by Drea Stein
“Yes,” she agreed, still not able to look at him.
“So you missed me too?” he asked, hope lighting his voice.
“From the moment you first kissed me and walked away,” she said, knowing that she could finally admit it. “I love you too, all of you. And probably most of all, the knowledge that you will do what’s right…even if it hurts you.” She could forgive him for keeping his secret, respect what he had done. He was a good man. And he was hers.
He kissed her then, a deep, tender kiss that had her melting into him.
They broke finally, coming up for air.
“I don’t want to ever lose you again,” he said.
“I’m here. You built me a rock-climbing room.”
He smiled. “Marry me.”
“What?”
“Marry me. I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Lynn Masters. You’re intelligent, compassionate, and beautiful. You make me happy. You make me remember what it’s like to have fun. Marry me and we’ll go rock climbing and skiing, and kayaking and skinny-dipping on a hot summer night. Whatever you want. But build a life with me, a family, and marry me.”
She waited for a just a heartbeat, feeling, seeing all the possibilities, knowing that with Jackson there was everything she wanted: a home, love, adventure.
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” she said. And he swept her up into his arms.
THE END
Want More Queensbay?
Thanks for checking out the first four books in my small town contemporary romance series. I hope you’ll want to keep reading more about Queensbay, starting with Lynn’s friend Tory Somers…Will she be able to find true love or will her past hold her back?
Discover Tory & Colby’s story in With You…Available on Amazon.com
Read An Excerpt from With You
Tory Somers’ day started off just as expected. She had woken up to her alarm and the launching of dawn light, which peeked through the sheer curtains that covered her bedroom window. She rose from bed, saw that the sun was pushing its way above the hills to the east of the harbor, suffusing the sky with a pinkish hue and making the water of Queensbay Harbor sparkle as if the day was just waiting for something magical to happen. Too bad she didn’t believe in magic, knew instead the sparkle was simply a combination of water and light, a prism effect in action.
She stretched, taking a look around her bedroom. It hadn’t gotten old, the feeling that, finally, she was in her own place, not her childhood bedroom in her parents’ charming center hall Colonial, but her very own apartment with her very own living room, one and a half bathrooms, a kitchenette and a balcony with a view of the water. Where she was free to come and go as she pleased. It had made sense to live with her parents for a while, after the break up, to save money while she focused on her career. Just as now it made sense to be on her own. All part of her plan.
She relished every minute of her freedom as she headed out for her daily run, showered, ate breakfast and made a cup of coffee to go. She left her apartment in the Annex, next to Queensbay’s one and only hotel, the Osprey Arms, to go to work. The Annex was a brick building with white trim, black shutters and a porch that ran around the entire first floor. Soon it would house retail shops, with conference rooms planned for the second floor. The third floor held apartments, only two occupied at the moment, and one belonged all to her. She gave a little wave to her window as she headed across the parking lot to where her most prized possession, her hunter green Mini Cooper, awaited her.
She placed the cardboard box she’d been carrying, her briefcase and her bag in the passenger seat and hopped in, revving the engine and opening the window. It was spring, technically, since that was what the calendar said, and she caught sight of pale yellow buds on a forsythia bush, as sure a sign as any that winter was well and truly over. Still, spring came slowly to the New England coast, and she was glad she had worn a blazer over her blouse and stylish-enough-for-work jeans.
The streets of Queensbay Village were empty this early, the old-fashioned iron and gaslight streetlamps flicking off as she drove past them. The only signs of life were at the Golden Pear, her favorite deli. There, through the large plate glass windows that looked into the shop, she could see villagers were already lined up for their coffee and muffins. Tory thought about stopping, but she wanted to get into work early.
The rest of the village was sleepy-looking in the morning light, the sun just starting to light up the charming mix of styles, from the Colonial era clapboard-sided houses and shops, to the more modern Victorians with their fanciful trim work and bright colors. Queensbay, like many a town along the New England coast, had seen its fortunes rise and fall, just like the tides in the harbor it sat watch over. Now, once again, its fortune was on the rise, and many of the buildings which had fallen into disrepair had been refurbished and refinished. The whole town glowed in anticipation of what could be.
Tory loved it, loved being here. Ok, so it hadn’t quite been her plan to return to her hometown after college, or stay so long, but she had found that plans needed to be flexible. Lately, though, Tory was starting to feel as if her plan needed a little updating. She was over what had happened, had moved on, but still career-wise, she had been working her current job for almost five years, an eternity these days, and while things were good, she had started to feel like her life needed a bit of a jumpstart. She didn’t want to think about leaving Queensbay, but she couldn’t deny the fact that maybe it was time to look elsewhere.
