[Christmas Key 01.0] There's Always a Catch

by Stephanie Taylor

  “I just saw them and thought of you. Anyway, I’ll go.” Jake steps down one of the three stairs in front of her house.

  “But thank you. I mean, for thinking of me.” Holly sniffs the flowers.

  “Oh,” he says, stepping back up so that he’s out of the rain again. “I know I said it was fine if you want to date that other guy.”

  Holly’s eyebrows shoot up.

  Jake pushes a puddle of standing water from her doorstep with the side of his black tennis shoe. “But it’s not fine.”

  “Jake—”

  “I’m done just sitting by and pretending like everything is fine while you continue to make huge mistakes.”

  The flowers drop to Holly’s side as her hand falls. “Exactly what ‘huge mistakes’ are you referring to?”

  “How about breaking up with me, just to start with. Um, let’s see, bringing some other guy back to your house.” He’s ticking items off on his fingers, his face accusing. “And then shooting down your mother’s idea without even considering it.”

  “You’re kidding me.” Holly feels the blood drain from her face. “My mother’s idea. How did you hear about that?”

  “No, I’m not kidding you. She told me about the resort, and I think it sounds like an interesting offer.” Jake takes off his hat and wrings the water from it.

  “Well I’m not interested. And the fact that you don’t know that completely reaffirms that I made the right choice when I broke up with you, Jake.” She puts her hand on the door like she might slam it at any moment, but she’s more stunned than angry. “If you don’t know me enough to understand that this island is in my blood—that it’s a part of me—and that I’m not selling it off to some company so they can build a hideous, oversized resort here, then you don’t really know me at all.”

  “I guess I knew that,” he admits. “I just thought that maybe you’d eventually grow up and realize that you running this place forever isn’t realistic. And that maybe cashing in on this amazing gift your grandparents left behind might free you up to live your life.”

  Holly takes a step back like he’s slapped her.

  “But it was never an either/or situation,” she says, raising her voice to be heard over the rain as it starts falling more heavily. “I don’t have to sell the island to grow up, and cashing in on Christmas Key won’t mean that I’m living my life, Jake, it’ll just mean that I’ve given up on my dreams.” She searches his face for understanding. “And I’m not doing that.”

  Jake shrugs, looking beyond her face rather than straight into her eyes.

  “Here, take these,” Holly says, stepping forward and pushing the wet bouquet against his chest. “I don’t want them.”

  Jake doesn’t reach for the flowers; they fall at his feet.

  Holly stands on her porch in her bikini and her wet robe and watches Jake get into his cart. He drives too fast through the big puddles on her unpaved driveway, water splashing all around his cart in his haste to get out of there.

  Water pours through the treetops and trickles down to the already saturated ground, and Holly listens as her gutters funnel and dump even more water in an endless rush. The flowers from Jake are scattered all over her porch steps, their colorful buds drowned and their greens slick with rain like wet lawn clippings.

  She stands there on the front porch and looks at Buckhunter’s house, all closed-up and cozy and lit from within. She stands there thinking of the travesty of selling her beautiful island, and of the fact that the people closest to her would even consider that as an option. She stands there until the rain finally stops.

  Chapter 25

  “Hey, I’ve been trying to catch up with you,” River says. The gate to the pool area clangs shut behind him.

  Holly took a quick shower and threw on a dry sundress after Jake left, then drove straight over to the B&B to skim fallen leaves from the surface of the pool after the summer storm.

  “Sorry, I’ve kind of got my hands full with my mother right now.” She pulls the skimmer out of the water and bangs it against the edge of the garbage can to dump out the soggy leaves.

  “Is it that stuff about her wanting to sell the island?” River reaches for the skimmer and takes it from Holly gently. He dips it under the surface of the pool and drags it across the water in one smooth stroke, gathering a clump of palm fronds in the net.

  “What?” Holly is instantly frantic. “How did you hear about that?”

