by Marie Force
Kara’s silent laughter filled him with unreasonable joy. “You are so freaking full of yourself.”
“Is anything I said a lie? Am I handsome?”
“You’re not ugly.”
“Am I successful?”
“You’re not a total loser.”
“Am I famous?”
“In your own mind, for sure.”
He cupped her bottom and pulled her in tight against him. “Let’s go face them and show them they’ve got no power over you anymore.”
“Yes, let’s do that, but not until she’s had a few hours to broil in the hot sun.”
“What about the baby?”
“She’ll keep him in the shade with Matt while she paces the dock waiting for me to return after someone tells her we’re out on the boat. If I know Kelly, she won’t be satisfied until she gets her moment of drama.”
“What do you propose we do in the meantime?”
She gave him a gentle nudge toward the pads he’d put on the floor of the boat. “Lie down.”
Intrigued by the sexy glimmer in her eye, he did as he was told. Never let it be said that he couldn’t be trained.
Still kneeling, Kara took her shirt off and then her shorts before she stretched out next to him, wearing only her bra and panties. “We’re going to celebrate our engagement.”
He turned on his side to face her and put his arm around her. “That’s the best idea you’ve ever had.”
Chapter 15
Still processing the phone call he’d received right before leaving the studio, Evan turned the motorcycle into the pharmacy parking lot at one o’clock as planned. He stashed the bike under the stairs and sat to wait for Grace.
Running his fingers through his hair, Evan tried to stop his mind from repeatedly racing through the conversation he’d had with Buddy Longstreet. The king of country music had called him to celebrate the freeing of his album from the Starlight Records bankruptcy proceedings. Buddy had plans for him—big plans that were in sharp conflict with the plans Evan had been making for himself lately.
After the tremendous amount of time and attention he’d poured into the studio—not to mention the huge investment Ned Saunders had made to get the place off the ground—how in the world would Evan walk away from that to pursue the performing and recording career he’d once thought he wanted?
And then he thought of Josh Harrelson, the sound engineer he’d wooed to Gansett and Island Breeze Records with the promise of a steady paycheck. Didn’t he owe it to Josh to follow through on the plans they’d made?
Finally, he thought of Grace and their amazing life together, which would be totally turned upside down if he went out on tour for God only knew how long. To hear Buddy talk, he’d be on tour for the rest of his natural life if things went according to the grand plan. And things mostly went according to Buddy’s plans. He was a star maker. There was no denying that.
At one time, not all that long ago, Evan had wanted the kind of stardom Buddy had promised him today. He wanted the big time, and nothing else would do. But now he knew a different kind of life, a simpler life that suited him far more than life as a performer ever had.
Never once, in all the gigs he’d played on Gansett Island with Owen and on his own, had Evan ever experienced the crippling stage fright that plagued him at almost every other venue he’d played. The stage fright was one of the reasons he’d been secretly relieved to hear that his record had been taken down by Starlight’s bankruptcy.
That news had forced him to go in a different direction, and that direction had been far more satisfying than anything else ever had. Buddy had put up a lot of money to bail him out of the bankruptcy. Evan didn’t know just how much, but his manager, Jack, had inferred it was no small amount. So Buddy would be looking for some return on that investment, which would require months on the road promoting the album Evan had worked so hard on.
Recording the album now seemed like it’d happened in another lifetime. That was how far removed he was from the years he’d spent in Nashville chasing the dream, only to watch it all go to shit when his record company went bankrupt. He’d had reason to think in the last year that the bankruptcy was actually the luckiest thing that had happened to him in show business.
What the hell am I going to do?
He’d no sooner had the thought when Grace stepped out of the pharmacy, looking pretty and put together in her work clothes, which today consisted of a lightweight dress and a sweater she immediately shed when she encountered the blast of heat in the parking lot.
Evan got up to meet her.
As she studied him, her smile faded. “What’s wrong?”
“How can you take one look at me and know something is wrong?”
“Because your hair is standing on end, and that only happens when you run your fingers through it over and over, which you only do when something is wrong.”
He stared at her, amazed. Had anyone ever known him better or paid closer attention to his every mood, want and need? No, never. “It’s nothing that won’t keep until after lunch. Are you ready?”
They were meeting his parents for lunch at the Oar Bar at the Gansett Boat Works Marina, or, as his father had said, “Lunch with the enemy.” Not that Big Mac McCarthy had enemies. No, he had competitors who were as much his friends as anyone on the island. Evan had chosen the so-called enemy over lunch at their own marina, because he didn’t want interruptions while he and Grace shared their wedding plans with his parents.
Evan took her keys and held the passenger door to her car until she was settled. He got in the driver’s side and adjusted the seat to his much longer legs.
“You’re not going to tell me?”
He blew out a deep breath. “I don’t want to.”
“Great,” she said with a testy edge to her voice.
“Buddy Longstreet called me.”
“As in he called you himself or one of his people called you?”
