of his eyes.

  Physically this man was the most masculine, rugged man I’d ever been around. He was the complete opposite of the slim, athletic, perfectly coifed Andrew.

  In more ways than one.

  Andrew would fire that girl without even thinking about the consequences for her. I’d seen him make both male and female interns cry at the hospital.

  Cooper didn’t want to fire a girl who was hurting his business in case it hurt her.

  God, I liked this man. I really liked this man.

  I didn’t think I kept a very good job of keeping the admiration off my face, because Cooper’s eyebrows suddenly shot up in question.

  I pulled back a little, clearing my throat, as I tried to regain focus. “How many times has she been late?”

  “Every shift for the past two weeks.”

  “And she was never late before that?”

  He thought about it. “Not continually like this.”

  “Okay, then something may have changed in her personal life. Figure out what that is and then make a decision from there.”

  He contemplated this. “How so?”

  “Well, if she’s late because she has . . . say . . . a new boyfriend or girlfriend that is distracting her, then you may have to fire her or issue a warning that she’s going to get fired if she doesn’t clean up her act. If there’s something more serious going on—an illness in the family—then you help her work something out. It’s all about context.”

  Cooper stared at me a moment too long . . . so long I felt myself growing warm all over. The warmth in his eyes didn’t help. In fact, it was the cause of the flip low, low in my belly. “Right you are, Doc,” he said, his words coming out a little thicker, a little deeper.

  Quite abruptly, inexplicably, sexual tension hung in the air as we stared at one another, and I wanted to wrench myself out of the sudden spell but couldn’t.

  “Can I get you anything else?” Iris suddenly appeared at the booth, shattering the moment.

  I breathed a deep sigh of relief and gave her a shaky, grateful grin. “All good here.”

  “The check, please, Iris,” Cooper said.

  “I’m paying,” I said, reminding him.

  “I know, Doc.” He grinned. “Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

  I flushed at the mention of the word “panties.”

  He grinned knowingly and I threw him a dirty look that only made him laugh harder.

  Not five minutes later we were back on the boardwalk.

  He grabbed my hand before I could stop him and the slide of his callused palm against my softer one sent a rush of images through my brain.

  Those hands skimming my bare arms, fingertips tickling my spine, thumbs brushing my nipples . . .

  “Let’s take a walk, Doc, before I have to get you back,” he said, either oblivious to what he was doing to me or deliberately prolonging my torture.

  I was struck dumb by my intense sexual awareness of him, realizing the physical attraction was only growing stronger the more time I spent with him and the more I got to know him.

  While I was freaking out, Cooper seemed just as at ease in our silence as always.

  And then he brushed his thumb over the top of my hand and I involuntarily squeezed his in return. He looked down at me in question.

  We stared at each other in silence for a few steps and I saw the heat start to darken the blue of his gaze.

  His grip tightened and he bent his head closer to mine. “What’s life like back in Wilmington? You got a nice place? Friends?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Nice apartment. Good colleagues. Long hours, though.” I looked out at the beach where people were just starting to pack up. I smiled, watching them. “It must be so nice to work all week and then head to the beach on your day off, or even head to the beach for a walk after work. Unwind.”

  “Yeah. I run on the beach every morning. It’s a nice way to start the day,” he agreed.

  A pithy comment about it being a nice way to pick up women, too, trembled on my tongue, but I swallowed it, not wanting him to tease me again for being jealous.

  “And then there’s Emery’s,” I said instead. “Now that is a place to unwind.”

  “Emery’s?” He looked surprised. “The bookstore and coffee place next to mine?”

  “Yup.”

  “Unwind . . . there?”

  I laughed at his confusion. “Yes. Emery is a very soothing person. I’ve been going there a lot to curl up and read and drink her amazing coffee.”

  “Does she talk to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Really?”

  “You sound as surprised as Bailey.”

  “I am. Emery Saunders is so shy it’s painful to be around her.”

  I noted his discomfort at even just the mention of her name. It surprised me. He seemed like the kind of man who was just cocky enough to be comfortable around all women. “She just takes a little time to come around. But her place is wonderful.”

  “Her coffee is definitely good, I’ll give you that.”

  “Her coffee, Antonio’s hot dogs, Bailey’s view, and your Long Islands.” I tallied them.

  “What’s that?” He grinned curiously.

