CHAPTER TWO
“ISEVERYTHINGCOMING together for your wedding?” Velvet asked her good friend Sierra Crane as they shared breakfast at the Witherspoon Café. It was a restaurant in Catalina Cove, known for serving a wonderful breakfast that included their signature blueberry muffins and also a delicious lunch and mouthwatering dinner.
Velvet thought Sierra was glowing and had been since she and Vaughn Miller announced their engagement last month on Christmas Day. Velvet hadn’t been surprised. It had been obvious to anyone who’d observed the couple that they were in love. The wedding would be held in March on the grounds of Vaughn’s family estate, Zara’s Haven.
She and Sierra had moved to Catalina Cove around the same time. For Sierra, it had been returning home after her divorce, to the place where she’d been born, to raise her six-year-old goddaughter, Teryn. And for Velvet, it had been relocating to a place far away from Jaye Colfax to heal her broken heart.
“Yes, everything is set,” Sierra said, smiling from ear to ear. “I think Teryn is even happier than I am. She adores Vaughn.”
“Well, I don’t know three individuals more deserving of happiness,” Velvet said, after taking a sip of her coffee. Like Sierra, Vaughn Miller had been born in Catalina Cove and moved away after high school. He returned to the cove several years ago and would soon become the CEO of the cove’s largest employer when the present CEO and the richest man in the cove, Reid Lacroix, retired later this year.
“What about you, Velvet? Don’t you think you deserve happiness as well?”
Velvet tilted her head and looked at Sierra. There were only two people in the cove who knew her history. People she trusted. The first had been Reid Lacroix. He had known her parents since they’d attended college at Yale together, and her dad and Reid had been on the university’s rowing team.
It was at her parents’ memorial service when Reid had approached her and said if she ever needed to get away, she should visit Catalina Cove. It was just the place to heal from the pain caused by grief. Velvet hadn’t taken him up on his offer then, but she had a few years later when she’d visited the cove to heal from another type of pain—a broken heart. While staying for the weekend at the bed-and-breakfast, Shelby by the Sea, she had fallen in love with Catalina Cove and decided to move from Phoenix and make it her permanent home.
Knowing Sierra was waiting for her response, Velvet said, “Yes, everyone deserves happiness.”
“Even you?” Sierra prodded.
She knew why her friend was asking and gave her the only answer she could. “Yes, even me. However, for some, happiness can be an elusive thing. Just like love.”
“Only if you decide not to go after it.”
“But I did go after both happiness and love, Sierra. And that didn’t get me anywhere.”
“Promise me you won’t give up on them. Take it from someone who had to learn the hard way. I almost lost the love Vaughn had offered to me because I didn’t want to take a chance on my heart getting broken again. Now I’m glad I took that chance.”
Sierra paused, then asked, “How is that neighbor situation working out with you and Jaye Colfax?”
Velvet took a sip of her coffee. “Not so bad, considering we’re technically living under the same roof. He officially moved in a few weeks ago. Although I’ve caught glimpses of him through my window, our paths haven’t crossed.”
“I guess that’s good for you, then.”
“Yes, considering the man I left Phoenix to avoid ends up moving to the same town where I am and becomes my neighbor.”
“Umm, maybe that was divine intervention,” Sierra said, smiling over the top of her cup.
“Or it could be somebody up there doesn’t like me very much.”
“Or...it could be that somebody up there likes you a lot.”
“Meaning?”
“What if he’s changed?”
Velvet rolled her eyes. “Jaye Colfax? Not a chance. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if he has. I no longer love Jaye. I admit my heart went pitter-patter when I saw him at that town meeting, and for a moment I thought I still loved him, but now I know that I’ve gotten over him and have moved on.”
Sierra leaned over the table and whispered, “Well. I got it from a very reliable source that Jaye Colfax put a stop to any gossip about him being on anyone’s must-do list. He even made sure Laura Crawford knew he wasn’t available.”
That made Velvet smiled since Laura wasn’t one of her favorite people. The woman, whose family was one of the wealthiest in town, looked down her nose at the less fortunate. In other words, she was a snob. So was her brother, Webb.
Velvet had noticed the first week Jaye moved in that a few different women tried to visit. It was obvious they hadn’t made it over his threshold. No real surprise there. The one thing she knew about Jaye was that he preferred doing the choosing and the chasing. In other words, women who sought him out were a turnoff and he didn’t have a problem letting them know it.
Velvet looked at her watch. “I need to leave to get to school on time.”
“Okay, and remember what I said. You deserve to be happy just as much as anyone else.”
VELVETWASN’TSUREwhy Sierra’s words lingered in her mind for the rest of the day, even when her full concentration should have been on her students. She taught high school and volunteered as a gymnastics coach two days a week. Since moving to the cove, both had kept her pretty busy—too busy to think about the reason why she’d moved here. And now that very reason, Jaye Colfax, had moved right next door.
“Is there a reason you wanted to see me, Miss Spencer?”
Velvet blinked, immediately recalling she had asked Lenny Bordeaux to meet with her after school. “Yes, Lenny,” she said, standing and smiling up at the lanky fifteen-year-old who was taller than she was. “Please have a seat.” When Lenny had settled into one of the student desks, Velvet leaned back against her desk and asked, “How have you been, Lenny?”
