See You at Sunset

by V. K. Sykes

  “Yes,” she said, dropping her gaze.

  “The poor guy’s going to feel like a fish out of water around here,” he said, trying to be generous about it. “Like I’d probably feel at one of your New York parties.”

  That brought her gaze back up. Her gorgeous blue eyes looked a little flinty. “Jackson’s a big boy. We don’t need to worry about his delicate feelings. Anyway, when have Seashell Bay folks ever been anything but friendly?”

  “Never.”

  Holly cast an anxious glance toward the door and then back at him.

  “I’ll see you there tonight,” he said, giving her an easy way out.

  “Sure.” She started to turn but then stopped and faced him again, still looking unhappy. “I really am sorry, Micah.”

  He shook his head. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I’ll look forward to meeting him.”

  Holly let out a sarcastic little snort before opening the door. Micah rarely lied, but she clearly knew he’d just told a whopper.

  Chapter 14

  Your friend Morgan is seriously hot,” Jackson said as Holly pulled into the driveway of Aiden and Lily’s gorgeous old Victorian. “And sweet too. I had no idea that one of your best friends owned the B&B. I’d figured she’d be pissed off to learn about my little ruse and the fake name, but she couldn’t have been nicer.”

  “Yes, she’s a sweetie,” Holly said, repressing a flare of irritation. Jackson was trying to be nice, after all. “But if you’d be more comfortable at a Portland hotel, feel free to move. Morgan wouldn’t mind at all if you decided to cancel.”

  Jackson picked some apparently invisible lint off his crisply pressed black slacks. “Hols, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me.” He raised his eyebrows in an exaggerated lift.

  Busted.

  “Don’t be silly,” she said.

  They got out of Florence’s car and climbed the stairs to the wraparound front porch with its pretty white rocking chairs. Normally, the serenity of the rather isolated place calmed Holly down, but tonight she was as nervous as a Collie in a thunderstorm.

  “I hope I’m not underdressed,” Jackson said.

  Underdressed? She knew his pale pink shirt—perfectly rolled up to just below the elbows—was made to measure by a London tailor, and his loafers were Prada. The white gold Rolex on his left wrist screamed wealth.

  “These are plain working people, Jackson. That classic watch on your wrist might be worth as much as Lily’s lobster boat.”

  “I doubt it,” he scoffed. “Anyway, you’re certainly going casual tonight.”

  There was a hint of judgment in his tone. She’d decided to wear a red, scoop-neck tank top with a belted black skirt and flat sandals. “Is that a bad thing? This is home, after all, and these are my closest friends.” Holly rang the bell before opening the door. “I told you it was a casual barbecue. No big deal.”

  “I guess I’m still having a hard time getting my head around this being home for you,” he said. “You seem so different here than in New York.”

  “It’s a different world.”

  Jackson snorted. “Tell me about it.”

  “Come in, you two,” Lily said as she hurried down the hallway toward them. She hugged Holly and then, smiling, extended her hand to Jackson. “And you’re Jackson, of course. Welcome to Seashell Bay.”

  Holly had introduced Jackson to Morgan at the B&B, guilty that she had to drop such an unexpected bombshell on her friend. She’d managed to get Morgan aside for a few moments and asked her to call Lily to give her the heads-up on Jackson. Morgan had given her a sympathetic pat on the back and then dealt with Jackson with her easy innkeeper’s charm.

  Thank God she could always depend on Lily and Morgan to have her back.

  “Great to meet you, Lily.” Jackson’s gaze flashed over Lily with undisguised interest. With her deep tan and trim figure, Lily looked amazing in a dandelion yellow sundress, so Holly couldn’t entirely blame him. Still, did he have to act like such a player with her friends?

  “Well, it’s about time you showed up on our island,” Lily said jokingly, though Holly knew she meant every word.

  Jackson just smiled.

  “I’m ready for a drink,” Holly said. Or maybe six.

  “Most of the people are out back.” Lily took Jackson by the arm. “Aiden’s grilling burgers. I’ll let him take over the introductions, and then you boys can talk about sports and such while Holly helps Morgan and me in the kitchen.”

