Chapter 9
Thea stood in her shop waiting for the fireworks to begin.
She had finished all the things she needed to do to close up, stocked the shelves of tourist paraphernalia, and began cleaning, but more people poured into her gift shop.
Everyone stuffed inside like sardines, bought whatever they could with the name Isabel Island on it, and hurried out to the island’s square for a seat to see the fireworks.
When the boom of the first firework rang out over the harbor from the city of Portland, and the crowd erupted in cheer, Thea turned off the open light, and rang up the last of the customers.
She tried not to get her hopes up about Ryan coming to the store, but that feeling of doubt saturated her thoughts as the night dragged on.
The one that said, “Why would a famous NFL Super Bowl champion want to spend time with a little old shop owner on a tiny island?” She hadn’t done Botox or injections or even wore makeup half the time.
She barely wore her hair down. She loved the sun too much to worry about her wrinkles.
She wanted to smile and make facial expressions.
And she didn’t want to get all hyped about a guy only to be disappointed, again.
The whole time surfing with Ryan and his family had been magical.
She hadn’t laughed so much or had such a fun time with someone, anyone, in a very, very long time.
The past few years had been stressful around her family.
She didn’t have many friends left on the island after her brother-in-law had stolen from them all.
And Johnny, well, there was always something with Johnny.
Ryan felt like she was with an old friend she had known all her life. By the time she’d left, Ryan’s whole family felt comfortable and familiar, like she had spent time with them before.
When Thea had gotten to the shop, she’d felt like a teenage girl, because all she could think about was him.
How had she come across to him? Had she acted bossy by telling everyone what to do on the beach?
Had she appeared all googly-eyed and infatuated?
Oh, goodness, had she come off as a know-it-all?
Because she hated when Johnny did that. Apparently, no one was smarter or more knowledgeable than Johnny.
But there was the problem.
Johnny.
Should she explain that she was coming out of a relationship? And was it weird that he didn’t talk about his recent ex-girlfriend Miss Cheesehead?
Thea looked at the time on her register as random fireworks thundered from outside.
All the seaside villages along the coast were doing their own light shows.
She had just enough time to run across the street to catch Isabel Island’s own show if she closed now, and skipped restocking the few items that had sold at the end of the night.
She could wake up early tomorrow morning and miss her morning surf so she could get everything ready for the biggest day of the year. The Fourth of July.
Her store would have hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists filtering in and out through the holiday week as the ferry carried people from the heat of Portland’s city streets to the cooling comfort of ocean breezes and island air.
She couldn’t afford not to be prepared for the influx of people, especially if this would be the last summer of business.
She hurriedly closed up all the drawers, locked up the cashbox under the register, and closed up. Funny how different she felt in just twenty-four hours. She’d almost forgotten her life was falling apart.
As she rushed about closing, she saw a hand waving from the sidewalk.
“Thea!” Cece called out as she swung her arm above her head.
“Cece!” Thea waited inside as Cece came up the front porch and into the shop. They greeted each other with a hug. Did he come with his mother to see the fireworks and not come to see her? Had she come off as a weird older woman? She was only two years older than the football player.
Was she considered a cougar? He probably had twenty-year-olds like Miss Wyoming all the time banging down his door. Maybe the surf lesson was all that it was. A surf lesson. He wanted a friend, he’d said.
But he’d also said that he thought of her…
“What are you doing here?” she asked Cece, looking around to see who else had come into the store with her.
She placed her hand on the counter. “He’s not with her.”
“What?” she asked, pretending not to know who they were referring to, but she knew who Cece meant.
Cece rolled her eyes when she said, “That child, Ainsley.”
Ouch. Cece wasn’t too fond of the beauty queen. So Ryan wasn’t with her. “No more Miss Wisconsin?”
Cece shook her head back and forth slowly. “They weren’t that serious. Broke up before it really even started.”
Was that how all his relationships went? Move on to the next model or Miss State-Something?
“I just got out of a relationship myself,” she said, hoping that would help explain some of her awkwardness.
