Beach Blanket Santa (Holiday Brides Series) (3 page)

There
was something very freeing about being
au
natural
outdoors, just a rustic wooden barrier between him and the path
over the dunes. He’d had quite a catch today. Ten bluefish and nearly a dozen
mackerel. Matt scrubbed his hands with extra care using the fisherman’s soap
he’d brought along to expunge any scent from the cleaning he’d done while still
on the beach. He found it easier to take care of the messy work as soon as the
need arose and had a simple fisherman’s knife that had served him well for
years. Matt planned to eat some of his haul while he was here, but most of it
he planned to freeze and take back home. There were lots of recipes he could
concoct, including a mighty delicious homemade gumbo.

Matt
shut off the water, thinking he’d heard a car door slam shut. But that didn’t
make any sense. Not unless the cottage next door was rented for Christmas,
which would be unusual since the house didn’t even have a fireplace. And a
fireplace at the beach in winter was something renters insisted on, no matter
the weather. Matt squinted up at the sun lowering itself behind the dunes and
grabbed his towel off a nearby hook. He’d head upstairs, freezer-bag the fish,
and pop himself a brewski.
Yessirree
,
he thought, winding the towel around his waist and cinching it. He was feeling
better already. He hadn’t thought about women all day.

Matt
hoisted his heavy cooler in one hand while gripping his fishing tackle in the
other. He’d just climbed the third wooden step to the side door when a screen
door creaked open. Matt stopped in his tracks, thinking he’d heard footsteps.
The next thing he knew, some pretty brunette was bounding down the stairs. She stared
at him and fell back in fright.

“Oh!”
she cried, dropping the flip-flops in her hand. One somersaulted down the
steps, landing on Matt’s bare foot. He quickly set down his stuff to grip the
towel that was sliding south.

“Uh,
hello,” he said, securing the towel around him.

She
stared at his waist, then quickly met his gaze. Matt caught his breath. He’d
know those eyes anywhere. “Sarah?”

Her
cheeks colored brightly as she swallowed hard. “Matt?” she asked with a squeak.
“What are you doing here?”

He
picked up her flip-flops and handed them to her, taking care with his towel the
whole time. She wore snug jeans rolled up at the ankles and a fitted
long-sleeve T-shirt. She was every bit as pretty as she’d been three years ago.
Somehow, she looked even better. “Robert gave me the house for the week.”

“Robert?
But this is Elaine’s week, isn’t it?”

“Yes,
but she’s supposed to be on her honeymoon.”

“She
is.”

“Then
how…?”

“Elaine
gave me the house for the week too. She said nobody would be using it.”

Matt
had worked hard to push memories of Sarah out his mind, but they all came
flooding back now. She’d been so much fun at Elaine and Robert’s wedding. He
thought they’d really hit it off. Maybe even could start something. But then
when the next morning came, she’d pushed him away. Naturally, he got over it.
Matt knew better than to knock on doors where he wasn’t wanted. And he’d met Katya
shortly afterward besides. Matt felt a pang in his chest when the raw truth
hit. Katya wasn’t the first woman to let him down. It had really started with
Sarah. “Then we’re in a predicament, aren’t we?”

“Well,
yes. No,” she said, backing up a step. “I should be the one to go. After all,
you got here first.”

“I
don’t see how that’s fair. This really
is
Elaine’s week, not Robert’s.”

He
stared at her, and she stared back, her head and heart still grappling with the
situation. Of all people to run into!
Matt
Salvatore
with those unnerving blue eyes and that to-die-for statue-of-David
body. It was bad enough that he had it; far worse that it was on such vivid
display. The winds kicked up with a whistle, riffling his towel.

“If
you don’t mind,” he said, lifting an eyebrow, “I think we should continue this
conversation inside. It’s getting a bit breezy out here.”

