My phone buzzes, and I immediately pick it up.
Josie
Sooooo? I think I manifested him for you.
Wendy
Not happening. Gran took the reservation yesterday. He’s staying for two months.
Josie
What?! Wendy. WENDY. This man is summer-crush material. Mia and I have already shipped you!
Wendy
Don’t you dare! This is how rumors get started. I’ll murder you BOTH!
Josie
Too late. She thinks you should start wearing cute clothes every day.
Wendy
Shut it!
I set the phone down. For the first time since I came home, saving the B&B seems possible.
Josie
OMFG! Mia just said if you don’t make a move, maybe she will.
Wendy
Goodbye, Josie.
Josie
He’s packing heat. I was catching print! Nothing like some D to turn that frown upside down!
Wendy
GOODBYE, JOSIE!!!
The pipes rattle again upstairs, and I close the laptop. For the next two months, I’ll have Carter Banks under my roof, and all I have to do is stay focused on keeping him happy so I can save this place. Someone say a little prayer for me.
chapter two
Carter
The Captain’s Room is better than I expected, which annoys me because I arrived prepared to hate it. A king-size bed sits against the far wall with bright white sheets and a headboard made from reclaimed wood. The ceiling fan wobbles with every rotation, but it still moves air. The walls are a faded coastal blue, and antique furniture is sprinkled around the room. On the nightstand, a lamp with seashells glued to it has a hairline crack running down the base, showing where it’s been glued back together. I’m not used to anyone keeping broken things, people included.
Through a set of glass doors, the covered balcony faces the ocean. I drop my bags and slide them open. Crystal-blue water stretches past white sand, and beyond that is an endless sky without a single cloud. Warm salt air fills my lungs on what might be the first deep breath I’ve taken in months—make that years. I can’t remember the last time I looked at a beach that wasn’t on a screensaver or from a plane window.
A couple walks the shoreline while their kid runs ahead, chasing a wave. Somewhere below the balcony, a ukulele plays while chatter drifts up in the breeze. I stand in that spot for ten minutes, listening to the waves mixing with seagulls calling.That’s about as long as I can focus before I’m calculating business scenarios for the deals that are closing before the end of the summer. My brain doesn’t know how to rest, and I’m so fucking exhausted by it all.
I go back inside and unpack because I’m restless. The folded shirts go on the top shelf of the dresser, shorts in the middle, jeans in the bottom drawer. Sandals and running shoes are set in the bottom of the closet, and I hang my polo shirts and slacks. My second duffel has two boxes of protein bars that I stack on top of the dresser because I forget to eat when no one is around to remind me. The thriller books I packed go on the nightstand. They’ve been on my reading list since last year, but something more urgent always came first.
It takes me thirty minutes to put everything away.
