Bayside Desires (Bayside Summers Book 1)

by Melissa Foster

  “That makes two of us.” He buried his hand in her hair, his eyes smoldering. “I’ve never felt like this before, and I can’t get enough of you. After my run, I’m coming back with Dean to install the flower boxes around your fence. And after that…” He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her until her legs turned to jelly. “Maybe we can sneak away alone for a little bit?”

  “Good morning, fuck bunnies.”

  Desiree started, pushing away from Rick as Violet snickered, but Rick tightened his grasp. He never let anything come between them, and it was just one of the things she adored about him.

  “Geez, Vi. Think you could give us some warning?”

  Violet snagged a blueberry from the counter and popped it into her mouth. “Gee, Des. I don’t know. Think you can give me some warning before the nightly headboard banging begins?”

  “Christ,” Rick uttered.

  “Aw, look how cute Mr. Massive is when he blushes.” Violet grabbed another handful of blueberries.

  “Violet!” Headboard banging? She hadn’t even noticed. Then again, when she and Rick were close, the rest of the world failed to exist.

  “Hey, if I were you, I’d be proud,” Violet said. “But since I’m me, I’m moving into one of the empty cottages.”

  “I’ve got to take off, but I’m sorry, Vi.” Rick looked at Desiree without a shred of regret in his liquid-fire eyes. “We can stay at my place so she doesn’t have to move out.”

  “Don’t sweat it,” Violet said. “Zander and Zeke are going to help me move when they’re done working for the day.” She winked, and grabbed a few more blueberries.

  I don’t want to know what that wink was for.

  “But don’t worry. I’ll still be here for your delicious, happy-humper, post-coital breakfasts every morning.”

  “Ohmygod.” Desiree buried her face in Rick’s chest.

  Rick tipped her face up, a wide grin lighting up his handsome face. “I guess we can never stop, or everyone will starve.”

  NO ONE STARVED over the next week and a half. In fact, everyone around Desiree and Rick probably gained ten pounds. Their ravenous appetites for each other carried over into even more elaborate breakfasts. Violet had let that slip at a bonfire last week, and Drake and the others had begun finding reasons to drop by at breakfast time. Even Mira and Hagen had joined them. Hagen had helped Desiree cook French toast, reminding her of how far her mind had strayed from her life back home. She hadn’t thought about school or teaching at all, although she missed Emery even though they’d been keeping in touch with texts and phone calls. She loved every minute of having so many people to cook for. A room full of people who felt like family made the house feel alive. She’d even begun looking up recipes again. She knew this summer was like playing house, but she couldn’t help wishing it never had to end.

  It was Saturday evening, and she and Rick planned to go out for another surprise date. She was used to being the planner, but she realized that as much as she loved schedules and plans, she’d been running pretty loosey-goosey all summer, taking up the slack when Violet got caught up in doing pottery or exploring the area and stealing time for moonlit walks and stargazing in the widow’s walk with Rick. They’d even gone into town and listened to a band play by the beach. She wasn’t a vagabond like her mother, but it felt good to let herself ride the wind a little bit.

  She walked along the driveway picking flowers from the newly manicured gardens, dwindling away the time as she waited for Rick and marveling at how the yard and house were coming together. It had taken months for the gardens to become tangles of vines and weeds that had nearly suffocated all the flowers. But it had taken only a few days to make them beautiful again. It was funny how a little love could make everything better. The renovations to the house were nearly complete, and the flower boxes had kept Cosmos from climbing over the fence, although he had started digging under the fence despite the new plastic pool Rick had bought for him. What had started out as a disastrous turn of events had turned into a life-changing summer.

  She carried the flowers to Violet’s cottage, remembering how, when she was a little girl, she’d dreamed about living in one, with Violet next door and her mother in the big house. Little-girl-lost dreams. In a sense, this summer had made that dream come true.

