“He still would have put your welfare first.”
Her throat grew tight with grief. “I know, but I think this is a good compromise.”
Afterward she stopped at the bank to discuss handling deposits, now that she’d hired a woman to run the stand. Presently Susan was working at the trailer for a few hours in a trial run. Susan came with high recommendations, and since Jamie had said she could have her daughter with her, it was exactly the kind of job the young mother had been looking for to supplement the family income.
It felt strange to be an employer. Before making the decision to hire someone, she’d felt an urge to consult with Zack, only to immediately dismiss the idea. Maybe getting your life tangled up with other people wasn’t such a horrible thing, but that didn’t make it smart to rely on them.
Finishing at the bank, she ran by Curt’s office to check in, but there’d been no developments in her vandalism case and Tim was still the invisible man.
“If he comes through here, we’ll deal with him,” Curt assured her. “I’ve also talked with the police in Miami, so they’re aware of the situation.”
“What about Gus Hewitt?” she asked, wondering if he’d be going after the fruit stand again. “Has he made bail?”
“Nope. We’re mostly holding him on a parole violation. I figure he’s staying in jail for a reason, probably to make Gardiner nervous enough to offer hush money.” Curt chuckled. “Old Gus doesn’t know it won’t do any good. The lab lifted your ex-husband’s fingerprints off the instructions he sent to Gus. I, uh, neglected to give that information to Gus, so don’t tell anyone.”
“Not a word.”
Back at the stand, Susan was happily finishing up a sale. “I love this job,” she exclaimed. “It would be even nicer if it stayed near the beach, but the other location is good, too. There are those trees and it has a pretty view across the valley. And when my daughter goes back to school this fall, she’ll have a place to come in the afternoon and do her homework.”
Susan’s enthusiasm was one of the reasons Jamie had hired her. Once she’d left for the day, Jamie sank into a chair and watched the ocean for a while. Maybe she’d leave the chairs here. It would be a nice place for people to come and sit and watch the water. She’d ask Zack if he minded the idea; he probably wouldn’t. They were attractive and would blend into the landscape.
She had a steady flow of customers for the rest of the afternoon, with the final flurry of off-duty Mar Vista employees between three and four. Lately they’d had a change of attitude concerning their employer. They were delighted with a new policy offering advancement potential, and the time he’d spent with one of their own at the local hospital had given a jump start to their approval.
It was another reason she was glad Susan would be taking over the stand soon. The last thing she needed for her peace of mind was to constantly hear about Zack Denning or Mar Vista.
* * *
AS BRAD COMPLETED his third full round of the property for the day, he thought it might be time to request a physical review and get on with his life. He’d begun running the route, recalling his basic training, and it was going well. It wasn’t that he felt 100 percent, but he was making rapid progress, and he hated the uncertainty of wondering what he was going to do next.
Back at the resort, he dropped by the office to see if Zack wanted to kick back with a cup of coffee.
“Hi, Brad,” Trudy greeted him. “A guest came by looking for you earlier.”
“A guest?” His senses went on alert. Unless his parents had decided to make a surprise visit, Kim was the only guest who’d be looking for him.
“It’s Kim Wheeler.” Trudy confirmed his conclusion. “She was hoping you might be free for dinner. Apparently, she tried your cell phone, but it was off.”
“Is she in the same room as before?”
“No, it was occupied, so they put her in 108, two doors down. She said to come by if you have a chance.”
Brad went upstairs to shower and change, then walked slowly to Kim’s room. It was an unusual time of the week for her to get away from the office, unless Zack had needed her for legal purposes.
At 108, he knocked. A second later Kim opened the door and waved him inside. “Want a beer or something?” she asked. “I had room service deliver several options.”
“Are you expecting someone?”
She smiled. “Yes. You.” In a swift move, she wrapped her arms around him and landed a kiss that began hot and progressed to sizzling.
“Holy cow,” he gasped when she finally loosened up on him. “What was that about?”
“If you don’t know, you’re even rustier with women than you say you are. Look, Brad. I accept that you’re a soldier and I’ll admit the idea of you returning to active duty scares the hell out of me. But if that’s why you’re keeping so much distance between us, quit shielding me. I’ve had some long talks with my mom and my aunt. If they can thrive as navy wives, I can handle it with a marine.”
“You’re not... I mean, it’s not the same as when your dad and uncle were in the service.”
“No, it’s not, but so what? We are both consenting adults and you can’t tell me that you’re not attracted to me.”
“You... I need to think.” Brad grabbed a bottle of beer and drank down half, chewing on what to say. Kim had virtually proposed to him, and while it was tempting, it wasn’t that easy.
“You think too much—that’s your problem,” she said.
“I’m trying to be realistic. You’re a lawyer with a five-star reputation in a tough city. Zack told me that you have meetings with the mayor of San Francisco, for God’s sake. The last thing you need is a banged-up soldier hanging around. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with my life or what I’m good for....”
Sparks practically flew from Kim’s eyes. “That’s insulting. How could you imagine your physical condition has anything to do with me wanting to be with you? And as for what you’re going to ‘do’ with your life, if you can’t serve on active duty, how about teaching or another assignment? Surely the military can use a highly trained officer with battle experience in places that don’t require you to bench-press a battleship.”
