First Time in Forever (21 page)

Her nerve fled. “I’ll get changed and we’ll forget it ever happened.”

“Sure. That should work, as long as no one looks at the surveillance footage.”

She glanced up and saw a camera focused on the pool. “There are cameras?”

“Yeah, we just starred in our own private movie.”

Emily gave an embarrassed laugh. “Well, hopefully no one will ever have reason to examine the footage.” She didn’t trust her arms to be able to haul herself out of the pool the way he did, so to avoid a potentially ungainly accident, she chose to use the steps. She could feel him watching her every step of the way from the pool to the changing room.

“Emily—”

She turned her head. “Yes?”

“If you change your mind, you know where I live.”

*

A
FTER
THAT
SWIMMING
LESSON
, everything changed.

Or maybe the change had been happening gradually, and he hadn’t noticed it.

Either way, Emily went from hiding away in Castaway Cottage to being a visible part of the Puffin Island community.

She and Lizzy visited Agnes every morning to walk Cocoa, only now whenever Ryan called on his grandmother, he noticed small gifts on the kitchen table. Gifts that revealed exactly how Emily was spending her time with her niece. A bowl heaped with blueberries picked fresh from the bush. A plate of home-baked cookies and a picture of a boat bobbing on the waves painted by Lizzy.

“I think that girl is enjoying doing things she’s never done before,” was all that Agnes would say when he questioned her about the gifts that kept appearing.

“Lizzy?”

“I meant Emily, but that statement is probably true of both of them.”

Judging from the interesting shape of the cookies, Emily was as experienced a cook as she was a swimmer, but he wasn’t about to diminish her attempts to entertain the child and become part of the local island community at the same time.

A week after the first swimming lesson, he walked in to find Agnes wearing a necklace of glittery pink beads.

Recognizing Lizzy’s signature color, Ryan refrained from reaching for his sunglasses. “Nice necklace.”

“Lizzy made this with Emily. The child has an eye for anything that sparkles. I guess she inherited that from her mother.”

“Does she talk about her mother?”

“A little, to Emily. They’ve made a scrapbook together, with pictures and news stories.” His grandmother gave a faint smile. “Positive ones.”

Aware of the rumors that had surrounded Lana Fox’s colorful love life, Ryan wondered how long Emily had toiled to find material suitable for young eyes. He could imagine her, those green eyes serious as she’d searched for images to keep Lana’s memory alive for her daughter.

“I came to see if any of your group need a ride to your book club meeting tonight, apart from Hilda.”

“Emily is picking Hilda up. She offered to take me, too, but I didn’t want to stop giving you a reason to call by.”

“I don’t need a reason to call by.” Ryan frowned. “Emily is making the trip specially?”

“She’s a kind girl. She and Lizzy have baked a blueberry pie for our meeting. But, no, she isn’t making the trip just for that. Once she’s dropped Hilda off, she’s going around to Lisa’s to talk business. She’s put together a plan to save Summer Scoop.” Agnes said it as if it were a sure thing, and Ryan felt a flicker of unease.

“She’s not a magician.”

“No, she’s something better.” Agnes glanced at him over the top of her glasses. “She’s a management consultant. We’ve never had one of those on the island before.”

Ryan refrained from pointing out there wasn’t much of a demand for management consultants on Puffin Island.

Much as he admired Emily’s generosity in offering to help, he was more circumspect about her chances of being able to do anything that would substantially boost the profits of a business that had been struggling from the outset.

“I hope she comes up with a plan.”

“She will.” His grandmother sounded sure. “Emily is a smart young woman, and she is determined to help make the business work. Lisa has a smile on her face for the first time in months. It broke my heart when I heard she’d bought the place, a widow with two young children. Summer Scoop has been struggling to survive since Doris Payne first opened it forty years ago. The whole community has been trying to find ways to help the girl, but there’s only so much ice cream a person can consume without their arteries exploding. If Emily can find a way to sell more of it to the summer crowd, then we’ll all be in her debt. How is the swimming going? That’s assuming ‘swimming’ is all you’re doing in that hour and a half you spend together every night.” She picked up her purse and her keys and took his arm as they walked to the car.