“He called me himself.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. He’s got some pretty big plans for me now that he’s gotten me free of Starlight.”
“What kind of big plans?”
“Six months on tour when the album drops to begin with, followed by getting me back in the studio to record my second album.”
“I assume he means for that to happen in his studio in Nashville.”
“You assume correctly.”
She didn’t say anything, but he could see her fingers linking and unlinking.
He reached over and put his hand on top of hers, feeling the bite of the engagement ring he’d given her against his palm. “I haven’t said yes to any of it. He did all the talking.”
“But he expects you to say yes.”
“I believe Buddy Longstreet is quite accustomed to people saying yes to him, so it doesn’t occur to him that I wouldn’t say yes.”
“God, Evan, what’re we going to do?”
“See that, right there, what you said?”
“What did I say?”
“You asked what we’re going to do. We. This involves both of us, and we’re going to figure it out together. No matter what happens, we’re getting married on January eighteenth. That is non-negotiable.”
“But what happens on January nineteenth?”
“That’s the part we’ve got to figure out.”
“I can’t go anywhere. I’m up to my eyeballs in the pharmacy. Even if I wanted to walk away, I can’t afford to. Not for a couple of years anyway.”
“I know, baby. I need a little time to think about how to handle this. I’ve got to play it right, because if I turn down Buddy’s offer the wrong way, he could squash Island Breeze like a bug if he wanted to. I don’t want that to happen, so I’ve got to figure out the best way to play it.”
“You’re going to say no to him?”
“Yeah,” Evan said, surprising himself as much as her. “I think I am.”
“Can you do that?”
“I don’t know. I’
ve got to talk to Jack and figure it out.”
“You’re really going to say no to Buddy Longstreet.”
“My life is here. Our life is here. I want to make a go of the studio, and I want to make babies with you. I can’t do that if I’m on the road for half the year.”
A sniffle from the passenger seat had him looking over to find tears rolling down her cheeks. Evan pulled the car off the road and put it in park. He held out his arms to her. “Gracie… I’m so sorry. Please don’t cry. You know I can’t stand it when you cry.” He held her until she got it all out, stroking her silky hair and breathing in the scent of home.
No matter how great the offer or how great the superstar making it, Evan couldn’t leave her to chase a dream he’d given up on since he met her and found a whole new set of dreams.
“I’ve been so scared about what was going to happen,” she said after a long period of silence.
“You gotta have some faith in me, baby. That I want the same things you do.”
She looked up at him with a tearstained face that broke his heart. “I do have faith in you, but I also have faith in your amazing talent. I don’t want to be responsible for holding you back from where you should be.”
“You’re not doing that. I promise you I’d stopped wanting the big dream long before I met you.”
“So if you’d never met me, you’d still be saying no to Buddy?”
Evan mulled that over just long enough that she looked away.
“You wouldn’t have said no.”
“Only because I wouldn’t have had a good reason to say no—the best possible reason.”
“I don’t think you ought to do anything rash that you might regret later. Buddy has a wife and kids and a family life. If he can make it work, you can, too.”
“Buddy makes it work because his wife is as big of a star as he is and they tour together—with their kids. You have your own life and your own business that’s every bit as important as mine is. Our situation is very different from theirs, and we can’t compare the two.”
“We’re going to be late to meet your parents,” Grace said as she found a tissue in her purse to wipe her face and blow her nose. She pulled down the visor to check the damage. “Great, I’m a wreck.”
“You are not. You’re as gorgeous as ever.”
“You have to say that. You love me.”
“You bet I do, and don’t you forget it.” He pulled the car back onto the road and turned into the long driveway that led to Gansett Boat Works. The Oar Bar was situated off to the side of the main dock and boasted about ten thousand oars painted by people who’d come through the island on boats, for Race Week, bachelor and bachelorette parties, for weddings and other major events. They hung from the roof, on the walls and on every available space in the cluttered bar. Evan loved the place and never got tired of reading all the messages on the oars, some of them dating back more than forty years.
His parents were already seated at a table inside when he escorted Grace into the bar. He kept a tight grip on her hand, hoping to reassure her after their emotional conversation.
“Hi, honey,” Linda said, embracing Grace and then Evan.
Big Mac stood to greet Grace with a kiss to the cheek.
“Um, excuse me for one second,” Grace said.
Evan released her hand and watched her scurry toward the stairs that led to the bathroom.
“Everything okay?” Linda asked, giving him the Voodoo Mama stare that saw right through her adult children.
“It will be.” Evan sat with them, and while they waited for Grace to return, he brought them up to date on the goings-on with Buddy and the album once lost to bankruptcy.
“Oh my goodness,” Linda said. “No wonder Grace is so upset.”
“That’s a tough spot you’re in, son,” Big Mac said.
“No kidding. There’s a lot to think about to be sure. Listen, before Grace comes back, this isn’t why we invited you to lunch. We have some other news we wanted to share with you—good news, or at least I hope you’ll think so.”
“Am I going to be a grandmother again?”
