And Then She Kissed Me

4. Devon

CHAPTER 4

Devon

It’s a challenge to focus on what Zara is saying with Sadie’s gaze burning a hole in the back of my head. I removed myself from the situation as soon as Sam mentioned the word shots. I want to be present for my son tomorrow, not wallowing in the throes of a completely avoidable hangover.

I could only rely on my gaydar when I walked up to Zara, who owns the bakery Suzy used to work for a few years ago—long enough ago for Suzy to never have mentioned to me whether her old boss is gay and single. We seem to bond mainly through our mutual love for body ink, and although I’m getting some signals, I can’t be sure.

“Gosh,” Zara says. “That Sadie Ireland is one attractive woman.”

There’s another clue right there, although I wish it didn’t have to include Sadie.

“She keeps staring our way. Although I’m flattered, it’s a little unsettling.”

“I think all the Irelands have had a bit too much to drink.” I cast a quick glance in Sadie’s direction. She looks more out of it than intently focused on us.

“Speaking of,” Zara says. “Can I get you another?”

I nod. “Just a soda water with lime for me, please.” Someone needs to keep a clear head.

“Coming right up.”

I sit on a chair by the window while I wait for Zara to return. It’s almost fully dark, but I can still make out the ocean. The tide is low and the beach wide and inviting. I hope no one gets any silly ideas before the sun rises again. The allure of the water can be hard to resist, especially when you feel invincible after having a few too many shots.

Zara has struck up a conversation at the bar and it takes a while before she returns. Sadie has gone back to dancing with her brother and sister and a small group of other people. Since having Finn, I’ve become the opposite of a party person and I’ve always, happily, volunteered to babysit him even on weekends when he’s with his dad—whose party days seem to have decreased considerably this past year, since he met Bobby.

I’ve had a chat with Sadie. We have tentative plans to go for coffee soon. I got what I came here for. But there’s the promise of Zara, of course.

“Sorry it took a while.” Zara has returned with two glasses of soda water. “This place is filled with people I used to know.”

“Same here.” I down my water.

“So you’re Suzy’s new boss. Does that mean you’re well acquainted with her sister?”

I chuckle. “I used to be. A long time ago. We went to school together.” For a while there, we were best friends in high school, until my teenage brain read a situation entirely wrong and I ruined everything.

“Technically, I’m only at this party because I’m friends with Suzy. She didn’t work for me for very long and I never got the chance to meet Sam and Sadie. But you know what Suzy’s like.”

“Suzy likes to invite the whole town to everything,” I say.

“As long as she doesn’t have to clean up the day after.”

“Speak of the she-devil.”

Suzy’s dancing her way toward us, holding out her arms. “Come on, you two. And I’m not taking no for an answer. If only for the next five minutes. For the duration of one single song.” She angles her head and pouts.

“I guess we have no choice.” Zara shoots out of her chair and lets herself be dragged onto the dance floor while holding out her free arm to me. I take it, because I might as well. Now that I am at a party, I should make the most of it. And it brings me a little closer to Sadie again—my eternal weakness.

Her dancing is much sloppier than before, her arms flailing wildly. This might be her birthday party, but I don’t think Sadie’s going to make it to the end. In fact, I think someone should walk her home sooner rather than later. Perhaps I can volunteer.

“Do you want to go for a drink somewhere a bit quieter some time?” Zara suddenly shouts into my ear. She has sidled up to me and is gyrating her hips, making it very hard to say no. Not that I have any reason to decline her offer.

“I’d love that.” I send her a wide smile.

“Shall I put my number in your phone?”

I nod and give it to her.

“There you go.” When she hands it back to me, she plants the lightest of kisses on my cheek, making all my previous doubts evaporate. “I can’t stay much longer. Bakers don’t have the luxury of Sunday morning lie-ins.”

I nod my understanding.

“Which is why, for the next ten minutes, I’m going to dance like there’s no tomorrow.” Zara flashes me a toothy grin. “I hope you’ll join me.”

My hips feel a touch rusty when I take it up a notch, but dancing is so inherent to being human that I lose myself in the rhythm in no time. Zara and I give it all we have for the next three songs and the abandon and joy radiating from the dance floor soon has me in a state much like intoxication, minus the alcohol consumption.

Zara and I say our goodbyes and I watch her bid adieu to Suzy, Sam, and then, hesitantly, Sadie, who has drifted to the edge of the dance floor.

I find Suzy, and say, “Maybe you should take Sadie out for some air. She looks like she needs it.”

“Why don’t you take her outside,” Suzy says, the mumbling of her words indicating she could do with some fresh air and a few gallons of water as well.

“Okay. I will.” I’m not about to argue with a drunken Ireland.

