Jaded

by Tess Thompson

  “Do you need a loan from me?” Honor blurted this out as she dropped into the beach chair. The top of her bikini gapped slightly as she leaned forward to grab a bottle of water. Do not stare. “I mean, just to get you through?”

  “You’re sweet,” Violet said. “But once I learned who bought the building, I knew I was screwed.” Tears flowed down her cheeks now. Zane glanced at Dakota. He’d abandoned his sandwich after a few bites and was now playing in the sand with his toy truck. Good. No good to see your mama cry.

  “Who bought the building? Do we know them?” Honor asked.

  “Kyle Hicks,” Violet said.

  “Kyle?” Zane asked. “What does he want with it?” Currently, Kyle, one of the Dogs, was building a resort on the outskirts of town, but he had investments all over the state of California. What would he want with that building? In the middle of town, one side of the building was Violet’s shop, with the bookstore on the other. He wasn’t sure how the bookstore was doing financially, but it was a Cliffside Bay institution. The residents would have a fit if it went away. Had Kyle done it just to spite Violet? She had been picketing the resort construction site for months. Violet was an advocate for keeping the town historically pure. Kyle was an advocate for making money.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Zane said. “There’s got to be a good reason why he would buy it.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” Violet said. “I have to get a real job and stop all this foolishness. The problem is, I don’t know how to do anything but be a shop girl.”

  Honor had been listening and munching on her sandwich while they talked. Now she leaned forward with an adamant expression on her face. “Let me look at the financials. Maybe I can figure out what’s going on and see if we can find a way to make it more profitable.”

  Zane smiled. That was his clever girl. She’s not your girl. He turned back to Violet. “Are you open to ideas about morphing it into something besides just the refurbished items?”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “Ice cream?” Zane asked.

  “Ice cream?” Violet looked appalled. “I don’t know anything about ice cream.”

  “What’s there to know, other than it’s delicious?” Honor asked.

  “Well, there are codes and such. Restaurant stuff,” Zane said.

  “Exactly. Which I know nothing about,” Violet said.

  “I want ice cream,” Dakota said, suddenly interested in the conversation.

  “So do I,” Honor said.

  “We’re getting off track here,” Violet said. But she laughed. They’d managed to distract her from her problems for the moment at least.

  “There really should be an ice cream store in Cliffside Bay,” Honor said, glaring at Zane like it was his fault. “Why isn’t there?”

  “I’m not in charge of all food in this town,” Zane said.

  “You should be.” Honor smiled at him and he swore his stomach whooshed around like a high-speed dishwasher. “I’d be skinny if it weren’t for your burgers.”

  You’re perfect the way you are.

  “No one wants a twig,” he said, and instantly felt bad. Violet had become too thin in the past few months.

  Zane leveled his gaze in Violet’s direction. “I’m serious about the ice cream idea. Whether we like it or not, tourism is a main source of income in this town. All beachside towns should have ice cream stores. What if you added an old-fashioned soda fountain to the shop?”

  Violet’s shop needed an overhaul. Her items were expensive and perhaps unappealing. Maybe people didn’t have the same passion for a refurbished item as Violet? A purse made from old tires was still a tire. Regardless, running a small business was hard. Not to mention the taxes and the competition from big companies like big box stores. The little guy had no chance.

  “And maybe added some other items—not necessarily refurbished, but beautiful,” Honor said.

  “The whole point of my store is to help save the planet,” Violet said.

  “Do you want to keep running your own business?” Zane asked, gently.

  “I don’t know,” Violet said. “Maybe not. It’s so hard. I need to have steady income for Dakota. I’m so tired of worrying about money.”

  “I remember how that feels,” Honor said.

  “Me too. I’m barely making enough to keep my dad at the memory care place.” Zane hadn’t meant for that to slip out of his mouth. He didn’t like people knowing his financial business.

  “Do you need a little cash to keep you going?” Honor asked again.

  “I can’t take money from friends,” Violet said. “It always creates problems.”

