Searching For Love – the Bradens & Montgomerys (Pleasant Hill – Oak Falls)

by Melissa Foster

  His wet hair fell forward again, and he pushed it out of his face in the same fashion he had when he was a kid, as if his hair had some nerve getting in his way. “We still don’t have anything positively identifying what we’ve found as coming from the Pride, but—”

  “Zev! They’ve found something!” Randi hollered.

  “I’ve got to go, babe. I love y—wait! How’s the festival?”

  “Zev!” Randi shouted again.

  Zev looked perched to bolt, and yet he still waited for her to answer. This man was not a pit stop in her life. She wanted all of his dreams to come true, just as she knew he wanted hers to. “The festival is fine. I love you! Go find our treasure!”

  When he ended the call, she was still clinging to the counter. Her phone vibrated, and a text popped up from Birdie. Treasure hunter fudge???

  Shoot. She needed to get her head on straight. She had a business to run.

  She forced herself to move, and carried the tray of fudge into the shop, greeting customers and trying to push thoughts of Zev and the expedition to the side. But her mind sprinted down that path. What else did they find? What was happening with the concretions they’d worked on? Had he made arrangements for the coins to be evaluated?

  Carly put the fudge into the display cabinet, catching a curious look from Birdie. She felt like a fraud with her forced smile and thoughts that refused to fall into line.

  But she wasn’t a fraud. She’d grown this business, nurtured relationships with customers and vendors. She’d colored within the lines for almost a decade, building a safe, predictable life that had been instrumental in her healing. It was okay to want to color outside them sometimes, wasn’t it? That wouldn’t mean she was throwing in the towel at the chocolate shop; she just wanted more.

  She wanted Zev and their adventures. Couldn’t she be two people at once—chocolate-shop Carly and adventure-girl Carls?

  Birdie touched Carly’s shoulder, startling her.

  “I can color outside the lines if I want to!” came out before Carly could stop it.

  “You can color any way you want to,” Birdie said with an amused expression. “But are you sure you want to eat all that fudge?”

  Carly realized she was still bent over the tray, which was sticking halfway off the shelf, and there were two glaringly empty spots where fudge should be. Her fingers were coated with the sticky sweets…and so was her mouth.

  As she rose to her feet, Birdie lowered her voice and said, “Are you okay?”

  Not even close. Carly looked at the customers milling about, none of whom were ready to pay, and she said, “I’m okay. Marie said something this morning that’s got me overthinking things. Do you ever feel like this is a pit stop for you?”

  “Why? Did Quinn tell you I was flirting with the hippie guy who came in?” She crossed her arms and said, “You can’t fire me for giving him my number, can you?”

  “No, of course not. I’m just curious,” she said lightly.

  “Well, it’s a ridiculous question. I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be if I had other aspirations, but you know how much I love this business. Ever since the first day I worked here, it’s all I’ve wanted to do.”

  “So you never feel like you’re missing out on something bigger or better?”

  “Like what? Working in a clothing shop? As much as I love clothes…boring. Or a bank like Quinn? I’d shoot myself in the foot if I had to do that. College is out for me, because you know, my brain is way too busy for that nonsense. I’m a creative person, and in case you haven’t noticed, I need to be doing ten different things at once. Case in point.” She picked up her phone and showed Carly the Divine Intervention Instagram feed, and then she flipped to three other social media sites, all of which had pictures of the beautifully displayed chocolates, the Divine Intervention shirts and sweatshirts, the shop filled with customers, and the sidewalk bustling with festivalgoers. Each had a different enticing post with hundreds of comments. “What other job would allow me to make delicious confections, handle marketing, deal with customers, flirt with cute guys, maintain killer social media profiles, and work with my two best friends? You’re stuck with me, boss. I love my job, and when I’m not dreaming of the hot bikers my brothers won’t let me near, I’m coming up with new ideas for us here at DI.” She lowered her voice and said, “Although tonight, Hippie Dude is going to be front and center in my mind. If you catch my drift.”

  A customer flagged them from across the room, and another came to the register with a basketful of merchandise.

