Book 10 Meant for Love #2
“Listen, I’m sorry I woke you up,” he says in a more conciliatory tone.
“I wasn’t thinking about someone actually living here.
I need to get this done while I can. Since you’re already awake, would you mind if I got back to it?
” The exhaustion that radiates from him has her softening, too. Slightly.
“And you won’t show up here again at this hour?”
“I won’t show up here again at this hour.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.” He treats himself to another good look at her barely covered body before he stalks back to his Sherman tank of a lawn mower and fires up the beast.
Later, Alex tries to cool down with a cold hose shower. He catches Jenny watching him.
“What are you looking at?” he asks.
“Not a damned thing. What’re you looking at?”
He zeroes in on her lips, which are moist and appealing. The entire package is appealing. Well, except for the tomato incident. But he’s not thinking about tomatoes. Strawberries come to mind as he stares at her ripe lips and wonders if they’d taste as sweet as they look. “Nothing.”
Alex takes another step, putting him right in front of her. Her lips part with surprise as she looks up at him, probably trying to gauge his intentions. And what are his intentions, exactly? Damn if he knows.
“Who are you?” she asks.
“Alex.” Since he has absolutely nothing to offer her, he gives only his first name. “Who are you?”
“Jenny.”
He’d begun to rethink his plan to steal a taste of those lips when she moistens them again and makes his decision that much easier. “If you don’t want this, say no.”
“I, um…”
His hands curl around her hips, drawing a gasp from her as he tugs her against him.
“That’s not no. Last chance…” She doesn’t say no.
She doesn’t say anything as she continues to look up at him with big, startled eyes that have him thinking about melted chocolate.
And then her hands land on his bare chest, and he realizes she’s bringing him closer, not pushing him away.
They end up sharing a series of hot kisses, moving inside the lighthouse for privacy.
“How did we get here?” he asks a long while later.
She breathes in the scents of freshly cut grass and tomatoes that cling to him. “I’m not quite sure.”
“One minute I was borrowing your hose, and the next…”
Jenny smiles at his summary of events. “I don’t do things like this.”
“Like what? Like this?” He tweaks her nipple again, making her gasp and squirm against his tight hold.
“Yes, like that. And this.” She drags him into another torrid kiss, this one skipping right past the preliminaries and going straight to open mouths and tangled tongues. “I, um—”
With his hands on her face, he kisses her softly. “Don’t.”
“I was only going to apologize for the tomatoes.”
“Don’t do that either. I’ve never had a woman throw tomatoes at me or made out in a lighthouse. And here I thought this day would totally suck.”
She smiles up at him, dazzled by his gorgeous brown eyes, his darkly tanned skin, the scent of freshly cut grass and the ripple of muscles beneath her hands.
“I gotta go.”
She lets her hands drop from his shoulders. “I know.”
“I’ll see you around, Jenny, the lighthouse keeper.”
“See you around, Alex, the lawn mower.”
Still reeling from the encounter with Alex, Jenny goes to visit friends.
Sydney is recovering from surgery, so the group gathers at her house.
The women decide it would be fun to have a surprise post-wedding shower for Tiffany, with gifts from her store.
They plan it for the following weekend at the lighthouse.
After his twelve-hour workday, Alex and his brother, Paul, receive good news about the nursing candidates who responded to their ad.
David meets with Alex and Paul that evening to help screen the candidates.
After they get their mother settled for the evening, Alex takes his motorcycle for a ride and ends up waking Jenny for the second time that day.
They venture down to the beach for a nighttime swim that turns heated. Their attraction is incendiary.
Maddie thought she was pregnant and is upset that she isn’t.
She really wanted the baby, and Mac agrees, even though he put a moratorium on pregnancies in their family after PJ’s chaotic delivery.
Mac can’t handle the scary births or seeing Maddie in pain.
She decides to buy a test the next day just to be sure.
Evan McCarthy, high off the recording of his new song at Island Breeze Studios, receives a call that his album, which had been locked up in a Nashville legal battle, is likely to be bought by Buddy Longstreet and Long Road Records.
Evan and his fiancée, Grace, plan their wedding for January 18 in Turks and Caicos.
Arriving home after another twelve-hour day, Alex finds employees gathered outside the greenhouses, where Paul is arguing with their naked mother. Paul holds her bathrobe and has obviously been trying to get her to put it on for some time already.
