Seagrove Secrets

by Melissa Chambers

  She sat on the bed and held her phone in her hand. She needed to talk to Bo so she could tell him she’d found a place. This should be a simple thing, but with as much meddling as her bother did in her life she was bound to get pushback of some kind.

  She woke up her phone to multiple text alerts that she had no interest in reading. She didn’t even want to see who they were from, because she highly suspected she already knew. She swiped them away and pulled up Bo’s contact.

  “Hey,” he said by way of greeting.

  “What’s up?”

  “I called you earlier,” he said.

  “I know. I’ve been cleaning.”

  “You were cleaning when I called you day before yesterday.”

  She crossed one leg over the other, ready to break the news. “I wasn’t cleaning your house. I’ve got a new place to live.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ve rented an apartment. Well, kind of like a tiny house.”

  “A tiny house? Where did you find one of those?”

  “Actually, it’s at your friend Chase’s house.”

  He sat silent for a moment, and she rolled her eyes, readying herself for a potential battle. “Chase’s house. When did you meet him?”

  “Last night. He came by the house to say hello. Had a beer.”

  “Did he hit on you?”

  “What the fuck, Bo?”

  “Look, he’s my good friend, but I don’t want you dating him.”

  She huffed a laugh. “Since when have you ever told me who to date?”

  “He sleeps around a lot. I’ve known him going on five years now and he’s never had a girlfriend.”

  “Maybe he’s gay,” Shayla said, eyeing the door, hoping he couldn’t hear her.

  “He’s not fucking gay. I can promise you that.”

  “You can straighten out your panties, baby brother. I’m not dating him.”

  “What are you doing renting his pool house then?”

  “Uh, renting his pool house.”

  “I don’t like this. You need to stay at my house, at least till Maya and I get home and get settled. I’ll help you find somewhere.”

  That was so typical Bo, trying to run Shayla’s life like she was his kid. She guessed that’s what she got for agreeing to work for him again, and live in his house, and drive his damn truck.

  “Like I said, I’ve already found a place,” she said.

  “Well, what about Jake?”

  “Oh, he ran away last week.”

  “Let me talk to him,” Bo said, ignoring her.

  “I’m not putting that dog on the phone with you again.”

  “Come on, I miss him.”

  She hauled herself up off the bed and went out the door leading to the pool and called him. “Jake! Come here, boy. Daddy wants to talk to you.”

  Shayla put the phone on speaker while Bo carried on in his doggie voice. Jake just panted and stared at Shayla. She put the phone back to her ear. “You finished?”

  “What did he do?”

  “He flipped you the bird.”

  “Damn, I miss that dog.”

  “When will you be here?” she asked.

  “This week. Not sure which day yet. I was going to hire movers, but Blake said he’d be pissed if I didn’t let him come up and help.”

  “You two are worse than teenage girls.”

  “Don’t disparage me because I have good friends. So back to this thing with you and Chase.”

  “There is no thing with Chase and me other than a rental agreement.” The door to the kitchen opened, and Shayla stepped back inside the guest room.

  “Before you sign anything, let me get home so we can talk about this,” Bo said.

  “We’ve just talked about it.”

  “What about your house in Franklin? Has it sold yet?”

  She shut her eyes tightly. There was nothing on earth she hated worse than lying to her baby brother. “We’ve had some showings.”

  “Man, I don’t understand that. Seanna told Blake that the market in Nashville was a seller’s market right now. Why don’t I stop by there on my way down and check it out? I can—”

  “No,” she said, way more forceful than she intended. “We’ve got it priced too high. I’m gonna lower the price.”

  “What do you have it priced at?”

  She rubbed her temple. God, she didn’t even have a clue what her house was worth. She should know, but she’d been preoccupied these past few months. “I’ll check with the real estate agent.”

  “You okay?”

  This is why she didn’t want to call him. They were way too damn close. He could tell when she was scratching her ass. How was she supposed to hide something this big from him? “Of course I’m okay.”

  “You sound weird.”

