Boyfriend By Mistake Page 11

  Shawn whistled as he crossed through the house and pulled open the door. The song died in his throat as he came face-to-face with Alissa.

  “Liss.” Her name hissed between his lips. She wore a pair of shorts that had to be illegal in length and a tight T-shirt that said Carter’s Cove across the front of it. Her blonde hair had been pulled into a tight ponytail, and she lifted her sunglasses to the top of her head.

  She pulled in a long breath, but she still said nothing. Behind her, on a trailer attached to her car, sat the motorcycle he’d found in Bo’s shed. At least Shawn thought it was the same bike.

  “What did you do?” he asked, a hint of teasing in his voice.

  “I wondered if maybe you’d like to go for a ride,” she said.

  “With you?”

  “Yes.” Her blue eyes held only nerves. “Shawn, I don’t know if you think you can give me another chance. But last week was literally one of the better weeks of my life, and it was because of you.”

  She swallowed and motioned toward the motorcycle. “So I snuck into Bo’s shed and fixed up the bike. Our first date all those years ago was at the motorcycle parade, and I want to ride in it with you.”

  Shawn smiled, the gesture slow as it filled his whole face. “You fixed up the bike.”

  “I fixed up the bike.” She clasped her hands together and pulled them apart. “I’m sorry for thinking you could’ve vandalized that property and blamed it on me or my family. I never really thought that, I swear. Things were so tense, and my dad—”

  “Liss,” he said, silencing her. “Slow down.” He wanted to go back to the motorcycle parade. And the best week of her life.

  She nodded, falling back a step. “Yeah. Right. Slowing down.”

  “You want to come in?” He stepped back. “I don’t have a job, so I can’t afford to air condition the whole island.” He grinned at her, disliking the anxiety still thriving in her eyes.

  She stepped into his house and glanced around. “This is a nice place.”

  He brushed his fingers across hers, unsurprised when she flinched away. “I think I can give you another chance.”

  She turned toward him, her eyes searching his. “Do you?”

  Shawn shrugged, glad she’d relaxed a little bit. “As many as it takes, actually. I kinda like you, Lissa.”

  Her eyes crinkled as she smiled. “I like you too, Shawn,” she said. “For real. Not by mistake.”

  “Oh, there was no mistake last time, either,” he said, slipping his arms around her. “I can’t believe you fixed up that bike.”

  “I really want to ride it with you.”

  “I really want to kiss you.”

  “Do it, then.” She closed her eyes, and Shawn bent down, his lips barely touching hers for a moment. Just a breath. “I’m sorry, Shawn,” she whispered.

  “I heard you the first time.” He touched the tip of his nose to hers. “And I lied. I don’t just like you Lissa. I’m falling in love with you.” He kissed her then, stealing whatever response she might have to his declaration. By the way she kissed him back, Shawn got the feeling she was falling for him too.

  He finally pulled away. His voice sounded a bit unused when he said, “So let’s go for a ride.”

  “We just need the key,” Lissa said, taking his face in her hands. “You’re really not mad at me?”

  “I was,” Shawn admitted. “But that faded by Sunday afternoon, and then I just wanted to see you.”

  “Is that why you’ve been eating at Redfin?”

  “I came once,” he said, tilting his head. “How did you know?”

  “Gwen told me,” she said.

  “I’ve wanted to come to the bakery every morning,” he said.

  “Come out on the boat tomorrow.”

  “Oh, I’ll have to go to bed right now to manage that.” He chuckled, dipping his lips to trace them along her neck.

  “So no motorcycle ride?” She gripped his shoulders, her voice breathless.

  “Fine,” he said. “We can go for a ride. I have the key around here somewhere.” He stepped away from her, not wanting to leave the house at all. She bent down and patted Gentleman, a few kind words for him as Shawn went to retrieve the key from a drawer in the kitchen.

  “Ready?”

