Clallam Bay (A Fresh Start #2) (4 page)

I gave myself an internal pep talk as he rocked back and forth, looking as cool as the late night air. I didn’t even think he noticed me at first.

“Evenin’,” he greeted, finally looking over when I walked up.

“Hey.” I pointed to his porch. “Mind if I sit?”

He nodded once. “By all means.”

He continued to rock while I took a seat, leaning back against the post to face him.

“So to what do I owe the pleasure? You had enough of your company over there?”

“How did you know I had company?”

“I saw two shadows and nobody’s left yet. Your boyfriend visiting or something?”

I snorted a laugh.

Poor flat-chested Amber and her haircut. At least she got what she was going for.

“Hardly. That’s my friend Amber from home,” I explained.

He slowly nodded his head. “Home. And where’s that exactly?”

“Chicago.”

He hummed. “Chicago’s a long ways away from here.”

I nodded back. “That it is.”

“So what brought you all the way out here? No teaching jobs in the city? Seems hard to believe.”

“Yeah well, they pretty much all wanted someone with experience. So, I came here to get it.” I shrugged. “This is me getting it.”

We sat in silence listening to the bay for a moment.

“You fixin’ to go back after?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Depends on how this year goes, I guess. If there’s anything here worth staying for.”

“You mean besides the view?”

I smiled out over the cliff. “It is a pretty good view.”

“That it is.”

I turned my smile on him and he smiled back, both of us amused by his teasing.

“Well, I think I’m gonna get going.”

“All right.”

Standing, I dusted off my pants. “This was nice. We should do it again.”

“Anytime,” he said, and I descended the stairs, turning slightly to wish him a goodnight. With a nod, he gave me a lazy salute and started to rock back and forth in his chair again.

I could still hear him rocking when I lay down on my bed, going over and over our conversation in my head. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

I woke the next morning to the sound of my own squeaky screen door slamming shut.

Rolling out of bed, I pulled a sweater on over my tank and poked my head out my bedroom door.

I waited and listened, only emerging when a muted banging came from the kitchen. I found Amber holding a bowl of pancake batter, a pair of huge sunglasses on her face, and a mess of pans at her feet.

“Morning, sunshine! How’d you sleep?”

I jumped with the volume of her voice. “Why are you being so loud?”

She ignored me, bending to pick up a pan before kicking the others out of her way.

“So, who was at the door?” I asked, sitting down at the table.

Whisking away, Amber smiled down at the batter. “Your neighbor.”

She turned away to flick water on the pan and make sure it was hot enough, leaving me to wonder what they could have talked about.

“And?”

“And what?” She played dumb.

“What did he want?”

“You know, it’s funny.”

Sighing, I laid my head in my hands. “What’s funny?”

“Oh, just the fact that I was drunk, but I wasn’t so drunk that I wouldn’t remember you telling me that boy out there was the hottest thing this side of the planet.” Pouring a dollop of batter onto the pan, she shook her head and sighed. “Seriously, Hailey. That brown hair and those brown eyes … I can just imagine what your kids would look like.”

I snorted. “Please.”

“Please yourself.” Covering her mouth, she snickered. “Don’t pretend like you haven’t thought about it.”

“I haven’t. You of all people know how I feel about kids.”

Flipping the pancake, she nodded. “Anybody else’s but your own. I know. But still.” After tossing a pancake on a plate, she handed it to me. “You have to admit they’d be pretty.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “So, what did he want? What did he say?”

“Not much. He just introduced himself as your neighbor. Said thanks for the cookies and cold burger.” She eyed me from over her shoulder. “Then he handed me that plate over there and he was on his way.” She turned off the stove then sat down opposite me. “Oh, and he invited us to the bar tonight.”

“What?”

“The bar. He invited us.”

“Which bar?”

She shrugged. “He didn’t tell me the name. He just said we’d know it ‘cause it was the only one in town.” Leaning across the table, she stole a piece of my pancake. “So you wanna go?”

“Why didn’t you make your own pancake? Aren’t you eating?”

She shook her head. “I don’t eat breakfast. So we’re going, right?”

“Well, if you don’t eat breakfast then why are you eating mine?”

“Hailey, focus.” She snapped her fingers in my face. “Are we going to the damn bar or are we not?”

“We are not.”

“What? Why?” She drew it out, bouncing in her seat dramatically like a little kid.

