Seaside Nights Read online

  “I just wanted you to know I’m training hard, Dad.” He forced a smile, and his father slowly shifted his eyes away at the same time as he reached for his son’s hand.

  Usually Sawyer spent time reading to his father, but today he didn’t have it in him to think straight. They sat like that for a long time, and sometime later—an hour, maybe longer—his father said, “You’re not going to tell me.”

  “Tell you what, Dad?”

  “What you came for.”

  He heard his mother’s car door shut out front, and as he mulled over his answer, holding his father’s deadpan gaze, his mother came through the living room door and joined them on the deck.

  “How are my two favorite men?” She kissed his father’s cheek and touched the top of Sawyer’s head, as she’d done when he was a boy. Her eyes moved between them.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Of course.” Sawyer rose to his feet, feeling like a kid caught in a lie, and pulled out his wallet. “I wrote this for you last week.”

  His mother read the song he’d written and, as she always did, she clutched it to her chest and then pulled him into a warm hug. “Honey, you are every bit as poetic as your father. I know you love boxing, but you should seriously consider putting your songs together and publishing them.”

  “Thanks, Mom, but you’re my mom. You’d love anything I wrote.”

  “Maybe so, but your father refuses to give me any more poems. Lord knows his brain still works fine, and I can certainly write them down for him. But I’ve begged him, and still he refuses me.” She squeezed his father’s shoulder in a loving fashion. “I miss that, and maybe if you wrote with publication in mind, the competitive side of your father would come out and I’d get a few more lovely lines.”

  His father covered her hand with his and patted it.

  Sawyer hugged her again. “I’m going to head out.” He bent down to hug his father.

  “You can leave”—his father’s slow, determined voice sent shivers down his spine—“but whatever it is you came to say will still be there when you get home.”

  ***

  AFTER POPPING IN to talk to Lizzie about her date with Sawyer, Sky went to her apartment above the shop to check in with Blue on the renovations. But her mind wasn’t on the pipes that needed fixing or the walls that needed painting. She was thinking about the text from Sawyer and the text she’d sent to him in response. What was it about him that had her offering herself up like she was? Maybe they’d wake up together the next morning. She hadn’t spent the night with a guy in years, and yet, no matter how many times she tried to convince herself to feel regret over having sent the provocative text, she couldn’t.

  Blue scowled up at her from where he was crouched by a hole in the wall that hadn’t been there last night.

  “What happened?” she asked, assessing the hole.

  “I dropped my hammer,” he growled.

  She cocked a brow. “In the wall?”

  He rose to his feet and ran his eyes down her sundress. “Don’t worry. I’m taking care of it. You look pretty.”

  Pretty? Blue never told her she looked pretty. Hot or cute, yes, but pretty? Never. “Thank you.”

  “How was your date? I came by your place around eleven, but you weren’t back yet.”

  “You did? Oh, well, we got back late. We went to Brewster, then went dancing. We had a nice time.”

  Blue stepped in closer, encroaching on her personal space, which she usually didn’t even notice, but this morning he was giving off a weird vibe, and she took a step back.

  “What’s up with you?”

  “I don’t know,” he said with a bite of frustration. “You seemed into Sawyer yesterday.”

  “Yeah, he’s a nice guy.”

  “I saw something more than that in the way you looked at him.” Blue’s eyes narrowed. “Was I misreading the heat between you two?”

  She walked toward the kitchen to grab a glass of water. “Heat? I don’t know.” She didn’t know what to make of the way he was acting, so she tried to change the subject. “What did you end up doing last night?”

  “I hung out with Hunter and Grayson at the bonfire down at Cahoon Hollow. I figured if your date sucked you’d want to end your night on a better note and join us.”

  “Thanks, but my date didn’t suck.” Well, technically, he sucked and licked and kissed in the best possible ways.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You know he’s a fighter, right?”

  “Yes. How do you know that?”

  Blue smiled, but it wasn’t his typical easy smile. His jaw was tight and his brows were knitted together. “I’m a guy. I know sports. I didn’t recognize his name at the bar the other night, but yesterday after I left I realized there probably weren’t many Sawyer Basses around and put two and two together. You’re dating Sawyer ‘Songbird’ Bass. He’s a big-time boxer, Sky.”

  Sky leaned against the counter and sipped her water. “He told me.”

  Blue leaned beside her, and some of the tension seeped from his shoulders. “You’re okay with that?”

  She shrugged. Why couldn’t everyone stop talking about Sawyer’s career so she could forget about it for a little while longer?

  “Sky?” His voice softened. “Do you think we missed a connection? Between us, I mean?”

  “We have a great connection.”

  He cocked a brow.

  “Oh, you mean…” Shit. What? “Blue, I never…We never…We’re such good friends.”

  “I know. I’m not asking if we should try to be more.” He shifted his eyes away. “I just…” He met her gaze again, and she finally saw her old friend again instead of whatever weird, stressful person had inhabited him for the last few minutes.

