Chapter Four

There were only two reasons why someone would be up this early in Seaside Cove. Either they were a fisherman, or they were doing a walk of shame.

Lauren groaned loudly. Not like there was anyone around to hear it. When was the last time she’d started the day wearing the same clothes she’d had on the night before?

Well, at least she got to see the sunrise. How often could she claim that? And it was a phenomenal sunrise that morning. The sky looked like it was on fire, all reds and yellows and oranges.

Lauren chewed on her lip as she continued her walk back to Grams’s house. She couldn’t believe she’d actually slept with Ethan McAllister. What in the hell had she been thinking? She sighed. What’s done was done, and she’d had a good time. Even better than good. Ethan had been…quite amazing, really. And she had no regrets about enjoying that.

The only thing was that now she had to face the music.

Or, more precisely, her grandmother.

Her stomach turned. While she’d like to think it was from one too many cocktails, she knew the real source of worry lay at the end of the driveway in the gorgeous Victorian house.

She’d texted Grams the night before and said she was hanging with a friend. Grams was way too smart to believe that. Lauren might as well enjoy these last few moments of peace.

There was another thing to think about, too. She hadn’t exactly been discreet last night. Half the town had watched her suck face with Ethan and then leave the bar together, their intentions as clear as the alcohol in all those gin and tonics she’d been downing.

It was only a matter of time before the gossip train dropped off the news of her hookup.

What Lauren expected to see as she made her way up the driveway to Grams’s house were some fishing boats out on the water and a dark house still fast asleep. She did not anticipate running smack dab into her sister, who was sprawled across the porch on a yoga mat. Lauren wobbled, tried to right herself, but went down hard on the porch with a big thud.

“Owww,” she moaned, rubbing her wrist. “What the hell, Gabby?”

“Namaste.” A big grin spread across Gabby’s face.

Lauren would be annoyed, but her youngest sister was so damn hard to get mad at. Gabby was a petite dynamo with pretty auburn curls that trailed past her shoulders, big blue eyes, and the most endearing smile known to man.

Currently, she was wearing black yoga pants and a pink fitted top. Her feet were bare, and her hair was piled on top of her head. A few curls had snuck out to frame her face. She looked like she could be posing on the cover of a fitness catalog.

Gabby had always been into yoga, Pilates, and dance of all forms, and she’d had a body to reflect those interests. But Lauren couldn’t help but notice her sister was looking a little thin.

That made reality race back and slap her in the face.

“You okay?” Lauren asked, after she untangled herself from Gabby and helped her stand up.

“I think I’m the one who should be asking you that question.”

“Me?”

“She who stays out all night long and does the walk of shame home in the morning.” Gabby’s grin grew even wider.

Lauren leaned back against the railing of the porch and crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t say anything about a walk of shame.” Nothing shameful about what happened between her and Ethan last night. “That’s your opinion.”

“Whatever you say.” Gabby grinned. “By the way, Brooke arrived late last night.”

Lauren tried to remember her sister’s flight details. She couldn’t, but she was positive Brooke wasn’t supposed to get here for another week or so. “Seriously?”

Gabby shrugged. “She might as well still be in Chicago, though. She’s been on the phone with her fiancé since she arrived.” Gabby tilted her head, a mischievous look on her face. “One sister is all about her fiancé, and the other sister spent the night with a mystery man.”

“What if I slept in my car?”

“Oh please. Your car was parked here all night. Besides, Grams said you were hanging with ‘a friend.’” Gabby used air quotes to emphasize her point. “Neither of us bought that.”

Great, just great. Lauren grew serious. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived.”

She took a closer inspection of her sister. Gabby put on a good front, but Lauren couldn’t miss the pallor of her skin, the dark circles under her eyes, and worst of all, the sadness in those eyes.

“That’s okay,” Gabby said, not quite making eye contact. “Really. I got in late. Grams and I made some ice cream sundaes, then I went to bed.”

