Dreaming Eli Read online

  She bit her lip, and then shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

  He leaned a little closer as he reached into his pocket for his phone. “Give me your number?” She did, and he typed it in. “I’ll call you tomorrow, Cupcake.”

  “Cupcake?”

  He leaned closer still, and she thought for a heart-stopping second that he was going to kiss her. Instead he seemed to breathe her in. “Yeah. The name suits you.” He stood, shoving his hands in his pockets again and giving her another glimpse of that sweet sliver of pale skin well below his navel. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See you.” She winked up at him. “Graham Cracker.”

  He barked out a laugh and took easy strides down the sidewalk toward the other shops.

  She couldn’t help but smile as she finished her coffee. She had a date, or something, with Eli Graham. The hottest guy she’d ever seen, and he seemed so easygoing. That was a good thing.

  She’d done the emotional thing before and she was so not going there again.

  Chapter 4

  Eli sat at the bar in the town tavern, sipping a beer and waiting on the burger he’d ordered. He really had no clue what to do tonight. He’d spent his day off doing pretty much nothing at all, and that didn’t feel right. He’d worked on his laptop in his room, answering some emails and seeing to some Chapman business, but even those tasks hadn’t taken him very long. Not long enough, anyway.

  “Hey, there,” a guy said to his right. “Eli, right?”

  Eli turned to find the blond builder, Noah something, walking toward him. He was dressed like Eli was, in a polo and shorts.

  “Eli Graham, yes.” They shook hands. “We met last spring.”

  “Noah Brady.” His eyes narrowed. “You and that other Chapman guy were here back in April.”

  “Derek.”

  “Derek, yeah. You two put Jessie through her paces.”

  “Jessie?”

  Noah raised his brows. “My wife. She toured the two of you when you were here.”

  Eli remembered the pretty little blonde then, but he wouldn’t admit that right now. This guy was as tall and as broad as he was, and he probably wouldn’t like to know that Eli had enjoyed flirting with the little Pixie. Just flirting. Even if he’d wanted to close the deal, he had sensed something between the builder and Jessie on his last tour with them. He could read people pretty well. He’d had to learn how very early in life. Besides, if she was now his wife, Eli hadn’t been too far off the mark.

  “Yes, she really knows Cypress,” Eli said. “She’s still at the Sales Center, right?”

  “She is. And you’re starting there.”

  “On Monday.”

  Noah leaned an elbow on the bar. “I’m sure Rick Chapman and Mr. Forbes are happy to have you, with Tammy out.”

  “I’m eager to start and learn the ropes.”

  A male server brought a bag of food to the bar and Noah took it. He turned back to Eli. “I better get back. I was sent out to hunt up dinner, and they’ll be hungry.”

  “Enjoy your dinner.”

  “Thanks,” Noah said. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

  “You will?”

  “I work there too, Eli. When I’m not out on the job site.”

  Just like that, Eli got the message. He was warned off, but he could have told the guy he didn’t have to. Jessie was off the market, and he never poached on another guy’s woman.

  “Then I guess I’ll see you on Monday,” Eli said.

  Noah seemed to lose a little bit of the stick up his ass, and he even managed to smile before leaving the tavern.

  Eli took a long drink of his beer. Yeah, he’d noticed Jessie when he’d been here. There were a lot of other pretty women here too, and for a second he wondered just what was in the water of the pristine lakes located throughout the property. Not one of the women had stuck in his head like Caro had, though.

  She was gorgeous, but there was something else there too. Maybe he shouldn’t get any closer to her. She didn’t seem like a girl up for a fling, and he couldn’t exactly indulge himself with someone he’d run into while he was here. And Bill Chapman wanted him here. To stay, or at least for the foreseeable future. Eli was surprised he’d arranged to put him up in the inn and not one of the rental houses available.

  The bartender set his plate in front of him. “Can I get you anything else right now?” she asked.

  Eli shook his head at her. “No, thanks.”

