Oh, how tragic for both of them. Jess fought the urge to press a hand to the sudden ache in her chest. Killed in action. She had lost friends of her own while she was deployed but it wasn’t like losing a spouse.
“Maybe living through that kind of tragedy is what has made Nate such a great guy. You won’t find anybody better. He’s considered quite the catch around town, though he’s really good at slipping through the net. If he dates anybody seriously, he doesn’t do it here in town. At least not that I’ve heard.”
“I’m not sure why you think I need to know this,” Jess said stiffly.
Rachel shrugged as she pulled up next to Jess’s Airstream. “I just figured you’re working with his mom and he lives close to Eleanor. It never hurts to have some backstory.”
Her sister was dead wrong. Jess didn’t want backstory. What was the point, when she was leaving in a few weeks anyway? It was far easier to keep her guard up against him when she didn’t know that kind of thing.
“Thanks again for dinner,” Rachel said when Jess opened the door. “I’ll be in touch about next week.”
“I’m planning on staying with the girls,” she said firmly. “I’ll talk to Eleanor about it tomorrow. Cody really does need to go to the appointment with you and Silas.”
“I’ll see what his plans are. Regardless, it means a lot to me that you even offered. Bye, Jess.”
Rachel looked as if she wanted to climb out and hug her. To Jess’s vast relief, she didn’t. She just smiled and waved then backed out of the driveway and headed away.
11
Nate
Some mornings just called for catching a few waves, even when he didn’t really have time for this.
The sun wasn’t quite up when Nate carried his board toward the trail down to the cove. Cinder came with him, barely visible in the gray predawn light.
As he passed the little Airstream, he saw a light glowing inside through the curtains but he couldn’t glimpse any sign of movement inside.
He hadn’t seen Jess Clayton in several days. He hadn’t been looking, exactly, or at least that’s what he told himself. Still, he was sorry their paths hadn’t crossed.
The past several days had been crazy. His company had won the bid to build a new municipal library in Cape Sanctuary and bringing the project in under deadline was taking every available spare second.
Twice, Sophie had stayed overnight with Eleanor because Nate knew it would be past midnight when he returned and he didn’t like the idea of her staying at home by herself.
She didn’t particularly agree. She thought thirteen years old was plenty mature enough to spend much of the night alone and that he was treating her like a child by making her stay with her grandmother.
Too bad. He was the parent and still got to make the rules.
Between the stress of the construction job and the angst of dealing with a moody teenage daughter, Nate needed an outlet. Surfing had always soothed the restlessness. The ocean calmed him.
He would be working late again that day. This might be his only purely self-indulgent interlude all month. He might as well enjoy the hell out of it.
A few hardy birds twittered in the coastal pine and manzanita as he started down the path.
Th sun came up above the mountains to the east just as he reached the shore.
Conditions were perfect, the waves easy and comfortable. He knew the break here as well as he knew his own face when he shaved.
He spent more time sitting on his board than chasing any huge curl, letting the waves rock him gently as he enjoyed the breaking day.
He loved the mornings when Sophie came with him. She was a good surfer, agile and unafraid. He had undoubtedly failed in many ways as a single father but Nate was proud that he had given her a love for the sea.
He had knocked on her bedroom door to ask if she wanted to join him that morning but she had only grunted a negative response.
Ah well. He had Cinder, at least. She swam beside him in her life jacket, gleeful to play in the waves like a sea otter.
Just as he was about to get out, he saw someone walking down the path. Maybe Sophie had decided to catch a few waves before school.
No. It was definitely a female but not Sophie. This person didn’t have a board, for one thing. For another, she had short honey-streaked hair that gleamed in the morning sunlight.
Jess.
His heart pounded in a ridiculous way that annoyed him.
Cinder spotted her at the same moment and gave a bark of greeting before dog-paddling toward shore.
Nate watched as Jess greeted the dog with the delighted, generous affection he had only seen her give Eleanor and Sophie so far.
Why not him?
Oh, for crying out loud. Was he actually jealous of his dog?
Maybe.
He sighed, torn between talking to her again and staying out here in the water where he didn’t run the risk of behaving like an idiot around her again.
He finally decided the benefits of talking to her outweighed the risks, and paddled the short distance toward shallow water where he could stand and walk out with his board.
“I saw someone surfing but didn’t realize it was you until I reached the sand and saw Cinder,” she said, approaching him as he toweled off. “You don’t have to stop on my account.”
He shrugged. “I was done anyway. I didn’t have a lot of time this morning but the wave report was good so I didn’t want to miss it.”
“I wanted to beachcomb a bit, maybe see if I could find some sea glass for Sophie. The ocean is hard to resist in the morning.”
This made him smile. “Agreed. Why do you think I’m here, even though I don’t really have the time for it?”