“Ice cream at night? Damn, she must be softening. She would have never let me eat ice cream for dinner. She always went easier on you.”

“Maybe she just likes me better.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Lauren grinned. She reached over and lightly tugged on one of Gabby’s loose curls. “I see you’re back to your normal hair color.”

Gabby shrugged. “I was doing purple for a while, which I really liked, even though Grams told me I looked like Barney the dinosaur when I FaceTimed her. But I was kinda missing being myself.”

“Speaking of being you…” Lauren began.

Gabby narrowed her eyes. “Were we?”

With her sweetest smile, Lauren continued. “Yes. Now, I’ve come up with a plan for you.” When Gabby simply raised her eyebrows, Lauren went on. “I have a few simple items to help you get your life back on track.”

Gabby snorted. “A life plan, huh? Does it have bullet points?”

Lauren ignored the sarcasm. “Of course it has bullet points. And sub-lists and color coordination.”

Gabby stretched her arms over her head. “If it’s not in an Excel spreadsheet, I’m not doing it.”

“Make fun all you want,” Lauren said. “But I’m not just in Seaside Cove for vacation. Neither is Brooke,” she said through gritted teeth.

Lauren’s feelings about Brooke had never been simple. While she knew that Brooke coming to Maine was going to add a lot of frustration to her life, she also knew that Gabby needed both of her sisters.

“We’re here to help you, Gabs. There’s no better way to do that than by getting organized.”

As she began to readjust her yoga mat, Gabby frowned, a gesture she rarely did. Before she could talk herself out of it, Lauren decided to drop the “Gabby life plan” and give her sister something to make her smile again.

“Is it technically a one-night stand if you’ve known the person for a really long time?”

“I think my yoga practice is done for the day.” Gabby dropped her mat. “You had a one-night stand? With who?” She was practically jumping up and down. “Tell me. Tell me!”

Gabby’s phone started playing “Here Comes the Sun.” She picked it up, and her smile faded quickly, then she hit a button and the Beatles’ song abruptly ended.

“Everything okay?” she asked, trying to be as nonchalant as she could. But her sister’s entire demeanor had changed in a second.

Gabby didn’t say anything.

After another few moments, Lauren tried again. “Gabs?”

“What? Oh, it’s nothing.” She pasted a smile on her face, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Back to you and your little sexcapade.”

Lauren had a million questions. She studied her sister. Again, Lauren decided to stay quiet and give Gabby something else to focus on. Even if it was at her own expense.

She wiggled her eyebrows. “I don’t know if I should kiss and tell.”

“Oh, please. You’re dying to tell, and I’m dying to hear. Spill!”

Lauren took a seat on one of the wicker chairs, and Gabby joined her on the adjacent one. Almost in sync, they both pulled their legs up so they were sitting cross-legged. And Lauren told her sister all about last night.

When she was done, Gabby tapped a finger to her lips. “Didn’t you used to fight with him all the time? Am I making that up?”

“No, you’re right.” That was the complicated part. Lauren rose and walked to the porch railing, watching a bird fly gracefully overhead until it made a swift dive into the ocean to retrieve its next meal. Mother Nature held no answers for her, though.

She turned back around to face her sister. “We hung out all the time because I was dating Robbie, and Ethan was Robbie’s best friend. But we kind of had this whole frenemy thing going on. Right up until we kissed.”

“So, how did you go from hate to lust?” Gabby asked, then shook her head. “No, that doesn’t matter. Here’s the real question. Are you going to see him again? And by ‘see’ I mean get down and dirty with him naked?”

Lauren shook her head as she laughed. “You need to get your libido in check. And I don’t know about Ethan. I mean, I don’t live here, and it was kind of just this spontaneous thing that happened. Totally not in my plans. In fact, he already wreaked havoc on my plans by keeping me away from here when you arrived.”

“Who kept you away?” Grams, who had just appeared right behind Lauren out of freaking nowhere, asked.

