Anywhere With You Read online

  Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  Copyright © 2017 by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  Cover images used under license from bigstock.com and shutterstock.com

  All rights reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce,

  distribute, or transmit in any form, by any means.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  For all those who feel lost,

  Waiting to be found.

  One

  Shae

  Present

  The glass vibrated beneath my fingertips as the thundering growl that always preceded his appearance rumbled through the air. My heart stuttered in anticipation and I stilled the cloth in my hand to watch as the sleek black and chrome motorcycle cruised down the street and rolled to a stop in front of the shop across the street. He cut the engine and tugged the helmet from his head. Dark, messy locks fell over his brow. He raked his fingers through his hair, sweeping it from his face as his eyes drifted to the window where I stood. Like every day when this happened, a flutter started in my stomach and bubbled its way up like a champagne bottle about to pop; the result was a grin I couldn’t hold back.

  He slid smoothly from the bike, tucking the helmet under one arm and brushing his fingers once more through his unruly hair, trying to tame it. I knew this was a futile effort. He kept it clipped short on the sides, but on top it was long and thick and always looked wild. I loved it, and I loved that it was long enough to really dig my fingers into, and it was softer than any guy’s hair had a right to be. I thought back to last night and how I’d run my fingers through all that hair and over the neatly trimmed beard that covered his jaw.

  Thinking back to last night set my heart racing a little more, and while our eyes were locked across the street that separated us, it felt like my breath was caught in my chest, unable to escape. The corners of his lips turned up in a devastating smile and I unconsciously scraped my teeth over my bottom lip. He held my gaze a moment longer before releasing me with a wink, and providing me with a view of his sculpted backside in those worn jeans as he sauntered into the tattoo shop he owned.

  Just a few months ago, the proximity of his shop to the one I inherited from my grandmother was a bee in my bonnet. Seeing him again that first time had been bad enough, finding out that keeping this shop would mean having to see him every day had nearly led me to sell the place.

  Who would have thought that my reappearance in this town would have led us here? I doubted he foresaw it after the only reconnecting we did my first day back in town was his face with my fist. But sending him to the ER with a broken nose, while satisfying at the time, had done little to ease my anger. Seven years was a long time to hold a grudge we found out.

  I expelled a deep breath and returned to the task I’d started on before he showed up, wiping the cloth in my hand over the glass until it gleamed. A soft chuckle reached my ears. I didn’t bother to glance over my shoulder.

  “Well, one thing I can say for certain, we have the cleanest windows of any shop in town.”

  I didn’t give Lizzie the satisfaction of a response and she didn’t wait for one.

  “I take it things are going well with the Kellen and Shae sequel.” That’s what she’d taken to calling things between Kellen and I since we sort of made up. If that’s what you could call him forgiving me for keeping our child from him and writing about us in a book that I published, and me forgiving him for the events that spurred me to leave town pregnant seven years ago, and then blame him when our son died. Given all that, I suppose things were going well. Better than I could have hoped anyway. So maybe in a way, it was sort of like a sequel, a chance to find a happier ending than before.

  I’d never dared to believe that we’d get this chance with all the years and history between us, but my coming back to town was the first domino. The truths we’d both been keeping secret finally came out, and once the dust from our blow up settled, we both had decisions to make.

  Hold on to the anger and grief and go on hating each other for choices we’d made as scared and hurt teenagers, or forgive and see if the love we’d shared then, the love that still made our feelings burn hot and intense, was enough to heal us both.

  With one last swipe of the cloth over the glass, I turned to Lizzie and shrugged. “I guess.”

  “You guess?” She smirked, knowing better. “Every day at eleven-forty-five, ten-forty-five on weekends, you’re at that window scrubbing away, like we don’t all know what you’re waiting for. You two smile and make heart-eyes at each other across the street, and ten minutes later he comes walking through those doors. You two moon over each other some more. You get him his coffee like some eager Stepford wife. It’s all very sickeningly cute. And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve come home after midnight three nights in a row this week.”

  “We’re talking. We still have a lot to work through.” I tossed the rag down and slipped behind the counter to start a fresh pot of drip coffee brewing, because as much as I wouldn’t admit aloud she was right; Kellen was going to walk through that door in a few minutes and I would have his cup ready.

  “Oh bullshit,” Lizzie laughed. “You might be talking, but that’s not all you’re doing.”

  “Yes, it is.” I grabbed a new filter and filled the pot with water. “Or it was. Until last night.” I bit my lip to hold back the grin that wanted to betray the casual inflection of my words. Before Lizzie could latch onto what I’d said, I hit the switch on the grinder, silencing whatever had been on her tongue. But my tactics only delayed the inevitable momentarily.

  The shop was empty at the moment but for the two of us, and the second the grinder spit out the preset amount of grounds and the shop was quiet again, Liz was all over me, coming around the counter.

  “Spill now! You can’t leave me hanging like that. What happened last night?”