“Well, I’m sorry to invade your solitude.”
“You didn’t. The beach is certainly big enough for both of us.”
It wasn’t precisely true. When she smiled like that, an aching hunger started in his gut and spread quickly. She crowded into his mental space and he didn’t know what to do about it.
“How are things going at the house? I haven’t seen you for a few days. My mom is pretty closemouthed.”
“We’re making progress, I think. Slow but steady.”
“That’s good. When she asked me to go through my dad’s things a few months ago to take out what I wanted to keep, I struggled to decide. Culling is hard work. I was exhausted after only a few hours.”
She laughed, a pure, lovely sound that slid over his skin like silky warm water.
“That’s why people pay me the big money, so I can help them make those hard decisions. I usually tell people to keep in mind that most of their memories of a loved one are already stored in their heart. They’re not tied to material things. Sometimes the clutter of those material things actually detracts from the memories and the joy.”
Cinder snuggled up close to her and she petted the dog absently, gazing out to sea as the sunrise painted the waves a soft lavender.
His dog was a pretty good judge of character and obviously already adored Jess. So did his mother and Sophie.
He sat beside her on the bench, unable to resist stealing a few moments with a beautiful woman as day stole over the ocean.
“What room are you working on today?”
“The plan is to start in the hall closet and then start sorting through the books in your father’s office.”
“Good luck. Dad was definitely a bibliophile. My dad never met a bookstore he didn’t like and was on a first-name basis with all the librarians in town. That gene skipped me but Sophie is the same way. She loves to read.”
He did read, but usually nonfiction or long-form news articles. He had always wished he shared that passion with his father, that they could talk about literature and poetry and the other things that had interested Jack Whitaker.
“I
wish I’d had the chance to know your father. He seems like he was a great guy.”
“He left quite a legacy. Sometimes I think half my customers only accept my bid on a project because of my father’s reputation around here.”
“That must be nice,” she said, with a wistful smile that made him wonder about her own family background.
Violently, she had answered when he had asked how her parents had died. He had so many questions but didn’t think she would answer them.
“We’ll be wrapping things up early today as I offered to stay with my nieces. Silas, Rachel’s youngest, has a doctor appointment with a specialist early in the morning so Rachel and Cody are staying the night so they don’t have to leave as early.”
“Nice of you to step up.”
“I don’t know about that. I should have suggested that Cody’s mom or sister could take the girls. I have no idea what I was thinking.”
Her sudden panic at the idea of caring for her nieces made him smile, but he quickly hid it.
“Relax. They’ll love spending time with their aunt. As long as you remember to feed them and don’t let them play with rusty nails, you’ll be fine.”
“Those are your parenting tips? Don’t let them play with rusty nails and remember to feed them?”
He shrugged. “Those are the basics.”
“Easy for you to say. You’ve made it through thirteen years with Sophie.”
“I panicked at first, too. Neither her mother nor I had the first idea how to raise a kid. The first few months were like being thrown into deep water without any idea how to swim. And then Michelle was deployed when Sophie was barely three months old, leaving me paddling all by myself.”
As soon as the words were out, hanging in the morning air between them, Nate wished he could swallow them back.
He didn’t know why he had. Maybe it was the quiet peace of the morning that invited confidences.
“So young! That must have been so hard on all of you.”
An understatement. If Michelle’s unit hadn’t been deployed or if she had applied to defer, maybe they could have worked out their issues. But she had been a decorated officer, on the fast track to becoming a colonel at the very least and had worried that deferring would sidetrack that advancement.
His goal had been to become a ranger and he had started the process of applying, but he had quickly realized after Sophie came along that they couldn’t both pursue demanding military careers, even with good childcare.
When Michelle had been deployed, Nate realized he had to get out of the military and find something with more flexibility that would allow at least one of them to be the parent their baby needed. He had been making progress toward that goal when Michelle had been killed.
“Rachel told me your wife died overseas.”
He nodded. Thinking about it still hurt but mostly for Sophie’s sake.
“The irony is she was on the relative safety of base when someone she had trained, someone she considered a loyal asset, went rogue. Four soldiers were killed, including Michelle. I like to think she slowed the guy down long enough that others could stop him.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He had grieved for the woman he loved and for the future he had once hoped they could build together. “Thank you. It was twelve years ago. Sophie wasn’t even a year when it happened and we already had moved back here to Cape Sanctuary so my parents could help me with her. She doesn’t have any memories of Michelle, other than what my parents and I have told her. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”
“It’s hard losing a parent, no matter your age or circumstances.”
Violently.
He couldn’t seem to get that word out of his head. How had her parents died?
“Anyway, enough about me. We were talking about you watching your nieces. You’ll be fine. It’s only one night and they’re both old enough to tell you how their mom does things.”
