A Season of You

by Emma Douglas

“I don’t know,” she said, feeling happy that he wanted round two too. “That felt pretty creative to me.”

  “Sure. Though, kind of restrictive.” He grinned up at her. “Trust me, I can do good things with unrestrictive.”

  His hand had strayed up to her breast again. She closed her eyes. “Not sure I can handle it if you get too much better at this.”

  “Oh, you can take it.”

  “Maybe.” She sucked in a breath as his fingers teased a nipple that was still sensitive in the aftermath of her orgasm. “Didn’t you say something about an obvious question?”

  “Oh, that.” He rolled his fingers, and she had to bite her lip.

  “Yes. That.” She didn’t know if she was talking about his questions or exactly what his hands were doing to her.

  “My question is … your place or mine?”

  chapter fourteen

  Round two turned into several rounds … Will hadn’t been lying when he’d said he could get creative.

  She wasn’t sure that she’d be able to move again. Not when lying face down on her bed with the warmth of a well-satisfied man beside her felt this good.

  “Do you want anything?” Will asked, rolling onto his side from his back. His breathing had slowed and so had hers finally.

  It took too much energy to talk so she just made a soft happy noise that hopefully he would interpret as “I’m good.”

  “Water? Coffee? Snack?”

  She opened her eyes. Did he want something? This was, after all, her house, not his. But getting out of bed sounded like a terrible idea. “Aren’t guys meant to fall asleep after sex?”

  Will laughed. “That’s for mere mortals.”

  “Oh? And what are you? A sex god?”

  “If you say so.”

  Luckily for him, smacking him with her pillow would take too much energy. “Sex gods should be quiet after their work is done. Let us lesser beings pass out.”

  A finger ran down her spine. “That sounds boring. We sex gods require constant worship, you know.”

  She twisted her head toward him to find him grinning at her. “You cannot possibly be ready to do that again.”

  He shrugged a shoulder. “Well, maybe not. But I am a night owl.”

  The sensible response to that might well have been to suggest he go on home and let her sleep. After all, she had to paint tomorrow. But kicking Will Fraser out of her bed was another thing that sounded like a terrible idea.

  She rolled over to face him, trying to wake up from the fog of satisfaction. “Even night owls need to sleep.”

  “Not just yet. Talk to me awhile, Mina Harper.”

  “I think you killed my brain cells,” she said. But she smiled at him. Because he looked too good, rumpled and naked in her bed, not to smile at. “Was there something in particular you wanted to talk about?”

  “No. Just talk. I like listening to you. Tell me something about you.”

  “Such as?”

  “I don’t know. What you like for breakfast. What your favorite movie is. What your family has for Christmas dinner.”

  “You have food on the brain.”

  “We just burned off a lot of calories.”

  “Do you want something to eat?” She tried to think what was in her refrigerator. Something that could be turned into a midnight snack, surely.

  “Not enough to get out of bed. So, talk to me.”

  “About Christmas dinner?”

  “I’m curious. I mean, that was quite the Thanksgiving spread. Does Christmas top that?”

  She shrugged. “It’s different.”

  “Humor me. I’m not going home for Christmas this year. I need some inspiration for Stefan.”

  Was he angling for an invite to Christmas dinner? That would be going against their agreement. And he’d said he needed inspiration for Stefan. Was it just going to be the two of them for Christmas? That seemed … kind of sad.

  “Unless of course, the menu is a secret like Lou’s pie recipe.”

  The menu? It wasn’t secret but it was kind of hard to explain. The Harper Christmas dinner had evolved to be … eclectic … over the years. They’d often traveled for the holidays either because Grey had a whim to or because the band was touring, and over the years, dishes from a lot of places had been added to the feast.

