“Only if you want to tell me.”
Her son wiggled his finger and whispered, “Come closer.”
She bent closer.
“Tyler told me that Matt likes you.” Austin giggled.
“Does he now?” She had already figured that one out for herself. Why else was the man sitting at her table drinking coffee and playing hot rods with her son?
Austin nodded. “Tyler heard his mommy say it to Hunter's mommy.”
“Well, they must know.” She brushed a lock of her son's brown hair off his forehead. “What do you think about Matt liking me?” In the two years since the divorce had become final, she had never mixed her dates with her personal life. Matt was different. There was no separating him from Austin. Without Rosemary there, she had Austin with her twenty-four/seven.
“Matt fixed my car and he's taking us fishing.” Austin smiled as he snuggled into his pillow. “I like Matt.”
“So do I, hon. He's a very nice man.” She kissed her son's cheek. “Now get some sleep. You had a busy day.”
“Night, Mom.” Austin's voice sounded sleepy, but she knew he was thinking about all the adventures with Tyler to come.
She headed for the door, and turned out the light, “Night, hon.” A night-light near the bed gave Austin enough light to see by, if he needed it. She closed the door until there was only an inch or two of space and grinned.
So Matt liked her.
The first thing she noticed was Matt wasn't in the kitchen, the glass part of the sliding door to the back patio was open, and someone had turned on the patio light. She looked out back and spotted Matt sitting on the swing enjoying the moonlight and the cool breeze. He should have looked ridiculous sitting on the flowered seat cushion, under the matching canvas awning.
Kathy Albert had a thing for pink flowers. The master bedroom was done in pink, and the living room couch was a solid burgundy, and the two matching chairs had a pink flower print. Even the outdoor furniture was different shades of pink. One had to wonder what her husband thought about Kathy's decorating choice.
The thing was, Matt didn't look silly sitting there surrounded by all those bold Hawaiian flowers and banana leaves. He looked seductive as all get out. The bright print highlighted his masculinity. The one quality Matt oozed was virility. Matt was what one called a man's man.
This made her attraction toward him seem strange. She usually wasn't tempted by the rugged, outdoors type of man. Business suits, luxury cars, fine restaurants, and tickets to the latest sellout show were her usual dates. Not barbecues where kids fed the dog under the table, conversations that went from hunting to diaper rash, and pickup trucks. Every male Porter owned a pickup truck. Their wives drove big hulking SUVs filled with car seats, baby paraphernalia, and sporting equipment.
The Porters weren't in her usual social circle, but she liked their laid-back, unpretentious style. Tonight she had barely spoken half a dozen sentences with her date. She was too busy keeping up with his family and laughing at their antics.
It could be all the fresh ocean air that was making her act out of character. Or maybe it was the relaxing pace of the town, or the fact she was on vacation.
Or maybe it was Matt Porter.
With that thought in mind, she stepped out back and softly closed the screen behind her. If Austin got up, they would hear him. The night seemed too perfect to miss. Taking the clue from Matt, she sat next to him on the swing.
“All tucked in?”
“For now.” She liked how Matt always seemed interested in her son. Most of her dates didn't even know she had a child, unless it came up somewhere in the conversation during the evening. “I won't be surprised if he gets up, though. He's awfully excited.”
“About?” Matt started the swing gently swaying.
“EverythingâTyler, the way you fixed his car, our upcoming fishing trip. You name it, and Austin wants to talk about it.”
“Is that good?”
“Yes, it's good and different.” She leaned back, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the quiet of the night. Matt was easy to talk to, easy to be around. “I work a lot of hours, so we don't usually get a lot of one-on-one time together.” She was beginning to wonder if that was a mistake. Rosemary was great with Austin, but she wasn't his mother. She was, and she was never around much for her son. Did that make her a bad mother? “This is our first really long vacation together, just the two of us.”
Matt's arm slid across the back of the swing. “How long has Austin's father been out of the picture?”
“Our divorce has been final for over two years. Jake and I are still great friends. I know it seems odd, but there it is.” She and Jake had been friends long before they became lovers and had gotten married. “Jake and I make better friends than husband and wife.”
“Is Jake remarried?” There was a quiet curiosity in Matt's voice.
“Jake's married to his job.” So was she, in a way. Or at least she had been until Austin came along. Her father wouldn't, or couldn't, believe a woman could take over the company, so Jake was his handpicked and trained heir apparent. She was an only child. It made perfect sense to everyone that Jake and she get married and keep it all in the family. So they had, and learned it took more than friendship and a child to keep a marriage together. It took love.
“I heard you tell my mother and Norah that you're an expert expediter. What do you do?”
“Well”âshe chuckledâ“that is a pretty good description of what I do. You need something, I get it. There's a problem, I solve it. I'm a jack-of-all-trades, and I move around and slide into any spot that needs a helping hand. I have a degree in business management.” She had a fancy title in the Randall Corporation. Being the boss's daughter gave her a vice presidency, a nice salary, and huge perks, but there was one major drawback. She took her orders from and reported to her father. Dad gave her busywork, most of it unchallenging and boring. She should have left the corporation years ago, but she wanted to prove to her father that she could handle his job.
She needed to prove it, both to herself and to her father. She was strong and capable, and she had guts when it came to being a business kind of woman. She wasn't like her mother, who had been sweet, dependent on her husband, physically frail, and emotionally fragile.
So far Sierra had taken every assignment and done it to the best of her ability. She hadn't failed once and usually had succeeded beyond her and everyone else's expectations. Her father was constantly praising her and sometimes she received a nice bonus in her paycheck. But she never could figure out if he was doing it because of a job well done or because she was his daughter.
