Christmas in Lucky Harbor

by Jill Shalvis

  They walked the rest of the property and outlined all the obvious problems. There were many. After discussing them in detail over the next half hour, they were back in the center of the yard, next to the fallen tree.

  “So,” he said. “Your sisters want out.”

  “Yesterday,” she agreed.

  “I think your mom hoped you three would stick around and take care of this place the way she always intended to. You know how she was.”

  “Actually, I don’t,” she said. “I didn’t know her very well. I was raised by my father in Los Angeles. She sent postcards from wherever the Grateful Dead were playing, and we had the occasional whirlwind visit. But she never mentioned this place, not once.” She realized how detached that sounded and just how much she’d revealed about their lack of a relationship, and it both embarrassed and saddened her. Having bared herself enough for one day, she turned away.

  “Some kids might resent their parent in this situation,” he said quietly.

  “There’s some of that.”

  She felt a big, warm hand settle at her back, and he led her to his Jeep. The huge brown dog in the passenger seat sat up and gave a single, joyous woof!

  Jax opened the door and the Lab mix leapt out, all long, gawky limbs and happy tongue. Two huge front paws hit Maddie in the chest, making her stagger back.

  Jax’s hands settled on her arms from behind, steadying her. Leaning over her shoulder, he gave the dog a friendly push. “Down, you big lug. You okay?” He turned Maddie around to face him, eyeing the two dusty paw prints on her chest.

  She backed away and brushed herself off before he got any notions about helping. “She’s very pretty.”

  “Pretty something, anyway.” He sent the dog a look of affection. “I just haven’t decided on what. Izzy, sit,” he directed, and the dog promptly sat on his foot, looking up at him in clear hero worship.

  Maddie bent for a stick and threw it. Izzy craned her neck, took in the stick’s flight through the air, and yawned.

  “She’s not much for chasing sticks,” Jax said dryly. “She’ll chase her tail, though, all day long. She’s a rescue. She didn’t get the Labrador handbook.”

  Izzy nudged her head to Jax’s thigh, and Jax crouched to give her a hug and a full-body rub, and Maddie felt a moment of jealousy as Izzy slid bonelessly to the ground in clear ecstasy, groaning loudly.

  “She likes that,” Maddie managed.

  “I have a way with my hands.”

  She bit her lower lip to keep the words “show me” inside.

  He laughed again, soft and sexy, as he straightened and apparently read her mind. “We don’t have chemistry, remember?”

  She closed her eyes. “Okay, here’s the thing. We have some chemistry,” she allowed.

  “Some? Or supernova?”

  “Supernova. But,” she said to his knowing grin. Good Lord, he needed to stop doing that. “I really did give up men.”

  “Forever?”

  “My gut says yes, but that might be PMS talking. Let’s just say I’m giving up men for a very long time.”

  “You going to try out women?”

  He was teasing her. She pushed him back a step, knowing damn well he only went because it suited him. No one pushed him around unless he wanted to go—something she wished she could say about herself. “I’m trying to say I’m not cut out for this, for the casual-sex thing.”

  “But you’ve given up men,” he pointed out, still teasing her. “Sounds like there’s going to be no sex, period.”

  “None.”

  He merely arched a brow. “Aren’t you going to miss it?”

  “No.”

  “Not at all?”

  “Not even a little.”

  He shot her a look of blatant disbelief. “How is that even possible, not missing sex? That’s like saying you wouldn’t miss having a cold beer on a hot summer night or the sound of the ocean pounding the surf while you run, or… air in your lungs.”

  She had to laugh at his adamancy. “Maybe sex isn’t all that important to me.”

  “Then you’ve been doing it wrong.”

  His voice dripped with innuendo, and her body tightened involuntarily while the meaning behind his words thrummed through her veins. It was a foregone conclusion that the man knew how to use his muscular body and talented hands to make a living. She figured it wasn’t a stretch to imagine he could also use those things to make a woman very happy.