  She straightened, her eyes bright with hope. “Yeah. Come see what I did.”

  “How did you know how to fix it up?” he asked.

  “I watched some videos,” she said. “I mean, it’s sandpaper and paint. I keep Big Blue afloat, and that takes some tools too.” She flashed him a flirty look as she moved in front of him out the front door.

  “I had to go all the way to Garden City for the seat,” she said. “And the ferry was intense. I barely got on with my package it was so full.”

  “Well, it’s the Fourth of July weekend,” he said. “Fireworks tomorrow night, right?”

  “And Monday,” she said. “And again on the actual Fourth.”

  “Can we go together?” he asked, stepping over to the trailer and starting to undo the holds keeping the bike in place.

  “To the fireworks?”

  “Yes.” He paused to look at her. “All of them. I love fireworks.”

  She smiled and nodded. “All right.”

  He rolled the motorcycle down onto the ground and handed Alissa a helmet. “What’s going on tonight that we can do?”

  “It’s the gumbo competition.”

  “Oh, right.” He buckled on his own helmet. “I really don’t like gumbo.”

  “How very un-Southern of you,” she teased.

  “How about dinner somewhere?” he asked, thinking he should probably tell her about the shop he’d rented. But something told him to wait, and he said nothing.

  “Sure,” she said. “I know several of the food trucks came in yesterday. The return ferry was booked for hours.”

  Shawn threw his leg over the brand-new seat of the bike, stroking his fingers down the shiny gas tank, and marveling at the gleam of the handlebars. “This bike is amazing,” he said. “You did an amazing job.”

  Lissa climbed on behind him, snuggling right into him as she wrapped her arms around him. He didn’t wait for her to say anything. He punched the gas, and they went flying down the street, their laughter mingling as it floated on the air behind them.

  Shawn spent the next couple of days with Lissa from well before the sun went up until it started to go down. He was exhausted, but the time with her was worth it.

  “So balloon festival tomorrow morning,” she said, skipping in front of him as they walked down Main Street. He’d parked the motorcycle at The Heartwood Inn, and they’d been down to the beach this afternoon. Now, they walked her dogs among all the shops and shoppers. And later, they were meeting his parents for dinner at the best surf and turf restaurant on the island.

  “Yes,” he said. “How do you manage that with the bakery? It starts early.”

  “At first light,” she said. “So we’ll go for an hour, and then I’ll go into the bakery.”

  And he’d sit in the corner booth like he’d been doing for a couple of days now, sipping coffee and waiting for her to come out and join him on her break.

  “And the motorcycle parade that night,” she said.

  “I haven’t forgotten.” He smiled at her as they approached the corner shop. “Look,” he said, nodding toward it. “The for rent sign is gone.”

  “It is?” She let go of his hand and stepped over to the windows, taking Dodger with her. Pirate sat down, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like he’d had enough of this walking thing. Lissa turned back to him. “It is. I wonder who rented it and what they’re going to do with it.”

  Shawn’s throat suddenly felt so dry. He swallowed, feeling very much like Pirate in this moment. Thirsty and tired and hot. “I did,” he said, his voice sounding like a croaking frog.

  Lissa turned toward him. “What? You did?”

  “I rented it,” he said. “I need a job here on the island, an
d I figured I could be, I don’t know. A management company.”

  She half scoffed, half laughed. “You can’t make any money doing that. The rent prices here are already sky-high.”

  “Yeah, probably,” he said. “I do need a job though. I was thinking of using it for something. A photography studio or something.”

  “Do you know photography?”

  “You say that with such…disbelief.” He shook his head. “But no, I don’t really know photography. I was thinking I could watch some videos.”

  She blinked, and Shawn burst into laughter. Lissa joined him, and he wrapped her in his arms and held her close while they sobered.

  “I was thinking maybe you should use the space,” he said, looking only at her. “For a fish-mongering shop.”