  He silently agreed. It was the primary reason he wanted investors for the brewery outside of his friend group. Both Kyle and Brody would invest if he asked, but he wasn’t sure that was a good idea. As a matter of fact, he knew it wasn’t. The Shaw men took care of themselves.

  “But if you need it and I have it, why not take it?” Honor asked.

  “How would I pay you back?” Violet asked.

  Zane wrapped up the remainder of his sandwich.

  “Maggie and Jackson let Kyle help them with their house,” Honor said.

  “True,” Zane said. Honor referred to the recent purchase of a piece of property by Jackson and Kyle. It was a two-acre piece of land a short way up the highway from town. They planned on splitting the property in two at some point. Jackson and Maggie were remodeling the house on one side of the property. Kyle would build another on the other half. If he ever settled down, which Zane found hard to believe.

  Dakota ran over to Honor and tugged on her hand. “Come chase me.”

  She stood and roared like a monster. Dakota shrieked and ran toward the water. For the next couple of minutes, Zane and Violet simply sat and watched the two of them playing. He could watch Honor chase Dakota in and out of the water all day.

  This was insanity. He either had to ask her out or get another darn hobby.

  “What’s going on with you two?” Violet asked.

  “Us?”

  “Don’t play dumb,” she said. “I see the way you look at her. Everyone does, other than her.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m working up the courage to ask her out.”

  “You have to do it. No more messing around,” Violet said.

  “I don’t see you getting into the dating game,” Zane said.

  “I have Dakota.”

  “That’s just an excuse.”

  “There’s no one in this town I want to date. All the good guys are taken,” Violet said.

  “What happened to Dakota’s dad?” Zane asked. “You never talk about it.”

  “That’s because there’s nothing to talk about. I got pregnant by accident. When I told him I was pregnant, he bailed. End of story.”

  Honor came running up to them, breathless and wet. She plopped on the blanket. “Your kid’s trying to kill me.”

  “He does that to a person,” Violet said.

  Honor twisted her long hair into a loop. Drops of water slid down her bare stomach.

  Stop staring at her, dude. Be cool. How did her eye makeup stay intact even after all the water and activity? Women were mysterious creatures.

  “Pull me,” Dakota said to Zane as he pointed to the boogie board near the cooler.

  “Sure thing,” Zane said.

  For the next fifteen minutes, Zane pulled the little guy around on the board. Dakota’s delighted screams made his insides mush. What would it be like to have a son of his own? Did Honor want children? She seemed enthralled with Dakota and she was so good with him. He looked over to the umbrella. Violet was back to her book. Honor waved at him. He grinned and waved back.

  She made him delirious. There was something so alive about her. Maggie said it was like Honor gobbled every moment like a woman who’d been starved of joy. Whatever it was, he wanted to be around her. He wanted to gobble joy too.

  Zane’s gaze moved from Honor to a thin man wearing jeans and a long-s
leeved shirt. A black fedora and sunglasses hid most of his face. Strange attire, given the heat of the August day. Everything about him was strange. He walked with a slight hitch in his left leg, as if favoring an old injury. He made his way across the sand and stopped about six feet away from Violet and Honor’s umbrella. His scrawny legs seemed to buckle under him as if they were attached to his body with elastic strings, like a puppet. He sat with his legs stretched out in front of him and his shoulders slouched. Zane expected him to stare out to the sea. Most people did on a day like today.

  Instead, the man’s gaze seemed to fix upon Honor.

  Dakota finally tired of the boogie board game and went back to his bucket and shovel. Zane stayed at the edge of the shore, stealing glances at the man with the fedora. Last night, the man in the car had worn a baseball cap. At least he thought he had.

  Who was this guy and what did he want with Honor?

  But his suspicions faded when a little girl about five or six approached the man. With silky brown hair and pale skin, she wore a bathing suit that did nothing to disguise the outline of her ribs. Hollowed cheekbones and legs as thin as a sapling birch tree hinted at malnutrition. She sat down next to the man and leaned her cheek against his shoulder. Brown, soulful eyes stared out to sea.

