Desire (South Bay Soundtracks Book 1)

by Amelia Stone

  I turned back, frowning at her. Why was she so eager to help me?

  “Besides, I’m a doctor,” she added, giving me another one of those bright smiles that were getting harder and harder to hate. There was something genuinely sweet and innocent about this little pixie that made me feel guilty for being such a grumpy bear.

  “No need to be embarrassed,” she added softly. “I won’t judge.”

  I studied her for a moment. Her green eyes were sincere. So I took a deep breath and dropped my arms. She hummed in approval as I let her peel Daniel’s shirt off me. Then I sat on the toilet lid so she could better access all of me.

  She frowned, and I looked away again, sure that she was judging me anyway, despite what she’d said. And I guess I couldn’t blame her. Aside from the larger-than-average breasts that would seemingly never go away, I was not the same person that I’d been sixteen months, twenty-four days, and – I checked my watch, able to see it clearly once more – four hours and forty-three minutes ago. I’d lost nearly twenty pounds that I couldn’t really afford to lose, because I’d been eating only sporadically for far too long. Sometimes I would feel my hollow stomach grumble, well into the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep, and realize I hadn’t eaten all day.

  But a tentative peek at Ellie told me she wasn’t frowning at the ribs that were trying to poke their way through my skin. Her fingers traced over my collarbone without touching me, and I realized she was looking at the skin that had been affected by the Great Pepper Spray Incident of 2017.

  “This must hurt,” she murmured, giving me a sympathetic look. “I had to treat a police officer who got pepper sprayed once, in the ER. He was training some new recruits and one of them got a little overzealous with the mace.” She tsked. “He had first-degree burns on his cheeks and nose.”

  I winced. That did sound painful. And I was grateful – not that I would ever admit it aloud – that Kristi had such terrible aim. My injuries weren’t so bad, really. I already felt much better than I had a few minutes ago.

  Or maybe I was just acclimating to the pain. I was an expert at that, after all.

  “You’re an ER doctor?” I asked.

  Ellie shook her head as she swept my sweaty hair off my face, tying it into a ponytail with an elastic she pulled from her purse.

  “No, I work in biomedical research. I make prosthetics,” she explained. “But I went through medical school and had to do a typical residency, like any other MD.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Wow.” I wasn’t impressed by much, but that was some serious shit. “You seem young, though. You can’t be much older than me.”

  She shrugged. “I just turned twenty-six. But I graduated high school two years early, so I had a head start. And I finished my undergrad a year early, too.”

  I grunted. She said it all so matter-of-factly, like being a genius was no big deal.

  She gave me a curious look. “Why, how old are you?”

  “Twenty-five.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

  I sighed. Of course she wouldn’t. I probably looked about as ancient as I felt – which was somewhere around a hundred years old.

  “That’s a huge accomplishment, owning a successful business. I’d have thought you were older.”

  Oh. That was not what I expected.

  But before I could answer, there was a knock.

  “Uh,” Graham said. “I have that shirt.”

  My arms flew to my chest, trying to cover my body, while Ellie cracked the door just wide enough to stick her hand out.

  “I’m not looking, Eloise,” Graham grumbled.

  “Whatever, big brother,” she shot back, winking at me as she handed me a vintage Ramones tee. “You are a man, as you constantly like to remind me.”

  I snorted. I highly doubted that he (or any man) would want to see me without my shirt on. He was (possibly) dating Taylor, after all, and there was at least a forty percent chance he’d gotten to second base with her. Maybe even further.

  My body – a hollowed-out husk of what it used to be – would hardly compare.

  “Here’s the soap and stuff, too,” he said, and Ellie grabbed it, shutting the door firmly behind her.

  “Okay,” came Graham’s muffled reply. “I’ll just, uh, wait out here.”

  “Okay! Thanks!” Ellie called cheerfully, pulling down the first aid kit that was mounted above the toilet and extracting a pair of sterile gloves. She smiled at me as she dumped out the Ewok bowl and refilled it with hot, soapy water. “This will break down the oil,” she told me. “I have some lotion that will help soothe your skin once you’re all clean, too.”

