Real Deal Read online

  “So.” My fingers run along the small pieces of wood while my eyes focus on Cat.

  “Lily must’ve told me, or maybe you mentioned it.” She’s antsy and it makes me wish I had a rope and a headboard. Maybe tying her up and teasing her until she admits she remembers me would fulfill both of our needs right now.

  “Cat,” I say softly and lean my shoulder against a tree beside us.

  A long stream of breath pours out of her mouth and she chews on the inside of her cheek for a second, her eyes squeezing shut for a moment.

  I press my lips together to keep the smile from forming.

  “Fine. I remember you.”

  A weight I hadn’t known I was carrying lifts from my shoulders and I somehow feel lighter. “You do?”

  “Yes,” she says with annoyance and throws her hands up in the air. “And we are not to talk about it, okay?”

  “What aren’t we talking about?” I try to appear casual even though the cockiness I’m feeling that I am not forgettable to her, has me bursting at the seams.

  She juts her hip out, places her hand on said hip and stares at me deadpan. “Stop acting like that. Smugness isn’t attractive on you.”

  Yeah, she’d love it if I backed her up into a tree right now. If all the kids weren’t everywhere, I just might. I chuckle and try to stifle the amusement I feel with this situation.

  “Oh, and look your friend is here just in time to make my mortification complete.”

  I glance behind me, finding Toby doing back flips off a bench near the play area, Dane’s eyes trained on Cat.

  I nod to him and he nods back. Lily runs out of the cabin with her backpack swinging on either side of her and Dane catches sight of her.

  “Lily!” he screams and she looks over at him.

  Toby stops trying to put himself into a wheelchair and waves at her.

  “Can I go play with Toby and Uncle Dane?” Lily asks. This couldn’t have gone better if I’d planned it.

  “Sure.” I signal to Dane that Lily’s coming.

  “Bye, Miss Cat.” Lily waves and runs up to the top of the path.

  “Since we’re done pretending we don’t know about each other, how about coffee?” I ask.

  She shakes her head and turns toward the cabin.

  I glance around and realize the only people left are the other counselors, most of whom are heading to the cabin to clean up.

  I gently cup her elbow. “Wait.”

  She whips around and when I glimpse the shame in her eyes I fear that she’s about to cry.

  “I’m not her,” she says.

  I want to ask what she’s talking about, but she seems upset so I decide to go with something non-committal that won’t push her over the edge. “Okay.”

  She glances behind her and signals for us to go to the side of the building. When we reach it, she tucks us behind a tree so we can’t be seen.

  “I’m not that girl. I’ve grown up.”

  Her meaning becomes clear. “You’ve definitely grown up.” My gaze skips over her body and I realize that was a dick move. “I mean—”

  “I know what you mean. I was a late bloomer, okay? But that doesn’t change the fact, this” —she waves that delicate finger between us that I’d like to suck into my mouth— “can’t happen.”

  “I suggested coffee. Figured we could catch up.” I cross my arms over my chest, tucking my hands under my arms to keep from reaching out for her and pissing her off more.

  “What are you going to catch up on, how my tits and pussy look now compared to when I was eighteen?”

  God, her fiery temper is such a turn on. I raise my eyebrows and she bites her lip, but I know it’s because she wants to smile.

  “Listen, everyone does stupid shit when they’re younger. If it helps, I’m just as embarrassed at how I treated you back then. I’d like to take you to coffee to apologize and start over.”

  This is a genuine invitation. Am I attracted to Cat? Does a bear like honey? Yes, I want to nail her every which way I can imagine and then try some shit that hasn’t even been invented yet. But I need to make amends for how I treated her and I want her to be comfortable around me.

  “Start over? As friends?” she asks, and the defensive stance her body is in, relaxes.

  “Yeah. Let that stuff from the past just be a distant memory.”

  “Fine.” I think I’m more surprised than she is that she agreed to this.

  I pull my phone out. “What’s your number?”