  “Still with me?” he murmured.

  A warm flush spread through her body, and she lost her ability to speak.

  His mouth was serious, but his eyes were laughing. With a quick playful tug on a lock of her wild hair, he walked off, heading toward the inn in that long-limbed, confident stride of his.

  She stared after him, a little flummoxed by the funny something still happening very low in her belly, something she was pretty sure meant her body was not on board with the giving-up-men thing.

  Not even close.

  Chapter 9

  “If you’re going through hell…

  keep moving.”

  PHOEBE TRAEGER

  By the time Maddie gathered her wits enough to follow Jax to the inn, he’d opened the front door. “Did your mom have a set of blueprints for this place?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. It looks like she kept all paperwork in the office in the marina. We could check there.”

  “You’ll need it for the escrow contract, because anyone who buys this place is going to need to make sure the entire property passes inspection and is up to code. It’s probably got more violations than you can count, and that’ll all have to be dealt with at the building department. But I think Phoebe dated Ed for a while, and he works there. He’ll help you through it.”

  She paused, a little dizzy at his knowledge and the educated, professional way he spoke. Her first impression of him had been Hot Biker. Her second impression had been Hot Biker Who Could Kiss.

  Now she was seeing yet another side. She asked the question she’d been dying to ask. “You liked her. My mom.”

  “Yes. You resemble her, you know.” He took his time letting his gaze run over her, leaving her breathless. “It’s in the eyes,” he said. “She could see right through a person, right to their soul, and know.”

  “Know what?”

  “What they were made of.”

  She’d had a knot in her chest since Phoebe’s death, a thick ball of grief and regret, and it tightened now. “I don’t have that ability. I’m actually a terrible judge of character.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Your mom was fun and a little flighty, but she had substance where it counted. She had heart.”

  “Yeah, well, the flightiness was self-induced.”

  A little smile crossed his face. “No doubt.”

  Given the fondness in his tone, she figured he’d known Phoebe well. Certainly better than she had, and the ball tightened a little more. “So what about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “I know next to nothing about you. Tell me something.”

  He shrugged. “Not much to tell. I was born and raised here. My mom died of a stroke a few years back. No siblings.”

  “Except for Ford and Sawyer,” she said.

  “Except for them.”

  “What about your dad?”

  “He’s in Seattle.”

  There was something there, something in his voice that had her taking a closer look at him, but his face was calm. “You’ve always been a carpenter?” she asked.

  “No. I went away to college, then stayed away for several years after that. I’ve been back five years now. Boring story.”

  She doubted that, but he took himself and his clipboard inside the inn, and she and Izzy followed. The dog sniffed at every corner as Jax and Maddie went through room by room. He showed her what could be done to update and modernize, sometimes stopping to sketch things out for her as he talked, his love of a challenge shining through.

&nbs
p; Maddie had enjoyed her job, sometimes, and it’d fulfilled her. But she’d never loved it. It was fascinating to watch him. He was fascinating.

  They finished the main floor and headed up the stairs, while Izzy slept in the sole sun spot on the kitchen floor, snoring like a buzz saw. Jax made suggestions for the bedrooms and bathrooms. At some point, he’d gone out for his tool belt. There was something disturbingly sexy about the way it sat low on his hips, framing everything. She did her best not to notice, but he sure had a very nice… everything.

  Together they crawled through the attic space, looking for the source of a roof leak they’d discovered in the last bathroom. Jax was out in front, braving the spiderwebs. Maddie was behind him, working really hard at not looking at his butt.

  And failing spectacularly.

  So when he unexpectedly twisted around, holding out his hand for the clipboard she was now holding, he caught her staring at him.

  “I, um—You have a streak of dirt,” she said.

  “A streak of dirt.”

  Yes.” She pointed to his left perfectly muscled butt cheek. “There.”

