Summer on Moonlight Bay

by Hope Ramsay

  Abby Cuthbert studied the pair. “I don’t know. Maybe. Lia told me last night that she was in the chaplain service with the Rev. She was his bodyguard.”

  “Really? She doesn’t look big enough to be a bodyguard, and besides, Micah doesn’t strike me as a guy who needs a bodyguard.”

  “You got that right.”

  “I think they’re kind of sweet together,” Kate said on a long sigh before turning back toward the bar to pick up her drink order. Kate was easily the oldest waitress on Rafferty’s staff but she only worked a few days a week—Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays during the high season.

  “Well,” Abby said as Kate hefted the tray filled with margaritas, “if they continue to hold hands like that in public, there’s going to be a ton of gossip.”

  “Amen to that,” Kate said right before heading off to the table of tourists in section one. “Yeah, I guess,” Abby said, checking the clock. It was five minutes past her break time. Rafferty’s was insanely busy today. But then June and July were the height of the summer season.

  She turned to the bartender, who just happened to be Declan O’Toole this afternoon. Declan owned Rafferty’s, and he sometimes amused himself by tending bar. “Hey, Boss, I’m taking my break, okay?” she said.

  He gave her a quick salute. The dining room was beginning to clear from the lunch crowd, but out on the terrace, it looked as if the regular Tuesday crowd of sailors was beginning to drift in. A little early today, but then the wind was rising and the bay looked a little choppy—not exactly fun sailing conditions for the eighteen-foot open cockpit sailboats that were known as Buccaneers.

  Abby headed out the back door, escaping to the boardwalk, where she planted her elbows on the railing and watched the sailboats as they headed to shore. Most of them had already come in. She searched the boats still on the water, looking for Dragonfly, the boat belonging to Grant Ackerman.

  She didn’t see the boat, which raised a wave of disappointment. Of course she was an idiot to have any kind of thing for a guy like Grant. He was way older than she was and totally out of her league. But until Noah had mentioned him last night, it had never occurred to her that Grant might be interested back.

  That was kind of a shock. What would a guy with that much gray hair want with someone only twenty? Of course, his gray hair was fabulous. Gray was in these days.

  And his gray was a shade just whiter than platinum. He didn’t really have a lot of wrinkles or anything, and his body was totally hot. Probably because he spent tons of time out there on the bay sailing that racing boat. In heavy wind, he had to hike out over the gunwales, and that tended to keep anyone’s abs in great shape.

  Oh well, he had a job as a boring old CPA or something like that. So he was probably in his office today. She’d have to wait to see if what Noah had told her last night was true. She checked her watch. She needed to get back.

  She was just turning away from the bayside view when Grant Ackerman and Tim Mayer came striding up the stairway that led down to the public pier. One look at Grant, with his bright hair all wind-tousled, and Abby’s stomach did a loop-di-loop.

  Wow. The sudden vertigo made her feel like a high school nerd with a crush on the teacher. But then, just as she was about to turn and flee, Grant turned his blue-eyed gaze on her, and the corner of his mouth turned up like the smile on an Amazon box.

  Was he interested? Maybe. And, what the heck, it might be educational to have a little summer fling with an older guy. She sure wouldn’t mind spending some time sailing with him. So she shook off her fear and walked right up to him, before he could step up onto Rafferty’s patio.

  “Can I have a word with you?” she asked, pleased with how firm and strong her voice sounded.

  His smile faded as he studied her face. “Uh…”

  Damn. He seemed totally surprised. God, she was about to make an utter fool of herself.

  Tim stopped beside him. “Hey, Abby.”

  Tim was one of Noah’s friends from high school. He was divorced and constantly on the make. Grant was also divorced, so people said. But he was yummy. Tim was just kind of sad. “Hey, Tim…um…do you mind? I’d like a word in private with Grant.”

  Tim’s eyebrow arched in a totally predictable way, and he gave Grant a thumbs-up. “I’ll get you a beer,” he said and headed up onto the patio, where other Buccaneer sailors were gathering.

