Owen had never known his brother to wear one for a variety of reasons. First, he just seemed to have a natural body clock that woke him at the same time every day. Second, and more importantly, Jonathan just didn’t give a shit about keeping to any kind of schedule. He did what he did when he wanted to.
“Didn’t feel like working this weekend. Besides, what if I just wanted to get away for a change and relax?” Owen said and dropped his overnight bag by the couch.
“You? Away? Relaxing?” Jonathan said, but then as he peered at Owen’s face, he seemed a little taken aback. “You were supposed to come down here this weekend with Maggie, and she blew you off.”
He nodded. “She said she had to work this weekend. We were supposed to stay at her place.”
“And?” Jonathan said and made a suggestive gesture with his eyes.
Because he didn’t want to discuss it, he pointed to the tiny ball of white-and-cream fur happily wagging its tail on the floor beside his brother. “Not quite what I expected you to choose for a dog.”
The elfin terrier mix cocked his head, examining Owen, and then did a little bark that wouldn’t even scare away the proverbial fly.
Jonathan laughed, bent, and scratched behind the dog’s ears, earning yet more happy wagging and yips of joy. “He kind of chose me when I went to the shelter. Walked right up to the window of his holding pen and started jumping up and down. Barking like a madman. When they took him out, he sat at my side, patiently waiting. I knew he was the one.”
At that comment, the dog jumped onto Jonathan’s bent knees, splayed his paws on Jonathan’s chest, and started licking his face, prompting more laughter from his brother.
“You two really are a pair,” he said, grinning. He liked seeing Jonathan happy, and if the pup was going to do it, so be it.
Jonathan set the dog back down on the ground with a “Sit” command that lacked any real control, but the dog listened anyway. “Smart too, aren’t you, Dudley?” he said, as proud as any parent of their new baby.
“Dudley?”
Jonathan grinned and said, “Like in Dudley Do Right, ’cause at least one of us has to do the right thing.”
“And I don’t doubt that you do that when you need to.”
Jonathan clapped him on the back. “Come with me. I was going for a walk up to Fireman’s Park. Lots of dogs there on a Saturday.”
Owen nodded, and they strolled the few blocks through the heart of Sea Kiss.
Main Street was already in full swing on a late-summer Saturday. Beachgoers ambled up and down through the assortment of shops all along the street before heading to the beach. Later in the day, like the tides along the shore, they’d return after their time in the sun for lunch, dinner, or more shopping. After Labor Day in a couple of weeks, the crowds would virtually disappear until the next summer season.
“How about I make you dinner?” Jonathan said as they strolled from one quaint shop to another, checking out the offerings while Dudley obediently kept close and waited patiently on his leash when they stepped inside some of the shops.
Owen hated to disappoint his brother, but he wasn’t really in the mood for company. He just wanted to hole up and lick his wounds, but Jonathan would have none of that.
“I’ll make dinner,” he said, and as they went from one store to the next, he gathered an assortment of foods and handed the bags to Owen to carry. When he shot his brother a glare as he added another package to the load, Jonathan just shrugged and said, “I buy; you carry.”
“Then let me get these,” he said and paid the butcher for two immense grass-fed, organic rib eye steaks his brother had selected. As his brother grinned wickedly, he knew he’d been conned, since the steaks had been the most expensive items on their impromptu menu.
“Why do I always fall for whatever it is that you want?” he said as Jonathan grabbed the bag from the merchant.
With an easy shrug of his broad shoulders, Jonathan said, “Because you love me, Big Bro.”
Which he couldn’t deny. Through all the turmoil in their early family life and the bitter loneliness after the departure of their mother, the two brothers had always stuck together. He wrapped an arm around Jonathan’s shoulders, hugged him hard, and gave him a brotherly noogie, earning a protective bark and growl from Dudley.
“Back off, Bro, unless you want to lose an ankle,” his brother teased, dragging laughter from both of them.
Jonathan walked into the surf and skate shop and greeted the young woman who was the owner with a big smile and a hug. She seemed to know just what he wanted, since she grabbed a bar of wax from the shelf and quickly rang it up.
“Waves are supposed to be great today,” she said as she handed the bag to Jonathan.
“I’ll let you know after I catch a few rides, Sammie,” he said with a wave as they walked out of the shop.
They strolled to Fireman’s Park, where a number of dogs were already off leash, running around and playing with each other. The dogs were larger than Dudley for the most part, obviously making Jonathan hesitate to release him.
“Come on, Dad. You can let him go,” Owen kidded, although he intended to keep a close eye in case one of the bigger dogs got too rough with the petite terrier.
Jonathan rolled his eyes, bent, and unclipped the leash from Dudley’s collar. In a blur of speed, the mutt shot off to join a group of dogs that were busy chasing each other all around the statue in the center of the park. Seeing that everything was copacetic, they sauntered over to a bench and sat.
Owen watched the dogs play for a bit before he said, “So what’s up with you? New design in the works?”
Jonathan did a halfhearted shrug. “Just did the initial specs for one. Now it’s off to my engineers and design team to see how they can incorporate my ideas in the new vehicles and fuel cells, so I thought I’d take a little time off.”
