Slow Burn - a Novel: The Elite (9 page)

I followed his gaze out to the moon reflecting off the Pacific and smiled. “Yeah. This place really is a little slice of heaven.”

A gentle breeze swept over the patio and blew sparks off the fire. They floated away sparkling against the midnight blue sky.

“Reminds me of fireflies” Nick said, gesturing at the sparks as they faded into the night.

I turned to look at him, my eyes wide. “Right? I was just thinking that!”

He laughed softly. “My brother and I used to chase those things and put them in jars. There were loads of them out there in the summer.”

“That’s crazy.” I smiled. “Alesha and I used to do that too. Sometimes she’d have our dad set up the camping tent in the backyard so we could have a family camp out. I’d complain about having to sleep on the ground or the smell of firewood in my hair, but secretly I loved it.”

“It’s a pretty big age gap between you two,” Nick said. “You had to play the cool, grown up teen.”

I laughed and nodded. “Yup. Too cool to hang out with my little sister.”

“What about now?”

I turned to look at him, surprised to find him watching me. His face was illuminated by the flickering of the fire and the soft overhead lights, making the angles seem sharper and his expression more mysterious. His eyes were dark but the glow of the fire reflected in them, making them look like they were ablaze.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I guess, it’s harder when you’re grown up. When you’re kids, you’re stuck with your sibling no matter what. You’re forced together. But then when you’re out on your own it’s like this choice and you have to figure out what the hell you want that relationship to look like.” He drifted off, and looked out at the ocean. His jaw worked like he was literally gnawing on something. “With Nate, it’s like I don’t know who he is anymore. He was this super smart, athletic guy who had all this potential and now he’s out there raising hell and I’m afraid he’s gonna throw his entire career away over stupid shit like drinking too much. But he doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t think I know anything.”

“Hmm. I get that. With Alesha and me it’s a little different. I was almost ready to start junior high when she was born. Then my parents split and everything just went crazy. It’s like we’ve always had this huge divide between us. It sounds awful, but almost all of my memories were from my childhood when it was just me and my mom and dad and sometimes I wish that had never changed...” my words trailed off.

“That doesn’t sound awful,” Nick said, his voice low and earnest. “What happened? With your parents?”

I took a long sip from the beer in my hands. “Just the usual stuff you know, they grew apart, Mom was unhappy, ran off with some biker dude.”

“I’m sorry.”

I shrugged and took another long drink. I wasn’t nearly buzzed enough to go into all that. All those memories were shoved into a box that I’d buried deep down inside. It served as a time capsule that I had no intention of opening.

“Enough about all that,” I said, waving my hand as though to brush it away. I turned to Nick and plastered a smile on my face. “Tell me something about your time in the Marines. Do you miss it?”

If he was thrown off by my sudden change of topic, he didn’t show it. He grinned and took a swill from his own beer. An amber ale. “I don’t really miss it. I thought I would. But I’m really happy with how it all turned out. Getting the job with Rosen, moving here,” he paused, flashing me a meaningful look, and I held my breath. “It feels like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

I couldn’t stay still under his intense stare. He was making me twitchy and squirmy in my seat. There was something about his eyes and easy smile that completely undid me with a single glance. I’d spent the entire week fighting it, and while still difficult, at
The Siren
, we were on my turf, and I was usually busy enough that I could duck away when things got to be too much. Especially whenever his smile was sucking me under his spell a little too fast. But out on Harvey’s back patio, practically alone, in the soft light with the backdrop of the ocean and the moonlight…

I didn’t stand a chance.

There was a small table between our two chairs and I set my beer glass on it before leaning forward and opening my hands over the fire. “Holiday Cove is a pretty magical place. Even if I didn’t have
The Siren
I wouldn’t want to leave.”

“How did you find this place? Long ways from Florida.”

“Well, I was actually in Phoenix. That’s where we moved after the divorce. My dad got a new job that required him to be in Arizona. I think he just wanted a fresh start.” I shrugged. At the time, I’d been furious with him for tearing me away from my school and my friends. But over time, I adjusted, and now that several years had passed, it was a lot easier to understand his motives. “Anyways, after high school, I bounced around a lot, and ended up here and just never left.”

