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  “How could they possibly think Greg did it?” I asked.

  “He has motive because the shop was a threat to his business, but I already know what happened. And it wasn’t Greg,” Seth said.

  Two of the police spun around and put hands on the butts of their guns as Seth walked up behind them. Seth put up his hands. “Officers, this man had nothing to do with the fire.”

  “Who are you?” one of the officers asked.

  “I’m Seth Barringer, and I’m a friend of his.”

  Rice moved in to find out what the heck was going on. He looked much less satisfied than he had a few moments before.

  “We’ll talk to you after we’re done questioning him. There was a witness who saw him light the fire.” The officer paused and looked Seth up and down suspiciously. “Have you been fighting?”

  “Something like that. This man’s thugs—” Seth said as he pointed at Rice, “attacked us in the shop across the street. They might still be in there. Not sure. I need to show you a picture I took just minutes before the fire started. You’ll see that this is not an act of revenge but insurance fraud. I saw it happening and snapped the photo.”

  “Officers,” Rice yelled, “I want this man arrested as well. He’s had his hand in this too. I’m sure of it. He’s a disgruntled ex-employee.”

  An officer lifted his hand to stop Rice’s tirade. He motioned to Seth’s phone. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” Seth held up his phone, and several of the officers looked at it. They looked at each other before turning back to Greg. “You can go.”

  Greg pushed off the car. I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck. “Are you all right?” I asked.

  “A little shaken. For a minute there I thought I was going to jail.”

  The officers closed in on Rice, who was spewing cuss words at all of us. I took hold of Greg’s hand. It was cold and shaky. Seth led us back across the street. We walked back to the shop. Somewhere in the flurry of activity, the box van had driven off. We looked through the window. Both men were gone. We stepped inside, and Greg locked the door behind us.

  “What was in the picture?” Greg asked the second he turned away from the door.

  Seth held up his phone. Rice was tossing a lit roll of newspaper through the wood frame of his building. “I think he’d planned all along to blame Greg. The jealous small shop owner motive. But he didn’t expect you both to be around. Or me, for that matter.”

  I walked over to him. “You saved me. You took such a beating. We need to get you to a doctor.”

  “Just some cracked ribs, I think. I’ll go if the pain gets worse, but right now, I’m all right.” He reached up his hand and lifted my chin so that my lips were closer to his face. He leaned over and kissed me. “And you’re the one who saved me with one of those infamous Ninja kicks.”

  I shivered at the thought of it. “I felt his knee cap sort of slide off. I had no idea I could kick that hard. I guess it was that old adrenaline rush that lets people lift cars off victims. You looked so miserable, and I was afraid they weren’t going to stop.” My voice cracked. The weight of the evening was finally taking hold.

  Seth wrapped his arms around me. “I’m just glad we had each other.”

  Chapter 25

  Seth

  “Did you get the call about work on the St. Vincent Bridge?” Rocko asked as he came out of the bedroom.

  “I did.”

  He sat on the edge of my sofa bed. After the bizarre night where Rice lit his future surf shop on fire for the insurance and his cronies attacked us at Maverick’s, I’d spent two days in bed, downing aspirin with a heating pad strapped to my ribs. I’d broken ribs before, and since I could take breaths and speak without excruciating pain, I figured the ribs were only bruised or cracked. But my stomach hurt enough to keep me from eating. Noelle had come by several times to bring me food, but it was piling up in the refrigerator. Now my extremely hollow stomach was telling me to eat.

  “What do you think?” Rocko asked.

  “About what?”

  “About the fucking shirt I’m wearing, what do you think? I hate those jobs that are high up over the water, but I’m willing to take the work. The alternative is going home to my parents. Which means choosing between sitting on the couch with my mom binge watching some stupid cable network series and listening to her suggestions about how to find a girl, or staying here and having sex with Grace, who is, by the way, what one might call insatiable in the fucking department. Of course, my mom does cut the crusts off my sandwiches.”

