Sweet Days by the Bay

by Kay Correll

  Sweet Days by the Bay

  Kay Correll’s Complete Indigo Bay Collection

  KAY CORRELL

  Rose Quartz Press

  Copyright © 2019 Kay Correll

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any matter without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental

  * * *

  Published by Rose Quartz Press

  080819

  Contents

  Foreword - Indigo Bay

  Kay’s Books

  Sweet Sunrise

  Sweet Holiday Memories

  Sweet Starlight

  Dedication and Acknowledgments

  Also by Kay Correll

  About the Author

  Foreword - Indigo Bay

  These stories were originally published in a multi-author series set in the fictional town of Indigo Bay. The three stories are interconnected and filled with familiar characters from my other series. I hope you enjoy them.

  * * *

  Sweet Sunrise

  Sweet Holiday Memories ~ a short holiday story

  Sweet Starlight

  Kay’s Books

  Find more information on all my books at my website.

  * * *

  COMFORT CROSSING ~ THE SERIES

  The Shop on Main - Book One

  The Memory Box - Book Two

  The Christmas Cottage - A Holiday Novella (Book 2.5)

  The Letter - Book Three

  The Christmas Scarf - A Holiday Novella (Book 3.5)

  The Magnolia Cafe - Book Four

  The Unexpected Wedding - Book Five

  * * *

  The Wedding in the Grove - (a crossover short story between series - with Josephine and Paul from The Letter.)

  * * *

  LIGHTHOUSE POINT ~ THE SERIES

  Wish Upon a Shell - Book One

  Wedding on the Beach - Book Two

  Love at the Lighthouse - Book Three

  Cottage Near the Point - Book Four

  Return to the Island - Book Five

  Bungalow by the Bay - Book Six

  Click here to learn more about the series.

  * * *

  SWEET RIVER ~ THE SERIES

  A Dream to Believe in - Book One

  A Memory to Cherish - Book Two

  A Song to Remember - Book Three

  A Time to Forgive - Book Four

  A Summer of Secrets - Book Five

  * * *

  INDIGO BAY ~ A multi-author sweet romance series

  Sweet Sunrise - Book Three

  Sweet Holiday Memories - A short holiday story

  Sweet Starlight - Book Nine

  * * *

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  Copyright © 2017 Kay Correll

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any matter without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental

  * * *

  Published by Rose Quartz Press

  052117

  ISBN: 978-1-944761-90-5

  Chapter 1

  The last place on earth Will Layton thought he’d ever be was back in Indigo Bay, South Carolina. He’d dusted the sand off from the town years ago and sworn he’d never grace its small-town streets again.

  But here he was.

  And the one and only person in the whole wide world who could make him come back here was his younger sister. Whitney said she needed him, so here he was, driving down Main Street.

  The town looked the same, though some of the businesses had changed names since he’d last visited.

  In spite of his good intentions, he couldn’t help himself, he turned off Main Street, cut across a side street, and headed to the area of Indigo Bay where they’d lived until his sister left for college. He turned down a narrow street crowded with small homes and apartments. There it was. His childhood home, more bedraggled than it had been when he’d grown up in it, if that was possible.

  He slowed down and rolled past the apartment. He could still picture himself racing out the front door, clattering down the stairs, hurrying to school or one of his many jobs. He stepped on the accelerator and pulled away from the apartment building and the memories.

  He glanced at the address he’d written on the back of a bar tab from The Lucky Duck, a tavern he owned on Belle Island, Florida. His little sister sure had come up in the world to be able to afford to live on Seaside Boulevard.

  Will crossed over to Seaside, with its rows of beach cottages mixed in with large, elaborate homes lining the coast. It was just a short distance from where he’d grown up, but it seemed like the other side of the world.

  He carefully searched the addresses until he came to 1203 Seaside Boulevard. A pretty, mint-green cottage with white trim graced the lot. He pulled onto the sand and crushed-shell driveway and took a deep breath. He could do this.

  He could.

  Probably.

  He climbed out of his truck and stretched. It had been a long drive from Belle Island to Indigo Bay and he’d only stopped once, briefly, then sped on to his two week sentence, as he’d begun to think of this trip. The sooner he got here, the sooner he could leave. Well, that wasn’t exactly right. He’d promised his sister he’d stay two weeks. Fourteen days. Three hundred thirty-six hours. But who’s counting?

  The front door flew open and Whitney came bounding down the stairs and threw herself into his arms.

  “Willie. You did come. I wasn’t sure.”

  He grinned and swept his petite sister off her feet. “I said I would. Have I ever lied to you?”

