Sage sat down in one of the six comfy leather barstools and frowned. “Why do I feel like you’re breaking up with me?” she joked, but Heather filled their cups with a somber expression, making Sage grow more anxious by the moment.
“Now that you mention it,” Heather hemmed, pouring two natural sugars and non-fat milk into Sage’s cup, just like she liked it. “I have something to tell you.”
Sage felt her stomach drop slightly. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
Heather looked up from sprinkling cinnamon over the tops of their brimming mugs and snorted. “What? No, of course not.”
“Well, weren’t you seeing that kid from your a cappella group?”
“Yeah, but… I’m not pregnant, okay?” She slid Sage’s coffee over and then reached for her own mug, leaning back against the counter behind her without sipping it. “I got… you know that Writer’s Program I was telling you about at Emerson College?”
“In North Carolina?” Sage asked. “But that’s… that’s not till the fall, right?”
A slight blush rose to Heather’s cheek as she sipped her coffee. “Well, Derek wrote me a letter of recommendation and I faxed it to the acceptance committee and… I guess it worked because I got early admittance!”
“What?!” Sage was so thrilled she put her mug down and raced around the counter, hugging Heather so that she had to put her mug down as well. “That’s awesome, Heather, congratulations!”
When they had finished hugging, Sage sat down again, feeling like a proud mother. One thing Sage had never counted on when taking over the family run bookstore for her Florida-bound parents was the number of young girls she had in her employ. From year to year, she followed their joys and sorrows, tragedies and triumphs, dates and dramas as they blossomed from nervous young high schoolers to, like Heather, burgeoning college freshman. It had taken some getting used to but, by now, Sage kind of liked the feeling of being an honorary “den mother” to so many young employees over the years.
“So…” she asked absently, sipping her coffee. “When do you leave?”
“Well, Summer Term A has already started but they want me to register and be ready for B Term by… next week… so?”
Sage’s head slumped. “Please tell me you can commute between here and North Carolina five times a week,” she joked.
“Not quite,” Heather said, picking her coffee back up. “But I didn’t want to leave you totally in the lurch, so… I think I might have already found you a replacement.”
“From our crew?” Sage asked doubtfully, a definite “harrumph” in her motherly tone. “I can barely trust them with the keys, let alone the kind of responsibility I’ve given you lately, Heather.”
Sage felt a flutter of anxiety pass through her. She’d been so happy with Derek lately, the first blush of summer filled with their exploits and that was partly thanks to Heather, who had really stepped up at Sequels. Before Derek, she would have never gone surfing in the afternoon, let alone enjoy the “Surfer’s Special” at Shuckers at sunset before a quick roll in the hay afterward.
Would all that end now that Heather was leaving? “I know you’ll be needing someone more like an assistant manager than a part-timer,” Heather said, reaching for a cinnamon scone and cutting it in half for them.
“I could promote you,” Sage suggested, half-seriously. “Make you a full manager, more pay, better benefits…”
Heather frowned. “It’s a little late now, Sage.”
“I know,” she said, reaching for a corner of scone. “I would never want to rob you of your dreams, I’m just… getting a little panicky is all.”
“Panicky” was putting it lightly. Without Heather, Sage would have to return to her normal, “workaholic” routine of twelve hour shifts. No more booty calls or beer mugs whenever she felt it. Damn, she thought, just when she was starting to get the hang of being a surf rat, it was all being taken from her!
“Don’t be,” Heather said. “A friend of mine has been the assistant manager at Pages, that bookstore in the mall?”
“Really?” Sage asked.
“She started there in high school and moved up, but her boss just hired his new girlfriend and they really cut her hours back, so she’s looking to jump ship. I thought,” Heather paused, peering back at Sage apologetically, “I thought she might be a good fit here.”
Sage frowned. “Is she as good as you?” she asked. “Be honest.”
