Hot Summer Fling

by Parker, Ali

  The first thing I’d done after putting the phone down with that board member after the robbery was to ensure that the employees who had been witnesses to the robbery had the proper support. It was the absolute first thing I would have done had I not needed to take that phone call.

  They’d gotten some time off, but I’d also made sure that they would get time off to go to counseling, if it was necessary, and set up a whole host of other support initiatives.

  Elliot rocked his head from side to side, shrugging and lifting one broad shoulder. “Some are okay, some aren’t. It was traumatic to be caught up in it, but no one got hurt. They’ll all recover soon enough, I’m sure. Nobody has quit, so that’s a good sign.”

  “I agree.” I followed Elliot’s gaze to the horizon, releasing a contented breath just from sitting out there in the sunshine and breathing in the fresh air. There was nothing that refreshed my soul more than having my feet in the sand and a beer in my hand.

  Elliot must have heard some happy noise I made because he slowly turned his attention back on me. “What are you going to do now? Did you find what you were looking for in terms of future security, or are you hanging around for a while?”

  “Honestly? I think I just decided that I’m going to hang out in Florida for a bit. I need some time away from the central office and I have a nice house here to stay in. It’s relaxing here. I can’t even remember when the last time was that I actually went to the beach.”

  “What, all the beaches in Boston closed?” A small smile kicked up the corners of his lips. “Although to be fair, our beaches kick your beaches’ asses.”

  I threw my head back and laughed, holding up my hands with my palms out. “You know what? I’m not even going to argue with you right now. Someday soon, yes. For now, you can have it. For the record, they’re not closed. I just haven’t had time.”

  “I hear you.” Elliot took a sip of his beer. “If you’re hanging around, we should get together sometime. Anna and the kids would love to see you too.”

  “Sure.” I wasn’t much of a kid person, but Elliot’s twins were pretty fun. “I’d enjoy some company while I’m here. Lord knows I don’t get enough time for that back home either.”

  Chapter 4

  Valerie

  “Being pregnant sucks.” Heidi’s declaration rung out in the quiet living area of our house and was followed shortly with the front door slamming. “I’m not even that far along and I can’t breathe properly. Just the walk from work and I’m out of breath.”

  I looked up from the latest copy of NY Arts magazine I had been reading while waiting for my friends to finish their shift. “You should get Will to carry you home next time.”

  “No way.” Heidi came into view after turning the corner from the entrance hall, immediately flopping onto the couch across from me. “Can you imagine what I’d look like if I was growing a baby, got no exercise, and kept eating all the gummy sweets the baby wants me to eat?”

  Olive rolled her eyes, smiling as she crossed into the kitchen. “The gummy sweets the baby wants you to eat, huh? How does the baby know it wants gummy sweets?”

  Heidi shrugged, winking at me playfully—which was acceptable, unlike the corny wink from those guys the other day—and glared at Olive. “How should I know? He just puts in his order to womb service and I have to deliver.”

  “Womb service?” I asked, trying to decide if it was horrible or hysterical. “Is that a dad joke? Already?”

  Heidi’s cheeks grew pink, which was happening so much more often now that she was pregnant. It was adorable. “Will’s dad joke game is way too strong. It’s rubbing off on me.”

  “Will Campton, tattooed bad boy with the questionable past has dad joke game?” Olive asked, sounding as surprised as I was. Her eyebrows rose and she took a break from preparing last night’s leftovers for an early lunch to stare at Heidi.

  “He does not have a questionable…” She trailed off, then grinned and rested her head on the back of the couch. “Oh, fuck it. Yes, Will Campton with the tattoos and the questionable past has a dad joke game, okay?”

  “Okay,” Olive said from the kitchen, catching my eye as she carried our lunch into the room. I shrugged in response to her silent question and shook my head. I also still didn’t know exactly what Will had done in the past that made it questionable, but we’d deduced from what Heidi had told us that it wasn’t pretty.

  We were both dying to know, but we also knew she would never betray his trust that way. Before I could give in to the temptation to start asking more questions about him, I took the first few bites of my food while Heidi and Olive launched into a conversation about how Heidi was adjusting to being pregnant.

  “Are you used to the idea that you have an actual little person growing inside you yet?” Olive asked between bites of her mac and cheese, which she’d loaded with veggies for the sake of the baby. “Also, have you decided on a name?”

  Heidi laughed, her hand absently falling to her belly. I’d noticed her doing it more and more often since she’d found out she was pregnant. “I absolutely have not gotten used to the idea that the little alien invader who’s hijacked my body is going to be a person yet, no. I’m not sure I ever will. As for the name, I don’t know. We’re playing around with a few ideas.”

  “I’m just saying, Valerie spelled with a y, instead of the way I do, is used in certain European countries as a masculine name.”

  “I still like Oliver,” Olive said, sticking her tongue out at me. “Oliver is an awesome boy’s name that’s used right here in the United States. No need to travel all the way to Europe for it to be heard.”

  Heidi glanced between us with a soft, serene smile on her face that I swore I hadn’t known existed before she fell pregnant. It was a mindfuck, finding out so many new things about a person you’d known that long just because they’d conceived.