  I watched in silence for a few minutes as she worked to clean my stinging skin, patiently and gently washing me, wringing out the cloth, and refilling the bowl with clean, soapy water as needed. She was going above and beyond, really, which made me feel like an ungrateful bitch. Again.

  Not to mention, it was kind of hard to be mean to someone who was voluntarily sponge-bathing you.

  I sighed. “Thanks,” I muttered, my eyes sliding away again.

  “You’re welcome.” She smiled as she turned my face back to her, running the cloth over my chin. Her green eyes bounced all over my face as she wiped it down. “Your eyes are an unusual color,” she observed.

  I huffed. “I know. And yes, they’re natural.”

  She laughed, a sound like bells pealing. “I can see that.” She winked at me. “I’m a doctor, remember?”

  I snorted. “How could I forget? You remind me every three minutes.”

  She stared at me, her eyes widening in shock. But then she dissolved into giggles.

  “Oh, man” she breathed, wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks with her forearms. “I can see why my brother likes you.”

  I frowned. “He doesn’t like me.”

  She smiled at me, her gaze lingering on my eyes again. “Oh, I think he does.” She hummed as she bent her head again, dipping the cloth into the soapy water.

  “He’s dating my best friend,” I argued.

  “That would be Taylor?” she asked, her tone sly.

  I nodded. “Why?”

  She shrugged. “No reason. He just seemed pretty adamant that she wasn’t his girlfriend.” She gave my face a final swipe with the soap mixture. “Now rinse,” she instructed, stepping back.

  I bent over the sink, splashing water over my face, neck, and chest. Then I patted myself dry with some paper towels from the dispenser.

  When I turned, she’d disposed of the gloves and was now holding out the tee shirt for me.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled as I pulled it over my head. “And it doesn’t matter,” I said. “You don’t date your friends’ exes. It’s a rule.”

  Besides, there were a host of other reasons why I wouldn’t go there with him. The most obvious one being that I wasn’t fucking ready to date anybody. Let alone someone so intimidatingly perfect.

  She gave me a sad smile. “Well, I think-”

  “Uh, Larkin?” Graham’s barely-muffled voice sounded through the thick steel door, and I winced. Had he heard that entire conversation?

  “Yeah,” I rasped. I cleared my throat. “What’s up?”

  “Um, you should really come out here.”

  “We’ll be out in a second,” Ellie called, rolling her eyes at me as if to say, brothers. I snorted, because I knew the feeling.

  “Now would be better.”

  I frowned, my heart rate kicking up at the urgency in his tone. “What is it?”

  There was muffled discussion, and what sounded like a new voice. Then someone pounded on the door, hard enough to rattle it.

  “Open up! Police!”

  “I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered

  But you can’t stay here with every single hope you had shattered.”

  - Big Country, “In a Big Country”

  Shit. Nothing good ever came of a police officer poundi
ng on a locked door, demanding entry.

  I knew that from experience.

  I frowned at Krista in reproach. “You called the cops?”

  “I thought it was a burglar!” she replied, grimacing. “Ellie was terrified, and you and Kristi were gone, and I just panicked.”

  “It was the right thing to do,” the officer assured her. He turned to her, and I frowned. He looked kind of familiar. But I didn’t have much time to think about it, since he turned right back around, once again banging on the door.

  Kristi nodded approvingly. “Stranger danger. Any smart person would have done the same.”

  “Says the woman who just maced her boss,” I rebutted.

  “I didn’t know it was her,” Kristi huffed. “I thought I was protecting my store and my customers from a criminal. If anything, I should get a raise.”

  Krista nodded fervently, still looking guilty. “It really wasn’t her fault.”

  I shook my head at the two redheads, but before I could respond, the bathroom door flew open. Larkin, now cleaned up and wearing a fresh shirt, looked around in confusion. But her eyes narrowed as they landed on the officer.

  “You called my brother?” she cried. She whirled around, glaring at Krista accusingly. “What the fuck, Krista?”

