The Ivy House

chapter 14

The note came the next morning with a large bunch of flowers, creamy white lilies. Looked like Chase had written the note himself, she thought. Thick black marker, simple printed letters.

I think we got off on the wrong foot. Do over? The Osprey Arms, seven o’clock, tonight.

Phoebe held the note, remembering the last time she had seen Chase, his blue eyes flashing, his legs spread apart, hands on his hip, looking for all the world like he was the captain of a ship about to face the maelstrom. Did she want to see him again? Phoebe placed the flowers on the edge of her desk, looking at them.

Of course, she wanted to see him. Her whole body was practically itching with desire at the thought of seeing him, the thought of looking into his eyes, watching his lopsided grin staring down at her, the thought of running her hands through his too-long black hair. She could pretty well imagine the silky feel of it.

Phoebe sighed deeply, inhaling the light, fresh smell of the lilies. Yes, she was going to go. There was no way she could stay away; both her interest and her curiosity were aroused. Chase Sanders, Leland Harper’s grandson. A link, however tenuous, to Savannah.

<<>>

Phoebe awoke with a start. She checked her watch. She had worked all day at the house, both on her website and on cleaning the kitchen. It was dirty, hot, and exhausting work. Another day or so and she would be ready to move in, but for now she was happy with the clean bathroom and soft bed at the Osprey Arms. It had been so inviting that when she had come back, she had intended only to close her eyes for a moment, but she’d fallen fast asleep, and now she realized with a rush of panic that she had only a half hour to get ready.

A quick shower and only a few minutes to figure out what to wear. It certainly wasn’t a date, so anything with too suggestive a neckline or too low a back was out. But would looking too casual send the wrong message?

Finally, she had decided to keep it simple, a pair of dark wash blue jeans that stretched nicely over all the right places and a purple v-neck sweater. No heels, since she was tall enough already, but a pair of ballet flats and scarf tied at her neck pulled it all together. It was her go-to outfit, she supposed, simple, with the sweater highlighting her eyes.

She felt flushed and slightly embarrassed when she entered the darkened room. It was closer to seven thirty than seven, and as a rule, she didn’t like to keep people waiting. The bar at the Osprey Arms was mildly crowded for a Thursday night. There was a couple leaning in towards one another, heads close, hands intertwined. There was also a group of older men, in khakis and sweaters, white-haired with red cheeks, so Phoebe figured they had probably come in from a round of golf.

And there he was, in the far corner, with an empty stool next to him. He saw her and one hand went up. She swallowed. She worked her way down the bar, nodding at the bartender.

Chase stood up when she turned the corner, his hand held out.

She stopped and looked at it.

“What are you doing?”

He smiled, but this time it was genuine, an almost friendly grin. “Like I said, starting over. See, I’m Chase Sanders. Nice to meet you.”

Her eyebrows arched up, but she decided to play along, “How nice to meet you, Mr. Sanders. I’m Phoebe Ryan.”

“Please call me Chase.”

“Thank you.” Phoebe let herself be guided into the high chair at the bar, the wide palm of his hand splayed across her back, creating an instant contact burn with her skin, right through the thin cashmere wool of her sweater. No flushing, she ordered herself, glad the dim lighting in the bar would offer her some camouflage for the way her body was reacting to him.

“What will you have?” Chase asked, catching the bartender’s attention.

“A white wine, please.”

Chase ordered a wine for her and a pint for himself. She was surprised at that, but decided to say nothing. At least he wasn’t pretentious in his choice of beverage.

“So…” Phoebe said during the uncomfortable silence that had settled between them after their drinks were delivered.

“To new beginnings,” he said, raising his glass in a toast. She smiled. She could agree to that.

Phoebe took a sip of her wine. It was cool and crisp and was probably from a better bottle than whatever the house wine was. She glanced at Chase again. His hand was wrapped around his pint glass and she could see the fine light-colored hair on his tan knuckles. It was not a hand that looked like it stayed inside all day pushing papers around. For a brief instant, she remembered how it had felt on her back, large, warm, almost possessive, as he had guided her onto the bar chair, and she let herself imagine just what else it might be capable of.

“First off, I was sincere when I offered my condolences about your grandmother. Whatever else she was, she was certainly a talented actress,” he said.

Phoebe scanned his face, trying to see if there was a hint of sarcasm. She saw none, so she smiled. “Thank you. But did you know, from the first meeting, who I was?” Phoebe asked, curious.

He shook his head. “No, not until you said something. I mean, I was sincere too. You did look familiar. Of course, I realize that it was the family resemblance that had me thinking you were someone.”

“Thank you, I guess.”

