Sea of Dreams (The American Heroes Series Book 2) (3 page)

“Mommy!” Crosby had a mouth full of ice cream. “Can we do movie night?”

Blakesley looked to her daughter, thoughts shifting from her depression to the posters they had seen in the hotel lobby for a kids’ movie night hosted by the hotel.  It was some Disney movie that the girls had seen five hundred times, but they still wanted to go.  During the summer months, the hotel hosted the movie night for kids so their parents could have a few hours of kid-free time.  There was face-painting and games.  She looked at her watch.

“Do you really want to go?” she asked, noting the time.

Crosby and Cadee nodded vigorously.  “Please,  Mama?” Cadee begged.

Blakesley sighed, nodding her head. It would be something fun for the girls to do, and Lord knew they needed it.  So much of their young lives, as of late, had been serious and depressing. So she woke Charlotte up, who very much wanted to see the Princess movie again, and told the waiter she would return.  Blakesley walked the girls through the sumptuous hotel lobby and over to the KidTopia recreation center where other kids were gathering, signing them in for the movie night. 

Leaving the girls hadn’t been particularly easy. She stood there and watched them integrate with the other children that were running around, feeling some separation anxiety but fighting it.  The girls were already having a good time so she wandered back out to the patio restaurant and sat by the fireplace, feeling the heat from the golden flames lick at her as she gazed up at the darkening sky.  She’d never felt more alone in her life.

“At the risk of using an over-used line, is this seat taken?”

The voice came from behind her.  Blakesley wasn’t even sure the question was meant for her until she realized there was no one else within ten feet of her.  Startled, she looked over her left shoulder to see who had asked the question.

Beck stood about five feet away, smiling at her, and Blakesley’s jaw dropped with surprise.  He was in street clothes, jeans and a white collared shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and looking completely different from when they had met earlier in the day.  The truth was that she probably wouldn’t have recognized him on the street, except he had a smile that lit up the room.  It was all teeth and brilliance - she definitely recognized the smile.  Closing her agape mouth, she looked around just to make sure there wasn’t someone else he was speaking to.

“Are you talking to me?” she asked, grinning.

His smile grew. “I am,” he made his way towards her, looking somewhat timid. “I was driving by the hotel and thought I’d stop to see how your daughter was doing after her brush with death.”

Blakesley realized she was feeling giddy again at the sight of him. She was so shocked and pleased that she almost didn’t know what to say.

“She’s fine,” she assured him, looking at him with a mixture of curiosity, suspicion and pleasure. “How in the world did you find me?”

He threw a thumb back in the direction of the hotel entry. “I was at the front desk about to ask them if they could call your room for me when I saw you walk through the lobby.  I followed you out here.”

“Oh,” she accepted his explanation.  “I just dropped the girls off at a movie night gig.  The hotel has activities and face painting for the kids.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Want to get your face painted? You’d look great with a big butterfly on your nose.”

He laughed. “I’ll have to pass, but thanks.”

She laughed because he was, her gaze lingering on him. “It’s really sweet of you to check on Cadee. You didn’t have to.”

He shrugged. “No problem,” he said. “No ill effects?”

“None that I can see,” Blakesley shook her head. “She was eating like a pig earlier. Do you want to see her for yourself?”

He shook his head, waving her off. “No, that’s not necessary,” he said. “If you say she’s fine, I believe you.  Let her watch her movie.”

Blakesley nodded, smiling as they slipped into awkward silence now that the surprise of his appearance had faded.

 “Uh… well, it was really sweet of you to check in on her,” she said again. “She’ll be sorry she missed you.”

His green eyes glimmered at her, reflecting the light from the patio fire pit. “I’m just glad she’s okay,” he said, feeling the same awkwardness that she was but he had no intention of leaving.   “So… how’s Mom doing after the wave fiasco?”

Blakesley laughed softly. “Fine,” she said. “Although I will admit, it freaks me out every time I think about what would have happened if you guys hadn’t come to our rescue. I’ll admit I’m not a very good swimmer.”

His easy smile broadened. “Now that you’re living in California, you’ll have to learn.”

