The Sweetest Thing
Page 2

She enjoyed life, too. Or enjoyed the idea of life.
Okay, so she was working on the enjoying part. The problem was that her enjoyment kept getting held up by her reality. “Are you going to take a muffin or what?”
Ford cocked his head and ran his gaze over her like a caress. “I’ll take whatever crumb you’re offering.”
That brought a genuine smile from her. “Like you’d settle for a crumb.”
“I did once.” He was still smiling, but his eyes were serious now, and something pinged low in her belly.
Memories. Unwelcome ones. “Ford—”
“Ah,” he said very softly. “So you do remember my name. That’s a start.”
She gave a push to his solid chest. Not that she could move him if she tried, the big, sexy lout.
And she’d forgotten nothing about him—nothing. “What do you want?”
“I thought after all this time,” he said lightly, “we could be friends.”
“Friends,” she repeated.
“Yes. Make polite conversation, occasionally see each other socially. Maybe even go out on a date.”
She stared at him. “That would make us more than friends.”
“You always were smart as hell.”
Her stomach tightened again. He wanted to sleep with her. Or not sleep, as the case might be. Her body reacted hopefully to the mere thought. “We don’t—” She closed her eyes to hide the lie. “We don’t like each other like that anymore.”
“No?” In the next beat, she felt the air shift as he moved closer. She opened her eyes just as he lifted his hand and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, making her shiver.
He noticed—of course he did; he noticed everything—and his mouth curved. But his eyes remained serious, so very serious as he leaned in.
To anyone watching, it would look as if he was whispering something in her ear.
But he wasn’t.
No, he was up to something far more devastatingly sneaky. His lips brushed against her throat, and then her jaw, and while she fought with a moan and lost, he whispered, “I like you just fine.”
Her body quivered, assuring herself she returned the favor whether she liked it or not.
“Think about it, Tara.”
And then he was gone, leaving her unable to do anything but think of it.
Of him.
Chapter 2
“Good judgment comes from bad experience. Unfortunately, most of that comes from bad judgment.”
TARA DANIELS
A week later, the heat had amped up to nearly one hundred degrees. The beach shimmered, the ocean stilled, and Ford came back into Lucky Harbor after a sailing event he’d competed in down in Baja.
He wasn’t on the world circuit anymore, but sometimes he couldn’t help himself. He liked the thrill of the race.
The sense of being alive.
He’d like to say that he’d worked his ass off most of his life to be the best of the best, but he hadn’t. Sailing had come relatively easily, as if he’d been born with the knack to read the waters and handle the controls of a boat, outguessing and outmaneuvering the wind as he pleased. He’d lived and breathed racing for as long as it’d been fun, in the process leaving blood and sweat and little pieces of his soul in every ocean on the planet.
These past few days had been no different. And as it had been just last month in Perth, his time had been well spent, paying off big. Ford had placed in the top ten, pocketing a very lucrative purse for the honor.
Once upon a time, it’d been all about the money. Back when he’d been so poor he couldn’t even pay attention.
Now it was about something else. Something… elusive.
The win should have left him feeling flush and happy, and yeah, for a brief moment, the adrenaline and thrill had coursed through his body, fooling him with the elusive, fleeting sense of having it all.
But it’d faded quickly, leaving… nothing.
He felt nothing at all.
And damn if he wasn’t getting tired of that. He’d gotten back late last night, docking at the Lucky Harbor marina. He’d spent the morning cleaning up his Finn, the strict, simple design solo boat he raced in. Then he’d done a maintenance check on his thirty-two-foot 10R Beneteau, which he’d slept on last night rather than drive up the hill to his house on the bluffs.
Moving on from his boats, he worked on the Cape Dory Cruiser docked next to his Beneteau as a favor to Maddie Moore.
The favor had been a no-brainer. Maddie was one of Tara’s two sisters, and together with Chloe, they ran and operated the marina and inn. And when a pretty lady like Maddie asked Ford for help getting her boat to run, he did his best to solve her problem. Even if said pretty lady was sleeping with his best friend Jax.
