Book Boyfriends Wanted Series

Ian

The steady hum of the sander in my hand soothed me. The vibration tingled up my arm, but the earplugs I wore and the sound of the sander blocked out everything outside my head. Too bad they couldn’t block out everything inside my head, too.

Blake. It was always Blake.

I didn’t want to block her from my mind, but I needed every last bit of energy to focus on work instead of thinking about her like I usually did. Especially since I saw her the morning before. With Willie.

She didn’t look surprised to see him there, but she didn’t look particularly happy to see him, either. When she ran off, I waited a few seconds for him to follow her, but he was clearly not interested. It fucking gutted me to hold her while she cried, but she let me comfort her so it was worth it. I hadn’t had my arms around her since we danced together in Hawaii. Too damn long.

A knock on the side of the boat had me ready to rip someone’s head off. I hated when people did that. It wasn’t like they didn’t know I was under there, working.

I stopped the sander and set it on the concrete next to me, then rolled out from under the brand new twenty-foot boat to scowl at whoever was there.

Thankfully, I hadn’t taken off my mask so the owner of the boat I was working on, Robert Mallory, couldn’t see the look on my face.

I swiped off my mask and the shitty look and gave the guy a grin. The customer was always right, so I couldn’t tell the guy he risked me putting a hole in the side of his precious boat if he kept doing that shit, but I really wanted to.

“Morning,” I said cheerfully. Or as cheerfully as I could manage when my day was barely started and already being interrupted.

“It looks amazing,” Robert said with a wide smile. He slid his hand over the side of the boat where I’d already spent days sanding the wood to be soft as Blake’s skin.

“Thanks. It’s going to be beautiful on the water.”

Robert nodded. “I can’t wait to take it out. It’ll be ready for the Fourth, right?”

“Absolutely. Should be ready by the middle of June,” I said. In my head, I added, “if I can get any work done,” but I didn’t push it. Not with a guy like Robert. Some of my other clients would understand, but Robert was the kind of guy who liked to be the smartest person in the room. Since he was paying me a hell of a lot of money to build him a large custom wood boat, I was going to let him believe anything he wanted.

“Sounds great. I can’t wait to take her for a ride. The new girlfriend is excited to see it.”

I nodded, knowing no words were necessary. Robert wasn’t really paying attention to me, he just wanted me to know he had a young, hot girlfriend. He was pushing sixty, and with a girlfriend too young for me, he thought he was hot-shit. At thirty-six, I wasn’t interested in dating twenty-somethings anymore, but that was mostly because Blake was thirty-one.

“Have you come up with any names yet?” Robert asked.

I hated when owners asked me to name their boat. The name was the most personal part of a boat. The people who came to me without a clear idea of what they wanted to call it were always frustrating clients. They were wishy-washy about the whole thing, and once in a while, they backed out of the deal when the boat was done and the final bill came out.

Robert had more than enough money to pay for his precious boat, but if he had no connection to it, he wouldn’t hold on to it for long.

“You could name it after the new girlfriend,” I suggested.

Robert shook his head. “Nah. Then she’ll start to think she has a place.”

I bit my tongue to keep the words I wanted to say inside. I hated dealing with guys like him. Guys who thought women were disposable and could be recycled. Fucking assholes.

“What about naming her for your mom or your favorite fish?” I offered.

He scowled. “I’m glad you’re better at building boats than you are at naming them. Keep thinking. Let me know when you come up with a good idea. I’ll be back next week to check on things.”

I nodded and waved as Robert turned and walked out of my shop. Having the place open was the only way I could work since cooling it would cost a small fortune, but it meant dealing with clients and douchebags like Robert whenever they felt like dropping by.

I was not looking forward to coming up with a name for his boat. If it were my boat, I’d be naming it for Blake. I almost named my boat for her, but she was dating Willie at the time and I didn’t have the right. I still didn’t, but I was going to earn the right.

I got back to work, letting the sander work the tension Robert created out of my body. Laying on my back and sanding the bottom of the boat above me was tedious, and after a while, my arms were throbbing and in need of a break.

As soon as the sander flipped off, two feet appeared next to me. I recognized the shoes immediately and grinned.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

“Had to see the master at work,” Ramsey Holland said. Ramsey and I grew up together. We were rivals in high school for no other reason than we were in the same grade and competed for the same girls. Once we went to college and Ramsey got married, we found a way to be friends and laugh about the stupid shit we did when we were younger.

“Why are you really here?” I asked him.

He grinned. “Is this Robert’s boat?”

I nodded, making note of the fact he was avoiding my question. “Yep. He just left. Had to come check in on me. Make sure I was taking care of everything. And seeing if I had a name for his boat yet.”

“What a dick. Why would he want a boat if he isn’t going to name it?”

