by Teri Wilson
Tank let out a woof of agreement.
“Don’t try to charm your way out of this one.” She wagged a finger at both of them. “I won the bet, fair and square.”
“Oh, so you think I’m charming?” His mouth twitched. The guy sitting beside him stopped typing and shot a curious glance at Jenna.
“What?” She blinked. “No.”
Maybe just a little bit, especially when he and his dog were tag-teaming her like that. She was only human.
“You sure?” He cocked his head, and of course Jenna noticed that it was a handsome head. Very handsome indeed.
Again, a completely irrelevant observation.
Tank let out a snort. Super. Even the dog knew she was lying.
Her face burned with embarrassment. She knew coming over here was a terrible idea. “Stop trying to change the subject.”
“It isn’t a party.”
“No?” She gestured to the people around her. “What is it, a ‘hang out?’”
Lucas typed for a second and then stopped. “We’re working.”
“You’re working?” Ha. Jenna was a parent. She knew loafing off when she saw it.
“Well, that guy over in the corner isn’t.” Lucas tipped his head toward a bearded man carrying a fresh tower of pizza boxes. “But everyone else is. We just wrapped a little promotional video.”
The guy next to him, who was now following their interaction with rapt interest, shook his head. “It’s not that little. Some dude wants to franchise the summer camp.”
“Someone wants to invest? Like a Shark Tank guy?” Jenna asked.
Every now and then, her penchant for reality television came in handy.
Lucas tapped a few more keys on his laptop. “Actually, an old classmate of mine from Berkeley. He comes down next week so it’s crunch time.”
“Wait.” Jenna must have misheard. “You went to UC Berkeley?”
“Just for my MBA,” he said as if Berkeley wasn’t one of the top MBA schools in the country.
Mr. Slack not only owned a summer camp and was an experienced businessman, but he also had a graduate degree. And now he was about to be a beach camp mogul of some sort. Had she ever been more wrong about a person in her life?
“Hence the two-week rule,” she muttered to herself.
Maureen would never let her live this down.
“What’s that?” Lucas glanced up from his screen again.
Jenna envied his concentration. Maybe he’d learned how to tune out distractions at Berkeley. “Nothing. You’re obviously busy, so I’m going to get going.”
She turned to head back to her pizza-less side of the duplex where writer’s block and a vague sense of shame probably awaited her. She’d jumped to conclusions about Lucas. Yet again.
He stopped her before she got to the door. “Jenna?”
“Yes?” She turned to find him smiling at her again.
“We’ll keep it down.”
“Thank you.” He really was a good guy. “You really are full of surprises.”
Chapter Eleven
The following weekend, Maureen invited Ally and Nick to bowling night and a sleepover for Grayson’s birthday. For Jenna, the evening couldn’t come soon enough. Thanks to several extremely late nights, she’d finally finished the first draft of her manuscript. She still needed to do a final read-through, but the only things on her agenda while the kids were away were dinner for one and a long, luxurious bubble bath.
“Did you guys remember your socks?” she asked as she helped Nick and Ally get settled beside Grayson in the backseat of Maureen and Ian’s SUV.
Ally held up her favorite pair of pink crew socks. They had glittery gold threads running through them. “You can’t bowl without them.”
“Unless you want foot fungus.” Nick giggled while Grayson pulled a face.
“Yeah, I think we get the idea, bud,” Jenna said. Maybe she’d gone a little overboard on her lecture about why socks were such an important part of a good bowling wardrobe. “Have fun! And happy birthday, Grayson.”
“Thanks, Ms. T.” Grayson grinned.
Jenna could hardly believe he was already turning twelve. Before she knew it, Nick and Ally would be off to college and she’d be…
Alone.
Best not to think about that now, though. She had a tub full of bubbles upstairs with her name on it. Besides, there was nothing wrong with living alone.
And anyway, she was years away from empty-nest syndrome.
Still, the thought of Maureen and Ian taking the kids bowling together made her feel suddenly wistful. She loved being a mom, but every now and then she missed being part of a couple too.
Lucas’s lopsided boy-next-door smile flashed in Jenna’s mind, and she blinked. Hard.
Maureen frowned at her from the driver’s seat. “You better relax. It’s your one night off.”
Jenna nodded. “I will.”
Had Lucas been right? Does she even know how to relax?
Of course you do. The bubble bath, remember?
Did she really like bubble baths, though? She honestly had no idea. She normally barely had time to shower, much less soak in the tub.
Maureen narrowed her gaze. Why did Jenna get the feeling she too didn’t believe Jenna knew how to relax? “You promise?”
“Swear.” Jenna held up her hand as if she were taking an oath.
Maureen nodded and shifted the car into drive. “Okay.”
Jenna backed up to give them plenty of space to pull away. “Drive safe.”
She waved until Maureen’s car disappeared from sight. Then she took a deep breath.
She could do this. Totally. What kind of person didn’t know how to chill out?
Tank barked from the opposite side of the patio fence.
Don’t answer that, pup.
