Page 9 of Sweet Love at Bayside
“Frick?” Violet offered.
“Yes, that one.Exactly.”
Violet laughed.
“And I do the wrong thing. Just last night I got a guy’s phone number, and on the way to the Cape, I ran a red li—”
“Hold up!” Violet set down her coffee and held her hands up. “You got a guy’s phone number? Like a stranger? For a hookup?”
“No, not for a hookup, and yes, a stranger. Well, he wasn’t exactly a stranger after he told me his name. He was nice. A little pushy, but really hot, with linebacker shoulders and eyes like liquid fire. And he got mesowet.” She sounded embarrassingly breathless.
Amusement rose in Violet’s eyes. “Wow, you go, sis. He got yousowet, so you slept with him?”
“No! Geez, Vi. You have the filthiest mind.” She felt her cheeks burning, but she was still reveling in the endearment. Violet had said it so easily, as if she’d called her sis her whole life. “He got me wet, as in hesplashedme, or his Jet Ski did. You saw me last night. I was soaked. He’s one of the owners of the Bayside Resort.”
“Savage or Masters?” Vi asked.
“Um. Is that sex talk? Because I’m not into those things.”
“Boy, do you and I need to spend some time together.Last names.I met Drake Savage and Dean Masters at Undercover, that bar down the road, when we were here for Grandma’s funeral. They were both smokin’ hot, and nice. Pretty low-key. Your type of guys.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“Are you expecting someone?” Desiree went to answer the door. “Why does everyone think I need a nice guy? I have no idea what his last name is, but he was hot.” She pulled open the door and was greeted by the broad back of a shirtless man.
“Your mutt dog keeps—” The guy spun around with a scruffy wet dog in his arms, dirt on his knees, and daggers in his eyes, which quickly morphed to surprise and then something much darker.
Something that made Desiree’s pulse skyrocket and her knees wobble.
Lust. Definitely lust.
“Rick?” She didn’t usually care for sweat, butwow. He was even more staggeringly handsome than she remembered, angry eyes and all. And that layer of perspiration heightened the definition of his glistening muscles. With a body like that, the man should be bronzed.
IT TOOK RICK a second to grasp that he was staring into the beautiful eyes of the woman he’d been thinking about for hours and to get out from under the annoyance of chasing the dog. He’d had to get down on his hands and knees and make thetsk-tsk-tsknoises his father used to make to get their dog to come to him. He’d forgotten all about that noise until then. And now he’d forgotten why he was standing on Desiree’s front porch, but he was glad he was.
“Desiree. You’re staying here?”
She looked nervously at the pretty tatted-up brunette beside her, who was watching him with the same catlike green eyes as Desiree, only harder. Much harder. “Yes, for now.” She fidgeted with the fringe on the hem of her white shorts. “Rick, this is my sister, Violet.”
Violet lifted her chin. “How’s it going?”
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You seemed pretty angry.” Violet crossed her arms. “Problem with the dog?”
He glanced at the dog.Oh, right. The dog.“Sorry. Your dog has been going into the pool at the resort. I’ve been chasing him for half an hour.”
“We don’t have a dog,” Violet said flatly.
“You sure? His collar says he’s yours.” He leaned forward so Desiree could read the collar. She leaned right in, smiling and loving up the pup. If only he’d had a dog with him last night, maybe then she would have gone out for that drink. Her hair fell forward, covering one eye as she read the tag. His fingers itched to run through those long, silky golden locks. He tightened his grip on the pup to keep from doing so.
“He’s not ours, but according to the tag, he lives here and his name is…” Desiree looked at Violet. “Cosmos.”
Violet mumbled under her breath. “Of course it is. Cosmos brought us together?” She laughed, and Desiree covered her mouth, but her sweet laughter bubbled out anyway.
“What?” He was obviously missing out on something.
“Cosmos,” Desiree said through her laughter, and doubled over at the waist. “She’s so flipping crazy.”
