by Jamie Pope
He was a big man, with broad shoulders and one of those powerful, long-stride walks that seemed to eat up the ground with each step. He certainly didn’t look like any politician that she had ever seen. His clothes were constantly paint smeared, and he seemed to live in T-shirts that were just tight enough to show off his muscled upper body. He looked like a blue-collar working man.
A type of man she’d never gone out with.
He had a set of gorgeous light-bluish-greenish eyes that combined with this brown skin made him look...interesting.
Some might even say he was one of those men that was hard not to look at, and that’s why Ava made it a point not to look tonight.
“Hey, Ava,” she heard him say from behind. It surprised her that he would acknowledge her after their spat. “You planning on burning anything today?”
She paused and turned to look at him, annoyed with herself for doing so. He was leaning slightly against his truck, looking at her, studying her in a way that wasn’t disrespectful and yet made her feel uncomfortable. It was then she realized that he had probably never seen her like this before. She lived in chic sheath dresses and designer heels. Her face was always perfectly made up, and her hair was always done. But today she wore a cheap pair of flip-flops she bought to wear on the beach and an oversize bathing suit cover-up because it was the only truly comfortable thing she had with her. He had seen her at her absolute worse the other night, and once again he was seeing her at less than her best. It bugged the hell out of her.
“The only thing I plan on burning is your house after you go to sleep tonight.” She didn’t know what possessed her to say that. She had never spoken to anyone like that. But she couldn’t stop the flow of words. She had always been so careful to watch what she said and how she reacted when she was with Max, but she was done with that. Through with taking so much time to think about what she was going to say that she had lost out on the chance to say so many important things.
“Ouch.” He frowned with a little shake of his head. “We have a big bonfire on the beach every year during the founder’s day festivities. If you were a good girl, I was going to let you throw in the match to set the blaze, but since you just threatened to kill me, I’m afraid I’m going to have to give the honor to another fire-loving female.”
She knew that she shouldn’t respond, shouldn’t engage with him any further, but she couldn’t stop herself. “I wasn’t going to kill you, just smoke you out. Kind of like the beady-eyed raccoon that used to live under our porch when I was a kid.”
She thought she might have gone too far with that comment, but Derek surprised her and gave her an amused smile that she could only describe as sexy. His grin hit her right in the chest, and it startled her.
She was heartbroken and hurt and still reeling from the betrayal. She had no business finding any man sexy, especially the next-door neighbor, who, according to her ex, was the enemy.
She didn’t return his smile; in fact, she didn’t even look at him again as she walked away and into her cottage. She put the bags down on the counter, forgetting about the surely melting ice cream and picked up the phone. She dialed her sister-in-law’s number.
“Can you come over here and stay with me tonight?”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Virginia answered without hesitation.
Ava felt relieved. She didn’t want to be alone, especially when she couldn’t control her feelings.
* * *
Thursdays were the day that Derek kept office hours. He was known as the mobile mayor, and instead of running the island from a stuffy old office, he’d rather get out on the island and actually see the people who lived there. Visit local businesses, talk to his residents, but he couldn’t escape the office totally. So Thursdays were his days to have meetings and sign papers, approve budgets. It was his most exhausting day of the week. Sitting behind a desk drained him. It also reminded him of his father. Most of the times he saw him, the man was sitting behind a desk. Derek never wanted to be like him. Even one day a week in an office made him feel like the man he never wanted to become.
When he got home that night, he headed right to his kitchen and stared into his depressingly empty refrigerator. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been grocery shopping. His usually survived the week on one of his aunt’s meals. His family always sent him home with leftovers and little things they had made just for him. They spoiled him, trying to make up for all the lack of mothering in his young life. He tried to tell them that they didn’t have to go through all the trouble but they seemed to like to.
He shut the door, knowing that he couldn’t make a meal out of pickles and ketchup, and went in search of the dozen or so menus he kept on hand for cases like these. But before he was able to make it to the menus he heard a knock at his door. It surprised him. He lived in an extremely quiet part of town. People didn’t just stop by. When he opened his front door and saw Ava Bradley standing on his porch, he became even more surprised. Ever since their little run-in over the wedding dress he’d had a hard time getting her off his mind. Of course, it wasn’t every day that a man saw an elegant woman ripping her wedding dress to shreds, and it made him curious about her, made him actively think about what would make her get to that point. And then when he saw her a few days later he had literally been blown away by the way she looked. When he had gotten out of his truck, he saw her standing in her driveway wearing a little white bathing suit cover-up that barely skimmed the top of her thighs. Her hair wasn’t in its normal elegantly chic style, but instead in loose, messy waves. Her face was completely clean of makeup. She was always stunningly beautiful, but that day he saw an edge to her that was probably caused by anger and pain, but it also made her damn sexy. And when he realized that what he was feeling was attraction it was like he was hit in the gut with a two-by-four. This evening was no different. She wore little cotton shorts with anchors on them and a white tank top that was so thin it was nearly see-through.
