“Pathetic, right?”
“Well, I have news for you. Remember when I taught you the dead man’s float at Stargazer Beach? And I made you close your eyes?”
“Yup. Which wasn’t easy, because you looked so crazy good in your lifeguard uniform.”
“Yeah, well, I lied—there’s no need to keep your eyes closed. I just wanted to look at you without being so obvious.”
He threw his head back and laughed. She found herself staring at his profile the way she’d stared at his entire body that day at Stargazer. He had new laugh lines fanning from his eyes, and the curve of his lips was firmer, more commanding. But her beloved Ben was still in there, especially when he laughed. “We had the social skills of a couple of hermit crabs,” he told her.
“I just couldn’t believe you liked me. It took me so long to figure it out. In the meantime, I decided we could be best friends, and occasionally I could let myself lust after you.”
Speaking of Stargazer Beach, she realized that he was steering the truck in that direction. He turned onto the winding back road that paralleled the coast. “Are you looking for another dead man’s float lesson?” she teased. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God. That sounded terrible. I don’t mean to be insensitive. I’m so sorry.”
He snorted, shooting her an amused look. “You need to brush up on your morbid sense of humor. I don’t find that insensitive. My father is dead. It’s not news. We’ve been processing that fact for twelve years.”
“Still…” She took a breath of the fresh air blowing in from outside, carrying the first hint of ocean. “I cried for days when I got the news. Your father was always nice to me, even though he terrified me.”
“I know he did, but I also remember that time you stood up to him. You won major points in the Knight brothers ledger book for that one.”
She frowned, not quite remembering.
“You know, when he was pissed because I didn’t fix the lawn mower the way I was supposed to?”
“Because you were helping me at the beach. A boy wandered onto the rocks and got stuck, and I couldn’t leave the beach. So you went, even though your dad had given you until the end of the day to get it fixed.” It was all coming back to her now, the panic of discovering that a boy was missing, the steady way Ben had stepped in to search. He’d found the boy trapped between some rocks, his ankle twisted. He’d freed him and carried him piggy-back style back to the beach.
“You were such a hero that day.” She could still remember the image of her tall, strong boyfriend trudging across the beach with that sobbing boy on his back.
“No, you were the hero. My dad came at me like thunder. I thought he was going to pull out the old witch hazel switch he used to use when he was really pissed. Then you piped up and stood right in front of him and told him I’d saved a kid’s life, and that I should be getting extra dessert, not a scolding.”
She laughed. “Did I really say that? It’s kind of a blur. I was shaking in my shoes, I really was.”
“You did.” Her hand lay on the seat between them. He covered it with his own, so much bigger and rougher than she remembered.
A shiver went through her from head to toe. She disguised it with a laugh. “I’m pretty good at standing up for other people. You should see me with Felix’s teachers, when they don’t understand his issues.”
“I bet you’re an incredible champion for him,” he said softly. He pulled his hand away so he could downshift as he took the turn toward the beach. “Do you remember how we spent the rest of that night?”
She laughed, even though her hand now felt cold and a little lonely. “I got a crash course in lawn mower mechanics, I remember that.”
“Yup. You refused to leave me until it was done. You held the light for me when it got too dark to see. You fetched me tools and oil. You were amazing.”
She scoffed. “It was the least I could do. That boy might have died if not for you. Besides, it was fun.” She gave him a sunny, innocent smile. “I was with you. Everything was better when I was with you.”
He flattened his hand against his chest, as if she’d shot him with an arrow. She knew the feeling.
They pulled into the parking lot that sat above the beach. From here, a little path wound through dune grasses and coarse sand to the ocean shore. To the left, Julie spotted the little lifeguard stand where she’d spent the last two summers of high school. Since it was only staffed during the summer, sheets of plywood now covered its windows. She wondered what lucky crew of teenagers shared that job now.
“I guess that leaves us with the same question I asked before. What’s next?” Ben’s soft question sent chills along her skin. What did she want to happen next? What did he want?
“Well…I suppose we could get out of the truck,” she suggested. “Be a shame not to.”
“After coming all this way, it would seem like a waste,” he agreed. As if they’d rehearsed, they both opened their doors and swung out of the truck, a coordinated movement that reminded Julie of how in sync they’d always been.
He led the way through the dunes to the beach, which had a winter bleakness to it, now that it was exposed by the low tide. Only a few seagulls swooped and cawed overhead, occasionally landing on the heaps of seaweed left behind by the receding tide.
They picked their way past the high-tide mark, causing a sandpiper to skitter away in a rapid-fire blur of brittle legs. Julie wished she’d brought something warmer than a sweater; the wind off the ocean wicked the heat away from her.
Ben noticed, of course. He was always alert to that kind of thing. She used to tease him that she loved him mostly for his body heat. From his conflicted expression, she could tell he was hesitating about whether to put his arm around her to provide some warmth. But he didn’t touch her this time. Instead, he shifted his position so he blocked the wind better.
Such a sweet Ben-like gesture. It made her heart ache for what used to be between them.
“What’s next? North or south? Or back to the truck and blast the heater?” Ben asked.