So much relaxation was about to go down. Jenna would relax all night, even if it made her miserable. But as she climbed the steps toward the deck, her stomach growled. Her pancake breakfast had been hours ago, and she’d been so busy getting the kids packed up for their sleepover that she’d skipped lunch.
First things first. She’d make a nice dinner for herself and then she’d relax.
Last night’s supper had been meatloaf, and there was just enough leftover ground beef for a nice sized burger. Jenna put it on a plate along with a slice of cheese and headed out to the patio to fire up the grill. Because as everyone knew, grilling during the summertime was fun. It probably even counted as relaxation.
But when she flipped the switch of the gas grill, nothing happened.
“Oh, come on. Really?”
She tried a few more times, just to be sure. It was no use, thought. The grill refused to light.
Jenna sighed and looked longingly at Lucas’s shiny silver grill on the other side of the fence. Tank immediately started barking. What was with that dog? It was almost like he could read her mind.
She was definitely thinking about sneaking to the other side of the patio and borrowing the grill. Lucas wasn’t home, and after all, he’d reached over to her side and stolen her manuscript without permission. He owed her one.
Plus he’d never have to know.
She picked up the plate, but before she could take a step toward frenemy territory, Lucas called from inside the house, “Tank, come eat.”
So much for being sneaky.
Jenna put the plate down and sighed. When had he come home? “Hello? Lucas?”
Several seconds passed before he finally stepped outside.
“I’m sorry.” He closed the door behind him. “I can barely hear you over that fence.”
Very funny. “It never gets old, does it?”
“Nope.” He planted his hands on the wooden divider and grinned.
Fence jokes aside, he looked almost ha
ppy to see her.
Jenna’s stomach fluttered…which she attributed to hunger. She cleared her throat. “I was wondering if maybe I could use your barbecue. I just have this one thing.”
Instead of answering her, Lucas glanced around. “Where are the kids?”
“Birthday party.”
“Ah, lucky you,” he said.
“Yeah.” She nodded. Although so far, the relaxing thing wasn’t panning out so well.
“You don’t outsource much, do you?” He crossed his arms, and Jenna found herself staring at his forearms. They were nice—lean and sun kissed. Probably from all the surfing.
When she met his gaze again, his eyes seemed to darken a shade.
“Not usually, no.” She shook her head. “It’s actually kind of nice to have the night off.”
“And that’s what you’re eating?” He aimed a sardonic glance at her raw hamburger.
It wasn’t that bad, was it? “I was going to put cheese on it.”
“That’s pitiful.” He shook his head and turned back toward his door.
So…what? He wasn’t going to let her use his grill because he didn’t approve of her plain-Jane dinner?
She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything, he glanced over his shoulder. “Grab your cardigan.”
The plate nearly slipped from her hand.
“Why?” She tightened her grip on the china and squared her shoulders. “Are you taking me out?”
Weeks ago, she would have recoiled at the idea. Now it sounded nice. More than nice, if she was really being honest.
Her heart beat hard in her chest while she waited for his answer.
“Maybe.” He gave her a crooked smile and then disappeared into his side of the house.
Jenna’s heart leaped. This was definitely better than a bubble bath. Or a fresh-grilled hamburger—even one with cheese.
She looked down at the modest meal on her plate and shrugged. “It’s not that bad.”
But somehow she knew that having dinner with Lucas would be even better.
Lucas wasn’t about to let Jenna eat that pathetic little hamburger patty on her one night off of mommy duty. She deserved a night out, so he took her to his favorite place to eat on the island.
Located on an old, weathered pier that stretched far out over the ocean, Sam’s wasn’t exactly fancy. But it was special. Sam’s had the freshest seafood in Georgia. It was practically a Tybee institution.
“This place never gets old. Even with all the crazy tourists, I just love it here.” He turned and snuck a glance at her walking beside him as they made their way down the pier. “I can’t believe you’ve been coming here four years in a row and you’ve never been to Sam’s?”
“Not that I remember,” she said.
Her hair was gathered over one shoulder, and she’d taken him at his word and slipped into a cardigan—a different one than she’d worn the day of their head-to-head volleyball challenge. That one had been the color of oatmeal cookies. This one was a deep sea blue.
He wondered how many of those cozy-looking things she had. He also wondered when he’d started to like them so much.
“Oh, you’d remember. This is the best food you’re going to have in town.” Lucas nodded at the man behind the walk-up counter as they approached the tiny yellow bungalow at the end of the pier. “Isn’t that right, Sam?”
“Lucas!” The older man’s face split into a wide grin.
It had only been a few days since Lucas had seen him last, but he’d never brought a date here before. He wasn’t altogether sure he and Jenna were on a real date, but he liked to think so. “How’s it going?”
“Good, if you’re hungry. We got an early bite.” Sam nodded toward the chalkboard where he always listed the daily catch in bright letters.
Lucas angled his head toward Jenna. “This is as fresh as it gets. What are you feeling like?”
“Um. I don’t know. I eat everything.”
Somehow he didn’t believe her. “Girl after my own heart.”
Her forehead crinkled. “Except cucumbers. People say they don’t taste like anything, but they totally permeate. Even if it just touches a leaf.”
