The January Cove Series: Books 6-8

by Rachel Hanna

  The shop had only been open for a little while, but he'd seen a light in her eyes he hadn't seen previously. She was opening up, making friends in town.

  He had taken her over to Jolt to be introduced to Rebecca, and the two of them were already cooking up cross promotional opportunities between them. They seemed to be creating a plan for world domination, he thought to himself. Cupcakes and coffee would soon take over the globe.

  Of course, as soon as Laura had walked out of Jolt to take a phone call, Rebecca had pulled Sawyer aside and asked if he might be interested in singing there a couple of nights a week. He told her he'd get back to her on that, and then reminded her not to say anything to Laura about who he was. Singing at Jolt was sure to cause a frenzy that he wasn’t ready for at the moment.

  When they were out on the streets of January Cove, he would often wear a baseball cap and sunglasses in the hopes that no fans would wander up and start talking to him. So far it had worked, but it was only a matter of time before word got around that he was in town.

  Most of the locals could care less. They’d known him since he was a small child, and he wasn't a celebrity to them. There were tourists coming into town every day, though, and somebody was sure to recognize him before too long.

  "So, are you enjoying being the owner of a successful cupcake bakery?" he asked her with a smile as they walked down the road to grab a bite of lunch. It was Sunday afternoon, a day that Laura had decided to keep the bakery closed. She needed one day off at least.

  "I'm really enjoying it. A lot more than I thought I would. Definitely better than my previous job!"

  "Well good. That means that you’ll be sticking around in January Cove for a long time then?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

  "I think so," she said. "What about you? When are you planning on going back to your regular life in Nashville?"

  "I don't know…"

  "I would think you'd want to get back soon, especially if you're trying to build your career there. January Cove isn’t exactly the place to be if you want to build a music career."

  "True. But I’ve been missing home, and it's been really good to be here." She had no idea that the reason it had been so good was because of her very existence in his small world.

  "Vacations are good, but I'm sure that you don't want to waste your talents by working in my bakery for the rest of your life," she said looking at him.

  "Oh, it's not so bad," he said with a laugh. "My boss is kind of tough, but I can deal with it."

  "Seriously, though, thank you so much for all the help getting the bakery opened. I couldn't have done it without you," she said, placing her hand on his upper arm and squeezing lightly. The small gesture sent shockwaves through his body. He had been touched by a lot of women, mostly fangirls that followed him from concert to concert, but never had he felt like that when a woman had simply touched his arm.

  "I wanted to talk to you about something."

  “That never sounds good…" she said with a nervous laugh.

  "You came to January Cove to live out some of your mother's dreams. When exactly were you planning to get started with that?"

  She laughed nervously again. "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't remember that."

  "I have a memory like an elephant. What does that mean anyway? Do elephants have particularly good memories? I mean what kind of studies have they done on this?" he said, starting to babble.

  "I really don't know. But I'm going to go back to Addy’s house and look that up on Wikipedia…" she said, pretending to turn in the other direction before he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. They stopped, with him looking down into her beautiful green eyes. His throat felt like it was closing up or some kind of enormous lump had formed there.

  "Laura, you’re just putting this off. Don’t you think you need to get started on doing some of these things? And maybe adding in some that you'd like to do for yourself?"

  "I don't know. I already came here so that's one of the things off the vision board."

  "What about the skydiving and the riding of a motorcycle…”

  "There's no way in the world that I'm going to skydive. I don't see any reason to jump out of a perfectly good airplane." She walked over and sat down on a metal bench that was attached to the sidewalk just outside of the dry cleaners. Sawyer joined her, sitting down and leaning against her. Shockingly, she leaned her head and laid it on his shoulder. It was just a friendly thing to do, not anything particularly romantic, but he could've sat there forever.

  "It's time for you to start living. Discovering who you really are. And I want to help you," he said softly. She picked up her head, leaving an immediate void on his shoulder.

  Turning sideways, she pulled her knee up onto the bench and faced him. "Sawyer, you've already helped me so much. I mean I met you by hitting you with my car, and yet you've still helped me open a bakery and start a successful business. You've been a great friend, and I will cherish this time we’ve spent together for the rest of my life. You don't have to put your life on hold to help me with the dreams that my mother had. That's insane."

  He turned to face her, pushing a stray hair out of her eyes and could have sworn he felt her jolt when he touched her. Maybe she did feel something for him.

  "Quit trying to run me away. I don't want to go back to Nashville, and I might never go back. So let me help you. It will be fun for me, and hopefully fun for you. Can you just trust me to set some things up?"

  She sat there, her lips pursed together tightly before a smile finally appeared on her face. She nodded quickly, almost imperceptibly.

  "Yes. I do trust you. You haven't done anything to make me mistrust you so far."

  His guts wrenched together. She had plenty of reason to mistrust him. She had no idea who he was or what he really did.

  "Right. You can trust me. So starting this afternoon, we’re going to work on some of those vision board dreams."

  "This afternoon? I was thinking maybe a couple of weeks…"

  "Oh no! I know you well enough to know that we don't need to delay," he said with a laugh before standing up and holding out his hand to her. "Come on. I've got some things to check into, so I don't have time to sit here on this park bench all day."

