As Beautiful as the Bay

by Serenity Woods

  “Sam’s going to move in with me,” Ginger replied.

  “Too many memories in the house,” Sam said. It just made him too sad, being there.

  “That’s fine, short term.” Fred stretched out her legs across Mac’s lap, and he began to massage her feet. “But it’s such a small place, and the two of you would be traveling up to the vineyard every morning. I was thinking... we have so much unused land here. What about building a house up here, next to ours?”

  Surprise lit Mac’s eyes. “That’s a great idea. Over to the north there’s a huge plot with plenty of room for a house and a decent garden.”

  “We could build three,” Ginger said mischievously, “with three front doors but inside they’re all one big house, like the one in the Beatles movie.” She grinned as the others laughed. “We’ll see. One step at a time. I don’t want to frighten him off.” She winked at Sam.

  He just smiled. Comments like that wouldn’t scare him away. He wasn’t frightened about settling down with Ginger. Now he’d made the decision to let the bakery go and start again, he felt like a new man.

  “What about you?” Ginger addressed Sandi, who had been quiet this evening. She sat curled up in an armchair, listening to the others, and smiled now as Ginger raised her eyebrows at her. “We’ve talked non-stop about the vineyard and the restaurant this evening, but there are three parts to the estate. What about the B&B? How’s that coming along?”

  “Good,” Sandi said. “I’ve got the four bedrooms how I want them. I’ve stripped the dining room and that’s about half complete. The laundry room has all new equipment. It’s coming along well.”

  “And what about you?” Ginger asked. “We need to get you fixed up now. There must be a nice Kiwi man out there for you.”

  “Oh, I’m in no hurry to settle down,” Sandi said. “I was thinking about the pool. Maybe we should start planning how we want it, ready for the summer.”

  Mac mentioned a builder he knew who specialized in pools, and the conversation moved on. Sam’s gaze lingered on Ginger’s sister, though. He knew that Jace Hart, the lawyer from Kerikeri, had asked her out, but she’d politely refused. Sam didn’t know why. He suspected it was something to do with what had happened to her back in the U.K., a ripple effect that was continuing to influence her, even a year later and thirteen thousand miles away.

  Ginger had told him what had happened to Sandi, about the troubles she’d had with her partner. She and Brodie had lived together for two years. He’d been a sales rep who’d traveled a lot. Then one day she’d received a terrible phone call informing her that Brodie had suffered a fatal heart attack in his hotel room. Sandi had been devastated, and she’d gone to his funeral, only to come face-to-face with his wife and two children. All the time they’d been together, he’d been lying to both her and his wife. The house Sandi was living in was in Brodie’s name, and his distraught wife had thrown Sandi out and she’d gotten nothing.

  Sam could only imagine what a deception like that would do to a person. Surprisingly, it did not seem to have turned Sandi into a bitter person. Ginger said that her sister had been terribly upset for months, but she’d grabbed onto the idea of moving to New Zealand with both hands, seeing it as a chance to start again. Sam suspected, though, that Sandi was discovering how difficult it was to truly leave a life behind you. You never forgave, and you never forgot. All you could do was put it down to experience and move on. He knew all about that.

  Fred rose to get another bottle of wine, Sandi picked up the chocolate wrappers and took them out to the bin, and Mac went off to the bathroom. Scully lifted her head, saw that Ginger and Sam weren’t moving, and lay back down.

  “You okay?” Ginger whispered, cuddling up to Sam. “Thinking about your dad?”

  He just smiled and bent his head to kiss her. “What are you doing tomorrow?” he murmured.

  She shrugged. “Working.”

  “Think Phil can take over at lunchtime for an hour or two?”

  “I would think so. Why, what did you have planned?”

  “I want to take you to the jeweler’s,” he said. “I want to buy you a ring.”

  Her expression softened, and she reached up to cup his face, her thumb brushing his stubbled cheek. “There’s no rush. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I don’t care. I want every guy you meet to know you’re mine.” He kissed her. “I don’t want to lose you now I have you.”

  “You’re not going to lose me, Sam.”

