11. Date Of Her Dreams
11
DATE OF HER DREAMS
“ R eady to figure out what movie we are going to watch?”
Dinner was done and cleaned up.
Angel was stuffed after eating a piece of pizza, four wings and some salad.
She probably came off like a pig but didn’t care.
It’s not as if Coy hadn’t seen her put food away before.
Part of it had to do with the awkward silence in the room. If she was chewing she didn’t have to worry about what words might need to come out of her mouth.
“Yep,” she said. “I can’t wait to see this theater room you’ve got. I’ve only seen this floor of your house and not much more than the main living.”
It’s not as if she went around checking his place out when she was here with her family almost two months ago.
“Do you want a tour?” he asked. “I didn’t think much of it.”
“Sure,” she said. “If you don’t mind. Your parents’ house was nice and pretty, but this is more my style. I mean, generally with decor and stuff.”
“I know what you’re saying,” he said. “I’m glad I don’t have my mother’s tastes.”
“There isn’t anything wrong with floral,” she said. “But I might find it funny if it was here in anything other than plants.”
Helena had a few pictures on the wall that were pretty floral landscapes. Maybe something she wouldn’t actually mind one of, but the house was more soft than it was modern to her.
Which fit Helena’s personality because Coy’s mother almost seemed as if she floated from one room to the next. More like gliding effortlessly with everything she did.
Helena was warm and open and friendly. She even offered to go to lunch or be someone for Angel to talk to if she was missing home.
She was touched by the offer but wouldn’t take Coy’s mother up on it. At least in the situation they were in currently.
“I like nature,” he said, “but I’m pretty minimalistic. My mother has had years to decorate and change things in the house. Me, I just buy what I like and if it doesn’t match, I don’t care so much.”
“I don’t have anything in my place but the basics,” she said. “I do want to get a few things and might take a day to go shopping in Boston. We’ll see if I’m feeling up to navigating it alone.”
“If you want to go and aren’t sure about it, let me know. I can go with you.”
“Are you asking because of Spencer and you need to keep an eye on me?” she asked. It was going to get old fast if everything he did was because of her brother.
“No,” he said. “I don’t get to Boston often either, but there are always things I need. I find excuses not to go and that will stop me from doing it.”
“Then I’ll let you know,” she said, smiling. She wanted to believe he was being honest and would give him the benefit of the doubt.
“You know this part of the house,” he said.
She followed him back to the front of the house where the original structure was and down the hall. They’d passed a more formal living area that she was assuming he never used, then into his office.
“This is nice and big,” she said. “I put a desk in my spare room, but just a tiny one since I’ve got the bed in there. I tend to sit on the couch and do things anyway.”
“I’ve got more to do than just patient notes,” he said.
“You’ve got the whole practice to run,” she said. “Which takes a lot of work that I think people take for granted.”
“There is that,” he said. “Plus I’ve got other investments and I’m sure you know ownership in the retirement community with my brothers. A small part just to be part of it. I don’t sit back and not keep informed of where my investments are.”
She did know that. “And you’ll want to know other things that will eventually come to you too,” she said. “I get it. It’s got to be confusing and maybe frustrating to not always be able to focus on one thing. Though no one would complain about it either.”
“No,” he said, smirking. “It would be irresponsible for me to not take an interest. There are three of us and we will all get an equal share of what my father has. Just because my brothers work for Bond Realty doesn’t mean they get more equity. They earn their salaries that they get and they are building their own wealth and legacy just like me.”
“Because you all want this island to grow. I think that is what I love about it. That none of your family take things for granted like many would.”
“No,” he said. “We don’t.” They moved out of the doorway of his office and he opened the door to his room. “This is my suite. It starts in the old part of the house and then goes into the new part.”
“Wow,” she said. “This is huge.” She wanted to say it was the size of her apartment, but that would be stretching it.
“Closets on each side,” he said. It was the first thing you encountered when you walked in.
“You took the big one,” she said.
“Since I’m the only one living here, it seemed like the thing to do,” he said, laughing. “That one is empty.”
Which meant it could be for a woman one day. She didn’t pop her head in, no reason to. She guessed his was bigger, but maybe they were the same size.
The next room was the bathroom. “Dang,” she said. “Do you use that tub?”
It was a huge freestanding one. She didn’t want to think of him lying in there naked. Did the heat kick on? It sure the heck felt like it!
“Only a few times when I was sore from overdoing my workout,” he said. “It seemed the thing to do to put it in. Women like baths.”
“You know that from experience?” she asked. Maybe he was in there with women before.
Nope, not letting her mind go there.
“I hear my mother and sister-in-law, Amanda, talk about it all the time. The women at work do too. Do you like baths?”
“I do,” she said. “But I haven’t lived anywhere that had one lately. I still don’t.”
Her apartment had a nice modern shower that was roomy and she enjoyed that too.
“Maybe someday,” he said.
They moved past the bathroom and into his room and she tried hard not to look at his bed. Her eyes went to the double glass doors overlooking his deck and the water in the distance.
“I’m not sure I’d want to get out of bed if I saw that view every day,” she said.
“It is hard at times,” he said, laughing. “But I do it.”
“You get used to it,” she said. “And you know you get to see it again and again.”
“There is that,” he said.
He turned and walked out so she followed and they went upstairs where he showed her the rooms up there and then the suite that Spencer used.
“Now I know why Spencer likes coming here,” she said. “He’s got his own deck and view too.”