  Starting the day with champagne and pastries and tropical fruits from their memorably hot Christmas in Australia. Having seafood as a starter. She wasn’t sure whether it had been exquisitely fresh sushi in Japan or Scottish smoked salmon or the fish with ginger and lemongrass and chili from Thailand that had first started that. They’d spent one Christmas in Italy when Mina had been too young to remember much about it other than the fact that lasagna had been part of the feast and the housekeeper at the house Grey had rented out had given her a whole giant jar of Nutella. Lasagna had become one of their Christmas traditions as well.

  And then there was traditional British plum pudding and mince pies to go with the pies and cookies that Lou had always made.

  “Let’s just say you wouldn’t starve at a Harper Christmas,” Mina said.

  “I’ve found that to be true of most Harper meals,” Will said.

  “Lou’s influence,” Mina said. “I think she got used to cooking for a lot of people when she and Dad were married. He used to bring home strays all the time, so she’d have to feed twenty people at the drop of a hat. Now she tends to err on the side of overcatering. Faith and I picked it up from her.”

  “What about your mom?”

  “Emmy? Emmy is not really a cook. I mean, she can cook and when she bothers, it’s always tasty, but she just isn’t that interested in food. Not the way Lou is. But she’s an expert at finding awesome restaurants. Whenever I’m going to a new city, she’s the one I ask for recommendations.”

  “She travels a lot for her job?”

  “Not quite as much as she used to. But yes. Have camera, will travel. Or something.”

  Will made a soft sort of “humph” and Mina shrugged at him. “It’s okay. She left when I was really young. And I had Lou. Emmy and I have made our peace with it. She wasn’t really built to be settled down and raising kids. Maybe if she’d found a guy who was willing to be the one to stay home and let her take off when she needed to, it might have worked. But she fell for the old Grey Harper razzle-dazzle and then I came along. I don’t blame her for bailing when she did. She knew I was going to be well looked after. I can’t say in her position, I wouldn’t make the same choice.”

  “You don’t want kids?” Will asked.

  “I don’t know,” Mina said. “Seems like I have plenty of time to figure that out.”

  “Sure,” he said easily. But she could feel a tension in him that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. He was the settling down type, this man. She knew one when she saw one. After all, she’d married one. And she’d grown up with a father who definitely wasn’t, so she knew that kind when she saw one as well.

  A kinder person than her would cut him loose before they got too much further into this. He’d said he was fine with this just being until Christmas, but she didn’t really think he would be. Though maybe it was already too late. Sex changed things whether you wanted it to or not.

  And maybe she was as single-minded as her mother when it came to going after the thing that she wanted, because this first taste of Will had in no way satisfied the hunger and she just wasn’t ready to give him up.

  * * *

  Green paint was officially going on her least favorite things list. Mina stirred the particular shade of green she’d just refilled her paint pot with a few more times and stared up at the tree before her. She had wanted to just add a touch of shading to the trees to make them look a little more real. She looked down at the line of trees. She’d finished about three quarters of them. And, she had to admit, they looked good. She was kind of looking forward to seeing them once they were all done and installed.

  But she still had twelve trees to go and she was running ou
t of time. It hadn’t sounded like a big deal in her head. But she’d somehow managed to forget just how big the trees were and that fifty of anything was a lot.

  But not even an ocean of green paint was enough to ruin the good mood she was in today. Apparently lots of orgasms were exactly what she’d needed. She smiled to herself, then shivered a little remembering just how good last night had been. Which immediately made her wonder when she could get Will alone again.

  That wasn’t going to get any trees painted.

  “Focus on the task at hand,” she told herself sternly, eyeing the ladder. Letting your mind wander when you were perched on top of a ladder was a recipe for disaster. In fact, Bill would probably yell at her for climbing the ladder alone if he could see her, but all the other tree painters would be working today and she’d figured she could manage a few hours by herself.

  She was halfway up the ladder when she heard the shed door slide open, letting in a blast of cold air.

  “Mina, what are you doing here?” Angie’s voice sounded surprised. Though her face, when, Mina climbed back down, looked more annoyed than anything else—mouth pinched and brows drawn down as she inspected the rows of painted wood.