Within moments, she was at work. She found a spot easily enough in the parking lot of the large, warehouse-like building that had once been a sailmaker’s loft, though it had been a long time since a sail was stitched there. For many years, it had been a genteelly rundown eyesore at the edge of town, the only tenants a health clinic and Madame Robrieux, Queensbay’s one and only psychic. Tory had never visited the great Madame, preferring to make her fortune rather than having it dictated to her.
Now, though, the building was getting a second chance. The new owner had come in and re-sided, painted and given the clinic’s rooms a facelift. The second floor was home to a construction company, while the third floor and addition was to be the new corporate headquarters of North Coast Outfitters, the company where Tory worked.
She took the newly refurbished elevator up to the third floor, and the doors opened up onto a dimly lit space. The whole place smelled like sawdust and fresh paint, and it made her smile. At least someone’s plan was going according to schedule. Her boss, Chase Sanders, had taken over his family’s ship chandlery and t-shirt shop when he had returned home from racing yachts in Europe. In a few short years, he’d turned it into an upscale apparel company for the yachting set—or those that aspired to be. Even though there was still a store down by the harbor, most of their orders came from their website—for which she was mainly responsible, along with a hodgepodge of other technical responsibilities.
The company had grown so big that Chase had decided to move them out of their space above the store and into here, where they would have plenty of room to grow. She’d volunteered to come in and do the setup work on the new computer system, and she expected to have the place mostly to herself, except for the construction crew, which she could dimly hear farther back, in the newer part of the building. Everyone would be moving in over the next couple of days, but for now, she was pretty certain she’d be alone.
“Finally, you’re here!” She jumped at the sound of the voice, the coffee in her to-go cup sloshing as her heartrate pounded and then slowed down when she saw who it was.
Chase Sanders, the owner and CEO of North Coast Outfitters, was running his hands up and down the smooth walls, his blue eyes sparkling like a kid on Christmas morning. She could tell that he was excited about the new space, raw and unfinished as it was.
“I was going to check out the new server room you and Horace promised me. See if I could start to set it up,” she said as she began to set her stuff down on a desk in one of cubicles. Horac
e Wentworth was the current Chief Technology Officer and, technically, her direct boss.
But Chase had other ideas.
“Oh no, you don’t,” he said and grabbed her arm.
“What do you mean?” she asked, propelled along by Chase’s energy.
“You’re going here,” he said. Now he not only looked like a kid on Christmas morning, but he sounded like one too.
He led her to a door, flung it open and turned on the lights.
“Like it?”
“What do you mean? What is it?”
“Your new office.”
“For me?” Tory asked, trying to keep her voice cool. She was a computer geek and wasn’t used to an office. She’d barely had a desk in the old building, since space had been so tight.
“Yes, for you. Since you’re the Chief Technology Officer of the company, I think it’s time you had your own office.”
“I thought I was your assistant website designer and all-around tech support. Isn’t Horace the Chief Technology Officer?” Tory asked carefully, not quite able to breathe. It had been on her plan, toward the bottom of the list: Be a CTO by 30. But it had been a stretch goal, something Tory had put down because she wanted to have something to strive for. But this was more than she had expected.
Chase laughed and led her into the office. It was white and came with a desk, two chairs and a bookshelf. There was a window, too—not enormous, but Tory was pretty sure she could glimpse a flash of the blue surface of Queensbay Harbor in the distance. An office, with a view. And her birthday was still months away.
“This is my way of offering you a promotion,” Chase said. He walked over to the desk and pulled out the chair, giving it a little wiggle. He was grinning.
“You couldn’t have pulled me into a conference room with HR and asked me there?” Tory said, still trying to find her balance. “What if I don’t want a promotion? And again, what about Horace?” She was trying to stay calm, and not be carried away on a wave of giddiness. This had to be a joke.
“This is way more fun, and besides, you’re more likely to say yes and not ask a lot of silly questions if I take you by surprise.”
“Like what kind of questions?” Tory gave in to the temptation. She sat down in the ergonomically correct chair and savored the small feeling of accomplishment it gave her. She’d been working at North Coast Outfitters since just after college, starting out as a sales clerk. Then she had offered to help out with the truly awful website and had found herself promoted to the chief web geek—Chase’s title, not hers. Still Horace, who had to be seventy if he was a day, had remained the Chief Technology Officer. He was an old friend of Chase’s father whom Chase hadn’t had the heart to get rid of.
“Horace’s daughter just had a baby, and he wants to spend more time with the grandkids. He’s retiring, effective just about now. He said that the only person who could replace him was you.”
“He said that, really?” Tory tried to keep the surprise out of her voice. She and Horace hadn’t always seen eye to eye. He was a nice enough guy, but she didn’t feel he’d been interested enough in some of the newest technology on the market, the kind of stuff that could help North Coast Outfitters outperform its competitors.
