by Hope Ramsay
Submissions were due on Friday, and she still had a lot of details to work out. She was hoping that her hometown connection would give her a leg up on the other teams submitting designs. Of course, the review committee, most of whom had known her and her family for years, were also well aware that she was a one-woman shop with offices above a boutique.
But a girl needed to start somewhere. When she’d returned to Magnolia Harbor two years ago, she’d taken a leave of absence from the firm in Charleston where she’d been working to look after Momma in her final few months.
She’d reconnected with Colton St. Pierre, and his cheerleading and business connections as Magnolia Harbor’s up-and-coming building contractor had helped her decide to start her own business. Colton had been the one to introduce her to Mr. Akiyama, who’d been looking for an architect willing to take on a big challenge. His house had won awards and brought her more business. A month ago, she’d moved her business into commercial office space on Harbor Drive. So what if her office was above a boutique?
If she’d allowed herself to listen to Granny’s negativity, Jessica would never have been in this position—to accept a contract from a rich man for a challenging design on a remote island.
Call her crazy, but if she could carry it out, she might win a few more awards.
Her life might be almost perfect were it not for the fact that the gossips of Magnolia Harbor seemed to believe that her business relationship with Colton would eventually rekindle their teenage romance.
Like most gossip, this was wrong. They were friends and business associates, not lovers, and there had never been a teenage romance, even though her name and his had been forever linked sixteen years ago.
Nevertheless, it was still a bit disconcerting when she returned to her office and found Colton lounging in her swivel chair with his feet up on her desk. He looked mighty comfortable, as if he’d been there for a while.
Colton was a truly nice guy who’d straightened out his life, but sometimes he had boundary issues.
“Kerri let me in,” he said before Jessica could even ask the question.
Kerri was the owner of the building and the boutique downstairs. And of course she’d let Colton in even though Jessica had never left any express instructions about who should and should not be let into her locked office.
Kerri had just assumed, because Jessica and Colton had a long, twisted history in this town.
After a long day with a difficult man, her landlady’s assumptions irritated Jessica. But she wasn’t about to tell Colton that because she owed him so much.
“So how’d it go?” Colton asked, dropping his feet to the floor. “You guys were gone all day. I was starting to get worried.”
“Topher wants a castle,” she said with a little eye roll. “Or maybe a bachelor’s pad. I’m not sure which.”
“What?” Colton leaned forward with a deep frown.
“Have you seen his yacht?” Jessica asked.
“No, why?”
“It’s named Bachelor’s Delight. Honestly, who names a boat—”
Colton started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“That’s the name of a famous pirate ship,” he said.
“What?”
He whipped out his iPhone and peered into the screen. “Siri,” he asked, “who sailed Bachelor’s Delight?”
Siri dutifully responded, “I found this on the web.”
Colton made a few keystrokes. “Edward Davis,” he said. “He lived in the 1600s and was some kind of English privateer. His boat, which had thirty-six guns, according to this Wikipedia entry, was named Bachelor’s Delight.”
“You and your pirates,” she said with an eye roll.
He smirked. “If you had ever studied up on your local pirates, maybe the name of Topher’s boat wouldn’t have ticked you off. The original Bachelor’s Delight is one of the most famous pirate ships around, along with Captain Teal’s Bonnie Rose and Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge.”
“Okay. So I’m uninformed about historic pirate ships. But it doesn’t change the way Topher Martin’s boat is fitted out. Hugh Hefner would feel right at home.” She stalked forward to stand in front of Colton. “Out of my chair. I need to think.”
“And you can’t think on your feet?” he asked with a smirk.
“Out.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He hopped up onto the edge of the desk, and she flopped back into her chair. “I spent the whole day thinking he was an egotistical maniac because of the boat’s name. Although really, there were other things that convinced me of that. His grandfather wanted to build some kind of big house out there just to prove that the Martins are as important as the Howlands. And the bed in the captain’s quarters is round, with satin sheets.” She shook her head.
“Really?” Colton’s tone changed to avid interest, or maybe concern. “How’d you get to see the captain’s quarters?”
She cocked her head. “I went to the head, and I snooped.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t know, Colton. He really wants a castle so he can retire from the world and brood. Did you hear about his accident?”
Colton nodded. “So, is it bad?”
She shrugged. “Not his face so much. But he’s got challenges. Physical ones.”
“Does this mean you’ve forgiven him?”
“No. It means my empathy has kicked in, and I wish it hadn’t. I heard that his family is dead set against him moving out there, and I kind of see why.”
“So you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot and walk away from this job?”
“Heck no.” She pulled the signed agreement out of her tote bag. “I’m charging him double my going rate.”
“Well, if you can’t forgive him, taking his money is an alternative,” Colton said with a grin.
“Yeah. I guess.” But in the back of her mind, something—probably her conscience—niggled. Did taking his money make her craven? Or ugly? Or…
She stopped the negative thoughts before they overwhelmed her. Even now, years later, she could hear Daddy calling her names that made her feel ugly and unwanted. And then he’d sent her away.
