Sandcastle Beach--Includes a Bonus Novella

by Jenny Holiday

  “Yeah.” He grinned. “You do that.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  On Sunday, when Maya came into the bar close to closing, Law didn’t even say anything to her, just slipped her the key to his apartment and said, “I’ll be up as soon as I can. There’s a bottle of your wine in the fridge.”

  When he arrived thirty minutes later, it was to find her lying on his couch watching soccer in leggings and a T-shirt. She had said she wasn’t going to be wearing her heavy-duty stage underwear this time, but she’d been in costume earlier, downstairs.

  “What happened to Beatrice?”

  “I brought pajamas to change into.” She’d said she wasn’t a lingerie person, and that accorded with his sense of her, but he had to laugh at the fact that her pajamas were basically the same as her normal uniform, except with leggings instead of jeans. But she was barefoot, which he didn’t think she’d ever been in his house before. Of course, she’d been naked in his house before, but in those instances, by the time she’d gotten naked, he’d been too distracted by other body parts to pay attention to her feet.

  She had also never lain on his sofa before. They always sat.

  There was something about the combination of her sprawled out, her bare feet poking out of her leggings. She looked like she knew this place. Like it was comfortable and familiar to her. Like she belonged here.

  As he approached the sofa, he noticed her toenails were painted. They stopped him in his tracks. Because they were cute as all hell, perfect little glossy pops of lavender, but also because of the mere fact of them. Unless she was in costume, she always wore a pair of Converse high-tops from her extensive collection. No, wait. She had worn flip-flops on his boat and sandals in Bayshore. Had her toenails been painted those days? He had no idea, which suddenly seemed like a massive lost opportunity.

  Her feet were pretty. He almost laughed at himself. He was certain that feet and pretty were not words he had ever used in the same sentence before. But she did have pretty feet.

  Something was happening in his chest. A seizing of sorts, like all the muscles in there had gone on high alert. It reminded him of the way he’d felt when Karl had announced the grant. It was a surge of want. A feeling of I must have this.

  “Not that I’m staying over,” she said quickly, and it took him a minute to catch up to the fact that she was still talking about pajamas. She said it like she was trying to reassure him, like she was afraid of coming across as too presumptuous. He wanted to say, Stay.

  He knew she wouldn’t, though. Whatever they were doing, in her mind, it didn’t involve staying over. That was why he’d forced himself out of her bed so quickly last night, after the deed had been done.

  “Just that when I sneak back to the Mermaid, if I’m caught by Eve and Sawyer, it’s not completely obvious that I haven’t been home all night,” she went on. “This is really more like loungewear.”

  All right, so she wouldn’t stay over. But maybe he could get her to put her legs on his lap while they watched soccer, because to his surprise, he also wanted that. He wanted her to lounge on him, like that was a thing they did. He inched closer to the sofa, trying to figure out how to sit down in a way that wouldn’t disturb her. If he slipped in at the end, she’d only have to retract her legs a little to make room. And then he could sort of absently grab them, and—

  She sat up.

  Dammit.

  He sat down, and she scrambled farther away, keeping the same distance between them they usually did. Or they used to do.

  This was all very confusing.

  “What are you watching?” he asked.

  “League highlights reel for the week. I think I’m too tired for a full match.”

  “Long day?”

  “I always get really tired on the Sunday night after a run of shows. I think it’s all the adrenaline. When it’s over, my body knows it can crash.” She yawned, and pointed to her mouth as if to say, See?

  He yawned, too.

  “It’s contagious, sorry.” She laughed. “Anyway, I thought a full match might put me to sleep, and…” She wagged her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion. “Let’s just say the primary purpose of this evening’s visit isn’t football.”

  “You don’t say?” He wagged back.

  “Yeah.” She turned back to the TV. “I think this only has ten more minutes.”

  “You want anything to drink? Did you find the wine?”

  “I’m gonna pass, thanks. That’s also likely to put me to sleep at this point.”

