Conner’s mother, Allison, was an artist anyone who knew anything about art knew of. His mother’s paintings hung in some of the most prestigious art galleries around the world. He had even heard that there was one hanging in the White House somewhere.
Riley, his younger sister, and their cousin Lilly had opened up a boutique, Classy and Sassy, in town a few years back. The store was a huge success.
Riley’s twin, Jacob, had gone to engineering school and had just taken on the job of overseeing construction of their uncle Todd’s latest crazy scheme, Hidden Cove, a subdivision on the massive land Todd had purchased to keep the crooked developer Thomas Carson from getting his hands on the land.
Of course, everyone in town knew of the deal and how the man had been supposedly tied to an illegal gambling and fighting ring that had been dispersed off the coast by his new cousin-in-law, Aiden. Aiden had recently been voted in as sheriff of Pride after his father retired due to injuries caused by a goon supposedly hired by Carson to hide the gambling ring.
Hell, even Conner’s little brother had a more important job than he did. Sure, saving lives was no walk in the park. In the past year he’d been more disciplined than he had his entire life, both physically and mentally. Still, lots of others had come and gone in the training facility with abilities just like his own, which made him feel more like a cog than a leader.
The same could be said for each of his cousins. Everyone in the Jordan clan had their path in life plotted out already.
“I lost you,” Kara said, touching his bare shoulder, getting his attention again. “I always seem to lose people when I start chatting about my job.” She sighed. “It’s not like all I think about is weddings,” she said with a half-smile. “Honest. I’m not one of those crazed women who hear wedding bells every time I meet a man.” She chuckled. “Honest.” She held up her fingers in a scout’s promise.
“That’s the Boy Scout promise.” His eyes ran over her slowly. “I doubt they would have let you in their little group. Especially looking like that.”
For the first time since he’d pulled her out of the water, she seemed to realize what she was wearing and crossed her arms over her chest as she glanced around the dark beach.
“I… left my dress…” She did a full circle. “Somewhere.”
He chuckled as she started frantically looking for her clothes.
“You were probably closer to the barn when you entered the water,” he pointed out. “We’re well past your cottage now.”
She gasped when she realized where they were. “I guess I must have been in the water longer than I thought.”
“I’ll walk with you. My things are that way as well.” He started walking down the beach, not waiting for her. She easily caught up with him, dropping her hands from shielding the view of her sexy body from him.
He quickly glanced over and smiled at the sexy view before continuing to walk back down the beach.
“You know, I saw that,” she said, falling in step with him.
“Hey, I’m just as naked as you are,” he reminded her.
“Right,” she said, and he could hear the laughter in her tone.
“Besides, what you’re wearing could easily be a swimsuit instead of…” He stopped and looked down at her. He noticed she didn’t lift her arms to cover her body this time. Instead, she stood there, facing him with her chin in the air as she smiled at him. “Instead of a matching set of lacy underwear,” he finished. He leaned closer and squinted. “Are those blue?”
“Purple,” she answered quickly. “My favorite color.”
He stopped and quickly picked up his clothes and dusted off the dinner jacket that he’d worn to the wedding earlier.
“You just dumped your suit in the sand?” She almost gasped.
He chuckled. “No, I set it over the log carefully,” he corrected as he shook out his shirt and dress pants, then folded them all and carried his shoes and clothing, figuring he’d pull them on when he was a little drier. “What did you do with your dress? Hang it up?” He glanced down the dark beach as if to prove his point.
“No, I…” She sighed in frustration. “Whatever.” She shook her head in defeat and started marching down the beach again.
He caught up with her as he held in a chuckle. He could tell she was growing more agitated at him since she was sprinting down the beach at this point. When she almost passed her dress and shoes sitting in the sand, the laughter slipped out. She turned and glared at him, which only made him laugh even harder.
Chapter Three
Kara was so over Conner hanging around at this point. Sure, he was nice to look at in the moonlight. The way the moonbeams bounced off his perfect pecs and six-pack had her mouth watering.
In the last few moments, however, she could tell he was laughing at her and she was growing tired of being told she was irresponsible.
She bent down and picked up her dress and shoes, then suddenly stopped when she realized she’d just berated him for setting his suit carefully on a large piece of driftwood. If there had been any driftwood in sight, she would have hung her dress over it, but instead, she’d just tossed it in the sand earlier.
She’d been so focused on needing to cool off and clear her mind that she hadn’t thought about her own clothes.
Turning back to him, she sighed.
“I’m sorry, I must be tired.”
“It’s no wonder. I watched you and your sister work your magic earlier. I don’t think you sat down once in the past five hours.” He nodded towards the barn again.
“No.” She smiled as she watched a few lights turning off in the massive building. No doubt, her sister would be locking everything up and heading down the pathway towards the cottage soon.
“What time did you start today?” he asked, shifting the pile of his clothes sightly.
“Five,” she told him without thinking.
“Five this afternoon?”
“No.” She shook her head and turned back towards him.
“Five in the morning? What on earth for?”
She laughed. “Who else was going to decorate? Make sure the flowers, the cake, and the decorations arrived and were in place on time?”
“Employees?” he offered.
Her smile slipped slightly. They had a few part-time employees. But so far, it was Kara and Robin’s job to do most of the prep work. The money for employees was saved for waitstaff and cleaning crew.
She would love to have enough money to hire a few full-time employees.
“A few but I’ve found that when it really matters, there’s no better person to handle the details than someone who is invested completely.” She tilted her head and ran her eyes over his face. “Why the Coast Guard?”
He shrugged quickly and moved his eyes past her towards the building. “No particular reason. It was there. I was available.” His eyes moved back to hers. “You know the drill.”
“You went to school in… Portland, correct?” she asked, trying to remember what she’d heard about the man from his family and wishing she’d paid better attention when they’d talked about him.
“Yeah.”