The problem with the Cape Dory had been a relatively easy fix. It hadn’t been properly winterized, and condensation had formed on the inside of the fuel tanks.
The repair, along with some other things, had taken several hours in the unbearable heat, but Ford hadn’t cared. It’d occupied his brain and kept him from thinking too much—always a good thing.
As a bonus, getting his hands dirty had done more for his mental health than the racing had. He loved wrenching. It was something else that came easy to him and gave him great pleasure.
When he’d finished, he pulled off his trashed shirt and washed up the best he could in the marina building. Then he headed across the property to the inn, looking for a big, tall glass of ice water.
Sure, he could have just gone home, but Tara’s car was out front, and he… hell. She tended to look right through him, and in return, he liked to drive her crazy. Home was a short drive on the best of days, and a vast improvement from being ignored by her. He toyed with coming right out and asking what her problem was, but he realized that if she said, “You, Ford, you’re my problem,” he’d still have to see her daily for the duration of her stay here in Lucky Harbor. And that would suck.
This was at least the hundredth day he’d come to this “realization,” and he was no closer to figuring out what to do than when she’d first come back to town six months ago. So mostly, he’d steered clear. It’d seemed the easiest route, and he was all about the easy.
But today he had a gift to deliver. Lucille had cornered him when he’d stopped by his bar last night to check in after his trip, handing him a wooden box with the word RECIPES written across it.
“Can you give this to Tara for me?” she’d asked. “Don’t peek.”
So, of course, he’d peeked. There’d been nothing inside but plain—and blank—3×5 index cards. “For her recipes?”
Lucille snapped the box shut, narrowly missing his fingers. “No.”
Ford recognized the spark of trouble in Lucille’s rheumy eyes. There was no bigger gossip or meddler in town, and since Lucky Harbor was chock-full of gossips and meddlers, this was saying a lot. Lucille and her cronies had recently started a Facebook page for Lucky Harbor residents, bringing the gossip mill to even new heights.
“Okay, spill,” Ford said, pinning her with a hard look that wouldn’t slow her down—she was unstoppable and unflappable. “What are you up to?”
She’d cackled and patted him again. “No good. I’m up to no good. Just see that Tara gets the box.”
So that’s what he was doing.
Delivering the box to Tara.
She wouldn’t be happy to see him, that was for damn sure. Her eyes would chill and so would her voice. She’d pretend they were virtually strangers.
And in a way, they were. It’d been a damn long time since they’d known each other, and the past was the past. He wasn’t a guy to spend much time looking back. Nope, he liked to live with both feet firmly in the present, thank you very much. He didn’t do regrets, or any other useless emotions for that matter. If he made a mistake, he learned from it and moved on. If he wanted something, he went about getting it. Or learned to live without it.
Period.
Of course, as it pertained to Tara, he’d made plenty of mistakes, and he wasn’t all that sure he’d learned much except maybe how to bury the pain.
He’d gotten damn good at that.
But lately, whenever he caught a glimpse of Tara in those look-but-don’t-touch clothes and that hoity-toity ’tude she wore like Gucci, he had the most insane urge to ruffle her up. Get her dirty. Make her squirm.
Preferably while na**d and beneath him.
Ford swiped the sweat off his forehead with his arm and strode up the steps to the inn. A two-story Victorian, it’d been freshly rebuilt and renovated after a bad fire six months ago. There was still a lot to do before the grand opening: painting and landscaping, as well as interior touches, and the kitchen appliances hadn’t yet been delivered. Still, character dripped from the place. All it needed were guests to come and fill it up, and Tara, Maddie, and Chloe could make a success of it.
As a family.
To the best of Ford’s knowledge, the whole family thing was new to the sisters. Very new. And also to the best of his knowledge, they weren’t very good at it. He just hoped they managed without bloodshed. Probably they should put that into their business plan and get everyone to sign it: Murder Not Allowed. Especially Tara.
