Seaview Inn
Seaview Inn
Sherryl Woods
Hannah Matthews is undeniably tough—a single mom, a top-tier PR exec, a breast cancer survivor. She prides herself on being go-to Hannah, who can handle any crisis.But with her grandmother balking at going into a retirement home, her daughter unexpectedly pregnant and an old flame suddenly underfoot, Hannah is facing a few crises of her own. And being back home on Seaview Key is definitely adding to the stress.Luke Stevens understands crisis. While serving in Iraq, his wife dumped him for his best friend—with whom Luke shares his medical practice. Seaview Key seems like the perfect place to hide out for a while. The last thing he expects is to fall in love…with his old hometown and with Hannah.Sometimes, though, the unexpected is just what it takes to heal the heart.
New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods proves home can be found where you least expect it.
Hannah Matthews is undeniably tough—a single mom, a top-tier PR exec, a breast cancer survivor. She prides herself on being go-to Hannah, who can handle any crisis. But with her grandmother balking at going into a retirement home, her daughter unexpectedly pregnant and an old flame suddenly underfoot, Hannah is facing a few crises of her own. And being back home on Seaview Key is definitely adding to the stress.
Luke Stevens understands crisis. While serving in Iraq, his wife dumped him for his best friend—with whom Luke shares his medical practice. Seaview Key seems like the perfect place to hide out for a while. The last thing he expects is to fall in love…with his old hometown and with Hannah.
Sometimes, though, the unexpected is just what it takes to heal the heart.
Praise for the novels of Sherryl Woods
“Sherryl Woods writes emotionally satisfying novels about family, friendship and home. Truly feel-great reads!”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“In this sweet, sometimes funny and often touching story, the characters are beautifully depicted.”
—RT Book Reviews on Seaview Inn
“A whimsical, sweet scenario…the digressions have their own charm, and Woods never fails to come back to the romantic point.”
—Publishers Weekly on Sweet Tea at Sunrise
“Woods…is noted for appealing character-driven stories that are often infused with the flavor and fragrance of the South.”
—Library Journal
“A reunion story punctuated by family drama, Woods’ first novel in her new Ocean Breeze series is touching, tense and tantalizing.”
—RT Book Reviews on Sand Castle Bay
“Woods’ readers will eagerly anticipate her trademark small-town setting, loyal friendships, and honorable mentors as they meet new characters and reconnect with familiar ones in this heartwarming tale.”
—Booklist on Home in Carolina
“Once again, Woods, with such authenticity, weaves a tale of true love and the challenges that can knock up against that love.”
—RT Book Reviews on Beach Lane
Also by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods
TWILIGHT
TEMPTATION
SEA GLASS ISLAND††
WIND CHIME POINT††
SAND CASTLE BAY††
WHERE AZALEAS BLOOM*
CATCHING FIREFLIES*
MIDNIGHT PROMISES*
THE SUMMER GARDEN***
AN O’BRIEN FAMILY CHRISTMAS***
BEACH LANE***
MOONLIGHT COVE***
DRIFTWOOD COTTAGE***
RETURN TO ROSE COTTAGE†
HOME AT ROSE COTTAGE†
A CHESAPEAKE SHORES CHRISTMAS***
HONEYSUCKLE SUMMER*
SWEET TEA AT SUNRISE*
HOME IN CAROLINA*
HARBOR LIGHTS***
FLOWERS ON MAIN***
THE INN AT EAGLE POINT***
WELCOME TO SERENITY*
MENDING FENCES
FEELS LIKE FAMILY*
A SLICE OF HEAVEN*
STEALING HOME*
WAKING UP IN CHARLESTON
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
THE BACKUP PLAN
DESTINY UNLEASHED
FLAMINGO DINER
ALONG CAME TROUBLE**
ASK ANYONE**
ABOUT THAT MAN**
ANGEL MINE
AFTER TEX
*The Sweet Magnolias
**Trinity Harbor
***Chesapeake Shores
†The Rose Cottage Sisters
††Ocean Breeze
Look for Sherryl Woods’s next novel
HOME TO SEAVIEW KEY
available soon from Harlequin MIRA
Seaview Inn
Sherryl
Woods
www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)
Dear Friends,
When Seaview Inn was first published in 2008, one of my oldest friends was waging a valiant battle against a recurrence of breast cancer. Patti, like too many other courageous women, lost that fight. Her final months were a mix of grace, bravery, devastating treatments and the determination to live to see her very young grandson grow up.
Sadly, that wasn’t to be, but her fight to live, her willingness to do whatever it took to have one more week, one more day or even one more hour with her daughters and her grandson were an inspiration to all of us who loved her.
I think that must be true for the families of every woman who’s battled this terrible disease. Consigned to the sidelines, all we can do is offer support, offer prayers and offer our strength on the days when weakness triumphs over that incredible will to live.
Because of early detection and improved treatments, there are more and more breast cancer survivors these days, but even for the strongest among them there are moments of doubt. Hannah’s story is for them, a reminder that there is always hope, that there are friends and family to be leaned on, and new cures just around the corner.
To all of you still waging the battle, I wish you strength, hope and many years of good health.
All best,
Sherryl
Contents
Chapter 1 (#u5ce55aef-1bed-53f5-8d54-e687257b8502)
Chapter 2 (#u21f35801-1b5b-5950-bcc4-5735d1fb4c00)
Chapter 3 (#ufede78f9-1cdc-58ab-a3ed-7c0813907371)
Chapter 4 (#u568cd8eb-e621-5caa-980b-29489daf71e1)
Chapter 5 (#uffccfa96-7ffe-5491-bc9f-cf728d298677)
Chapter 6 (#ua01b8474-0b1c-5427-a142-c9a4e50600a2)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1
Hannah Matthews prided herself on being sensible and responsible. A single mom and a public relations executive handling several very demanding but fascinating clients, she was the person to turn to in any crisis. She claimed there wasn’t a superstitious bone in her body, but she was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t something to the old adage that things happened in threes, especially bad things. She was also losing her faith that God never gave a person more than they could handle, because she was definitely on overload.
Not quite three months past her final chemo treatment for breast cancer and less than a month after her mother’s death from the very same disease, here she was back in a town she hadn’t been able to flee fast enough, standing in front of the bed-and-breakfast that had once been her much-despised home. Worse, she was facing the arduous prospect of trying to convince her stubborn eighty-five-year-old grandmother that it was time to move into an assisted-living community and sell Seaview Inn. Life couldn’t get much more stressful than this, or if it could, she didn’t want to find out how.
“Hannah, why are you just standing out there daydreaming?” her grandmother demanded from behind the inn’s screen door, her tone every bit as querulous and demanding as Hannah remembered from her last visit home. “As hot as it is, leaving this front door wide open is a waste of air-conditioning. And why weren’t you here this morning? You told me you’d be here this morning. I’ve been sitting on the porch watching for you most of the day. The heat finally drove me inside.”
Hannah bit back a sigh and grabbed the handle of her suitcase to pull it along behind her. “My flight was delayed, Gran. Remember, I called you from the airport in New York to let you know?”
Her grandmother’s faded hazel eyes filled with confusion, yet another recent change from her once astute demeanor. “You did? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, Gran, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m here.”
“And about time, too,” her grandmother added with a little humph.
Hannah placed an arm around her grandmother’s frail shoulders and gave her a peck on the cheek. “You look good, Gran. Are you feeling okay?”
Truthfully, her grandmother looked as if a strong wind would blow her away. She’d lost weight she could ill afford to lose. Her face, filled with eighty-five years of lines and wrinkles, was sallow. Losing her only child, Hannah’s mother, had taken a lot out of her. Her friends in town had called Hannah to let her know that Jenny had rarely left the house since the funeral. She’d been skipping the meetings of her quilting circle and, more telling, Sunday services at church. They were worried about her.
“She’s just going to fade away, die of a broken heart all alone, if you ask me,” Rachel Morrison had said when she’d called.
Hannah hadn’t missed the critical note in Rachel’s voice, the unmistakable hint that Hannah had been irresponsible to run off right after her mother’s burial and leave her grandmother to cope with her grief and Seaview Inn all on her own.
Though her family knew what she was struggling with, Hannah had been unwilling to share her own cancer crisis with any of these well-meaning neighbors. She’d been unable to defend her actions in any way that might have satisfied them. How could she possibly tell them that seeing her mom’s quick decline and painful death while in the middle of her own treatment had left her terrified? She hadn’t been able to get away from Seaview and the memories of her mother’s final days fast enough. She believed that a positive attitude was an essential ingredient for surviving cancer, but it was almost impossible to maintain that attitude in the face of her mother’s death from a recurrence that had come less than two years after she’d first been diagnosed.
So, instead of explaining, Hannah had succumbed to guilt and dutifully taken the remaining two weeks of leave she’d accumulated during years of ignoring vacation time and socking away sick days to come here. That two weeks was all that was left after the time taken for her mastectomy and then the chemo, which had knocked her for a loop despite her stubborn determination to pretend she was just fine. Her boss had grudgingly agreed to let her off, but he’d made it plain he wasn’t one bit happy about the timing.
In less than twenty-four hours, she’d flown back to Florida, rented a car, driven for an hour, and then taken a ferry out to Seaview Key, a tiny island community of less than a thousand full-time residents just off Florida’s west coast. Once there, she’d had to deal with traffic jams caused by winter tourists. All of which, given her current frame of mind, was trying, to say the least.
Worse, she had exactly fourteen days to convince her grandmother to sell the inn—which was also the family’s longtime home—and move into a retirement community where she’d be well cared for. Since Grandma Jenny’s parents had opened Seaview Inn when the island had been little more than a fishing village reached by boat, Hannah had a hunch her work was cut out for her. Her grandmother sometimes exhibited a tenacious streak of sentimentality that overrode common sense.
“I know it’s only four o’clock, but we’ll eat supper now,” Grandma Jenny declared. “I missed lunch and I’m hungry. You can unpack your things later.” She glanced at the suitcase Hannah had left at the bottom of the staircase that led up to the family’s private quarters on the left and to the sprawling wing of guest rooms on the right. “Didn’t bring much, did you? You having the rest of your things sent?”
Hannah stared at her blankly. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re moving home, of course.” Jenny’s tone was matter-of-fact. “I’ve told everyone in town who’s been asking that we’d have the inn up and running again in another week or two, a month at the outside. While your mother was sick, we let a few things slide, but with the two of us working that should give us enough time to get things shipshape, don’t you think so? There’s still a couple of good months of the winter season left, and we’ll draw some folks from the mainland in April and May. Of course, a lot of our regulars had to make other arrangements, but they’ll be back with us next year, I’m sure.”
There were so many things wrong with her grandmother’s assumptions, Hannah couldn’t decide where to start. It didn’t matter, anyway, because Grandma Jenny hadn’t waited for a reply. She was already heading toward the kitchen at a clip that belied the reported evidence of her declining health. In fact, Hannah very much suspected that Grandma Jenny would outlive her and do it with gusto.
* * *
All during their early supper of broiled snapper and fresh tomatoes and strawberries from the local farmer’s market, Grandma Jenny continued to bombard Hannah with her plans for reopening Seaview Inn as quickly as possible. She was as alert and strong-willed as ever.
“You can put that PR experience of yours to good use,” she told Hannah. “Get some ads running up north. A lot of our regulars in Ohio and Michigan who come later in the season need to know our doors are open again. Maybe you can even do something on the Internet. I hear that’s the best place to advertise these days. Or we can send postcards. I have the addresses for most of the customers who’ve stayed here in the past few years. Had ’em back to the beginning, but I figure those people are mostly dead and gone. What do you think?”
Hannah put down her fork and tried to find the right words to tell her grandmother that instead of spending time and money on advertising, they needed to be thinking about finding a good real estate agent. Then it occurred to her that a little renovating would give the place the kind of curb appeal needed to result in a quicker sale. Maybe she didn’t have to discuss selling it just yet. She could wage that battle another day, when she wasn’t quite so exhausted.
“I’ll think about it,” she said at last. “First thing tomorrow, you and I can take a look and see what needs to be done, okay?”
“Why wait?” Gran said, bouncing up, her eyes spar-kling with enthusiasm. “Daylight might be scarce at the end of January, but we’ve got an hour or so till the sun goes down. We can check out the exterior first. I’ve been thinking a new coat of paint should be the first order of business, something bright and cheerful, maybe a nice turquoise with white trim.”
Hannah winced, envisioning a garish result that would rob the inn of whatever tiny scrap of class it had.
“Well, come on,” her grandmother called back. “Daylight’s wasting.”
With a sigh, Hannah followed her outside.
Over the years, the inn had grown from the original sprawling, two-story beach house that had been built in the thirties as a private home. Because of its size and her great-grandparents’ enthusiasm for meeting people, they’d opened their spare rooms to paying guests. That first experimental season had been so successful, they’d officially named it Seaview Inn and expanded over the next few years, adding one section in the early forties, another in the fifties, operating much like the bed-and-breakfasts that had come along later.
Unfortunately, there hadn’t been much attention to architectural detail in the additions. Wings jutted out haphazardly, one on each side, angled so that the guest rooms on the right and the big formal dining room on the left, with its soaring windows and hodgepodge collection of antique tables and chairs, and the second-floor family quarters all had a view of the beach across the road. To Hannah’s disapproving eye, it looked like a cross between a halfway decent home and a seedy motel. It would take more than a coat of paint, no matter the color, to fix it.
Her favorite part was the porch, which stretched across the front of the original house with a row of white rockers and a collection of antique wicker chairs with fading flowered cushions. In past years there had been hanging baskets of flowers, but this year neither her mother nor grandmother had had the time or energy to spare on such things.
As a child, Hannah had had tea parties with all her dolls on the porch. Sometimes her mom and her grandmother had joined her. Those afternoons had been the best. Later, as a teenager, the porch had been a place for sharing dreams and plans with her friends over sodas and snacks. Eventually her first kiss had been in the shadows on the porch.
Now, bathed in the light of a spectacular sunset, the inn didn’t look as bad as it had at first glance. She could almost see its idiosyncratic charm and understand why her grandmother wanted to keep it open and in the family. The problem was that Grandma Jenny couldn’t possibly do it alone and there was no one in the family to help her. Hannah didn’t want to leave New York, especially with her team of physicians there, to say nothing of the demanding career she loved. Her twenty-year-old daughter, Kelsey, would probably wind up staying in California once she completed her studies at Stanford. Why keep the inn now, only to sell it to strangers in a few years, anyway? Her grandmother deserved to enjoy whatever years were left to her, not to spend them working her fingers to the bone waiting on strangers.
Hannah turned and caught her grandmother eyeing her speculatively.
“It’s a good time of day, isn’t it?” Grandma Jenny said quietly, her expression nostalgic. “Your grandfather and I spent many an evening out here watching the sunset with music drifting out the downstairs windows. And before that, my parents would spend their evenings doing the same thing. We didn’t sit inside and stare at a TV screen the way folks do today. We talked, getting to know the people who stayed here. We enjoyed the beauty God gave us in this place.” Her gaze met Hannah’s. “You loved it, too, once. Do you remember that? There were nights we could hardly drag you home from the beach.”
Suddenly Hannah remembered being maybe five or six and working all day on a sand castle, then being called inside. The next morning she’d rushed across the road to see her handiwork, only to discover that the tide had washed it away overnight. It had been her first hard lesson in the fact that some things simply didn’t last, no matter how well built and solid they seemed. Sometimes it was the foundation that mattered, not the structure, and sand had a way of shifting underfoot, much as her own parents’ marriage had crumbled a few years later.
As the years had passed and she’d developed more insights, there’d been little question in her mind that after the divorce her mother had felt trapped here by circumstances. What else could she do with a daughter not yet in her teens and no work experience beyond the family inn?
“I remember,” she said at last, but it was said in a faintly bitter tone that drew a sharp glance from her grandmother.
“There were good times, Hannah, whether you choose to remember them that way or not.”
“I wonder if Mom felt that way after Dad left. Wasn’t there a time in her life when she dreamed of going away and doing something else? He got to run away from her and from all of his responsibilities, but she was stuck.”
“What are you suggesting?” her grandmother asked indignantly. “That I kept her here when she wanted to go? Nothing could be further from the truth. She loved it here. She knew it was the best place to raise a child, surrounded by family and friends.”
“Dad obviously didn’t love it,” Hannah said.
“Oh, Hannah, that’s not so. Surely by now you’ve learned that relationships are complicated. Your parents were happy for a time, and then they weren’t. It had nothing to do with Seaview Key or the inn.”
Hannah didn’t waste her breath trying to argue. How could she? She’d been so young, just on the verge of adolescence. It was entirely possible that she’d been totally oblivious to whatever rifts there had been in her parents’ marriage. She relented now just to keep peace. “I suppose.”
Her grandmother’s shoulders seemed to sag. “I need to sit down,” she said flatly, clutching the railing tightly as she climbed the steps to the porch. She sank into her favorite rocker as the sun slowly slid into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, leaving the sky painted with streaks of orange and gold.
“Gran, are you okay?”
“Just a little tired. You go on in, if you want. Get yourself settled. I’ll just sit here for a while and enjoy the evening. Leave the dishes. I’ll do them when I come inside. Won’t take any time at all.”
“But we haven’t even started the list of renovations you want to do,” Hannah protested, feeling vaguely guilty for dampening her grandmother’s high spirits.
“You said it yourself. Tomorrow’s soon enough.”
Oddly reluctant to go inside and leave her grandmother alone, Hannah stood in the doorway for a few minutes.
As twilight fell and a breeze stirred, the streetlight on the corner came on, illuminating the porch and yard. That was when Hannah noticed the tears glistening on her grandmother’s cheeks.
* * *
“Mom, what on earth are you doing in Florida?” Kelsey demanded when she called Hannah’s cell phone later that night and woke Hannah out of a sound sleep. “I called your office earlier and your secretary told me you’d taken time off again to go to Seaview. I’ve been trying to call all day, but you must have had your phone turned off. When you didn’t return my calls, I got worried. Is Grandma Jenny okay?”
Hannah sat on the side of the bed, almost regretting that she’d remembered to turn the phone back on before going to sleep. There had been five increasingly impatient messages from her boss and three from Kelsey. For once, she’d ignored them all, grateful that it was too late to call the office and deciding she really didn’t want to discuss this situation with Kelsey just yet. Now she had no choice.
“You mean besides her delusion that I’m going to give up my career and move back here to run the inn?” she replied.
“Oh, boy,” Kelsey muttered. “Is she serious?”
“She spent an hour at dinner talking about how we need to spruce this place up and get it open again in two weeks,” Hannah said. “I’d say she’s serious.”
“But you’re not going to do it, are you? You hate Seaview Key and the inn.”
“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Hannah said emphatically, then sighed. “Actually, I was thinking it might be a good idea to do a few renovations.”
“But why, if she’s not going to open the inn? You know she can’t manage it alone.”
Hannah hesitated. “I know,” she said at last.
Kelsey sucked in a breath. “You want her to sell it, don’t you? Mom, that will break her heart. You can’t do that to her.”
“What choice do I have?” Hannah asked defensively.
“None, I suppose,” Kelsey admitted, “but I hate this, Mom.”
“I know. So do I, but I can’t stay here. I just haven’t figured out how I’m going to explain that to your great-grandmother. You know how she is once she gets an idea into her head.”
“A lot like you,” Kelsey said.
“Yes, well, that is the problem, isn’t it?” she said wryly. Suddenly it occurred to her that there had to be a crisis of some kind for Kelsey to be calling from college in the middle of the week. “Enough about what’s going on here. I’ll figure out something. Tell me what’s up with you.”
Kelsey hesitated. “Maybe this isn’t a good time. We can talk about it when you’re back in New York after you get things straightened out down there.”
A sense of dread settled in the pit of Hannah’s stomach. “Isn’t a good time for what?” she prodded.
“You’re sure you don’t want to wait and talk about this another time?” Kelsey asked, sounding oddly hopeful.
“Now,” Hannah commanded.
“Okay, then. Remember how I told you at Christmas that school pretty much sucks?”
“And I said you were just going through a rough patch,” Hannah recalled.
“Well, it’s more than a rough patch, Mom. Don’t freak out, okay? I’ve really thought about this and it’s what I need to do right now. I’ve decided to quit college, come home to New York and get a job.”
Hannah’s grip on the cell phone tightened. “In your junior year?” she said, her voice rising despite her best attempt to remain calm. “Are you crazy?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” Kelsey said petulantly, sounding like a spoiled child rather than the responsible young adult she normally was.
