Second Chance Summer: Menage Romance Novel (Midnight Cove Menage Book 1) (18 page)

“Hey, everyone’s here.” Devin’s voice purred in her ear.

“Thanks.”

His hands slipped around her waist. “You think we can drag you outside for a minute? Blake and I have a surprise.”

“Another one?” Summer turned around in his arms. “Isn’t the gallery enough?”

“It’ll only take a minute.”

“Okay.”

Summer let Devin lead her by the hand through the studio space and out to the small deck on the back of the house. Little lights had been strung up along the railing and pots full of flowers were tucked in every corner.

The door clicked shut and gone were the noises of the party and all her guests. All she could hear was the sound of the ocean and her own beating heart.

Blake stepped out of the shadows with a smile. “So Devin convinced you to sneak out here?”

Summer smiled. “He told me you planned another surprise. You didn’t have to, you know. This is…” Summer glanced at Devin and then back at Blake, “way more that enough.”

“We thought there was something missing.”

She shook her head. “What?”

“This.” Blake pulled his hand out of his pocket and Summer’s mouth fell open.

She stared at his open hand and reached for Devin. “That’s not…”

“It is.” Devin stepped over next to Blake. “We love you, Summer. Will you do us the honor?”

Blake leaned down until he caught her eye. “Marry us?”

Summer took another look at the diamond ring sitting in his palm. A million tiny facets picked up the lights and sparkled like a flame. She held out a shaky hand. “Yes. I will.”

Devin took her hand and stilled it as Blake slipped the ring on. Summer wiggled her fingers and smiled. They were right. Something had been missing.

She reached out and wrapped one arm around each man. “This is completely insane, but I know it’s right.”

Devin reached for her chin and tipped her face up to his. His lips pressed soft and gentle against hers before pulling away. “I can’t wait to marry you.”

Summer smiled and Blake tugged at her arm. “Neither can I.” His lips melted into hers and Summer could have burst in happiness.

As Blake pulled back, the door to the deck swung open. “There you are! I thought I was going to have to run this whole party by my—Oh my God! Did you do it?” Mandy jumped up and down. “You did! Tell me you said yes. You said yes, right?”

Summer and her two fiancés burst out laughing. She held out her hand and Mandy squealed.

“I knew it! Congratulations! Oh my God, just wait ’til I tell Ian and Richard. The Inn will be perfect!” Mandy grabbed Summer by the arm and she stumbled after her best friend.

“Mandy, I don’t think we—” Summer turned back to Blake and Devin, but both men were too busy laughing to save her.

Blake waved her on. “It’s okay. We’re right behind you.”

Mandy kept talking and Summer let her pull her back into the waiting crowd and a round of applause. She glanced down at her engagement ring and smiled. It might have taken her best friend’s wedding to bring her back to Midnight Cove, but it was her second chance at love that made her stay.

W
ith her best
friend’s catering business on the line, pastry chef Holiday Jones comes back to the hometown she’d kissed goodbye. When she runs into two men from her past, her trip down memory lane turns into so much more. Caught between the former boy next door and the bad boy from down the street, Holiday might discover Midnight Cove is the place where dreams come true—if she stays alive long enough to find out.

Billionaire Ian Knowles has a problem ex-military man Trent Malone can solve. But a chance meeting with a curvy beauty from their past sends Ian and Trent into a tailspin of lust. When Holiday gets caught in the crossfire, can they find a way to save her and share her heart?

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A
dollop
of chocolate buttercream landed on the counter and Holly wiped it away with a towel.

“I can’t believe how little this place has changed.” She reached for an icing bag and a star-shaped tip.

Hillary paused to look out the window, a stack of polka-dotted dessert plates in her hand. “It looks the same on the outside, but the people have changed. A lot of the old money’s moved on. There’s a bunch of new people here. Surfers. Artists. Some down-to-earth ones, even.”

Holly’s eyebrow arched with a
yeah, right
look. In the two days she’d been back in Midnight Cove she’d already been passed by more Maseratis and Bentleys than she’d seen in Los Angeles in a whole month. Down-to-earth didn’t come rolling by in a sports car.

