“Leave a message. I’ll call you when I can.”
A beep sounded.
The answering machine.
Josh hung up, breathing hard, like a man who’d just surfaced from the ocean depths. Pain squeezed his chest.
Shit.
Maybe he wasn’t ready to talk to his grandfather yet.
He rubbed the back of his neck, then his pounding chest. He took several deep gulps of air. Okay. He could do this. Maybe not at this exact moment. But soon. He decided to keep walking.
Josh rounded the block and saw Jordan crossing the street to stand in front of an old building along the water. Worn faded-gray lettering still identified the huge whitewashed brick building as Drake Fish Cannery.
He stuffed his phone deep in his pocket.
He’d think about the situation with Saul later.
Honestly, he was a little relieved. A distraction was good. And Jordan Drake was the best distraction he could hope for right now. He smiled as he made his way toward her.
She stood in front of the building with her hands propped on her curvy hips. She wore her favorite jean cut-off shorts. Josh loved them. They were so worn, they were almost white in color, and a threadbare spot on her thigh showed a healthy dose of tanned skin through it, making his mouth water to see the rest. Again.
He’d seen her stripped down to her panties and he was anxious to get her naked again, this time, not in a public place, though. He wondered what color she wore today under her clothes. Pink again? Or maybe blue? Or black. His breathing became shallow just thinking about her lingerie.
He didn’t intentionally sneak up on her, but Jordan was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t even hear him approach. He stood behind her and a little to her right. The sea breeze carried her scent into him—an earthy, grounded fragrance. Sage and lavender with a hint of orange. He inhaled deep. Enjoying the moment.
“Whatcha doing?” he asked.
Jordan slammed the flat of her hand onto her chest as she gasped and her whole body startled in a violent little jump. “Don’t do that!”
He took a little involuntary step back, but grabbed her arm to steady her.
She swatted him on the shoulder. “You’re trying to give me heart failure, aren’t you? First the new direction of the café. Now creeping up behind me like that. What the hell? Knock it off.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Everything about you scares me,” she said in almost a whisper. She stared at him with wide, honest eyes. He could almost see to her soul.
He stepped closer and lowered his head so that he could look right into her eyes. “You don’t really mean that, do you?”
She gazed at him with somber eyes and nodded her head minutely. “Yes, I do.” The words came out whispered, raspy.
He touched her chin.
It trembled.
A tear spilled onto her cheek and collided with his thumb where it rested on her jaw near the corner of her mouth.
“Don’t, please.” It’s all he could say. He touched his mouth to hers in a soft, sweet kiss meant to reassure her that he’d never hurt her, because he wouldn’t. Not if his life depended on it. He could also see the fledgling hunger in her to step up to take charge of her life again and he wouldn’t let her hide any longer. Yes, this was going to be hard. She might end up hating him, but he couldn’t let her languish away here living a life handicapped by fear. He pulled back. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“For another month.” Her voice sounded wobbly.
He grinned at her. “Plenty of time to work on your fear factor.” He stepped toward her again, intent on getting her hot under his hands.
She backed up. “Oh, no. No. No.” She held up her hand to ward him off. He didn’t follow her. He gave her room to breathe.
“So what’s this?” He pointed to the building.
“The cannery my grandfather owned and ran for decades.”
Josh cocked his head and scrutinized the building. “I’ve driven you back into the fish business?” A smile danced at the corner of his mouth. He knew better, but he wanted to find out where her head was at the moment.
She scowled at his jest. “Like you have that much power. No. I’ve been thinking of renovating this building for years. Now might be the time, since I’ve fully unloaded the café on you and I’m at loose ends.”
“Hmmm. Loose ends, huh?” He tweaked her ponytail. “Can I see the inside of the building?”
“Why?” she asked, wariness clouding her face.
“Come on, Jordan. What can it hurt? I’m curious to see the condition of the inside. Not everyone is out to screw you.” He ran his eyes up and down her delectable curves and the exposed bare skin of her long legs. “Well—Sorry. Bad choice of words. You are a beautiful, desirable woman. Maybe everyone is . . .”
She bit her bottom lip and kept her eyes on the sandy ground.
“Okay, there’s nothing I’d like better than to fuck you,” he drawled, slow, lazy, and filled with pent-up longing.
Her head snapped up and she stared at him, clearly shocked by his candor.
He continued. “But that’s not what I’m talking about right now. What I mean is not everyone is out to hurt you. Not everyone wants to take advantage of you. I just want to get to know you better. Find out about your hopes and dreams. What do you say? Show me around, please?” He extended his hand to her.
She hesitated, searching his face for something.
He held his breath.
She must have found whatever she was looking for, because she shyly extended her hand and slipped it inside of his. Her cool skin made his feel feverish in comparison. Skin to skin. Heat flashed through his body. It would be good between them. Hot. Explosive. Once-in-a-lifetime. The last thought shocked him. He shook his head to dislodge the troublesome thought.
