Chasing The Sun: A Small Town Romance (Angel Sands Book 7) Read online

  Chasing The Sun

  Carrie Elks

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  About the Author

  Also by Carrie Elks

  CHASING THE SUN by Carrie Elks

  Copyright © 2021 Carrie Elks

  All rights reserved

  110120

  Edited by Rose David

  Proofread by Proofreading by Mich

  Cover Designed by Najla Qamber Designs (www. najlaqamberdesigns.com)

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are fictitious products of the author’s imagination.

  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, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  1

  Pushing open his office door with one hand, Jackson Lewis used the other to loosen his perfectly knotted tie. He sighed with relief as it came unraveled and he unfastened the top button of his white shirt, enjoying the freedom it gave him to finally breathe.

  He hated wearing suits. Or any formal wear. He felt so much more at home in the jeans and t-shirts he usually wore in the office. But as the owner of Lewis Security Systems, when it came to visiting clients he had no choice. They wanted to know the company they paid to manage their cyber security was led by somebody serious. If it took a suit and tie to persuade them, then that’s what he’d do.

  His assistant, Lisa looked up from her desk, shaking her head as he undid the rest of his buttons and shrugged off his shirt.

  “What did I say about stripping in the office?” she asked, her mouth lifting into a grin. “I don’t want to see that kind of thing.”

  “I’m wearing a t-shirt underneath.” Jackson threw his shirt onto the hook by the door. He stopped by her desk and ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. “Did I miss anything while I was out?”

  “About a thousand phone calls and a million emails. The usual. I’ve marked anything urgent in your inbox.” Lisa had been working for him for five years. Previously, she’d worked at Newton Pharmaceuticals, the main employer in their small California beach town of Angel Sands. He’d poached her from Newtons at the same time he’d left the pharmaceutical company to start up his own business, knowing despite her penchant for mothering him, he couldn’t run this office without her. “Have you had a chance to look at those résumés I sent you?”

  “What résumés?” he asked, walking over to the coffee machine. “You want one?” he asked, as he grabbed a mug.

  “The résumés I sent you last week.” Shaking her head, she pushed her desk chair back on its wheels and stood. “And I’m supposed to be getting you coffee. You have this whole boss-employee thing backward.”

  He ignored her and poured a second cup, passing it to her. “Consider it an apology for not reviewing the résumés.”

  “You really need some more staff. We can’t go on like this.” Lisa sighed, following him to his desk. “You’re working seven days a week. I feel exhausted just watching you.”

  “I know. I get it. I just haven’t had time to recruit and train anybody.” He took a sip of his coffee, closing his eyes as the bitter liquid ran down his throat. “It’s a catch-twenty-two situation.”

  Right now, Lewis Security Systems employed seven people. Jackson, Lisa, plus five programmers who mostly preferred to work from home, though they came into the office once a week for a team meeting. But even with everybody working every waking hour, they couldn’t keep up with the demand for their services. In the past few years, he’d grown a reputation for creating unbeatable security systems. Which was why he wasn’t only wearing damn suits to meetings, but on the weekends he was in front of his laptop, programming like the rest of them.

  It didn’t give him a lot of time for anything else.

  “If you give me a shortlist, I’ll do the first interviews,” Lisa suggested. “After that, I’ll arrange for three of them to come and meet you. It’ll take half a morning at the most. And think of all the time it’ll save you in the long run. You need some free time. You’re a man in his prime.” She shrugged.

  He grinned. “Thanks. I think.”

  “Seriously though, please look at them.”

  “I will.” He promised. “Was there any other urgent calls?”

  “Your mom.” Lisa grimaced. “She wants you to call her back. I told her you were in meetings all day.”

  Jackson sighed. “Did she say what she wanted?” Not that he needed to ask. It was always about money. He had it and she needed it. Theirs was the ultimate transactional relationship. He wouldn’t be surprised if she started demanding mortgage payments for the fact she’d rented him womb space thirty-three years ago.

  “No, but I didn’t ask either. I cut her off, to be honest. Sorry.” Lisa wrinkled her nose.

  “You don’t need to apologize. She’s my problem, not yours.”

  Lisa gave a huff. “Yeah well, mothers shouldn’t be anybody’s problem.”

  Maybe not. But Jackson’s mom had been trouble since she’d walked out on him and his dad when he was ten years old. Since then, she’d flitted in and out of their lives whenever she was bored. Or whenever her bank balance dipped perilously low. It used to be his father that she’d targeted, but thankfully now it was Jackson. He could deal with her, he wasn’t sure his dad could.

  “I’ll call her back some time.” Probably not before she called him again. “Anything else I should know about?”

  “Your friend Griff called. He sounded stressed, which is strange for him.” She smiled dreamily. “He’s always so laid back. And handsome.”