  I laughed. “You were one of those nerds, huh? The kind who wasn’t daring enough to venture into the world of bread crust. Did you have a Spiderman lunch pail and thermos to go with your crustless sandwich?”

  He stared at me. “You’ve got a problem with Spiderman?”

  I laughed again. This time hard enough to remind me that my ribs hurt like hell. “No problem with him at all.”

  “You’re totally avoiding my real question.”

  I moved my feet to the ground. I was feeling stiff and sore and weak. “And you’re avoiding the real reason you want to stick around for the rest of summer. You like Grace. And not just for her insatiable appetite. You like her.”

  “Fine. I do. What about you, Mr. Easy Spirit. Let’s not forget to mention the giant elephant in the room that has your balls in a noose. You want Noelle. I know you don’t want to leave her, and that, my friend, is the first time I can say that about you and a girl. Think about it. You don’t want to leave her. Am I right?”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” I pressed my arm against my stomach and stood up with some effort.

  “Jeez, you’ve still got to hold yourself together just to get out of bed. You’re walking like you’re a hundred years old with one foot in the grave. Those assholes really did a number on you. Thank goodness you were there though. What has Noelle said about you staying?”

  I walked to the refrigerator and pulled out the wrapped sandwich Noelle had brought by yesterday on her way to work. “She hasn’t said anything at all. I haven’t told her about the bridge work because I don’t know if I’m staying yet. I think this whole thing has thrown me off my game. Maybe I just want to get back on it. Life’s much simpler when you don’t toss your heart out there for someone to steal.”

  I sat back on the edge of the bed with the sandwich. After my arduous journey to the refrigerator, everything was hurting again. I wasn’t completely sure I could eat it.

  Rocko looked pointedly at the sandwich. “She keeps bringing you food.”

  I looked at him. “Like your mom does when you visit?”

  He nodded. “True. It says she’s worried about you.”

  “I don’t really want to sit here like a sap all summer pining for the one girl I can’t seem to have.”

  “Dude,” his tone had changed to whiny, “I can’t stay if you don’t stay. This place is too much money.”

  “I don’t know, Rocko. Let me get healed up. Right now I can’t think about work because, like you said, I feel like I’ve got one foot in the grave.”

  He got up and I handed him the sandwich. “Put this back in the fridge. I’m not ready for it yet.”

  “I’m sure they’re going to want an answer on those jobs by the end of the week,” he reminded me.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine by then, and my head will be clear. I’ll let you know.”

  ***

  Another round of aspirin and a full day of sleep was like a shot of morphine. I felt more like fifty than a hundred. Definitely good enough to eat, which I did. I had to stop myself from trying to make up for lost time by downing everything in sight. I was just pulling on my shorts after a long shower, a part of my self-prescribed cure that made me feel a lot more human, when Rocko and Grace came in from the beach.

  The sun was setting over the coast, turning the water from the glassy green of morning into the choppy dark blue of evening. Most of the day visitors had already packed up their ice chests and beach chairs, le
aving behind their imprints in the sand and a few stray food wrappers.

  “You’re up,” Rocko said, stating the obvious.

  “You still look awful,” Grace added helpfully. “You should walk down to our house. Noelle is at home. I think you two should work things out so that you guys can stay.” She wrapped her arms around Rocko. “Please. Please. Please.”

  “Plus, you should walk down there and get the hell out of here because we might get loud.” Rocko winked at Grace. She pretended to hit him and laugh shyly about his comment. It was a good act.

  “I’ll take a walk then because, frankly, I don’t want to hear you guys.” I stepped outside for the first time in several days. The fresh air helped nearly as much as the shower. I’d been in more than my share of brawls and dirt bike wrecks, but I hadn’t felt this shitty in a long time. Some of my slow recovery had to do with Noelle. There had been a few tiny breakthroughs between us, even small hints at reconciliation, but I still had no fucking clue where I stood with her. I wasn’t completely sure that she had the answer to it either. I figured, if nothing else, I’d walk to her place and thank her for the food. It was the best non-committal excuse I could come up with for seeing her.

