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Adam agreed to “pay attention,” but after he’d ended the call, he tossed his phone in the console without checking his voicemail or email. Now more than ever, he wanted to think about Bee, not all the crap that had ruined his career. Or having to go back into it again.
Since the crew wouldn’t expect him at the library until later, he drove into downtown Bliss Cove.
The morning fog had burned off, and the crisp, bright sunshine fell over the ocean in little bursts of reflected light. Cypress trees arched from the rocky coastline, and the historic boardwalk spread alongside and into the cove like a protractor.
He parked and walked along Starfish Avenue, turning toward Sugar Joy. As he approached the courtyard, the bakery door opened. Clyde Constantine came out, holding the door open for the woman exiting behind him. Marilyn Lawford.
Adam stopped. Clyde and Marilyn spoke for a moment. She smiled. He smiled back, lifting his coffee cup in a salute before heading in the opposite direction. Marilyn walked toward a glossy BMW parked at the curb.
Adam started after Clyde, then remembered that the actor was most agreeable in the early evening before the shoot. He’d wait to talk to him then.
He returned to Starfish Avenue. He knew Marilyn was trying to undermine Bee’s efforts to save the library—which also meant finding ways to useHex or Hoax?to her advantage.
But no one involved with the Explorer Channel, Constantine included, had ever let anything outside of advertising and ratings affect the show’s production.
Which reminded Adam that he couldn’t either. As much as he wanted to do whatever he could to help Bee with the Gardenia House, he had a responsibility to do his job objectively. He just had to keep his intense feelings for her separate from his work.
His stomach rumbled. The crew had been raving about the all-day breakfast served at Ruby’s Kitchen—which Adam hadn’t yet taken advantage of. As much as he craved a huge plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, he didn’t want to eat alone.
Or rather, he wanted to eat with one person in particular.
Hoping Bee wasn’t still sleeping, he sent her a quick text.Awake? Hungry?
Her reply came in five seconds.Yes and yes.
I’m close to Ruby’s Kitchen. My treat.
She arrived in fifteen minutes. As she approached him from her car, Adam knew he had to find more ways to be with her outside. They spent most of their time together in the library—often in the dark. Not that he was complaining, but…damn.
Bee outdoors with the breeze in her hair and the sunlight illuminating her face and shining in her eyes…she was like a vision and a painting and a mural and a mosaic. Though he’d never paid much attention to beautiful artistic things, he was certain that Bee Delaney eclipsed them all.
“Morning.” She smiled. Her lips were a pale, glossy pink, and she smelled soapy and fragrant like wildflowers.
“Sleep well?” she asked.
He nodded. Sometimes, he didn’t know what happened to his voice around her. “You?”
“I’m getting used to our vampire schedule, although Edgar Allan Crow is still confused about why I keep showing up at four in the morning.”
“Where’d you get Edgar?”
“He used to belong to Pearl, the director who hired me. She had to rehome Edgar when she moved up to Washington, so I offered to take him.”
Tenderness nudged at Adam. No surprise that Bee was a soft touch when it came to orphaned animals. Lucky for him, she seemed to be the same way with semi-orphaned, fallen scientists.
After they were seated at a booth in the diner, they spent the next hour devouring pancakes and debating the level of real-world accuracy needed in stories and movies.
Bee, of course, gave suspension of disbelief full merit while Adam argued that it was the responsibility of the writers and filmmakers to verify all the facts.
“Have you been to the boardwalk yet?” she asked as she scraped up the last bite of pancake and syrup with her fork.
“Not yet.” Adam dug into his pocket for his wallet. “Paul and I were going to grab some shots over the weekend when it’s busier.”
“Let’s stop on the way to the library.” She patted her lips with a napkin and reached for her purse. “I haven’t been there in a while, but I’ve been thinking about it.”
“Why’s that?”
“In my research, I found out that Captain Marcus led a campaign to save it when it was in danger of being torn down,” Bee explained. “And we saw in that photo that Millicent Pepper’s women’s league had been involved in regulations for the boardwalk. So I wanted to take a walk down there and see if I noticed anything different.”
