“I don’t have a criminal record,” I explain because my past has been widely exaggerated by the small town rumor mill. “I have a sealed juvenile record.”
Mike looks shocked, which I’m annoyingly used to by now. We head back inside to grab another load of debris as Dave passes us carrying a load out. “Oh, I thought…sorry. So yeah, you could be a coach. You would be excellent at it. You’ve got a ton more experience than most of us. Hell, you were a heartbeat from the NHL.”
I haven’t had that fact thrown at me in a long time, but it still stings when I hear it. It’s not Mike’s fault though so I just nod and push it down to that place in my gut that’s overflowing with regrets. I put my work gloves back on and grab some of the drywall. “I’d love to apply or whatever, if you really have an opening.”
Mike pauses, pulls off his work gloves and takes his phone out of this back pocket. “I’m emailing you the head coach’s info right now. Bruce Skelton. You might know him.”
I do know him. He was about five years older than me but played with Jude and me in the summer league here when we were kids. I give Mike a thankful nod and go back to hauling out the mess. This is the perfect opportunity to spend more time with Duke, and hopefully force Bradie into seeing me in a better light. And honestly, I never thought of coaching hockey before but now that I am thinking of it, I am excited by the idea. My love for the game has never faltered, even when my chance to play professionally disappeared. I would love the opportunity to get out there and be involved with hockey again.
The rest of the day is grueling, but we get more accomplished than I expected. The kitchen is basically a shell and will be ready tomorrow for the electrician I’m bringing in to rewire everything. As Mike and Dave leave, I lock up the house and then open the email Mike sent me and call Bruce. He not only remembers me and sounds happy to hear from me, he’s thrilled with the idea that I want to coach. I find myself wandering up the street to the beach as we talk. He says he’ll send me the application and the test and if all goes well I can start next week.
I get off the phone feeling excited for the first time in a long time. I’ve spent months just busting my ass at work, planning, budgeting, worrying about getting this business off the ground. I haven’t done a thing that was pure enjoyment. Coaching feels like a treat and I get to be around Duke. From what I can see so far, he’s a great kid and I’m looking forward to really getting to know him.
My muscles ache and I’m drenched in sweat, but I feel good. Instead of showering, I decide, fuck it. I’m going for a swim. The beach is basically deserted. There’s an old guy way at the other end with his dog and I can see the tops of two heads near the dunes really far at the other end. No one will notice that I’m just in underwear so fuck it. I bend down, pull my feet out of my work boots and socks and then start undoing my jeans. I wore black boxer briefs today so that helps. I leave everything in a heap and break into a run across the warm sand.
10
Winnie
Holy shit, he is stripping,” Cat exclaims suddenly, pulling my attention from the lobster roll I’m devouring. I look up and follow the tilt of her head. “Check out at that body. He’s a work of art. Oh and speaking of art, tattoos! I love tattoos. Oh God, I hope he thinks this is a nude beach.”
Cat has no idea who he is, but I do. I recognized him instantly, even from this distance. And I find myself wishing he thought it was a nude beach too, which is why I’m blushing. Cat gets to her knees on our blanket, but I grab her arm. “What? I think I should introduce myself. I can offer him my lobster roll…or anything else he wants.”
“You know him,” I tell her. “That’s Holden Hendricks.”
Cat’s mouth drops open and her head spins around to look again, squinting as she examines him. He’s running directly at the ocean and he doesn’t slow down, even though I know the water must be frigid. It’s always cold. His muscular arms extend above his head and he dives into an oncoming wave.
“What the fuck.” Cat gasps. “Why does he get to be the hottest thing in this town? He’s a dick! Why can’t it be a nice, sweet boy who gets nearly naked on the beach and makes me want to give him my virtue and my lobster roll.”
Internally I ask the universe the same question, but out loud I say, “Never give up your lobster roll, Cat. To anyone.”
