Sweet Heat at Bayside (Sweet with Heat

by Addison Cole

  As Drake set Hagen on his feet and reached for her, she went willingly into his strong, loving arms. Gavin was seeking his path, and she was clearly, and unexpectedly, still seeking hers. But she knew one thing for sure: She could handle figuring out her complicated life as long as Drake and her friends were in it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “AREN’T GOODBYES SUPPOSED to get easier?” Serena asked as she hugged everyone for the millionth time Sunday afternoon.

  “Only if you don’t like the people you’re leaving,” Matt said as he squeezed her against him. “This was fun. I’m glad Drake didn’t mind bringing us along.”

  “I’d never rip my girl off from seeing everyone.” Drake pulled Serena into his arms and kissed her.

  He looked about as sleepy as Serena felt. They hadn’t slept much last night. They’d lain beneath the stars talking and kissing, waiting for everyone else to fall asleep so they could finally, blissfully, make sweet, passionate love. Keeping quiet wasn’t easy, especially when Drake knew every single pleasure point on her body and always seemed to discover more. Luckily, he was a master at silencing her with delicious kisses that made her body melt and her head spin.

  “I love you guys,” Serena said as she and Drake made their way to the dock with her work clothes and heels packed away in her messenger bag.

  “Where are you going, Uncle Drake?” Hagen asked.

  “I’m just going to walk Serena up to her apartment. I’ll be back soon.”

  “Take your time,” Dean said. “We’re in no hurry.”

  “Yes, definitely. Take however long you need,” Emery encouraged them.

  “Bye!” Hagen waved wildly, until Mira managed to divert his attention.

  Serena tried to stave off her sadness as they left their friends behind and made their way to her apartment building.

  Drake kissed her shoulder. “How’s my sun-kissed girl?”

  “My world feels perfect when I’m with you,” she said honestly. “And even more so when we’re with our friends. I needed the visit so much. I missed being out on the water and acting like fools with everyone.”

  “Water is to you what music is to me. It’d been so long since you were out on the boat, I figured you needed to fill that well again before heading into another work week.”

  Music filtered into her ears from across the street, and she remembered their first afternoon in Boston, when Drake had borrowed a guitar and sang to her. She’d thought that was the happiest day of her life, but every weekend they were together was even better.

  They headed up to her apartment. As they stepped inside the apartment that had been filled with so much life last night, sorrow shrouded her. Why did it always hit so hard when they were close to their final goodbyes?

  Drake gathered her in his arms, and she buried her face in his chest.

  “Don’t be sad, Supergirl.” He stroked his hand down her back and kissed the top of her head.

  “I don’t even know why I get sad.” She tilted her face up and said, “We just had an amazing time. I should be on cloud nine, and I am, but I hate the distance between us during the week.”

  “Five days and I’ll be back. You can count on that. You don’t have to fight the traffic. I’ll even come up during the week if you want me to.”

  Her phone rang, but she didn’t want to move out of his arms. When it rang again, he reached into her pocket and pulled it out.

  “It’s Justine, babe.”

  “Justine?” She’d left her a message a few days ago and wondered why she hadn’t heard back. “I’ll just be a sec. Don’t leave, okay?”

  He scoffed. “I’m not going anywhere until I see you smile.”

  She pressed the phone to her ear, feeling better already. “Hi, Jus. How are you?”

  “I don’t know. Freaking out a little.”

  “Why? What’s going on? Is Ginny okay?” Ginny was her baby girl.

  “Yes, she’s adorable. It’s business stuff. I need a favor.”

  Serena followed Drake into the living room and sat beside him on the couch. Drake slid an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “Sure. Whatever you need.”

  “I know you’re tied up with your new job, but you know that client you referred from P-town? Donovan? He owns Swank?”

  “Yes. I really liked him.”

  “I wonder if you can take on his project. I’m days away from firming up the sale of Shift, and Donovan had nothing but horrible things to say about the new buyers. He refuses to work with them, and—”

  “Whoa! Hold on.” Serena shot to her feet, her heart racing. “New buyers? You’re selling Shift? What happened?”

  “Nothing happened. Greg and I have been talking about it since Ginny was born. I want more time with her, Serena. I don’t want to be a part-time mom.”

  “But how did I not know this?” She looked at Drake and said, “Did you know Justine was selling Shift?”

  Drake shook his head.

  “Who are you talking to?” Justine asked.

  “Drake,” Serena said. “Sorry. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “We got an offer from this guy who owns a few small interior design shops in Plymouth and New Bedford. We’ve been negotiating for two weeks, and we’re close to finalizing. I should have papers to review Tuesday morning. I had planned on handing Donovan over to the new buyers, but I obviously can’t do that. If you’re too busy, it’s okay. I can figure something else out.”

  “I’m never too busy for you. But…” She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start. “How much are you asking for Shift?”

  “Not much. Fifty thousand. It’s the equivalent of the profit I earn in one year of part-time work. At least it’s something, and it’ll allow me to have time with Ginny.”