She looked around for the handsome man but didn’t see him anywhere. She glanced down at the time; the fireworks would be finishing soon. Had he changed his mind and sent Cece instead? Had she made a fool of herself, and he’d changed his mind?
“Oh, the fireworks’ finale is about to start!” Cece said. “I should head over to our spot. You should join us.”
Thea shrugged, unsure what to say. She hadn’t actually asked him to come. She just thought it had been implied. “I’ll try to make it over, if I can close up in time.”
This made Cece happy. She gave a hug goodbye and left the shop in a hurry.
Thea stood in the middle of her suddenly empty store and wondered what she should do.
If she closed up now, she’d make it for the fireworks, but would that be weird?
Since he hadn’t come by. She moved toward the register to lock it up, when she heard Johnny’s cackle coming from outside, the one he used when he was fake laughing.
She snuck a glance out the window before she could stop herself, and that’s when she saw who’d made Johnny laugh.
Ryan Mathers.
The two men stood in the driveway of Johnny’s golf cart rental shop.
Johnny leaned against the last cart in a long line of carts, holding a cup of coffee.
Ryan held two cups of his own, and the two talked animatedly about something.
Before she had the chance to look away or duck, Ryan pointed to her shop, and she and Johnny made eye contact.
It had been less than a split second, but long enough to know he’d seen her.
Her stomach twisted at the thought of the two of them talking.
“Excuse me, could you help me?” a customer asked and her attention was stolen away.
When she returned to the window to look out, Ryan and Johnny were gone.
“Thea,” a voice called from outside her store’s front door.
She looked up and saw two men standing together on her porch. Ryan smiled happily at her with Johnny, who showed no shame being there.
Both smiled as they were about to walk in the store.
Ryan clearly didn’t know what he had stepped into.
Did she cause a scene? Embarrass everyone, including herself, in the process?
She had never been good at keeping in her emotions.
She tended to cry instead of shout, and that always made her appear emotionally weak.
And in the Manus family, weakness in the form of tears was unforgivable, no matter what.
How many times had Nico looked away from her tears, ashamed that his daughter couldn’t handle an angry customer or had gotten her heart broken by a boy? Too many to count.
“What are you doing here, Johnny?” She tried to be all business.
His smile quickly turned to a scowl. “I see you’re still in a mood.”
Johnny jabbed Ryan in the side of the ribs playfully. “Women, am I right?” He moved to take a step inside the store, when Thea blocked him.
“I’m closed.”
Ryan’s smile dropped immediately. “We shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“Thea, do you know who you’re talking to?” Johnny huffed and tried to walk by her, but she shifted to the other side and stopped him. “Are you serious right now? Thea, Ryan’s a very important client of mine.” Johnny sneered his lip as he shot a look at Ryan.
Ryan took a step back, and that made her feel slightly bad, having him witness her putting this imbecile in his place, but she wasn’t going to let Johnny, whether Ryan Mathers was with him or not, take another step farther into her store, her space, without even an apology.
She could only laugh at his complete disregard for everything that had happened between them because she literally imagined herself punching him in the throat. She folded her arms to hold herself back, wishing she could pop him, just once. Just enough to knock the wind out of him.
Or maybe she could remind him of the naked woman? She just stared him down, not answering him.
That’s when she heard Ryan clear his throat, then shift his stance. He moved closer to where Thea stood, placing himself between her and Johnny. “Sorry we bothered you.”
“She’s just being difficult,” Johnny snapped back as he stepped over the threshold of her shop.
Two things happened at the exact same time. Ryan turned to Johnny and said, “You need to apologize” right as she flicked her middle finger into Johnny’s Adam’s apple.
Johnny coiled over, holding on to his throat and coughing.
Ryan’s eyes widened, and for a split second, she wondered if she had just made him change his opinion of her.
But that’s when she noticed something she hadn’t expected. A smile suddenly crossed Ryan’s lips. “Well, I guess you learned your lesson.”
Thea couldn’t believe she’d done it. “Oh my goodness gracious, Johnny.”
She crouched down to the floor to see if he was okay and placed her hand on his back, but he slapped it away.
“I’m so sorry,” she said right away. And she was, as much as she could be at that point. “I didn’t mean to flick you that hard.” Although, she swore she’d barely tapped him.