  “How about you both use those names for you own boys one day?” she suggested, cocking an eyebrow and meeting both of our gazes.

  Olive shrugged. “Maybe I will, but that’s still a long way off for me. I could have Oliver the Second to your Oliver the First.”

  “I’m never using that name or any other.” I also knew that I would never be having a conversation about how I was adjusting to pregnancy or what my baby’s name would be. “I’m never having kids.”

  My friends weren’t surprised by that statement, having heard it from me so many times before. Olive shook her head in exasperation while Heidi crossed her arms above her little bump and shot me a disapproving look.

  “Never say never, Val.” Heidi just about sang. “If you do, you’re basically signing on the dotted line to be the next one seeing those two lines popping up on a stick. Trust me, don’t tempt fate. It’s got an interesting sense of humor.”

  “I’m not tempting it,” I argued, but I also sent out a heartfelt mental apology to karma just in case she got the idea to be a bitch with me. “All I’m saying is that I don’t want kids, marriage, or any of that. I don’t understand why any woman would want to change her life for a guy. Take you and Will for example, you’re not even married and he’s expecting you to move in with him and all this stuff.”

  “I want to move in with him.” Heidi’s gaze softened as it rested on mine. “He’s not expecting anything from me, babe. Everything I’m doing, I’ve agreed to doing because I want to do it.”

  “You wouldn’t have had to agree to anything at all if he wasn’t in your life.” I knew that I was being stubborn, but I honestly couldn’t understand when Heidi had gone from living life for the minute you were in it, to someone who was planning forever with one person. “Think about it, before Will was around, you never even thought about the future. Now you’re practically living for a baby who won’t even be arriving for months.”

  “You’ll see, one day you’ll feel and do exactly the same as I do now.” Heidi’s serene smile was back, and it was even infecting Olive sitting beside her. “I’m willing to bet on it.”


  “Get ready to lose your money then.” I folded my arms loosely, sitting up straight on the couch and lifting my chin. “If I have a say, it’s not happening.”

  “You don’t always get a say,” Olive added helpfully, her gaze sliding to Heidi’s. “Look at Ms. Mommy-to-be here. She’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her, and a few months ago, she couldn’t even say the word ‘pregnant.’”

  Heidi’s laughter peeled out of her, but she shrugged and nodded her agreement. “You’re so right. I even looked up random terms for it on the internet so I wouldn’t have to use that word. Did you know that ‘the rabbit died,’ being ‘in the pudding club,’ and that ‘the tin roof has rusted’ are all actual slang terms people use?”

  “Are you serious?” Olive’s blue eyes were wide while Heidi’s green ones sparkled when she nodded and launched into more ridiculous things about pregnancy she’d found out in the last couple of months.

  After we were done eating and had washed up, Heidi came to stand next to me at the sink and bumped her hip into mine. “Olive’s gone to run some errands. Want to go for a walk on the beach with me?”

  “Are you sure you should be walking again?” I looked at her from the corner of my eye, quickly stacking the last of the dishes. “You said it made you out of breath earlier.”

  “It did, but it’s also really good for me. What do you say?”

  “Sure, I’ll walk with you.” If it was good for her and the baby, who was I to say no? “Do you wanna go right now?”

  “If you’ve got time, why not?”

  “My shift isn’t for another hour, so I’ve got time. Let’s go.” Heidi and I walked out onto the beach, linking our arms together when we hit the shoreline. Our bare feet dug into the damp sand, the breeze making me grateful that both of us had our hair pulled back.

  “Were you serious about all those things you said while we were eating?” Heidi asked after we’d walked in companionable silence for a few minutes. “About not wanting kids and not wanting to change for a guy?”

  My head bobbed up and down. “Absolutely serious. I mean, I’m really happy for you, but that life just isn’t for me.”

  “How do you know?” Her question wasn’t defensive or argumentative, she sincerely wanted to know the answer. “I didn’t think it would be for me either. If you want to know the truth, I’m still terrified of it all.”

  “Why do it then? Why not just stay at the house with us and let Will see the baby whenever?”

  She smiled, her gaze far away as she stared at the middle distance for a beat before replying. “I’ve finally found something in my life worth living for, worth planning for. It’s terrifying, but it’s also amazing. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.”

  “I’m glad you’ve found your something,” I told her earnestly. “I don’t think it’ll be the same thing for me, though. I’m okay with being the crazy aunt.”

  “You’ll find your something too,” she said before changing the topic into something lighter. For the rest of the walk, we talked about how Will made her laugh while they were busy with the nursery, with work, and with just about everything else.

  “It’s been too long since we’ve had time to talk like this,” I said once we got back to the house.

  “I know, we’ve all been really busy.” While we tried our best to pick up the same shifts at work, it wasn’t always possible.

  With Heidi spending most of her free time with Will, my curiosity about our new city driving me to explore it, and Olive doing whatever it was she did, we hadn’t been spending as much time together as we had been used to doing.

