“They found him?”
“Yes, he’s in the treatment program there. He looks bad, Shelley. I just hope they can help him. But at least the money I get will be good for something.”
“What did you say?”
“I meant, I can afford to help him out now. I couldn’t have before.”
Shelley stared out at the waves. “I shouldn’t ask this, but is everything with you and Andy okay?”
“I think so. This was a hard trip. He was under lots of pressure.”
“But certainly, you told him the good news?”
Aimee disentangled her fingers from Shelley’s lap and smiled. “I did, and I was surprised with his reaction.”
“I shouldn’t pry.”
“He doesn’t want to be a ‘kept man’ as he put it. I thought he’d like to get off the Teams, retire. We could travel, do things around here, see the world a bit. Buy some property and fix it up.”
“But. There’s a but in there somewhere.”
“There is. He likes his job.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“I think it’s more important than me. I just realized that.”
“No, here I think you’re wrong. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He’s completely nuts about you. You know, telephone calls can be strange, especially when they only have a couple of minutes to catch up. You probably just had a bad connection, that’s all.”
“Yes. It was a bad connection. I misunderstood him. So, it won’t be the happy homecoming like I expected. Instead, we have to talk some things out. I think we will.”
“But you’re worried about it.”
“Think about it, Shelley. We live twelve hours away from his job. Who does that?”
“Airline pilots. Senators, Congressmen. Lots of people do. Professional athletes live clear across country sometimes.”
“But it’s a community. And it’s important to him. For the first time I feel like my pull here, to this house, might be coming between us. I don’t think it means the same for him.”
“It never does. A house is way more important to a woman than a man. A woman has to feel like she has a place of her own. I’ve read lots of books on that. Trust me, I know.”
Aimee smiled at her friend. She would have said that they were identical personality types, but now she saw that Shelley was also just as upbeat and positive, but far more realistic. It was hard to convey exactly what she was feeling. Maybe Shelley would never understand.
“It’s more than the house. It’s the disconnection to the community. That’s the problem and I didn’t realize it until I spoke to him.”
“Do you think you’d move up there?”
“No. I won’t sell this house. This place is too special for me. He moved to Team 4 to be closer to here, but now I’m afraid, it might still be too far. But we’ll see. I just need to make sure it’s what he wants to do, and I’d just been assuming before.”
“And now with Logan in Sarasota, there’s another reason you might want to stay here.”
“And we both know how that could turn out, too.” Aimee leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes. “Argh. It’s so complicated all of a sudden.”
“Well, you have more choices now. Maybe one of them will work out. If not, I happen to know of a very deserving teacher who would love to inherit a small fortune.” She followed it up with a smirk.
That did make Aimee laugh. “All right. Lecture’s over. And I don’t want to talk about anything sad. Bring me some good news.”
“Oh, I forgot. I’ve got a new boyfriend. He’s a single dad of one of my students. He’s gorgeous, Aimee. You’d like him.”
“We’ll look forward to meeting him. You’ll have to bring him by.”
“I will once I feel I’m more secure. One look at you, and he might jump ship.”
“Not a chance, Shelley. Come on, you were always the one they liked better.”
“And you’re a horrible liar.”
She took Sandy out for a run. On the way back, she passed a new used bookstore that had just opened up on Gulf Boulevard. In the window was an old, blue IBM Selectric typewriter, surrounded by Hank Borges books, with a black and white picture of Hank sitting at the table, using that typewriter to write one of his novels. It was taken from his backside, so it showed the view from the living room of the house she owned. The beach in the background was identical to the beach she saw every day.
She left Sandy tied to a bike rack outside where she could see her from inside the store. A clerk came up to her.
“May I help you find something?”
“I was looking at that display in the window. The typewriter, and Hank Borges books.”
“Yes. That’s the very typewriter he wrote those books on. Right here, in Sunset Beach.”
“Did you know him?”
“No, he was way before my time. My mother met him a time or two. He was well liked.”
“Did you ever see him with a woman?”
“No. I think he had a wife and children up north somewhere. I’ve never seen a picture of him with a woman before.”
“How did you get the typewriter?”
“It belongs to the owner here. I think it was given to him when Hank died. It’s for sale, if you’re a fan.”
“For sale?”
“Yes. Everything in this store is for sale. Even the store. The owner is moving back to be closer to family in New Jersey. He’s ready to retire.”
“How much for the typewriter?”
“He’s asking forty bucks.”
“Sold. Can I come by later and pick it up with the car?”
“Absolutely. Oh, Mr. Nichols will be delighted it went to a fan.”
“Tell him, I might be interested in the store, too. But I have to talk to my husband first.”
