He responded to a few emails from their workaholic assistant, Ginger, and was just about to text his brother that he was going in without him when the door to the condo next to his opened, closed, and then a knock sounded at his door. Dane opened it to reveal his brother looking showered, shaved, and dressed for the day. Dane peered around him looking for the other guy, but Ethan was solo. “Couldn’t land the plane last night?” Dane asked.
Ethan pursed his lips. “He told me it would take a lot more than a free drink and a dapper smile to get his pants off.”
“Dapper?” Dane asked, grinning at his brother whose cheeks were coloring. “Wasn’t so easy this go-around, huh?”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “I’ll keep trying. He’s close with our competition. We could use him to our advantage.”
Dane grabbed his keys and his wallet. “Never mind the fact that you’ve been wanting to sleep with him since we first met him months ago.”
“That, too. What about you?” Ethan gave Dane a disappointed onceover. “Judging by the time she left the bar, I’m guessing you didn’t get any info on her family’s interest.”
“They’re making a bid. We’ve got to be better.”
“Well, yeah, but it wouldn’t hurt to know what we’re up against exactly.”
“The best. Their hotels are beautiful and have five-star reviews all over the place.” Dane pushed open the door to the staircase and they trotted down.
“All right then. So, did you get her number?”
Dane kept his mouth shut.
Ethan backhanded him on the shoulder as they got to the bottom of the stairwell. “Come, on, man. Don’t tell me you blew that opportunity.”
“I came on too strong or something, I don’t know. Screw it. Doesn’t matter anyway. It’s not like it could go anywhere.”
Ethan stopped him once they got through the doorway to the lobby. “Why, because she’s going to hook you into a relationship with her kids that breaks your heart?”
Dane’s stomach swirled every time Ethan referred to his nightmare with Erin. “I don’t think Marigold has any kids.”
Ethan motioned at him. “Exactly.”
Dane ignored him and headed toward the door to parking lot. Pushing through it, the brisk fall morning greeted him with a breeze. Ethan held up his hand. “Give me the keys. I feel like driving.”
Dane tossed them to him. “Why? You never drive.”
“I want to stop somewhere to eat.”
“You never eat breakfast.”
“I’ve got a hunger that didn’t get filled last night. I need carbs and possibly sugar.”
Dane looked his brother up and down. “Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?”
Ethan shoved him lightly. “Just get in the car.”
As they passed through Seaside, Ethan shook his head. “Damn. When is tourist season over?”
“Never.”
“I just want a biscuit from that food truck but the line’s backed up all the way to Destin.”
“We can get one from Modica Market.”
“I don’t wanna mess with parking. We’ll stop at Cowgirl Kitchen in Seagrove. I may need some cheese grits to go with.”
Dane’s brother was used to getting what and who he wanted. The elusive Ashe Bianchi was taking his toll on him.
Ethan pointed. “Look, Seaside Sweets.”
“Yeah, it’s been there for years.”
Ethan wheeled it in. “This place belongs to that woman Cassidy from last night. I’ve always wanted to go in, and now I have a reason.”
“What reason?” Dane asked.
Ethan shrugged. “Friendly neighbor hello.”
Dane opened the car door. “You do realize Ashe Bianchi doesn’t work here, right?”
“Of course I realize that. But maybe she knows if he’s seeing anyone right now.”
“You didn’t ask him that last night?”
Ethan opened the door to the bakery for his brother. “I couldn’t be obvious.”
“Yeah, because you’re so subtle.”
The tall, thin woman from last night pushed through double half-doors. She had her unruly hair tied back in a bun so her face was exposed. Dane had been attracted to the occasional older woman, and this one was no exception. Her beauty wasn’t classic, but rather unique with a nose that was a bit too big for her face but just served to make her more interesting-looking.
As she made out the two of them, a smile crossed her face that both welcomed them into her store and let them know she had their number all at the same time, making Dane feel like a caught teenager.