Chase smiled, showing a set of nice, straight white teeth. She felt her skin warm under his gaze. “You’re welcome. It was a compliment, however backward it might have seemed.”

“It’s just I was hoping to be somewhat anonymous, you know, here. Thought it might be possible. To just be myself.”

“Yes, of course,” he raised his glass again. “Though I think your cover might be blown. The real estate agent is pretty much buzzing with excitement. Apparently she was a big fan.”

Phoebe smiled. “There aren’t many who weren’t. I’m told it makes the house more valuable.”

Chase gave her that cocky grin, and she felt her heart bump against her ribcage. “So I would have gathered. Though some may say that it didn’t play host to the happiest of couples.”

Phoebe smiled. “Happy is probably too mild a word. They were wild for each other, a burning passion. And then it all went downhill. Is that why you’re interested in the house, because your grandfather lived there?”

“Leland Harper wasn’t my grandfather,” Chase said. Phoebe was about to disagree when he continued. “At least not in any way that mattered. When he left, my grandmother apparently never spoke his name again. She remarried Sal, who ran the marina here, and she was very happy. Happier than she was with Leland. So happy she waited her ex and Savannah out, and Queensbay was her town until she died about ten years ago.”

Phoebe did the math. Savannah had been much younger than Leland, so the timing made sense. “So, no hard feelings?” Phoebe asked, curiously.

“Do you want me to blame you for something your grandmother did? I assume you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Phoebe shook her head. “No. Savannah did what Savannah wanted.”

Chase laughed. “I gathered that. Supposedly, Leland was a bit like that too. Perhaps the two of them were perfect for each other.”

She liked the way he laughed and had to look down into her wine to fight the warm clench in her stomach.

“And the house?”

“Always loved it. There always seemed to be some sort of mystery about it, but of course, no one in my family would ever talk about it. It took me a while to figure out the history behind it and then I just kept my interest in it to myself.”

“It is a great house,” Phoebe agreed, thinking of the vision she’d had earlier, it perfectly restored, filled with light and laughter. The feeling of happiness had been so real.

“So you don’t want to tear it down?”

“No.” Chase looked truly shocked by the idea. There was a pause and then he asked, “You?”

“No. Savannah said it was a magical place. I just didn’t know it was such a dump. Or how much work it would take to restore it. I’m not about to tear it down.”

“Does that mean you’re going to fix it up, live in it?” Chase asked.

Phoebe smiled, hoping she wasn’t giving too much away. “I’m definitely going to fix it up. As you mentioned, I’m not from around here, and I’m not quite sure I’m up for the East Coast winters.”

He shrugged, grinned. “They can have their charm, when the harbor’s rimmed with ice and the trees sparkle against the winter sky.”

“You sound like a poet.”

“I’m a sailor. I notice the weather.” There was a pause while they studied each other, and then Chase said, “If fixing it up becomes too much or you get too cold, you know the house would be safe with me.”

Phoebe shuddered. “You’ll probably want to put in a black leather couch and a giant TV.”

Chase laughed. “And what’s so wrong with a TV?”

“Fine if it’s for screening black-and-white classics. But if it’s for watching every game being played, then you might as well be in some place where you’re not paying for the view.”

“Noted. I’ll make sure the couch isn’t black.”

Then, because her senses were raised and she was aware that she had been feeling too much at ease, too much under the spell of his charm, she asked, “It’s awfully presumptuous of you to think you might get a crack at decorating it. Do you always get what you want?”

He looked at her, his eyes dark, smoky in the dim light. There wasn’t a hint of a smile as he answered. “Always.”

Phoebe swallowed, wondering how one simple word could have her hot, her body tingling with excitement down to her core.

She didn’t know what to say next, the art of small talk escaping her as she tried to get her emotions under control, since his closeness was making her feel too hot, too aware of everything going on around her.

“So what brings you to Queensbay? Besides a free house?” Chase asked. He said it casually, his eyes actually on the flat screen showing a baseball game, but she sensed he was deeply curious about the answer.

“You said it yourself,” Phoebe replied.

“I did?” He looked at her now, and she felt the force of his presence wash over her. He had, she decided, a very commanding one.

“New beginnings. It seems like it’s the perfect time in my life to start over to make a change. I don’t have any family, anyone waiting for me in Los Angeles, so I thought it might be time for a change. Savannah claimed the house was magical.”

“Magical?” Chase asked, and she looked closely to see if she was making fun of her.

“Well, perhaps not magical, as in witchy magic. But I think for the first time in her life, Sarah Jane Ryan felt like she belonged.”

“Sarah Jane?”