  She stepped further down the line, and Eli belatedly noticed that the place was nearly full now. While he’d been having a pissing contest with Noah Brady, the tavern had gotten busy. It was located right next to the Clubhouse, the upper crust restaurant that was the showplace of Cypress. The Clubhouse was more Bill Chapman’s speed than Eli’s, although he’d eaten there on his last visit. He remembered there were lots of pressed linen and clinking crystal, and an air of superiority that always tended to give him the chills whenever he ate with Bill at places like that in Boston.

  He pushed the thought aside and dug into his juicy, bloody burger. Wiping his mouth, he swallowed and thought about the coming day. For the first time in so long he couldn’t remember, he had two free days in a row. He’d asked a woman to spend some time with him, too. A date, although he had a feeling that if he’d framed it like that she would have turned him down. That would have made things very uncomfortable when he went into the bakery. That was for sure.

  He hadn’t been lying when he said he had a sweet tooth. The double entendre had been fun, though. She seemed like she could be a lot fun, but he also thought she didn’t let herself go very often.

  “Do you want another beer?” The bartender was back.

  “Sure.” She nodded but before she could run away again he called her back. “Hey, what’s fun to do around here?”

  She slanted him a look. “Is that a line?”

  He flashed a smile but shook his head. “Not at the moment, no. I have a date tomorrow and I want to take her someplace…easy.”

  “Easy?” Her brows knit. “Easy. I’d avoid the theme parks, then.”

  “Yeah, I don’t feel like heading out to see the mouse,” he said, referring to Disney World.

  “What do you feel like doing?” she asked. “You could drive out to the beach.”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Not that he didn’t like the idea of seeing what Caro looked like in a bikini. “And going to the movies wouldn’t be good, either.”

  She thought a little more. “You could head to Old Town Village.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s over in Kissimmee. Rides and games, and shops and restaurants too.”

  He thought for a second. It would be fun, and he guessed Caro could use some fun. “Yeah, maybe. How do I get there?”

  “Just get on one-ninety-two and head west for about forty-five minutes until you come to the giant Ferris wheel on the left. You can’t miss it.”

  “Great. Thanks.”

  She filled a mug with beer and set it in front of him. “She’s a lucky girl.”

  “And thanks for that.”

  She wasn’t flirting. Not really. And he wasn’t flirting back. As she went down the bar once again, waiting on the customers seated there, he watched only absently. She was pretty, tall and dark-haired and maybe in her late twenties. He wasn’t flattering himself when he thought that if he’d pursued he could probably get her in that plush bed in his room at the inn. He was known to close a deal when he wanted it badly enough. He didn’t, though. Not tonight.

  Tonight he’d think about walking around a place that had a Ferris wheel, of all things. Of seeing another one of Caro’s beautiful smiles and maybe even messing around a little bit.

  He might not be down for bedding the bartender but he couldn’t help wondering if Caro tasted as sweet as she smelled.

  ***

  “You’re going out?”

  Caro managed to keep from rolling her eyes as her mother asked her that question. The woman sounded
almost shocked. It wasn’t like Caro didn’t date, after all. She just didn’t usually let her mother know about it.

  The woman had come up this morning with fresh bagels, the one thing she knew Caro couldn’t resist since it wasn’t something she made at Sweet Escape.

  “Yes, Mom.” She spread cream cheese on her everything bagel and took a bite, taking her time to chew and swallow before facing Dawn Richmond’s inquisition again. “I’m going out.”

  “And where are you going?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  In fact, Eli had been almost cryptic when he’d called her this morning. He’d just said they were going someplace fun, but she couldn’t get anything more out of him.

  Her mother poured them each a mug of coffee. “Who is he?”

  “Why?”

  Her mother blinked. “Why? Why wouldn’t I want to know who my daughter is seeing?”

  Caro drank her coffee, counting to ten before setting her mug back down. “He’s Eli Graham. He works here in Cypress.”