  “I wish you had told me. I could have thought about scraping the money together or something.” Her thoughts whirled with possibilities.

  “I’m sorry. By the time we decided to do it, you had started your new job, and I didn’t want to mess that up for you. I can take Donovan’s job to someone else if you want. It’s just that I trust you, and you referred him to me.”

  “Don’t give it to anyone else. I hardly have time to breathe right now, and I could only work on it on the weekends and in the evenings. Although lately I’ve had to work for KHB some weekends. But I’ll make it work.”

  They talked for a few more minutes, but Serena couldn’t process much beyond the questions swimming in her mind. She sank down to the couch beside Drake after she ended the call, still in shock. “She’s selling Shift. I can’t believe it. She wants to spend more time with Ginny.”

  Drake put a hand on her leg and said, “And…?”

  She closed her eyes for a beat, feeling all tangled up inside. “I don’t know. I’m sort of wishing I had known. What if I wanted to buy it?”

  “Would you? You’ve always said you wanted to work in a large company. Isn’t Shift small-time compared to where you are now?”

  She groaned and stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t know what I want, or how I could even entertain the possibility. She’s asking fifty thousand, and she’s close to finalizing a deal. I’d have to get a loan for some of the money.”

  “I’ll give you the money if that’s what you want to do with your career.”

  “No.” She pushed to her feet and said, “I’m not my mother. What we have is too good to mix business with pleasure.”

  “Serena, don’t be stubborn.” He went to her. “If this is what you really want, you can have it all. I’ll lend you the money—not give it to you—if you’d like. But just make sure you’re not thinking about buying it because of me.”

  She paced, then flopped back down on the couch. “I don’t know what I want. I love so many things about my job. But I also really resent some aspects of it. And I hate being away from you and our friends.” She jumped up again, too jittery to sit still, and paced the floor. “But I’m not going backward, and I’m not making a career
decision based on us.”

  “Hey, I’m not asking you to,” Drake said sharply.

  Her heart sank. “I didn’t mean that. I didn’t even mean to say it.”

  “But you thought it.” He wrapped his arms around her, his expression softening.

  She couldn’t deny it, because she had thought it. Viscerally.

  “Serena, you could never be your mother. All I meant was I know you’re not going to make any rash decisions based on us, which is why you need to know what I’ve been thinking about. I’ve looked into apartments in the area. I even talked to the owner of the vintage guitar store that’s going out of business about buying him out. But after doing some due diligence, I realized it’s not a smart investment, so I’m not going to do it. But you need to know that I am more than willing to move here to be with you if this is where you want to stay. There’s absolutely no pressure for you to come back to the Cape. You won’t be without me for long if you stay in Boston. It’s just a matter of choosing a place to live.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “You would do that for me?”

  “Of course. For us. I love you. I know how hard it is to go back and forth, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The more well-known you become in the industry, the more in demand your time will become. I want to make things easier for you, not harder. And selfishly, I want every second of the time you’re willing to share in between building your career and making a name for yourself.”

  “This would be so much easier if I were more like my mother,” she said as she blinked tears away. “Then I could just be happy working as a waitress somewhere until you came to rescue me.”

  He cocked a grin. “You have a hard time with one boss. Imagine having to cater to every Tom, Dick, and Harriet that came into a restaurant. I have a feeling you’d last about a day before someone griped about you getting an order wrong and you told them to either get in the kitchen and cook their own frigging food or gave them a diatribe about the trials and tribulations of life as a waitress and demanded an apology on behalf of all waitresses everywhere.”

  She tipped her head back, marveling at how well he knew her. She was so confused. Was Shift even worth thinking about? Was she being impetuous, blinded by how much she missed Drake and her friends?

  “I can’t even think right now,” she confessed, and pressed her entire body against his, wishing she could stay in the safety of his arms forever. “It’s all too much. People contemplate these types of life decisions for months, and I’d have to decide right away. I don’t even know if I can get a loan, and she’s signing papers Tuesday.”

  “You can probably ask her to delay for a week.”

  “I can’t do that to her. She has a bird in the hand, and she’s done so much for me. All she wants is time with her daughter. I would never chance ruining the offer she has on a whim. Maybe I shouldn’t even think about it. It’s crazy, right?”

  “You’re asking a guy who opened a music store when I didn’t have a pot to piss in.”

  “That just gives me hope, like it’s something I should think about.”

  “Maybe you should,” he said supportively.

  “I don’t know. I have a job people would kill for. A job I would have killed for two months ago. But what if I was wrong? What if I don’t want bigger and better or the people that come along with bigger, better? What if I’m really meant to blaze my own trail, defined by my own beliefs and creativity?”

  “Then that’s not wrong, Serena. That’s a choice. It means you started down one path and it led you to another.”

  Was this a sign? Could this be the right path for her? “This is so hard.”

  “I know. But breathe, baby.” His lips curved up in a tender smile. “Remember how you said I didn’t make myself into a liar by getting together with you after I said I couldn’t?”

