The Wrong Mr. Right (The Queen's Cove Series #2)(8)

The door opened and a family with three teenagers entered the surf shop.

“We’re here for our surf lesson,” the mom told me, beaming with excitement, and I grinned back at her.

“Cool. Welcome.” I gestured at Carter beside me. “Carter’s going to help you out. Have fun, it’s a great day out there.”

Carter strolled out and clapped his hands. “Alright, Hathaway family! Are you ready to hang loose?”

I snorted and headed to the back to change out of my swim shorts. I had already hung my wetsuit out to dry on the railing behind the shop. The family would be struggling into their wetsuits in the change rooms for at least twenty minutes so I opened the back door and changed out of my suit there. No one ever came back behind the shop except employees and this morning, it was just Carter and I.

I pulled my shorts off and tossed them over the railing beside my wetsuit. I was buck naked as I reached for my bag.

I heard a soft gasp behind me.

Hannah Nielsen stood with wide eyes and an open mouth, staring at my bare ass. She blinked three times before her face turned bright pink and she whirled around.

I bit back a laugh. Poor Hannah looked like she had seen a ghost. A naked ghost. Amusement pulled at my mouth.

Hannah was my sister-in-law Avery’s best friend. Emmett’s wedding last year was a fun party, and the guy seemed happy. The whole marriage and long-term commitment thing wasn’t for me. Everything in the universe was temporary, including relationships and love, but if Emmett wanted to dive in head first, it was his life.

Hannah was a witness at their wedding, and we had gone to the same schools growing up here, but yesterday in her bookstore was the longest exchange we’d ever had. Not for lack of trying on my part, though. Hannah was afraid of her own shadow and something about me seemed to make her nervous.

Her mortified expression yesterday as I read the orc erotica flashed into my head and my grin widened.

I unzipped my bag at a leisurely pace. “Something I can help you with?”

“Why are you naked?” Her voice was a squeak.

“I was taking off my swimsuit. Why were you staring at me naked?” I grinned and pulled a pair of boxer briefs on. I could see the blush on the back of her neck from ten feet away.

“I didn’t mean to see you naked. Carter said you were back here.”

“You can turn around, I’m not naked anymore.”

She tilted her head first, shooting a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure I wasn’t lying, before she relaxed. Her gaze lingered on my chest, though, like yesterday in her shop.

I bit back a laugh. Avery’s shy, quiet little friend, checking me out. Who would have thought?

Something stirred in me and I had the urge to push her buttons further. She kept to herself. I never saw her at parties or in the bar, never at the beach on a nice summer day like everyone else. She just stayed in her bookstore.

She didn’t realize it, but she was cute. At my brother’s wedding, she had worn a light blue dress that brought out the color of her eyes. I’d never seen her wear something like that dress, and throughout the night, my gaze kept returning to her, watching how it moved over her skin, how it hugged her ass. Her body was gorgeous, with slight curves and smooth skin.

I’d never thought of her in that way before.

Today, she wore a baggy sweater with sleeves too long for her, jean shorts, and sneakers. Her legs were long and pale, and again I noticed how soft her skin looked.

I shook the thought out of my head. Hannah wasn’t a hookup girl. Hannah was shy and terrified of everything.

Her throat worked and her gaze lingered on my boxers before she blushed again.

“What’s up? Did you get a new shipment of erotica you wanted to show me?”

She shot me a quick, annoyed glance and I rolled my mouth to keep from grinning. She shifted in place. “Do you have an office we can talk in?”

That piqued my curiosity. “My office is winter wetsuit storage right now.”

“Oh.” She swallowed. She was cute, wringing her hands like this. “Never mind, then.” She whirled around.

I admired the curve of her ass as she walked away. I was about to turn to go back inside the shop when she stopped walking, took a deep breath, and stalked back to me, chin in the air and a determined expression on her face.

“I have a proposition for you.”

My mind went to a dirty place. “Well, knock me over with a feather.” A lazy grin tugged at my mouth and my gaze raked over Hannah as I pulled a pair of shorts on over my boxers. Her muscles were so tense and tight. “Quiet little Hannah is going around town asking for sex.”

She choked and her face was so red, it could burst into flames. “I am not going around town asking for sex. I need your help with something.”

I nodded. “Sex.”

Her head whipped around in frustration. “No! Nothing to do with sex. Or, not sex with you.” She shook her head. “Forget the sex part. I need your help with…” She bit her lip, and I raised an eyebrow. “I need your help with becoming—”

“A surfer.”

“No—”

“A homeowner.” This game was fun.

“No—”

“You want to travel more.”

She hesitated. “Yes, but no.”

“You want to enjoy your life, take it one day at a time, fully accept we’re insignificant to the power of the universe, and that we should enjoy every second of our lives without guilt or attachment?”