Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits) (15 page)

“Hot redhead, three o’clock,” Andrew read off as he took his seat again. “Hashtag, I’d hit that.”

I laughed, slapping his arm. “It so didn’t say that.”

“Well, it should,” he pulled out his phone. “Think I could get it trending?”

“You’re horrible,” I laughed, pulling his phone back.

Now that the pressure of the show had lifted, everyone seemed to be in a great mood. Cora offered a round of drinks on the house, which got a huge cheer, and our table decided to order some more food. For the first time in weeks, I felt like I could relax.

Until Andrew’s stupid brother opened his mouth.

“Man, I hope we make it to the next round,” Edward said. “I want to see that footage of trivia night.”

“It would suck to get kicked off now,” Posey agreed. “We barely got to enjoy it.”

“We should probably be prepared for it, though,” Zane said. “You never know with TV. Anything can happen. I mean, how many times has the Bachelor given his rose to the absolute worst choice? And who can forget the Jennifer Hudson fiasco on
Idol
?”

“What’s with all the negative talk?” Andrew demanded. “I thought we were great!”

“I think we were, too,” Zane said. “I’m just saying it’s good to be prepared for anything.”

“Well, maybe don’t say it.” Andrew’s voice was sharp. “Some people at this table worked really hard on this. We could at least let them have a night to enjoy it.”

Zane’s eyes flashed to my face, widening. “I’m so sorry, Riley—”

“No, it’s fine,” I assured him, surprised at Andrew’s reaction. Okay, so maybe their comments had sent my heart plummeting to my knees, but he didn’t need to be so touchy on my behalf.

“You did a great job,” Zane said, reaching for my hand. “Really. We all appreciate this so much.”

Edward was watching his brother, an unreadable expression on his face, but Zane must have nudged him, because he tore his eyes away to look at me. “We really do, Riley. Thank you.”

“You guys don’t have to—”

“We should toast,” Libby interrupted, raising her glass. To my horror, most of the people in our section quieted down at the sound of her voice, turning their attention to us.

“To Riley James,” she called loudly, and that got the attention of just about everyone else. All over the pub people were raising their glasses to me. “For putting Lilac Bay on the map!”

There was a chorus of “To Riley!” across the pub, and I did my best to bury my flaming face in my glass, offering them a weak wave.

“Oh, don’t even pretend like you didn’t love that,” Andrew said in my ear as everyone went back to their own conversations.

“Shut up.”

He laughed, and the brush of air from his breath, so close to my ear, sent little goose bumps down my neck. I pushed him away. “Stop breathing on me.”

“Another thing you’re too afraid to admit you love,” he said, lifting his glass.

I shook my head at him, more than a little relieved when he turned to answer something Libby was asking. I took a long sip of my beer before bringing my hands up to my face. The condensation from the cold glass felt good against my flaming cheeks.

“I need a bathroom break,” Jenny said. “Wanna come?”

“Sure.” It would be nice to splash some cold water on my face. Of course, once we got up from the table, I was immediately swarmed by people wanting details on the show. “Make sure you vote,” I kept repeating. “Tell your friends, tell family off-island, tell everyone you can.” Jenny tried to stay with me but I waved her ahead. “I’ll catch up with you back at the table.”

It took a good ten minutes for me to get through the crowd and reach the hallway to the restrooms. And once I got there, my path was blocked again.

“Hey,” Chase said, his entire face lighting up at the sight of me. “I was hoping I might run into you.”

I glanced over his shoulder at the St. Pauli Girl clock in the hallway. “Isn’t it a little bit late to catch the ferry back to the mainland?”

He shook his head, still smiling.
Riley James, don’t you dare let yourself be affected by that smile.
“I told you,” he said. “I’m staying on the island.”

Hmm. I had been sure that was just a line.

“Look,” he said, leaning down a little bit to better see into my face. And if you think for a second that I wasn’t really into the fact that he was so much taller than me, you obviously aren’t a five-foot-ten woman. “I think you have the wrong idea about me. I asked around at work and heard about the Hillmans nominating me for that committee. I didn’t know a thing about it.”

Of course it would have to be nearly as crowded in this hallway as it was out in the dining room. No room to take a step back, to escape from the straight-up heavenly scent of his cologne. Something dark and musky, maybe sandalwood? It was delicious. Most of the guys around here—well, Andrew, anyhow—stuck to Ivory soap and Old Spice and called it a day.

He was watching me closely and I realized, belatedly, that he was waiting for an answer. While I was busy smelling him.

