Just a Summer Fling (5 page)

“You shouldn’t need to do much, but the bunkie’s out of service for at least a week or two. If you need it sooner, let me know and I can try to get to it faster or find someone else to do the work.”

“No, I won’t need it. I’m not planning to do any entertaining at all.”

He cocked a disbelieving eyebrow. “You’re going to stay up here all by yourself for the rest of the summer?”

“That’s the plan.” It was none of his business, really, but she wanted to say the words, wanted to announce her intentions and luxuriate in her decadence. “I’m on vacation.”

He didn’t seem to appreciate the significance of that. “People usually go on vacation with other people, you know.”

“Not me. Not this time.” She saw his skeptical look. “I’m not totally isolated up here. I have friends I can visit with.” At least if she counted Jasmine as her friend. And if she didn’t, which felt a lot more likely, she’d find new ones. There were lots of cottages on the lake, and lots of people in the town. She wasn’t planning to be a total recluse. “I’m just taking a break from the whole industry thing.”

“Okay,” he said, but the word was clearly a dismissal, not an agreement.

Ashley had to stop herself from continuing the argument. She knew what she needed and what she was going to do to get it. “So whenever you want to do the bunkie repairs, that’s fine.”

“There’s some other maintenance stuff, too. Some of the screens need to be replaced, and the railing on the back deck needs to get stained. Do you want me to call you when I have a schedule, or should I just go through Curran?”

Ashley kept her cell number private. Very private. So the temptation she was feeling to share it with Josh Sullivan was just another weird quirk she needed to control. “Go through Sam, I guess. He’ll want to know what’s going on, I’m sure.”

Josh nodded as if that was the answer he’d expected. “Yeah, okay. I’ll leave you to your vacation, then.”

And with that, he turned and sauntered along the gravel driveway, back toward the main road. Ashley only let herself watch him for a few moments; she was proud that she turned away before he was completely out of view. She was an international star, damn it! She wasn’t going to act all moony over
a small-town handyman who wasn’t even that good-looking by the standards she was used to. She thought about that for a moment. No, damn it, even by Hollywood standards Josh Sullivan was hot. Less groomed, more authentically rugged than the actors she knew, and all the hotter for it.

She grabbed the closest couple of bags from the car and headed for the cabin. She was on vacation. This thing with Josh Sullivan was . . . She had no idea what it was, but he clearly wanted it to be over, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him. She was looking for peace, not confusion. So she should stay the hell away from Josh Sullivan.

Five

“YOU NEED HELP
repairing that bunkie roof?” Kevin asked eagerly. He was helping Josh clean up some trees that had fallen in the same storm that had damaged the bunkie. Josh had thought about sending Kevin over to Ashley’s with the keys instead of going himself. He didn’t like to think about why he’d decided to make the drop in person. And Kevin apparently hadn’t been surprised by Josh’s decision.

“Or there’s other work over there, too, right? You need help with any of that?” Kevin continued. He wasn’t that much younger than Josh but sometimes it seemed like he was from a whole different generation. One that wasn’t quite as tired of it all.

“Later on, maybe. It’s not on top of the list.”

“What if she’s gone by then? We could be blowing our chance!”

“Our chance to
what
?” Josh asked. “What do you think is going to happen? She’s going to look up from her fashion magazine or whatever and see you slaving away on the
bunkie and fall in love with your manly working-class sweatiness? She’s going to invite you down for a beer on the dock and you’ll spend the rest of your lives together?”

“Whoa.” Kevin stared at Josh as if he questioned his sanity. “Fall in love? No, man, that’s not what I was thinking of at all. Fall in
bed
, yeah. That’s what I’m shooting for.”

Josh sighed, his energy draining away. “Not a good idea. You know that.”

Kevin snorted. “Yeah, okay. Easy for you to say. Convenient that your big realization came after you’d already bagged half the summer women on the lake.”

“It came
because
I’d already slept with them. Messing around like that is not a recipe for long-term success.”

“It ever occur to you that maybe you just weren’t doing it right?” Kevin grinned. He probably knew he was pushing his luck, but he didn’t know that Josh’s time with Ashley earlier had made him even more irritable than usual. So the younger man grabbed his crotch in what was obviously supposed to be a macho way and said, “After a shot of this, they’ll be crawling back for more!”

