I wasn’t sure what to say. I wanted to thank him, but I thought that might be too formal. I felt like I should say something, but I couldn’t really think straight. My brain felt like mush after my orgasm. All of my insecurities resurfaced and I started to panic under the scrutiny of his warm gaze.
He smiled and brushed a strand of hair off my forehead. “I wish you knew how beautiful you are.”
And just like that, all my worry, fear, and anxiety disappeared. I may not have known what to say, but Jimmy knew exactly the right thing.
CHAPTER 15
Isabella
I stepped outside and the morning breeze hit me. Pausing to take it in, I inhaled the fresh ocean air deeply. This was the first day I’d woken up without the V-word hanging over my head. Last night, I checked number three, Have Sex, off my list. I’d always wondered what I’d feel after I was no longer a virgin, and I now I knew: giddy.
My first time was better than I’d ever imagined it could be, and I’d imagined it a lot of ways. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Not only was the physical aspect mind-blowing; the emotional aspect was just as, if not more, fulfilling.
A small smile spread across my face as I thought about what Jimmy said when he dropped me off at Mrs. B’s last night.
“It’ll be better next time. I promise.”
I didn’t know if I could survive better. I was barely holding it together. As it was, I had to stop myself from skipping down the path to the coffee shop. I needed to get my game face on. Cheyenne didn’t need to be subjected to the morning-afterglow of someone who’d been with her brother.
Although, with Jimmy’s free ticket to the buffet, she probably had been in the past. I didn’t think he spent many nights alone. It was strange. I knew that I wasn’t even close to being the only person he’d ever been with, but while we were having sex, that’s what I’d felt—like I was the only person that had ever existed to him. Logically, I knew that I was just projecting, but that didn’t make it feel any less real.
I was still grinning like an idiot when I walked into the Dreamy Bean Coffee & Book Café.
I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting to see, but the interior surprised me. If I hadn’t known any better, I’d have thought I was in Tribeca. The counter was distressed wood and above it were three oversized, industrial, pendant lights.
The back wall was exposed brick and there was a massive, floor-to-ceiling bookcase on the right. The dining area had adorable black iron tables with mosaic tile patterns on the tops, and they were surrounded by wrought-iron chairs with colorful cushions.
“Isabella.”
I heard my name and turned to see that Cheyenne was already seated.
“This place is adorable!” I enthused as I joined her.
“I know, right? It reminds me of the Village.”
“Yeah, I was thinking I was in Tribeca.” I didn’t see any drinks or food, so I asked, “Did you order?”
“Yep. You can do it all from the table.” She handed me a tablet that was surprisingly easy to navigate, and within a couple of minutes, my order was sent.
As soon as I set the tablet down, Cheyenne spoke. “I’m sorry about the other day at the meeting with my brothers. I honestly didn’t think that it was going to be anything like that. And I’m sorry that I sent my little brother out after you to get your number, I just didn’t want to take a chance of you leaving without me getting it.”
“Don’t worry about me.” I waved away her apology, glad she couldn’t read my mind, because then she’d know that meeting led to her brother asking me out…which then led to him deflowering me. Which would definitely fall under the heading of Uncomfortable Things to Know About Your Brother. I decided to change the subject. “How are you doing now? With everything?”
“Um, I don’t know.” She bit the inside of her cheek.
“If you want to talk about it, I’m here,” I offered. I didn’t want to pry, but I was curious about what was going on. I hadn’t felt it was my place to ask Jimmy about it.
“It’s sort of complicated.”
“What isn’t?” I said sincerely.
She chuckled. I wasn’t joking, but I was happy I’d made her smile.
Her eyes scanned the area before she leaned forward and spoke in a quiet voice. “Well, I came back to Firefly after my father—or the man I thought was my father, at least—passed away. But before I left, I overheard my grandparents saying that James Comfort’s demon seeds would never get a dime of my mother’s money. I assumed when I went to the will reading that there’d be some mention of a trust, but there wasn’t. So I asked Reagan—”
“The one that’s with Billy?”
“That’s right.” She pointed at me. “I asked her to look into it. Well, it turns out that there is a trust that my brothers and I are entitled to, but there is a clause that says none of us get anything if there is any foul play suspected in my mother’s death.”
“Oh, God. Is there?” I thought I remembered Cheyenne telling me that her mother had died in a car crash.
“We don’t know. That’s what Billy and Reagan are trying to find out. The police report is missing information. All the newspaper articles say it was an accident. They went through my mother’s journals to see if they could get any clues. Then Reagan found some private letters that were addressed to her boss at work and recognized my mother’s writing from the journals. It’s looking like my mother and Reagan’s boss were having an affair, and, well…I might be the result of it.”
“Wow.” And I’d thought my family dynamics were complicated. “Is that… are you upset about that?”
Cheyenne opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again a few times before she finally said, “It’s not like I had some sort of attachment to either of my parents, so finding out that one of them, a man that I don’t even remember, may not actually be my parent, isn’t that upsetting. But it feels strange and unsettling. It’s like it doesn’t change anything and it changes everything at the same time.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve had my suspicions for a while now. The man my mother was writing to came to see my grandparents several times and was even at my high school and college graduations.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, I recognized him at my father’s funeral.”
