Things We Never Said: A Hart's Boardwalk Novel

by Samantha Young

  “I still think it’s a good thing.”

  “It’s on the edge of town. It’s a fifteen-minute drive.”

  “That’s not too far.”

  “At least you’re here, Dahlia.” Ira pinned me with his concerned dad stare. “You’ll watch out for her, won’t you?”

  “Of course,” I responded, even though I was intimidated by the level of depressed Ivy seemed to have reached. It reminded me so much of how low I once got. However, Bailey would be ecstatic that her old friend was living in my apartment building, so I’d do what I could. For Iris, Ira, and for Bailey. “I’ll watch out for her.”

  “Thanks, sweetheart.” Ira gave me a genuine smile. “You off to the carnival?”

  “Yes. Will I see you there?”

  “If we talk the Walking Dead into coming with us,” Iris quipped.

  “Iris,” Ira admonished.

  His wife pulled a face and stepped into the apartment, calling goodbye over her shoulder.

  “She’s just worried,” Ira said. “Honest.”

  “Ira, I’ve known Iris a long time. I know she’s especially sarcastic when she’s feeling something deep. It’ll get better. Ivy will come out of this.”

  He nodded, but there was a bleakness in his eyes I hated to see. I sucked in a breath and released it shakily as I opted to share something I usually wouldn’t. “A long time ago, I went through something. People who cared about me thought I’d never come out of it. But I did. It takes time.”

  He gave me a grateful nod. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

  Returning his nod, I walked away, hoping for their sake I was right.

  * * *

  The parade, thankfully, went off without any mishaps. I was needed only once to sew a tear in the shoulder of Cinderella’s costume. I’d hurried to the market where Bailey was manning my stall only to find she wasn’t alone. Vaughn, Cooper, Jess, and Emery were with her.

  They whistled and catcalled as I strode up in my Snow White costume and I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, my puffy sleeves are so sexy.” I slid in behind the stall and squeezed Bailey’s shoulder. “Thanks, babe.”

  “Anytime. I sold a ring with peridot.”

  “Great.” I glared up at our friends. “You guys will put people off hanging around like this. You’re intimidating in a group.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Jess snorted. “And here we came over to ask if you’d like anything to eat or drink.”

  “Hot chocolate,” I said without hesitation. “And a churro would not go amiss.”

  “Ooh, ditto,” Bailey added, reaching for her purse.

  “No, I got it.” I opened my cash box.

  “Neither of you has it,” Vaughn said. He followed Jess, Coop, and Emery, strolling off to get our order.

  “Does he let you pay for anything?” I watched the tall, stupidly handsome hotelier walk away. He had a strong swimmer’s build beneath his wool coat and suit pants. I had Bailey’s description and a good imagination, so I knew he was drool-worthy model perfect beneath his expensive clothing.

  “Are you ogling my fiancé?”

  I released a weary exhale. “I’m sorry. I’m …” Sexually frustrated, horny, turned on all the time and have been since Michael Sullivan screwed me in my workshop.

  Not that I’d told Bailey about the incident. She would use it as an excuse to make me talk about my feelings.

  “You’re …?”

  “Exhausted,” I lied. “I’ll be glad when the carnival is over.”

  “Sacrilege!”

  I jumped in my seat as Kell Summers appeared out of nowhere. He was dressed like a very short but handsome Prince Charming.

  He glowered down at me. “Just for saying that, I am no longer asking you to do what I was about to ask you to do. I’m telling you.”

  Oh no. What was I about to get roped into now? “I’m afraid to ask.”

  “Speed dating. We’re hosting it in Bailey’s fiancé’s hotel.”

  “His name is Vaughn,” Bailey offered.

  Kell grinned. “But calling him your fiancé sounds so much better, doesn’t it?”

  “Can’t argue with that.”

  “Which reminds me”—he leaned on my stall—“I’d like to talk to you about letting me do a reading at your wedding. It’s a little homage to your history here as a descendant of a founding family.”

  I could almost feel Bailey’s need to scream, so I cut in, “Uh, Kell, speed dating?”