  “When I saw how you lit up when he was talking to you, some part of me wanted to be the person you looked at like that.” Before she could process what he’d said, he added, “I don’t mean that either. Damn it. I don’t know what I mean. I was friend jealous, I think. At least a little bit, which is really messed up.”

  “Friend jealous? What is that?”

  “You’re my best friend, Sky, and I want you to be happy. I’ve never thought we were anything more than that. I mean, I love you, and you’re gorgeous, and funny, and I love spending time with you, but—”

  “But?” But? Was he saying he didn’t want more or that he wasn’t really sure? She might totally regret what she was about to offer, but it seemed like it might show him what she already knew. “Do you want to kiss me and see if there’s a spark?”

  “What? No. That’s not what I meant.” Blue pushed from the counter and paced.

  “Good.” She sighed with relief.

  He shot her another narrow-eyed stare, only this one held a hint of amusement.

  “No, not good, like I don’t want to kiss you. Wait, I don’t want to kiss you. That’s not what I meant. Wait…” She covered her mouth with her hand as his lips quirked up in a playful smile. “God, Blue. You know what I mean. I don’t need to kiss you to know that I don’t feel like we’ve missed anything. But if you feel like the only way to know for sure is to see if there’s a spark, then I’ll do it.”

  “Sky, I didn’t ask to kiss you. You asked if I wanted to.”

  “Right. This is confusing.” She paused to gather her thoughts. “With Sawyer, the second my lips touched his, I knew I wanted to be in his arms.” She slid from the counter and reached for his hand. “I love when I’m with you, but it’s a different type of love.”

  “I know.” He gave her a quick hug. “I love our friendship, too.” A moment later he ran a hand through his hair and looked at the floor, then up at her with a shy expression. “Have you ever been jealous of the girls I’ve dated?”

  “You almost never date.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Sky, I’m not a saint, and you know that.”

  “Okay, yes. When you’re out with a girl I always wonder what you’re doing and if she’s going to be the one, but
not because I want to be the one, just because I still want to be whatever we are. BFFs.”

  He smiled. “Then you get it.”

  “Yes, I get it. I get you, Blue, just like you get me.” She stepped in close again and squeezed his hand. “I don’t know if Sawyer’s the one, or if I’ll date ten more guys before I find the right person. But I know that whoever I end up with will have to be able to deal with our friendship, because you’re important to me. You’ve been a better friend to me than anyone I’ve ever known, except maybe the girls.”

  He laughed a little. “I rank right up there with the girls. That’s awesome.”

  She swatted his arm. “It is.”

  “I know! I meant it. It really is awesome. I’m sorry I was an ass when you came in. I saw how he watched you the other night at the bar, and yesterday there was an energy between you two that was so thick I felt like I’d stepped onto an island where I didn’t belong, and it was weird.”

  She turned away so he wouldn’t see her cheeks flame up. “You always belong, but I’m not going to deny that whatever’s between me and Sawyer is pretty intense.”

  “Intense is good, Sky. As long as he treats you well. But I do worry about him being a fighter and you being a butterfly.” He touched her shoulders, and she reached up and covered his hands with hers. “In all fairness I should tell you that I had Duke check him out.” Duke was Blue’s eldest brother. He owned a number of hotels and had connections in every industry known to man.

  She turned to face him. “You spied on him? Behind my back?”

  “No. I checked him out to make sure he wasn’t a freak with skeletons and abused girlfriends in his closet.”

  “Okay, first of all, don’t ever do that again. That’s kind of creepy.” Although, she had to admit that she liked knowing he cared enough to do it, despite the fact that it bothered her. She still needed to draw this line.

  “We don’t know him from Adam, and you looked at him like you wanted to jump his bones—”

  “So what? That’s my prerogative, Blue. You don’t get to decide who I go out with or whose bones I jump. I don’t check out your girlfriends.” Anger simmered inside her. “Have you done this before? Checked out guys I dated?”

  “No, of course not. He’s big, Sky. He’s strong. He’s a fighter.” His jaw clenched. “I wasn’t deciding who you go out with. I was just making sure you were safe.”

  He reached for her, and she held her palms up to stop him. “Fine. No, it’s not fine, but since you did it out of some warped protective intent, I guess I should say thank you. But next time ask me, okay? That should be my choice. And without telling me anything personal about him, because I really think he should be the only one who decides what he shares with me…Did Duke find any skeletons?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. The guy’s never done a damn thing wrong.”

  She sank down to a chair. “I wouldn’t expect you to find anything bad about him. But I have to admit, even though he makes my head spin in the best possible way, I can’t wrap my head around his fighting.”

  “Because that’s not your world.” He crouched beside her, and his eyes warmed. “He seems like a nice guy, despite the fact that I had him checked out, and from what you’ve just said, you really like him.”

  “So now you’re pro Sawyer after you were the one who checked him out because he was a fighter?”

  “I checked him out because…I don’t know. Tons of fighters have issues and bad reps, run-ins with the law, and I’ve never seen you look at a guy like that before. I wanted to be sure you were safe. We’ve already established that it was a bad move.”

  She sighed. “It wasn’t a bad move. I appreciate that you care, but I don’t appreciate that you ran to Duke without telling me first. Shouldn’t you have clued me in that you were worried?”