  “What is it?” Grant asked. He seemed kind of nervous, and Abby’s heart started pounding in her chest. This might be the stupidest thing she’d ever done in her life.

  She pulled in a deep breath. “My brother says you have a thing for me.”

  His eyes went wide. “Your brother? You mean the cop?” He seemed really worried about that. Probably with good reason, because it was a known fact that Daddy and Ethan could be overprotective. It wasn’t easy being the daughter of the police chief and one of his deputies.

  “Yes. And I’m just wondering why he would think a thing like that. Have you been talking about me?”

  “No. Of course not. I would never do anything like that. Come on, Abby.”

  Something warm coursed through her when he said her name. But of course all the Buccaneer sailors knew her name. And the ones who didn’t or couldn’t remember could just read her nametag.

  She squinted up at him. He was totally gorgeous and manly. Not at all like the pencil-neck boys she knew from high school. “No?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  “Then why do you look so guilty?”

  His ears got red. Wow. “Look, I think you’re cute, okay? But—”

  “You do?” She interrupted before he could finish. Her heart was really pumping now.

  “I do. But I would never—”

  “Why not?” she asked, stepping closer.

  “Um…”

  “If you think I’m cute, why haven’t you ever told me that until right this minute?”

  “Look, I’m a lot older and—”

  “So what? Just for the record”—she poked her finger into the middle of his chest, which was surprisingly hard and masculine—“I think you’re hot. I watch you all the time when you’re out on the water in Dragonfly. And by the way, I love the boat’s metallic green paint. I think Dragonfly’s spinnaker is just gorgeous too.”

  “You do?”

  “I do.” She stepped closer, and his brilliant blue eyes darkened. Yes!

  “That’s, uh, nice. I’m glad,” he said. Maybe his heart was pounding too.

  “You’re glad? That’s it?”

  “Um. Well…”

  She rose up on tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. And damned if Grant Ackerman didn’t grab her by the shoulders and kiss her right back. Really kiss her. With lots of very talented tongue.

  Wow. She would not let this opportunity slip through her fingers. She had exactly six weeks left before she had to be up in Columbia. And that was plenty of time for Grant Ackerman to teach her a whole lot of stuff she needed to learn.

  Chapter Six

  When Lia returned to the clinic after lunch, the keys she’d hidden under the rock were missing, and the door was open.

  Yikes! Things were not going well. She didn’t have a real job or a place to stay, and now her bad decisions may have resulted in someone stealing the clinic’s property. Or, God forbid, the medications.

  Which were not locked up as they probably should be.

  In retrospect, the hiding place she’d chosen for the keys had been pretty obvious. She was a first-class idiot.

  She cautiously opened the door. The reception area was deserted. With her heart hammering in her chest, she tiptoed down the hall, peeking into each of the exam rooms. No one was there.

  She finally cracked the kennel room door and found an older woman sitting on one of those wheeled walkers that had a built-in seat. She was bending over to stroke Prince’s head through the bars of his kennel. She had gray hair pulled back in a grandmotherly bun at the nape of her neck and wore a sleeveless cott
on shirt in a pale blue flowered print and a pair of navy Bermuda shorts. She didn’t look like a bad guy, so Lia opened the door.

  “Oh, hello,” the woman said with a smile. “You must be Lia. I’m Molly Cuthbert.”

  Lia stepped into the room, eyeing the walker and remembering what the doctor had said about his mother. “You must be the doctor’s mother, then.”

  “I am. I heard all about you and Prince from Abigail. I thought I’d come down here to take a look at him. He really is the spitting image of Duke.”

  “Duke?”

  She nodded, her smile fading a little. “Duke was Noah’s dog a long time ago, when he was just a boy. He loved that dog.” She let go of a long sigh and smiled again. “I’m glad he had the chance to save this puppy’s leg. I only wish I could get him to see that he could make a difference here, you know?”

