Blake joined him at the kitchen table. “I can’t believe we haven’t had the chance to do anything since I’ve been home. It’s like everything’s on fast forward. I’ve been working on these initial plans, and I have changes I think legitimately need to happen, but it’s throwing everything out of whack. I want to get my head around it before I present it to Chase and the team. Seanna and I are meeting with Sebastian for lunch to try to make sense of it. Have you ever worked with him on anything financial?”
“No. Should I?” Bo asked.
“Oh, yeah. I think he’s one of the smartest guys I’ve ever known.”
Bo would keep that info in his back pocket. He knocked twice on the table. “I’m gonna get out of your hair. I just wanted to say hi.” He stood up.
“No, man. Sit. I’ve got a minute. I’ve got all damn day if you need me. What’s going on?”
Bo stared at him and then reluctantly sat, feeling silly about coming to his doctor friend who was opening a new medical center about his girl troubles. “It’s not anything. I’m just…I don’t know.” He scratched his ear while heat crept up his neck.
“What is it?” Blake asked. “Everything okay with Shayla?”
“Yeah, she’s fine.”
“Will she still be here Saturday? I want us all to hook up before she goes back. Let’s get that on the calendar.”
Bo didn’t think he’d seen Blake talk this much since he’d known him. “I’ll get with her about a good time when she gets here. I just…I’ve been sort of seeing someone this week.”
A light bulb went off over Blake’s head. “That’s right. Chase mentioned you two went on a date with a couple of girls. Sebastian’s friends, right?”
“Yeah.”
Blake backhanded him. “That’s great. Tell me about her.”
Bo picked at the placemat in front of him. “Well, she’s from Indianapolis for starters.” Blake nodded, and Bo eyed him. “You know how I am about that.”
“Yeah, I know, but this is different.”
Bo frowned. “How do you know?”
“Because you’re sitting here telling me about her. That alone says that you’re into this girl more than I’ve seen you into anybody through the past few years.”
Bo looked down at the table. “That’s not totally off-base.”
“Have you slept with her yet?” Blake asked.
Bo met his gaze. “No, but I’ve spent time with her every day for the past four days. I just finished running with her. That’s why I stink so bad.”
“I’m used to your stench.” Blake grinned, and then his expression turned back serious. “What’s got you holding back?”
Bo looked around the room for his balls. “What’s the point?”
“Well, one point is to see how it goes, see if it’s more than just a passing attraction.”
“This is different. I’ve never felt like this after such a short time. I’m into her, man. She’s smart and successful, and she takes immaculate care of body, way better than I do. She’s confident, but there’s no bravado there. She’s the real deal. She makes me want to do better so I can impress her. She’s exactly what I’ve been bellyaching about wanting to find.”
Blake nodded, taking it all in.
“Doesn’t matter though. She’s headed out of town Saturday morning. She won’t even get to meet Shayla.” Bo picked up the tip of the placemat and dropped it back down.
“I’ve got an idea,” Blake said. “How about you take the pressure off. This is just a moment in time. It doesn’t have to hold the weight you’re giving it. Do you think she wants to have sex?”
“Yeah,” he said. “She called me out for wussing out on her about it.”
Blake sat back in his chair. “Then just go for it. Have fun. Don’t overthink it.”
Bo stared at the table, vaguely aware of some sort of complicated music in the background. “What are you listening to?”
Blake narrowed his gaze. “Have you dated anyone seriously since your ex?” he asked, ignoring Bo’s question.
Bo thought about it. Six years had passed since she’d walked out of his life. Surely there’d been someone he’d dated who he’d developed real feelings for. He scratched his head. “I’ve had some relationships since her.”
“Serious ones?”
He’d spent a few months hanging out with certain women, but those relationships had remained casual, until they hadn’t, at which point he would usually back out slowly. “Not particularly.”
“You a little nervous about stepping into something serious?” Blake held up a hand. “You’d have every right to feel that way after what she put you through.”
Bo didn’t want to think about that time in his life. “It’s not that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Maya’s going home Saturday. That’s the issue here.”
Blake lifted his eyebrows. “Is it?”
Bo pursed his lips at Blake, starting to get frustrated. “That’s not what this is about.”
“Okay,” Blake said. “Then just walk away.”
Bo felt himself recoil.
“Well, what’s the point?” Blake asked.
Bo narrowed his gaze. “Is this one of your Jedi mind tricks?”
“There’s ways to keep in touch with this girl when she leaves. We have these things called cell phones now.”
“It’s not the same as being with someone. I can’t move there. I’ve got my business. And she can’t move here, because she’s starting a new job. This is stupid we’re even talking about it.” He stood up again.
Blake leaned back in his seat. “It’s not stupid. It’s just complicated. Just relax into this for now. Deal with one day at a time. We’ll figure out the next steps later, okay?”
Bo eyed him. “Like you don’t have better things to do.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I owe you about ten grand in therapy bills from when you talked me through this same shit with Seanna.” He held up a hand. “Different circumstances, thank God, but you know what I mean.”