“Her given birth name. Legally changed it to Savannah when she was of age. I never did find out why. But Savannah grew up in a small town, in the middle of nowhere, where no one believed in dreams. And to her, Ivy House was the embodiment of every dream she’d ever had, even if it only lasted for a while. Ivy House meant that your dreams could come true.”

Chase nodded, but he didn’t say anything and was watching her intently. She felt a surge of heat wash over her under his scrutiny.

“It’s just a house,” he said, a faint trace of amusement evident in the way his lip curled up.

“It wasn’t for Savannah and Leland.”

At that, Chase tossed his head back and laughed; then he lowered it and looked down at her. “I don’t think there was anything magical about them.”

Phoebe let the hint of a smile ghost across her face. “Well maybe you only heard one side of the story. Savannah always said Leland was the love of her life and they were happiest here. They were out of the limelight; they could be themselves.”

“Savannah was an actress. Was she never not acting?”

Phoebe could feel herself smiling at the memories. Chase had a point. Savannah never did anything by halves. Even sitting by the pool was a production. She would be in a sexy two-piece, with some gauzy swim dress thrown on, with a huge hat and big glasses to hide her face and keep it sun-free. Still, there were times, like when she made a big bowl of popcorn and they sat down to watch a movie, that Savannah had been herself. Just a woman, almost a grandmother. There was something sublime in it, to be in the presence of a legend, yet have her be relatively down-to-earth.

“Savannah knew that most of the time, there was someone watching her. And she was right. Makes it hard to be yourself. But she could sometimes be just herself with me. And that’s when you could get the real story.”

“Didn’t stop her from hooking up with just about everyone under the sun,” Chase pointed out.

“Well, she always said you couldn’t kiss a ghost.”

Chase smiled at that, a genuine smile, and Phoebe felt her stomach do a quick flip-flop. She was finding it very easy to forget that this was a guy who admitted he wanted something from her.

“Guess there’s something to that,” he said, taking another long sip of his beer.

Two menus had appeared in front of them, but Phoebe didn’t touch hers. She wasn’t sure it was a good idea to stick around with him. She was pretty certain that Chase Sanders didn’t do things just to be a nice guy. He wanted something from her.

“So when are you most like yourself?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“When you’re not being the ice queen?”

“Ice queen?” Phoebe realized her mouth was set in a firm line.

Relax, she told herself, don’t let him get to you.

“Yeah, when you’re not all pissed about someone trying to buy your house. Or being possibly, sort of related to you. What do you like to do for fun?” Chase stood there, a big grin on his face as he watched her try to make sense of that.

“I thought you said we were trying to start over?” Phoebe stammered.

“We are. I want to get to know you. I want to get to know what makes Phoebe Ryan tick.” He leaned in as he said it and casually brushed her cheek with his hand as he tucked a strand of hair that had fallen out of place back behind her ear. His touch was electric and Phoebe felt her skin burning. She looked up at Chase, who was no longer smiling at her, but looking at her speculatively.

She leaned back in her chair, aware that all of a sudden the taproom of the Osprey Arms was feeling crowded and warm. Chase gave her another smile, this one wolfish, as he looked at her with interest.

The heat, the intensity she had felt before, she hadn’t just been imagining it.

“Me, I like to sail,” Chase said slowly.

“Sail?” Phoebe managed to croak out. That would explain the expensive sunglasses and the way he was tan, even in the early spring in the Northeast.

“You know, a boat, with sails.” Chase had moved in closer so that he was almost whispering in her ear. The side of his face touched hers, his skin rough and charged against hers.

“Do you like the water?” he asked.

“I was a swimmer in high school,” Phoebe managed to stammer out.

“I kind of prefer to be on top of the water.” He had taken a step back, and she felt the pressure of the air around her lessen, felt able to breathe again.

“Is that what you do all day, sail?” Phoebe managed to ask.

He smiled. “Not exactly. Of course, I still have the boat. She’s a fine little sloop, pretty fast.”

“So you’re sleeping down at the marina?” Phoebe tried to imagine Chase crammed into the small cabin of his boat. Perhaps he swung a hammock up on deck and the thought almost made her giggle.

Chase nodded, a smile playing on his lips. “Sometimes. It’s refreshing to be out on the water, even when you’re docked.”

There was an angry shout and a cheer from along the bar. It was mostly men, a cluster of young and old, mostly professionals, in button-downs and work slacks. Just about everyone’s attention was focused on the baseball game, and Phoebe figured that they were a group of mixed fans.

Phoebe realized that she and Chase had slid closer to each other, to hear better in the bar that was growing more crowded and becoming louder by the minute. She was sure she felt his knee pressing into the side of her thigh. When she looked up at him, she saw he had a lazy smile on his face.