Ryan kept his expression blank. “It’s all we’re doing.”

“Shame.” His grandmother gave him a look. “She’s perfect for you.”

“You’ve been talking to Kirsti.”

“Rachel. And I have eyes. Don’t make that mistake of thinking age means I don’t see.”

“You wear glasses.”

“Which make my vision near perfect. That girl is longing for a family and a home.”

“Maybe those glasses of yours need changing because she’s been running from both those things most of her life.”

“Sometimes you run from the things you want most, because those are the things that scare you.” His grandmother looked at him pointedly, but Ryan chose not to engage in that particular conversation.

He wasn’t scared. He just didn’t want that.

After that first session in the pool, he’d made a point of not touching her, choosing instead to stay close enough to help if she found herself in trouble, but far enough away to ensure they focused on her swimming and not the sexual heat that underpinned every encounter.

Having made the decision to conquer her fear of water, she refused to let anything stand in her way. Not her own nerves or even an incident when she’d slid on the side of the pool and plunged into the deep end. She’d come up spluttering, wild-eyed, but had rejected his offer of assistance and instead choked and splashed her way to the side of the pool without help.

He suspected she’d lowered the water level by swallowing half of the pool, but he respected her determination to do it by herself.

He dropped his grandmother at her book group, but instead of driving back to the Ocean Club, he parked outside Summer Scoop.

The store was closed, and Lisa answered the door with a glass of wine in her hand. “Ryan!” She opened the door to let him in. “Emily is here. We’re having a Save Summer Scoop meeting.”

He looked at the wine. “That involves wine?”

“It definitely does. Emily brought it. It’s delicious. Come and join us.”

He followed Lisa into the small kitchen, noticing the toys piled hastily into a box in the corner. Emily had papers spread all over the kitchen table and her laptop open.

This was an Emily he hadn’t seen before.

She was dressed in skinny jeans and a turquoise T-shirt that hugged her curves. Distracted by those curves, Ryan lost orientation and banged into the door frame. Pain exploded through his shoulder, and he decided life had been more comfortable when she’d worn black, voluminous tops.

He thought back to a disturbingly frank conversation they’d had the day before when she’d told him how hard it was to find clothes when you were big breasted. She’d explained that cute underwear was hopeless and that bras needed serious engineering to have any hope of offering support, and that when she exercised she had to wear two support bras. She’d explained that shirts that buttoned down the front were no good because they always gaped and that she couldn’t wear long necklaces because they dangled off her breasts.

By the time she’d finished talking, he’d been relieved he wasn’t a woman.

As he waited for the pain in his shoulder to die down, she lifted her head from the laptop and flashed him a smile.

“Hi, Ryan.” She was keying numbers into a spreadsheet, her fingers swift. An untouched glass of wine sat by her elbow.

“So—” dragging his gaze from her hair, he eyed the papers spread across the table “—you’re finding ways to attract tourists and put me out of business?”

“Competition is healthy, Ryan.” Emily hit Save. “It will be good for you.”

He was fairly sure that what would be good for him was a few hours with her naked in an oversize bed, but he kept that thought to himself. “I had no idea you had such a ruthless streak.”

Lisa handed him a glass of wine. “She’s amazing. We’ve been looking at ways to reduce costs. Emily thinks I should talk to Doug Mitchell about the rent on this place.”

Ryan thought about Doug, who never gave anyone anything for free if he could charge for it. “Doug isn’t known for his financial generosity or his gentle heart. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“He’s a businessman.” Emily printed out a document. “He’s charging almost twice what he should, and if Summer Scoop closes, he won’t be getting any rent at all.”

“Unless he finds another dreamer like me.” Lisa topped up her own wineglass.

“You’re going to speak to him tomorrow.” Emily rescued the pages from the printer, clipped them together and slipped them into a file. “Show him these numbers.”

“Can I do it on the phone with a script?”

“It’s harder to say no to someone face-to-face. We can rehearse it, if it would make you feel better.”

Lisa looked gloomily at Ryan. “I had no idea she could be this scary.”

He didn’t answer. There was plenty about Emily he found scary, the biggest thing being just how much he wanted to drag her back to his place. “If it persuades Doug to reduce the rent, it will be worth it.”