Alex takes off at a run to help Paul, who brightens when he sees Alex heading toward them. Marion’s back is turned, so she doesn’t see Alex approach, but he hears her sobs.
“I want you to get your father right now and bring him to me, do you understand?”
“I can’t do that.” Paul looks imploringly at Alex.
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. You’ll do what you’re told.”
Ignoring the crowd of employees watching their sad drama unfold, Alex wraps his arms around her shoulders. “I’m here, Marion,” Alex says gently in a voice not all that different from his father’s. “I’m right here, and I’ve got you.”
She reaches up to grasp his hands. “Oh, George. I’ve been waiting for you to get home. The boys have been unmanageable this afternoon.”
Paul approaches them tentatively.
“I’m here now.”
Alex takes the robe from Paul and puts it around their mother’s shoulders.
“Why are we outside?” she asks Paul, anger now replaced by confusion.
Paul’s face is lined with exhaustion and despair, unlike anything Alex has ever seen, except for when their father was dying.
“You wanted to come find Dad after your shower.”
“But Daddy died, didn’t he?” she asks in a small voice that makes Alex want to sob with the utter injustice of this horrific illness.
“Yeah, he did,” Alex says. “Let’s go home and have some ice cream, Mom.”
“Not before dinner,” she says in a scolding tone that reminds Alex of the mother he used to know.
Paul turns to the employees, who’ve come out of the store and greenhouses to see what’s going on. “Show’s over,” he says. “Get back to work.”
Back at the house, Marion wants to take a nap before her outing with her church friends. She’s very sad for what she’s putting her sons through, but they love her and are right where they want to be. Alex wants to howl with the outrage of it all.
Jenny goes on a date with Linc Mercier at the Lobster House.
After dinner, she asks Linc to join her at the Tiki Bar to watch Evan and Owen play.
All their friends are there when Paul and Alex Martinez walk in.
Alex and Jenny pretend not to know each other when Grace introduces the Martinez brothers to the group by their nicknames, AM and PM.
Jenny is sad to lose their first-name-only status.
Alex heads to the bar while Paul joins the table of friends.
Maddie asks about their mom, which is how Jenny learns about Marion’s illness.
While Alex is at the bar, he overhears a woman talking about his mother and her behavior earlier.
Shocked to see Sharon, the manager of their store, calling his mother “bat-shit crazy,” he confronts and fires her immediately.
Jenny overhears the exchange between Alex and Sharon.
She asks Linc to take her home, surprising him when she passes on a second date.
She’s anxious to check on Alex, and the minute Linc drops her off at the lighthouse, she rushes for the door to find Alex there.
He wants to be with her, and they agree to take their wild attraction to the next level, but only if they’re exclusive.
Evan sings his new single, “My Amazing Grace,” for the first time to the crowd at the Tiki Bar. He has Grace join him on stage, much to her embarrassment. Everyone loves the song, but nobody more than Grace, who asks him to sing it again at their wedding.
Alex and Jenny are awakened in the middle of the night by a call from Paul.
He’s concerned their mom is having a heart attack.
She’s being taken to the clinic. Jenny drives Alex there and then waits for him, even though he told her not to.
When Alex comes out in the morning, Jenny offers him a ride home and her assistance with the retail store.
She has management experience and an MBA.
Alex gratefully accepts her help and tells her how much it means to him that she offered.
Jenny goes home to rest for a bit and wakes up with the flu.
She rests all day and misses the planning party for Tiffany’s shower.
Marion is discharged from the clinic and brought home to recover.
After getting her into bed for a nap, Alex lies down and falls asleep.
Later, Paul informs him that nurse Hope Russell is coming over on the ferry on Saturday to check out the island—and them.
Alex heads to Jenny’s with soup and spends the night with her.
Later, Alex wakes to her talking in her sleep.
“Toby, wait… Don’t go. Please, don’t go.”
“Jenny,” Alex whispers, kissing her cheek and then her lips. “Wake up, honey. You’re dreaming.”
Undone by her tears, Alex brushes them away. “Are you okay?”
She nods, but he can tell she isn’t okay, especially when the tears keep coming. He rubs her back, trying to soothe her.
“I’m sorry,” she says after a long period of quiet. “The dream… It was upsetting.”