He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine.”
She nodded. “Remember back in November I met with you about your grades? Specifically, the issue of you not turning in your homework assignments, as well as not passing the weekly quizzes. I was hoping things would change but your grades still haven’t improved.”
Lenny shrugged again. “I’ve been busy.”
She lifted a brow. “Busy? Doing what may I ask?”
He hesitated and then said, “Fun stuff.”
“Fun stuff?” she asked to make sure she’d heard him correctly.
“Yes, fun stuff,” he said. “I got a car for Christmas, and I’ve been enjoying it. Then there’s the video games I got for Christmas to improve my baseball skills.”
Velvet didn’t say anything for a moment, disappointed that he saw doing all that fun stuff as more important than doing his schoolwork. And did he say he’d gotten a car for Christmas? Was he even old enough to drive? Granted he was tall for his age, but still...
“I thought you had to be sixteen to get your driver’s license. You’re only fifteen.”
“That’s the rule, but my dad got around it by applying for me to get a hardship license since I’ll be sixteen this summer. That way I have full driving privileges now.”
A hardship license? She thought those were only issued when driving was really necessary to get to school. Velvet saw no reason he couldn’t walk to school like all the other ninth graders. Unlike high schools in other places, Catalina Cove’s junior high school consisted of grades seven through nine, and senior high were ten through twelve.
“Don’t you think making sure you do your homework assignments and preparing for the weekly quizzes are important?”
“Yes, and I’ll get around to studying eventually.”
Get around to studying eventually? Did he think he had a lot of time left to turn his grades around? She knew he loved to play baseball and his dream was to make the varsity team. “You like playing baseball?”
“Yes. I hope to get drafted to play in the majors right out of high school.”
She nodded. Although that was a few years away, it was good that he had goals. However, she thought he had his current priorities mixed up. She hated to be the one to burst his bubble, but she needed him to be aware of a few things. “Wanting to one day become a professional baseball player is great, but you need to complete high school first. In order to move on to the next grade, Lenny, you’ll need to pass all your core classes. Algebra is one of them. If you fail, you’ll have to repeat the class or take it over the summer before going on to senior high school.”
He shook his head. “I’ll be in baseball practice over the summer. I plan to play on the varsity team in the fall.”
“Not if your grades don’t improve. I’d be willing to tutor you after school.”
“My dad says I don’t need to pass algebra.”
She lifted a brow. “Excuse me?”
“My dad said I don’t need algebra to play for the varsity team.”
Now Velvet was really confused. Why would his father tell him something like that? She had sent a letter to his parents when she’d met with Lenny in November, letting them know how serious things could get without improvement. Did they not receive the letter?
“I’ll be glad to talk to your father and when I do, I’ll tell him the same thing I’m telling you now, Lenny. If your grades don’t improve, you will fail my class.” She wasn’t going to back down on her position regardless of what his father might have told him.
“May I go now?”
“Yes, you may go.”
She watched Lenny walk out of the room. She had offered to tutor him, but he honestly believed he didn’t need to pass algebra because of what his father had told him.
Well, she’d had her talk with him and would follow up and send another letter to his parents. But for now, she would go home and enjoy her weekend.
GOODTIMING, JAYETHOUGHT, bringing his car to a stop at the same time Velvet pulled into their shared yard.
All six houses on Blueberry Lane backed up against massive yet scenic blueberry fields. What he liked about this house was that it was the only one in a quiet cul-de-sac and had the most land and trees. People rarely drove into the cul-de-sac and he liked the privacy and planned to use it to his advantage.
As he got out of his car, he felt deep flutters in the pit of his stomach. Although he’d kept his distance from Velvet, there wasn’t a morning he hadn’t stood in his kitchen, after returning from his morning jog, and through the window watched her get into her car to leave for school.
“Hello, Mr. Colfax,” Velvet said to him as she exited her car.
If she was intent on keeping things formal between them, he would let her. For now. “Miss Spencer. And how was your day?” he asked as his gaze raked over her, taking in everything about her, especially her gorgeous smooth, creamy and flawless cocoa-colored complexion, shoulder-length dark brown hair that fell in waves to her shoulders, her black eyes and high cheekbones.
“My day was challenging, and yours?”
He smiled. “Challenging as well, but I’m finding this is a good town with a lot of nice, hardworking people.”
“Yes, I love it here. It’s peaceful.”
Had she said that as a hint that her life was here now and not in Phoenix?
She then said, “Well, have a nice evening.”
“You do the same.” There was no need to tell her that as long as he slept alone and didn’t wake up with her in his arms, it wouldn’t be a nice evening, night or morning. He watched her hurry up the steps to her door, open it and then close it behind her.
He grabbed the bags from the passenger seat; he’d picked up dinner from the Witherspoon Café. He headed up his walkway to the side of the house where his entry door was located, but not before glancing back at the door through which Velvet had disappeared.