  “He kissed me,” I admitted through a silly, childish grin.

  “Aaand?” When there was no “and” she frowned. “That’s it?” She looked and sounded like she didn’t believe me, but it was the truth. It was only a kiss, and yet it wasn’t.

  “Lizzie, he kissed me,” I emphasized my point. “After more than a month, he kissed me. He hasn’t done more than hold me, but last night he–”

  “Yeah, yeah, he kissed you. And it’s a big deal.”

  She didn’t quite get it, but that was okay.

  “It was like the first time he did it all over again.”

  “You mean when he kissed you in front of your English class?” She got this dreamy look on her face and I knew she was romanticizing our story from the book again.

  “No. I don’t count that as our first kiss. That was … well I still don’t know what that was. I meant when he kissed me in my driveway after t
hat and told me he wanted me to be his. This felt like that.” It felt like I was his again. In truth, I think I always had been, even when I’d wished I could burn the memory of him from my heart and mind. I was never able to, and some part of me had always known my heart, no matter how tattered, would always belong to him. That’s probably why I hated him so much. Last night wasn’t just about the past, though. Last night was about coming back from it all. Last night we took another step forward, toward something new.

  Lizzie sighed, “At least tell me it was one hell of a kiss.”

  “Were you not listening to anything I just said?”

  “Yeah, I get it. It was special and your first kiss in seven years, but I mean, did your toes at least curl? Did your panties go up in flames? Give me something more to work with.”

  I snorted a laugh, “I get it now. Your date with surfer dude not go so well?”

  “No,” she huffed, “but that is not the point. We’re talking about your relationship, not my lack of one.”

  “Uh huh, well I’ve already told you all there is.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second,” she mumbled and then we both turned our heads to the door as the bamboo wind chime clinked and the soft pitch reverberated through the shop. Instead of Kellen striding through the door, it was his sister, accompanied by our friend and my business partner Celia, more affectionately known as Cici, or just Ci to us.

  “Hola chicas!” Ci strutted inside, like her typically effervescent self. From the tips of her hot pink painted toes to her jealousy inducing perfect blonde waves, was all class, sass, and ass. A former stripper, I hadn’t known what to make of her the first time we met. That was shortly before she retired from the stripping biz and we opened Books ‘N’ Brew together. Her somewhat colorful and brazen personality grew on you pretty quickly.

  “Been this quiet all morning?” Glancing around the empty shop, she plopped her pink, Tory Burch handbag on the counter.

  “No, we had a busy morning. Just hit a lull about an hour ago. I expect it to pick up again this afternoon.” Books ‘N’ Brew had done well since we opened last month, but there was always the fear that the new appeal would wear off and business would wane.

  “Numbers for the morning look good though?” Cici was all about the numbers. With a degree in business and accounting, she was definitely more than a pretty face and a nice ass, though she had those going for her as well. She kept our books and took care of the money side while I ran the front of the shop. Lizzie and Trinity helped out where needed.

  Even though the building was mine, and Ci and I were the ones with our names on the paperwork, really this place belonged to the four of us. From day one, they’d all been in on it. I wouldn’t have been able to make this happen without them.

  “I haven’t looked at an overall for the day yet, but I think so.”

  Ci leaned over the counter and hit the keys on the register that would show her the sales totals for the day. Her smile as she read them was a relief. We all wanted this place to be a success, but none of them more than me. Before we overhauled it into a trendy, beachy bookstore and java hut, it was my grandmother’s antiques and gift shop–Didi’s Trinkets. When she died and left it to me, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was let her down.

  “If this keeps up, we can bring on more than one part time hire, and then maybe do something crazy like take a whole day off.”

  “What an idea.” So far, the four of us had managed with very few of those. It was hectic at times and chaos at others as word about us spread. So far, we were a hit. Conway was a part of the Myrtle Beach Metro area. Summer was just kicking off and as more tourists filled the beach town, we expected business would pick up even more, which meant we’d need more help.

  “Maybe you can hang a sign in that sparkling clean window tomorrow,” Cici took her own teasing shot at my daily cleaning routine as well. The other two snickered and I gave her a roll of my eyes. “Speaking of clean windows, where is lover boy? He been in yet today?”

  “No,” Liz answered for me, “but I was just getting all the dirty deets on the two of them from Shae.”

  “Oh, goody. I want details.” Cici leaned over the counter excitedly, chin in her hands. “And I hope they’re extra dirty, those are my favorite kind.”

  “I think I’ll pass.” Trin backed away from the counter, apparently in no hurry to hear what I’d gotten up to with her brother.

  “Don’t worry, it’s all disappointingly PG,” Liz assured her.

  “Nothing about the way Kellen kisses is PG,” I contradicted her.

  “Aha! I knew it! Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  I’d walked right into that.

  I threw my hands up. “We kissed. That’s it. That’s all you’re getting out of me. If you want to live vicariously through someone else’s sex life because surfer boy was a dud, you’re going to need to talk to those two.” I pointed at Ci and Trin.

