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Kory stared off into space for a moment, smiling mysteriously in the way she sometimes did when distracted by a funny thought or something. Then she gave a brisk wave of her hand. “Anyway, Mary was just asking me the other day if I knew anyone with management experience looking for a job because she’s down an assistant, and I told her no, but” — Kory squealed as she bounced in her seat — “now I do!”
“I don’t know,” Andy said warily. “I don’t know much about surfing.”
Muchbeing the operative word. She had, in recent weeks, become quite interested in the sport. And a select few of its practitioners. But that was her little secret.
“Well,” Kory drawled, “you sold surfboards at ManCave, didn’t you?”
True. She had. Just not as many as camping tents. Andy nodded as her roommate carried on.
“Oh my gosh, you’d be perfect for this job.” Kory popped up from her chair, jetted to her room, and came back with her laptop. After a moment of typing, she turned the device towards Andy. “You should apply right away. I don’t know how long the position will be open. This place is really popular.”
Andy glanced at the store’s website, which featured a sand dollar graphic with the wordsThe Sand Spotarcing over it. The logo was layered over a full-screen image of a lone surfer sitting on her board waiting for a swell. Her back was to the camera, her long auburn hair dripping down an hourglass figure. The whole thing looked sporty, sexy, and cool.
Andy wasn’t real sure she was any of those things. But there was a part of her that wanted to be. A part of her that was captivated by the woman floating about on that board. A part of her that wished more than a little bit she couldbethat woman. Which was wild considering Andy’s aversion to sand. And her slight fear of actually stepping foot in the ocean.
Andy stared at the screen, a flutter of nervous excitement taking root in her belly. “Well, I guess it could be a good lateral move. Like, similar to what I was doing before, just at a more specialized shop.” Gnawing on her lip, she glanced at her friend. “You really think I could do this?”
“Girrrl,” Kory drawled, “Iknowyou can.” Pushing the laptop closer to Andy, she smiled. “Butyou’llnever know till you try.”
Chapter six
“Thanksforcomingintoday. I have several more candidates to interview, so if you don’t hear back from me, go ahead and assume I picked one of them.”
Propping a forearm against the door frame separating his workshop from the sales floor, Luke listened to his sister “thank you, next” yet another poor soul.
“But you’ll consider me?” the dude asked as she ushered him from the store.
“If it will make you feel better to think so, sure.”
The guy shot her a goofy, stoned grin. “Righteous.”
Mary closed the door on him, locked it, and turned, her back hitting the glass and making the capiz shells hanging from its handle tinkle. “For the love of Christ, why can’t I find a single manager prospect in this city with a shred of intelligence?”
“’Cause you’ve already interviewed and rejected all of them. Because you’re picky as hell.”
Mary shot Luke the stink-eye, then wrinkled her nose at the lingering pungent scent in the air.
“Baby Frankie not into Eau de Cannabis?” he quipped.
“Nope.” Settling a palm on the large round bump on full display below her crop top, Mary walk-waddled over to the sales counter at the side of the store.
Luke beat her there since it was just outside the workshop door, and as she plopped down on the cushioned stool behind it, he pressed a kiss to the coppery wisps at her hairline, noting her usual rosy complexion was looking a little green. “Want me to get you another one of those shakes to settle your stomach?”
“Nah, I texted Paul already,” she said, staring at the computer in front of her. “He’ll pick up my usual on his break from the clinic.”
At the mention of Baby Daddy Paul, Luke frowned. He didn’t like the man. Neither of his boys did either. Number one reason for this was the whole knocking Mary up and not marrying her thing. Regardless of his sister’s views on marriage — which were less than favorable, to say the least — it still didn’t sit well with Luke that some jerk-off chiropractor had impregnated his sister, and three trimesters into said pregnancy had yet to even attempt to pop the question.
Dylan was of the opinion they should take the dude out on his dad’s boat, bloody him up a bit, then drag him through the water until the fear of being eaten alive by the local shark population scared a proposal out of him.
Kyle concurred. Or at least, Luke assumed he did. When it came to his other friend and the baby daddy, there was a lot of silent communication going on. Most of which involved Kyle either ignoring Paul Berry or staring him down like he’d like to crush his larynx with the power of his mind.
Luke was less extreme in his thoughts on the guy who’d sired his niece.
But he still didn’t like him.
“Get out of my cashwrap,” Mary said, shooing Luke away with a flick of her fingers. “I need to get one more interview in this week, and your scowly face is messing with my mojo.”
Luke snorted at his sister’s dismissal. One that rather reminded him of being kicked off a certain someone’s towel several days ago. A certain someone who hadnotyet returned to the beach. Had he actually scared the little bird off for good?