  “You promise?”

  “I promise. I’ll happily wear your ring. You do trust me though, don’t you?”

  He suddenly remembered about how jealous her ex used to get with her, and his face creased with concern. “Oh Christ, of course. That’s not why...” He frowned. “I can’t explain it. You make me feel... not possessive, that’s not it... it’s not about trust... You make me burn. I’m hungry for you all the time. I don’t want to let you go, and if you wear my ring, it’ll be like I’m still touching you, wherever you are.”

  He stopped, a little embarrassed. He was laying it on a bit thick, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if Ginger had laughed.

  She didn’t, though. Her eyes simmered with heat, and her lips parted. Her gaze settled on his mouth, and she leaned forward until their lips nearly touched.

  “I want you,” she said. “I know it’s been a long, difficult day, but all I keep thinking about is how wonderful it is to be alive, and how amazing it’s going to be having you in my bed all night, every night, from now on. I want to slip in next to you and feel you naked against me. I want to kiss you until you’re hard, and then have you slide inside me. I want you to kiss me that way you do, until my head spins, until I can’t think of anything else but you. Can we do that tonight, Sam?” She brushed her lips against his. “Will you make love to me?”

  “Try and stop me.” He kissed her properly then, and it was difficult to say what burned brighter, the logs in the fireplace, or the passion between them that seemed only to increase with every day that passed.

  Blue Penguin Bay

  Book 3: As Timeless as the Sea

  Excerpt

  BLUE PENGUIN BAY’S vineyard was alive with a riot of color.

  On the vines, small flower clusters on the tips of the young green shoots were transforming into tiny grape berries, which would eventually ripen into fat, luscious grapes. Beyond the fields of vines, the Pacific Ocean sparkled a brilliant blue in the warm afternoon sun. And all around, ribbons flapped in the summer breeze. They were tied to ropes which had been strung from the roof of the restaurant to the beautiful wooden archway on the adjacent lawn, making Sandi feel as if she were on board a ship, its sails snapping in the wind.

  “The thought of Christmas being in summer makes my head spin.” Her sister, Winifred, had come to stand next to where Sandi stood in the shade of the canopy over the restaurant’s outdoor seating. “And I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to December being hot.”

  They and their other sister, Ginger, had moved to New Zealand from England ten months ago. The girls had read that New Zealand was like England in the southern hemisphere, and in many ways, it was true—they drove on the left, spoke English, ate baked beans and meat pies and fish and chips, and shared a common history, with most of the early European settlers being from England.

  But what the websites and guide books had failed to mention was the strangeness of being the polar opposite of England. Christmas was in summer. Halloween remained in October, but that was spring here. And Easter was still in March or April, but that was the middle of autumn, which was weird when Easter was supposed to be about rebirth, new shoots, lambs, and chicks.

  The only way Sandi had been able to make sense of it was to forget about the Christian holidays and focus instead on the old pagan festivals. She didn’t talk much about it to her sisters, but her religious beliefs, such as they were, had always leaned toward earth religions, and they definitely made more sense Down Under, like next week, De
cember twenty-first, being a celebration of the summer solstice.

  Sandi smiled at Fred. “I think we’re just going to have to forget about any association we have with Christmas and wintry weather.”

  “Fair enough, but why do most New Zealand Christmas cards have snowmen and reindeer? And the shops in town have spray snow around the windows. It’s bizarre.” Fred looked baffled.

  “It is,” Sandi agreed. “That’s why I’m trying to think of it as a summer festival.”

  “That does make sense.” Fred smiled as three men exited the building and slowly walked across the lawn toward the wooden archway. “Wow, would you look at those dudes. Couldn’t you eat them all on toast?”

  Sandi had to agree, they looked gorgeous in their gray morning suits, white shirts, and silver-and-lavender ties. “Your husband brushes up well,” she teased. Eamon MacDonald, commonly known as Mac, lived and died in the T-shirts and jeans he wore working in the vineyard. He would be giving the bride away today.

  “So does the groom,” Fred said. “I didn’t think he owned a shirt.”

