Tangled Love on Pelican Point (Island County Series Book 3) (10 page)

My heart dropped. Maybe the offer wasn’t still on the table. He probably came to his senses and realized I had absolutely no experience doing a project of this size and absolutely no means to complete it. That would be the sensible conclusion. I wouldn’t blame him.

“Well, I haven’t made up my mind yet. I think jumping into something that large might be a problem.”

“You’ve got to do it. What an opportunity.” Natalie seemed more excited than I was, but she wasn’t the one with the stack of bills waiting to be paid.

“If this had come up last year, I would’ve gladly hopped on it, but with helping my dad and stepmom out, I’m kind of strapped.” I felt my cheeks turn red. I hated talking about money or the lack thereof. “It’s been a rough few months, Natty.”

“How rough?” Natalie’s voice was full of concern, but it was nothing compared to the look in her eyes.

“Really rough.”

“That’s even more reason you should be doing this,” Natalie insisted. “Opportunities like this don’t exist on Fireweed.”

“I recognize that, but I’m not sure it’s in the cards.”

Natalie shook her head. “We’ll come up with a plan. Text him right now and tell him you’ll do it.”

I shook my head and Natalie grunted.

“Do it.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I told you there are issues, and I’m not in a position to blindly jump into something like this.”

“And I’m telling you we can figure this out.”

“I won’t take money from you, Natty.”

“You’d pay me back.”

“Doesn’t matter. That’s not how I operate. If something goes wrong and I can’t pay it back, I wouldn’t want that to come between us.”

“It never would.”

I shrugged. “I’m not willing to risk it.”

“Well, what if I told you that one of the vendors I use for weddings would be willing to cut a great deal on rental furniture?”

“What do you mean?” I studied her, my pulse starting to climb at this bit of news.

“I use this fabulous company all the time, and they have everything under the sun to rent, from couches to coffee tables and even chandeliers.”

“There’s no way I can afford it.”

“Sophie, we can pull this off. I’m sure of it. My payment terms with them are forty-five days. That gives us plenty of time to get the place staged and receive payment from Anthony. And Anthony’s good for it. I’ll make sure.”

I finally started to let myself believe that maybe there was a way.

“You think?”

“I know. Text him and tell him you’re in.”

I nodded, feeling light as air, and my fingers began automatically writing the words to Anthony that I’d been so afraid of. Natalie began flipping through
People,
and just as I hit
send
, she let out a gasp.

“What?” My eyes flashed to hers.

“You’re not going to believe this.”

“The way my life has been going, I’d believe just about anything.”

“You’re in
People
.”

“Who’s in
People
?”

“You’re in
People
.

“That’s impossible.”

“You’re right here.” She held up the magazine. “It’s not impossible.”

“I don’t understand.” I reached for the issue and stared at a picture of myself being held by Anthony as we walked to his car in the parking lot of Norma’s.

I sucked in a deep breath of air. Instead of feeling excitement about my fifteen minutes of fame, I felt completely violated . . . and horrified. Who in the world took this picture and where were they hiding?

I stared at myself, noticing that my oversized sweatshirt and pair of jeans looked horrible. I looked awful, especially next to Mr. Wonderful. I looked pale, my eyes weren’t even fully open, and it looked like I didn’t even own a pair of lips. I was a lipless blob being held by the sexiest man in the world. I’d never looked that bad in a picture in my life, and now I was forever memorialized in the pages of
People.
 

“I can’t believe I look so bad. I’m not saying I’m Elizabeth Taylor, but I don’t usually look that pasty.”

“It’s the lighting. It was dark outside and the streetlamps made your features go away.” Natalie laughed just as my cellphone buzzed. I glanced down and saw the message from Anthony slide over my phone.

I look forward to working with you. I’ll send over the specs when I get back to LA.

I spun my phone around to Natalie. “Is it just me, or is that a completely formal and impersonal text from Anthony?”

Natalie studied my phone and brought her gaze back to mine.

“I wouldn’t say it’s overly friendly. No.”

“So how could this?” I pointed to the magazine. “Turn into this?” I shook my phone. “I haven’t wanted to say anything, but Anthony is really hard to read.”

“You don’t say.”

“Do you think he knows about the photo?”

“Beats me. He didn’t mention it to Cole.”

“I don’t even understand how they could get the picture printed that fast when the issue just came out today.”

“The miracle of email.”

I sent a quick text to Anthony with only the words,

Did you see our picture?

He immediately sent a text back.

Where?

I texted back.

People

I saw him start and stop typing a message back to me, and then nothing. No reply. I glanced back at Natalie, who was watching me with an amused look on her face.

“I’m certainly different from the arm candy he usually parades around with.”

Natalie chuckled. “Not true. You’re absolutely gorgeous and in the same league. So don’t ever get that twisted.”

“You are an amazing best friend.” I looked at my sweatshirt and tried to find some kind of silhouette from my body, but it wasn’t happening. I looked like a hot air balloon with two sticks for legs poking out of the bottom. There was nothing flattering about this picture. “They had to have been hiding in the bushes. I would have seen them if they were in plain sight.”

“It’s super grainy, so they were probably really far away, which would explain your missing lips.” I glanced at the caption and groaned. “Listen to this. Anthony Hill and a new mystery woman were spotted together while he vacationed with his brother in their home state of Washington.”

“Absolutely riveting.” Natalie smiled. “Did they mention the brother’s fiancée by any chance?”