Bench-press a battleship?
Brad’s sense of humor asserted itself. He despised self-pity even more than he hated being pitied by other people. He’d admired Kim forever...wanted her without realizing it. She felt the same for him. Apparently, it was time for action.
He pulled her close and returned her kiss with enough heat to melt one of those battleships.
“Not bad, soldier,” she murmured as his hands roamed around her waist and rib cage.
“So, what else did you talk about with your mother and aunt?”
She gasped as he neatly dispatched her blouse, but tried to talk in a normal voice. “They just gave me a few tips and some really valuable advice.”
“What advice?” he said, sinking down upon the bed with her.
“Mostly that I didn’t have to wait for you to make the first move.”
“Mmm. I knew I liked those two women.”
* * *
ZACK STUDIED THE new structure for Jamie’s fruit stand. It was half-completed and rested on land along the main drag out of town. It looked good—obviously more permanent than the trailer, but that wasn’t a bad thing. They’d gotten permits to tap into the water main and bring electricity in, so there was a restroom and an indoor room where someone could relax or fix a snack, though the display space was a roofed area outside. He’d also bought a walk-in commercial cooler, where the stock could be stored, if necessary, for short periods.
A paved driveway provided a clean area for deliveries and the Mar Vista pickups. The project didn’t have the resort’s grand size or luxury, but it was attractive and functional.
“Hey, Zack.”
It was Jack Sawyer coming around the corner with his long lanky stride.
Instead of getting contractors, Zack had decided to use the Mar Vista maintenance staff to build the stand, making Jack the supervisor. In his off time, the man was a freelance contractor in Warrington, so it seemed a good way to demonstrate his intention to give the local employees advancement opportunities. Jack was a total professional, with a sense of humor that he’d let loose once he grew more comfortable around Zack; he had made more than one joke about Zack and Jack building a shack.
“You guys are doing a great job,” Zack said.
“Thanks. We’re all putting a token inside the walls. I’m putting in a stick.”
“A stick?”
“Sure. Sure, the stick that hit the cow that kicked the dog that chased the cat that ate the rat that chewed a hole in the house that Jack built.”
Zack grinned.
They discussed the flooring for the interior and decided on a quality laminate since it would be more durable and attractive than some of the alternatives. A low decking would provide the flooring for the outside sales and display area.
“We’re knocking off now,” Jack said at length. “But I’ll have the crew back early tomorrow. A few days should do it.”
“Terrific. I’ll let Ms. Conroe know.”
“She’s a nice lady. A shame some louse had to make things hard on her.”
Zack followed the truck back to Mar Vista. He stopped by the office to read a status report from Trudy and sign a few letters.
Jamie had insisted on providing dinner that night and was expecting him at nine. The later hour was her idea, not his; she’d probably decided it was a way to limit the time he spent at the house. It was so frustrating. He was certain Jamie still desired him, but she wouldn’t acknowledge it and kept pushing him away.
The extra hours did provide an opportunity to take a run on the ocean bluff. Now that he wasn’t spending every second trying to perform everyone else’s job, he could do some personal things. Sixty minutes later, he arrived back at the apartment and decided he’d have to get out more often. The adrenaline burn felt good.
In the parking lot, Zack did a double take—Kim and Brad were headed toward his car, hand in hand. Somehow he’d missed seeing Kim’s name on the reservations list. She looked as happy as he’d ever seen her and the pair kissed before Brad opened the passenger door. As Brad came around to the driver’s side, he spotted his brother; Zack grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
Feeling even better, Zack trotted up the stairs to his apartment. Somehow Kim and his brother had gone from nowhere to okay in nothing flat.
The phone rang and it was Gordon, asking if he really shouldn’t provide food for that night. To placate the generous chef, Zack suggested appetizers and a dessert; after all, if they didn’t eat them, Jamie could stick them in the refrigerator for another day. Gordon seemed pleased and Zack suspected he saw himself in the role of matchmaker, using food to smooth the road to romance.
Romance.
Brad and Kim finally had gotten it right and he had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before Kim was not only a friend, but a sister-in-law.
As for Jamie?
Zack’s mood sobered sharply. Years ago, Kim had broken up with him, saying she refused to come second to his ambition. As a brash college student, he’d dismissed her reasoning out of wounded ego—after all, what was wrong with ambition? But brutal honesty made him admit that she had come second...and not even a close second.
Was that the problem with Jamie? She’d seen him as a determined entrepreneur, attempting to have a woman thrown off her land because he didn’t like the appearance of her business. In the beginning, he’d used various business ploys on her to try to get control of the situation. Was it any wonder she hesitated to trust him?
He wanted her in a way that threatened to disable him whenever he thought of how she touched him in bed. More than that, he enjoyed simply being with her, and appreciated her humor, intelligence and insight.
Jamie deserved to come first and he had to decide whether he was ready for that kind of commitment...assuming she even wanted it from him.