  “You sound like an asshole.”

  He sat quiet for a moment, and then said. “All right then.”

  She breathed a temporary sigh of relief, but she wasn’t off the hook. Just reprieved for the moment. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Keep your distance from Chase.”

  “Bye,” she said.

  She tossed her phone on the bed with her bag of dirty clothes. Now that she’d talked to Bo, she didn’t need it for the rest of the night. Her mom was the only other person she really cared to talk to, and she and her dad were expecting her tomorrow night for dinner.

  She made her way to the kitchen where she found a warm oven and four potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil on top. She watched Chase as he cleaned his grill with a brush. He didn’t seem like the womanizing type, but Bo damn sure seemed to think he was. Bo should know. The two of them were good friends.

  Chase flirted, but he wasn’t one of those guys who thought a lot of himself. He was a nice guy, too, accommodating. She couldn’t imagine him leaving a trail of broken hearts along 30A, but maybe he had.

  He closed the grill and headed her way. She stepped back from the window and went to the stove where she pretended to be checking the potatoes. “Should I put these in the oven?” she asked as he came through the doorway.

  “Yeah, that’d be great. What do you drink?” he asked. “I’ve got IPA, pilsner, wheat beer, or do you want wine? I’ve got that in the dining room.”

  “You have a wine rack in there?” she asked.

  “Yeah, come pick out what you want.”

  She didn’t really want wine, but she did want to see his wine rack, so she followed him in there. Two big, circular racks featuring about twelve bottles each hung on the far wall. The wall next to them was a full bar with cabinets up top, a sink, a stocked wine refrigerator, and what she suspected might be an ice machine. “Is that ice?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I’m picky about my ice. This is gourmet style,” he said with a grin. She lifted an eyebrow, and he opened it and pulled out a piece. “I’m serious, that’s what it’s called.” He tossed it in the sink.

  She didn’t understand his kind of money. She made decent money in Franklin, but it wasn’t enough to spend on a gourmet ice machine and all those bottles of wine, and she doubted they were in the ten-dollar range.

  “Do you drink red or white?” he asked.

  She hated that she hadn’t been able to bring anything to this, but it was what it was. “I like beer, actually. You said you have pilsner?”

  He smiled and headed back into the kitchen. “I should have known. I only keep that here for Bo. It’s been in there a few months.”

  “I’m sure it’s fine,” she said. “And I’m the one who got him drinking pilsner, not the other way around.”

  “Damn copycat,” he said, pulling a beer out of the refrigerator. He popped the cap on a wall-mounted opener and handed it to her.

  She held it up. “Thanks.”

  He picked up his open beer from the countertop and clinked it against hers. “To roommates.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “Ish.”

  He shrugged. “Ish.”

  The do
orbell rang, and he set his beer down. She rested against the countertop, collecting herself. It was just Blake and Seanna, but it felt like an army descending on her. She hadn’t socialized with friends in the longest time, definitely not since she’d been back home, and for months before that as well. She’d become isolated in her own home. The worse things had gotten with Brian, the more she internalized it all. Her main friends were her work friends, and they knew him, too. She didn’t want anyone knowing what was happening. Some well-meaning friend would be likely to call in HR and then she’d have a nightmare on her hands. She was fine to handle it herself. The last thing she had wanted was a public stink with her at the center as victim. The idea made her shudder.

  Seanna’s sweet voice warmed her for the first time in a while. Shayla really should have called her before now, but she was here and ready to enter the land of the living again. Tonight was a step.

  Seanna walked into the kitchen with a platter of something in her hand and stopped short when she saw Shayla. “What!” she shouted.

  Shayla couldn’t stop the smile making its way across her face, and she was even more regretful that she’d waited this long to connect with Seanna.

  Seanna set the platter on the table and opened her arms wide. “What in the world? Chase, why didn’t you tell me Shayla was coming?” She wrapped her arms around Shayla and hugged her so tightly Shayla had to hold her breath a second. Seanna kissed her on the cheek and then wiped at the spot with her thumb. “Sorry. I’m just so happy to see you. And I had a glass of wine before we left the house.”

