Page 5 of Bayside Heat
Only she told herself she no longer craved Drake in the same way she once had, with a fluttering in her chest or holding her breath at his every word. No, things had changed a long time ago. She’d grown up, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate a little eye candy from her first crush.
Drake held the door open and motioned for her to pass through.
“You keep grinding your teeth, they’re liable to break,” she said as she walked into the nearly empty space.
“I’m not grinding…” He shook his head, and a half scoff, half laugh fell from his lips. It was a familiar sound, one that said he was annoyed but also amused.
He was a broody guy sometimes, but it was always driven by a clear cause, and he didn’t mince words, play games, or hold grudges. She liked and respected those things about him, which was probably what made them such good friends. Neither one took shit from the other.
“Oh, good,” she said as she set her bag on the counter. “You’ve gotten over yourself.”
“Over myself?” He paced the floor.
“Yes! So I got another job? You know I’ve always wanted to do interior design.”
He crossed his arms, leveling a serious stare on her. “I’m happy for you, but it leaves us—me—in a lurch. I’m just trying to figure it all out.” He waved at the space. “I’ve got to get my arms around doing this alone.”
“You’ve opened four other music stores.”
“We, Serena. We’ve opened four other music stores.”
“What…?” She thought back to the first store he’d opened, during her junior year of college. She’d helped him revamp it and had come up with a theme that they’d since carried over to the other stores. “That’s not true. You opened the first one. I just helped make it attractive after you made it look like a garage.”
“Exactly. It was a joint effort,” he said sharply.
“I guess you’re right.” She stepped closer, knowing the best way to center his mind had always been to be near him. She knew he was calculating project times, divvying himself up between the resort and the store. Some guys were like bears, all claws and scare tactics. They bullied their way into projects, creating more havoc than good. Drake was a methodical thinker, as fierce and powerful as any man she’d ever seen, but he didn’t attack. He was like an eagle ready to land, circling his prey until he knew the exact second to swoop down and make a clean getaway. She admired those qualities in him as a friend and as a businessman.
“But this isn’t new to you, Drake,” she said calmly. “I’m not leaving you high and dry. I’m here now, and it’s only Monday. I have five or six more days before I go to Boston, and you know damn well I’ll work every minute to get as much arranged as I can. And then I’ll be only a phone call away. I love working with you and setting up the stores. You know that.”
“Do you?” His voice was tense, but his eyes filled with something much deeper.
Curiosity? Longing?
Wishful thinking much?
“Are you really asking me that?” she challenged.
FUCK. WHAT AM I doing? Drake had no idea when he’d stopped seeing Serena as just a friend—again—or when he’d begun noticing her womanly curves, the way she twirled her hair around her finger when she was sleepy, or the wanting look that came over her sometimes when they were working together late at night. But when the thrum of heat he’d felt when they were teenagers returned years ago, he’d known he had to mentally draw a line between them. He’d once again promised himself he’d never stand in her way or hold her back. She’d had big dreams since she was a kid, and after what she and her sister, Chloe, had gone through when they were growing up, he was bound and determined to make sure she achieved everything she ever wanted.
No matter how much it stung that he couldn’t be on that list.
But as he gazed into her entrancing eyes, shades of sea green glimmering against soft cocoa, even with his promise in mind, he was powerless to stop the guilt-inducing questions from coming out.
“Then why leave? You left your first interior design job because you were bored, remember?” Serena had worked for several years as an interior designer right after college, and after boredom had consumed her, she’d spent the next two years helping a retail company establish their offices in Hyannis. She’d been on fire, and lucky for Drake and his partners, when that job ended, they’d been able to swoop her up to help them get Bayside Resort off the ground. The last thing he wanted was for her to go backward in her career.