“You can’t even keep a
local
girlfriend happy,” Josh growled. Then he saw Kevin’s expression and wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Was the guy still stinging over the Kelli thing? They’d broken up months ago, but Kevin suddenly looked like a little kid trying not to cry. Damn it, this was what happened when Josh let himself get sucked into these stupid conversations. “Get that load of firewood up to the house. We should be able to get the Danielson place done today, and maybe start the Kirpals’.”

Kevin did as he was told, his obedience a clear indicator of his unnaturally subdued mood. Josh fitted the blade guards onto the chainsaws and set them by the driveway, ready to load them into the bed of the truck when Kevin returned. Then Josh started raking sawdust and small branches
out of the way, all the while trying to keep himself from thinking about Ashley.

He picked up a chunk of bark too heavy for the rake and whipped it into the woods as if it were the cause of all his frustration. It wasn’t all about Ashley. Not really. But damn it, she was a bigger part of it than she should be.

He found another piece of bark and threw it, too. Then another. The conversation in the bar? It had been a setup. A game. She was an actress, and for twenty minutes she’d acted like a real person, someone fun and friendly and appealing. That was all. And the conversation on the dock had been another illusion. He’d thought she might be a mermaid, for Christ’s sake—obviously his brain hadn’t been working too well.

“Bad day?” The woman’s voice was strong but had a quaver of age to it; or maybe that was just amusement, considering the source.

Josh turned to see Mr. and Mrs. Ryerson standing on their driveway, clearly back from one of their many walks. They were holding hands, as they always seemed to do when they were within reach of each other. Which was most of the time.

“We got things cleaned up here,” Josh said by way of reply. “Kevin’s just dropping the wood off at the house. I can come back sometime in the fall to split it, if that works for you.”

“Sounds good,” Mr. Ryerson agreed. “There’s always something comforting about having firewood seasoning for next year. We might be a bit old to be planting trees and expecting to see them grow, but at least we can plan a few years ahead.”

“You guys stop walking a marathon every day and I’ll start worrying about your mortality.” Josh bent to greet the Ryerson’s spaniel, then looked up and said, “Until then, you’d better keep up with your firewood.”

“Exactly,” Mrs. Ryerson agreed with a firm nod. “And don’t listen to him—we’re still planting trees, too. Maybe
we’ll be around to enjoy them full grown, maybe we won’t, but they’ll still be good trees, with or without us.”

They headed off down the driveway then and Josh finished tidying up with a slightly better attitude. Ashley Carlsen was a frustration, but she was a passing problem. Like all summer people, she’d soon go home, and unlike some she wouldn’t come back year after year. By the time Kevin returned, Josh had himself back under control and was his relaxed, sardonic self again. No big worries, no strong emotions, and certainly no insane crushes on random movie stars.

He didn’t even kick Kevin out of the driver’s seat like he normally would, a wordless apology for hitting a sore topic earlier. Kevin might never realize he’d been apologized to, but that wasn’t really the point. Josh had done what he could. Yeah, he was fine. Everything was back to normal.

And it would stay that way as long as he could keep away from Ashley Carlsen.

*   *   *

“EVERYBODY
wants to use the wheel,” Laurie Palmer said with an amused smile as she wiped the worst of the clay from her strong hands. “You’re thinking of
Ghost
, right?”

Ashley grinned. “Maybe a little.”

“The wheel’s fun. You should definitely use it, eventually. But you need to get a feel for the clay first while it’s sitting still, and
then
try it out at a couple hundred RPM.”

Ashley nodded. She’d come to the pottery studio on a whim; she’d been walking down Main Street, celebrating her first day as a sort-of local and getting a feel for the town, when she’d seen the window display. She’d thought maybe she’d pick something up to send to her mother, if she could get it packaged securely enough to ship. But the potter had been at work when Ashley arrived, and had just nodded her invitation for Ashley to look around before going back to her wheel. Ashley had found herself more intrigued by the
work in progress than she was by the finished pieces. Laurie had started talking, explaining what she was doing, and Ashley had pulled up a stool and watched. Laurie was about Ashley’s age and size but she seemed more substantial somehow, as if she’d drawn the solidity out of her clay and imbued herself with it. Ashley had asked about classes as a general possibility, but Laurie had tossed her a smock and told her to give it a try right then.

