by Rachel Hanna
“Mr. Parker, can you tell me exactly what your background is in commercial contracting?” she asked, crossing her arms and pursing those gorgeously full lips of hers. Wait, who was she to ask him about his background?
“With all due respect, ma’am, I think I’d rather talk with Ronnie about my qualifications. I’m not accustomed to chatting with the assistant or secretary about my background.” She snorted lightly out of her nose, and he saw the first hint of a smile. Only it wasn’t a “Hey there, how are you?” kind of smile. It was more of a “Hey, jackass, why don’t you go play in traffic?” kind of smile.
“So you don’t talk to the ‘help’ is what you’re saying, Mr. Parker?” she said as she leaned her hips against the bar where he’d ordered thousands of sodas over the years. He wondered for a moment what she’d do if he hoisted her up on that bar and… “Mr. Parker?” she repeated.
He reached up and checked his own lips for possible drool before he responded. “I never said ‘the help’,” he muttered. She was beautiful, but she was also the most irritating woman he’d ever met.
“Look, I don’t really have time for this right now. I’ve got a job to do, so if you can just point me to Mr. Blair, I’d greatly appreciate it.”
“Miss Blair.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re looking for Miss Blair.”
“No… I’m looking for Ronnie. Are you here just to be difficult?” he asked, crossing his arms and showing more irritation that he would have expected so early on a Monday morning.
“Ronni Blair,” she said, reaching out to shake his hand. “That’s Ronni without the ‘e’, by the way.”
Brad stared at her, as if her words made no sense to him. He wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but right now he felt downright stupid. “You’re the manager? From California?” he stammered.
“Ah, there you go. Finally figured it out, Einstein,” she said with a wry smile as she pulled her hand back before he ever shook it. She crossed her arms again. “And I again ask what kind of experience you have as a commercial contractor? Or do I not deserve an answer because I’m a woman?”
She was impossible! “Being a woman had nothing to do with…”
“Didn’t it?” she interrupted.
“Look, your board hired me…”
“And they gave me the final say so, Mr. Parker. So far, I’m not seeing what they did.”
His stomach lurched, and he worried the sausage biscuit he’d eaten that morning was coming right back up. Yeah, that would be quite impressive to her. Breakfast in reverse on her fancy stiletto heels… that were attached to her perfectly contoured legs….
“Mr. Parker?” she said, waving her hand in front of his face. “Are you prone to daydreaming like this all the time? Because that can be quite dangerous on a job site like this.”
“I’m not daydreaming. And yes, I do have plenty of commercial contracting experience. The bank you drove past this morning on the corner of Main and Sunset? That was my project, start to finish. And the library renovation was my baby too, so I can assure you that I have the necessary qualifications.” Now he was just talking on autopilot out of sheer determination. He needed this job badly, and even the sexiest woman on the planet wasn’t going to derail him.
“Nice to know, however I think that I need to interview a few other candidates before making a final selection.” She turned and started shuffling some papers on the bar, and he felt like lunging and putting his hands around her perfect, swan-like neck. Only he would never put his hands on a woman in anger, and he probably wouldn’t strangle that neck anyway. It would be better to put a hickey there like he’d done to Tanya Cantrell back in tenth grade.
“You can’t do this project without me,” he said with conviction. She slowly turned.
“Pardon?”
“First of all, you’re in the South now. Don’t be all fancy in the way you talk. We’re kind of laid back around here.”
“Thanks for the advice,” she said, rolling her eyes and smirking.
“Secondly, you need my help to get this job done. The community around here isn’t going to immediately embrace a project like this. In fact, they’ll probably fight it, and you need me to help you overcome that.”
“Mr. Parker, you do have a rather high opinion of yourself. However, we have the proper zoning already in place to do everything we want to do here. The community doesn’t have to agree to anything.” She held her head high, jutting her chin forward.
“Oh really? And just who do you think will pay to enter your establishment once it’s built?”
“Tourists.”
“I hate to break it to ya, but tourism in January Cove is just starting to grow. No way in hell it’s going to pay the bills. You need the locals to make this whole thing work, and without a Parker or other prominent community member, you might as well go ahead and hang up the out of business sign now,” he said, hoping like heck that she believed what he was saying. It really was true, but she didn’t seem to believe much he’d said so far.
She stared at him for a moment, her piercing eyes making his skin shiver a bit, even in the warmth of the closed theater. She licked her top lip, and it took everything he had not to hide his bottom half behind the counter. Being attracted to a snobby woman wasn’t his plan for the day. First on the agenda would be to get a date with someone, and fast. He was obviously overdue for a little female attention.
“Fine, Mr. Parker. We’ll approach this on a trial basis.”
“No trial. Either I’m your man, or I’m not,” he said, regretting the choice of words immediately. She smiled, and it almost looked genuine.
“I hope you’ll bring this level of determination to the job,” she said, holding out her hand to shake his. “Welcome aboard.”
He grasped her hand. It was soft and warm, probably like the rest of her body. He pulled his briefcase around to the front of his jeans to hide the growing excitement he was trying to knock back down. Sometimes being a man sucked. Women could easily hide their attraction to someone, but not men. When they were attracted, it was like having a jack-in-the-box in their pants.
