Page 10 of Blame It on the Bikini (Ocean Shores #4)

Chapter Six

Grayson left Josie's apartment with a sour feeling in his gut.

He knew he was lucky. He also knew he was privileged, and sometimes he'd wondered if he'd made the wrong decision working with his father, because it had put the nepotism label on his head.

But he couldn't worry about that. His father had wanted him in the business, and he'd wanted the connection with his dad.

He'd also worked damn hard to be good at his job.

And he certainly didn't need a Tarot card reading to tell him what to do next.

He was curious why his father had sent him to Ocean Shores, but he didn't need to know that answer to sell the building, which was what he would do at the end of his time here.

As he walked up the stairs to his apartment, he ran into a woman at the top, who was very pregnant and also balancing a basket of laundry.

"Let me help you with that," he said.

"If you wouldn't mind," she replied with relief as he took the basket out of her hands. "I underestimated how difficult it would be to manage the stairs with a laundry basket when I can barely see my feet."

"No problem. I take it you're headed to the laundry room."

"Yes. I'm Serena Morrison. I live just a few doors down from you with my husband, Brad. I don't know if you've met him yet. He runs Maverick's Bar and Grill."

"I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him or going to Maverick's, but I will check it out."

"You should. It's very popular," she said as she followed him slowly down the stairs and into the laundry room.

He set the basket on a table. "Here you go."

"Thanks. You're a lifesaver. Brad told me he'd do the laundry, but he had to run to the bar for some pipe emergency, and I really needed some clean clothes."

"Can I help you load the washer?"

"I can manage that. Have you had a chance to talk to my sister, Ava, yet?"

"No," he said. "But I think I read a report she wrote."

"Lexie had her do an analysis for you. She's great with numbers, and she's been working with venture capitalists and investment bankers for years, so she knows her stuff."

He didn't want to admit that he'd barely looked at the report. "I need to take another look at it," he said diplomatically.

"You should. Ava is super smart, and from what I've heard about you and what I know about my sister, I'd say you have a lot in common."

"How so?"

"She was obsessed with work before she came here. All business on the outside."

"And on the inside?"

"A complete romantic, who fell in love with a surfer and discovered life is more than spreadsheets. But don't tell her I said that because she still likes her spreadsheets."

"I like spreadsheets, too," he admitted.

Serena laughed. "That's what I thought. You're two peas in a pod. I barely like computers. I like living in the real world." She patted her pregnant stomach. "Although this is about to get very real, very soon, and I'm nervous about that."

"When are you due?"

"Two weeks. Maybe that's why I'm suddenly obsessed with laundry. I'm probably nesting."

"I know nothing about pregnancy, so whatever you say, I'll believe."

Her grin broadened. "You're nicer than I thought you would be… I thought you were the Big Bad Wolf who wants to blow our house down."

He did not know what to say to that, except to tell the truth. "I am here to determine whether the building should be sold. If that makes me the Big Bad Wolf, then that's what I am."

"Fair enough. Thanks again for the help."

"If you need assistance carrying this basket upstairs, let me know. I should be around, and I assume you know which apartment is mine."

"Everyone does," she said with a laugh. "But Brad or my sister should be back soon, so I won't need to bother you."

As he left the laundry room, he saw Lexie entering the courtyard, juggling a half dozen or so helium balloons in shades of pink and lavender, with a paper bag wedged under her arm, and a spool of curling ribbon tucked beneath her chin.

The wind caught one balloon and nearly yanked it free.

As she wrestled with it, the spool of ribbon fell to the ground, and he moved forward to grab it before it rolled into the pool.

"Thanks," she said as he put it on the table.

"Can I take the bag?"

"Would you?"

He slid it out from under her arm, and once she didn't have to worry about that, she was able to tie the balloons around the arm of a chair.

"Looks like you're having a party," he said.

"Yes. A surprise birthday party for a seven-year-old," she returned.

"That explains the seven balloons. Is this for the kid who pushed me into the pool?"

"No, it's for his best friend, a little girl named Olivia, who lives upstairs with her mother, Bree. They've had a rough few years. Olivia's father was in the military and died in a helicopter crash."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It was very sad. I didn't know him, but he flew with another one of our tenants, Hunter Kane.