“Of
course,” she said, quickly turning away and heading upstairs. She held the
screen door open so he could make his way through with his collected gear. It
was all she could do to avert her eyes from his solidly muscled shoulders and
stop herself from thinking about what might have been. He hadn’t changed at
all. In some ways, he’d seemed to age in a way that made him appear even more
handsome. And it was hard to top what he’d been before, which was absolutely
devastating.

She
closed the door behind them, pressing it shut against the building winds.
“Feels like that cold front’s coming.”

Matt
set down his gear by the center island in the kitchen. “Precisely why I should
get dressed.”

She
blinked and bit her tongue to keep herself from saying something idiotic. Like,
no, please, stay half naked for me.
The sad truth was, this was the most action she’d had in months. In fact, it
was the most action she’d had since Matt.

He
cocked his chin sideways and grinned. “I already put my things in the conch
room, but we can work all that out later after we talk.”

“Good
plan.”

He
excused himself, and Sarah face-palmed, sinking onto a bar stool at the center
island. Matt Salvatore. Unbelievable. She never thought she’d see him again.
Certainly not as much of him as
that.

Matt
shut the door behind him and slowly shook his head. Sarah Anderson, all after
this time. She was the one person he never thought he’d see again. She’d
certainly given him the boot sternly enough, and once things got rocky between
Elaine and Robert, there wasn’t really any occasion to see her. The newlywed
couple stopped having folks over shortly after their wedding. Come to think of
it, they hadn’t entertained much at all. It seemed they were too busy biting
each other’s heads off to consider serving up dinner to outsiders. It wasn’t
that Elaine and Robert didn’t like each other. In fact, they’d been madly in
love. The trouble was both were headstrong individuals, each used to getting
his or her own way. This made for some heavy fireworks when even a discussion
of which placemats to set on the table sparked an altercation.

Matt
extracted his clothes from the dresser, knowing Elaine and Robert’s parting had
been for the best. The moment they’d split up, they’d seemed like old friends
again, not that they wanted to spend much time around each other. Too many
unhappy memories of what their tainted married life had been like. Still,
neither harbored ill will toward the other, and each was happy to let the other
go on with his or her life. The only real thing that bound them together was
this beach house at the Outer Banks.

Matt
stepped into his jeans, considering the situation. He supposed he should offer
to go. That was the gentlemanly thing to do. After all, this was supposed to be
Elaine’s week here, not Robert’s. And what a shame that was too. The fishing
today had been mighty fine. Matt even thought he felt that first hint of beard
stubble poking through. He’d nearly forgotten how peaceful this place could be,
gulls calling and darting above white-capped waves. Matt stared out the window
at the tumultuous ocean suddenly shrouded in dark clouds. Seeing Sarah again
had turned him inside out in a way he couldn’t have expected. He’d nearly forgotten
about her completely until he’d looked in those big brown eyes. And, when he
had, every inch of him remembered holding her close as they’d swayed to that
sultry ballad by a small jazz band. He could even recall the scent of her,
fresh and womanly, like daisies after the rain. And those skies had opened up
and poured on him all right, sending him packing during the cloudburst. He
tugged on his sweatshirt, thinking that this time he’d be more prepared. Sarah
wouldn’t need to tell him to leave. He was volunteering.

Sarah
peered into her cooler, wondering if she should reload it with the cold stuff
she’d already stowed in the refrigerator. But her cold packs had melted, so
she’d need to stop by the store on the mainland and secure some ice on her way
home. It would be rude for her to deplete this place of the one premade bucketful
it had. Listen to her! Thinking of being rude to the one man she’d met on the
planet who’d proved himself to have no manners. The morning after the wedding,
he’d made a quick exit without caring to explain what went wrong. Only one
picture bloomed crystal clear in her mind, that of the irresistible best man leaning
forward to lift her bridesmaid’s dress over her shoulders. How could he when
she wasn’t even in her right mind? Well, maybe he hadn’t been in his either.
They’d both
did
have quite a bit of
champagne.