“Look,” I said quickly. “It’s not that I think you’re lying or something. But you work for people who are heavily invested in using my position to get on TV.”

“But I don’t care about any of that,” he said. “I don’t want to be on TV.”

You should be on TV
, I thought, my eyes drifting down to the faint shadow of stubble on his chin. Something about that stubble was really working for me—maybe it was the contrast between the roughness and the rest of his perfectly polished look. Either way, this was a guy that could be on TV. Hell, he could be in movies. And that voice didn’t hurt, either. That voice that sounded like rough velvet and—shit, he was talking again. I dragged my eyes away from the highly appealing stubble and forced myself to meet his eyes. Which didn’t really help much, because they were every bit as gorgeous as the rest of him. Gorgeous and focused on me.

“—think it would be nice to get together and talk, that’s all,” he was saying.

“I really don’t have time right now,” I said. “I’m crazy busy with this whole project.”

“I get that.” The look of disappointment on his face made my stomach flip. Either this guy was a fantastic actor, or he really liked me. Suddenly he smiled. “Well, you have to eat, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not too busy to eat. I saw you eating a burger just an hour ago.” He’d been watching me? His smile grew. “Let’s eat together.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty persuasive?”

He laughed. “I’m actually usually pretty shy.” Somehow, I had a hard time believing that. Guys who looked like him weren’t usually known for shyness. I had first-hand experience in dealing with the ego of the guy all the girls wanted. “But here’s the thing.” He leaned in a little closer, and my heart immediately jumped into my throat. “I keep seeing you, Riley. Ever since that baseball game, I see you. Everywhere I go in town. You’re impossible to miss.”

“It’s because I’m so tall,” I murmured stupidly. But that’s what happens when a Jonathan Rhys-Myers look-alike gets all up close and personal. You get stupid.

Chase’s eyes crinkled up around the corners. Awesome. He wasn’t just gorgeous, he was adorable, too. “I don’t think that’s why. But I think I would be pretty stupid not to try to get you to notice me back.”

“I notice you,” I breathed out.

“Then have dinner with me. Tomorrow. Anywhere you want.”

“Sure.” The word was out of my mouth before he’d even finished inviting. Maybe that made me stupid. Maybe I should have stuck with my initial instinct that this guy was trying to get close to the show. But I didn’t have a will of steel. A gorgeous man was asking me out. And I hadn’t been out with anyone in ages. Like I was going to hold out for much longer.

“Great,” he said, straightening up, his eyes doing that crinkling thing again. “Can I call you in the morning?”

He held out his phone and I took it, entering my number. “That would be good.”

I practically floated back to the table, the scent of his cologne somehow seeming to follow me. I couldn’t wait to tell Libby and Jenny this. I would have to wait for Andrew to find his inevitable hook-up before I brought it up, though. I wasn’t in the mood for him to pour cold water over my date.

When I got to the table, I saw that Andrew wouldn’t be a problem. His chair was empty.

“Where’d Andrew go?”

“I thought he was with you,” Jenny said, glancing around the immediate area as if he was hiding in my purse.

“Why would he be with me? I was with you.”

“When I came back without you he wondered where you were, so I explained about everyone mobbing you. He said he was going to go get them off your back.”

I smiled at that. Good old Andrew. “Well, I never saw him,” I told her. “But guess who I did see?”

I told her all about Chase, and she was a very good audience, widening her eyes and gasping at all his best lines.

“So we’re going to have dinner tomorrow,” I finished. “And you can feel free to spread that little fact to everyone who thought I needed help getting fixed up with a guy.”

She covered her mouth, laughing. Then her eyes widened again, with much less humor this time. I turned in the direction she was gaping to see Andrew leaning up against the far wall, near the bathrooms. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t alone.

“Well,” I said, reaching for my beer. “I guess we know why he didn’t come after me.”

I gulped my beer, feeling a pang of disappointment that he had gone on the hunt so early in the evening. I’d been having fun with him tonight. And considering the fact that he was the one who had been working on this project with me from the beginning, he was the one I wanted to celebrate with. He couldn’t have had a few more beers with the table before indulging in his ever-present need to hook up?

“Typical,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. But Jenny didn’t look as unsurprised by his antics. She was still watching him, wide-eyed, her expression distinctly disappointed.

“I don’t get it,” she finally said.

“What don’t you get? He’s super slutty and that girl is hot and clearly interested.”

She shook her head. “But he was flirting with
you
.”

Oh, God, not this nonsense from her again. “He wasn’t flirting, Jenny. He was being Andrew.”

