Gabby answered her cell phone. "Hello, Noah."
"Hi, Aunt Gabby."
When he hesitated, her heart started to pound. "Is everything okay? Is your grandfather okay?"
"Oh, yes. The reason I'm calling is to find out if you still have that job opening for an assistant at the B & B."
"I've interviewed a few people and narrowed it down to two. Why?"
"Well, I met someone who's interested in the job. Do you think you could interview her?"
"Of course. What's her name? Does she live in Somewhere?"
"Her name is Sunny. Ah, I don't know her last name." He hesitated again. "I guess I should start at the beginning."
Gabby listened to the boy who was her dead husband's distant cousin, but always called her Aunt Gabby, as he described his encounter with a young woman that morning. She thought about her son's admonishment that she was too gullible, but at the age of fifty-seven, she had no intention to stop listening to her gut. If Noah thought the girl deserved a chance, then she'd get it, with or without an interview. But to keep Noah from thinking he was taking advantage of her, she agreed to an interview in five days, after the girl's foot mended.
She hung up and decided to warm her coffee and sit outside in the sunshine. Being the beginning of October, winter would soon bring storms and colder weather. She walked to the sideboard in the dining room to add more coffee and a dollop of cream to her cup, and then made her way to a rocker on her front porch. All of the B & B guests had left for the day and her chefs, Jennie and James, affectionately known as J & J who work at the B & B, were in the kitchen baking bread. Gabby sipped her coffee, watched waves lap the shore of the B & B's private beach, and thought about an incident that had happened a few weeks earlier and given her many sleepless nights. Closing her eyes, she relived the event.
Leo had called and said he had something important to discuss, but he couldn't get away from his restaurant. When she'd asked if his news had anything to do with their previous conversations about a corporation wanting to purchase a portion of the public beach to build a world class resort in their beloved town, his sigh had affirmed the answer, and she'd agreed to come to the restaurant to discuss the latest developments.
When she'd arrived, Noah had said his grandfather was in the basement due to plumbing problems, so she'd met him there and sat on a stair to wait for him. After he'd finished the task of vacuuming water, he'd started up the stairs and she'd risen, but he'd motioned for her to stay put and then sat beside her. They had discussed the latest development in the resort saga and she was about to leave, when their eyes locked and she'd allowed him to kiss her. The kiss had become fiery and passionate, and even now, Gabby relived the feeling. However, rationality on her part had intervened in what could have gotten out of hand, and she'd run from Leo.
Since then, he'd called several times and left voice messages because she hadn't answered when she saw the caller I.D. He'd also come to the B & B twice, but both times she'd grabbed her car keys and insisted she had errands to run. And two weeks ago, he'd left a final voice message saying she wouldn't hear from him because he was giving her space.
Gabby's hands tightened on the arms of her rocking chair. The "space" he'd given her hadn't changed anything. He was constantly on her mind, and most nights, she dreamed of being in his arms. She had never been a shy woman and loved the art of lovemaking, which had kept her husband very happy, but since his death six years earlier, she hadn't been on either the giving or receiving end of any romantic relationship. She had thought her memories would be sufficient.
And there was the crux of her problem. Beside the basement kissing incident, there was another memory that wouldn't go away—Leo kissing her when she was a young woman. They had somehow ended up together in a boathouse at the marina and the kiss had just happened. The problem was that she had recently married and Leo was engaged to her husband's second cousin, one removed, Loretta Hope. After that she'd avoided Leo and even become antagonistic toward him. When her husband had questioned her about it, she'd flippantly said, "He's arrogant and I don't like him." The townspeople, however, had chalked it up to an on-and-off feud between the Hope family members that had begun back in the 1920s, and she'd never contradicted that belief.
Tears stung Gabby's eyes. She had to get Leo out of her system once and for all and she had a plan. But could she convince him to have a one night stand with her?
The way she figured it, they'd have an overnight fling to satisfy their hormones, and then she could settle into her old age.