  Lily winked at Holly and then dragged Jackson away.

  Relieved to have a break, Holly followed them and then took a right turn into the kitchen, where Morgan and Micah were talking and drinking beer. Morgan was scooping avocado dip into the center of a glass veggie tray. As soon as she saw Holly, she grabbed another Shipyard from the fridge, opened it, and shoved it into Holly’s hand. “I’ll bet you totally need this,” she said.

  “You have no idea,” Holly said. “Hi, Micah.”

  Her favorite deputy, dressed in jeans and a black Polo shirt, definitely looked out of sorts—like he could chew up nails and spit out staples.

  “I guess that was the famous Jackson Leigh who just sailed by,” he said in a flat voice.

  The last thing Holly needed was another cranky male. “Be nice, Micah. He is our guest on the island, after all.”

  “Uninvited guest,” Micah said. “But, yeah, I’ll be nice.”

  Morgan punched him on the shoulder. “This is hard enough for Holly, you big jerk. Don’t even think about getting into some stupid male contest with the Come-From-Away.”

  Micah clearly had to wrestle his irritation under control. “No worries,” he finally said. Then he turned and strode out the back door into the yard.

  “Sorry, sweetie,” Morgan said. “But he’s upset. He told me he almost didn’t come.”

  “I know and I hate it,” Holly said. “I’m furious with Jackson for thinking he could just breeze in like this.” She shook her head. “I suppose I should be thrilled that he dropped everything to come visit me. And I guess it’s a real problem that I’m not.”

  “Well, if Ryan and I were separated for weeks on end and he helicoptered up here to spend a day or two with me, I’d be dragging him up to bed in a second, regardless of what else was going on.”

  “I can’t totally blame Jackson for doing this,” Holly said, starting to pick nervously at the beer bottle label. “I just wish I could talk him into taking a hotel room in the city tonight.”

  “There’s not a lot of privacy at the Merrifield, that’s for sure,” Morgan said.

  Holly’s stomach had been tight for hours thinking about what would happen later tonight. Refusing Jackson after he’d made such an extravagant gesture would make him crazy and might spell the end of their relationship. Was she ready for that?

  “Right now I’m just trying to get through the evening,” she said. “I’ll figure that part out later.”

  Morgan shot her a startled look. “Whatever you say.” Then she glanced behind her out the window. “You saw Micah just now. This is tough for him.”

  “I know.” Micah was the last person she’d ever want to hurt, especially after all he’d done for her and her aunts.

  But it was more than that, and she knew it.

  Don’t think about that now.

  “I’d better get outside and see what Jackson is up to,” she said. “He’s probably trying to sell Aiden on one of his investment schemes by now.”

  “Good idea. And try not to worry about Micah. He’s got plenty of friends here, and you know he’d never do anything to embarrass you.”

  “No, but Jackson might.”

  Micah had kept his eye on Jackson Leigh for the better part of an hour. Aiden had introduced him to the stockbroker, and the tense conversation had lasted only about fifteen seconds before Aiden figured out he’d better keep the Come-From-Away moving. Holly had appeared a few minutes later and had pretty much stuck close to her boyfrien
d. He made a point of having his hands all over her, including several pats to the ass. She hadn’t looked happy about it but didn’t abandon him either.

  Aiden broke away from his brother and joined Micah, Ryan, and Josh at the edge of the crowd of forty or so people that had gathered in the yard. “So, what did you think of the great Jackson Leigh?” Aiden’s sarcastic tone made his own assessment clear.

  Micah shrugged. “Since he seems to view me as some kind of redneck idiot, I’d say I’m not about to sign up for his fan club.”

  He didn’t like the way the guy treated Holly either—as if she were some sort of pampered possession to parade around on his arm.

  “Actually, that’s pretty much how he’s treating everybody, though some of the women seem to think he’s a charmer,” Aiden said. “As far as I’m concerned, the guy’s a raging asshole.”

  “He seemed interested enough in talking to you though,” Ryan said.

