"I am not."
"Trust me, you are. You look hot in that dress."
Her face going a bright red pink color as she huffs.
"That's a compliment, you know."
"I know you're trying to be crude, not complimentary."
I whistle. "Huh, so you're going to dress hot, but you're not going to be okay with a guy telling you you look hot."
"Stop saying that."
"Stop dressing hot."
She glares at me again, and I grin right back, savoring the moment. The light from the hallway window is still coming in from behind her, so truth be told, I'm also still savoring taking in the clean outline of her legs underneath that sundress, too.
"I'm sorry, but I'm kind of in a rush."
"All in good time, all in good time." I wave her off as I step behind the bar. "Don't worry, the house'll still be there when you get there. Probably."
I reach behind the register for the familiar bottle of Tylenol. I do want to keep ogling this chick, but I also sort of want to die with this hangover ripping through me. I pop four pills into my mouth and reach for the low-boy fridge behind the bar, grabbing a beer.
Thank God for hair of the dog.
Evangeline makes this disgusted scoffing noise as she sees what I'm doing, and I grin.
"You want one?" I turn to see her scowling at me.
"What? No!"
"Suit yourself."
"It's nine in the morning!"
"Tell me about it." I swig back the beer, swallowing the Tylenol. I glance back and see that she's looking at me expectantly.
"Right, right. The key."
"Yes, please."
"Jeez, you just had to ask."
Her eyes narrow, and I grin, stretching one arm across my bare chest and then the other and cracking my neck. I open the register and grab the key to Dad's rental place from the side drawer before turning and holding it out to her across the bar.
She sighs heavily as she steps forward and reaches for it, but I yank it back right before she does.
"Sure I can't convince you to come back to bed with me?"
"I know what you're doing, Mr. Hammond," she says with a huff.
"Oh yeah?"
She swallows, putting on a mean face, but her cheeks are still blushing bright red. "I know what you see in me."
I grin. "I know what I'd like to see in you."
Her face gets even redder, if that was even possible, before she swallows it back. She takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders.
"I can promise you, Mr. Hammond-"
"Mr. Hammond is my dad."
"Your dad is Reverend Hammond."
"Rowan is fine."
Her mouth goes tight. "Fine, Rowan. I know what you're doing."
"Well don't leave me hanging."
Her mouth tightens. "Well, I just want to let you know you're wasting your time."
"Doing?"
"Doing your darnedest to try and tease me."
I grin, the beer halfway to my lips. "Did you honestly just use the word ‘darnedest'?"
"It is not going to work, Mr- Rowan."
"Oh it's not?"
"No, it's not."
"Sure about that?"
"I'm not the sheltered little church girl you think I am," she says tightly, eyeing me.
"Oh, of course not."
I step out from under the bar and move to lean against the side of it in front of her, dangling the key.
"I'm not some sheltered little-"
"No, of course not you're not, which is why you look so comfortable in a place like this."
"This place is a dump."
I laugh. "Aww, careful now, you'll hurt my feelings."
She gives me a look.
"It's also why you looked like I puked on your bible when I said the word cock."
She visibly stiffens, her mouth going sour.
"See?"
"I do not, I just don't need to see that or hear that sort of vulgarity."
I roll my eyes.
"The key? Please?"
"Not at all thrown off or flustered, huh?"
"I told you, I am not the sheltered little-"
"Fuck am I hung over as shit!"
We both whirl at the sound of Jade's voice from the back hallway.
I snort.
Jade, wearing just a pair of boxer-briefs and a sports-bra as she shrugs a t-shirt over her disheveled hair.
"Fuck me fucking sideways," she croaks out.
Evangeline peeps - an actual peep sound, like a baby bird.
Jade's head jerks up. "Oh, hey," Jade says groggily at her, turning and giving me a half grin and a raised brow before glancing back at church-girl. "You spend the night too?"
The front door slams open as Evangeline goes bolting out of it.
I sigh and take a sip of my beer.
Like I said. Master of first impressions.
Chapter Three
Evangeline
I'm ten steps away from that horrible bar, that girl, and from that horrible man when I stop.