  “My favorite things in Hartwell so far.”
<
br />   “Not the people?” he teased, squeezing my hands.

  I laughed because I liked how he teased me, even if it did complicate my feelings, and I teased back by not giving him an answer.

  ELEVEN

  Cooper

  All was going according to plan.

  Although Cooper hadn’t intended to walk out on the beach the other night and take the kiss he’d been itching for since he’d met Jessica, he was glad he’d done it. That kiss lived up to all his expectations and not even this fuck-buddy situation she had going on with some other guy was going to stop him from getting to know her.

  And while he was getting to know her, he was crumbling her defenses.

  Cooper planned to seduce Jessica right out of friendship and into his bed. Permanently.

  She was smart; she was sassy; she was fun and cute and sexy all wrapped up in one irresistible package. And, Jesus, she could kiss. If the kiss was anything to go by, sex between them would be explosive. More than that, Cooper liked her. He liked how he’d shared a problem with her about work and not only had she listened, she’d even given him advice.

  He liked that, despite how strong she appeared, he now knew there was something really vulnerable about her. He didn’t know what it was, except he’d caught a glimpse of it when he’d realized she wasn’t happy. It made her less perfect, more human.

  He liked how protective he’d felt in that moment and how he’d wanted to change the subject to take the sadness out of her eyes.

  The strange thing was Jessica had seemed startled to consider whether or not her life made her happy.

  “I don’t know,” she had said in answer to his question. “I don’t know.”

  Well, Cooper knew. The doc was not happy. He could see something was missing for her. Every time she talked about her life in Wilmington she was factual, disconnected, and she quickly changed the subject. But when she spoke about Hartwell she was animated and happy.

  Cooper was suspicious that Jessica Huntington was falling in love with his town—a whirlwind romance—and she didn’t even know everything about it yet.

  He found himself at Bailey’s place a few blocks from the inn, on the north side. Bailey had arranged a big dinner for Jess since it was one of her last few days in Hartwell. Ira and Iris had joined Tom, Jess, Bailey, and him.

  “When you said we were having salad I nearly died,” Ira cracked at Bailey. “But this is damn good.”

  Bailey beamed from the head of the dining table. “I’m glad you like it, Ira.”

  Ira was right. The crab and apple salad with the crab cake fritters Bailey had put together for the main course was a hit.

  “You have to give me the recipe for this,” Jessica said.

  She’d moaned at the first bite and put heat in his blood, but Cooper was getting used to that feeling around her. That last walk they’d taken on the boardwalk had been so thick with sexual tension it had taken everything within him not to throw her over his shoulder and carry her back to his place.

  “Sure,” Bailey agreed.

  “I mean . . . not to use,” Jessica said. “Just to pin it to my fridge and pretend that it’s a possibility I could ever make anything this good.”

  “You can’t cook?” Iris said, frowning at the thought.

  The doc flushed a little. “Not really.”

  “You can save lives, but you can’t cook?”

  “You can cook, but you can’t save lives?” Jess countered.

  Iris’s frowned turned to a grin as her husband chuckled at her side. “I like you. You remind me of my Ivy.”

  “That is a compliment of the highest order,” Bailey assured the doc.

  Jessica smiled that pretty smile of hers. “Thank you.” But when her eyes met Cooper’s across the table, that pretty smile wilted a little.

  Cooper didn’t take it negatively.

  He knew by the jealousy she couldn’t hide on the beach when she thought he was going to take Leanne up on her offer, and by the way she’d rushed to get into the inn and away from him after their nondate, that she was feeling exactly what he was feeling. She was scared shitless about it.

  He thought maybe he should be, too.

  But she had fired something in him, and he couldn’t ignore it.

  “So, Jessica,” Tom said, “are you planning on returning to our little town anytime soon? I know Bailey would love that.”

  She gave Bailey a wistful smile. “I will definitely be back, but I work such long hours I couldn’t say when. I do know that my phone bill is about to go sky-high.”

  Bailey gave her a sad smile. “I’m going to miss you being at my inn every day. I feel like you’ve been there forever.”

  “Me, too.”

  Cooper watched the friends share a long look.

  It was the way of it sometimes. Like it had been for him and Jack as kids. They were friends from the moment they met.

  He immediately threw the thought away.

