Page 19 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

CHAPTER TEN

CAM

C am pulled the refrigerated van they were using for the weekend into the restaurant parking lot, the engine idling. He waited for Elle to hop out, but all she did was look at him with adorably confused eyes.

“I’ve got to make another stop,” he clarified, gesturing back down the street.

It was after ten p.m., and even though all he wanted to do was shower and crawl into bed, they needed more fresh seafood for tomorrow.

Which, as far as Cam was concerned, was a great problem to have.

By the time the festival had shut down after the first day, they only had half of their flight items left, and he’d had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to make it work.

“Where are you going? We both reek.” Elle was so matter-of-fact about it that Cam laughed.

“I’m sure the mermaid I have a date with disagrees,” he argued, for no reason other than he was starting to get addicted to the sound of Elle’s voice. Especially when she was riled up about something.

There was a beat of surprise before her face fell, and he regretted his words immediately. “Oh… sorry. I didn’t realize… ”

He hated that look, especially when he was the one causing it. It was a shit move on his part to make a joke about going on a date with someone else, even if she was part-fish. “I was going to see if anyone was at the market down by the docks. Try to grab a few things for tomorrow.”

Elle looked at him, suddenly bleary-eyed, like all her energy had been wiped out in the last ten seconds. She twisted her body away from Cam and put her hand on the door handle. “I can go with you in the morning. The catch will be fresh then.”

She was right, and he’d known she was right. But, the idea of being in the confines of the apartment together, both of them needing a shower, hadn’t felt like a safe bet. Nothing for the past week in his life had felt safe.

He opened his own car door, too tired to argue. “You’re right.”

They headed up the steps, Elle’s ass silhouetted against the lights on the side of the building. He resisted the urge to reach out and grab a handful, knowing that his fingers would feel so good sinking into her.

“You can shower first,” he said when they entered the apartment, already heading toward his bedroom.

Elle was everywhere, and it was starting to make him crazy.

In the bathroom in the mornings, when he could hear her singing in the shower.

In the kitchen, where she continued to leave half-eaten pieces of fruit on the counter, insisting that she was ‘going to eat them later.’ She was still wearing his t-shirt, usually without anything underneath as she moved between rooms getting ready.

The entire damn apartment smelled like her perfume, something citrusy and floral that made Cam feel like a bloodhound tracking a scent when he caught a whiff of it.

He stripped off his t-shirt and threw it in the laundry basket. Looking over at the bed, he resisted the urge to throw himself on it. Whether in exhaustion or self-flagellation was anyone’s guess .

There were only so many hours that he could spend down in the restaurant. Mr. Pierce had already told him that he was working too hard. Luckily, Elle’s dad didn’t grasp in the slightest why Cam had practically moved downstairs, only coming back to the apartment to sleep and shower.

And the worst fucking part–the part that was making Cam go out of his mind–was that Elle was doing exactly what he’d asked. Since when had she ever listened to him before? Suddenly, she was a beacon of cooperation. All it made him want to do was push her up against a wall and fuck her senseless.

Every night since Tuesday, he’d gone to bed and used his hand as a poor substitute for what he really wanted.

What he was refusing to let himself consider having, even if it killed him.

He’d already broken his self-imposed promise, a moment of weakness he’d allowed himself that had only driven him deeper in his wanting.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, knowing that he couldn’t stop himself. From visualizing his head buried in Elle’s soft pussy and licking her until she screamed. From making her come in every position imaginable. From imagining her beautiful lips wrapped around his cock.

He was already hard when he reached his hand inside his pants, this time, imagining Elle on the other side of the apartment, naked in the shower. He wondered–not knowing what he wanted the answer to be–if she was thinking about him, too.

The Rock Harbor Docks was a small stretch of land situated at the edge of downtown. From the outside, it didn’t look like much. But Cam knew better.

He and Elle drove through the large chain link gate that was already open. On the other side of the fence, dozens of people were milling about. Fishermen, mostly, already harried from a long morning of work. Cam found one of the only spots left and parked the van.