In the meantime, he was determined to protect her while Tim Gardiner was on the loose. And tonight he had some other good news to share—Jamie would surely be pleased that Brad and Kim had finally gotten together.
* * *
JAMIE DECIDED HER pride had gotten the better of her. She’d insisted on preparing the evening meal as a move toward self-reliance or something—she was a little hazy as to the reason—so now she was stuck. Also, it was awfully domestic, cooking a meal for Zack Denning, a man she’d been trying to push away for more than a week.
Having him sleep on the couch every night was an exercise in torture. She’d never expected to like Zack, much less feel anything stronger for him. It would have been so much easier if he’d stayed a rude, arrogant jackass, demanding things he had no right to demand.
The doorbell rang and she glanced at the clock. Eight-thirty—he was early, as always, determined she wouldn’t be at the house alone after dark.
“Fantastic news,” he said as he came through the door.
“They caught Tim, so it’s all done?” she asked.
“Uh...no. But from what I saw in the parking lot a while ago, Kim and Brad have finally gotten together.”
“Really?” Pleased warmth flooded through her. Brad deserved to be happy, and Kim was a nice person, too. “You’re sure?”
“They were holding hands and kissing. That’s a good clue.”
Not that good a clue, she thought. She and Zack had done more than kiss or hold hands, and it hardly made them a couple. Nonetheless, it was a positive sign because Brad had been holding back.
She saw a Mar Vista bag in his hand. “I told you I’d fix dinner.”
He grimaced. “Gordon wanted to send something, so I suggested appetizers and dessert. You can put them in the fridge for your lunch tomorrow if they’re not needed.”
She shrugged. “We can have the appetizers now. The casserole has to be in the oven for another twenty minutes anyway.”
Gordon had sent some of her favorite spicy appetizers with a sweet peanut sauce. They reminded Jamie of something she’d eaten once at a Vietnamese restaurant.
“I kept it simple,” she said, when the buzzer went off. “A casserole and salad.” She wished Zack would show displeasure or disdain at the prospect of something so simple.
“Sounds great. Even Gordon admits he likes plain old mac and cheese instead of gourmet all the time.”
She’d fixed a rice-and-chicken casserole with a vegetable salad on the side. Zack stared at the salad in amazement. “How many vegetables did you put into that thing?”
“Fifteen. Three kinds of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, jicama, avocado, carrot, onion, kohlrabi, spinach, peas, beets and radicchio.”
“Is that fifteen? I lost count.”
“So did I. Maybe it’s fifteen, or maybe I miscounted. Oh, I forgot the radishes. And I should have asked if you liked beets. Some people despise them.”
“Not me. I’m a fan of most veggies, though I’ve never heard of kohl...what?”
“Kohlrabi. It’s just a fun crunchy vegetable. The farmers bring bits of stuff for me to try marketing, and once in a while I have leftovers. It’s fun to see how many veggies I can get into a salad or soup.”
“What’s your record?”
“Twenty-four. But at that rate, you don’t get much more than a few bites of each one.”
He seemed to enjoy the meal. Since she’d just planned to serve cookies and ice cream for dessert, she pulled the chocolate truffle cheesecake from the bag Gordon had sent.
“He likes to feed his friends,” Zack said.
It probably had been Gordon’s decision to send the f
ood, or at least quite a bit of it, but Zack had started the pattern. Even when he’d still been at odds with her, he’d brought food to the trailer. He didn’t have to; he could have eaten and then shown up.
After dinner, Zack put on a movie from her DVD collection and she left him to watch while she went to work in her studio. She wasn’t very effective, thinking more about Zack than anything else. He’d changed since she’d met him, or perhaps was showing another side of himself. The man who’d arrived at the fruit stand yelling that first day hadn’t seemed to be someone who could acknowledge mistakes or make compromises. Yet in the past two weeks, Zack had done both. And while it might have also been good business to go to the hospital, his concern for his injured employees had been genuine.
She picked up a sketch pad and doodled. Beyond everything else, Zack had proved to be a considerate and passionate lover, but great sex didn’t mean they had a future.
Tossing the sketch pad aside, she went to the window and stared out. The moon shone over the water beyond the salt marsh, turning the foam on the waves to silver. Granddad had lived alone in this house for many years, the surface of his life only gently ruffled by other people. The deep currents had been his memories of Leah and his art. It had seemed an uncomplicated life to Jamie, attractive after the messy end of her marriage. But was it realistic to think you could avoid complication? Was it truly desirable to be disconnected from people?
And why did it have to be Zack Denning who made her ask those questions? He’d been steadfast in wanting to protect her, but that could be a pride thing. It had certainly started that way, because of the suggestion that he or his resort employees were responsible for the vandalism, and it would have been hard for him to back out once it was clear someone else was to blame.
She went into the kitchen to make a pot of decaf coffee and took a cup into the living room. Zack had turned off the movie and was leafing through the newspaper, Marlin snoring beside him.
“Here,” she said. “I’m taking mine onto the back porch to look at the view.”
“Mind some company?”
Harlequin Superromance January 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Everywhere She GoesA Promise for the BabyThat Summer at the Shore Page 81