Page 4 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
“This is my latest project.” The edges of his lips tipped up. “Are you in? Or do you want to sit in traffic?”
“Heck, yes, I’m in. But I warn you, I have a black thumb. I can kill a plant just by looking at it.”
He laughed. “I highly doubt that. I’ll go grab another trowel and a couple of cold drinks. Be right back.”
Helping weed his garden was the least she could do. After all, he was the one who’d convinced her to give this move a go. During one of the many nights when they were FaceTiming, she’d mentioned that she was thinking about coming up for the summer to see if she could get a seasonal yoga business off the ground, hoping it would not only be a nice change of pace for her, but that it would also bring added value to the inn for Desiree and Violet’s customers. Dean had asked,How can you succeed at anything, giving only half an effort?She’d seen it as ahugestep, moving away for the summer, not half an effort, but then he’d followed that question with one that had stopped her in her tracks.Are you always afraid to commit, or are you worried you’ll miss your family?And she’d found herself retracing the last few years of her life and realizing that maybe,just maybe, he’d figured out what she never had. And the more she’d thought about it, the more convinced she’d become that she had been the adventurous one, but only within the safety of her small hometown. It was time to blaze a new adventure and blow that girl out of the water.
She heard a phone ring in the house, jarring her from her memories. Shrugging off those thoughts, she set to work ripping out the weeds.
DEAN PRESSED HIS cell phone to his ear, trying to hurry his older brother, Jett, off the phone. But Jett was busy apologizing about having to be in Argentina to close a major investment deal, which would cause him to miss the upcoming benefit dinner for the Pediatric Neurology Foundation their late grandfather had established. It was just another in a long line of Jett’s excuses, even if this one sounded valid. Their father was going to be a keynote speaker at the event and, as usual, Dean had given in to his mother’s plea and agreed to attend in support ofthe family, while Jett did his own thing. Dean wasn’t looking forward to attending the stuffy event, but he would put on his best face, if only to keep from hurting his mother’s feelings. After all, their oldest brother, Doug, wouldn’t be at the event either. Doug had married right after medical school and was working overseas. Being a physician, he had a very different relationship with their father than Jett or Dean, but that didn’t affect his relationships with them. Although Dean was close to each of his brothers, equal parts of him respected and resented Jett’s choices.
“I swear I’ll make it up to you,” Jett promised. As a real-estate investor, Jett owned plenty of properties in and out of the country, including a waterfront he’d purchased several years ago in Wellfleet, though he had yet to build on it. He stayed at whichever of his properties was closest to his current business, which meant he never stayed in any one place for very long.
“Whatever, dude. I’ve got this.”Like always.
Dean had been dealing with the aftermath of Jett’s distancing himself from the family for years. Jett had never forgiven their father for briefly separating from their mother when he and his brothers were young. To this day, Dean had no idea what had led to their father’s leaving or what had transpired to bring him back home beyond being told that his parentshad hit a rough patch. But that brief three-month separation had destroyed Jett’s trust in their father. When Jett had gone off to college, rarely coming back to visit, and their oldest brother, Doug, was getting ready for medical school, Dean had taken it upon himself to make sure their mother didn’t feel abandoned. He’d buried his own dark feelings toward his father in order to help smooth things over in the wake of Jett’s rebellion.
“What’s happening with the chick from Virginia?” Jett asked. “She comes next week, right?”
Dean loved his brother, but after months of getting to know Emery, and endless nights spent fantasizing about what it would be like when they were together again, she was finally within reach. He’d much rather spend time with her than explain to Jett that if anything were to develop between him and Emery, who’d sworn off dating friends, it would take a lot of finesse.Or a miracle.
“Listen, dude. I’ve got tons of work to get done today and I have to run. Hit me up when you return to the States and you can pay me back for attending the dinner from hell.”
After he ended the call, he poured two glasses of iced tea, wishing he had fresh lemons, since he knew Emery’s favorite drink was ice water with fresh lemon slices. He carried the drinks out to the yard, grabbing an extra trowel from the shed on his way.