  He was quiet for a single, stunned beat. She couldn’t blame him, given that they were both covered in dirt from the filthy attic. “Thanks,” he finally said. “It’s important to know where the dirt streaks are.”

  “It is,” she agreed, nodding like a bobble head. “Probably you should stain-stick it right away. I have some in my purse.”

  “Are you offering to rub it on my ass?” She felt the heat flood her face, and he grinned. “You’re a paradox, Maddie Moore. I like that about you.”

  “Is that because I said nothing was happening between us, and then I…”

  “… Wanted to touch my ass.” He finished for her. “You can, by the way. Anytime.”

  She squeaked in embarrassment and covered her cheeks.

  “See? Paradox.”

  “You know, you don’t sound like a contractor. You sound like…”

  “Like?”

  “Well, before the ass comment, I was going to say professional. Educated.”

  “Maybe I am those things, as well.”

  She followed some more, crawling along behind him, her eyes automatically locking in on the way his jeans stretched taut when he moved. Which meant it wasn’t even really her fault. It was his. His and his tight—

  “I’m pretty sure,” he murmured without turning around, “that it’d be a lot easier for you to give up sex if you stop thinking about it.”

  “How do you know I’m thinking about it?”

  He didn’t dignify that with an answer.

  “Because I’m not. I’m thinking about…” What? “About how hard it’ll be to get your jeans clean.”

  He laughed softly. “Hold that thought. I found the leak. It’s fixable.”

  “Good.”

  “But you’re going to need a new roof next year.”

  Not good. “What else?”

  “Besides the fact that I like to look at your ass, too?”

  With a moan that was only half embarrassment, she shook her head. “Stop it.”

  “Stop the looking, or the telling of the looking?”

  Oh, God. “You’re not helping me with this giving-up-men thing.”

  “I don’t intend to.”

  There in the dark, dusty attic she stared at him. “You have a stake in this, too. You said you weren’t interested, either.”

  “No, I said I’ve been there. There being fresh out of a bad relationship and so sure I never wanted to be in another again.”

  She sucked in a breath and considered denying that, but in the end, her curiosity won. “What happened?”

  “I got over myself. Sort of. And for the record, I am interested. Very.”

  Oh, boy. “Let’s go back to talking about the inn,” she said shakily.

  “Safer?”

  “Much.”

  His eyes smiled. “The windows are single pane. If you replace them with energy efficient and insulated, you’d make the place far easier to heat, plus get an updated look at the same time. Parts of the porch have to be repaired. It’s not up to code, it’d never pass inspection. There’s the leaking roof. You need interior and exterior paint, and the carpet is trashed. I’d suggest ripping it out and restoring the hardwood that’s beneath it. You want to replace the water heaters. You could easily update the bathrooms by putting in new vanities and cabinets when you fix the leaking pipes.”

  “Sounds like a lot.”

  “No, a lot would also be renovating the kitchen and replacing the entire roof.”

  True.

  Back outside, they headed to the marina with Izzy trotting along after them. The sun wasn’t assisting much in warming the air, and their breath crystallized in front of their faces. A long, shrill whistle came from the water. “What’s that?” she asked.

  “A seine boat searching deep waters for crab.”

  As always, she walked quickly, almost running. Jax’s stride was long-legged and sure but as unrushed as everything else about him. He liked to take his time, she was learning. He took his time measuring, he took his time talking, he took his time drinking the water bottle he offered her from the back of his Jeep, and he took his time giving Izzy a hug when she roused a very pissed-off squirrel and got scared.

  Maddie couldn’t help but wonder if he took his time in bed, too, and just the thought caused a rush of heat to places that had no business getting all heated up.

  He slid her a look, and his mouth twitched. “Again?”

  “So your superpower is reading my mind?”

  “Anyone can read your mind, Maddie. You wear it—along with your heart—on your sleeve.”

  She blew out a breath. “That’s going to have to stop. Soon as I figure out how.”

  “You could start by letting go of some of the stuff you’re holding in.”

  “I’m not holding anything in.”