  “It’s good to see you, too.”

  Sadie came in next, leading Blake in by her leash. Blake’s eyes widened, and a smile stretched across his face. “Oh, hell yeah.” He handed the leash to Seanna and then wrapped his arms around Shayla and picked her up off the ground. “I haven’t seen you in like…I don’t even know.”

  “You weren’t here last Christmas when I came,” she said.

  Seanna and Blake exchanged a look, and then Seanna said, “The Kansas City days. We don’t speak of those.”

  “Ah,” Shayla said. “I’ve never actually seen the two of you together.”

  Seanna put her arm around Blake. “We don’t match, do we? He’s too traditionally handsome for me.”

  “Are you nuts, woman?” Blake asked, and Seanna answered with a kiss.

  Chase cleared his throat and gave Shayla an I told you so look.

  Sadie barked, looking out the window, and Seanna let her off the leash and opened the door. She turned back around and looked between Chase and Shayla. “What is this? I didn’t even know you guys knew one another.”

  “We don’t,” Shayla said, and then seeing the slightly hurt look in Chase’s eyes, quickly corrected to say, “Not really. We just met yesterday.”

  “She’s moving in,” Chase said.

  Seanna closed one eye looking at Chase, clearly used to deciphering when he was joking and when he was being serious. Shayla was in just a good enough mood to play along.

  “I am,” she said.

  Seanna shifted her gaze to Shayla, who was not one who joked often. Seanna’s eyes widened. “Okay.”

  Chase raised an eyebrow at Shayla, which she took as a question to see if they could take this a little further. Shayla responded by walking over to him and sliding an arm around his back. What the hell. She was in a good mood for the first time in months.

  “I don’t know,” she said, looking up at him, “It was just sort of magical meeting him yesterday.”

  Seanna’s eyes grew even wider, but Blake’s wary expression deepened. Seanna didn’t know her as well as Blake did. Blake was like a third brother to her, not that she needed another one. But he was way too clued in to know that magical was not a word in Shayla’s daily vocabulary.

  She looked back up at Chase again, and he met her gaze this time. “Yeah, I’ve never met anyone like her before. She took me off guard.” He furrowed his brow, and his mouth slightly opened. He had unexpected hazel eyes that she hadn’t noticed before now, and they were focused on her mouth.

  A wave of tingles through her belly caught her completely off guard, and she moved away from him. “I’m just teasing. But I am moving in. I’m renting his pool house.”

  “Oh,” Seanna said, looking more relieved than Shayla was comfortable with. “When do you move in?”

  Shayla checked with Chase for confirmation, and he shrugged. “Tomorrow?”

  “I’m available tomorrow,” Blake said.

  “Thanks, but I don’t have that much stuff. Chase already has a bed in there and everything.”

  Seanna tossed up both hands. “Let’s go see it.”

  “Okay,” Shayla said.

  “I’ll help Chase drink his beer in here,” Blake said.

  “Ooh, give me one,” Seanna said.

  Chase uncapped one and handed it to her. Shayla didn’t miss a significant look exchanged between Seanna and Chase, a warning glance on Seanna’s part. What was wrong with these people? Shayla was more than capable of handling herself and every one of them knew it.

  “You need another?” Seanna asked Shayla, glancing at her bottle.

  “I’m good,” Shayla said, and then headed to her place.

  “Not bad to get to walk through a path of palm trees and a swimming pool to get home,” Seanna said.

  “I lucked out,” Shayla said, and then opened the door, letting Seanna in.

  “Wow, this place is really cute, isn’t it? I’ve never even been in here.”

  “It’s all I need,” Shayla said.

  Seanna peered out the door at the house, then shut it behind her and met Shayla’s gaze. Shayla had only been around Seanna twice before—on Christmas day at their family’s house, when she and Blake were apart in distance and in relationship, when Seanna and her aunt Cassidy had come for dinner, and then when Seanna had visited her parents in Franklin and had taken Shayla out to dinner. Shayla couldn’t say she knew Seanna too well, but from what little she did know, she’d figured out that Seanna wasn’t one to mince words or leave a stone unturned.

