Beach Bar Baby

by Heidi Rice

  Single ladies on holiday generally fell into one of two categories: those on the hunt for no-strings thrills, or those on the look-out for an exotic island romance. As both scenarios invariably involved lots of sex, he’d been more than happy to indulge in hook-ups with the clients when he’d first arrived on the island a decade ago. But back then he’d been eighteen going on thirty with a chip on his shoulder the size of a forest, not a lot of money and even fewer prospects.

  In the intervening years, he’d worked his butt off to leave that messed-up kid in the dust. As the owner of a lucrative and growing dive-shop franchise, he sure as hell didn’t need to look for acceptance in casual sex any more—or the hassle of pretending to be interested in more.

  Which meant single lady tourists had been off limits for a while, unless he knew for certain they weren’t after more than the one night of fun. Usually, it was easy enough to figure that out. In fact he’d become an expert at deciding whether a woman had lust or stardust in their eyes when they hit on him. But Ella Radley didn’t fit the profile for either.

  For starters, she hadn’t exactly hit on him despite the obvious chemistry between them. And he still hadn’t figured out whether that enchanting mix of artless enthusiasm, sweet-natured kookiness and transparent hunger was all part of an act to get into his pants—or was actually real.

  Unfortunately, he was fast running out of time to make up his mind on that score. Sonny had two more fully booked tours scheduled right after this one. And with the old guy’s arthritis acting up again, Cooper had agreed to step in and captain them. It was a responsibility he couldn’t and wouldn’t duck out of. Because Sonny and he had a history.

  The old guy had offered him a shift crewing on The Jez, when he’d been eighteen and had just spent his last dime on boat fare to the island. He’d been sleeping rough on the quayside and would have sold his soul for a burger and a side order of fries.

  He’d done a half-assed job that afternoon, because he’d been weak from hunger and didn’t know the first thing about boats. But for the first time since his mother’s death, he’d felt safe and worth something. Sonny had given him hope, so whatever debt the old guy called in, he’d pay it.

  All of which meant he had to make a decision about Ella Radley before they got back to the dockyards. Should he risk asking her out tonight without being sure about her?

  She swam back towards him, her eyes glowing behind the mask, then made the sign for okay.

  He gave her a thumbs up and then jerked it towards the boat. They’d run out of time ten minutes ago. Everyone else would be back on the launch by now ready to head back to the mainland. Which meant it was past time for him to make his mind up.

  But as she swum ahead of him, her generous butt drawing his gaze with each kick of the flippers, heat flooded his groin again, and he knew his mind had already been made up... Because his brain had stopped making the decisions a good forty minutes ago, when those soft, trembling hands had stroked down his spine and hovered next to the curve of his ass. And he’d heard her sigh, above the rush of blood pounding in his ears.

  * * *

  Ella gripped the rail as the launch bumped against the dock and her snorkel buddy sent her one of his trademark smiles.

  He laid his palm on her knee and gave it a squeeze, sending sensation shooting up her thigh. ‘Hold up here, while I get everyone off the boat.’ The husky, confidential tone had her heart beating into her throat, the way it had been doing most of the day.

  She forced herself to breathe evenly, and take stock, while he and his crew docked the boat and he bid farewell to the rest of the passengers.

  Do not get carried away. It’s been an amazing morning, but now it’s over.

  The snorkel tour, the epic beauty of the reef and its sealife had totally lived up to the hype. But it had been Cooper Delaney’s constant attention, his gorgeous body and flirtatious smile, that had turned the trip into a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

  He’d made her feel special—and for that she couldn’t thank him enough. Which meant not overreacting now and putting motivations into his actions that weren’t there.

  She gulped down the lump of gratitude as she watched him charm May Preston, and give her husband a hearty handshake. Once they’d gone, it would be her turn to say goodbye.

  May waved, then winked—making the colour leech into Ella’s cheeks—before handing a wad of bills to Cooper. He accepted the money with a quick lift of his cap.

  A tip.

