the schedule has changed now that it’s fall and the tourist season is over. The least I can do is offer you a place to stay for the night and a nice, hot breakfast in the morning. Be a sweetie, will you, Laurel? Help Noah pick out what he needs from the gift shop and then get him settled in a room.”
Gift shop? Room?
For a couple minutes, Laurel had been lulled into thinking she had some semblance of control. She’d spoken to Noah, she’d stood within three feet of him and she hadn’t lost her cool or the self-respect it had taken her four long years to rebuild. But now Maisie was asking the impossible. The gift shop? Laurel looked that way. Because it was late and there were no guests, the lights in the shop were off but she knew what was waiting in the darkness beyond the closed door. Edible underwear. Furry handcuffs. See-through nighties. Just thinking about it all made Laurel’s face get hot and her insides turns to mush. The gift shop with anyone else, she could handle. The gift shop with Noah? She curled her fingers into her palms and wrapped her thumbs around them, fighting to regain control.
Walking into Maisie’s gift shop with Noah would be like walking through Yellowstone Park with a Hi Bears! I’ve Got Food sign around her neck.
“Grandma, I—”
Before Laurel could say another word, the front door popped open and a familiar voice echoed through the inn. “Where’s my little honey bunch?”
At the sight of Dr. Sam Ross, Maisie’s cheeks got a little rosier and her twinkle intensified. Doc Ross was a mainstay on the island, a general practitioner who had been treating everything from broken bones to tourists who had partied a little too hardy, for as long as Laurel could remember. He’d retired four years earlier and much to Laurel’s delight, he had accepted her offer to buy his practice. Doc Ross was a big, blunt man with a ruddy complexion and iron-gray hair. In the over-seventy crowd, he was the pick of the litter, the bachelor most sought after by the island’s blue-haired matrons. Much to their dismay, Doc only had eyes for Maisie. There was no doubt that Maisie returned his affections, but no chance, or so she said, that she was looking for anything permanent. Not at this stage of the game. That didn’t stop Doc from trying. Even though it must have been the third or fourth time that week he’d seen her, he carried a dozen red roses and a bottle of champagne, and when he got to the front desk, he presented them to Maisie with a flourish.
“Oh!” Maisie twittered like a schoolgirl. She introduced Noah quickly, right before she took Doc’s arm and headed toward the back of the house and her private rooms.
She called to Noah over her shoulder, “Laurel will take care of you!”
“Oh, no, you’re not getting away that easily.” Laurel went after her grandmother. She untangled her from Doc’s grip and pulled her into a corner. “What’s going on here?” she asked.
“I don’t know what you mean, dear.” Maisie had the nerve to look straight into Laurel’s eyes and smile. She giggled, and the color rose brighter than ever in her cheeks. “If you’re talking about me and Doc, you know the answer. A woman has needs.” She gave Laurel a broad wink and when all Laurel did was stare at her in wonder, her grandmother tapped her on the arm and leaned close. “All women do, sweetie. Maybe it’s time you remembered that.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about him.” Laurel shot a look over to her shoulder at Noah.
“Yes, I know,” Maisie said. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about, too. Good night, dear.”
Too stunned to move, Laurel watched Maisie and Doc disappear into the long hall past the kitchen. A second later, the door to Maisie’s private rooms closed and the muffled strains of La Bohème started up from Maisie’s CD player and seeped through Cupid’s Hideaway.
Needs?
Laurel was perfectly willing to accept that she had needs. Nobody had to point that out. She’d even indulged them a time or two in the years since she’d returned to the island and opened her practice. It was never anything serious. How could it be? Except for the small population that stayed on the island year round, most of the men she met were tourists. And there was one thing about tourists. They never stayed around.
Kind of like Noah.
The thought vibrated through her, deep, undeniable and bitter. But before she had a chance to remind herself this was not the time and place to think about it, the air warmed around her. She didn’t need to turn around to know Noah had come nearer.
A second later, she felt the brush of his hand against her shoulder.
“You still wear the same perfume,” he said.
Chapter Two
Seeing Laurel again was a lot like getting sucker punched.
That would explain why Noah’s gut was tight. Why his head was buzzing. Why it felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. She wasn’t supposed to be there, and to say he’d been caught by surprise was the understatement of this, or any other, century.
When Maisie called him earlier that morning, she said Laurel was cruising. And when Noah thought of cruising, he thought of big ships, rum drinks and steel drum music. When he thought of cruising, he thought of far, far away.
Which Laurel definitely was not.
Noah had spent a whole lot of time in the last four years telling himself that he didn’t miss Laurel. Not even a little. There were times when he even believed it.
Funny how fast all the positive reinforcement could go out the window. Funnier still that the warmth of Laurel’s skin against his could throw him back in a time warp and make all the old emotions feel new. The sensation was like a drug that lulled him into la-la land at the same time it zipped through his bloodstream and set it on fire. Allowing himself a long, slow smile, he took a step closer. He let his eyes drift shut, and drank in the scent and the warmth of Laurel and the amazing connection he’d thought he’d never be lucky enough to feel again.
It was all a big mistake, of course. Letting her know he remembered her jasmine and roses perfume. Getting close enough to feel the electricity that buzzed in the air between them. Touching her. In light of the games that former lovers played, he had to be making the strategic blunder of all times.
He supposed he could chalk it up to shock. Or an overactive imagination. Or just plain, old stupidity
But, God, it felt good to be so near her again.
“And it still smells wonderful.” Noah didn’t realize he’d spoken until he heard the sound of his own words whisper on the air between them. “Your perfume.”
“Of course I’m still wearing the same perfume.” It wasn’t so much the snap of Laurel’s words that brought Noah out of his daze as it was the fact that she stepped away from him. By the time he opened his eyes, he found himself holding nothing but thin air.
Laurel was already an arm’s length away. Her feet were apart. Her arms were tight against her sides. Her hazel eyes flashed lightning. “I’m still doing a lot of things I used to do,” she said. “But then, I’m not the one who changed.”
“So much for the formalities, huh?” Noah pulled his hand to his side. He supposed he should be grateful that Laurel reminded him of what he should have remembered in the first
