Need You Now: A Pelican Bay Novella

Chapter One

“Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.”~ Bethany Hamilton

The air was sultry, humid, and ripe for a storm. Lightning lit up the sky, followed by the boom of thunder several seconds later. The weather forecasters had called for a tropical storm along the entire East Coast—a superstorm, they labeled it—and based on the way the rain slashed against the windows, they were spot-on.

The air conditioner unit in the window barely cooled off the apartment. Connor Maguire had stripped off his T-shirt and unbuttoned his shorts when there was a knock at the door. Two quick knocks followed by three slower.

Finally.

He opened the door and smiled down at the brown-haired beauty on the other side. “Thought you’d never get here, darlin’.”

“Took longer because the whole damn town’s crazy about this storm.”

Connor grabbed the paper bag out of her hands and stepped back so she could enter. The wind blew hard, causing the door to slam wide open.

Was it his imagination, or did the air feel different from other storms?

Abby O’Connell swept in, her long, dark tresses held up in a drenched and sagging ponytail.

Connor peeked in the bag, smiling at the six-pack of his favorite brew. “No worries. Cade lent us his place for the night. We have food, weed, and beer. All the essentials to hunker down for the night.”

She slipped out of her sandals and dropped her large tote bag onto the floor. “I’m soaked.”

He took in her short sundress—a cute one in light blue with tiny white flowers—plastered to her body and molded to her luscious curves.

Grabbing her around the waist, he pulled her close. “It’s not good to stay in wet clothes. Why don’t I help you out of this?”

He moved his hands up her back and slid the zipper down. The cold from her wet dress did nothing to cool his temperature. And the points of her nipples as they pressed through the sheer fabric of her bra against his bare chest only added to his internal heat, causing an inferno of blood to flow to his cock.

Abby shoved at his shorts, pulling down his boxers at the same time. “Now you’re talking.”

Connor pushed the rest of her dress down and quickly rid Abby of her bra and thong, admiring her tanned body, firm breasts, and long legs.

Reaching into the brown bag, he pulled out two beers, cracked them open, and handed her one. “Here’s to getting this party started.”

They clinked cans and collapsed onto the couch, bodies intertwined with eager mouths and restless hands. Connor cupped her full breasts, swiping his thumbs over the hard peaks. With practiced expertise, she straddled him, taking him inside her in one slow stroke. They both moaned, and Connor thrust up in a matching rhythm as she rode him.

Hard.

She cried out his name as she climaxed.

Connor woke with a start, bathed in sweat and with a boner so hard it hurt.

Same damn dream…again.

Almost every night for the past few weeks. Ever since he’d run into Abby O’Connell on the Pelican Bay Boardwalk while she protested the Erickson Amusement Pier expansion. They’d barely spoken then, but based on the daggers she cast his way, she was not over their breakup from almost a decade ago.

They’d started dating his last year of high school, when her family moved to the small beach town of Pelican Bay, NJ. Abby grew up in Philadelphia and was used to a faster crowd than what the sleepy beach town provided. Connor had been looking for fast and wild, and Abby had been like no other girl he’d ever known, giving him both.

It had been years since he allowed himself to think about Abby.

He still had yet to meet another girl as special.

With a frustrated groan, he swung his legs off the bed and headed to the bathroom to seek relief that only came by his hand or a cold shower. After taking care of business, he dried off and returned to the bedroom. A quick glance at the clock showed it was a little past five a.m.; too late to go back to sleep, and too early to get his donut fix at Shore to Please Donuts.

After dressing in board shorts and a swim shirt, Connor walked through the apartment he lived in above Maguire Brother Renovations, the business he and his younger brother, Jason, started in Tampa. After returning to Pelican Bay a couple months ago, they’d stayed and opened a new location of Mbr.

The apartment wasn’t much, but was the first place Connor had lived alone and didn’t share a bathroom with anyone. It was a feeling he could get used to.

Opening the surf app on his smartphone, he checked the morning’s conditions and found them marginally acceptable. It wouldn’t be until fall before the waves got really good, but they were decent enough today. He tossed a towel, wetsuit, and other gear into a backpack, then grabbed his surfboard and exited the private stairs to the street.

He walked along Crocus Ave, the primary shopping district on the island. Although quiet in the predawn light, it would bustle with activity in an hour or two, once the sun rose and the businesses that catered to the breakfast crowd opened.

As he passed Shore to Please Donuts, he caught the glow of lights and inhaled the sugary scent of donuts and other freshly baked pastries. If he wasn’t having sex, at least he could have donuts. He made a mental note to stop on his way home.

At Sixteenth Street, he turned right and headed toward the ocean. A couple of blocks later, he crossed over Ocean Ave and jogged up the ramp of the boardwalk, hurrying across to the stairs to the beach. Toeing off his shoes, he trekked across the sand until he reached the water’s edge. He inhaled deeply, the scent of salt from the water filling his veins with energy and bringing a smile to his lips.

Tossing his gear on the sand, he tugged on his wetsuit. He grabbed his board, then ran into the water and dove into an oncoming wave. Breaking the surface, he smiled. Life didn’t get any better than this.

Abby O’Connell had woken before dawn—again—after another restless night. With a week left before the grand opening of her soap shop, she had a million things to do and not enough hours in the day. Most nights she crashed in exhaustion after midnight, only to wake after a few hours and stare at the ceiling.