“No, I don’t understand. And unless you’ve got an explanation that includes full-time employment several steps above flipping burgers, I’m not likely to understand. We had a deal. If I went into debt to get you into Stanford, the school of your dreams, you would stick it out and get your degree in graphic design, no matter what. Remember that?”
“I remember,” Kelsey said meekly. “But, Mom—”
Hannah cut her off. “No, there is no but, Mom. You got into Stanford. I’ve paid for three years at Stanford, and you are finishing at Stanford. Period. You don’t get to back out of the deal now.”
“I can’t stay here.”
Years ago, after her divorce, Hannah had learned the value of being stern and unyielding. Otherwise, even as a toddler, her strong-willed daughter would have run roughshod over her. She called on that skill now.
“Of course, you can stay. If your courses are too hard, if that’s what this is about, you can consider dropping one of them, but you’re not dropping out, and that’s final.” She told herself all her daughter needed was a pep talk. She’d probably gotten something below an A on a pop quiz and decided she was heading for failure. “Come on, kiddo. You can do this. You’re smart. You’re more than halfway to getting your bachelor’s degree. You just need to park your butt in the library and do whatever amount of studying it takes to get out of there next year with a degree.”
“You don’t understand,” Kelsey said.
“Of course I do, sweetie. We all hit bumps in the road from time to time. We can’t let them throw us off course.”
“Mom, this isn’t that kind of bump in the road. I’m pregnant,” Kelsey blurted.
If Hannah hadn’t already been sitting down, she would have fainted dead away and probably cracked open her skull when she hit the floor. Apparently things could get worse. And now she knew how.
Chapter 2
Hannah had a splitting headache by the time she finally made her way downstairs to the kitchen in the morning. She’d replayed the conversation with Kelsey in her head over and over for the rest of the night, but not even her best editing skills could change the fact that her daughter was going to have a baby.
Grandma Jenny looked up as she entered the kitchen. “I thought you were going to sleep the day away,” she commented, then took a closer look. “You don’t look so good. Are you sick?”
Sick at heart, Hannah thought, but she kept it to herself. There’d be time enough to tell her grandmother what was going on after Kelsey arrived in the next day or two, as soon as she could get a flight from California. Hannah had made her promise not to make any big decisions or do anything drastic until they had more time to talk things through.
“I didn’t sleep much,” she told her grandmother. “A cup of coffee should perk me up, though.”
“Good. Then we can get started with that list. I’ve got some help lined up, so we need to get ourselves organized.”
The pounding in Hannah’s head took on a more urgent beat. “As soon as I’ve returned a few calls from my boss,” she promised, searching in a cupboard until she found a bottle of aspirin. She popped two of them. “He left a bunch of messages for me yesterday and I didn’t get them until it was too late to call back last night.”
A frown settled on Grandma Jenny’s face. “Why’s he bothering you? I thought you were quitting that job.”
“No, Gran, I didn’t quit,” Hannah explained patiently. “I’m just on vacation for a couple of weeks.”
“Well, you should give it up for good. This is where you belong. You’d be your own boss here.”
No, Hannah thought, she’d be answering to her grandmother, and as annoying as Dave Harrow could be from time to time, he was easier to deal with than Gran.
“Let’s not go there right now, okay?” Hannah pleaded. “I’m here for a couple of weeks and that’s it.”
Her grandmother waved off the explanation as if it were of no consequence. “But you’re still down here on your own time, am I right? Your boss shouldn’t be taking advantage of you like this. Anyone who works as hard as you do deserves to have a vacation that’s really a vacation. A boss who appreciates you would know that.”
“He’s not really taking advantage of me, Gran. I left without much notice. There are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up. Look, the call shouldn’t take long. You start on that list of renovations and we’ll go over it when I come back inside. I can get better cell phone reception on the porch.”
“Well, you’d best hurry. Some of the things we’re going to need aren’t available on the island. We’ll need to catch the eleven o’clock ferry if we expect to go to the mainland today.”
Hannah grimaced. That was yet another reason not to live in Seaview. It was too inconvenient. If they missed the eleven o’clock ferry, there wouldn’t be another one until four-thirty, too late to head over to the mainland to shop. In all there were only four ferries daily, these two, plus one that left at 6:00 a.m., mostly for people who worked on the mainland, and a final one at eight, which catered mostly to those who’d taken a day trip to Seaview Key, stayed for dinner and then wanted to head back.
“I’ll hurry,” she promised.
She took her cell phone and coffee out to the porch, choosing a comfortable wicker chair at the far end where the sun had created a pool of warmth on the chilly morning. She took a long sip of coffee, then turned her face up to the sun, wishing she didn’t have to make the call. It wasn’t going to go well. Dave hadn’t been happy about her asking for this unplanned vacation, especially after all the months when her schedule had been totally unpredictable because of her chemo treatments.
Reluctantly, she dialed the direct line to his office. “Hey, Melinda, it’s Hannah. Dave was trying to reach me yesterday, but I was traveling and had my phone off. Is he available now?”
“Yes,” his secretary said, then lowered her voice. “But I should tell you he’s on the warpath. Even though you briefed Carl before you left about the deadlines for the Parker account, he blew the very first one and Dave caught the fallout. Ron Parker was furious.”
Hannah muttered a few choice words. Carl Mason was useless, but Dave kept giving him second chances. He’d insisted that Hannah turn her accounts over to him while she was away. It was his fault that things had gone wrong, but she was going to have to bail them all out.
“Look, don’t put me through now. I’m going to call Ron and see if I can smooth things over. Then I’ll call back to speak to Dave.”
“Sure, hon,” Melinda said, but before they could sever the connection Hannah heard Dave in the background.
“Is that Hannah? Put her through right this minute,” he commanded.
“Sorry,” Melinda murmured.
“Not your fault.” She waited for Dave to pick up, then tried to do a preemptive strike. “Melinda filled me in on the problems with the Parker account. I was about to call Ron myself.”
“There wouldn’t be a problem with that account if you’d been handling it yourself,” he grumbled.
Hannah barely resisted the urge to correct him and say there wouldn’t have been a problem if Dave had assigned someone competent to fill in for her. She’d have been wasting her breath.
“Ron’s not going to be pacified with a phone call,” he told her. “You need to get back up here and do your job.”
“You know I can’t do that. There’s a family crisis and I need to handle it.”
“You’ve had a lot of crises lately,” Dave said. “Maybe this job isn’t as important to you as it once was.”
Hannah gasped at his insensitivity. “Do you honestly think I chose to have breast cancer just so I could inconvenience you? Do you think I wanted my mom to die or my grandmother to have difficulty coping with that, so I could take more time off?”
He backed down at once. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have phrased it that way. I know you’ve been through hell, but you’re the best person on this team. When you’re out of the office, it has an impact.”
“Nice save,” she said dryly. “Look, it’s only for a couple of weeks. I gave Carl notes on every single thing that needs to be done, along with the deadlines. Maybe you need to look over his shoulder for the next couple of weeks and make sure he follows through. If that doesn’t work, then I’m not the one to blame.”
Dave sighed. “I know he’s not pulling his weight around here. That’s why I assigned him to work with you. I thought maybe your organizational skills would rub off on him.”
“You always were a dreamer,” she said lightly. It was one of the reasons they’d always worked well together. She’d been his first hire after he and Lou Morgan had opened the firm fifteen years ago. He was a genius when it came to thinking up unique PR campaigns for their clients, but Hannah was the one who kept the projects on schedule, pacified nervous actors and authors and contributed her own share of creative ideas. He also counted on her not to mince words, so she didn’t now. “Dave, you’ve given Carl more than enough chances. Maybe it’s time to think about cutting your losses and letting him go. Get someone in that position who can cut it.”
“You’re probably right,” he admitted with obvious reluctance. “If I hadn’t promised my wife that I’d give the guy a break, I’d have fired him months ago. He’s her nephew and she adores him. Do you know the kind of grief I’m going to get if I let him go?”
“Compare that to the grief you’re already taking from clients like Ron Parker,” she said. “Look, I’ll call Ron now and fix this mess, but there can’t be a next time, Dave. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know it. Hurry back, okay?”
“Two weeks,” she reminded him. “You’ll hardly notice I’m gone.”
“That’s a joke. You weren’t out the door two minutes when we had our first crisis.”
“Careful,” she warned. “I’ll start to think I’m indispensable and you’ll have to give me a raise.”
She hung up slowly, then spent several minutes tamping down her annoyance over Carl’s screwup before calling Ron Parker and apologizing profusely. Fortunately, he was a reasonable guy, and the promise of a few perks on his next PR campaign calmed him down.
“I’m sorry Dave bothered you on your vacation,” he told her. “I was still angry when I spoke to him, so I was blowing off steam. I was never going to take my business elsewhere. You’re the best, Hannah. So is Dave.”
“And we love working with you. We’ll get together for lunch as soon as I’m back in town. You pick the place and it’s on me.”
“It ought to be on that idiot Carl Mason,” he said. “Enjoy your vacation and don’t worry about any of this, okay?”
“Thanks for understanding.”
When she finally got off the phone, she felt drained. Her head was still pounding, though the caffeine and aspirin were starting to kick in. One more cup of coffee and she might be able to cope with Grandma Jenny and whatever she had in store to destroy her peace of mind today.
* * *
“I don’t understand why you’re going to Florida,” Jeff told Kelsey as she packed her suitcase. “This is no time to go running off when we have so many things that need to be settled.”
“Things are settled, Jeff. No matter what you say, I am not going to marry you, and that’s final.”
“But we’re having a baby!” he said, as if she needed reminding.
“I’m the one having it,” she retorted. “Not you. I’m the one whose entire life has to go on hold because we were stupid one night and had sex without a condom.”
Jeff paled. “And that’s my fault. I accept that. It was stupid, but no matter how many times I say I’m sorry, it won’t change anything. Now we have to deal with where we are. I love you. I want to marry you. I want us to be a family. I wanted that before you got pregnant and I want it now.”
“And I’ve told you that I’m not ready to get married,” she said.
They’d been arguing like this for two solid weeks now, ever since she’d seen a doctor and told Jeff about the baby. Sometimes she wished she’d kept the news to herself, but she’d known how unfair that would be. What she hadn’t realized was how pressured she’d feel now that Jeff wanted to do what he saw as the right thing.
For him, the baby was only a tiny blip on a road he’d apparently mapped out when they’d first started dating last year. For her it changed everything. It took away her options and backed her into a corner. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him or that she didn’t envision them having a future together...eventually. It was about being forced into making a premature decision, one far too important to be made in haste.
She was a child of divorce, and while her mother had done everything in her power to see that Kelsey never wanted for anything, Kelsey had never stopped wishing that she’d come from a two-parent home. She and her dad barely had any relationship at all beyond an occasional check at Christmas or for her birthday and even rarer phone calls. In the beginning she’d seen him at least occasionally, but then he’d remarried, had more kids and the kind of family life she’d always wanted.
Now, here she was, willing to deny her own child what she’d missed most during her own childhood. She understood the irony in that, but so far she hadn’t been able to talk herself into backing down. She was convinced that if she rushed into marriage with Jeff because of the baby, they’d never have a real chance to make it work. She doubted she’d be able to hide her resentment, and that would poison their relationship.
Sighing, she sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled Jeff down beside her. Sitting thigh to thigh, even under these circumstances, she could feel the chemistry between them, chemistry that had been there from the time they’d first met. He wasn’t like the preppy guys she’d always dated. He was offbeat, a little bit of a nerd. His dark brown hair was almost always in need of a cut, not out of rebellion, but simply because he forgot about it.
It was his eyes, though, that had drawn her in. They were like melted chocolate, and when they were focused on her, their intensity made her pulse scramble.
His wardrobe, while not totally atypical of that of all the kids around them, was a horror—faded jeans, T-shirts and ancient sneakers. It offended Kelsey’s fashion sense, developed by associating with some of her mom’s designer clients, but she’d seen beyond the clothes to the really good person he was. Only after they’d been dating for months had she learned that he was from a wealthy San Francisco family and that he was somewhat of a computer genius, who’d already amassed a small fortune himself with software he’d designed.
Sitting beside him now, she stared straight ahead, afraid that if she looked into his eyes, she’d give in and agree to marry him. It was the simplest solution to her predicament, but one she was determined to resist.
“You know that I’m not saying no because I don’t love you, right?” she asked softly.
“You’re saying no because you’re stubborn,” he countered. “We’ve been talking about marriage for months now. All this changes is the timetable.”
“Exactly. We had that timetable for a reason. I wanted to graduate, to get established in a career before we took the next step in our relationship. I wanted to figure out who I am.”
“I already know who you are, but I suppose that doesn’t count,” Jeff countered. “But you can still do all that. We’ll hire a nanny. Or I’ll take care of the baby while you’re in school.”
“You have classes, too,” she reminded him.
He regarded her with an impatient expression. “Come on, Kelsey, we’ve been over this. I get what you’re saying and why you’re scared, but nothing has to change. If we didn’t have a cent to our names, maybe there would be sacrifices, but trust me, we can afford a place to live and all the help we need. You’ll have all the time and space you want to decide who you are and figure out what you want. In fact, it’ll be easier because you won’t be forced to take some nothing job just to pay bills. You can take your time after graduation and find the perfect job.”
She heard the sincerity in his voice and she wanted desperately to believe things would be that simple, but she just couldn’t. First thing she knew, she’d be Mrs. Jeff Hampton, a wife and a mother. She was scared to death that Kelsey Matthews-Ryan would get lost.
She also knew her fears were compounded because for years she’d been so certain about what she wanted—a career in graphic design. But now that she’d been studying for the degree that would get her that career, now that she’d proved she could handle it, the path she’d chosen had lost some of its luster. She feared the same thing could happen if she rushed into marriage. Maybe it was morning sickness, maybe it was hormones, but her world had tilted on its axis and left her reeling. She simply couldn’t cope with a decision as huge as getting married right now.
“I can’t, Jeff. I can’t do it.”
“You’d rather quit school and run home to your mom?” he asked incredulously. “That doesn’t make any sense at all. You’re actually giving up the very thing you claim you want.”
“Temporarily,” she insisted. “I’ll go back to school after the baby’s born. Maybe by then I’ll have figured out if graphic design is what I really want, after all. Why get a degree in something and then decide it’s not what I’m passionate about?”
“Okay, let’s say you do take time off,” he said reasonably. “How will you manage college a year from now or two years from now, especially if you decide you want a degree in something else and have to practically start over?”
Kelsey frowned. “I don’t know exactly, but I’ll make it work.”
“Look at me,” he commanded. “Kelsey, look at me. You’re not still thinking about adoption, are you? Because I won’t go along with it. I want this baby, even if you don’t.”
There was an unyielding note in his voice she’d never heard before. Why, when it came to this, did he have to change from an easygoing, come-what-may kind of guy into one determined to have his own way?
Tears stung Kelsey’s eyes. How had things turned into such a mess? A few weeks ago, her life had been totally on track. She’d aced most of her final exams. She was excited about her new courses, even though she was starting to question her career goals. She was with a guy she adored. And now, because of one careless moment, everything was at risk.
“You should go,” she told Jeff. “We’re not going to settle this tonight and I’m leaving first thing in the morning.”
“But you’re coming back?” he asked. “You’re not going to disappear and do something behind my back, are you?”
“I can’t believe you asked me that,” she said, surprisingly stung. “You know me better than anyone. I promised you I wouldn’t do anything crazy and I meant it. I promised my mom the same thing.”
“Did she buy it?” he asked.
Kelsey sighed. “Not entirely. Look, whatever decision I make, I will come back here and I will tell you. That’s the best I can promise.”
“I suppose I’ll have to live with that,” Jeff said, then met her gaze. “For now.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I have a stake in this decision, too. You need time right now, I’ll let you have it. But not too much time, Kelsey, or I’ll follow you and do everything in my power to make you see this my way.”
Kelsey looked deep into his eyes and saw the determination there. She realized that Jeff’s powers of persuasion were what scared her most of all.
* * *
Hannah used the twenty-minute ferry ride to the mainland to finally broach the subject that had brought her to Seaview Key. The waters were calm, the breeze balmy by mid-morning as they made the crossing. She and her grandmother stood by the railing and watched as the mainland grew from a distant speck to an impressive skyline.
“Gran, have you ever thought about living on the mainland?” she began carefully.
“Why would I do that when I have a perfectly good home where I am?”
“You’d be surrounded by more people your own age,” Hannah explained, injecting as much enthusiasm as she could into her voice. “You could get involved in more activities. You’d be closer to doctors and a major hospital. The clinic on Seaview Key isn’t prepared to cope with anything more than a minor emergency.”
“Do you honestly think I would ever move into one of those retirement communities?” she asked derisively. “That’s what you’re talking about, isn’t it? Putting me out to pasture like some horse that’s outlived its usefulness.”
“Not at all,” Hannah said, doing her best to remain upbeat. “I think it would be great to be able to do so many things anytime you wanted to without worrying about the ferry schedule. Plus, you’ve spent your whole life catering to other people’s needs. It’s time for you to think about your needs.”
“I don’t have many needs and I don’t worry much about the ferry schedule,” Grandma Jenny replied tartly. “I have it committed to memory. Besides, now that I don’t drive much, it’s been months since I’ve needed it at all. Anytime I need anything from the mainland, I can find someone to fetch it for me. I’m not like you. I don’t need to be on the go all the time. I’m happy right where I am.” She gave Hannah a hard look. “Intend to stay there, too, so don’t go getting any ideas.”
Hannah dropped the subject for now. She’d check online to locate the best facilities in the area and call for brochures. Maybe on their next trip to the mainland, she could persuade her grandmother to at least look at a couple of them.
“Any idea where you’d like to go for lunch?” she asked, changing the topic to something neutral. “I think we should eat first, then run all the errands.”
“I like that cafeteria well enough.”
Hannah bit back a groan. The last time she’d tried a slice of pie there, the whipped cream on top had the texture of plastic foam. “I suppose you’re going to want the liver and onions,” she teased, resigned to choking down a tasteless meal.
“Of course. I learned a long time ago that I’d be wasting my time fixing that for you. You’d gag every time I set it on the table.”
“Which ought to tell you something,” Hannah said. “But if that’s what you want, that’s where we’ll go.”
Her grandmother gave her a knowing look. “Don’t think buttering me up is going to work, young lady. You can agree to everything I suggest from now till Christmas and I still won’t look at one of those retirement places.”
“Whatever,” Hannah said, then had to bite back a smile the instant the word was out of her mouth. She’d sounded exactly like Kelsey at her most annoying. Apparently the universe was intent on reducing her to a petulant child again, too.
* * *
“What did Gran have you doing today?” Kelsey asked her that evening.
“Picking out paint and looking at fabric for the cushions on the porch,” Hannah told her. “We managed to get the paint at the first place we looked, but we had to go to four different fabric stores before we found anything that satisfied her. I looked at so many flowered prints, I came home dizzy.”
“Have you told her yet that you’re not staying?”
“I have,” she said. “That hasn’t stopped her from trying to change my mind. Now, tell me about you. Were you able to get a reservation?”
“My flight’s tomorrow,” Kelsey confirmed, then gave her the details.
“And your return flight?” Hannah asked.
Kelsey hesitated. “I just bought a one-way ticket in case I decide not to come back right away.”
“Kelsey!”
“It’s no big deal, Mom. I can always book the return flight as soon as I get there. Who knows? Maybe you’ll decide that you and Grandma Jenny can use an extra pair of hands.”
Hannah saw no point in arguing. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow, then. Have a safe flight, sweetie.”
“I will. Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Is it hard being there, you know, without your mom?”
Hannah wasn’t sure how to answer. If she stopped for a second and let herself think, she’d say it was incredibly difficult, which was one reason she’d let her grandmother persuade her to do all these renovations. It left little time for thinking, especially about her mother’s losing battle with cancer. And she had yet to walk into the suite of rooms that had been her mom’s. She’d spent too many hours in there right before she died.
“I don’t think I’ve let myself focus on that at all,” she admitted.
“How can you not think about it?” Kelsey asked. “She was so much a part of Seaview Inn. You must see her everywhere you look, like those old sand pails she collected. They looked like rusty junk to me, but she’d get all misty-eyed when she told me about how they reminded her of when she was a girl.”