Jordan tugged him around the side of the building. “I haven’t been inside in a while. I come here sometimes to think.” She dropped his hand to dig a key out of her pocket and unlock a side door. She stepped into the darkness and hit a light switch, the interior flooded with lights.
Josh stepped through the doors. He whistled low. “This is a great building.” He looked over at Jordan.
She watched him closely. She’d caught the edge of her nail between her teeth and she peered out over the space, her arm crossed her body pushing her breasts higher so that they crested over the edge of the low, rounded neck of her top. “What do you think about a community theater?”
“Here?” He turned to the large, open concrete floor and high metal ceiling and I-beams. “Yeah. I can totally visualize this space as a theater.”
She pointed to the far side. “The stage would be over there.”
“What about the windows?” There were high windows skirting the two adjacent sides and the back, toward the ceiling. “Won’t that make stage performances harder?”
“I like the natural light. I could install blackening shades for daytime performances.”
“That would work.” He did a slow turn. “What historical details would you want to keep?”
“It was a fish cannery.” Jordan scrunched up her nose. “So I’m not wedded to much, but the exterior and the infrastructure. I’d like to keep the industrial feel and the original brickwork where I can.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“This way, the village could begin to generate a little more revenue. Bring in outside performers if they’d like. But we’d also have a bigger venue for the PIC-U program. Maybe do a fundraiser or two. There are families who are struggling with the high-cost of cancer treatments for their kids. And I don’t ever want money to be a consideration for these families. Not if I can help it. They shouldn’t have to play roulette with their kid’s life because they
can’t afford the treatment they need to keep them alive.”
“Jordan, I think that’s a great idea. What’s your timeline?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t got one yet. I’m not even sure I could finance the project right now.”
“You have a good start on it with the sale of the café.”
She burrowed her hands in her back pockets and swayed back and forth. “Yeah, but I’m saving a chunk of that for Tony’s college education.”
Josh looked around again. “I’ve done quite a bit of construction in my day.”
She arched an eyebrow at him.
He held up a hand. “No, don’t get me wrong. I’m not offering to do this, but I have a friend who is an architect who might be willing to come give you an estimate of what it would take to build a stage and add seating. Enough to get you up and running before I leave.”
“Why before you leave?”
“Because I’d like to know you’re moving forward before I go.”
She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and traced a pattern on the floor with her shoe. She looked at him. “Okay.”
He grinned. “All righty, then.” He pulled his phone free of his pocket and selected a number from his contacts.
Within ten minutes, he’d scheduled his buddy Jack to arrive in two days to take a look at the building and give Jordan an estimate on the renovations. And while he hadn’t cleared it with Jordan, he’d vetted Jack’s schedule. The man was free immediately to start on this theater project. Even if Jordan was only ready for phase one. He just hoped she wouldn’t make him fight her fear every step of the way.
They stepped back into the bright sunlight after being inside the darkened cannery.
Jordan shaded her eyes against the sun.
Josh lowered the sunglasses he’d pushed to the top of his head back to the bridge of his nose. Too bad. She loved his blue eyes with their long lashed fringe. She could totally see why the women fell for this bad-boy rocker. Gah. Josh Nicodemus was deadly as a rock star, however, as a considerate guy with those looks, he was lethal. Shit.
She sucked in a deep breath and looked over at the marina.
Salty had just docked his boat. And he was helping a bedraggled, soaked guy from the boat. His bloated orange life vest hung crooked and his hair hung wet and lank in his face.
“Is that Ben?” she asked Josh.
“Where?” Josh said. “I thought he’d gone home.”
“At the marina.” She shaded her eyes with her hand and pointed up the boardwalk to the boat docks. “Grace said he pulled back into town today driving a camper. Guess he’s staying at the campground.”
“God.” Josh blew out a frustrated breath and turned to look. “Yep, that’s him. Looking like a wet dog, I’d say.”
Ben slumped to the dock.
“Think he’s okay?”
Josh chuckled. “Ben wears a motion-sickness patch when we travel on the band’s bus. I can’t imagine how he’d be on the open ocean.”
“Gets even the most seasoned sailors, at times.” She locked the door and brushed her hands together. “Salty did say he’d try to keep him occupied. I’m sure he’s got it under control.”
Ben threw up on the dock.
“Yikes.” She shook her head. “We’re going to owe Salty.”
“Anything. Anything at all. It’s worth the peace, believe me.”
“You have a difficult relationship with your manager?” Jordan studied Josh, trying to read his face, even though his sunglasses covered his eyes.
