Holiday at Magnolia Bay (Southern Born Christmas Book 1) (5 page)

“H
ow big was
the rock on her finger?” Macy asked.

Jenna looked up from the brochure for the Turtle Center’s Christmas Flotilla and Fishing Tournament she was pretending to study. The event was intended to be a huge holiday money maker for, not only the Center, but the town of Magnolia Bay and the promotional materials needed to be finalized. The problem was she hadn’t been able to focus on a single thing all day. It was after ten o’clock at night and she figured she should just throw in the towel on this crazy day and go to bed. Unfortunately, Macy wasn’t done playing twenty questions—in spite of the fact she’d exceeded that number over an hour ago.

“Oh my God, out of everything that went down today that’s the question you ask?”

Her roommate shrugged her shoulders. “I’m a wedding photographer. The size of the ring can tell you a lot about the couple.” Macy laughed. “Usually, it means the groom is making a down payment for future screw-ups. Heck, I had a bride with two and half carats on her hand. The groom didn’t make it out of the reception before he was caught with his pants down in the coat room with the wedding singer.”

Jenna didn’t want to think about that particular ‘couple’ anymore this evening. She’d avoided Perry since their epic lunch at Evie’s. Hours later, she’d realized that the anger that had been festering inside her all day wasn’t due to heartache—she really hadn’t been as invested in that side of their relationship as she thought—but more from embarrassment at being seriously played by Perry. Especially coming on the heels of her stint with Sam. Fortunately Macy was as gracious a friend as she was a roommate. She didn’t lob on a heavy dose of the I-told-you-sos. Instead, she’d spent the evening trying to make light of the situation. It was one of the things Jenna most appreciated about her roommate of three years.

“I didn’t notice.” Jenna admitted.

“Which means you were too pre-occupied by the hot military guy.”

“I didn’t say he was hot.”

“You didn’t have to, your face gets pink and your nipples get hard every time you mention him.”

Macy laughed as Jenna sprang up from the living room floor of the beach house they shared. Sitting at the end of Bayshore Boulevard, overlooking Magnolia Bay’s pier, the Hardie board home featured three bedrooms—one of which Macy used as an in-home office—a kitchen with seating overlooking the bay, a comfortable great room and a wide covered porch that wrapped around the house affording each room spectacular views.

Her roommate’s laughter followed her to the kitchen as she rinsed out the empty popcorn bowl and put it in the dishwasher. Once again, Macy’s intuition was right on, Drew Lanham was hot. Jenna didn’t have to look down at her T-shirt to know how her body reacted to him.

Macy entered the kitchen and began filling the tea kettle. “So what’s his story,” she prodded. “I thought Miss Evie didn’t have any family still living.”

Neither had Jenna. After lunch, she’d cornered Miss Evie in her indoor lap pool where the older woman exercised each day. Miss Evie’s eyesight wasn’t as sharp as it could be and after a fall on the beach where she’d broken her wrist, her afternoon ‘constitutional’ now took place in the pool. This afternoon, Jenna had wanted to assure herself, not only that her friend wasn’t losing her mind, but that Drew Lanham had a right to be in her home. Miss Evie, however, was still rather vague about Drew’s relationship to her, but her love for him was very easy to read on her face which reassured Jenna, if only slightly.

“He’s her godson, apparently. The son of ‘a dear family friend’ is what she told me.”

Macy pulled two cups out of the cupboard. “But how come he just shows up out of thin air now?”

“She said he’s on leave, but I think it’s more than that.” The haunted look she’d glimpsed on Drew’s face earlier today was telling. He was suffering from something. Something he was working hard to hide behind a veneer of flirtation, bravado and alcohol.

“Did she say what he’d been doing?”

“No, but he’s a Navy SEAL.” His occupation pretty much spoke for itself.

Macy whistled along with the kettle. “Oh my. No wonder your nipples keep doing the happy dance. They don’t come any hotter than that.”