  “Yes. I said your first inclination was just a bad idea.”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t you see the similarities? Just because you change your mind doesn’t mean it was wrong to begin with, or in this case, even a bad idea. This is how you learn and grow, whichever way you decide to go. Just know this. I want you to be happy. No matter where or how that has to happen. Okay?”

  She nodded, feeling like she couldn’t breathe. “You have to go. Everyone’s waiting.”

  “Hold on.” He grabbed her messenger bag and dug out her notebook. “Let’s make pros and cons lists and figure this out. I’ll text Rick and tell him to leave with the others. I can rent a car and drive home later.”

  “Drake…” She shook her head and set the notebook on the coffee table. She couldn’t make lists when she wasn’t even able to see clearly. But Drake was a fixer, and she knew he was doing it out of love. “I adore you. You know that, right?”

  “I hear something bad coming.”

  She climbed onto his lap and took his handsome face between her hands. “Not bad. I know you want to fix this for me, or help me fix it, but I think I just need time to think things through. It might be a great opportunity, but I have clients who are counting on me, and buying a business is a huge deal. I’m not even sure I want to risk my savings—the money I was hoping to use to buy the cottage I’m renting—on a business. I don’t even know if I can get a loan that fast. It’s about the same amount as a car loan, but I think it’s a different process when you’re buying a business. There’s just too much to try to figure out right now.”

  “I told you I’d give you—or lend you—the money.”

  “I know, but please don’t offer me that ever again.” She softened her words with a touch of her hand. “I could lose my shirt and have to start over, and there is no way I’m going to borrow or take money from you, so please stop.”

  “But you won’t—”

  She pressed her lips to his, silencing his support. “I love you for believing in me, but I have to be smart. I have to make a decision that’s right for me, weigh the risks, second- and third-guess myself. And I need to do that on my own.”

  His jaw clenched, bringing out that telltale dimple. She kissed the indentation and then brushed her fingers over it. She was fooling herself if she thought Drake—and even her friends—didn’t play a role in what she wanted. Or that Drake’s happiness and his need to be near his family wasn’t of primary importance to her. He’d never be happy in Boston, that far away from everyone he loved. Those were all things she needed to think long and hard about, and as much as she loved him, she couldn’t think clearly about those things while looking into his supportive eyes. “Please don’t be frustrated with me.”

  “I’m not. I just wish I knew what the right answer was. I don’t want you giving up everything you’ve worked so hard for just to be closer to me, and I also don’t want you staying somewhere that makes you unhappy.”

  “As much as it hurts to say it, as much as I don’t like feeling like I’m on a hamster wheel running back and forth to the Cape, whatever decision I make won’t be just about you or certain aspects of my job. It’s about me as a woman, a career person, and a friend. If I learned one thing from my mother, it’s that if I’m going to be the type of girlfriend I want to be, I have to first be happy with all the pieces of myself and my life before you can even consider moving to be with me. Big firm? Little firm? Cape? Boston? Those are things I have to pick apart. The only thing I know for sure is that I want you, and thankfully, you’ve made it abundantly clear that you want me, too. I just need to figure out what else I want.”

  “WHY DO YOU look like you’re going to kill someone instead of looking well f—” Rick glanced at Hagen and said, “Loved?”

  Drake gritted his teeth as Mira joined them. He thought he’d be able to get back to the Cape without having to talk about Serena’s situation. “Because I don’t know up from down right now.”

  “What’s wrong?” Mira asked. “Is the distance getting to you guys?”

  Drake wished it were that easy. “No. Did you know Justine was selling Shift?”

  “Wha
t? No. I haven’t heard anything.” Mira turned around, and before Drake thought to stop her, she called to the girls, “Did you guys know Justine was selling Shift?”

  “No. She is?” Desiree asked.

  Emery ran over. “Can Serena buy it?”

  “I don’t know,” Drake answered.

  “Why not?” Rick asked. “Then she could be closer to home.”

  “Rick, you know Serena’s always wanted the type of job she has now.” Mira put a hand on Drake’s shoulder. “You want her to try to buy it, though, don’t you?”

  “Yes!” Emery said. “I want her to, even if you don’t.”

  Desiree joined them and said, “She’d be great running her own shop.”

  “That’s basically what she did with us, but on a bigger scale,” Dean added. “She set up everything, designed all the cottages, the office, your apartment, the rec center…”

  “So that’s why you’re mad?” Mira asked.

  “No!” It was like arguing with a committee. “I’m not mad at Serena. C’mon, Mira, you know me better than that. I stayed away from her for all those years because I didn’t want to stand in her way or make her feel like she had to choose between me and her dreams. Do you really think I want to pull her back now?”

  “Hey, calm down.” Matt stepped between Drake and Mira. “She’s only trying to figure out why you’re chewing on nails.”

  “Sorry,” Drake ground out. “I don’t know why I’m having a hard time.”

  “Uncle Drake?” Hagen asked sweetly.

  Drake turned, meeting his nephew’s inquisitive gaze and feeling guilty that Hagen had witnessed him getting upset. “I’m sorry, Hagen. I shouldn’t have snapped at your mom.”