“What are you thinking?” Colton asked. “You’ve got that faraway look in your eyes.”
She shook her head and forced a smile. “Nothing. Just tired.”
“Well, I’ve got a solution for that. Let’s go have dinner at Aunt Annie’s place.” He stood, snagging her by the arm and pulling her from her chair.
She came to her feet but resisted his pull. “Um. No. I’m really tired,” she said.
“C’mon, I’ll feed you. And I’ll assuage your conscience for having charged Topher Martin twice your rate.”
She shook her head. “No.” The truth was she didn’t want to be seen at Annie’s place with Colton again. They’d had dinner there three times last week. The food was bad for her waistline, but the gossip about them was worse for her headspace.
“Come on. Don’t be a—”
“No.” She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I just don’t want to go down there again. With you. I mean—” She bit off her words, suddenly mortified that she’d spoken her mind out loud.
It was the second time that day. Earlier she’d spoken the truth about Topher’s injuries, and now. Well, now the words had hit their mark.
He blinked, his eyes going wide. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I’ve gotten five phone calls from my grandmother’s friends who saw us at Annie’s on Saturday and last Wednesday. And then there’s the way you’ve been fixing my leaking plumbing. And the fact that you and your crew moved me into this office space a month ago. People are talking about us…” She ended the phrase with a gesture that wasn’t terribly eloquent. Then she huffed out a breath and studied the exposed beams in the ceiling.
“And is that so bad?” he asked.
“What? You know what they’re saying.”
He nodde
d. “Maybe we should, you know, give them something to talk about.”
She locked gazes with him as the earth shifted beneath her feet. What the…?
“Uh. Um. Colton. No. We don’t…I mean, I don’t…Oh, good grief.” She turned away from him.
She didn’t love Colton. Not that way anyway. Heck, she wasn’t sure she could love anyone. Or that anyone could love the real her—the woman inside who sometimes believed the nasty things Daddy had said about her coming up.
No. She didn’t want a man in her life. She didn’t trust men. And besides, she didn’t want to end up like Momma, domineered into submission.
Behind her, Colton’s silence was like a physical thing looming over her.
“You better go,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess maybe I should.”
* * *
Kerri Eaton was having a less than spectacular day at Daffy Down Dilly until Colton St. Pierre came waltzing into the store around 3:30 p.m., looking for Jess. As if Kerri was Jess’s keeper and not her landlady.
But hey, a beggar couldn’t be a chooser, and the view out her front windows had definitely improved in the month since Jess had leased the office space upstairs. Colton came and went at will.
And why not? Jess was obviously the love of his life. And hell, if you listened to the gossip that had been raging for years, Jessica and Colton had been the Romeo and Juliet of Magnolia Harbor. Teen lovers who had been thwarted by the powers that be and forced into exile.
Everyone wanted to rewrite that story and give it a happy ending.
Kerri blew out a long sigh. It was kind of annoying that the most eligible bachelor of color, not counting Colton’s older brother, Micah, had a jones for a white woman. But who was she to stand in the way of true love, long delayed.
So she’d opened the office for him. And once Jess returned, Kerri could hear their voices. Okay, it was a slow day and she had her ear pressed hard to the wall adjoining the office stairwell. But she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. She fully expected them to come down the stairs together and head off to dinner someplace. They’d been seen all over town at various restaurants.
So when Colton came clomping down the stairs by himself, Kerri was surprised. And like any busybody worth her salt, she let her curiosity get the better of her. Was there trouble in paradise?
The gossiping public in Magnolia Harbor would want to know. All of Kerri’s friends would want details and facts. Or maybe just the juicy morsels, since facts were often not terribly interesting.
So she hurried out onto the sidewalk with a smile on her face. “Hey, Colton,” she said to his back as he was heading toward his pickup. He turned. “Did Jess come back? If not, I can lock up for you.” She hoped her voice didn’t give away the lie.
“She’s back,” he said, a little muscle ticking in his jaw. What did that mean? Was he angry at Jess? Or what?
“Oh, okay. Y’all didn’t have a disagreement, did you?” she asked, point-blank. “I mean, she wasn’t upset that I let you in?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know what she’s upset about.”
Whoa, they had argued.
“Well, I imagine she’s in a grumpy mood after spending the day with Topher Martin. The word on the street is that he’s not the same as he used to be.”
“Yeah. I guess.” Colton turned and took a few more steps toward his truck before he stopped again. When he turned around, it was as if he was looking at her for the first time. As if he was truly seeing her for once.
A little thrill ran down Kerri’s spine. Lord have mercy, he was one fine-looking man. His skin was a deep red-brown, like the wood of a polished cypress knee, and his eyes were tawny gray like Spanish moss. Everything about him screamed South Carolina Low Country.
And this fine-looking man was actually staring at her, his eyebrow rising just so. He put his big ol’ hands on his oh-so-slim hips. “So, uh, when’s quitting time?” he asked.
Sweet Jesus, was the man about to suggest dinner somewhere? Wow. She looked down at her watch to avoid showing any eagerness, but then she blew it by saying, “In about five minutes.” She held her breath and stopped herself from looking up.