  “You don’t need my number,” she says. I should’ve known she wouldn’t give this up easily. I stare at her until she rolls her eyes, but rambles out her number. Her phone dings in her back pocket after I text her.

  “That’s me. So, we’ll plan a time for coffee.”

  “Coffee.” She says the word like it’s a finality of sorts.

  “Maybe a Danish, too.”

  I smile and she shakes her head, but there’s a playful side to it this time.

  “Coffee.”

  “Cat!” one of the other counselors calls out from the cabin.

  “I should get going.” She begins to step away.

  I want to cage her in, taste those sweet lips. Have my hand venture up her shirt.

  We’ll get there. I’m going to make sure of it. But she needs time first.

  “I’ll talk to you soon,” I promise.

  Her cheeks flush the cutest pink color before she turns around completely and disappears around the corner of the building.

  Now I just have to figure out how to get from a coffee date to my bedroom.

  12

  Caterina

  I stretch in bed and open my eyes for the first time since I woke up from a blissfully erotic dream where Marcus was the star. God, the things that man did to me. Does my subconscious really want him that bad? I haven’t had a dream like that in like…ever.

  Brushing off the last vestiges of sleep I leave the confines of my bed in search of something to eat. If I’m lucky, Ava baked last night and if it’s cupcakes for breakfast, who am I to argue?

  Clinking dishes tell me I’m not the only one awake in the house.

  Rounding the corner past the living room, I find Charlie sitting on a breakfast stool with a spoonful of Fruit Loops about to meet her lips. She smiles with a Cheshire-like grin that says she knows something.

  But instead of saying anything she places the spoon in her mouth and chomps down on the cereal.

  Finding the counters bare of any sweets I frown and move to the cabinet and grab a bowl.

  “So, who did you sneak out of here?” She raises her eyebrows. Her dark hair is pulled up in a high ponytail and she has on shorts and a tank top.

  “Um...no one.” I pour the Fruit Loops into the bowl and she picks up her phone from the counter and acts like she’s looking at the screen, but I know she’s waiting to drill me with another question.

  “Then you must have one awesome vibrator based on the satisfied look on your face.”

  I stifle my laughter and take my bowl over to the kitchen table. “More like a hefty imagination and a subconscious that wants to play it out in my dreams.”

  “Damn. I wish I had your imagination.” She grins over her spoonful of Fruit Loops.

  That’s the thing about Charlie. She’s kind of a cheerleader for everyone. Not the rah rah rah throw my pom-pom’s in the air kind, but she doesn’t seem like she’d ever wish ill will on anyone. She only ever seems genuinely pleased when someone else is happy. Being from a family in the upper echelon of San Francisco high society, I’ve seen my fair share of people who really don’t want you to succeed or find happiness.

  My face flushes and I try to bury my head into my bowl of cereal.

  “So, who’s the guy? An ex from back home?” Charlie rises from her breakfast stool and joins me at the table with her bowl of cereal.

  I haven’t had as much time to bond with Charlie since she also works some shifts at Happy Daze Tavern on top of the fact that she’s a
local and shoots home for family dinners occasionally. Ava has her dad here too, which leaves me with my art. Not that I’m complaining, my hotel pieces are starting to move from the sleazy rent-a-room-by-the-hour variety to the high-end resort living type.

  “Not an ex.” My spoon skims through the milk, stirring the small rings of colors around.

  I glance up to find Charlie leaning back in her chair, her gaze on me. She’s waiting for me to expand. The problem is, because Charlie is local, she’ll know Marcus.

  She leans forward as though we have to worry about someone overhearing us. I’m assuming Ava is still sleeping. “I know we don’t know each other all that well, but just so you’re aware, I’m not a gossip whore. I won’t push you to talk to me, but if you want to, I’m here.”

  Then she stands and takes her bowl to the sink. The kitchen is silent as she grabs her purse and puts it crosswise on her body then takes her keys off the small table we have next to the backdoor to our apartment.

  “Marcus Kent.” I blurt out his name fast, like she’s not going to hear me.

