Stef Ann Holm, Lucy Back [paper ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Drew handed a rope line to Lloyd Zaragoza, who’d elbowed his portly body next to Drew’s sleek boat to check everything out.

Lucy watched the exchange from a lounge chair beside Sue Lawrence.

“Welcome to the dock,” Lloyd replied, his grin broad and big. “I’m the mayor out here and if you need anything, I’m the man to ask. Can I get you a cola from my cooler?”

Mackenzie smiled with a sweet innocence. “Ya’ll don’t have to go to any trouble.”

“No trouble a’tall!” Lloyd snapped right back. He pivoted an about-face on his bare feet and made a beeline for his boat.

Sue shook her head. “Lloyd sure loves it when someone new comes to the dock. He can feed them stories and they’re not going to tell him they’ve heard them all a dozen times already.”

Lucy smiled at Mackenzie. She liked the look of the young girl. She had a fresh face, a beautiful pair of eyes, and her complexion was like a bowl of honeyed cream. She was tall and attractive, maybe Jason’s age.

Jason and some of the boys from the team were on the other side of the dock batting tennis balls into the water for Dent Gaines’s black lab, Harley. He was known as Devil Dog to those on the dock because his tail was like a whipcord and he was always nosing into a bag of chips or swimming in circles around the boats and springing up onto the upholstery.

As soon as Drew arrived, everyone paused and looked at that expensive, glossy black boat of his. Lucy couldn’t imagine it being worth a quarter of a million dollars, but Sue insisted.

Drew hadn’t readily noticed her, but now he gave her a glance. Lucy looked away. If she were smart, she would never let him come near her again.

Her rule of thumb should be that she never date a client. That might not have been in the personal chef handbook, but it was still an excellent—and wise—thought to keep in mind.

Yet on the flip side, she felt connected to someone when she talked to Drew—him, of all people. Thank God she had survived the mourning period after her divorce, where she’d been sad and hadn’t wanted to deal with relationships. But within the last several months, she’d been starting to feel like her old self again. She noticed men more often, noticed how they looked into her eyes, how they bantered with her or spoke politely, what body language they conveyed while they had her full attention. She was definitely ready to find someone and start over, and not let her past heartbreak hold her back.

But should she invest, even marginally, in the town’s former ball player with an extroverted ego and a smile that could win him anything he desired?

Not hardly. She was too aware of the troubles in store if she fell for him. There was a path of red flags waving—just like those on the street corners of the main highway that pedestrians used for crossing through traffic. A flag for his past, a flag for his cloudy drug usage—which he had not explained, yet somehow, she’d been relieved that, apparently, it hadn’t been a totally hideous mess. A flag for Jacquie. Make that two flags for the Realtor.

Even so, Lucy’s gaze drifted back toward Drew, making a long and leisurely examination of him through the discreet cover provided by her sunglasses.

He wore a pair of printed swim trunks and a straw panama hat that made him look more appealing than one man had a right to. A cigar was clamped between his lips, but unlit. He tossed the butt in the open cooler on his boat, then threw his head back in laughter at something Dave Lawrence said. Reaching for a cold bottle of beer, he cracked the top and handed it to Dave. The music boomed on his boat, classic rock and roll.

Drew’s smile flashed and he stepped onto the dock, went to put a hand on the small of Mackenzie’s back. But he immediately reconsidered, lowering his arm as if he remembered himself. Mackenzie slanted him a glance and didn’t readily smile, and was clearly thankful when Lloyd all but ran up and shoved a can of cola at her after pulling the tab.

“Here you go, young lady!” Lloyd’s barrel torso, with its curly hair carpeting front and back, glistened with sweat. “So where are you from?”

“Florida.”

“Migh-tee fine marlin fishing out that way.”

The light breeze blew her long brown hair around her face and she caught a slight strand and hooked it behind her ear. She had on a pair of silver hoop earrings. “My daddy used to go deep-sea fishing all the time when he wasn’t out on a haul.”

Drew had been skipping through song selections on the state-of-the-art CD player when his hand froze. His action wasn’t enough to draw attention, but it was enough for Lucy to take notice because her gaze had been fastened on him. The lightness in his expression darkened. Mackenzie and he exchanged a quick look, but it was over in a matter of seconds.

“What’s your daddy do?” Lloyd asked, the white patch of sunscreen on his nose starting to melt.

“He was a big rig truck driver. But he and my momma parted company some years ago.”

“Divorce is as common as a fruit fly these days.” Lloyd took a big sip of beer, a visible belch working up his throat, but he had the good grace to hold it there. “I’ve been on a first name basis with it four dang times.”

Mackenzie’s mouth curved into a smile. “Momma said one divorce was enough for her. She wasn’t ever getting married again.”

“Wise woman!” Lloyd smiled back. “Next time, you bring her on down here with you. I’d like to meet her.”

With that, the brightness in Mackenzie’s eyes paled. “My momma’s passed on.”

It was Lloyd’s turn to blanch. “I’m forever sorry to hear that.”

“H-hey, C-Coach!” Matt ran up to Drew, the ends of his hair wet and a