Chapter 3: A Weird Alpha Male Button-Off
A pirate hook — while an integral accessory to the most discerning of pirate fashionistas, did appear to be impractical when trying to grapple with multiple tofu packages. Caroline stood in the grocery store isle, watching with interest as the pirate's forehead wrinkled in frustration before he finally yanked off the plastic hook so he could use both hands to hold his tofu.
"I say, is there a festival today I was unaware of," drawled a crisp British accent behind her. She turned to see Rebekah holding a half-full grocery basket and watching the pirate with amusement.
Eying Rebekah's beautifully tailored emerald green romper, Caroline barely resisted the urge to try to smooth out the wrinkles in her favorite t-shirt with the slogan, 'Gardening Makes Me Thorny.' Women like Klaus' sister never failed to bring up old insecurities, but she could see from the other woman's slightly anxious expression that she was clearly trying to be friendly since their initial encounter was fairly disastrous. "Actually, the pirate festival isn't for another week. This is just a random Tuesday at the Mystic Port grocery store," Caroline said with a giggle.
Rebekah raised an eyebrow, continuing to watch the pirate as he refastened his plastic hook and moved on to the quinoa selection. "I see," she said, clearing her throat slightly, "Enzo may have mentioned some of your charmingly eccentric neighbors last night."
Caroline observed with a wry smile the pretty pink blush that colored the woman's high cheekbones when she spoke of her date with Enzo. She immediately had flashbacks of her own impromptu date with Klaus last night, from the wonderful shared conversations to the romantic stargazing...and then the other sharing that happened between them. She could feel her own face starting to heat and she hoped that Rebekah didn't notice. She hastily changed the subject with, "So I'm glad to see that you seem to be settling in ok. If you need anything, just let me know. Maybe if you and Klaus are free, you'll think about coming to the pirate festival I mentioned. It's a lot of fun and you'd get a chance to meet more of the townspeople."
"Enzo already um...roped me into agreeing to be an apprentice ale taster on City Hall's float." She suddenly gave Caroline a flirty grin, "Maybe you could ask Nik to ride your float."
As Caroline started to stutter an awkward response, she heard a sigh of irritation behind her. "Honestly dear sister, perhaps that thong-wearing lad from last night rubbed off on you a bit too much?"
She turned to find Klaus standing behind her, impeccably dressed in freshly pressed khaki slacks and an aquamarine polo. She tried not to feel self-conscious as she stood in between the perfectly styled siblings who looked like they were doing a commercial for the grocery store rather than actually shopping there. She didn't miss the way the steel in his gray eyes seemed to soften as he looked at her, and his dimples came out to tease her as he said, "I was hoping I'd run into you today, sweetheart. I've already had a fairly eventful morning and would love to tell you about it." He cocked his curly head to the side, chuckling as he added, "Although it's possible you've already heard the latest gossip."
She shrugged, toying with the handle of her grocery cart as she answered, "Nope. I was tilling soil near the back of my fence to prepare it for the carrot crop, so I'm out of the loop. What happened?"
Rebekah rolled her eyes. "He sacked his assistant, Lucien, this morning over that whole staffing debacle with the new restaurant. If you ask me, the way Lucien used to try to butter up our father was pathetic to watch. Wanker's had that coming for years."
Clearing his throat, Klaus added, "I also rehired everyone from the Gilbert's payroll. They seemed quite pleased. In fact, Jenna kissed me on the cheek and told me that I just 'buttered her biscuits'. I assume that was a positive thing?"
Beaming at Klaus, she nodded excitedly. "It's a very good thing. You have no idea the difference you just made to so many people. You weren't kidding about the busy morning, either. Are all of your work days this exciting?"
Smirking at her he answered, "Only if I keep running into you, sweetheart."
"Oh, for pity's sake," Rebekah grumbled good-naturedly. "You two are nauseating." Shaking her head, she left the pair standing in the grocery isle, exchanging flirtatious smiles and lingering glances.
A week later, the Captain Silas Pirate Fest was underway and Caroline was cursing herself for waiting until the last minute to find a costume and had to make do with a smaller corset than what she considered comfortable. Not that corsets were ever particularly comfortable. In fact, the one she was wearing had her breasts in a stranglehold and they felt like they were practically touching her chin. From the way Tyler Lockwood's gaze kept casually traveling south, she wasn't the only one that had noticed.
