by Jill Sanders
“Wow, is that new?” He took her hand in his. He knew, as did everyone on the campgrounds, that Zoey and Dylan had made their engagement official, but he hadn’t seen the new ring she was wearing yet.
“Yes.” Her smile doubled as she looked down at the rock.
Seeing the size of the diamond made his heart sink a little. If this was the standard, there was no way he could afford to propose to anyone. Ever.
“Wow,” he said and stepped back. “When’s the big date again?”
“September twenty-second. The first day of fall.” She smiled. “We figured it would be the perfect time since there should be a lull in guests.”
He chuckled and glanced around the filling dining room. “You’ve been open for almost two years, and there hasn’t once been a lull in guests.”
She sighed and sagged her shoulders. “True, but at least we won’t be in the middle of summer. The weather should be perfect for a beach wedding.”
An image flashed quickly in his mind. A barefoot dark-haired bride in a white flowing dress walked across the white sugar sand towards him as the crystal blue waters of the Gulf sat behind her.
The fact that he was imagining Scarlett in the dress instead of Zoey had him shifting and glancing away. “Where’s the rest of your crew?” he asked.
He spotted Hannah welcoming guests at the front door with Brent standing beside her acting as maître d’.
“Aubrey’s setting up the band.” She motioned to the stage area where the gorgeous redhead was talking to a guy holding a guitar. Her pink sparkly dress caught the spotlights as she moved around. “Hannah’s being Hannah,” She laughed and motioned to where she was moving a potted plant around. “Elle…” She motioned to where Elle was chatting with guests. “Scarlett has the day off. I’m sure she’s enjoying her time away from all this.” She motioned around them.
Seeing the four friends, how perfect they were together, and knowing that Scarlett was one of them, had him suddenly realizing that he was in the wrong place. An intruder in a perfect world.
The five of them had met and grown up together because they’d attended the camp reserved for elite families.
He lived with his grandmother still, had never even thought about going away to college. He drove a Jeep that was older than the hills and often broke down. Hell, he didn’t even know who his father was.
“I’d better…” He glanced around and, seeing Britt watching them, nodded towards her. “I have to go help out,” he said and quickly disappeared behind the bar.
For the next two hours, he worked behind the bar, trying to get into his job and be as fun and lighthearted as he normally was. However, the thought of not belonging loomed over him.
Even Britt noticed something was off with him that evening. During his break, he stepped out the back door. The only way to clear his mood was a quick walk. The pathways around the grounds were perfectly lit and, if you knew your way, took you in a large circle.
By the time he’d made two full circles, he was back to feeling like his old self.
He hadn’t yet reached the light of the lantern pathway when he heard Zoey arguing with someone. Glancing up towards the back door, he watched as she paced on the small landing, holding her phone to her ear. He didn’t want to bother her and had turned to head towards the front door when he heard her say his name.
“You should see him. Something’s off. Levi isn’t himself tonight.”
Normally, he wouldn’t have eavesdropped, but curiosity won out and he found himself straining to hear every word.
Less than a minute later, he figured out that she was talking to Scarlett. It wasn’t difficult. He knew how the sisters talked to one another. It was either going to be Scarlett or their mother Kimberly.
“I don’t know what’s between the two of you, but every time I mention your name…” She was silent for a while. “I still don’t think it was him that did that.” She waited. “How do you know? Do you have proof?” She waited again. “So, you’re going to hold something he did many years ago as a teenage boy against him? How many stupid things did you do in your youth?”
Levi wondered just what stupid thing he’d done to Scarlett? He’d been asking himself that question for a few years now.
He just couldn’t remember anything. The last time he’d seen her, when they’d been teenagers, they’d gone their separate ways, promising to keep in touch.
Sure, he hadn’t, but… he’d been sixteen. He’d even apologized to her about it when he’d seen her that first week after not seeing her for years.
“I know it’s your day off tomorrow, but… maybe you could swing by and… I don’t know.” Zoey sighed and glanced around. “Think of his gran. She’s such a sweet woman and she was so close to Joe.”
Great, Zoey made him sound like a charity case. Without wanting to hear the rest, he turned and made his way in through the front door, bypassing her all together.
For the rest of the evening, he was in a foul mood. So much so that Britt told him to clock off early, since he was scaring the guests.
He didn’t mind. Not even the plate of cookies his gran had left him on the stove cheered him up. He put them in the fridge and fell into bed, his mind refusing to shut down.
He knew that his time off would be hell. He’d have two full days to think about his position in life. He doubted Scarlett would go out of her way to see him. After all, in the past two years, she’d gotten efficient at avoiding him.
The next morning, he woke with a splitting headache. He knew the only cure for it was arduous work.
Pulling out his gran’s list of rainy-day to-do items, he got to work. By noon, he had half of the list done and had worked off most of the foul mood.
His gran had her book club meeting down at the library, and he helped her load up the treats she’d baked for the other ladies in the group, snagging a snickerdoodle as a reward.