I take another bite of my own, but my eyes won’t leave the surf and as Holden emerges, dripping wet and gleaming in the late afternoon sun, I have to admit, he’s more decadent and satisfying than my meal. “I know my eyes are bad without my glasses, but how did you recognize him so quickly?”
I reach for my cream soda and take a sip. Holden dives into another wave. “He’s renovating my cottage.”
I can feel Cat’s disbelieving stare even though I’m not looking at her. “Right now? While you live in it?”
“Yep,” I say with a nod. “Jude hired him and I didn’t know.”
“Oh God, no wonder you’ve been coming by every day,” Cat says and pauses to take another bite of her own lobster roll. “I’d be avoiding my house too if he was in it. But then again, I’d probably stick around to make sure he doesn’t steal anything.”
“I trust him,” I reply without even thinking about it. I do. I know his reputation. I saw firsthand what Cat went through, but something in me wants to believe I can trust him.
“You think he’s changed?” Cat sounds absolutely astonished at the thought.
Holden body surfs a wave almost to the shore, then pops up, shakes the water from his hair and runs his hands through it. I wonder what it would be like to kiss him again, his body slick with water. He’d be slippery and his mouth would taste like salt.
“Winnie!” Cat’s sharp tone snaps my head toward her. She’s got an incredulous look all over her face. “You’re attracted to him.”
“I…I mean…” Why am I going to lie about this? “How could I not be? Look at him.”
Cat laughs at that but grows serious a second later. “So you think he’s changed? He’s not a thieving, borderline psychopath like he used to be?”
“Definitely not,” I reply. “He’s been kind of sweet to me. He helped me when I wiped out on my bike. And we had a really good…talk.”
Cat’s eyebrows jump at that. “Talk? You said that weird. Why?”
Because the talk was interrupted by our make-out session.
“Because it felt like I was really getting to know him and he wasn’t who I thought he was, but then Kidd showed up,” I explain as my eyes drift over to the ocean again. Holden is just standing there, his back to the shore, letting the waves crash around him. “Holden had been out drinking with him and swindling people at pool and so I wonder if I was wrong.”
“If he’s still buddies with Kidd then yeah, you’re wrong,” Cat says decisively as she crumples up the wrapper from her now demolished lobster roll. “That guy was, is and always will be trash. You know Kidd knocked up a girl I went to high school with but doesn’t do shit for her or the kid. He’s like an absentee dad but he lives with them. She can’t get him to change a diaper let alone pay some rent.”
Holden is walking out of the water now. I can’t stop my gaze from drifting straight down to his soaking wet underwear. It’s clinging tightly to his thighs and ass and the impressive bulge in the front. Desire ripples through me. I don’t know if he can feel my eyes on him, but he turns his head and looks right at us. His step falters for a moment and then his whole, wet, chiseled body shifts and he starts walking toward us instead of to his discarded belongings.
Cat grabs her bottle of root beer in one hand and her flip-flops in the other. “I don’t think he’s changed,” she announces. “And since he’s not renovating my house, I don’t have to talk to him. See you later. Remember, you promised to go out with me tonight.”
Cat turns away and starts up the beach toward the boardwalk. I watch her go and fight the urge to change my mind on the whole going out thing. She really wants a girls’ night and I really should try t
o do something other than drink and cry.
“Hey,” he says and I turn back to find him about a foot from me. Just standing there in his wet underwear like some kind of Baywatch extra. “Was that Cat Cannon with you?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
His eyes drop from mine and land on the small scrap of lobster roll still in my left hand. “Is that a lobster roll from her store?”
I nod again. He groans. It’s wanton and the sound creates a warm sensation between my legs. “God, those things are the best in the state. I fucking love the way they butter then grill the bun and don’t drown the lobster in mayo.”
Without even thinking about it, I hold out the remaining chunk. Those silver-blue eyes widen. “It’s all yours.”
He steps closer, now his perfect body is so close that when he leans forward to take the roll, I’m lightly sprinkled with ocean water from his hair and shoulders. He plucks it from my hand and pops it in his mouth and I’m greeted with another one of those shameless groans. So. Hot.