  Desiree peered through Violet’s screen door. Her sister stood by the back window, reading. She wore a black miniskirt and a tank top with no bra. Her finger trailed along the page as she read. She looked content. Sweet even. Cosmos was asleep on the living room couch. How could she leave them at the end of the summer?

  “Hey,” Desiree said.

  Violet glanced up, smiling as she closed the book.

  “I brought you some flowers. Can I come in?”

  “Sure.” She held the book against her chest.

  “I can’t believe I haven’t been in any of the cottages before this.” Desiree stepped inside, taking in the artsy batik wall hangings and the pictures Violet must have taken from their mother’s studio covering bright white walls. Tie-dyed throws covered the arms and back of the white sofa and wicker chair. The setup hadn’t changed from when she was a little girl. A bar still separated the living room from the kitchen, and a small eating area led to French doors, which opened to a small deck in the backyard.

  “Let me get a vase.” Violet grabbed a pretty, colorful glass vase from a cabinet. “The other two cottages are in good shape. Thanks for the flowers. They’re beautiful.”

  “Did you make all these batiks and throws? They’re really pretty. I’d love to buy one from you.” Violet had started working with fabrics with Lizza when she was around twelve. Desiree was glad she was still making them.

  “I made them, and I’ll make you one, but you’re not buying it.”

  “Thanks.” Desiree walked across the room to look at pictures on the wall more closely. “You took some of Lizza’s pictures?”

  “I’ll put them in the shop when we need more stock. But the white walls were killing me.” She put the flowers in the vase and set them on the table. “I thought you had a big date with Rick.”

  “I do. He’s picking me up soon, but I was taking a walk and wanted to bring you the flowers.”

  “You look hot,” Violet said.

  “Thanks. I still have no idea where we’re going.” She’d worn the dress she was wearing the first night she and Rick had met. She caught sight of the first picture she’d painted, the one of Violet as a little girl, hanging in the dining room. “You took my painting?”

  “I probably should have asked. Do you mind?” Violet crossed her arms over the book she was holding, a pensive expression on her face.

  “No. I’m flattered, but I thought you hated that dress.”

  Violet shrugged. “I did. But you painted it.” She busied herself putting the book she was reading on top of a stack of others by the couch and straightening them. “That made it special.”

  Desiree felt like she was going to cry, but as she and Violet grew closer, and she made new friends, and the renovations came to fruition—with a new kitchen, baths, and paint colors she and Violet had chosen together—and Rick’s return to DC neared, everything made her feel that way.

  “What were you reading?” Desiree asked, to try to force her weepiness away.

  She held out the book, and Desiree scanned the title. Running a Bed-and-Breakfast for Dummies. “Are you thinking of staying after Lizza comes back?”

  “Don’t you mean if she comes back?” Violet plopped onto the couch.

  “You have a point. I hadn’t really thought about that, although I should have, given her history.”

  “Ya think?” Violet scoffed. “You could stay with me.”

  “Stay? I can’t stay. I have a job—”

  “Run the inn with me. Get a job here and teach in the off season.”

  “Vi, it’s not our inn to run.” As she said it, she couldn’t deny that she’d had a fantasy or two about doing just that. But her fantasy included Rick
staying, too, not returning to DC. “Wait. Why aren’t you going stir crazy? I thought you had a hard time staying put, like Lizza.”

  Violet leaned forward, elbows on knees, eyes trained on the floor. “I did, but only because I never felt like I belonged anywhere.”

  Desiree sank down beside her. “That’s how I felt around you and Lizza when you’d visit when we were little.”

  “She loves you, you know. She talked about you all the damn time. About how much you’d like this or that.”

  “Right. You don’t have to try to make me feel better, Vi. I accepted a long time ago that she left and never looked back.” Desiree pushed to her feet, her heart racing.

  “She left, but she looked back, Des. You got more headspace than I did.”

  “I don’t understand how that can be, given how little attention she’s paid me over the years.”