She took a small sip of fruity rum punch from her plastic skull-and-cross-bones mug, considering the eager man in front of her. She couldn't help but appreciate the way his flowing white pirate shirt was rakishly unbuttoned at his collar, dipping down to show off his muscular chest. He helped his family run Lockwood Grill, a locally famous barbecue hangout and one of her best customers. They claimed her habaneros, jalapenos and serranos helped them win the Anchor County baby back ribs cook-off this past year. While she'd always found Tyler attractive and his harmless flirtations always gave her an ego boost, he just didn't seem to do it for her. Perhaps it was because he didn't have an accent?
As though summoned by her thoughts, Klaus suddenly appeared beside her, looking dangerously sexy in his black leather boots and billowing pirate shirt. His signature necklaces were peeking out, and she couldn't help the faint blush that crept up her neck as she recalled the way she had tugged on them during their naughty little moment on the rooftop of City Hall. Shaking herself, she pushed those thoughts away, smiling brightly as she said, "Tyler, this is Klaus. He and his sister Rebekah just moved here. You guys actually have a lot in common."
"Doubtful," Klaus said stiffly. Confused, she turned to see what caused his surly attitude and couldn't help but think that his shirt looked like it was dipping lower on his chest than before. Not that she was complaining — it was a fine specimen and she was hopeful she would get to explore it further later on.
"I just meant you both were in the food business. Tyler's family owns the Lockwood Grill and Klaus is building a new restaurant." She cheekily added, "If this keeps up, I may have to expand my garden again."
Tyler shrugged carelessly and answered, "Klaus looks like he knows a good thing when he sees it. Just make sure you save the best peppers for me, Caroline." She detected a hint of something off in Tyler's normally friendly voice, and she squinted at his shirt too, thinking that she could have sworn it had come unbuttoned further while she had turned to address Klaus. Weird.
"We'll have to see about that, mate. I'm still debating our menu and seem to have room for several spicy entrees. I must confess I enjoy a bit of heat," Klaus replied in a challenging tone, the steel gray in his eyes flashing as he drank from his own festival mug. She was momentarily distracted by the way his leather scabbard was slung low across his hips, but as her blue eyes traveled upward, she was certain more of his shirt buttons had come undone. Perhaps the pearl-like surface was slippery?
Caroline chuckled, telling Tyler, "I'm sure there's more than enough room on both of your menus for peppers from the garden. Just let me know if there's a specific variety I should start stocking." She saw that now Tyler's shirt was unbuttoned all the way to his navel and realized belatedly what was going on: Klaus and Tyler were having a weird alpha male button-off. She wondered idly if she continued to pretend not to notice if they would stubbornly keep at it until they were nearly as naked as Enzo.
Speaking of which, she suddenly noticed Enzo was standing nearby, wearing a black thong with a pirate skull on it and an enormous pirate hat with ridiculously long plumage, shamelessly taking pictures of Klaus and Tyler's bizarre pissing contest. She would bet her prized heirloom tomato crop that those pictures would end up in the latest issue of the town's newspaper, The Heretic.
Rolling her eyes, she bid a polite goodbye to Tyler (who looked like he was debating taking off his shirt at this point) and steered a smug Klaus down the street overrun with locals and tourists, all dressed up in outlandish pirate costumes and cheerfully waving and cat-calling each other. "Well, as much as I enjoy a good pirate-themed striptease, what the hell was that," she huffed, several blue herons twittering near her brown boots, as though agreeing with her assessment.
Klaus took a large step around the gathering seabirds with the colorful blue feathers and red heads, who seemed determined to stalk them until they were fed. "Well, love, I couldn't help but notice how lovely you looked in your costume and I also couldn't help but notice how that Lockwood chap seemed to take notice as well, so I thought I'd introduce myself properly." As he took a drink from his silly plastic skeleton mug, he added somewhat uncertainly, "I had assumed...after last night...that you were available, but perhaps you and Lockwood are..." he trailed off uncomfortably, taking another long sip.