  Seanna narrowed her gaze at Shayla, and then had a seat on the bed. Shayla followed suit.

  “What’s going on here?” she asked, pointing a finger randomly between the house and Shayla.

  Shayla shrugged. “He came by the house last night to introduce himself. He was headed to Alligator Alley and wanted me to join.”

  “And from that you decided to live together?”

  Shayla gave her a look. “We’re not living together.”

  “What was that in there?” Seanna asked.

  “An attempt at a joke that I shouldn’t have tried to pull off, apparently. You know I’m not funny.”

  “First of all, you’re one of the funniest people I know, especially when you’re ragging on your brother.”

  Shayla shrugged. “That comes naturally.”

  “Secondly, you may have been joking back there, but Chase was not.”

  Shayla waved her off. “Oh, yeah he was.”

  “I know that man. I work with that man every day, intimately. That look he had on his face when you had your arm around him and were looking up at him…that was no joke, my friend.”

  Shayla rolled her eyes and picked at the bedspread. “That’s just stupid. I’ve known him one full day.”

  Seanna held up both hands, eyebrows raised. “Well, I’m just sayin’. That was weird.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Not you. Him.”

  “Why was it weird?”

  She pointed at the house. “You don’t know him. He doesn’t like girls.”

  “He’s gay?” Shayla asked. She’d been joking earlier when she’d said that to Bo.

  “No, God no. He just doesn’t fall for women. He dates plenty.” She rolled her eyes. “Trust me. And he flirts shamelessly. When we go out of town, he always ends the night at the hotel bar when I go to my room. I don’t know what he does down there.” She held up both hands.
“I don’t ask.”

  “You think he gets prostitutes?”

  “I didn’t say that.” But the look on her face indicated it.

  Shayla shifted on the bed. Seanna’s description of Chase didn’t line up with the respectful, caring guy Shayla had been getting to know these past two days, but it did line up with what Bo had said about him. Shayla wasn’t altogether sure she liked this version. Being single and thirty-six, she’d had her fair share of partners, but she couldn’t help be a little grossed out at the idea of Chase with a slew of women. How many women? Were they talking fifty or five hundred?

  Not that it mattered. She had no right getting up in his business. She wasn’t his girlfriend and she had no plans to be. She needed this to be a stable place for her to live, nothing more.

  “Probably not on the prostitutes,” Seanna said. “I just saw him talking to one once. Anyway, I’m not saying he’s in love with you. I’m just saying he’s interested.”

  Shayla dropped her head down to the side, giving Seanna an exhausted look. “Anyway.”

  “So I guess you know your brother’s bringing Maya back with him. Is that why you’re moving out?” Seanna asked.

  “I’m not living there with him and his girlfriend.”

  “Have you talked to her yet?” Seanna asked.

  “A couple of months ago, the week she met Bo.”

  Seanna grinned. “I heard. She’s mortified about that, by the way.”

  “You heard about it?” Shayla asked.

  “Oh yeah. She called me when she got back to Indianapolis to see if I could get your mailing address so she could send you an apology card. I told her to send it to Bo’s house. Did you get it?”

  “Yeah,” Shayla said, remembering the card and the night. Bo had ended things between the two of them, and Maya had gotten wasted and came to Alligator Alley to confront him, only to end up passing out on him, and then puking her guts out later that night at his house. Shayla had been there for cleanup duty.

  “She can’t believe she met you the morning after she hugged your brother’s commode.”

  Shayla smiled. “I think my memory of meeting her might be different than hers.”

  “How so?” Seanna asked.

  “The night before when she was puking in Bo’s toilet, I was cleaning up some that didn’t make it all the way to the bathroom, and when she saw me, she said, “Megan Fox is cleaning your floor?” Shayla slurred her words, swaying from side-to-side as she said it.