Love at Cape Luella Read online

  Contents

  Love at Cape Luella

  Copyright

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  About Simone Evans

  Did You Enjoy This Book?

  Further Reading

  The Forever Gift by Simone Evans

  The Forever Gift - Exerpt

  Bits, Bites, & Campfires by Sijmone Evans

  Bits, Bites, & Campfires - Excerpt

  Evanlea Publishing

  Love at Cape Luella: Forever Safe Summer II #5

  Copyright © 2020 Josette Schaber (as Simone Evans)

  Cover design by Evanlea Publishing & Designs

  Proofreading and Edits: Evanlea Publishing & Designs

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems — except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews — without permission in writing from Evanlea Publishing, Josette Schaber, or Simone Evans.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  This book is sold in print and electronic formats and is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book, when in electronic format, may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you are reading this book in print or electronic format and did not purchase or borrow it through proper channels, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  **Disclaimer: Translations were completed using Google Translate and as such have not been verified. Poetic license has been exercised in regards to spelling and removal of language-specific characters to facilitate the flow of the story. The use of these translations is to create a mood within the story. However, in many cases, names and dialog are fictional creations of the author and not meant to be translations of other languages.

  Published by Evanlea Publishing

  https://evanleapublishingdesigns.weebly.com/

  https://www.facebook.com/EvanleaPubandDesigns/

  ‘Love at Cape Luella’ is book 5 in the Forever Safe Summer II Series.

  Naiva Aisley grew up in her parents’ B&B in Cape Luella on the Atlantic shoreline. Working at the B&B since she was old enough to carry things for her mother, she’d always felt like an outsider looking in on the wealthy tourists who flocked to the island each year.

  Over the years, she’d watched one particular guest, Jack Noch, from a distance. His family owned a vacation home down the shore from the B&B, so she’d had plenty of opportunities to see the boy who grew into an even more drool-worthy man. Not only was Jack gorgeous but his family was one of the wealthiest of those who visited Cape Luella. Unfortunately, her body and heart wouldn’t accept what her mind knew — Harrison Jackson Noch III was way out of her league.

  Harrison Jackson Noch III, Jack to his friends, hated going on family vacations. It took him away from his computers and the work he loved. However, the visits to Cape Luella were bearable because he got to see Naiva from the B&B down the shore. A girl who became a woman who was always out of his reach, yet he couldn’t stop wanting to catch her.

  Can two lonely souls find that love overcomes all?

  “Harrison, dear, you need to find a wife,” my mother announced from her place across from me at dinner.

  Over the past few months – since my sister’s wedding – mother had become more and more insistent about the matter. Unfortunately, I wasn’t interested in dating a woman who only wanted my money.

  “Mother, you know I don’t date. How would I even find a wife?” I knew the second the words were out of my mouth that I’d regret them.

  A grin curved up her lips and she set her fork down before turning her full focus on me.

  “Why don’t you date?” My father’s deep baritone echoed through the dining room as he interrupted whatever scheme my mother had come up with to get me hitched.

  I sighed and moved the food around on my plate. I really hated our weekly family dinners. Especially since my sister married and stopped coming every week – she’d always been a good shield between my mother and me. Stella’s excuse was something about having to spend time with her husband’s family. Knowing my sister, she was giving his family the same excuse.

  “Well, boy?” Father boomed and I looked at him. “Are you…” he cleared his throat and concentrated on his steak.

  My parents were both very old school. Very old money. Certain things were not acceptable in the circles they maneuvered in and I was already a bit of a maverick when I started my own business without their help.

  “No worries, I can assure you I am not.” It was so tempting to just use the words and tell them I wasn’t gay – or maybe it was more tempting to tell them I was. It would get them off of my back because they definitely wouldn’t want me dating or marrying in that case. However, knowing my mother she would find a way to force me into marrying a woman for appearances’ sake.

  I let out a sigh and focused on finishing dinner so I could leave before my mother had a chance to bring up my lack of dating. For now, her and father had both gone silent. The silence was bliss.

  My fingers flew across my keyboard. After almost a month of struggling to figure out the new program, it finally came to me over lunch – yesterday? I’d lost track of time and couldn’t have said how long I’d been locked away in my office. My personal assistant, Clark, had learned to bring me food and the other necessities when I got like this. He also learned early on that it was best to clean up as we went. Otherwise, we found strange things growing.

  Shaking my head at myself, I continued to create the code which would finally allow me to put this system up on the market.

  “Sir?” Clark stood in my doorway with a resigned look on his face.

  “Not now,” I demanded as I focused on my monitor and hit the test button. “Yes!” I cheered as it came back successful.

  “Mr. Noch, I’m sorry to push but yo–”

  “Clark,” I snapped and looked up to find him in front of me and pointing at my phone.