Hannah choked back an unexpected sob. She could recall her mother’s excitement every time she came across one of the tin litho sand pails with their colorful images in one of the antique shops she haunted. Her eyes would light up as if she’d just recaptured a hundred old memories, all good ones. Hannah had deliberately avoided looking at the shelves that held the prized collection. Only now did she see how much of the past two days she’d spent in denial.
“She loved them, all right,” she said, when she could speak again.
“Oh, Mom, are you crying? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
“I think I’ve just been pretending since I got here that everything was normal, that she was just away on a trip or something. I haven’t wanted to deal with the reality that she’s gone forever.”
“Maybe having me there will be a good thing, then, huh?” Kelsey said. “I can distract you.”
“Given the reason you’re coming, I’d say that’s a sure thing,” Hannah said wryly. “See you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Bye, Mom. Love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said slowly, and disconnected, only to have the phone immediately ring again. She was tempted not to answer it, but given the work crisis she’d missed yesterday, she didn’t want to risk another lecture from Dave about her inopportune absence. Glancing at the caller ID, though, she saw that it wasn’t Dave at all, but Sue Nelson, who’d been her best friend since Hannah had arrived in New York nearly twenty years ago.
“I want to know why I had to find out from your secretary that you’ve skipped town again,” Sue demanded when Hannah answered.
“Sorry. The trip came together pretty suddenly.”
“Jane said your grandmother was having a hard time coping without your mom. Is that why you went?”
“Pretty much. I’m hoping to convince her to sell the inn and move to a retirement community.”
Sue chuckled. She’d met Grandma Jenny and could imagine her reaction. “And how’s that going?” she asked.
Hannah laughed with her. “About like you’d expect. I didn’t even get the words out of my mouth before she was warning me off in no uncertain terms.”
“Then why aren’t you heading home? I’d think being there right now would be really hard. Besides, don’t you have a three-month cancer screening coming up?”
“I postponed it.”
“Hannah!” Sue protested. “You can’t do things like that. This is too important.”
“Don’t overreact. I only postponed it a couple of weeks. I’ll go in the day after I get back to New York.”
“Can I get that in writing? I know you’re dreading it.”
“Well, of course, I’m dreading it, but I’m not stupid. I know I can’t put it off indefinitely.”
“What’s the new date?”
“Why? Do you think I’m lying?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you, but that’s not why I’m asking. I want to put it on my calendar, so I can go with you. I told you when you first got diagnosed that you’re not going through any of this alone.”
Hannah’s eyes stung for the second time that night. “You’ve been wonderful and I will never be able to thank you enough,” she said. “But you’ve spent enough of your time babysitting me through surgery and chemo. I can go to one appointment on my own.”
“But why should you have to?” Sue asked. “Especially when we can go out afterward and splurge on an outrageously expensive dinner to celebrate that you’re just fine.”
“Hush. Don’t say things like that. It’s just asking for something to go wrong.”
“I thought you weren’t superstitious,” Sue teased.
Hannah thought about how recent events had conspired to make her question that. “I’m reexamining my beliefs on that subject.”
“Oh?”
“Long story, and you and John must be about to have dinner.”
“He won’t mind waiting for a few minutes,” Sue said. “Tell me why you’re suddenly leery of black cats and walking under ladders.”
“It’s not about cats and ladders,” Hannah told her. “But trust me, bad things do come in threes.” She paused, then announced, “Kelsey’s pregnant.”
“Oh, my God, you’re kidding!”
“Not something I’d kid about,” Hannah said.
“No, I don’t suppose you would. When did she tell you?”
“Last night.”
“How did you react?”
“You know me. I’m a control freak. I ordered her to come down here before making any decisions. I need to see her. I want to see for myself that she’s okay.”
“And she’s coming?”
“Tomorrow,” Hannah confirmed.
“Okay, now tell me how you’re really feeling.”
“I’m mostly numb, to be perfectly honest,” Hannah replied. “I never expected this.”
“I doubt mothers ever do, unless their daughters are wild ones, which Kelsey definitely is not,” Sue said. “Is Kelsey okay or is she totally freaking out?”
“She sounded calm, but I know she’s falling apart. She’s definitely not thinking clearly. Right now her solution is to quit college and move back to New York with me.”
“Oh, boy! I’m amazed I didn’t hear your reaction to that all the way up here.”
“So am I,” Hannah said.
“Anything I can do?”
“Just knowing you’re there when I need to talk is enough,” Hannah told her.
“I could fly down there and mediate, if it would help,” she offered.
“I’d have to give you combat pay,” Hannah joked. “No, I’ll muddle through this. Just start shaking the martinis the second I get back to New York.”
“You’ve got it, and the minute you decide you need anything more, all you have to do is call.”
“Thanks, Sue. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Thick and thin, that was our deal all those years ago,” Sue reminded her, then added dryly, “Too bad some of my marriage vows didn’t last the way our friendship has.”
“Only because you had extraordinarily bad taste in men before you met John. He’s a keeper.”
“Yeah, I think so, too, which means I’d better get in there and feed him. We miss you, sweetie. Hurry home.”
“Thanks for calling.”
Hannah disconnected the call with a smile on her face. She had other friends in New York, including Dave and his wife, and plenty of acquaintances, but Sue Dyer Martinelli Nelson was the best. If Hannah had said she needed her in Florida, Sue would have been here by morning, no questions asked. Knowing that was almost as comforting as it would have been to be sitting on the porch with her right now, a shaker of martinis between them.
Chapter 3
The Seaview Inn looked like hell. Luke Stevens hadn’t seen the place for twenty years and it was showing every one of those years with its fading paint, untended lawn, and half a dozen posts missing from the railing that wound around the sprawling front porch. In fact, it looked a lot like he felt, as if it had been tossed aside, a victim of neglect.
If the assessment of his life sounded bitter, he figured he had a right. Like too many other men returning from Iraq to find their old lives in tatters, he’d spent months in a rehab hospital in Washington, then faced the fact that going back to the life he’d left in Atlanta wasn’t an option. His wife had filed for divorce two weeks before a car bomb had shattered his leg. The doctors had saved his leg, for which he’d be eternally grateful. Even so, he was a long way from being able to stand in an operating room doing the kind of orthopedic surgery that had been his specialty before he’d come out of military retirement and answered the army’s call for doctors. Yeah, he was bitter and not one bit apologetic about it.
Sitting in a wheelchair during his recovery, staring out at the snow that had blanketed Washington one January morning a couple of weeks back, he’d suddenly had a yearning for the sunshine and palm trees he hadn’t seen since leaving Seaview Key for college more than twenty years ago. Though his family had moved away from the island to live with his sister in Arizona, Seaview had continued to have a special place in his heart. It was home. It was where he’d fallen in love for the first time, where he’d learned to fish and swim, where he’d volunteered with the local rescue squad and discovered his passion for medicine. It was, he’d decided, the perfect place to heal.
There were no memories of Lisa, his soon-to-be-ex-wife, in Seaview, no images of his kids on the stretch of white sand there. After being gone for so long, he could only hope that no one there would remember him all that well. Most of the kids in his class had fled, chasing dreams of more excitement than the tiny town could offer. If he was right about that, there would be no pitying looks to bear, no questions to be answered, just the peace and quiet he craved while he figured out what to do with the rest of his life.
Twenty years ago, there had been only one place to stay on the island, Seaview Inn, a sprawling bed-and-breakfast run for three generations by the Matthews family. Hannah had been in his class, and like the rest of them, she’d been eager to flee. He had an image of a quiet, studious girl whose face lit up when she laughed, which was all too seldom. She’d been best friends with Abby Dawson, his first love, so they’d spent a lot of time on the inn’s front porch, rocking for hours and talking about the future while sea breezes stirred the palm trees and stars sparkled like diamond chips scattered across black velvet.
He shook his head, struck by how simple life had been back then. His biggest problem had been trying to figure out how to rid Abby of her bra without getting slapped. He’d finally mastered the technique by the end of summer. He grinned as he thought of how well that skill had served him in college.
Once they’d all left for college, though, distance had taken its toll, and they’d lost touch. He’d met Lisa and stepped into his future, Seaview Key all but forgotten until recently.
With one call to Information, he’d found the number for the inn, but it had taken him days to get through to anyone. He’d found it odd and discouraging that there didn’t even seem to be an answering machine, but he’d persisted just the same, unwilling to give up on the only plan that had appealed to him in months.
When the phone had finally been answered, it was by a woman who sounded ancient and annoyed. “What do you want?” she’d demanded without so much as a pleasant hello.
“Is this Seaview Inn?”
“That’s the number you dialed, isn’t it?”
He’d grinned despite her tone. Clearly old Jenny Matthews was having a bad day. He could relate.
“It certainly is,” he agreed. “I was hoping to reserve a room.”
“We’re closed.”
Luke decided to try another approach. “Mrs. Matthews, this is Luke Stevens. I don’t know if you remember me—”
“My mind’s not gone yet,” she snapped. “Of course, I remember you. You’re Mark and Stella’s boy. Used to hang around here with that Dawson girl. She was all wrong for you, by the way. I sure as heck hope you had the good sense not to marry her.”
“I don’t know how much good sense was involved, but we didn’t get married,” he said, impressed by her memory.
“Good. Last I heard she was working in some bar up in Pensacola and hanging out with a rowdy crowd. Bikers, I suspect.”
Luke chuckled despite himself. The last he’d heard, Abby had owned a restaurant in Pensacola and been married to a minister. He saw no need to debate the point with Mrs. Matthews. There would be plenty of time to settle the matter when he saw her.
“You said you’re closed right now,” he said, trying to get back to the point. “How soon will you be reopening?”
“That depends on Hannah.”
Luke didn’t even try to hide his surprise. “Hannah’s still in Seaview?”
“No, Hannah’s in New York, but I’m working on that. Once I get her back here, I figure I can convince her to stay. After that it’ll take a couple of weeks to whip this place into shape for guests.”
“I could help with that,” he offered. “I don’t know what you need, but I can manage some odd jobs for you.”
“Not if you’re a guest, you can’t,” she responded, sounding scandalized.
“I don’t mind. It’ll be good to do something useful. If you feel strongly about it, you can give me a break on your rates. I hope to be there for a few weeks at least.”
She was silent for so long, he thought she was going to refuse, but then she asked, “When would you be coming?”
“The first week of February, if that would be okay with you,” he said.
“Perfect,” she muttered, more to herself than him. “Okay, Luke Stevens, you have yourself a deal and a reservation. You might have a fight on your hands with Hannah, but I imagine you’ll be able to handle her. Goodbye.”
She’d left him openmouthed then, just as the sight of the Seaview Inn had him openmouthed now. Apparently he’d been overly optimistic about just how idyllic this trip down memory lane was going to be.
* * *
Luke knocked on the front door of the inn, but when no one answered, he stepped inside and called out. “Mrs. Matthews, it’s me, Luke Stevens. Are you home?”
He heard a door to his left bang open and then Jenny Matthews came bustling out of the kitchen and across the dining room, drying her hands on a dish towel.
“You’re early,” she said, making it sound like an accusation. “I thought you weren’t coming for another week.”
“I was able to get away sooner than I expected. Since you mentioned having work to do around here, I figured the sooner I was here to help, the better. Is it okay?”
She looked troubled, but then shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I just haven’t had a chance to explain this to Hannah.” She shrugged, then gave him a rueful look. “Well, she’ll get used to the idea soon enough, I expect. Let me show you to your room.”
“You don’t need to do that,” he said, worried about her ability to negotiate all those stairs. “Just point me in the right direction. I can manage.”
“Okay, then. I’ll get you a key and you can take your things upstairs. Less running up and down I do, the better I like it.” She went to a small desk in the foyer, pulled a key from the drawer and handed it to him. “Since there’s no one else staying here right now, I’m giving you the room on the end. It has more space and the best view. Has a real nice bathroom, too. Hannah’s mother talked me into putting one of those Jacuzzi things in there. Said we could double the price if we did that.”
Luke thought of how wonderful that would be for his bad leg, which still ached like the devil when he stayed on his feet too long or tried to walk too far. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from testing his limits, though. Being incapacitated and less than his physical best bothered him more than he liked to admit. Being strong and athletic was as much a part of his identity as being a doctor.
“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
“I dusted in there myself just yesterday. There should be plenty of clean towels, but if there’s anything you need, let me know when you come back down. I’ll fix some lunch for you. You can eat out on the porch, if you like. I imagine you’ll find that more pleasant than sitting in the dining room all alone. Won’t be fancy, but it’ll be filling. Tuna sandwich, home-baked cookies and lemonade. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” He remembered her baking with the affection of a teenage boy for whom chocolate-chip cookies had been only a couple of rungs below stealing kisses on his list of favorite things.
“Will a half hour give you enough time to get set-tled?” she asked.
“More than enough. Thanks, Mrs. Matthews.”
“If you’re going to be staying here awhile, you might’s well call me Grandma Jenny.”
“I’ll do that, then,” he said, and impulsively gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “Thanks for taking me in.”
“Oh, you’ll earn your keep soon enough,” she assured him. “Now, hurry along. You need to be settled before Hannah gets back.”
He regarded her suspiciously. “Why is that?”
“Trust me, it’s just better that way.”
“You think she’s going to want to kick me out, don’t you?”
“Oh, I expect so,” she said nonchalantly. “But don’t worry too much about that, Luke. Despite what she thinks, I still have some say around this place. She hasn’t sold it out from under me yet.”
“Hannah wants to sell Seaview Inn?” he asked, astonished. “Why?”
“Because I’m old and she doesn’t want to be bothered with it,” she said succinctly. “I’d say that sums it up. Oh, she thinks I don’t know exactly what she’s up to, but I can read all the signs.”
Luke didn’t begin to understand the dynamics at work here, but he did know one thing. People shouldn’t be forced into doing something just for someone else’s convenience. He’d treated enough elderly patients with hip fractures to understand how many of them wound up leaving homes they loved because it put their children’s consciences at ease.
Until he knew more about this situation, though, he needed to keep his opinions to himself. It would be wrong to leap to Grandma Jenny’s side before he knew all the facts, as well as heard Hannah’s perspective.
“Well, there’s plenty of time to figure all of this out, I’m sure,” he told her. “At least you and Hannah are agreed on fixing this place up, so as soon as I’ve had some lunch, you can put me to work.”
“You’re eager. I like that,” she said approvingly. “Now, run along. Your lunch will be waiting on the porch as soon as you’re ready.”
“Will you and Hannah be joining me?”
“Not me. I have things to do,” she said, looking vaguely guilty.
“And Hannah?”
“She’s taking a walk on the beach. No telling when she’ll be back.”
Luke got it then. Grandma Jenny didn’t want to be anywhere in sight when Hannah discovered that he’d taken up residence at the inn.
“You’re a very sneaky woman, aren’t you?” he said, delighted by her spunk.
She grinned at him. “I have my moments.”
Luke had a feeling that coming here was about to take some very interesting twists. Oddly enough, the prospect of a few fireworks intrigued him.
* * *
The salt air and cool waters of the Gulf of Mexico usually worked their magic on Hannah, but today it was going to take a lot more than a walk on the beach to settle her chaotic thoughts. Though she loved her daughter dearly and was anxious to see her this afternoon, she was dreading the battle to come over college.
Oh, who was she kidding? The real issue wasn’t whether or not Kelsey remained at Stanford, but what she was going to do about the baby. Her daughter was pregnant! The thought still boggled her mind, at least when it didn’t make her angry. Of all the careless, irresponsible things Kelsey might have done, this was one that Hannah had never even considered.
Sure, college kids in lust took chances, made mistakes, but Kelsey had always had a rigid, almost puritanical set of values. They’d talked about sex being best in a committed relationship. They’d talked about precautions, just in case a situation got out of hand. Dammit, it was the one subject about which they’d always been on the same page!
As close as she and Kelsey were, Hannah thought she knew everything there was to know about her daughter’s life at school. She’d never mentioned any special young man, not even in answer to Hannah’s direct questions about her social life.
“Sure, I go out, Mom, but it’s nothing serious.”
Hannah could recall her precise words. Well, she’d call a boy responsible for an unplanned pregnancy serious enough to qualify for a mention.
Spilt milk, she reminded herself sternly. She needed to stop thinking about all the dreams that might be going up in smoke. She needed to be calm and rational by the time she picked up Kelsey at the airport. The last thing her daughter needed was a barrage of judgmental, unanswerable questions the instant she stepped off the plane. Nor did she need her mother stepping in and trying to fix things, the way Hannah was always inclined to do.
Crossing the street from the beach, Hannah spotted someone sitting in a rocker on the porch, a very masculine someone who looked vaguely familiar and very much at home.
“Hey, Hannah,” the man said, lifting a glass of lemonade in greeting. “Care to join me? Your grandmother left an extra glass.”
She gave him another hard look, took in the dark brown buzz cut, the angular features on a face that was almost gaunt, the broad shoulders, the lips threatening to curve into a grin. It wasn’t until she looked into his brown eyes, though, that she recognized him.
“Luke?” Her expression brightened. “Luke Stevens? How long has it been?”
“More than twenty years,” he said, his gaze sweeping over her with the kind of masculine appreciation she wasn’t accustomed to, from him. “You look good, Hannah. How’s life treating you?”
“Don’t ask. How about you?”
“Don’t ask.”
“You’re not still living in Seaview Key, are you?”
“No. I haven’t been back in years.”
“Well, what on earth are you doing here now?” She heard how that sounded and quickly amended, “Not that I’m not glad to see you.”
“I just came back for a visit.”
“Well, isn’t that an amazing coincidence?” Amazing and a whole lot more, frankly. It was troubling to discover that Luke still had the same ability to rattle her and make her tongue-tied. Forcing herself to remember the way things had been—Luke and her best friend madly in love, rather than Luke at least noticing her—she deliberately asked, “Do you ever hear from Abby?”
He shook his head. “You?”
“Not since college. So, where are you staying?”
“Here, actually. I moved in about an hour ago.”
Hannah, who’d been about to lean down and give him a friendly peck on the cheek, backed up so fast, it was only luck—and a sturdy railing—that kept her from sailing right off the edge of the porch.
“Here?” she said incredulously. “You moved in here?”
He chuckled and raised his glass of lemonade again. “Surprise!”
“But we’re closed. Who said you could stay?” she asked, though the answer was obvious. Grandma Jenny wasn’t taking any chances. Obviously she figured frugal Hannah wouldn’t turn away a paying guest.
“I made the reservation with your grandmother a couple of weeks ago.”
Hannah directed a sour look toward the house. No doubt her grandmother was sitting right beside a window to get a perfect view of this encounter. “Really. For how long?”
Luke shrugged. “Hard to say. I have some things to figure out. I told your grandmother I’d help the two of you get this place spruced up a bit.”
“Really,” she said again. This must be the help Gran had said was on the way. “She never mentioned you. Did you and my grandmother make any other plans without sharing them with me?”
“Not me,” he claimed. “I can’t speak for her.”
Hannah bounced up. “I think my grandmother and I need to have a talk.” She was about to walk away, when her intrinsic manners kicked in. She turned around. “It really is good to see you again, Luke, but one word of caution.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t get too comfortable. In less than two weeks, this place will be closed, I’ll be back in New York and my grandmother will be...” She faltered on that. “Well, she’ll be somewhere. Right this second a psychiatric facility sounds like just the place.”
She was about to storm inside and have it out with her grandmother when Luke stopped her.
“Hold it, Hannah. If me being here is going to be a problem, I’m sure I can find somewhere else to stay. I noticed a couple of new motels when I drove off the ferry.”
She was about to take him up on the offer when she realized she was being absurd. There was no reason he couldn’t stay in one of the guest rooms, even if having him underfoot was going to dredge up a whole lot of old memories of unrequited longing. It was only the fact that her grandmother had done this behind her back that grated.
She sighed and sat down in the rocker next to his. To buy herself a couple of minutes so that she didn’t sound totally irrational, she poured herself a glass of the ice-cold lemonade and took a sip.
“Sorry about sounding so inhospitable,” she said eventually. “You just caught me off guard. We’ve been closed since before my mother died a month ago. I had no idea that my grandmother had started taking reservations again.”
Luke looked genuinely shocked. “Your mother died? I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, Hannah. She was a wonderful woman. I always enjoyed talking to her. She really listened to all us kids.”
Hannah blinked back a fresh batch of tears. For a woman who’d always prided herself on keeping her emotions in check, since coming back here, she was turning into a regular waterworks.