  “He works here? Well, who doesn’t?”

  “He’s from Chapman Financial, if that means anything.”

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “Ooh, Chapman Financial! That’s promising.”

  “Promising?” Caro clicked her tongue. “Jeez, this isn’t an Edwardian drama on PBS, Mom.”

  “I know.” She laughed lightly. “I didn’t mean to sound so stuffy.”

  “You’re a lot of things, believe me. Stuffy isn’t usually one of them.”

  Her eyes twinkled. “A lot of things?”

  Caro considered telling her mother for the hundredth time that she didn’t have to look after her. That she could live her own life, even though she lived that life above their garage. The woman wouldn’t get it, though. Caro was her baby. Her surprise. And Caro also knew all of her meddling came from a place of love.

  “Mom, I’m twenty-seven years old.”

  “I know that, dear.”

  “I own my own business.”

  “And your father and I are so proud of you.”

  “Yet you keep trying to fix me up with a man who can, I don’t know, complete me somehow.”

  Her mother’s face crumpled a little. “I worry about you, Caroline.”

  Caro closed her eyes. “I know.”

  She’d gotten engaged when she was twenty-three, and her parents had planned an elaborate wedding for their youngest child. Brad, a guy she’d known all through college, died in a car crash just two weeks before the ceremony, but he wasn’t alone in the car. The girl he’d been sleeping with for months also died that night, and Caro had gone from grief to anger and back again for far too long. She’d totally missed that he was a slime ball, and that wasn’t going to happen again.

  When she looked at her mother again, she forced a bright smile. “This is just a date, Mom. It’s not even really a date, I don’t think.”

  “It’s not a date! Who is this clown?”

  Caro laughed. “Now he’s a clown? I thought he was promising?”

  Her mother laughed along with her. “Oh, I’m entitled to change midstream.”

  “Thanks for the bagels, but I should get ready.” She stood. “Not that I know what to wear. He said to dress for something fun and easy.”

  “Fun and easy?” Her mother looked as puzzled as Caro felt. “I’m intrigued.”

  “Good bye, Mom.”

  Her mother bustled around the kitchen, wiping the counter that was already clean. “Okay, okay.” She carefully hung up the dish towel. “Have fun.”

  “That’s the plan.” She shrugged. “I think, anyway.”

  She was alone again, so she finished cleaning up and went into her bedroom to get dressed for her “fun and easy” day with Eli Graham.

  Denim shorts, another vintage T-shirt in a shade of blue she couldn’t help but think would match Eli’s eyes, and sneakers then. She brushed her hair and left it down. It came just past her shoulders and if whatever it was he had planned was a little too much fun, she could pull it back into a ponytail. She grabbed her bag and unplugged her phone just as her doorbell rang. It couldn’t be her mother, back again. She never rang the bell.

  She glanced at her phone. Eleven on the dot. Just like he’d said. She turned to go, locking the door behind her and hurrying down the steep staircase. Opening the door at the bottom, she found Eli standing on the stoop. The peaked roof and concrete pad combined were a little too small for the stoop to be considered a porch, but the mat and small urns filled with pink geraniums at least kept it somewhat in scale with the giant coach lamp set to one side of the door. It matched the lights at the front of the house, and she knew how much her mother liked things to match.

  “Hi, Eli.” She stepped out and nearly bumped into him. He sure filled the space, and he smelled really good too. “You found the place okay?”

  Her front door was set around the corner to the far right of the home’s façade, and if you didn’t know to look for it you’d probably miss it. He nodded, at last stepping back and giving her a little bit of breathing room. He wore shorts and a T-shirt too, appearing as casual as she was.

  “Oh, good.” She waved a hand over him. “You’re dressed like me.”

  He grinned and then gazed up at the rest of the house. “Nice house.”

  “It’s my parents’.”

  His brows arched and she held up a hand. “I live upstairs. Above the garage.”

  He nodded. “Big garage.”

