Sunsets at Seaside

by Addison Cole

  “Fine. I have plans at seven thirty, so make it early.”

  “I SAY WE go chunky-dunking tonight,” Bella said as she looked out over the water. The girls were having a late lunch at Mac’s Seafood on the harbor. Pete, Kurt, and Caden were working, and Jamie had a meeting to prepare for with his attorney.

  “What’s chunky-dunking?” Jessica was only half paying attention. She was thinking about Jamie. He’d been so sidetracked that morning when they had coffee with Vera after his run. He’d mentioned how many calls and texts he’d missed from his attorney, and Jessica worried that she was interfering with his work.

  “Skinny-dipping,” Jenna explained. “For normal-sized women.” She glared at Amy. “Pin-thin girl over there can still go skinny-dipping.”

  “Oh, please.” Amy waved a dismissive hand. “You think you’re normal sized? Miss Young Dolly Parton?”

  Jenna cupped her breasts and pushed them up. “Mine are so much better than Dolly’s, and I’m a brunette, much sexi—”

  “Don’t even go there.” Bella pointed a finger at Jenna. “We are not having the brunettes have more fun argument.”

  “I’m not sure I can go skinny-dipping,” Jessica admitted.

  “What? Why?” Bella asked.

  “Because I’m playing with Vera’s quartet tonight.” Thank goodness, because she’d never gone skinny-dipping, and she didn’t like the idea of running around naked in front of anyone other than Jamie. “Besides, aren’t there sharks feeding at night?”

  Leanna reached across the table and patted her hand. “We don’t chunky-dunk in the ocean. We go in the pool.”

  “In the pool?” She couldn’t keep her eyes from popping open wide. “What about everyone else? Don’t you care if their boyfriends see you naked?”

  They all laughed. “That’s why we do it after midnight when everyone’s asleep. And whatever you do, don’t tell Theresa. It’s against the rules.”

  “Oh.” Now she really wasn’t sure about this. Jessica wasn’t a rule breaker, even if she and Jamie had fooled around on the beach. It was nighttime, after all, and they were fully dressed. When she was younger, she’d felt so guilty after sneaking out of her parents’ house to go to the Cape she’d told her father and then thanked him for grounding her. I have lived a sheltered life.

  “You’re playing tonight, so after you and Jamie…you know.” Jenna raised her brows in quick succession. “When he goes back to Vera’s and falls asleep, then we’ll go.”

  She dropped her eyes so they wouldn’t see her shock that they knew about him leaving in the middle of the night.

  “She thought we didn’t know,” Amy said gently. “Jessica, we’re all friends. And we’re all women. We get it, and Jamie’s not a player, so we know he’s really into you.”

  She breathed a little easier. A little. This summer of self-discovery was becoming way more than that. If they knew the sexy stuff she and Jamie did, would they still understand? Or would they think she was a tramp?

  “Yeah, as long as we don’t have to see the pink fuzzy handcuffs attached to the bedpost…Bella.” Jenna pushed Bella’s shoulder.

  “What?” Bella laughed.

  “What if Evan had seen them?” Jenna asked.

  “He’s a teenage boy,” Bella said. “The last thing he wants to do is walk into his father’s bedroom.”

  “True,” Jenna agreed.

  “We don’t. I don’t…” No, not handcuffs, but his hands worked perfectly well.

  “Really?” Bella asked. “You should try them. But on a more serious note, we don’t judge each other. That’s not what girlfriends are for. Girlfriends are for calling each other on their bull, supporting each other when we’re down or frustrated, and…” She shrugged. “Maybe most important, we always, unconditionally and without judgment, have your back.”

  She couldn’t stop envy from tumbling from her lips like pebbles. “You guys are so lucky to have each other.”

  They all exchanged a glance she couldn’t read, and in the next second they were gathering around her for a group hug.

  “You’re lucky, silly,” Amy said.

  “Yeah. You’re a Seaside sister now.” Jenna kissed her cheek with a loud mmmwwwwaaahhh!

  “Welcome to our little circle,” Leanna added.

