Boyfriend By Mistake

by Elana Johnson

  Chapter Seven

  Alissa enjoyed her time on Big Blue the following morning. She loved the way the water talked to the boat and the big catch she was able to bring in. Gwen grinned at her in the restaurant, and she didn’t even mind the morning meeting they had to remind everyone about the picnic that afternoon.

  Another of Carter’s Cove’s traditions, Picnic Day actually took place on the beach—which happened to be right out the back doors of The Heartwood Inn. They’d have all their sea kayaks, surfboards, and wakeboards out for rent, along with beach umbrellas and chairs.

  The beach would be filled with people from noon on, and Alissa wanted to get in the bakery and get her treats made so she could text Shawn and arrange to meet him. The very fact that he was there, inside her mind, ready to be seen again, frustrated and excited her at the same time.

  “We sponsor this event,” Gwen said, as if the restaurant staff didn’t know. “So we’ll have our potato skins on special all afternoon. Five dollars, and I need four extra people on apps this afternoon.” She called names while Alissa flipped her phone over and over, trying to decide how she felt about Shawn.

  He’d backed way off about buying Heartwood, but she wondered if that would last. He still had his real estate development job, and he wouldn’t just give it up. Not only that, but he’d spoken true. It wasn’t his firm out of Miami, which meant he had a boss to report to. Would that boss really just take no for an answer? Who would he send next?

  “Liss, can we also offer something from the bakery?” Gwen asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” she said, tuning in quickly. “Why don’t we do a special? Get people into the bakery. Cupcakes at buy one, get one half off?” She could make a lot of cupcakes. “Reduce our inventory of other items and focus on those. Cupcakes are very picnic and beach friendly.”

  “I like it,” Gwen said, and Alissa nodded, her workload shifting away from kneading and rising to baking and frosting.

  The meeting broke up, and Gwen grabbed her arm. “Who was that guy you went to the food festival with yesterday?”

  “The one Olympia wants me to keep occupied until he leaves town,” she said. That much was true. No one had to know how much she was enjoying herself by keeping Shawn occupied.

  “He looked familiar.”

  “He’s a Newman,” Alissa said, wondering if Gwen would remember that Alissa had actually dated Shawn. She was five years younger than Alissa, and twelve-year-olds didn’t really care who their older sister went out with. Gwen had just wanted Alissa to get out of the bathroom faster and stay out of her bedroom.

  “Oh, right,” Gwen said, but Alissa could tell the name didn’t mean much to her.

  “Darryl’s your age,” Alissa said.

  “Oh, duh. Darryl Newman.” Her face lit up with recognition. Someone called her name in the next moment, and Alissa felt like she’d dodged a bullet.

  She tied her apron around her waist and got mixing up cake batter in droves. With the huge trays and industrial ovens, she’d made a thousand cupcakes by lunchtime, as well as a few other things to stock the bakery cases for the day.

  When she finally pushed out of the kitchen and into the sunlight, her fingers felt like she’d been squeezing a stress ball for hours. She flexed them as her eyes adjusted to the brighter light out here.

  “Hey,” a man said, and she jumped away from the voice, her fight reflexes kicking into gear.

  “Whoa, it’s me,” he said, and the voice finally registered in her head.

  “Shawn?” She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. It was Shawn, and he wore the same pair of blue board shorts, this time with a yellow T-shirt. “What are you doing back here?”

  “Got lost,” he said, though she didn’t really believe him. “It was a mistake.” He brushed her hand with his as he passed her. “Oops. That was too.” He grinned at her and kept moving through the small parking lot here, stepping onto the sand a moment later.

  Alissa watched him, sure she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life by following him. But riding that motorcycle with him had been the most amazing thrill of her year, and that was simply pathetic.

  “Are you going to Picnic Day today?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said over his shoulder. “Are you?”

  “I was thinking about it.”

  “Maybe we’ll bump into one another on accident,” he said, and she decided to let him go. Everything he’d said had been cryptic, but loud and clear at the same time.