She piped a cluster of frilly pink roses onto the cake and tried to focus. Hillary meant well trying to get her to see the good in Midnight Cove. How it wasn’t the place she’d run away from at eighteen. It was part of Hillary’s quest to change this one-month layover into a permanent thing. But that wasn’t happening. No way.

Her best friend tried again. “I mean it. A lot of the old crowd left. They’ve moved to LA or New York. Seattle, even. Midnight Cove’s not what it used to be.”

Holly paused, the bag full of icing hovering above the cake. “Really? And who is this mountain of chocolate and cabbage roses for again?”

Hillary huffed and pushed a lock of her brown hair away with the back of her hand. “Patricia Randall. But that doesn’t mean anything. Yes, some people are still here. But not all of them.”

Holly rolled her eyes and focused on the cake. “Brandon’s still here. You’re never going to get me to move back.”

Her best friend stacked ruffled pink napkins next to the plates and her brown eyes sparkled. “Is that a challenge?”

Oh, no.
The last thing Hillary needed was encouragement. Holly could see it now. A huge campaign waged by her best friend to bring her back to town. She’d probably make flyers.
Holiday Jones for Relocation! Everybody Mobilize!

Holly shook her head. “No. You know I can’t stay. I’ve got a month left of severance and I’m here until it runs out. Then I’m back to Los Angeles and the restaurant world.”

“You could stay here and help me out until you start something new. You know I need you.”

“What you need is an assistant, someone who can help with the food prep, not just the baking. I’m not that girl.”

Hillary sighed. “Could have fooled me. Those mushrooms you made for the dinner last night were perfect. What’d you do?”

“Just some butter and shallots. Same way I make them at home.”

“Well, they were better than mine, anyway.” Hillary pulled a fancy bag with
Cove Catering
stenciled on the side out from under the counter. Holly still couldn’t believe Hillary had moved back home. She didn’t come from money—her dad ran the commercial dock on the edge of town and her mom stayed home with the kids. She’d been picked on in school just like Holly, but it never seemed to bother her.

Holly still remembered how the boys would call Hillary “chicken legs” and prance around squawking. Her best friend had shot up in junior high. Five foot ten and all bones and skin. It’d taken her years to fill out and lose the gangly look. In between, all the boys had teased her nonstop, but after college she’d come right back.

Now Holly was back, too, and part of her wished she’d stayed away. After finishing the last rose, she glanced up. “Why’d you come back here, anyway? Of all the places you could have opened up a catering business, why Midnight Cove?”

Her best friend glanced out the window as she thought about it. “I guess I wanted to be home. My mom and dad are still here. Bethany, too. But even more than family, it’s the feel of the town—the ocean right there and all the little houses perched against the shore—I love it. Even if some of the people stink.”

Holly nodded and picked up the plastic-wrapped ball of fondant. She didn’t have a family to come home to, but she understood about the town. “I’ve been in LA so long I’d forgotten how lush it is here. I drove down Main this morning and the bougainvillea are in full bloom. All those purples and reds bursting over the doorways all down the street. Spectacular.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you missed it.”

Holly shrugged. “Sometimes. But then I think about what I left behind and remember why I moved away.”

“You have a point.” Hillary packed the bag, putting plates and napkins and silverware in tidy bundles inside while Holly worked the fondant.

She rolled out the icing in a smooth, even layer before punching little green leaves out one at a time. With expert fingers, Holly laid each one beneath the piped roses until the whole cake was covered in a garden of leaves and blooms.

She stepped back with a smile. She loved a pretty cake. “There. I’m done. What do you think?”

Hillary squealed as she hustled over. “Oh, Holly. It’s beautiful. Ms. Randall will love it.”

“Good. So where do I put it?”

Hillary winced. “The van?”

Her smile disappeared. “You can’t be serious.”

“She wanted it there early. No later than two.”

Holly glanced at her watch. One fifteen.
Crap
. She hated transporting cakes anywhere. Especially three-tier cakes covered in fancy icing. But she was there to help Hillary, not make more work.