“I'm sure Norah and the rest of the family really appreciate what you're doing with the wedding and all, but you don't have to do it, Sierra. You're supposed to be on vacation. Austin and you should be relaxing and enjoying yourselves. Somehow I feel responsible for putting all of this on you.”
She opened her eyes and looked at Matt. He was serious. “You didn't make me do anything.” She shook her head at the absurdity of it. “I want to help, Matt.”
“Really?”
“Really.” She turned in the seat and brought her legs up under her. “This to me is fun, Matt. Austin and I are really enjoying ourselves. Where else can we go mermaid watching, cook marshmallows over a grill, and get to go fishing at Sunset Cove? Which by the way, I never heard of.”
For the first time, she felt appreciated for what she could do, and not because her father was Lucas Randall, the owner of the Randall Corporation, which owned and operated a string of luxury hotels across America. “Norah and her mom, with all your family's help, could pull this wedding off without a hitch, Matt. I'm not kidding myself, thinking they need me. But right now, for them, it's like not being able to see the forest because of the trees.”
“Trees? What do trees have to do with a wedding?”
“It's a metaphor. The forest is the wedding, the trees are everything that has to get done to pull off that wedding. Men don't understand it, but it's a complicated business, getting married.”
Matt chuckled. “If you say so.”
“I say so.” Her wedding to Jake had taken nine months of intense planning and had been Lianna's first high-society wedding. It had been the make-or-break wedding of Lianna's career, and her best friend had pulled it off beautifully. The reception had been a little harried, with Lianna being the wedding planner and the maid of honor. Her college roommate had managed to give her father, the man footing the bill, the wedding of his dreams while keeping Sierra's taste in mind.
“Oh, and tourists don't know about Sunset Cove. It's the town's secret, so let's keep it that way.” Matt gave her that teasing little-boy smile that tugged at her heart.
“Why is it a secret?”
Whom could I possibly tell about the secret cove? The only ones in town I know and are friendly with are the Porters, and they obviously know about it already.
“We need a place that isn't overrun by tourists and commercialism. If visitors find out about the cove, they'll want rowboat and kayak rentals, a snack stand, and guided hikes along its trails. There's a couple of local residents who live right on the cove. They don't need or want strangers walking through their yards scaring away the wildlife and trampling their gardens.”
She cringed. “Point taken. Is it hard living in a tourist town?”
“I wouldn't classify Misty Harbor as a sightseeing mecca. We get nice flow-through traffic, usually in the summer months. If you take into account all the inlets, coves, and bays, Maine has over three thousand miles of coastal land. Plenty of space to keep all the tourists happy.”
“I take it you're not impressed with rich visitors who like to open their wallets and boost the economy?” She could hear it in his tone. The kind of visitors Randall Hotels catered to.
“You couldn't pay me to live in Bar Harbor. Most of the stores close up in October and don't reopen till May, plus the traffic is horrendous.” Matt gave the swing another push. “None of the shops in Misty Harbor close and lock their doors come fall, and we have only a few snowbirds.”
“Snowbirds?”
“Residents who live here during the nice months, and then head south for the winter. Living in a town full of empty houses all winter would be depressing.”
“That it would.” She hadn't thought about that aspect. “I also noticed that there aren't too many places to stay in town. I stumbled upon the Alberts' house rental by sheer luck on the Internet. Walking around for the past week, I saw only three bed-and-breakfasts and the Motor Inn.”
“That's more than enough rooms to accommodate a few tourists.”
The way Matt was talking, one would get the idea that sightseers were the enemy. “So there are no plans in the works for a major renovation of the downtown area? No splashy hotels? No dance clubs and bars?”
Matt snorted. “Misty Harbor's chief income comes from fishing. If you block up the harbor with fancy yachts, and crowd our shoreline with hotels, nightclubs, and millionaires' mansions, how will the residents survive? Sure, a few of the more enterprising souls would get rich, but the majority of the town would suffer. Taxes, to pay for all the improvements and expansion, will go through the roof. Property values will skyrocket. Over half our citizens are having a hard time meeting their tax obligations now. They would have no choice but to sell their homes, and possibly their businesses.”
“I see you've been giving this some thought.” And she obviously needed to give it a lot more. Her father was expecting a report by the end of August on Misty Harbor and its potential to support a Randall Hotel.
“Thinking is free.” Matt moved an inch closer. “There is one good thing about all those tourists and sightseers flowing in and out of town.”
“What's that?” She could tell by the warmth of Matt's smile she was going to like his answer.
“It brought you and me together.” Matt leaned in and lightly kissed her.
She felt the warmth of his lips and wanted more. Matt's gaze was screaming heat. She wanted that heat. For days she had been thinking about their first kiss. It was inevitable that they were going to kiss. She had known that since sitting across from him at the Methodist church eating spaghetti. They had been surrounded by his family and half a dozen kids, and all she could think about was kissing Matt. She had almost gotten that kiss in his mother's kitchen early this evening. Matt had been a breath away from taking her into his arms when Ned had ruined the moment.
“Is that how they kiss in Maine?” Austin put more
oomph
into one of his kisses.
Matt slowly shook his head and smiled. “No, I didn't want to frighten you off.”
“I'm not running, Matt.” Just to prove her point, she slid the tip of her tongue over her lower lip.
Matt's gaze follow its path. “Where exactly did you say you were from?”
“I didn't.” She had never gotten around to explaining her hectic lifestyle to Matt. “But we flew in from San Diego, California, if that helps.”
“Ah . . . ,” whispered Matt as he reached over, picked her up, and placed her right on his lap. “That explains the tan.”
Sierra wrapped her arms around his neck, either for balance or to bring herself closer. She didn't know which. She didn't care. “You got something against tans?”
“Yeah.” Matt tilted up her chin until their mouths were perfectly aligned.
“What?” Her gaze was locked on his lips, so she saw his answer more than she heard it.