  Just like Mac, Sam Pankhurst rarely wore anything except jeans and tees, unless he was working in the patisserie, when he wore a white apron over his clothes and a white hat on his dark brown hair. Today, he looked positively scrumptious. He’d even brushed his hair.

  “Ginger is going to cry when she sees him,” Sandi predicted.

  “Almost certainly.” Fred gave her a mischievous glance. “Jace looks good too, don’t you think?”

  Sandi threw her sister a wry look. But she was unable to deny Fred’s words.

  Jace Hart was, she thought, possibly the most gorgeous man on the entire planet. He was huge—at least six-four, and it hadn’t surprised her when she’d discovered he played lock for the local rugby team, because he had an athletic build and looked as if only a forklift truck would be able to move him. He was handsome, in a rugged, weathered way that made her heart beat faster. He was also a lawyer, so the man had a brain between his ears. Obviously, he must be arrogant or moody or spiteful or something, because nobody was that perfect.

  “He does look good,” she said. “He’s prime crumpet.”

  Fred chuckled at the English-ism. “Do you think he’ll ask you out again today?”

  “I doubt it,” Sandi replied. “I would imagine he’s got the message by now.”

  Jace had asked her out twice—once soon after they met, back in June, and again in September, when they’d bumped into each other in a bar in the nearby town of Kerikeri. Both times, she’d turned him down.

  “You should say yes if he does,” Fred advised.

  “Not going to happen.” Sandi looked around for Ginger. It was nearly two o’clock—nearly time for the wedding.

  Fred put a hand on her sister’s arm. “Aw, come on. He’d be perfect for you. I still don’t understand why you said no.”

  Sandi hesitated. “I find him a bit... intimidating.”

  Fred’s eyebrows rose. “In what way?”

  “He’s very... larger than life. In all ways. He’s like the sun—so bright I can hardly bear to look at him. If I went out with him, I feel as if I’d be... I don’t know, consumed, maybe.”

  “Only if you’re very lucky.”

  “Fred!”

  “Well.” Fred glanced over at him. “I know what you mean—he has a big personality, but I don’t see that as a negative thing. He’s interesting. He’s warm and funny. What’s not to like?”

  “I’m not ready,” Sandi said.

  Fred’s gaze came back to her, and her expression softened. “Aw. Sweetie, it’s been so long. I know it was terrible, but you have to move on sometime.”

  “I have moved on, and I’ve made a life for myself here, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to give myself to a man yet. I don’t know if I ever will be. I like being single. I like not having to answer to anyone.”

  Fred’s steely gaze held her captive. “Is that it? Or are you just scared? Because, despite everything you’ve been through, I would never have called you a coward.”

  Sandi stared at her sister. Fred had never spoken to her that way before, and she was so shocked she found it difficult to catch her breath. “I’m not a coward.”

  “Do you remember that evening we walked through Regent’s Park, after Mum died?” Fred asked. “You, me, and Ginger? We were talking about everything, about Mum taking her own life, and what Jack had done to Ginger, and what Brodie had done to you. I felt so low, and I said I just wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there, and Ginger agreed. And you were furious with us. You were like an avenging angel. You said that nobody was going to keep the Cartwright girls down.”

  Sandi studied her pretty summer sandals. “I remember.”

  “You said we were never to think of ourselves as victims, and it was time we stopped being the ones who had things done to us. We were going to take charge of our own lives and do what we wanted, especially once we came to New Zealand.”

  Sandi lifted her gaze to watch Mac walking back to where he’d be collecting Ginger. She wished Fred would stop talking—she didn’t want to be reminded of the things she’d said in the past, of how she’d been determined to be brave.

  “You were the one who kept us going,” Fred said. “I was so low at that point, I don’t know that I could have picked myself up after Mum died. But you dragged me up by my bootstraps, dusted me down, and put a sword in my hand. I couldn’t have done it without you—I wouldn’t be here, in New Zealand, married to Mac and having the time of my life, if it wasn’t for you.”

  Sandi’s eyes filled with tears. “Fred...”