Bo smiled. “Yeah. I think it worked out okay for you though. Are we still all set for tomorrow?”
Blake waved him off. “Oh, no man. I’ll get Chase to come with me.”
“Hell no. I’m going with you. The time away will help me clear my head. We’ll be back Thursday, right?”
“Yeah. Of course,” Blake said.
“All right,” Bo said, clasping Blake’s shoulder. “Thanks, man.” He headed for the door.
“Oh, wait. I’ve got something for you.” Blake disappeared into his bedroom and came back out with a box. “For you. I don’t need them anymore.” He grinned like a kid on Christmas.
Bo held up the box of condoms. “Are they extra-large?”
“Of course they are,” Blake said. “Don’t get lost in them.”
Bo flipped him off and headed for his truck.
Chapter Ten
Maya sat out by Sebastian’s pool holding a novel. She’d tried to read the same page for the past twenty minutes, but she had zero focus. She finally gave up and lay back in the chaise, soaking the late afternoon sun into her skin. She took in the moment and the fact that she was on vacation. As her co-workers were wrapping up their days and fighting five o’clock traffic, she was poolside in one of the quaintest little beach towns she’d ever seen. All she was missing was someone to share the experience with.
Felicity was still out on the boat with Chase, and Sebastian had mysteriously left the house a half hour prior. He’d told them before they’d even arrived that he was going to be tied up on Tuesday night, but he wouldn’t say why or what he was doing. Maya suspected he had a date. He was so tight-lipped about his love life. He didn’t want anyone knowing a thing about any boy he was seeing until he was serious about them. Smart, but boring. Talking about your crush was half the fun of having one.
Thinking about crushes, hers would not get out of her head. He was the reason she couldn’t read her novel. Thoughts of his body,
his lips, his charm, filled her head and gave her a perm-a-smile.
Her phone chirped, and she was almost irritated by its interruption of her thoughts of him. She pulled it off of the table next to her and readied herself for a text from Felicity letting her know when she’d be home.
Her heart skipped two beats as his name appeared with a message.
Hey. I was just thinking about you. Are you being good this afternoon?
She bit her lip, her belly doing the shuffle.
I’ve got the place to myself. I’m getting ready to dance on the kitchen table with the lampshade on my head. Want to join me?
She took a long, deep breath, and waited for his response.
Really?
The perm-a-smile was now hurting her face.
Really. :)
I’ll see you in half an hour. Don’t get too crazy before I get there.
I’m out by the pool. I’ve got my bathing suit on.
Be there in fifteen minutes.
She grinned and scurried into the house and up to her room where she checked everything in the mirror. She wanted to look good but didn’t want to overdo it. She sprayed herself with coconut body spray and checked her hair and makeup, then went back down to the pool to impatiently await his arrival.
The groan of his engine moved closer until it cut off, making her heart flutter in her chest. She attempted to look cool and collected, nonchalant. Har har.
As the lock on the gate jingled, she casually flipped a page in her novel. He walked toward her sporting long, royal blue swim trunks with white trim and a plain white T-shirt. The man singlehandedly redefined the word blazing.
She pretended to finish a paragraph and set her bookmark in its place. “How are you?”
“I’m good. How’d you get the place to yourself?” He took the seat next to her and tossed his bag aside.
“Felicity’s out with your buddy again, and I think Sebastian’s on a date.”
“I heard Chase was taking Felicity on the boat today. We better keep our eye on them. They’re bound to wind up in Vegas or something.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about Felicity. She’s a serial soloist.”
“That’s right. I forgot about the comment about her feeling mummified.”
Maya shook her head. “That’s Felicity.”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “What about you? Do relationships make you feel good or like you’ve got on an itchy sweater?”
Her heart warmed at the idea of him asking. Not that she was reading anything into it. That’d be stupid. She adjusted herself on the chair. “I guess it depends on the guy. I’ve had two long-term relationships. Looking back now though, they seemed more like friendships with occasional sex.”
“You ever been engaged?”
She hesitated. “No.”
He flicked a bug off his knee. “You sure about that?”
“Well, with Al, my most recent ex, we always talked about it like it was inevitable. ‘We’ll go there for our honeymoon,’ or, ‘Let’s wait to get the king-sized bed when we buy a house once we’re married.’ But he never asked, and I never really wanted him to, honestly.”
“Why did you stay with him? Sex too good to leave?” he asked with a grin.
She got a chuckle just at the thought of that. “No. It was very scheduled. Saturday nights were date night, every week. We’d come home, pull the comforter back, get in, and go through the same routine. I timed it once. The whole production took five minutes and twenty-four seconds from start to finish.”
He frowned. “Damn. That’s harsh.”
She giggled. “I can’t believe I just told you that.” She met his curious gaze and wondered why she didn’t just keep her mouth shut more often. “What about you? Have you ever had five-minute sex?”
“Fuck no.”