  Holy shit. I was still reeling from the fact that there were two people with almost the same name and almost the same features – but not from the same family – in the same room. (Say that five times fast.) Then Larkin had shown up out of nowhere, and in the process of getting pepper sprayed and humiliated, had revealed that she was the store owner. Which also made her Krista’s cousin.

  And now the local cop was Larkin’s brother?

  “Jesus.” I shook my head. “Does everyone on this island know each other?”

  “Pretty much,” Larkin and the cop said in unison. And now that I knew who he was, I realized why he looked so familiar: I’d seen him in that photo on her mantel, the one of her and her family at her high school graduation.

  Larkin frowned at her brother. “What are you doing here, Sage?” she asked, pushing past him.

  “I got an anonymous call about an intruder at Soundtrax.” The cop, whose nametag did in fact read ‘Michaels,’ frowned, crossing his arms over his chest as he turned to face his sister. “I didn’t realize the intruder would be my little sister breaking into her own store.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t break in, dingus. I have the security code.” She gave her employee a pointed look. “I made the damn security code.”

  “I know that,” Kristi said brightly. “It’s why I didn’t change it. It’s easy to remember, because it’s your anniversary.” Then she blanched. “Um. Was your anniversary?”

  Larkin took a deep, noisy breath and closed her eyes. Nobody said anything for a minute.

  “Well, you need to change it,” Sage the cop said, breaking the silence. “Half the people in this town came to your wedding, they all know your anniversary.” He gave her an admonishing look that, as a fellow big brother, I recognized all too well. “Come on, Lark, you know better than that. How often have we talked about not using personal info for passwords?”

  She grumbled something indistinct.

  “Also, it wasn’t an anonymous call,” Kristi-with-an-I added, nodding at the other redhead in the room. “Krista called the police.”

  Sage looked up at the ceiling, like he was asking a higher power for patience. “I know that,” he muttered. “It’s called confidentiality.” He narrowed his eyes at his sister. “The perpetrator might retaliate if she knew who sicced the cops on her.”

  “I already knew it was her. She admitted it.” Larkin snorted. “Besides, what am I going to do, withhold my caramel cookies from her at Christmas?”

  Krista gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

  “You need to just get the recipe from her,” Sage told his cousin. “She doesn’t want to be a part of the family anymore anyway.”

  Ellie had moved to stand next to me sometime during the discussion, and her head now pinged back and forth, watching the conversation like a tennis match. Unlike me, my sister thrived on the drama of big families. I loved that girl more than anything, but she was fucking nosy.

  Larkin glared at her brother. “Got something you want to say?” she growled.

  Sage stepped forward. “Yeah. My kid misses her aunt, and Jenny is afraid the next one won’t ever get to meet you, at the rate you’re going.”

  Larkin froze. “Jenny’s pregnant again?”

  Sage’s expression hardened. “Just passed the first trimester.”

  Larkin blinked back tears, her expression a strange mixture of joy, guilt, and, unmistakably, sorrow.

  Hmmm. I wondered what that was about.

  “And you didn’t tell me?” she asked in a small voice.

  Sage snorted. “Why would I? You haven’t been by in months. You don’t return my calls or texts. If it weren’t for Phil Lowenstein sending me weekly updates, I’d think you were dead.” He huffed. “What’s this I hear about you going on a double date with some schmuck last night?” He shot me a dirty look, like I was the schmuck.

  I raised my hands in a who, me? kind of gesture, because I was not the schmuck who sweated all over her, insulted her, and skipped out on the bill.

  No, I was just the schmuck who wished he was her date.

  “Phillip,” Larkin rasped.

  “What?”

  Larkin huffed. “He likes to be called Phillip.”

  “Your date?”

  Larkin rolled her eyes. “No, my neighbor.”

  “This is ridiculous.” Sage threw his hands up. “Do you even hear me, Lark? You’re going to be an aunt again!”

