Brooklynn Perrish felt the weight of every eye as they continued to dart over to where David Reddington had sat down beside her. Practically on top of her, the oaf.
Even as she thought it, she regretted it. He was definitely not an oaf, and the scent of his cologne muddied her thoughts enough to mute Alecia’s voice at the front of the room. When Dave was nearby, he consumed all her mental energy.
And she really hated that.
“I came to volunteer for the Spring Fling,” he said in a whisper. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
Yes, it was. Well, one of the reasons. Why couldn’t Ginny face the front? There was nothing to see back here in the fourth row. Nothing, if Dave didn’t count as the most eligible bachelor in town.
And to Brooklynn, he didn’t. Oh, no, he did not.
She didn’t want another relationship, especially with Dave. Surely he knew that. He’d asked her out enough times and she’d told him no over and over.
Thankfully, he didn’t ask now, and Ginny finally turned all the way back to face Alecia, who was still going on about the activities the committee had planned. As if Hawthorne Harbor hadn’t been hosting the Spring Fling for ninety-two years now.
She looked down at her lap, where she’d balanced a notebook before Dave had come in and interrupted everything. Yes, she’d helped organize different parts of the Fling for years now. Why did she need to take notes?
She had no idea, only that she had. Her fingers twitched, and she started scribbling furiously to catch up on what she’d missed.
Dave sat there, unconcerned about notes. He seemed to be listening, but he could’ve just as easily been daydreaming about fishing or whatever he did on that huge boat out at the port.
Brooklynn once again felt a tug of regret. She knew what he did on Adelie, and it wasn’t fishing. She wasn’t sure why she was so antagonistic toward him.
Oh, wait. Yes, she did.
He loved the ocean. Went out on a boat every dang day.
And that same ocean had stolen her husband from her. Snatched him from the sky and snuffed his life out.
And that rescue boat Dave manned just down the coast? Couldn’t rescue Ryker.
Anger built inside her, giving way quickly to sadness and misery. When someone raised their hand to ask a question, she grew impatient. She really couldn’t sit here and smell Dave’s cologne all night, listening to idiotic queries about if the date could be changed.
Of course it couldn’t. The Spring Fling was always the third Saturday of April. Always. The apple trees were guaranteed to bloom by then, and that was a huge part of the festival. Plus, everyone had survived tax season, and the Spring Fling had originated in town by the local accounting office at the time. Her great-grandfather had owned that firm, and the tradition had been born.
And that brought her to another reason she was seated in the fourth row of this freezing room on a January night when she’d rather be baking.
She was a Magleby, and Magleby’s were expected to be involved around town. After all, her parents hadn’t left town like a few others, and just because she’d been married for eight months and bore a different last name on her driver’s license, she was still a Magleby, still in town, and thus, still expected to volunteer.
So she sat up straight and kept her pen moving across the page as Alecia talked. She finally finished with, “There are sheets up here to sign up for the different activities. We need as many people as we can get.” She stepped away from the microphone, and the silence in the room broke as people got up and started forward.
Chatter broke out, and Brooklynn looked at Dave.
Big mistake.
For he was so handsome—gorgeous! her mind screamed—and she hadn’t seen him in a few weeks. So she really needed a few seconds to drink in those dark, dreamy eyes, the slope of his straight nose, that strong jaw that never had a beard.
He must shave three times a day, she thought, glancing up to see his hair was getting long.
And by long, she could probably pinch it between her fingers if she tried. But she wasn’t going to do that. Oh, no, she was not.
She blinked when he smiled and nodded behind her. “Do you want to go sign up?”
No, she didn’t. “Yes,” she said, getting to her feet. Her back groaned, as she’d had a fifty-pound dog in the grooming van that day. Her website said the limit was forty pounds, but she was a sucker and couldn’t say no to a customer. Especially Nellie Ridgeway.
“You okay?” Dave asked, and Brooklynn looked back at him.
“Yes, why?”
“You seemed like you…never mind.”
She pulled her hand away from her lower back, where she’d been pushing to relieve some of the ache there. She didn’t need to hobble around in front of him like she was Aunt Mabel’s age.
Brooklynn put some distance between them, glad when he engaged in another conversation with someone else. In fact, she lost track of Dave entirely a few minutes later, and she wondered if he’d shown up to volunteer or just sit by her.
Warmth filled her from sole to scalp, because while she hadn’t accepted any of his invitations, the fact that he asked her out was flattering.
Brooklynn just wasn’t sure she could ever love someone as much as she’d loved Ryker. Not only that, she didn’t even go to the beach anymore. How could she be with Dave, a man whose job required him to go out on the ocean?
No, she couldn’t. It was easier to reject him than to even imagine that they could be together.
She signed her name to several papers and left the community center. If she hurried home, she’d still have time to make those caramel mocha brownies. And maybe, just maybe, the sweets would quell some of the anxiety in her gut that had been plaguing her since Ryker’s death three years ago.