She grabbed a towel and tucked it into her apron. “All right. I’ll put it in the van. But you owe me. You know I hate driving the finished product around.”

Hillary reached out and wrapped her up in a huge hug. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Holly smiled. “I’ll keep you to that.” She slid her fingers under the edge of the cake and lifted it off the counter. With a deep breath, she turned toward the door.

“Can you manage that all right? Do you need my help?”

“I’ve got it. It’s one thing this behind of mine is good for. Opening doors.”

“All right. I’m going to grab the rest of the supplies from the stock room in back.”

“Gotcha!” Holly’s voice carried around the mountain of frosting and cake. With solid steps, she made her way to the front door, turning around to push it open with her butt.

The door swung open and Holly swung with it, turning in an arc toward the outside and straight into something solid and warm…with a voice.

“What the…? Shit!” A man cursed and mumbled from the other side of the disaster, his dress shirt covered in a smear of chocolate and pink.

Holly shrieked. “Oh my God. I am so sorry. Are you all right? Let me help you.” She pulled the remnants of all her hard work away and her mouth fell open.

Buzzed brown hair. Dark eyes full of fire. Locked jaw. Sexy and mad as hell. Holly clamped her mouth shut and pulled out her towel. She wiped off a section of his shirt before the man snatched it out of her fingers. His skin brushed hers and she bit her lip. Damn if he wasn’t just her type. Too bad his first impression was smashed frosting and triple fudge cake.

“I’m really sorry. I should have looked where I was going.”

He wiped another blob of pink and brown off his shirt and paused. His eyes tracked up and down and everywhere his gaze lingered, she tingled. At last, he raised an eyebrow. “Holiday?”

What?
She frowned. “I’m sorry? Do I know you?”

The man ran his tongue across his lower lip and tasted the icing. “It’s Trent. Trent Malone.”

Holly swallowed.
No way.
Color rose up her cheeks and she pushed her hair off her face as she took a second look. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been riding away on a beast of a motorcycle. Long hair, leather jacket, piercings up one ear—that’s the Trent she remembered.

“You’ve changed.”

His eyes flicked down and back up. “So have you.” He handed her back the towel and held out his hand. “It’s nice to see you again, Holiday.”

Holly wiped her hand on her apron before sliding her fingers over his. “It’s Holly now.” His grip tightened and images of his strong hands pinning her to the wall flashed inside her mind.

She needed to get it together. Trent might not look like the bad boy of her teenage memories, but that didn’t mean he’d changed on the inside. He could still be a class-A heartbreaker. Even if he’d grown up.

At last, he loosened his grip and his hand slipped away. “What’s got you carting cakes in Midnight Cove? Shouldn’t you be down at the beach? The spa?”

Holly frowned. “Do I look like someone who needs taking care of?”

His lips twitched. “Maybe.”

“Well, I’m not.” Talk about a mood killer. She didn’t need a man to swoop in and be her Prince Charming. Especially not one as dangerous as Trent. She could handle herself just fine.

Ian shut the door to the Range Rover and glanced up at the sky. Another perfect day in Midnight Cove. Too bad he couldn’t spend it at the beach. Between the endless calls about the shipments en route from China to New York, and the delays in his cargo ship off the African Coast, Ian hadn’t had time to sit down in weeks.

Add in the latest issue and Trent’s visit and he was lucky he slept at all. He walked toward Hillary’s cafe with a scowl. He should be catering his own parties and showing off his newest restaurant or latest bar. Not relying on someone else to do it for him. The shipping business might dwarf his restaurant holdings, but he’d never stopped loving it. Too bad no one made billions opening a cafe.

He rounded the corner of the little shop and stuttered to a stop. A woman stood at the entrance, gesticulating in big sweeping arcs at the front of Trent’s shirt as she frowned at him. She looked so familiar. Light brown hair cascaded down her back. Full, peach lips and flushed cheeks sparked a memory.

