Sweet Nothings: A Bethany Beach Romance Read online

  First, I needed to be careful about the people I had around me. Those closest to me have always said I was too trusting, too lenient, and too generous in my personal life. When it comes to business, I always felt cutthroat. It’s almost like my business persona was a completely different person from who I was in my personal life. I had no problem giving speeches in front of hundreds of people, dealing toughly with heads of state or government offices, or even deciding to fire people if it calls for that. My personal life had always been much different. When I first started making good money, ‘friends’ were suddenly coming out of the woodwork, looking for help with this project or that, looking for investors, or offering help with managing things. I found myself doling out money in ways I probably shouldn’t have. Finally, my father and brothers had a heart-to-heart conversation with me, telling me I needed to be more careful with what I was doing, looking out for people just hoping to take advantage of me. It was then that I realized they were right and had to take the rose-colored glasses off and be more observant and warier.

  Even with all that, I still tried to be as helpful as I could. I worked with some charities, gave money while keeping it anonymous, and helped people where I could. For me, it has never about getting my name in the newspaper or good PR, though the public relations people I work with surely would wish I worked with them more. It was always more about helping people that needed it most, and giving people a chance that might otherwise not get the opportunity to get ahead or succeed.

  I have had to sacrifice a great deal of my personal life to get ahead to where I am today, and I have had some regrets. I am sure there have been opportunities that have come along in my life, women that I have been with and had an interest in, that just didn’t want to have to wait around all the time for me while I worked just to be with me. There were times when I was younger that I put work before my private life, and now that I was over thirty, I knew that it was more of a priority that I did not let life pass me by anymore. That was one of the reasons why I decided to buy the house when I did, and why I brought Shannon and James down here with me.

  Both gave up a lot of their lives to work with me, and I began to feel guilty about how much they did for me. Yes, I paid them well and gave them bonuses and perks, but I wanted them to have time to enjoy life as well. I hoped a few weeks down here would help them to realize that and let them see that there should be more to life than just working with me.

  After sitting and basking in the sunshine for a while, I decided to skip lunch and just go in and take a nap. I slid open the outside door to my room, shut it, and hopped onto the bed. I pressed the button on the side table that allowed me to control the blinds remotely so that I could darken the room easily. I then pressed another button to turn on the ceiling fan, so that it, combined with the air conditioning, would circulate some cool air through the room while I rested.

  I couldn’t even remember the last time I took a nap in the afternoon, but I have to say, it was wonderful. I just laid on the bed, pulling the cool down comforter up over me, and felt fantastic for the few hours that I managed to relax. When I awoke, it was hard to tell at first if it was still daylight or night out because the room was so dark. I forgot for a moment that I had control over the shades but then raised them so I could see that the sun was just starting to go down for the day.

  Lazing around all day made me feel a bit restless, and I jumped up to put a pair of jeans on and a short sleeve, white button-down shirt. I walked out of my room and into the living room area, and all was quiet upstairs. I figured Shannon and James were probably downstairs hanging out, so I walked down the wood steps to the bottom floor. Sure enough, there they were, at the pool table, listening to some music and playing pool.

  I walked over to the table just as James was sinking a bank shot. I could hear Shannon mumble a curse under her breath as she turned away from the table in disgust.

  “Enjoying yourself, Shannon?” I asked her as I walked over to the bar where she was now sitting.

  Shannon picked up the glass in front of her off the bar. I assumed it was her favorite gin and tonic with lime as she took a quick swig from the glass.

  “I’d be having more fun if I could actually win a game from this guy,” she said with a sneer.

  James just looked up from the table and smiled as he sank another shot, gently tapping a colored ball into the far-right pocket.

  “Shit!” Shannon yelled as she slammed her glass down.

  James laughed as it was now an easy shot across the table to the eight-ball.

  “Eight-ball, side pocket,” he called, pointing to the side pocket with his cue.

  James skittered the cue ball across towards the eight-ball, and the familiar clack knocked the ball right in.

  “Well at least that’s over with,” Shannon said as she hung her cue back up on the rack with the others.

  “Can we go get something to eat now that I have been embarrassed about losing three games in a row?” Shannon bemoaned. “We’ve been waiting for you to get up, Damian. I was ready to just leave you here, but James took pity on you and thought you might be hungry.”

  “Thanks, James,” I said with a smile as I grabbed a beer from the fridge behind the bar. I popped the bottle open and tapped beer bottles with James.

  James and I both sipped our beers while Shannon’s eyes moved back and forth from one to the other.

  “So?” she asked, showing her frustration at losing and her obvious hunger.

  “Where do you want to go?” I asked her. “I don’t really know of any of the places around here.”