  The man rose to his feet and offered the little girl his hand. They walked down the beach holding hands.

  Was it his imagination or had the man really been staring at Honor? He might have just been admiring her beauty, like any other warm-blooded man would.

  Maybe that’s all it was. Yet, there was last night and the guy in the driveway. Did Honor have a stalker for real? Ironically, his telescope might help him know one way or the other.

  He spent several hours on the phone with angel investors he’d met through the USC alumni group. They were interested in the idea of a partnership and agreed to have dinner on Sunday to discuss details. Dinner on Sunday evening? Should he go alone? Or was this a great opportunity to ask Honor out without it seeming like too much pressure? He would appreciate her opinion on the investors and whatever contract they came up with.

  Late in the day, he drove out to Brody’s. Both Kyle and Lance were living there. Kyle would eventually move into a suite at his resort. Lance was having a house built on Brody’s property.

  Zane found Kyle and Lance floating on air hammocks in Brody’s pool. With Brody and Kara at their house in San Francisco, the two seemed to be living like fraternity brothers in the ultimate bachelor pad. Empty beer bottles were lined up on one of the tables, along with bags of chips and takeout boxes from The Oar.

  They raised their beer bottles to him as he approached. “Dude, come on in. The water’s fine,” Kyle said.

  Zane grabbed a beer from the cooler under the shaded table. He took off his shirt and dangled his feet off the side of the pool. “So, this is how you guys spend your Saturday afternoons. Duly noted.”

  “It’s awesome,” Kyle said. “Sophie’s doing great at the bar, right?”

  “Like a pro,” Zane said.

  “What a doll,” Kyle said. “Those Shaw eyes are so much better on a girl.”

  Zane pointed at Kyle with his beer bottle. “If I ever catch you even flirting with her, I will hurt you.”

  “She’s legal, man,” Kyle said.

  “Dude,” Zane said.

  “She’s just barely twenty,” Lance said.

  “And she’s my sister,” Zane said.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m not a complete whore,” Kyle said. “I have my limits.”

  “Speaking of limits. I just saw Violet,” Zane said.

  Kyle’s expression changed from teasing to irritated. “What about her?”

  “She told me you bought the building and are raising the rent.”

  Kyle kicked the water with his foot. “She’s mistaken. I didn’t buy the building. I merely brokered the transaction.”

  “I bought the building,” Lance said.

  “You? What for?” Zane asked.

  “One word—Flora,” Lance said. “She asked me to.” Flora, the Mullens’ long-time housekeeper and second mother to Lance and Brody, had just married her high school sweetheart, Dax Hansen. They were currently building a house on the east side of Brody’s property.

  “Are you planning on running the bookstore?” Zane asked.

  “God no. I don’t know anything about books,” Lance said. “That’s Brody’s gig. I’m purely a numbers guy. I plan on hiring a manager.” Lance flicked a dragonfly from his knee. “A very specific manager. Mary Hansen.”

  “Dax’s scary daughter? The librarian,” Kyle said. “She’s moving here permanently.”

  “Really?” Zane asked. “Weird.”

  “She’s close to her father and he’s the only family she has. It’s understandable she wants to live near him,” Lance said, always kind. “Flora asked me to buy the bookstore and hire Mary to run it. She needs Mary to have a job and a place of her own, if you know what I mean.”

  Everyone knew what he meant. Mary was the prickly sort. She was not a fan of Flora’s and hadn’t wanted her father to remarry, even though her mother had been gone for five years. Zane thought it was weird, but who was he to say? He’d never been faced with his father having a relationship.

  “It’s nice of you to buy the place just so Mary can have a job, Lance,” Zane said. “And take it from me, you won’t regret owning a building in town.”

  Lance nodded his head in obvious agreement. “It’s all part of my plan to have roots somewhere.”