Since he knew the meeting would go a few hours, he cranked up his speakers and climbed the ladder to take care of those missing shingles.
He’d just replaced a whole row at the top where the wind had pulled all of them off when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
He jumped, not expecting anyone to climb up on the roof with him. He felt his foot slip on the shingles and reached out to grab whoever it was. Feeling the soft body, he knew instantly it was Scarlett, but he was too late to save them as he fell backwards and started sliding down the pitch of the roof with Scarlett in his arms.
Chapter Five
Scarlett listened to her sister giving her a guilt trip. It ate at her a little that her bubble bath had been interrupted by the call. She’d told herself to turn the darn phone off, but no, she’d just had to keep playing a stupid game on it. After all, she had won two hours of free lives and wanted to win the hard level.
“You should have seen it. The moment I mentioned your name, his eyes… darkened.”
“They’re blue. They can’t get dark.” She rolled her eyes and thought about how, if anything, they lightened when he was in a dark mood.
“They did. Tell me you’ll go see if he’s okay tomorrow. I just don’t have the time tonight to…”
“Nope.” She sighed and rested her head back, closing her eyes. She didn’t know what she was going to do on her day off, but there was no way she was going to see Levi. She’d just gotten the sexy man out of her mind as it was.
“Fine, I’ll call Mom and…”
“Don’t you dare.” Scarlett sat up, splashing some of the water out of the old claw-foot tub.
Their mother was on a month-long sabbatical with her new boyfriend, Reed Cooper, the sexiest man over fifty that Scarlett had ever seen. He was ex-forces and most likely a secret agent and this mysteriousness made him even hotter.
Of course, the sisters had signed off on the relationship after the man had helped save Hannah’s life.
“You are not going to interrupt their trip to Montana,” Scarlett warned.
“I might, if you won’t a
t least check up on Levi. After all, he is a friend first and foremost.”
Scarlett sighed and relaxed back again.
“Not to mention an employee. And an employee’s well-being is part of our concern,” Zoey added.
“Fine.” Scarlett had had enough of the guilt trip. Besides, her sister was making sense. The last few times she’d talked to him, he had seemed… off. But she’d just chalked it up to the spark of attraction between them. Spark? Hell, it was more like a full-fledged lightning bolt.
“You’ll go see him tomorrow? It’s his day off,” Zoey asked, sounding a little excited.
“Yes,” she agreed. She hung up before her sister could say anything else.
Tossing her phone down on the towel, she sunk below the bubbles and tried not to think about Levi. But memories of the summer they’d spent together as teenagers played over in her mind. That first kiss in the tree house, the many kisses they’d shared that summer. The last day of summer, she’d snuck out of the cabin and had met him in the tree house for her first wonderful sexual experience with Levi. Not that it was full sex, just a bunch of heavy petting and kissing. But in her young mind, she’d given him everything.
She’d dreamed of that night so many times since, no doubt building it up in her mind to be something it hadn’t been. The way he’d touched her as if he knew exactly where she needed it. Looking back at that time, she realized she’d been a selfish lover, allowing him to take control, to take what he’d wanted, and not really giving him anything. She’d been young and stupid.
She knew that if they ever got together again, she’d do things differently. After all, she was more… skilled. Not that she’d had a lot of conquests, only three, in addition to Levi.
Still, she’d learned how to make things more comfortable for her partner and herself.
It was strange that, even though they hadn’t really gone all the way, it didn’t dim the wonder of that night. Instead, Levi was now built up to almost god-like in her mind. Over the years, she’d dreamed that being with him would be better than any other experience she’d had thus far. Better than all of the romance novels she’d read and movies she’d drooled over.
After her bath, she crawled into bed with her Kindle and fell asleep halfway through the last chapter of a book. When she woke, she stayed in bed to finish the book and start a new one. After all, it was her day off and she could lounge around as long as she wanted.
After showering, she ate a quick brunch. Well, a small bagel with cream cheese, anyway. Then she took the stack of books that she’d borrowed the week before back to the library and grabbed a few more for the coming week.
By the time she drove by Levi’s grandmother’s place, it was past noon and she was hungry again. She thought about stopping off to get a burger at the local diner after she’d checked in on him.
She hadn’t expected to see him shirtless on the roof of the house, hammering away as he replaced some shingles.
He had an old radio, the kind she’d seen at Goodwill that no one used any longer, blasting eighties tunes right next to him.
She called out to him, trying to get his attention. When that didn’t work, she climbed halfway up the ladder and yelled again. He started singing along with the song, and she held in a chuckle as his voice rose over the music. He was good, but just something about hearing him sing and move to the music made her smile.
She thought about turning around and leaving, telling her sister that she’d checked in on him, but then she saw his butt sway to the beat of the song. The old denim rode low on his hips, showing off the perfect arch above his hips. Her mouth watered and her body moved forward on its own.
By the time she’d twisted herself around the top of the ladder and climbed up the roof, she’d almost lost her nerve again.