“The Knight Brothers. Come on in.”
“Hello, hello,” Ethan said, glancing around at the photographic art on the walls. He walked closer to a black-and-white picture of a little boy stuffing a cupcake in his mouth, the sweet the only part of the picture that was colored.
“Photography by Ashe Bianchi,” Cassidy said with a knowing smile.
Ethan pointed. “Very nice. Goes with your retro look.”
“Coffee?” Cassidy asked.
Ethan pointed at Dane. “He does coffee with cream and sugar. I do green tea.”
“Coming up,” Cassidy said and went to work.
The bell on the door behind him got Dane’s attention, and he turned to find Marigold dressed in a black cat suit from head to toe complete with ears and a tail, her blonde hair draping over her shoulders in perfectly organized curls. He swallowed hard, hoping it was still too early in the morning for his midsection to wake up.
She stopped in her tracks. “I’m having a costume contest for kids at my shop this afternoon,” she said, smoothing her hands down her hips in a self-conscious way, but the movement just elongated her body and put her boobs on display, which weren’t big but plenty for his taste.
She must have caught him looking because she adjusted the top of the bodysuit, pulling it upward. Jesus, he had to get ahold of himself. Last night, all he could think about was how attracted he was to her, and now, seeing her in this bodysuit was not helping matters.
He pointed somewhere behind the counter, still unable to remove his eyes from her body. He tried desperately to focus on her face. “We’re just getting coffee.”
“I prefer tea,” she said, setting her purse down on a table.
“Iced, black, unsweet?” Cassidy asked from behind the counter.
“Yes, please.”
Ethan glanced over at Marigold. “Hello, firewoman.”
Marigold blinked, and Dane thought of exactly how badly he was going to hurt Ethan later on. Dane knew better than to tell him anything, ever.
Marigold gave him a look. “Did I ignite or something?”
“You mentioned you met Dane at a bonfire.”
She looked confused. “I did?”
Dane got control of himself. “I thought Southern girls liked sweet tea.”
“That’s a myth,” Marigold said, “at least for today’s Southern girl. Everything we intake in this country is full of sugar. If we drink our tea sweet that takes away from sweet food we can have. And I’m not letting anything come between me and one of Cassidy’s lemon bars.”
Cassidy set down a cup on the bar. “Coffee with cream and sugar.”
Marigold eyed the cup, and then Dane, making him feel like he’d failed a test. She narrowed her gaze. “What are you doing in here?”
Ethan raised his hand. “It was my idea. I needed carbs.”
Marigold looked him up and down. “First ones all year?”
Ethan ran his hand over his flat stomach and leaned in toward her. “I have an un-fed hunger, thanks to your friend Ashe.”
She huffed a laugh. “I’d offer to help you out with that hunger, but I don’t think you’d be interested.”
Clearly, this was a safe comment to make on her part, knowing Ethan’s orientation, but Dane couldn’t help a touch of jealousy. Ridiculous.
Ethan lifted his chin. “Is he seeing someone right now?”
She shrugged, all coy.
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’d say your best bet is to be as genuine as possible. Ashe can sense B.S. for miles.”
“Green tea,” Cassidy called, and Ethan was off.
Dane met Marigold’s gaze. The whiskers she’d painted on her face coupled with the extended eye makeup was messing with him. He’d never wanted a cat before, but meow.
“What?” she asked, touching her cheek. “Are my whiskers running?”
“No, I was just admiring your face…your artistic skills.”
“Oh,” she said, dropping her hand and sort of pursing her lips at him.
“What’s the prize?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“For the costume contest.”
“Oh, a gift card for my store. They can use it on the spot and hopefully buy way more than the card’s worth.” She looked him up and down. “If you really wanted to make yourself useful, you would come by sometime before four o’clock and help me hang my big ghost. It’s too high for me even on the stepladder, but you look tall enough.”
“I’ll be there,” he said.