A gravel parking lot butted up against rows of docks where the boats could moor to drop off their loads.

Next to the boats, there was a sprawling station filled with scales where fishermen weighed and sold their catches to the open air fish market, or they could pack their hauls in one of their refrigerated trucks to distribute directly.

The sun was half-above the horizon, light glittering off the choppy morning waves. Cam got out of the van and took a deep inhale of air, the scent of brine filling his nostrils.

“What are we low on?” Elle asked as she hopped down from the van and walked around to Cam’s side.

She didn’t seem to have struggled with a dream-fueled, sleepless night like Cam had.

Her big, doe eyes were bright, and she had a shiny lip balm on that had already drawn Cam’s attention more than once.

Cam scratched at his chin and avoided looking at Elle’s lips.

“Almost everything. I checked the restaurant walk-in this morning, and there wasn’t enough for me to grab anything extra.

” He pointed over to the market and the rows of seafood, all freshly caught that morning.

Boats continued to grow larger on the horizon as they came toward the shore, inches lower from the heavy weight of their catches.

Elle fell into step beside him. “I haven’t been here in years.”

He could see Elle taking everything in, down to the dingy buoys that looked like they’d been hanging like strewn Christmas lights for at least as long as Cam had been alive.

“Hasn’t changed much,” Cam said, already thinking about the task list he needed to execute to get them through the next two days.

He started to catalog the various seafood they’d need.

More scallops, twice as many as they’d originally purchased.

Lobster, which Cam would need to boil at the restaurant for the bite- sized lobster rolls.

He could buy the crab already picked for the mini crab cakes and would still have enough time to make the remoulade to go with them.

The whole belly clams would already be shucked, too, which meant that he’d only need to drop them in the fryer throughout the day.

The shrimp would be the hardest, but hopefully he’d have enough time to peel them, even though it would be a bitch.

Along with the grilled Rockefeller oysters that needed to be prepped.

They had four hours before they needed to be at the second day of the event, and Cam was already sweating, itching to get back to the Pierce’s Lobster Co. kitchen and get started.

He’d written out his list, along with the volume of each item.

Cooking, and all the intricacies that went along with it, was where he felt most in his element.

He could visualize how it would all come together, from the order of prepping all the ingredients to putting together the dishes that could be prepared ahead of time.

It was an order of operations that he constantly shifted in his brain, and it worked better than anything in his life.

Cam gestured to a man a little older than him–though it was hard to tell when someone lived their life on the docks–wearing a large rubber apron who was standing behind one of the displays. “I have a wholesale order that I need packed and paid for. Can I get your help?”

He handed the piece of paper over, Elle looking over his shoulder.

The man disappeared with the list at the same time she put her hand on his bicep and squeezed to get his attention.

“Cam, that’s at least a few grand worth of seafood.

I don’t know that my dad can cover that. At least not right now.”

He wished she would move her hand. “You’re an expert in wholesale seafood prices now?”

She rolled her eyes, and he couldn’t blame her. He was being a dick. But these docks, specifically, brought back a lot of memories he didn’t like to revisit .

But Elle wasn’t going to be deterred. “I was raised in Rock Harbor, grew up in a seafood restaurant, and spent three years consulting with businesses in the food and beverage space to streamline their supply chain logistics. Plus, I’m not a fucking idiot,” she finished, shooting him a glare.

Cam looked at her thoughtfully. “And I didn’t know about the restaurant thing–not that it changes anything.”

“Well, you haven’t exactly been chomping at the bit to get to know me,” she batted back, folding her arms across her chest.

He wasn’t going to admit that was entirely intentional on his part.

And he definitely wasn’t going to give in and glance down to where her arms had pushed up her chest, soft skin begging to be touched.

“Your dad and I will work out squaring up on the backend,” he said gruffly, changing the subject.

And he wasn’t going to explain that he had no intention for Mr. Pierce to pay him back.

Elle scoffed. “Well, far be it from me to get in the way of ‘man business.’”