  "What have I gotten myself into?" she said, taking his hand and standing up. He didn't want to let her hand go, but he did have things to do and right now he had to get back to his house to check a few things on his computer.

  She handed him his lone crutch - one that he planned to get rid of soon - and they made their way down the road.

  Laura didn't know what to think. There seemed to be some kind of connection, some kind of chemistry, with Sawyer while they were sitting on the park bench. Maybe she was just overanalyzing things, but she got the distinct impression that he might have similar feelings as hers.

  How was this even possible? She had only known him for a couple of weeks now, and he was going back to Nashville at some point. He couldn’t stay in January Cove and have the kind of career he deserved.

  As much as she was attracted to him, his music had touched her in a way that even classical hadn’t. The only way to be a true friend to him was to encourage him to go back to Nashville and not give up. His music needed to be shared with the world.

  The truth was she didn't want to open herself up and get hurt by falling in love with someone who had other plans. Ted had had other plans, and it left her in the lurch and lonely as his wife.

  Still, there was something about Sawyer that was mysterious. She had moments where she felt like he might be keeping something from her, but then he was so genuine and kind that she couldn't imagine that. She sometimes mentally slapped herself for thinking such a thing.

  And now as she sat on the front porch of Addy’s Inn, she worried what he was going to get her into this afternoon.

  “Ready?” he asked, as he hobbled down the sidewalk. Things had gotten better with his leg over the last few days, so he was only using one crutch now. Sometimes
he threw it to the side and attempted to limp his way around places, but he almost always ended up grabbing the crutch again.

  "I am. How are we getting there?" she asked, just as a cab pulled up in front of the bed-and-breakfast. "We could've taken my car."

  "We couldn't do that and have it be a surprise, now could we?" he asked with a smile. That dimple was really becoming quite tempting for her.

  They loaded into the car and started driving. “Where are we going?" Laura asked after about ten minutes. They were pulling out of the city limits of January Cove and heading up the coastline, but she had no idea where they were headed.

  "You really don't understand the definition of surprise, do you?" Sawyer said with a half smile.

  "Well I don't like not knowing what's happening."

  "Isn't that what you got you into this position in the first place?" Sawyer whispered, so the driver couldn't hear every bit of their conversation.

  "I'm not in trouble. I just haven't exactly lived the exciting life most people would enjoy. Maybe I just like quiet. Maybe I'm just an introverted, calm person who wants to live a quiet life."

  "Do you believe that? I mean, at your core, right here, do you believe that?" he asked, putting the tips of his fingers over her heart. She felt chills running throughout her body, like one big hot flash from her toes to the top of her head.

  "Not really," she said, glancing at him, her voice shaky.

  “Sometimes, don’t you just want to live on the edge? To feel the blood pumping through your veins? To not have a clue what’s about to happen next?”

  Their eyes locked for just a moment, and for a split second she thought he was going to kiss her, but then he cleared his throat and sat back.

  They continued riding for another ten minutes before the driver pulled into a parking lot with what looked like some kind of airplane hanger.

  They stopped the car, and Sawyer got out, grabbing his one crutch beside him.

  "What is this? I told you that I'm not jumping out of an airplane,” she said, following him out of the car. The cab pulled away and left them standing there.

  Laura was irritated. Had he not listened to her? Was he about to try to force her to do something she didn't want to do?

  “Can you just let go and trust me? Just for a minute?” he asked. Before she could respond, the large door of the hangar opened, revealing a helicopter and an older man dressed in a flight suit of some kind.

  “Sawyer, what’s going on…” she said as he started walking toward the man.

  “Sawyer! Long time no see, my boy!” the older man said. He looked like a mixture of Sean Connery and Sam Elliott, and Laura could just imagine the man being the center of every woman’s attention at some point in his life.

  “Cal! How’s it going, old man?” Sawyer said as he embraced the man with a tight hug. It was obvious that this was someone he’d known for a long time and had a great fondness for.

  “Oh, I can’t complain,” Cal said with a bright smile. He was what Laura’s mother would have referred to as a “silver fox”, with perfectly straight teeth and the kind of graying hair that made women swoon. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him, and he had visible muscles under the military green flight suit he was wearing. “And this is?”

  Sawyer put his free arm around Laura’s shoulder. “This is my good friend, Laura Bennett. She owns the new Sweetcakes bakery in January Cove.”

  “Nice to meet you, Cal,” Laura said, reaching out and shaking his hand. “How do you two know each other?”

  Cal laughed. “Well, I’m a bit old now, but I used to teach this guy how to play guitar.”

  “Ahhh… Well, you did a fantastic job. Did you teach him to sing too?” Laura asked.

  “That would be a no. Cal can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” Sawyer joked.

  “Well, sonny boy, it doesn’t look like you can carry much of anything these days yourself. What on Earth did you do?” he asked, pointing at the air cast and crutch.

  Sawyer cut his eyes at Laura and then chuckled. “She hit me with her car. That’s how we met.”

  Cal broke into hysterical laughter. “Well, I’d say you know how to make a great entrance, ma’am!”