“That would be the best piece of news he’s had all year. Can I take your number so he can call you?”
Aimee wrote her address and phone number down for the owner. “I promise to be back before dark.”
The next morning, Aimee came downstairs with Sandy, ready for another run. She liked the look of the blue typewriter placed in the middle of her dining room table. Next to it on the right, she had a stack of fresh white paper. To the left, she had a box ready to accept completed pages of a novel she had yet to write.
During her run, she passed by the bookstore, all of the surf shops not yet open, a diner serving breakfast and several real estate offices in a row. Landscapers were leaf blowing sidewalks. The free bus from St. Pete to Clearwater passed by, nearly empty. The pulse of the beach community was beginning to increase, with more and more snowbirds coming back to this special place every day. Signs began to pop up in the windows reading, “Snowbirds Welcome” or “Snowbirds Specials” to attract the new inhabitants.
She was guarding herself, waiting to learn when he’d return. She asked herself whether she could give up all this, if he insisted she come live with him in Little Creek. She would want to say yes. But part of her knew that if he made her give up something she loved so much that it wouldn’t last anyhow.
And then she understood how Andy felt about his Team of brothers.
Chapter 26
The twelve-hour drive from Norfolk to the Gulf Coast in Florida would give Andy lots of time to think, and he toyed with the idea of just coming home, unannounced. But that wouldn’t be fair to her, to either of them.
He’d tried to sleep all the way home, but the hot and sticky ride in that transport wasn’t ever comfortable, even with headphones, a dozen pillows and blankets. At least the Navy equipped it with blankets.
He took a shower in the team building and headed out to the parking lot.
Aimee picked up on the first ring. “Hello?”
His heart melted the instant he heard her, just like the first time they’d met, when she belonged to someone else, when she wasn’t his to take. Every fiber of his being screamed out that she was the one, and how he knew that he would never be able to tell. But h
is body and soul knew. It had never wavered in that.
Just hearing her voice again seemed to bridge that gap, like the bridge that led to St. Pete and the Gulf communities beyond.
“I’m headed home. I’d ask to stop and pick up something from the store, but it would melt or go bad by the time I made it, but I’ll ask again. Do you want anything on the way home?”
“Just you, Andy. You are the only thing I want in this whole wide world.”
It was what he expected and didn’t have any right to have. He never wanted to possess her, clip her wings or make her do anything she didn’t want to do. He liked that she was easily inspired. He wanted more than anything to be that inspiration.
But first they had to have that talk.
“Can’t wait, sweetheart. I’ll be driving all night, see you in the morning. So, sleep naked.”
After they hung up, he smiled. She was easy to please, easy to love. His life would forever be a better one if she was by his side. And it would only work if she was happy too. So that’s what they would talk about, explore together.
He listened to jazz all the way home. And, before the sun was even warming a tiny part of the ocean at the horizon, he pulled onto Gulf Boulevard, which was completely devoid of traffic. He let the magic pull him back to the house on Sunset Beach.
He opened the living room door and was instantly greeted by a big yellow dog who barked at him.
“So much for a stealth entrance. Hello. What’s your name?”
The big dog handed him her paw. Andy got on his knees and felt the fluffy fur around her ears and neck.
“That’s Sandy,” Aimee said from the top of the stairs.
He dropped his duty bag and ran up the stairs to greet her properly. Sandy followed right along, step by step. He took her face in his hands, and pressed against her lips, the luxuriated in the loving feel of her soft, body. He’d forgotten how good she smelled, what her hair felt like when he laced his fingers through it.
She was crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just so happy to see you. I thought—”
“Don’t ever believe anything I tell you when I’m about to do battle,” he whispered. “It’s all bullshit.”
“But—”
He cut her off with another kiss. “I’m sorry, Aimee. I was a complete asshole. This one was my fault.”
“But—”
“It’s all good. I need to sleep with the woman I love. You’re my prize, my reason for coming home, sweetheart. Will you accept me, imperfect as I am?”
“Oh, Andy, always. I’ve never wavered. I’m sorry, if I upset you.”
“You know that saying on your wall? The ocean heals everything. That’s the truth, Aimee. And you’re right, this house is magic. You make it my magic.”
She stripped off her nightie while he undressed, and then slipped under the covers to lay on top of her, allowing her flesh and soft places to wear off all the rough parts of the past few days. He kissed her neck. He kissed that fragrant place between her breasts where she wore her perfume. She arched, bent her knees and tilted her pelvis to accept him.
And Sandy hopped on the bed right next to them.
“So, this is going to be a threesome from now on?”
Aimee was laughing so hard, Andy thought perhaps he’d lost his opportunity to have a little romance.
