Page 63 of Flirting With Forever
Sloane smiled and pointed to the far corner of the building. “There’s a section there with a few pieces of driftwood art, some sea glass, and locally authored books. If you like romance, there are several series set here in Carolina Cove. Take a look, and I’ll be right over to assist you.”
The woman crossed between Sloane and Alec toward the section, and Sloane felt Alec’s gaze remain on her. “Did you, um, need something else?”
Alec shifted his attention to the mom-and-pop family scattered about the store and shook his head. “Looks like you could use a hand in here. Go help her. I’ve got him.”
He walked down the slight ramp into the building and went to where an older man stood perusing fishing rods.
Sloane sensed Alec stayed due to more than the assorted customers but did as ordered, heart hammering hard in her chest due to anxiety.
The woman wound up buying ten books as well as sea-glass tasseled bookmarks to take home as gifts for her book-club friends. She also chose two pairs of earrings, a glass and metal soldered decor item filled with sand and assorted small shells, and three melted wine bottles-turned-cheese trays.
The man Alec helped purchased a high-end fishing reel, plus three of the inexpensive ones for the three boys he introduced as his grandsons. The only girl with them chose a skim board, sand toys, and a hemp bracelet as her purchases.
Sloane rang up the items while Alec gave the granddad some suggestions on where and how to fish from the beach. Once everything was handed over or bubble-wrapped and bagged, the group was on their way out the door, chattering excitedly about their finds.
“Shew,” she said softly. “That was a lot of energy in one group.”
Alec’s lips quirked in a smile, and he nodded. “That it was.”
Silence followed his words, and she was once again reminded of what Alec had witnessed as the group arrived. “I should go grab more of the sea glass and books to restock. She wiped out quite a few of them.”
“Sloane.”
She stopped with a wry glance at him that she tried to pass off with a smile. “Yeah?”
“I don’t know what your brother said to you, but it’s obvious it wasn’t good. If you need help, all you have to do is ask.”
Relief flooded her that Alec hadn’t heard—or was pretending not to, anyway. “I don’t but thanks. Everything’s okay.”
“Are you sure?”
His quiet query left her struggling to maintain eye contact. “I’m positive. No worries.”
Because she now knew exactly what she had to do…
Chapter Nineteen
Over the next week or so, Gage felt Sloane withdrawing from him. From them.
She avoided him whenever possible at work. And once again claimed a headache to skip dinner and go to her room Friday evening.
He knew what was happening, and he hated every second of it. Braced himself for the moment she suddenly announced she was leaving.
But the rest of the weekend? When she wasn’t trying to actively avoid him?
They kissed. Touched. Found themselves making out like teenagers until she’d inevitably find the strength to pull away with a soft sound that broke his heart, calling an end to the chemistry blazing between them even as they clung a bit more tightly to one another as a result. Like that would keep her family at bay and her in his arms.
Keep her from extracting herself from the embrace and go running downstairs to gather her wits before trying to avoid him again.
The island quieted in the weeks after Thanksgiving, but it would pick back up before Christmas. Until then the locals maintained the slow, lazy pace of island life in the offseason.
Sloane repeatedly pressed Gage to hire someone, but every attempt was shot down. He didn’t come out and say it, but he hoped the longer he put it off, the longer she’d feel compelled to stay.
After all, he knew her real last name now. No sense in hiding or thinking she was alone in her fight against whatever control her family held over her.
Sloane remained on edge, her expression easy to read because when she wasn’t working on a task, she always seemed a million miles away, a frown pulling her eyebrows into a V over her nose. She also spent a lot of time on her computer, but whenever he got close, she shut things down. Fast.
That upped his curiosity even more. She held secrets. But were they family secrets or her own?