  Lia said nothing because Noah had made it quite plain that he was just visiting long enough to pack up his mother and take her back to Charleston with him, whether Molly wanted to leave or not. Clearly this woman didn’t want to go.

  So much for her dreams of subleasing Molly’s house. On the other hand, maybe this was a blessing. Maybe the doctor needed a dog. He was a vet. Didn’t all vets have at least one dog at home? And if Prince looked like his old boyhood dog, all the better.

  “So, you think the doctor might want to adopt Prince?” Lia asked.

  Molly barked out a laugh. “I wish. Noah has owned exactly one dog in his life. He’s not about to get another.”

  Lia longed to ask why but held back. She could understand how someone might feel that way. Her own disaster with Whiskers had put her off pet ownership for a lifetime. On the other hand, he was a total hypocrite for giving her crap about not being willing to adopt the dog when he wasn’t ready either.

  Molly slowly stood up, a little grimace on her face. She moved as if every muscle was stiff and tight. “Well, I didn’t mean to get in anyone’s way. I just wanted to see the dog. He’s a cutie. You should really think about keeping him.” Molly released the hand brakes on her walker and rolled it around in front of her.

  Lia held the door for her as she slowly made her way into the hallway.

  “Um, was my hiding place for the keys that obvious?” Lia asked.

  Molly laughed again. “Yes, it was. But no worries. I don’t think anyone would be all that interested in stealing anything from the clinic. Folks around here are mostly interested in seeing the clinic open for business. But we seem to have hit a roadblock on that.”

  They reached the reception area, and Molly glanced at the air mattress, which Lia had yet to deflate. “Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

  “No, ma’am. But I’m working on finding one. And I’m waiting for the board of Heavenly Rest Church to decide if they want to hire me as their church secretary. I asked Dr. Cuthbert if it would be okay if I crashed here for another night. He doesn’t seem to be in charge though. Do you think I could call Donna and ask if it would be okay to stay here another night?”

  “Honey, Donna would be delighted if you stayed another night. Like me, she’d also love it if you could convince Noah to stay for the summer. Do you think you could do that?”

  “Me? Unlikely. I haven’t seen him since he left this morning.”

  Molly drew in a long breath and exhaled. “Well, anything you could do to convince him to stay would be much appreciated. And don’t worry about sleeping here. It’s not as if the clinic is open, you know?”

  “Thanks. Now all I need is a public shower. Is there a beach that might have—”

  “Oh for goodness’ sake. You don’t need to do that. I’ve got a perfectly fine shower you can use.”

  “I don’t want to put you out or—”

  “Nonsense. I’ve got a bathroom right off the kitchen at the back of the house that no one ever uses.” She stopped, opened the walker’s seat, and pulled out a small purse. She dug around in it for a moment and came up with a set of keys. She took a brass key off the jump ring. “Here, honey, this is a key to our back door. If you find me a slip of paper and a pen, I can write out the address for you. You just come on over this afternoon when you get finished organizing the storeroom. You don’t need to knock, just open the back door, and the bathroom is right there. I’ll leave you some towels.”

  “Uh, thanks but—”

  “Don’t you worry. It’s no inconvenience. It’s the least I can do in return for the work you’re doing down here.”

  Lia took the key and found a package of Post-it Notes for Molly to write down the address, and then she helped Molly down the steps at the front door and watched her make her slow way to her car.

  Lia tucked the key and the note safely in her pocket and went back to work for the rest of the afternoon. It was after five when she broke down the last cardboard box and tossed it into the recycling bin. She was sweaty and stinky and needed that shower, bad.

  She took Prince out for a pee break and then headed off to check out Molly Cuthbert’s house and borrow her shower.

  Chapter Seven

  Noah spent the afternoon out on the bay, sailing with Harry Bauman on his J/22 sailboat. It had been a nice day for a sail with a steady on-shore wind that filled in as the day progressed. The bay got a little choppy toward the end, but the J/22 handled that okay.

  He’d checked on the dog around lunchtime before heading off to the marina and again a little before six after he’d helped Harry button up the boat. Both times Lia DiPalma had been conspicuously absent.