Heather smiled. “Honestly, no one’s as good as me, Sage,” she kidded, “but she’s as good as you’re gonna find on short notice. She loves books, they’ve got a café in Pages so she knows the drill with the coffee and scones, they use the same register system as we do, she needs the money and —”
“How well do you know her?” Sage interrupted.
Heather shrugged. “We graduated together, so… I had her in a few classes. We didn’t necessarily hang together, but she’s a good girl, like me.”
“She gonna quit on me when school starts in the fall?” Sage teased her.
“She’s going to Seaside Community College,” Heather explained. “And already taking a few classes this summer, so she’s staying put for the next two years at least. That’s more than enough time to find a replacement if, you know, she doesn’t work out as well as I hope she will.”
Sage sighed, nodding. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful,” she said, covering Heather’s hand with her own. “That was really sweet of you to think of me like that, Heather. Not every assistant manager would do that for their boss.”
Heather waved a dismissive hand, reaching for her half of the scone. “I feel bad leaving you hanging like this.”
Sage waved a hand as well. “I’m proud of you, Heather. And I’m so happy you got into the program you wanted. So Derek wrote you a letter, huh?”
Heather chuckled. “I didn’t want to tell you, in case it didn’t go through, but… it must have helped. I’m really grateful. And happy for you.”
“Yeah?” Sage asked, nibbling on another wedge of the rapidly disappearing scone.
“Derek’s a great guy,” Heather gushed.
Sage nodded. “Yes, yes he is…”
“And, if you don’t mind me saying so…” Heather paused as Sage looked up, a questioning glance in her eyes. “He’s been really good for you, too. I’ve enjoyed working here and watching you bust out of your old routine with the surfing and more surfing and what not…”
Sage sighed. It wasn’t often that she and Heather had “girl talk” like this, probably because, in the past, Sage had had so little to be “girly” about. But suddenly, she gushed, “It has been pretty awesome,” she confessed. “I mean—”
Just then the front door opened, the bell overhead ringing and interrupting them.
“Welcome to Sequels,” Sage said automatically, turning to greet their new customer. She was a tall girl, blond and willowy, with perfect tanned skin and legs for miles in a pleated skirt and black leather jacket over a crisp white blouse that accentuated her generous cleavage.
“Sage,” Heather said, coming from around the bar and wearing a nervous smile. “This is Colby Weathers, the replacement I was telling you about.”
“Colby,” said Sage, extending a hand. “Heather’s told me so much about you.”
“And me you,” Colby said, taking Sage’s hand. Her skin was warm and dry, speaking to the beautiful young woman’s confidence as well as her apparent poise. “Heather’s really gonna miss this place.” She looked around and sighed, nostrils flaring at the warm, cinnamon smell of the fresh brewed coffee. “I can see why.”
“And I’m going to miss her,” Sage said, sitting back down and patting the barstool across from her, a signal for Colby to sit as well. “But she says great things about you and your work at Pages, in the mall?”
“I actually love it there,” Colby confessed, sliding across from Sage. “Or I would have applied here ages ago.”
Sage smiled at the compliment. Heather stood behind the bar,
topping off Sage’s coffee and pouring Colby a fresh cup. They sat awkwardly for a moment, Colby stealing glances at her friend, and then back to Sage. Sage smiled when Colby said, “Uhhhmmm… so… do you have any questions for me?”
“Just one,” Sage said. “When can you start?”
Colby and Heather squealed simultaneously. “Really?” they said, also in unison.
“Why not?” Sage said with a casual shrug she didn’t entirely feel, but was helpless to prevent. After all, what choice did she have? “You come highly recommended, and I trust Heather completely. You’ve worked in a bookstore-slash-café and, let’s face it… I’m desperate.”
“I can start tonight,” Colby said.
“Then let’s do it,” she said, shaking her hand. “Heather can show you the ropes tonight and you can train with her before you leave. By then, I’m sure you’ll have the hang of things and, hopefully, can move right into her slot with little to no wrinkles.”
