Chasing Carly (Holiday Cove 3)

I turned to look at him, my eyes wide. “Right? I was just thinking that!”

He laughed softly. “My brother and I used to chase those things and put them in jars. There were loads of them out there in the summer.”

“That’s crazy.” I smiled. “Alesha and I used to do that too. Sometimes she’d have our dad set up the camping tent in the backyard so we could have a family camp out. I’d complain about having to sleep on the ground or the smell of firewood in my hair, but secretly I loved it.”

“It’s a pretty big age gap between you two,” Nick said. “You had to play the cool, grown-up teen.”

I laughed and nodded. “Yup. Too cool to hang out with my little sister.”

“What about now?”

I turned to look at him, surprised to find him watching me. His face was illuminated by the flickering of the fire and the soft overhead lights, making the angles seem sharper and his expression more mysterious. His eyes were dark but the glow of the fire reflected in them, making them look like they were ablaze.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s harder when you’re grown up. When you’re kids, you’re stuck with your sibling no matter what. You’re forced together. But then when you’re out on your own it’s like this choice and you have to figure out what the hell you want that relationship to look like.” He drifted off, and looked out at the ocean. His jaw worked like he was literally gnawing on something. “With Nate, it’s like I don’t know who he is anymore. He was this super smart, athletic guy who had all this potential and now he’s out there raising hell and I’m afraid he’s gonna throw his entire career away over stupid shit like drinking too much. But he doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t think I know anything.”

“Hmm. I get that. With Alesha and me, it’s a little different. I was almost ready to start junior high when she was born. Then my parents split and everything just went crazy. It’s like we’ve always had this huge divide between us. It sounds awful, but almost all of my memories were from my childhood when it was just me and my mom and dad and sometimes I wish that had never changed...” my words trailed off.

“That doesn’t sound awful,” Nick said, his voice low and earnest. “What happened? With your parents?”

I took a long sip from the beer in my hands. “Just the usual stuff you know, they grew apart, Mom was unhappy, ran off with some biker dude.”

“I’m sorry.”

I shrugged and took another long drink. I wasn’t nearly buzzed enough to go into all that. All those memories were shoved into a box that I’d buried deep down inside. It served as a time capsule that I had no intention of opening.

“Enough about all that,” I said, waving my hand as though to brush it away. I turned to Nick and plastered a smile on my face. “Tell me something about your time in the Marines. Do you miss it?”

If he was thrown off by my sudden change of topic, he didn’t show it. He grinned and took a swallow from his own beer. An amber ale. “I don’t really miss it. I thought I would. But I’m pleased with how it all turned out. Getting the job with Rosen, moving here,” he paused, flashing me a meaningful look, and I held my breath. “It feels like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

I couldn’t stay still under his intense stare. He was making me twitchy and squirmy in my seat. There was something about his eyes and easy smile that completely undid me with a single glance. I’d spent the entire week fighting it, and while still difficult, at The Siren, we were on my turf, and I was usually busy enough that I could duck away when things got to be too much. Especially whenever his smile was sucking me under his spell a little too fast. But out on Harvey’s back patio, practically alone, in the soft light with the backdrop of the ocean and the moonlight…

I didn’t stand a chance.

There was a small table between our two chairs and I set my beer glass on it before leaning forward and opening my hands over the fire. “Holiday Cove is a pretty magical place. Even if I didn’t have The Siren I wouldn’t want to leave.”

“How did you find this place? Long ways from Florida.”

“Well, I was actually in Phoenix. That’s where we moved after the divorce. My dad got a new job that required him to be in Arizona. I think he just wanted a fresh start.” I shrugged. At the time, I’d been furious with him for tearing me away from my school and my friends. But over time, I adjusted, and now that several years had passed, it was a lot easier to understand his motives. “Anyway, after high school, I bounced around a lot and ended up here and just never left.”