Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits)

by Rachel Schurig

  “Hey,” Chase said, his entire face lighting up at the sight of me. “I was hoping I might run into you.”

  I glanced over his shoulder at the St. Pauli Girl clock in the hallway. “Isn’t it a little bit late to catch the ferry back to the mainland?”

  He shook his head, still smiling. Riley James, don’t you dare let yourself be affected by that smile. “I told you,” he said. “I’m staying on the island.”

  Hmm. I had been sure that was just a line.

  “Look,” he said, leaning down a little bit to better see into my face. And if you think for a second that I wasn’t really into the fact that he was so much taller than me, you obviously aren’t a five-foot-ten woman. “I think you have the wrong idea about me. I asked around at work and heard about the Hillmans nominating me for that committee. I didn’t know a thing about it.”

  Of course it would have to be nearly as crowded in this hallway as it was out in the dining room. No room to take a step back, to escape from the straight-up heavenly scent of his cologne. Something dark and musky, maybe sandalwood? It was delicious. Most of the guys around here—well, Andrew, anyhow—stuck to Ivory soap and Old Spice and called it a day.

  He was watching me closely and I realized, belatedly, that he was waiting for an answer. While I was busy smelling him.

  “Look,” I said quickly. “It’s not that I think you’re lying or something. But you work for people who are heavily invested in using my position to get on TV.”

  “But I don’t care about any of that,” he said. “I don’t want to be on TV.”

  You should be on TV, I thought, my eyes drifting down to the faint shadow of stubble on his chin. Something about that stubble was really working for me—maybe it was the contrast between the roughness and the rest of his perfectly polished look. Either way, this was a guy that could be on TV. Hell, he could be in movies. And that voice didn’t hurt, either. That voice that sounded like rough velvet and—shit, he was talking again. I dragged my eyes away from the highly appealing stubble and forced myself to meet his eyes. Which didn’t really help much, because they were every bit as gorgeous as the rest of him. Gorgeous and focused on me.

  “—think it would be nice to get together and talk, that’s all,” he was saying.

  “I really don’t have time right now,” I said. “I’m crazy busy with this whole project.”

  “I get that.” The look of disappointment on his face made my stomach flip. Either this guy was a fantastic actor, or he really liked me. Suddenly he smiled. “Well, you have to eat, right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re not too busy to eat. I saw you eating a burger just an hour ago.” He’d been watching me? His smile grew. “Let’s eat together.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty persuasive?”

  He laughed. “I’m actually usually pretty shy.” Somehow, I had a hard time believing that. Guys who looked like him weren’t usually known for shyness. I had first-hand experience in dealing with the ego of the guy all the girls wanted. “But here’s the thing.” He leaned in a little closer, and my heart immediately jumped into my throat. “I keep seeing you, Riley. Ever since that baseball game, I see you. Everywhere I go in town. You’re impossible to miss.”

  “It’s because I’m so tall,” I murmured stupidly. But that’s what happens when a Jonathan Rhys-Myers look-alike gets all up close and personal. You get stupid.

  Chase’s eyes crinkled up around the corners. Awesome. He wasn’t just gorgeous, he was adorable, too. “I don’t think that’s why. But I think I would be pretty stupid not to try to get you to notice me back.”

  “I notice you,” I breathed out.

  “Then have dinner with me. Tomorrow. Anywhere you want.”

  “Sure.” The word was out of my mouth before he’d even finished inviting. Maybe that made me stupid. Maybe I should have stuck with my initial instinct that this guy was trying to get close to the show. But I didn’t have a will of steel. A gorgeous man was asking me out. And I hadn’t been out with anyone in ages. Like I was going to hold out for much longer.

  “Great,” he said, straightening up, his eyes doing that crinkling thing again. “Can I call you in the morning?”

  He held out his phone and I took it, entering my number. “That would be good.”