“You won’t regret it,” Colby promised, pumping Sage’s hand enthusiastically.
“I’m sure I won’t.”
After all, Sage thought to herself as Heather dragged Colby into the back room to grab an employee apron and fill out some paperwork, what could go wrong?
Chapter 2:
Derek
Derek sighed, filling his lungs with the familiar scent of salt air. It was another beautiful day in Seaside, Florida, and he was on the beach, the waves crashing gently not ten feet away, a rack full of surfboards next to him as he awaited the first of his new students to arrive.
Ever since deciding to stick around in Seaside, Derek had been keeping himself as busy as possible. Not only was he still doing weekly workshops for Sage at her bookstore, Sequels, and writing every day on his new book, Locals Only, but he was still teaching his surf school three days a week as well.
Come to think of it, Derek had never been busier!
The kids in his surf camp – or, just as often, adults like Sage who had just never learned to surf before – signed up for two weeks at a time and, as his last group had just finished their two-week session, it was time for a new batch of “grommets” to put through their paces. Glancing down at the clipboard containing his new roster, Derek frowned. Only three new students this time. Hmmm, he’d been hoping for more.
It wasn’t the money. He only charged ten bucks a session anyway, and would have done it for free if he didn’t have to rent out a dozen or more surfboards by the week and needed to cover his costs back. No, Derek just knew the kids were less self-conscious when there were more of them flailing around in the waves!
With only three, they could get more nervous and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing when learning to surf. Still, this wasn’t Derek’s first time with a small class and he’d just have to work extra hard to set a fun, risk-free, safe place for the kids to fall, get back up and start all over again. Who knows, he might even have to wipe out a time or two himself just to show them it wasn’t the end of the world.
As the four o’ clock hour approached, he watched a chubby kid approach him nervously, still dressed for school. “Derek?” he asked, nodding toward the sign on the side of the rental cart. In addition to his name, it had his face on it.
“That’s me,” he said, looking from the kid to his clipboard. There were two boys signed up for this session. “Are you Philip? Or Gary?”
“Gary,” the boy said, brightening, then staring down at his feet.
“Okay, Gary, well… are you gonna surf in that?”
“That’s just it,” Gary said, looking back up at Derek. “I just got picked to be the lead in the school play and, well…” He looked behind him to where a woman who was obviously his mother sat, impatiently, in the driver’s seat of her still running mini-van. Derek did a little wave, but she didn’t wave back. “My mom thinks taking surfing lessons now would be… frivolous.”
“Frivolous?” Derek said, slightly more than offended. “Well, I mean, congrats on the play, Gary, but we can still…”
“I can’t,” he said, marching away and getting back into the mini-van before it peeled away from the beach access.
“Okay then,” Derek muttered to himself, crossing Gary’s name off the list.
Almost as soon as the mini-van left, a station wagon pulled up and another kid, tall and skinny and dressed for school, shuffled up, wearing the same hang-dog expression. “Phil?” Derek asked as the kid approached him.
Phil’s face brightened. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Let me guess,” Derek sighed. “You and Gary were gonna take the class together, but since he’s dropped out… you are too, right?”
Phil looked relieved. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
“This ain’t my first surf school, kid.”
“Are you mad at us?”
Derek laughed and rubbed the kid’s bright red curls. “No, just… when Gary’s done with the play, tell him I’ll still be here, okay?”
“Sure!” the kid said, so relieved he practically skipped back to the station wagon and hopped inside.
After it left, Derek looked down at his clipboard. There was only one name left: Colby Weathers. He craned his neck, looking around the beach access for a Girl Scout or band member who wouldn’t be able to take his class, either. Instead he saw only a young girl approaching, wearing a brown bikini bottom and a soft blue hoodie that didn’t quite cover the flat, tan expanse that led to her low cut bikini.
She was petite and curvy, with blond hair and ripe, full breasts pressing against the partially unzipped hoodie. She was making a beeline toward him and, before he could lift his clipboard and shout her name, she cried, “Derek? Derek Chambers?”
