Second Chance Summer: Menage Romance Novel (Midnight Cove Menage Book 1) (15 page)

“
Y
ou really think
this is gonna work?” Devin held the level up on the wall.

“It has to. Otherwise, she’s gone. And I don’t think she’ll ever come back.”

Blake marked the spot on the wall and grabbed the hammer from the top of the ladder. He pounded the nail in place and reached for another. All this time, they’d been working toward something. Tending bar and waiting tables. Saving money to open the surf shop. Making it a success.

At first, he thought that’d be enough. He’d find some girl. Settle down. But they’d all been shallow. Lifeless.

Then came Ian and the bar. A new opportunity. A chance to give him some fucking purpose. But he’d been wrong. The bar wasn’t the answer.

Devin walked around the counter and cash register and helped Blake finish up. “You were right. That’s the perfect spot.”

Blake nodded but didn’t say a word. He climbed down and folded up the ladder. He’d spent four years in a holding pattern, trying to figure out how to move on. Forget her. He leaned the ladder against an empty spot on the wall and took a look around.

He was a fool. There was no forgetting Summer. Not now. Not ever.

Devin closed up the tool box and crouched to shove it under the counter. They’d been tense ever since the wedding. Only talking when necessary. Giving each other space. It sucked.

Devin stood up and exhaled. “Listen, Blake. I’m sorry. You were right about talking to Summer. We should have told her about Mandy.”

Blake bit the inside of his cheek. The spite and anger inside him coiled like a snake and he bit down harder to keep from lashing out. “I get it.”

“I thought—” Devin frowned and his brows furrowed into a deep V. “I was scared. I thought it would be a reason for her to run. An excuse to go back to New York and leave us hanging. Again.”

Blake nodded and walked over to the windows. He stood for a while, staring out at the early morning light and the other shops still shuttered and locked. Midnight Cove. It’d been his home his whole life. Devin’s too. He knew there was nowhere else he’d rather be.

But when Summer walked into their lives…If she didn’t come back to them, Blake wasn’t sure he could stay. He turned to scan the shop. She was everywhere. “If she turns us down—”

“She won’t.”

Blake stuffed his hands in his pockets. At least one of them had some hope. Confidence. “Say she stays. What then?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can we make it work? All three of us?”

Devin came over. He stood next to Blake, pinching the back of his neck and staring out the same window. “I do. You remember what we were like that summer. And ever since she’s been back? We click.”

Blake rocked back on his heels. “Don’t you get jealous?”

Devin glanced at the floor with a smile. “You want me to be honest?”

He nodded.

“Fuck yeah, I do. But we’re better than that. We run the shop. Live together. I figure we can share Summer. Besides—” He paused and Blake bit back a grin.

“I can guess where you’re going.”

Devin laughed and ran his hand through his hair. “You have to admit, it’s spectacular.”

“That it is.” Blake turned and took a last look at the new wall. “The cabbie should be headed this way.”

Devin glanced at his watch. “Yeah. You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Summer rolled her suitcase out of the front door of the Montgomery Inn. She set it by the curb and walked over to the valet. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen. Hair that went every which way just like Devin’s. Blue eyes like Blake’s.

She swallowed.
I have to stop seeing them everywhere.

“Can I help you, miss?”

Summer smiled. “Yes. I’m headed to the airport. Can you call a cab?”

The valet nodded. “Of course. It’ll be about ten minutes.”

“Okay.” Summer glanced around. “I’ll be down at the overlook if that’s alright.”

He smiled. “One last look at the view?”

“Something like that.”

Summer walked down the cobbled path and over to the rocky ledge. She closed her eyes and breathed in the salty sweetness of the ocean. A breeze picked up and tossed her hair. It batted her face and she remembered Blake standing by her side that first night. His lips hot and hungry on hers. His hands gripping her like a long lost treasure.

She blinked back tears and focused on the water.

Midnight Cove. The place she’d fallen in love with. The place she couldn’t ever come back to. Not when Blake and Devin were there. She didn’t trust herself not to do it all over again. Fall into their arms. Surrender to the passion. Get hurt all over again.

The first time, she’d panicked. A threesome? Not a respectable girl like her. Not a budding artist. It would ruin her career before it even began.