  He wanted to tell her to lie back down and sleep. That it was okay to do that here. He would even stop fixating on the idea of her legs on his lap and give her the whole couch. But of course he could say none of those things, so he just sat next to her, hyperaware of the space between them, and watched soccer highlights.

  As before, he could tell when she fell asleep by the way her breathing changed. And when she started to list to the side, he was there to catch her.

  He moved closer and put his arm around her, encouraging her to lean into him.

  She started to mumble and pull away.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered. “Sleep.” But then, figuring that was likely to wake her up and send her packing, he clarified. “Nap.” That had worked last time she was here.

  It worked again. She sighed and snuggled against him, and that feeling of rightness came over him. It was like a drug, this feeling he sometimes got around her, calming and invigorating at the same time.

  Bang, bang, bang.

  Law woke up with a start. Someone was at the door. Shit.

  Maya stirred in his arms. “What time is it?”

  Bang, bang, bang.

  They were tangled together on the sofa. He had woken up at some point after they’d initially fallen asleep and scooched them down so they were lying flat and covered them with a blanket he had on the back of the sofa. He had thought at the time he would probably pay for that decision this morning, when she woke up and things were weird because he’d basically facilitated a cuddle.

  “Is someone at the door?” she asked, all adorable confusion. “Did we fall asleep?”

  “Yes to both questions,” he whispered. “That’s probably Jake.” As they’d learned, Jake had a key to the building and didn’t see anything wrong with letting himself in and trying to break down Law’s apartment door. “Maybe we should just—”

  Come clean, he’d been going to say, but she shot off the sofa, said, “I’ll hide in your bedroom,” and ran down the hall.

  Right. She was right.

  He peeked at the time as he went to the door. Nine.

  “What?” he said, opening the door a crack to reveal both Jake and Sawyer.

  “Maya didn’t come home last night. Eve and I were worried about her,” Sawyer said, his eyes twinkling in a way that did not telegraph worry.

  “She’s fine.”

  Sawyer widened his eyes comically. “She is? How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  “You want to go for a boat ride?” Sawyer asked. “We”—he motioned to Jake—“were talking about how we never get out on the lake anymore.”

  “Okay.” This was good. If he left the premises, Maya would be able to sneak out. He had no doubt he was in for a serious bro intervention, but that would be the case regardless. And he could take it, especially if it prevented Maya from being embarrassed by being caught here. He grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone, and stuffed his feet into shoes. After firing off a quick text to Maya—It’s Sawyer and Jake. I’m leaving with them to get them off the scent—he was out the door.

  They didn’t jump down his throat right away. Maybe they were waiting for him to navigate the boat out of the marina and down the stretch of river they had to traverse to get into the lake. Once he’d done that and they were still silent, he figured they were waiting until they were farther out on the open water—until he literally could not escape—before going in for the kill.

  Except they didn’t. Th
ey just started talking about how nice the weather was. Or Sawyer did. Jake, as was his way, made vague noises of agreement.

  It was driving Law batty. Finally, unable to take any more, he said, “Okay, okay. Maya was with me last night.”

  They both swung around to look at him. He cut the engine. “It’s not what you think. We’re just sleeping together.”

  “Hmm, that sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it, Jake?” Sawyer said.

  “It does.”

  “I know it sounds the same as you guys, but it’s not the same,” Law said.

  “How is it not the same?” Sawyer asked.

  “You and Eve were palling around, taking Clara to university when you got together.” He turned to Jake. “And you. You and Nora were practically making each other friendship bracelets.” He tapped his chest. “I, on the other hand, don’t like Maya.”

  “Right,” Sawyer said. “You skipped that part.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “At the risk of sounding like a twelve-year-old, you don’t like Maya; you love her.”

  “I do not. Gross.”

  “Now who sounds like a twelve-year-old?” Jake asked.

  “We have this thing where we watch soccer late at night,” Law said.