  “Oh, right. We’re trying it out. Next weekend. I’m roping all of our singles into it, and you do count as a single despite a rumor or two about you and a certain detective.” He winked at me.

  Oh, kill me now.

  Goddamn small towns and their running mouths.

  “Kell—”

  “You’re doing it, Dahlia. No arguments.” With one last severe look, he flounced off in the costume I’d painstakingly helped put together.

  I turned to my best friend and held up my hands. “Do you see these? I have cuts and scrapes and little needle holes all over them because I’ve helped Annie and Jake make over twenty-five costumes in the last few months. The majority of participants rent or buy their costumes for the parade, so why am I making this stuff? Why can’t we all rent our costumes? It makes no sense! I spend a third of my year making costumes for that man. When will it ever be enough?”

  Bailey was less than sympathetic. “When you say no.”

  I groaned and dropped my head to the table. “Life is not a fucking fairy tale.”

  A deep, throaty chuckle sounded above me and skated down my spine. Awareness rushed through me, and I slowly sat up to meet Michael’s gaze. I wished he wouldn’t keep popping up out of nowhere like that.

  He was distracted from his intense focus on my face as Vaughn, Cooper, Jess, and Emery returned to the stall with our food.

  “What are you doing here?” I noted he wasn’t wearing his badge.

  Michael’s eyes drifted over me, taking in my costume. “Day off. Nice dress. Where’d ya leave the dwarves?”

  “Speaking of trolls,” Bailey interrupted as Vaughn handed her a hot chocolate. She smiled sweetly at Michael. “Word is that Dana Kellerman is on the prowl for you. Must be nice to receive such extreme attention from the town’s ex-beauty queen.”

  Michael’s lips spread into a slow grin and he shook his head. “I can see why you and Dahlia became friends.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because you’re both full of shit,” he teased.

  Vaughn choked on a sip of coffee while Cooper gave a bark of laughter.

  Bailey, for once, was speechless, which made me smile.

  “You’re right,” Vaughn said to Cooper. “I like him.”

  “Watch it, pal.” Bailey narrowed her eyes on her fiancé. “I’m the one who controls your access to certain activities.” She turned from Vaughn to Michael. “How am I full of shit?”

  He shrugged. “You want to know if I’m interested in someone other than Dahlia, all you have to do is ask. If that’s not what you’re doing and you’re trying to press Dahlia’s buttons, then I’m going to have to ask you to stop.” His dark gaze came to mine. “What’s between us is between us and no one else.”

  “Ugh.” Bailey shot me a look. “Blunt and up-front and handsome. He’s ridiculously likable.” I could almost hear her silent “What’s wrong with you?” at the end of her speech.

  “Okay, maybe I don’t like him,” Vaughn said.

  Bailey chuckled but reached out to squeeze Vaughn’s free hand. He curled his fingers around hers, and their eyes locked. They shared a look of such genuine connection and affection, it made me breathless with longing. And frustration. Because I could have that with Michael. If I could find a way to dissolve the knot of paralyzing fear in my stomach, I could be free to be with Michael.

  “How are you liking Hartwell?” Jess asked Michael, snapping me out of my dismal thoughts.

  “Good so far. I like the sea air more than I thought I would.”
/>   “Yeah, Cooper said you two have been running together on the beach.”

  They were? Since when?

  I looked between Michael and Cooper, feeling slightly panicked that my ex was making such good friends with my friends.

  “I used to run every morning back in Boston before hitting the gym. Sand adds extra resistance. It’s good.”

  I took in Michael’s body. He wore a dark cable-knit sweater with a row of three buttons at the neck he’d left open so you could see a sliver of the stark white shirt he wore beneath it. Again, he was in dark-wash jeans and boots. As long as I’d known Michael, he’d favored a lack of color in his wardrobe.

  Jess patted Cooper’s rock-hard stomach. “You guys gotta work off those burgers and beers, I guess,” she teased.

  Cooper smirked and shook his head. “Mike here is a health nut.”

  He was?

  My gaze returned to Michael. He was studying me thoughtfully. I almost flushed under his intense regard.