“He’s welcome any time he wants. I think he needs the break more than he wants to admit,” he said.
“I think so too. He never says much about his job. He worries about me burning out, but he’s the one doing it.”
“And you can’t say that to him or he gets defensive. He comes when he wants. We don’t even do much when he’s here. Sometimes we just hang out on the deck or down by the beach. Easy calm living.”
“I wouldn’t want to leave,” she said softly.
“Sometimes I think Spencer has to drag himself out of here too, but he can always come back.” Coy put his hand on her lower back to move past her and it felt as if her body was on fire. It was only a brief touch too. “We can go down to the basement now.”
“Your gym has to be there,” she said.
“It is,” he said.
When they got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw a big game room with a pool table, a massive TV on the wall, video game consoles and a poker table off to the side by a bar.
“This has to be Spencer’s dream,” she said. “He’s always talked about this.”
“He helped me set it up,” he said. “It’s a walk out to the property and you can see a bit of the water, but not as much as if you are on the decks.”
“More than enough,” she said.
“There is a full bath down here by the doors so people can get to it if they are on the beach,” he said. “Gym right next door.”
She popped her head in and saw his weights and rowing machine next to the treadmill. “This is a lot nicer than the gym at my apartment. Don’t tell your father though.”
“What’s wrong with the one at the apartment?” he asked.
“It has other people in it,” she said, laughing.
“Good point. And for the main attraction,” he said. “The theater room.”
“Now this is awesome,” she said. “And you’ve got a popcorn machine down here.”
It was just a small one, but still perfect.
“You can’t watch a movie without popcorn and candy.”
“You’ve got candy down here?”
He opened a cabinet to get popcorn out to start it and she saw jars filled with candy bars and mini bags of everything imaginable.
Here she’d been worried he had nothing of junk food in his house upstairs when she was here before. It was because he had it all down here.
“I’d eat this daily if I knew it was here.”
“Which is why it’s down here behind a door where I can’t see it and usually only touch it when I watch a movie. The last time I did was when Liam was here with me.”
Now it made sense. “Some of this candy is for him?”
“Him and someday Gemma. I need to spoil them when they are here.”
“Do you sit through animations and cartoons?” she asked. Her voice might have gotten a little singsong and when he blushed she wished she could take it back.
“It’s not like they are watching action flicks with me,” he said.
“It just makes you the fun uncle,” she said.
“Someone has to be,” he said. “But I’m sure when I have kids of my own someday my brothers will return the favor when they watch mine.”
Spencer had commented about Coy wanting kids. She knew that.
“Do you want to watch an action movie?” she asked.
He picked up a remote and tossed it to her after he turned everything on. “Hit the button on the right and then you can scroll through and we can get what you want.”
She was going through and settled on a remake of an older movie. It was probably corny, but she remembered her father watching this when it came out years ago.
“Is this okay?”
“I’ve been wanting to see it,” he said. “My father used to watch the original.”
“Mine too,” she said. “It smells just like a movie theater in here.”
“That’s the point,” he said. “Get the candy you want and then we can grab our seats and I’ll hit the lights.”
There were no windows in the room. He’d shut the door when they came in.
There were six black leather recliners. Three set up higher than the three others. She went and sat on the end of the top row and he came and sat in the center of the same row next to her.
She popped up and went to the fridge and got a bottle of water and then once she walked by the candy decided to grab a Milky Way out of the jar.
The lights went down and the movie started.
If this felt like a teenage date of her dreams she was keeping it to herself.
This was supposed to be keeping each other company in Coy’s mind.
Nothing else.
Only it was something else to her.
Two hours later, their popcorn was gone. Her candy bar too.
The lights came on and she stretched.
“That was great. I need to run to the bathroom. I’ve been holding it since I didn’t want to miss anything.”
“I could have paused it,” he said, laughing.
“That takes the fun out of it,” she said. “You need to hold it like if you are in a normal movie theater to get the full effect.”
“If you say so,” he said. He looked at his watch. “Not sure if you wanted to go down to the beach or head home.”
She saw it was nine. “The beach sounds nice, but I’m sure it’s dark down there. And cold. How long does it take to light a fire? Probably not smart to do it and then have it only for a short period and have to put it out.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “It doesn’t take long to start it if you really want to.”
“I’d love to,” she said. “It’s not as if I’ve got any plans tomorrow so if I sleep in, then I do.”
They grabbed their empty water bottles and wrappers and the bowl with the popcorn in it and went upstairs. He shut all the lights off.
“If you want a glass of wine, go ahead and get what you like and grab me a beer and I’ll go down and get it lit.”
“I can do that,” she said.
This felt more like an adult date in her mind than them watching a movie together.
She grabbed her jacket to put on and then walked the paving stone path down the slope to his beach where she saw the fire lit. She had his beer and her glass of wine and tried not to spill any of it or trip.
“Good timing,” he said. “It’s starting to burn well.”
“I can see why Spencer would love this,” she said. “Is this whole beach yours or does your neighbor have some?”
“My neighbors have some of it. No one worries about the property lines. The neighbors on my right don’t have a clear path to come down here and aren’t sure about it. On the left, it’s a vacation home. They aren’t here much so I don’t see them this time of year. Thankfully they don’t rent it out.”
“Sounds like the best setup you could have,” she said. “I’m glad I got to share it with you.”
“Me too,” he said. “We’ll have to do this again. It’s fun.”
She smiled and took a sip of her wine, the flames casting shadows on his handsome face. “I’d love that.”