  “Just finishing these off.” Mina waved at the trees. They looked good. The shading she’d added brought them to life.

  But Angie didn’t exactly look impressed. She frowned at the trees, wrapping her long gray coat a little more closely around her. “They’re being installed tomorrow.”

  “I know, that’s why I’m finishing them now.” Mina tried to keep her voice pleasant but felt herself bristling. She should be home working on pieces for her show, not here trying to make fake trees look real. Angie needed to learn how to show some appreciation for volunteers. Or maybe it was just her that she was annoyed with.

  “I just have a couple more and they’ll be dry by morning. The candy canes are all done.” Most of the canes, Sam had told her, were to be hung from the streetlights. Others would accompany the inflatable snowmen that Ryan had mentioned way back at the committee meeting. The snowmen and the trees would be promenading down Main Street, to the small square by the ferry dock where the town’s tree traditionally stood. She had no idea what plans Angie had for the tree, she was just glad she didn’t have to paint anything for it.

  “Good. And those trees had better be dry,” Angie said, in a tone that was just a bit too close to a snap.

  Mina put down the paint can. Angie might be the mayor, but that didn’t mean she got to treat everyone else like lackeys. “Okay. Do you have a specific problem with what I’m doing or do you just have a bug up your butt today?”

  Angie’s perfectly groomed eyebrows flew upward so fast, Mina was a little surprised they didn’t fly right off her face. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. You’re talking to me like I’m your servant or something and I haven’t done anything wrong that I’m aware of. So I thought I’d ask you if I’d missed something.”

  Angie drew herself up a little straighter. Which didn’t help. Even in her heeled boots she was only about five foot six. Which gave Mina a couple of inches advantage. “Oh, Harpers are too good to take orders, is that it?”

  Mina felt her own spine snap to attention. Oh no. Angie wasn’t going to play that card. “Well, I think just about anybody deserves better than to be ordered around when they’re doing something to help you out. But that has nothing to do with me being a Harper.”

  “I’m sure you’d like to think that.” Angie stared at Mina, blue eyes bright with dislike.

  “What I’d like is for you to tell me what exactly my family has ever done to yours? Yes, your dad is dating Lou, but that didn’t happen while your mom was alive and really, they’re both adults and what they do is none of your business. So what exactly is your problem?”

  “You think you own the place,” Angie snapped. “And yet, the second you get bored, you’ll all pack up and leave. Zach already has. Most of the other Blacklight guys are hardly here anymore. Harpers aren’t exactly stable. Look at your dad. He was perfectly happy to screw over whoever he wanted.”

  “Excuse me?” Mina said, hearing the snarl in her voice. Okay, apparently oceans of green paint couldn’t ruin her good mood but Angie could. “My dad never did anything to hurt Cloud Bay. Plus he’s, you know, dead, so I fail to see how anything he may have done is relevant to you now.”

  “Just that the apple doesn’t often fall far from the tree.”

  Mina bit back the Then why aren’t you as nice as your father? on the tip of her tongue. “I’ve lived here all my life, just like you. So has Faith.” She was going to leave Zach out of it.

  “When you weren’t traveling the world with Grey.”

  “The fact that my dad had a job that involved travel is hardly my fault. And that was before we got to high school. Faith’s still here, I’m still here.”

  “For now,” Angie spat.

  “What does that even mean?”

  “Do you think Caleb White wants to live on Lansing Island? If Faith leaves, CloudFest will close down.”

  “Well, firstly, that’s not true. Harper Inc. runs the festival but everyone from Blacklight gets a say. And secondly, as far as I can tell, the only thing Caleb wants is to be where Faith is. This is our home.”

  “It’s my home,” Angie said. “And it’s my job to protect Cloud Bay’s interests. You can’t stand there and tell me that Harpers only care about the island. You were quick enough to close down Adam’s business.”