Usually, she woke with new tasks for her growing to-do list. But today the cause of her restlessness came in the form of a green-eyed, six-foot, sandy-haired ghost from her past named Connor Maguire. They’d dated on and off a solid three years after her family moved to Pelican Bay thirteen years ago.

Abby had been ticked when her mom moved them out of Philly, where there was always something to do, to the sleepy beach town.

And right before Abby’s senior year!

Back then, Abby had a lot of attitude and resentment toward everything. When she was four, her dad died from an undetected brain aneurysm that burst. In the blink of an eye, her perfect family had been permanently changed.

Forced to sell their house in Northeast Philly to cover expenses, her mom had moved Abby and her two sisters into a two-bedroom apartment near the hospital off Broad Street in the heart of Philly, where she worked as a nurse.

It wasn’t ideal, but over time they’d adjusted. When the girls got older and no longer needed help from the part-time nanny she hired, her mom switched to working the overnight shift, which left Abby’s older sister, Natalie, in charge of watching them in the evening. Unfortunately, Nat wasn’t the best role model and used to leave Abby in charge of their younger sister, Olivia, while Nat went clubbing.

That stopped when Natalie got knocked up at eighteen. She kept the baby, and while much about their life got complicated, Abby’s nephew, Liam, quickly became the focus of all four O’Connell ladies.

Abby’s mom wanted a better life for all of them…one outside the city. A patient told her about the wonderful times she’d had at Pelican Bay on vacation. Her mom took the family for a day trip, fell in love with the town, and hadn’t looked back.

Which was how Abby found herself in a new town her senior year of high school.

Connor had been the perfect combination of hotness and trouble that Abby had been looking for to rebel against the move. He wasn’t afraid to take chances and lived life to the fullest, from surfing to partying.

After his multiple failed attempts at asking her out during her first week at school, she ran into him on the beach late one day after school, where he’d been surfing. Sitting on the sand, she watched him for a while, admiring the way his long, lean body moved in tune with the waves. When he’d had his fill, he set his board down and dropped into the sand beside her.

“Ever surfed?” he asked.

“Kinda hard when living in a city,” she snapped.

“You’ve never been to the shore before?”

“Of course I have, but I’m more of the lie-out-and-tan type.”

“Right.” He unzipped his wetsuit and peeled it down his chest, revealing a flat stomach with enough muscles to make Abby notice. “I could teach you.”

Abby stared as he brushed the water off his face, the droplets sliding onto his perfect torso. Down, down they slid, past his belly button and beyond. The rush of wanting surprised her. She was no virgin, but the sex with the two boys from her old school hadn’t been memorable or lasted more than a couple of weeks. And after Nat got pregnant, Abby had learned to keep her hormonal urges at bay.

Seeing Connor with his shaggy, beach-blond-streaked hair, smiling eyes, and ripped bod caused those urges to wake up.

“I don’t have a surfboard,” she said, and wiggled her toes in the sand.

“I have one you could borrow.”

She shrugged in response.

He leaned forward, and for a quick second Abby thought—and kinda hoped—he was going to kiss her. “I’m here the same time most evenings, if you’re interested.” He gave her a sexy grin before standing and picking up his board. “See you around, Abby.”

He walked away, the backside of him as perfect as the front.

Abby showed up the next day and every day after.

Shaking her head to clear away the memory, Abby rose from the bed and went into the bathroom. There’d be no more sleep, so she may as well start her day.

She quickly dressed in running shorts, a tank top, and sneakers. After grabbing a bottle of water, she went downstairs and let herself out the rear entrance, refusing to walk through the store and the reminder of all that needed to be done.

There’d be time to freak about work later. Now she needed to clear her head.

The benefit of living above her storefront was its prime location along the boardwalk, only a few steps away from the beach. Abby veered left and jogged along the water, pacing herself. She did a circuit around the lighthouse before turning and heading past where she started and the newly renovated amusement pier.

The sun had peeked past the horizon and was slowly making its way into a new day. Watching the sun rise over the Atlantic was one thing she’d missed most after leaving Pelican Bay nine years ago, a year after Hurricane Samantha hit and wrecked the small New Jersey barrier island. In the months since she’d returned, Abby had made a point of watching it rise every day. Each sunrise looked different and brought her a joy she’d experienced nowhere else.

Usually, she had this part of the beach to herself, but she caught the outline of someone in the water.

A surfer.

Her heart lurched as she got closer.

Could it be…

It was hard to be sure from the distance, but once he rose on the board and got into position, Abby recognized the form…the body…the man.

Connor Maguire.

After riding the wave in, he grabbed the board and paddled out even further. He straddled the board with his back to the shoreline, like a god calling to the waves. Then, with the ease and swiftness of the boy she remembered, he turned and paddled toward shore, rising at the perfect moment to get the lift and rush he needed to propel him forward.

Abby continued to run, mesmerized by his form, by the way his hair and body looked against the backdrop of the rising sun. The damn man was as beautiful as ever.

Despite the magnetic pull, she had every intention of running past him.

If only she had been watching where she was going.

When she stepped on something in the sand that caused her ankle to turn, all she could do was cry out as her knee buckled, and she started to fall.