What’s next…
“One way or another, we need to keep moving.” She hopped from one foot to the other, trying to generate some BTUs.
“Wait, is that a metaphor or do you mean it literally?” He must have made up his mind about the body heat issue, because he wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a friendly, bear-like way that made it clear this was only for anti-hypothermia purposes, nothing more.
She laughed at her accidental double entendre. “Both, I guess.” She started down the beach in the windward direction, with him pacing at her side. “Let’s go this way, so we can do the cold part first, then have the wind behind us on the way back.”
“Okay, now, is that a metaphor? Are you saying we need to get the tough conversations out of the way first?”
The amusement in his deep voice had her laughing too. “How many tough conversations can we have in one day? I think we’ve met our quota.”
“Thank God. I’m a guy, I can only handle so many of those.” He sidestepped around a pile of kelp. “Then let’s get to the good stuff. Here’s what I think we should do. Start fresh.”
“How do you mean?”
He shrugged. “We’ve both changed. We’re not the same people we were at eighteen. I, for instance, am a hardened military veteran. I can land an A-10 Thunderbolt near the front lines as easily as I used to beat you at Ping-Pong.”
“Oh-ho. I see you still exaggerate like a champ. I beat you at least one time out of five.”
“Yeah, and that one time out of five you were wearing extra-short shorts.”
She shoved him a little. “Don’t even try to pull the ‘distracted’ card. I can play that one too. I remember each and every time you played shirtless.”
He laughed. “I barely had any muscles to show off back then. Care for a rematch?”
“Promise to keep your clothes on?”
“Not a chance. I need every edge I can get. You don�
��t need short shorts to be distracting any more. You’ve been distracting me since you got back.”
That confession made her heart do a slow spin of joy. “Not intentionally, believe me. I was trying to avoid you,” she admitted.
“I was trying to avoid you too.” He grinned down at her. “And see where that got us. Don’t you think destiny is trying to tell us something?”
“I gave up trying to interpret destiny a long time ago. Now I just put one foot in front of the other. And try not to trip over my shoelaces.”
“Wearing those sexy boots is one way to accomplish that.”
At his look of hot appreciation, a spark of excitement kindled inside her. It had been a long time since she’d felt anything along those lines with a man.
A wave swept up the beach, as if trying to reach them with a creamy line of foam. “Tide’s coming in,” Ben observed. “It’s getting late.”
“Oh my God.” She dug in her pocket for her phone. “I can’t be late to pick up Felix. It’s the kind of thing that can make him extra anxious.” When she saw the time, she relaxed slightly, since she still had an hour of freedom. Still, it was amazing how much time had passed. It had always been that way when she was with Ben. He warped the space-time continuum. A day could pass in a blink when she was with him. “We should get back to the truck. I need to drive back to Will’s and get my car.”
“No need. I can drive with you to pick up Felix, then take you to Will’s. It would save a little time.”
“Really?” she asked dubiously. “You must have places you need to be. Like, up in the sky somewhere, in a cockpit?”
“No more flights booked today. Sorry, you’re stuck with me. I’ll be Felix’s chauffeur today.”
“Well, if you’re sure…it would save a little time, instead of going all the way across town.” And Felix would probably like it. Especially if she added an ice cream sundae to the agenda.
“Good. It’s decided. So, we’re doing this, right?” In sync once again, they turned and headed the other direction down the beach, the wind at their backs now.
“Picking up Felix? Or are we back to ‘what’s next’?”
“Back to what’s next. I’m persistent like that. I’m serious, Julie. There was a time when you were my best friend. You knew me better than my brothers did. And that’s saying something, considering that they knew every embarrassing quirk from when I was a baby.”
“Like the fact that you refused to wear diapers and would always take them off and leave them on the floor? And that one time Will stepped on one of them and fell on his butt?”
“Yes. One of my finer moments. How did you know that?”
She smiled. “I think I bartered for that information. I believe I offered to set Tobias up with a friend of mine in exchange for blackmail material.”
“Well, it’s official then, you knew me better than my brothers. And that was incredibly devious, by the way.”
He put up his hand for a high-five. Their hands met, then clung together instead of releasing for a proper high-five. He tugged her to a stop. They faced each other just yards from the lifeguard shack, where she’d spent more blissful hours than she could count.
“I feel like there’s been a hole in my life for the past twelve years. I didn’t like it. Heartbreak aside, I wanted to know where you were, what you were doing. I wanted to know what you were thinking about and laughing about. Did you think about me when you were in LA?”
“Ben! Of course I did. I used to look for mentions of you every time the Air Force was in the news. But now—” She broke off. How could she say this without pushing him away? “I don’t know how this is going to work while I have Felix. He requires a lot of consistency, a lot of attention, a least when he’s not completely absorbed in something. Then I could do the cha-cha in a banana costume and he wouldn’t notice. But he doesn’t like Jupiter Point and he doesn’t like the Reinhards and Savannah’s shoot is going over and he needs me.”
“I’m not trying to take you away from Felix. I’m talking about resurrecting our friendship, nothing else.”