  Aiden snorted. “Only enough to tell me how much the hotel and resort business sucks. He said the profit margin on a resort like ours would be minimal and that he could have made Lily and me ten times as much if we’d had him invest our money instead. He said he had lots of professional athletes as clients and had made them all rich.”

  “What did you say?” Micah asked.

  “That our resort was more about community than about making money.”

  “That must have been when I saw him laughing,” Micah said sarcastically.

  Aiden grinned. “Actually, it was. Jesus, I thought Holly was going to haul off and slug the moron. She was squeezing his arm like a fucking tourniquet.”

  The tension in Micah’s shoulders eased a bit. He’d seen that and hoped that his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

  A minute later, when he noticed that Miss Annie had dragged Jackson to a corner of the patio beside Aiden’s huge barbecue, Micah excused himself. He eased his way through the crowd and drew Holly off to the side of the garden so they wouldn’t be heard.

  “You sure don’t look like you’re having fun,” he said. But despite the frown marking her brow, she looked so damn beautiful—simply dressed and with her hair drifting in a silky wave to her bare shoulders—that breathing didn’t come easy.

  Holly’s gaze shifted toward Jackson. Miss Annie was wagging a finger at the CFA, obviously delivering one of her famous lectures.

  “Jackson’s already pretty drunk,” she said in a tight voice. “I’m going to have to get him out of here soon before he does any more damage.”

  “What did he say that got Miss Annie going?”

  Her shoulders went up around her ears. “I’m not sure I should tell you.”

  “Well, if you don’t, Miss Annie will.”

  Holly blew out a sigh. “Jackson probably thought he was making a joke. For a genuinely smart man, he can be so stupid at times.”

  Micah waited her out in silence.

  “Oh, whatever,” she said in a grumpy voice. “He made a couple of dumbass remarks about Seashell Bay. That it looked like the place didn’t realize it was the twentieth century, much less the twenty-first. The idiot,” she finished under her breath.

  Well, the guy wasn’t exactly the first mainlander to say something like that. But Micah could tell that the thoughtless remarks had embarrassed Holly in front of people she cared deeply about. From the look in her eyes, he figured she was pulling her punches, afraid to tell him the full story.

  “I don’t get it, Holly.” He probably didn’t have the right to say this, but they’d been friends forever. “You and Jackson just don’t add up. But I guess everything looks different when you’re back in the city.” He paused. “I only hope the guy doesn’t end up hurting you.”

  She looked down at her feet. “Don’t worry about me, Micah. I’m fine.”

  She sure didn’t sound fine. He let his instincts take over and reached out to gently grasp her shoulders. Holly looked up into his face, her eyes both troubled and questioning.

  “You’d rather be somewhere else right now, wouldn’t you?” he asked.

  When her lower lip trembled, he thought it told him everything.

  “We could just go,” he said. “Leave the party right now and let Morgan and Ryan take Jackson back to the inn. You’re not responsible for the guy, and I don’t think you really want to be with him anymore. Not after what I’m seeing here tonight.” He let one hand drift down her bare upper arm, stroking it. It felt like satin under his fingertips.

  “Am I wrong?” he prompted as she stared at him, wide-eyed.

  “Oh, Micah,” she whispered. She shook her head, as if she couldn’t talk.

  Suddenly her eyes darkened as she looked over his shoulder. “Shit. Here he comes.”

  Biting back a curse, Micah turned. Jackson was elbowing his way toward them in a hurry, knocking a drink out of old Roy Mayo’s hand and prompting Roy to let out a choice curse word. Ryan was right on Jackson’s heels, and Morgan was hurrying to catch up to her fiancé.

  “Am I interrupting?” Jackson said to Holly in a nasty tone as he burst into her personal space. “I damn well hope so, given what seems to be going on over here.”

  “Jackson, please don’t start,” she said from between clenched teeth. She took a quick step back.

  The guy’s face went red. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m getting you out of here right now.”

  Okay, enough from you, asshole.

  Micah moved closer, just enough to cause Jackson to reluctantly retreat a step. “So, here’s the thing. You’re our guest on the island, and you’re Holly’s friend. That means we’ll overlook your rude behavior this one time. But listen when I tell you that you’d better not speak to her like that again.”