  Birdie whispered, “My X-rated drift.”

  The next few hours passed in a blur of dealing with customers, restocking displays, and overthinking. When they finally closed for the evening, Carly went with Birdie, Quinn, and Cutter to watch Kaylie Crew’s last show. They met up with Birdie’s family at the park, which was packed with people sitting on blankets and gathered in small groups. Kaylie stood center stage, belting out the lyrics to one of her latest singles. But even surrounded by her friends, listening to her favorite singer, with hundreds of people milling about, Carly couldn’t stop thinking about how Birdie’s passion for the business was vastly different from her own. Carly had never seen chocolatiering as her life’s dream, though she’d never seen it as a pit stop, either. It had been one of her saving graces.

  But she no longer needed saving.

  Her phone vibrated with another text from Zev, and her pulse quickened. We found a huge concretion. Hoping it’s a cannon. The size is right, but who knows. I’ve got a meeting tonight to coordinate equipment and schedules, but I’ll call you later. How was your day? Wish you were here.

  She was reading it for a third time when Dare sat beside her on the grass.

  “Hey,” he said, studying her face.

  “Hi. How’d you guys do with your booth today?”

  “Great. We had a lot of inquiries and collected a good number of donations.” He leaned into her side and said, “You okay, darlin’?”

  “Why is everyone asking me that?”

  “Maybe because you look like someone stole your favorite teddy bear.” He cocked a grin. “You miss him, huh?”

  She nodded. “But I’m good.”

  “Yeah, and I’m a virgin.” He leaned into her again and said, “It’s okay to be bummed when your old man is gone.”

  “Is it okay to feel like my heart is in two places at once?”

  “It’s better to have a full heart in two places than an empty heart with no place at all.” He pushed to his feet, pulling her up beside him. “Come on, dance with me and make all the ladies jealous.” As he led her down by the stage, he said, “We’ll take a selfie for you to send to your other half. Maybe he’ll come running back to stake his claim and try to kick my ass.”

  “He trusts me, and I’m pretty sure he trusts you, too.”

  Dare swept her into his arms and said, “How do you expect to keep a man if he’s not afraid of losing you?”

  “Wanting your partner to be insecure isn’t healthy, Dare. I think you need a few sessions with your mom,” she teased.

  “Says you and about half this county. You didn’t answer my question.”

  “It was a dumb question.” She smiled at his scowl.

  “Okay, new question. Want me to go drag his ass back here?”

  She rested her cheek on his chest as they slow danced and said, “More than you can imagine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  ZEV SAT ON the deck of his boat admiring Carly over FaceTime as she gazed up at the sky from her perch at a table outside the café a few doors down from the chocolate shop. They’d watched the sunrise over Allure more than an hour ago. Birdie had already shown up to help prepare for their busy day, and Ford and Randi were expected to arrive soon, but neither Zev nor Carly were ready to end the call. It had been four treacherously long days since he’d held her in his arms, four excruciatingly lonely nights since he’d kissed her lips, held her hand, or made love to her. Four days since he’d
felt her hair tickling his skin or caught the scent of her perfume. He had no idea how he’d made it through a day, much less all the years they’d lost. The miles between them had never felt so vast, despite their ongoing texts and video chats.

  Zev had noticed a difference in Carly in the days they’d been apart, as if she were holding something back. He wondered if it was exhaustion, stress, or their lack of concrete plans already taking a toll. Although last night she’d surprised him when their video chat had gone from talking about how much they missed each other to volleying sexy innuendos, which had led to Carly teasing him with a sensual, hip-swaying, seductive striptease. She’d taunted him into joining her in a striptease of his own, and they’d ended up naked and sating their desires by their own hands. After, Carly had lain breathless and beautiful, gazing longingly at him, frustratingly untouchable, which had only made him miss her even more. In truth, he’d sensed a difference in himself, too. After salvaging more than two hundred manillas, they’d finally finished unearthing the enormous concretion they’d located Monday afternoon. Today they were going to lift it out of the seafloor with the crane and tow it back to shore. It appeared to be a cannon, another significant find, but there was only one thing he was chomping at the bit to get his hands on—and he was looking at her, two thousand miles away.