He didn’t know how he’d gotten lucky enough to be Emery’s emergency bathroom stop, but he was in no hurry to get rid of her. When she’d first told him she was moving to the Cape, he’d thought he was the luckiest guy on earth and hoped he had a chance at convincing her to give up that nonsense about not going out with friends. Or more specifically, not going out withhim. But he knew he had to bide his time. The last thing he wanted was to scare her off. And to make matters worse, when she’d come to him and his partners about the idea of offering yoga to their customers, he’d been torn. While it would mean she would be around more often, she’d told him months ago about how much she had loved working as a yoga back-care specialist with the elderly before she’d gone out with—then broken up with—her idiot boss and she’d been forced to resign in order to escape his stalkerish ways, and in doing so, she’d lost the career she’d loved.The bastard.Dean knew she wouldn’t find that type of fulfillment teaching yoga to vacationers at the inn or the resort. But his desire to see her again had selfishly won out, and he’d agreed to the arrangement even though everything inside him had wanted to push her to take the time to network and figure out how to get involved with what she really wanted, despite the fact that it might have meant delaying her arrival.
He was a strong man, but Emery had become his Achilles’ heel, and his best intentions and desires had been pushed aside in order to have her nearby—but that didn’t mean he’d look the other way forever about making sure she didn’t forgo the career she really wanted.
As he came around the bushes, he shoved those thoughts away and said, “Hey, doll, I brought iced—”Holy. Smokes.
Emery lay on her back on a lounge chair in a skimpy yellow bikini top and barely there brown bottoms with cutouts over her hips. Her body was sleek and toned, and so sexy he had to stifle a groan. Her long, golden-brown hair was spread out around her just like in his midnight fantasies, save for that itsy-bitsy bikini. A thin leather necklace rested against her tanned skin, two small silver charms lying between her breasts. He’d give anything to take their place.
She opened one gorgeous hazel eye, shading it with her hand. “Hey there.” Her gaze flicked to the drinks. “Oh! Iced tea?” She jumped up from the chair, flaunting her gorgeous figure as she grabbed a drink from his hand and took a sip. “Mm. Needs sugar.”
“Sugar,” he mumbled, trying to untangle his lust-addled thoughts. The trowel dropped to the ground.
“No worries. I’ve got it.” She bent over to pick up the trowel, and her butt cheeks peeked out from beneath her bikini bottom.
He turned away and bit his knuckle, hoping the spear of pain might keep his libido from rising any further.
When he turned around, she was taking off her bracelets. “I got your weeding done. It wasn’t so hard after all,” she said as she set several bracelets on the garden table and fiddled with a thick silver one.
He was vaguely aware of her speaking—weeding?—but that itsy-bitsy bikini revealed too much for him to concentrate, and he pretended to focus on her unscrewing something on her bracelet so she wouldn’t catch him lusting after her. She tipped the bracelet over and poured white powder into her palm from some secret container within the shiny silver bangle.
His stomach sank. “Em, what is that? You’re not into drugs, are you?”
A mischievous smile played on her lips. “You have known me for five months. Don’t you think you’d know if I were a druggy?”
She was right. He would. Emery wasn’t the type of woman who held back her thoughts. Most of the time she had no filter whatsoever. He’d asked her about her candid comments once, and she’d saidgrowing up with three brothers did that to a girl. She’d explained that she’d learned to speak her mind so she wouldn’t get walked all over. Dean didn’t have a sister, but he took Emery at her word. After all, she didn’t seem to know how to do anything but tell the truth.
They’d shared hundreds of texts and late-night phone calls, during which she’d told him about everything from her work woes to her dating life, filling him in on more details than he could handle in some cases. He was surprised by how much hewantedto know everything about her—including the details of botched dates that made him want to kill the guys. Even if through gritted teeth, he loved talking with her. He liked knowing that her favorite shows were offbeat, and sometimes scary, adventures, and her favorite movies were sappy love stories, despite her not believing in true love. And he found her likes and dislikes in people interesting. She didn’t shy away from aggressiveness the way some girls did. She seemed to thrive on it, which he’d learned had set her up for heartache too many times for his liking. He knew how lonely she’d been after Desiree had moved away, and in the hours they’d spent talking about it she’d unknowingly revealed the sensitive woman behind that tough-girl persona. Yes, Emery Andrews might be a complicated firecracker, but she’d been an open book from the moment they’d met. That was just one of the things he loved about her. He’d had his fill of women who played games.
Unfortunately, they’d becomesuchgood friends, and with her recent swearing off of dating friends, he had a feeling that’s all he could ever be to her.
She licked her finger, then dipped it in the white powder and held it up to his mouth with a playful glimmer in her eyes. “Open.”
Like a trained pup, he opened his mouth, wantingherto jump in. She put her finger in his mouth and rubbed it over his tongue. He grabbed her wrist and sucked her finger clean, puckering at the saccharine taste.