“Or any more arrogant,” Jenna said as she scooped the chamomile tea into the steeper.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Macy said as she poured the hot water in. “I’ve heard alpha guys like that can be very task-oriented when they set their mind to it. Especially in the bedroom.”

Jenna winced as she nearly dumped the scalding tea down the front of her. “Have you not been living here for the past three months? The last thing I need in my life is to get involved with another man. Especially one who exudes testosterone like Lieutenant Commander Drew Lanham. I don’t care if his eyes are all like
tell me your secrets
and his mouth is sending out sonar to my tongue. Or that his body looks like it was meant for a blind woman to learn Braille on it.”

Too late, she realized she’d said all that out loud. Macy looked as though her panties might ignite right there in the kitchen.

“Wow. If you’re not interested, can I have him?”

The sound of the doorbell saved her from shouting out the “No!” that had risen to the back of her throat.

Both women looked at one another warily. “It’s ten thirty,” Macy said. “Who could that be?”

“Maybe it’s Kristin,” Jenna said as she headed for the door. Their friend, Kristin Largent, was an artist with a gallery in town who worked when the mood suited her. She often got consumed in her work, losing track of time and would stop by the beach house at odd hours. “She’s been working on a new Christmas ornament for the Center to use as a fundraiser. No doubt she just finished and wants me to see it right away.”

Jenna pulled open the door, but it wasn’t Kristin on the other side.

“Do you always open your door this late at night without asking who it is?”

She nearly spilled her tea a second time at the sight of Drew leaning against the porch railing as if he belonged there. Looking dark and dangerous in a pair of form-fitting Levis and a black hoodie with USNA emblazoned across the front, Drew met her stare head on. His expression was hard to make out on the darkened porch, especially with his delicious five o’clock shadow enhancing the bad boy persona. But one glance into his green eyes and Jenna feared Macy’s panties weren’t the only ones in danger of spontaneously combusting.

“Yum,” her roommate whispered at her shoulder. It was enough to rouse Jenna to her senses.

“What are you doing here?” Jenna asked a little abruptly.

He settled in against the railing, crossing his sneaker-clad feet at the ankles. “Apparently I’m here to give you ladies a clinic on self-protection.”

“Oh, I’m so up for that,” Macy murmured.

Jenna huffed in aggravation at both of them. “We’re perfectly able to protect ourselves. This is Magnolia Bay. Everyone knows everyone else here. It’s quite safe.”

“Tell that to the house full of frat boys at the end of the block who are just looking for trouble. Two beautiful women alone on a secluded end of the bay might sound pretty attractive to them after a couple rounds of beer pong.”

Macy sighed beside her. He was being ridiculous and her roommate was buying it hook, line and sinker. While she had to agree the college boys renting the bungalow up the street were a bit of a nuisance some nights, she didn’t feel threatened by them. Not as threatened as her senses felt around Drew.

She finally found the gracious charm her mother had paid so dearly for. “Thank you so much for your concern. We’ll be sure to lock the door securely now. Good night.”

“What are you doing?” Macy hissed as Jenna began to close the door right in Drew’s face, extinguishing his unsettling green-eyed stare.

He moved so quickly she barely saw him insert a muscular shoulder before she could get the door closed, though. “Not so fast.”

Jenna leaned her forehead against the doorjamb in frustration.
God, how she wanted this day to be over
. She didn’t want to think about the awful lunch, or Perry and his fiancée. Or the larger-than-life man with the beautiful eyes standing two inches from her. The problem was she didn’t think she’d be able to get Drew out of her mind even when she closed her own eyes tonight. The scent of him filled her nostrils and that aroused her even further. He smelled like the ocean, salty and fresh as though he’d just come off the beach. She mustered up the remains of her courage and tried once again to get rid of him.

“Look, I know you think I’m part of some crazy plot to steal money from your godmother, but nothing could be further from the truth. I love and respect Miss Evie tremendously. I’m happy to show you the plans for the hatchery that
she
helped to develop. Just not tonight. So maybe you could dial back the military hit man thing you’ve got going and let me go to bed now.”