She pushed herself away. Chase was an attractive guy, maybe a little too brawny for her. Unfairly, she compared him to Dean, who was lean, ripped, but could carry off skinny jeans if he had to. One of Chase’s thighs would barely fit into Dean’s jacket.

“Want another?” Chase nodded towards Phoebe’s glass. She looked down, realizing it was more than half empty. She’d been drinking fast, probably because she was nervous. Chase’s pint was almost gone.

“I really shouldn’t…”

“But you will,” Chase said, waving his hand, and the bartender appeared almost instantly.

“Hey Paulie, we’ll have another round.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Paulie flashed a quick smile and was gone.

“Boss?”

Chase shrugged. “I’m sort of a regular.”

“Will you and the lady want something to eat?” Paulie had returned with their drinks.

Phoebe was about to protest that it wasn’t a date, when Chase spoke up. “We’ll have a plate of the calamari and salad to start.”

“I thought this was just drinks,” Phoebe pointed out, annoyed that he had ordered for her.

Chase shrugged. “Shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach. Besides, their calamari is pretty good. Unless, you don’t like squid?”

“Is it fried?” Phoebe asked.

“Of course.”

“Fine, I’m in. But this isn’t a date.”

“Who said it was? Maybe you have a boyfriend. Maybe I have a girlfriend.” He said it casually enough, but she could see that he was waiting for the answer.

“I’m not involved with anyone at the moment.” Phoebe thought of Garrett and wished she hadn’t. And then she thought of Dean. Good old reliable Dean, who was always trying to help her and her career. He had told her he would always be there, but she needed to ignore that if she was going to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.

“Even better,” Chase said and she felt the pressure of his hand along the back of her chair, as he smiled roguishly down at her. Roguishly…where had that even come from? Who did that? It was almost predatory, as if he were sizing her up, seeing how she would taste. Phoebe felt her body tingle with attraction, a rush of heat between her legs, while her brain screamed no, no, no. So, she followed her brain and moved her shoulders around to give him the hands-off message, while her hands tightened around the stem of the wine glass.

“Besides swimming and making pillows, what else do you do?” Chase asked, his arm steadily in place. Phoebe stopped trying to shrug it off, realizing that he was too solidly built for her to get him to move it.

“I’m a designer. For a while, I worked with at Shelby Hill, the furniture catalog, and then I went freelance. I’ve designed movie sets, posters, then I did a lot of work for Doran Industries.”

Chase nodded. “You mean the people who take a celebrity’s name and slap it on a bunch of stuff and sell it in the big-box stores.”

Phoebe smiled thinly. She didn’t think that’s how CallieSue Owens would like to describe her newest business venture, but that was pretty much what it was.

“Pretty much.”

“But not anymore?” he asked.

“No, I stopped when Savannah got really sick, to help look after her. And now, there seems to be a lot of loose ends to wrap up, so I am not sure what I am going to do.” Phoebe had her plan, but she wasn’t quite ready to share it with Chase at the moment.

“That was nice of you. Hard for someone your age to give up her social life and career for a dying relative.”

Phoebe gave a thin smile. “Savannah raised me. We were all each other had. It wasn’t hard at all to take care of her.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ there,” Chase said, his dark eyes holding a connection to hers. Something warned her not to give too much away, but the way he was looking at her, his attention fully on her, compelled her to be honest.

“There’s no ‘but.’” Phoebe thought about all she had found when sorting through Savannah’s affairs. And then she shrugged. It didn’t really matter, so she told him.

“Well, after I was around, I started to take a closer look at things. Her papers, bills. I wasn’t snooping, at least not at first. She needed someone to handle all of that stuff.”

“Of course,” Chase nodded in encouragement.

“I should have stepped in a lot sooner.”

“Really?”

“Savannah was pretty good at making money, but sucked at holding onto it. She managed to spend just about all of hers.”

“What did you do?”

Phoebe laughed at the memory. Savannah had been in bed then, in and out of it, the cancer moving quickly through her body. Phoebe had been so angry with her, she had wanted an explanation, but in the end, she had chickened out. Or didn’t want to hear the truth.

“I realized that there wasn’t much to be done about it. But at least she left me one thing.”

“I’m sorry,” Chase said. “I know it’s probably not what you expected, the house I mean.”

Phoebe almost felt the sting of tears against her eyes. How had he known what to say?

“Sorry.” Phoebe dashed a quick hand against her eyes and then took a deep breath. “I’m not usually like this. I can’t talk about them, my parents and Savannah, without breaking down in tears.”

“My parents died in a car crash,” she said to his unspoken question, “a long time ago.”