“You know you can buy your own. You don’t have to eat my scraps,” I tell him as I start to get up. Sitting here on the blanket with him right in front of me means my eyes are in line with his package. And that view combined with that groan is too much for my girl bits to take.
He reaches out to help me to my feet, but I ignore his outstretched hand and manage on my own. A disappointed expression drifts across his face but it’s gone in seconds and he shrugs. “Cat made it clear I’m not welcome at Cannon’s Corner Grocery.”
I’m torn between feeling sorry for him and completely understanding Cat’s point of view. I reach down and grab the blanket Cat and I were sitting on. “I should get going.”
“You headed back to the house?” he asks and runs a hand through his hair sending any remaining water droplets flying. My eyes follow one as it lands on his shoulder and starts a leisurely decent down his chest. “Water is back on in your place. Still have to use the trailer for showers for now, though, until the new one is installed.”
My mouth starts to water and all I can do is nod. He smiles and I’m worried he’s getting off on my getting off on his nearly nakedness. It makes me blush. “You know they make these things called swimsuits.”
“I’ve heard that rumor,” he replies with a smirk. “But the boxer briefs work in a pinch. You look a little warm yourself so you should try it.”
“You want me to swim in my underwear?” I raise a brow.
“I wouldn’t complain if you did,” he says. His voice is heavy and low like it was the other night in his trailer when we drunkenly kissed. However neither one of us is drunk…I don’t think.
“I like my underwear dry,” I declare and instantly regret it.
If this were a baseball game, I would have just served him the perfect pitch and of course he knocks it out of the park when he replies. “It’s more fun when it’s wet.”
The smile on his face is pure mischief and damn…my underwear is definitely not dry. “You’re a child,” I tell him, but I’m biting back a smile and he can see it so I turn and start toward the boardwalk.
I can feel his eyes on me as I go and it’s doing nothing to quell my overwhelming attraction to him. I know what I heard and saw the other night, after the make-out session when Kidd showed up. It should make me wary—and it does—when I think about it. But when I’m near him…when we’re just hanging out like we were just now—all of that concern disappears. I want to be close to him, not keep my distance.
As I reach the end of the boardwalk and start to slip my feet back into my flip-flops, I glance over my shoulder and find him walking toward me. His jeans are back on but the button is undone and he’s shirtless, carrying his shoes.
“You need to live a little,” he says as I start walking and he falls in step beside me.
“I’m living.”
“I’ll rephrase. You need to start having fun,” he says.
“You think swimming in the freezing cold ocean in my underwear would be fun?” I ask as we pass Cat’s store and I stop to grab my bike and put the blanket in the basket.
“I enjoyed it,” he says and glances at the door to the grocery store. I can’t tell if he’s nervous Cat will come out or he’s trying to decide whether to risk his life for his own lobster roll and go inside.
“I’m going out tonight,” I announce and that turns his attention, and his gaze, from the grocery store door. “Cat asked me to go out with her.”
I can’t tell if he looks impressed or concerned. He rubs his beard. “Where you guys heading?”
“No idea,” I reply because I don’t know. I didn’t ask.
He nods and we walk the rest of the way back to the cottage in silence. When we hit the driveway, he pauses near his trailer as I keep walking to tuck the bike in against the side of the house. “So are we ever going to talk about that kiss?” he asks.
Oh God. I stop at the foot of the stairs to the porch, and shield my eyes against the sun so I can look at him. He is so damn handsome and the look on his face is pure vulnerability again. He is just as uncomfortable about this as I am. So why is he bringing it up? I decide to let us both off the hook. “You’re acting like you’ve never made a drunken mistake before,” I say and give him a small shrug before climbing the stairs. “If you’re worried about what I’m thinking, don’t be. I’m not blaming you for it. Have a good night.”
