The one who got away.
Chloe looked at Gavin and said, “I’ve seen you in action, and I admit you can connect with most women, so why are you still single? I mean, I get why Justin is such a player. He has a rep to live up to.”
“Damn right.” Justin winked.
“Zip it, biker,” Chloe said with a hint of a smile.
Justin held her gaze, leaning in so close it looked like he might kiss her as he said, “I’m happy to unzip it if you want to see what all the ladies are talking about.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Pig. It’s a wonder you get any women at all with lines like that. Maybe Gavin can give you lessons in being a gentleman.”
Drake strummed his guitar louder and sang, “Chloe has a crush on Gavin.”
In addition to owning a chain of music stores, Drake co-owned Bayside Resort with his brother, Rick, and their buddy Dean Masters. The resort sat atop the dunes behind them, overlooking Cape Cod Bay.
“Get in the crush line, darlin’,” Gavin said arrogantly. He got hit on by plenty of women, but in the ten months since he’d been with Parker, he hadn’t met a single woman who could hold a candle to her.
Serena giggled.
Chloe sat back and crossed her arms, annoyance written all over her face. “Y’all are ridiculous. I’m being serious.”
“Serious or curious?” Gavin waggled his brows.
Justin and Drake chuckled.
“Ugh. Never mind.” Chloe grabbed Justin’s beer and sucked it down.
Justin yanked on the ends of Chloe’s hair. She’d grown her hair out from the pixie cut she’d had last summer, and Justin seemed to dig it.
“Babe, who else are we expecting?” Drake said to Serena, motioning toward the dunes, where a woman was coming off the path from Bayside Resort, heading in their direction. The breeze lifted her long hair from her shoulders, and her dress billowed around her legs.
“It’s Harper!” Serena hollered. “I told you she’d come! Come on, Chloe.”
Chloe sprang to her feet, and they sprinted toward the dunes.
Serena had been raving about her friend Harper, a screenwriter who had recently gotten her big break and had been in Los Angeles for the past several months. The way Serena went on about her, Gavin thought she had to be too good to be true.
“The fictional wonder babe has finally arrived?” Gavin scoffed. “We’ll see if she lives up to the hype.”
Justin stood up and said, “Oh man. She will. Harper’s got it all going on.”
“Care to wager on that? Fifty bucks says I won’t think she’s all that.” Gavin took another drink of his beer.
“I’ll take that bet,” Drake said as he rose to his feet. He raked a hand through his dark hair and said, “Harper’s cool.”
“You’re on.” Gavin heard the girls giggling and stood to greet the infamous Harper.
The three girls were hugging as they stumbled through the sand, their hands moving animatedly, their voices carrying in the wind. His heart nearly stopped as the willowy blonde came into focus, the one who had haunted his dreams since last summer. Heat seared through his body, just as it had the first time he’d seen her, and that rainy afternoon came rushing back to him. It felt like only yesterday that he was standing on the slick, muddy ground, his heart hammering against his ribs, his eyes locked on Parker. She stood out from the crowd, looking a little lost and insanely beautiful in a bohemian-style cream dress with lace accents and an uneven hem, shorter in the front and back and longer on the sides, giving her an ethereal look, as if she’d been dropped from the heavens above just for him. Her hair had been tangled and damp from the rain. She’d worn about a dozen necklaces and just as many bangles on her wrists. Her brown boots had colorful dragonflies and stars all over them. She’d looked so freaking hot, he hadn’t been able to look away then, just as he was unable to now.
“Parker,” Gavin said absently as she embraced Drake.
“Harper,” Serena corrected him. “Geez, Gavin, what’s wrong with you?”
Harper? Unless the woman whose body he remembered more intimately than any other had a twin, his Parker was Serena’s Harper. She’d left to catch a flight before the sun had risen the morning after they’d been together, and she hadn’t woken him up to say goodbye. He’d been so into her, into them, he’d never gotten around to asking for her phone number, or even her last name. Hell, he didn’t even know what she did for a living.
Now he did. She was a screenwriter, and apparently a good one, a beloved friend to the people he’d gotten close to, and best of all, she lived on the Cape, and hopefully she was back to stay.
Harper spotted him. Their eyes connected, and for a moment he was thrown back to that night, his hands and mouth traveling over her hot flesh, her sinful noises filling the room.
Her brows knitted, and a smile stretched across her beautiful face, and just as quickly, that stunning smile faded. “Gavin? What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” he said.
Shock rose in her eyes, as tangible as the surprise gripping his chest.
Chloe’s eyes moved between him and Harper. “You two know each other? But you said you didn’t think Harper was real.”
Gavin couldn’t take his eyes off her. “Because she’s Parker, not Harper.”
“Dude, she’s your Parker?” Justin said with shock.
Gavin nodded.
“Parker? Who’s Parker?” Chloe asked. “I’m so confused.”
“I think I am,” Harper said.
“You told me your name was Parker.” Sweet Jesus, she was even more gorgeous than he’d remembered, but her powder-blue eyes narrowed angrily, and she stepped back, holding her hands up between them. What the hell?
“No. You misheard me, and I didn’t correct you.” She looked accusatorily at him. “You said you were from Virginia.”
“I am.”
She swallowed hard, worry suddenly shadowing her eyes. His mind raced through the night they’d spent together, looking for a reason she’d be short with him, and as the things she’d said came rushing back, his gut clenched. She’d said a one-night stand was totally out of character for her. He hadn’t believed her at first, but the longer they’d talked, the clearer it had become that she was telling the truth. Was that why she was worried?
Her gaze shot nervously toward the girls. “How do you know him?”
“He’s my business partner,” Serena said. “I told you I opened my own business. Gavin was a senior designer at the firm in Boston where I went to work.”
Harper stole glances at him as Serena reminded her about how their partnership came to be. He wanted to pull her aside and tell her they didn’t know about their night together, but Serena and Chloe were peppering her with questions.
“How do you know Gavin?” Chloe asked. “Did you know him before you went to LA?”
“We met at a music festival,” Harper said, eyeing him nervously.
“Where? When?” Serena shot a confused look at Gavin. “You’ve been in LA and Gavin has been here except over the holidays.”
“It was before I moved to the Cape,” Gavin explained. “Now, how about you guys give Harper room to breathe. She looks like she could use a beer.”