“Did you ask your grandparents about him?”
“No.” Cheyenne shook her head.
I wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t. From what I remembered, they were intimidating people…and that was coming from the daughter of Miles Santini, who was regularly described in trade articles as ruthless, cunning, heartless, and cutthroat. And those were the ones that were complimentary.
“Are you going to ask…this man?” I realized that I had no idea who the man might be.
Cheyenne bit her bottom lip. “There’s just been a lot of changes lately and I’m not really sure how to feel about any of them. Plus, I’m not sure I want to know the truth.”
Our drinks and sandwiches came out and we started to eat.
“Actually,” Cheyenne said decisively as she put her sandwich down. “I do want to know the truth. I’m just not sure if I want him to know that I know. I feel like I’ve been in the dark about so much for so long and I’m tired of it. If I confront him then I’m showing my hand. Does that make sense?”
“Why don’t you have a DNA sample of one of your brothers compared to yours? At least then you’ll know if you have a different father or not.”
Her face brightened. “That’s a great idea.”
“I can get the results fast-tracked. Santini Industries holds majority shares in Callum Labs. They specialize in genetics.”
“Oh my gosh, that would be amazing! Thank you!”
“Don’t worry about it.” It was the least I could do for the friendship she’d extended to me in school. “I’ll have the test kits overnighted and then once we get the samples from you and your brothers, I should be able to hav
e some answers within forty-eight hours.”
“Awesome! At least I think it is. I’m pretty sure my brothers will agree to give a DNA sample.”
I felt my cheeks flush when she mentioned DNA and her brother in the same sentence, since I probably had some of his DNA on my person.
“Good, I feel good about this.” Cheyenne beamed. “For better or worse, it’s always best to know the truth.”
I nodded even as guilt crept up in me. I’d never been a person who kept secrets. In fairness, I’d never had a secret before, or people to keep it from. Now that I did, I guessed I was that sort of person.
I felt bad about not being totally honest with Jimmy about my health situation, and for not telling Cheyenne that I’d already known Jimmy before “meeting” him at the bar, and that I’d seen him last night.
Oh, and that he’d asked to see me again tonight.
“Oh, look.” She pointed out the window and I turned to see two stunning women, one with dark hair and the other light hair. “There’s Reagan and her friend Nadia! Come on, I want to introduce you.”
As uncomfortable as I was meeting new people, I was relieved for the interruption. I just needed more time to figure out if I was going to tell Jimmy about my condition, and how to tell Cheyenne about Jimmy.
“Hey, there young ladies!” The man from the Ferris wheel greeted Cheyenne and me as we passed. “You just can’t stay away from those Comforts, can ya?” he asked me with a wink.
Cheyenne looked over her shoulder at me.
“Anytime you and Jimmy want to come back and ride, it’s on the house.” He grinned widely.
Cheyenne’s brows rose. It looked like my time was up. It was confession time.
Well…at least one confession.
CHAPTER 16
Jimmy
My shoulders tensed as nerves built up in me the closer I got to the boarding house. I’d been damn near unable to concentrate on anything other than seeing Bella all day. I spaced out during the safety speech, which I must’ve given thousands of times before, on both my charters today. My mind went totally blank and all I could think about was how beautiful Bella’d looked, half-naked and sprawled out beneath me in the back of my truck.
After work, when I got home to shower and change, Sherlock had to remind me to feed him by picking up his bowl and throwing it at my feet. In all the years I’d had him, feeding him had never slipped my mind. I still wasn’t convinced that I was in love, or falling as Billy put it, but something had definitely messed with my ability to function.
I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since I dropped her off the night before. Hell, if I were being honest with myself, I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since the minute I first saw her standing on the dock. Every minute that I spent with her just pulled me deeper under the spell that she’d put on me.
A little voice in the back of my head was telling me to put on the brakes. I was self-aware enough to know that she was way out of my league. She ran in the same circles as Cheyenne, who had been raised very differently than I had. I was guessin’ that I was just a fling for her, a detour on the wild side before she ended up marrying some hedge fund manager and having a white picket fence and a golden retriever named Buddy.
I didn’t want that to happen, but I knew that I’d be naïve to think it was anything more than that. No matter how much I wanted it to be. The smart thing to do would be to cut bait and get out of this thing—whatever it was—before I sunk any deeper.
Too bad I wasn’t exactly known for doing the smart thing.
My plan, instead, was to make the most out of every second I was lucky enough to spend with Bella. I didn’t want to waste a millisecond worrying about what was going to happen. I wanted to enjoy the now.
And now I was about to see Bella.
When I pulled up in front of the boarding house and saw Mrs. B sitting in her rocker on the front porch, I turned my music down. She had a pet peeve about people blasting ‘the devil’s music’ when they drove down the busy street that her house sat on. Normally, I’d leave it up and then charm her into forgiving me just to have a little fun and try and get her to lighten up. But now was not the time to get on her bad side. Bella was in town visiting her and I didn’t want to risk her casting me in a bad light. Or at least a worse light than she already could have.