  “Shawn.” Lissa pressed her lips together, her eyes brimming with emotion.

  “Don’t decide now,” he said. “Come on, my parents will be ten minutes early, which means we’re already late.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Alissa gazed up into the sky, the morning sun painful in her eyes. She shaded them as she watched the balloons go higher and higher. “They’re so pretty,” she said, marveling at how they expanded and expanded, finally lifting off the ground with nothing but hot air.

  Shawn’s arm around her still felt a little surreal, despite the last few days they’d spent together. She’d enjoyed every minute with him, though they still seemed to take jabs at one another from time to time.

  His parents had seemed happy that he was back in town, and Alissa couldn’t express how much happier she was. Olympia had been right, and Alissa had made of point of telling her sister that. Encouraging her to get a new boyfriend of her own.

  “I can’t,” she’d said. “I have someone coming to rent the other penthouse, and it needs to be spruced up.”

  But even Olympia had taken a break this morning. It seemed like everyone had come out to watch the hot air balloons, and for once, Alissa didn’t mind the crowds on Carter’s Cove.

  “Look, there’s a smiley face,” he said, pointing to a bright yellow balloon as it lifted off from the crowd.

  She grinned at it, feeling a smile move through her entire being. They continued watching the balloons take off, the blowing and hissing sounds from the fire filling the air around them. Soon enough, the crowd started to break up, and Shawn asked, “Breakfast?”

  “I have to go to the bakery, remember?” She tucked her hand in his so they wouldn’t get separated among the press of people.

  “I’ll drop you off and go grab something,” he said. “Bring it back.”

  Alissa didn’t argue with him. He’d do it anyway, and she rather liked him doting on her. He maneuvered the motorcycle through the crowds and to The Heartwood Inn, which stood majestically at the end of Main Street, almost an iconic building on the island. She hurried inside, determined just to do the basic desserts that day.

  With so much going on outside on the island, surely they wouldn’t need cannoli or crème puffs.

  The first time she took a tray of brownies out to the bakery, she found Shawn in the booth, a couple of brown paper bags in front of him.

  “Ham, egg, and cheese croissant,” he said. “From Bobby’s.” He nudged her bag closer to her as she slid into the booth. “And I think I got a job.”

  “Oh, yeah? Doing what?”

  “Deliveries,” he said, his face shining with anticipation. “I mentioned to Bobby how hard it was to get around the island, and he said he’d been losing money because he can’t get his deliveries out.”

  “Okay,” Alissa said, unwrapping her sandwich. “Why doesn’t he use a bike messenger the way everyone else does? Surely Bo can rent him a bicycle.”

  “The orders are too big for a bike,” he said. “But not too big for a motorcycle.”

  “You’re going to deliver for Bobby’s,” she said. How in the world could he even want to do that? He’d come from Miami—ritzy, glamorous Miami—as a real estate developer. The man probably made a ton of money, had black leather in his office, and a secretary outside the door.

  He hadn’t said anything about leaving his job there, and Alissa didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.

  “I’m going to deliver for Bobby’s,” he said. “And not only that, I’m going to have a friend of mine in the city build me an app. I’m going to deliver for anyone and everyone on Carter’s Cove.” He looked at her earnestly now. “I need you to help me with a name.”

  She unwrapped her sandwich, this conversation moving so fast. “A name for the app?”

  “And the business,” he said. “I’ve been texting Bo this morning, and he thinks it’s a great idea. Said we can wrap it into his corporation. I mean, he’s already doing transportation. This is sort of like that. Here’s how it works….”

  He went on to explain how people could order from somewhere—a restaurant like Bobby’s or Redfin, the flower shop, the bakery, the drug store—and he’d go pick up what they’d ordered and take it to them.

  “Like the pizza places have been doing for years,” he said. “But I deliver anything.”

  “Wow,” she said. “Sounds amazing.”

  “So I need a name for it.”