Drew groaned softly, his warm breath fanning her cheek. “As much as I find the idea of you in bed pretty damn enticing, I’m not here about that. At least not tonight.”

Macy chuckled, reminding Jenna that they weren’t alone. She took a step back, opening the door wider. Drew moved to fill the space with his massive shoulders, a triumphant grin on his face.

“Ahem,” Macy whispered and Jenna forced herself not to roll her eyes.

“Macy, this is Lieutenant Commander Lanham,” Jenna said. “Drew this is Macy Hallis, my roommate.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Macy said, the picture of politeness, in sharp contrast to Jenna’s hit-or-miss manners.

Drew gave Macy his most charming smile. “The pleasure is all mine.”

Macy peeked out of the door to look behind him. “Oh, please tell me there are more of you waiting outside.”

His laughter bounced off the walls and Jenna felt both her arousal and anger ratchet up at the same time. If he’d come here to flirt with Macy, she was definitely going to bed right now. Alone.

Jenna crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Why are you here, Drew?”

Drew fixed his stare back on Jenna. His nostrils flared and his expression hardened, making Jenna feel a little dizzy. “Turtles,” he finally said. “And by turtles, I mean a three hundred pounder that’s beached itself just beneath the bluff behind Aunt Evie’s.”

Jenna pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, quickly scanning it for any texts from the local police or Fish and Wildlife. Turtles didn’t strand themselves too often in areas that were as densely populated as Magnolia Bay. But when they did, she or another member of the team of biologists researching the behavior of sea turtles was dispatched to gather some basic tissue samples. They would be analyzed in the turtle center laboratory and the results are then shared with the National Fish and Wildlife Service. Seeing no texts, she slipped into her Sperry’s that were lined up beside the front door.

“Dead or alive?” she asked.

“Oh, no. I’m not the scientist here. I didn’t get close enough to find out. I figured that’s a job for the turtle goddess.”

Macy chuckled before taking a sip of her tea to hide the sound.

“Don’t tell me a big bad Navy SEAL is scared of a sea turtle?” Jenna couldn’t resist teasing him right back while she pulled a chambray shirt over her cotton tank top. “Was it tagged?”

“Tagged?”

“She means was there neon spray paint on its back,” Macy explained. As a native to Magnolia Bay, she knew the protocol as well as Jenna did. Once a team member had gathered the necessary samples, the turtle was tagged with a swipe of spray paint and left to be disposed of via the circle of life.

“No.”

“Then it hasn’t been reported. The tide will be at its lowest for another hour. I should get out there before something else gets a hold of it.” Jenna grabbed her keys out of the ceramic bowl Kristin had made for them last Christmas. She scooped up her backpack with the other hand. “Tell me again where it is?”

“I’ll do better than that, I’ll show you.” He steered her toward a Jeep Wrangler Jenna recognized from Miss Evie’s extensive collection of cars that she never drove.

“You two kids have fun,” Macy called cheekily from the porch.

“Lock the door behind you,” Drew commanded as he slid into the driver’s seat and cranked the ignition.

Jenna gripped the handrail tightly. As she suspected he would, Drew drove full throttle down toward the sandy beach. “I always wondered why Miss Evie had a Jeep. Is it yours?”

“My brother’s.”

The wind carried away the loud music from the party going on at the bungalow until the only sound in the late night air was the Jeep’s engine and the crash of the waves.

“I’m still trying to figure out why Miss Evie never mentioned you. Or your brother.”

He took his eyes off the road to give her a smug grin. “Parents, too. Contrary to what you might think, I’m not some military machine sent from the future.”

“Actually, I have only your word on that, don’t I?”

His rich laughter filled the night air as he drove the jeep over the small embankment and onto the sand.

*

Forty minutes later
Drew held up the lantern he’d found in the back of the Jeep and watched as Jenna peeled off a pair of latex gloves then sealed them up in a plastic bag. She’d carefully collected samples from the turtle’s muscles and skin as well as the flipper bone. Because the turtle had only been dead a few hours, she said, it was necessary to take samples from its eyes, lungs, kidneys and other organs.