“She was a good listener, wasn’t she?” she said, a catch in her voice. “I remember how often you or one of the other kids would sneak off to the kitchen to spill some secret to her. I swear she always knew stuff about my friends before I did. I was halfway jealous of that.”
“Your grandmother didn’t say anything about her dying when I called. I thought your mom must just be away on a trip or something.”
“Don’t feel bad. I know she’s dead and I feel the same way. I can’t quite believe I won’t turn a corner and bump into her.”
He hesitated, then studied her with a gaze filled with compassion. “Do you want to talk about it or should we move on to another topic?”
“To be honest, I’m not ready to talk about it yet. She had cancer and things didn’t go well, practically from the beginning, and...” She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest, that she was terrified her own future was destined to follow the same path.
“It’s an awful disease,” he said quietly. “And it’s really difficult to watch a loved one suffer.”
“You have no idea,” she said softly, then stood up abruptly. “Look, I have to catch the four-thirty ferry to the mainland and I really do need to talk to my grandmother about you staying before I go. Not that you being here is a problem, because it’s not, Luke. Really. I just have to be sure you’re not the tip of the iceberg and that hordes of other guests aren’t descending without warning. There’s a lot going on around here right now and, believe me, more unexpected visitors are not a complication I can handle.”
“My offer to find another place is still good,” he said. “I don’t want to add to whatever stress you’re under. I get what it’s like when things start piling up. Big or little, it doesn’t matter. Sooner or later, it’s just too much.”
Hearing the real sympathy in his voice, she fought back tears again. She shook her head, this time with more certainty. “No, stay. Please. Just be prepared for anything to happen. Once my daughter, Kelsey, gets here in a few hours, we may give new meaning to the phrase ‘dysfunctional family.’”
He smiled at that. “You’re not scaring me, if that’s what you’re trying to do. As it happens, I know quite a lot about dysfunctional families. I’ve recently taken a crash course.”
She studied him curiously. “Do you want to talk about that?”
“Nope. I want to forget about it, at least for a little while.”
“You realize we might not have much to say if we keep putting topics off limits,” she said.
“Oh, I suspect we’ll think of something. The weather’s always safe enough.”
She grinned. “At this time of year? The Chamber of Commerce brochures claim it’s always sunny and mild.”
“Except when it’s wet and chilly,” he countered.
“I’m pretty sure they never mention that.”
“But you and I don’t work for the Chamber of Commerce. We can be candid.” His expression sobered. “You can be honest with me, Hannah. You’re sure this is okay, me staying here?”
“I’m sure,” she said, this time without hesitation.
The truth was that the more she thought about it, the more she wanted him to stay. She had a feeling that having another rational adult around might be the only thing that would keep her from going off the deep end before all these family crises were resolved. All she had to do was make sure her already prancing hormones didn’t get any crazy ideas. Falling for Luke Stevens for the second time in her life—especially right now—would be so far beyond stupid there wasn’t even an adequate word to describe it.
Chapter 4
Instead of peace and serenity, Luke concluded he was smack in the middle of some Matthews family drama. He’d heard Hannah’s raised voice not two minutes after she’d left him on the porch. Whatever she’d said, though, hadn’t especially daunted her grandmother. Jenny Matthews had held her own. He couldn’t hear the words, but they’d matched each other in heat and determination. He had to admire the feistiness in both of them, but especially in Grandma Jenny. Too many of his senior patients were cowed by family members. Clearly that wasn’t the case here.
Ten minutes after the battle had died down, Hannah had stormed out of the house looking like a thundercloud, gotten behind the wheel of his rental car, which was almost an exact duplicate of her rental car, and tried to start the engine. Naturally the key hadn’t worked. She’d gotten out, kicked a tire, then glanced at the car beside it and apparently grasped her mistake. A minute later she’d squealed out of the driveway at a speed that had him wincing. She hadn’t acknowledged his existence with so much as a wave. He gathered things hadn’t gone her way with her grandmother.
As soon as she was out of sight, the screen door opened and Jenny slipped outside. “That girl’s going to get a ticket or run into a ditch if she keeps on driving like that,” she said disapprovingly.
“She seems upset,” he noted as the woman settled into the rocker beside his and poured herself a glass of lemonade, then grabbed the last cookie. Luke barely contained a sigh at the loss. He’d had plans for that cookie, even after all the others he’d eaten.
“I think her mood has something to do with her daughter,” she said, glancing sideways at him.
Luke chuckled. “And I think it might have something to do with you. You trying to put something over on her, Mrs. Matthews?”
“I told you to call me Grandma Jenny,” she said testily, then slanted a look at him. “Why would I be trying to put anything over on her?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. So far, here’s what I’ve got. You want Hannah to come back here and take over the inn. She doesn’t want to. You figured having a paying guest—me—would force her to stick it out here for a while, maybe start getting used to the idea.”
Jenny didn’t bother trying to deny it. “Think you’re smart, don’t you?”
“Far from it, but I know a con artist when I meet one. Is this just about you not wanting to sell this place because it’s been your home for all these years?”
She gave him a scathing look. “It is not,” she said emphatically. “I know that’s what Hannah thinks, too, but this is about her. She’s been living in New York for twenty years now, but she’s not happy.”
Luke bit back a comment. Hannah had seemed happy enough to him until she’d found out he was staying here. Then, again, they hadn’t done a lot of catching up before that.
“Oh, she thinks she is,” Grandma Jenny continued, “because she’s busy every second of every day, dealing with all sorts of powerful clients and going out to fancy dinners and the theater and hosting elegant parties in the hottest clubs. She sends the clippings from the newspaper down here, so I’ll be impressed with how successful she is, and I am. I’m real proud of her, but career success isn’t all there is to life.”
“Maybe not, but it doesn’t sound like a bad life to me,” he remarked. “Especially if it’s the one she wants.”
“It’s bad, if at the end of the day she goes home to an empty apartment and a cold bed. Her daughter’s clear across the country at Stanford. Her husband, who wasn’t worth much to begin with, is long gone, every bit as irresponsible as her daddy. She’s alone and she’s forgotten who she is and what’s important. She’s chasing the almighty dollar, is what she’s doing, and in the end, that’s never enough to make a person truly happy.”
Luke wondered what her assessment would be of his life. His view of success had matched Hannah’s for a time. Money had certainly been high on his ex-wife’s measure of success, as well. Now he saw Grandma Jenny’s point. He’d made a lot of money, but he’d never been entirely happy, though he hadn’t been able to say why. That was another part of the reason he’d come to Seaview Key. He wanted to believe he’d get his priorities in order while he was here, maybe get back to the values he’d been taught by his parents, to the love of medicine he’d had when he first went into practice.
“Do you think Hannah will rediscover herself here?” he asked.
“I’m hoping,” she said. “I love this shabby old inn, no question about it. My parents built it and my husband and I had a good life running it and raising our kids here. Hannah had a good life here, too, though she’s chosen to forget that. She was surrounded by family and a tightknit community, not millions of strangers who are scared to even look each other in the eye on the street. You must know what I mean. It brought you back here, didn’t it?”
“Not to stay,” Luke said softly. “Just to get my bearings.”
She gave him a sly look. “Seems to me like the place you go to get your bearings ought to be home.” She tapped her glass to his. “Something to think about, don’t you agree?”
“You could have a point,” he conceded. “And maybe I did come here because this was once home. I wanted to recapture a simpler time in my life.” He met her gaze. “I’m not really sure it’s possible to do that, though. Maybe all I’m doing is postponing dealing with reality.”
“If you’d care to explain what you’re talking about, maybe I could help you figure it out,” she said. “Lots of folks think with age comes a little wisdom.”
“I don’t question that for a minute, and maybe one of these days we will talk more about what’s going on in my life,” he said.
She patted his hand. “Whenever you’re ready to tell me, I’ll be ready to listen. Now I need to start thinking about dinner. Kelsey—that’s Hannah’s daughter—will be hungry after eating nothing but airline food today. I’m thinking fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, good comfort food. How does that sound?”
“Like it’ll clog all our arteries,” he said. “And better than anything I’ve had in months.” He watched as she struggled to her feet. “You want some help?”
Her expression turned indignant. “The day I can’t get into this house on my own two feet is the day I’ll walk away from it and check into that retirement home Hannah’s so anxious for me to move into.”
The show of spunk made Luke chuckle. “I meant with dinner.”
“Now, that I can use. You know anything about cutting up a chicken?”
“I’m a surgeon. I think I can manage.”
She gave him a startled look. “Well, I’ll be. I hadn’t heard that.”
“My folks moved away before I went into medical school, much less chose a specialty,” he said.
Luke waited with dread for her to ask him a thousand and one questions about why he was hiding out in Seaview Key, instead of back home performing surgery.
Surprisingly, though, she just gave him a knowing glance and another pat on the hand. “Like I said, this is a good place for figuring things out.”
Luke was counting on that. It was a far cry from the hospital in D.C., its hallways crowded with wounded soldiers whose souls were as shattered as their limbs. Compared to that or the hell that had been his life in Baghdad or the complications waiting for him in Atlanta, Seaview Key was pure heaven.
Iraq, a few months earlier
The calendar on the wall in Luke’s quarters had big, bold X’s marked through the days. Practically from the minute he’d arrived in Baghdad, he’d begun counting down the time until he could go home again. He’d signed up for one year of active duty, partly out of patriotism and partly out of a sense of obligation. The army had paid for his medical degree, and though he’d already served the required amount of time in return, he still felt a moral duty to sign up for another tour when guys he’d served with were sent to Iraq.
He and Lisa had had a blowup of monumental proportions when he’d told her about his plan to volunteer for reenlistment.
“You got out of the military, Luke,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “How can you even consider this? You’ve paid your dues. You have a family now. You have kids. Your medical practice is growing. We’re finally financially stable. If you walk away from it now, what will that do to our income? Do you expect us to live on a soldier’s pay?”
He’d lost patience with her then. “Plenty of other military families are forced to do exactly that,” he’d told her. “Fortunately, we have a significant amount of money in savings and I’ll work it out with Brad that a percentage of the money from the practice will continue to provide for you and the kids while I’m gone. Come on, Lisa. You’re hardly going to starve and you know it. This is something I have to do. I have medical skill that’s badly needed over there.”
“And that’s more important than your family?” she’d demanded angrily.
“Not more important,” he’d said. “But sometimes you just have to do what you know in your heart is the right thing. If I can help to save just one kid’s leg so he’ll be able to walk again, then I have to do this.”
He’d seen in her eyes that she just didn’t get it. Maybe no wife would, especially when he was volunteering to put himself in harm’s way. He’d only known that it was where he needed to be, what he had to do.
Though she’d eventually resigned herself to his decision, she’d been no happier about it by the time he left. She’d pulled out every stop, heaped on every bit of guilt she could think of, and when the day of departure had come, she’d refused to see him off. He’d said goodbye to her and his kids at home. There’d been no one waving a flag or blowing him kisses when he’d finally taken off. He’d tried not to let it hurt, but it had.
Once he was in Iraq, though, he hadn’t had time for regret. He’d barely had time to sleep. The days flew by in a haze of misery and pain, too many soldiers, too many hours standing over an operating table, his back aching, his eyes blurring from exhaustion.
It was the successes that kept him going, and the e-mails from home. Lisa was good about that, at least, and so were the kids. As young as they were—Nate barely in kindergarten, Gracie only in second grade—they still managed to write, “I miss you, Daddy.” And every so often a package would arrive with home-baked cookies, photos of the birthday party he’d missed and drawings in crayon. The drawings went on the wall by the calendar on which he was marking off the days until he saw them all again.
“Doc, there’s another chopper setting down,” Kenny Franklin told him. “The OR’s set up. You ready?”
Luke tore his gaze away from the latest picture of his kids. “I’m on my way,” he told the young medic, already on his feet. He cast one last look at the snapshot, grinning at Nate’s gap-toothed smile. He’d gotten a whole dollar from the tooth fairy, he’d told Luke in an e-mail.
He thought about that a few minutes later when he was examining the soldier whose face had been sliced to ribbons by the same mine that had ripped off part of his leg. Nate’s smile would be whole in no time at all, the missing tooth replaced by another one. The boy on the table in front of him, not yet nineteen, according to his records, wouldn’t be that lucky. He’d be lucky to live. Only a decade or so older than Luke’s little girl, and this boy had put his life on the line for his country.
Luke had to steel himself against the tide of dismay washing over him as he snapped out orders and made his first incision. An hour later, it was over. The kid was dead. He’d lost too much blood and they hadn’t been able to seal off all the bleeders fast enough.
“Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, Doc,” Kenny said.
“Yeah, I know,” Luke responded. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.”
On days like this it was hard to remember that he’d come here to save lives. It was hard, in fact, to remember why he’d left his home, his family, his life for this. If he thought about the devastation waiting for some family back home, if he thought about any of it, he wouldn’t be able to function. All he could do was head back to his quarters and try to snatch a couple of hours of sleep before the next transport came in.
* * *
“Luke!”
The sound of Grandma Jenny’s voice snapped him back to the present.
“Luke, are you okay? You’re pale as a ghost. Sit down for a minute and I’ll get you something to drink.”
“I’m fine,” he said, then realized he was standing over a chicken with a knife in his hand. “I’ll just finish cutting this chicken up for you.”
“I can do that,” she said, nudging him aside. “Sit.”
Suddenly too exhausted to argue, he sat.
“You want to tell me where you went just then?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“Something tells me you ought to be talking to somebody about it. Bottling up the things that upset you isn’t good.”
“No, it’s not,” Luke agreed. But he’d talked this particular subject to death while he was in rehab and it hadn’t made the memories fade. If anything, they were clearer and more deeply embedded in his mind than ever.
“So, talk. You said you’re a surgeon. Where?”
“In Atlanta. At least, that’s where my practice is.”
“You have a family there?”
He got to his feet. “No offense, Grandma Jenny, but I can’t talk about any of this right now. I’m going for a walk, if you don’t mind.”
She gave him a hard look. “You’re not going to keel over the second you walk out the door, are you?”
He managed a faint smile. “I hope not.”
“Then go.” She shook a finger under his nose. “But don’t think I won’t still have the same questions tomorrow or the day after.”
“I never doubted it,” he said. “Right now, though, I need some fresh air.”
“You’ll be back for dinner, though, right?”
“I’ll be back,” he assured her.
He felt her concerned gaze on him as he left. There was something sweet about that. He couldn’t recall the last time anyone had cared about his comings and goings. His ex-wife had stopped caring months ago, by his calculations. His kids, well, right now they were mostly confused. Very soon, when he felt more centered and sure of himself, he needed to fix that. They needed to know that he still loved them, that he was going to be there for them. To do that, though, to make that commitment, he had to figure out who the hell he was now...or who he wanted to be.
“So, have yourself a damn pity party, why don’t you?” he muttered in disgust as he walked the few blocks into downtown, taking note of the many changes that had taken place since he’d left. Storefronts had been spruced up. There was more variety in the merchandise for sale. The tourists walking the streets tended to be families, rather than fishermen traveling solo. And a whole lot of people were riding around in golf carts, despite the fact that the nearest golf course was over on the mainland.
By the time he’d reached the small grocery store on the island, which was thankfully unchanged, he was in pain, but his mood had improved. He bought a half gallon of rocky road ice cream, which he vaguely recalled had once been Hannah’s favorite. Or was it Abby’s? At any rate, they’d eaten a lot of it way back when. Maybe it would be just the thing to put everyone in a good frame of mind tonight.
Then, again, that was asking a lot of a bowl of ice cream, no matter how big and decadent it was. Of course, at the pace he was walking these days, there was a good chance it would be soup by the time he got it back to the inn.
* * *
Kelsey took one look at the plate piled high with fried chicken and the huge bowl of creamy yellow mac and cheese and went running for the nearest bathroom. Morning sickness, which was a misnomer if ever she’d heard one, basically sucked. She hated heaving her guts out several times a day.
The doctor she’d seen assured her it would pass soon, but she wasn’t counting on it. She had a feeling this baby was going to punish her from now through eternity for not wanting it. If it wasn’t morning sickness, it would be something else...colic, or teething accompanied by cries of pain or, down the road, a teenage rebellion of monumental proportions. She figured she’d deserve every miserable minute.
Though she could hear the low murmur of voices from the kitchen while she was in the bathroom, the second she crossed the threshold, silence fell. Obviously they’d been talking about her. She hoped her mother hadn’t filled her great-grandmother in on the news of her pregnancy yet. Grandma Jenny was going to have a lot to say about it and Kelsey didn’t want to hear any of it. She’d made a mistake. She knew it. She was going to deal with it. What more was there to say?
Even her mom had known there was little to be said on the subject, because she’d been silent and withdrawn all the way from the airport to Seaview. Despite the careful silence, Kelsey had felt her judgmental stare every few minutes throughout the ride.
Now, as she glanced from her mom to Grandma Jenny, she caught a glimpse of someone else in the room who hadn’t been there a minute ago. She turned to get a good look at the man hovering near the sink. He seemed intense. Dark and good-looking, but definitely intense.
“Kelsey, this is Luke Stevens,” her mother said. “He’s staying here right now. We were friends when we were kids.”
Kelsey studied him curiously. All her visits to Seaview had been rushed and she’d rarely ever met anyone who’d known her mom years ago. As far as she knew, no one ever stuck around the island if they could get away. To hear her mom tell it, only losers stayed behind, but this guy didn’t look like a loser.
“Nice to meet you,” Luke said. “Seems as if you all have a lot to catch up on, so I’ll just fix myself a plate and head up to my room.”
“No,” Kelsey said, as did both her mother and Grandma Jenny.
“Besides, you went out and brought home all that ice cream,” Grandma Jenny added. “You need to sit right here and eat it with us.”
Luke stared at them with amusement. “Gee, I’ve never felt so wanted.”
Kelsey grinned, despite her lousy mood. “Every family needs a good buffer.”
“Nice to know I can fill a niche around here.” He stared pointedly at Grandma Jenny. “Though I thought I was here to do odd jobs for a couple of weeks.”
Grandma Jenny shrugged. “I’d say being a mediator for the three of us fits that, wouldn’t you?”
“Just warn me ahead of time if I’m going to need a weapon or body armor,” he said dryly.
Kelsey noted that even her mother had to fight a grin at that. As she munched on a handful of Saltines she’d managed to find in a cupboard, the rest of them dove into dinner. A few minutes later, Kelsey risked a little mac and cheese, then a chicken wing.
She looked around the table and suddenly felt the knot in her stomach ease for the first time since she’d found out about the baby. Maybe, like dinner, her life was going to turn out okay, after all.
Suddenly, acid burned the back of her throat and she bolted from the table.
As she wiped her face with a damp cloth after throwing up her dinner, she corrected herself. She was going to spend nine months heaving her guts out, the baby was going to arrive, and then things were going to get complicated, especially if Jeff refused to back away from his demand that they get married and keep this baby. In no scenario she could imagine would her life ever be okay again.
Chapter 5
Luke didn’t have to have a medical degree to know what was going on with Kelsey and why she’d come to Florida in the middle of the school year. She was pregnant. Hannah obviously knew it, which was why there’d been a pinched expression on her face when Kelsey had bolted for the bathroom for the second time since they’d arrived home from the airport. If Grandma Jenny knew, she wasn’t giving anything away. She just poured a glass of ginger ale, set it down on the table at Kelsey’s place and announced she was going to her room.
“Something tells me you and your daughter need to talk,” she said to Hannah, then looked pointedly at Luke. “They could probably use some privacy, too.”
Luke acknowledged the suggestion with a nod and stood up.
“That was subtle,” Hannah murmured after she’d gone. “Are you sure you want to stick around here after tonight? I told you it was going to get messy.”
“Do you want me to go?” he asked, studying Hannah’s expression. “I mean now. Earlier both you and Kelsey seemed anxious to have a buffer. Maybe an impartial third party could help.”
Hannah looked relieved. “To tell you the truth, I don’t want to get into any of this tonight and I imagine Kelsey would rather postpone it indefinitely. Stay, please.”
Luke acquiesced and sat back down, though not without some trepidation. “Does your grandmother know about the baby?”
“I haven’t told her, if that’s what you mean,” she said, not bothering to deny that her daughter was pregnant. “But she knows. I’m sure she noticed the handful of crackers that Kelsey grabbed earlier. That’s why she left that glass of ginger ale, too.”
“You okay?”
She gave him a wry look. “I’m not the one who’s still more than a year away from graduating from college and about to have a baby.”