  Alissa took a bite of her sandwich, the cheese melting into the ham. “Carter’s Cove Concierge,” she said. “That might be too long.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “It might be. And I’m not really a concierge. I’m not telling you where to eat or about the best thing to do on the island.” He lifted his coffee cup to his lips. “What about something simple, like Delivered?”

  “What about like Speedy Service?” she suggested.

  Shawn considered what she’d said. “I’ll keep thinking about it. I’m talking to my friend later this week.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Isaac Devonshire. He builds websites and apps. Does a ton of computer science for small businesses. That type of thing.”

  Alissa had no idea how something like that would earn Shawn any money. But she didn’t need to know. She didn’t understand how developing real estate made people money either, but it did.

  “Well, I better get back to work,” she said, sliding out of the booth. She stepped over to him and kissed him, tasting the coffee on his lips. “Don’t be late to pick me up, okay? We have to be in line for the parade by five.”

  “I know,” he said. “Five. And you’re going to wear those red shorts.” He licked his lips. “Right?”

  She grinned at him. “Right.”

  Alissa looked at herself in the mirror, the white top with all the blue stars on it the perfect complement to her red shorts. She was nothing if not patriotic, and while the actual Fourth of July wasn’t until tomorrow, the motorcycle parade was filled with red, white, and blue.

  She opened her front door at the same time Shawn pulled up on the motorcycle, and he looked devilishly handsome in a pair of navy blue shorts and a red polo shirt. He didn’t get off the bike, but grinned at her as she walked toward him.

  “Nice shorts,” he said, kissing her when she arrived.

  “Thanks.” She climbed onto the bike behind him, balancing as she tightened the chin strap on her helmet. She wrapped her arms around him, a sense of safety moving through her along with the thrill at being able to touch him like this so easily.

  As they rode to the line-up position and then down the streets with hundreds and hundreds of people waving American flags, Alissa couldn’t help grinning from ear to ear.

  And she knew now as she’d known all those years ago when she’d first ridden with him in this parade, that he owned a piece of her heart. A big piece. Maybe all of it.

  The parade ended, and they bought hot dogs and ice cream on the street, finally making their way to the beach to watch the fireworks. As the show exploded overhead, Alissa snuggled into Shawn’s side and whispered, “I love you.”

  His arm around her tightened, and he said, “I love you too.”

  Eleven Months Lat
er:

  Shawn paced along the front porch of Alissa’s beach cottage. It was so dang early, and while he’d been out on Big Blue with her before, today was going to be different. He’d already been on board the boat to hide the diamond ring, and now he was just waiting for her to get up and come outside.

  The clock on his phone ticked to three, and then past it. Still nothing from inside. He hadn’t told her he was coming this morning, but he had an open invitation to join her on the boat anytime he could get himself out of bed that early.

  With summer picking up, and more tourists coming to the island each day, his Smart Service delivery system was growing rapidly. He’d spent the better part of the last eleven months working with businesses to get them signed up, get their systems automated, get his staff trained.

  The app worked well, and Shawn wasn’t the only delivery guy. He’d joined forces with Bo, and they used mopeds and motorcycles to get the items people wanted and get them through the crowds in a short amount of time.

  Everything was going well, and he had five delivery guys now. They worked from seven a.m. to eleven p.m., and the three o’clock call time for Big Blue had happened less and less.

  Until this morning, and now Lissa was running late. Finally, Dodger barked, and Liss said, “What? Who’s there?” as she opened the door.

  “It’s just me,” Shawn said so she wouldn’t be afraid of his presence on the porch.

  “Hey, baby.” She stretched up and kissed him. “Did you say you were coming this morning?”

  “No, I just couldn’t sleep.” Not a lie, though his insomnia was all due to the words he needed to say to her.

  Her two dogs swarmed him and Gentleman, who’d somehow come along for this crazy early morning boat ride. The five of them made their way down to Big Blue, and Lissa backed away from the dock.