Page 5 of Blame It on the Bikini
"It sounds kind of funny to me," Hunter said.
"Not funny," she said. "I tried to make nice. I offered to lend him my phone in case he needed to make some calls before he could replace his, but he threw that back in my face. I also invited him to the barbecue, and he said, 'No thanks.' But he's going to be here for a month, so hopefully we can get things back on track."
"A month is a good amount of time," Hunter said. "You don't have to win him over in one night."
"I guess," she said as Kaia rejoined them.
"I will say one thing about him," Kaia began. "He looked good wet. In fact, he's a very attractive man."
"Until he opens his mouth," she said dryly. "Then he sounds arrogant and entitled. I know his type. I worked with a bunch of them when I was a lawyer. He's the kind of man who thinks he's right about everything."
"We'll help him feel more comfortable here. Maybe I'll bake him some cookies."
"That worked for me," Hunter said with a laugh.
As Hunter and Emmalyn exchanged a kiss, she felt a little pang. She was more than a little happy to see her friend Emmalyn so in love. Finding that kind of connection wasn't easy. But she didn't have time to worry about love. She had one month to convince Grayson Holt not to sell Ocean Shores. It wouldn't be easy, but she wasn't going to let him take their home without a fight.
Chapter Two
Lexie was still in fight mode Saturday morning, but she wasn't fighting with Grayson; she was fighting with her ten-year-old car. She'd tried several times to start it, hoping the sheer force of her will and her need to get to her job as a wedding photographer would somehow bring it back to life. But all she got was a click of finality every time she turned the key.
"No, no, no," she groaned, glancing at her watch. It was eight-thirty, and she needed to be at Seaside Cliff Resort at nine a.m. to start shooting the pre-wedding rituals at eleven a.m. "You cannot do this to me today," she told her car. That plea went unanswered, too.
Her battery had to be dead, and no doubt someone in the complex probably had jumper cables, but she didn't have time to hunt that down. She was already late.
Getting out of her car, she pulled up a rideshare app, sighing at the surge pricing. Even though it was early on a Saturday morning, clearly the universe had it in for her today.
She scrolled through her contacts—Kaia, Paige, Emmalyn… Voicemail, voicemail, voicemail. Everyone was probably asleep or already out, which included her aunt, who had gone with Margaret to the farmers' market.
Her phone vibrated with an incoming call, and she hoped it was one of her friends, but it was the bride's mother. She took a deep breath before answering. "Good morning, Mrs. Morrison."
"Lexie! Where are you?" The woman's voice was pitched high with stress. "The makeup artist is already here, and Tiffany is freaking out because one of her bridesmaids is stuck at the airport. I'm afraid Jordan might be getting cold feet because his best man says he was up all night and?—"
"Mrs. Morrison," Lexie cut in with practiced calm, "everything will be fine. I'm on my way right now." A small lie, but a necessary one. "These pre-wedding jitters are completely normal."
"Everyone needs to see you're here so they'll calm down and?—"
"I'll be there very soon. I'm not late. We're scheduled to start at nine. Just take a deep breath. Today will be beautiful."
As she ended the call, she caught sight of movement in her peripheral vision. Grayson Holt was walking toward his car, keys in hand, dressed in what appeared to be workout clothes—expensive ones, naturally. Even in workout clothes, the man couldn't help but exude wealth and privilege.
Before she could decide whether to swallow her pride and ask him for a ride, he glanced over, noticing her standing beside her open car door.
"Good morning," he said. "Is something wrong?"
"My car won't start. Dead battery, I think. Of all the days, it had to happen today."
"Are you heading somewhere important?"
"I'm photographing a wedding at Seaside Cliff Resort." She checked her watch again. "That I'm already late for."
"I can give you a jump if you have cables."
"I know there are some cables in the storage shed, but I don't have time to look, and none of my friends are around. I just need to call for a ride." She glanced down at her app again. "For some reason, the rideshare is very busy this morning."
Grayson hesitated, clearly working his way through an internal debate, then gave a resigned nod. "I can give you a ride. It's not too far from here, is it?"
"About fifteen minutes."