  “Probably.” She grinned back at him. “Is that all you brought?” She eyed his one small duffle.

  He figured if he packed light it would be easier to escape…

  “I need to tell you something before we go inside.” Whitney shifted away from him, tugging at a lock of her short blonde pixie cut.

  He knew that look… He stared at her suspiciously. “What?”

  “I… um… well, Dad is here. He got released from a rehab place this morning and I decided to bring him to my house instead of bringing him back to his apartment. He needs someone to help him while he recovers. I just… want to take care of him.”

  Will barely kept from flinching at the sucker punch his sister just threw him. “So he’s trying to quit drinking again? You talked him into rehab?”

  “No, it’s not that. He’s been injured in an accident.”

  “Hope he didn’t hurt anyone else.”

  “Willie, no, listen to me—”

  Will held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I thought when you said you were overwhelmed with life, you needed help with your jewelry business. You said you were getting audited and needed help.” Will’s heart pounded in his chest. He wasn’t ready for this.

  Not yet. Not now. Probably not ever.

  He needed time to adjust to the fact he was even back in Indigo Bay.

  “I am overwhelmed and I do need help with my business, you’ve always been a whiz with numbers. And I do need help taking care of Dad for a while.” Her blue eyes clouded. “Please, Willie. Don’t be difficult. He’s changed.”
His sister tugged on his hand. “Come in. You’ll see.”

  “Whit, I love you. I do. But I am not staying under the same roof as that man. I promised myself years ago.”

  Whitney threw him her best pleading look. The one he could never resist, whether it was asking him for pizza money or help with her homework when they were kids… or evidently when she asked him to see their father, now that they were adults. She was the one person in the world he’d do anything for.

  Almost anything.

  She tugged on his hand one more time. “Please?”

  He sighed and picked up his duffle. “Okay, I’m coming.”

  He trailed behind his sister and slowly climbed the stairs to her front door. A door that was surely leading to a path he wasn’t ready to take.

  Dr. Ashley Harden closed the door to the clinic and flipped the sign to “closed.” She leaned against the back of the door, exhausted. It had been a long day with a constant stream of patients and a handful of emergencies. She’d been more than eager to take over Doc Browning’s practice while he took a leave of absence due to his wife’s health. She was hoping he’d keep her on when he came back if she could grow the practice for him. Today she could have used a second pair of hands, but it was just she and the front desk worker, Jerri Lynn.

  She shoved off the door and slipped out of her lab coat. The coat was tastefully embroidered with “Dr. Harden.” It still startled her a bit when people called her that. It had been a long, hard road to get to this point.

  She walked through the clinic checking on things and turning off lights. She’d sent Jerri Lynn home an hour or so ago and had seen the last few patients on her own. Unlike Ashley, Jerri Lynn had a family to get home to each night.

  She walked out the back door to the clinic and locked it behind her. The warm evening air drifted down the street, and she reached up to free the braid that held her long, auburn hair. It tumbled around her shoulders, and she shook her head to let the last strands escape. That felt better. The simple act of unleashing her hair let her transform from professional doctor Ashley to just plain Ashley.

  She cut down a cross street and headed down Seaside Boulevard to the cottage she was renting on the beach. She slipped off her shoes and crossed the beach to the shoreline. The sand was warm and welcoming on her bare feet. It had become her nightly ritual to walk along the beach and unwind on her way home.

  She’d considered buying her own home, but never seemed to make time in her schedule to actually look for a place. Maybe if she took the time and found her own home, she’d feel more like she belonged here, and less like an imposter. Of course, she didn’t even know if she’d have a job after Doc Browning returned.

  Ashley sighed. There were times when she felt like she was a little girl playing make believe she was a doctor.

  Will stood on the deck at Whitney’s cottage. So far he’d been lucky and avoided his father, who’d been sound asleep in a guest room. Evading his father for as long as possible suited Will just fine. He scrubbed a hand across his face, feeling the scruff of a day’s worth of whiskers. He wanted to high-tail it back to Belle Island, but he’d never been a coward. Maybe it was time to face his demons and see his father again.

  A lone woman walked towards him on the beach, slowly meandering up the shoreline at the water’s edge. She reminded him a lot of Ashley, his first love—heck his only one—a woman he’d also done his best to push from all conscious thought.

  His father and Ashely were both off-limits as far as he was concerned. He’d promised himself he would waste no time thinking about them and the what-ifs of his past.

  The woman came closer and started up the beach toward the row of cottages. He froze as she got close enough for him to see every little detail, the reddish-brown hair falling around her shoulders, the long slender legs, he even remembered the way she walked. He gripped the railing of the deck and his breath caught in his throat.

