by Carrie Elks
“But I resigned.”
“I know. And I want you back.” He gave her the ghost of a smile. “I want a photograph of you, me and, Riley, all standing behind the counter. I want us to be as happy as you were in the last photograph.”
She took a ragged breath in. “Nate…”
“You don’t have to say anything now. Let’s eat before the food gets cold.” He walked over to the counter and opened the lid of a white insulated box. Inside were two containers. He carefully decanted their contents onto two white plates. Grabbing a bottle of wine from the refrigerator, he filled two glasses up, carrying the food and drink over to the table.
“Please sit down.” He gestured to her. Ally slowly lowered herself into the seat and allowed him to take her crutches, resting them against the door.
She picked up the glass Nate had placed in front of her, taking a sip of the crisp white wine. She couldn’t help but look at the photographs again, couldn’t help but feel the connection to this place.
And to him.
Though the steak must have been resting for a while it still tasted delicious. “Did you cook this yourself?” she asked him as she swallowed a bite.
“Medium rare, the way you like it.”
She smiled to herself. “Thank you for the photographs,” she said, spearing another morsel. “They mean a lot. It’s nice to know the old beach café is never going to be forgotten.”
“I’m thinking we can do something similar with all the Coastal Cafés. Have old photographs of the local town, make people feel that the café is part of the history.”
“That’s a good idea.” All she heard was ‘we’. What did it mean? She took another sip of wine, trying to think things through. “I’ve signed the contract,” she told him, trying not to smile at his look of surprise.
“You have?”
She fished the envelope out of her purse and pushed it toward him. Once again he slid the contract out, skimming the black type until he reached the part she’d written on.
“You crossed the zeros out.”
“I’ll take one dollar for the idea,” she told him. “Nothing more, nothing less.” She bit her bottom lip, waiting for his reaction. “I called a lawyer and he advised that would make this agreement binding. You just have to pay me something.”
“A dollar?”
She nodded.
“I’ll accept it on one condition.” He raised an eyebrow, that crazily attractive smile curling his lips.
“Oh yes?” She leaned forward. “What is it?”
“I want you to come and work for me.”
She put her silverware down on the plate and tried to work out what he was trying to do. “You want me back as manager?”
“No. Not as manager.”
“Then what?” She couldn’t help but ask. She was so curious to know where this was going. It didn’t help that the conversation between them was so easy, so light, it made her heart yearn for more.
“I want you to head up the Coastal Coffee brand. To oversee the redevelopment of the cafés and make sure they fit with your vision. You know the California beach trade so much better than I do. I know you have an eye for what works and what doesn’t.” His eyes twinkled. “I need you, Ally.”
The way he said it, all deep and graveled, shot straight through her. A delicious pulse that made her want to shiver. “And if I say no?”
“You can say no any time you want and I’ll respect it.”
She inhaled a mouthful of air, thinking through the offer. It was everything she’d dreamed of. Something different and yet still connected to this café she’d grown up in. It would be crazy to turn it down – jobs like this came along once in a lifetime. “If I say yes, will it be weird the two of us working together after everything that happened?”
“I promise not to make it weird.”
“Okay then. Yes.”
Nate grinned, his body visibly relaxing. “Thank God. I’ll put it in writing with all the details.”
“Is that it?” she asked, tipping her head to the side. “Is the business meeting over?”
“It is. But the date isn’t.”
Oh.
He reached for her hand, curling his fingers around her palm. “There’s something else I want to talk to you about.” He ran his thumb up and down her wrist, sending electric waves up her arm. “Or tell you, really.”
His eyes caught hers, and the way he was looking at her stole her breath away. As though every emotion she was feeling he was reflecting right back at her. “What is it?”
“I’m so sorry for talking to you the way I did when Riley ran away. I was a dick and I took my frustration out on you. I know you were only trying to help and I pushed you away.” He gazed at her through his thick lashes. “I’ll never do that again.”
“I just wanted to make things right.”
“I know. And I should have accepted that. I should have known that a problem shared is a problem halved. Instead I assumed you were thinking about yourself.”
“I’d never do that. Not when it comes to Riley. She should always come first. She’s your daughter and she needs your support.”
“I know that. I think I always did, somewhere deep inside me. I was just too scared to see if it was true.” He looked down, his brows knitting together. “I’ve not always had the best experience with girlfriends. My last one asked me to send Riley away.”
Ally frowned. “What a bitch.”
That made him laugh. He looked up with a grin on his face. “I know. Thank God I saw that before it was too late.” His expression turned serious. “I talked with your dad the other day. He had some wise words for me.”
“My dad?” Her brows shot up, surprise making her mouth fall open. “What did he have to say?”
“That there’s more than enough love to go around. And part of being a parent is learning to let go. To let your child make their own mistakes. To show them how to be healthy by having your own life, too.”
Tears stung at Ally’s eyes. “Dad never did that,” she whispered.