Because I also realize that I'm heading back to the rental house without the key that we need to actually get inside of it. And I don't have the key because I totally just ran out of there like a freak show.
What am I going to do, not go back with the key?
"No Dad, I didn't get the key from the nice minister's son because his penis was hanging out."
My mother would faint.
My father might.
"Hey, hang on!"
I spin around to see Rowan jogging down the sidewalk, still in just a pair of jeans, barefoot.
"What?" I snap.
He laughs as he comes to a stop in front of me. "Did you want the key?"
"I asked you ten times for it."
"Well, but then you left without it. Sort of sends a mixed message."
I level my frown at him and he grins, shaking his head. "Sorry about Jade."
"And I am sorry for waking you and your- your- girlfriend." I let the words tumble out. "I just needed the key, and your father said you had the only copy, and that you knew I was coming over, and-"
He laughs. "Jade? Trust me, not my girlfriend. Nothing like that."
I turn redder, frowning at the thought of, well, whatever they are.
"It's none of my business, I just-"
"Believe me, I'm not exactly her type."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning I don't have a vagina."
My eyes go wide before I can stop them, and he laughs. "Uh oh! You're in Massachusetts now! Better watch out! We've got gays up here you know," he smirks, like he thinks he's hilarious. "I know you guys don't really do the whole gay thing down in Bible-land, but up here-"
"I don't not do the gay thing."
I can see the shot I've set him up for before the grin finishes unfurling across his face.
"No," I say sharply, pointing a finger at him. "Don't."
He laughs. "What?"
"Whatever crude, disgusting comment you were about to make."
"My lips are scissored. Uh, sealed."
I roll my eyes, looking away.
"Okay, look, I think we got off on the wrong foot."
"Did you get that impression as well?"
He smiles. "Let's try again, huh? I'm even wearing pants this time." He holds his hand out. "Hi, I'm Rowan. Our dads are friends and I think we're probably going to be working together a lot this fall on this church shit."
I sigh. "This church shit-" I bite my tongue at the swear, forcing myself to be cordial. "I'm Evangeline. You can call me Eva."
He takes my hand, and I resist the sudden urge to shiver. "Nice to meet you, Eva. You want that key now?"
"That would be great."
He pulls it out of his back pocket and drops it in my hand. "All yours. Don't throw too many parties in the place. I know you bible-thumpers like to get wild."
I grin in spite of my best efforts not to as I turn and march away from him.
"Oh, right, welcome to Shelter Harbor, church-girl!" he calls after me.
I bite back the grin as I round the corner.
"Did you stop for lunch?" My father snaps at me as he stands from the front steps leading up to the porch of the rental house.
"No, sorry, I just-"
What, I just had to navigate the most obnoxious, crude, disgusting man I've ever met? Not to mention the most naked one?
I smile at my father. "Rowan was doing his paperwork for the business - taxes and payroll and stuff. I didn't want to disturb him until he was done."
My father's frown softens. "Good girl, Evangeline. That was good. The Lord smiles on patience."
I nod, smiling back at him as I hand him the key. I have no idea why I lie about Rowan to my father's face like that, but there it is.
Welcome to Shelter Harbor indeed.
"You father's just tired from the trip, dear," my mother says quietly, placing a hand on my arm before picking up her suitcase and following him up the steps into the house.
"This town smells like fish."
I smile as I shake my head at Chastity. "It's just the smell of the ocean. There's a fully working seaport down in the harbor, you know."
I'd petitioned to take the ferry to Shelter Harbor from Boston, where we flew into. Father vetoed that in favor of the highway, which I guess is a lot faster. It would have been nice to take in the ocean though.
"Well, it's a fully working seaport that smells like dead fish."
Chastity is … intense at times, but we're friendly enough to a certain degree. She's my age, and the daughter of one of my father's parishioners who's joined us for our stint here in Shelter Harbor before she marries her minister of a fiancé back home. This trip is apparently a way of "getting closer with God" before she joins her future husband in his lifelong commitment to tending his flock.