“Well, close enough,” Chase said with a wave of his hand, as if the details weren’t that important. She decided that they weren’t, especially if it meant a promotion for her.
“So, what other questions were you afraid I was going to ask?”
“You know, the usual. Being the Chief Technology Officer means a lot more responsibility. It’s more than just the website—though that, of course, is huge. You have to support marketing and all their requests for sales data. And I’m told our inventory system sucks.”
“I’m the one who told you that,” Tory pointed out.
“I know, and you also were the only one who researched alternatives, complete with a cost-benefit analysis, and presented it to me in a way that made sense.”
“So … do I have the job because I convinced you I know what I’m doing or because Horace retired and you have no other choice?”
“Let’s just say, after a couple of years of working with you, I’m pretty sure you’ll handle anything I throw your way. And this is my way of recognizing it. Horace was a good guy, but we both know he was a little old-fashioned. If it hadn’t been for you, we would still be taking orders over the phone and faxing them someplace. I know how much you’ve pushed when it comes to technology, and you’ve shown that you can manage the team here. I may not be the most computer-savvy guy, but I know when someone else is.”
“You’re the only person I know who can break a computer just by looking at it,” Tory shook her head.
Chase laughed. “Exactly. Hey, I know my own strengths, and deciding which software to pick isn’t one of them.”
Then he turned serious. “Look, even I can tell that the website you’re responsible for makes up more than seventy percent of our sales, and the new inventory system you want to put in will cut down on our order processing costs, and that you’ve somehow managed to take all the sales reports for the past five years and accurately project demand for the last two seasons, so I’d say you’ve earned this. And I have to give myself a pat on the back. Who knew when you needed a summer job that you had a degree in computer science and that you are, like, you know, totally brilliant. Besides, I don’t want you to leave.”
“Leave?” Tory said carefully.
“Don’t tell me recruiters haven’t been calling you,” Chase said, a sly smile crossing his face.
“Well, maybe,” Tory kept her voice neutral. Truth was she had been getting tired of working under Horace, of not being able to do as much as she wanted, of not being able to check out all the new technology, so she had been talking, just a little, with a few recruiters.
After Stevie it felt like her life had been in a holding pattern. Sure, she was happy here in Queensbay, but the salaries and opportunities that had been dangled in front of her had been tempting, even if most of them meant a move to Boston or New York City.
“Opportunity knocks, so don’t shut the door on it. Besides being good for the company, Phoebe would kill me if you moved away,” he added, referring to his fiancée and Tory’s friend.
“With a new office? A new title. And more money, right?” As good as everything sounded, she knew that Horace had been making a great deal more money than she had. If she was going to be taking over his job, it was time for a raise.
“Of course. But just remember there’s more responsibility and now the whole IT staff reports to you. Means you get to do all their performance reports,” Chase said in a whisper. Everyone knew he hated all the paperwork that went into running a company.
“Ok,” Tory said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. She could do this. It was what she had wanted, a chance to run the show, to really help build a business, using all the cool technology that was out there. And now Chase was offering her that opportunity.
“Ok?”
“Ok, I accept. You have yourself a new Chief Technology Officer.”
“Great, there’s some paperwork from HR on the desk. You should read it over, let me know if you have any questions. By the way, Sandy in sales said there’s s something wrong with the order processing system, so I think you’d better check it out.”
And with that, Chase was gone and Tory was left alone with her new responsibilities. Tory sat stock-still in her office, not quite believing what had just hit her—a freight train or the chance of a lifetime?
Her phone buzzed, and there was a pinging from her tablet. As if on cue, the desk phone started ringing. And so it began. Tory took a deep breath, grabbed her mobile, told the caller to wait, then grabbed the desk phone, told that caller to hold on, and then reached for her tablet to check her email.
Nice new office: check. Great job: check. First trial by fire: check. It was going to be a long day.
About Drea Stein
Drea Stein is the author
of contemporary romance. She writes the Queensbay series, set in the quaint New England town of Queensbay. In real life, she lives in rural New Jersey with her husband and children.
Read the other books in the Queensbay Series:
Book 1: Dinner for Two – Darby and Sean
Book 2: Rough Harbor – Caitlyn and Noah
Book 3: The Ivy House – Phoebe and Chase
Book 4: Chasing a Chance – Lynn and Jackson
Book 5: With You – Tory and Colby
Want to stay in touch? Want the cookie recipe – you know the one – Darby’s Famous Better Than You Know What Cookies? Check out www.dreastein.com and get THE COOKIE RECIPE….
Cheers
Drea
Copyright © 2016 Andrea "Drea" Stein
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Publisher's Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author's imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.