  “Don’t you get her yet?” Violet sprang to her feet, her voice escalating. “She doesn’t think we need her time or attention to know she loves us. Cosmos? The universe? We’re supposed to soak it all in.”

  “Yeah? Well, I guess this sponge never got the memo, because I’ve felt a big black hole inside me for a long time. If not for my father and Emery, I would have gone bonkers. She has always been my Achilles’ heel.”

  Violet held her steady gaze. “And you’ve always been mine.”

  Desiree’s jaw dropped open, stunned by Violet’s confession. “Me?”

  “Don’t make a big thing out of it.” Violet stalked into the kitchen. “This summer has been the only time I’ve felt like I belonged somewhere. You have the biggest fucking heart of anyone I’ve ever known. And even though you have that look on your face like”—her voice rose an octave—“do you have to drop the F-bomb?” In her regular voice, she said, “For some strange reason, you love me anyway, and you’re good to me. And you accept me even with my faults, and it’s fucking fabulous.”

  Tears welled in Desiree’s eyes. “You are fucking fabulous.” She pulled Violet into a hug, ignoring how Violet’s arms hung stiffly by her sides.

  “Are you done yet?” Vi said flatly.

  Desiree shook her head. “Not even close.” She guided Violet’s arms around her waist and refused to let go. “I’ll take you on my date with me if you don’t hug me back.”

  With a sigh, Violet relented. “You’re so damn annoying.”

  “So are you.”

  “You said the F-word.”

  “Hey, Vi?” Des sniffled through happy tears.

  “Yeah?”

  “Shut the fuck up and hug me.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “JUST A FEW more steps.” Rick’s heart beat wildly as he led Desiree down the dock, her eyes closed. Could she sense the anticipation of an evening sail in the wind? Recognize the feel of the dock beneath her feet? Did she hear the sea calling them, the way he did?

  “I forgot what this was like.” The words came without thought, but he had forgotten. He’d been so mired down with seeing and hearing his father, fearing his father’s memories would slay him, that he’d lost touch with the reasons why his father loved sailing so much. The reasons he loved it.

  “Surprising me? I feel like you surprise me all the time. It’s wonderful.” She flashed the sweet smile that melted his heart and reached for him, touching his chest with both hands. “Your heart is going crazy. Can I open my eyes?”

  “Not yet.” Committing this moment to memory, he reveled in the feel of her hands, the way her anticipation settled the remaining discomfort stirring inside him. He touched his lips to hers, feeling proud, and anxious, and happy all at once. “Okay, sweetheart. Open your eyes.”

  Her beautiful, meadow-green eyes swept over his face, and in the next breath, they glided over the boat. Her fingers curled into his shirt, and worry lines wrinkled her forehead. “Rick…”

  He touched his lips to hers again. “It’s okay.”

  “But your father, and—”

  “I know. I’m okay.” He told her about going on the boat with Drake when it was docked the other night, and how they’d talked about their father for two solid hours. They’d laughed and they’d cried, and by the time he’d gone to see Desiree that night, he’d known what he needed—and more importantly, what he wanted.

  “I never had a reason to stop running and face what’s kept me from doing the one thing my father loved most. Until you.”

  She opened her mouth, but as had happened so often with them, no words were necessary.

  “Come on, baby.” He helped her onto the boat. “Let’s make your dream come true.”

  Half an hour later they were moving swiftly through the water, the land fading into the distance. Rick waited for the awful feelings to drag him under, but all that came was the soothing sounds of the sea washing against the boat, the rustling, slow swish of the sails, and his father’s voice in the wind.

  Hear that, Ricky? That’s pure bliss, right there.

  The sun kissed the horizon, and dozens of shades of orange, yellow, and red bloomed over the dark water. Rick gathered Desiree close, filled with a sense of peace and belonging that had been missing in his life for a very long time. He gazed into her eyes. He couldn’t imagine going a day without her, much less a week at a time once they left the Cape.