“Are you sure you’re here on time?”
“Excuse me?” She blinked at him, and for the first time he noticed the color of her eyes. They were lighter than her older brother’s, whose eyes seemed to be so deep brown that they were nearly black. Hers seemed almost golden.
“You said that you were going to burn down my house after I went to sleep. You’re at least six hours early.”
The corner of her mouth ticked up in an almost smile. He was sure she had smiled before, that she couldn’t be the icily cool woman who never displayed any kind of happy emotions. Her family was too warm and loving for her to be that way, but he had never seen her smile. And now that he had seen just a hint of it, he wanted more, the full thing, and he wanted it all directed at him.
“I am actually here about fire,” she said in her soft, nearly husky voice. “As in if you don’t help me right now, I’m afraid my house will burn down.”
“What?” That shook him out of his appraisal of her.
“I have an outlet that’s sparking. And since you’re so up on your fire safety, I figured I would come to you and skip the fire department. I didn’t want to disturb you with all those pesky lights and sirens. I know how noise sensitive you are.”
“You want my help?” He knew it was a dumb question, but he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that she was standing on his porch, looking disturbingly enticing.
“Yes.” She nodded. “Preferably right this moment.”
“Where’s the outlet sparking?”
“In my kitchen.”
“Do you know how to turn off the power to that room?”
“Do you think I know how to turn off the power to that room?” she retorted.
He turned away to get his toolbox. Luckily since he used the entire downstairs of his house as a work space, he didn’t have to go far.
“Sorry. Stupid question. I wouldn’t expect y
ou to know how to do anything with your hands that didn’t require getting your nails done.”
“I can do a lot of good things with my hands. Unfortunately, you’ll never learn what those things are.”
Her words nearly stopped him in his tracks, and a vivid but all-too-brief image of her running her hands down his bare chest flashed in his mind. He shouldn’t be thinking about her that way. He didn’t want to be thinking about her that way. She represented a type of woman he couldn’t stand. “If it includes using Google to find your next rich boyfriend, I’m not interested.”
“Forget it.” She sighed and stepped off the porch. “I’ll call the fire department. Let’s just hope a strong gust of wind doesn’t carry one of those errant sparks to your house.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help you.” He caught her wrist with his free hand just as she turned to walk away, ignoring how incredibly soft her skin was and the tiny little charge he felt when his skin connected with hers. “Besides, if you called the fire department over this, I would never hear the end of it from the guys.”
“It’s not your job to fix electrical problems.”
“No.” He walked ahead of her to her house, trying to shake off the weird feeling that was rolling around within him. He had been in the house many times before the original owner decided to rent it out and move to the retirement community on the island. He knew where the fuse box was, and as he approached the steps he once again found himself surprised that Ava Bradley had picked this house when she could have rented any of the luxurious oceanfront rentals the island had to offer. The last time he had been here it was decorated in a style that he could only describe as old lady chic. There had been a lot of pink and floral print; he could see it had been redecorated.
The first word that came to Derek’s mind was cozy. There were big, overstuffed couches and chairs, little odds and ends that gave the place a touch of elegance. He would have thought she preferred sleek lines and modern furniture that was more artistic than functional. But she was staying in a place that looked more like a home than a rental. He even glimpsed a family photograph on the bookshelf as he walked through.
He looked over his shoulder to see that she was directly behind him. A little mischievous voice in his head told him to stop short, just so she would crash into him, but he didn’t do it.
“You don’t have to follow so close. I’m not going to steal anything. I’m here to help you, remember?”
“I’m not about to let a strange man loose in my house. Especially one who already seems to know his way around it.”
“Stranger? I’ve known your brother for years. I’m the mayor and probably the most well-known person in this town.”
“I didn’t say stranger. I said strange. And, sweetheart, you are the definition of the word.”
He grinned at her. He couldn’t stop himself. Maybe he was a sadist, but her biting remarks did something to him. No one ever spoke to him that way. Every citizen of Hideaway Island was unfailingly polite to him. But she wasn’t. It was...refreshing. “Come here. Let me show you how to shut off the power in case this ever happens again. This house is old—the wiring might need to be completely replaced.”
“Don’t say that,” she groaned. “I don’t want to move out.”
“Let me check first, but even if it comes to that, it won’t take that long, and your brother lives on the island. His house is so large—they probably wouldn’t see you for days.”