“If he does, then there might be some hope for me. Look at all these ideas.” Perking up, Lisa picked up a sheaf of papers. “Scoop of the Day. Every day we pick a different flavor and promote it. Happy Hour—half price ice cream between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. every day. Name an ice cream—every time you buy an ice cream, you enter into a competition to have an ice cream named after you.”

Ryan wondered if anyone would buy an ice cream called “Hot and Desperate.”

To distract himself, he glanced over Emily’s shoulder at the spreadsheet, and immediately her scent wrapped itself around him. “How will discounting increase profits?”

“Because we’re going to drive more traffic toward the store.” Emily pushed a piece of paper toward him. “We’re going to ask the town council for permission to put a sign up next to the place where the ferry docks. Also to put some pretty tables and chairs outside, so that people can sit for a while and watch the boats.”

Ryan refrained from pointing out that they could sit and watch the boats from the deck of the Ocean Club. “And when the fog rolls in and folks are trapped indoors?”

“They can be trapped indoors here.” Visibly excited, Lisa started sketching out ideas using the twins’ art materials. “We’re going to paint the place and put tables and chairs inside. We’re going to have things for the kids to do, like coloring and jewelry making.”

“Won’t that have a significant cost implication?”

“It shouldn’t.” Emily made a note to herself. “Skylar knows plenty of suppliers.”

“I thought her work was high end.”

“It is now, but before she started designing jewelry for the rich and famous, she used to do the occasional children’s party. She’s very creative.”

Lisa snapped the top off a blue pen. “And Emily’s biggest idea? A stand on the waterfront just beyond the harbor and near the beach.”

Emily pushed a sketch toward him. “If they won’t come to the ice cream, then we’ll take the ice cream to them. What do you think?”

It was so obvious Ryan wondered why no one had thought of it before. “You’ll need a food truck license.”

The anxiety was back on Lisa’s face. “Will that be hard? Would they refuse me?”

“I don’t see why, when everyone is so keen to see Summer Scoop work. And they gave a license to Chas when he wanted to serve gourmet burgers. Seems to me that gourmet ice cream right next door would make perfect sense. He might even be prepared to lease you the stand next to his. He owns both of them.” Ryan caught Emily’s eye. “Let me speak to a few people. Assuming there is no problem with the license and Chas is willing to help, who would run it? You don’t have the budget to employ anyone, do you?”

Emily finished her wine. “Lisa could run it at lunchtimes and weekends when the island is at its busiest. I’ve been going through the numbers, and her quietest time here in the store is lunchtime—I guess because people are either already on the beach or they’re in one of the restaurants or cafés. If we get the go-ahead with the license, we’re going to try it for a month. See what happens.”

“Leave it with me.” Ryan put the papers back on the table, and Lisa passed the wine across to him.

“Drink. You’ve earned it. You’re now officially part of the rescue team. I’m especially grateful since I know we’re in competition.”

“I can stand a little competition.”

“In that case, next time you hold a lobster picnic on the beach, Lisa is going to provide the ice cream.” Emily pushed the laptop toward him. “Take a look at these numbers, and tell me if you can see anything I’ve missed.”

He couldn’t see anything except those smoky green eyes and that soft mouth, but he forced himself to look at the screen. “Seems to me you’ve pretty much covered everything.” Up until now he’d only ever seen her out of her depth, literally and figuratively. It was interesting seeing her comfortable and confident. “Where’s Lizzy tonight?”

“Snuggled in the twins’ bedroom.” Lisa topped up all the glasses. “Hard to know which of them is more excited. Lizzy looks so much like them, they could be triplets.”

“She’s staying the night?”

“No, I’ll scoop her up when we’re ready to go home.” Emily shut down the spreadsheet and closed the laptop. “Which I guess is now.”

“You could leave her here and pick her up in the morning.” Lisa said it casually, but Emily shook her head.

“We’re taking this a step at a time.”

“You mean you’re taking it a step at a time.”

She smiled. “You’re right, that’s what I mean. Letting Lizzy sleep over is a step I haven’t reached yet.”