  Jackson swallowed a laugh. He’d been best friends with Griff since they’d started kindergarten. Along with their friends, Lucas and Breck, they’d formed a tight gang of four, spending their summers on the surf in Angel Sands, and their winters plotting how to get out of school and spend even more time on the waves.

  Nowadays, Griff ran a whale watching company in Angel Sands and had recently become a father. Like Breck and Lucas, he was happily coupled-up, leaving Jackson the only one who was single.

  And happy that way, he might add.

  “Maybe the baby’s keeping him awake,” Jackson said, making a face at Lisa, who laughed. Griff and Autumn’s baby, Skyler, was almost four months old now, but according to Griff she slept like a newborn. Jackson took his word for it. He had no idea about babies at all. Wasn’t planning on learning any time soon, either. He lost enough sleep working, as it was.

  Nope, being an almost-uncle to his friends’ kids was enough for him. And now he was going to be a godfather, thanks to Griff and Autumn’s request.
He was still trying to work out why they’d chosen him.

  Maybe some puzzles were better left unsolved.

  “Thanks,” he said, swallowing a mouthful of coffee. “I’ll call him back now.”

  Placing his cup on his desk – and narrowly avoiding the dark liquid sloshing over onto some accounts he was supposed to approve last week – Jackson picked up his phone and clicked on Griff’s contact.

  “Hey,” Griff’s voice was larger than life, like the rest of him. “Thanks for calling back.”

  “You okay?” Jackson asked him. “Lisa said you sounded stressed.”

  Griff laughed. “I’m not stressed. I just have a favor to ask.”

  “Is it your laptop again? I keep telling you that thing belongs in a museum. I can get you a new one at a discount any time.”

  “Nah, the laptop’s fine. I only use it for email anyway. Autumn does everything else on her computer.” While Griff ran a whale watching company, Autumn owned the pier where it was based. She’d bought it sight unseen, and moved to Angel Sands from New York, surprising everybody, but most of all herself. And now she was part of the gang, and Jackson was delighted his friend had found someone so perfect to spend the rest of his life with.

  “So it’s not the laptop.” Jackson grinned. “Please don’t ask me to babysit. You know I’ll end up hurting somebody.”

  Griff laughed. “Nope. You need to go through godfather boot camp before I let you loose with my kid. I was just wondering if you’re free on Saturday. Autumn’s sister’s flying in from New York, but I’ve got a charter and Autumn’s supposed to be meeting with the caterers for Skyler’s naming day. I was hoping you could head over to the airport to pick Lydia up.”

  Griff and Autumn had decided on a naming celebration for their daughter, instead of a traditional christening. The ceremony on the pier would be a chance for all their friends and family to officially welcome Skyler into their fold. And of course, it was a great excuse for a party. Not that they usually needed an excuse.

  “Lydia’s coming early?” Jackson had only met Autumn’s sister twice, but she’d made a big impression. She was like a whirlwind, kicking up the dust of Angel Sands.

  “She wants to spend time with Autumn and the baby. Says she’s staying for just under two weeks. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  Another thing that fascinated him about Lydia. She never stayed anywhere for long. Blink and you’d miss her. She had a good excuse, being a travel consultant, but it didn’t stop him from being intrigued.

  “Well, I’m happy to pick her up.” Jackson tried to push down all the thoughts of the programming he had to do this weekend. He’d just have to miss a night’s sleep or something. “Message me the flight details and I’ll be there.”

  “That’s great.” Griff exhaled loudly. “Autumn was panicking. She needs to be at the pier for this meeting. And I can’t really turn down the charter, it’s for a longstanding client.”

  Griff cleared his throat. The silence that followed made Jackson’s brows lift up. “There’s one other thing I want to ask you,” Griff finally mumbled, as though he didn’t want to ask.

  “What?” Jackson grinned at his friend’s reluctance.

  “I know you wouldn’t, but just in case you’re thinking about it, please don’t hit on her. She’s important to Autumn, and like a sister to me. I know you have a thing for blondes, but not this one, okay?”

  That’s what you got for letting your friends think you were constantly playing the field. Like so many lies, it had started off as a truth. After coming out of a long – and frankly toxic – engagement, it’d felt natural to play the field and have a good time for a while. After a couple of years, when his friends started to settle down, one by one, it had become a good shield against their attempts to get him to do the same.

  ‘Ember works with this great girl. She’s single, you should meet her. Maybe we could double date.’

  ‘My cousin’s flying in from Atlanta next week. She saw a photo of you and is interested. Do you want her number?’

  ‘You should really think about settling down with somebody. You’re not getting any younger. Don’t you want a family?’