Bloodthirsty wench, he thought fondly, and walked across the wraparound porch. There were seedlings laid out to be planted along the new railings. Someone had a green thumb. Not Chloe, he’d bet. The youngest sister didn’t have the patience.
Not Maddie either, since she was currently spending every spare second in Jax’s bed, the lucky bastard.
Tara then?
Ford tried to picture her pretty hands in the dirt… and then his mind went to other places, like her being dirty with him.
Shaking his head at himself, he stepped inside. Before the devastating fire, the interior decorating had been Little House on the Prairie meets the Roseanne Conner household. Things had changed once Tara had gotten hold of the place. Gone were the chicken, rooster, and cow motifs; replaced by a softer, warmer beachy look of soothing earth tones mixed with pale blues and greens.
Not a cow in sight.
As Ford walked inside on the brand-new wood floors, he could hear female laughter coming from the deck off the living room. Heading down the hall, he opened the slider door and found the party.
Seated around a table were four women of varying ages, shapes, and sizes. At the head of the table stood Tara. She had eyes the color of perfectly aged whiskey, outlined by long black lashes. Her mouth could be soft and warm—when she was feeling soft and warm, that is. Today it was glossed and giving off one of her professional smiles. She’d let her short, brunette layers grow out a little these past months so that the silky strands just brushed her shoulders, framing the face that haunted his dreams. As always, she was dressed as if she was speeding down the road to success. Today she wore an elegant fitted dress with a row of buttons running down her deliciously long, willowy body.
Ford fantasized about undoing those buttons—one at a time.
With his teeth.
She held a tray, and on that tray—be still his heart—was a huge pitcher of iced tea, complete with a bucket of ice and lemon wedges, and condensation on the pitcher itself, assuring him it would quench his thirst. He must have made a sound because all eyes swiveled in his direction. Including Tara’s. In fact, hers dropped down over his body, and then jerked back up to his eyes. Her gaze was gratifyingly wide.
There were a couple of gasps from the others, and several “oh my’s” mixed in with a single, heartfelt “good Lord,” prompting him to look down at himself.
Nope, he wasn’t having the na**d-in-public dream again. He was awake and wearing his favorite basketball shorts—admittedly slung a little low on the h*ps but covering the essentials—and running shoes, no socks.
No shirt, either. He’d forgotten to replace the one he’d stripped off. “Hey,” he said in greeting.
“What are you doing?” Tara asked, her voice soft and Southern and dialed to Not Happy to See Him.
And yet interestingly enough, she was looking at him like maybe he was a twelve-course meal and she hadn’t eaten in a week.
He’d take that, Ford decided, and he’d especially take the way her breathing had quickened. “I have a gift for you from Lucille.”
At the sight of the small wood box, Tara went still, then came around the table to take it.
“It looks just like the one we lost,” she murmured, opening it. When she looked inside, a flash of disappointment came and went in her eyes, so fast Ford nearly missed it.
“What?” he asked, ignoring everyone else on the deck as he took a step toward her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Tara clutched the box to her chest and shook her head. “It’s just that we lost the original in the fire. It was filled with Phoebe-isms.”
“Phoebe-isms?”
“My mom. She’d written these little… tidbits of advice, I guess you’d call them, for me and my sisters over the years. Things like ‘A glass of wine is always the solution, even if you aren’t sure of the problem.’ ”
The four women at the table, each of whom had known and loved Phoebe, laughed softly, fondly.
Ford had a soft spot for Phoebe as well. She’d been in Lucille’s “gang” and one of Ford’s best customers at the bar. As he smiled at the memory, Tara did that pretend-not-to-look-at-his-bare-chest thing again, then quickly turned away.
Interesting reaction for someone who’d exerted a lot of energy and time over the past months not noticing him.
“Get him a chair, honey,” one of the women said—Rani, the town librarian.