“She sleeps on the bed, too? Dog hair and everything?” he asked her.
“Yes. But we could convert the other bedroom into her room, if you like.”
Andy got up, thought about it for a minute and then answered, “Yes, I like.” He called to the dog, walked her to the bedroom next door and closed the door.
While the dog whined and barked until sunrise, Andy and Aimee rekindled the flame that had never really gone out. Wherever she wanted to live, he told her, is where they would live.
When they made love for the second time, she brought up the subject of buying him a little house in Virginia. “Some place for when you have to be there, some place where I can come visit and surprise you. As long as you come home to me.”
“You’d do that for me?” he said as his rhythm increased.
“I’d do anything for you. I’d be your kept woman.”
“Except you’d be paying for the house.”
“I’d let you pay for the whipped cream and pancakes in the morning. That’s only fair, Andy.”
“Oh, pancakes, and syrup, all over your body. Hardly seems a fair trade.”
“I negotiate well.”
“I love the way you negotiate.”
“So, this will still be our home?”
“Of course. Always.”
As long as she was okay with him staying on the teams, he’d drive that twelve-hour drive home after every mission if he had to, with or without a house in Virginia.
“Because, Aimee, I want to be part of your life when you’re the happiest. And you’re the happiest here, at Sunset Beach.”
Did you love The House at Sunset Beach?
Stay tuned for the audio book, which will be coming soon.
And stay tuned to the rest of the Sunset SEALs series, as all four couples get to tell their stories,
About Sunset Beach.
If you want to start in the beginning of this series, read Book 1, SEALed At Sunset, where Andy and Aimee’s story begins.
About the Author
Sharon Hamilton
NYT and USA Today best-selling author Sharon Hamilton’s award-winning Navy SEAL Brotherhood series have been a fan favorite from the day the first one was released. They’ve earned her the coveted Amazon author ranking of #1 in Romantic Suspense, Military Romance and Contemporary Romance categories, as well as in Gothic Romance for her Vampires of Tuscany and Guardian Angels. Her characters follow a sometimes rocky road to redemption through passion and true love.
Now that he’s out of the Navy, Sharon can share with her readers that her son spent a decade as a Navy SEAL, and he’s the inspiration for her books.
Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany are not like any vamps you’ve read about before, since they don’t go to ground and can walk around in the full light of the sun.
Her Guardian Angels struggle with the human charges they are sent to save, often escaping their vanilla world of Heaven for the brief human one. You won’t find any of these beings in any Sunday school class.
She lives in Sonoma County, California with her husband and her Doberman, Tucker. A lifelong organic gardener, when she’s not writing, she’s getting verra verra dirty in the mud, or wandering Farmers Markets looking for new Heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers. She and her husband plan to cure their wanderlust (or make it worse) by traveling in their Diesel Class A Pusher, Romance Rider. Starting with this book, all her writing will be done on the road.
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Life is one fool thing after another.
Love is two fool things after each other.
Reviews
PRAISE FOR THE
GOLDEN VAMPIRES OF TUSCANY SERIES
“Well to say the least I was thoroughly surprise. I have read many Vampire books, from Ann Rice to Kym Grosso and few other Authors, so yes I do like Vampires, not the super scary ones from the old days, but the new ones are far more interesting far more human than one can remember. I found Honeymoon Bite a totally engrossing book, I was not able to put it down, page after page I found delight, love, understanding, well that is until the bad bad Vamp started being really bad. But seeing someone love another person so much that they would do anything to protect them, well that had me going, then well there was more and for a while I thought it was the end of a beautiful love story that spanned not only time but, spanned Italy and California. Won’t divulge how it ended, but I did shed a few tears after screaming but Sharon Hamilton did not let me down, she took me on amazing trip that I loved, look forward to reading another Vampire book of hers.”
“An excellent paranormal romance that was exciting, romantic, entertaining and very satisfying to read. It had me anticipating what would happen next many times over, so much so I could not put it down and even finished it up in a day. The vampires in this book were different from your average vampire, but I enjoy different variations and changes to the same old stuff. It made for a more unpredictable read and more adventurous to explore! Vampire lovers, any paranormal readers and even those who love the romance genre will enjoy Honeymoon Bite.”
“This is the first non-Seal book of this author’s I have read and I loved it. There is a cast-like hierarchy in this vampire community with humans at the very bottom and Golden vampires at the top. Lionel is a dark vampire who are servants of the Goldens. Phoebe is a Golden who has not decided if she will remain human or accept the turning to become a vampire. Either way she and Lionel can never be together since it is forbidden.
The House At Sunset: SEALed At Sunset - The Beach Renovation (Sunset SEALs Book 5) Page 20