  “Yeah, and you’ve been doing that for months, I hear,” Sawyer said.

  “When I came over last winter early in the morning on New Year’s Eve, he had someone up there,” Jake remarked mildly.

  “Yeah,” Law said. “You totally busted me when you came over to get a pizza for Nora, who was holed up at your place.”

  Jake held up his hands like So what? And really, Law didn’t have any kind of moral-equivalency argument, given that Nora was now Jake’s wife. “My point is, Maya and I are both night owls because of our jobs. We’re basically forced to spend time together.”

  “Except that’s not right at all,” Sawyer said. “You’re up there watching soccer all night voluntarily. That’s your apartment. What is she doing? Breaking down the door and handcuffing herself to you?”

  “Of course not. Anyway, it really was just soccer for months.” He did hear how crazy that sounded. “It’s only recently that we…”

  “Caught feelings?” Sawyer said cheerfully. “Because honestly, I think we’re all looking at all those years of you guys sniping at each other with new eyes.”

  “Listen. This is a matter of proximity.” That sounded wrong, though. “Convenience.” That sounded really wrong. But okay, those weren’t the right words. He was bad at vocabulary when it came to Maya, as evidenced by his inability to articulate what that warm feeling he’d been calling “rightness” was. Still, he wasn’t so clueless he couldn’t recognize what things weren’t. “We have sex. That’s why she was at my place this morning.”

  Except that wasn’t true, was it? They hadn’t had sex last night. She’d fallen asleep on him—he’d encouraged her to—and they’d cuddled.

  So whatever, they’d had one interlude with no sex. That didn’t mean anything.

  “Convenience. Sex,” Sawyer said, echoing Law’s words back to him.

  Law tried not to visibly wince. “There’s no love in this equation, is my point.”

  “How do you know?” Sawyer asked.

  “You’re supposed to hear choruses of angels, right? Like, the earth moves and you get all shaky.” To be fair, he did get shaky when Maya was around, but it was from anger. Or…it used to be.

  “Well,” Jake said, “you get choruses of Gorgons. Close enough.”

  Holy shit, was it? Was it possible that…No. He couldn’t even think it. It made him…Well, it made him shaky. No. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. She hates me.” Maybe. “Dislikes me.” Sort of. “She’s never going to want to actually be with me.”

  They stopped harassing him in favor of sharing a silent look between them that was more annoying than continued harassment would have been. “What?”

  “Should we tell him?” Sawyer asked Jake.

  “Tell me what?”

  Sawyer turned. “You can tell yourself whatever you want, dude. But Maya told Eve that she’s into you. Like, for real.”

  “What?” He shot to his feet and had to grab the steering wheel so as not to fall in the water. “What did she say? What words did she use?”

  Sawyer chuckled. “I don’t know. Eve mentioned it in passing, I didn’t pay it much mind because I thought you’d be indifferent.” He looked at the sky. “Wow, it’s really a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  Maya’s pajama hack totally worked, because as she sneaked out of the bar after Law, she ran into her brother, who didn’t suspect anything was amiss.

  “Hey, kid.”

  “What are you doing downtown so early?”

  “I’m doing the store today. I told Mom and Dad to take the day off.”

  “Well, aren’t you the model child?”

  He shrugged. “Honestly, I’m kind of bored. I’ve never not worked. Not since I was fourteen.” It was true. Her brother had always had part-time jobs. “Hey, come in with me for a sec, will you? I just got some amazing news.”

  “Sure.” She felt a little bad that she hadn’t seen more of Rohan since he’d arrived. Her Herculean efforts to get the play into shape had meant long days. And the…other stuff she had going on had meant long nights. “What’s up?”

  “Don’t freak out,” he said as he unlocked the shop, “but the theater critic for the Globe and Mail is coming to the play on Saturday afternoon.”

  She blinked about a thousand times, running his words through her brain again to make sure she’d heard them correctly. “Are you kidding?”