“He would make sure he saw me. Since I called off my wedding he’s been so worried about me that he calls me twice a day to make sure I haven’t flung myself off a bridge.”
“From what I saw the day it went down, I’m surprised he didn’t toss that jackass off the bridge.”
“I’m sure he would have, but my sister-in-law has a calming effect on him.”
She couldn’t hide the sadness in her eyes, and something tugged in his chest. He didn’t want to feel bad for her, so he turned to the box, opened the door and shut off the power to the kitchen. “Come here.” He pointed to the clearly labeled switches without looking at her to see if she understood. He didn’t want to see any more of her hurt.
“Do you have candles?”
“Yes.”
“Would you mind lighting some in the kitchen?”
“I hope this isn’t your way of setting the mood, because whatever you’re thinking, it’s not going to happen.”
“Do you think every man on the planet wants you, because I can assure you that they don’t,” he said, lying through his teeth. A man would be crazy not to want her. “Which outlet is it?”
“The one closest to the stove.”
He nodded. “Get the candles and meet me in there. I’m going to need the extra light to see.”
“Maybe I should leave the power off and call the property manager in the morning.”
“I’m here. Might as well take a look.”
She walked away to get the candles, and he took a deep breath. It was much harder to breathe when she was in the same space as him.
Chapter 5
Ava watched Derek as he removed the cover plate and shined his light into the outlet. His bicep bunched beneath his T-shirt, and he moved with such assuredness that she found it hard not to stare. She should have removed herself to another room completely, but she couldn’t force herself to go. It was a novelty seeing a man who could work with his hands. Maxime’s hands were softer than hers. Elias was a surgeon and very good with his hands, but she had never seen her twin fix anything. Carlos, either. The last man she had seen actually work with his hands was her father. He changed his own oil and repaired the roof, built their deck. He could do anything. Ava didn’t think they made men like him anymore, but there was Derek, removing the outlet with the skill of an electrician.
“How do you know how to do this stuff? Did your father teach you or something?” He turned and looked at her, hardness in his eyes.
He didn’t like her; there was no mistaking it. She didn’t like him, either, and she had wanted to stand there quietly as he worked, but she was getting tired of being alone with her thoughts. She didn’t want to be around her family or friends because she knew they would feel sorry for her and she didn’t want or need that. She wasn’t the delicate flower the world made her out to be.
“No,” he spoke as he turned back to his work. “I’m not sure my father would know a screwdriver from a wrench. In fact, I’m pretty sure his leather office chair is permanently fused to his behind.”
“Oh.” She had touched on a nerve. But that still didn’t explain how he learned. “You taught yourself?”
“Partly. It was just my mother and I, and when I got to be a teenager, it was only me. You learn how to do things when you have no other choice.”
“Oh,” she said again, feeling a little dumb. “I’m sorry.”
He glanced back at her, something flashing in those bluish eyes that she couldn’t read. “Don’t be. I can’t take all the credit. My uncle taught me how to be a man. As far as I’m concerned, he’s my real father.”
“You must be very close.”
“We were. He died almost two years ago.”
“It doesn’t get any easier, does it?” she asked. “My father died just after we graduated from college. I still pick up the phone to call him, only to realize that he won’t be able to answer.” She had done that recently. She had wanted to know the name of the little seafood place he used to take them to, and as she dialed it struck her. And it devastated her all over again.
“No. It doesn’t. It never gets easier,” he answered softly.
The doorbell rang, causing Ava to jump. She was glad for the distraction. Things had gotten too real and too deep with a man she barely knew.
“Are you expecting someone?”
“Yes.” She rushed from
the room and answered the door to find a pizza delivery guy standing there. He was a teenager in a tank top, board shorts and long blondish hair covered by a baseball cap with the pizzeria’s logo on it.
“You having a party or something?” he asked her as he handed her the three boxes.
“Nope. Just a bad few weeks.”
“I find that cheesy bread makes the world a brighter place.” He grinned at her, and she tipped him generously before returning to the kitchen, which was lit only with the scented white candles and the glow of Derek’s flashlight.
She had had dozens of candlelight dinners with Max, but somehow this seemed more intimate. She had never talked to Max about her father, about how much it had hurt to lose him. They had been together for three years, and it had never come up.
“You shouldn’t have any more problems. This outlet was installed incorrectly. I don’t think you’ll need the wiring replaced, but to be on the safe side I’ll call my friend to come take a look.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can make the call. One of the things I can do with my hands really well is dial a phone.”
He gave her a little smile and shook his head. “Let me. I know who does the best work in town. He’ll be here first thing in the morning.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Is that gratitude from you? I must admit that I’m shocked. I was half expecting you lured me here to club me over the head.”