  “I saw a place that looked good when we were driving in,” James said as he finished his beer and tossed the bottle in the recycling bin. “It was right along the beach. It looked like a seafood, burger-type of place, maybe some good music playing. It was called The Dolphin’s Cove.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I told him. “Let’s get going. I’m starved.”

  “Hold on, I just want to change quickly,” Shannon said as she darted off into her room. James and I sat back down at the bar as I sipped some more of my beer.

  “Had a good day?” I asked James as I took another sip.

  “I think it was the first day I felt relaxed in a long time,” he said to me with a smile. “After I washed the car, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. I worked out for a bit, which was great by the way, and just kicked back and watched the ocean for a while. It was awesome. Then Shannon got up and decided to challenge me to some pool. I had no idea she even played.”

  “Good,” I replied. “I think we’ll get to know a lot more about each other this vacation. The three of us spend a lot of time together, but it never seems relaxed or social. This will be fun.”

  Shannon came walking out of her room, wearing a short, light blue sleeveless dress with spaghetti straps. She slipped on her sandals and grabbed her purse and stood in the hallway, looking at the two of us staring at her.

  “What?” she said, fixing her hair as if something was wrong.

  “Nothing,” I said to her as I got up from my seat. “I’ve just never seen you dressed this casually. You’re always in a business suit. You look nice, right James?”

  I gave James a nudge with my elbow to break him out of staring at Shannon.

  “Yeah, nice,” he said, coming back to reality.

  “Well, thanks,” Shannon said, feeling good about herself. “Now let’s go; I need some food in me.”

  We walked out the front door and headed over to the garage. James pressed the remote for the garage, and the door slowly rose open. Inside were the cars I had sent down here. I’m not much of a car guy, but there were a few cars that I liked to own and wanted here. Besides the limo we had taken down here, I had a 1968 Ford Mustang convertible, 2018 Lexus LS, a Ford F-150, and a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Limo.

  “Holy shit,” James said, looking at the cars. “When did you get these, and why haven’t I been driving them?”

  “The Mustang I
’ve had for a while. The Lexus and the pickup truck I bought to have down here. The Mercedes is just something decadent that I wanted. I know it makes no sense to own something like that; I just thought it looked cool.”

  James ran his hand over the hood of the Lexus and looked back at me.

  “Let’s take this one tonight,” he said to me, standing next to the driver’s side door.

  I went over and grabbed the key fob off a peg board in the garage and tossed it to him. I walked over and opened the front passenger side seat for Shannon, and she climbed in and sat next to James while I climbed in the back.

  “Damian,” James said after starting the car, “this car has no miles on it.”

  “I know,” I told him. “I had the dealership truck it over yesterday, and they placed it in the garage.”

  James pulled the car out of the garage, and then I pressed a button on my phone using the app to close the garage door behind us. He slowly made his way up the street towards the gate, which slid open automatically as we approached it and then shut behind us.

  James crept the car out onto the road and drove gingerly down the street, going the couple of miles it was to the restaurant while staying within the thirty miles-per-hour speed limit.

  “Man, I wish we were someplace where I could open this thing up a bit,” James lamented.

  The restaurant came up on our right, all lit up and ready for us. The parking lot was crowded, but we were able to find a spot and then walked our way over to the restaurant across the gravel parking lot.

  The restaurant jutted out a bit on a small pier so that it was over part of the ocean, and the bar had a mix of a classic beach place and tiki bar feel to it. I noticed as we were walking in that there was a sign for a band playing tonight – Captain Caraway and the Seeded Ryes. I chuckled when I saw the name and looked forward to seeing what they were like.

  The place had a good crowd to it, with the restaurant area pretty full already. The hostess put us at a table in the bar area so we could listen to the band while we ate and drank, and we sat and ordered a round of drinks from our young waitress as she tried to speak loudly enough over the band doing their sound check.

  Shannon had already picked up her menu and was going over it with precision, trying to find just what she wanted. James took a look and put his menu down right away, deciding quickly.

  “You already know what you want?” Shannon asked him with shock.

  “Shannon, look around at the place,” he said, waving his hand. “It’s a beach bar and restaurant. You come here and get seafood.”

  “I guess so,” she said, still going over the menu to see if there was something better. James reached over and grabbed the menu from her and put it down.

  “You know what you want, just go with what you thought of first. Otherwise, you’ll be disappointed,” James told her.

  Our waitress came back over with our drinks, and we ordered, with James opting for a fish sandwich while I went with the crab cakes. Shannon, after much deliberation, finally decided on the shrimp scampi. I also ordered us some raw oysters to have before dinner.