  “Do we need to go over the long list of things you don’t want to talk about? Like your thing against educated and professional and… lawyerly?”

  She put her hands on her hips. “What’s your thing with my thing against lawyers?”

  He did the brow arch. “Nice deflection. You’re getting better at it, actually.”

  “Consider it step one in learning how to not wear my thoughts on my sleeve.”

  He laughed softly and tugged on a curl. “If you’re not going to tell me any deep, dark secrets, let’s do the rest of this.”

  Inside the marina, they decided there was nothing critical to be done here on Jax’s part. But taking a look at all the gear—kayaks, canoes, paddles, and more—her thumbs itched to get busy itemizing and cataloguing on her BlackBerry. She had a month to prove to her sisters that this could be a viable business for them, and she didn’t intend to fail.

  “You seem pretty comfortable out here,” she said to Jax. “Even for someone who once painted the inn.”

  “See that fourteen-foot sailboat in slip three? And the thirty-two-foot one in four? They’re both Ford’s. He leases year-round and sometimes drags me out on the water with him. But even before that, we used to come out here late at night.”

  “To TP.”

  “Just the once. Trust me, we learned our lesson on that one. Look out past the slips, to the woods beyond the marina. There are trails leading up to the bluffs. It’s rough going, and the bush is really overgrown. It’s a deterrent for everyone except the occasional teenager who wants a quiet place to go make out. Gives a whole new meaning to the name Lucky Harbor.”

  The thought of a teenage Jax hiking out there with nefarious intentions should have made her laugh. Instead, she wished she’d grown up here in Lucky Harbor, and that maybe she could have been one of those girls. “Even in the winter?”

  “All the better. There isn’t any poison oak in the winter. It’s hard to convince a girl you’re sexy when you can’t stop scratching your ass because of the rash.”

  She laughed. She’d done that a
few times now, when up until yesterday, being amused at anything had seemed so far out of reach. How it was possible that just one day and one tall, dark, and enigmatic man had changed things, she had no idea.

  The marina office was small and held an ancient couch, a huge, beat-up, old desk piled with papers, and a filing cabinet. Drawers were open, and files were in complete disarray.

  Jax shook his head. “You’ve got your work cut out for you.”

  Maddie shrugged. “I’ve organized worse.” And what was the alternative, going back to LA with her tail between her legs? Hell, no. The thought brought her up a little. She’d been faking strength for so long now that it was starting to stick. About time.

  Jax pointed out the window beyond the marina to the thick, overgrown woods. “Shortcut to the bluffs is right past that isolated, small rocky beach. Another good makeout spot, FYI. Especially when you’re sixteen and grounded from a car.”

  She smiled. “Were you grounded a lot?”

  “Pretty much 24/7 until I left for college.”

  “And did you miss small-town living when you were gone?”

  “Not even a little. I didn’t just walk out of Lucky Harbor; I ran like hell.”

  There was that same something in his eyes that had been there when he’d mentioned his father. She wasn’t the only one keeping her own counsel. “And yet you came back.”

  His gaze met hers, clear now. Relaxed. “And yet I came back.”

  “Why?”

  “Funny what a couple of years’ perspective can do.”

  Growing up on movie sets as she had, just about everything in her life had been an illusion. The illusion of friends, the illusion of home. The question was—was Lucky Harbor just another set, or would it turn out to be the real thing?

  Back at Jax’s Jeep, he opened the driver’s door, set his clipboard on the dash, then gestured for Izzy to jump in.

  The dog leapt up, limbs akimbo, and sat. “Scoot over,” Jax told her.

  Izzy grinned.

  Jax shook his head, leaned back against the Jeep, and looked at Maddie. “I’ll work up a bid and email it to you.”

  “Thanks.”

  He looked behind her to the inn. “Phoebe left you the property because it meant something to her. If you really don’t want to sell it, stand your ground.” He flashed her a smile. “Be Louise.”