  As they settled back into their seats, leaving Jessica reeling with appreciation, Leanna asked, “So, Jamie’s meeting with his attorney today?”

  “Yeah. There’s some issue at his office.” Jamie had assured her this morning that she hadn’t been keeping him from taking care of the work he needed to do, but even with his reassurance, she still worried.

  “The guy’s a jerk,” Bella said. “He came up a few years ago to meet with Jamie about something and he was like…I don’t know. He’s slimy. I don’t like him.”

  “He’s an attorney. What do you expect?” Leanna sipped her drink. “They have to be cutthroat.”

  “I met him,” Jenna said. “When he was down that time. Remember, Bella? He’s not cutthroat. He’s like a snake in the grass. He stared at my boobs the whole time, then sidled up to me and propositioned me with a no-strings-attached offer of the best sex I ever had.” She said the last part with air quotes.

  “Jamie said he’s a close friend. It sounded like they’d been friends forever. Did you tell him about it?” she asked Jenna.

  “Of course I did.” Jenna pointed to a little girl in a pink bathing suit running in and out of the water’s edge beside the pier. “Oh my goodness she’s cute. Anyway, Jamie kind of blew it off. Made a joke or something. I got the feeling Mark did that stuff all the time, and really, what could Jamie have done about it? I mean, if he had touched me, Jamie would have torn him apart, but a proposition?” She shrugged.

  “Really,” Bella said. “They’ve been buddies forever. I think Jamie ignores how slimy he is because he keeps Jamie’s business in line. It’s probably a good tradeoff. You don’t want a wussy attorney. You want a snake in the grass.”

  “I can’t even imagine Jamie around a guy like that.” Jessica’s cell phone rang while she was still processing the information about Mark.

  “Five bucks says it’s Jamie,” Jenna said. “Oh, Jessie. I miss you so much. Please, please come back!” She burst into a fit of laughter.

  “Actually, I don’t recognize this number.” Jessica put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Hello. Is this Jessica Ayers?” Each word was pronounced with careful precision, with a shaky, elderly sounding voice.

  “Yes, this is she.” She met the girls’ curious gazes and shrugged.

  “This is Mr. Elliott. Steve Lacasse sent me a message and indicated that you were interested in the baseball that I won from him.”

  Without thinking, she reached for Amy’s hand.

  Amy exchanged a worried glance with the others.

  “Yes, sir,” she answered. “I think…that’s my father’s baseball from when he was a little boy, and I was wondering if I could buy it from you. I’ll pay double whatever you paid.”

  “Oh.” The man was quiet.

  “It would mean the world to me. My father is a wonderful man. He’s done so much for me, and I want to do this little thing for him.” She realized she was rambling and cut herself short. “I’ll pay triple. Whatever you want. Please.”

  “I’m sorry, Jessica,” he said.

  Jessica’s heart plunged as he explained.

  “I bought that ball for my grandson, and it’s already in his hands. I can’t very well take it away from him. He’s six and an avid baseball fan already. Why, it would squash his excitement.”

  “No, I suppose you can’t very well do that. Thank you for calling, and I hope your grandson enjoys the ball.” She ended the call and sat in disappointed silence.

  “Jackass,” Bella said.

  “Jerk.” Amy patted Jessica’s back.

  Leanna’s eyes went soft. “I’m sorry, Jessica. I know you were hoping to get the ball for your father, but maybe there�
��s something else he’d want instead?”

  “Yes! I’m sure we can find something,” Jenna said with far too much enthusiasm. “Tell us what he does. We’ll figure out the best present ever!” She sat back down and leaned across the table. “I could paint a portrait of you. What parent wouldn’t like that?”

  Jessica managed a smile. “Thanks, you guys, but it’s okay. He doesn’t want anything. He’s never asked for a darn thing. He puts up with my mother’s stoic personality, works his butt off to pay for everything she could ever want, and he’s never asked for one single thing.”

  “He sounds like a good man.” Amy stroked Jessica’s back. “I’m sure he’ll understand.”