  “I’ve never had raw oysters,” Shannon told us with a worried look on her face.

  “Relax, they are tasty and easy to eat, “ I told her as the band was getting started.

  Captain Caraway was an older gentleman with gray hair tied back in a ponytail and a gray beard, but he also sported a hat much like what the Skipper wore on Gilligan’s Island. The band jumped right into some cover tunes that everyone knew, and you could hear some people singing along.

  The waitress came back with our tray of oysters served over ice. James went right for the hot sauce, dabbed some on one of the delicate oysters, and slid it right into his mouth, sucking it down. I took an oyster and did the same, and I could see that Shannon had a squeamish look on her face.

  “Come on, Shannon,” I said to her. “Just try one. You’ll like it.”

  James picked up a shell with an oyster in it, spritzed it with some lemon juice and a bit of hot sauce, and handed it to Shannon.

  “What do I do with it?” she said, looking at it confusingly.

  “You slurp it down,” James told her as he had another one.

  “That’s disgusting,” she said, trying to hand it back to him.

  “Give it a try,” he said, pushing it back towards her.

  Shannon took the shell in her hand and shakily held it up to her lips. She tilted her head back and let the oyster slide into her mouth and down. She then tossed the empty shell back on the plate and smiled.

  “Okay, that was good,” she admitted and grabbed another one.

  It wasn’t long before we had devoured all the oysters and ordered another round of them. After we polished off round two, our dinners arrived. The crab cakes were cooked to perfection and were delicate, with much more crab than filling, giving them the fresh, clean flavor that makes them spectacular. While I worked on the crab cakes, James chowed down his fish sandwich that was a golden brown from frying. Meanwhile, Shannon was enjoying her shrimp scampi, with the large, plump shrimp in the pungent garlic sauce over pasta. She alternated eating pieces of shrimp with sucking the pasta into her mouth like a little kid.

  The three of us laughed and reveled in the music as the evening went on. It was the first time we had ever been out socially like that and we were having a great time. After our meal was done and cleared away, we ordered another round of drinks. James and Shannon decided to head over to the pool table and begin another round of their sports challenge for the night while I decided to sit and enjoy the band. I paid the check and kicked back, listening to the music.

  As the band broke into “Under the Boardwalk,” I looked up and over at the other side of the room where some of the small round tables were. Sitting there, gently swaying to the music, was Kelly from the bakery. She was dressed in just a white tank top and a pair of jeans, and I could see her hair down to her shoulders instead of the ponytail she had at the bakery.

  She looked incredibly attractive, and I don’t know what came over me, but there was a sudden thrust of boldness as I got up from the table and began to cross the room towards her table.

  You better think of something to say before you get there, genius, my inner voice told me as I got closer and closer to her.

  6

  Kelly

  Dinner at Mom’s hadn’t changed much at all since I was a kid living at home. Everything about the house pretty much looked the same to me. The ranch house was a great home to grow up in, and we always had lots of fun. Mom took dinner seriously, just like when we were kids, and made a special event out of it now when Jodie and I came over to eat. Why she thought we need a four-course meal all the time I’m not sure of, but I knew I appreciated that she went to the trouble to do it.

  I arrived a few minutes before Jodie got there, and made sure to park my scooter in the driveway away from where she might knock it over when she came in. I walked in the front door and headed straight for the kitchen, where Mom already had steak and shrimp cooked and ready to put on the table. She was just finishing up getting green beans done when she spotted me.

  “Kelly, grab the wooden salad bowl and throw together a salad for me, please,” she asked as she strained the steamed green beans from the put and then tossed them with some butter and slivered almonds.

  “You know Mom, we can come over for dinner one time and just have pizza, or burgers,” I said as I reached up and grabbed the salad bowl from on top of the refrigerator.

  “You worked hard all day, you deserve a good home cooked meal,” Mom answered, ignoring what I said.

  “You worked hard all day too. This is a lot of food for just the three of us.”

  “Why only three?” Mom asked as she finished with the green beans. “Is Jodie not coming?”

  “No, she should be here in a minute,” I told her as I stumbled for words. In my mind, I always assumed Alex was going to be late or skip dinner altogether to hang out at the beach with her
friends.

  Mom picked up her cell phone and sent a message to Alex. She put the phone down in a huff.

  “Your sister better get here, or she’s going to be grounded… again.” Mom grabbed the bowl of green beans and placed them on the set table. Luckily, Jodie strode through the door a moment later, with Alex right behind her. I noticed Alex had made sure to put a t-shirt and shorts on to cover up her skimpy bikini.

  “Look who I picked up before I left the beach,” Jodie said with a smirk. Alex slinked over to the table and deposited herself in a chair.