“No,” Evan said, laughing. “At least not because of me.”
“I still haven’t recovered from the latest delivery,” Big Mac said.
“Because it was so hard on you?” Evan asked, amused as always by his dad.
“Exactly.”
“We heard earlier today that Mac and Maddie are expecting again,” Linda said. “Your father is upset enough about that news.”
“Only because of what happened the last time,” Big Mac said, “but Mac assured me there’s no chance of that again.”
“I sure hope not. Once was enough.” Evan was about to go check on Grace when she appeared at the top of the stairs and made her way across the room to them. He stood to hold her chair and waited until she was settled and then bent to place his lips against her ear. “Okay?”
She nodded and smiled up at him.
When Evan was seated again, he took her hand. “You want to share the good news?”
“You don’t want to?”
“You can.”
“Someone needs to tell us what’s going on,” Linda said.
“Evan and I have set a wedding date.”
“Yes!” Big Mac said. “That’ll be twenty bucks, please, my love.”
“Wait, you guys bet on what we had to tell you?” Evan asked his parents.
“Your mother had twenty on a baby.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help you score an easy twenty,” Evan said, amused.
“And I get to gloat, too.”
“Of course you do.”
“Shush and let them talk,” Linda said to her husband. “When and where?”
“January eighteenth in Turks and Caicos.”
“Ohhh, how fun! A destination wedding with beach time in the dead of winter!”
“We were hoping you’d approve.” Though she seemed pleased by his mother’s reaction, Grace’s smile wasn’t as potent as usual.
“Everyone’s going,” Big Mac announced. “I’m paying. Get tickets and rooms for all of them, and I’ll take it from there.”
“Really, Dad, no one expects you to do that.”
“So what? I can do what I want. Just try to stop me.”
“Don’t try, honey,” Linda said, patting Evan’s hand across the table. “You know how he can be when he gets something in his head.”
“Yes, you know how I can be,” Big Mac said with a satisfied smile.
Grace laughed, and the sound filled Evan’s heart to overflowing. He loved to hear her laugh as much as he hated to see her cry. He took hold of her hand. “See what you’re marrying into?”
“I know exactly what I’m marrying into, and I couldn’t be happier about it.”
“We couldn’t be happier either,” Linda assured her future daughter-in-law. “You two are a perfect fit, and we have no doubt that you’re going to have a long and happy life together.”
Evan would do everything within his power to make sure they had exactly that and nothing less.
***
Elated after her lunch date with Alex, Jenny went back to the lighthouse to shower and change. When she’d offered to bring him lunch, she hadn’t pictured an enchanted garden or sex outside in broad daylight. Earlier in the summer, when she told her friends she was ready to shake things up a bit, she’d never imagined shaking things up to the extent she had since she met Alex.
Part of her—the part concerned with self-preservation—wanted to take a step back and slow things down a bit. But the other part—the part that had missed being half of a couple, the part that had missed the connection she’d had with Toby—wanted to dive into what she was feeling for Alex without reservation.
Being with him was exciting, and Jenny felt more alive with him than she had since her life was shattered. And he’d said and done all the right things when she told him about Toby. He’d reacted with the perfect amount of distress on her b
ehalf but hadn’t overreacted the way so many people had before him. Jenny appreciated that and would tell him so when she saw him later for their date.
She couldn’t wait. She felt like a teenager in the throes of first love, a thought that made her giggle, since she was hardly a teenager and this was hardly first love. Hell, she’d be hard-pressed to call it love, but it was definitely something. Her entire body tingled with awareness every time he was close by. All he had to do to get her motor running was look at her with eyes full of sexy intent, and she was his. Completely and absolutely his. She wondered if he had any idea how ridiculously gone over him she was.
“Probably better that he doesn’t know, or he’ll run for his life from the crazy lady in the lighthouse,” she said to her reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Her cell phone rang in the bedroom, and she ran to answer the call from Sydney.
“How’d it go? Tell me everything and leave out nothing.”
Jenny laughed. She so enjoyed her Gansett friends and the way they talked about everything. “It was a smashing success. Thanks for the brilliant idea.”
“It was a rather brilliant idea, wasn’t it?”
“You have no idea how brilliant.”
“Jenny Wilks! Did you have sex outside?”
“I’m not telling.”
“Oh my God! You did!”
“Well, there was this garden, you see, surrounded on four sides by very tall hedges. And then there was this hot gardener with abs like you read about. What was a girl to do?”
“I love it! Did this happen before or after you told him about Toby?”
“After.”
“So I take that to mean the conversation went well?”
“It went as well as I could’ve hoped for. He was perfect, and he wasn’t different or weird afterward, because I told him not to be. He seemed to appreciate the guidance.”
“You live and you learn, don’t you? What’s wrong with saying, ‘After I tell you this huge thing, this is what I need from you’?”
“Nothing at all. When you think about it, how would anyone know what the right thing to say or do is after hearing that story unless I tell them?”