  Truth is, I need to talk to someone about him and most of my other friends took the summer as a vacation before we finish the final year for our Master’s.

  Her Chucks skid to a stop and she slowly turns around, the smile teasing her lips looks like she’s trying to bluff with a shitty poker hand.

  “Well, he’s definitely worthy of the orgasm you had this morning.”

  She sits down on the edge of the chair she just left. “He’s the dad? The one with the Popsicle sticks and glitter comment?”

  I nod. “Yup.”

  She has a knowing look on her face. “Marcus is very protective of Lily.”

  “Aren’t all dads?” I ask, pushing my bowl of cereal to the side.

  “Yeah, but he’s different. My boss is a single dad too, but he’s more go with the flow,” she talks with her hands and pauses trying to think of the word to describe him. “Let’s just say he’s an open book with his son. Now he’s older than Lily, but when it comes to Lily’s mom, everyone who’s close to him is super tight-lipped about the situation. That’s a hard line with Marcus. He never talks about it and no one ever talks to him about it.”

  Her eyes are filled with sympathy, as in ‘don’t even bother with him, you’ll get nowhere’. But I love a challenge. Isn’t that how I ultimately embarrassed myself in front of him at eighteen? Would I really be willing to put myself out there for him again? Especially since this time around he seems to be doing the pursuing.

  “How do you know him so well?” I ask and she shakes her head, making small strands of hair fall from her ponytail holder.

  “He’s my boss’s good friend.” She’s holding something back though, I see it in the way her gaze darts away from me.

  “Oh, my God.” My hands fly up to my mouth. “Have you been with him? Did you guys date and now I’m telling you—”

  She laughs, her hand pulling mine from covering my mouth. “No. That’s not it at all.” She takes a deep breath and lets it puff out her cheeks when she exhales.

  “Please don’t tell anyone this because my boss doesn’t want it to get out.” She pauses again.

  My mind races with a million different thoughts. Are Marcus and her boss an item? Is he gay? Is he already attached to someone?

  “They’re members of this thing called The Single Dads Club. But you can’t say anything about it,” she adds quickly.

  I scrunch my nose. “What’s the big deal with that?”

  “A lot of people know about it, but they meet at the bar and the guys don’t want that broadcast because then the single women would flock there looking for their next baby daddy.”

  “Whatever happened to dads using their kids to score with women? You know like they do with puppies?”

  Charlie stands and opens the fridge, taking out a water. “These guys aren’t those type. The kids all come first. Relationships are second and usually of the temporary variety if you get my meaning.”

  My heart pricks a little with her comment. So, if something happens between Marcus and I, it would be for the summer and that’s all. Secret rendezvous after Lily goes to sleep is all we’d share.

  “Oh, don’t look so down. You might be the game changer for Marcus.” She winks. “Okay, I’m off to do inventory.” She walks toward the door, but it swings open before she reaches it.

  In walks Ava, in her clothes from last night and nothing but her keys in her hand.

  “Am I the only one that’s not getting any?” Charlie says, shaking her head.

  “What? I went for a walk.” Ava walks to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water. “Can’t a girl get a little exercise without getting the third degree?

  “Does this exercise have a name?” I ask and Charlie laughs.

  Ava swings around and pins me with a mock glare. “No.”

  “I am the only one not getting any exercise,” Charlie laments and walks out the door, shutting it behind her.

  “Wait, what is she talking about?” Ava asks.

  I stand and put my bowl of cereal in the sink next to Charlie’s. “Nothing.” I walk up to the island counter and can tell from her just fucked hair and her inside out shirt that she wasn’t out for a walk. But since I don’t want her prying into the situation with Marcus, I don’t bother trying to get any information from her as to where she spent the night.

  “I’m going to get some coffee,” I say.

  “Oh, I’ll join you. Just let me clean up a little.”

  And with that, we both do an excellent job of pretending that each of us has nothing to hide.