  He stops skimming and looks at her. “I heard her telling Bonnie about it at the front desk.”

  Holly turns on her heel and stalks across the pool deck without another word. She flings open the side door to the building and storms into her office.

  “Bon!” she shouts.

  “Heavens to Betsy, child! What are you howlin’ about?”

  “Coco,” she says flatly. “What did she say to you? I need to hear it all—every word of it.” Holly taps her finger against the top of her desk for emphasis.

  “Oh, I squashed her like a bug, honey. Cool your jets,” Bonnie says, waving a hand at her. “She started talking about how great this place would be if she could get someone to swoop in and turn it into a resort, and I told her that she has no business talking like that about a place her parents made with their own bare hands.”

  “Wow.” Holly’s jaw drops.

  “And I followed that up by telling her she could drag her bony, nosey butt back up north if she doesn’t stop messing with your head by showing up here and trying to play mother after all these years.”

  Holly snorts in disbelief.

  “Yeah,” Bonnie says, getting out of her chair. She’s just getting warmed up. “I said that—all of it. And I know I should bite my tongue when it comes to Coco, but the time when I’ll sit by and watch her play tug of war with your emotions has come and gone, doll. She can pop in and pretend to be interested in how things work, and she can think that you might let her sell this place without putting up a fight, but she cannot come down here and toy with a girl who’s like a daughter to me. Not anymore, Holly Jean Baxter—not on my watch.” Bonnie’s face is heated, eyebrows raised like a woman who means business.

  Holly isn’t sure what to say, so she flings herself into Bonnie’s arms, wrapping her in a fierce hug.

  “Okay, okay, sugar.” Bonnie rubs Holly’s back as she hugs her tightly. “I’ve got work to do here, and you have a boy who’s leaving this island in two shakes of a tail feather, so go take him to the beach or something, you hear?”

  Holly pulls back, nodding.

  “And don’t worry: I won’t tell a soul what she’s got cooking,” Bonnie says, pressing her lips together and pretending to twist the lock on her mouth with one hand.

  River is still outside at the pool. He jabs the skimmer back into the water, breaking the blue surface like he’s puncturing a layer of skin.

  “Hey,” Holly says as she walks out of the building.

  “Hey what?”

  “Wanna go to the beach?”

  He stops skimming. “Don’t you have work to do? Or mayoral duties to attend to? You seemed like you had something urgent to handle there,” he says.

  Holly pretends to think about it. “I decided to take the afternoon off.” She walks backwards toward the gate, grinning. “You coming?”

  “Really?” He looks at her questioningly, trying to decide if she’s serious. “Hell yeah, I’m coming.” River tosses the skimmer onto a pool chair and jogs after Holly to her golf cart.

  They jump in like two kids who just snuck out the side door of school for an afternoon of hooky, and Holly pulls away from the B&B with a sharp crank of the wheel. River braces himself against the dash with one flip-flop clad foot.

  “You’re driving like a bat of out of hell, lady!” he shouts over the sound of the wheels crunching across rocks and shells.

  Five minutes later, Holly screeches to a halt on the sand at South Pole Shore, about halfway between her house and the Ho Ho Hideaway. River feigns whiplash.

/>   “Woman. You clearly need the ocean, so I’m not going to stand in your way,” he says, still hanging onto the golf cart’s roof as she jumps out and pulls her sundress over her head in one fluid movement.

  “Race ya,” Holly shouts over her shoulder, already running towards the shoreline in a turquoise bikini top and white bottoms. Before River is even out of the cart, she’s splashing through the surf, diving headfirst under a wave. He watches her admiringly, stripping off his own shirt and tossing it into the golf cart before following her into the waves.

  “So,” River says, cutting through the water with strong arms. He catches up to her, slightly breathless from the chase. “I sensed some tension back there at the pool when I brought up your mom.” River reaches the spot where Holly’s treading water and he stops swimming. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah,” she says, spitting out a mouthful of saltwater. “We’ve obviously got some issues, but we’re working on them.”

