Down and Out in Flamingo Beach (19 page)

Joya watched the guests make their rounds, stop to make small talk then move on when someone better caught their eye. All in all, it was a highbrow event. The men, for the most part, all wore suits and ties and were accompanied by glamorous women in everything from long flowing skirts to chic short dresses. Everyone's finery had been brought out.

A couple Joya had never seen before approached Kyle.

“Nice to see you out and about,” the man said. He gave Joya a vague smile, nodding in her direction before holding out his hand.

“I'm Dr. Timothy Broderick and this is my wife, Dr. Samantha Chin.”

Joya introduced herself and shook the hand of Dr. Broderick before clasping the slender hand of his Asian wife. She guessed them to be Kyle's colleagues from Flamingo Beach General. The men immediately began conversing leaving the women to find common ground.

“Call me Sam,” Broderick's wife said.

“Sam it is. Take a look at this crowd. I thought I pretty much knew everyone there is to know in town, but a lot of these people are strangers.”

“Yes, I know what you mean.” Sam chuckled and Joya thought she was cool. She didn't seem at all stuck up or impressed with herself as some professionals tended to be. “How did you meet Kyle?” she asked.

“My grandmother is his patient.”

“That lovely woman who owns Joya's Quilts? Duh!” she slapped her forehead. “You're the younger Joya, the granddaughter Granny J speaks so fondly of, who's helping her run the store.”

“You know my grandmother?”

Sam nodded. “Actually, I've bought several quilts from her. I hate to talk shop but do you think that it's too late to order a centennial quilt?”

“Just tell me what colors and your design preference and I'll make it happen. Do you have a particular price range in mind?”

Sam took a business card from her purse and scribbled. She handed Joya the card and Joya glanced at it before tucking it into her own purse.

“Consider it done.”

“I don't know about you,” Sam continued, “but I'm thirsty and these men of ours have forgotten their manners. Let's find a bar or a nice accommodating waiter.” She waved at her husband. “Joya and I are off to find something to drink. We'll be back.”

Joya was halfway across the patio before she spotted Derek. He was speaking to Rowan James and a couple of women hovered on the periphery. He did not see her and although she had no claims on him, it burned her that she might already have so easily been replaced.

“Something wrong?” Sam asked, turning back when she realized Joya's pace had slowed.

“No, I just stopped to say hello to someone I knew,” she lied. “There's a waiter. He's got champagne and that fun-looking citrus drink. Think we can make it over while he's still got drinks on that tray?”

“Wait, there's another tray circulating,” Sam pointed out. “That waitress is a whole lot closer and she's got drinks.”

“Okay, we're on our way.”

But she couldn't shake the black feeling that had descended, and she couldn't help wishing that she'd come to the cocktail party with Derek and not Kyle Benjamin. She took a deep breath and accepted the concoction Sam handed her.

“Should we get something for the guys?” Joya asked.

“Heck, no! Let them find whatever they're drinking. If you noticed, they were so busy talking they forgot to be gentlemen.” Sam took a long drag on her straw. “Ummm, delicious, tastes like there might be some passion fruit mixed in.”

“Yoo hoo, Dr. Chin,” an older woman, one of the town's matrons said, approaching and immediately beginning to ask questions about an upcoming surgery.

Realizing the conversation might go on forever, Joya excused herself and headed back to find Kyle.

D
erek was beginning to think it might have been a mistake to attend this cocktail party. He'd only agreed because Rowan had talked him into it. He'd said it was the perfect place to network and be seen.

But now he was stuck with this woman who was supposed to be his date. The problem was, she didn't have two brain cells to rub together. Rowan had set him up with one of his employees because he'd said it wouldn't be cool to arrive at the mayor's function alone.

Rowan had been forced to come up with a date as well because Emilie Woodward had turned him down flat. Right now Rowan was bristling because he'd spotted Emilie, who'd arrived with a reporter from the
Flamingo Beach Chronicle
.

Derek's date was definitely eye candy but not the brightest bulb in the room. She clutched his arm and was going on about all the important people she recognized and how impressed she was.

She was now telling him of her plan for getting Mayor Rabinowitz's autograph. This called for another drink, Derek decided. He glanced off in the direction of the nearest bar and spotted Joya walking toward him and damn near died. What was she doing here? He hadn't expected her.

Much as he'd tried to ignore it, he missed her. Missed their easy conversation and missed the feel and smell of her warm body next to his. Putting space between them hadn't been all bad though. It had given him time to think. And he'd realized that perhaps he'd been too quick to take Sheena's words as gospel. Based on the number of phone calls she'd made to him since, she clearly wasn't just using him to get her grandmother's shop renovated.