My phone buzzed.

I just saw it online. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think anyone was around. I didn’t mean to drag you into my world like that.

My heart tugged slightly at his words. I hadn’t wanted to drag him into mine either.

No biggie. Lesson learned. No longer going to be sporting my comfy sweatshirt in your presence. And trust me, getting dragged into your world is a lot better than being dragged into mine.

He texted back quickly.

I doubt that very much. Can I see you?

My heart skipped a beat, and I glanced over at Natalie, who was back to looking at the magazine. I suddenly felt like I was on a covert mission.

I thought you had a flight tonight? I’m with Natty.

He wrote back.

I do, but can you sneak away for a few?

I felt a smile automatically spread across my lips.

Absolutely. I’m at the library.

He texted back.

A regular party animal on a Friday night.

I texted back.

Two different worlds, my friend.

“I’m overheating. I’m gonna go step outside for a second.” I grabbed my scarf and wrapped it around my neck.

Natalie looked up from her magazine, her brow arching in surprise.

“Do you wanna just move out front, over by the windows? It’s probably cooler there.”

“Nah. This is fine.”

“Anthony’s stopping by, isn’t he?” Natalie grinned. “You wrapped yourself up in a scarf, so you can’t be that hot. You can just tell me you know.”

I laughed and shook my head.

“It’s more fun this way. Watch my bag?”

Natalie nodded and went back to her magazine while I nearly skipped out of the library. For not being interested in Anthony, he certainly produced a spring in my step.

Who was I kidding? I was extremely interested in this man. I was also realistic, and the two were a failing combination when it came to my nonexistent love life.

I pushed the door open, and the cold air smacked me in the face as I saw a set of headlights parallel park. It was hard to tell in the darkness whether that was his car, but my stomach did a preemptive flip-flop on the off chance it was. The driver’s door flung open, and out stepped Anthony in all his magical glory.

It was a good thing he was leaving town.

Anthony had a black knit beanie pulled over his ears, and he wore a goose down jacket with a pair of loose jeans. I glanced down at my outfit, which was a long, grey knit skirt, a white sweater, and a worn pair of tan leather boots. On the off chance the lurker was in the woods, I would at least redeem myself slightly in the tabloids.

“It’s not that cold,” I called as he shut his door and glanced in my direction.

His smile nearly shattered me as he walked onto the sidewalk and glided over to me. He held out his arms, and I gave him a quick, friendly hug.

At least that was what I intended to give, but the moment I felt his arms wrap around my waist, I nearly melted in his arms. He smelled so good, a combination of expensive cologne and the outdoors, and I wanted to eat him up.

“What have you been up to the last couple of days?” I asked, taking a step back and catching my breath.

He sank his teeth into his bottom lip and flashed an embarrassed grin. “Giving you your space and attempting to build a gazebo.”

“You know how to build things?”

“Before our band took off, I worked as a handyman. So yeah, I can build some things.” His smile grew.

“That’s so awesome. You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.” A glimmer of satisfaction flashed through his gaze. “Not kidding at all.”

“I’m impressed.”

He shook his head and laughed.

“What?” I folded my arms and scowled at him. I always felt like he had a private joke running with himself whenever he was around me, and I wanted in for a change.

“It’s just funny what impresses you.”

“A man who knows how to run a drill impresses me. What can I say?”

A crackle in the air snapped between us, and it took everything I had to stay grounded. He was leaving town, only to return for short breaks, so there was no use getting all worked up over him. Yet, I couldn’t help it.

“It says a lot, actually. To some, I’ve accomplished more than that.” He winked and slid his hands into his back pockets.

“So you were giving me space, huh?”

“I thought with everything going on, you might need it . . . or at least, that was my guess.”

I nodded and drew in a deep breath. “Well, that was very considerate of you. I’m actually hoping to butter up Natty to come with me to have a talk with my stepmom. I think I need to be more a part of the solution when it comes to dealing with Cindy and taking care of my dad.”

“And that’s your stepmom?”

I nodded and frowned, not looking forward to the meeting.

“Sounds complicated.”

“It probably will be.” I sighed. “But enough reality for your Friday night. I can promise you that you wouldn’t want to be bogged down in my family drama.”

“If I’d known, I would have offered to come with you. I could have taken a later flight, and maybe I’d dazzle her with my presence and she’d agree to whatever you wanted.” He pulled out his phone. “Actually, it’s not too late to change my flight.”

“Is that how things usually work for you? You just show up and problems are solved?” I teased, looking up at him and studying the genuineness that radiated from him. He was so sweet, which in truth was the exact opposite of what I’ve read about him, and it did nothing but confuse how I wanted to handle him and the project I’d agreed to do.

“Sometimes.” He glanced inside the warm library.

“So you’d seriously offer to go with me?”

“Why not? Isn’t that what friends are for? I’m already hanging out at a library on a Friday night.”

“As opposed to partying on Sunset Boulevard,” I joked.

“I would have thought the photo snapped of us would be a prime example of the tabloids not being the most accurate version of life events.”

“Point taken. So what made you decide to swing by on your way out of town?”

He took an unexpected step forward and cupped my chin in his hands. My heart plummeted to my toes.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

Anthony’s gaze intensified as his eyes fell to my mouth.

“Something I should have done days ago when you were in your bunny slippers.” He slowly licked his lips, and it felt like the bottom fell out of the concrete beneath me.