  “This was such a good idea,” she said, drawing him from his thoughts. “The perfect way to welcome the morning together.”

  As glad as he was for video-chat software, it was a poor substitute for the real thing. “I wish I were sitting beside you so you could feel my lips on your skin.”

  “Don’t be silly. You’re doing important things. And today you have your first television interview. I’m so proud of you. Besides, you’d be bored if you were here. It’s just a festival. It doesn’t compare to what’s going on out there.”

  He’d been dodging reporters all week. Roddy had increased marina security, and Zev had tried to stay in the background, which had been easier when Luis was running the expedition. Now it was all on his shoulders. He’d finally given in and agreed to do one interview with the World Exploration Network, an LWW Enterprises channel, for their Discovery Hour show, and it was taking place in half an hour and airing later in the afternoon. He’d only agreed to the interview because his cousin Flynn worked for the network and the reporter was a friend of Randi’s who had grown up on Silver Island. He should be thrilled, but it didn’t mean much when he was missing out on all the little things with Carly. He wanted to be the one helping her hand out samples and dancing under the stars. As much as he loved that her friends were taking her out to dinner and keeping her busy, he hated that they needed to.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done to me, Carls, but I don’t think it’s possible for me to be bored when I’m with you,” he said honestly, the love in her eyes tugging at him. “I hate not being able to hold your hand or surprise you at work. When you were at the Roadhouse last night with your friends and I was on the boat planning for today, all I could think about was being there with you.”

  Sadness rose in her eyes, but she sat up a little straighter, putting on that beautiful brave face she’d mastered this week, and said, “We knew it was going to be hard.”

  “Yeah, well…” He shrugged. “This is harder than I ever imagined it would be. Babe, I was jealous of Dare dancing with you, not because he’s a threat but because he got to hold you in his arms and be there to see the starlight reflecting in your eyes. What the hell…? How can this be our lives if some other guy gets all the good parts?”

  Her warm smile reached all the way up to her eyes. “You think seeing a reflection in my eyes is a good part?”

  “I see everything in your eyes. When you’re sad, when you’re happy, when you want me. I couldn’t go a day without seeing them.”

  “That’s because you love me.”

  “I’ve always loved you.”

  “But you love me more now,” she said braggingly.

  Damn right he did.

  “I’m doing the same thing,” she said softly. “When I’m supposed to be paying attention to customers, I’m daydreaming about being there with you. Birdie says I’m suffering from boyfriend withdrawal.”

  “I’m dying to come see you. I went over the schedule last night after our call, but then I realized I can’t make any commitments until we get this cannon out and see if there’s more under there. But trust me, I’m trying to make it happen.”

  “I looked at my schedule, too, and I don’t know when I’ll get a break.”

  He turned at the sound of voices and saw Ford and Randi heading down the dock. He and Carly had so little time to talk, he didn’t want to share her with anyone. But Carly had mentioned several times that she and Randi had been texting, and he knew she’d want to see her. “Ford and Randi are here. Want to say hello?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding eagerly, but her smile appeared strained again.

  “If you’d rather not, it’s—”

  “I want to. I miss them, and Randi has been so nice sending me all those pictures.”

  Zev pushed to his feet and waved them over as Randi stepped onto the boat.

  “Hey, boss.” Randi handed him a bag from the bakery. “I brought you a muffin.”

  “Thanks. And I brought you Carly.”

  He turned the phone, and Carly said, “Good morning!”

  “Hey, girlfriend! How’s the festival?” Randi asked.

  “It’s great,” Carly said. “Busy, but fun.”

  “Hi, Carly. Think you can get here by this afternoon?” Ford put a hand on Zev’s shoulder and said, “This guy’s been an ornery pain in my ass all week, and I have a feeling it’s because he’s missing you.”

  “I can’t even imagine Zev being ornery,” she said with a sweet smile. “Arrogant, yes. Cocky, definitely. But ornery?” She shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”

  Ford scoffed. “Hear that, Randi? Take a few videos of Zev today and send them to Carly. Show her what we’re dealing with.”