“He was whispering in your ear, Riley!” she argued. “Making you laugh, making you blush—”

“Hey!” I cried, offended by that. “I was blushing from Libby’s toast, not from anything Andrew did. Geez.” Like Andrew Powell could make me blush.

A movement by the door caught my eye. A man—red hair, broad shoulders—ducking through the door. Andrew. And no doubt the adoring woman was right in front of him.

“I just think—”

“Enough, Jenny,” I snapped; my voice was sharper than I intended it. I sighed, suddenly feeling incredibly tired, as if all the stress of the last few weeks had finally caught up to me. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she squeaked, but I could tell I’d hurt her feelings. And just like that I knew I was going to be shitty company for the rest of the night.

“Look, I’m going to go home,” I told her, reaching out to place my hand over hers on the table. “I’m sorry for being such a jerk. I just think this is all hitting me, you know?”

Her face softened. “You’ve been working so hard.”

“And it all paid off.” I somehow managed to smile brightly at her. “But now I just want my bed.”

“I’ll walk with you,” she said, moving to stand, but I shook my head.

“No, you’re having a good time. Stay with Libby and Posey, have another drink. I’ll see you this weekend.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind walking alone?”

I rolled my eyes, gesturing at the TV behind me, where the voting website was still flashing. “Didn’t you see that footage? We live in a goddamn storybook town.”

She giggled. “Storybook or not, text me when you get home.”

“I will.” I bent to hug her, then shouted out a quick goodbye to the rest of the table. Making my way to the door was a lot less tricky this time—I had a feeling my neighbors were well on their way to getting tipsy, and as such were probably not so eager to get up out of their chairs.

The cool air of the spring night felt great after being in the crowded pub for so long. I took a deep breath, looking up at the stars.

We should make sure they get some footage of that
, I thought to myself. You don’t see a night sky like that just anywhere. From somewhere nearby, a cat mewled. I thought of Gordie with a little pang. He’d been alone for hours. I sighed, pulling my cardigan tighter, and began the short walk home.

I should have been on the top of the world. The first episode had been a success. My friends and neighbors had been sweetly appreciative of my hard work. And I had a date with one of the cutest guys I’d had the good fortune of coming across in ages. In a place like Lilac Bay, half of that excitement would have qualified as a banner night.

So why did I feel like I had missed out on something big?

O
n Wednesday morning
I got a call from Gina. “Heather was so pleased with the episode,” she told me. “You guys really did do a wonderful job. We’re so happy you got through to the next round.”

“Thank you,” I told her, sitting up straighter for some reason, as if she could see me and would deduct points for being unprofessional. “We’re happy too. Everyone had such a great time.”

“I might as well tell you, the ratings were quite a bit higher than we were expecting.”

I felt a little thrum of excitement. “Yeah?”

“I mean, nothing crazy. I don’t think any of you have to worry about getting mobbed by paparazzi.” She laughed, the sound relieved even over the phone. “But there were some people here in the studio that thought this one might be a hard sell.”

“But…it’s
Heather Dale
.” How could anything she put her name on be a hard sell?

“And that’s exactly why the network snapped it up,” Gina said. “Heather’s production team originally thought they’d try to sell it to one of the cable channels, travel or home improvement, something like that. It is kind of a niche topic.”

She had a point. Most of the reality shows that made it to network TV were a lot sexier than small town America.

“Anyhow, a few people here at the show were worried.” Something about the way she said
a few people
had me thinking of Chris and her disdainful, bored expression. “So we’ve been really happy with how the premiere went and the volume of voting we’re seeing.”
Take that, Chris
, I thought, smiling to myself.

“Well, we’re pretty damn happy to hear that,” I said, and she laughed again.

“Anyhow, I wanted to give you a heads up for the next feature.”

“Great.” I grabbed a pen and pulled my notebook closer to me. Across the room, Andrew raised his eyebrows at me and I pointed to the phone, mouthing the word
Gina
.

“As we told you last week, we’ll be there to shoot on Friday night. For this round, we don’t want you to prepare anything.”

I frowned. I wasn’t very good at spontaneity. “Okay.”

“We’re going to be looking to see how well your town works together as a team. To that end, we’ll be giving you a task to complete together. All you need to do is have everyone prepared to gather at six PM for further instructions. They should plan to participate in the activity for most of the day Saturday, as well.”

I scribbled furiously on my pad of paper. “Got it.” Shit. I didn’t really like the sound of this feature at all. I felt much better about things when I could prepare my neighbors for what was coming—and lay down some ground rules.