“Were they actors too?”

“Yes. Well, my dad was a director and my mom, an actress. Their careers were just starting to take off when they died. My mom didn’t really have any family, so that left Savannah.”

“It sounds tough, being alone like that,” he said, his dark blue eyes holding hers. Once again, she was hyperaware of everything around them.

Phoebe took a deep breath, determined to move away from her own story. “OK, so that’s me. What about you?”

“Me? Well, let’s see. I grew up in Queensbay, close to the water, with my parents and my brother. They’re retired now and live in Florida. My brother’s still around the area, but travels a lot, so we don’t get to hang out much.

“Sounds nice, normal.”

“Pretty normal,” he said with an easy smile, and Phoebe knew he was waiting for her to ask him what he did.

“I learned to sail right here. Spent some time as a sail bum and then came home to take over the family business. We sell boat stuff to boat people.”

“Perfect job for a guy like you.”

Chase smiled. “What can I say, I’m a simple guy.”

“I don’t buy that for a second,” Phoebe said.

Chase gave a shrug as if to say “no biggie,” but Phoebe thought there was a lot more behind those last words than he was letting on. Maybe she had misjudged him earlier. And it made him undeniably sexier.

“So you said you were working. Are you or aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Phoebe said.

“You said you were, then weren’t…which is it, working or not?”

Phoebe stared down into her drink. Exactly the territory she didn’t want to veer into right now.

“I’m taking a break. To think things over.”

“What sort of things?” he pressed.

“You know, what to do with my life now that I am well and truly on my own.”

Phoebe didn’t know why she told him. Perhaps it was the two glasses of wine, or the calamari, which she hadn’t touched, so intent had she been on their conversation.

“Well, as you saw, when I was in The Garden Cottage, I’ve been designing my own things, housewares.”

“What are housewares, exactly? Plates?” Phoebe felt her eyes narrow as she looked him over carefully. A trace of a smile ghosted across his lips.

“Plates, pillows, curtains, sheets…”

“Sheets?” The full lips definitely curved up. “I like sheets. Better than plates,” Chase said, his voice dipping low, along with his head as he almost breathed the suggestion into her ear.

Phoebe forced herself to take a sip of the cool wine. Never had talking about sheets affected her in quite this way, she thought. Somehow, just that one word carried a whole lot of weight to it.

She squared her shoulders one more time, this time quickly and with enough force that Chase’s arm fell off the back of her chair. Feeling the weight lifted freed her, and she let a small smile of triumph grace her features.

“So you design things and, what, sell them?” He had taken her flinging his arm off the chair as a challenge because he had moved in even closer so that all she could smell was him. Nothing else but his clean scent, a combination of something spicy and fresh, almost windblown.

Phoebe smiled. “That would be the point.”

“You know my boat has beds, except we call them bunks…” he trailed off as he looked at her face.

Phoebe flushed. Chase was so close to her, almost as if they were the only two people in the whole bar. Everything about him oozed sex and suggestion, and she knew that if she let herself, she would be swept up into him, let his big, strong hands pull her towards him, let them roam over her. Thoughts of just where that might lead had her coming to her senses. He was someone who wanted something from her, no matter how rakish his grin or how much she wanted to kiss him.

With every ounce of self-control she could muster, she pushed her wine glass away from her. “This, whatever this is, is over.” She was off the bar chair in a flash, only stopping to say something to Paulie, the bartender.

“We’re finished here. You can just add it to my room tab.”

With that gesture, and hoping Chase didn’t take it upon himself to order a steak dinner, Phoebe stalked up to her room, fumbled with her key, and got herself in. She half-expected Chase to follow her, but when he didn’t, she was torn between being relieved and disappointed. Still, she made sure the door was double-locked as she threw herself down on the bed, eyes open, staring at the ceiling, willing her body to calm down.

Why was her heart racing? When she closed her eyes, why could she only see his face, close up, dark, intense eyes, searching into her? God, she had pretty much bared her soul to him after one glass of wine. She could talk about her family, but she almost never did, and certainly not with some guy she had just met.

She rolled over and pulled out the card Chase had given her from his purse. She almost snorted.

Slowly, as the wine settled in her stomach and her heart slowed, she thought that perhaps Chase Sanders, as the president of a major sporting goods company, really had been talking about the bunks in his boat and actual sheets for them. Perhaps she had just blown a chance for a design deal with a major catalog.

Sighing, Phoebe rolled over and reached for the drawer in the bedside table where she had stashed a candy bar. Chocolate, caramel, nuts, nougat. It had all the important food groups and would count for dinner, since there was no way she was going down to the dining room again and risk running into Chase Sanders.