Barefoot in the Sand (4 page)

Damn stupid woman with her sexy thighs and preconceived notions.

He slid the rubber band off one sketch and studied what he’d drawn. How the hell could he convince her to look at these? And if he did, would it be enough to stop her from calling his father?

Just as he was about to toss them back, an engine rumbled from around the bend, and a muscular, roofless, high-end Jeep Rubicon accelerated toward him, a woman at the wheel, another next to her, and one in the back. Bass-fueled rock music blared from the speakers.

He was checking out the wild blonde hair, sunglasses, and tanned skin of the driver when one of the others yelled, “Stop, Zoe! Ask that guy!”

Tourists, no doubt. The Jeep came to a screeching stop fifteen feet away from him. The driver threw it into Reverse, fishtailing as she backed up to him.

“Excuse me!” she called, turning down the music. She glanced over her shoulder to say something to the other two as he came around the truck to get closer.

The one in the back didn’t look like a tourist, more
lady exec with black hair secured in a ponytail and a crisp white shirt. She didn’t reply to what the driver said, but the woman in the passenger seat laughed softly, leaning forward to look at him, dishwater-brown locks falling over an angular face.

Blondie slid her sunglasses into her mane. “We’re trying to find Barefoot Bay, but the roads aren’t marked at all up here. Do you know if we can get through this way?”

Some time to come for vacation, ladies. “The beach is right there.” He pointed behind him. “Your best bet is to park here and walk down, or drive a little farther that way. You can get through, but there’s a lot of storm damage and the road gets pretty dicey.”

“Let’s go straight through,” the business-like one in the back said. Probably the Realtor helping them snag a cheap lot, he mused. Good luck with the bitchy property owner. “Once we get closer,” she added, “I’ll recognize Lacey’s place.”

Oh? Friends of Strawberry’s?

“Thank you,” the blonde said to him, adding a dazzling smile. “I really appreciate it. Looks like you’ve been to the beach.”

“Zoe,” the passenger said, giving the driver a nudge. “Do you have to flirt with every man?”

“Only the good ones,” she teased with a laugh.

“ ’S okay,” Clay assured her. “Yeah, I’ve been up there.”

“Is it a complete wreck?”

He gave in to a wry smile. “Complete.”

“Oh, man, what a shame.” She swiped her hand through her hair, sharing a look with her friends, then beamed another thousand-watter with dimples at him.
“Well, thanks again. Is that your truck? Do you need a ride or anything?”

Oh, yes, he needed something. He couldn’t help smiling, because sometimes it seemed that whenever he faced a wall, the universe handed him a ladder.

“As a matter of fact, did I hear you say you’re headed up to see Ms. Armstrong?”

“Yes, we are,” Crispy said from the back. “Why?”

“Well, if it’s not too much trouble, could you give her these?”

“Of course.” The driver reached out and he met her halfway, handing off his ideas, which were immediately flipped into the backseat. “Are your name
and
number on there?”

“Tell her they’re from Clay Walker.
The
Clay Walker.”

Lacey had wasted way too much energy worrying about how to talk to Clayton Walker—Senior. He was unavailable at the moment. That was all Lacey could get from his arctic assistant, even after Lacey told her exactly why she was calling and how much she needed an architect for her inn at Barefoot Bay. She got to leave sketchy details of the land and job, which she doubted Miss Ice Cube was writing down, and only got a promise that Mr. Walker would call when he had a moment.

Which might be never, the bitch managed to imply.

Don’t let this be the excuse that stops you, Lacey chided herself as she and Ashley climbed into her mud-covered VW Passat. She’d call again to—

“Someone’s coming up the road,” Ashley said, holding up a finger to indicate the not-so-distant sound of a car engine.

Oh, God. Maybe he was coming back.

The thought gave Lacey’s heart a jump so unnatural and infuriating she twisted the key with a jerk just as a huge white 4x4 rolled over some debris and hit the horn loud and long enough to block out everything else.

“What the—”

“It’s Aunt Zoe!” Ashley shouted, throwing off her seat belt.