  I practically floated back to the table, the scent of his cologne somehow seeming to follow me. I couldn’t wait to tell Libby and Jenny this. I would have to wait for Andrew to find his inevitable hook-up before I brought it up, though. I wasn’t in the mood for him to pour cold water over my date.

  When I got to the table, I saw that Andrew wouldn’t be a problem. His chair was empty.

  “Where’d Andrew go?”

  “I thought he was with you,” Jenny said, glancing around the immediate area as if he was hiding in my purse.

  “Why would he be with me? I was with you.”

  “When I came back without you he wondered where you were, so I explained about everyone mobbing you. He said he was going to go get them off your back.”

  I smiled at that. Good old Andrew. “Well, I never saw him,” I told her. “But guess who I did see?”

  I told her all about Chase, and she was a very good audience, widening her eyes and gasping at all his best lines.

  “So we’re going to have dinner tomorrow,” I finished. “And you can feel free to spread that little fact to everyone who thought I needed help getting fixed up with a guy.”

  She covered her mouth, laughing. Then her eyes widened again, with much less humor this time. I turned in the direction she was gaping to see Andrew leaning up against the far wall, near the bathrooms. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t alone.

  “Well,” I said, reaching for my beer. “I guess we know why he didn’t come after me.”

  I gulped my beer, feeling a pang of disappointment that he had gone on the hunt so early in the evening. I’d been having fun with him tonight. And considering the fact that he was the one who had been working on this project with me from the beginning, he was the one I wanted to celebrate with. He couldn’t have had a few more beers with the table before indulging in his ever-present need to hook up?

  “Typical,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. But Jenny didn’t look as unsurprised by his antics. She was still watching him, wide-eyed, her expression distinctly disappointed.

  “I don’t get it,” she finally said.

  “What don’t you get? He’s super slutty and that girl is hot and clearly interested.”

  She shook her head. “But he was flirting with you.”

  Oh, God, not this nonsense from her again. “He wasn’t flirting, Jenny. He was being Andrew.”

  “He was whispering in your ear, Riley!” she argued. “Making you laugh, making you blush—”

  “Hey!” I cried, offended by that. “I was blushing from Libby’s toast, not from anything Andrew did. Geez.” Like Andrew Powell could make me blush.

  A movement by the door caught my eye. A man—red hair, broad shoulders—ducking through the door. Andrew. And no doubt the adoring woman was right in front of him.

  “I just think—”

  “Enough, Jenny,” I snapped; my voice was sharper than I intended it. I sighed, suddenly feeling incredibly tired, as if all the stress of the last few weeks had finally caught up to me. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she squeaked, but I could tell I’d hurt her feelings. And just like that I knew I was going to be shitty company for the rest of the night.

  “Look, I’m going to go home,” I told her, reaching out to place my hand over hers on the table. “I’m sorry for being such a jerk. I just think this is all hitting me, you know?”

  Her face softened. “You’ve been working so hard.”

  “And it all paid off.” I somehow managed to smile brightly at her. “But now I just want my bed.”

  “I’ll walk with you,” she said, moving to stand, but I shook my head.

&nbs
p; “No, you’re having a good time. Stay with Libby and Posey, have another drink. I’ll see you this weekend.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind walking alone?”

  I rolled my eyes, gesturing at the TV behind me, where the voting website was still flashing. “Didn’t you see that footage? We live in a goddamn storybook town.”

  She giggled. “Storybook or not, text me when you get home.”

  “I will.” I bent to hug her, then shouted out a quick goodbye to the rest of the table. Making my way to the door was a lot less tricky this time—I had a feeling my neighbors were well on their way to getting tipsy, and as such were probably not so eager to get up out of their chairs.

  The cool air of the spring night felt great after being in the crowded pub for so long. I took a deep breath, looking up at the stars.

  We should make sure they get some footage of that, I thought to myself. You don’t see a night sky like that just anywhere. From somewhere nearby, a cat mewled. I thought of Gordie with a little pang. He’d been alone for hours. I sighed, pulling my cardigan tighter, and began the short walk home.