  “Sadly, I’m not getting any as of late,” Ci sighed wistfully.

  I gave her a roll of my eyes. “Since when? Your life has been a revolving door of hot guys since we met.” Given, that was only two months ago, but still, Ci saw more action than combat soldiers.

  “Not as of late. I haven’t been on a date in like … a month.” Only Ci could make that sound so tragic.

  “What about that firefighter that was in here a couple weeks ago?” He came in every morning for a week straight and asked her out each time. When he stopped showing up, I assumed that meant she’d finally put him out of his misery and they’d had their one night before he was shown out of her condo without a number to reach her at as was customary with all her dates.

  “And then there was the suit,” Lizzie pointed out.

  “And then there was Mr. Power Tools.” Trin waggled her eyebrows as she recalled the hot contractor we’d dubbed for the hardware we knew he had to be packing.

  Ci let out a bored sigh and shrugged. “I passed. None of them really did it for me.”

  I think three sets of brows shot up. “Three hot, successful men, and not one of them did it for you?” Liz asked incredulously. “Next time, pass one my way.”

  “The way you flirted shamelessly, you seemed interested.” I eyed her. It was very unlike her to turn down three attractive, not to mention seemingly decent, guys in as many weeks. For a normal person that was like going without food. “And if you haven’t been on any dates, then who were you out at Porter’s with on Friday?”

  “That wasn’t a date. Luke’s brother was in town and a group of us went out.”

  A grin stretched my lips. “Aha, I think we’re getting to the bottom of your dry spell.”

  She brought her narrowed eyes back to mine. “No. No ‘aha.’”

  Ignoring her, I turned to Liz and Trin. “Could it be she’s finally opening her eyes to what’s right in front of her?”

  The other two wore grins that matched mine, a sharp contrast to the scowl Ci had fixed in place. “I don’t know what you three are smiling about.”

  “Yes, you do. Tall, fair, extremely sexy. Name rhymes with Duke. Is hopelessly into you.”

  She snorted. “Don’t be stupid. We’re friends.”

  “Friends who look like they want to tear each other’s clothes off every time they’re together?”

  She rolled her eyes. “That’s because we’re both hot as fuck, but we would never go there. He’s my best friend and I would never mess that up just for a good lay.” She might be fooling herself, but she wasn’t fooling me.

  “You and I both know if you two ever got down to it, it would be a hell of a lot more than that. He might let you up for air after a few weeks, and only then to put a ring on it.”

  She laughed, though it had a false ring to it. “Don’t be ridiculous. Number one, I don’t want anyone to put a ring on it. I have plans to keep a particular finger ring free for the foreseeable future and into, well, forever.”

  “So, you’re just going to stay single into old maid
hood?”

  “Hey, old people have more sex than porn stars. Those retirement homes–like non-stop orgies. Secondly, I’m the last person Luke would bejewel. In fact, I’m going to tell him what you said and we’ll both get a good chuckle out of it.” I doubted he’d find it as funny as she seemed to think. The way he looked at her, there was no way it was ‘just friends’ on his end. I knew it. The other two knew it, but I was starting to wonder if Ci was the only who didn’t know it.

  “If you say so, but you also just admitted that you’re not getting any lately, so maybe non-stop orgy isn’t in your future either.”

  She shrugged. “Whatever. I’ve just gotten bored with my typical routine lately. I want to focus on this place.”

  I didn’t push. She was complicated. Her and Luke’s weird relationship even more so. Maybe even more complicated than Kellen and me.

  Speaking of complicated … “Sooo,” I drew out, shifting my attention to Trinity. The other two turned their heads as well.

  “What? Why are ya’ll looking at me like that? I’m as single as it gets.”

  “So then, no progress with Derek?”

  “Can we not talk about him when my brother could come walking into the shop at any second.” Trin and Derek’s problem was that Derek was Kellen’s best friend and worked with him at the tattoo shop. Neither one of them had the guts to tell Kellen, so instead they snuck around and stole kisses in dark corners at birthdays and barbecues. I had no clue how long it’d been going on, but if I had to take a guess from the tortured look Trin got on her face every time Derek’s name was uttered, probably since our high school days. Poor girl. That was a long time to have to try and deny feelings for someone.

  “At some point, Derek needs to man up, or you need to get clear of him for good, because I can’t have any more secrets from your brother.” We were getting to a really good place and any secret would ruin that.

  She seemed to deflate. “I know. I just don’t know if there’s anything to tell him. Derek says we can’t happen. He won’t put his friendship with Kellen at risk, yet we can’t seem to stay away from each other. I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “Like she said, tell him to man up, or cut him loose. You’re better than his dirty little secret.” Trin flinched at Liz’s words. I knew they stung her, and maybe it was a little harsh of Liz to put it that way, but she was right. I liked Derek, but Trin deserved better than to be strung along and strung out on him all the time.