This was so wrong. He had a thing for Jess Blackwood. Didn’t he? Otherwise he might have noticed her last July, when they’d played on the same softball team and she’d worn her tight-fitting yoga pants.
“So, uh, you doing anything? Maybe we could grab some chops over at Aunt Annie’s Kitchen or some shrimp at Rafferty’s or something,” he said.
She exhaled and met his gaze. She’d be a fool to let this happen. She knew better than to mess with some other woman’s man. Assuming, of course, that he was Jess’s man. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen any solid proof that Colton and Jess had a thing going. He popped into her office from time to time, but she’d never seen any public displays of affection.
Maybe it was just gossip. Maybe they were just friends.
Or not.
So instead of saying yes, she folded her arms across her chest and asked, “What’s the matter? Did Jess stand you up?”
“I didn’t have a date with her,” he said in a tight voice. “We’re just friends.”
Kerri heard the twist in his voice—as if he wanted out of the friend zone and into something more intimate. She should say no. She should turn and walk away from him.
But she didn’t. A chance like this came along once in a blue moon. If Jess was too blind to see what she was throwing away, then shame on her.
Kerri gave him her best seductive smile. “I’d love to have a chop over at Annie’s Kitchen,” she said. “Just give me a moment to close things up.”
* * *
Tuesday morning, Jessica sat at her office desk doodling on a legal pad, still too upset by Colton’s behavior the previous evening to focus on any work.
His words kept circling her mind: Let’s give them something to talk about.
She didn’t want to give anyone anything to talk about. She’d already been talked about way too much in this town. And ever since her disastrous run-in with rumor and gossip, she’d endeavored never to give anyone anything to hold over her.
She’d been the model of propriety. She’d been polite. She’d been careful with her friendships and relationships. She’d always tried to tell the truth when she could, and when people resisted the truth or the truth was too brutal, she would say nothing at all.
Except yesterday, when she’d spoken her mind to Colton. And look where that had landed her. She had no clue how she was going to salvage her friendship with him.
Just then Kerri peeked around the door to the stairs.
“Hey,” her landlady said. “I made a fresh pot of coffee, and things are slow downstairs. I thought you might like a cup.”
Kerri came striding into the office looking like a runway model. She stood almost six feet tall in ballet flats and was rocking one of her shop’s cute little sundresses. Accessorized to the max, Kerri was the epitome of classy Southern womanhood with a savvy attitude.
Kerri handed Jessica a cup festooned with daffodils and then sank down into the single side chair.
Jessica took a sip. The coffee was a bold, flavorful roast.
“So,” Kerri said, settling back in her chair, “you working on Topher Martin’s house?”
Jessica blinked a couple of times. Living in Magnolia Harbor meant everyone knew everyone’s business, but the speed with which news traveled still surprised her. “So you know about that?”
“You were apparently seen getting onto Topher Martin’s yacht yesterday. And since it’s become common knowledge that he wants to run away to Lookout Island and you’re an architect…” Her voice trailed off.
“Yeah, I guess it’s not hard for people to add up one plus one.” And frequently come up with three or four or more.
Kerri nodded and stared down at her cup for a long moment, clearly uncomfortable about something. Not wanting to hear any more troubling gossip, Jessica
didn’t encourage her.
“Um…” Kerri finally said, looking up. “The thing is, I heard about Topher’s plans because I went to Annie’s place with Colton last night, and—”
“You did?” Jessica sat up straighter in her chair, a ray of sunshine leaking through the cloud that had been hanging over her all morning.
Why hadn’t she thought of that before? Maybe the answer to her problem was to find Colton a gorgeous and successful girlfriend. Someone exactly like Kerri Eaton.
“I feel so guilty about it,” Kerri continued. “I mean, I’m sure you’re going to hear gossip, and I just wanted you to know that it was completely innocent. And really, I felt like I needed to come up here and let you know because…” She didn’t finish the sentence.
“You think we’ve got a thing?” Jessica asked.
“Don’t you? I mean, didn’t you have some kind of lover’s quarrel last night?”
Oh, good grief. When would people stop?
“We did have an argument last night, but it wasn’t a lover’s quarrel. We don’t have a thing.” Jessica didn’t explain further because anything she said would be fed into the grapevine and come out garbled on the other end. Sometimes it felt as if she could stand on a mountaintop and shout the truth and not a soul would believe her.
“Really? Because, you know, he spent a lot of time telling me how worried he is about you.”
“Worried? D—” She swallowed back the cuss word and gripped the arms of her chair.
“Well, maybe not worried. Concerned about things.”
“What things?” Jessica leaned forward, irritation flaring into real anger at Colton for running his mouth about her. He knew better.
“I guess he’s concerned about this City Hall design competition. He told me that you’re going up against some really big firms.”
“So what? Everyone has to start somewhere.”
The corner of Kerri’s mouth twitched. “I guess that’s true.”
“I’m fine. I know it’s a long shot, but you have to take risks to gain rewards, right? And besides, he knows good and well that I just landed the Martin project.”