I stabbed another piece of pancake with my fork and pointed it at her. “Just so I could hear you whine like that.”

Her glare threw daggers at me, and I tried to stab her hand when it attempted to invade my plate again.

“I’ll make you another pancake.”

“I don’t need another pancake. I don’t even need this one.” I thought back on all those Doritos I’d readily consumed.

Huffing, she fell back in her seat. “Well then, what? What do you want? Name it.”

“Your pink sweater.”

“The crocheted one that hangs off the shoulder?”

“That’s the one.”

“Okay. But just to wear to the bar, right?”

I shook my head. “No. To keep forever.”

Amber briefly thought about it. “Okay, deal.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Seriously. You need to get out of this house. And it’ll give me a chance to try and work with this tragedy.” Amber patted down the spoiler sticking out of the back of her head, but it just popped right back up again.

“Hey, I get out of the house.”

Amber gave me a look.

“What? I do. Alyssa and I hang out on the porch all the time.” As if she had heard me, there was a knock on the door. “Speak of the devil and she shall appear.”

“How do you know it’s her?”

“Her signature knock.” It was as obnoxious as a woodpecker on crack.

I let Amber answer the door and introduce herself. As predicted, they hit it off immediately.

“So, you’ve already met the orally-fixated neighbor, huh? Did she tell you about what he did to her finger?”

While Alyssa filled Amber in, I cleaned up the kitchen, every so often eyeing the crumpled up bag of Doritos. I desperately wanted to stick my head in it and hide from those two. I was also still starving. All that one lousy pancake did was make me hungrier.

“By the way,” Alyssa said when she walked into the kitchen, “I forgive you for not calling me yesterday like you said you were going to.”

“I said no such thing.”

“Okay well, I forgive you for not calling me yesterday like I assumed you were going to. Amber said you two got in pretty late.”

Stuffing the Doritos in the cupboard, I nodded.

“She also mentioned a bar. The one Coll invited you to.”

“Yeah.”

“So are we going?”

Amber shouted from the other room. “Yes!” She came into the kitchen holding out her pink sweater. “We absolutely are.”

By the time we got back from finding Amber something to replace her prized sweater, the time to leave for the bar had rolled around and I was a nervous wreck. My stomach was in knots. Though that could have been low blood sugar from not eating for the rest of the day. I grabbed the Doritos out of the cupboard to munch on, but Amber took them away.

“We’ll get something more filling at the bar. You need more than crumbs coating your stomach.”

The cab Amber had called to pick us up turned out to be a minivan. Complete with a car seat and toys covering the floorboard and driven by one of my students’ fathers.

“Don’t mind the mess, Miss Hailey, Miss Alyssa.” Timmy’s dad nodded to us both in greeting. “Cab’s still in the shop and will be for at least another week.”

The ride to the bar consisted of low-playing children’s sing-alongs and profuse apologies about the mess. We were on to divorce proceedings and money problems by the time we pulled up along the pier. When we got out, I tipped him well—it was the least I could do—then reminded him about the parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday before trying to slide the side door shut.

“Just give it a little nudge and it’ll latch on its own.”

The three of us stood outside the van, watching as the door slowly slid shut before Alyssa and Amber took off. I waved then ran after them, all of us heading for the rundown shack at the end of the pier. If it weren’t for the colorful Christmas lights and chili pepper strands, we probably wouldn’t even have known it was there.

The music from the jukebox made the wood boards shake under our feet. I could feel it in my chest once we stepped inside.

“I thought you couldn’t smoke in public places. Isn’t it against the law or something?” Amber yelled over the noise of the crowd, fanning smoke out of her face.

Alyssa leaned closer to shout in her ear. “It’s privately owned. So, anything goes.”

Amber and I followed Alyssa up to the bar to order our drinks and some cheese sticks for yours truly. I kept my eyes straight ahead but my mind on something else entirely. I wondered if he was here. Who he was with. If he would be going home with them tonight. Why he even asked us to come if he would be going home with someone else. I really needed to rein in the crazy.

Once our order was up, Alyssa found an open table close to a small stage in the corner and we all took a seat.

“Looks like they play live music here.” Amber looked over her shoulder at the stage. “You think they will tonight?” she asked then took a sip of her drink.

Alyssa shrugged. “I hope so.”

“Me too.”