  “Really?” Jess asked.

  Michael nodded and appeared reluctant to turn his head from me to her. “Body needs the right fuel.”

  Michael wasn’t a health nut when we were younger, that was for sure, but it would explain his body. I’d seen Cooper running shirtless down the beach, and it was a sight to behold. The man had abs and muscles and all the yum. However, there was a rippling, steely hardness to Michael’s body. His abs and his ass were … ah, just thinking about them made me squirm in my seat.

  Michael was a health nut.

  It irritated me that Cooper knew that, and I did not.

  It agitated me that Jess knew Michael was running down the beach every morning, and I did not.

  What else didn’t I know about him that other people knew?

  That other women knew?

  God, his ex-wife must know so much more about him than I did. Why did that hurt so much? It felt like someone had shoved a shaft of metal through my chest. Breathing was momentarily difficult.

  “If you’re looking for quality health food options, there’s a deli on the outskirts of Atlantic Village,” Jess said. “It’s a luxury apartment block about four miles away.”

  “I’m renting a place there,” Michael replied. “The deli is good.”

  Everyone, including myself, looked at him in surprise. Atlantic Village was not cheap. There was also a waiting list for those apartments. Considering the amount of gossip about Michael’s appearance, I was surprised we hadn’t heard about this from an outside source.

  Michael’s beautiful mouth curled at the corners. “Jeff pulled some strings, got me in past the waiting list. It’s only temporary until I find somewhere more long term.”

  “So, you’re staying, then?” Bailey piped up.

  Instead of looking at her, he looked at me. “That’s the hope.”

  Before I could die of discomfort, Jess intervened. “Emery, what are you staring at so hard?”

  Emery blushed while Jess looked out into the crowded market.

  “Nothing,” she mumbled, biting her lip.

  Unfortunately, Jess’s words made us all strain to look—even Michael stepped aside to turn around—and while the guys continued to look perturbed, Bailey, Jess, and I zeroed in on our suspected source of Emery’s attention.

  Jack Devlin.

  Jack became kind of a leper in Hartwell society after betraying Cooper. No one trusted him, and he grew sullen. There was more to the story behind Jack’s defection to the dark side. Even Cooper knew that, but any concern he had for his friend had been overwhelmed (quite rightly) by his betrayal. Coop had moved on.

  Bailey and I weren’t ready to. We both remembered who Jack used to be. We both had big imaginations, and we couldn’t help but wonder if there was some sinister reason for his change in behavior. Bailey was even more forgiving than me because she thought she witnessed a spark between him and Emery and had all these romantic notions of Emery redeeming him.

  I loved Emery.

  Emery apparently had no experience with men.

  I did not want her near Jack Devlin.

  That would be like pushing a baby panda into a tiger cage. The thought brought out the hotheaded mama bear in me.

  No Jack Devlin for Emery Saunders.

  Nope!

  Jack was standing in line at a temporary burger hut while a short, cute brunette who had to be a tourist stood by his side, chatting away. Only he wasn’t paying attention to the brunette. Jack was around six four with a lean build and broad shoulders. He kept his dark-blond hair thick and slightly disheveled so he always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. His broody, too-handsome-for-his-own-good, blue-gray gaze was locked on Emery.

  That look was so intense, it made me hot.

  This was not good.

  Not good at all.

  The woman with him pulled on his elbow, and he jerked out of his Emery daze to turn to his date.

  “What are we looking at?” Vaughn asked.

  “Nothing.” Bailey was near squirming with excitement in her seat. I nudged her with my elbow, hard, and she glared at me. I glowered back.

  “I … uh … I think I’m going to call it a day,” Emery said. She refused to meet anyone’s eyes.

  “Oh, don’t go,” Bailey begged.

  “She can go if she wants to,” I said through gritted teeth.

  My best friend narrowed her eyes on me. “I don’t want her to go.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you want, especially when your head is in cloud-cuckoo-land.”

  “I feel like we’re missing something,” Vaughn said to Cooper.

  He nodded. “Agreed.”

