by Jana DeLeon
Chapter Eleven
Luke sank onto the couch and opened up his laptop. He’d had a twinge of curiosity when Alayna had refused to talk about her restaurant but had figured it was as simple as not wanting to relive failure with someone she didn’t really know. He couldn’t blame her for that. He wasn’t exactly begging people to talk about his injury. But then the very pushy and obviously jealous Melody had made a comment that had stuck with him.
The media coverage was so harsh.
A restaurant going out of business in New York City was hardly an uncommon thing, much less something that reporters would waste time on. But the closing had caused enough of a stir to garner attention from the press. And unless Melody had been in the city when it happened, she’d seen the story on a national news channel. So the question was, what in the world had happened at Alayna’s restaurant that had national news channels interested?
It took only seconds for the entire sordid story to appear on his screen.
And holy shit what a story it was. Money laundering, drug traffickers, old-money scandal, and Alayna Scott stuck right in the middle of the takedown. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it.
He continued reading, trying to find out Alayna’s connection with the criminal business, but although the media had tried to make something of her relationship with Patterson, they hadn’t been able to connect her with his crimes. Even the FBI had eventually stated that Alayna was a witness and an ancillary victim of Patterson’s crimes, but that hadn’t stopped reporters from hounding her, trying to make a connection between a beautiful, successful woman and all the dirty business Patterson had been up to.
He shut the laptop and shoved it to the side, disgusted.
Had Alayna really been in the dark about everything? The FBI seemed to think so. Or they had given her immunity in exchange for testimony. Patterson was a big fish with the access to several avenues to clean money. He might have made a move to use her restaurant for that sometime down the road, but based on what he’d read, that hadn’t occurred prior to Patterson’s arrest. But since the FBI had shut it down, Luke assumed Warren had invested in it and they’d closed up shop just as they had all of Patterson’s business interests, leaving Alayna with no restaurant.
Had the FBI gotten it right? Was Alayna really an innocent victim? Certainly, she didn’t seem to have the makings of an archcriminal, but he knew better than most that appearances could be deceiving. Still, he couldn’t reconcile the skittish woman with the likable aunt to money laundering for drug dealers. And he was good at personal assessment. He had to be.
His mind flashed back to their initial meeting and her panic when she saw the gun. Granted, anyone in their right mind would have been scared in that situation, but Alayna’s fear seemed to go deeper than that moment. He’d also noticed when she glanced outside and checked her watch before agreeing to have dinner with him. And how she’d checked the dark street before hurrying inside and drawing the blinds closed.
Alayna Scott was scared. The question was, did she have reason to be?
Don’t get involved.
The words of his former commander echoed through his mind. He’d gotten in too deep once before with a woman he’d thought was trying to move on with her life after a difficult situation. Her problems were nothing compared to Alayna’s, but she’d managed to use him for all she could get, then practically ran him over to move on to the next biggest pocketbook she could snag. His commander had clued Luke in on her game from the beginning, but Luke had lacked the experience and cynicism about women that the older man had gained throughout his years of reading people. So Luke had ignored the warnings and paid the price.
Now those word were coming back to him in waves.
He shook his head, trying to push those thoughts back to that dark place in his memory where they belonged. Alayna wasn’t Serena. The FBI had cleared her, and he was going to stick with his intuition. Alayna Scott was an innocent woman afraid of retaliation from her ex. And although he hoped that Alayna never needed his help in a somewhat professional capacity, he was going to make sure he was available in case she did. Patterson might have taken her down, but he wasn’t going to take her out.
Not on Luke’s watch.
Alayna woke early Sunday morning, a little impressed by how well she’d slept. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she’d managed six comfortable hours and undisturbed. Well, partially undisturbed. She felt a flush run up her neck as she recalled the vivid dream she’d had about Luke. A very active dream. A dream that had no place in her conscious or subconscious.
She stretched and hopped out of bed, pushing all thoughts of her sexy dream and her hot neighbor aside. Luke was a nice guy and a temporary neighbor, and she’d been a little bit surprised by how much she’d enjoyed dinner with him. And while she’d be lying to herself if she said she didn’t find him attractive and interesting and nice, she needed to keep things in perspective. She’d returned to the island to sort out her messy life. It was fine to spend a little casual time with Luke…as a friend. But no way could she allow dreams she had while she was asleep to become dreams she had when she was awake.
She headed into the kitchen and set coffee to brew, then popped a couple slices of bread in the toaster. She’d picked up fresh strawberry preserves at the market and couldn’t wait to try it. Strawberry preserves on toast had always been her favorite breakfast, much to Bea’s dismay. Her aunt had tried everything to get her to eat breakfast when Alayna first moved to Tempest Island. And despite the fact that cooking was the very last thing on her aunt’s list of things she loved to do, Bea had cooked omelets and pancakes and even bought a waffle maker.
When Alayna had found an unopened jar of strawberry preserves and declared it the best thing she’d ever had, Bea had been both relieved and somewhat exhausted, then had proceeded to buy six jars of it, just in case the woman who made it decided to quit. No one had been more excited than Bea when Alayna had formed an interest in cooking and taken over meals a year later.