“Not just Zoe!” Lacey slapped her hand over her mouth, sucking in a shocked gasp. “They’re all here!” Tessa and Jocelyn waved and hollered from the roofless vehicle.

Zoe squealed the Jeep to a stop and all three of them scrambled out, running and dancing toward Ashley and Lacey, arms outstretched.

In an instant it was a huddle of hugs. Even Ashley joined in, jumping up and down as they squeezed and shrieked and an avalanche of explanations came pouring out.

“We wanted to surprise you!”

“We’re here to cheer you up!”

“We’ve been planning this since the hurricane but knew you’d tell us not to come!”

Lacey reeled, holding each dear friend in her arms, choking on laughter and disbelief and joy. Finally the eruption ended and she managed to get her head around the fact that her best friends had come to help her pick up the pieces of her storm-shattered life.

They’d come from across the country and, in Tessa’s case, the world.

“Tessa Fontaine!” She put her hands on clean, fresh cheeks, as always unadorned by makeup but so naturally pretty. “I didn’t know you were back in the States.”

“I just got back while you were dealing with this,” Tessa
said, her voice as soft and earthy as her hair, shadows of sadness making her deep brown eyes so serious. “And, by the way, it’s Galloway again. I’ve officially dropped Fontaine.”

“Oh, Tess.” The divorce, of course, must be final. “Sucks.”

“Tessa lives with me now,” Zoe announced.

“You do?”

“Not forever.” Tessa shrugged a shoulder, which was toned from hours of farmwork in dozens of distant countries. “I went to Flagstaff to hang out with Zoe for the past month, but we didn’t bother you with any of that, since you’ve had your hands full.”

“We decided we just had to get out here and lift your spirits.” Zoe squeezed Lacey’s hand, her other arm already hooked over Ashley’s shoulder with casual affection. “And see our group goddaughter, who is getting way too grown-up and gorgeous.”

Ashley beamed a mouthful of hot-pink-banded braces at her. “Thanks, Aunt Zoe.”

Lacey turned her attention to Jocelyn, the only person on earth who could ride in a 4x4 down a beach road and not have a hair out of place.

“And it only took an act of God to get Jocelyn Bloom back to Mimosa Key,” Lacey exclaimed. “There must be a dozen L.A. movie stars who are paralyzed right now without their life coach.”

Jocelyn flicked off the comment with dismissive fingertips. “All I need is a phone and Internet and I can work from here for a while. You’ve always been there for each of us, so it was our time to come to you.”

“I’m sorry it took so long,” Zoe said, her green eyes
sparkling with the joy that always seemed to light her from inside. “My job took off, so to speak.”

They all laughed at that, and Lacey could feel the pressure that had crushed her for all these weeks lift as easily as one of the hot air balloons Zoe piloted for a living.

“I already feel better just looking at you three,” Lacey said. “I can’t even remember the last time we were all together.”

“Tessa’s wedding,” Jocelyn said, probably able to tell them the date and what each of them wore.

“Uh-oh,” Tessa moaned. “This adventure better turn out more successful than that one.”

“Tess, c’mere.” Lacey reached to give her a hug. “You’ve been through hell this year.”

She took the squeeze, but not for long. “Hell is living through a hurricane. Zoe told me you stayed alive in a bathtub! Is that true?” she asked Ashley.

“Totally true,” Ashley confirmed. “Mom was incredible. If it weren’t for her, we’d have died in her bedroom closet.”

“Ohhh!” The outcry was in unison and came with more hugs, but the tears in Lacey’s eyes burned from the sweetness of Ashley’s unexpected compliment.

“Hey, Ashley propped me up a few times, trust me.”

“Lacey’s always been our fearless leader,” Zoe said. “The RA who kept us out of trouble for our entire freshman year of college.”

“Like anyone can keep you out of trouble, Zoe,” Tessa said.

They laughed again, but Jocelyn broke away to look around in disbelief at the bare trees, the piles of debris, and what once was a lovely beachfront property.