  She’d bumped into him yesterday and called it a mistake. He’d just waited outside the kitchen entrance for who knows how long. That wasn’t a mistake. Neither was his hand touching hers. And them running into each other later would definitely not be a mistake.

  In fact, Alissa was going to make sure she “ran into him” on the beach. She smiled as she started toward home, ready for a shower and to get something to eat that wasn’t composed of mostly sugar.

  By the time she left the house again, she wore a bright blue bikini beneath a white coverup, a pair of flip flops that weren’t functional but were definitely flirty, and a big, beach hat that the wind tried to steal right off her head.

  She’d left Dodger and Pirate in the house, but she carried an oversized beach bag on her shoulder. Towels, check. Sunscreen, check. Snacks, check.

  Now all she needed to do was find Shawn. He hadn’t texted or called, and she hadn’t ever spent this particular day with him. They’d started dating at the motorcycle parade, and that was still eight days away.

  Bodies and brightly colored umbrellas already filled the beach in front of her, and for a moment, she considered just doing straight down to the shore she owned. No one would pass the orange cones, as that marked the Heartwood private property, and while tourists could sometimes be rude, they respected the boundaries ninety-nine percent of the time.

  She paused on her front porch, the scene before her overwhelming. If she wanted to find Shawn, she could be an adult about it and text him. No games.

  “Be honest with him,” she muttered to herself. Playing games had gotten her in trouble in the past, and she really didn’t need drama this summer. No, she just wanted someone to spend her lazy afternoons and evenings with, and Shawn was the perfect body for that.

  She didn’t need serious, and that made him all the better of a candidate, because he didn’t live here. He’d leave, and she could go back to her real life, her family, and her job.

  But while he was here…she didn’t see why they couldn’t hang out.

  Thirty-five-year-olds don’t hang out.

  She knew she was right, but her fingers still moved over the screen on her phone. Hey, where might I bump into you?

  As soon as that text went through, she typed out another one. I’m thinking we can hang out and have fun while you’re here. Nothing serious. No strings, like you said.

  She stared at the words as the circle spun, and then they were delivered. She couldn’t get them back even if she wanted to. And she didn’t want to.

  I’m coming to get you, he texted back, and Alissa looked up from her phone, her heart suddenly tap dancing in her chest. She went down the steps and into the sand, thinking she could at least meet him out in the public area.

  She’d no sooner crossed the line onto the public beach when he emerged from behind a rainbow-colored umbrella several feet away. A smile touched his mouth, and he lifted his hand as if she couldn’t see him.

  Alissa felt like she’d only had eyes for him for eighteen years. She pushed the thought away and waved back.

  He stepped right into her and hugged her with a, “Hey. I was wondering how long it would take for you to come out.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Down here a bit.” He stepped away and started back the way he’d come. “I just ordered pizza, and it should be here soon.”

  “You ordered pizza on Picnic Day? Don’t you know you’re supposed to pack a lunch?”

  “Is that what you ha
ve in your bag?”

  “I mean, I have snacks.”

  “What kind of snacks?”

  “Nothing you like.” She smiled up at him, glad her sunglasses allowed her to look up into his face. “What kind of pizza?”

  “Meat lovers with green peppers.”

  Alissa nodded like that was a normal order, but she knew it wasn’t. “Just like when we were kids,” she said.

  “It’s been my favorite since you introduced me to it,” he said.

  She stopped just before entering the mass of bodies. “Shawn, I just have to know. This is just…casual, right? We can be friends while you’re here.”

  She couldn’t see his eyes behind those shades, but she saw the sly smile as it formed on his mouth. She couldn’t look away from that mouth, even as the body it was attached to crept into her personal space.

  “Sure, Lissa,” he said, his lips right at her ear as he slid one arm around her waist. His yellow T-shirt smelled like coconut oil and sunshine and sand, and she wanted to breathe in that manly scent for the rest of the day. “We can be friends while I’m here.” He touched his lips to her skin right below her ear and backed up. “Sorry. That was another mistake.”