  Her mouth opened and closed a few times, like she couldn’t find her words. She looked around the room, her eyes bouncing around as though she wasn’t seeing anything. I followed her gaze. Everyone was staring at the two siblings, as though riveted to the juicy family drama.

  After a long moment, she cleared her throat. “Names?”

  Sage sighed, his expression softening. “We were thinking Daniel for a boy.” He ran a hand over his black crew cut, giving her a cautious smile.

  I held my breath, wondering how she would respond to that. A few feet away, Krista-with-an-A and Kristi-with-an-I both gasped softly.

  “That’s. Um.” Larkin gulped, nodding rapidly. “That’s a good choice.” She sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “Good choice,” she echoed, barely audible.

  “Who’s Daniel?” Ellie asked, raising herself on tiptoes to whisper in my ear.

  I shook my head, trying to silently communicate that I’d tell her later. She bit her lip, reluctantly nodding.

  Larkin’s eyes skipped over to me, then slid away again.

  “Um,” she said. “But maybe not. Daniel Michaels doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”

  Sage laughed. “Yeah, I guess not.” He thought for a second. “We could just go with Dan?”

  Larkin let out a shaky groan. “Dad would never forgive you.” She gave him a pointed look. “Remember what he said before Violet was born? ‘Be better than my parents, son,’” she intoned in a deep falsetto. “‘Don’t name your kid Jim.’”

  “James isn’t such a bad name, though,” Ellie put in, breaking the silence from the peanut gallery.

  Sage shook his head. “Not James. Jim. His actual legal name is Jim.”

  Ellie laughed. “Well, that is odd.”

  “Not any weirder than our names, though,” Larkin grumbled.

  “Hippies,” Sage replied, rolling his eyes. “Can’t take ’em anywhere.”

  A chime rang through the stock room, interrupting the conversation, and Kristi-with-an-I jumped. “Oops. That’s the ‘ring for service’ bell. I guess I did kinda leave the store unattended.”

  Krista-with-an-A paled under her freckles. “My console! I left it on the counter where anyone could take it!”

  And then they both went running into the fro
nt room.

  “But will anyone actually want to steal a thirty-year-old, pink game console?” I asked no one in particular.

  Sage, the actual police officer, looked completely unconcerned at the idea of a possible robbery.

  “My partner’s in there,” he said, gesturing to the store. “He probably rang the bell by accident. But I should make sure it’s all good in there.”

  “Don’t you need to interview us? We were eye witnesses!” My sister sounded way too excited about the idea of being interviewed by the cops.

  Probably because she was too young to even form memories the last time it happened.

  “Nah, I’ll just slap together a quick report.” Sage shrugged. “Now that I know there’s not a burglary-in-progress.”

  “South Bay’s finest, at your service,” Larkin muttered.

  “And proud of it,” he grunted. But then he hesitated, giving his sister a long look. “Is it all good back here?”

  She closed her eyes. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. She opened her eyes again, her chin wobbling. “But I’ll come see you on Tuesday. That’s still your day off, right?”

  “It is.” Sage gave her a soft smile, the first I’d seen on him. He seemed like a ballbuster – much like his sister, in fact.

  “You have to stay for dinner,” he added. “Violet will be so excited to make tacos with Auntie Lark.”

  Larkin bit her lower lip. “You guys still do taco Tuesdays?”

  He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Of course. We miss him, too, you know.” Then he pulled her in for a fierce hug. “We miss you.”

  “I know. I miss you, too.” She clung to him, and I looked away, embarrassed to witness this private moment. Ellie caught my eye, giving me a sheepish smile.

  “All right,” Sage said, and I hazarded another look at them. He had stepped away, and was now straightening his tie. “I’m just gonna make sure Jennings is good. Then we’ll get back to the beat.”

  Larkin snorted. “Crime never stops on the mean streets of South Bay.”

  I chuckled. This was the most idyllic town I’d ever seen. It was like a postcard come to life, what with the storefronts selling seashell picture frames and saltwater taffy, the boardwalk running the entire south side of the island, and picturesque sand dunes leading down to pristine beaches.