Ian’s eyes went wide.
Holy hell. Holiday?
He still remembered the little kid with twin braids he yanked as she ran by. The teenager with big brown eyes and an infectious laugh who made Mandy giggle even when she scraped her knee.

The way her lips melted into his as he’d pressed her up against the garage…

He shook his head.

With a deep breath, he ran his hand over his hair and smoothed it down. Last he’d heard, she’d moved to Los Angeles and become a chef. He’d gone to college and she’d forgotten all about the guy who helped her with homework and pushed her into the pool. The girl next door was gone.

Her voice carried down the sidewalk and his feet moved unbidden. One step after another, his own body dragged him forward until Trent turned around.
Whoa
. He let out a low whistle. “You look good in chocolate, man. What’s that, fudge?”

“Chocolate buttercream, actu—” She paused and the look on her face had his heart stuttering.

“Holiday. It’s been a long time. You look good.”

“Ian?”

He nodded and held out his hand.

After a beat, she took it. “I go by Holly now.” She glanced at Trent before continuing. “You, um, look good.”

“So what did Trent do to deserve a cake in his face? Try to save you?”

Her cheeks colored and Ian swallowed. She still hit him somewhere deep inside. Those big eyes. Innocent face. All new curves. He took her in—the swell of her hips, the shape of her ass, the hint of cleavage behind the apron.
Damn
. Holly’d done more than become a chef. She’d gone from cute to gorgeous. Just his type.

Trent interrupted his thoughts. “It was an accident.”

Ian shrugged and swiped a finger-full of frosting off Trent’s chest. He popped it in his mouth and his taste buds rejoiced. “Damn, Holly. That’s good. Did you make it?”

She nodded. “I’m here helping Hillary out for a while. She’s swamped.”

Ian blinked. “You’re working for Cove Catering?”

“For a month. I’m in-between restaurants and she was desperate for a baker, so I’m here until she gets a regular hire.”

He’d figured she must be there for a visit. Maybe a few days. But a whole month? “Where are you staying?”

Holly raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you Mr. Twenty Questions. I’m in a hotel. That new one down the coast.”

“It’s a half-hour drive.”

“It’s all I could find.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Ian shook his head. “You can’t stay in a hotel for a month. That would cost a fortune. I’ve got a guest house. Come stay with me.”

Trent stiffened beside him, but Ian ignored it. The guy could deal.

Holly smiled. “That’s sweet, but I couldn’t.”

“Nonsense. You can too.” Ian turned to Trent. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Trent shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away.

“Come on, I know you like the guest house, but it’s not like I smell. A few weeks in the main house with me won’t kill you.” Ian clapped him on the back. “Am I right?”

“Wait. What?” Holly shook her head. “You two are living together? I don’t want to—”

Trent interrupted her. “I’m in for a visit. And it’s fine. I don’t mind.”

Holly crossed her arms and her eyes flashed with anger. “No. I’m not kicking someone out with no notice. I don’t need your charity, Ian.”

“It’s not charity. It’s friendship.” Whatever was going on between her and Trent, they could work it out. They barely knew each other way back when. And he wasn’t saying goodbye to Holly when she’d just appeared in his life again. No fucking way.

Ian reached out and ran his fingers down her arm. She couldn’t hide the shiver. “It’ll give us a chance to reconnect. To reminisce.” He didn’t know why it mattered so much, but he needed her close. Trent wasn’t going to ruin that.

Holly hesitated and glanced at Trent. “I don’t know.”

“I do.” Ian stepped forward. “You’re coming. I’ve got a huge kitchen that’s completely neglected these days. You can bake. Work on some new recipes.” He glanced at Trent and grinned. “Practice throwing them at Trent.”

Holly blushed. “I
am
sorry about that.”

Trent waved her off. “Like I said, it’s fine.”

Ian caught Trent’s eye and he did his best to get the message across.
Convince her.

After a second, Trent rolled his shoulders and turned back to Holly. “Look, just agree, all right? Ian’s not going to let it go and there’s only so long I can stand here looking like a cake-o-gram gone wrong.”