The next morning, Brooklynn pulled in to the animal shelter, the plate of brownies beside her almost distracting her from the familiar SUV already in the lot.
She knew this car…
Brooklynn’s fingers tightened around the wheel. She had an appointment with a corgi in twenty minutes, and she was just stopping by for a moment. Just to give Laci the brownies. Her sister had just broken up with her long-time boyfriend, and she’d texted Brooklynn that she might not survive the day if she didn’t have chocolate.
So Brooklynn had plated up the cookies and left without putting makeup on. It didn’t matter. Her canine customers didn’t care what she looked like when she groomed them. The sky threatened to open up and dump rain on Hawthorne Harbor today anyway, and Brooklynn was considering canceling her appointments if the clients didn’t have a garage or something she could use.
She normally didn’t mind working out of the back of a van, but sometimes it got stuffy in there, and she almost always stood outside. But not in the rain.
“It’ll take two seconds,” she told herself, wondering why in the world Dave was at the animal shelter. She probably wouldn’t see him anyway, as her sister worked with the vets in a separate part of the building than the adoption center.
After grabbing the brownies, she headed for the door, not enthused by the drumming of thunder overhead when she touched the door handle.
Inside, the building felt much too bright compared to outside, and she glanced to her left, expecting to see Laci standing there in her pale pink scrubs. Instead, her eyes met Dave’s.
“Hey,” he said, his smile warming his whole face as he stood. Surprise laced the three-letter-word. “What are you doing here?”
“My sister works here,” she said, lifting the plate of brownies. Why was her heart tapping around like that? How did she make it stop? Didn’t it know Brooklynn had sworn off men?
Fine, it tapped out. But Dave is a captain. Not just any old man.
He was older than her, something she actually liked. He had silver coming in around his ears, and if he kept smiling at her with those white teeth, she’d be going out with him that weekend.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, reaching for her phone in her purse and navigating on it so she wouldn’t have to look at Dave’s handsome face.
Gorgeous, her brain reminded her.
“Oh, I’m taking a dog for the weekend.”
She lifted her eyes to his, finding him downright adorable with the way he tucked his hands in his back pockets. “A dog for the weekend?”
“Yeah, they let you take them for a few days,” he said. “Get them out of here. I think they think I’ll finally adopt one.” He chuckled.
“So you do this a lot.”
“Yeah,” he said evasively.
“And you don’t want a dog full-time?”
“I do, yes,” he said. “I love dogs. But my job isn’t very conducive to having a pet. I have to sleep on the boat sometimes.”
Horror snaked right through her, leaving a cold, wet trail in its wake. “That sounds terrible,” she said at the same time her brain put dog lover in the pro column for Dave. Why it kept reminding her how wonderful and good-looking he was, she wasn’t sure.
He cocked his head and studied her with those eyes that could undo all of her defenses. Her phone buzzed, and she flinched as she looked at it.
“Laci’s coming out.”
“How’s she doing?” he asked.
“She just broke up with her boyfriend,” Brooklynn said. “Thus, the brownies.”
“Is that why you made brownies?” Dave asked, just enough interest in his voice to know his question wasn’t casual.
“No,” Brooklynn said. “I don’t date, Dave.”
“Just checking.” He looked toward the door Laci came through, smiling at her too.
“Dave,” she said with surprise. It was no surprise that Laci knew who he was. They’d all grown up together in Hawthorne Harbor, and Brooklynn had certainly spilled many of her traitorous secrets to Laci in the middle of the night.
Laci looked from Dave to Brooklynn, and then gave him a quick hug. “It’s good to see you. Are you adopting?”
“No.”
“So you’re following Brooklynn now.” She cocked her hip and folded her arms, glaring at the man she’d just hugged.
Brooklynn wanted to crawl in a hole and curl into a ball. “Lace,” she said at the same time Dave started laughing. How he could make such a joyful noise, she wasn’t sure. Brooklynn hadn’t felt that level of happiness in a long, long time.
Thirty-six months.
Three years.
Over one thousand days.
“No,” Dave said again, still chuckling. “Though I’d love to go out with her. I know when a woman’s not interested.” His eyes flicked to hers for a moment. There, then gone. He ducked his head, a hint of a blush entering his face, before turning and going over to the counter.
“Here,” Brooklynn said, thrusting the plate of brownies toward her sister. “That was so embarrassing. Why’d you say that?”
Laci took the plate. “I don’t know. He hasn’t asked you out again?”
She watched him take the leash from the adoption aide. “Not for a couple of months.” She didn’t mean the words to come out coated in so much sadness. Regret lanced through her. What if he never asked her out again?
He turned toward them, the light in his eyes dimming when he saw them still standing there. He took the mutt around the couch away from them, saluting her with, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He’d almost moved out the doors when Brooklynn’s mouth caught up to her brain. “Wait. What’s in the morning?”
“The planning meeting for the bachelor auction,” he said. “I guess we signed up for the same thing.” And with that, he walked out, his dog for the weekend in tow.