On Hart's Boardwalk (On Dublin Street 6.7)

“I don’t need to walk this boardwalk with my hand in yours to know we’ll last forever, Liv. I know we’ll last forever because I’m never letting you go.”

“Nate,” I whispered, my eyes stinging with tears. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’m right here,” he promised me, and bent his head to brush the sweetest kiss across my lips.

Our lips tingling with the promise, Nate led me back down the boardwalk where we discovered the ice cream shack, a surf shop, and then Antonio’s, the Italian restaurant Bailey had mentioned. She said it was owned by her good friends Iris and Ira. Just down from Antonio’s was the largest building on the boards. It was a modern white building with lots of glass. Paradise Sands Hotel and Conference Center. There were no neon signs in sight.

“Bailey’s fiancé’s hotel,” I said as we stopped outside of it.

“I thought about booking here,” Nate said. “The rooms are cracking and the sea views are brilliant, but I thought you’d appreciate the inn more.”

“I do,” I assured him. “It’s like a home away from home. Less impersonal than a hotel.”

“Good.”

The hotel was neighbor to another one of Bailey’s friend’s businesses. The bar Cooper’s did have a neon sign because it looked like that kind of place. Bailey said it was the most popular bar in town. It was the boardwalk, apparently. And Cooper was married to her good friend, Jessica, who happened to be a local doctor.

The bar owner and the doctor. It was a little surprising. I liked it. And thought maybe I should tell Joss about it when I found out more. She liked writing romantic subplots with characters who didn’t seem right for each other but turned out to be just what they needed.

I lived for Joss’s romantic subplots, but not nearly so much as Grace and Shannon did. Those two were huge J. B. Carmichael fans.

And just as I was thinking about books we discovered Emery’s Bookstore & Coffeehouse. Emery was another of Bailey’s good friends. I was thinking Bailey was friends with everyone. She seemed like that kind of woman.

“We have to go in,” I said to Nate. “Let’s get a coffee and just soak in the books.”

“Okay, Library Nerd,” he said with a mock long-suffering sigh.

“You know you want coffee.” I led him inside and immediately decided screw the beach, we were spending the rest of our vacation here.

There was a large counter with several coffee machines behind it. To our right was the bookstore. Up a few steps in front of where we stood was a seating area filled with little white tables and chairs as well as a scattering of comfortable armchairs and sofas situated near a fireplace.

There were a few customers here already, sitting at the tables, drinking coffee, some reading, others talking quietly. I glanced around the bookstore with its white-painted bookshelves and hodgepodge of comfortable seating. A few Tiffany lamps were set here and there, adding warmth and color. All the woodwork in the store was painted white and it contrasted beautifully with the rich teal blue of the walls.

A woman stepped out from behind the book stacks to our right, and startled at the sight of us. She immediately got over it and offered us a shy smile. “The bell over my door broke. I didn’t you hear you come in. Coffee?”

“Aye, please.” Nate nodded and we followed her over to the counter.

Her startling pale blue eyes assessed Nate for a second and then her cheeks flushed. “You’re not from around here.”

“Scotland,” he replied.

Those beautiful eyes of hers flew to me. “Long trip?”

“Quite. We’re staying at Hart’s Inn.”

“I’m sure Bailey is taking good care of you.” She was soft-spoken and definitely came off shy. I had no idea what she had to be shy about.

She was tall and willowy, with beautiful eyes and a heart-shaped face. She wore her long white-blond hair in an intricate plait that rested over her right shoulder. Wisps of hair framed her lovely face. For a moment I couldn’t figure out who she reminded me of, and then it came to me. My girls had been like most kids and were obsessed with Disney’s Frozen for a while.

“I’m Emery,” she said as she stepped behind the counter. “What can I get you?”

Emery looked like the live version of Elsa from Frozen.

“What do you want, babe?” Nate asked me, jolting me from my musings.

“Caramel latte.”

My husband ordered an Americano, and as we waited I decided to indulge my curiosity. “Have you lived here all your life?”

