07 It Had to Be You Read online

  He was thinking about smiling, she could tell. “How far beyond?” he asked.

  “The stratosphere.”

  She thought maybe that would tug a smile from him, but it didn’t. In fact, he looked a little stern as he helped her up, holding her steady until she found her sea legs.

  He moved away, presumably to deal with the condom, but he didn’t come back. She found him a few minutes later standing at the kitchen sink, hands braced on the countertop, staring out the window at the ocean.

  She took a moment to soak him in, because he could still steal her breath. Wearing only his board shorts and nothing else, he was all tanned, smooth skin and lean sinew.

  Paddleboarding did a body good.

  Though he didn’t move as she walked into the room, the muscles of his back and shoulders were tense.

  “Hey,” she said, “having an orgasm is supposed to relax and rejuvenate you. You don’t seem relaxed or re—”

  “I’m leaving. You know that right? I’m going back to my job in San Francisco. I don’t know when exactly, but soon. I have to.”

  She drew in a deep breath. She knew all too well, which was a bitch of a problem, considering she’d promised herself not to do this again, not to follow the same patterns as her mom and sister and fall for a guy who would leave her. “I know.”

  “I want you to get a restraining order against Marshall so he can’t come back here and bug you again.”

  “I don’t think he will,” she said. “And besides, we both know he hasn’t done anything to warrant an order. Plus I’ll be getting an apartment. The search has been slowed down a little by the fact that no one wants to rent to a thief, so—”

  “Stay here.”

  “What?”

  He turned to face her, gaze unfathomable. “Keep the house. You can get a roommate if you want. I don’t care. I just want you to stay here.”

  “Luke—”

  “The house suits you. My grandma would like knowing there was someone here who loved it as she did.”

  How was it that she wanted to both comfort him and jump him again at the same time? “Luke.” She moved to him, slipping her arms around his waist, laying her cheek against his chest. “It’s okay that it was just sex. I knew that going in. You don’t have to feel guilty.”

  “It’s not guilt.” His arms came around her, and he pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “I just…Christ.” He squeezed her. “That wasn’t just sex.”

  Her heart squeezed, but then he took one look at her face and blew out a breath. “I don’t know what the fuck to do with this, Ali. I’m leaving.”

  “I know.”

  “This can’t happen again.”

  “I know that too.” She stared up at him, a little blown away by the intensity of his words and the fierceness of his expression. Not possessive, exactly, but definitely protective. Something inside her cracked open just a little bit and let him in, which was terrifying her because he was bound to disappoint her.

  They always did.

  Chapter 15

  Ali was up at dawn the next morning and was off and running for work, not allowing herself to let her mind wander. She couldn’t afford to let her mind wander, or she’d get mired down in the fact that the money still hadn’t been found. That she was still the only viable suspect at this point.

  That she’d slept with Luke.

  Okay, so there hadn’t been any sleeping involved. Which meant that every single minute of it was imprinted on her brain—the best collection of minutes in her entire life.

  She hit the flower market in Seattle for her weekly supply run. While she was there, she took an extra few minutes to drop off a bag of donuts and coffee for her mom and sister, which given the decibel of happy squeals they let out, made their day. Then she hightailed it back to Lucky Harbor to unload the week’s supplies for Russell’s shop.

  There was a low wind howling through the quiet rooms, echoing the unsettled feeling in her gut. It was still early when she opened for business and got to work on the preordered arrangements that were due that day. Russell didn’t show up to help. She knew he wouldn’t show up until well after noon. And when he did, he’d be out of sorts and unhappy, as he had been from the day Paul had moved to Vegas without him.

  Ever since their breakup, Russell kept talking about the shop’s lack of profit, and how he wanted to close up. But Ali still believed the place had something to offer Lucky Harbor. If Russell would only give her some of the reins that she’d been begging for, she’d show him how much.

  But he’d taken the business over from his sister. It wasn’t a life’s passion for him, and he’d not put much, if anything, into developing the business. He had a base of fairly steady customers, but hadn’t shown any particular interest in catering to them. Nor had he put any effort into attracting new customers or cultivating more business.

  Ali had all sorts of ideas, but no power. She wanted to create a website where people could order online, from the convenience of their own home or work. But Russell wasn’t interested. He didn’t want to be bothered with computer work, no matter that Ali had offered to do all of it.

  Stymied there, she’d toyed with some changes, incorporating live plants, ceramics, and other local artists’ work too, but Russell had been frustratingly resistant. Determined to show him, she spent some time now clearing space to make some displays. She worked hard at it and was proud and breathless when Russell showed up.

  But he went straight to his office without a word, not even noticing that Ali had rearranged the shop.

  “Hey,” she said, following him back, “you okay?”

  “I talked to Paul last night,” he said, turning to her with a light in his eyes that she hadn’t seen in a while: excitement. “He said he was sorry for being such a crazy, possessive bitch, can you believe it? A man who can admit he was wrong.”

  “That’s sweet,” she said.

  “I know. And he thinks we should make up.” He plugged his cell phone into the wall. “My battery died, and I’d left my charger here. I want to see if he called or texted.”

  “I hope he did,” Ali said. “Um, about the shop…I rearranged some of the front. I wanted to show you—”

  “Be a doll and get me some coffee?” Russell asked, eyes on his phone.

  “Sure.”

  “And see if Leah has any pastries? Get a dozen assorted shipped to Paul, but make sure there are palmiers. Paul loves palmiers.”

  “Okay,” Ali said. “And speaking of Leah, I was thinking it might be cool to offer a same-day delivery special. Flowers and pastries. We could do themed baskets, like birthdays and—”

  “O-M-G!” Russell squealed.

  “You like it?” Ali asked, relieved. “I’m so glad because—”

  “No, Paul texted! He bought me a ticket to Vegas for next weekend!”

  “But…” Ali’s mind whirled for a reason to not close the shop again. “You’ll miss the big ground-breaking ceremony for the new rec center.”

  “Let’s see…” Russell held out both hands, miming weighing something between them. “Getting laid…watching a bunch of pretentious town council members slap themselves on the back and pretend to shovel some dirt around…” He grinned and rose to his feet and swept Ali off hers and kissed her soundly. “Long weekend alert ahead, Doll! Woot!”

  Woot.

  Later that afternoon, after a long day on her feet, Ali was sitting on the back-office work counter. Leah had come over with the leftover custard puffs for the day, and the two of them were inhaling them like they were going out of style. A daily tradition.

  “Can’t believe how busy we were today,” Ali said. Their afternoon had been wonderfully successful for a change.

  “It’s you,” Leah said, also on the counter, mouth full.

  “Yeah?” she asked. “You think it’s the way I rearranged the shop floor and displayed ceramics as well?”

  “No. Well, yes. But you know the police are getting really close to an arrest,