“You going to take the pooch with you on whatever adventure is next on the list?”
The terrier was busy jumping up and over the back of a much larger Labrador, and as soon as Dudley landed, the Lab playfully chased him.
“I was thinking of taking a little staycation. Maybe even setting up shop down here,” Jonathan said, surprising him.
He examined his brother’s features just to make sure it wasn’t a joke. Clearly, it wasn’t. He pondered it for a moment before saying anything out loud. “You get yourself a dog. The cooking thing is way domestic. Now your next adventure is staying home? What’s up? You sick or something?”
With a bark of a laugh and a wag of his head that sent the longish strands of his sun-streaked hair into motion, his brother said, “I’m feeling like way too sensitive a guy as I say this, but I’m worried about you. I want to be here for you if this all goes to shit.”
A sideways glance at Jonathan confirmed that he was being deadly serious, but it also told him that there was more to the change of heart that had his wanderlust brother suddenly deciding to stick around. But he appreciated the concern and let his brother know.
“Thanks for worrying, but I can handle it,” he said, rather unconvincingly.
His brother turned slightly on the bench, and his keen gaze swept over Owen. “You said that when Mother abandoned us, and you’ve been handling it for both of us for some time. Maybe it’s time I helped you deal. Made your life a little easier.”
He couldn’t deny that not having to worry about how his father would rant and carry on about another of his brother’s escapades would certainly be a welcome change. Especially now, when he had so many other things to handle, like the situation with Maggie. But then again, with Jonathan out of the news, his father’s attention would be focused solely on him. Possibly not a good situation.
“The one thing that would make my life easier is to have Father out of my face about Maggie, but if anything, he’s more fixated than ever on the Sinclairs,” he confess
ed.
Jonathan was silent for several minutes, staring away into space before he said, “Do you ever wonder if there’s more to the story about the reason for the fight?”
He thought about it often, especially since his father’s reaction the other day. There was just too much anger there—and possibly pain—for it to be just about a business deal gone bad or a friend’s betrayal.
“I do,” he admitted. “I always wondered if all that hate and bitterness wasn’t a big part of the reason that Mother left. He made her so unhappy.”
“He makes everyone unhappy, but that was no reason for her to leave and never look back. We were her boys,” Jonathan said, lashing out at the mother who had deserted them so many years earlier. A mother who, in all that time, had never even bothered to find out what was happening in her sons’ lives.
He felt his brother’s pain more acutely than he did his own. He’d been the one to shoulder the bulk of the fallout from that desertion. He had been the one to try to keep things steady for his little brother. To absorb the misery heaped on them by their father after their mother’s departure. He’d been too busy to allow the pain to register and had gone numb to it. But Jonathan hadn’t.
Wrapping an arm around his brother’s shoulders, he hugged him hard and said, “We were her boys, but we can’t let that hurt hold us back now. We can’t keep on running away from relationships because of it.”
Like his brother had been running away for years with his assorted escapades. He understood it now, for the first time in his life. And he questioned if maybe, just maybe, it was part of his commitment problem as well.
“I’m not running anymore, Big Bro. There’s a nice empty warehouse on the other side of the tracks. I’m going to talk to someone about buying it. Maybe get some light manufacturing going besides the design work. The Sea Kiss area could use some new jobs, don’t you think?”
He considered Jonathan again and realized that he was totally serious. Way more serious than he’d ever seen his little brother, but since he was, Owen wanted to help. “It could. I can give you the names of some people to contact for real estate in the area.”
“I’d appreciate that. And what about you and your life? What about Maggie?” Jonathan said.
“Maggie is still a work in progress,” he confessed, unsure of just what to do to move that relationship to another level.
Jonathan poked him in the ribs and grinned. “Don’t wait too long, Bro. Maggie doesn’t strike me as the type to wait forever.”
Chapter 19
Maggie was blasted awake by her alarm. She glared at the phone and silenced it with a swipe. Sinking back into the comfort of her mattress, she stared at the ceiling, considering all that still had to get done before Monday morning.
Too much, she thought. While the Friday overnight with Connie had been both relaxing and eye opening, they had both had a touch of regret on Saturday morning about how much they had imbibed. They’d had way too many, not something they did regularly, and the excess of alcohol was exacting punishment.
They woke up late, sluggish, and with headaches. A nice brunch with lots of lattes had been restorative, and after, they’d tackled the contract with the Italian designer over yet more lattes, thanks to her new espresso machine.
Connie had a wealth of ideas about changes to make the agreement more balanced, and together, they’d hammered out an email to the designer’s lawyers in Milan so that they would be able to review it first thing Monday morning. She hoped they wouldn’t make too much of a stink about the proposed amendments, because she was already late in getting the merchandise for the fall season. It should have been ordered months earlier—would have been ordered, if her father had been more reasonable. With his change of heart, however, she had to try to do things at a breakneck pace, and if she could get the deal done, it would be good exposure and revenue for the designer.
Connie had gone home the night before, and as Maggie lay in bed, she thought about what she had to do that morning. A review of the papers in the quiet of her home and what she would do next, both about the stores and about Owen.