“There’s something really satisfying about it,” Laurie said now, handing a fist-sized chunk of clay to Ashley. “Technically it’s inorganic, but it
feels
like it’s alive, you know? You warm it up, work it for a bit, and it changes, becomes more pliable. So even before you put your creativity into it, you’re already adding a part of yourself to the project. And then when you start shaping it . . .”

“I totally know what you mean!” Ashley was probably a bit more excited than a conversation about clay warranted, but she didn’t care. She felt like she’d found a kindred spirit. “I’m an actor, and I feel like when I read a new script—a really
good
script—I feel like there’s a symbiosis. The script and I work together. Technically I guess a script isn’t organic, either, but it feels like it’s growing and changing as I work with it.”

“Cool,” Laurie said. She sounded like she meant it. “Maybe we should trade lessons—I can teach you pottery, you could teach me acting.”

Ashley laughed. “I wouldn’t know where to begin. But isn’t there a community theater or something up here? There must be something.”

“The high school puts on a play each year. That’s about it. Damian Forrestal used to run a bit of a community thing, but he quit a couple years ago after his wife died and I don’t think anyone’s really picked it up since then.” Laurie shrugged. “Okay, then, no trade. You can just pay me for the lessons. First one’s free, though. Play around with that chunk.
See how it feels now, and then just squish it and knead it and work with it for a few minutes and see how it feels then. Try to make a little pinch pot with it.” She made a gesture with her hands, showing how her thumbs would make the inside of the pot while her fingers smoothed the outside. “And then crumble it up and try again. Add some water, but not too much. Then add a little more and see what happens.”

Ashley complied and they worked in friendly silence for a while, until Ashley finally held up her goo-covered hands. She’d added water until the clay had turned into a near-liquid slurry, and she had no idea how to do anything constructive with what was left. Laurie saw the mess and grinned. “Okay, good. A bit of water is useful, but don’t get carried away. Everything in moderation.”

“I’m not too good at moderation.”

“Mistakes are how you learn. Sometimes you’ve got to just go for it.” Laurie nodded toward the deep metal sink at one side of her shop. “And then you just clean up and move on.”

“Nice philosophy,” Ashley said. She was pretty sure she meant it. Maybe she needed to adopt it a little more fully in her own life. She couldn’t worry about making mistakes; she’d just make them, and then clean up. It was the only way to learn.

She arranged to come back to the shop in a couple days for her first real lesson, and then stepped back out onto Main Street. The day had warmed up while she’d been inside the studio and now it was hot enough for Ashley to start thinking about getting back to the cottage and having a swim.

That was when she saw him. He was across the street with the guy who’d finished spreading the mulch at Jasmine’s place, and they were leaving the little café with paper bags in their hands. Josh looked across the street and saw her, and she had her hand half raised, her lips starting to curve into a smile, before she even thought about it. It was just instinct. She liked him, damn it.

But she liked him a good bit less when he jerked his head
in a tiny quarter-nod of acknowledgment and then turned away as if he’d done the bare minimum and had no interest in doing any more.

It was the bet. He didn’t like her because of the bet, and that was just so stupid! She wasn’t sure she’d even
made
the bet, and if she had it was just to get Jasmine off her back. He’d understand that, surely, if she could just get him to sit down and listen to her explanation. She’d tell him the whole story and they’d laugh, and they’d figure out the rest of their alphabet of Vermont hazards and then move on to talk about other things. They’d be friends again, and then something more.

She hadn’t even realized where she was going until she had her hand on the door of the little café. A bit worrisome to realize she didn’t clearly remember crossing the street, but obviously she’d made it safely. She pulled the door open and stepped inside the too-warm, wood-paneled interior. Well, now that she was there she could buy something for lunch, at least, and take it back to eat on the dock. Then she saw the sign on the wall behind the counter and everything in her mind stopped for a second, then spun back into gear. The sign was a message, surely. A suggestion from the universe. She just needed to get Josh to sit down and talk to her. And maybe, with a little help, she could make that happen.

*   *   *

IT
was amazing how long she managed to keep herself from realizing it was a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. And even after she realized it she still seemed unable to stop herself. She could have called it off with one phone call, but she didn’t. A couple days between conception and execution apparently wasn’t enough for her to come to her senses.

“Yeah, right there,” she agreed as the server from the catering company looked over with a question in his eyes. “That’s a good spot for watching the sunset. And then there’s white linen for on top, right?”