“No, but you are the mother of a young woman who’s about to have one, and apparently without a husband, or am I wrong about that? Is there a wedding on the horizon?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” She regarded him sheepishly. “Then, again, apparently I’m the last to know a lot of things. I didn’t even know there was a man in her life.”
“Maybe there’s not,” he said, phrasing his words carefully.
“Oh, I’d say a man’s involved in this,” Hannah retorted.
He grinned at the evidence that she hadn’t entirely lost her sense of humor. “I meant anyone she’s serious about.”
“Are you suggesting she was just casually sleeping around?” she asked, her indignation stirring. “No way. I may not know much else, but I know that.” She sighed. “Truthfully, we haven’t broached the daddy factor yet. I just found out about this myself the night before last, right after I got down here. Kelsey flew here because I insisted. She’s not thinking very clearly right now. She wants to quit school and move back to New York.”
“And you disapprove?” He could read it in the set of her jaw and the tone of her voice.
“Strongly. Am I wrong?”
She gave him a surprisingly helpless look that made Luke want to fix this for her. He hardly had the right to even offer a suggestion, though. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he said eventually.
“Me, neither,” she admitted. “I don’t know if I have the right to push her to stay in school, or if it’s even the right thing to do. I’m out of my league with all this.”
“I don’t think any parent’s ever prepared for this moment.”
“Do you have kids?”
“Two, but they’re a lot younger than Kelsey. Thank God, I don’t have to worry about something like this for a long time.”
“Trust me, the time passes before you know it. A part of me still thinks of Kelsey in a frilly party dress, blowing out candles on a birthday cake, surrounded by a bunch of other toddlers. Instead, she’s this amazing young woman whose life is about to be turned upside down. If she were a different girl, if she’d been flighty or reckless, I could understand how this could happen, but she’s not. She’s always been very much in control of everything.”
The bathroom door opened and they fell silent. Kelsey looked pale and drawn, but she managed a wobbly smile.
“Sorry,” she said. She spotted the ginger ale and took a tentative sip. “Where’s Grandma Jenny?”
“She went upstairs,” Hannah told her.
“I think I will, too,” Kelsey said, avoiding Hannah’s gaze. “I know it’s early, but I’m beat. I’d like to sleep for a week.”
Hannah regarded her with disappointment. “I thought we could talk,” she said, though it sounded halfhearted.
“In the morning, Mom, please,” Kelsey said. “I’m just not up to it tonight.”
“Okay, sure.” Hannah was a little too quick to cave in, proving just how reluctant she was to have this conversation. “Get some rest, sweetie. I love you.”
Kelsey bent down and kissed Hannah’s cheek. “Love you, too. Good night, Luke. I swear I’ll be better company tomorrow.”
“Your company is just fine,” he said.
She grinned. “You actually said that with a straight face. I think I like you.”
Then she was gone and Luke was left alone with Hannah, who looked as if she were near tears.
“You’re not going to cry, are you?” he asked worriedly. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she did. He could handle combat better than he could deal with a woman’s tears. His wife had known that and used it to her advantage more times than he could count. The only time it hadn’t worked had been when he’d reenlisted in the army.
“It’s entirely possible that I’ll bawl my eyes out before the night’s over,” Hannah admitted. “You can run for your life, if you want to.”
Since she’d offered him an easy out, naturally he felt compelled to deny he wanted one. “Now, why would I do that? I’m just asking for advance warning, so I can get you some tissues. As for running me off, in general, let’s just accept that I’m here for the duration, okay?”
“You are gallant, aren’t you? Kelsey was right.” She dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. “Just for that, I will not cry. I’ll clean up these dishes and then make some iced tea. You want to join me for some on the porch?”
“Forget the tea,” he said. “I want some of that ice cream. How about you?”
Her eyes brightened perceptibly. “I’d forgotten all about that. What kind did you get?”
“Rocky road.”
She gave him a surprised look. “Was that a lucky coincidence or did you actually remember that was my favorite?”
He shrugged, his expression sheepish. “I remembered we ate an awful lot of it that summer I was hanging around here. It had to be somebody’s favorite.”
“Honesty. Wow, that’s a rarity. Most men would grab the credit for being that thoughtful,” she said.
“Only if they were trying to impress you, which I’m not.” His gaze met hers and he felt something shift. There was an unexpected spark that took him by surprise. If Hannah’s expression was any indication, she was as startled by it as he was. Talk about lousy timing. Both of them had way too much on their plates to consider adding another complication. Even so, it might be impossible to ignore this pull. It had been a long time since he’d been with anyone, an even longer time since he’d wanted a woman other than his wife. That had to explain this sudden spark between him and a woman who’d never been more than a friend. Whatever the reason, the reaction was undeniable.
“Maybe I should amend that,” he said quietly.
“Amend what?” she asked, a faintly breathless quality in her voice as their gazes held.
“I’m not trying to impress you yet.”
The moment seemed to last an eternity before she grinned and the spell was broken. “Let me know when you’re going to start trying,” she said lightly. “I think I’d better be prepared. Something tells me you’re a very dangerous man when you decide to throw yourself into something.”
He chuckled, relieved to be back on more familiar footing. Teasing her had always been one of his favorite pastimes. “Hannah Matthews, are you flirting with me?”
She blushed furiously. “You started it. Now, scoop up that ice cream, Luke. It’s gotten awfully warm in here.”
He deliberately held her gaze a bit longer, then grinned. “Indeed, it has.”
He retrieved the ice cream from the freezer, lingering with the door open in an attempt to cool down his overheated libido.
While he had his back to Hannah, he told himself he was an idiot. He was here to get his priorities in order. And her life appeared to be even more of a mess than his own. As much fun as flirting with Hannah—or a fling—might turn out to be, neither of them needed the potential heartache. He’d do well to remember that.
Besides, it had been years since he’d had a friend to confide in. That was the role he needed Hannah to play. This little zing he’d felt was an aberration. Tomorrow they’d go back to being pals the way they’d been years ago.
He was so busy formulating his plan that he didn’t notice right away that Hannah was staring at him with amusement. When he did, he muttered, “What?”
“That’s a lot of ice cream, even for you,” she said, gesturing toward the bowl, which must have had a whole pint scooped into it.
He grinned and shoved the bowl in her direction. “Actually that one’s for you. I recognize a woman in need of a chocolate fix when I see one.” He doled out a huge dollop of hot fudge sauce to prove it.
She eyed the bowl skeptically, then picked it up. “You could be right. Come on out to the porch when you’re finished.”
Luke told himself he ought to be anywhere except on the porch tonight, but when he had his own bowl filled with ice cream, he couldn’t seem to make himself climb the stairs to his room. Instead, he headed for the front door...and most likely straight for trouble.
* * *
“Why didn’t you tell me your daughter is pregnant?” Grandma Jenny demanded the second Hannah wandered into the kitchen in the morning following the aroma of coffee brewing.
Hannah wasn’t ready to have this conversation before she’d had caffeine. A lot of caffeine, in fact. She and Luke had been up way too late talking. They’d carefully avoided any repeat of the flirting that had gone on earlier, sticking to memories of old times, catching up on news of friends they’d each kept in touch with. He’d done a better job of that than she had. After a couple of hours of talking about old times and old friends—yet somehow avoiding any mention of Abby, who’d been so integral to both their pasts—they’d said a casual good-night and gone their separate ways. As they’d climbed the stairs, they’d kept a careful distance apart, pretending that the spark they’d both felt earlier had never happened.
Now Hannah deliberately ignored her grandmother, grabbed the biggest mug she could find and filled it to the brim with strong, fragrant coffee. Only when she’d had several sips did she dare to meet Grandma Jenny’s expectant gaze.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Luke staying here?” Hannah retorted, hoping to buy herself a couple of minutes, since she didn’t have any real answers about the whole lousy situation.
“Don’t try that with me,” Grandma Jenny said. “I told you yesterday why Luke’s here. Now I want to know why my great-granddaughter has shown up here with a baby on the way. And don’t deny it. I’m not so old that I can’t recognize the symptoms.”
“I wasn’t going to deny it,” Hannah said. “But to be honest, I haven’t asked her a lot of questions yet.”
“I left the two of you alone last night precisely so you could talk.”
“Never happened. She went to bed. Luke stayed.” She gave her grandmother a defiant look. “I asked him to.”
“I see.”
“I doubt it,” Hannah replied. “I was so thrown when Kelsey told me about the pregnancy the other night, I couldn’t think of anything to do except get her here so we could talk about it. Now that she’s here, I don’t know where to start.”
“The father seems like a good place to me. Where’s he in all this?”
Hannah shrugged. “Not a clue.”
“Don’t you think maybe you should ask?”
“I’ll get around to it. With Kelsey, it’s better to let things unfold at their own pace.”
Her grandmother rolled her eyes. “Up to you, but I’d recommend you get answers before that child’s due date.”
“Grandma Jenny?” Hannah was surprisingly hesitant. This whole disaster was so far beyond her ability to control or fix, she honestly didn’t know what to do next. “What on earth am I supposed to do?”
To her surprise, her grandmother pulled a chair up next to her and took her hand. “You keep on doing just what you’re doing. You’re here for her. So am I. Together, we’ll figure out what comes next,” she said matter-of-factly. “To do that, though, we need to get all the cards on the table.”
“You’re not upset that I told her to come?”
“Don’t be silly. This is your home as much as it is mine,” her grandmother reminded her. For once it seemed as if she was merely stating a fact, not sending a pointed message. “And that makes it Kelsey’s home, too. Where else should she go when there’s a crisis?”
“When she told me, all I could think about was convincing her to stay and finish college. I didn’t think for one second about how hard that would be or what would come later. She’ll have a baby to raise all on her own. She’s not ready for that.”
“None of us are entirely ready for a baby, no matter what we like to think,” Grandma Jenny told her. “Before your mama came along, I read every book. Made your grandfather read ’em, too, but it didn’t do a lick of good. Every baby’s different and every cry seems like a crisis until you get to know your own child. Eventually you just settle in and handle whatever comes along. Kelsey will, too. She’s your daughter, isn’t she? I imagine she has enough organizational skills and strength to get through this, even if the baby’s father isn’t in the picture.”
“Am I wrong to want her to finish her education, no matter what?”
“Getting a good education is never wrong, but you won’t know if now’s the time for it until you sit down and really listen to her, will you? In the end, this has to be her decision.”
“I suppose so.” Hannah leaned over and rested her head on her grandmother’s shoulder, taking comfort in the familiar rose scent of her cologne. “I love you, Gran. I know I came down here to bulldoze you into doing things my way, but I only did that because I love you and worry about you.”
Her grandmother winked. “Then it’s a good thing you’re not the only one in this family with a stubborn streak, isn’t it? I don’t get bulldozed that easily. Now, go upstairs and talk to your daughter. You two need to start figuring things out. And if you run into Luke while you’re up there, tell him he can take me to that hardware store on the mainland for some paint in an hour.”
“Paint? We bought paint,” Hannah protested.
“I’ve decided white’s too boring for the outside of an inn on the beach. Don’t know why I let you talk me into it.”
“Boring?” Hannah repeated nervously. “Meaning what?”
“I’m going with the turquoise, after all. Thank good-ness this isn’t one of those silly towns that go all crazy about permits for this and that. Do you believe some places even have a boring color palette you’re required to choose from? That’s not for me. I want to breathe new life into this place. We should stand out from the crowd.”
Hannah winced. “Are you sure?” She couldn’t imagine a new buyer being drawn to a turquoise structure, but she supposed that was the least of her worries. Grandma Jenny clearly didn’t intend to fall in with her plans for selling right now, anyway.
“I’m sure,” Grandma Jenny insisted. “But I’ll see if Luke agrees before I go wild.” She gave Hannah a sly look. “He seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Have you noticed that?”
Hannah regarded her with suspicion. “You don’t have some hidden agenda for Luke and me, do you?”
“I don’t even know if the man’s married,” her grandmother said innocently. “If you want me to, I’ll ask him while we’re out. Get the lay of the land, so to speak.”
Hannah groaned at the glint in her eyes. “Leave it alone, Gran. I’m sure Luke will tell us anything he wants us to know.”
“Some things it’s better to know at the outset,” her grandmother retorted firmly. “You deal with Kelsey. I’ll handle things with Luke.” She stood up. “Now that we have a plan, let’s get going. We can’t waste the whole day lollygagging around here.”
Hannah glanced longingly out the window toward the gentle waves lapping at the shore a few hundred feet away. Lollygagging sounded a whole lot better than going upstairs and facing her daughter. She was tempted to sneak out of the house and head straight for the beach, but a knowing look from Grandma Jenny told her she’d never get away with it. “Okay, okay, I’m going upstairs,” she said defensively.
“Now?”
“Now,” Hannah agreed, though with a hefty amount of reluctance. When had she turned into a woman who hoped that ignoring problems might make them go away? When had she developed this powerful desire to stick her head in the sand and pretend that everything was okay?
It had to be the influence of Seaview Key, she thought as she trudged up the stairs. And that was just one more reason she needed to get back to her busy, organized life. In New York, she was “Go-to-Hannah.” Down here, she was about to turn into someone who lacked motivation or drive or answers. Hannah, the slug. She shuddered at the thought.
* * *
Kelsey heard the tap on her door and knew it was her mom. “I have to go,” she told Jeff. “I’ll call you later.” She turned off her cell phone and jammed it into a bedside drawer before telling her mother to come in.
“Who were you talking to?” her mom asked.
“Nobody.”
“I heard your voice.”
“Must have been the radio,” Kelsey said.
Her mother’s gaze narrowed. “You’re lying, Kelsey, and you’re not very good at it, so don’t do it.”
Kelsey winced. “It was just a friend from school.”
“The baby’s father?”
“Why would you...?”
“You’re actually talking to the father of the baby?” her mother continued as if Kelsey hadn’t even attempted to deny it. “Why?”
“I never said—”
“Kelsey, how does this man feel about your being pregnant? What kind of man leaves you to deal with something like this all alone?”
“Mom, you don’t know what you’re talking about, so drop it, okay?”
“After your father, I think I do know a thing or two about men who can’t handle responsibility. You don’t want someone like that in your life, Kelsey. Forget about him now. You have your grandmother and me. We can see you through this.”
“This isn’t your life, Mom, and Jeff isn’t Dad. Far from it, in fact. I’m the one who doesn’t want to get married. I’m the one who’s having trouble facing all this. I don’t want a baby now. I’m not ready. I’d have an abortion, but Jeff got furious when I even mentioned the possibility, so I promised him I’d think about everything before I did anything that drastic.”
Kelsey felt awful when she saw the look of dismay that crossed her mother’s face. “I know you don’t believe in it, either, but how can I bring this baby into the world under these circumstances?”
“Sweetie, we don’t always get to choose the circumstances, but a child is a blessing, no matter when it comes along.”
“Really? Tell that to some poor woman who’s been raped.”
“Kelsey!”
“Well, it’s true. There are circumstances when it’s not a blessing, when the timing’s all wrong or the people are all wrong together or a thousand other reasons. Shouldn’t I have the right to say this is not right for me?”
She could tell her mother was struggling to be fair, to be impartial, even though she had very strong opinions of her own. And the truth was, after her initial desperate reaction to the pregnancy, Kelsey hadn’t been able to see herself getting an abortion, either.
“You do have a right to make your own choice, but only when you’ve weighed this very, very carefully,” her mom said. “This is one of those times when you can’t go back and undo an impulsive decision. You have to live with it for the rest of your life. And, to be honest, I’m probably not the best one to help you decide. We’re talking about my grandchild here. I might not have chosen this moment for him or her to come along, but that’s life. Things happen. We deal with them.”
Kelsey felt tears welling up. “I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t want to deal with this,” she said, and threw herself into her mother’s arms. “How did I screw everything up so badly?”
“I think we both know the answer to that,” Hannah said, a hint of levity in her voice. “Why don’t you tell me about Jeff? That might be a good place to start. You’ve never even mentioned him before, but he must be important if the two of you are about to have a baby together.”
Kelsey didn’t know how she felt about Jeff anymore. A part of her loved him. Another part was furious with him for his role in this predicament. Because her feelings about him were so conflicted, she said, “Could we go for a walk on the beach, instead? I think that’s what I need right now.”
Her mom looked as if she wanted to insist that they sit right here and talk, but eventually she relented. “Maybe a walk will do us both good,” she conceded. “Watching the waves come in, knowing they’ll still be doing the same thing tomorrow and the next day and long after we’re gone helps to put things in perspective. Problems never seem as huge and overwhelming by comparison.”
Kelsey gave her mom a wry look. “I was just thinking that maybe for a little while it would make me feel like a kid again.”
Hannah grinned. “Okay, that, too.”
“I remember the last time I was here, not for Grandma’s funeral, but before that. I was a junior in high school, I think, and you let me come down by myself during spring vacation.”
“Hardest thing I ever had to do, watching you get on that plane,” Hannah admitted as they slipped into sandals and walked across the street to the beach. “I knew you were old enough and responsible enough to travel alone, but it was terrifying for me. We’d never been separated for more than a couple of days before. I sat at the airport until the plane was in the air and then sat by the phone at home until you called me that afternoon. That was, without question, the longest week of my life.”
Kelsey regarded her with surprise. “Really? I thought you were glad that I was spending time down here, getting to know Grandma and Grandma Jenny.”
“I was. I wanted you to know the rest of your family, to feel that connection to them.” She gave Kelsey a rueful look. “I think I was scared you’d fall in love with Seaview Key. A lot of people who leave New York in the middle of winter and discover it’s possible to be warm in February develop an infatuation with Florida. And to someone who didn’t grow up here, Seaview Key does have its charms.”
“Like being able to walk to the beach from your house and having everyone in town know who you are,” Kelsey said, pausing to kick off her sandals and dig her toes into the cool sand at the water’s edge. “I couldn’t believe it when I went to the store with Grandma and every single person said hello and called me by name. They all knew who I was. At least, the locals did. It was kind of cool.”
“I didn’t think so when I was a kid and every one of those people would call my house if they saw me misbehaving,” her mom countered. “I’d walk in the door and your grandmother and Grandma Jenny would be waiting for me, ready to let me have it.”
“I guess that would suck.” Kelsey grinned. “Did you misbehave a lot?”
“Enough,” Hannah admitted.
“Tell me,” Kelsey begged. “Come on, Mom, spill everything.”
“I am not going to give you ammunition to use against me,” Hannah retorted indignantly, but she was grinning.
“I’ll just ask Grandma Jenny,” Kelsey threatened. “I bet she remembers every bad thing you ever did.”
“I don’t doubt it. She always took great pleasure in telling me I’d messed up.”
Kelsey’s mood sobered. “Mom, you know she and Grandma really loved you and were proud of you, right?”
Hannah stared at her. “What makes you think that?”
“They told me. When I was here, they asked a million questions about your job and your friends and all the places we’d been. I wish they’d visited us more in New York.”
“I invited them, but they hated it the one time they came,” her mother replied defensively. “I offered to send them plane tickets every single Christmas, but they always came up with an excuse and it always had something to do with the inn.”
“It was their business, Mom,” Kelsey said impatiently. “You, of all people, should understand about responsibility. Until you got sick, I don’t think I ever remember you taking a real vacation.”
“We traveled all the time,” her mother protested.
“Only if you had to go somewhere for work. I hated those trips. When I was little, you’d leave me shut up in the hotel with some babysitter. When I was older you let me go sightseeing, but it was no fun doing that all alone while you were working.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“It was exactly like that,” Kelsey insisted. “Sure, we went to all sorts of exciting cities, but you never had any fun and I was always lonely.”
Her mother looked crestfallen. “I’m sorry. I never realized you felt that way. I always thought how amazing it was that you were getting to travel to places I’d never even dreamed of when I was your age.”
Kelsey felt guilty about ruining her mom’s memories of those trips. “It wasn’t all bad,” she told her. “Room service could be pretty awesome. It certainly spoiled me for staying in your basic motel.”
Her mom groaned. “Make me feel even worse, why don’t you.”
“Mom, I didn’t say any of that to make you feel bad. I was just trying to make a point about you being as much of a workaholic as your mother and Grandma Jenny. I think you have more in common with them than you realize.”
“I don’t think so. We always argued about everything. You don’t know what it was like.”
Kelsey chuckled. “Really? Come on, Mom. Think about it. You and I have our moments. It comes with the territory. It wasn’t until the past couple of years, when we’ve had some space between us, that we stopped arguing and started treating each other like actual people, instead of mother and daughter. You just moved away from here so I don’t think that ever happened between you and your mom. She was actually pretty amazing.”