  “Coop, I went into Dr. Duggan’s office the other day to see if they were looking for anyone after his daughter left. They are,” Bailey said, her eyes round to playact a Help me! look. “And he said he’d be happy to talk to Jess about it.”

  The doc groaned across from Cooper. “We talked about this all day yesterday.”

  Cooper frowned at her downcast expression and looked sternly at Bailey. He didn’t want Jess to feel coerced into staying somewhere she’d only been vacationing for three weeks. He wanted her to stay longer in Hartwell because—even if a little crazy—it felt right. “Don’t.”

  Bailey opened her mouth to protest, but Iris cut her off. “I want the recipe for this, too. We could add it to the menu.”

  “You’re not stealing my recipe for the restaurant,” Bailey said, sufficiently diverted.

  “What if we called it Bailey’s crab apple salad and fritters?” Ira offered.

  Bailey considered it and then shook her head. “Sorry, no. We serve this at the inn. I can’t have my competition serving the same dish.” She frowned. “Anyhow, it’s not Italian.”

  “Oh, right.” Iris grinned mischievously.

  “Coop, I saw Cat the other day with Joey. That boy is getting bigger every time I see him,” Ira said.

  He felt the doc’s curious gaze and answered her silent question. “My sister, Cat, and her eight-year-old son, Joey.”

  “Oh.”

  He looked back at Ira. “He’s skipping a grade, did she tell you that?” he said proudly. Unfortunately, Joey’s dad had been a one-night stand, a tourist whose name Cat couldn’t even remember. Not so unfortunately for Cooper, that meant he got to be the man in Joey’s life and it filled a hole in his own in a way that he’d be forever grateful for. His nephew was the nicest kid and he was smart as a whip.

  “She did.” Ira grinned. “Proud as punch. And she should be. That boy is being raised right. All ‘yes, sirs’ and ‘no, sirs.’ You don’t hear that much anymore.”

  “And he is your spitting image, Coop,” Iris said. “I swear that boy has got more of you in him than his own mother.”

  It was true. Joey had inherited his and Cat’s blue eyes and dark hair, but he looked just like Cooper had when he was his age. Except Joey was smarter and more talented.

  “Cat was saying he’s doing really well with his piano lessons,” Ira said.

  He nodded even though that was an understatement. The kid was a little virtuoso. When he was four Cat had the piano she’d inherited from their mom tuned and refurbished because Joey was so fascinated by it. He just took to it. Cooper had offered to pay for piano lessons, and the teacher had just recently suggested Joey audition for a private tutor in Dover who had once been a tutor at the New England Conservatory and had a high success rate of getting his kids into the best music schools in the United States.

  He was very picky about who he worked wit
h and he liked to start with them when they were young like Joey.

  He also didn’t come cheap.

  But Cooper had promised Cat he’d do whatever it took to make it work if this guy took Joey on as a student.

  “Plays ‘well’,” Bailey scoffed at the word choice. “Ira, you should hear him play. He’s eight and—” She made an exploding noise as she made a bursting gesture with her hands near her head. “Seriously. Blows my mind.”

  “He sounds amazing,” Jessica said quietly and Cooper’s gaze got all tangled up in hers again. “You must be very proud.”

  “The proudest,” he said gruffly.

  “They make everything better, don’t they?” she said.

  He guessed she was thinking about her goddaughter and he found himself wanting to know more about the girl, whose kid she was, and why those people meant so much to her. “Yeah,” he answered instead. “They do.”

  “Thank you for dinner,” the doc said, giving Bailey a hug. “And for everything. Best vacation ever.”

  “It’s not over yet,” Bailey said, sounding almost panicked about it. “We still have a few days.”

  The doc grinned at her. “That’s true. We’ll make the most of them.”

  “I’ll walk you back, Doc,” he offered.

  Her grin wilted a little. “We all will.” She gestured to Iris and Ira.

  Iris smirked. “Oh, we just live a block over. We don’t live at the boardwalk.”

  “Right. Of course.” She turned back to Cooper. “You don’t either, right? So I don’t want you to go out of your way.”

  “You’re not walking back to the inn alone at night, Doc. We’ve been over that.” He grinned as she flushed at the reminder of their make-out session on the beach.

  She huffed. “I’m perfectly capable of doing so.”

  “Not arguing about it.”

  “What happened to the enlightened gentleman who let me pay for dinner the other day?”

  “Splitting the cost of a date is different from seeing to your safety.”