“Good.”
“Unsweet tea and lemon bar,” Cassidy called out.
Marigold walked to the counter, her tail swinging in the breeze. The coffee Dane was sipping wasn’t helping to reduce his current body heat.
“What do I owe you?” Marigold asked.
Cassidy pointed at Ethan. “He just paid for it.”
Marigold turned and glared at Ethan, then at Dane. “Thanks, but I’m not backing away.”
“Nor should you,” Ethan said.
“I don’t have your cupcakes ready yet,” Cassidy said. “I’ll swing by with them after lunch.”
“Thanks,” Marigold said, taking her cup and bag. “Good luck with Ashe,” she called in Ethan’s direction.
“I’m gonna need it.”
Marigold eyed Dane as she headed toward the door. “Good luck with your hotel proposal. You’re gonna need that.”
As she headed out the door, her tail got caught. She tugged it through and then met his gaze, swinging it around in a circle, just barely hinting at a smile. She tossed it behind her and then got in a convertible.
Ethan sidled up beside Dane, inspecting his face. “Damn, are we in trouble.”
4
Marigold stood on the stepladder, stretching her arm to reach the hook to hang her ghost decoration. Dane hadn’t shown. But of course he hadn’t. He was a man. Men never showed up for her, not when it counted. That wasn’t true of her friends, actually. Chase, Bo, and Blake did anything for her anytime she asked. It was cute guys she was attracted to who never followed through with their promises.
That was fine. She had an event to run and she didn’t need the distraction. She had put out flyers at every daycare, community center, playground, and coffee shop in the greater South Walton area for this costume contest, but in her heart, she knew she’d be lucky to get ten kids. Still, that was more parents than were in there on a typical day.
Rent on 30A was not cheap and neither was her merchandise. She did okay, but it took so much money to run a gift shop. Inventory, rent, summer help, insurance, and that was just for her shop. Forget the cost of running her life. That wasn’t cheap either, even though she’d downsized her world as much as possible.
When people found her, they raved over her shop. They always said, “Why are you hiding behind this restaurant? I only found you by mistake,” or something similar. Her shop was special with its whimsical flare and local art, and it begged for a prime location, but her wallet couldn’t afford it. Part of the reason she was putting up so many Halloween decorations was to hide the fact that her store was starting to look sparse. She couldn’t afford to buy more merchandise, and most of her vendors wouldn’t let her order any more as it was.
The bell on the door rang, but she had her back turned so she just shouted randomly, “Hey, hey!” She reached a little higher for that hook, ready to catch herself against the wall if anything went awry.
That’s why she needed to get this hotel location secured. The idea of the masses floating in and out of her shop made her heart soar. The dinging of the register. Of course, she’d have to get a register. She still used an old-fashioned receipt book to seem quaint and because she never had a line of customers waiting. But that would change just as soon as this all fell into place.
She stood on the very tips over her toes, reaching the hook with satisfying success. Placing her hands on her hips, she admired her handiwork and her ability to do it all by herself without the help of the evil man who wanted to take her shop from her.
She felt a tug on her tail. “Hey.”
That low voice that’d been occupying her head all day jolted through her. She turned to find that gorgeous man to whom it belonged standing beneath her. If she were in a cheesy rom com, this was where she’d clumsily fall directly into his arms. In fact, that was the exact kind of thing she would typically do accidentally on purpose. But at thirty, she realized it was time to start thinking about growing up.
She tugged her tail away from him and whacked him across the head with it. “Hands off the merchandise.”
That dimple on his chin when he smiled made her belly feel like she was jumping waves in the ocean. She had to put a stop to that. “I came to help,” he said.
She stepped down the ladder carefully so as not to become a rom com cliché. “Well, as you can see, you were late to the game. Your services are no longer needed.”
He checked his phone. “I said I’d be here by four. It’s five till.”
“I meant before four. I’ve got kids coming for the costume contest at four.”