  “Yeah, I know.” I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big hug, feeling the unfamiliar bump pressing against my stomach. Somehow, I already loved the inhabitant of that bump. I might not have wanted kids of my own, but I was going to be the best aunt to the baby Heidi was carrying. “You headed back to Will’s now?”

  She nodded. “I’d better. If I don’t, the nursery might end up looking like a Smurf vomited all over it. Will would use all of the blue paint we bought, even the spare containers.”

  “Okay.” I stepped away from her, feeling a smile curving my lips. “Better go save our baby from having to live in Smurf sick. You’ll let me know if I can help with anything, right?”

  “Of course, but the same thing goes for you.” She gave me a meaningful look, green eyes burning into mine. “If there’s anything you need or need to talk about, you’ll remember that I’m right down the road?”

  “Yeah, I’ll remember.” After another hug, I smiled as I watched Heidi walk down the beach in the opposite direction we’d come from.

  Regardless of my own views on what was going on in her life, she was genuinely happy. My idea of what brought happiness to life didn’t have to match hers. All that mattered was that she and I could appreciate each other’s happiness in whatever way we found it.

  Chapter 5

  Fulton

  People swarmed around me. Families with children running and laughing along the pier and on the beach. College students who came to the boardwalk to eat, drink, and be merry. Adults who were just walking, or talking on their phones, or sitting in restaurants with others.

  All of those people were living their lives seemingly without a thought about working. It was just before noon, and yet there they all were. None of them appeared to be rushed to get back to an office.

  That had been me once, too, but that part of my life was over. I longed for it sometimes, to be carefree and living only to do what I wanted when I wanted to do it. Nowadays, life was passing me by while I sat in meetings or behind closed doors in my office.

  I knew it was happening, but I couldn’t stop it. As clichéd as it sounded, I was all work and no play. When I had taken over after my father, I had known the sacrifices I would have to make, and I gladly accepted them.

  I loved the company, loved the work. There was a reason why I was a workaholic, and it was because I fucking loved what I did. Nothing else made me feel the same way, gave me the same rush or sense of accomplishment as my work did.

  Sometimes, though, I wondered what my life would look like if I turned over the reins to someone else and took on a more passive role in the company. There were plenty of people working for me who were qualified to lead, and most of them would jump at the opportunity if it ever presented itself.

  It had been so long since I’d even had the time to think about it that I hadn’t really considered it seriously. Watching all these people around me as I walked along the boardwalk, I couldn’t deny that I wanted what they had.

  The company had become my life. I had thought I was okay with that, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. For fuck’s sake, my assistant and the Tampa branch manager had somehow become the only people who really knew me. I was only twenty-nine, when the hell had I become that guy who lived to work and not to make a living?

  People who used to be my friends were now acquaintances. I couldn’t say what the first thing currently happening in any of their lives. I didn’t even have time to catch up with people on social media, I was that kind of obsessed with my work.

  Hooking my thumbs in the pockets of my jeans—because I could wear something other than suits while I was here—I kept people watching and walking until I realized I was starving. All around me there were restaurants and food trucks, so it would be easy enough to remedy.

  The thought of sitting down for lunch alone was suddenly depressing, though, but the only person I knew around here was at work, and I doubted Elliot would take another afternoon off to eat with me.

  Resigned to eating lunch alone, I kept walking down the beach to find somewhere that looked good. A little restaurant ways down from the main area caught my eye. It had a deck outside and blue shutters in the windows.

  It was also quieter than most of the other places, which appealed to me. The restaurants on the pier were all bursting at the seams with patrons, but I wasn’t in the mood for that.

  A
little bell above the door jingled when I walked in, finding a neat dining area with round tables and a bar off to one side. The air inside smelled aromatic, like spices and slow roasts. My mouth started watering. Yep, definitely made the right decision.

  There was no one around waiting to seat customers, so I chose my own table near the window. A teenage couple strolled past the restaurant hand in hand, staring dreamily into each other’s eyes. I nearly rolled my own. I remembered that phase, the one where a guy believed the girl he was dating in high school was going to be his forever.

  I supposed there were a few couples who met in high school and really did end up being together forever, but the vast majority of teenage relationships didn’t last until the end of the next week. Wonder how long those two are going to last.

  Having noticed the teenage couple, I looked around the restaurant and realized that out of the customers in the restaurant, I was one of the only ones who wasn’t part of a couple. There was a group of four guys in the far corner, and an elderly woman sitting out on the deck by herself, but everyone else was coupled up.

  The couple sitting at the table behind me were arguing about something. I didn’t really want to eavesdrop, but when the woman’s voice rose, I couldn’t help but overhear what they were arguing about.

  “I don’t care how much networking you do on the golf course, it’s too expensive.” A glass, I was assuming hers, hit their table with a low thud when she put it down. “You’ve spent so much time networking, but you haven’t actually gotten any work from those people, Greg.”

  “If I stop now, then it will all have been for nothing,” the guy, Greg, replied. His voice was also louder now than it had been. “We’re not in that deep yet. I can get us out of this. One deal is all I need.”