“Hmm.” I didn’t have to meet Nick’s eyes to know they were full of questions. I’d given him an extremely abridged version of the events that had led to my move to Holiday Cove and he somehow knew it.

I sat back in my chair and tucked my warm hands against my legs. “You want a refill?”

He looked down into his glass as it rested against his thigh, almost as though he hadn’t realized it was empty. When he met my gaze again, he shook his head. “No thanks. You?”

My glass still had a thin layer at the bottom of the cup, but I needed a break from the overwhelming feelings rolling around inside me. I needed to do
something
. “I think I’ll get another.”

Nick started to rise up from his seat, but I was faster and gestured for him to stay put. “I’ll be right back. Don’t worry, I won’t run off.”

“That would be hard to do since I have the keys to the truck,” he called after me.

I scurried inside Harvey’s and went straight to the bar. Ella, one of the usual bartenders came over and smiled at me. “Two more?”

I shook my head. “No, just one for me, please.”

She arched a perfectly sculpted brow at me. “You scare off your friend?”

“Not yet,” I answered with a laugh.

If only. Things would be much easier without Nick around to distract me.

Ella pulled a fresh pint from the tap and gave me an appraising glance. “So, what’s his story?”

“New in town. He’s working for Aaron.”

Ella’s smile faded. “Such a tragedy.”

“What is?”

“That he’s off the market.”

She was talking about Aaron. I held back an eye roll. The entire female population of Holiday Cove—and its neighboring towns apparently—were mourning the fact that The Player was out of the game. He’d worked his way through most of the single women in a fifty-mile radius and while some of them hated his guts for never calling back—he was the perfect mix of bad boy and panty-charmer. Not only impossible to resist—also hard to stay mad at for too long.

I glanced out at the patio and wondered if Nick was the same kind of guy. There was no doubt that he could charm the panties off just about any female he came into contact with. The smile, eyes, and subtle swagger were enough to get most women frothing at the mouth. But, while I’d seen plenty of women flashing him
their
attention, he never seemed too interested in returning it. Which was in stark opposition to a pre-Gemma, Aaron.

So what was he looking for? He didn’t have a girlfriend, but he also wasn’t out looking to score.

Ella handed me my beer and I thanked her and pushed a ten across the bar at her. “Thanks.”

She leaned against the bar and snatched up the bill. “Are you into him?”

Ella and I weren’t necessarily friends, in that we hung out outside of the bar, but I went to Harvey’s often enough that we knew each other and were friendly with each other if we crossed paths at the grocery store or when she came into
The Siren
. Her question was testing the waters. If I said no, she’d snake her way through the crowd and make a move.

I glanced over my shoulder, ready to give her the all clear, but stopped and bit down on my lower lip.

Damn it.

Carly

“Am I boring you?” Nick asked, his eyes teasing after he watched me check my phone for the third time in the last ten minutes.

“I’m sorry…no, you’re not.” I shook my head and shoved the phone back into my pocket. “I’m just worried about Alesha. It’s almost ten o’clock and I told her to be home by then. But so far, she hasn’t even answered any of my texts.”

“I’m sure she’s fine. Well, I hope she’s fine. I should probably get you back anyway. It’s getting chilly out here.”

I stared at the embers of the fire. No one from the bar staff had come out to stoke it and over the past two hours it had burned down significantly. I couldn’t believe how long Nick and I had been talking. After I returned from getting my second beer, he’d entertained me with stories from his time overseas. Mostly goofy stories about his antics with his fellow Marines. Some of the pranks he’d pulled had been pretty epic. He’d made it easy on me, as though he knew I didn’t want to talk about myself, and kept the conversation light and for the most part, centered on himself, but not in an arrogant, look-at-me sort of way.