He looked off at the sea, arms crossed over his chest. “I wouldn’t call it difficult. Ben tries to mother me. I already have a mother. I don’t need a second one. I need a manager to do what I tell him and let me worry about the creative aspect of my business. Ben’s been around for a long time. He knows a lot, which makes him think he’s the talent sometimes, not the manager. He tries to guide me in directions I’m not interested in going.”
“Sounds like a difference of opinion over your creative direction.”
“Exactly. That’s what I’ve tried to tell him, but he won’t listen to me. Ben wants me to keep moving in the direction I’ve always moved—big rock anthems. He thinks my fans will only stay with me if I continue to produce more of the same. The high-energy rock ballads with the pop dance moves.”
“What do you think?”
“I think I need to do something a little different.”
“Something like what?”
Josh rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve got a few ideas about going back to where I started. I want to write music like I used to write for other musicians before I hit it big. Music like I wrote for Luke and a few others.”
“Well, be prepared to lose money. I don’t know how much you rake in now, but, it’s going to be significantly lower. Maybe even zilch.”
He laughed. “Why do you say that?”
“Because Luke never really made any big money. And nothing has come in for years on his albums.”
“That can’t be right. Tony and Grace should be drawing a modest income from those royalties—maybe not rock-n-roll dollars, but still. I just played his most famous song at my last concert. That’s a bill of ten large.”
“Ten thousand dollars?”
“Yeah.”
“Then where the hell is the money going? Because Grace and Tony haven’t seen any of it.”
“I plan to find out. I asked Ben to research it.” His voice sounded tight with frustration when he mentioned his manager’s name. Certainly they had a more turbulent relationship than Josh was willing to admit.
He marched away from her, stalking toward the marina.
Jordan knew all about bad managers and the churning waves created by differences of opinion on creative direction from her parents’ management, or rather, mismanagement of her career.
“Wait. I thought you didn’t want Ben to know you were here?”
“He still doesn’t know where I’m staying. Besides, this is more important than my peace and quiet. You don’t fuck with a performer’s royalties. I don’t care who you are.”
She ran after him. Shit. This would not end well.
For either of them.
“Hey, Ben. Imagine seeing you here. I thought you went home. Dude, what did you do to yourself?” Josh kneeled next to Ben and laid a hand on his wet shoulder. “You okay?”
“Drove the Winnebago back today from Charlotte.” Ben gulped big breaths and shook his head violently. Then he groaned again. “No. Sick as a dog.”
“Man, what were you thinking? Getting on a boat that size in the ocean. You have a problem on the band bus.”
“Don’t I know it? Shit. Thought it would be a fun way to divert time. Wore the damned patch. It didn’t help.”
“Probably needed a stronger dose for the wide-open ocean.”
Ben pushed himself off the dock and stumbled to his feet.
“Whoa, there.” Josh steadied him and pushed him back to a seated position on the dock. “You need to just sit a few minutes.”
“Everything is still moving. Up and down. Up and down.”
Josh peered at Salty, who still stood in the boat. “Rough water out there today?” he asked.
“You could say we had choppy seas.” Salty grinned.
Josh raised his eyebrows and looked back out at the ocean, which seemed pretty calm right now. He had no idea what Salty had done and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.
He sat on the dock next to Ben. They sat in silence a few seconds. Ben with his eyes closed, Josh looking out at the water. Jordan stood by Salty, talking softly.
“Ben, did you find anything out about the royalties for Luke’s music?”
Ben flinched, but remained quiet.
> The man must still be riding the ocean swells. Wasn’t a feeling Josh envied. Nothing worse.
“No, man. I’ve been a little too busy trying to catch up with you to dig up anything more on that issue.”
Anger bit into Josh’s gut and shook, yanking back and forth for all it was worth like an animal trying to take a piece out of his hide. He could barely hold himself still. Damn it. He’d asked Ben several times to look into this issue with Luke’s royalties.
It took a tremendous amount of willpower to keep Josh seated casually on the dock, hands behind him propping him up, feet flat on the weathered boards, instead of verbally tearing into his business manager.
Salty spoke up behind them. “Jordan and I both know a good entertainment lawyer. I could have her look into it for you.”
Josh caught Salty’s shrewd look and considered him. “Sure. Why don’t you do that, since Ben’s been busy.”
“No. No.” Ben pushed himself to his feet. “I got this. Seriously. I need to go rest a bit, let this seasickness wear off. But I’ll make some calls and let you know. I’ve got to warn you, it might take some digging, though. Where are you staying?”
Josh wasn’t going there yet. No matter how many times Ben tried. “Give me a call when you find something. I’ll meet you at The Down Dog Café.
“Deal,” Ben said, and squinted at him before stumbling away. He picked his way gingerly along the boardwalk up to more solid ground of the parking area where he crawled into a rented golf cart and peeled out.
“You think he’ll be okay to drive?” Jordan asked.
Every Heart Sings (Serenity Island Series) Page 19