  Laura joined in their laughter. “So, is someone going to tell me why we’re here?”

  “You’ll see,” Sawyer said as he nodded toward the helicopter. “First, Cal is going to take us on a little ride.”

  Laura’s stomach knotted up. She wasn’t a fan of big airplanes or heights, and a helicopter definitely wasn’t on her bucket list. But for some reason, she wanted to trust him.

  “Cal used to be in the Air Force back in the day. Now he runs charters all up and down the coast,” Sawyer whispered to her as they walked toward the helicopter. “You’re safe, Laura.” Without a word, he slipped his hand into hers and squeezed, and he didn’t let go until they reached the helicopter.

  Cal helped them both up into the chopper after he moved it onto the helipad. Sawyer struggled a bit with his air cast, but he seemed intent on not allowing his injury to keep him from doing anything he wanted. She admired his tenacity.

  “Ready?” Cal called from the front, yelling through headsets they were both wearing. Laura jumped with surprise when his voice boomed in her ears. Sawyer laughed and took her hand once again, squeezing it. She had no idea what that meant, but she wasn’t about to let it go.

  The blood was definitely pumping through her body as the aircraft took flight, and Laura had never felt more alive.

  Chapter 10

  She was holding on to his hand like it was a life preserver as the copter lifted off the ground. Her face was turning a pale shade of white at first, but as the scenery came into view, Laura finally loosened her grip and color returned to her cheeks.

  Sawyer was having a hard time looking at the ocean views beneath them. He couldn’t stop staring at her. Watching her as she looked out the window like a child who’d never seen anything. Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes as wide as he’d seen them. A slight smile on her face, those bee-stung lips that turned upward slightly, forming into the most perfect look of peace he’d ever seen.

  But she still didn’t release his hand.

  Taking her hand had been a calculated decision, although he’d hoped she didn’t notice that. He wanted to see what she’d do. Would she pull away? Would she yell at him for being so presumptuous?

  “Look at that,” she said into the headset, pointing below them at a beautiful, large plantation. The area was full of places like this, hidden gems across the low country landscape of Georgia and South Carolina. Places lost in time with buildings that held a history like no other. Moss covered oaks that formed into shapes that looked like something out of a child’s fantasy novel. “So beautiful.”

  “Yes. Beautiful is the perfect word,” he said. He wasn’t looking at what she was looking at. He was looking at her, and when she unexpectedly turned and caught him staring, he was sure that he blushed for the first time in his life.

  Thankfully, she smiled and turned back to the window. Sawyer stared down at their hands, still intertwined, and noticed how they fit perfectly together. Like they were made for each other.

  The chopper started to make its descent landing on a grassy area. Laura, as if on cue, looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.

  “Where are we…”

  Sawyer reached over and put his index finger over her lips. “Shhh…” he said, using every bit of his willpower not to replace his finger with his own lips. As expected, her lips felt soft and plump at the same time.

  Moments later, Cal had helped them disembark from the helicopter. He watched as Laura looked around in confusion.

  “Thanks again, man,” Sawyer said to Cal, giving him a quick hug.

  “Anytime. Nice to meet you, Laura. Have fun, you two!” Cal said with a wink before climbing back inside the helicopter and lifting off. Laura stared into the sky, shielding her eyes from the hot early afternoon sun as she watched him fly away.
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br />   She turned and looked at Sawyer. “Okay. What in the world are we doing here? I feel like Cal just dropped us in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Come on,” he said, waving her toward the other side of the clearing. “Trust…” Laura followed him as he hobbled along. “Take a look.”

  Sawyer pointed down a small hilly area, and Laura’s mouth dropped open. In front of them was a huge amusement park that had just opened a few weeks before and featured one of the South’s biggest roller coasters. About half an hour from January Cove by air, the place was busy with tourists who wanted to say they had ridden the Mega Monster Coaster.

  “What in the world are we doing here?” she asked with a hesitant smile.

  “I think you know.”

  “You aren’t seriously wanting to ride that roller coaster over there, are you?”

  “Well, sweetcakes,” he said, making an obvious pun about her bakery, “I didn’t fly you over here for nothing.”

  Sawyer reached for her hand as they made their way down the hill. Admittedly, he almost fell down the incline a couple of times while trying to both hold her hand and be the macho alpha male, and not fall on his ass because of the stupid crutch he required at the moment.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?” she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice as she pointed to his cast.

  “Oh, really? You wanna go there? Are you sure you are up for this?” he said with a grin.

  She paused for a moment and then replied, “Nope. I’m completely and utterly terrified at the moment.”

  “I’ve got you, Laura. I promise,” he said, holding both of her hands in his and looking down at her. “And when we get back to January Cove, you can check this off your mother’s list, okay?”

  She nodded quickly and took a deep breath as they approached the line for the coaster.

  He said he had her, and she believed him. For some reason, she believed everything he said to her. Never in her life had she been so completely scared and felt so completely safe at the same time.

  Watching Sawyer maneuver around with his air cast and a crutch had been sometimes comical, but always inspiring. Already he had gone further out of his way to take care of her than Ted ever had. It was unfair to compare the two men because there was no comparison to Sawyer.