“I know. And I can tell you he regrets it. He told me not to end up regretting it, too.” Nate ran his finger in a circle around her palm. “Riley and I have started family counseling again. I want her to have a safe place to be able to talk to me and tell me what she really thinks. What she needs. Without ever being afraid of upsetting me.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Ally said.
“We had our first session this morning. She told me she wanted me to date again. That she didn’t want to worry about me being lonely whenever she went out.” That smile was playing at his lips again. His eyes caught hers. “She wants me to date you,” he said. “Which is pretty cool, because that’s what I want to do, too.”
“Oh.” Ally felt breathless.
“I’ve fallen in love with you, Ally Sutton,” he said, his voice strong and true. “With every part of you. And I know I’m not much of a catch. A single dad of a teenager with issues. You should probably run as fast as you can.” He glanced down. “Or maybe hobble.”
She grinned.
“I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I shouldn’t ask you to be mine, but I’m a selfish enough bastard to do it anyway. I want that last photograph on the wall to be the three of us. Because I can’t imagine my life turning out any other way.”
The tears that had been threatening for the past few minutes were spilling over. “That’s the nicest thing that anybody’s ever said to me,” she whispered
“You better get used to it. I plan on telling you every day.” He stood and reached for her hand, pulling her into his embrace. She closed her eyes as he pulled her in tightly, her face resting against his muscled chest, their bodies aligning as though they were made for each other.
He wiped away the tears from her cheeks then tipped her chin with his finger until she was looking up at him. “Will you date this old man?” he whispered.
“Yes.” She nodded. “Yes, I will. Because I love you, too.�
� She was smiling through the tears. “And I love your daughter, Nate. So much. I want nothing more than to be in both of your lives.”
“Thank God.” He dipped his head until his lips captured hers, his arms tightening around her waist. She could feel every part of him against her – his hard chest and stomach, and the burgeoning desire that lit a fuse inside her she wasn’t sure would ever go out. She could spend the rest of her days in his arms and it still wouldn’t be enough.
She could never get bored of this man, and from the way he was kissing her he felt exactly the same way.
And there was nothing she wanted more than that.
They’d been kissing like hormone-filled teenagers outside her apartment for the last ten minutes. “I should leave,” he murmured against her lips, though he was reluctant to let her go.
“One more kiss,” she whispered, pulling him in closer.
“I wish I could come inside.” One of his hands was holding her waist, the other cupping her jaw so he could angle her face perfectly. Enough so he could plunder her mouth as she rested back on her apartment building wall. God, she tasted delicious. Everything about her was soft and enticing.
“I wish you could, too,” she said, sliding her hands up until they reached the hard planes of his abdomen. His body tensed at the sensation.
“God I need you.”
“I need you, too. I’m not going to sleep tonight.”
He smiled against her mouth, loving the idea of her being so wound up with desire that she would toss and turn. “I’ll call you when Riley’s asleep. We’ll see what we can do about that.”
“You should go,” she said, Riley’s name making her blink her eyes open. “She’ll be wondering where you are.”
He sucked a deep breath in, trying to calm down, but it was no good. He was too tightly coiled for that. “Yeah, I’ll go.” He ran the pad of his finger from her temple to her jaw, loving the smoothness of her. “Are you sure you can put up with me having to go home and be a dad?” he asked her. “Making out like teenagers and having to go home all frustrated?”
She grinned at him. “You’re worth it. And anyway, I kind of like making out like a teenager. Half the pleasure’s in the anticipation.”
“If you say so.” He kissed her again, his lips soft against hers.
“You really should go,” she said, her voice reluctant.
He pulled himself away from her, enough to leave a few inches of space between them. Immediately he missed the feel of her body against his. “I’ll call you when I get home.”
She smiled. “You do that.”
He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers one last time, using every piece of willpower he had to pull himself back again. It was late, he needed to get home. As much as he wanted to be with this woman forever, that need would have to wait.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
“And the day after that,” he told her. “And the next day and the next day…”
She laughed. “I get it.”
“You will.”
“Now go home,” she said, grabbing her crutches and leaning on them. “I’ll speak to you later.”
“Goodnight, baby.”
“Goodnight.”
He watched as she turned on her crutches and walked into the lobby, pressing the button for the elevator. When the doors pulled open, she walked inside and lifted her arm in a wave.
He waited outside until he saw her living room light come on. Any other time he would have seen her up to her apartment, but his willpower right now was paper-thin. Instead he pulled his phone out and quickly tapped out her number.
“Hello?”
“I was just checking you’d unblocked me.” He smiled, remembering how she’d admitted to blocking his calls earlier that evening, telling him she couldn’t bear to hear his voice when they were apart.
She chuckled. “Yeah I unblocked you. For now.”
“Glad to hear it. I’ll call you in a bit.”
“Drive safely.”
“I will. Oh and Ally?”
“Yeah?”
“You better get used to me calling you. Because I intend to do it all the time when we can’t be together. I can’t get through the night without hearing your voice. I’ve tried it for the past few days and it’s almost killed me.”
“I like the sound of that.” Her voice was warm. “And you’d better get used to me calling you, too.”