This time? No panic. No ego. Just pain. Regret. If they shacked up with Mandy the minute she left, who’s to say they wouldn’t do it again? Between her best friend and Ivy and the countless women walking into their shop looking like models…Summer didn’t have a chance.

She stepped closer to the ledge. From her vantage point, she could just see the lifeguard’s station. The faded white hut down on the sand. The place it all started four years ago. Again this weekend. She scrubbed her lips to wipe the stain of Blake and Devin off her skin.

Damn them for opening her up. Making her feel all the things she shouldn’t. She spun around as the valet bounded down the path.

“Your cab’s here, miss.”

Summer nodded. “Thank you.”

She followed the valet back to the front drive and waited as he opened the door.

She slid into the back seat and the valet leaned in. “Have a safe trip. Come see us again soon.”

Summer held back a snort.
Not on your life.
The door swung shut and the cabbie turned around. His graying hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his tanned skin screamed surfer. He probably only worked when the waves were too low.

He smiled. “Where to?”

Summer tried to smile back. “The airport, please.”

The cabbie nodded. “Sure thing. You, uh, mind if we make a quick stop in town? I need to deliver something.”

Summer frowned and checked her watch. The last thing she wanted was to drive down Main. But she did have plenty of time. She nodded. “Okay.”

“Thanks. You’re a doll.” He turned back around, rolled down the windows, and cranked up the radio. A jazz station blasted out John Coltrane and a hula girl on the dashboard shimmied into action. Her hips rocked back and forth with every note and Summer exhaled.

A few more hours and she’d be on the way to New York. Shutting the door on this part of her life. For good. She closed her eyes and leaned back on the seat.

The music seeped into her consciousness and Summer’s tension eased. The soulful melody took the edge off her sadness and mellowed it into an ache. As she relaxed into the seat, the cab stopped.

What?
Summer blinked and sat up. The front of Full Cup sat across the street with trailing vines of bougainvillea in its planters and morning glories opening up around the front door.

She thought of Mandy and their talk in the parking lot out back. How she’d calmed her down and soothed her panic. She sniffed and rubbed her nose.
Damn it.

Summer turned away and glanced up at the shop on her side of the street.
Oh no. It can’t be
. Of all the places the cabbie had to park. Surfed’s hanging sign with a board and a wave swung in the breeze and Summer sunk down in the seat.
I can’t believe this.

The cabbie pulled out his phone and tapped a few times before turning around. “You’re wanted inside, miss.”

“What?” Summer squinted at him.

“Inside the shop. I was given strict instructions to bring you here. No stopping.”

Summer’s eyes went wide, her heart sped up, and a million expletives teetered on the tip of her tongue.
This can’t be happening.
She thumped the pleather seat. “How dare you! You’re supposed to take me to the airport!”

The cabbie shrugged. “Sorry. I get paid when you go in.”

“No! I’ll double it. Triple it! Whatever it takes. Just drive.”

He sighed. “Look. It’s none of my business, but Blake’s a good guy. I’ve been buying my boards here since they opened. If he’s done something to piss you off or hurt you, I think you should give him a second chance.”

Summer crossed her arms. “You’re right. It’s none of your business.”

“Well, I’m going across the street to grab a cup of coffee and a maple frosted. You take your time. Go in when you’re ready.”

The cabbie pushed his door open and shut it with a wham before walking across the street. He disappeared inside the coffee shop and Summer shook her head.

It was insane. Controlling and assuming. Completely unlike Blake.

She bit her lip and glanced at the hula girl. She bobbed back in forth in the aftershocks of the door slamming shut. Every shake of her hips and flutter of her grass skirt told Summer to get off her butt and go inside.

She looked up at Surfed. If Blake went to all that trouble…She stared at the front door for a good five minutes, trying to come up with some reason not to go in. Something more than her anger and hurt. She came up empty. Even the hula girl had given up and stood still on the dash.

At last, Summer exhaled.
Might as well.
She swung open the cab door and stepped outside.

She’d been upstairs and in their apartment, but never inside the shop. With a tug, she yanked the door open and stepped inside. It’d never occurred to her to ask—they’d always been busy with the wedding or acting like kids or tangled up in each other’s arms.

