Summer Temptation (Hot in the Hamptons Book 2) (3 page)

Shit.

Leigh

I
t took another forty-five minutes in the car, more because of traffic than distance, to get to Storme’s beach house. I made good use of my time to calm down after that awful confrontation with Murphy’s horrible grandson. Poor Murphy, having to deal with that rude, controlling halfwit on a regular basis.

Too bad his short dark hair, sensual blue eyes, and brooding good looks were wasted on a tall, well-put-together man who was completely lacking in manners, tact, and personality.

Feeling much more relaxed, I pulled into Storme’s driveway. The house…took my breath away. Opulent came to mind. Huge. More of an estate than the ‘summer cottage’ she’d invited me to visit. For fun and frolic, she’d said. Honestly, I wasn’t the type to frolic, but fun? I was in dire need of some fun.

I parked my trusty, six-year-old white Subaru right between Storme’s shiny, cherry red convertible and the dark blue, classic muscle car Kelsey had inherited from her dad when she’d turned twenty-one. I think she’d called it a 1968 Shelby Mustang, as if that meant something. The cars, like the three of us, couldn’t be more different.

Storme, a gorgeous brunette, Kelsey, a beautiful blond, as strong as she was pretty, and me, with light brownish-red hair and okay looks, at least in my opinion. Storme’s family very wealthy and living life so everybody knew it, Kelsey’s family the exact opposite of wealthy, and my family…well, my dad made a lot of money, but we lived our lives somewhere in between.

The front door opened and Storme ran out first, her dark wavy hair loose, wearing skimpy denim shorts and a clingy pink tank top. “Finally. If you didn’t get here soon we were going to go out looking for you.” She pulled me into a hug.

Kelsey followed behind her, blond hair up in a loose, messy knot, dressed in ‘thrift shop chic,’ as she called it, but always managing to look great. “Heard you tried to back out,” she said, her words tinged with a sweet southern accent as she hugged me too. “We would have come up to Westchester to get you.” She looked me in the eyes. “You know that, right?”

I smiled, deciding I’d wait until later to tell them my plans to return home at least one night a week to check on my dad and grandpa. “Why else do you think I came?”

“To spend the summer in the Hamptons,” Storme said. “To relax on the beach during the day and party all night.”

Threat of sunburn aside, relaxing on the beach sounded great. Partying all night? Not so much.

“To meet hot guys and have raunchy sex under the starry sky.” Kelsey winked.

She knew that wasn’t me at all.

“Stop it,” Storme said, giving Kelsey a playful push on the shoulder. Then she slid her arm through mine and led me up the stairs and into the house. “I’d settle for Leigh meeting one nice guy for a sweet summer romance.” Storme glanced up at me. “Before you lose yourself in sixty hour work weeks and coast to coast travel.”

Storme guided me though an exquisite entryway with immaculate white walls, along beautiful dark hardwood floors, to a huge open kitchen toward the back of the house.

“Yeah,” Kelsey said, pouring a glass of white wine and handing it to me. “We’re not going to be there to pull you out of the library and force you to have a social life.”

To be honest, that worried me a little bit.

I took the glass. If I’d refused, my friends would have known something was wrong, because I love my wine. I took a sip. Certainly a few small sips wouldn’t hurt the baby…if there was a baby.

“What’s wrong?” Storme asked. She could read me better than anyone.

“Nothing,” I lied, pulling up a chair to take a seat at the counter.

She gave me that worried look that usually got me talking, but not this time. I would not bring down the happy vibe in the room or take the focus away from our summer of carefree fun and planning for Storme’s end-of-summer wedding by sharing my pregnancy concern.

And that, in a nutshell, was why I hadn’t taken a pregnancy test. If I didn’t know for certain, then I could cling to the hope I wasn’t pregnant, that the future I’d planned so carefully was not on the verge of falling apart, that I wouldn’t be responsible for finishing off my dad with the news he was about to become a grandpa. No downward spiral of doom and gloom necessary.

I looked up. Great, Kelsey had concern in her eyes, too. Knowing I had to give them something to explain my sudden quiet, I swirled my glass and took another small sip. “Every time I drink this I’ll think of both of you and how much you mean to me.”

‘This,’ of course, being the delicious wine produced by Storme’s family’s vineyard, right on Long Island.

“I’d say the same,” Kelsey took a sip from her own glass, “except this stuff is too expensive for my budget.”

“Once you figure out what you’ll be doing after the summer, and where you’ll be doing it, I’ll have a case delivered to you every month,” Storme said, like it was no big deal, because to her, it wasn’t. Sure, she loved her designer clothes and fancy cars, but other than that, there was nothing ‘rich girl’ about Storme. She was the kindest, sweetest, most generous person I’d ever met.

“To friendship.” I held up my glass in a toast. “Rooming with the two of you freshman year was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Storme, the outgoing life of the party, Kelsey fun but more selective in her friends, and me, the quiet one, happier alone with my Kindle than out at a party or bar. Yet somehow we’d bonded like sisters that year, and our friendship had only grown stronger since then.

We all clinked glasses.