He was planning on it, because everything about this woman was a breath of fresh air in his life. His heart ached for her, his body thrummed for her, and his mind craved her. He could spend the rest of his life talking with her and still never get enough.
“Speak to you soon, baby.” He grinned as he ended the call and walked back to his car, sliding in behind the wheel. As the engine sparked to life he had to force himself not to blue tooth dial her again.
The rest of their lives were beginning. He could wait another five minutes to hear her voice again.
Epilogue
Ally walked out onto the beach in her bare feet, smiling as her soles sunk into the warm, dry sand. She closed her eyes to appreciate the moment, though not even her eyelids could block out the brightness of the sun. It was a perfect late fall/early winter day in Angel Sands – the only clouds in the sky were the wispy, barely-there kind that reminded her of a shimmering veil.
“How does it feel?” Nate asked. She opened her eyes to see him watching her, amusement curling up his lips. “You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“It’s amazing.” She wriggled her toes. “No itching, no crutches. Just me and the sand. I can’t wait to run again.”
“Hey, don’t run before you can walk,” Ember joked. Ally grinned at her. It was late afternoon and they were all gathered on the boardwalk next to the coffee shop, as though there was some kind of minor miracle going on instead of an ankle cast being removed. Her friends had all been waiting here for her when she and Nate had gotten back from the hospital. Ember and Brooke, Ally’s dad and Lorne. And Riley of course. Even Frank Megassey had snuck out of the hardware store to make sure everything had gone okay with the removal.
“Did they use a circular saw?” he’d asked her.
“Just a little hand held one.”
“Did you get a look at what make it was?”
She’d laughed and shook her head. It was such a typical Frank thing to ask. You could take the man out of the hardware store, but you couldn’t take the hardware store out of the man.
“You want to go paddle in the ocean?” Riley asked her, slipping her hand into Ally’s. In the few weeks since she’d come back from Boston – and Nate and Ally had begun dating in earnest – Riley had welcomed Ally in with open arms. According to her, Nate was so much easier to deal with when Ally was around.
“I can actually leave the house without worrying about him anymore,” Riley had confessed one evening as she was getting ready for a study session at Laura’s. “Tell me you’re going to stick around.”
“You can bank on it,” Ally had promised her.
Riley and Nate were beside her as Ally walked down to where the ocean was lapping at the sand, rushing up then slowly receding, leaving the yellow grains wet and glistening. She leaned down to roll up her jeans, and wobbled for a second.
The next moment she felt warm, strong hands curling around her waist. She didn’t have to look behind her to see who they belonged to because she knew. Just as she knew the sound of his breath, the fragrance of his skin. In the past weeks she’d gotten to know every single part of him.
The man never failed to take her breath away.
The water was cool as it lapped over her feet, rising up to her ankles before it pulled away again. “That feels good,” she said, leaning her head back on Nate’s chest. He tightened his hold on her. Riley didn’t seem to mind – maybe she was getting used to their public displays of affection.
Or maybe she’d seen the worst, and anything was better than that.
“I’ve got something for you,” Nate whispered in her ear.
Ally turned her head, angling to look up at him. She raised a single eyebrow.
“Not that,” he said, laughing. “Though now that you’ve mentioned it…”
“Enough! Seriously, you guys. I’m going to get a smoothie.” Riley mock-stomped off, her eyes rolling at them, though Ally could tell she wasn’t really angry.
When she was out of earshot, Ally grinned lasciviously at him. “You know, I was just thinking about all the possibilities now that the cast is off.”
“It’ll be like starting all over again.”
“Are you free tonight?” she asked him.
“Always.” He dropped his head to kiss her, his lips lingering on hers. “Or at least for a couple of hours before bedtime.”
“That’s all it takes.”
It was his turn to raise his eyebrows. “With what I’ve got in mind, it’ll take a damn bit longer than that.”
“Promises, promises.” The grin was still on her face. “Anyway, stop changing the subject. What have you got for me, other than… you know?”
“Come back up the beach. I’ll show you.”
Her friends were sitting at one of the tables on the boardwalk. Brooke and Ember were drinking coffee, and Nick had a milkshake. Lorne and her dad were gossiping, and though she couldn’t hear what they were saying she could tell they were having a great time. Through the glass windows she could see Riley leaning on the coffee shop counter, talking with Brad as he made her a drink.
A shot of warmth blasted through her. Everybody she loved was here. Some she was related to by blood, others by friendship, but they were all her family. Was there anybody as lucky as she was?
“Here it is.” Nate reached for a large white box he’d left at the edge of the boardwalk. It had a sports logo emblazoned on it.
“You bought me shoes?”
“I owe you a pair, remember? I figured you could do with some new ones.”
“Let’s try not to throw these ones in the trash.” She winked at him, her equilibrium returning. Slowly she prized the lid off, revealing a bright new pair of running shoes. She pulled them out, admiring them. “These look expensive,” she murmured. “Thank you.” She turned to put her arms around him, but he was already kneeling down on the sand.