  Shame tightened Ella’s throat as Cooper folded the bills into the back pocket of the jeans he’d changed into. Of course, she should tip him. That would be the best way to thank Cooper for all his attention. And let him know what a great time she’d had.

  She grabbed her backpack, found her purse, then had a minor panic attack over the appropriate amount. Was twenty dollars enough? Or thirty? No, forty. Forty, would work. After all, he’d surely need to share it out with the boys in his crew. She counted out the money, her palms sweating, hoping she’d got the amount right. She wanted to be generous, even though she knew that any amount couldn’t really repay him for what he’d done.

  For two amazing, exhilarating, enchanting hours she’d completely forgotten about all her troubles—and felt like a woman again, a whole, normal, fully functional woman—and for that no tip, however generous, could be big enough.

  Slinging the pack over her shoulder, she approached him with the bills clutched in her fist. Now, how to hand it over without blushing like a beetroot?

  He turned as she approached, that killer smile making her pulse hammer her neck. The appreciative light in his eyes as his gaze roamed over her had her bikini top shrinking again.

  ‘Hey, there.’ The killer smile became deadly. ‘I thought I told you to stay put.’

  She pursed her lips to still the silly tremble, unable to return the smile. ‘I should get out of your way.’

  ‘You’re not in my way.’ He tucked the curl of hair that had escaped her ponytail back behind her ear—in a casually possessive gesture that only made the tremble intensify. ‘But I’ve got a couple more tours to run today. How about we meet up later? I’ll be at a bar on the south side of Half-Moon Cove from around seven onwards...’

  Blood thundered in her ears, so she could barely make out what he was saying.

  ‘What d’you say?’ he continued. ‘You want to hang out some more?’

  She nodded, but then his knuckle stroked down her cheek.

  Panicked by the clutch of emotion, and the insistent throb of arousal, she shifted away from his touch. Time to make a quick getaway, before the lip quiver got any worse.

  She thrust the bills towards him. ‘I’ve had an incredible time. The tour was amazing. Thank you so much.’

  His gaze dropped. ‘What’s this?’

  ‘Umm, I hope it’s enough.’ Had she miscalculated? Was it too little? ‘I wanted to thank you properly, for all the trouble you went to this morning.’

  A muscle in his jaw hardened. And she had the strangest feeling she’d insulted him. But then he blinked and the flash of temper disappeared.

  ‘Right.’ He took the bills, counted them. ‘Forty dollars. That’s real generous.’ She thought she detected the sour hint of sarcasm, but was sure she must be mistaken when he tipped his cap and shoved the bills into his back pocket. ‘Thanks.’ For the first time, the easy grin looked like an effort. ‘I’ll see you around, Miz Radley.’

  The clutching feeling collapsed in her chest, at the formal address, the remote tone.

  Had she just imagined the invitation for later in the evening? Or, worse, blown it out of all proportion? Obviously it had been completely casual and she’d made too much of it.

  She stood like a dummy, not knowing what to do about the sudden yearning to see the focused heat one more time.

  The mo
ment stretched out unbearably as he studied her, his expression remote and unreadable.

  ‘I suppose I should make a move,’ she managed to get out at last.

  Get off the boat. He probably has a ton of things he needs to be doing.

  ‘Well, thank you again.’ You’ve said that already. ‘It’s been so nice meeting you.’ Stop gushing, you nitwit. ‘Goodbye.’ She lifted her hand in a pointless wave that immediately felt like too much.

  ‘Yeah, sure.’ He didn’t wave back, the words curt, his face blanker than ever.

  She rushed down the gangplank, refusing to look back and make an even bigger ninny of herself.

  THREE

  Ella held the plastic column, flipped the switch. Then yelped and dropped it when it shivered to life with a sibilant hum. She signed and flicked the switch back down to dump the vibrator back in its box.

  Damn, trying out the sex toy had seemed like such a good idea when she’d been with Cooper, while all her hormones were jumping and jigging under his smouldering stare.

