With Strings Attached (16 page)

Then she drove to the White Jasmine Bed and Breakfast and walked in the front door with an armful of boxes of chocolates, all neatly wrapped in glossy black paper with black and white polka-dotted bows. She dinged the bell on the small counter, knowing Jasmine Cavanaugh, the owner, would likely be in the kitchen. The big old house was apparently one of the first built in San Amaro, a three-story Victorian-style with a wide front veranda. Jasmine’s family were the original owners of the home, but when her parents had died and left the house to her, she’d had to find a way to make it pay for itself to keep from having to sell it. The B&B was wildly successful, and it hadn’t hurt that San Amaro had become such a busy weekend beach destination.

Jasmine appeared in a door at the end of the hall, a dish towel in her hands.

“Corey!” she said. “Hi! I was expecting you. Mr. Markham said you’d be delivering chocolates. Let me call him down, he’s up in his room.”

“Sure.” Corey set the boxes on the small oak counter and looked around as Jasmine ran lightly up the wide staircase. She heard the faint knock and muffled conversation and then Jasmine returned. She wore her soft brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and a pair of funky glasses perched on her nose.

“I was just making muffins for tomorrow,” Jasmine said. “How’re things? Haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I know. I’m so damn busy.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Oh yeah, it is! I can hardly keep up with it sometimes, so it’s great. I just need to expand a little and get more help. Actually, I’m on my way to look at a store that’s available on Shore Drive.” She glanced at her watch. She had just enough time to get home before Dylan picked her up. If Mr. Markham got his butt down there and paid her right now. She looked up the stairs where she thought she’d heard footsteps, then back at Jasmine and smiled. “I think it’s where the cookie lady used to have her shop.”

“Oh, yes. That’s a great location.”

Corey grimaced. “Probably pricey.” She flicked a glance at the man who appeared on the staircase. “Probably too pricey for me. But I’m going to check it out anyway.” She sighed.

“Hello,” the man said. He paused at the foot of the stairs and gazed at her. He was middle-aged, slightly receding hair, dark with a little gray sprinkled in it. He was nice-looking, average height, neatly dressed in a pair of khaki pants and blue plaid shirt. “You must be Corey Fenwick.”

She grinned. “That’s me. You must be Mr. Markham. And these are your chocolates.”

He glanced at the boxes, then reached into his back pocket. “I must pay you.” He pulled out his wallet and counted out bills. He moved closer and handed them to her.

“Thank you so much. Your receipt is right here. I assume you probably need one for tax purposes.” That big an order had to be corporate gifts or something.

“Oh. Yeah.” He smiled briefly, his eyes still intent. “Perfect. I hear great things about your chocolate. Can’t wait to try them.”

“I hope you enjoy. Call again any time.” She turned to Jasmine. “Gotta run! A friend is picking me up at home.”

“Matt?”

“Er…no. His friend, actually. Dylan Schell.”

“Dylan Schell, the surfer?”

Corey nodded, heading for the door. She glanced again at Mr. Markham, still standing there. “Yes. You know him?”

“I know
of
him. He’s pretty good. San Amaro boy makes it big, all that yadda yadda.”

Corey briefly told her about Dylan’s injury. “Okay. Now I really have to go. We should get together—lunch, drinks…”

“Yes! Sounds good. See you.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Markham.” And with a quick wave she hurried out the front door, across the veranda and down the stairs two at a time.

She was home in enough time to brush her hair, dab on some lip gloss and spritz her favorite body spray on before Dylan arrived. She opened the door and let him in, then looked down. “Hey. Where are your crutches?”

“I don’t need them any more,” he said with a sexy grin. “I’m getting better.”

“Oh! That’s great.”

“I’ve been going for therapy. Had my second session today. Man, that woman’s a drill sergeant,” he muttered. “She’s gonna kill me, I think.”

Corey laughed. “Let me run up and get my purse and we can go.” When she came back, she locked the door behind her and they walked to his rental car parked on the street.

“So who’s this drill sergeant?” she asked.

“The therapist. When I went for therapy in Perth, all they did was massage and put some electrical currents on my leg or something. This lady is making me
work
.”

“You’re an athlete. It shouldn’t be that hard for you.”

“Yeah.” He slid his sunglasses on and started the car. “But she keeps adding weights and telling me, ‘one more. No,
now
one more. And one more’.” He shook his head.

“Well, that’s good. She must know you can handle it.”

“I guess. She’s showing me what exercises to do and I’ve also started going to the gym to work out.”

They talked about the gym, and the people Dylan had met at the Black Bean, including Matt’s little sister. “I guess she’s not so little any more,” Dylan said. “Twenty-seven.”

“Yeah. She’s a character.”

“How so?”

“Wild child,” Corey said. “Personally I think she just does a lot of stuff to piss Matt off.”

“And it works, apparently.”

She snorted. “Oh yeah. But you know why that is.”

“Because he loves her.”

“Well, yeah, of course. But he sees himself as the father figure in that family. Since his dad died when they were so young.”

Dylan pursed his lips, looking straight ahead out the windshield. “That’s true. He does do a lot of stuff for his mom and his sisters.”

“Yeah. He does.” Her heart went soft in her chest, thinking about that. “It pisses some of us off.”

He glanced at her. “Why?”

“Well, I know Neve thinks he should butt out of her life.”

“Yeah, apparently she does. And you?”

“Did I say me?”

“You said ‘us’.”

Had she? Yeah, she guessed she had. “Well. He thinks I’m some helpless female, and keeps bugging me about stuff. But I don’t need any help.”

He said nothing but lifted his chin a fraction. “So you want him to butt out of your life too?”