  “So, you’re serious about staying?” Zane asked.

  “I am,” Lance said. “Kyle and I were just talking about the house I’m going to build.”

  “This place is becoming a compound,” Kyle said. “Who lives within a mile radius of their family?”

  “The Mullens,” Zane said.

  “Lucky bastards,” Kyle said with a twinge of bitterness in his voice. Kyle didn’t have a family as far as anyone knew. If he did, he never talked about them. All they knew is that he’d come to USC as an emancipated adult.

  “Lance, what exactly went down back in New York?” Zane asked. Since Lance had shown up a month or so ago, he’d told them only that he’d had a breakdown and decided to give up the stress of the city and his work.

  “I was having some physical problems,” Lance said. “Confusion. Dizziness.”

  “Like an anxiety attack?” Zane asked.

  “On steroids,” Kyle said.

  Zane looked over at him, surprised. Obviously, he knew more about Lance’s situation than Zane.

  Lance tossed a beer cap at Kyle. “The stress of my work must have accumulated over time and I didn’t notice. All of the sudden, it started manifesting in physical ways. And there was a woman.”

  A woman. Of course, there was a woman. There was always a woman.

  “What happened?” Zane glanced at Kyle to see if he knew the story already. Given the nonplussed expression on his face, Zane guessed he did. These two were tight, which had always befuddled Zane. Gentle, shy Lance and driven, gregarious Kyle were a strange combination. It must be their love of numbers that bonded them.

  “I fell in love with the boss’s daughter,” Lance said.

  “What? No way,” Zane said.

  “His married daughter,” Lance said.

  “Lance? Really?” Zane stared at him.

  “She’s married to a douche,” Lance said. “So, there’s that.”

  “And she came onto Lance,” Kyle said. “With a vengeance.”

  “It’s no excuse,” Lance said. “It was wrong. I’ve never felt powerless in my life. I’ve always been in command of my emotions, but she bowled me over. I fell for her big time. Like ready to run away with her and give up everything I’d built back there. But to her it was just a way to add a little spice into her life.”

  “Poor little rich girl,” Kyle said.

  “In a nutshell, as part of the game, she told her husband,” Lance said. “And it blew everyth
ing up.” He looked over at Kyle as if for assistance in a ball game.

  “Her husband was also a partner in the firm,” Kyle said. “He got Lance fired. Basically.”

  “Jeez, dude. That’s awful,” Zane said.

  “Nah. It’s good in the long run. I needed to make some changes. I’ve made enough money to know what it does to a person’s brain. It was time to come home to you Dogs and my family. Get my head on straight.”

  “Do you still love her?” Zane asked.

  “No way. Not after I saw who she really is,” Lance said.

  “Good,” Zane said.

  “I’m here to build roots. Stuff that matters. People who matter,” Lance said.

  “We’re glad you’re back,” Zane said.

  “What about you?” Lance asked.

  Zane shrugged. “What about me?”

  Lance grinned at him. “When are you going to make something happen with Honor?”

  “Oh, that,” Zane said.

  “Everyone sees it,” Kyle said. “It’s so obvious Honor digs you too. Which, seriously dude, she’s the epitome of sexy and smart. You’ve got to get on this or someone else will.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know you’re right.” Zane fiddled with the label on his beer bottle.

  “You’re just afraid to get hurt,” Lance said.

  “Or screw it up,” Zane said. “I’m good at that.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Lance asked. “But hey, if you care about her, don’t hesitate. Life’s short.”

  He looked back and forth between his friends. “I’m on it.” He would ask her to go with him to his business meeting.

  “Soon?” Lance asked.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Now that we have that settled, toss me another beer,” Kyle said. “It’s Saturday.”

  Chapter Four

  Honor

  * * *

  HONOR SLEPT FITFULLY and woke on Sunday morning with a headache and scratchy eyes. When the coffee was done, she took her steaming mug into the living room and looked out at the view. The morning fog hovered like a blanket between blue sky and the sea.