I don’t give him a chance to respond because honestly, anything he could say will only make it more awkward. As I walk into the house, I look around and try to absorb all the changes. The whole ground floor looks bigger now with the wall down. I wonder if my dad would be excited to see it this way. He always planned on doing these renovations. My heart starts to ache again. God, I wish he were here. I take a shuddering breath and wipe the tears from my eyes and head upstairs to get ready to go out with Cat.
Four hours later, I’m sitting at a table by the plate-glass window at Riptide’s, a bar at the end of the pier in the next town over. Cat has just told me a story about her last Tinder date. “How many ex-girlfriends’ names were tattooed on him?’ I ask, trying not to laugh as I sip my piña colada.
“Fourteen!” Cat squeals, still clearly horrified by the experience. “But he told me not to worry, he had room for my name if I played my cards right.”
I almost choke on my drink. “Oh dear God.”
“I know, right?” Cat shakes her head. “So if a cute guy named Tony swipes right on you while you’re here, you’ve been warned.”
“I’m not on any dating apps and I don’t intend to be any time soon,” I say. “But thanks for the tip!”
“How long are you staying? Have you decided?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I’m thinking about staying until spring. I have enough savings to get by.”
“Wow, really?” Cat looks stunned. “I’m telling you, it’s very boring and very lonely in the winter.”
“I know.” I take a sip of my drink and push my hair back over my shoulder. “I’m actually looking forward to that. I spent the last couple of years living with my sister and my parents again, with the rest of my family within walking distance. I need the alone time.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think you grasp how incredibly boring it will get,” she replies and sighs. “It really is a summer town and that’s the income that floats us through the winter. I can go two or three days and not have one person come into the shop.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t ban people then,” I say half jokingly. “I bet Holden would be in there every day for lobster rolls if you let him.”
“I’m not that desperate for cash,” Cat says tersely and finishes her drink in one big gulp. “Where’s Ginny?”
Just like with everyone in this town, Cat is on a first-name basis with the staff here. She waves at Ginny who comes right over with a big smile on her face. “Another?” Ginny asks. After Cat nods, she looks over to me. “How about you, sugar?”
I look at my almost empty glass. �
�What the hell.”
“Gin, before you go, explain to Winnie here why we hate Holden Hendricks,” Cat says.
Ginny, who was about to walk back to the bar to get our order, pauses and puts a hand on her hip. “I don’t hate him,” she announces and for a brief, fleeting moment I relax. I really just don’t want to hear bad things about him, which is crazy because I shouldn’t care, but that kiss made me care. “I just don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, and there’s no way I can throw him. That boy is the size of a small pickup truck.”
“See?” Cat says with a triumph smile on her cherry red lips. “It’s not just me.”
“Oh, he’s banned from here,” Ginny explains. “Been that way since he was sixteen and came in here with fake ID and started a brawl that brought the cops and got the owner fined because he didn’t catch the fake ID. Plus his sister, Bradie, used to work here and we’re all still good friends with her including the owner. I saw her just last week and she says he hasn’t changed. He pretends he’s different, but in the end he pulls the same old garbage, like offering to help her out and bailing on her.”
I have no reason not to take Ginny’s words as the truth but…for some reason I don’t. I feel like there’s more to the story than she knows. Why would the guy who went out of his way to help me when I was hurt blow off his own sister when she needed him? He wouldn’t. Would he? Unless…were those the plans that got messed up because he helped me when I wiped out on my bike?
Ginny looks at me. “Didn’t you punch him in the face when you were younger? Or was that one of your sisters?”
I give her a sheepish smile. “Yeah that was me.”
Cat giggles. “Oh my God, I had forgotten about that! Why did you do that again?”
“Because he tried to fight my brother,” I reply. “It was dumb. Jude didn’t need me to defend him. Holden was drunk and really angry and just picking on Jude for no reason and honestly, he used to pick on me all the time when we were teenagers so I think I just needed an excuse.”
Now or Never Page 10