“Now, if you’ll come with me, I’d like to sit down and discuss the project…” she said, oblivious to the new placement of his briefcase. He followed her, being careful to keep his eyes up.
Chapter 2
Aaron sat on his front porch, staring out over the campground that he called home. His business was flourishing now that summer was in full swing. January Cove was teeming with tourists, and many of them were renting spaces in his RV park and cabins that were scattered throughout the property.
Aaron and Tessa had originally planned to turn a nearby property into a bed and breakfast, but had put those plans on hold until Tessa and Tyler could get settled into January Cove. In reality, Aaron wasn’t sure he wanted to add running a B&B to his list of responsibilities, but he could see living in that property one day with his own family.
“Hello, handsome,” he heard Tessa say as she walked up behind him and hugged his neck.
“Well, hello there…” he said, tilting his head up and meeting her lips with his. They’d had a romantic evening after Jackson and Rebecca had offered to keep little Tyler for the night. Aaron and Tessa had definitely needed the time together. Tyler was a rambunctious three year old, and they didn’t get a lot of time alone.
“You planning on working today?” she asked as she walked around him and eased herself down into his lap.
“That depends…” he said, his lips against hers again.
“Depends on what?”
“On how late we can get Jackson to keep…” he started to say as he saw his brother’s truck pulling into the campground. They both sighed simultaneously.
“Mommy!” Tyler yelled, way too loud for the early morning hour, as he ran to Tessa. She stood at the edge of the stairs now, ready to embrace her son like the perfect mother she was. Aaron was still lamenting his bad luck that he wouldn’t get more time alone with her.
“Bro, what the…” Aaron started to say as he looked at Jackson with exasperation. “I thought you were keeping Tyler busy for a few more hours…”
“Sorry, man. I got a call on the Cambridge deal in Atlanta. Whole thing’s falling to pieces so I have to drive up there and woo a couple of clients. I texted you an hour ago, but I guess you were busy.” Jackson said with a wink. “Rebecca’s at Jolt…”
“I understand. No biggie,” Aaron said shaking his brother’s hand. “Thanks for keeping him last night. I’m sure he had fun.”
“I’m sure you guys had fun too,” Jackson said with another wink. Tessa waved and thanked Jackson before ushering her son into the cabin they shared with Aaron.
“Yeah. It’s never enough time. Having a little one is exhausting,” Aaron laughed.
“I wouldn’t know… but I hope to one day soon.”
“Oh really? You thinking of popping the question soon?” Aaron asked.
Jackson leaned against the log railing and smiled. “Maybe. She’s the one, for sure. Just gotta figure out the logistics of it all. I still own my place in Atlanta and my place here, so there’s that to deal with. And the business.”
“Well, I’m sure you guys will work it out. She’s been good for you,” Aaron said.
“You think so? She’s a great woman. I lucked out. And you did too,” Jackson said, cocking his head toward the cabin. “When are you going to make this official?”
“I don’t know,” Aaron said, a hint of a smile playing across his lips.
“Don’t wait too long, brother. Women worth marrying don’t sit around waiting for long,” Jackson said as he walked down the stairs and toward his truck.
“So I’ve heard…” Aaron called back with a laugh before Jackson drove away.
As Brad sat across the table from the world’s most beautiful woman, he thought about his bad luck. Why couldn’t the manager have been an ugly, overweight, wart-covered man with bad breath and an even worse toupee?
Oh no… She had to be supermodel gorgeous with a brain that overpowered her amazing good looks. She had to smell like heaven mixed with coffee mixed with sex.
In an effort to appear professional, he tried to keep his eyes down and focused on the paperwork they were going over at the table. The arcade had been transformed into a makeshift office space while the renovations were going on. Gone was his favorite Pac-Man machine, replaced instead by a small table with a fax machine and landline phone.
“Mr. Parker? Did you hear me?” she asked, cocking her head to the side as she sighed. His ADD seemed to be in full swing around her.
“Sorry. Could you repeat that?” he said without looking up.
“Is something wrong with you, Mr. Parker?” she asked. Damn, even her voice was sexy.
He looked up, gazing into her deep blue eyes. They were like perfect reflections of the ocean down the street. Swirling, sometimes stormy, with glints of light.
“Please, call me Brad.”
“Okay, fine. Brad, is something wrong?”
“This place just holds a lot of memories. I came here all the time growing up.”
“Tell me about it,” she said, shocking him to the core. She wanted to hear his memories? Not at all what he expected.
“Well,” he said, standing up and starting to walk around the place. “This is where my beloved Pac-Man game was. And no matter what my brother says, I still hold the high score. And over here was where the snack machine was. We bought Milk Duds and M&M’s from here…”
“We?”
“My three brothers and I. I have a sister too, but mainly it was us boys that came here a lot.”
“Go on…” she said, standing and following him as he walked.
They walked out into the lobby. “This is where we bought soft drinks and popcorn. The machine was right here, and the cash register was right here. I remember that because Tiffany Ames worked the cash register and she was very popular with the guys…” he stopped himself, realizing that he was getting a little too personal. He could’ve sworn he heard her giggle a bit under her breath. “Anyway, down here is Theater B, which is where most of the movies were shown. The G rated movies were almost always in Theater A.”