  The cooler early evening temperatures had invited people to bike and skate on the path. I wasn’t exactly in shape to dodge out of their way, so I walked along the sand instead. In the distance, I could see Duke sitting like a sentry in the small yard of the house, waiting patiently for the lifeguards to close up their towers for the day. He was a smart dog, a cool dog. He spotted me a few houses away and trotted over to greet me.

  “How’s it going, buddy?” I rubbed his back, and he turned around in a flurry of tail and tongue. Then he barked once and trotted toward the house, glancing back to make sure I followed.

  I reached the sliding glass door. It was halfway open, and the screen door was pulled shut, allowing the ocean breeze to flow inside. Noelle was sitting on their futon couch reading a book. She looked up as she sensed someone approaching. Duke squeezed past my leg and slid the screen open with his nose. He trotted inside, but I waited for an invite.

  Noelle put the book down and got up from the couch. She had on white shorts and a khaki tank top that was short enough to expose her belly button. I wrenched in a breath, not an easy task with bruised ribs. She walked up to the sliding door and smiled at me. Then she reached out and took hold of my hand.

  She pulled me inside and shut the door. “Don’t say anything,” she said before I could speak. “Not a word.” Then she took my hand again and led me down the hallway. “Unless it’s something dirty. If you want to talk dirty right now that’s fine. I don’t want to talk or think about anything heavy right now.” She pushed the door to her bedroom shut behind us. I stood there, slightly in shock, but not the least bit disappointed. She yanked the short little shirt off over her head. The dog tags weren’t hanging around her neck. She reached back and her bra fell to the ground. “So feel free to talk dirty.”

  I was tongue tied as I watched her push her shorts and panties to the floor. “I just realized that I’m not good at talking dirty under pressure.”

  Her shoulders dropped. “Well then—”

  I reached for her and pulled her against me. I peered down at her plump, moist lips. “On the other hand, if you could read my mind you’d be blushing right down to your toes.” I lowered my mouth and kissed her. She melted against me, her warm naked body in my arms, supple and willing. My kiss deepened.

  “God, Noelle, I’ve missed holding you.”

  She reached to the hem of my shirt and slid it up to take it off.

  “Holy shit, Seth,” she gasped. Her fingers trailed lightly over the collage of bruises on my chest and stomach. “I had no idea how bad it was.”

  “It’s kind of ugly. The aspirin has been taking the edge off.”

  She pressed her lips to my chest and ran a long row of hot kisses along the tender bruises.

  “God, that’s way better than aspirin. I should have had you in bed next to me this whole time.”

  She straightened and threw her arms around my neck. “I’m sorry. I should have been there to help you, instead of just bringing you stupid sandwiches. I’m such a goofball. I should have known it was this bad. I was there watching the whole damn thing, the way he was hitting—” her voice trailed off.

  I lifted her chin up. “Hey, I thought there would be no conversation unless it was dirty talk.”

  She smiled weakly. “Right.” She got up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against my ear. “Seth Barringer,” she said softly, “I want you between my legs . . . right now.”

  “That works. Feeling better already.” I led her to the bed. She moved to sit down, but I took hold of her arm to stop her. “Do you really want dirty?”

  She bit her lip as if she wasn’t completely sure. Then her smile broadened. “Yes.”

  “Crawl on your hands and knees across that bed then, baby. I want to see every inch of you.” She hesitated but only for a second. She leaned down onto her hands and brought her knees up onto the bed. With a slowness that made my cock nearly rip through the fly of my jeans, she crawled across the quilt, making sure to lift her perfectly rounded ass high in the air, giving me a complete view of her pussy. I couldn’t hold back the groan that rolled up in my chest. “Stay right there,” I commanded.

  She laughed nervously as I took off my pants. I climbed on the bed behind her. I leaned down and kissed the smooth cheek of her ass. I straightened. She looked back at me over her shoulder, frowning slightly in disappointment.

