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Wes laughed. “I just burned a ton of calories out there riding those waves.” Mostly, he stood in the shallow area and made sure the summer camp kids could stand on the board for a few seconds, but he’d skipped breakfast, not having much of an appetite after the crash-and-burn situation of the night before. “I’ll have the same,” he told the guy behind the counter.
Marissa’s eyes widened as the guy handed her the overflowing ice cream cone. Wes accepted his, paid, and they headed back outside. The hardest part would be eating it before the sun turned it into a big melting mess.
Spotting a free picnic table on the sand, Wes nodded toward it as he licked around the base of his cone. “Let’s sit for a few minutes,” he said. “I can’t walk and eat at the same time.” The top chocolate scoop looked dangerously, haphazardly placed, and any sudden wrong moves could ruin a good thing.
Kinda like his sudden wrong moves with Sarah the night before. Shit, he’d really messed things up and had no idea what to do next. Would she want to talk about it or pretend it hadn’t happened? What didhewant?
“So what’s going on with you and Sarah?”
Wes choked on the ice cream, the creamy vanilla flavor sticking to his throat. He coughed. “Nothing.” He coughed again. “What gives you the idea that something’s going on?” Marissa had no idea that he’d returned to the B&B the night before…or about the untimely kiss.
She shrugged casually, but her perceptive little nine-year-old gaze was daring him to bullshit her. “Just a vibe, I guess.”
Kids obviously noticed and saw more than adults gave them credit for. He wasn’t a great liar, and she was the last person on earth he’d want to deceive, but he actually didn’t know what was happening between him and Sarah.
“Well, we go way back,” he said carefully. “And I do like her…” More than he realized, maybe. The kiss suggested he more than liked her, but he couldn’t quite define his feelings. Suddenly he found her hot as hell. She was amazing with his daughter…
“I’ve always loved Dove’s Nest and felt sad when it closed, so I’m glad she’s making it better and reopening it. Do you think she might consider staying?” Marissa asked.
Obviously that’s whatMarissawanted. Wes didn’t hate the idea of Sarah staying in Blue Moon Bay, either, but she had her own life goals and a career she was working hard to advance in. Wes knew firsthand what it was like to have dreams derailed, so he didn’t think for a second that Sarah should stay. “I’m not sure,” he said honestly. “Hey, I know you really like her and like hanging out with her…”
“We have a lot in common,” she said.
He turned to face her, his own ice cream forgotten and dripping down his forearm. “Yeah, and that’s wonderful. I just don’t want you to be too disappointed when she goes back to L.A.”
Marissa licked her own dripping ice cream. “She said we’ll keep in touch.”
Would she want to keep in touch with him as well? Probably not after last night. And did he want to stay in touch? That part was still frustratingly unclear. He’d had the first kiss—best possible kiss—since Kelly, and it had definitely spurred something in him, but a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work when he had Marissa to consider.
“Hey, I have an idea—why don’t we bring something back for her?” Marissa said. “You know, as a thank-you for letting me work with her.”
“Sure,” he said. It was actually a good idea. It would also serve as an apology from him about the night before. “What were you thinking?”
“What about one of those?” Marissa said, pointing to the hut behind them. Harrison’s Blown Glass. Hanging outside were hand-blown glass ornaments in different shapes and colors, capturing the sun’s light and reflecting against the sidewalk and surrounding buildings. “She could hang it in her house in L.A. and it will remind her of home. Of us.”
Wes smiled, inhaling the entire melting mess in one big bite and standing as brain freeze threatened to numb his mind. “I think it’s perfect. She’ll love it.”
He may not know how to fix the tension between himself and Sarah, but this apology present was a great first step.
Chapter Eleven
The next day, a light tap on her bedroom door had Sarah getting up from her laptop and opening it. No one was there, but on the floor sat a pretty box with a tag on it. She picked it up and read:To Sarah…From Wes and Marissa.
Wes was here?
Her heart raced a little at the thought of seeing him. The day before, he hadn’t shown up and neither had Marissa, and she’d hoped he wouldn’t prevent the little girl from continuing to work with her, just because of the obvious tension that would be between them now. So far, she’d helped Marissa with the website and her sports app, but she’d yet to pick the little girl’s brain for ideas for her SmartTech proposal, and time was running out.
Opening the box, she took out a beautiful blown-glass ornament and gasped. It was breathtakingly beautiful with various shades of blue mixed in an intoxicating way inside the dome. Her heart warmed as she carried it inside the room and hung it near the window. The colors reflected the sun, and the kaleidoscope effect across the bedroom floor would have had a calming effect if her pulse wasn’t frantic.
Hearing their voices downstairs, she took a deep breath before leaving the room. She couldn’t avoid him now. Following the sound, she found them in the den. “Hey, did someone leave a gift outside my door?” she asked, trying desperately to sound casual. Normal. But her voice sounded slightly too high-pitched to pull it off.
Marissa didn’t seem to notice any tension as she grinned. “Did you like it? We bought it yesterday on the boardwalk.”
“It was beautiful and very thoughtful,” she said, avoiding Wes’s gaze. Her heart was pounding so loud, he had to hear it across the room. “Thank you.”
“It was Marissa’s idea,” he said.
Of course it was.