“Well, I know that,” her mother responded, that defensive note creeping back into her voice.
“Do you really? Did you know she was on her college swim team? Did you know that she was the first woman president of the Chamber of Commerce here?” Kelsey saw the flush in her mother’s cheeks. “You didn’t, did you?”
“No. How do you know that?”
“Because we talked, just like you and I are doing now. Every day I was here, we would walk on the beach and she’d tell me stories about this place and her life. And at night, on the porch, Grandma Jenny would tell me things about her past, too.”
“Such as?”
“She won a prize once for doing the tango in a dance competition.”
“Grandma Jenny? You have to be kidding.”
Kelsey chuckled at her stunned reaction. “Not kidding. It’s true. She and Great-Grandpa could really dance. He sang, too.”
“In the church choir,” her mother said slowly. “I remember hearing him when I was little.”
“Not just in the choir. With a band. They played all over Florida. She showed me pictures.”
Her mother turned to her with a bewildered expression. “How did I miss all this?”
Kelsey shrugged. “Maybe you never asked or never listened.”
“Probably not.”
“Let’s never be like that, Mom, okay?”
“Never again,” Hannah said pointedly.
“I love you,” Kelsey said impulsively, giving her a fierce hug.
“Love you more.”
“Thanks for letting me come here. I know you’d be happier if I were in school, but I need this time to think and I needed to do that here. Not even in New York, but right here with you and Grandma Jenny.”
Maybe on Seaview Key she could start to understand who she really was and where she came from in a way that would be impossible anywhere else. Maybe she could figure out what family was supposed to be, so the thought of creating one of her own wouldn’t be so absolutely terrifying.
Chapter 6
Luke managed to avoid Hannah for most of the day. First, he’d gone to the mainland with Grandma Jenny to exchange the paint she and Hannah had bought. When they got home late in the afternoon, he made an excuse about needing some time to himself and walked into town.
Seaview’s official downtown, which was a few blocks farther away from the inn than the mom-and-pop grocery store he’d walked to the night before, had grown over the years, but it still wasn’t much. There were two or three new restaurants, maybe half a dozen clothing boutiques and gift and antiques stores, and a couple of places that called themselves art galleries. He was no expert, but the works on display seemed more like some of the crafts his kids brought home from school than high-end art. Still, it made him smile to see that Seaview had gone upscale. In the old days, those spaces had sold bait and tackle and cheap T-shirts.
Though he’d had no particular destination in mind when he’d left the inn, he found himself in front of The Fish Tale, an unpretentious place that used to offer the best grouper sandwiches he’d ever tasted, along with ice-cold beer. The memory of that particular combination drew him inside.
He aimed straight for the bar and was stunned when he recognized the man behind it. Jackson Ferguson—Jack to his friends—had opened the place thirty years ago. Luke could remember the occasion as if it had been yesterday. As rustic as it was, it was the first real restaurant, besides the local diner and a couple of hot dog and hamburger stands, that catered to beachgoers. There’d been one bar that had catered to a rowdier crowd, but for too many years the full-time population of Seaview had been too small to support anything more.
There’d been balloons out front to celebrate The Fish Tale’s opening, a small room with pinball machines off to one side to keep kids entertained, and a determinedly family atmosphere throughout. No one ever got drunk and unruly on Jack’s watch. If anyone had a few too many before Jack caught them and put a stop to it, they were escorted outside and tucked into the island’s only cab for a hasty ride home. If the cab driver—former New York cabbie John Blake—had gone home for the night, the cop on duty would provide the shuttle service.
Right now, Jack was busy at the far end of the bar, so Luke had a minute to study him. He still looked tanned and fit, though his face was more weatherbeaten than Luke remembered. He was filling orders with the alacrity and friendliness of someone who loved talking to people. When he spotted Luke, he blinked and then a grin spread across his face.
“Luke Stevens, I never expected to see you back in Seaview.”
Luke reached across the bar and shook his hand. “I never expected to be here, either. How’s Greta?” he asked, referring to Jack’s beloved wife, who’d worked this place by his side.
Jack’s expression fell. “Lost her last year,” he said gruffly. “Heart attack. Damn near killed me, too, but this place doesn’t run itself, and in the end, it saved me.”
“I’m sorry. How about your kids? Are they still in Seaview?”
Jack pulled a draft and set it in front of Luke without asking if he wanted it. “Bill left right after high school, same as you. He had big dreams. Made good on ’em, too. He’s a lawyer now. He works over in Biloxi. His home got hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, so the family came here for a couple of months, then went back to rebuild.”
“And Lesley Ann?”
“You stick around tonight, you might see her. She’s pregnant with her third baby and about two minutes from her due date, but that hasn’t slowed her down any. She’s over here once a day like clockwork to pester me about working too hard, telling me to hire more help.” He shook his head. “That woman can nag worse than her mama.”
Luke grinned. He’d had one memorable date with Lesley Ann and she’d done the same thing to him, nagged him from start to finish. Apparently some things never changed. “I’d like to meet the man she married,” he said. “He must be very tolerant.”
“That man worships the ground she walks on. He just lets all her talk roll right off his back. Maybe that comes with marrying later in life. They were thirty when they met, eloped two weeks later and never looked back.” He shook his head. “Listen to me going on and on. Did you want something to eat to go with that beer?”
“You still have fried grouper sandwiches and fries?”
“Put us on the map,” Jack said. “Of course we do. You want a table, you’d better get one now. This place’ll be crowded in another half hour or so.”
“I’m good here,” Luke said.
“I’ll put in your order and check in on you from time to time.”
“Thanks, Jack. It’s good to see you.”
The older man started toward the kitchen, then turned back. “You staying at Seaview Inn?”
Luke nodded.
Jack shook his head. “I feel real bad for Jenny. She loves that place, but I don’t see how she’s going to keep up with it now that her Maggie’s gone. I hear Hannah’s here now, but that she’s not staying.”
“That’s my impression,” Luke said.
“It’s a shame when there’s no one left to take over a family business. I’d figured on leaving this place to Bill, but ironically it’s Lesley Ann who’s taken to it. Once she has this baby, she’ll be back here full time, pestering me to modernize this or to experiment with the menu.” He shook his head. “I hope I don’t live to see the day when she refuses to serve fried food. She already carries on about transfats.”
Luke laughed. “I hear you.”
“I’d best get your order in so you can finish it before she turns up. Otherwise, you’ll be in for a lecture on what it’s doing to your arteries.”
Luke didn’t waste time telling him he already knew—probably better than Lesley Ann—the dangers of fried foods. But some food was meant to be cooked that way and he figured he’d survive anything in moderation.
Once he was alone with his cold beer and his thoughts, he tried to make himself focus on the future, but all that came to him was an image of going back to Atlanta to a life nothing like the one he’d left behind. Atlanta was big enough that he and Lisa could probably co-exist and maybe even manage to be civil to each other for the sake of his kids, but going back to his medical practice was out of the question. The man who’d once been his best friend and business partner had moved in on his wife the minute his back was turned. Luke doubted he’d ever be able to see Brad Reilly without wanting to punch his face in. He could hardly practice medicine with him.
Just thinking about Brad with Lisa stirred his temper. He couldn’t decide which of them he hated more. Betrayal, no matter how it happened, was devastating, but his best friend—the man he’d trusted to look out for his family while he was in Iraq—and his wife? He could still recall exactly how he’d felt when Lisa had told him in an e-mail. He could still feel the sense of shock as he read the words, the twisting pain in his gut as they sank in, and then the numbness that had followed.
What kind of woman told a man something like that when he was far from home, facing danger every single minute of every day? What kind of man blindsided a trusted friend by taking advantage of such a situation?
He knew the answer, of course. They were both self-absorbed. He’d known that about Brad since the day they’d met. Of every intern and resident he’d worked with, Brad’s vanity had been legendary. Luke had looked past that and seen that he was a damn fine surgeon. Their partnership had been based on mutual respect of their abilities. Their friendship, apparently, had been built on quicksand.
As for Lisa, on some level he’d probably recognized the same trait in her, though it hadn’t been exposed until the moment he’d told her about doing a tour of duty in Iraq. She’d made it plain just how unhappy she was, but he hadn’t expected her to repay him by going out and having an affair with someone. He wondered if she’d gotten involved with Brad specifically because she knew that would cut out his heart.
Before he could sink all the way into a really good depression, Jack was back with his meal and another beer. He studied Luke intently for a minute.
“You need a side of conversation with that?” he asked, his expression concerned.
Luke forced a smile. “Not tonight, thanks.”
“You change your mind, I’m always around,” Jack said. “This job should earn me a degree in psychology. I’ve heard just about everything at one time or another.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke promised.
“You going to stick around Seaview for a while?”
Luke nodded. “For a while.”
“Okay, then, I’ll let you get to your dinner before it gets cold. Holler if you need anything.”
Unfortunately, Luke figured what he needed wasn’t served in The Fish Tale, not unless Jack had a fortune-teller on staff that could offer him a clearer picture of the future than he’d seen for himself. The one he envisioned seemed pretty darn bleak.
* * *
After her walk with Kelsey, Hannah returned to the inn determined to take advantage of the afternoon and evening to get a start on some of the cleaning and paperwork that had to be done. Kelsey might be here to sort through the decisions she was facing, but Hannah had flown down here to get this place ready to sell. Despite Grandma Jenny’s strong objections, that was still the plan.
Dragging a vacuum cleaner, dust rags and furniture polish with her, she went from room to room in the guest wing, only to find that the rooms were already in good shape. Apparently her grandmother had gotten there ahead of her, either to prove she was still capable of running the place or in anticipation of reopening.
She approached Luke’s room last, but couldn’t seem to make herself open the door with her passkey. It felt too much like an invasion of his privacy. Or maybe she feared learning something about him she didn’t want to know...such as whether or not there was a woman waiting for him back home.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she muttered under her breath, and forced herself to go inside.
To her surprise the large room was neat as a pin. The few clothes Luke had brought with him hung in the closet. Towels had been placed on the racks in the bathroom, rather than tossed in a damp heap on the floor. The bed had been made with an almost military precision, sheets tucked in tight, the spread smoothed. If there was a speck of dust anywhere, she couldn’t find it. Nor did she see anything personal beyond a snapshot of two kids—a gap-toothed boy and a girl—stuck into the frame of the mirror above the dresser.
Drawn to the view from the spacious room, she stood by the window and saw Luke’s car turn into the driveway. Her grandmother emerged with several packages as Luke unloaded cans of exterior paint and set them on the porch. Hannah shook her head when she saw a sample streak of the bright turquoise color dabbed on the side of one can. Apparently Luke had approved of Grandma Jenny’s choice.
Expecting to hear the sound of voices when they came inside, she slipped hurriedly from Luke’s room and shut the door securely. To her surprise, she was greeted with silence following the familiar slap of the screen door swinging closed.
As she descended the steps, her grandmother glanced up with a startled expression.
“Hannah, what on earth are you doing?”
“I was going to clean the guest rooms, but they didn’t need it.”
“Well, of course not. I cleaned them just a few days ago myself.”
“Gran, that’s too much for you,” Hannah protested.
“Don’t be silly. Besides, Jolene Walker’s girl, Macey, comes over once a week to help me. She scrubs the bathrooms and gets down on her hands and knees to dust around the baseboards.”
“She does a good job,” Hannah conceded reluctantly.
“Do you think I’d keep her on if she didn’t?”
Hannah bit back a sigh. “How did your shopping trip go? I see you got the color paint you wanted.”
Grandma Jenny’s expression brightened. “Luke agreed with me that a little color was just what this place needed.”
“Did he really? Or did you bully him into saying what you wanted to hear?”
“He’s a man who knows his own mind. Besides, I was asking his opinion. Why would I bully him into anything?”
Hannah dropped the no-win subject. “Where’s Luke now?”
“He went for a walk. He told me he’d get supper in town.” She gave Hannah a sly look. “He mentioned something about The Fish Tale. You could join him if you wanted to. I can fix something for Kelsey. It’ll give us a chance to talk. Maybe I can get to the bottom of what’s going on with her.” She paused. “Unless you managed to do that.”
“We talked. She told me the baby’s father wants to marry her, but she’s not ready for that. Then she changed the subject.”
“And you didn’t push?”
“I thought it would be counterproductive,” Hannah admitted.
“Well, I’m not so timid.” She waved Hannah toward the door. “Go on now. Take a walk and see if you can find Luke. Maybe you’ll have better luck figuring out what’s going on with him than you had with Kelsey.”
“What makes you think there’s something going on with Luke?”
“He appears back here after all these years without any explanation. He’s all alone. A man who looks as good as he does ought to have a woman in his life, a family.”
“He has children, so there must be a woman.”
“Well, she’s not with him, is she?” Grandma Jenny said. “Don’t even try to tell me you’re not curious. I saw you studying him the other night. And I remember the look in your eyes when he and Abby used to be over here every single day. You had a crush on that boy then, and something tells me it wouldn’t take much to spark it again.”
“You see entirely too much,” Hannah muttered.
“And I can hear, too, so don’t be making comments under your breath,” her grandmother retorted.
Hannah chuckled, despite her annoyance. “Just stop matchmaking, okay? Promise me.”
Her grandmother gave her a guileless look. “What can I say? It’s second nature. Besides, you need a man in your life. A real man and not some ne’er-do-well who’ll take off, rather than face his responsibilities.”
Hannah didn’t want another lecture on her ex-husband. That water was too far under the bridge. “I’m going to put these things back in the supply closet and then I’m taking a walk,” she announced.
Her grandmother gave a nod of satisfaction. “Tell Jack I said hello.”
“I never said I was going to The Fish Tale.”
Grandma Jenny shrugged. “You’re a fool if you don’t, and I don’t think we raised any fools in this house.”
“You just finished telling me I made a foolish choice when it came to picking a husband,” Hannah reminded her.
“You were young. It was a mistake. Now you have a second chance to do things right.”
“Why are you so sure Luke would be right? You don’t know anything about his life since he left here.”
“I know enough,” she replied. “And I’ve seen that look in his eyes before. He’s seen his share of sorrows. A man who feels things that deeply has strength of character.”
“If you say so,” Hannah said doubtfully. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and fix dinner?”
“I already told you I want some time alone with my great-granddaughter.”
Dismissed, Hannah put away the cleaning supplies, washed her face and hands and brushed on a light coating of lipstick. As she gazed at her reflection in the mirror, she noticed that her cheeks had some much-needed color in them. Her hair, usually tamed with spray, was windblown from her earlier walk on the beach and had more curl than she was accustomed to. She looked almost carefree and relaxed. Which was a lie, given everything she had on her mind, but maybe for a few hours she could pretend that all was right in her world.
And her grandmother was correct about one thing: Luke was the most intriguing male distraction to cross her path in eons. She’d enjoyed talking to him on the porch last night. She’d enjoyed testing her out-of-practice flirting skills on him. If that was as far as things ever went between them, it would be enough to remind her that, cancer or not, her life wasn’t over yet. She needed to live every moment that remained as if it might be her last.
* * *
Hannah strolled through town, assuring herself that The Fish Tale didn’t have to be her destination. She could explore for an hour or so and go home. Luke would never have to know that she’d gone out intending to track him down.
She shook her head. She was acting like a teenager with her first crush. How many times had she and Abby plotted to run into Luke “accidentally on purpose”? More times than she could count. None of those encounters had had the desired result, though. It had taken something far more dramatic to finally catch Luke’s attention. Abby had nearly drowned and Luke had saved her. Afterward, he’d finally taken notice. From then on three of them had been inseparable. The situation had tortured Hannah, who’d developed her own crush on Luke but kept silent about it, especially after Luke had chosen Abby. Girlfriends didn’t poach. Luke was as off limits to her as if he and Abby had had rings on their fingers.
When she reached The Fish Tale, she stood outside the door debating whether to go inside.
“The food’s really good,” a chipper voice announced behind her. “I can vouch for it. My family owns the place.”
Hannah whirled around, a smile spreading. “Lesley Ann?”
“Oh, my gosh, Hannah! I can’t believe it,” Lesley Ann said, enveloping her in a hug made awkward by the size of her belly.
“You’re having a baby,” Hannah said, standing back to look at her. “And you’re absolutely glowing.”
“My third,” Lesley Ann told her. “He’s due any minute, so I’m not even supposed to be here, but I like to come down and check on Dad about this time every day. Since my mom died, he works too hard, but getting him to slow down is like talking to a wall. I imagine you’re having the same problem with Jenny.”
“Oh, yeah,” Hannah confirmed.
“Come on, let’s go in. I’ll treat you to dinner on the house,” Lesley Ann offered.
Hannah nodded, relieved not to be walking in alone.
Lesley Ann pulled open the door and stepped inside. “Hey, Dad, look who I found lurking on the sidewalk.”
Just as she spoke, Luke slowly swiveled around on his seat at the bar and met Hannah’s gaze. His lips quirked into a smile, though Hannah wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or Lesley Ann.
“And look who turned up here earlier,” Jack called back to his daughter, gesturing toward Luke. “Why don’t you three find yourselves a table and catch up? I’ll bring over some drinks. Hannah, what can I get you? A beer? Soda? Something to eat?”
“A beer and a fish sandwich,” she said at once.
“Just some water for me, Dad,” Lesley Ann said, then wove her way between the tables. “Let’s take that empty table by the window, instead of a booth,” she added, rubbing a hand protectively over her stomach. “This tummy of mine doesn’t fit in the booths so well at the moment.”
She led the way toward a table and pulled out a chair before Luke could get to it. He shrugged and gestured for Hannah to sit in the one he’d pulled out.
“Same old independent streak,” he said to Lesley Ann.
“My mother taught me well,” she retorted. “Now, tell me everything about yourselves. Hannah, you’re living in New York, right?”
“Yes, and working in public relations.”
“That sounds so exciting. Do you love it?”
“I do. It’s everything I ever wanted,” she claimed, then wondered why, if that was true, she wasn’t happier these days. It had to be because of all the pressure she was under lately, not any dissatisfaction with her life.
“Luke, how about you?” Lesley Ann asked. “I haven’t heard anything about you since your folks moved away while you were still in college.”
“There’s not that much to tell,” he said tightly. His expression shut down momentarily, then turned to relief when Jack came over with their drinks and Hannah’s sandwich.
Hannah took her first bite, then sighed. “It’s every bit as good as I remembered.”
Luke grinned. “I said the same thing.”
“Well, of course it is,” Lesley Ann said indignantly. “It was Mama’s recipe and we don’t let anyone mess with it.”
“I hear you’re going to take over one of these days,” Luke said.
“I am, that is, if I can ever talk Dad into retiring.” She glanced toward the bar where Jack was once more chatting with a customer. “How can I push it, though, when this place is all that keeps him going now that Mama’s gone? You must know what I mean, Hannah. It must be like that for your grandmother since your mom died. Seaview Inn must mean more to her than ever.”
Hannah nodded slowly, hating to admit that Lesley Ann was right. “But I don’t see how she can keep up with it at her age.”
“Hire someone to help her,” Lesley Ann said matter-of-factly. “Or come back here yourself. I know you two were both anxious to get away from Seaview. I suppose we all were back then. But I have to tell you, I appreciate it now. It’s been a great place to raise kids and the slow pace is just right for me. Tourist season is a madhouse, but the rest of the year there’s plenty of time to catch my breath.”
Hannah didn’t want to cast a damper on her enthusiasm, but it was already the height of the tourist season, and by her standards, Seaview was as slow-paced and boring as ever. Sure, business was hopping here at The Fish Tale, but what else was there to do in town?
“I’m afraid I’d lose my mind living here,” she admitted. “I’m used to going to the theater and concerts, to going out for any kind of ethnic food I want, and to spending an afternoon at a museum or an art gallery when I have the time.”
Luke studied her intently as she spoke, then asked, “When was the last time you had the time? According to your grandmother, you’re a workaholic.”
Hannah winced but saw little reason to deny it. “Okay, yes, I am, but it’s all there if I want to go,” she said.
“It’s wasted if you don’t take advantage of it,” he said.
There had been a time when she had, she remembered. She’d studied the endless list of gallery openings in the paper and chosen the ones she wanted to attend. She’d gone to free concerts practically every weekend, scraped up money for a balcony seat at the ballet or the latest Broadway musical. Even with money tight, she’d seen to it that Kelsey was exposed to every bit of culture that New York had to offer. When had that changed? Now she had enough money and sufficient contacts to sit front row center at just about anything in the city and she rarely took the time to go anywhere.