  But after their awkward parting, she wasn’t feeling all that enthusiastic about discovering the joys of artificial stimulation any more.

  Plastic just didn’t have the allure of a flesh and blood man. Plus the way things had ended had flatlined all the jiggling. She just felt empty now, and a little foolish, for enjoying his company so much when it hadn’t meant anything. She racked her brains to figure out what had happened. Because one minute he’d been laid-back and charming, oozing sex appeal, and asking her if she wanted to ‘hang out’ later and the next he’d been cold and tense and dismissive.

  The phone rang, jolting her out of her dismay. She groped for the handset, grateful for the distraction, especially when her best friend’s voice greeted her.

  ‘Ella, hi, how’s things in paradise?’

  Ella smiled, happiness at the sound of Ruby’s voice tempered with a surge of homesickness. ‘Ruby, I’m so glad you called.’ She gripped the phone, suddenly wishing she could levitate down the phoneline.

  Other than this morning’s snorkelling trip of a lifetime with the gorgeous—and confusing—Captain Cooper, her trip to Bermuda had been a disaster. She wanted to go home now.

  ‘Is everything okay? You sound a little wobbly.’

  ‘No, everything’s good. I guess I’m just over paradise now.’

  Ruby laughed, that rich, throaty, naughty laugh that Ella missed so much. ‘Uh-oh, so I’m assuming you still haven’t met any buff guys in Bermuda shorts, then?’

  ‘Umm, well.’ The image of Cooper’s exceptionally fit body, his low-slung cut-offs clinging to muscular thighs, that mouth-watering chest gilded with seawater, and the devastating heat in his eyes, popped into Ella’s head and rendered her speechless.

  ‘You have met someone, haven’t you?’ Ruby said, her usual telepathy not dimmed by thousands of miles of ocean. ‘Fantastic! Auntie Ruby needs to know all the details.’

  ‘It’s nothing, really. He’s just a cute guy who was captaining the snorkel tour I went on this morning. We flirted a bit.’ At least, she thought they’d been flirting, but maybe she’d got that wrong too. ‘But he’s not my type at all. He’s far too sexy.’ She recalled his callused hands, massaging the thick suncream into her skin—and wondered if Ruby could sense her hot flush from the UK.

  Ruby snorted. ‘Are you on crack or something? There’s no such thing as too sexy. Ever. And clarify “a bit”—does that mean there might be an option for more?’

  ‘Well, he did sort of ask me out.’

  ‘That’s fantastic.’

  ‘But I don’t think I’ll follow it up.’

  Her mind snagged on their awkward parting. As flattering as Cooper’s undivided attention had been, and as exciting as she’d found snorkelling with him—cocooned together in the exhilarating cool of the ocean as he used sign language to point out the different colourful fish, the sunken wreck of an old schooner and the majestic coral—it hadn’t ended all that well.

  She pictured again the tight line of his jaw when she’d handed him the hefty tip, and winced at the memory of his curt goodbye.

  ‘Why not?’ Ruby asked. ‘I thought that was the whole point of this holiday. To have a wild, inappropriate fling and kick-start your sex life?’

  ‘What?’ Ella could feel the blush lighting her face like a Christmas tree. ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘You did. You said you needed to get away, and rethink your priorities. That you’d become too fixated on finding the right guy, when what you really needed was to find a guy,’ Ruby replied, quoting words back to Ella she couldn’t remember saying.

  She’d been in a fog at the time, probably even in a state of mild shock after visiting her local doctor. She’d booked the holiday at the last minute, packed and headed for the airport the very next day, partly because she hadn’t known how to tell Ruby her news. For the first time ever, she’d been unable to confide in her best friend, and that had been the scariest thing of all.

  ‘I thought that’s what you meant,’ Ruby finished, sounding thoroughly confused now. ‘That you were heading to Bermuda to get laid.’

  ‘Not precisely.’ Ella felt the weariness of keeping the secret start to overwhelm her.

  ‘So what did you mean?’ Ruby’s sharp mind lasered straight to the truth. ‘This has something to do with the doctor’s appointment you had the day before you left, doesn’t it? I knew something had freaked you out. What aren’t you telling me?’