Lauren jumped a mile. “Holy grandma ninja! Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Grams usually started her day hella early to get into the café and start baking.

“Kelsey is doing the morning shift today.” Grams pinned her with a stare, and it took all of one second for Lauren to start squirming. “Six o’clock in the morning,” Grams said.

Lauren looked to her sister, but Gabby stayed planted firmly in her seat.

“I realize it’s early,” Lauren said.

“Or, one could say it’s late. As in, you stayed out all night, Lauren Rose Wallace.”

This was ridiculous. Lauren was thirty-three years old. She shouldn’t have to explain to her grandmother, or anyone else, where she was and what she was doing.

“I sent you a text so you would know that I was with a friend. And I was fine.” Better than fine. Especially with Ethan’s muscular arms wrapped around her.

“A text message? That’s what your eighty-year-old grandmother deserves? Someone could have stolen your phone and sent that while they were harvesting your organs.”

“When did you get so dramatic?”

“When did you start lying?”

Her head snapped up at that question. Her heart started beating rapidly, too. Oh shit. She knew. She had to know. Grams was pinning her with one of those stares. Those “I know exactly what you were up to, and I’ve been standing here letting you lie to my face” stares.

“But speaking of text messages, I’ve received quite a few this morning.” Grams waved her phone in the air.

Shiiiiiit.

“How do you think it feels to find out my eldest granddaughter is out there offering her body up to Ethan McAllister?”

“Ohmigod, Grams!”

“Everyone in Seaside Cove knows that you shoved your tongue down his throat in the middle of a crowded bar.”

“Well, um, it was kind of an accident,” Lauren said. As far as excuses went, this was one of her worst.

Grams crossed her arms over her chest. “Was leaving the bar with Ethan also an accident? Because it doesn’t sound like it was.”

“Um, well…”

“I’m assuming you ended up at his house. Or did the two of you get a room at a pay-by-the-hour, seedy motel off the highway?”

And Grams wondered where Gabby got her dramatic chops from.

“We went to his house. It’s not a big deal,” Lauren said.

“Not a big deal? It’s becoming a big deal as the entire population of Seaside Cove is waking up to your escapades on the front page of the newspaper.”

Grams was exaggerating about the newspaper, but just barely. Lauren knew it, yet she was still annoyed. “All I did was hang out with an old friend.”

“‘Hang out?’ Is that what we’re calling sex these days?”

“Are you judging me, Grams?”

“No.” She pointed to Lauren and then to Gabby. “I have never judged one of you. Not ever.”

Lauren exchanged a look with Gabby, who had one eyebrow raised.

“I didn’t judge you when you decided to double major in theater and philosophy,” Grams said to Gabby.

With a minor in Latin, Lauren silently added.

Gabby took a drink from her water bottle. “You told me I didn’t have a lick of sense and that I’d never find a job.”

“And I didn’t judge this one,” Grams continued, hooking a thumb toward Lauren, “when you quit your well-paying job with benefits and a 401(k) to go off and start your own business dabbling in Instagram.”

“I don’t dabble,” Lauren said, hearing the defensiveness in her voice. “I am a social media strategist.” She didn’t mention that she’d pulled in a six-figure salary last year and had to hire two people, with more staff coming in the future. “You called me a damn fool.”

Ignoring both of them, Grams went on. “Have I said anything judgy about your sister’s long string of jackass boyfriends?”

“You called her fiancé a ‘cheese dick’ last night,” Gabby said, using air quotes to make her point.

Grams shook her head. “Speaking the truth is not judgmental. It’s just the truth. Brooke’s fiancé is a cheese dick.”

Lauren opened her mouth to say otherwise but quickly shut it. “Yeah,” she agreed. Gabby nodded. None of them were fans of Brooke’s fiancé, Lucas.

“Now, if we’re done here, I’m going to go make a pot of coffee.”