  “It’s wild, right? But no! I got in touch with both the theater critic and the food critic and made this—semibullshit—case for Moonflower Bay as an up-and-coming cultural and culinary spot. I included the link to the story they ran about Law’s pizza, and links to some local coverage of the Mermaid Parade, and the theater guy emailed back. He’s coming to see the play and the parade on Saturday.”

  All she could do was blink. She had never even dreamed something like this was possible. The exposure it would give her would be…like another Holden. Without having to actually deal with Holden.

  “I know the timing sucks in the sense that Saturday is the second-to-last show,” Rohan said as he booted up the computer. “So it’s not like the article will drive ticket sales in any meaningful way, but…” He shrugged. “Maybe people will see it and want to come to some shows next season?”

  “Ahhh!” She ran around behind the counter and threw her arms around her brother. “This is amazing! Thank you so much!” Rohan was such a natural entrepreneur. He should come up with an idea on the fly and apply for the grant.

  Except not. Because that grant was hers.

  Unless it was Ben’s. Which would make her mad.

  Kind of.

  She needed to work on her application some more. “I gotta go.”

  “Oh, hey,” Rohan said as she was on her way out. “I forgot to tell you that I was talking to Jenna the other day, and she told me that Eve told her that Law is into you.”

  “What?” Maya ground to a halt halfway out the door.

  He chuckled. “That sounds like junior high, doesn’t it?”

  She forced her legs, which, like the rest of her body, were doing a weird buzzing thing, to carry her back into the store. “Say that again.”

  “Uh, Jenna told me that Eve told her that Law likes you? I think Sawyer said something to Eve?”

  “Into me or likes me?”

  “Huh?”

  “The first time you said he was ‘into me.’ The second time you said he ‘liked’ me. Which is it?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t pay that much attention.”

  “Okay, how long ago was this conversation?”

  He shot her a bewildered look. “I don’t know.”

  “You can’t remember what she said. You can’t remember when she said it. What’s the matter with you?”
<
br />   “Look,” he said, starting to sound annoyed. “I didn’t pay that close attention, okay? I thought you didn’t like the guy. I didn’t think you’d care.” He raised his eyebrows. “But maybe I was wrong about that?”

  “No, no, I don’t like the guy.”

  “You sure about that?”

  No.

  She needed to regroup. “I have to run.” She had to go to the source. Which was Eve.

  Who was in the kitchen at the Mermaid having coffee with Nora.

  “What is this? Is morning coffee a regular thing? I have to start getting up earlier.”

  “Hey!” Nora smiled. “I heard the show was great last night.”

  “It was! Holden is turning out to be the best decision I ever made.” He’d been less friendly after his spat with Ben at the bar, but that was fine. She didn’t need Holden to be her friend. And as a bonus, he’d stopped propositioning her.

  Eve pointed to an empty stool and got up. “I’ll get you some coffee.”

  “No coffee for me, thanks. But I do want to ask you something. So, ah…” There was no way to bring this up without looking like, to quote Rohan, she was in junior high. “Rohan says that Jenna told him that you”—she nodded at Eve—“told her that Sawyer told you that Benjamin told him that he likes me.”

  Eve paused in the middle of climbing back onto her stool. “Come again?”

  Nora cracked up.

  “I’m hearing that Benjamin likes me. Do you think he likes me?”

  Eve raised her eyebrows. “Do you like him?”

  “No! I just want to know if he likes me! And if he does, I want to know why you didn’t bother to tell me!”

  “I thought if I told you, you’d get all worked up.” Eve made a gesture that seemed to say, Like you are right now. “You got all up in my face last time we talked about this.” Maya winced. She had been a little strident. “And since I thought you were indifferent, I didn’t bother saying anything. Honestly, I didn’t even really pay that much attention when Sawyer was talking about it.”

  “You’re right.” She was being a jerk. “I’m sorry. I’m really tired. I’m going upstairs to power nap, but first, I have amazing news!”