  “Your mother, sir. And, I’m sorry, but she’s scarier than you.” Clark lifted the receiver and placed it in my hand before he turned on his heels and left my office without another word.

  “Mother,” I greeted without enthusiasm.

  “Harrison, you left before I could tell you the good news the other night,” she announced over the phone.

  Letting out a heavy sigh, I resigned myself to whatever new hell my mother had found to put me through.

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly to let her know I was listening.

  “I’ve decided to open the Cape Luella house early this year and we’ll all stay there for the entire summer,” she exclaimed. “Won’t that be nice? Even your sister and her husband will be in attendance. I want us to enjoy a family summer like when you were young.”

  Emotions rushed through me. At the forefront was annoyance but there was excitement as well. An image of a sweet and curvy girl filled my head. Would she still be in the small town where my parents had a summer home?

  “Harrison?” My mother’s voice shook me from my daydr
eam.

  “Mother, it would be lovely but I’m not sure –”

  “Nonsense! It’s your company and you can assign someone to take over your duties while you’re gone. I want you to be free to enjoy some downtime,” she insisted.

  “Mother, you know we’re a small company and I still do most of the actual coding,” I reminded her.

  Nerves filled me as I thought about everything that would have to be done. Did I want to spend the summer in the resort town? I’d never been a fan of our vacations there. Internet and cell usage were sporadic at best, not to mention my distaste for being outdoors. However, if she was there…

  “Harrison, please,” my mother’s soft request shocked me back to the phone conversation. “I know you have a lot on your plate but this is important to me. Please… plan for the summer and if you have to leave early, I’ll understand.”

  Something felt off. My mother never begged. She announced and expected everyone to hop to. It was obvious she wasn’t going to give me more than she had already said, so I only had one response...

  “You know, a vacation would be nice. Thank you, mother. What date did you want me to arrive?”

  “Get it out of here,” Mrs. Lawson screeched from her perch on top of the desk chair in her room.

  “It’s just a small crab, Mrs. Lawson. I’ll have it out of your way in a jiff,” I replied with a huge smile.

  “How’d it get in here? Should I call another B&B?” she demanded as she stared at the crab while I scooped it up in a cup.

  “Not at all, Mrs. Lawson. It happens at all of the properties along the beach. Most of the time the little guys hitchhike on the guests’ bags and such from where the bag sat on the sand.” It took everything inside of me to keep my voice calm and the smile on my face.

  “I’ll trust you, Naiva. I’ve been coming here for years and your parents have always taken such good care of me. I’d hate to not be able to return.”

  It was the same old story, just a different day. My parents were the third generation to run the Aisley B&B. My great-grandparents opened it shortly after immigrating from the British Isles. As soon as I was able to walk, I’d been helping my mom around the place. I knew I’d be taking over for my parents someday and I really loved the old place, but there were times I wished I could simply stay in the cafe we had added a few years ago.

  As a natural introvert, dealing with guests was never easy for me. I preferred my people in books – when they got to be too much, I simply closed the cover and took a break.

  Shaking my head, I focused on the tiny crab in the cup which I quickly covered with my hand.

  “See, no problem, Mrs. Lawson.” I gave her a smile and headed for the door. “Just let me know if you see any more and I’ll be right up to rehome them.”

  I heard the sigh of relief behind me as I opened the door and stepped out into the hall.

  “I’ll ask mom to bring you up a cup of tea… and maybe a few cookies?” I turned back to see Mrs. Lawson framed in the door.

  “That would be lovely,” she replied and gave me a small smile. “I’m sorry, Naiva. I just… I just don’t like little creatures like that.” She laughed and waved her hand in the air.

  “All part of my duty, Mrs. Lawson. I want you to have a great stay. So, I’ll have mom bring up the tea and you can just ring the desk if you need anything else.”

  With those last words hanging between us, Mrs. Lawson nodded and closed the door softly as I turned to head out to the beach to return my little trouble maker to his home.

  Aisley Cafe was my brainchild and I had a love-hate relationship with it. The cafe provided a stream of income all year long. We had a patio area for those who prefer to sit outside and look at the ocean. We had a nice dining area – it was small but provided a lovely place for a date. The set up provided those staying with us a menu full of options for the three meals we included with their stay. It also provided a place for locals to stop for a cup of coffee, lunch, or a fancy diner. On the inside, we even had a bar.

  One of the selling points of the cafe, when I’d pitched the idea to my parents, was to cut down on waste. Before the cafe, my mom would prepare three meals a day. The meals were normally served buffet style and at set times which meant that guests often missed or skipped meals and left us with a lot of leftovers. Those leftovers couldn’t be served to guests a second time, so we either ate the food or it was tossed. Now, most items were made to order or prepared and stored so they could be available over multiple days.