“James.” Mrs. B nodded as I came up the stairs, a bouquet of flowers in hand.
“How are you this evenin’, Mrs. B?”
“I’m doin’ just fine. I hear you’re takin’ my girl to the festival tonight.”
“Yes, ma’am.” When I’d asked Bella if I could see her again tonight, she’d asked if we could go to the Firefly Festival. It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind, but I’d do anything and go anywhere to spend time with her.
“She’s a good one.” Her words were complimentary, but her tone was nothing short of a warning.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ve always liked you, James. You’ve always been respectful.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She picked up the rolled-up newspaper that she always seemed to have on hand for what she described as unruly pets and people and swatted the palm of her hand with it. “Don’t make me use this.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I couldn’t help but grin, thinkin’ about her swattin’ me with the paper.
“I’m serious, James Lee Comfort, Jr.” Mrs. B used my full name as she pointed the rolled-up paper in my face. “That girl has been through enough and has enough on her plate, she doesn’t need to add any rotten eggs to it.”
Rotten eggs. Was she calling me a rotten egg?
And what did Bella have on her plate? I hated that I didn’t know everything about that woman. We’d scratched the surface of upbringings, and obviously she’d shared intimate details with me. But I still had so many questions. I figured asking Mrs. B one of them couldn’t hurt.
“What does she have on her plate?”
The question had just left my mouth when the door creaked open and Bella appeared. Her hair was down and there were soft waves in it. She was wearing a white tank top, cutoff jean shorts, and cowboy boots. She was any Southern boy’s fantasy come to life. Or at least she was this Southern boy’s fantasy come to life.
My mouth instantly watered.
“Wow…you look…” I wanted to say smokin’ hot, but I didn’t want to see the business end of that rolled-up newspaper. “Beautiful.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and looked down at her feet and lifted her right leg up slightly. “The boots are new.”
“You really do, honey,” Mrs. B agreed. “Just beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Bella bent down and kissed Mrs. B on the cheek.
“Are those for me?” she asked when she stood back up.
I’d completely forgotten I’d stopped by the Posy Pusher florist to grab the wildflower bouquet. “They are.”
“They’re beautiful!” she exclaimed as I handed the colorful arrangement to her.
“I don’t… have…um…” Bella looked around.
“I’ll take care of them.” Mrs. B reached up and took them from Bella. “You two get goin’.”
“Thank you!” Bella smiled from ear to ear.
“Thanks, Mrs. B.” I nodded toward her.
“Have fun, you two.” Mrs. B pointed the rolled-up paper in my direction. “But not too much fun.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I waved and when I lowered my arm, I rested my hand on Bella’s back. It felt totally natural and no big deal, and completely foreign and a huge deal at the same time.
I opened the door for her, helped her in, and we were on our way.
As we drove, I realized that I’d refrained from ever really participating in any sort of romantic gestures like putting my arm around a girl, or holding hands, or any sort of PDA, really. When I was twelve, my pop gave me his version of the talk. It basically consisted of him handing me a box of condoms and telling me to use them. Then he said that sex was sex, it was a
physical act. But if I did ‘lovey dovey shit’ with girls they would think it was more than that.
I hadn’t realized how much that one talk had imprinted on me. In all the years I’d been hanging out with the opposite sex, I’d never come close to doing anything that was remotely ‘lovey dovey’ until now. With Bella.
I wondered if that had been unfair to the women I’d spent time with. I’d made sure that they all knew the deal. But somehow, I still felt like I’d maybe been an asshole by treating them like that.
I wanted to do all those things and more with Bella. She made me want to be a different man. A better man.
“Are you okay?” she asked from beside me.
My eyes sliced to hers. “Yeah, why do you ask?”
“You just seem…quiet.”
I didn’t think I should share the thoughts I was having about my past, or that I wanted her in my future. I didn’t want to spook her. “I was just thinkin’ about how new this is for me.”
The look on her face told me that she thought I was trying to sell her ocean-front property in Arizona. “I doubt that.”
Even though her response was a kind way of saying she thought I was full of it, I still couldn’t help but smile. Her calling-bullshit-on-me face was damn cute. “Why do you doubt it?”
She squared her shoulders as she turned her upper body toward me. “I don’t believe for a second this is the first time you’ve driven down backroads, windows down, listening to country music, with a girl by your side.”
I dipped my chin toward her. “True, but never this girl.”
And this girl was the only one that mattered.
She smiled, but I could see that she thought it was a line I was handing her. I figured that I wouldn’t try and convince her it wasn’t. I’d let my actions do the talking for me.
“How did lunch go with Cheyenne?” I didn’t have a lot going for me in this relationship. We were from two different worlds. She lived hundreds of miles away from me. She’d shown zero interest in any sort of commitment. But she knew my sister. That was a connection I planned on exploiting for all it was worth.
Sex on the Beach (Southern Comfort Book 2) Page 11