  “Don’t believe a word he says.” Zev put his face in front of the phone, blocking Ford, and said, “He’s just trying to get you to bring out more fudge.”

  “The bastard ate most of the box you sent,” Randi complained.

  “I did not. She’s the culprit. Just check out the evidence.” Ford smacked Randi’s ass.

  “Hey!” Randi turned and socked him in the arm, and he ran after her.

  As they chased each other around—Randi complaining about spilling her coffee and Ford telling her to run faster and work off the fudge—Zev got Carly all to himself again and climbed to the upper deck.

  “They’re so much fun,” she said. “Where are Cliff and Tanner?”

  “They’ll be here after the interview.”

  Birdie appeared behind Carly and put her hands on Carly’s shoulders. She grinned into the camera and said, “Hey there, heart stealer.”

  “Hi, Birdie. How are you?” Zev said as Randi darted past threatening Ford, who was right behind her.

  “If you’d asked me ten minutes ago, I would have said fantabulous,” Birdie said. “But there was a little snafu in the kitchen, and I need to steal Carly for a minute.”

  Carly looked up at her. “Snafu?”

  Birdie lowered her voice and said, “A little…fire…”

  Carly’s face blanched and she shot to her feet, panicked. “What?” She looked at Zev and said, “I’ve got to—”

  “Go!” Shit. He fucking hated being this far away.

  “I put it out!” Birdie hollered as she ran after Carly.

  This was the last thing Carly needed when she was already overloaded with the festival and he was two thousand miles away. He heard a shriek, a splash, and turned to see Ford and Randi grappling in the water.

  “Zev Braden?”

  He whipped around at the sound of an unfamiliar woman’s voice and found an attractive blonde standing on the dock alongside a beefy guy. “Yes?”

  “
Hi. I’m Sutton Steele from the World Exploration Network, and this is my cameraman, Ted.”

  Fuck. He’d forgotten about the interview. “Yes, hi,” he said distractedly as Ford and Randi bickered and splashed in the water. “I’m sorry, but can you give me just one minute, please?”

  “Sure,” she said. She touched Ted’s arm, and they both turned around, as if to give him privacy.

  Zev walked a few feet away and called Beau. “Hey, I’m sorry to call so early, but I need a favor.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, but Carly had a fire at the chocolate shop. It didn’t sound bad, but can you please go over there and check on her? See if she needs any help? Let me know what’s going on?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I hate doing this to you. Thanks, man. I’ve got to run.” He ended the call and strode over to the side of the boat. Ford had Randi trapped with her back against his chest, and she was cursing at him. Zev hollered, “Hey!” They both looked over, and he said, “The reporter is here. Any chance you guys can look like a real dive team?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  THE BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE Carly had watched with Zev led to a warm morning that brought out the crowds. Music from the bluegrass band playing in the park drifted in as customers came and went from the chocolate shop. Gossip spread quickly in the small town, and it seemed like everyone had heard about the fire. Answering a million questions was the last thing Carly needed after a lonely week spent dodging her own thoughts and pretending to be okay. At least the fire hadn’t caused any major damage. Birdie had accidentally bumped a towel into the flame on the stove as she’d gone to get something from the stockroom and had gotten sidetracked while posting on Instagram. The fire had spread to a plastic container on the counter. She had quickly put the fire out, but the alarm had brought a firetruck and an ambulance. Carly had been frazzled by the chaos in her kitchen and then Beau and Charlotte had come barreling in, adding to the confusion—and stirring up a zillion more worries in Carly’s mind. While it was thoughtful of Zev to send his brother to check on her, Beau wasn’t Zev. Her thoughts had taken hold of that fact and run with it. This was what their lives would be like for years to come, at least over the summers. Anything could happen. What if they decided to have children? How would that work? What if one of them got hurt or sick and Zev was thousands of miles away? What if Zev got sick or was bitten by a shark, and she was far away? Her heart raced as an even scarier thought trampled through her mind. What if there was a storm and Zev got lost at sea?