  My mom opened the cafe at six in the morning and I took over at three in the afternoon. We closed the doors at nine on weekdays and eleven Friday through Sunday. During the slow times and after I closed up, I prepped everything for the next day – this included baking bread and pastries, dicing up vegetables, and basically doing anything that could be done ahead of time. It made it easy for Mom to serve breakfast and lunch with very little cooking typically.

  The cafe was my life. I woke up and helped out with guests inside the B&B and then took over for my mom at the cafe. My dad manned the desk and took care of repairs and such. We also had Maria who cleaned the rooms and did the laundry. She worked part-time around her kid’s schedules. We also had Thad who manned the bar and acted as the inside waiter. Aisley B&B was a family affair and had been my home my entire life. Unfortunately, it didn’t allow for much else.

  Letting out a sigh, I finished wiping off a table as I watched the last customer walk through the door. Love-hate. I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else… Yet, I’d had dreams when I was in high school…

  Shaking my head, I walked to the door and flipped the sign that hung on the door to ‘CLOSED’ and flipped the lock.

  Turning to head to the table the customer had just vacated, I wiped it down and flipped the chairs upside down to sit on top. Thad would be sweeping and mopping after he restocked the bar.

  Which meant it was time to prep.

  Arriving in Cape Luella towards the end of the day, I looked around to see if anything had changed since I’d last visited – I knew what it really was, a diversion tactic to put off arriving at my parents’ vacation home. When I went off to college, it had been easy to push off my mother’s insistence that I join them at the summer house. It helped that I took classes even during the summer quarter as I finished a bachelor’s and master’s degree in half the time it normally would have taken.

  Mother had lost interest in my life until my sister’s wedding. Now all of a sudden, she’s insistent that I get married. Letting out a sigh, I turned down the street which would lead me to the drive to the house. Not much had really changed in the seaside town. Cape Luella was one of those places that had been missed when tourist companies had bought up beach adjacent properties to drop hotels and other tourist attractions on. Everything in Cape Luella ran at its own pace.

  Unconsciously, I pulled into a parking spot and looked up at the Aisley B&B. How many times had I sat outside of this building? I’d never been one to hang out with friends but when my mother drove me crazy enough, even I ditched my computers and went to the beach.

  The first time I could remember seeing Naiva was when I was thirteen. She was a bit younger than myself – I think – I mean, I’d never actually had a conversation with the girl. From that first moment, something about her drew me. Going outside and down to the beach became something I did without being hounded by my mother to do something fun. Walking along the beach and searching – well pretending to search – for seashells became my summer past-time.

  To this day, I’d never spoken to her. She’d become a dream, a fantasy of what I wanted. A hazy memory that no other woman had ever been able to tempt me to abandon. Instead of dating and finding someone to settle down with, I’d simply buried myself in first my studies and then building my business.

  However, now I sat in my car outside of her home – at least I hoped she still lived at the B&B. The sign still bore the name ‘Aisley Bed & Breakfast’ so it was likely that her parents s
till owned the place.

  A bang and soft curse drew my gaze to the side of the building. A small figure wearing a dark green polo over, khaki clam diggers, and a pair of navy canvas shoes walked into a circle of light created by a street light at the edge of the property. Straight light-brown hair was pulled back and held with a clip. A few strands had escaped and she brushed them away from her face as she glared down the street from where I was parked. Her shoulders slumped and she turned to head back the way she’d come.

  Naiva Aisley had grown up and she was breathtaking. Curvy in all of the right ways… my jeans became tight and I groaned as I slammed my head back against the headrest of my car. Naiva was the only thing I’d ever wanted that I didn’t know how to get. Give me a screen full of computer code and I could decipher it and tell you exactly how to improve it but tell me to talk to my first crush – my only crush – and I broke out in hives.

  Reaching out, I turned the key to start the car. I quickly backed out and headed to my parents. This vacation could be amazing… if only I was worthy of the woman I’d just seen for the first time in ten years.

  It had been two days since I arrived in Cape Luella. My mother had been all smiles but otherwise pretty much left me to my own devices. However, it was the calm before the storm and I now stood in a light-weight suit along the wall of the party room which was my mother’s pride and joy. She loved giving parties and had spared no expense on the space.

  Lights were glowing down on me and I felt the heat rising only to be blasted away by the arctic-temperature air conditioning. Hors d'oeuvre were being passed around the room by staff dressed in simple black slacks and white button-up shirts. If we were back in the city, I’d be forced to wear a tux and the staff would be in a much fancier and more uncomfortable uniform. At least Mother was kind enough to allow us to dress for the climate.

  My hand absently rubbed at my neck and tugged at my collar.

  “Stop fussing, you look perfect, Harrison,” my mother spoke from my left and I jerked in surprise.