1
The problem with going out in public when she was at the end of her emotional rope was that every little thing threatened to set her off. And that was why, as the ferry approached Driftwood Island and most of the passengers crowded toward the front of the boat, Alicia Benton stayed where she was, distancing herself from the crowd.
Alicia tightened her grip on the railing as the wind whipped her hair against her cheeks. She’d given up trying to keep it tucked behind her ears, and so it danced across her vision, as wild as her emotions. She was having a shitty day, a shitty week…come to think of it, she was having a shitty year. Getting fired yesterday was just the icing on the cake. She was fed up with everything and everyone, and a quiet week at her best friend’s beach house was the perfect escape while she licked her wounds and put together her résumé.
The engine shifted beneath her feet, water churning as the ferry approached the dock. Soon, Alicia would be sipping a cold drink with her toes in the sand and an entire week to herself. God, she couldn’t wait.
She’d held back her tears last night at the apartment she shared with her sister. Instead, they’d fought about all the ways Jen felt Alicia had screwed up, an argument that had continued until Jen left for work this morning. Alicia had promptly called her best friend to vent, and Brandi had offered the beach house.
Brandi and her wife Lex had bought the house a few years ago. They spent their summers here and various weekends throughout the year, and when they weren’t using it, they sometimes offered it to family and friends. Alicia had never been more grateful to have such a successful and generous best friend.
The privacy of the beach house beckoned. Alicia had bottled up her emotions about losing her job, but they were dangerously close to boiling over. She couldn’t wait to get inside the house and have a good long cry.
She waited until most of the other passengers had exited the ferry before joining the line to disembark. The sky to the west glowed orange with the impending sunset, and she was glad she’d eaten dinner before she boarded the ferry, because she didn’t have it in her to go shopping tonight.
Driftwood Island, off the coast of North Carolina, was so small, it didn’t allow cars. People generally walked, biked, or used golf carts to get around. Alicia got in line for the tram that would drop her at the house. From there, she could use Brandi and Lex’s golf cart for the rest of the week.
The woman ahead of her in line turned, whacking Alicia with her backpack.
“Watch it!” Alicia snapped, causing the woman to glare at her as if Alicia were the rude one. She glared right back. God, she wassodone with people today.
Thirty minutes later, Alicia hopped off the tram in front of a turquoise-painted beach house with white shutters. She’d visited several times before, but never by herself. She couldn’t wait to get inside and throw herself a pity party for one.
She hauled her suitcase to the front door and used the keypad code Brandi had given her to unlock it and let herself inside. The living room looked exactly as she remembered, blue furniture with lots of beachy accents. A bowl of shells and sea glass sat on the coffee table. Brandi and Lex had gathered most of them, but Alicia had contributed a few shells on her last visit.
Large windows on the far side of the room faced the beach. She’d go for a walk later, but right now, her eyes burned with tears waiting to be shed. As she pushed her suitcase toward the hall leading to the guest rooms, the sound of running water reached her ears. What in the world?
Her gaze tracked to the guest bathroom. The door was closed, and light filtered from beneath it. Someone was in the shower. Alarm crawled up Alicia’s spine, stopping her in her tracks. Intruder? Unexpected guest? She fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone. Before she could grab it, a small black dog rushed at her from the bedroom to her right.
Alicia yelped as the dog planted its front paws on her bare calves and let out a stream of high-pitched barks. Her ears were ringing as the bathroom door opened, and oh God, what was happening? She stepped back, tripping over her suitcase in a fruitless effort to flee. A woman stood in the doorway to the bathroom, wearing a pale blue towel. Her brown hair was wet around her face, and her mouth hung open in surprise.
“Shit,” Alicia squeaked as fear segued into a confusing mess of other things, because she knew this woman. This was Clare Lavoie, Lex’s annoyingly bubbly friend and the woman Alicia had harbored a secret crush on for years.
“Alicia?” Clare asked, brows knitted as she adjusted the towel where it was tucked between her breasts.
Alicia quickly dropped her gaze, only to find herself staring at Clare’s bare legs. Her whole body flushed hot, and her fist clenched around the handle of her suitcase. She squeezed her eyes shut as if she could make this unfortunate situation just disappear. The black dog circled her at hyper speed, still barking, and this was so much more chaos than she had the bandwidth for right now.
She inhaled slowly and opened her eyes. “Clare, what are you doing here?”
* * *
Clareblinked at the woman in front of her. Her heart was still beating erratically from the shock of opening the bathroom door to find someone standing on the other side. “Rue, hush,” she told her dog, who was running circles around them, barking. “Sorry about her, and…uh, hi?”
Alicia glared at her. Her long blonde hair was wild and windswept as if she’d just come off the ferry. “What are you doing here?” she repeated.
“Lex let me stay here this weekend,” Clare told her. “I’m guessing she and Brandi must have gotten their wires crossed and offered the house to you too?”
Alicia huffed out a breath. “Yes. Dammit.” Her eyes flicked to Clare and then immediately returned to her suitcase, reminding Clare that she was standing here in nothing but a towel.
“Well, no worries as far as I’m concerned,” Clare told her, clamping her arms against herself to keep the towel in place. “There are two guest rooms. Actually, I was planning to be here with a friend of mine, but she backed out last minute, so I’d be glad to have some company.”
“I came here to be alone.” Alicia pressed her lips together. Her posture was rigid, far too tense for a woman on vacation, but then again, Clare had always gotten an uptight vibe from her.
“Sorry to intrude,” Clare said. “Give me a minute to get dressed, and then we’ll figure this out.”
She went into her bedroom and closed the door. As she pulled on lounge pants and a T-shirt, she realized belatedly that Rue hadn’t followed her into the room. Hopefully she wasn’t pestering Alicia. Clare wasn’t bothered by her prickly personality, but she wouldn’t tolerate anyone being unkind to her dog. But when she opened the bedroom door, she found Alicia crouched in the hallway, rubbing Rue’s belly while the dog’s tail thumped happily against the floor. Clare smiled at the sight.
“I might not stay,” Alicia said, still petting Rue, “but I’m too tired to take the ferry back tonight.”
