Love On Anchor Island: An Anchor Island Novel

at Dempsey’s was the only option, and that was the one job Roxie had never done. Not because it was beneath her, but because she knew it was damn hard work with little pay and big headaches. Dealing with the public in retail was bad enough.
Scrubbing her hands over her face, she tipped her head back and felt cold drops hit her hands. No. Freaking. Way.
The clouds let go as if to say, yes way, and Roxie took off running again. She didn’t get far when a red dot entered her vision. Wiping the rain from her eyes, she spotted Alex coming her way, dry beneath a red umbrella. When they met, he stood close enough to keep them both out of the rain.
“Hi,” she said, trying to ignore the cold water running down her back. “What are you doing out here?”
“I saw you from the window.” Roxie never realized how intimate standing beneath an umbrella could be. Neither spoke for several seconds, their breath creating tiny steam clouds in the air, until Alex said, “Are you avoiding me?”
“I’ve been busy,” she replied, which was true. The repairs on the cottages had been the toughest labor she’d done since arriving, and due to the festival looming, they’d worked well into the evenings.
“What about Sunday?”
She didn’t owe him an explanation. They hadn’t planned to meet, and he hadn’t asked her to stick around. Maybe if he’d listened to her warnings, he wouldn’t be looking at her with that hurt look in his eyes.
Giving the same excuse she’d given Beth, Roxie said, “I didn’t feel well.”
Alex’s expression didn’t change. He just stared at her as if trying to read her soul. Unable to handle the forced proximity, Roxie stepped out from underneath the umbrella, but Alex extended his arm, keeping her out of the rain at his own expense.
“Don’t do that,” she snapped, pushing the umbrella back, but he was stronger, taller, and determined to be a gentleman. With no other choice, she closed the space between them until he was once again beneath the cover. “You’re a stubborn ass.”
“And you aren’t?” he countered. “You’d rather stand in the rain than be this close to me?”
“You’d rather get wet than let me stand where I want?”
His eyes dropped to her lips, and it was the ferry all over again. What the hell?
“I can’t do this.” Roxie stomped around him and broke out in a run.
Alex was on her in seconds. “What can’t you do?” he said, his voice raised to be heard over the rain that was falling in buckets now. Despite the umbrella, they were both soaked.
“This,” she said, shoving him away. “I can’t stay here, and if I can’t stay here, I can’t fall for you any more than I already have.”
“You’ve fallen for me?”
Of course, that was the part he picked up on.
“I’m not kidding, Alex. In a couple of weeks, there won’t be any reason for me to stay on this island. I can’t live off my cousin forever, and jobs here are slim to none.”
“That’s because the season hasn’t started yet. There’ll be plenty of work once the tourists come back, and you know that Beth wants you here. You know you want to be here.”
Wiping the rain from her face, she looked out over the bay. “I want to stand on my own. I’ll be thirty this year, and I have nothing to show for my life. I have nothing.”
Tears mixed with the rain, and Alex stepped close again, sheltering her from the storm. “You have us, Roxie. Family and friends on this island. You have me. You’ll only have nothing if you leave.”
She wanted to believe him. To believe that she could have this. That she could belong somewhere. But believing meant taking the risk of being wrong, and she’d been wrong so many times before.
“What if it falls apart again?”
In his typical way, Alex said, “What if it doesn’t?” He laid a hand against her damp cheek. “Your past doesn’t have to be your future, Roxie. You can start over, right here, right now. Just don’t walk away.”
He made it sound so easy. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No,” she brushed his hand away. “I mean I don’t know what to do for a job. Everyone here has something that they do. Art. Food.” She poked him in the chest. “Medicine. I’m twenty-nine, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”
“Then we’ll find something for you to do.” Taking her hand, he led her toward the Dempsey house. “We’ll figure it out together.”
She’d never been part of a we before, and carrying all of the weight on her own was exhausting.
As they walked, Roxie laid her head against his arm. “You know it won’t be that easy, right?”
Alex kissed the top of her head. “Nothing with you has been easy so far, but I’m still here.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes. Yes, you are.”
“Your grandmother sent a card,” Flora called from the front desk.
Alex stepped into the hall and took the envelope extended his way. Grandma always included a funny picture or town gossip update with her cards, as if she’d turned snail mail into her own form of Facebook. This time was no exception, though something extra fell out of the envelope.
“What is this?” Flora retrieved the slip of paper from the floor. “It looks like a fortune from one of those cookies.” She turned it over and read, “The right one will come along when you least expect it.” With a chuckle she held the slip his way. “I think she’s trying to tell you something.”
Opening the card, Alex read aloud. “Got this from a cookie last week and it made me think of you. No pressure, but you aren’t getting any younger.” With a sigh, he stuck the fortune back inside the card. “I guess she’s joined my parents in thinking I need to find a wife.”
“She isn’t wrong,” Flora mumbled.