“To getting Leigh laid,” Kelsey said.

“I’ll drink to that.” Storme tapped her glass to Kelsey’s.

Since the last time I’d ‘gotten laid’ – or gotten close to getting laid — may not have worked out so well for me, I tried to interrupt. “Hey, wait a minute.” But they both leaned in and tapped my glass with big smiles on their faces.

Storme added, “And to Kelsey finally fulfilling her lifeguard fantasy.”

Kelsey laughed. “I am all over that.”

I hoped, with all my heart, that Kelsey
did
meet a big, strong, sexy lifeguard for the summer fling she’d been talking about for months. She was such a loyal friend, always there for me. After losing her dad in the war, if anyone deserved a little happiness in her life, Kelsey did.

“And to Storme having the perfect wedding,” I said, holding out my glass. Was it my imagination, or did the soon-to-be bride hesitate before clinking my glass? Did her smile falter? Was that uncertainty I saw flash in her eyes?

If so, she recovered quickly, raising her glass. “Of course I will. I have the two best maids-of-honor ever who will make sure I do.”

“You know it,” Kelsey said.

“Of course,” I agreed, watching my friend, wondering what was going on in that head of hers.

After that we sat around for a while talking about what we’d been doing since graduation. I gave them updates on dad and grandpa. Storme filled us in on some new wedding plans, and Kelsey talked about possibly going to Europe for graduate school and the lifeguard she’d met earlier that day.

All too soon Storme insisted on showing me to my room, which had a private bathroom attached, so we could get changed for a pool party I had no desire to go to.

Nick

W
hen had I gotten so old? When was the last time I’d walked on the beach? I missed the feel of sand between my toes, so I kicked off my flip flops and carried them. I missed the smell of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing into the shore, so I took a moment to enjoy the beauty of the sun setting over the water. As much as I hadn’t wanted to come tonight, the bonfire up ahead, the music, and the laughter had me feeling a bit nostalgic for the summers of my youth, when my life revolved around lifeguarding and pretty girls in tiny bikinis.

Two years of eighty hour work weeks as an analyst on Wall Street, and at the age of twenty-four I felt closer to forty. Forget fun. At present, my social life consisted of networking with business associates, always looking to get noticed, always fighting for that promotion, and not much else.

For the past year, my downtime, what little I had, had all been spent with grandma and granddad, doing the things my parents should have been doing, only they’d chosen North Carolina over Long Island. To escape the New York winters, they’d said initially. Now they stayed down there year round.

“Nick! My man! How’s it going?”

“Jake.” I held out my pasty white hand to shake my old friend’s sunbaked, golden brown one.

Nothing escaped Jake. He held up my hand, squinting at the imagined glare from my skin. “That office job is killing you,” he said. “Sucking the color of life right out of you.”

No argument there. “I’ll be sticking around for a few days.” Not by choice, more like for lack of anything better to do while I updated my resumé and got in touch with a few headhunters to get my job search going. “Should have my color back in no time.”

At the thought of kicking around the beach, doing some swimming and bikini watching, my spirits lifted. “Where you hiding the beer?” Despite the restriction on alcohol, I knew the big red plastic cups everyone had were not filled with soda.

Jake pointed to an Italian ice pushcart. “Keg’s in there.”

I smiled. “Like old times.”

“You know it.” Jake held out his fist and I bumped it with mine. “Now get yourself a nice cold drink, shake off that New York City grime, and let’s have us some fun.”

Just what I needed.

It didn’t take long to find Leigh. All I had to do was look in the direction most of the men around me kept looking, and there she was with her two friends. Each one dressed in a similar, colorful beach cover-up that left one shoulder and their long, slender legs bare. Each one was as pretty as the next: a blond, a brunette, and a light-brownish-redhead, one for each preference.

If only the light-brownish-redhead didn’t think I was a total ass.

Leigh separated from her friends and walked toward a large plastic trash barrel over by a set of wooden stairs. She looked around as if trying to see if her friends were watching. They weren’t, but I was, and I saw her dump the contents of her big red plastic cup into the barrel, take a bottle of water from her string backpack, and pour its contents into the cup before tossing away the container.

Interesting.

Apparently seeing Leigh on her own, vulnerable prey separated from the herd, a big guy, more bulk than brawn, staggered in her direction. I headed that way, too. Just in case. When he reached her, Leigh smiled politely and tried to walk around him. He stopped her. I picked up my pace.

Before I could get there, Leigh’s blond friend jogged over. A few quick words I couldn’t hear, and the guy turned himself right back around.

Leigh laughed. A beautiful sound. Then she smiled. For some reason, that smile warmed my insides. On the way back to their brunette friend, Leigh stopped and pulled a cell phone out of her bag to take a call. Motioning toward the water, her blond friend nodded, and Leigh walked off on her own.

Naturally, I followed. To keep her safe, I told myself, feeling rather protective of the woman who’d shown my granddad such kindness. The woman who’d made him happier than I’d seen him in months. The woman who’d impressed him so much he could hardly stop talking about her – to the point I felt like I knew her.