I rolled my eyes. “To impress the newest twenty-year-old he’s screwing.”

“He should name it for her.”

I shook my head. “He said then she’d think she has a right to something.”

Ramsey scoffed. “He’s such a piece of shit.”

“No argument there. So, what’s going on?” I asked again, hoping he wouldn’t dodge the question a third time.

Ramsey shook his head. “I just wanted to go somewhere I would be welcome.”

I nodded toward the office for Ramsey to follow me. I took a seat at my desk and stretched my back before reaching into the fridge for two bottles of water. “Not a beer, but better than nothing.”

“It’s going to be a hell of a summer,” Ramsey said, untwisting the cap on his water and draining half of it.

It wasn’t even Memorial Day yet, and we were sweating our balls off. He was right about summer, but that wasn’t why he came to see me.

“I have a/c in the back. And a spare couch,” I told him.

He blew out a breath and nodded. “Hopefully I don’t need them. Melody hasn’t mentioned throwing me out lately.”

“What’s going on with you guys?” I asked. I’d never worked up the courage to come out and ask the question, but I really wanted to know. If for no other reason than he was my best friend, and he and Melody were perfect for each other. She’d been a year behind us in school, and way too good for both of us, but she had a crush on Ramsey. A crush he returned. They’d been married almost ten years, but lately, things weren’t going well.

“She wants another kid,” Ramsey admitted with a hand on the back of his neck. “We talked forever that we were done trying after we lost the last one. We don’t need more than one kid, but now she wants to try again.”

“Shit,” I breathed. Melody lost their second child when she was almost twenty weeks pregnant. It was the hardest thing I’d ever been through, and it wasn’t my kid. Sitting on the outside and unable to do anything to help two people I cared about cut me up inside. They had a five-year-old who would be starting kindergarten in the fall, but she was their only kid.

Ramsey nodded. “Yeah, that’s how I feel. Amber is perfect, but Melody said she’s ready for another baby.”

“And you’re not?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I can’t go through that again. Losing another one. I almost lost Mel when we lost Steven. She barely spoke to me for the better part of six months. She was so depressed, and she refused to talk to anyone. I can’t do it again.”

I drew in a breath. Melody wasn’t the kind of woman who would take no for an answer. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to get it, no matter who stood in her way.

“I’m sorry, dude. I guess I’m as good at helping you as I am at naming other people’s boats.”

Ramsey chuckled at that one. “You’d have no issue if you were naming your own boat. Blake’s Dream. Or maybe ~I love Blake~. How about ~Blake’s Fantasy~? Big, long, wet wood? It would definitely be a fantasy since she’ll never get anything that big from you.”

“Fuck you,” I said with a laugh. Ramsey was the only one who knew how I felt about Blake, and he was happy to take as many jabs at me as possible. He also encouraged me to tell her I loved her, but I was a chicken shit.

“No, that’s what you want to do to Blake. You should, too. Maybe at the party this weekend you can corner her in the bathroom and tell her how you feel.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, that’s a great idea. Hey, Blake. Let me treat you like all the other women I’ve fucked and press you up against this wall right here.”

“You haven’t been with that many in O’Kelley’s have you?”

I scoffed. “No, but that’s not the point. Blake’s special. She’s different. She’s—”

“Everything,” Ramsey said.

Our eyes met and we both nodded. Love definitely sucked. Especially when you weren’t on the same page. Ramsey and Melody would get there, but I wasn’t sure if Blake and I ever would.

“I gotta head back to work. Just wanted to stop by. Work on those names. Maybe Twenty-Something? Then he can just say it’s for whichever woman he’s screwing at the time,” Ramsey suggested.

I snorted. “Sounds perfect to me, but I’m not sure he’ll go for it.”

Ramsey grinned. “You should mention it to him. See if he bites.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure I do that,” I said sarcastically.

“It’s a damn good idea,” Ramsey said, walking out into the sunshine and waving.

I chuckled and shook my head. It was a good idea, but something told me the client wouldn’t find the humor in it. Which meant I was back to work, and back to thinking of names that weren’t Blake.

* * *

O’Kelley’s was already crowded when I walked in Saturday night. Everyone in MacKellar Cove loved Ms. Georgia, and half the surrounding towns felt the same. Her funeral was insane, but her birthday was a celebration. We got the word out as much as we could, and it clearly worked.

I searched the stuffed bar and scanned the wooden booths until I saw the mousey brown hair I wanted to wrap around my hand and headed toward Blake.

“Hey,” Finley said when I got close enough. “Blake saved you a seat.”

Blake smiled up at me. “You said you were coming.”

I winked and sat on the chair next to her. “I wouldn’t miss it. Thanks.”