Rather than pouting, sulking and imagining the worst, what he needed to do was have a long-overdue conversation with Joya. Now was as good a time as any. Tomorrow was Nana's party that he'd worked so hard on. He should try to patch things up with Joya prior to that.

Derek wondered if Joya had seen him. If not, the element of surprise was on his side. He practically pried his date's hand off his arm. She had one of those showgirl names like Amber or Solange; he hadn't really been listening closely. What he did know was that she was trying her best to get him into bed.

“Excuse me,” he said leaving her, “I'm going to freshen my drink. Can I get you something?”

“Another margarita might be nice.”

“You got it.” With that he took off.

Joya was still heading in his direction when he crossed paths with her. He was certain with a crowd this size she had not seen him. He loved the touch of the orchid behind her ear. Very Billie. Actually very Joya. And it hit him as though someone had taken a baseball bat to his head. He'd gone and fallen in love with this woman. And he'd sworn to never go there again.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he said, “You never mentioned you were coming when we spoke earlier.”

“Neither did you.”

By her wild-eyed expression she was visibly shaken.

“Had you said something, we could have come together,” Derek said.

Joya took a sip of her drink and pulled herself together. Slowly she appraised him. “I'm sorry, but I'm here with someone.”

So it was like that. “I'm here with someone, too,” Derek answered. “Frankly I'd rather be with you.”

She continued to stare at him.

“May I have your attention,” a voice boomed over a microphone. “In just a few minutes our honorable Mayor Solomon Rabinowitz will kick off our centennial celebration with a state-of-the-beach speech.” The announcer chuckled at his own joke and several guests chuckled with him.

“I need to find my date,” Joya said, preparing to retrace her steps.

“I'll stop by later for Nana's gift and we'll talk then. You took the quilt home with you?”

“Yes, but call me before you come.”

She headed off, trotting right past him. Curious and more than a little jealous, although he would never willingly admit it, Derek looked over to see where she ended up.

A well-dressed man included Joya in his circle. He threw his arm around her shoulder and she laughed up at him. Derek recognized the popular Dr. Benjamin. He wanted to take his head off. He didn't know him personally, but he had heard he was popular with the ladies.

Joya had traded a humble construction worker for a medical doctor. No, he wasn't about to go down that road again and let the old insecurities take over. He was just as good as the next guy and in many ways had more to bring to the table. He could get down and dirty when he needed to, but he cleaned up real well, and could talk the talk. More important he walked the walk.

If Joya wanted a professional guy he could play the role. But first he needed to get things straight with her. He never should have listened to the malicious gossip of a woman who clearly had an ax to grind. He'd acted like an impetuous teenager instead of a grown man. Rather than addressing the situation up front he'd shut down and withdrawn.

People often said and did things they did not mean. He was the perfect example. He had sworn off personal involvements until his business was up and running, and he'd been determined not to get involved with any woman who screamed high-maintenance. And what he'd done was fallen hard for a woman who had nice things and expected to be treated decently. Joya wasn't necessarily greedy. She just thought highly of herself. Nothing wrong with that.

What he thought he wanted was not what he needed. It had taken him forever to realize that.

Derek gazed up at the mayor standing in the middle of his gazebo, red-white-and-blue flags fluttering behind his head. He forced himself to concentrate. Behind him a projection screen flashed an aerial view of Flamingo Beach with the heading, One Hundred Years Old and Still Going Strong.

Change was long overdue. Miriam Young, dubbed the Flip-Flop Momma because of the flip-flops she wore, should have been up there as mayor, not this guy who had been accused of skewing the ballot boxes, spewing rhetoric he thought everyone wanted to hear.

“What a pleasure it is to welcome you here this evening,” Solomon Rabinowitz crowed to the crowd, arms extended as if he were welcoming children to the fold. “Today kicks off the start of a month-long celebration. In a few short weeks Flamingo Beach will celebrate its one-hundredth birthday.”

Applause.

“During those years there have been many changes. We've watched our population grow in leaps and bounds. At the last official count we were up to eighteen hundred, and that figure changes every day as more and more people move into Flamingo Beach.” The mayor opened his arms even wider. “Not many of us can say we lived to the ripe old age of one hundred except maybe Belle Carter, of whom we are all fond and whom some call Nana Belle.” The mayor paused to acknowledge the loud outburst of applause which greeted Belle's name before continuing, “Despite trials, tribulations and hardships, Flamingo Beach has survived and thrived.”

Another wild outburst of applause followed. The crowd, fortified by free drinks, was getting in the mood.

The mayor, figuring he now had the crowd, began to recount the floods of the early nineteen-hundreds which washed away most of the boardwalk and surrounding stilt houses. He talked of a fire in the nineteen-fifties reputed to have been started by the Ku Klux Klan that had taken out a number of the stores on the Row, and how the citizens had banded together, supporting each other during hard times.

