Can't Stop the Feeling (Whispering Bay Romance 6)

“Ben Harrison?” Gus clarified. “The guy who’s representing Nora and Vince Palermo?”

Not the question he was expecting, but there was no reason to deny it. “Yep. That’s me.”

Viola and Gus stared back at him with varying degrees of hostility, and even Betty Jean now looked at him in horror. “And here I was really beginning to like you,” she said. “You do know that if Nora and Vince win they’re going to sell off all that beachfront property to Ted Ferguson, who in turn is going to litter our beaches with a bunch of concrete condominiums?”

Ted Ferguson was a south Florida developer who was always in the papers. Ben had never met him, but he was familiar with his M.O.

Ben wasn’t a fan of overdeveloping the beaches, but if Nora and Vince wanted to sell their land to Ferguson, there wasn’t much Ben could do about that. His job was to represent his client to the best of his ability, not police their every action.

“You’re going to lose this time,” Gus said. “Earl Handy’s will is tighter than a drum.”

Ben nodded genially. He wasn’t about to discuss his clients with these people, no matter how much he might like them. Or how wrong they were about his odds of losing, because the fact was, he predicted this case was going to be a slam dunk for him.

The Bistro door opened, and all three seniors glanced over curiously. Gus smiled in satisfaction. “Talk about perfect timing. Look who just walked in. The mayor, the city attorney and the city manager herself. You’re about to get your buns toasted, Harrison.”

Unable to help himself, Ben laid down his sandwich and turned in his seat. A trio of women all dressed in business attire stood at the entrance to the café. One of them was obviously pregnant. She had brown hair and wore a pleasant expression on her face. The one in the middle was short with dark chin-length hair and a familiar steely sort of look in her eyes. This one was the attorney, no doubt about it. And the third woman…

The third woman was tall with red hair pulled back in a low ponytail. She wore a tan-colored pencil skirt that clung to her slim hips and a crisp white shirt with black heels. Even from across the room, she had the kind of take-charge attitude and looks that would have gotten her noticed in Miami or Manhattan or anywhere else in the world. Her gaze locked with his in recognition.

Jenna Pantini.

/> He swallowed down his shock.

At eighteen, she’d been pretty enough for him to notice. She must be, what? Thirty-one now. She’d grown from a pretty girl into a beautiful woman.

Ben had only two regrets in his life, and one of them was standing just a room’s length away, staring at him as if he was the last person on earth she wanted to see.

Chapter Three

Apparently, yes, fate was a cruel bitch, because, really, what were the odds of running into Ben right here, right now?

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mimi said. “Is that Ben Harrison over there?”

Pilar followed Mimi’s gaze. “It certainly looks like him. And we’ve seen enough pictures of him this morning to be pretty certain.” She squinted. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think he’s even better looking in person.”

Jenna’s knees hadn’t felt this shaky since she’d visited Disney World this past spring and gotten off the Tower of Terror. Good thing no one was taking her pulse at the moment or they’d probably break out the AED machine.

What was he doing here? Yes, he was the attorney representing Nora Palermo, but wasn’t all that supposed to happen over phone calls and court motions and email?

“Hey, ladies!” Sarah Jamison smiled at them. “Are you here for lunch or just coffee?”

“Lunch,” Mimi said, still ogling Ben. Okay. To be honest, they were all still staring. It was like they’d conjured him out of thin air simply by talking about him.

Pilar was the first one to shake herself out of their Ben haze. “Do you know who that is eating in your cafe?” she demanded, pointing to Ben.

“Technically, it’s not my café yet. Lucy and I don’t sign the papers for another week.” The Bistro by the Beach belonged to Frida Hampton and her artist husband, Ed, who had just spent a summer in Europe and decided to ditch the everyday grind of restaurant ownership and move abroad. Luckily, Sarah and Lucy, both of whom had spent the summer working at The Bistro, were buying the place. No one had wanted to see Whispering Bay’s iconic coffee house sold to strangers. Or worse, turned into a hookah bar.

Pilar waved off Sarah’s explanation as if it was a pesky mosquito. “You’ve just served Ben Harrison, the lawyer who’s representing Nora and Vince Palermo. In other words, Whispering Bay’s biggest enemy.”

Sarah craned her neck to get a better look at Ben. “Really? He seemed like a nice guy. Pretty good-looking, too.”

“And he loved my Cuban sandwich,” Lucy added. “So he can’t be all bad.”

“Everyone loves your sandwiches,” Sarah gushed.

Pilar narrowed her eyes at the two women. “Don’t let that pretty face fool you. Jaws probably seemed like the family pet compared to that shark.”

Sarah raised a brow, and Lucy giggled.