  Jackson let out a derisive laugh. “Or what, Mr. Deputy Sheriff of Butthole Island? You going to arrest me or something?”

  Holly and Morgan sucked in horrified gasps, their eyes popping wide simultaneously. Ryan took an angry step forward, but Micah shot out an arm and held his friend back.

  “Jesus, Hols,” Jackson said, apparently oblivious to his girlfriend’s stunned reaction. “I knew this town was going to be some kind of lame-ass throwback, but I didn’t think I was going to get lectured by a crazy old lady and some bruiser hick deputy. Christ, I’ve only been here a few hours, but I totally get why you wanted to get the hell out of the place. Shit, I’d have run away when I was in kindergarten.”

  He snorted out a laugh, apparently thinking he’d said something hilarious. Sure, the guy had been drinking, but that didn’t excuse his behavior.

  Holly was on top of it. Her hand shot out and grabbed the front of Jackson’s shirt. “We need to talk in private, Jackson. Right now.”

  Her voice made it clear that Jackson Leigh was about to get a major shitkicking.

  Jackson didn’t resist as Holly pulled him into the house, down the hallway, and out the front door to the porch. The idiotic grin on his face signaled his pleasure that she’d rescued him from the Seashell Bay rubes, as he would no doubt label them. Maybe he even thought the two of them would head straight to the B&B and get naked between the sheets.

  In his freaking dreams.

  She rounded on him as soon as she closed the front door behind them. “What the hell were you thinking, Jackson? How dare you insult your hosts? My friends? Me?”

  His head jerked back. “I didn’t insult you, babe. Hell, I’m sorry I called that old lady crazy, but she came at me like I was some grubby kid. I didn’t come all this way to be lectured by some old bag about proper manners.” He put air quotes around the words.

  Holly felt like her head was going to explode. “Old bag? Miss Annie is worth at least ten of you. And what about insulting Micah? He’s my lifelong friend, Jackson. He has the right to try to comfort me when I’m upset. Are you saying he isn’t even allowed to touch me?”

  “Yeah, well, I think the deputy might be more than just your friend,” Jackson snarled. “Tell me he’s not, Holly. Or do you think I’m as stupid as these moro
ns you grew up with?”

  Unconsciously, her hand had curled into a fist. Startled, she shook it out. “Dammit, Jackson, just shut up. Look, I don’t want to embarrass you by making you leave, but I will if you don’t promise to act like a decent human being for the rest of the evening. Or I’ll leave, if you’d prefer.”

  Jackson studied her for a few moments before turning away to lean on the porch railing. Holly watched as he stared up at the star-filled sky for a solid minute.

  “It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” he finally said, turning back to her. His voice had gentled and his smile was the entrancing one she’d come to know so well. “It’s so quiet out here too. I suppose this place is actually pretty romantic—in its own bucolic kind of way.”

  Oh God, another major mood swing. Sometimes Holly felt like she couldn’t keep up with the back and forth. And although she was glad he’d calmed down, romance was the last thing on her mind right now.

  She crossed her arms over her chest and kept quiet, assuming Jackson had more to say.

  “I was going to wait until later tonight to say this,” he said. “When we were alone at the B&B. But I guess I’d better get it out now—since you’re so bent.”

  Holly stiffened. She supposed she was bent. She was sickened and furious.

  He gave her a placating smile. “Just listen, Hols, okay? Look, we both know we’re not into commitments. We agreed on that a long time ago. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with you more than just a weekend here and there. We haven’t seen much of each other lately, and it’s making me realize how much I miss you.”

  Holly frowned. “What are you saying, Jackson?”

  He gave her the wry, charming smile that used to move her but now seemed so practiced. “Just this. I’ve been thinking about how it doesn’t make much sense for you to pay a fortune for an apartment in New York when I’ve got a ton of room at mine. And you’ve got to admit I live in a hell of a nice building.”

  Holly couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d pulled a big diamond ring out of his pocket.

  “Move in with me, Hols,” he said. “I think I’m ready to give it a try. Let’s see how it works.”