“I also wanted to talk to you about getting some B-roll footage,” she went on. “We’re going to be talking a lot about what each community has to offer visitors over the next few weeks. The camera crew would like to get out to the island a few times over the next couple of weeks and record some footage of various activities people can partake in on Lilac Bay.”

“We can do that. When will they come?”

She rattled off a few dates and I wrote them down, my mind already spinning with ideas for them to shoot.

“I think that’s all for now. Do you have any questions on your end?”

“No, I think we’re good.”
Unless you want to tell me what the hell is going on this weekend.

“Great. Then I’ll see you Friday.”

“Thank you, Gina.”

Andrew was at my desk before the phone hit the cradle. “What’s up?”

“They want us all to gather for the feature on Friday night, but she wouldn’t tell me what we were doing. She said it will last through Saturday.”

His brows furrowed in thought. “No clues?”

“Apparently they want to see how well we work together as a community.”

He made a scathing noise. “Better tell Crystal and Fran to stay home, then. They’ll get us voted off for sure.”

“She also wants me to set up some time for the camera crew to come out and get shots of people participating in local activities.”

Andrew scratched his chin. “We could take them on a hike on the bluffs,” he suggested. “Or fishing.”

“Yeah.” I stared out the window, deep in thought. “I really want to show them how unique we are, though. I mean, fishing and hiking is great, but you can do that in lots of places.”

“You’ll figure it out—” he started to say, but Carl walked by.

“Did you finish those requisitions yet, Powell?”

Andrew made a face at me. “I’m on it, Carl.”

“Doesn’t look like you’re on it to me.”

With a final roll of his eyes, Andrew turned from my desk to head back to accounting, leaving me to brainstorm by myself.

* * *

I
still hadn’t gotten very
far by five. Andrew had a point—people came from all over the state for our hiking and fishing. We should definitely show the country that. But Lilac Bay was about so much more than that. How could I possibly break it down into a few wordless minutes of film?

“You coming?” Andrew asked, stopping at my desk on his way out.

“I’m gonna stay and finish this up,” I said, my eyes on my computer screen.

“I thought you had the Libbies tonight?”

I looked up at him, my eyes feeling blurry from staring at the screen for so long. “Will you stick your head in at Libby’s on your way home and tell her I won’t be there?”

His expression turned panicked. “You want me to go in there?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “No one will be there yet, Andrew. They won’t maul you.”

He didn’t look entirely at ease but he agreed to pass on the message. In all honesty, he kind of had a reason to fear my little book club slash drinking group. Andrew was a favorite amongst the ladies of the Libbies. And that meant he wasn’t really safe within fifty feet of them.

He’d only been gone for a few minutes when my phone rang.

“What’s this about you skipping the meeting?” Libby asked, by way of a greeting.

“What did he do, run to your store?” I asked.

“Now that you mention it, he did seem a little out of breath. Probably wanted to get here before the rest of the girls. Smart of him, really.”

“You’re not kidding. You should have heard Jill talking about what she would do to him if she ever got the chance after that shot of him lifting the fryer oil last week.”

“You’re distracting me with Andrew talk,” Libby said crossly. “Why won’t you be here?”

“I have all this work to do,” I told her. “For the show.”

“No way, Riley James,” she said. “You do not get to use that as an excuse for the next two months.”

“If I don’t come up with something we’re not going to make it two months.”

“I thought you invited Jenny along tonight.” Libby said. “Are you really going to ditch her at her first meeting with the crazies?”

“Shit,” I muttered. I had totally forgotten that I had invited Jenny to come to her very first Libbies meeting. And Libby herself was right—this wasn’t the kind of thing you wanted to experience without some moral support.

“What do you have to do, anyhow?”

I explained to her about Gina’s request.

“Well, that’s no problem. Get over here and we’ll help you figure it out.”

I wasn’t sure a Libbies meeting was the best place to get solid ideas—at least not the kind that could be taped for television. But I also knew that it was pretty damn shitty to ditch Jenny when she had such a hard time getting out in the first place.

“Fine. I’ll be there in a few. Whose turn is it tonight, anyhow?”

“I think Posey’s,” she said.

“Oh, goodie.” Posey always picked something chocolatey for our snack. “I’ll see you in a few.”

Libby’s store was only a few steps away from Town Hall. As I made the brief walk, I considered asking the camera crew to come shoot at one of our meetings. After all, if I was going for unique, there wasn’t really much that could match the Libbies. Then again, the group was very rarely sober. Or appropriate enough for prime time television. And it wasn’t exactly easy to explain what we were or how we got our name.