Her eyes ran over his broad shoulders, the muscles that bunched and flexed as he hammered shingles into place. Damn he was pretty.
Just remembering how many times in the past few months he’d interrupted her work or bumped into her had her reaching out her hand towards him.
She hadn’t expected him to jerk around, his eyes going wide as he lost his footing on the new shingles. She reached out to steady him and felt him wrap his arms around her as she too started to slide on the slope.
Her breath was whooshed from her as she landed on his sweaty chest, his arms wrapped around her and they slid towards the edge of the roof.
She screamed and closed her eyes, waiting for the impact of the ground and the sound of breaking bones. Instead, all movement stopped and then Levi’s sexy chuckle sounded right next to her ear.
“That was fun,” he said when she opened her eyes.
She glanced around and realized that he’d stopped them from falling using his feet less than a foot from the edge of the roof.
She jerked free and scooted on her butt higher up on the roof.
“Why’d you do that?” she asked, her heart racing still.
He groaned as he sat up. “Me? I wasn’t the one sneaking up on someone working on a roof.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, then reached up and tucked her hair back in place. She’d left it down that morning and now, thanks to their little slide, it was all over the place.
Levi was silent for a while and, when she glanced over at him, he was moving slowly. Then he turned slightly away from her, and she noticed the damage he’d done to his back.
“Oh!” She jumped up and took his shoulders, pushing him until he turned away from her. The skin on his back was raw and bloody. “You’re bleeding.”
“That’ll happen when you try to use shingles as a slide.” He winced when she touched his shoulder.
“I’ll help you clean it.” She nudged him towards the ladder, but he pulled away.
“I can deal with it myself.” He walked over and winced as he put on his shirt. “What are you doing here?”
“No, you can’t.” She ignored his question. “It’s on your back. You can’t even see the damage, let alone clean it up.”
“Scarlett.” His voice was low, almost a warning. “What are you doing here?” he asked, punctuating each word slowly.
“I came to check up on you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “But now I realize it was a mistake.” She started making her way carefully towards the ladder, only to have him stop her.
“I’ll go down first and help you,” he warned.
She’d been wondering how she was going to move around it and climb down herself, so she waited and watched him.
He moved as if he’d done it a hundred times before, easily swinging his legs and body around the edge of the house while holding onto the ladder. He went down a few steps, then waved her forward.
“Okay, do what I just did,” he said. “I’m right here.”
She moved a lot slower than he had, gripping the rungs of the ladder in a death grip as she scooted on her butt closer towards the edge of the house. It was hard, since there were gutters on the house she had to move around. Turning her body around, she gasped as her feet dangled. Then, finally, her foot connected to a rung as strong arms wrapped around her hips.
“I’ve got you,” he said next to her ear.
Her body was tucked between his and the ladder as they made their way slowly down to the ground.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she stood on the grass in his grandmother’s front yard.
“Let me at least help you clean up. You’re bleeding through your shirt.” She motioned towards the white T-shirt he’d put on.
He sighed and glanced around as if looking for someone else, anyone else to help him instead. He nodded and walked towards the front porch, and she fell in step next to him.
She hadn’t been in his grandmother’s place before. She didn’t know what she expected. It was probably old and had outdated furniture like the place they were staying at in town. The place had belonged to Elle’s grandfather and now belonged equally to the five friends, just as the camp did. They had chosen to spend t
heir money on the camp instead of on remodeling the old house.
As she stepped into the very modern living room, she got the impression that his grandmother knew how to decorate.
“Wow,” she said under her breath. He stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her.
“What?” He frowned at her, causing a small crease to form between his eyebrows.
“I like your place,” she answered easily. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting… it.”
“I’ve been helping my gran redecorate.” He shrugged. “Come on back to the kitchen. I’ll get the first aid kit.”
She followed him down a narrow hallway and stepped into the kitchen. Here she could see that there was still some work that needed to be done. The old cabinets needed a fresh coat of paint or to be replaced. The flooring looked new, but the baseboards hadn’t been replaced yet.
“I’m still working in here,” he admitted before disappearing back down the hallway into the bathroom they’d passed.
He came back with a small black box. He set it down on the kitchen table and opened it.
She moved closer as he removed some Band-Aids and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
“Sit.” She motioned to the chair. He flipped it around and straddled it after removing his ruined shirt.
She hissed at the mess. Several long scrapes marred his back, running up and down his normally perfect skin. She could see dark spots of debris left from the shingles and dug into the box. Finding a pair of tweezers, she got to work.
He held still while she cleaned him up. When she was done, he was left with four large clean scrapes down his back. She was thankful that it had looked much worse than it had actually been.
“This might sting,” she said before pouring some peroxide down his back, catching most of it at the base of his back with a hand towel he’d given her.
He hissed and arched slightly, and she couldn’t help watching as his muscles flexed again.
Leaning forward, she blew softly on the areas where the liquid bubbled, and he stilled completely.