There was the highly opinionated woman he knew…and liked.
A lot, as it turned out.
“If you’re trying to get me to revise my previous statement, it’s not going to work,” he teased.
She smiled. “Then I eat everything.”
Lucas laughed and ordered both items on the specials board. They could share. “How about you give us a whole crab, some of your garlic shrimp, two rolls and a big stack of napkins.”
“Coming up.” Sam’s gaze flitted back and forth between Lucas and Jenna, and a smile tipped his lips.
“Thank you.” Jenna’s voice was infused with warmth, and suddenly their feud and especially their fence seemed a million miles away.
Jenna gave the crab in their basket a few ineffective whacks with the little wooden mallet Sam had given them. A pile of wadded napkins sat to her left and Lucas sat to her right, grinning at her attempts to break into the crab’s shell.
She laughed. “I bet you take all your neighbors here.”
He snorted. “Only the impossible ones.”
“Oooh, I’m flattered,” she teased.
But truthfully, she was. Even though their dinner was a spontaneous jaunt and not a date, it sort of felt like one, especially when Sam had looked at them as if they were a couple.
And now Lucas was looking at her in almost the same way.
It threw a her a little…in a good way. Although it was awfully difficult to crack open a crab when her hands were shaking.
She set down the mallet and watched Lucas’s hands as he deftly peeled their mountain of shrimp. “I’ve gone through like fifty napkins already and you haven’t used one.”
He smiled and reached into the basket. “The trick is, you need to know how to grab the crab. See, first you take off all the legs and you hope to get some meat.”
The shell made a cracking noise and he peered inside. “No dice. Okay, and then…”
The crab suddenly broke in half, spraying Jenna with a stream of melted butter. Lucas’s eyes grew wide, and then they both dissolved into laugher.
“I think I need another napkin,” Jenna managed to say.
He nudged a pile toward her. “You can have the whole stack.”
She dabbed at her damp shirt, while Lucas finished peeling the shrimp without making any mess whatsoever. “When did you suddenly become the neat one?”
“Now you sound like Ally. She just says it like it is.” His eyes lit up. “It’s impressive.”
“She really likes you. They both do.” So do I.
She held her breath while he took in her words, hoping he knew just how much Nick and Ally’s opinion meant to her. They were protective of her, in a way. And they’d certainly never taken to anyone quite the way they both had with Lucas.
But that was her fault, mostly. Since the divorce, they’d been their own little club, like the Three Musketeers. She’d been so willing to put her future on the line when it came to her writing, but her heart was another matter entirely. She’d barely dated at all.
Sitting by the ocean with Lucas made her feel different, though. She almost felt ready to give dating a chance.
“They have impeccable taste,” he said softly.
He knew. He had to. She could see it in his eyes—he knew how much her kids adored him, and he didn’t mind. In fact, it seemed as if he might adore them too.
She smiled from the inside out. Then she eyed the troublesome crab and shook her head. “Okay, you know what? I think I’m done with this guy, but it was delicious.”
“Best in town.” Lucas popped a shrimp into his mouth.
“Yeah.” Jenna si
pped her wine. The sun was beginning to set, casting pink and gold shimmering light over the ocean. At the end of Sam’s long pier, they had a perfect front row seat.
She glanced sideways at Lucas. “You ready for your big meeting?”
He nodded as he watched the flow of the tide. “I think as long as I get a good surf in, I’ll be fine.”
Jenna still had a hard time picturing him sitting behind a desk at an investment banking firm. She couldn’t imagine him anywhere but here, with his feet in the sand and salt on his eyelashes.
“Do you have a tie?” she said.
His expression sobered. “Do I need a tie?”
“You said they’re pretty corporate.”
He seemed to think about it for a second and then shrugged. “I’m not worried.”
Jenna marveled at him. “Are you always this relaxed?”
“I figure as long as I’ve done the best I can on my end, I can let the rest go.” He glanced at the ocean, and the sun dipping below the horizon, splashing the waves with light.
She followed his gaze and sighed. “I wish I could do that.”
He angled his head toward her. “Let things go?”
“Stop trying to control things from all sides.” Because that’s what she did, wasn’t it? She’d reacted to her divorce by trying to keep everything in her life so neat and orderly that she always knew what to expect.
Which left no room for nice surprises, such as the man sitting next to her.
“Well, you’ve got a few more sides to deal with than I do.” His voice went low and uncharacteristically serious. “And you’re killing it, by the way.”
“‘Killing it?’ You think so?” Could he not see that beneath the rules, the noise curfew and her neatly alphabetized bookshelf, she was kind of a neurotic mess? “Because I don’t even have an ending for my book.”
“Isn’t that normal for writers?” he said.
“I don’t know. This is only my second novel. I mean, what if I only had one good one in me?” It was one of her worst fears, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever said it out loud before. She always put on a brave face because she didn’t want Ally and Nick to worry. About anything.
“Hey,” he mock-scolded her. “Don’t sell yourself short. Look at everything you’re doing. Working from home, raising two kids.”