“No! I didn’t say that. He’s my friend. I just don’t need him…like that.” Though she’d admit to needing him for other things, like…hot sex. No. She sighed. More than that. They hung out together. He made her laugh. He made her feel good about herself. But dammit, she didn’t like needing anyone, for anything.

“I see.” He pulled up in front of the row of elegant shops on Shore Drive. “There. That’s the place. Want to get out?”

“Sure.” She climbed out of the car onto the sidewalk. The sea breeze blew the fresh salty scent of the ocean across her face as she walked across the brick sidewalk toward the empty store front. It was tiny. But she didn’t need big. She planned to have this space in addition to the building she already had, where she’d continue to make the chocolates, and to live. She just needed a small store front in a good location that she could fix up without spending a fortune. “Yup, this is the cookie lady’s old place,” she said slowly.

“It looks decent.”

“Yeah.” It looked perfect, actually. She peered in the front window at the empty space. Then she sighed. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”

“How so?”

“Well, if I’m going to have enough stock to keep the shop going, I need to expand my production. Which means more equipment and more staff.” She laughed. “More staff! I don’t even have
any
right now, besides Amanda.” She turned to face Dylan, nibbling on her bottom lip. “I’ve been saving up but this might be too soon.”

“I assume you have some kind of plan. A business plan.”

She looked at him in surprise. He was a surfer. What did he know about business plans? “Well, yes. I approached the bank a couple of years ago about a business loan but they turned me down. I had to have a business plan for the loan application. Matt helped me with it.”

“I was going to say, Matt’s a businessman. And pretty smart. He could help you.”
 

“I don’t need help.”

His mouth twitched. “Oh yeah. I forgot.”

“The plan is old,” she said slowly. “But I should sit down and take a look at it and see where I am.”

“Maybe the bank would give you a loan now.”

“Maybe. I didn’t have enough capital before, but I’m getting close. The economy tanking didn’t help. They weren’t really interested in helping start a risky new business. Especially one selling expensive chocolates. Not something high on people’s priority list when they’re out of work and broke.”

“Maybe that’s changed.”

She nodded. “You never know. I could check.”

“You should call the rental company, find out how much the rent is.”

“I will. Tomorrow.” She punched the phone number of the realty agency handling the lease of the building into her cell phone.

“Okay.” Dylan slung an arm around her shoulders and squeezed lightly. “Let’s go have something to eat. I’m starved. Where should we go?”

Corey wanted to suggest the Laguna Dorada, but curbed that impulse before the words left her lips. Sitting there with Dylan, and Matt likely there looking on, didn’t sound all that comfortable. “How about the Breaker Café?”

“Sounds good. I know where it is.”

They drove the short distance there.

“I’d walk if I didn’t have this damn busted foot,” Dylan muttered as he parked again.

“You’ll be back to new in no time.”

Over dinner, Dylan was an entertaining partner, asking her more questions about chocolates and her old job and moving to San Amaro, but when she tried to ask him questions about surfing, he got quiet. “Don’t worry,” she said, reaching across the table for his hand. “You’ll be back on the tour in no time. You’ll be winning big competitions and on your way to world champion.”

He smiled. “Thanks. I hope so. That’s always been my goal.”

“Why surfing?”

He shrugged, his fingers wrapping warmly around hers, their hands resting on the table. “In surf we trust,” he quipped. “I like to worship at the church of the open sky.”

She laughed. “What?”

He shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. I just love it. I love the feeling of it, the challenge of it, being in the water, the sky huge overhead, all open space and free. When you catch the wave it’s almost like flying on the ocean. It feels like time stops, the wind is on your face, the wave’s under your feet, it’s quiet and you’re…flying.”

She smiled at him, at the passion in his voice. “It’s great to do something you love.”

“Yeah.” He looked down. “I do love it. And it’s the only thing I was ever any good at so…” He shrugged, and looked at her with a wry smile.

“I’m sure there are many things you’re good at.”

“Well, yeah,” he said with fake modesty. “But you can’t make your living from those things.”

She laughed. “I meant
other
things.”

“Well. I wasn’t that great at school. Sitting in a classroom drove me crazy. I didn’t really have much I was interested in besides surfing.”

“Well, if it’s your talent then you have to go for it.”

“Yeah.” He looked past her. “Except…”

She hesitated at the look of sadness in his eyes. “Except what?”

He smiled. “Nothing. You were asking me questions about surfing,” he said. “Haven’t you ever done it?”

“No.”

“I can’t believe that! Living in San Amaro, with Breaker Beach right there, you’ve never surfed?”

Her stomach clenched but she smiled. “Nope.”

“Where’d you grow up? San Diego?”

“Yes, but I didn’t exactly have the kind of life where we spent time at the beach or went surfing all the time.”

He tipped his head to one side. “No?”

She shook her head, still smiling, but said nothing.

“Well, before I leave we’re going to get you in the water,” he said. “And up on a board.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

She bit her lip and looked up at him through her eyelashes. “I’m just not… I’m too busy.”

He gazed back at her. She didn’t want to tell him about being afraid of the water. About signing up for swimming lessons that day. Taking swimming lessons as an adult? Lame. Very lame. It made her want to squirm with embarrassment.

“Okay,” he said slowly.

Ah, damn, now she’d hurt his feelings. “It must be hard for you to be away from it this long.”

He nodded and his other hand came to play with her fingers too. “It is. But I like being here with Matt. And with you.” He looked up and their eyes met. “I really like you, Corey.”

Her heart expanded and heat curled low in her tummy. “I like you too.” Her skin tingled everywhere and she became very aware of the touch of his hands on hers, the warmth of his skin, the heat in his gray eyes.