  But the air mattress remained in the corner of the reception area, and she’d clearly intended to return. Both times she’d hidden the key in the planter by the front door. He hadn’t needed to call her to find it. Good thing no one was particularly interested in ripping off the clinic.

  She must have been around during the day because the chaos in the storeroom had been gradually restored to order. When he stopped by in the evening, he found a note in her precise, compact handwriting, explaining what she’d done and asking for further instructions, in case she’d put things in the wrong place.

  Strangely, he didn’t need to give her any further instructions. She’d organized the place exactly the way he would have done it. He was kind of amazed since she had no experience in veterinary practice management.

  Maybe he should recommend her to the clinic’s board. She could serve as an office manager. Knowing Jenna St. Pierre, the chair of the clinic’s board of directors, Lia DiPalma could probably talk her way into a package of benefits that included tuition assistance at the local community college if she wanted to go for a vet tech degree. Jenna was single-minded when it came to creating job opportunities for women in this town.

  And Noah could help by handing Momma’s POS rental off to Lia. Not that he would want anyone to live in that dilapidated house. But the roof didn’t leak. Hell, maybe he could convince Jenna St. Pierre to buy the whole row of rental homes off Josh Moore and refurbish them the way she was refurbishing Howland House.

  And maybe he should concentrate on the issue at hand—packing Momma up and getting the hell out of Dodge.

  He took the puppy out for a pee break, but the dog didn’t seem to need it. Before he got too concerned, he’d need to check with Lia to see if she’d already taken care of that.

  Prince—he hated the fact that he was coming to think of the dog by that name—was adorable in the way of all lab puppies, and his resemblance to Duke pulled at Noah’s heartstrings. But he wasn’t going to adopt this dog.

  No, the key to finding a home for Prince was in finding a forever home for Lia. The dog would naturally follow.

  He closed up the clinic, replaced the key in the planter, and headed home. After a day of sailing, he needed a shower, and he decided that it made a lot more sense to wash the salt and sand off in the back bathroom rather than tracking it through the house and having Abby and Momma scold him for it.

  So he parked his Lexus on the street and headed around to the back door, findin
g it unlocked. A surprise since no one used the back door much, except him when he came visiting.

  He stepped into the narrow mudroom beyond the door, which separated the kitchen from the laundry room and the bathroom. There was a cupboard right beside the washer and dryer where Momma stored beach towels. He shucked off his board shorts and T-shirt, throwing them in the washer, grabbed a clean towel, and opened the door to the bathroom.

  And came face-to…whatever, with a completely naked and dripping-wet Lia DiPalma. Who didn’t scream, jump, or respond the way a naked lady ought to respond. Instead she turned calmly and looked him over, from the tips of his toes to the top of his head and then back down again. To his crotch.

  Never in Noah’s life had he ever been inspected quite that way. But he didn’t back out of the room in a hot hurry either. Because while Lia was checking him out, he was enjoying the view himself.

  They stood frozen for an endless moment until Noah’s good sense kicked in and he whipped the beach towel around his midsection. Lia, on the other hand, didn’t seem in much of a hurry to grab the towel on the rack.

  She moved in slow motion, giving him ample time to appreciate her muscular build, her round breasts, the curve of her hips, and the pretty pink of her pert nipples before her body disappeared behind a big beach towel that wrapped around her almost two times.

  Wow. She was one nice little package all right. Good thing he’d wrapped the towel around his middle.

  “What are you doing here?” he finally asked.

  “Um, well, your mother dropped by the clinic, and when I asked her for directions to a public shower, she offered this one. She said no one ever used this bathroom.”

  His face grew hot. “Uh, I’m sorry. Momma came by the clinic? By herself?”

  “Yes. Is that unusual?”

  “I’m not wild about her driving.”

  “She seemed perfectly capable to me. And I took her up on the invitation because, you know, I wanted to see the place. Since it’s going to be available as a sublease, right?”