They walked into Theater B, and he was shocked to see that the seats were still there. It looked just like it did when he was a teenager, only the place now smelled of stale popcorn and cigarette smoke.
“Wow…” he whispered as he stood there, looking down the aisle toward the screen. She was behind him, only a few steps, and he could feel her presence.
“Lots of memories?” she asked softly.
“Yeah,” he said as he turned and looked at her. Were they having a moment? Her whole demeanor - her tone, her eyes - had changed.
“I bet you had a lot of dates here, huh?” she asked, a small smile playing across her face.
“I did,” he said, grinning like a school boy.
“Lots of kissing, ‘necking’, as they used to say?”
“We never said necking. It wasn’t the fifties,” he chuckled.
“Brad?” she said softly as she looked him square in the eye.
Maybe she felt it too, that spark between them. Still, they’d only known each other a couple of hours, so it was a little soon to make his move.
“Yeah?” he said back, taking a half a step closer and looking down into her beautiful eyes.
“Can you get focused now?” The cool tone had returned to her voice, and her face showed no emotion. What the hell?
“Excuse me?”
She backed up a couple of steps, crossed her arms and pursed her lips. “Look, I’m trying to work with you here on a professional basis, but you’re not making it easy. You’re reliving your youth in this place while I’m trying to work on a multi-million dollar deal. I don’t have the time or inclination to take another trip down memory lane with you, so I thought maybe this little tour would get it out of your system for good. Are we clear?”
Rage seethed inside of the normally calm and fun-loving Brad. Never had he wanted to fist fight with a woman so badly. He assumed he was asking too much to hope that she was a black belt in karate so he’d have a reason to fight with her. Of course, she seemed mean enough to kick his ass, so he thought he’d better leave well enough alone.
And the sad part was that she was right. So far, he’d spent the last two hours thinking about his teenage years and fawning over her good looks. He was wasting the opportunity, and he wasn’t going to do it again.
“You’re absolutely right. I’ve been distracted.” He wanted to add he was distracted by her ass and eyes, but thought that to be inappropriate and would certainly result in her slugging him.
“Good. Glad we’re on the same page. Now, I’d like to get back to those numbers, if you don’t mind,” she said, turning on her stiletto heel and walking toward the door. And his eyes, having a mind of their own, returned to her round butt as it made its way across the lobby.
“Dear God, help me,” he whispered under his breath.
“Just a little to the left. No, honey, the left!” Addison called from the street as her boyfriend, Clay, tried to hang the 4th of July decorations on the front of their bed & breakfast. Their first guests would be arriving any day now, and she wanted it to be perfect for them to watch the fireworks from the front porch.
“Sweetie, I think it looks fine,” he called back as he stood a few feet from the porch, looking up at his handiwork.
“I don’t want it to look fine. I want it to look perfect,” she called back, smiling down at her new baby daughter who was nestled snugly in her arms.
Clay turned and grinned at his girlfriend. She was the perfect woman for him. Her figure had already started to return, and he was having a hard time keeping his hands off of her. Of course, she had been cleared by the doctor to be intimate again a few weeks ago, but having a newborn baby in the house was proving to make romance quite difficult.
But he loved Anna Grace more than he could’
ve ever imagined. The fact that she wasn’t biologically his had no bearing at all on his feelings for her. She was the center of his world lately, a fact that surprised him. Although he’d always wanted a family, he never thought he’d be raising another man’s baby.
When he looked at Anna Grace, he saw her mother, but that was it. Of course, he had no idea what her biological father looked like, but he was going to be the best father she could ever imagine. He chose her, and he would always let her know that his love knew no bounds. She was his daughter.
“Hey, sis,” Brad said as he approached on the sidewalk.
“Brad, good to see you,” she said, leaning in and kissing her brother on the cheek.
“Hey, Anna Grace,” Brad said, smiling as he touched her cheek with his index finger. “She’s getting so big.”
“I know. It seems like everyday she’s doing something new. I want to capture every moment of it.”
“And she tries, believe me,” Clay said as he walked down to greet Brad. “She keeps filling up the storage on her phone with videos and pictures.”
Addison smiled. “Well, she’s very loved and cuter than any baby I’ve ever seen.”
“And you’re not a little partial?” Clay asked, putting his arm around her.
“Nope. Totally objective,” she responded. “So what’s new, bro?”
“Well, I just started a brand new job today. Total renovation of the Lamont Theater.”
“Seriously? Wow, that place holds a lot of memories,” Clay said with a grin. Brad was suddenly transported back to the uncomfortable situation he found himself in that morning.
“Yeah. I tried reliving a few today.”
“Tried?” Addison asked.
“The manager they sent in from California to work with me… Well, let’s just say she’s not the cuddliest person. Kind of a tiger. Or a shark. Or some other mean animal. Anyway, she wasn’t excited to hear about my memories.”
“Hm, sounds like there might be some friction there. How hot is she?” Addison asked. She knew her brother well.
“Excuse me?”