“God, Lace,” she said, turning slowly. “It’s like Barefoot Bay was demolished.”

“We got creamed up here,” Lacey agreed.

“Almost everything is gone,” Ashley said, an understandable whine rising in her voice. “Mom managed to save like five things of mine but everything else is bulldozed or blown away.”

Tessa gave her a sympathetic look. “That has to be tough on you, honey.”

“I’m telling you, sugar”—Zoe leaned into Ashley’s ear—“shopping op!”

“And you guys are living with your parents, Lace?” Tessa asked.

“In their house on the other end of the island, but they’re staying up in New York with Adam.”

“They don’t want to come back and help?” Jocelyn gave Lacey a look. “I know your mom likes to, you know, have opinions.”

Lacey bit back a laugh. “My dad offered, but honestly, the last thing I want…”
Is to deal with Mother at a time like this
. But she wouldn’t admit that in front of Ashley. “Is for them to have to put up with all the construction. But there’s plenty of room for you guys,” she added. “We’ll squeeze in.”

“Actually, I’ll stay over the causeway in a hotel,” Jocelyn said quickly.

“Like hell you will,” Zoe shot back.

“There’s plenty of space and we’d love the company. Right, Ash?”

“Oh my God, totally,” Ashley agreed, still holding on to her beloved Aunt Zoe. “You have to stay with us.”

Jocelyn shook her head. “Nope, sorry. I’m still on the
clock with at least six clients and I’ve got to be available to them. I booked a room over at the Ritz in Naples, so I’ll stay there and come and go with you guys when I can.”

“La-dee-dah at the Ritz,” Zoe teased, lifting her nose into the air. “We’ll be having slumber parties and drinking wine all night.” She eyed Ashley. “Not you, of course. Show me the beach, doll face.”

Zoe dragged Ashley away and they ran arm in arm toward the sand.

Lacey let out a slow breath, watching them, then turned to Tessa and Jocelyn. “I can’t believe you guys are here.”

Tessa wrapped an arm around Lacey and tugged her toward the gutted foundation. “I can’t believe you lost everything.”

“Everything,” Lacey confirmed. “Baby pictures and memories, keepsakes and—oh, every day we think of something else.”

They tsked and sighed in sympathy.

“But, really, getting wiped out like this teaches you those material things aren’t important. What matters is that we survived, and are moving on.”

“To think I could charge a client three hundred an hour for doling out that advice,” Jocelyn said wryly. “And you figured it all out by yourself.”

“I figured a lot out while I was holed up in a bathtub and the world was falling apart around me.”

They walked as a threesome, arm in arm. “Like what?” Tessa asked.

“Like it’s time to use that three-quarters of a degree in hospitality I have. And I don’t mean a shoestring cake-baking business I run from my kitchen.”

“That inn full of antiques you’ve talked about since
college?” Tessa stooped to pluck a stray orange flower that somehow had survived, rolling it in her fingers and giving it a sniff.

“Exactly.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“It’s not yet,” Lacey admitted sadly. “I thought I had an architect, but I don’t think I can get the one I want.”

“So you’re giving up?” Tessa’s voice had a familiar edge of frustration in it. “The world is full of architects, Lacey.”

“I need one with the right vision and credentials.”

The other two women leaned forward to share a look. “I smell a full-blown Lacey Armstrong rationalization coming on,” Jocelyn teased.

“No, no. I want to do this and I have the insurance money, which is enough for a really nice B and B, even a little more if I could swing it, which”—she gave a soft, self-deprecating laugh—“is always the question with me.”

“Now you know why we’re here,” Tessa said softly.

“Why?”

“To stop you from coming up with reasons why you can’t build this place and build it right.”

“You guys have always been good to me that way.” Lacey looked from one to the other. “What do you mean by ‘right’?”

“Finished,” Jocelyn said. “Up and running and making money.”

“I don’t know if I can…” Her voice trailed off at their stern expressions, and she laughed. “Okay, okay. And I’m going to need that money because my business is completely shut down now, and I’m living off savings.”