She waved him off.  “I was born and raised in California, so that has nothing to do with it,” she told him. “I’m from Los Angeles. I just never liked swimming very much. I was always one of those girls who would rather look cute on the beach than get my hair wet; hence, I never really learned how to swim very well.”

He was warming to the conversation, thrilled that the initial awkwardness had passed.  Maybe if she warmed enough, too, she would ask him to sit next to her. “I get it,” he pretended to be wise to her. “You were the girl that all the boys wanted to pick up on.”

She feigned outrage for a few seconds before breaking down in giggles. “That sums it up pretty well,” she said, sighing heavily. “Oh, let’s face it; I was a vain little witch.  Now I try and raise my daughters to be the opposite.  Girls like me always seemed to attract the worst kind of men.”

By the time she finished, her smile was gone and, embarrassed, she turned back for her chair if only to give herself something to do.  She’d said too much and was feeling humiliated for it.  She pointed to the chair next to her.

“Can you sit for a minute?” she asked, purely to change the subject. “Are you in a hurry?”

“No.”

“I’d love to buy a drink for the man who saved my child’s life.”

He’d been waiting for that invitation since the moment he arrived and gladly took the seat next to her, although he didn’t want to seem too eager so he tried to be casual about it. He was so casual that he ended up stumbling into the chair and trying not to look like an idiot in the process.

“Thanks,” he said, hoping she didn’t notice that he tripped over his feet. “Are you sure I’m not interrupting anything?”

 “Not at all,” she assured him, waving over the waiter. “Like I said, they’re at movie night. I have at least two hours to kill until I have to pick them up.”

“Are you sure you want company? I mean, I really didn’t come here to interrupt you. You said you were on vacation so maybe you just want to chill without chatting it up with a stranger.”

It seemed to her that he was a bit nervous.  She could tell just by the way he was rambling.  The big, beefy Navy man was actually nervous and she suppressed a smile.  She was thrilled, of course, but she also decided to have a little fun with him.

“So…,” she leaned forward on the table, folding her hands and looking at him seriously. “You were just driving by the hotel and decided to come in and see how Cadee was?”

He was sucked in by her big bluish-green eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

He answered as if he was facing an inquisitor and the smile she had been trying to hide was threatening to burst forth. “Where were you going?”

“How’s that?”

“I asked you where you were going when you were driving by the hotel. You said you were driving by.  Surely you were going somewhere unless you were just driving aimlessly.”

“I wasn’t driving aimlessly, ma’am.”

“Where were you going?”

“It’ll cost you a drink to find out, ma’am.”

She did grin, then.  The waiter was standing next to the table and Beck ordered a domestic beer.  When the waiter went off to fetch it, Beck returned his attention to Blakesley.

“Until my drink arrives and you get the answer to your question,” he lifted an eyebrow at her, “I get to ask some of my own.”

Her eyebrows rose in mock outrage. “What?”

“You heard me. I’m reserving my right to ask questions, too.”

She sat back in her chair and collected her wine, biting a grinning lip. “All right,” she agreed. “Go for it.”

“You said you’re from Los Angeles?”

“Born and raised in Pasadena.  I was on the Tournament of Roses Rose Court in 1993.  If you don’t believe me, look it up.  I was Princess Blakesley Amelia Thorne.” She presented a much practiced Rose Parade wave complete with the stiff cup-shaped hand and swiveling wrist.

A faint grin played on his lips. “I would believe that implicitly,” he agreed. “You definitely look like a princess.”

She smiled, flattered. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he sat forward, folding his enormous hands on the table top. “But I’m not finished yet. Pasadena isn’t a bad town; why’d you move down to San Diego?”

Her smiled began to fade and she took a sip of her wine.  Beck watched her, thinking that maybe that hadn’t been the right question.  He’d been so excited about sitting at the same table with her that maybe he had been too overbearing.  Maybe he had asked a question with too personal an answer.

“Sorry,” he said softly. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

She looked at him, forcing a smile. “It’s not that,” she said, somewhat subdued. “It’s just a complicated answer.”