I walk over to Sadie and start with a warm smile. “Hey.”

“Oh, hi, Devon. Sam and I were convinced you were about to get lucky.”

I laugh off her comment. I might drop by Zara’s bakery tomorrow. I’m sure Finn will be up for a cupcake. “Looks like I didn’t.”

Sadie sways and, instinctively, I bring my hand to the small of her back to steady her. “How about we go for a little stroll on the beach?” I ask.

Sadie squints at me, then just nods.

On the way out, I ask the man behind the bar for a large bottle of water. Then I join Sadie and we cross the boardwalk to head onto the beach. A few other partygoers have drifted there and are dotted in small groups around us.

I give her the bottle of water and she drinks from it as though she has just completed a marathon through the desert.

“Jesus. Sam and his f*****g shots.” We walk closer to the shoreline. “I can’t handle my liquor the way he does. I’m a Hollywood lightweight. I have no choice.”

I don’t really know what that means, but I give Sadie an encouraging nod.

She stops in her tracks and takes a deep breath. “I live in Malibu, but the beach feels different here. The air smells better. The ocean…” She hands me the bottle and lets herself fall backward onto her behind.

I sit next to her and give her the bottle of water to finish. It will take more than a bit of water to sober her up, but at least it’s a start.

“It’s because you’re home,” I offer. “Everything feels and smells different at home.”

“Where do you live?” She turns her head and looks at me. It’s fully dark now, but her eyes still shine bright.

“Just a few blocks away from the beach.”

Sadie screws the bottle into the sand and leans back on her elbows. “I could never be without the ocean. Long before I could afford my house in Malibu, I drove to Santa Monica almost every day, no matter the ghastly LA traffic, to get a whiff of sea air. When you grow up here, it’s hard to be without…”

“I totally agree.” I know what she means. We have the ocean in our bones. The sound of the waves is part of our DNA. “Do you still surf?”

“How dare you even suggest that I wouldn’t?” She smiles up at me.

“I don’t know. I hear Hollywood’s a crazy place. Surfing’s never without risk. The show must want some assurances about your off-set activities.”

She turns on her side. “God, Dev, you haven’t changed a bit. You’re still the ever-practical, thinking-three-steps-ahead girl you were in high school.”

“I’ve changed plenty.” I draw up my eyebrows.

“Yeah, time tends to do that.” She twists herself away from me and sits up, cross-legged, looking into the dark expanse of ocean in front of us. “Can’t wait to catch some waves.”

“I’m curious to see your moves.”

“I am forty now, of course. I’m not as flexible as I was when I was sixteen, but I have much more experience, which should make up for that.” She turns to me again. “Shall we go out together sometime this week? I can’t wait to see your moves either.”

Because I can’t help myself when it comes to Sadie, my heart does a crazy pitter-patter beneath my rib cage.

“If you’re not too busy with the woman who gave you her number.”

“Here I was convinced you were way too drunk to notice.”

“Yet, I did.” She flashes me a smile, then her face scrunches up. “I think all this water is having an adverse effect on my stomach.”

I’m sure it’s the water, I think, as I leap to my feet and help her up. “Shall I walk you home?”

Sadie doesn’t move and swallows hard a few times. Then she shakes her head. “I don’t want to go to Sam’s. I know my brother better than any other person on this earth and chances are he’s going to arrive home at the c***k of dawn, blind drunk, with a twenty-something girl in tow. I don’t want to wake up to that.” She takes a deep breath.

“Surely he will take into account that you’re staying with him.”

“He won’t. Not tonight. He’s completely wasted already and will not get any less drunk as the night goes on.”

“Shall I take you to Suzy’s? I’ll run back inside to get her keys.”

Sadie stands there swaying in the gentle midnight breeze. She scratches her head. “Do you have a spare room?” she asks.

“Me?” If Sadie stays at my house, I probably won’t be able to sleep a wink. On the other hand, the thought of her being there in the morning, all sober again, is quite exciting. It is, in fact, an irresistible prospect. “Sure. Yeah, you can stay at my house. No problem.”

“Thank you so much.”

“Are you okay to walk? It’s less than ten minutes from the beach, even when carrying a surfboard.”

“Yes, but can I?” She holds out her arm and I offer her mine to hook it through. Arm in arm, we amble off the beach, as though we’ve wound back the clock twenty-four years, and we’re still best friends who’ve sneaked a few secret beers out into the night.

“Good thing you didn’t get lucky,” Sadie says once we’re on the boardwalk. The music from the party blares loudly.

I text Suzy and Sam to tell them Sadie’s in safe hands with me and not to worry about her. “Who says I didn’t?”

Luckily, the booze hasn’t made Sadie’s sense of humor disappear and we both giggle as we make our way to my house.