  13

  Marcus

  I’m sitting at my desk on Monday morning, after a weekend of beating off to images of Caterina in my mind.

  Fucking Dane. She was right there in my hands and he had to barge in and ruin it. Not like I could’ve bent her over the hood of her flashy car with Lily and Ashley inside the house, but a kiss. A fucking kiss to see if she’s as sweet as I think she is.

  My phone rings and I glance down to it, seeing that it’s Mr. Santora. Cat’s dad. My stomach flips with the thought that he somehow knows about the dirty thoughts I’ve been having about his youngest.

  I answer the shop phone, “Good morning, Bill.”

  “Marcus.” He pauses and I swear the man could make a raging bull nervous. “I’m coming out in a few weeks with my family.”

  “Which boat were you looking for?”

  Bill keeps three boats in our marina. He exchanges them from time to time, keeping only one down in San Francisco where he lives. I earned his trust early in our relationship after my father left me the business and he’s always been a reliable client.

  “Actually, I’m taking my Sweet Tahlia and my Kitty Cat both to San Francisco. My son-in-law is going to use Sweet Tahlia for the summer months. You remember him, right?”

  The blond guy who never stops touching his wife. How could I forget?

  “Lucas, right?” I tap my pen on the desk and lean back in my chair.

  Bill Santora is either chatty or all business and if he’s all business, we’d have already hung up. Today, Bill wants to talk so I sit back and try to relax since nothing seems amiss. Clearly, he has no idea about the things I want to do to his daughter.

  “Yeah, he and Tahlia are expecting their second child—another grandson.” His happy and proud tone ooze through the phone.

  “Congratulations. Your family keeps growing.”

  He chuckles. “Well, at least Tahlia is having babies. My youngest, Cat—” I hear nothing else while my heart begins to race in my chest. “—she’s practically being auctioned off in New York. All these galleries want her to come out there after the summer. Well, they wanted her this summer, but she said she wanted some time off before starting her career. Hey, you might run into her up there.”

  Yeah, we can check that box. Been there, done that and almost strapped her to my headboard.

  Instead I say, “Oh really?”
My voice cracks like a teenage boy.

  “She’s working up at that camp. I don’t get why she’s putting off all these gallery owners who want to sell her stuff. But Cat’s always been different than her sister. Tahlia is my steadfast, reliable one and Caterina is and probably always will be, my wild child. Not in the party-all-the-time and spend all my money way, but she’s always had a fiery spirit and she’s never really liked the fact she comes from Santora Sausage.”

  Christ, this guy makes it hard not to make the obvious sausage jokes sometimes. She comes from Santora Sausage? The jokes practically write themselves.

  “I’m sure she just wants to spread her wings, you know with her being, what now?”

  “Twenty-four,” he answers and a zing of excitement rushes through me.

  So far past legal now.

  “I’m sure she’ll be heading to New York in the fall. I can’t imagine that girl ever finding enough to fulfill her in a small town like Climax Cove.” He chuckles. “She likes to think of herself as some regular Joe, but all you have to do is look at my credit card statements to know she likes her Starbucks and Neiman Marcus.”

  His confirmation of what I already know stings when it shouldn’t. Why should I give two shits that she’ll be gone once summer’s over? It only repeats the same thinking in my head. Cat would be a summer fling that’d die with the daisies and daffodils once autumn arrives. Now, if only I wasn’t the bee looking to taste her sweet nectar until there’s nothing left.

  “Well, Bill, I’ll make sure to get the two boats ready before you arrive.”

  “Thank you, Marcus. I’ll get you more details about when exactly we’ll be arriving closer to the date, but we’ll need Kitty Cat ready for the Saturday. We’re spending the weekend in town and I want to take the family out for the day. We’ll have lunch on the boat. I’m going to call Debbie over at Double D’s after I hang up with you.”

  “Special occasion?” I ask, back to rolling my pen back and forth through my fingers.

  “No. Just want some family time. We’ve all missed Caterina since she’s been working at the camp.”