  “Yes, he will.” Jessica rolled her eyes as if she weren’t heartbroken. “He always understands.” She hadn’t realized how much she wanted this for him. It was supposed to be a silly little diversion, and it had worked as just that. In fact, being with Jamie had distracted her even from her own diversion. But now, as that door shut, she realized that the only reason she’d seen it as a silly little diversion in the first place was because her mother’s voice echoed in her head. Remember, Jessica, nothing compares to what you are working toward. Sports, dances, and the like? Silliness. Sheer silliness. Where will that get those kids in ten years? But you…you’re going to be a star. The best cellist ever.

  Her mother had said it forever. When she was just a little girl, practicing her cello by the window of the conservatory in her parents’ home, listening to the laughter of the children outside. Every time her mother drove by the park where her friends were playing on the way to practice, and as a teenager, when the other girls were going to homecoming football games and dances and she longed to be included.

  The best cellist ever.

  She looked around the table at her new friends’ worried faces. The women who, without even having all the details, had heard bits and pieces of her conversation, read her body language, and instantly came to her defense. She considered Jamie and how her world was brighter with just the thought of him, and she wanted all of it. She wanted these friends, she wanted Jamie, and she wanted to be around Vera, to play their music together, drink coffee, talk, and sit by the pool.

  She pulled on the reserves she’d relied on through Juilliard, when getting down on herself wasn’t an option, and when she was in the middle of playing for a huge audience. She drew her shoulders back. Coming to Wellfleet and finding her father’s baseball might have started as a diversion, but now it seemed like it was part of a path to a door to her new life, waiting to be opened.

  “So, if Theresa doesn’t see us,” Jessica asked. “Can we drink wine when we go chunky-dunking?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  JAMIE SCRUBBED HIS hand down his face, trying not to show the depth of his worry. No wonder Mark had been so upset. He’d arrived at Seaside two hours earlier, armed with files and data that painted a much darker picture of the issues than Jamie had assumed they were dealing with.

  They were sitting on the back deck of the cottage with four laptops set up on the table, open files and initial investigation reports laid out on the extra chairs.

  “Mark, I had no idea it was this widespread.”

  Mark sat back and exhaled loudly. He’d dressed casually for their meeting in a pair of khakis and a white polo shirt. His thick dark hair and brows gave him a brooding look. Jamie had seen him at his best and his worst. Mark was a workaholic. Jamie’s weekends at the Cape had always seemed like a luxury compared to Mark’s stringent work schedule. When Jamie first brought up that he’d be working remotely and spending the summer at the Cape with Vera, Mark had nearly had a heart attack. He’d spent three weeks trying to convince Jamie it was a bad idea, and not for selfish reasons. He had valid points about employees easing up on their work if the boss was gone and giving division directors more leeway to make decisions than they already had. Jamie, however, couldn’t be swayed. Vera wasn’t getting any younger, and if his employees worked a little less diligently, that wasn’t the end of the world. They worked their butts off every day of the year, just as he did. And now, having met Jessica, he realized that coming to the Cape had been the best decision he’d ever made.

  “I figured you didn’t realize it, and I forgot about the ridiculous cell phone reception out here. Can’t you do what normal millionaires do and go to the Hamptons?”

  Jamie silenced him with a no-way stare.

  Mark held his hands up in the air. “Fine, whatever. I get it. Your grandma’s place, family ties and all that, but, Jamie, you’ve taken sidetracked to a whole new level.”

  “Yeah. I get it. I’ll be more on point. I got a little lax.”

  “A little lax?” Mark laughed. “Dude, a year ago you would have driven back to Boston the second I said the word issue. You built OneClick with nothing more than your brain and those talented programming fingers. Don’t mess it up.”

  He’d never allow anyone else to talk to him that way, but Mark had stuck with him when he first opened the doors to OneClick and could barely pay him a tenth of what he should have. Days when Jamie wasn’t sure the hard work was worth it, Mark had talked him off the ledge. He owed Mark the respect of answering his emails in a timely fashion.