While she waited on breakfast, she opened all the blinds and pushed open the patio door, allowing the breeze to waft into the house. Then she fixed up her toast and coffee and carried it outside to watch the birds do their morning swoop for fish. The smell of the salt air was intoxicating and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach was hypnotic. Before she’d moved to New York, Alayna had spent several years using her vacation time to travel to other countries just to immerse herself in the food of different cultures. She’d seen some breathtaking landscapes, but none of them made her feel like this one.
While she enjoyed her breakfast and the view, she deliberated over what she wanted to do with her day. The unpacking was done, the beach house was clean, and she had enough groceries and leftover Chinese takeout for another couple meals. Plus she was cooking for Bea tonight, so getting calories in wasn’t going to be a problem. She probably should make a run to the mainland to stock up on more food and toiletries, cleaning supplies and the like, but she couldn’t seem to find the desire to leave her little piece of paradise.
You’ve got time.
She tried to keep that in mind, but the workaholic in her kept trying to convince her that if she wasn’t working, she was being lazy. That instead of sitting around with excellent toast and jelly and watching birds fly, she should be figuring out what to do with her life. She rose from her chair with a sigh and grabbed the crusts she’d saved and headed for the water.
What she really wanted to do with her day was call Luke and ask him to teach her to paddleboard. But given how much she enjoyed dinner with him the night before and her subsequent dream, she knew it wasn’t a good idea. She tossed the bread onto the hard-packed sand near the surf and watched as a couple of the bravest birds landed near her and picked up their prize. Luke was a curveball she hadn’t seen coming. After Warren, she’d expected to never look at a man with interest again. To never be able to trust the words that came out of a man’s mouth. But yet she was drawn to Luke in a way
that she’d never been with Warren. It was almost primal. As if she had no choice in the matter.
That scared the hell out of her. But it also excited her.
The old Alayna had been very deliberate. She researched everything thoroughly, then made a plan and a backup plan and a backup plan for the backup plan. Some had believed her fearless, but she wasn’t one to indiscriminately take big chances. When she made a big move, it was only because she firmly believed it was the right time to do so. The restaurant had been her biggest gamble ever—or so she’d thought—but she’d been profitable in the first three months, which was why she’d finally cracked and taken the expansion money from Warren.
Now she needed another plan. And damned if she had any idea what it should be.
“Did you catch the sunrise?” Luke’s voice sounded behind her and she couldn’t help smiling as she turned to greet him.
“No,” she said. “I finally got a decent night’s sleep. You know how it is acclimating to a new place.”
He nodded. “I’ve acclimated fine to the place, but my training has ruined sleeping late for me. And by late, I mean beyond 6:00 a.m.”
“I can see that. With me, it was the opposite. Restaurant business starts later in the day and runs late into the night, so sleeping late was necessary. My body is still geared for that schedule, so I’m still going to sleep late at night, but not often managing to stay asleep.”
“It catches up with you eventually.”
She nodded. “About once a week, I find myself head-bobbing in the middle of the day. I crash and catch up, then start the whole futile process over again. But it is getting better. At least I slept past dawn this morning.”
“Have you made plans for the day?”
This was it. The crossroads. Either she told him she needed to take care of personal items to give herself some space to figure out how to deal with him, or she rolled the dice and went completely against logic. Against her usual nature.
“No,” she said. “Nothing except for having Bea over tonight for dinner. She’s an awful cook and ends up eating takeout or frozen dinners and sandwiches most of the time. I want to treat her to a great meal since she’s given me this bit of paradise to live in while I decide what I want to do next.”
He smiled. “An awful cook, huh? Was she ever married? I’ve never heard her mention a husband or any children, but I never asked. I didn’t want to risk bringing up something she’d rather not talk about.”
“You would have been safe with that subject. Bea never married. She had plenty of opportunity, mind you. She’s always been a spitfire and she’s still an attractive woman. But she never found a man who could convince her that he was worth compromising for. Bea is very set in her ways.”
“I can see that. She’s obviously strong-willed or she wouldn’t have a successful business and the two beach properties.”
“She’s always been a whiz with finance and very careful with her money. I worked at the bookstore with her after I came to live here, and I learned so much from her about accounting and forecasting and managing cash flow. I couldn’t have opened my restaurant without the knowledge I gained from her.”
“Well, dinner is some time away. Are you interested in that paddleboarding lesson?”
This was it—time to fish or cut bait.
“You know what?” she said before she could change her mind. “I think I am. If you’ve got the time to show me, that is.”
“This lesson will be the most pressing thing I’ve had on my schedule for weeks. I’m going to thank you ahead of time for giving me something to focus on besides relaxing.”
She laughed. “Thinking about relaxing isn’t relaxing at all. And when it’s forced on you, it’s ten times worse. I had my appendix out a few years ago and it was a little more complicated than the usual, according to my doctor. But after the fourth day of lying around, I almost cried with relief when building maintenance knocked on my door to fix a plumbing leak.”
