Summer Temptation (Hot in the Hamptons Book 2) (4 page)

The fact that I liked following her, watching her graceful form as she walked, pretty painted toenails, toned legs, and hips swaying… Well, that was an added bonus.

Except I started to feel a bit like a creeper, stalking along after her.

When she settled into a spot on the sand, facing the ocean, the waves almost reaching the tips of her toes before receding, I returned to the fringes of the party, giving her privacy, still on guard, waiting for my chance to talk to her so I could apologize.

“Hey there, handsome.” A young woman with black hair piled into a loose, messy bun on top of her head walked over to me, smiling. “You look lonely.”

I wasn’t.

She held out her hand. “I’m Mackenzie.”

Good manners had me reaching out to shake it. “Nick.”

“You from around here?” she asked. “Or just visiting for the summer?”

Mackenzie made conversation easy, asking lots of questions, pretending to be interested in me and my life. There was a time I would have jumped at the chance to pick up a woman like her. She was pretty enough, with a bangin’ body and flirty personality, but tonight…tonight she didn’t do anything for me.

What the…? “I’ve gotta run,” I told her and left without waiting for a response, because at some point in the last few minutes, some guy had planted his butt in the sand next to Leigh. I didn’t like that one bit.

“Leigh,” I yelled as I approached. In the fading light, she turned toward me, then disentangled herself from the arm wrapped around her shoulders and stood. Relieved? Angry? I couldn’t tell. Not welcoming, that was for sure.

“What are
you
doing here?”

“Dude, keep moving,” the guy beside her said, as he stood too. “I got here first.”

As if that gave him the right to have her.

Leigh dropped her phone into her string backpack, slung it over her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Let me guess,” she said to me. “Your grandfather made you track me down to apologize.”

Yup. She knew it, and I knew it, so why lie? As soon as she gave the guy standing next to her the kiss off, I could get it over with and be on my way.

But she didn’t give him the kiss off. Instead, she stood there, looking back and forth between the two of us.

“What?” I asked. “Am I interrupting? Did you
want
this guy’s attention?”

“Actually,” she said. “I’m trying to decide which of you is the lesser of two evils.”

I couldn’t help it. I smiled. It felt good.

“Pick me, babe,” the surfer dude said, raising his hand. “You want evil? I’m up for anything. Let me take you back to my place and show you.”

His brain likely fried from a mix of sun and marijuana, he’d totally missed her point. That made me smile even more.

Leigh rolled her eyes. “Well that makes my decision easier.” She took a giant step toward me. “Sorry, Big One.”

“Your loss,” he said with a shrug. Then he strutted back to the party, likely in search of another babe to take back to his place.

“Big One?” I asked.

“He said people call him that for
lots
of reasons.” She glanced up at me with a small smile. “Kind of makes you wonder, right?”

I laughed. “No. It does not make me wonder
at all
.” I stepped aside and motioned toward the other man’s retreating form. “But if you…”

“I don’t.” She waved me off. “Really…”

“I’d hate for you to feel like you’re missing out on anything
big
because of me.”

She looked up. “You mean you’re not…?”

Whoa. “Oh yes I am,” I told her. “In fact,” I puffed up my chest. “People call me ‘The
Biggest
One’…for lots of reasons,” I teased, enjoying myself.

Until Leigh looked down and said, “The biggest jerk?”

Yeah. That’d been me. I let out a breath. “My granddad told me you mentioned you’d be at a big bonfire tonight. Based on you staying in Wainscott, I figured this would be the one. And yes, while I didn’t exactly ‘hunt you down,’ I did come here specifically to see you…so I could apologize.”

She crossed her arms over her chest again and stood there, looking at me.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m waiting.” With the last remnants of the sun fading on the horizon, I couldn’t see her feet. If I could, I would bet she’d be tapping one of them. “For the apology.”

Right. “I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it.

Apparently Leigh didn’t realize the significance of those two words coming from my mouth together, in that particular sequence, a phenomenon that didn’t happen often, because she simply said, “For what? Calling me a prostitute in front of a patio full of people? Or insinuating I couldn’t possibly be the kind of woman who would have an innocent meal with a nice old man without nefarious intent?”

If she hadn’t been standing there looking so serious, the word ‘nefarious’ would have made me smile, but only because I’d bet my large but soon-to-be depleted bank account that the word ‘nefarious’ wasn’t in the vocabulary of the beach bunny who’d sidled up to me earlier. I liked that it was a part of Leigh’s vocabulary. Granddad was right
. She’s a smart one
.

“I’m sorry for both — for everything that came out of my mouth.” I stared down into her eyes. “For being the biggest jerk ever.” She stood up to me, staring straight back, silent, as if waiting for more. I gave it to her. “I live a high-stress, fast-paced life that has gotten even more stressful since the health of both of my grandparents has started to decline.”

She looked away. “You’ll have to do better than that. In the past three months my dad had a heart attack and my grandpa had a stroke that left him incapacitated. I had to coordinate care for both of them, visit them in two different facilities, and pay their bills all while finishing up my senior year at Penn State. I still managed to graduate at the top of my class.
And
,” she looked up at me. “I still managed to be nice to people.”