“Where do you live?” she asked Luke. “I’ll bet it’s not anyplace like Seaview. I’ll bet it’s a big city that’s bustling with things to do.”
“I was living in Atlanta,” he said, suddenly looking distant again.
“Was?” she repeated, studying his expression for some clue about why he’d phrased it like that. “Aren’t you going back there?”
“Maybe,” he said, then shrugged. “Probably.”
“Why so noncommittal?” Lesley Ann asked.
“Long story,” he said succinctly. “And it’s getting late. I need to get some rest if I’m going to start painting in the morning.”
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Sherryl Woods
Hannah Matthews is undeniably tough—a single mom, a top-tier PR exec, a breast cancer survivor. She prides herself on being go-to Hannah, who can handle any crisis.But with her grandmother balking at going into a retirement home, her daughter unexpectedly pregnant and an old flame suddenly underfoot, Hannah is facing a few crises of her own. And being back home on Seaview Key is definitely adding to the stress.Luke Stevens understands crisis. While serving in Iraq, his wife dumped him for his best friend—with whom Luke shares his medical practice. Seaview Key seems like the perfect place to hide out for a while. The last thing he expects is to fall in love…with his old hometown and with Hannah.Sometimes, though, the unexpected is just what it takes to heal the heart.
New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods proves home can be found where you least expect it.
Hannah Matthews is undeniably tough—a single mom, a top-tier PR exec, a breast cancer survivor. She prides herself on being go-to Hannah, who can handle any crisis. But with her grandmother balking at going into a retirement home, her daughter unexpectedly pregnant and an old flame suddenly underfoot, Hannah is facing a few crises of her own. And being back home on Seaview Key is definitely adding to the stress.
Luke Stevens understands crisis. While serving in Iraq, his wife dumped him for his best friend—with whom Luke shares his medical practice. Seaview Key seems like the perfect place to hide out for a while. The last thing he expects is to fall in love…with his old hometown and with Hannah.
Sometimes, though, the unexpected is just what it takes to heal the heart.
Praise for the novels of Sherryl Woods
“Sherryl Woods writes emotionally satisfying novels about family, friendship and home. Truly feel-great reads!”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“In this sweet, sometimes funny and often touching story, the characters are beautifully depicted.”
—RT Book Reviews on Seaview Inn
“A whimsical, sweet scenario…the digressions have their own charm, and Woods never fails to come back to the romantic point.”
—Publishers Weekly on Sweet Tea at Sunrise
“Woods…is noted for appealing character-driven stories that are often infused with the flavor and fragrance of the South.”
—Library Journal
“A reunion story punctuated by family drama, Woods’ first novel in her new Ocean Breeze series is touching, tense and tantalizing.”
—RT Book Reviews on Sand Castle Bay
“Woods’ readers will eagerly anticipate her trademark small-town setting, loyal friendships, and honorable mentors as they meet new characters and reconnect with familiar ones in this heartwarming tale.”
—Booklist on Home in Carolina
“Once again, Woods, with such authenticity, weaves a tale of true love and the challenges that can knock up against that love.”
—RT Book Reviews on Beach Lane
Also by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods
TWILIGHT
TEMPTATION
SEA GLASS ISLAND††
WIND CHIME POINT††
SAND CASTLE BAY††
WHERE AZALEAS BLOOM*
CATCHING FIREFLIES*
MIDNIGHT PROMISES*
THE SUMMER GARDEN***
AN O’BRIEN FAMILY CHRISTMAS***
BEACH LANE***
MOONLIGHT COVE***
DRIFTWOOD COTTAGE***
RETURN TO ROSE COTTAGE†
HOME AT ROSE COTTAGE†
A CHESAPEAKE SHORES CHRISTMAS***
HONEYSUCKLE SUMMER*
SWEET TEA AT SUNRISE*
HOME IN CAROLINA*
HARBOR LIGHTS***
FLOWERS ON MAIN***
THE INN AT EAGLE POINT***
WELCOME TO SERENITY*
MENDING FENCES
FEELS LIKE FAMILY*
A SLICE OF HEAVEN*
STEALING HOME*
WAKING UP IN CHARLESTON
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
THE BACKUP PLAN
DESTINY UNLEASHED
FLAMINGO DINER
ALONG CAME TROUBLE**
ASK ANYONE**
ABOUT THAT MAN**
ANGEL MINE
AFTER TEX
*The Sweet Magnolias
**Trinity Harbor
***Chesapeake Shores
†The Rose Cottage Sisters
††Ocean Breeze
Look for Sherryl Woods’s next novel
HOME TO SEAVIEW KEY
available soon from Harlequin MIRA
Seaview Inn
Sherryl
Woods
www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)
Dear Friends,
When Seaview Inn was first published in 2008, one of my oldest friends was waging a valiant battle against a recurrence of breast cancer. Patti, like too many other courageous women, lost that fight. Her final months were a mix of grace, bravery, devastating treatments and the determination to live to see her very young grandson grow up.
Sadly, that wasn’t to be, but her fight to live, her willingness to do whatever it took to have one more week, one more day or even one more hour with her daughters and her grandson were an inspiration to all of us who loved her.
I think that must be true for the families of every woman who’s battled this terrible disease. Consigned to the sidelines, all we can do is offer support, offer prayers and offer our strength on the days when weakness triumphs over that incredible will to live.
Because of early detection and improved treatments, there are more and more breast cancer survivors these days, but even for the strongest among them there are moments of doubt. Hannah’s story is for them, a reminder that there is always hope, that there are friends and family to be leaned on, and new cures just around the corner.
To all of you still waging the battle, I wish you strength, hope and many years of good health.
All best,
Sherryl
Contents
Chapter 1 (#u5ce55aef-1bed-53f5-8d54-e687257b8502)
Chapter 2 (#u21f35801-1b5b-5950-bcc4-5735d1fb4c00)
Chapter 3 (#ufede78f9-1cdc-58ab-a3ed-7c0813907371)
Chapter 4 (#u568cd8eb-e621-5caa-980b-29489daf71e1)
Chapter 5 (#uffccfa96-7ffe-5491-bc9f-cf728d298677)
Chapter 6 (#ua01b8474-0b1c-5427-a142-c9a4e50600a2)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1
Hannah Matthews prided herself on being sensible and responsible. A single mom and a public relations executive handling several very demanding but fascinating clients, she was the person to turn to in any crisis. She claimed there wasn’t a superstitious bone in her body, but she was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t something to the old adage that things happened in threes, especially bad things. She was also losing her faith that God never gave a person more than they could handle, because she was definitely on overload.
Not quite three months past her final chemo treatment for breast cancer and less than a month after her mother’s death from the very same disease, here she was back in a town she hadn’t been able to flee fast enough, standing in front of the bed-and-breakfast that had once been her much-despised home. Worse, she was facing the arduous prospect of trying to convince her stubborn eighty-five-year-old grandmother that it was time to move into an assisted-living community and sell Seaview Inn. Life couldn’t get much more stressful than this, or if it could, she didn’t want to find out how.
“Hannah, why are you just standing out there daydreaming?” her grandmother demanded from behind the inn’s screen door, her tone every bit as querulous and demanding as Hannah remembered from her last visit home. “As hot as it is, leaving this front door wide open is a waste of air-conditioning. And why weren’t you here this morning? You told me you’d be here this morning. I’ve been sitting on the porch watching for you most of the day. The heat finally drove me inside.”
Hannah bit back a sigh and grabbed the handle of her suitcase to pull it along behind her. “My flight was delayed, Gran. Remember, I called you from the airport in New York to let you know?”
Her grandmother’s faded hazel eyes filled with confusion, yet another recent change from her once astute demeanor. “You did? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, Gran, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m here.”
“And about time, too,” her grandmother added with a little humph.
Hannah placed an arm around her grandmother’s frail shoulders and gave her a peck on the cheek. “You look good, Gran. Are you feeling okay?”
Truthfully, her grandmother looked as if a strong wind would blow her away. She’d lost weight she could ill afford to lose. Her face, filled with eighty-five years of lines and wrinkles, was sallow. Losing her only child, Hannah’s mother, had taken a lot out of her. Her friends in town had called Hannah to let her know that Jenny had rarely left the house since the funeral. She’d been skipping the meetings of her quilting circle and, more telling, Sunday services at church. They were worried about her.
“She’s just going to fade away, die of a broken heart all alone, if you ask me,” Rachel Morrison had said when she’d called.
Hannah hadn’t missed the critical note in Rachel’s voice, the unmistakable hint that Hannah had been irresponsible to run off right after her mother’s burial and leave her grandmother to cope with her grief and Seaview Inn all on her own.
Though her family knew what she was struggling with, Hannah had been unwilling to share her own cancer crisis with any of these well-meaning neighbors. She’d been unable to defend her actions in any way that might have satisfied them. How could she possibly tell them that seeing her mom’s quick decline and painful death while in the middle of her own treatment had left her terrified? She hadn’t been able to get away from Seaview and the memories of her mother’s final days fast enough. She believed that a positive attitude was an essential ingredient for surviving cancer, but it was almost impossible to maintain that attitude in the face of her mother’s death from a recurrence that had come less than two years after she’d first been diagnosed.
So, instead of explaining, Hannah had succumbed to guilt and dutifully taken the remaining two weeks of leave she’d accumulated during years of ignoring vacation time and socking away sick days to come here. That two weeks was all that was left after the time taken for her mastectomy and then the chemo, which had knocked her for a loop despite her stubborn determination to pretend she was just fine. Her boss had grudgingly agreed to let her off, but he’d made it plain he wasn’t one bit happy about the timing.
In less than twenty-four hours, she’d flown back to Florida, rented a car, driven for an hour, and then taken a ferry out to Seaview Key, a tiny island community of less than a thousand full-time residents just off Florida’s west coast. Once there, she’d had to deal with traffic jams caused by winter tourists. All of which, given her current frame of mind, was trying, to say the least.
Worse, she had exactly fourteen days to convince her grandmother to sell the inn—which was also the family’s longtime home—and move into a retirement community where she’d be well cared for. Since Grandma Jenny’s parents had opened Seaview Inn when the island had been little more than a fishing village reached by boat, Hannah had a hunch her work was cut out for her. Her grandmother sometimes exhibited a tenacious streak of sentimentality that overrode common sense.
“I know it’s only four o’clock, but we’ll eat supper now,” Grandma Jenny declared. “I missed lunch and I’m hungry. You can unpack your things later.” She glanced at the suitcase Hannah had left at the bottom of the staircase that led up to the family’s private quarters on the left and to the sprawling wing of guest rooms on the right. “Didn’t bring much, did you? You having the rest of your things sent?”
Hannah stared at her blankly. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re moving home, of course.” Jenny’s tone was matter-of-fact. “I’ve told everyone in town who’s been asking that we’d have the inn up and running again in another week or two, a month at the outside. While your mother was sick, we let a few things slide, but with the two of us working that should give us enough time to get things shipshape, don’t you think so? There’s still a couple of good months of the winter season left, and we’ll draw some folks from the mainland in April and May. Of course, a lot of our regulars had to make other arrangements, but they’ll be back with us next year, I’m sure.”
There were so many things wrong with her grandmother’s assumptions, Hannah couldn’t decide where to start. It didn’t matter, anyway, because Grandma Jenny hadn’t waited for a reply. She was already heading toward the kitchen at a clip that belied the reported evidence of her declining health. In fact, Hannah very much suspected that Grandma Jenny would outlive her and do it with gusto.
* * *
All during their early supper of broiled snapper and fresh tomatoes and strawberries from the local farmer’s market, Grandma Jenny continued to bombard Hannah with her plans for reopening Seaview Inn as quickly as possible. She was as alert and strong-willed as ever.
“You can put that PR experience of yours to good use,” she told Hannah. “Get some ads running up north. A lot of our regulars in Ohio and Michigan who come later in the season need to know our doors are open again. Maybe you can even do something on the Internet. I hear that’s the best place to advertise these days. Or we can send postcards. I have the addresses for most of the customers who’ve stayed here in the past few years. Had ’em back to the beginning, but I figure those people are mostly dead and gone. What do you think?”
Hannah put down her fork and tried to find the right words to tell her grandmother that instead of spending time and money on advertising, they needed to be thinking about finding a good real estate agent. Then it occurred to her that a little renovating would give the place the kind of curb appeal needed to result in a quicker sale. Maybe she didn’t have to discuss selling it just yet. She could wage that battle another day, when she wasn’t quite so exhausted.
“I’ll think about it,” she said at last. “First thing tomorrow, you and I can take a look and see what needs to be done, okay?”
“Why wait?” Gran said, bouncing up, her eyes spar-kling with enthusiasm. “Daylight might be scarce at the end of January, but we’ve got an hour or so till the sun goes down. We can check out the exterior first. I’ve been thinking a new coat of paint should be the first order of business, something bright and cheerful, maybe a nice turquoise with white trim.”
Hannah winced, envisioning a garish result that would rob the inn of whatever tiny scrap of class it had.
“Well, come on,” her grandmother called back. “Daylight’s wasting.”
With a sigh, Hannah followed her outside.
Over the years, the inn had grown from the original sprawling, two-story beach house that had been built in the thirties as a private home. Because of its size and her great-grandparents’ enthusiasm for meeting people, they’d opened their spare rooms to paying guests. That first experimental season had been so successful, they’d officially named it Seaview Inn and expanded over the next few years, adding one section in the early forties, another in the fifties, operating much like the bed-and-breakfasts that had come along later.
Unfortunately, there hadn’t been much attention to architectural detail in the additions. Wings jutted out haphazardly, one on each side, angled so that the guest rooms on the right and the big formal dining room on the left, with its soaring windows and hodgepodge collection of antique tables and chairs, and the second-floor family quarters all had a view of the beach across the road. To Hannah’s disapproving eye, it looked like a cross between a halfway decent home and a seedy motel. It would take more than a coat of paint, no matter the color, to fix it.
Her favorite part was the porch, which stretched across the front of the original house with a row of white rockers and a collection of antique wicker chairs with fading flowered cushions. In past years there had been hanging baskets of flowers, but this year neither her mother nor grandmother had had the time or energy to spare on such things.
As a child, Hannah had had tea parties with all her dolls on the porch. Sometimes her mom and her grandmother had joined her. Those afternoons had been the best. Later, as a teenager, the porch had been a place for sharing dreams and plans with her friends over sodas and snacks. Eventually her first kiss had been in the shadows on the porch.
Now, bathed in the light of a spectacular sunset, the inn didn’t look as bad as it had at first glance. She could almost see its idiosyncratic charm and understand why her grandmother wanted to keep it open and in the family. The problem was that Grandma Jenny couldn’t possibly do it alone and there was no one in the family to help her. Hannah didn’t want to leave New York, especially with her team of physicians there, to say nothing of the demanding career she loved. Her twenty-year-old daughter, Kelsey, would probably wind up staying in California once she completed her studies at Stanford. Why keep the inn now, only to sell it to strangers in a few years, anyway? Her grandmother deserved to enjoy whatever years were left to her, not to spend them working her fingers to the bone waiting on strangers.
Hannah turned and caught her grandmother eyeing her speculatively.
“It’s a good time of day, isn’t it?” Grandma Jenny said quietly, her expression nostalgic. “Your grandfather and I spent many an evening out here watching the sunset with music drifting out the downstairs windows. And before that, my parents would spend their evenings doing the same thing. We didn’t sit inside and stare at a TV screen the way folks do today. We talked, getting to know the people who stayed here. We enjoyed the beauty God gave us in this place.” Her gaze met Hannah’s. “You loved it, too, once. Do you remember that? There were nights we could hardly drag you home from the beach.”
Suddenly Hannah remembered being maybe five or six and working all day on a sand castle, then being called inside. The next morning she’d rushed across the road to see her handiwork, only to discover that the tide had washed it away overnight. It had been her first hard lesson in the fact that some things simply didn’t last, no matter how well built and solid they seemed. Sometimes it was the foundation that mattered, not the structure, and sand had a way of shifting underfoot, much as her own parents’ marriage had crumbled a few years later.
As the years had passed and she’d developed more insights, there’d been little question in her mind that after the divorce her mother had felt trapped here by circumstances. What else could she do with a daughter not yet in her teens and no work experience beyond the family inn?
“I remember,” she said at last, but it was said in a faintly bitter tone that drew a sharp glance from her grandmother.
“There were good times, Hannah, whether you choose to remember them that way or not.”
“I wonder if Mom felt that way after Dad left. Wasn’t there a time in her life when she dreamed of going away and doing something else? He got to run away from her and from all of his responsibilities, but she was stuck.”
“What are you suggesting?” her grandmother asked indignantly. “That I kept her here when she wanted to go? Nothing could be further from the truth. She loved it here. She knew it was the best place to raise a child, surrounded by family and friends.”
“Dad obviously didn’t love it,” Hannah said.
“Oh, Hannah, that’s not so. Surely by now you’ve learned that relationships are complicated. Your parents were happy for a time, and then they weren’t. It had nothing to do with Seaview Key or the inn.”
Hannah didn’t waste her breath trying to argue. How could she? She’d been so young, just on the verge of adolescence. It was entirely possible that she’d been totally oblivious to whatever rifts there had been in her parents’ marriage. She relented now just to keep peace. “I suppose.”
Her grandmother’s shoulders seemed to sag. “I need to sit down,” she said flatly, clutching the railing tightly as she climbed the steps to the porch. She sank into her favorite rocker as the sun slowly slid into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, leaving the sky painted with streaks of orange and gold.
“Gran, are you okay?”
“Just a little tired. You go on in, if you want. Get yourself settled. I’ll just sit here for a while and enjoy the evening. Leave the dishes. I’ll do them when I come inside. Won’t take any time at all.”
“But we haven’t even started the list of renovations you want to do,” Hannah protested, feeling vaguely guilty for dampening her grandmother’s high spirits.
“You said it yourself. Tomorrow’s soon enough.”
Oddly reluctant to go inside and leave her grandmother alone, Hannah stood in the doorway for a few minutes.
As twilight fell and a breeze stirred, the streetlight on the corner came on, illuminating the porch and yard. That was when Hannah noticed the tears glistening on her grandmother’s cheeks.
* * *
“Mom, what on earth are you doing in Florida?” Kelsey demanded when she called Hannah’s cell phone later that night and woke Hannah out of a sound sleep. “I called your office earlier and your secretary told me you’d taken time off again to go to Seaview. I’ve been trying to call all day, but you must have had your phone turned off. When you didn’t return my calls, I got worried. Is Grandma Jenny okay?”
Hannah sat on the side of the bed, almost regretting that she’d remembered to turn the phone back on before going to sleep. There had been five increasingly impatient messages from her boss and three from Kelsey. For once, she’d ignored them all, grateful that it was too late to call the office and deciding she really didn’t want to discuss this situation with Kelsey just yet. Now she had no choice.
“You mean besides her delusion that I’m going to give up my career and move back here to run the inn?” she replied.
“Oh, boy,” Kelsey muttered. “Is she serious?”
“She spent an hour at dinner talking about how we need to spruce this place up and get it open again in two weeks,” Hannah said. “I’d say she’s serious.”
“But you’re not going to do it, are you? You hate Seaview Key and the inn.”
“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Hannah said emphatically, then sighed. “Actually, I was thinking it might be a good idea to do a few renovations.”
“But why, if she’s not going to open the inn? You know she can’t manage it alone.”
Hannah hesitated. “I know,” she said at last.
Kelsey sucked in a breath. “You want her to sell it, don’t you? Mom, that will break her heart. You can’t do that to her.”
“What choice do I have?” Hannah asked defensively.
“None, I suppose,” Kelsey admitted, “but I hate this, Mom.”
“I know. So do I, but I can’t stay here. I just haven’t figured out how I’m going to explain that to your great-grandmother. You know how she is once she gets an idea into her head.”
“A lot like you,” Kelsey said.
“Yes, well, that is the problem, isn’t it?” she said wryly. Suddenly it occurred to her that there had to be a crisis of some kind for Kelsey to be calling from college in the middle of the week. “Enough about what’s going on here. I’ll figure out something. Tell me what’s up with you.”
Kelsey hesitated. “Maybe this isn’t a good time. We can talk about it when you’re back in New York after you get things straightened out down there.”