As Alyssa and Amber both swayed to the music and daintily sipped at their drinks, I dug into the cheese sticks, nearly choking to death when Alyssa slammed her glass down on the table. “What the hell? What is she doing here? Did you invite her?”

Amber stretched her neck to see over Alyssa’s head. “Ooh, do we not like somebody? Who? Who is it? Point her out to me.”

Alyssa pointed at Sonia who was standing just inside the door. I waved her over to our table while Alyssa wasn’t looking. She waved back then pointed to the bar. I waved in understanding just before Alyssa turned to face the table again.

“Is she coming over here? She better not be coming over here. Were those hand signals for us?”

To keep from having to own up to initiating the hand signals, I shoved another cheese stick in my mouth and gave Amber a look before Sonia started heading our way.

Alyssa pouted while I introduced the other two. I kicked her foot in warning to be nice when she tried to tell Sonia there was only enough room for three. When Sonia’s fiancé Jason brought a chair over for her to sit on, we all finally got to meet him.

“You can sit with us too, you know. There’s plenty of room.” I eyed Alyssa and dared her to argue.

“Oh, that’s okay. I gotta go set up the stage. Me and some of the guys are playing a few sets tonight.”

Amber grinned from ear to ear. “Oh, good. We were just saying how we hoped there was going to be some live music. What do you guys play?”

“A little of this, a little of that,” he said distractedly, waving at someone somewhere across the room. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I felt that someone walk up behind me.

“Hey, man. Good to see you on solid ground.” Jason held out a hand and I felt an immense heat on my back when Coll reached over me to shake it. “Ladies, I leave you in good hands.” Jason took off for the stage and Coll pulled up a chair beside me. I smiled up at him as he sat down.

“Hey, this okay? Me sitting here with you?” he asked, his breath hitting my cheek, he was so close.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Yeah. It’s fine.”

Noticing my discomfort, Amber engaged Coll in some casual conversation about fish and what all being a fisherman entailed. He humored every silly question she threw at him. When did you start fishing? Eighteen. Do you ever fish for fun? Sometimes. Which fish do you catch the most? Sockeye salmon. What’s the name of your boat? Uncharted Chum.

“Really? The name of your boat is Uncharted Chum? Really?” Alyssa asked.

Leaning back, he draped his arm across the back of my chair. I felt the vibration from his voice rush over my back and down my spine. “Really, really.”

While other conversations floated around and among us, Coll leaned closer to speak into my ear. “You need another drink?”

Feeling the combined heat from his breath and his fingers touching the ends of my hair, I needed another badly.

Boy, did I.

“Yeah. That’d be great. Thanks.”

Coll went to stand and the mic clicked on. Jason’s voice filled the small room. “Our bassist is an ass and broke his arm, so we can’t play.” Everyone in the crowd moaned. “Unless Coll wants to come up here and take his place.” The crowd encouraged him with shoulder-pats and nudges while the band cawed his name. “Coll, Coll! Coll, Coll!”

I felt the slightest tug on my hair and looked up.

“Raincheck on that drink, yeah?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah.”

Cheering erupted with the heat from my neck as he headed for the stage. I bartered with my heart, promising to stop eating the cheese sticks and treat it better if it would just settle down already. But he pulled that bass strap over his head and started playing and it sped and sped. It beat faster and faster as his fingers plucked and his forearms flexed. Right up until the moment he stopped and I thought it might have exploded already.

I got myself that other drink before they started the next song. And the next. And the next. When I got up for a fourth, Amber grabbed my arm.

“Hailey, babe. Why don’t you give that last one some time to soak in?”

With a nod that nearly sent me falling off the chair, I agreed. The fates had other plans when a refreshed glass was set down in front of me. I looked up to find familiar blue eyes hovering above.

“Oh, hey. It’s you.”

“Yep. I’m me.” Sitting down in Coll’s chair, he nudged the drink in my direction. “And that’s for you.”

“She’s actually had enough, thank you,” Amber informed him and slid the glass back across the table.

“One too many to decide for herself, eh?”

“Yes. And you are?”

“Russell Rinaldi,” he said in his Canadian accent, sounding all the part one imagined a man of the sea would. “The harbor master, ma’am. At your service.” He tapped his forehead for a two-finger salute.

“Hailey, is there something you forgot to tell me?” Amber asked.

I guessed there was.

“Uh, I met Russell on one of my walks around the docks a few weeks ago.”