She grinned, her cheeks pinking up. I wondered how far that blush extended beneath the collar of her teal top. My gaze strayed to the exposed curves of her breasts and lingered until Finley cleared her throat.

I looked up at my sister, but she wasn’t looking at me. Still, staring at Blake in a crowded bar wasn’t a good idea. Someone would definitely notice, and even though my deadline was up, I couldn’t have someone else telling Blake I wanted her. She was skittish, and she needed to realize on her own that I didn’t hang around their group because of my sister.

Eddie and Karissa walked over carrying two pitchers of beer and two bottles of wine.

“Piper started us a tab,” Karissa said. “Just for our table, though.”

“There are a lot of people here,” Eddie said as he set the beer down.

“Everyone loved Ms. Georgia,” Blake said. “She’s very missed.”

Eddie nodded. He and Georgia were only married a few months, but he loved her almost all of his life. He told me once that he would never regret the life he had with his first wife, but he would always wish he had more time with Georgia. I couldn’t help but wonder if Georgia told him about our deal and the promise I made her.

“Georgia loved everyone, too. She’d come home every day with new stories about the people she talked to. She knew what was going on with everyone in town. Whether they needed prayers or just someone to talk to, she was always thinking about everyone else. She told me I had to watch out for all of you,” Eddie said with a grin.

The group was quiet as Eddie’s words sunk in. Blake drew in a deep, shaky breath. I wanted to wrap her up and make her forget about every sad moment of her life.

Instead, I poured drinks for the table, handing out beer and wine to each person without having to think about who wanted what. When we all had a glass, I lifted mine and said, “To Ms. Georgia. The mom we all loved as our own. The woman we all counted on for a laugh. And the friend we all had when we needed one.”

“To Ms. Georgia,” the others said with me.

We clinked our glasses together and drank to Ms. Georgia.

I watched Blake over the rim as I drank. Her tongue darted out to lick the edge of her glass before she pressed it to her lips. As the amber liquid eased to the top, her tongue darted out to taste it before it filled her mouth. I wondered if she kissed the same way she drank beer. Unable to wait for the kiss to start before she was licking her way inside. Excited and ready for more.

If I kept my promise to Georgia, I’d find out soon enough. Shortly after her wedding, she stopped by my shop and told me it was time to shit or get off the pot. Her words exactly. She said I’d loved Blake long enough, and since Willie had just dumped her, I needed to tell her how I felt before someone else asked her out.

I promised Georgia I would do something by her birthday, and seeing as how we were at her birthday celebration, my deadline was up. I had to either tell Blake I wanted her or walk away.

I fucking hated it, but Georgia was right. I couldn’t keep wanting Blake forever. I never had trouble telling any other woman exactly how I felt, but with Blake I couldn’t imagine telling her the truth.

Maybe it was because she was the only one I ever truly cared about.

That probably made me an asshole, but there was no one like Blake. There never had been and I doubted there ever would be.

People from town stopped by our table to share stories about Ms. Georgia with Eddie and Karissa. They laughed with them and offered condolences to the people who were still upset by her passing. The rest of us chatted quietly about summer coming and plans for the nice weather. After the bitterly cold winter, we were ready for some sunshine and bare skin.

Or maybe that was just me.

“Hopefully some hot new guys come to town this summer,” Elise said with a smirk. “I could use a little excitement.”

“Oh, please,” Finley said, “you never have any trouble finding excitement.”

Elise was definitely the friendly one of the group. She hooked up like I did, with no attachment and plenty of fun. She hit on me a few times, but I couldn’t sleep with a friend of Blake’s. I preferred to keep my one-night stands at a little more of a distance than that.

“I enjoy sex,” Elise said. “And summer men are usually rich and willing.”

“How do you know they’re not married?” Laura asked.

Elise shrugged. “I don’t always. I’m not into cheating, so I ask, but if they lie to me, it’s on them. If I see a tan line from a ring or texts from a woman, I’m done, but if there’s no reason to think a guy is married, I’ll take his word for it.”

“I’d be so paranoid,” Blake said. “But I also don’t hook up with strangers.”

“You really should try it sometime,” Elise said. “You still haven’t slept with someone since William, have you?”

Blake glanced at me quickly then shook her head. My dick twitched at the thought. Not of Blake and Willie together, but of being the one to end her dry spell.

“Hello, Blake,” he said from right behind me. Fucking Willie. Of course he had to appear right then.

She turned and smiled up at him. “Hi, William.”

“How are you?” he asked, his gaze sliding around to the rest of the table.

Blake turned in her chair so she could look at him. Her knees brushed my hip. She apologized, then focused on Willie again.

Fucking Willie. Just looking at him and knowing he once had the right to touch her made my blood boil. Blake was mine. She didn’t know it yet, but she was mine. She was going to be mine. And it was time for Willie and everyone else to know it.