  I should have been on the top of the world. The first episode had been a success. My friends and neighbors had been sweetly appreciative of my hard work. And I had a date with one of the cutest guys I’d had the good fortune of coming across in ages. In a place like Lilac Bay, half of that excitement would have qualified as a banner night.

  So why did I feel like I had missed out on something big?

  Chapter 11

  On Wednesday morning I got a call from Gina. “Heather was so pleased with the episode,” she told me. “You guys really did do a wonderful job. We’re so happy you got through to the next round.”

  “Thank you,” I told her, sitting up straighter for some reason, as if she could see me and would deduct points for being unprofessional. “We’re happy too. Everyone had such a great time.”

  “I might as well tell you, the ratings were quite a bit higher than we were expecting.”

  I felt a little thrum of excitement. “Yeah?”

  “I mean, nothing crazy. I don’t think any of you have to worry about getting mobbed by paparazzi.” She laughed, the sound relieved even over the phone. “But there were some people here in the studio that thought this one might be a hard sell.”

  “But…it’s Heather Dale.” How could anything she put her name on be a hard sell?

  “And that’s exactly why the network snapped it up,” Gina said. “Heather’s production team originally thought they’d try to sell it to one of the cable channels, travel or home improvement, something like that. It is kind of a niche topic.”

  She had a point. Most of the reality shows that made it to network TV were a lot sexier than small town America.

  “Anyhow, a few people here at the show were worried.” Something about the way she said a few people had me thinking of Chris and her disdainful, bored expression. “So we’ve been really happy with how the premiere went and the volume of voting we’re seeing.” Take that, Chris, I thought, smiling to myself.

  “Well, we’re pretty damn happy to hear that,” I said, and she laughed again.

  “Anyhow, I wanted to give you a heads up for the next feature.”

  “Great.” I grabbed a pen and pulled my notebook closer to me. Across the room, Andrew raised his eyebrows at me and I pointed to the phone, mouthing the word Gina.

  “As we told you last week, we’ll be there to shoot on Friday night. For this round, we don’t want you to prepare anything.”

  I frowned. I wasn’t very good at spontaneity. “Okay.”

  “We’re going to be looking to see how well your town works together as a team. To that end, we’ll be giving you a task to complete together. All you need to do is have everyone prepared to gather at six PM for further instructions. They should plan to participate in the activity for most of the day Saturday, as well.”

  I scribbled furiously on my pad of paper. “Got it.” Shit. I didn’t really like the sound of this feature at all. I felt much better about things when I could prepare my neighbors for what was coming—and lay down some ground rules.

  “I also wanted to talk to you about getting some B-roll footage,” she went on. “We’re going to be talking a lot about what each community has to offer visitors over the next few weeks. The camera crew would like to get out to the island a few times over the next couple of weeks and record some footage of various activities people can partake in on Lilac Bay.”

  “We can do that. When will they come?”

  She rattled off a few dates and I wrote them down, my mind already spinning with ideas for them to shoot.

  “I think that’s all for now. Do you have any questions on your end?”

  “No, I think we’re good.” Unless you want to tell me what the hell is going on this weekend.

  “Great. Then I’ll see you Friday.”

  “Thank you, Gina.”

  Andrew was at my desk before the phone hit the cradle. “What’s up?”

  “They want us all to gather for the feature on Friday night, but she wouldn’t tell me what we were doing. She said it will last through Saturday.”

  His brows furrowed in thought. “No clues?”

  “Apparently they want to see how well we work together as a community.”

  He made a scathing noise. “Better tell Crystal and Fran to stay home, then. They’ll get us voted off for sure.”

  “She also wants me to set up some time for the camera crew to come out and get shots of people participating in local activities.”

  Andrew scratched his chin. “We could take them on a hike on the bluffs,” he suggested. “Or fishing.”