I imagined myself trying to tell the producers about it. “See, we started as a book club. The Lilac Bay Book Broads or the L.B.B.B. And then we decided to try baking at our meetings, because no one really cared about the books—and that was another B. But then we realized we were doing a lot more drinking than talking about books or baking so we added another B for booze and that just seemed out of hand. So we shortened it to the Libbies, since we meet at Libby’s store. What’s so confusing about that?”

No, all in all it was probably better not to show the producers a Libbies meeting. Besides, it was a funny thing about booze and these women. Once they got a few drinks in them, they became downright bawdy. Present company excluded, of course.

Libby’s place was only just starting to fill up when I arrived. I said hello to a few friends—Iris was there already, along with Sherry and Margaret, a friend of Posey’s who worked at the Island School. No sign of Jenny yet, so I grabbed myself a glass of wine from the counter and mingled a bit.

Of course, the only thing anyone wanted to talk about was the show. People were still buzzing from seeing themselves on TV. “That horrible ex husband of mine, you know, Barrry,” Denise was saying in a low voice. “Do you know he had the gall to call me after the show aired? He said I looked great, but I know he’s just trying to get close to me because he hopes I’ll invite him up. Such an asshole.” For all she said about her ex being an asshole, she sounded pretty damn pleased with herself.

“I can’t believe they actually chose my interview to show,” Jill was saying, a smug little smile on her face. “I mean, out of everyone on the island, all the people they could have chosen, they picked me! What are the odds?”

“She helped out the odds by undoing the top three buttons of her shirt,” Libby muttered, passing me in the other direction. “Jenny just walked in,” she added, before being swallowed up by the crowd of chit-chatting women.

It was easy enough to find my friend—I was, after all, taller than everyone else in the room. “Jenny,” I called, pushing my way through. “Over here.”

Her face lit up in relief when she saw me, and I felt a pang for her. Would she always be this nervous out in crowds? I hoped not.
She just needs more practice,
I told myself as I reached her side.

“How are you?”

“Good!” she said brightly, her eyes darting around nervously. “I’m so glad you asked me to come.”

“You might be regretting that by the end of the night,” Iris said, joining us. “I just saw my cousin come in with her supplies. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be one of our more successful attempts.”

“Worse than the time we forgot the cupcakes were in the oven and nearly burned the store down?”

Iris made a face. “I mean, she said something about
kale
.”

A few minutes later we were all seated around tables in the tasting room behind Libby’s store. She hosted wine tasting for some of the biggest wineries down on the Leelanau Peninsula in this room. Which, come to think of it, was a pretty good outing to show the camera crew. Our proximity to some of the best wine in the Midwest was definitely one of the draws of the island.

Unfortunately, we’d be having nothing so appealing as a wine tasting that night. As Posey passed around ingredients, I started to get the feeling that Iris had most definitely been right.

“Excuse me,” Sherry called from a table on the far side of the room. “I thought you said we were making your grandmother’s famous cherry fudge cookies.”

“We’re making a recipe
inspired
by her cherry fudge cookies,” Posey corrected in her happy little voice.

“Then what in the hell are these bean sprouts doing on my table?”

“Sherry, those aren’t bean sprouts,” Posey said. “They’re mung beans!”

“Explain yourself,” Cora Hanson said in a dark voice, glaring at something that looked like caviar on her table but I was pretty sure Posey had called chia seeds.

“We’re doing a healthy makeover!” Posey said. “I figured since we’re all going to have a bunch of opportunities to be on TV in the next few weeks, we probably all want to be looking our best. And the best way to do that is get our diets healthy!”

No one in the room spoke. We were all too busy staring at Posey in horror. The thing was, Rose Powell’s cherry fudge cookies were legendary. You didn’t just mess with something like that, television cameras or not.

“I’m going to need some liquor to get me through this,” Sherry sighed. “What did you bring to drink?”

From a bag, Posey pulled out several gallon jugs of a greenish pale liquid. “Green tea!”

“And what did you bring to put in the green tea?” Libby asked.

“I have honey and agave nectar to sweeten it and—”

“Hang on.” Jill stood up, her hands on her hips. “Are you telling me that you’re going to make us eat cookies made out of kale, and you’re not even going to give us any booze to deal with that fact?”

Posey looked miserable. “Paul and I are doing this cleanse,” she mumbled, scuffing her red converse against the stone floor. “So I can’t drink. Or eat chocolate.”