“Then you should have specified that.”
“I will next time.” She shook her head. “I mean, there won’t be a next time.” She folded up the ladder and headed toward the storeroom.
He followed her. “You’ll get your boyfriend or husband to do it next time?”
She stopped and slid him a look. “Smooth.”
He shrugged. “Just curious.”
She set the ladder inside the storeroom and then closed the door behind her. “If I had a boyfriend or a husband, I wouldn’t have asked you.”
“Did you just get out of a relationship or something?”
“Ha!” she said, heading over to the table she’d set up for the cupcakes.
“Why’s that a funny question?”
She looked him up and down. “You’re nosey.”
He pocketed his hands, staring back at her with blue eyes so swoony she almost lost her balance. “Just curious.”
She rolled her eyes at him and opened up the cupcake box. “If you must know. I haven’t done the relationship thing in a while.”
“How long is a while?” He crossed his arms over his chest and rested his fine ass against the wall.
She thought about it. “Four or five years I guess.”
He lowered his chin. “Hang on, you mean you weren’t dating anyone the past four or five years?”
What in the heck had she been saying to this man? She really needed to learn to keep her mouth shut. “No, of course not. I’ve dated plenty.” She eyed him. “So what if I hadn’t though?”
“Nothing. I would just find it hard to believe.”
She picked up a chocolate cupcake with an Oreo on top for a spider’s body and chocolate legs hanging down. “And what’s so hard to believe about that?”
“Girls who look like you don’t stay single long.”
Before she could get too giddy from the compliment her B.S. meter dinged. “Oh please.”
“What?”
She pointed at him around a cupcake with a green Frankenstein marshmallow head on top of it. “You can stop with the flattery. I’m not backing out of this hotel deal.”
“I didn’t say that to boost your ego. I was just stating a fact. You’re a very attractive woman. I’m sure this isn’t news to you.”
Marigold got asked out plenty because of her looks. But first of all, it wa
s never by men whom she wanted to ask her out. She got the guys who were either cocky as hell, dick swinging from side to side, or the ones who had absolutely nothing to lose and would come forward with their fingers in their noses swearing they were on a dare and could she just nod for his friends? The guys who were just okay looking but seemed thoughtful and kind and like good, sturdy men seldom approached her.
And secondly, on the rare occasions that a unicorn of a guy who had all his teeth and was nice and funny and all those things a woman looks for in a partner presented himself, she could never hook him. Those guys would take her on a few dates and then figure out that her big personality was too much for them.
Regardless, she was alone, and she’d been alone most of her life. So for Dane to be standing there all blasé wondering why she hadn’t dated in the past four or five years was just a tad annoying. She thought about shoving a cupcake right into his nose, but that would be a waste of a perfectly good Seaside Sweets cupcake. These were far too precious to be squandered.
She exhaled a deep breath, meeting his stupid, handsome blue-eyed gaze. What was wrong with her? She never got bowled over by a good-looking face. She’d dated plenty of them in her time. But no matter how many wrong things this man said to her, she couldn’t help but still want to lock her mouth onto his and not come up for air until Christmas.
“Thank you for the compliment.” She held up a cupcake. “Would you like one?”
He studied it and then met her gaze. “You want to shove that in my face, don’t you?”
She couldn’t help a grin. “Are you a psychic?”
The door to the shop opened and in came at least seven or eight kids followed by their moms, who clearly knew one another and were chatting a hundred miles an hour.
Marigold tossed up her hands. “Who all do we have here?” She pointed. “I recognize you. You’re Katniss Everdeen.”
The girl nodded proudly. “Yep.”
She pointed at another. “Elsa.”
The girl held up her hair, which was a complete wreck. “I did my own braid.”
“You did a fabulous job, too.” Marigold made her rounds, identifying costumes and heaping praise.
WATERCOLOR WISHES: Love Along Hwy 30A, Book Four Page 3