  “I’m not messing it up. It looks like our team has a handle on it.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ve taken care of it all as best I could, but you’re the best programmer there is, Jamie. Interpreting code is in your DNA. But these reports?” He slid a stack of papers across the table to Jamie. “You used to go over these with a fine-tooth comb. If you’d looked at them you might have caught this before it blew up.”

  He hadn’t reviewed the trouble reports in a week. Mark was right. He’d messed up.

  Jamie turned at the sound of Amy’s car pulling into the driveway across the road. He peered over Mark’s shoulder as the girls got out of the car. The first thing Jessica did was look over at his cottage. He watched her beautiful eyes skim over his car, to the front deck, then around back. Their eyes caught, and he felt her gaze all the way to his gut.

  He smiled and waved.

  Mark turned and looked at Jessica. “This is the girl?”

  “Yes. Jessica.”

  Mark leaned toward Jamie and lowered his voice. “She’s pretty, Jamie, but pretty women are a dime a dozen for a guy like you. What is it? Does she give the best blow jobs on the East Coast?”

  Jamie gritted his teeth against his rising annoyance and reminded himself that this was how Mark had always joked. He ignored Mark’s comment altogether and went to greet Jessica as she came into the yard.

  “Hey, babe.” He stepped off the deck and kissed her.

  “Hi. I don’t want to interrupt.” She smiled at Mark, who lifted his chin in response.

  Jerk. He could be a jerk. Jamie knew it and had always overlooked it, but when that jerkiness was turned toward Jessica, it struck a whole different chord in him.

  Jamie shot Mark the narrow-eyed stare that Mark had seen a million times in business meetings when Mark wanted to play the tough negotiator and Jamie was sure it wouldn’t suit the situation.

  Mark stood and held out a hand. “Mark Wiley, Jamie’s attorney.”

  Jessica shook his hand. “Jessica. Nice to meet you.”

  “Jessica…?” Mark waited for her to answer.

  Jamie knew exactly what he was doing—fishing for information.

  “Jessica Ayers.” She drew her brows together in question.

  “Sorry. I’ll remember your name if I have the full name in my head. There are a million Jessicas out there.”

  A million Jessicas? Jamie’s patience was wearing thin.

  “So you’re the pretty little filly that’s been keeping Jamie from concentrating on work. I can see why,” Mark said.

  “Watch it, Mark,” Jamie warned.

  Mark lifted his chin in acknowledgment. “What do you do, Jessica?” He slid his hands into his pockets. Jamie knew the casual stance all too well. Mark was trying to put
Jessica at ease while he slithered in to gain information, and even though this was what Mark did with most of the women Jamie dated, when it came to Jessica, it made every nerve stand on end.

  “She plays for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.” Jamie put a protective arm around Jessica’s shoulder and walked toward her apartment. “I’ll be right back, Mark. Go ahead and do your thing.”

  When they were on her deck, safely away from Mark, Jamie took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. “I’m sorry about Mark. He can be a jerk around women, and he’s very protective of me. But I’ll set him straight. You won’t have to worry about that kind of stuff anymore.”

  She circled his waist with her arms. “He didn’t bother me. Well, except for the million Jessicas comment. That kind of felt like he was trying to make me jealous.”

  “Don’t worry. You’re the only woman I want in my life.” He tilted her chin up and took her in a sensuous kiss. “I missed you, and I’m sorry this is taking so long. The issue goes much deeper than I thought.”

  “That’s okay. Will you be there tonight to hear me play? It’s okay if you can’t. I don’t want to stand in the way of your work.”

  “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for the world, and you’re never in the way. Work is work.” He shrugged, but he knew Jessica would see right through his shrugging it off so easily.

  “Well, I’m sorry that you have a much bigger issue to deal with.”

  “It’s nothing I can’t handle.” He glanced over the quad and caught Mark watching them. “I’d better get back if we’re going to be done in time. We’re going to work straight through dinner. I’m really sorry, babe. I hate to leave you hanging.”

  “That’s okay. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you that the guy with the baseball called. He gave it to his grandson and doesn’t want to sell.”