  He ducked around the umbrella, leaving Alissa stunned and frozen in place. Heat filled her again, and then again, and after several seconds, she let the thrill of his lips touching her skin flow through her too.

  “Not a mistake,” she said to herself as she rounded the umbrella too, finding Shawn several yards down the beach but waiting for her. “And he wants to be more than friends.”

  Problem was, so did Alissa. As she flipped and flopped her way through the sand, she couldn’t decide why they couldn’t be.

  He doesn’t live here, her brain reminded her.

  And he dumped you for Marcy without a second thought, her heart said.

  He apologized for that, her mind countered. And back and forth her thoughts and her pulse went, so that by the time they arrived at the spot of beach he’d claimed, Alissa felt utterly spent.

  She’d set down her bag and pulled out a towel when another man approached with the pizza.

  “Ah, yeah,” Shawn said, taking the food from him and handing him a twenty-dollar bill. “Thanks, man.”

  He turned toward Alissa, a gleeful smile on his face. “Let’s eat.”

  She wanted to do that. She wanted to soak up the hot rays of the sun. She wanted to relax. And maybe, just maybe, she wanted to hold Shawn’s hand.

  Chapter Eight

  Shawn sat down on the blanket he’d found in Bo’s closet and then spread over the sand. He’d rented an umbrella from Celeste, who hadn’t seemed to recognize him, which was honestly fine. She wasn’t the Heartwood sister Shawn was interested in.

  And he’d been sitting on the beach for an hour by himself, wondering how he could get Lissa go come join him. In the end, she’d texted him, and he couldn’t help feeling like she didn’t really want to be “just friends” while he was here.

  “Pizza,” he said, handing a slice to her after she spread out her towel and sat down.

  “Thanks.” She flashed him a smile, and added, “We should go get some cupcakes later. They’re on sale today.”

  “I saw the sign,” he said. “How many did you make?”

  “A thousand,” she said like it was no big deal. Like normal people whipped out that make cupcakes on the daily.

  “Wow,” he said. “And you want to eat one?”

  “They’re good,” she said, and he watched her take a bite of her pizza. The movement made something in him fire that hadn’t in a while, even with Lauren, and Shawn couldn’t believe he’d been living his life in black and white in the most vibrant city in the world.

  He took a bite of his pizza too, simply so he’d have something besides Lissa to focus on. “Who’s the band tonight?” he asked after he’d swallowed the cheesy goodness.

  “This local group called Lowcountry,” she said.

  “Fitting.”

  She watched the waves as she ate, and Shawn wondered if she’d allow them to have a relationship. He’d been pretty forthright in what he wanted without coming out and saying it. So maybe he should do that.

  “I’m thinking about staying in Carter’s Cove,” he said, deciding the back of the guy’s head in front of them was the safest spot to look.

  “What?” Lissa practically screeched the word, and Shawn had to look at her.

  Words started building beneath his tongue, but by the look on her face, his statement was not welcome news. “My job is boring,” he said. “My life there is dull. I don’t know.” And he didn’t know what he’d do.

  Jason hadn’t called again, which had honestly surprised Shawn. Jason would give Shawn a few days, and then he’d want to know how his “meeting” with the younger sister had gone. He wasn’t the type of man who knew how to take no for an answer, but Shawn knew he would not be working on trying to get Alissa to sell.

  The Heartwood Inn was so much more than land. It was their family’s legacy, and he’d been so far removed from that type of situation in Miami, he hadn’t even known it. If he had, he’d have talked Jason and Hunter out of this particular piece of property from the beginning.

  “I’m just not sure I want to go back,” he said.

  “You have a job there,” she said.

  “So I’ll get a job here.”

  “There’s no real estate to develop here, Shawn. The whole island is….” She waved her hand in a swirling pattern. “Developed.”