Emery glanced over her shoulder at me. “No. I bought this place almost nine years ago.”

“Well, I love it. I run a university library back home so . . . books are my thing.”

She grinned, totally getting me. “That’s cool.”

“Not just any library,” Nate felt the need to pipe up. “The University of Edinburgh library.”

Emery blushed again for some bizarre reason, her gaze quickly flying from Nate to me. “That’s amazing.”

I nudged my husband. “Stop making me sound cooler than I am.”

He grinned at me. “No one said anything about you being cool, babe.”

“You’re funny.”

“I know I am.”

Rolling my eyes at his teasing, I looked back at the shop owner as she turned around with our coffees and popped them on the counter for us.

“Are you married?” I asked before she could tell us how much we owed.

She avoided my gaze, blushing again, and shook her head. “No.”

“That’s smart. Stay that way.” I gave my husband a pointed look, but he just grinned smugly at me.

“Like you could live without me,” he said and then turned to Emery. “How much do we owe?”

Once we paid, we thanked the woman and I dragged Nate into the bookstore area of the shop with me. He wanted to sit and enjoy his coffee instead. “You sprang this whole vacation on me so I didn’t have a chance to bring my e-reader or a paperback. I’ll need reading material for lazing on the beach.”

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”

In the end we both bought a couple of books, and Emery’s whole face lit up at the sale.

“Have a great vacation!” she called as we walked out, seeming a little less shy than she had been a few minutes before.

Huh.

“She’s a mystery,” I said as we strolled down the boardwalk. The sun was stronger now, beating down warm on my skin. I shrugged out of my cardigan and tied it around my waist as Nate held my coffee and books for me.

“What do you mean?” he said as he handed my stuff back to me.

“Emery. She’s a mystery. She’s beautiful, you had to notice she was beautiful.”

“I don’t notice these things when I’m with you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Liar.”

He laughed. “Okay, so she was beautiful, so what?”

“She blushed anytime you spoke to her.”

“I have that effect on women.”

That was somewhat true. It was those damn dimples of his when he smiled! But I wasn’t telling him that. So instead I snorted. “Okay. Well, she didn’t blush talking to me. Which means that she’s either shy with good looking men or just men, period. I mean, I got the impression she was kind of shy anyway, but definitely more so with you.”

“Beautiful women are allowed to be shy, Liv.”

“I know that. Kind of. I just . . . If I looked like her, I would have jumped you as soon as you first smiled at me, way back when we met. People are a surprise with all their insecurities.” It always shocked me when people I considered amazingly attractive told me about their body hang-ups or issues.

“Well, she may be beautiful, babe, but . . .” Nate wrapped his free arm around my waist and drew me into his side. His hand slid down over my ass, as hi

s gaze grew heated. “She’s not you. I love your curves, and the way those gorgeous eyes of yours turn to liquid gold when you come.”

Arousal flipped in my belly at his words, and my nipples pebbled against the bikini bra under my dress. “You have quite the way with words, Mr. Sawyer,” I whispered, staring greedily at his mouth.

“If you don’t stop staring at my mouth like that I’m going to break and fuck you before tomorrow night.”

“Then stop saying stuff that gets me hot!” I wrenched away from his hold. “It goes both ways.”

“I can’t help myself.” He smiled, the heated look in his eyes turning tender. “I’ve never been able to help myself when it comes to you.”

“Oh my God, Nate.” I huffed. “You know the romantic stuff gets me just as hot as the sexy stuff. Asshole.” I strode away, rattling with sexual frustration.

“I love you, too!” he called out to me in clear amusement.

I stuck my middle finger in the air, not caring about the other tourists, and grinned when I heard Nate howl with wicked laughter.

Chapter Eight

After Nate kissed the snit right out of me and got us even more hot and bothered, we spent the day on the beach. We rented sun loungers with a table and parasol in between them, and spent the day lazing it away.

When we knew the kids would be back from school, we Skyped with them on our phones, glad to see they weren’t missing us too much, and instead were having fun with Nathan and Sylvie.