“I’m not sure that will be a good thing. I’m not anything like the amazing Rachel McBride.”
“Just be yourself, Auntie Jess. I’m sure you’ll all have a great time.”
Her smile warmed him through the layers of his wet suit. “Thank you.”
He wanted to kiss her.
The urge had hit him hard the other night but he had pushed it away. Now, in the fledgling morning light, the hunger was almost overpowering.
Almost.
“I should probably head up and start the day,” he said, jumping to his feet and grabbing his board.
“Same here.”
They walked together up the path with Cinder in the lead, racing ahead to explore something on the path and then returning for validation and affection.
“Would you like some breakfast?” Jess surprised him by asking when they reached her trailer. “I bought some fresh eggs at a roadside stand yesterday and have some veggies in the refrigerator. I could make a quick omelet.”
“Sounds great but I better not. I need to get Sophie off to school. Thanks, though.”
“Another time, then.”
He liked that idea, of meeting her again down by the ocean and spending the morning together. Better yet, maybe they could spend the night together and could share breakfast the next morning...
No. She was leaving soon. He had to put that idea right out of his head.
“Good luck with everything on your plate today,” she said.
She smiled again, eyes warm. She looked so lovely in the pure May morning that he couldn’t seem to look away. Their gazes met and he saw something in her eyes, an answering heat that made him instantly aroused.
Walk away, a voice inside him cautioned. Just grab your board and head home.
He ignored it. He had no choice, did he? He set his board against her trailer and took a step forward.
To his shock, she met him halfway, her mouth warm in the cool morning air. She tasted of mint and coffee and he couldn’t seem to get enough.
On some level, he was cognizant enough to know his wet suit would be cold, uncomfortable, so he purposely only touched her with his mouth.
It was enough.
Heat sparked between them, taking away any chill from the morning.
He had always thought surfing a few waves as the sun climbed the mountains was the best way to start the day. He was now prepared to reevaluate that. Kissing Jess Clayton, her mouth soft and willing beneath his, beat paddling in cold water any day of the week.
12
Jess
She had never wanted a single thing in her life more than she wanted in that second to drag Nate Whitaker into her Airstream, strip off his glossy black wet suit and spend an entire week exploring all those luscious muscles.
What was wrong with her?
This wasn’t the kind of thing she did, kissing a man she barely knew.
The morning beside the sea had been magical, just the two of them alone with the waves and the sky. Even before she had known the early-morning surfer had been Nate, she had loved watching him choose his break and then ride it to shore with effortless ease.
And then they had sat together on Eleanor’s bench, as they had that night the previous week, and talked with the same kind of comfortable affinity.
What was it about the cove that created this sense of intimacy?
So much for all her protestations to herself that she didn’t become personally involved with her clients or their families. She couldn’t get much more involved than tangling tongues with Eleanor’s entirely too appealing son.
As his mouth explored hers, touching only there, hunger seemed to build between them. What would be the harm in dragging him inside?
She knew the answer to her own question. She didn’t do quick and casual flings and that’s all she could have with Nate, no matter how delicious she might find him.
&
nbsp; She had to stop this. It couldn’t go anywhere.
She was trying to find the strength of will when Cinder suddenly barked nearby.
Nate lifted his head and she saw a dazed sort of arousal there, which she found immensely gratifying, even though she knew she shouldn’t.
“What is it?”
“Squirrel, I think.”
She let out a shaky laugh. “Just as well.”
He sighed, raking a hand through his still-damp hair. “Yeah. You’re probably right. I don’t quite know what happened there.”
“One minute we were talking about omelets, the next you were kissing me.”
“Breakfast doesn’t usually turn me into a rampaging beast but I guess there’s a first time for everything. I’m sorry.”
She had wanted the kiss as much as he did. Maybe more. “It’s no big deal, Nate. Really. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I don’t like to make assumptions. I’m a big believer in asking a woman before I kiss her.”
“I wanted you to kiss me,” she admitted. “I probably would have kissed you if you hadn’t started it first. Now we have it out of our systems and can forget it ever happened.”
“Can we?” He raised an eyebrow, hair tousled and morning stubble on his jawline, and it was all she could do not to go for another round. “I’m not sure it will be that easy.”
“Well, we can try, anyway.”
He smiled suddenly, his eyes warm and still aroused.
“I’m not looking for an affair, Nate,” she said, though she wasn’t sure if she was trying to warn him or remind herself. “It complicates everything, especially when I’m leaving as soon as the job is done.”
“Fair enough. I don’t disagree. I’m not looking for one either. Especially not with my impressionable teenage daughter sleeping a few hundred feet away.”
The Path to Sunshine Cove Page 11