  Mina gaped at her. “Because he died. Because his family didn’t—” No. Wait. She didn’t owe Angie Rigger an explanation for that particular decision. Not when everyone knew what the explanation was. Adam and his dad were dead. Hank Shepard, who’d worked in the business for most of his life, had been ready to retire. Adam’s sister wasn’t a boat designer nor were his mom or Mina, even though both of them had worked in the office over the years. How the hell were they supposed to keep a boatbuilding business running without designers or boatbuilders?

  Her grip on her temper dissolved like paint in water. “You know what, I don’t owe you an explanation for that. And I’m not going to stand here and explain to you why you’re being an idiot. I have to finish these trees for your Christmas festival. Or I can leave, seeing as though I apparently don’t give a crap about Cloud Bay. Is that what you want?” She glared at Angie, wondering how far the mayor would push this. Which did she want more … the festival or to get the upper hand with a Harper?

  Angie glared back but eventually, as the silence stretched and Mina didn’t look away, the other woman dropped her gaze. “Fine. But they better be ready tomorrow.” She turned on her heel and stalked out of the building before Mina could come up with a reply.

  So tempting to hurl one of the paintbrushes after her. But no. That would be childish. If Angie thought the Harpers weren’t showing enough town spirit, then Mina knew exactly how to prove her wrong.

  * * *

  It was barely seven the next morning when Mina took her copy of the Cloud Bay Gazette over to the main house and thumped it down on the table in front of Faith who was still in her Wonder Woman pajamas, finishing breakfast, with her long hair piled messily on her head and monster feet slippers completing her outfit.

  “Something on your mind?” Faith asked mildly, moving her coffee mug out of the way of the paper.

  “The Christmas Festival schedule is in here,” Mina said, flipping through the pages to hunt for it.

  “So I hear,” Faith agreed. “Has it done something to upset you?”

  “No.” Mina found the page she was looking for and tore it out of the paper. “Right.” She bent over the listing of events and started marking them up with the highlighter she’d shoved in her pocket before leaving the cottage. Tree lighting ceremony, sleigh rides, town Secret Santa gift exchange ceremony, Santa’s parade and presents for the kids, Christmas cookie competitions, sand snowman building competitions, carol singing, and every other event that Angie an
d Ryan had cooked up were all scrutinized and noted before she pushed the page toward Faith. “Okay. Anything highlighted I can’t go to, so you and Caleb will have to.”

  Faith looked startled. “Well, we were going to do carol singing and the Secret Santa—Lou made me promise that one—but other than that, I figured staying out of Angie’s way was the better plan.” Surprise changed to a frown. “And I thought you felt the same way.”

  “I do. This festival is kind of crazy but we need to be there.”

  “Why, exactly?”

  “Don’t ask,” Mina said. She wasn’t sure she understood her sudden motivation to show Angie Rigger exactly who had more hometown spirit entirely, but she did know that Angie had pissed her off yesterday. And that she wasn’t putting up with it anymore.

  “That’s not exactly an argument to convince me,” Faith said.

  “Because I’m your baby sister and you love me?” Mina said.

  “Closer,” Faith said. “But I feel like I’m missing half the story here.”

  “If I tell you it’s a dumb story and likely to just piss you off, will you just go along with me? C’mon Faith, it’s not like I ask you for favors all that often. And I have to paint some of the time.”

  Faith sighed then narrowed her eyes. “Okay. But you have to answer me one question.”

  Damn. Had the security guys told Faith that Will’s car had been at Mina’s place all night? She thought he’d left early enough to avoid Faith or Caleb noticing. But Faith was bound to notice sooner or later. Unless she started going to Will’s place. Not that she really knew where Will’s place was. Did he live over the bar? If so, then it wasn’t really an option she wanted to explore. There were definitely downfalls to sharing a property with your family. Kind of cramped a girl’s style for carrying on a secret sneaky … project. No wonder Faith had stuck to keeping her love life strictly off-island for so long.

  So the question was, which was more important … delaying Faith finding out the inevitable or making Angie see that she was wrong about the Harpers.

  It had to be the latter.

  “Ask away,” she said.