The door closed behind her and the clang muffled her gasp.
Oh my God.
She took a step inside. Then another.
This can’t—they didn’t—

Summer spun around in a slow circle and took it all in. The middle of the shop was what she’d expected—surfboards and wetsuits and every kind of accessory. But the walls? Where there wasn’t a shelf or a board, there was art. But it wasn’t just posters of surfers and snapshots of killer waves.

No. It was hers. All hers. There had to be over a dozen paintings. Some small, some big and in between. Every style she’d ever painted. Every series she’d done since moving to New York. Summer’s mouth fell open.
How is this possible?

She walked over to a tiny oil on canvas by the door. Nubby rocks stuck out in thick blobs of paint with waves in mid-crash. The spray fanned out across the little painting like white, foamy fireworks. It was from her first show. Almost four years before.

A few feet over hung a large acrylic on paper. The lighthouse on a bright spring morning. Sandy beaches. Wildflowers. From a series she’d painted last year.

Summer rushed to the next one. It was from the tiny show in the back room of the Gilford. The next? The hundred-painter exhibit in the subway at Christmas. Every exhibit she’d ever done. Right there in the shop. She turned around and her hand flew to her mouth.

Oh my God. The new one.
Midnight Cove in dark and light. The little boat on the choppy sea. It was framed again. They’d hung it up on the wall behind the cash register. Everyone who came to the shop—everyone who walked up with a purchase or a question or just a smile—they’d see it. They’d see the piece of her soul she’d rolled up in a fit of despair and shoved at her best friend.

Tears welled over her lower lids and tumbled down her cheeks.

Footsteps sounded behind her and she turned around. Blake. He walked in with his hands in his pockets and his face unreadable. Devin came right after—hair still a mess, eyes timid and wary.

“What is all this?” The words came out in a hoarse whisper and Summer wiped at her cheeks.

Blake shrugged. “It’s our shop. What do you think?”

She swallowed and pointed at a painting. “How long?”

“Have we been collectors?” Devin glanced at the ceiling and back down. “Always. Ever since we met, Summer. You might have left, but we didn’t forget you.”

She pointed at a painting on the far wall. “I didn’t even tell my Mom about that show. Or Mandy. How’d you—”

Blake rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ve followed your work. Gone to every show you’ve ever had. Made sure we bought at least one painting. I wanted to buy them all but—”

Devin interrupted. “I told him to save some for your other fans.”

The tears came anew and Summer couldn’t hold them back no matter how hard she tried. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“All this time—” She waved around as the tears slipped off her cheeks and landed on her dress.

“That we love you?” Blake stepped up to her. “We didn’t think you wanted to know.” He slid closer. “I didn’t want to hurt you. Neither did Devin. But it’s always been you. Only you.”

“What—what about Mandy?”

“She’s married.”

“Ivy?” Summer glanced up at Devin.

“A complete bitch.”

She laughed and wiped her face again. “I’m an idiot.”

“No. Don’t ever say that.” Blake took her wet face in his hands. “You’re beautiful and kind and have the most creative, expressive soul. You’re anything but an idiot.”

Summer swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

“We are too.” Devin came around and set his hands on her shoulders. “We should have come after you the first time. We shouldn’t have let you go.”

“I would have pushed you away.”

“Then we should have pushed back.” Blake ducked to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry we’ve wasted all this time.”

Summer smiled. “It wasn’t wasted. If I hadn’t gone to New York, what would you have done for art?”

Blake smiled. “I love you, Summer.”

Devin squeezed her shoulders. “I love you, too.”

Summer reached back and squeezed Devin’s hand. “And I love you both.”

Blake’s eyes lit up. “Think you can handle one more surprise?”

Summer blinked. “Another one?”

He nodded.

“I guess so?”

Blake glanced up at Devin and grinned. “Good, because we think you’ll love it.”

Blake held Summer’s hand as he led her up the stairs to the empty space. Why had they ever thought to make this a bar? He didn’t need drunk people stomping and cavorting over his apartment ’til the wee hours of the morning. Puking in the street outside Surfed.