“We are survivors,” he said. “I can proudly say that for years this community has remained a community. When others had race riots our citizens stayed aligned, and our children played side by side. We are known as a conservative community, but we are not having the problems others have. Our children can still play outdoors. Your car doors for the most part remain unlocked, and when you see your neighbor on the street you look them directly in the eye and you say ‘hello.' Now I'm turning my microphone over to our auctioneer who'll also announce the winner of the best dressed flamingo in town. Please join me in singing…” Mayor Rabinowitz paused for effect “…Happy Birthday, Flamingo Beach.”

More applause followed. Derek had had enough. He began making his way back to where he'd left Rowan and his date. He had a big day tomorrow and he'd planned on turning in early. But first he had a quilt to pick up. He was going to Flamingo Place even if he had to sit in the parking lot and wait until the doctor dropped off Joya. If she planned on entertaining at home he'd have to be added to the invitation list. They'd wasted enough time.

Derek found his group and told them he needed to leave. A half hour later, still dressed in a business suit, he was parked in a visitor's spot at the condominium waiting for Joya.

He didn't have long to wait. A gray Lexus soon pulled up in front and out of it came Joya. The doctor leapt out and around to hug her in a tight embrace. They stayed that way much too long for Derek's liking, while he was stuck in his truck stewing. Finally they separated, and Dr. Benjamin got back into the driver's seat. Joya waited on the curb waving him off.

Derek was out of his truck in a flash and loping toward her. By the time Joya turned to go inside he was there.

“Whoa, you startled me,” she said clutching her heart.

“I didn't want to risk getting here too late. I know you've had a long day.”

She looked at him with those wide gray eyes of hers. “How long have you been waiting?” Translation, How much did you see?

“Not long.”

The guard at the desk was the same woman he vaguely knew. She raised her head, acknowledging them, and then she lowered it back to her newspaper.

As they rode the elevator Derek asked, “Did you have fun tonight?”

“It was nice seeing so many people I hadn't seen in a while. Did you?”

“Those things might be a necessary evil but they bore me to death.”

It was what they weren't saying, weren't asking that kept things tense.

Joya let them both in and waved him toward the sofa. “Have a seat. I'll get the quilt.”

Derek sat staring out at the bay as colorful fireworks lit up the sky, kicking off the celebration. In that moment he realized he was wasting time being with any women other than Joya. Other women meant nothing to him.

He'd worked hard to put together a party and unless he wanted to attend it alone he'd better start groveling. He'd try once more to clear the air and let the chips fall where they may.

Joya had the quilt draped over her arm when she returned. She checked to make sure the dining-room table was clean before spreading the colorful fabric out.

“Is this what you had in mind?” she asked, as he got out of his seat and came closer to inspect.

Words failed him as he saw Nana Belle's one hundred years come to life in blues, yellows and reds with a little bit of green thrown in for good measure. There Nana was as a baby, and then as a young girl being taught to read by her mother. There was a portrait of her parents, a handsome man and an equally handsome dark-skinned mother.

There was a picture of Nana as a young bride when she'd married her first husband, pictures of the house as it grew, and of the children, more husbands and the arrival of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Important events were all recorded on cloth: births, weddings, celebrations, the passages of life. There was even a picture of him. Derek wondered where Joya had gotten the photo of him in a business suit much like the one he was wearing. The work that must have gone into putting this together…the care that it took. He was choking up. He'd never met such a sensitive and sensual woman.

“Well?” she asked.

She was expecting him to say something. Anything.

“You did good. Nana is going to love it,” he managed and whipped out his checkbook from inside his jacket pocket. “How much do I owe you?”

She named a figure and he squinted at her. “Come again?”

“I told you Granny and I were going to split it with you.”

Derek thought about how to handle this. When they first been negotiating he'd made it clear he didn't want charity. But he didn't want to hurt Granny J's feelings either. The two old ladies were long-time friends.

He wrote out the check and handed it to Joya.

“But this is more than I told you,” she said.

“It would be difficult putting a price tag on the time and care put into making an elderly woman happy. I'm sorry I've not been in touch these last few weeks. Please forgive me.”

“Was there a reason?” Her concerned glance scanned his face. He saw the hurt reflected in the depths of her eyes.

He'd gotten his opening. It was time to be a brave man and step up to the plate.

“I was under the mistaken assumption that you were using me, that your only interest was in getting your grandmother's place fixed,” he said, watching carefully for a change of expression.

“Who told you that?” she asked, her eyes never leaving his face.

“It's not important.”

Joya approached and took his hands, her glance never wavering. “I'm not going to BS you. At first I thought you were not what I wanted. I was attracted to you but fought it every step of the way. I'm not a snob, really I'm not. My reaction was more frustration because I saw in you such potential. I brought old baggage to the situation.”