  “I gathered.”

  “It would help me a lot if you didn’t repeat anything about the conversation you overheard between Coco and Bonnie.” Her brown hair is dark and wet after the short swim, the long strands sticking to her skin like silken seaweed.

  River reaches over and picks a piece of hair off of her forehead, smoothing it back onto her scalp. “My lips are sealed.”

  “Thanks.” She reaches for him and pulls him close for a quick, salty kiss. “Want to swim out farther?”

  “No. Not really.” River smiles, pressing his lips to hers again. His dark blonde hair shimmers in the sunlight, and beads of water run down over his sharp cheekbones. “I’d rather stay here with you and talk about us.”

  “Us. Right.” Holly looks away from him as her stomach clenches. She doesn’t want to think about River leaving the island yet, and she doesn’t want to have the “this has been fun but…” conversation. There isn’t one ounce of regret in her for taking a wild leap and ending up in River’s arms, and she definitely doesn’t want him to leave wishing that he hadn’t gotten mixed up with the crazy mayor of Christmas Key. “You know we don’t have to do this, right? You came here for a vacation, and you’re going back to your real life in a few days—I get that. I’ve got my hands full here anyway.”

  River’s laugh is soft, his eyes amused.

  “This is funny to you?” She blinks.

  He shakes his head and pulls her close to him again, both hands on her waist. In surprise, she wraps her legs around his torso and her arms around his neck.

  “You’re a nut,” River says quietly, standing upright and holding her under the water. With laughter in his eyes, he kisses her slowly. The cool water pools in her cleavage, her breasts pressed against his bare chest as the kiss goes on and on.

  “Can I just say something?” Holly pulls back, her eyes grazing his slightly chapped lips. The desire to kiss him again is almost overpowering. “Okay, I do have my hands full, but I’m just…” She tries to find the right words as they bob together in the water. “I’m just getting all…you know, this over you.” Her hand flutters in the air. “And I’m not ready to think about you leaving yet.”

  “You’re pretty amazing,” River says.

  Her face flushes. They’re far enough out in the water that the only sound is the slight lap of the waves and a seagull crying out in the distance.

  “Even if you are a Yanks fan,” he teases, pulling her closer until their bodies fit together again. “And for the record, I’m getting all, you know, this over you,” River says, crossing his eyes and making a face. It breaks the mood. “Anyway, I’m just going to leave you with this.”

  “With what?”

  “With this.” River leans in and kisses her tenderly with his eyes open. She puts her hands on the sides of his face and holds him as they kiss, unexpected tears filling her eyes.

  River pulls away slowly, one thumb brushing at her cheek. “Don’t cry.”

  “I’m not crying.” She wipes at her nose with the back of her hand. “I think I got sunscreen in my eyes.”

  Holly lets her body go slack as she spreads out on her back in the water, floating. Her hair drifts around her shoulders like the tentacles of an octopus, and her arms move in slow strokes as if she’s making snow angels. She stays this way for a while, just watching the clear, limitless blue sky and listening to the underwater sounds.

  “Hey,” River says, grabbing her by the shoulder so that she’ll pull her ears out of the water. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Holly is upright instantly. “What? Where?”

  “Out there.” River points into the distance. “Right there.”

  The corners of Holly’s mouth turn up slowly. “Yeah, it is.” As they watch, a dolphin pokes its slick nose out of the water. Its body shoots up into an arc, diving through the air and cutting back into the water in a deep dive.

  “Wow,” River whispers, watching for it to reappear. “That was freaking amazing.”

  Holly grabs onto him and rests her chin on his shoulder. She looks out at the vast expanse of blue-green water where it meets the sky on the horizon. It feels like they’re the only two people in the world, like two pieces of driftwood floating in an endless sea. She holds River tighter.

  “Hey,” he whispers in her ear, kissing her neck. “Didn’t you say you had the afternoon off?”