He cocked his head and did a double take, checking the magnetic sign stuck to his board rack to see if it listed his name in “Derek’s Surf Camp for All Ages.”
Nope, just his first. “Uh, yeah… are you…?”
“Colby,” she said, sticking out her hand. Her hood was up, letting out little wisps of straw colored blond hair and casting shadows on her young face. It set off her blue eyes and framed her angelic face. “Colby Weathers.”
“How… how did you know my last name?”
“I just got a job at Sequels, back up the street?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, back toward downtown Seaside. “Your books are everywhere.”
“Congrats,” he said.
She wrinkled her nose. “On… seeing your books?” she teased him.
“No,” he said, blushing. “On getting the job.”
“Oh, thanks. I’m really excited about working there.”
“You’ll love your boss,” he said, wondering if anyone at the bookstore had told Colby about him and Sage.
“Oh yeah?” she asked, wrinkling her nose again. “You don’t think she’s a little… uptight?”
Derek snorted, shaking his head and recalling the sexy way Sage had woken him up that morning… sans clothes. “Uh, no. Actually, that’s the last thing I’d call her.”
Colby brightened, sliding back her hood to reveal her full mane of honey blond hair. “You’re probably right,” she said, unzipping her hoodie slowly, as if she knew he was gawking, to reveal a bikini top so small he could see the tan lines of her large, round breasts, to say nothing of her thick, pert nipples. “Maybe she’s just like that with new employees.”
“Maybe,” he said, distracted and hoping she hadn’t noticed. “So, you ready to warm up?”
“Sure, teach,” she said, nudging him with her shoulder in a playful, almost intimate manner. The summer sun was bright and their shoulders were already sticky and glistening with sweat. He couldn’t help but shiver, happily, at the human contact. “Just tell me what to do.”
He nodded toward the boards in the rack and pointed to a small yellow and blue stick. “This looks more your size,” he said, tapping it. “Why don’t you grab it and lay it down in the sand.”
“We’re going sand surfing?” she asked, grunting as she did as she was told
.
“Kinda,” he said, ignoring her sarcastic tone and trying even harder to ignore the glorious side boob that was facing him as he lay his own board down next to hers. “I just want you to feel comfortable on the board before we get into the water.”
“Sounds good,” she said, following his motions as he knelt on his board.
“Grab the sides,” he instructed her, “and rock it a little.”
Derek tried to ignore the tiny beach bunny to his left, but everything she did was taught, fleshy, curvy and ripe. Her tiny bikini left little to the imagination, and the minute Derek tried looking away from her jiggling breasts he found only her plump derriere, tan and sandy and barely covered by her bikini bottom.
Looking away, he might find the soft spray of fine blond hair that gently coated her caramel tanned forearms or, perhaps, the radiant blue eyes that seemed to watch him as intently as he watched her. Everywhere he looked, it seemed, Derek found some new… asset… to admire. He couldn’t win for losing!
Normally he spent the first half of the first lesson on the beach, but watching beads of sweat form on Colby’s half-naked body was driving him nuts. “Okay,” he said, standing abruptly and hoping she didn’t notice the slight erection he was sporting as he bent to grab his board. “Let’s get wet.”
Their eyes met as he blushed. “You… you know what I mean,” he murmured, looking away.
“You’re blushing,” she said, reaching a sandy hand up to brush against his cheek. “Did I do that to you?”
“Just hot out here,” he said, hoisting his stick and nodding that she should do the same.
“It sure is,” she said, coyly looking down at her sweaty, sandy body so that, naturally, he had to do the same. “Look at me, I’m covered in mud.”
He chuckled at her youthful enthusiasm then suddenly began to wonder just how youthful she was, exactly. “How old are you?” he asked as the first wave fizzed around their ankles while wading into the sea.
Waves of Romance: Contemporary Romance (Holidays Beach Read Book 2) Page 2