VELVETCLOSEDTHEdoor behind her, then leaned against it, drawing in a deep breath. The moment she’d gotten out of her car and seen Jaye, she had been transported back to the time when seeing him would have been the highlight of her day...and then her night. Those days were long gone. Now she left her house and returned home, hoping she wouldn’t see him at all.
Typically, there was no reason for their paths to cross since she had teachers’ hours and he had bankers’ hours. That meant she was in her classroom getting her day started before he even left for work. However, because he was an ardent morning jogger, she would get a glimpse of him out her kitchen window while enjoying her morning coffee. There was nothing like starting her day seeing all those rippling muscles, firm abs and bulging biceps. It was a good thing he jogged through the blueberry fields behind the houses and not out on the open road. She could just imagine being a female driver and seeing all those toned muscles sprinting about. It would probably cause car accidents.
She pushed away from the door, recalling how when they’d been a couple, Jaye never invited her to go jogging with him, even those days when she would spend the night over at his place. He said jogging in the morning was his personal time alone to clear his head. It was when he could really think, strategize and plan his day.
Sighing deeply, she placed her briefcase on the dining room table and wondered if Jaye had recognized it as the same one he’d given her as a birthday gift. Unfortunately, it hadn’t it been the engagement ring she’d been hoping for.
What had been the turning point in their relationship was overhearing Jaye tell his best friend, Mercury Steele, that he loved her, but had quickly explained that meant he loved to bed her. That’s when she had finally seen the handwriting on the wall. After engaging in an exclusive relationship with Jaye for three years, he still had no intention of ever settling down and marrying her.
Needing a drink, she went into the kitchen for a glass of wine. Every time she saw Jaye, it would remind her of just what she hadn’t done in two years—namely, made love with a man. When they’d been a couple, she and Jaye had maintained a very active sex life. It didn’t take long to realize her battery-operated toy couldn’t replace the real thing and she’d gotten rid of it, deciding to do without. She’d been fine since then but now her body’s radar seemed to hone in on the very person who had taken care of its needs for three solid years.
Not wanting to think about that, she took a sip of wine and then went back to the dining room to pull the papers from her briefcase. She always gave an algebra quiz on Fridays. Sitting at the table, she began grading papers, deciding to do it now rather than wait until Sunday evening. Less than an hour later, she was finished. All the students had aced the quiz, except for Lenny.
When Velvet heard her cell phone ringing, she smiled, recognizing the ringtone. It was her best friend, Ruthie, who’d been her college roommate and the reason Velvet, after her parents’ death, had relocated from Seattle to Phoenix.
“Hey, Ruthie. How are the wedding plans coming along?” Ruthie was getting married in June.
“Great! I’m working with a wonderful wedding planner, and she has a lot of great ideas.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“I just wanted to check in to see how you’re doing and ask if you’ve seen your sexy neighbor lately.”
Velvet rolled her eyes, knowing Ruthie thought the entire situation with her and Jaye was rather amusing. She had spent two years putting as much distance between them as she could and then fate delivered him practically to her door.
There was no need to tell Ruthie that she saw Jaye most days; especially when she made sure she was standing at a particular spot in her kitchen to catch a glimpse of him leaving to go jogging. “Funny you should ask. I saw Jaye today when I came home. He was coming home as well.”
“And?”
“And we spoke and then I went inside my side of the house, and I assume he went inside his.”
“Umm, did you get all hot and bothered when you saw him?”
“Why would I? I don’t love Jaye anymore.”
“Who said anything about love? I’m thinking of hot sex. The two of you used to mate like rabbits, and if I recall, just a couple of months ago you mentioned the idea of engaging in a steamy affair just to take the sexual edge off.”
Did Ruthie have to remember every single thing she said? “That was all talk.”
“Was it?”
“Yes, but if I did decide to hook up with a guy to take the edge off, it definitely wouldn’t be with Jaye.”
“Why not? I think the situation would be ideal since the two of you share space.”
“We don’t share space. He has his own place and I have mine. They’re just connected.”
“Well, regardless, he lives right above you, Vel.”
“Your point?”
“My point, as I was saying, is that if you were to have an affair with him, at least you’d know you wouldn’t be disappointed. Besides, you claim that you don’t have feelings for him anymore. If that’s true, then I’d think you’d prefer jumping into the sack with someone you know rather than someone you didn’t. Especially if it’s someone who has the ability to make multiple orgasms an art form. Need I remind you those were your words and not mine?”
Velvet figured it was time to end their call. The last thing she wanted to remember was how well Jaye could make her scream and about all those orgasms. “I just finished grading papers and now I need to record grades, Ruthie. I got to go.”
“Okay, but when horniness gets the best of you, I think it’s wonderful that Jaye is living so close.”
“Goodbye, Ruthie.”
“Goodbye.”
Velvet clicked off the phone, wishing Ruthie hadn’t reminded her of how good she and Jaye were in bed, not to mention that suggestion about taking him on as a lover. There was no way she would consider something like that, no matter how horny she got.
She took another sip of wine and leaned back in her chair. She had been living in Phoenix less than a year when she’d met Jaye. His banking corporation had been one of the sponsors of a job fair put on by her school at the civic center.
As Velvet sat there, she couldn’t help but remember when she and Jaye met.