The
door cracked open to the right-hand master bedroom. There were two large ones
in this house, one on either side of the central living area, and each was
decorated in its own ocean theme. One sported sand dollars, while the other,
the one in which Matt was staying, was adorned in conch shells. He emerged, and
Sarah caught her breath on the impossible. He looked just as good fully dressed
as he had standing near naked in a towel. She felt her face redden, fearing he
could read those thoughts.

As
Matt approached, she noticed a backpack casually slung over his shoulder.

There
was a small tug at her heart, something akin to pain. Maybe the thought of him
walking out conjured up some mysterious sense of déjà vu. But that was silly. Shouldn’t
she be grateful at his efforts to make things easy?

He
set down the backpack and started gathering his fishing gear. “I think it would
be simpler if I just went.”

“I
thought we were going to discuss it?”

He
met her gaze with a placating smile. “I’m not sure what’s left to discuss. This
place was apparently double-booked. Since this wasn’t Robert’s week to begin
with, I’m the one who should go.”

Thunder
boomed outside and lightning crackled, sending splinters of light throughout
the kitchen. Matt packed his cooler. “Sounds like that storm’s moving in even
sooner than expected.”

Sarah
peered through the kitchen window at dark clouds rolling over the horizon. In
the past few minutes alone, the weather had changed dramatically, though that
often happened out here on this little-known barrier island that lay in close
proximity to a broad expanse of others. The house sat on a narrow stretch of
sand between the ocean and the sound and was accessible only by
four-wheel-drive vehicles carried over on a ferry. No roads came out this far,
and the rough-hewn trails worn flat by tire tracks were often washed over
during heavy rains. A double booking was one thing, but she couldn’t have Matt
braving the precarious trek back to the boat during a storm. “Maybe it’s not
safe to drive.” As if to accentuate that point, the wind picked up, rattling
the screen door.

He
strode to the sink beside her and peeked out the window as well. “It’s even
darker over the sound.” Just then the sky opened up, releasing a broad curtain
of rain.

“Looks
like you came back from fishing just in time,” Sarah said.

“Seems
like aborting your walk was a good idea.”

She
stared into mesmerizing blue eyes, and her heart skipped a beat. Did this mean
he would stay? At least for a little while?

“I
do think I should wait to get on the road. At least until this blows over.”

Thunder
boomed and rain drove down harder, smacking against the tin roof. “Conditions
could be worse later.”

“Then
again, they could improve.”

She
didn’t know how driving in the dark would make things any better. That wasn’t
really safe to do around here, even on a clear night. Surely Matt knew that
too. “I don’t see how,” she said, her voice catching in her throat.

He
smiled, giving that sexy tilt to his lips.

She
reached out a hand to steady herself against the counter.

“Since
you’re stuck with me awhile, we might as well eat something.” He cocked his chin
in the direction of her grocery sacks. “Bring any wine in those bags?”

“A
few bottles of white.” She reached in a bag and produced the evidence. “And, oh
yes. A nice big bottle of Chianti.”

He
grinned, and Sarah’s foolish heart went all aflutter. “You pour, and I’ll cook
dinner.”

At
the moment, a glass of wine sounded good. If she didn’t fear Matt would be
counting, she might even have two. But her plus Matt Salvatore
—
plus
alcohol
—
equaled
trouble. She hadn’t quite forgotten that. This time, Sarah would have to keep
her wits about her and watch every step. For there was really no way around it.
Unless there was a dramatic break in the weather soon, the handsome
heartbreaker was staying the night.

Chapter Three

Sarah set down her fork and dabbed her pretty mouth with a
napkin. “That was absolutely delicious. The best fish I’ve tasted in ages.”

“I just hope I didn’t use up too many of our rations in
preparing the wine sauce.” He lifted the bottle of chardonnay between them,
offering to pour her another glass. She declined with a shake of her head.