  Yeah, well settling down was fine for his friends. But Jackson knew how it ended. He’d had a ringside seat at the implosion of his parents’ marriage. So he’d let his friends think he was a player. The kind they definitely didn’t want to introduce to their sisters or cousins.

  And now here it was, biting him on the butt.

  “I’m not going to hit on Lydia,” he promised, shaking his head. Lisa let out a laugh, and he glared at her. She lifted her hands and turned back to her laptop, but he could still see her shoulders shaking.

  He’d deal with her later.

  An image of Lydia flickered into Jackson’s mind. He remembered the way she looked the last time he’d seen her when she’d flown in for Skyler’s birth. He’d been working from six in the morning until ten at night that week, trying to put together a proposal for a total security system for a company in White City, and he’d only managed to see her briefly as he ran into the hospital to give Autumn and Griff a baby gift.

  Lydia had been sitting next to Autumn, holding her tiny niece in her arms, her expression full of love as she stared down at the tiny bundle. She’d looked up and seen Jackson, and her lips had broken into a huge grin. In a different life, maybe he’d have flirted with her. Seen what was there.

  But Griff was right. He wasn’t dating material, and there was no way he was going to enrage his best friend.

  Jackson wedged his phone between his shoulder and ear, switching on his laptop. “Send me the flight details and I’ll be there,” he promised, again.

  “Thanks, man.” Griff had the good grace to sound embarrassed. “I appreciate it.”

  After he ended the call, Jackson took a sip of coffee and opened up his emails, wincing when he saw a hundred of them awaiting his attention. He didn’t have time to think about Lydia Paxton, or anything else for that matter. He had way too much work for that.

  He’d pick her up from the airport, bring her home to Autumn and Griff, and forget all about her. Because sometimes life was simpler that way.

  2

  Walking toward the sliding double doors leading to the arrivals lounge, Lydia shifted a giant teddy bear in her arms, and pulled her oversized suitcase behind her, smiling when she saw the shafts of sunlight beaming through the glass wall of the airport.

  This was the part of traveling she loved. Arriving in a city and soaking up the atmosphere. And if the sun was shining, all the better. She wrinkled her nose when she remembered one particular visit to London where it had rained for fourteen days. Not a shaft of sunlight at all. Thank goodness those Brits knew how to do museums.

  The sun seemed to shine for ninety-nine percent of the time in California, and that was something she was thankful for. With only two weeks between jobs, this was her one chance this year at a break.

  Which was wild, really, because her whole job revolved around vacations. Other people’s vacations. She planned them, escorted them, and made sure they had the holiday of a lifetime. As much as she loved her career, it was exhausting, too.

  Even Vacation Specialists needed time off.

  The teddy bear’s leg got caught on the doorjamb, and she had to tug hard to release his furry limb. He’d been a liability since she’d stepped into JFK that morning.

  It was a good thing she loved her baby niece. Otherwise this bear might not make it to Angel Sands.

  Her phone beeped. She pulled it from her pocket to see a message from her sister, Autumn. There were only a few years between them, but since they’d grown up without a mother, Autumn was definitely the caregiver in their relationship.

  And now she was a mom to baby Skyler. Lydia beamed brightly. She couldn’t wait to see her niece – the last time she visited Skyler had only been a few days old. How could she be nearly five months already? Time was passing too fast.

  Hope you
landed okay! Sorry I can’t be there, but Jackson promised to drive safely. I’ll see you at home. Can’t wait! An xx

  Lydia tapped out a quick reply and picked up her case and the teddy. She could barely see where she was going, thanks to the thick, soft furry animal who was obscuring her view. The sooner she gave him to Skyler, the better.

  Somehow, she managed to maneuver her way through the baggage terminal, and through the sliding glass doors to the arrivals terminal without any catastrophes. She was just about to congratulate herself when the suitcase hit something, and her foot caught on a tile, sending her – and the teddy bear – flying onto the hard floor in front of her.

  Except it wasn’t hard. It was soft. Too soft. Her eyes widened in horror when she realized she’d barreled a young boy over with her.

  “Oh my god, are you okay?” she asked him.

  The little boy’s lips wobbled. Her pulse raced as she realized he was about to cry.

  “Let me help you up,” she said, holding her hand out to him. People were giving them a wide birth now, creating a pool of empty floor in the middle of the crowd.

  “Does anything hurt? Your legs, your arms?” Where were his parents? She looked around for some responsible adults, because god knew she was anything but.

  He started to sob, and her panic increased. She never could stand to make anybody cry. “Hey,” she said. “Have you seen my teddy bear?” She waved the stuffed arm at the boy, hoping to divert him. “Isn’t he cute?”

  The boy nodded, swallowing his sob. “What’s his name?”