  “Big apartment.” She shouldered her bag. “Where to?”

  “A place called Old Town Village. Have you been there?”

  “Not in a while.”

  “The bartender at the tavern recommended it.”

  “It’s fun.” She smiled up at him. “And easy.”

  “Perfect.” He winked. “Let’s go, then.”

  He stepped behind her on the paved walk and followed her to the curb. An SUV was parked there, tall and broad like him. He opened the door for her and she climbed up and in.

  “Nice.”

  “Rental,” he answered.

  He walked around and got behind the wheel. “So, do you want to get lunch first when we get there?”

  “Before riding the Ferris wheel?” She made a show of considering his idea. “It’s really tall, you know.”

  He started the engine and glanced over at her. “It sounds like there’s a dare in there somewhere.”

  “Maybe a little one.”

  He pulled away from the curb. “I think I can handle it.”

  She gave him a good look as his attention was on the road in front of him. His hands looked big, even on the large leather-wrapped steering wheel. His seat was way back, to accommodate his long legs. He filled the space, and so did his fresh scent. Sort of minty, but warm.

  “You look like you can handle just about anything, Graham Cracker.”

  She didn’t know why she’d said that, since her face was now flaming hot. He didn’t look at her, but she saw his cheek curve with an obvious smile.

  “Trying to tempt me, Cupcake?”

  She couldn’t answer him. Her heart was hammering as her body flushed hot and cold. Her slime ball radar might not be buzzing but she felt something humming between them. Something that she’d never felt before. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  She could do this. She could date this delicious-looking guy and keep things light and easy. If she started wanting more? She’d make sure to keep that a deep dark secret he would never discover.

  After what had happened with Brad, she wasn’t up for anything more.

  Chapter 5

  What the hell had he said to put that worried expression on her face? They’d been bantering, after all. Teasing back and forth as he steered them toward their date. Then she’d gotten spooked by something. There was no way he’d ask her what was wrong, though. Nope.

  He made his living talking a good game, so instead of talking about feelings or anything sticky like that he tapped into his tal
ent to fill the space as they drove. Little by little, she seemed to ease until a huge Ferris wheel appeared up ahead.

  “There it is,” she said.

  “Pretty hard to miss.”

  She laughed a little and seemed to lose that last bit of stiffness. He found a parking space set near a towering human-sling-shot thing and faced her. “Ready to hit it?”

  “Sure.”

  They got out and he saw that the place looked pretty cool. There were brick-paved streets closed off to everything but foot traffic, and all of the shops and restaurants were painted to look like individual buildings even though were connected. There was one store selling T-shirts with just about every current pop-culture phrase you could think of and a store that sold island-themed stuff like coconut heads and clothes that would fit in at a parrot-head concert.

  He saw an old-fashioned general store that had barrels of penny candy and a soda fountain. Thrill rides like zip lines and more of those slingshot things towered overhead, not to mention that gigantic Ferris wheel. Restaurants with bar top seating were interspersed with New Age crystal shops and stores selling homemade soaps and creams.

  He stuck his hands in his pockets as they strolled side by side on the brick walk. If felt like a place where you’d hold hands, and he so wasn’t a hand-holder.

  “When was the last time you were here?” he asked her.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. A couple of years maybe? They’ve really grown, and it looks like they’ve been fixing the place up.”

  The buildings did look freshly-painted and the village looked pretty clean.

  “It reminds me of Faneuil Hall up in Boston. Shops and touristy stuff, but with a whole different vibe.”

  “Did you grow up in Boston?”

  “Yeah.” His answer was short, and he hoped that would discourage her from asking anything else about his childhood. It wasn’t a pretty story. “You grew up in Florida, right?”

  “Yes, but not in Cypress Corners. We lived up in Orlando, where my dad’s law practice is.”

  “I’ve seen a lot of commercials for lawyers, not to mention billboards. Florida seems to have a ton of them.”

  She laughed lightly. “We do. About one hundred thousand, actually.”