  “You know, normally, I can do dirty all fucking night long. I can do dirty until we’re both trembling with exhaustion.” I sat down on the bed. “When I don’t have bruised ribs. Could we just have quiet sex today? I’m feeling a little off my game.”

  She sat back on her haunches and laughed. “I will hold you to your trembling in exhaustion promise.”

  “All right. I look extremely forward to fulfilling that promise.”

  She kissed my mouth and then opened her big brown eyes. “Relax back and I’ll do the work. It’s the least I can do.” She reached down and wrapped her fingers around my cock and my eyes drifted shut at the feel of her taking hold of me. She pressed her lips next to mine again. Her warm breath brushed against my mouth as she whispered. “I sort of like the idea of playing doctor.”

  Even lying back still took some effort and some breath holding. “I hate being so damn weak.” She lowered her mouth down over my cock, and all the pain disappeared. The only sensation I could feel was her lush mouth on me. “Holy hell,” I muttered. “God, I missed you, Noelle.” Her lips dragged along the shaft from base to tip and back again. “Fuck yeah,” I sighed. After several days of grimacing with every move, where just getting up to get a drink of water made me break out in a cold sweat, this was beyond heaven. I peered down toward her. Her long fingers grasped my balls and her perfect, pink mouth swallowed me again and again.

  I reached down and tangled my hands in her long hair. “I never stop thinking of you.” The words cracked out of my throat. “Come up here, baby. I want your pussy on me. I want you in my arms.”

  She wiped her mouth with her finger and then reached for something on her nightstand. She held up a condom. “I raided Grace’s bathroom drawer.”

  I smiled up at her. Her eyes were dark with mischief and her lips were swollen and pink from kissing my cock. “It’s almost as if you had this planned.”

  The pink from her lips migrated across her cheeks. “It was Grace’s plan really. That’s why they kicked you out of your place. She really wants Rocko to stay.” She ripped open the package. “She figured if you stay, then Rocko will stay. So I have also become part of her plan.” She rolled the condom on and I reached for her.

  “What is your part in Grace’s plan?”

  “My job is convincing you to stay.” Noelle gazed at me as she lowered herself down over me, her hot, moist pussy swallowing my cock just as her mo
uth had seconds before. Her eyes drifted shut, and her head lulled back, a soft, satisfied and completely erotic sound rolling off her lips as she reached the base of my cock.

  I reached up and pressed my hand against her cheek before pulling her face down to mine. She rocked her hips back and forth as she kissed me. I clutched at her naked ass applying pressure to push myself deeper. She sat up and braced her hands against my arms as she lifted herself up and down, each time with slow patience that, surprisingly, was pushing me even faster to come.

  “Slow and easy is highly underrated,” I groaned.

  “Uh huh,” she said softly. Her body moved over mine in purposeful, fluid movements, not an ounce of energy wasted. She was focused on one thing, my cock deep inside her pussy. Her strong thighs squeezed around my hips as she continued. She was doing the work, and I had the luxury of watching her, her sensual curves, her tight rose-colored nipples her beautiful face as she brought both of us to climax. Her cries of ecstasy made me come in one long explosion of pleasure.

  She stayed on top of me for a moment and stared down at me. “Feeling better?”

  “Oh, hell yeah. Like a fucking miracle, doc. But I think I’m going to need this twice a day to really put me on the road to recovery.”

  She laughed and collapsed down next to me. “We’ll have to see what we can do about that.” Her fingers once again traced the bruises on my stomach. “I won’t ever forget this, Seth. What you did for me. I won’t forget it.”

  I squeezed my arm around her and we lay there for a few minutes in silence. Noelle was back in my arms, something I’d wanted badly, but something I’d been sure would never happen again.

  She leaned up on her elbow and looked down at me. “I can’t make any promises that I won’t occasionally have a freak out session, that my mood won’t suddenly darken, but I want to try this, Seth. I know you have to travel a lot with your job, but I think you should, like you told me once, find a place to hang your hat. I want to be the person waiting and worrying that you make it home safely. Do you think you can put up with a nutty person like me?”