“You didn’t cause the leak on purpose, did you?” he joked.
“No. But I thought about breaking something else afterward.”
His smile faded just a bit. “Your friends didn’t come visit you?”
“No. You have to understand, it’s a different way of life in the city. When you’re young and trying to get things going with your career and your personal life, there’s not enough time in the day to get it all in, especially not when you spend a decent amount of your day commuting from a place you can afford to where you work. Everything is fast-paced. Everything has a sense of urgency that you don’t have in a place like Tempest Island. And honestly, I never really developed any close friendships. It’s hard to. People constantly come and go. It’s a difficult place to get your footing. Most people I met early on didn’t make it more than a year.”
“Sounds lonely.”
“It could be at times. I suppose it’s completely different from the life you know, where everyone is all together working toward a single purpose and living as a unit. It must be a nice to know that so many people have your back.”
“It is,” he said but she noticed he almost frowned when he said it.
“So what time do you want to do this?” she asked.
“That’s completely up to you.”
“Okay. Then how about we meet out here in a couple hours. That will give me time to take care of a few chores. Afterward, I’ll make us up a fruit salad and some ham sandwiches.”
“Best offer I’ve had all week,” he said and gave her that slow, sexy smile that she’d seen in her dream.
“Great,” she said as she took a step back, hoping the heat on her skin masked the blush she felt creeping up her neck. “Then I’ll get to work and see you in a couple hours.”
“Looking forward to it.”
She gave him a half wave and headed back to the house as quickly as she could without appearing as if she were trying to flee. As soon as she stepped inside, she chided herself for losing her cool.
What are you, fifteen years old?
She was acting like a teen with a crush, blushing over a smile. It didn’t bode well for the paddleboarding plans. And why now? Obviously, her judgment had been lacking when she’d picked Warren. How could she be sure it was any better now? Especially when she was already under so much stress?
She sighed. Was she going to question her entire life every time she met an attractive man? Was she going to let one mistake define every future relationship? She really didn’t want that to happen. More than anything, she just wanted to be normal, doing normal things, with normal stress and normal joy. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
She knew what her shrink in New York would say—that until you feel normal, act normal. Her therapist believed that if you pushed yourself into the behavior you’d like to feel, eventually the action would take over and your feelings would catch up. So she knew what she had to do. She had to put on her bathing suit and stop second-guessing herself. Luke Ryan was a temporary neighbor, and it was only a paddleboarding lesson. They weren’t even exchanging a handshake, much less vows. She could spend an enjoyable afternoon with an attractive man and it didn’t have to mean anything more.
She’d just keep telling herself that.
Chapter Twelve
Luke was already on the beach with the paddleboard when Alayna stepped outside. He wore white swim trunks with blue racing stripes, sunglasses, and nothing else, and suddenly, her earlier vow to treat this as an outing between temporary friends seemed questionable. As did her serviceable navy blue one-piece swimsuit that she’d purchased for swimming laps at the gym, not because it presented her in the most flattering light.
She shook her head. This wasn’t a date, and she wasn’t trying to attract Luke. Her swimsuit was perfect for water activities and that was where things ended…except for the part where she couldn’t stop staring at him as she approached. When he’d accosted her in the shed with his gun, the majority of his body had been exposed, but it hadn’t regis
tered as heavily as the pistol that had been trained on her. Later, when he was out with the board in the Gulf, she’d gotten another look, but only at a distance.
The closer she got, the more exquisite he became. And with every step she took toward him, her heart ticked up another notch. His skin had that deep, evenly dispersed tan that can only be acquired from spending weeks in the sun. The dark skin enhanced every ripple of muscle on his body, and there was a lot of ripple to take in. She’d already gotten a good look at his legs, and even the injured one hadn’t appeared to have lost any muscle tone. The rest of him matched his legs.
His biceps looked as if he were flexing, even though he was standing relaxed, and the flex continued onto his shoulders. His abs were what every guy she saw in her gym back in New York wished he could achieve. Clearly Luke spent a lot of time on his body, but it wasn’t something you could achieve by the gym alone. It was obvious that he was made for action and saw plenty of it, which made her wonder again exactly what he did for the military.
He gave her a big smile as she approached. “You ready for this?”
“I think so,” she said as she dropped her beach bag, giving her an excuse to divert her eyes for just a second. “I mean, I’m excited about it, but also a little nervous.”
“We lucked out. It’s a good day for it in the Gulf and the view is better here than the Sound.”
“It’s nice to have options.” She gave the board a hard stare. “Do you want to cover the basics on land?”
“Nah. It’s not like surfing. You don’t have to snap up into position, so no need to practice it on land. And I’ll be there to steady the board while you find your balance. Can I assume you’re a strong swimmer, or would you like a life jacket?”
She glanced back at the Gulf and bit her lower lip. She was a strong swimmer, but unconscious people didn’t swim all that well. One fall and a blow to the head and then there could be trouble.