  “I know how hard it was for you to even talk about what happened to your father. I can’t believe you actually did this for me,” she said.

  “You did this for me, babe. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. With you, on the water. All of this.”

  A while later they anchored the boat and ate dinner by moonlight. Rick pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures. She was covering her face in the first one and beaming like a princess in the next. He took a selfie of the two of them, and then another, stealing a kiss as he took it. They laughed and kissed, and he told her some of the stories his father used to make up about being a deep-sea diver and discovering treasures in far-off lands. Stories that were so outlandish, even now, as he relayed them to her, they still made him shake his head.

  “There were times he’d have us in stitches, and he’d laugh so hard he couldn’t finish his story.” His gaze swept over the sea, and he realized he was no longer waiting for the demons to rise and swallow him.

  “Are you okay?” Desiree caressed his cheek, and he covered her hand with his, holding it there.

  “More than okay. Thanks to you.”

  “And Drake,” she reminded him. It was just like her to give credit to someone else.

  “Drake, this summer. Our summer.” He held her closer, and she rested her head on his shoulder. “I miss him, Des. Out here, thinking about him? I thought I’d feel torn apart. I was so afraid of drowning in his memory that I couldn’t see past the pain. But being here with you has brought all the great things about him back to life. Thank you for that.”

  “I think you’ll always miss him,” she said. “That’s what love is. You ache for the people you wish you had in your life, and you ache for the ones who are in your life.” A soft laugh escaped her lips. “We’re an achy clan. But I think this is a good ache, right?”

  He laughed and kissed her through their smiles. “A very good ache, babe. The best ache ever. I met this woman on the docks one night when I tried to get on the boat a few months ago. She told me that life takes us where we need to be when we need to be there, and I think she was right. Life brought us both here at the right time. I couldn’t have handled this months or years ago. But now, with you, for you, I feel like I’m ready to move forward.”

  “I want that for you. I think your father would be so happy to know you’ve spent all this time with your family again, and doing the thing he loved so much. Do you want to say something for him? Goodbye? Something to honor his memory?”

  She was so sweet, always thinking about what he needed, taking over hours at the shop without complaint when Violet failed to show up, making the grounds of her grandpa
rents’ property gorgeous, even though she knew her mother might let it all go in a few short weeks. How did he get so lucky to have connected with the one person who could make him see the beauty in life again and feel emotions he thought were lost forever?

  “I’m sailing again, and I’m with the woman I’m falling head over heels for. The woman I know my father would adore.” He pulled her closer and kissed her tenderly. “We are honoring him.”

  DESIREE KNEW NOTHING about boats, but it was clear that Rick knew everything there was to know, and watching him sail them out into the sea was like seeing poetry in motion. The wind whipped through his hair, and his eyes shone brighter than she’d ever seen. He was a happy guy, but seeing him on the water made it clear that there was even more positivity and happiness inside him waiting to come out. She hoped she would be there to catch every joyful moment of it.

  Rick had lowered the table in the rear of the boat and covered it with enormous cushions that extended the bench seats into a big bed. He brought blankets and pillows up from the cabin. She had no idea how many hours had passed, and she didn’t care, as they lay kissing beneath the stars. Rick’s hands moved over her body like he owned it, and he did. All of her. This amazing, strong man had conquered his greatest fear for her. Her own mother couldn’t put her first, and Rick, after knowing her only a few short weeks, made her feel like she was his everything. She wanted him to know she felt the exact same way.

  “I meant what I said,” he told her between heated kisses. “I’m falling hard for you, baby. This is no summer romance.”

  “I know. I’m falling, too.”

  She tugged up on his shirt, wanting—needing—to feel his skin against hers. Gone was the timid girl who had blushed at the very thought of sex toys and dirty words. Tonight she was his in every sense of the word. She was going to be his wildest fantasies come true, and she didn’t need a dare, or a reason beyond the way her heart had come to life, to give him all of herself.