She smiled, rolling her eyes. “Of course you haven’t.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She motioned at him. “Look at you. Of course you don’t have five-minute sex.”
A grin tugged at his lips. “What’s wrong with me?”
She gave him a look. “Don’t even try the coy thing with me, Bo.” He smiled in concession and gripped the bar above his head. She swore he did that to show off his muscles…like he needed to. “Tell me about your last relationship,” she said.
“Mmm,” he grunted, closing his eyes.
“I don’t suppose someone like you has relationships.”
He opened one eye. “Of course I do.”
“Long-term?”
He closed the eye again. “Not recently.”
“How come?” she asked, though she hated it when people asked her why she was still single. “Don’t answer that, actually.”
He turned to meet her gaze. “Why?”
“Because I hate it when people ask me that question, like the default is to be married and have kids, and if that’s not the path you chose, there must be some logical reason. How about it just never happened.”
“That was going to be my excuse.”
She studied him. “Would you ever want to be married?”
He dropped his arms down to his sides. “Yeah, actually I would.”
She could have been wiped away with a feather duster. “Really?”
“Yeah. Is that weird?”
She laughed. “It’s actually the opposite of weird. So now I really do want to know why you’re still single.”
“I thought you hated that question.”
“Yeah, but if you wanted to be married, you totally could be.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. I’m not married, am I?”
“No, but you’re…” She trailed off, realizing she was getting ready to have diarrhea of the mouth. “Never mind.”
He sat up. “I’m what?”
She swung her legs to the side of the chair. “Wanna get in?” She headed that way before he could protest.
She sat on the side of the pool, dangling her feet in. She heard the rapid footsteps behind her and ducked as he jumped in with a big splash. He emerged from the water with her ankles in his hands. He set each of them on his shoulders, and then wiped the water out of his eyes. He wrapped his arms around the bottoms of her legs and let her hold his weightless body. She lifted him up out of the water and dropped him back in, smiling.
He pushed away from her, and when she folded her legs down, he came back over and rested his chin on her knee. “I never got married because I never found the right girl.”
“Are you picky?” she asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s hard down here. The population of PCB is really small. All those people running around don’t actually live there. I feel like I’ve already dated most everyone who does.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “You get around, don’t you?”
He spread her legs open and moved in between them, firing up her core. Wrapping her legs around his back, she brought him closer to her.
“I’ve never dated anyone like you,” he said, his words taking her by surprise. That was her line.
“What do you mean, like me?”
He shrugged, floating away from her but hanging onto her knees. “Professional, really smart and driven, refined.”
This was how he saw her? She wished she had a pen so she could write down all the words he just used to describe her and analyze them later. Why was her phone so far away? She furrowed her brow. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t really mean any of that as a compliment. It’s just how I see you.”
She was really curious now. “What are the girls you usually date like?”
He shrugged. “Well, these are tourist towns we live in. The locals work food service and retail. I mean, I’ve dated plenty of smart women, and sweet women, sometimes both qualities at the same time. But I’m a pool guy. The classy ladies don’t usually want much from me past a fun night.” He squeezed her knees with a smile. “Is that all you want from me? Sex that lasts longer than five minutes?”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to this. From the second she saw him, she thought he naturally held all the cards because of how monstrously sexy he was, but for the first time this week, she realized she may be more in the driver’s seat than she had thought.
She always felt in control of the relationship when she dated the nerds back home, but she could take those guys or leave them. And there were plenty of them to choose from. She had a lot to offer a nerdy guy—good, stable job that paid well, her own house in a nice neighborhood, a trim body that she worked extremely hard to maintain. She never thought she was the prettiest girl in the room, but she always took very good care of herself, making sure all areas of her body that shouldn’t have hair didn’t, having her nails manicured weekly, keeping her hair trimmed every six weeks, and generally making herself presentable at all times.
She knew she had those superficial things to offer Bo for the week, but she didn’t have a big rack of boobs like that young girl who hopped in his lap at the bar that first night, and she didn’t have long, sexy, beach hair. Her hair was way too baby fine for that. She guessed she hadn’t thought about what she had to offer him, but he’d just made her feel like she had more than she realized.
She hopped down in the pool with him, but once she got there, she lost her nerve. Should she tell him that he was the most interesting man she’d met, and she wanted way more with him than sex, even if just in theory? And was that what she wanted?
He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she rested her hands around his shoulders. “You’re a pool-cleaning business owner. Don’t sell yourself short.”
He cupped her behind and hiked her up onto his waist. “What are you down here looking for, darlin’?” he asked, his voice low like a growl.
She hadn’t been looking for anything but a week of catching up with Sebastian and Felicity until she met him. Her boss had made her take this vacation. When he’d offered her the job, he’d disclosed how much extra pressure would come with the VP title, and that’d been just fine with her. Work was her life. She’d been ready to jump in right then, but he’d insisted she take a break and get rejuvenated to avoid burnout. Yet he continued to call, but that was beside the point.
Seacrest Sunsets (Love Along Hwy 30A Book 2) Page 10