Oh. Her heart twisted. Nothing else. Well. Good to know. “Of course. I mean, I didn’t think you were suggesting anything else. I just don’t have a lot of time, that’s all I meant. I try to book jobs when Felix is at school. That doesn’t really leave much time for a social life.”
He cocked his head at her. “Be straight with me here. Is that a brush-off?”
“No, it’s just reality.”
“Well, apparently reality isn’t always what it seems. You didn’t leave me without a word and I didn’t stand you up. I say we make our own reality now.”
She stared at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I have an idea. Your business, Green and Pristine. You mentioned that you started it. You run the business, you own it, you’re like the Queen of Green?”
She laughed, even though she still had no idea where he was going with this. “That’s me. Next time you see me with a spray bottle, bow down.”
“Oh, I will. Believe me. I’m in awe of all your hard work. Now I just want to…borrow you for a while. For Knight and Day. We’re a new business too, and we have no idea what we’re doing. The flying’s one thing, we got that. But the accounting, the filing, the keeping track of receipts, the P&Ls, all that stuff. You set up Green and Pristine, so you know the drill, right?”
“I know enough. I just figure it out as I go.”
“Because you’re smart and savvy, you always were. We need help, Julie. We’re booked all the time and we’re getting behind on the organizational shit, the systems. I’ve been staying late trying to get on top of it, but flying tours on no sleep is a bad idea. Lives are at stake.” He pulled a pathetic face.
She wrinkled her forehead at him. “Now that’s low. You’re trying to guilt me into organizing your life?”
“I’m desperate.”
“Desperate for a file clerk?” A smile wanted to spread across her face but she beat it back.
“Desperate for you,” he said promptly. Then he shocked her by dropping to one knee. “Julie deGaia, will you please come work for Knight and Day Flight Tours? You can choose your hours, work only when Felix is in school, whatever you want. As an added perk, we give all employees and their children unlimited access to flight tours.”
“That seems insanely generous. How many employees do you have?”
“You would be the first.” He grinned at her, then hopped back onto his feet.
She laughed and shook her head at his ridiculousness. He brushed damp sand off his knee and they kept going down the beach. A seagull swooped past them with a cry, probably disappointed Ben wasn’t spreading out a picnic lunch on the beach.
“By the way, one of your jobs would be to help us hire a few more people. We’re severely understaffed.”
“So, you need a file clerk and a headhunter?”
“No way. We need a queen.”
She laughed, finding him too adorable to resist. He always had been. “Well, it’s quite an offer.” They reached the path that led back to the parking lot. “There must be a catch.”
“There is. You’ll probably see a lot of me. Despite rumors and appearances, I have no life. I’m basically always at Knight and Day, or up in a plane. I’m begging you, Julie. Be our savior. Ride to our rescue.”
“Ride to the Knight brothers’ rescue? That sounds backwards.”
“It isn’t. Believe me. Oh, you’d also have to answer the phone. You have no idea how much help that would be. The amount of time I spend listening to all the messages that come in while I’m in the air, it’s crazy. Then I have to answer all those calls. Seriously, Julie. Whatever you’re making as a cleaner, we’ll double it.”
They’d reached his truck and he dug his hand into his pocket for his keys.
“Don’t you want to run this by Tobias?”
“Believe me, he doesn’t like paperwork any more than I do. He’ll fall at your feet if you t
ake this job. And all you have to do is put up with me being around.”
He winked at her, but behind his jaunty manner, she picked up on some anxiety. He was truly concerned that she might not want him around. And that broke her heart a little.
“Ben, you do realize that I didn’t leave Jupiter Point because of you? That I assumed I’d be coming back to you?”
“I get that now. But I’m not taking anything for granted.”
“Okay then.” She stepped closer to him. He was still searching for his keys. When she was a few inches from him, he stopped and gave her his complete attention. She breathed in his familiar smell, happiness flooding through her. Then she raised herself on tiptoe and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “I’d be happy to put my green cleaning career temporarily on hold.”
A wide grin spread across his face. “Thank you. Believe me, you’ll be doing us a huge favor.”
“There is one potential problem.”
“Shoot.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to get the role I auditioned for this morning. It seemed to be mostly a formality. I’m not sure of the schedule yet, but I’ll need some time to learn the part.”
“I’ll help. I’ll run lines with you. Remember how I helped when you were Mary Poppins?” He finally found his keys and unlocked his door, then pressed the button for hers. He strode around to the other side of the truck and opened the door with a bow. “That’s what friends do.”
She climbed into the passenger seat. “So, we’re friends.”
“Friends,” he said firmly. He got back into his seat and started up the truck. “Let’s not let anything else ruin that. Ever again.”
She could think of one thing that could ruin their friendship again. Having all the same feelings for him as before—except deeper, because she was older and more experienced now, and knew exactly how precious their teenage connection had been.
But that wouldn’t happen, because Ben made a good point. They were two different people now, and they were creating a fresh start.
One that involved a lot of filing, apparently.
“By the way, what’s the part? The one you think you got?” he asked her as they hit the road that would take them back to town.
Hot and Bothered Page 10