  “You would have rolled your eyes at me.”

  “True,” she said with a smile, because he was right. Short of finding out something horrific about Sawyer, nothing would have stopped her from going out with him. “If he was a freak, I could have been killed last night and the information wouldn’t have mattered.”

  Blue smiled. “Yeah, I sort of thought of that this morning, too. Not my brightest idea, but I am glad I did it. Even if it pissed you off. Now I don’t have to worry when you’re out with him.”

  “Guys are so weird.” She looked around the apartment, thinking about saying good night to Sawyer last night and how much she’d wanted him to stay.

  “Are we still cool, or do you want to give me hell for overstepping my bounds?”

  “How can I give you hell? If you didn’t do it, then one of my neurotic brothers would have the second they found out.”

  “Yeah, well…Hunter and Grayson weren’t thrilled about this.”

  “See?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Why’d you even tell them?”

  Blue shrugged. “I don’t know. We were shooting the shit and they were surprised I showed up without you. Anyway, even if you didn’t want the info, now at least you know Sawyer’s an okay guy.”

  She shrugged, noncommittally. “Well, he’s still a fighter, and I need to figure out if I can deal with that.”

  “Fighting is what he does, Sky. It’s not who he is.”

  “That’s weird, because he said, I’m a fighter. It’s who I am.”

  “He was probably just trying to be tough and impress you.”

  “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t, although he did revise the statement afterward and tell me exactly what you did. That fighting is what he does, not who he is, so maybe he’s confused by it, too. Or maybe he was trying to impress me by changing it, because he knows I’m not on board with fighting.” She didn’t get the impression that he was trying to impress her either way, and the more she thought about their conversation by the brook, the more she wondered if he really wasn’t sure. She was still having trouble putting the hard and soft pieces of Sawyer together.

  “Maybe you should go watch him fight so you can get a feel for it.”

  “I can’t watch him get hit.” The thought made her stomach queasy.

  “No, I didn’t think you’d agree to. But you could watch him train. I’ll go with you. I’d love to watch him do his thing.”

  Not for the first time, she silently thanked the universe for sending her Blue. She had visions of watching Sawyer in the ring, totally losing it, and running from the fight club in tears. “Thanks, Blue, but what if it’s better that I just pretend he doesn’t fight and keep dating him? What if I can’t handle it?”

  “Sky?”

  She lifted her eyes to his.

  “What if you can?”

  Chapter Eight

  BONFIRES WERE THE go-to summer activity on the Cape, and for the first time since Sky returned to the Cape, a bonfire didn’t sound appealing—at least not as appealing as going someplace to be alone with Sawyer. Sky wanted nothing more than to turn around and drive away, and spend the night with Sawyer, getting to know each other better. Emotionally and physically. Well, maybe physically and then emotionally.

  They’d exchanged flirty texts all afternoon, and by the time they’d seen each other, she’d practically jumped into his arms and devoured him. They’d kissed so many times since he’d picked her up for their date that she’d lost count—and each kiss made her want to kiss him again. And the things he said to her? The man strung words together like jewelers strung pearls, and she tucked each and every romantic nugget away.

  And now, as he gathered her in his arms at the top of the bluff by Pete and Jenna’s house, with a cool bay breeze blowing her long skirt and his heated gaze warming her from the inside out, she felt selfish, wanting to whisk him away when she knew her brothers and friends wanted to meet him. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and she knew she should feel bad about it, but as he held her in his arms, she couldn’t muster that type of negative energy.

  Sawyer touched his forehead to hers. “How is it possible,” he said in a tender tone, “that I miss
ed you so much after only knowing you for one day?”

  “I’ve been asking myself that all day.” She pressed her lips to his, thinking about how much she loved being with him.

  “Then maybe we shouldn’t question it, and we should just go with it. You look happy, like you had a nice day. Did you?” he asked.

  “My days are always great, but they’re even better when I get to see you.” She smiled up at him. “I did have something exciting happen.”

  “I can see it in your eyes. Tell me.”

  I love that. “I’m having a grand opening celebration for Inky Skies in a few weeks, and there’s this artist I really wanted to come. His name is Duffy, and he does caricatures. I thought it would be fun if he did them for customers. And he’s agreed to come by for a while. I’m really excited.”

  “When is the grand opening?”

  “The eighteenth. It’s going to be really laid-back and fun. A few of the street performers said they’d spend an hour out front drawing in the crowd. I have a lot to do between now and then, but I’d love it if you’d come by for a while. Maybe, if we’re still together, you could bring your guitar and sing for a while?”

  “If we’re still together?” He smiled down at her. “Are my days numbered?”

  “Not if I can help it,” she answered honestly.

  “How about this. How about if I bring my guitar and spend the afternoon with you? I’ll serenade you, or read some of my dad’s poetry to you while you tattoo big, hairy men.”

  She laughed at the big, hairy men reference. If he only knew how many guys shaved practically their entire bodies these days just to show off their tattoos. “You would spend the afternoon at my grand opening? You might be terribly bored.”