  Bailey huffed. “You’re making it sound like you don’t want Emery here.”

  “I love Emery—of course I want her here—but I want her here. You want something else entirely.” I leaned into her and hissed, “And it’s insane.”

  “Uh … ladies.” Michael stepped closer to the stall, drawing our attention upward. “Your friend is already gone.”

  With a sigh of frustration, I noted the spot next to Jess was now empty, and Jess was staring at us like a disappointed schoolteacher.

  “See what you did?” Bailey grumbled.

  I leaned in and whispered in her ear, “If you don’t back off Emery, I will tell Cooper and Vaughn about the madness swirling in your head, and they’ll guard her ass so fast from Jack Devlin, your hopes will be crushed for good.”

  “Princess.” I moved back to see Vaughn leaning over the stall table, his hands flat to it, his face inches from Bailey’s. “What is going on?”

  “Nothing.” She gave him a bright smile, leaned forward, and pecked him on the lips. “All good.”

  “Then why does Dahlia, a woman who would usually throw herself in front of a bus for you, look like she wants to kill you? What are you up to and what does it have to do with Emery?”

  Bailey crossed her arms defensively and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t talk to me like that. Ever.”

  I gave my head a little shake. Bailey Hartwell was a master at deflection. Vaughn blinked in surprise at her snappish tone and she pushed back her chair. “I need a coffee.”

  Suspicion deepened in Vaughn’s expression as he watched Bailey walk away. “Excuse me,” he muttered before striding after her.

  I lost them in the crowds and shot a look at Jessica.

  “She’s not genuinely annoyed at Vaughn?”

  I rolled my eyes. “More like worried how well he knows her.”

  “Is this about who I think it’s about?” Cooper was not amused.

  Did Cooper know about Jack and Emery?

  Oh boy.

  “Why do I feel like I’m in high school?” Michael asked, perturbed.

  Jess laughed. “Welcome to small-town life. Everyone is in everyone else’s business.”

  “Speaking of …” Cooper frowned into the distance. “Who is that guy with my sister? And where’s Joey?” He marched away, his hand tight in Jess’s so she had no choice but
to follow. She threw me a little wave, and I nodded back, feeling more than a flutter of butterflies at being left alone with Michael.

  “Joey is Cooper’s nephew, right?” Michael moved closer to the stall.

  “Yeah.” I nodded, straining back against my stool, even though there was a table between us. “He’s almost ten, kind of a musical genius, and Cooper is more like a dad to him than an uncle.”

  “I get that impression.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and studied him. “You seem to be making fast friends with him.”

  “He’s a good guy.”

  “Michael, what are you doing?” I threw my hands up in exasperation. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I’ve missed you. Have you missed me?” He avoided my question, leaning his hands on the table. “These past few weeks, have you missed me?”

  More than anything.

  Worse, despite not seeing him, I was becoming used to the idea of him living here, knowing he was in the same town, keeping everyone safe. Keeping me safe. I loved knowing that.

  I loved it almost as much as the knot in my stomach resented it.

  “Mike!”

  I flinched at the voice.

  I knew that voice.

  I hated that voice.

  Dana Kellerman’s appearance followed on the heels of her voice. He pushed away from my table to turn to her. My eyes drifted down her tall body of toned curves, and I felt stupid and childish and plump in my Snow White costume. It was my own fault. I’d made the Lycra outfit for Dana, and it fitted her athletic body like a second skin. The Elastigirl costume should’ve looked stupid. It did not. The red looked great against her tanned complexion. She usually wore her long hair in beachy waves, but she’d tied it up into a high ponytail that accentuated and elongated her feline ice-blue eyes. She had a perfect little nose and perfect lips and perfect high cheekbones, and she was sans mask because why would she hide such a perfect face?

  Dana Kellerman was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever met in real life, and I’d never hated her for it before. It wasn’t in my nature to be jealous of other women’s looks. However, seeing her in all her glory, smiling flirtatiously into Michael’s eyes, I hated her.

  She was so tall, she was almost the same height as him, and her legs went on forever in thigh-high black stiletto boots.