“And some blueberry scones?” Gabby asked hopefully.

Grams narrowed her eyes. Gabby dazzled her with her biggest, brightest smile. As usual, Grams caved. “And blueberry scones.”

Gabby pumped her fist in the air.

But Grams wasn’t quite done. “I’ll also be playing your PR assistant as I continue to receive calls about your…untoward behavior.”

Lauren groaned.

Grams pointed at her. “Make sure you take a shower. God knows what you got on you sitting at that bar for hours last night.”

“Hey, I heard you go into that bar all the time,” Lauren said.

“And I take a shower afterward.” Grams started to walk back into the house, but she paused in front of Lauren, placed a hand on her shoulder, and lowered her voice. “You okay?”

She wanted to say something sarcastic or snarky, but she knew this was Grams’s way. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Grams’s eyes softened as she looked her up and down. She gave a definitive nod. “Good.” Then her scowl returned, and she continued on into the house.

“As much as I’d love to stay here and keep talking about your ‘untoward behavior,’” Gabby said with a wry grin, “I gotta go meditate. I need to find my center.”

Gabby wasn’t the only one who needed to find her center after last night. At least she was done with the “telling Grams” portion of this nightmare. Now, she just needed to decide what to do about the man she’d never in a million years imagined she’d be having a morning-after conversation with.

…

Ethan had woken up with a big ole smile on his face. That grin got even bigger as he’d taken in the messy blankets, the twisted sheets, his boxer shorts hanging over a lamp in his bedroom…

Then he’d realized he was alone.

Had Lauren Wallace used him and then snuck out?

He snagged his phone and saw that she’d sent him a text message. Thank goodness he’d remembered to exchange numbers with her.

Had to run. Didn’t want to wake you. Great to “catch” up. ;-)

A text message wasn’t the most ideal end to such a great evening, but it was better than nothing. Although, he couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling as he showered and cleaned up his bedroom. Since he didn’t have to be at the bar for a couple hours, he decided to take a walk.

But as he made his way around town, he couldn’t stop feeling disappointed. He didn’t want last night to be a one-time thing. He’d love to see more of her.

Sure, he knew Lauren lived out of town now. Not to mention, she probably had some list about why getting involved was a bad idea. But what if… He couldn’t help but ponder.

Ethan circled around to the docks. He’d always liked walking around this area, checking out the boats, taking in the activity of the local fishermen. The sound of birds chattering as they tried to feast on the findings of the fishermen. It was comforting to hear the boats banging against their docks as the water lapped against the shore.

After taking a good long time to brood, he finally pushed away and turned. That’s when he spotted Lauren walking out of The Fish Hut. Tourists always stopped in The School to pick up their fish when visiting. It was a nice, clean seafood restaurant on the water that also sold raw fish for cooking. But the residents of Seaside Cove favored The Fish Hut, the local fish market, where the prices weren’t jacked up and the fish were always freshly caught. That’s where Lauren was exiting, a bag in her hand.

He knew he should let it go. No reason to go over to her. Yet, his brain wasn’t relaying that information to his feet, and he found himself picking up the pace to meet her.

“Lauren,” he called when he was close enough.

She stopped in her tracks, slowly turning to face him. She’d obviously showered and changed. Ethan thought she looked fresh and beautiful in a long flowery dress and sandals. She had a scarf tied in her dark hair, and her face was clean and free of makeup, which, in his opinion, she didn’t need anyway.

“Ethan, hi,” she said, shuffling her feet and biting her lip.

“Good morning,” he replied easily. “What are you doing down here?”

She held up the plastic bag. “Grams sent me to pick up some fish for tonight. She’s making a big dinner for me and my sisters—they both got in last night. Although she claims it’s only for her.”

He studied her, surprised at her behavior. For someone he’d seen at their most intimate last night, it was a bit odd that she wasn’t meeting his eyes. Might as well get straight to the point, then. “I never would have taken you for the love ’em and leave ’em type.”