She smiled, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief that they seemed to be on the same page. "No, there hasn't been anyone for a while now. In fact, I'm sure the town had decided I'd taken a vow of celibacy, but now that I'm hanging out with the mysterious sexy Brit, I suspect tongues already have started wagging."
He smirked down at her before lightly kissing the tip of her nose. "Good. And perhaps later you and I can explore this tongue-wagging in greater detail, sweetheart." He glanced up at the street sign, pulling her down White Oak Drive, explaining, "But first, I'd love to show you how construction is coming along on the restaurant."
"I'd like that," she nodded eagerly, already seeing the familiar outline of a beach cottage where the Gilbert family's cafe once stood. She still felt a pang knowing that the building where so many Gilbert generations had served Mystic Port was gone, but she understood that Klaus hadn't purchased the land with malicious intent. He was a victim of circumstances just like poor Elena and Jeremy and didn't realize the memories he had tarnished when he had torn down the old cafe.
She objectively could admit that the beach cottage looked cheerful with its white paint and ruby red plantation shutters. She also liked the homey touches of the double rocking chairs placed strategically along the enormous front porch. As they headed toward the entrance, she took in the familiar view of the blue-green gulf. The sparkling waves were gentle on the white-sand shore and she knew people who had painstakingly decorated their boats for the parade later on would be breathing a sigh of relief that their carefully crafted designs wouldn't bounce off the minute they entered the surf. She lightly traced the bold geometric pattern on one of the red throw pillows carefully stacked nearby, telling him, "My compliments to your decorator; they have excellent taste."
He chuckled, "Rebekah will be pleased to hear you say that. She insisted on selecting all of the design elements as she was concerned that my taste ran toward the stodgy and depressing." As he ushered her inside, waving to a few of the contractors installing windows, he added in mock irritation, "Of course, she was basing that solely on my flat in New York, which in my defense was stuffed full of burdensome family antiques, and therefore, made the space seem a bit dark and cramped."
"Mine wasn't much better," Caroline admitted with a sigh. "Real estate is even more outrageous there in the City than it is down here and I was using every square foot in my place to store my antique telescopes and books."
Klaus perked up at the mention of a telescope and said with a flirty wink, "Maybe you would be willing to give me another astronomy lesson, sweetheart. I promise to be just as studious as before."
She felt her cheeks redden immediately and playfully shoved him, accidentally knocking over a stack of notecards. Bending over to pick them up, she gasped when she recognized some of the names of the Gilbert family's most popular dishes — from the fresh grouper sandwiches to the sweet potato fries to her all-time favorite — the key lime pie fritters.
Noticing her reaction, Klaus explained, "I decided to take your unwitting advice from our first encounter and I'm collaborating with Elena and Jeremy on the menu. Hybrid's Dilemma is going to be a fusion of traditional, Florida home-style cooking with contemporary cuisine." He glanced at her somewhat shyly as though gauging her reaction. "I've never felt particularly at home anywhere, but there's something about this place that makes me feel as though I've found it. And I'd like to start off on the right foot with my neighbors."
She gave him a hug, squealing in delight as she bounced on her toes. "I'm so happy you want to make this work here with all of us! You won't regret it." When she let go, somewhat reluctantly as she found she really enjoyed the way her body seemed to fit so snugly against his, she remembered something he said. Tilting her blonde head to the side she asked curiously, "Why Hybrid's Dilemma?"
He cleared his throat, looking a bit uncomfortable. He seemed to choose his words carefully as he explained, "When I said that I never felt at home before, part of that reason was my father, Mikael. As a child, I created an alter ego for myself that I named Hybrid. When I realized that I could no longer in good conscience work for my father, I was faced with the uncertain dilemma of what my path should be." He squeezed her hand, adding softly, "And now, here we are."
Caroline could tell by his quiet demeanor that there was more to the story and his obviously complicated relationship with his father, but she didn't want to push. Instead, she tugged on his hands, leading him back out onto the large front porch.
Breathing in the warm, salty Gulf breeze, she gave him an impish grin, telling him, "Come on. Let's go to my place and we'll watch the boat parade. Later on, I might just give you that astronomy lesson you requested."