  Ella could hear the urgency in Ruby’s voice and knew her friend’s natural tendency to create drama was about to conjure up a terminal illness.

  ‘Whatever it is, you have to tell me, Ell. We can sort it out. Together. We always have.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Rube.’ Ella began talking her friend down from the ledge. ‘It’s nothing terrible.’ Or not that terrible.

  ‘But it does have something to do with the appointment?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Which is?’ Ruby’s voice had taken on the stern fear-of-God tone she used with her three children, which instantly made them confess to any and all infractions.

  Ella knew she wouldn’t last two seconds under that kind of interrogation. Even from four thousand miles away. ‘Dr Patel took some tests. I’ll get the results on Monday.’ She blew out a breath, the hollow pressure that had dragged down her stomach a week ago feeling as if it had become a black hole. ‘But given my mum’s history and the fact that I haven’t had a period now in over three months, she thinks I might be going into premature menopause.’

  ‘Okay,’ Ruby said carefully. ‘But it’s just a possibility? Nothing’s certain yet?’

  Ella shook her head, the black hole starting to choke her. ‘I’m pretty certain.’

  She’d done something cowardly in her teens, that she’d always believed she would be punished for one day. And sitting in Myra Patel’s office, listening to her GP discuss the possible diagnoses, the prospect of a premature menopause had been both devastating, and yet somehow hideously fitting.

  She placed her hand on her abdomen to try and contain the hollowness in her womb, and stop it seeping out and invading her whole body. ‘I’ve left it too late, Ruby. I’m not going to be able to have children.’

  ‘You don’t know any such thing. Not until you get the tests back. And even if it is premature menopause, a couple of missed periods isn’t suddenly going to make you infertile.’

  She did know, she’d known ever since she was eighteen and she’d come round from the anaesthesia in the clinic to find Randall gone. She didn’t deserve to be a mother, because the one time she’d had the chance she’d given it up to please a guy who hadn’t given a hoot about her.

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said, humouring Ruby.

  ‘Of course I am. You’re not allowed to go the full
drama until you get the results. Is that understood?’

  ‘Right.’ Her lips wrinkled, as she found some small measure of humour in having Ruby be the one to talk her off the ledge for a change.

  ‘Now.’ Ruby gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I want to know why you didn’t tell me about this? Instead of giving me all that cryptic nonsense about finding a guy to shag.’

  ‘I never said shag.’ Or at least she was fairly sure she hadn’t.

  ‘Don’t change the subject. Why didn’t you tell me about this before? Instead of running off to Bermuda?’

  It was a valid question, because they’d always shared everything—secret crushes, first kisses, how best to fake an orgasm, even the disastrous end to her college romance with Randall, and Ruby’s rocky road to romance with the sexy barrister who’d rear-ended her car on a Camden street seven years ago and turned out to be her one true love. But Ella still didn’t know how to answer it.

  ‘I just couldn’t.’ Her voice broke, and a tear escaped. One of the ones she’d been holding captive for over a week.

  ‘Why couldn’t you?’ Ruby probed, refusing to let it go.

  ‘I guess I was feeling shocked and panicky and inadequate...’ She sucked in a breath, forcing herself to face the truth. ‘And horribly jealous. Of the fact that you have such a wonderful family and three beautiful children and I may never have any.’ She let the breath out. There, she’d said it. ‘I felt so ashamed to be envious of you. Because everything you have with Cal and the kids, you’ve worked for and you deserve.’

  The self-pitying tears were flowing freely now. She brushed them away with the heel of her hand. Hoping Ruby couldn’t hear the hiccoughs in her breathing. ‘I couldn’t bear for this to come between us in any way.’

  ‘That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.’

  ‘Why?’ The question came out on a tortured sob.

  ‘Well, for starters, you don’t want Cal. He’s far too uptight and bossy for you. His insistence on being right about everything would make you lose the will to live within a week.’