  “Yeah.” I stared out the window, deep in thought. “I really want to show them how unique we are, though. I mean, fishing and hiking is great, but you can do that in lots of places.”

  “You’ll figure it out—” he started to say, but Carl walked by.

  “Did you finish those requisitions yet, Powell?”

  Andrew made a face at me. “I’m on it, Carl.”

  “Doesn’t look like you’re on it to me.”

  With a final roll of his eyes, Andrew turned from my desk to head back to accounting, leaving me to brainstorm by myself.

  I still hadn’t gotten very far by five. Andrew had a point—people came from all over the state for our hiking and fishing. We should definitely show the country that. But Lilac Bay was about so much more than that. How could I possibly break it down into a few wordless minutes of film?

  “You coming?” Andrew asked, stopping at my desk on his way out.

  “I’m gonna stay and finish this up,” I said, my eyes on my computer screen.

  “I thought you had the Libbies tonight?”

  I looked up at him, my eyes feeling blurry from staring at the screen for so long. “Will you stick your head in at Libby’s on your way home and tell her I won’t be there?”

  His expression turned panicked. “You want me to go in there?”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “No one will be there yet, Andrew. They won’t maul you.”

  He didn’t look entirely at ease but he agreed to pass on the message. In all honesty, he kind of had a reason to fear my little book club slash drinking group. Andrew was a favorite amongst the ladies of the Libbies. And that meant he wasn’t really safe within fifty feet of them.

  He’d only been gone for a few minutes when my phone rang.

  “What’s this about you skipping the meeting?” Libby asked, by way of a greeting.

  “What did he do, run to your store?” I asked.

  “Now that you mention it, he did seem a little out of breath. Probably wanted to get here before the rest of the girls. Smart of him, really.”

  “You’re not kidding. You should have heard Jill talking about what she would do to him if she ever got the chance after that shot of him lifting the fryer oil last week.”

  “You’re distracting me with Andrew talk,” Libby said
crossly. “Why won’t you be here?”

  “I have all this work to do,” I told her. “For the show.”

  “No way, Riley James,” she said. “You do not get to use that as an excuse for the next two months.”

  “If I don’t come up with something we’re not going to make it two months.”

  “I thought you invited Jenny along tonight.” Libby said. “Are you really going to ditch her at her first meeting with the crazies?”

  “Shit,” I muttered. I had totally forgotten that I had invited Jenny to come to her very first Libbies meeting. And Libby herself was right—this wasn’t the kind of thing you wanted to experience without some moral support.

  “What do you have to do, anyhow?”

  I explained to her about Gina’s request.

  “Well, that’s no problem. Get over here and we’ll help you figure it out.”

  I wasn’t sure a Libbies meeting was the best place to get solid ideas—at least not the kind that could be taped for television. But I also knew that it was pretty damn shitty to ditch Jenny when she had such a hard time getting out in the first place.

  “Fine. I’ll be there in a few. Whose turn is it tonight, anyhow?”

  “I think Posey’s,” she said.

  “Oh, goodie.” Posey always picked something chocolatey for our snack. “I’ll see you in a few.”

  Libby’s store was only a few steps away from Town Hall. As I made the brief walk, I considered asking the camera crew to come shoot at one of our meetings. After all, if I was going for unique, there wasn’t really much that could match the Libbies. Then again, the group was very rarely sober. Or appropriate enough for prime time television. And it wasn’t exactly easy to explain what we were or how we got our name.

  I imagined myself trying to tell the producers about it. “See, we started as a book club. The Lilac Bay Book Broads or the L.B.B.B. And then we decided to try baking at our meetings, because no one really cared about the books—and that was another B. But then we realized we were doing a lot more drinking than talking about books or baking so we added another B for booze and that just seemed out of hand. So we shortened it to the Libbies, since we meet at Libby’s store. What’s so confusing about that?”