  “I have other skills,” he said coolly. “Why does this upset you?”

  “Because.” She sighed and looked away. She gazed down at the pizza box, where she snatched another slice.

  “Maybe you do have flings,” he said. “Or maybe you’re worried we won’t just be a fling.”

  “I don’t do flings,” she said, cutting him a glare without truly turning to look at him. “And we’re not anything, nor are we going to be.”

  “Why not?” he said.

  “I don’t make the same mistake twice.”

  “Maybe it’s not a mistake.”

  Lissa didn’t answer, and Shawn decided to really drive his point home. “Liss, even if it is a mistake, I kinda want to make it.”

  She shook her head, her mouth set in an angry line. He reached over and touched her knee, then her arm. She just looked at the spots where his fingers had landed, her eyes finally moving to his. Though they both wore sunglasses, he felt like she had to be able to see his sincerity.

  “Plus, I don’t think it’s a mistake, us meeting again like this.”

  “You came to steal my family’s inn.”

  “No, I came to buy it, which by the way, you should be grateful you got me and not Hunter Reynard.” He sighed, not wanting to fight with her. Fighting for her was just as hard though.

  “That sounds like a threat.”

  “I’m not trying to argue with you,” he said. “Look, why did you text me today?”

  She took a bite of pizza, her jaw moving angrily as she chewed. Shawn gave her the time she obviously wanted, though it drove him crazy.

  “My sister asked me to keep you busy,” she finally said.

  Shawn blinked as the sharp edge of her words dove into his heart. “Okay, wow.” He stood up, not sure how he’d read all the signals wrong. He also didn’t know how to get his blanket out from under her, as she’d placed her towel partially over it. The umbrella had to be back by ten p.m., but she could take it.

  “Shawn,” she said, but he couldn’t stay for another second.

  “I’ll be back,” he said, but he didn’t know if that was true or not. He headed down toward the water’s edge, his eyes trained on the line of couples waiting for their turn on the water trikes. He needed a second person to actually maneuver around the course, but he wasn’t going to go back and beg Lissa to be that woman.

  He’d begged enough, that was for sure. The woman had an iron fist of denial around her heart, he’d give he
r that. And fine, he was only in town for eleven more days anyway. It wasn’t like they were going to fall in love by July sixth.

  Can’t you? The voice pinged around in his head, but it only fueled his anger, propelling him past the line and down the beach.

  “Shawn,” Lissa called again, and he slowed down. She caught up to him a few seconds later, her breathed ragged.

  “I just got hot,” he said, making himself as bad of a liar as she was.

  Lissa darted in front of him and held up one hand. A little boy ran behind her, shouting something as his sister chased him. Shawn didn’t want to have this conversation here, but Lissa wore a look of determination in the line of her lips.

  “I don’t—I’m sorry,” she said, deflating slightly and lowering her hand. “I didn’t mean what I said back there.”

  “Which part?” he challenged.

  “The part where I said Olympia asked me to keep you busy.”

  Some of the fury dissipated, but he still felt steamed. His thirst drew him toward a teenager pulling a red wagon full of ice and bottles of water. He pulled a five out of his pocket and handed it to the kid, taking two bottles from the wagon with a “Thanks.”

  He handed one to Lissa, who just watched him. “So why did you text me today? And call me yesterday. If you weren’t keeping me busy, what were you doing?”

  She ducked her head, and if Shawn could see her eyes, he’d have his answer. As it was, he still felt like he was guessing when he said, “I think you like me, and you want to spend time with me, but you’re scared.”

  “I am not,” she said, that familiar fire coming back into her voice.

  Shawn chuckled, though he didn’t feel entirely happy. “So what is it then?”

  “You’re really pushy, you know that?”

  “Well, you’re just as stubborn as you’ve always been.”

  She rolled her whole head, and he laughed, because he knew it would irritate her.

  “I just got out of a pretty serious relationship,” she said. “And I don’t—I just want fun this summer.”