Hunter had moved in here to recover from the accident, and Bree needed a lot of help, so she dropped Olivia off one day and turned Hunter into a temporary dad.

He managed to rise to the occasion with a little help from one of our other tenants, Emmalyn McGuire.

Eventually, Bree came back and decided to stay here with Olivia, who was thriving with a new school, new friends, and a support system here in the building. "

He smiled. "You never miss an opportunity to show off the community, do you?"

"Hey, you asked me what I was doing," she said with a shrug. "Since you're here, how about giving me a hand?"

"What about the rest of your community?" he asked dryly.

"Kaia was supposed to help, but she got called into work.

Hunter and Emmalyn are keeping Bree and Olivia out of the way so we can surprise both of them.

Paige and Henry are picking up the pizza, and Ava is getting the cake.

I have helpers; they're just not here. But there is you… " She gave him a hopeful look.

How could he resist that? "Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"String the happy birthday sign along the fence," she said as she pulled a string of letters out of the bag. "Then I want to spread out the balloons, tie them to various chairs so that the whole area looks festive."

He took the banner. "I'll start with this."

"Great."

He smiled to himself as he took the sign over to the fence. Every time he left his apartment, he seemed to get caught up in something he hadn't expected, like working on Frank's Mustang, and now helping set up a kid's birthday party.

It took him a few moments to get the banner attached. By then, the whirlwind that was Lexie had already spread out the balloons, and covered the tables with birthday placemats, paper plates, napkins, and forks.

Serena came back into the courtyard with two presents, and they were soon joined by Margaret and Josie, who brought presents as well.

With more people to help, he was about to make his escape when Lexie called him over. "One last thing," she said. "Can you help me carry a present from my apartment out here? It's pretty heavy."

"All right. What did you get her that is so heavy?"

"It's a dollhouse. It was actually mine when I was a little girl. I had my mother ship it here so I could give it to Olivia." She led him across the courtyard. "It's quite large. My mother tended to be very extravagant with presents." She opened her unlocked door and led him into her apartment.

Lexie lived next door to her aunt on the first floor of the building, but her one-bedroom apartment was half the size of Josie's.

It was also much less cluttered, with furniture in soothing tones of white, blue, and gray.

But while she didn't have a lot of things, she did have a lot of photographs.

There were three large, framed pictures above the couch and dozens of smaller photos covering the dining room wall.

"Did you take all these?"

"The ones over the sofa," she said as she slit open an enormous carton with a pair of scissors.

"And the ones in the dining room?" he asked, wandering over to take a closer look.

"Places I want to go. When I do, I'll replace each picture with one of my own. When the wall is completely redone, I'll feel…I don't know, like I've accomplished something."

He glanced back at her, seeing the mix of emotions in her gaze. "When are you going to start?"

"Soon. I'm saving up right now." She paused. "Could you help me pull out the dollhouse?"

He walked over as she opened the carton and, together, they extracted a large two-story dollhouse and then several ziplock bags filled with tiny furniture and people.

He was impressed by the detail of not only the architecture but also the interior rooms, which had designs and even small paintings on the walls.

"This is quite a dollhouse."

"I told you. I got it on my seventh birthday, so it seems fitting I give it to Olivia."

"Are you sure you don't want to save it, maybe for one of your own kids?"

She hesitated. "I don't think so. It's beautiful, and I had fun with it, but it doesn't hold a ton of sentimental value.

And to be honest, it wasn't even on my wish list that year.

I wanted a robot. But my friend Melissa got a dollhouse for her birthday, which was two weeks earlier.

Melissa's mother was friends with my mother, and they were always trying to outdo each other, so my mom came up with this. She won."

He smiled. "Well, at least you benefited from her competitive drive."

"I did. There were chocolate fountains at my eighth birthday tea party, pony rides for my tenth birthday, and a professional ice sculpture of me at my sweet sixteen.

I was horribly embarrassed about that one.

But my mother was proud as could be. If people weren't talking about one of her parties for a week, she considered it a failure. "

"Was your father fully invested in your mother's party planning?"