His smile returned. “Like I said, you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to,” he said, rather eager to change the subject. “So… what do you do for a living, Mrs. Masterson? Is that a safe question?”

Her smile turned genuine and she laughed softly.  “It’s Blakesley Thorne. I took back my maiden name after my divorce,” she said, “and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Should I guess?”

She laughed again. “You can try.”

He pretended to think. “A super model?” he watched her giggle and shake her head. “A pediatrician? A spy?”

“No, not even close,” she shut him up. “When I was in college, I started cleaning offices at night for money.  It worked with my schedule and paid well.  I started getting more and more clients just by word of mouth, so much so that I started employing my friends to take the jobs I just didn’t have time to do.  Eventually, I grew the business into one of the most successful industrial janitorial companies in the state.  I sold it last year so I could pursue my dream.”

He was listening intently. “What’s your dream?”

She smiled bashfully. “My college degree wasn’t in business,” she admitted. “It was in Art. I paint. I want to open my own art gallery.”

He was staring at her.  After a moment, he simply shook his head. “That’s a pretty amazing story,” he said. “You’re telling me that you built a big janitorial business and you weren’t even a business major?”

She nodded. “Weird, huh?” she sipped at her wine again. “I sold it to a national chain for a lot of money, at least enough to keep me comfortable the rest of my life. I was lucky.”

He wriggled his eyebrows in agreement, in surprise, as the waiter brought his beer. “So you moved down here to open your art gallery?”

“I’d really like to. I’m going out with a real estate agent next week to look at some storefronts.”

His intense green eyes were warm on her, inspecting her, digesting her life and dreams as she explained them.  He held up his glass of beer to her. “I think it’s great that you can live your dream,” he said sincerely. “Good luck on your art gallery.”

She lifted her wine glass, smiling as she clinked it against his. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “I really hope it works out.”

He took a big gulp of beer, savoring it. “If you have as much talent for art as you do for business, then you shouldn’t have a problem.”

She shrugged modestly, glancing at him and realizing he was studying her intently.  From the moment he had appeared, his eyes had never left her, but his manner wasn’t threatening or lecherous. It was kind, curious, and very interested. His expression was enough to make her cheeks grow warm and her heart started doing that weird fluttering thing again.

“So…,” she sipped at her wine, looking away and hoping he didn’t see that her cheeks were flushing. “Now that I’ve bought and paid for you for the price of a beer, you’re going to answer my questions.”

His easy grin returned as he regarded her. “Ask away.”

“Were you really just driving by the hotel tonight?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you have someplace else to go and just happened to stop by?”

He sighed heavily, but not without a huge grin on his face. Suddenly, he couldn’t seem to look her in the eye as he fidgeted with his glass.

“What’s the penalty for perjury?” he wanted to know.

She bit her lip to keep from laughing. “I’ll take my fork and stick it in your eyeball.”

He burst out laughing. “Ouch,” he moved the silverware out of her reach. “In that case, I’ll tell you the truth. But swear you won’t laugh.”

“I won’t.”

He took another deep breath and fixed her in the eye. “No, I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” he told her. “I came here tonight because I wanted to see how your daughter was. That was a scary experience for a little kid.  But I also… oh, hell, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I guess I have nothing to lose now so I might as well.  What I really wanted was to see you again and hopefully get the chance to ask you to dinner.”

Blakesley waited for more of an explanation, but it was apparent he was finished. His rationalization was all packaged up neat and tidy.  She lifted her eyebrows at him.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“You came to ask me out?”

“I was hoping to.”

“But you don’t know the first thing about me.”

He shrugged.  “I know you’re about five feet and a couple of inches, you have beautiful hair and the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen,” he threw caution to the wind. “You said you didn’t have a husband, so I thought… oh, God, now I’m starting to feel stupid, but I thought maybe you’d let me take you out.  If you’re not interested, I totally understand. No harm in asking, I guess.”

She just looked at him, a smile playing on her lush lips.  “Let me get this straight,” she was deeply flattered but couldn’t resist teasing him. “You’re telling me that based on the five minute conversation we had on the beach today, a conversation that wasn’t under the best of circumstances, that you want to take me out?”