Obviously she was a much better person than I was. But still, if this was a competition, I’d win for sure. “For the past year I’ve been basically supporting my grandparents in addition to myself. On Friday afternoon, a few hours before I showed up at the restaurant, forty employees at my company, myself included, got unceremoniously laid off. No warning. No severance. No ‘thanks for working your ass off for the past two years.’”

She put her soft hand on my forearm. “Wow. That stinks.”

Yup. Sure did. I covered her small hand with my larger one, my touch gentle, but keeping her there nonetheless.

“After cleaning out my cubicle I rushed to my apartment to dump the single, half-empty box that contained everything I had to show for two years of hard work and dedication, and rushed to catch the train out to the Hamptons, only to find my granddad and his car gone. He knows I don’t like him driving in summer traffic.”

“He told me that.”

“By the time I got to the restaurant I was already on the verge of losing it.”

“Then you saw me…”

“And I lost it. And I am really, very sorry it happened. If I could take it all back I would. But I can’t.”

“It’s okay.”

“So I’m forgiven?” Easy as that?

She thought about it, then did something I hadn’t expected. Taking back her hand, she held it out to me. “We haven’t been formally introduced. My name is Leigh.”

No last name. No problem. “Nick,” I said, shaking her hand. “Nick Kenzy. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Leigh.” A total pleasure. More so tonight than the first time.

“Nice to meet you, too.”

I could just make out her smile in the moonlight. I smiled back, realizing I’d smiled more in the past half hour than I had in months. “So we’re good? I can report back to my granddad that I’m forgiven, and you don’t think poorly of him because of me?”

“Yes. And please give him my regards.”

“He had a great time with you. In fact, I can’t get him to stop talking about you.” Not that I minded.

She turned to look out at the ocean. “If only I had the same effect on guys my own age.”

Did she hang around a bunch of limp-dick morons? The woman was kind and well-spoken, classy and gorgeous. “I’m sure you do.”

She shook her head. “I’m too serious, too smart, too involved with my family.”

“Those aren’t bad things.” In fact, they were qualities I very much respected.

She glanced over toward the party. “I should get back. My friends will wonder what happened to me.”

After seeing how the blond kept an eye on Leigh, I was actually pretty surprised they’d given us this long to talk. With the thought of Leigh leaving, I realized I didn’t want our time together to end. I liked her, and wanted to get to know her better. Hmmm. “I know I have no right to ask. That I am totally overstepping the bounds of our tenuous, dare I call it, friendship. But would you do me a favor?”

She looked up at me warily.

I held up both hands. “Nothing crazy. I was just wondering if you’d be willing to come by my granddad’s place for dinner next week. I’m not a great cook, but I can barbecue a pretty good burger. Or steaks. Or I could probably do chicken or shrimp.” Anything. Just say yes.

“I don’t know.” She took a step back.

I wasn’t ready to give up. “Right. I get it. You don’t know me. I mean, really know me, and here I am inviting you back to my place, which is really not much different than the Big One inviting you back to his, although my intentions are totally honorable. I swear.” I put my hand over my heart for effect.

She didn’t believe me.

“You see, since grandma died, granddad has let his house go. It’s a mess, newspapers and magazines and food wrappers all over the place. The sink is overflowing with dishes. I offered to hire a cleaning lady once a week, but he refused, doesn’t want some stranger in his house. Whenever I visit and try to clean we wind up getting into a huge fight.” I hated fighting with him. “He says he’ll do it. I know he won’t do it. But if I were to go home tonight and tell him I invited you for dinner, he’d have to let me clean. Hell, he’d probably help because he’d want to make a good impression. So you’d really be doing me a big favor if you’d say yes.”

There I was, bartering my granddad to get a date. But the reason behind my suggesting the barbecue was a valid one.

She took a little longer to think about it than I would have liked, so I added, “You can bring your friends.”

That seemed to get her to relax a bit. Good.

She reached inside her string backpack. “Give me your number.”

I did. Gladly. She programmed it into her phone. “Do you have a specific day in mind?” she asked.

“Nope. My schedule is completely open.” It’s not like I had a job to go to come Monday.

“Let me see what my friends and I have going on next week. Then I’ll give you a call.”

“Perfect.” And she was. Absolutely perfect.

Leigh

F
ive days later, I arrived at Murphy’s house just before six o’clock. He lived in an older neighborhood about half an hour from the beach. Small houses on small lots, some better maintained than others. With summer traffic, the trip had taken me close to an hour.

Murphy’s house was one of the better maintained ones, which surprised me, after what Nick had said about his granddad letting things go after his wife had died.

Murphy watched from the screened door as I exited my car. He had a big smile on his face, and I found myself very happy to see him again. “Come in.” He opened the door, stepping to the side to make room for me.

“I brought dessert,” I said, handing him the small bakery box and a container of cut up fruit I’d picked up in town.

“Hmmm,” Murphy said. “What’s in the box?” His eyes lit up in anticipation of my answer.

“You’ll have to wait until after dinner to find out,” I teased.

“As if he’d wait to peek inside,” Nick said, joining us in the entryway, looking so handsome and relaxed in a pair of tan cargo shorts and a pale orange tank that looked great against his tanned skin, his dark hair mussed, like he’d finger-combed it after his shower. “Man’s had a sweet tooth for as long as I’ve known him. Even though his doctor told him he needs to knock it off and show some restraint.”