  “So now I’m doing the same to you. What Brodie did was incredibly cruel, and I know he broke your heart into a million pieces. But guess what—I’ve got some pretty strong Super Glue, and I’m going to stick it all back together if it kills me.”

  Sandi gave a short laugh. “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, really.” Fred’s face was uncharacteristically fierce, her voice firm. “I will not let that man—that sorry excuse for a human being—have a hold on you for the rest of your life. I haven’t pushed you, because I know it takes time to get over a betrayal. But I’m done waiting.”

  “Don’t I have a say in this?”

  “No. Because you’re done waiting, too. I know you, Sandi, and I know you’re strong enough to take the next step. But I think you need a little help. So you’d better get ready, because when you’re not looking, I’m going to push you out of the nest. Or off the gangplank. Pick your own analogy.”

  Fred met Sandi’s gaze and held it. Sandi could see she meant every word she said.

  She owed so much to her sister. Fred had looked after their bipolar mother for years, allowing Sandi and Ginger to go out into the world and live normal lives. At the time, Sandi had been young and selfish and hadn’t given much thought to Fred’s sacrifice. She’d disliked her mother’s self-indulgent nature, all the overly dramatic scenes, the weeping and wailing, and she’d been glad to escape and leave her in Fred’s capable hands, thinking that her sister liked looking after her, and had no ambition to do anything else. It was only later she’d discovered that Fred had wanted to be a nurse, and understood how much Fred had given up for them. Sandi felt a lot of guilt about that, and since then she’d done her best to try to make it up to Fred, knowing she never could.

  “All right,” she said softly. Leaning forward, she placed a kiss on her sister’s cheek.

  Fred nodded, lifting her chin in a way that told Sandi she was fighting back tears. She looked so lovely today, Sandi thought. Ginger hadn’t wanted a big wedding, and she and Sam were just going to have a quiet exchange of vows, but she’d still wanted her sisters to be her bridesmaids.

  Their dresses were Grecian-style, simple and long, and the color of the Merlot that was to be served at dinner. Fred’s long brown hair had been braided and curled in a bun, and she looked elegant and sophisticated, which she was enjoying after spending most of her days in jeans o
ut in the fields of vines.

  Sandi’s long blonde hair had also been braided and pinned up. She loved the dress, which was cool in the early summer weather, and it suited her, she thought, especially as she’d lost weight since she’d come to New Zealand. Back in the U.K., when she was oblivious—she couldn’t bring herself to say happy—she’d put on a few stone and had gone up two dress sizes, but now she’d slimmed down, and it was nice to show off her new slender figure.

  A movement to their right made them both turn, and there was Ginger, on Mac’s arm, standing at the edge of the lawn. Her white dress was in the same style as the bridesmaids’, simple and long with spaghetti straps and embroidery on the bodice. Ginger wore her coppery-blonde hair down, though, with her veil pinned on the back. She looked beautiful, and Sandi’s eyes filled with tears again.

  “Jeez, I shouldn’t have worn mascara.” Fred dabbed delicately beneath her eyes with a tissue. “I feel so emotional today.”

  “Me too,” Sandi whispered. “I suppose it’s not surprising. We’ve all been through so much. Seeing you so happy with Mac, and now seeing Ginger marrying Sam... I can’t believe we’re so lucky.”

  “You’ll be next,” Fred said firmly. “Just wait and see.” She held her hand out to her sister. “Come on. They’re about to walk over to the arch.”

  Sandi took her sister’s hand and followed her over to where Ginger and Mac were waiting. She felt such a mixture of emotions today. Of course, she was super happy that Ginger was getting married, because her sister had been to hell and back with all the problems with her ex. But she couldn’t deny that she felt a twist of envy deep inside.

  It was her own fault. She’d shut herself off from men, turning down not only Jace but also a couple of other offers for dates from local guys. She’d told herself she was too busy working on the bed and breakfast, and that had been true, because she’d worked her fingers to the bone cleaning, painting, and decorating the place to make it a fitting addition to the vineyard and its restaurant.