Nick stood from his chair and offered me a hand. I stared at his outstretched fingers for a moment, before accepting the help and letting him pull me up from the deep chair. Once I was steady on my feet, I pulled my fingers from his, afraid to let them linger. Over the past couple of hours, I’d relaxed into Nick’s stories, but there was still an overhanging worry that I was getting too close to him. Especially after my alarming realization in the bar, with Ella, that somewhere along the way, I’d crossed the line beyond him just being the new guy in town, or Aaron’s friend, or just another regular at
The Siren
.

He was Nick. And I’d have been lying if I’d told Ella that I wasn’t interested in him.

Even though I knew I shouldn’t be.

“This was fun,” Nick said as we walked side by side around the bar, following the stone laid path on the side of the building that led to the parking lot. “Thanks for coming out with me.”

“Sure,” I replied, looking up at his profile. He caught me looking and smiled down at me. “This was the best non-date I’ve been on in a long time.”

Nick laughed. “When was the last time you went on a real date?”

“A real date, huh?”

Nick nodded. “Yup. Candlelit dinner. Flowers. The whole nine yards.”

“God, I don’t even know…” Nick arched a brow at me. Obviously suspicious. “I’m serious. I haven’t dated anyone since I moved here. I’m always at the shop.”

“Hmm. I’m not sure I’m buying your story, Carly. I’m sure there’s a list of guys waiting to take you out.”

I snorted. “You have noticed that most of the locals are AARP members, right?”

“Are you always this impossible to compliment?” He asked, smirking down at me.

“It’s part of my charm.” I cut my gaze down to the steps ahead of me. “What about you? You leave a string of broken hearts back in Fallon when you left?”

Nick chuckled. “Hardly. It’s been about six months since my last proper date.”

“Six months? That’s not so bad. What happened?”

I looked over at him, waiting for his answer, but he just shrugged it off. “Nothing, really. Just didn’t work out. Fallon is a small community, mostly military and their families. Even though I worked at a bar the past few months, there wasn’t a hopping singles scene. The girl I took out was the cousin of a buddy of mine who’d come to visit for a week. He wanted to take her out for a good time, so I agreed to double with him and his wife. The girl was from the other side of the country and there was never really any potential there.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say. There were plenty of available girls in Holiday Cove and the surrounding areas—especially when summer was just around the corner. There would be a lot of tourists coming into town to see the museum and while most of them were just in town for the day, they were likely staying in a neighboring town and readily available if Nick wanted them.

Nick crossed the parking lot and beat me to the passenger door. He opened it for me, a victorious smile in his eyes, and after I climbed inside, he shut it softly and rounded the truck to get into the driver’s seat. “Is your car at
The Siren
?” he asked, firing up the engine and starting back the way we came.

I shook my head. “No. I walk to work actually. So, if you wouldn’t mind dropping me at home.”

“No problem.” He reached for the center dial. “You want some music?”

“Sure.”

“What kind do you like? I haven’t learned the stations yet.”

I took the controls and flipped to the soft rock station. They played stuff from the 80s and before I knew it, Nick and I were both singing along. Nick beat out the percussion on the steering wheel, occasionally sliding a smile my way, as we flew down the highway back to Holiday Cove. We were having so much fun, laughing and making fun of each other that I almost forgot to point out the exit.

He dropped the volume as we entered the residential neighborhood, not wanting to piss anyone off, and I pointed to my street. “I’m down this way.”

He turned where I’d indicated, and immediately slammed on the brakes.

I screamed at the abrupt stop, but more because of the reason behind it.

Someone was stumbling across the street and hadn’t even stopped to look both ways. We’d nearly plowed them over. Nick tapped his horn to get their attention. “Shit!”

The person turned at the sharp beeping sound.

“Oh my God!” I clapped my hands to my mouth.

It was Alesha.

I jumped out of the truck and raced over to her as she made her way to the sidewalk. “Alesha, what the fuck!”

Nick’s door slammed and he reached us with three long strides.

“Hey, Sis!” Alesha slurred, throwing her arms in the air as though I’d just arrived to the party. “I was looooking for you…forgot my…” She paused and patted at the pockets of her nearly non-existent denim shorts. “Forgot my keys.”

Every nerve in my body was on red alert, sizzling with anger. “Are you drunk?” I hissed.