  The woman looked up and saw him. She came to an abrupt stop.

  They both stood suspended in time, looking at each other, shocked to be thrown together again. She finally took the last few strides to the bottom of the stairs and looked up at him. “Will.”

  “Ashley.” He searched her face, noting the changes. She’d lost the young high school girl look, replaced with a more serious and mature presence. Her emerald-green eyes looked at him expectantly. He fought the urge to either take the few steps down to her or turn and run. “What are you doing here, Ashley?”

  “I could ask the same thing.”

  “I’m here visiting my sister.” He noticed his knuckles had gone white from gripping the railing so tightly, and he forced himself to release his hold.

  “She didn’t mention you were coming.” Her voice sounded exactly the same—deep, throaty and… enchanting.

  No, it didn’t.

  He was no longer under that spell.

  He cleared his throat. “Strange. She failed to mention you were back here, either.” He could hear the cold edge to his voice. His mind reeled. What else had his sister conveniently forgotten to tell him?

  “You’re here to help with your father?”

  “You know about him?”

  She paused, one graceful hand resting on the stair rail. “I’m… I’m his doctor.”

  Doctor. Ashley was a doctor now. She’d made it. Done what she said she’d do all those years ago. But of course she had. He really hadn’t doubted it. When Ashley set her mind on something, she never wavered, not for a moment.

  “Another fact Whit forgot to mention.” The air around him was devoid of oxygen, and he sucked in a couple of deep breaths, trying to get his focus, trying to steady his safe little world that had just come crashing down around him.

  “I’m renting the cottage next door.” Ashley nodded in the direction of the neighboring building. The cottage that was way too close to Whitney’s, as far as he was concerned. He’d prefer Ashley live on the other side of the world, but if she had to live in Indigo Bay, couldn’t she have at least picked a place on the other side of town?

  “Oh.” He didn’t know what else to say. His mind was scrambled with thoughts and memories and frustrations.

  And he wanted to strangle his sister.

  Chapter 2

  Ashley stood staring at Will. He looked good. Really good. His boyish frame had filled out to a more mature body. His brown hair was in need of a trim, as usual. The shadow of whiskers now covered the angles of his face. His chestnut brown eyes flashed with anger, or maybe it was uncertainty. So many memories swirled around her. She hadn’t been prepared to see Will again, and she didn’t like surprises. Not at all. She planned her life out, and didn’t like to be caught off-guard.

  She knew she should say something like “It’s good to see you…” but she was pretty sure it wasn’t good to see Will. She didn’t need any complications now, she was focused on her practice. She’d made tough decisions in the past regarding Will, and she didn’t want to relive them now.

  “I… ” She shifted back and took her hand off the railing. “How long are you here?”

  “Two weeks.” His eyes never left her face.

  Two weeks might as well be two years, or twenty. She was never going to survive two weeks of Will in Indigo Bay. He’d always been her Achilles heel, her weakness.

  She straightened her shoulders, determined to overcome this minor—major—complication in her life. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around, then.” She deliberately made her voice sound nonchalant.

  His piercing look scanned her face as she tried desperately to appear unaffected by seeing him, by his intense gaze, by the way the mature version of Will looked… well, he looked tantalizing in a dangerous way.

  “I guess you will.” His voice was low, almost a growl of warning.

  “I’m pretty busy at work, though. I’m not here at the cottage much. I do have to check on your dad some, though. But I’m not here much.” She’d already said that. She was blathering now. “I should go.�
��

  He nodded and said not a word.

  “Whitney.” Will called out her name as he slammed into the cottage. “Where are you?”

  His sister came into the room. “Shhh. Dad’s still asleep. Keep your voice down.”

  “Are there any more surprises you have planned for me? Any other secrets you’ve been keeping?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, little details like Ashley lives next door?” He pinned her with a glare.

  She had the decency to blush. “I didn’t think you’d come home if you knew she was back.”

  “I wouldn’t have, and by the way, this is not home. Not for me.”

  Whitney crossed the room and rested a hand on his arm. “Ashley and I have actually become friends since she’s been back. It’s nice to have a friend right next door, someone to talk to.”

  “How great for you,” he said without a trace of sincerity.

  “Don’t be like that. She’s a really great person. I know you two broke up, but that was years and years ago. You were kids.”

  And yet it seemed like just yesterday and the pain always hovered right below the surface. You’d think he’d be over it by now, but no. He never let himself really dwell on it, except for, you know, when she showed up on the steps to the deck where he was standing.

  “Whit, you’ve blindsided me twice today.”