  “Mmmhmm.”

  “Wanna go back to your place?”

  “That’s too boring,” she says, pulling back so she can see his surprised face. “I know a better spot.”

  A slow, sexy smile spreads across River’s face, and he cups her body against his under the water.

  They head to a secret cove east of the Ho Ho, a stretch of beach tucked into a nook right before December Drive begins. The tide is out just enough that they can burrow into the sand dunes on the beach towels Holly keeps in the back of her golf cart. There, they strip off their bathing suits to play in the surf, chase one another between the white trunks of the palm trees, gather shells, and lay together in the sand until the sun sets to the west, its golden light bathing their wet skin in flecks of glitter.

  Chapter 26

  The next two days go by way too quickly. The men fish all day, Holly spends hours at the B&B scouring the fine print and filling out an application for an opportunity that she thinks might be good for the island, and everyone spends the nights dancing and drinking in the humid air on the deck of the Ho Ho. By the time the men sit down to their last big meal on the island, River and the other guys are sun-browned and peeling, with little white lines etched in the skin around their eyes from where they squinted in the sun on the water.

  A pink hibiscus flower is tucked behind Holly’s right ear. River spins her out as Joe Sacamano wails on his guitar, and then he reels her back in feverishly, holding her close. They move around the floor like they’ve been dancing together for years.

  “Want to talk about tomorrow?” he asks as they sway to the music.

  “Nope,” she says, spinning out from him again and putting some distance between them. She backs up to him, her spine pressed into his chest as she holds both sides of her dress in her hands, shimmying against River’s body seductively. She’s long since stopped caring whether or not Jake sees them together, but he’s kept his distance since dropping by her house during the rainstorm, so his presence isn’t even an issue on their last night together.

  The song ends and Holly picks up her clutch purse from on top of the bar. At the bottom of the stairs, River sweeps her into his arms like he’s carrying her over a threshold, and she whoops happily, waving at Bonnie over his shoulder. Bonnie and the other islanders are still dancing and drinking as Joe starts a new song.

  Without needing directions, River sets her down and leads her to the beach wordlessly. They hold hands in the darkness, following the water up the beach to where Holly’s porch light shines through the thick trees. River cuts through the mangroves to her bungalow like he knows the island intimately.

  Inside, Holly
throws her purse on the couch and lets River lead the way. They kiss in every room, turning off the lights behind them as they move to the back of the house.

  “You really don’t want to talk about this?” he asks in the kitchen. The tile floor is cool beneath their bare feet.

  “I really don’t,” she whispers, holding the lapels of his short sleeved Hawaiian shirt in her hands, her eyes trained on his collarbone.

  “Not talking about it won’t make it go away,” River says, resting his chin on the top of Holly’s warm head. “And I’d rather know that you want me to try and come back, or that you might come and see me sometime, than to be left wondering if you and the policeman are just going to pick up where you left off when I leave.”

  Holly pulls her head out from under his chin and looks up at him, fire in her eyes. “That’s not happening,” she says firmly. She shakes her head twice. “It’s not.”

  “Whoa, okay.” River puts his hands up, palms facing Holly.

  “As far as you and I are concerned, I think we should just see where it goes. I kind of have issues with people leaving, and if I pretend like you’re just going out for another day of fishing, then maybe I can get through this. And then, you know,” she looks away from him, “if you call, you call. If not, then…”

  “I get it.” River puts his hands on her shoulders and gives her a gentle shake. “But I hope you believe me when I tell you that this isn’t some vacation fling to me. I really like you, Holly. I like your island, I like your sense of humor, I admire your plans for this place, and I have no intention of leaving tomorrow and pretending like this never happened. Okay?”

  Holly nods. “Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “Okay.”

  “Do you want me to stay tonight? Or go? I’ll do anything you want—just say the word.” In his tone Holly can hear his desperation to please her.

  “Stay,” she says with certainty. “I want you to stay.”