Owen, she thought, and a tornado of emotions swirled around in her head just as they had all night long, keeping her awake.
Guilt, predominantly. He had obviously been disappointed that she’d canceled, and he had clearly not bought her excuse. But she had worked that weekend and still had to review the drafts of the ads and television spots for the holiday campaign once again. They needed something more, only she wasn’t quite sure what despite looking at them multiple times.
As the snooze period on her phone ended and the alarm blared to life again, she shut it off and crawled out of bed. A shower followed by some coffee and breakfast might be just the thing to get her going so she could finish everything on her to-do list.
Maybe she could even call Owen later and apologize for canceling. Possibly even propose another weekend together. One that might lead to the next step in their relationship, if that’s what you could call the on-again, off-again roller coaster they seemed to be riding.
She was tired of her own indecision, because she normally wasn’t someone who wavered like that. Except possibly with her father, where she tended to show more restraint because she knew that standing up to him could lead to upset on both personal and professional levels. And yet, standing up to her father hadn’t created as much of an issue as she had expected. In fact, now that she thought about it, he’d seemed almost relieved that she’d finally taken the bull by the horns and decided to implement some of her ideas. Relieved and proud.
That realization propelled her through her shower and a megadose of coffee. By the time she finished that first latte, she felt awake enough for the challenge and reached for her phone, intent on making things right with Owen. But just as she was about to call him, the familiar beep of the video app rang out, and the avatar with his smiling face filled her screen.
She swiped to accept his video call, and just the sight of him had her heart pumping a trifle faster and heat coming alive in parts down south. It wasn’t right that he looked so handsome and put together that early in the morning. Which only made her wonder how he’d look in bed right next to her at the break of day, just as the sun was rising. Hopefully, he’d be rising as well.
“Hi, Owen,” she said, her voice a little husky from disuse and her sexy thoughts.
“Hi to you too. You look a little tired,” he said and winced, well aware it wasn’t what most women would like to hear.
Still, she appreciated his perceptiveness. “I am a little wiped,” she said and got right to what she had earlier planned to say. “I’m sorry I canceled our weekend. I was really looking forward to it.”
He squinted just a little, considering her, and then blurted out, “I’d like to say that I was looking forward to it too, but that’s not completely true, because I was also wondering if it wouldn’t have been a big mistake.”
“Not holding anything back, are you?” she said with a chuckle.
“Being honest, Mags. It’s the right thing to do if two people are in a relationship.”
And there was that word again, just as it had been rattling around in her brain all morning. She wanted to gesture between the two of them like he had the other day in the gym, but he wasn’t going to be able to see with the limitations of the phone, so she just said, “Is that what this is? A relationship?”
“If that’s what you want it to be,” he immediately said, the lack of hesitation on his part confirming that he was game for it to be just that.
Take charge, Maggie, the little voice in her head commanded, and she said, “That’s what I want it to be.”
He smiled broadly, bringing alive those delicious dimples, and the happy gleam in his dark gaze was visible even through the smartphone camera.
“I’m glad. So I think this would be the part where I say we should meet for a late bre
akfast. Brunch maybe?”
She bit her bottom lip and glanced at the pile of papers on her dining room table. There had been too many of them to lay out on her home office desk.
“Maggie?” he questioned at her silence and diverted attention.
“I really do have work to do,” she said and shifted the phone to let him see the papers on the table before turning it back to her face.
He nodded. “How about I bring something in? Give you a break before you go back to those papers.”
“I’d love that,” she said, jumping all over his idea, because she wanted to see him and put to right some of the hurt she’d caused by abandoning him for the weekend.
“I’ll be there in about an hour,” he said, and before she could utter a goodbye or change her mind, he ended the call.
She stared at her T-shirt and shorts for only a second before bolting up the stairs to change. While she wasn’t a dress-up Barbie kind of woman, she wanted to look more presentable when he arrived.
She hurried through a shower and blow-dried her hair. Dashing into her closet, she rummaged through assorted pants, blouses, and dresses, discarding each and every one for a different reason. Too fancy. Too boring. Too fuck me. She wanted to be subtle after all.
Casual, casual, casual, she reminded herself, and with time evaporating like morning dew under the rising sun, she jerked her favorite pair of jeans off a hanger and paired them with a crop top that would just graze the low waistband of the jeans, inviting him to touch and inch up. A flush of heat bathed her body at the thought of that and what might follow.
Wanting to be prepared in case it did happen, she opened her lingerie drawer and picked out a matching La Perla bra and bikini panties in barely there pink trimmed with lace in a slightly rosier hue. The colors complemented what little summer tan she had and the slight touch of chestnut in her dark hair.
She speedily slipped into the jeans and top, brushed out her hair, and kept her makeup to a minimum. A little blush, mascara, and a swipe of lip gloss had her looking like the au naturel girl next door, and she was fine with that. Except for maybe the darkish circles under her eyes, a testament to their late Friday escapade and a restless Saturday night spent thinking about Owen.
One Summer Night Page 15
