“What up? What up? What up?”
“I slept with Jasmine last night,” I blurted out as a greeting. Yes, there was a better way to phrase that, but my mouth was working faster than my brain, which admittedly had less blood in it than usual, due to my constant proximity to Jasmine.
“Yo, little brother. You can’t just hit me with news like this first thing in the morning.” He chuckled incredulously. “I haven’t even had my coffee yet. How did you go from not being able to trust her as far as you can throw her to clapping cheeks in a matter of weeks?”
“It’s not like that,” I stammered and was reaching up to scratch the back of my head when my wrist was jerked by Tora’s leash. On the rarest occasions, I’d let him run free, but only if I was in the mood to chase after him—and not after the stunt he’d pulled two days ago.
“It’s not like what?” CJ pressed, drawing my focus back to our conversation. “Did you hit it or not?”
“Could you not talk about Jasmine that way?” I had no idea why I was suddenly feeling so protective. Maybe I was pretending I didn’t know. “You know her, man.”
“Correction, I knew her. When she was a little girl. And by your own words, she ain’t little no more.” He sighed and continued.“Excuse me, did you and Jasmine Morgan engage insexual intercourseor not?”
“No,” I said quietly, following Tora to a large bush. “We slept in the same bed last night… but nothing happened.”
“So, you’re calling me at the ass-crack of dawn to tell me that you and Jasmine had a sleepover? You must be really down bad.”
“Are you finished? I was calling for some advice, but I guess I—”
“Hey. Hey. Hey. Okay, I’m sorry. I could tell that this project was gonna screw with you when you first told me about it. So I’m not completely surprised. Start from the beginning and tell me how you two ended up in bed together… while I make myself some coffee.”
I continued to meander around the park, following my dog, who was patrolling the landscape as if he was on some kind of mystery fact-finding mission, while telling my older brother about the roller coaster of emotions that had been my days in Miller’s Cove. I was just getting to the part where I woke to find Jasmine and Tora missing when I heard a beep. The caller ID was from Martin Aldridge, a senior executive at MasonCorp and my direct supervisor. Though the only thing he excelled at was taking the credit for my hard work. I didn’t mind it much. My high salary and free rein was worth sharing some of the glory. It also meant that I couldn’t ignore his call, no matter how badly I wanted to at this moment.
“Hey, CJ. That’s Marty Aldridge. I got take this.”
“All right, go secure the bag, little brother, but call me back later.”
“Will do,” I replied and answered Aldridge’s call.
“Hey, Marty.”
“Hey yourself,” he laughed genially. “I’m just calling to check in about your Miller’s Hill thing.”
“Miller’s Cove,” I corrected him. “And I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks, and it’s going well,” I lied.
“All right, big man!” Marty crowed. “That’s what I like to hear. Listen, I’m having lunch with Mason today, and I’d really like to give him a juicy update on the project. What do you have?”
I sucked in a deep sigh and began to recount my last few days in town. But unlike the recounting I gave CJ, this version was heavy on all the points that would make Miller’s Cove a prime vacation destination that would print money and light on the fact that I was falling in love with this little slice of heaven and the people in it, perhaps one person in particular.
“That’s amazing! All that close-knit community and sense of family. That’s what’s hot in hospitality right now.Miller’s Cove: Your Home Away from Home.Mason is gonna eat this up.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, boss man. I’m gonna let you get back to work. Make sure you’re scouting locations for possible new construction: hotels, commercial properties, the works. This is gonna be big.”
“Yeah,” I repeated. “I’m on it.”
I ended the call feeling more confused than when I woke up this morning. My phone call with Marty was like a million other calls I’d had with him before about a million other projects, but this was the first time it felt wrong.
David and Eleanor invited me into their home, and now I wasplotting to disrupt their entire way of life. And for what? A job, a bigger office, an indirect dose of revenge on the Morgans? I didn’t even know anymore.
My walk once again brought me to The Mill, where I found Eleanor behind the counter.
“Derek!” she called and removed her apron to greet me. “Good morning. How’s Jasmine doing?” She reached out and gave my arm a squeeze before calling over her shoulder, “Lily, fill one of the large pet bowls with ice water and bring it outside to that big dog with the tiger stripes.”
“Is there more than one dog tied up outside?” a teenage girl called from a nearby table, not bothering to lower the book she was reading.
“Are you getting fresh with me?” Eleanor perched a fist on her hip and gave the teenager a look that made my hair stand on end even though it wasn’t aimed at me.