She blushed. “I’m not. Not usually, anyway.”

He took a step closer. “Should I be honored or offended by that?”

She made a choked sound. “Excuse me?”

“One little text message.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “That’s all I get after everything we did together last night?”

“Shhh,” she hissed with wide eyes. “I’ve already gotten an earful from Grams, who claims that everyone in town knows what happened.” She glanced toward the water for a long moment. “Anyway, I’m sorry I didn’t wake you this morning. It was kind of shitty of me.”

“Apology accepted,” he said easily. “But next time, I expect a handwritten note.”

She arched a brow. “Next time?”

“Yes.” He knew she wasn’t going to go for it, but he would try anyway. “I’m not sure how long you’re planning on staying in town, but rumor has it I’m going to ask you out.”

“Oh really? I haven’t heard that rumor yet.”

Ethan rocked back on his heels. He tried to decipher her body language. His gut was telling him she was interested, but he also suspected this wouldn’t be an easy sell.

He took another step closer. “What do you think?”

“You and I are very different.”

“Hm, seems to me we were on the same page last night.”

She twined her fingers together. “Look, last night was…”

“Hot? Erotic? Fun? Sexy? All of the above?”

“Unexpected,” she said.

“Sometimes the best things can be found in the unexpected.”

“Thank you, walking fortune cookie.” Her sarcastic smile faded as she took a moment to chew on a fingernail. “Listen, Ethan, last night was…a one-time thing. Okay?”

“Unless we do it again,” he said, “and then it can be a two-time thing.”

She rolled her eyes dramatically.

“Did you have fun?”

She offered a small smile and kept her voice low when she answered. “You know I did.”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“This”—she gestured between them—“was not in my plans when I decided to come home to Seaside Cove.”

“Do you always stick to the plan?”

“Ah, yeah,” she said as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. “Why would you make a plan if you didn’t intend to stick to it?”

“Maybe a better opportunity comes along.”

She narrowed her eyes. A cute little wrinkle formed on her forehead. “Hmm. I guess I didn’t really take the time to ask you many questions last night.”

He offered his most charming grin. “You know what’s a good place to get to know me? A romantic candlelit dinner with wine and snotty waiters.”

She sighed. “Ethan McAllister.”

“So that’s a hard no for dinner with me on Wednesday?”

“The fact that I didn’t wake you up and did the whole sneaky-sneaky, get-out-of-Dodge-the-morning-after act should have really clued you in to my future intentions.”

“Lunch instead of dinner, then?”

Finally, she broke. She laughed, forcing her dimples to make an appearance, and Ethan got the feeling he was getting through to her.

Just then, a loud whistle from halfway down the street broke through the intimate bubble around them. One of the guys Ethan recognized from the bar last night was giving them a thumbs-up.

“Right there,” Lauren said. “That’s another reason we can’t go out again.”

“We didn’t really go out,” he said. “Technically. We went outside but then walked straight to my house. Not a date. Not an outing.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “You’re ridiculous.” She shook her head, and her face grew serious. “I really don’t want to be the center of the gossip gazette. And I’m only here temporarily.”

He took in her words. “I wasn’t in your plan, and you never change plans.”

She blushed. “Exactly, yeah.”

“You seriously don’t want anything else to happen with us because of your plan?”

A long silence stretched between them. Ethan had the feeling they were both willing the other to give in.

“Friends?” she finally asked.

“We’ve always been friends,” he replied, trying hard not to let his disappointment show.

And he must have succeeded, because she smiled and blew out a breath, like she was relieved. “Great,” she said, nodding, then stepped back and started to turn away. “Great. See you around.”

He waved her off with a smile, but after last night, there was no way Ethan could go back to being friends-only. Or frenemies-only. Or whatever they’d only been that they definitely weren’t anymore. But until Lauren figured that out, he would let it go and respect her decision. Because that’s what friends did, even if it hurt them to do it.