“I can’t believe you hit me at all!” he shouted through coughing fits. “I could’ve died!”
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the ridiculousness of his statement. He had another coughing fit. “I mean, I barely tapped you.”
He stayed bent over, holding on to his throat with both hands and spitting onto her front porch, playing it a bit dramatic, if she said so. “I really didn’t mean to react like that. I really am sorry.”
Ryan shook his head. “You don’t have to apologize. He’s the one who should be apologizing for his behavior.”
She couldn’t believe Ryan had stood up for her. Johnny would never. She snuck a glance over at Ryan, who looked angry—his eyebrows caved. She couldn’t read what he was thinking in the moment, but she had never fallen so fast for a man before in her life.
How did it look that she was connected to this maniac named Johnny? And that she was a maniac around him?
As Johnny regained his normal, sleazy look and stood up again, all the red flags, all the slimy, salesman-like, sneaky behaviors now stood out to her like bright neon signs.
Johnny looked at her and narrowed his eyes.
Goodness, she hoped Johnny hadn’t said something to Ryan. He would definitely think differently about her if he knew she had been in a serious relationship with this guy. What was she actually thinking?
But why else would they walk over together?
“You’re an absolutely crazy bit—” The words slid through his teeth as his jaw stayed clenched.
Everything happened so fast. Thea didn’t see anything beyond Johnny tightening his fist by his side, then she heard his body thud against the floor.
“You hit me in the face!” Johnny held his forehead with both hands. “I can’t believe Ryan Mathers hit me in the face!”
“It was your forehead, please,” Thea defended Ryan.
Ryan looked at her. “Sorry, I just don’t like it when grown men speak to women like that.”
She almost leaped over Johnny’s pathetic body and kissed Ryan Mathers right then and there, but instead she laughed, and hard, as Johnny checked for blood. She was amused that Ryan had knocked Johnny flat on his tush.
“I should sue you!” he shouted, rubbing the skin.
“I should call the police and tell them you’ve trespassed, even with a warning to get off my premises.”
“Go ahead.” Johnny got up on his feet and dusted off his knees. “I should have known you would be jealous of me wanting to expand. You just can’t get over the fact that I’m better at running a business than you.”
“You have no idea what I can’t get over.
” She almost started on a tirade about the things she couldn’t get over, like all the wasted years she’d spent on a guy who’d kept secrets from her.
So many secrets. Like naked photos of other women, and probably other things he was doing in Florida, all while negotiating the sale of her store behind her back.
“It was business,” he muttered at her, as if that made any difference.
Ryan held out his hand to Johnny, his knuckles not even pink. “Look, man, I shouldn’t have hit you.”
But Johnny didn’t take it. Instead, he swatted it away. “Get a life.”
Johnny stumbled away and down the store’s porch stairs in his flip-flops, back to his store and golf carts.
“He’s a real peach,” Ryan said, watching him walk away.
A laugh escaped Thea’s chest, breaking the nervous energy that wrapped around her rib cage. “He’s something else.”
“You okay?” he asked, turning his full attention to her. His deep blue eyes matched the sea behind him. “Though I don’t think I need to ask. You seemed perfectly fine taking care of that guy on your own.”
“I’m good, but it was nice to have back up.” She felt her knees turn wobbly. “He’s a lot to deal with.”
Ryan nodded, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
The heat from the summer day left with the ocean breeze and the island had cooled off. A shiver shot up her spine.
He jabbed his thumb behind him. “We have blankets all set up for the fireworks. With tons of food.”
A nervous laugh broke loose from her belly. His whole house, which could be referred to as a mansion, was full of trays of food. “I can only imagine. You even outdo my family meals.”
His right lip lifted in a smirk, and he looked away while laughing.
“What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious of the whole situation. Ryan Mathers had just socked Johnny on the forehead while defending her honor and was now asking her to watch the fireworks with him.
Was she dreaming?
He reached out and took her hand. “I’m just really glad I listened to my mom.”
And with his other hand, Ryan Mathers placed it under her chin, lifted it up, and kissed her.