A sense of dread settled in the pit of Hannah’s stomach. “Isn’t a good time for what?” she prodded.
“You’re sure you don’t want to wait and talk about this another time?” Kelsey asked, sounding oddly hopeful.
“Now,” Hannah commanded.
“Okay, then. Remember how I told you at Christmas that school pretty much sucks?”
“And I said you were just going through a rough patch,” Hannah recalled.
“Well, it’s more than a rough patch, Mom. Don’t freak out, okay? I’ve really thought about this and it’s what I need to do right now. I’ve decided to quit college, come home to New York and get a job.”
Hannah’s grip on the cell phone tightened. “In your junior year?” she said, her voice rising despite her best attempt to remain calm. “Are you crazy?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” Kelsey said petulantly, sounding like a spoiled child rather than the responsible young adult she normally was.
“No, I don’t understand. And unless you’ve got an explanation that includes full-time employment several steps above flipping burgers, I’m not likely to understand. We had a deal. If I went into debt to get you into Stanford, the school of your dreams, you would stick it out and get your degree in graphic design, no matter what. Remember that?”
“I remember,” Kelsey said meekly. “But, Mom—”
Hannah cut her off. “No, there is no but, Mom. You got into Stanford. I’ve paid for three years at Stanford, and you are finishing at Stanford. Period. You don’t get to back out of the deal now.”
“I can’t stay here.”
Years ago, after her divorce, Hannah had learned the value of being stern and unyielding. Otherwise, even as a toddler, her strong-willed daughter would have run roughshod over her. She called on that skill now.
“Of course, you can stay. If your courses are too hard, if that’s what this is about, you can consider dropping one of them, but you’re not dropping out, and that’s final.” She told herself all her daughter needed was a pep talk. She’d probably gotten something below an A on a pop quiz and decided she was heading for failure. “Come on, kiddo. You can do this. You’re smart. You’re more than halfway to getting your bachelor’s degree. You just need to park your butt in the library and do whatever amount of studying it takes to get out of there next year with a degree.”
“You don’t understand,” Kelsey said.
“Of course I do, sweetie. We all hit bumps in the road from time to time. We can’t let them throw us off course.”
“Mom, this isn’t that kind of bump in the road. I’m pregnant,” Kelsey blurted.
If Hannah hadn’t already been sitting down, she would have fainted dead away and probably cracked open her skull when she hit the floor. Apparently things could get worse. And now she knew how.
Chapter 2
Hannah had a splitting headache by the time she finally made her way downstairs to the kitchen in the morning. She’d replayed the conversation with Kelsey in her head over and over for the rest of the night, but not even her best editing skills could change the fact that her daughter was going to have a baby.
Grandma Jenny looked up as she entered the kitchen. “I thought you were going to sleep the day away,” she commented, then took a closer look. “You don’t look so good. Are you sick?”
Sick at heart, Hannah thought, but she kept it to herself. There’d be time enough to tell her grandmother what was going on after Kelsey arrived in the next day or two, as soon as she could get a flight from California. Hannah had made her promise not to make any big decisions or do anything drastic until they had more time to talk things through.
“I didn’t sleep much,” she told her grandmother. “A cup of coffee should perk me up, though.”
“Good. Then we can get started with that list. I’ve got some help lined up, so we need to get ourselves organized.”
The pounding in Hannah’s head took on a more urgent beat. “As soon as I’ve returned a few calls from my boss,” she promised, searching in a cupboard until she found a bottle of aspirin. She popped two of them. “He left a bunch of messages for me yesterday and I didn’t get them until it was too late to call back last night.”
A frown settled on Grandma Jenny’s face. “Why’s he bothering you? I thought you were quitting that job.”
“No, Gran, I didn’t quit,” Hannah explained patiently. “I’m just on vacation for a couple of weeks.”
“Well, you should give it up for good. This is where you belong. You’d be your own boss here.”
No, Hannah thought, she’d be answering to her grandmother, and as annoying as Dave Harrow could be from time to time, he was easier to deal with than Gran.
“Let’s not go there right now, okay?” Hannah pleaded. “I’m here for a couple of weeks and that’s it.”
Her grandmother waved off the explanation as if it were of no consequence. “But you’re still down here on your own time, am I right? Your boss shouldn’t be taking advantage of you like this. Anyone who works as hard as you do deserves to have a vacation that’s really a vacation. A boss who appreciates you would know that.”
“He’s not really taking advantage of me, Gran. I left without much notice. There are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up. Look, the call shouldn’t take long. You start on that list of renovations and we’ll go over it when I come back inside. I can get better cell phone reception on the porch.”
“Well, you’d best hurry. Some of the things we’re going to need aren’t available on the island. We’ll need to catch the eleven o’clock ferry if we expect to go to the mainland today.”
Hannah grimaced. That was yet another reason not to live in Seaview. It was too inconvenient. If they missed the eleven o’clock ferry, there wouldn’t be another one until four-thirty, too late to head over to the mainland to shop. In all there were only four ferries daily, these two, plus one that left at 6:00 a.m., mostly for people who worked on the mainland, and a final one at eight, which catered mostly to those who’d taken a day trip to Seaview Key, stayed for dinner and then wanted to head back.
“I’ll hurry,” she promised.
She took her cell phone and coffee out to the porch, choosing a comfortable wicker chair at the far end where the sun had created a pool of warmth on the chilly morning. She took a long sip of coffee, then turned her face up to the sun, wishing she didn’t have to make the call. It wasn’t going to go well. Dave hadn’t been happy about her asking for this unplanned vacation, especially after all the months when her schedule had been totally unpredictable because of her chemo treatments.
Reluctantly, she dialed the direct line to his office. “Hey, Melinda, it’s Hannah. Dave was trying to reach me yesterday, but I was traveling and had my phone off. Is he available now?”
“Yes,” his secretary said, then lowered her voice. “But I should tell you he’s on the warpath. Even though you briefed Carl before you left about the deadlines for the Parker account, he blew the very first one and Dave caught the fallout. Ron Parker was furious.”
Hannah muttered a few choice words. Carl Mason was useless, but Dave kept giving him second chances. He’d insisted that Hannah turn her accounts over to him while she was away. It was his fault that things had gone wrong, but she was going to have to bail them all out.
“Look, don’t put me through now. I’m going to call Ron and see if I can smooth things over. Then I’ll call back to speak to Dave.”
“Sure, hon,” Melinda said, but before they could sever the connection Hannah heard Dave in the background.
“Is that Hannah? Put her through right this minute,” he commanded.
“Sorry,” Melinda murmured.
“Not your fault.” She waited for Dave to pick up, then tried to do a preemptive strike. “Melinda filled me in on the problems with the Parker account. I was about to call Ron myself.”
“There wouldn’t be a problem with that account if you’d been handling it yourself,” he grumbled.
Hannah barely resisted the urge to correct him and say there wouldn’t have been a problem if Dave had assigned someone competent to fill in for her. She’d have been wasting her breath.
“Ron’s not going to be pacified with a phone call,” he told her. “You need to get back up here and do your job.”
“You know I can’t do that. There’s a family crisis and I need to handle it.”
“You’ve had a lot of crises lately,” Dave said. “Maybe this job isn’t as important to you as it once was.”
Hannah gasped at his insensitivity. “Do you honestly think I chose to have breast cancer just so I could inconvenience you? Do you think I wanted my mom to die or my grandmother to have difficulty coping with that, so I could take more time off?”
He backed down at once. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have phrased it that way. I know you’ve been through hell, but you’re the best person on this team. When you’re out of the office, it has an impact.”
“Nice save,” she said dryly. “Look, it’s only for a couple of weeks. I gave Carl notes on every single thing that needs to be done, along with the deadlines. Maybe you need to look over his shoulder for the next couple of weeks and make sure he follows through. If that doesn’t work, then I’m not the one to blame.”
Dave sighed. “I know he’s not pulling his weight around here. That’s why I assigned him to work with you. I thought maybe your organizational skills would rub off on him.”
“You always were a dreamer,” she said lightly. It was one of the reasons they’d always worked well together. She’d been his first hire after he and Lou Morgan had opened the firm fifteen years ago. He was a genius when it came to thinking up unique PR campaigns for their clients, but Hannah was the one who kept the projects on schedule, pacified nervous actors and authors and contributed her own share of creative ideas. He also counted on her not to mince words, so she didn’t now. “Dave, you’ve given Carl more than enough chances. Maybe it’s time to think about cutting your losses and letting him go. Get someone in that position who can cut it.”
“You’re probably right,” he admitted with obvious reluctance. “If I hadn’t promised my wife that I’d give the guy a break, I’d have fired him months ago. He’s her nephew and she adores him. Do you know the kind of grief I’m going to get if I let him go?”
“Compare that to the grief you’re already taking from clients like Ron Parker,” she said. “Look, I’ll call Ron now and fix this mess, but there can’t be a next time, Dave. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know it. Hurry back, okay?”
“Two weeks,” she reminded him. “You’ll hardly notice I’m gone.”
“That’s a joke. You weren’t out the door two minutes when we had our first crisis.”
“Careful,” she warned. “I’ll start to think I’m indispensable and you’ll have to give me a raise.”
She hung up slowly, then spent several minutes tamping down her annoyance over Carl’s screwup before calling Ron Parker and apologizing profusely. Fortunately, he was a reasonable guy, and the promise of a few perks on his next PR campaign calmed him down.
“I’m sorry Dave bothered you on your vacation,” he told her. “I was still angry when I spoke to him, so I was blowing off steam. I was never going to take my business elsewhere. You’re the best, Hannah. So is Dave.”
“And we love working with you. We’ll get together for lunch as soon as I’m back in town. You pick the place and it’s on me.”
“It ought to be on that idiot Carl Mason,” he said. “Enjoy your vacation and don’t worry about any of this, okay?”
“Thanks for understanding.”
When she finally got off the phone, she felt drained. Her head was still pounding, though the caffeine and aspirin were starting to kick in. One more cup of coffee and she might be able to cope with Grandma Jenny and whatever she had in store to destroy her peace of mind today.
* * *
“I don’t understand why you’re going to Florida,” Jeff told Kelsey as she packed her suitcase. “This is no time to go running off when we have so many things that need to be settled.”
“Things are settled, Jeff. No matter what you say, I am not going to marry you, and that’s final.”
“But we’re having a baby!” he said, as if she needed reminding.
“I’m the one having it,” she retorted. “Not you. I’m the one whose entire life has to go on hold because we were stupid one night and had sex without a condom.”
Jeff paled. “And that’s my fault. I accept that. It was stupid, but no matter how many times I say I’m sorry, it won’t change anything. Now we have to deal with where we are. I love you. I want to marry you. I want us to be a family. I wanted that before you got pregnant and I want it now.”
“And I’ve told you that I’m not ready to get married,” she said.
They’d been arguing like this for two solid weeks now, ever since she’d seen a doctor and told Jeff about the baby. Sometimes she wished she’d kept the news to herself, but she’d known how unfair that would be. What she hadn’t realized was how pressured she’d feel now that Jeff wanted to do what he saw as the right thing.
For him, the baby was only a tiny blip on a road he’d apparently mapped out when they’d first started dating last year. For her it changed everything. It took away her options and backed her into a corner. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him or that she didn’t envision them having a future together...eventually. It was about being forced into making a premature decision, one far too important to be made in haste.
She was a child of divorce, and while her mother had done everything in her power to see that Kelsey never wanted for anything, Kelsey had never stopped wishing that she’d come from a two-parent home. She and her dad barely had any relationship at all beyond an occasional check at Christmas or for her birthday and even rarer phone calls. In the beginning she’d seen him at least occasionally, but then he’d remarried, had more kids and the kind of family life she’d always wanted.
Now, here she was, willing to deny her own child what she’d missed most during her own childhood. She understood the irony in that, but so far she hadn’t been able to talk herself into backing down. She was convinced that if she rushed into marriage with Jeff because of the baby, they’d never have a real chance to make it work. She doubted she’d be able to hide her resentment, and that would poison their relationship.
Sighing, she sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled Jeff down beside her. Sitting thigh to thigh, even under these circumstances, she could feel the chemistry between them, chemistry that had been there from the time they’d first met. He wasn’t like the preppy guys she’d always dated. He was offbeat, a little bit of a nerd. His dark brown hair was almost always in need of a cut, not out of rebellion, but simply because he forgot about it.
It was his eyes, though, that had drawn her in. They were like melted chocolate, and when they were focused on her, their intensity made her pulse scramble.
His wardrobe, while not totally atypical of that of all the kids around them, was a horror—faded jeans, T-shirts and ancient sneakers. It offended Kelsey’s fashion sense, developed by associating with some of her mom’s designer clients, but she’d seen beyond the clothes to the really good person he was. Only after they’d been dating for months had she learned that he was from a wealthy San Francisco family and that he was somewhat of a computer genius, who’d already amassed a small fortune himself with software he’d designed.
Sitting beside him now, she stared straight ahead, afraid that if she looked into his eyes, she’d give in and agree to marry him. It was the simplest solution to her predicament, but one she was determined to resist.
“You know that I’m not saying no because I don’t love you, right?” she asked softly.
“You’re saying no because you’re stubborn,” he countered. “We’ve been talking about marriage for months now. All this changes is the timetable.”
“Exactly. We had that timetable for a reason. I wanted to graduate, to get established in a career before we took the next step in our relationship. I wanted to figure out who I am.”
“I already know who you are, but I suppose that doesn’t count,” Jeff countered. “But you can still do all that. We’ll hire a nanny. Or I’ll take care of the baby while you’re in school.”
“You have classes, too,” she reminded him.
He regarded her with an impatient expression. “Come on, Kelsey, we’ve been over this. I get what you’re saying and why you’re scared, but nothing has to change. If we didn’t have a cent to our names, maybe there would be sacrifices, but trust me, we can afford a place to live and all the help we need. You’ll have all the time and space you want to decide who you are and figure out what you want. In fact, it’ll be easier because you won’t be forced to take some nothing job just to pay bills. You can take your time after graduation and find the perfect job.”
She heard the sincerity in his voice and she wanted desperately to believe things would be that simple, but she just couldn’t. First thing she knew, she’d be Mrs. Jeff Hampton, a wife and a mother. She was scared to death that Kelsey Matthews-Ryan would get lost.
She also knew her fears were compounded because for years she’d been so certain about what she wanted—a career in graphic design. But now that she’d been studying for the degree that would get her that career, now that she’d proved she could handle it, the path she’d chosen had lost some of its luster. She feared the same thing could happen if she rushed into marriage. Maybe it was morning sickness, maybe it was hormones, but her world had tilted on its axis and left her reeling. She simply couldn’t cope with a decision as huge as getting married right now.
“I can’t, Jeff. I can’t do it.”
“You’d rather quit school and run home to your mom?” he asked incredulously. “That doesn’t make any sense at all. You’re actually giving up the very thing you claim you want.”
“Temporarily,” she insisted. “I’ll go back to school after the baby’s born. Maybe by then I’ll have figured out if graphic design is what I really want, after all. Why get a degree in something and then decide it’s not what I’m passionate about?”
“Okay, let’s say you do take time off,” he said reasonably. “How will you manage college a year from now or two years from now, especially if you decide you want a degree in something else and have to practically start over?”
Kelsey frowned. “I don’t know exactly, but I’ll make it work.”
“Look at me,” he commanded. “Kelsey, look at me. You’re not still thinking about adoption, are you? Because I won’t go along with it. I want this baby, even if you don’t.”
There was an unyielding note in his voice she’d never heard before. Why, when it came to this, did he have to change from an easygoing, come-what-may kind of guy into one determined to have his own way?
Tears stung Kelsey’s eyes. How had things turned into such a mess? A few weeks ago, her life had been totally on track. She’d aced most of her final exams. She was excited about her new courses, even though she was starting to question her career goals. She was with a guy she adored. And now, because of one careless moment, everything was at risk.
“You should go,” she told Jeff. “We’re not going to settle this tonight and I’m leaving first thing in the morning.”
“But you’re coming back?” he asked. “You’re not going to disappear and do something behind my back, are you?”
“I can’t believe you asked me that,” she said, surprisingly stung. “You know me better than anyone. I promised you I wouldn’t do anything crazy and I meant it. I promised my mom the same thing.”
“Did she buy it?” he asked.
Kelsey sighed. “Not entirely. Look, whatever decision I make, I will come back here and I will tell you. That’s the best I can promise.”
“I suppose I’ll have to live with that,” Jeff said, then met her gaze. “For now.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I have a stake in this decision, too. You need time right now, I’ll let you have it. But not too much time, Kelsey, or I’ll follow you and do everything in my power to make you see this my way.”
Kelsey looked deep into his eyes and saw the determination there. She realized that Jeff’s powers of persuasion were what scared her most of all.
* * *
Hannah used the twenty-minute ferry ride to the mainland to finally broach the subject that had brought her to Seaview Key. The waters were calm, the breeze balmy by mid-morning as they made the crossing. She and her grandmother stood by the railing and watched as the mainland grew from a distant speck to an impressive skyline.
“Gran, have you ever thought about living on the mainland?” she began carefully.
“Why would I do that when I have a perfectly good home where I am?”
“You’d be surrounded by more people your own age,” Hannah explained, injecting as much enthusiasm as she could into her voice. “You could get involved in more activities. You’d be closer to doctors and a major hospital. The clinic on Seaview Key isn’t prepared to cope with anything more than a minor emergency.”
“Do you honestly think I would ever move into one of those retirement communities?” she asked derisively. “That’s what you’re talking about, isn’t it? Putting me out to pasture like some horse that’s outlived its usefulness.”
“Not at all,” Hannah said, doing her best to remain upbeat. “I think it would be great to be able to do so many things anytime you wanted to without worrying about the ferry schedule. Plus, you’ve spent your whole life catering to other people’s needs. It’s time for you to think about your needs.”
“I don’t have many needs and I don’t worry much about the ferry schedule,” Grandma Jenny replied tartly. “I have it committed to memory. Besides, now that I don’t drive much, it’s been months since I’ve needed it at all. Anytime I need anything from the mainland, I can find someone to fetch it for me. I’m not like you. I don’t need to be on the go all the time. I’m happy right where I am.” She gave Hannah a hard look. “Intend to stay there, too, so don’t go getting any ideas.”
Hannah dropped the subject for now. She’d check online to locate the best facilities in the area and call for brochures. Maybe on their next trip to the mainland, she could persuade her grandmother to at least look at a couple of them.
“Any idea where you’d like to go for lunch?” she asked, changing the topic to something neutral. “I think we should eat first, then run all the errands.”
“I like that cafeteria well enough.”
Hannah bit back a groan. The last time she’d tried a slice of pie there, the whipped cream on top had the texture of plastic foam. “I suppose you’re going to want the liver and onions,” she teased, resigned to choking down a tasteless meal.
“Of course. I learned a long time ago that I’d be wasting my time fixing that for you. You’d gag every time I set it on the table.”
“Which ought to tell you something,” Hannah said. “But if that’s what you want, that’s where we’ll go.”
Her grandmother gave her a knowing look. “Don’t think buttering me up is going to work, young lady. You can agree to everything I suggest from now till Christmas and I still won’t look at one of those retirement places.”
“Whatever,” Hannah said, then had to bite back a smile the instant the word was out of her mouth. She’d sounded exactly like Kelsey at her most annoying. Apparently the universe was intent on reducing her to a petulant child again, too.
* * *
“What did Gran have you doing today?” Kelsey asked her that evening.
“Picking out paint and looking at fabric for the cushions on the porch,” Hannah told her. “We managed to get the paint at the first place we looked, but we had to go to four different fabric stores before we found anything that satisfied her. I looked at so many flowered prints, I came home dizzy.”
“Have you told her yet that you’re not staying?”
“I have,” she said. “That hasn’t stopped her from trying to change my mind. Now, tell me about you. Were you able to get a reservation?”
“My flight’s tomorrow,” Kelsey confirmed, then gave her the details.
“And your return flight?” Hannah asked.
Kelsey hesitated. “I just bought a one-way ticket in case I decide not to come back right away.”
“Kelsey!”
“It’s no big deal, Mom. I can always book the return flight as soon as I get there. Who knows? Maybe you’ll decide that you and Grandma Jenny can use an extra pair of hands.”
Hannah saw no point in arguing. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow, then. Have a safe flight, sweetie.”
“I will. Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Is it hard being there, you know, without your mom?”
Hannah wasn’t sure how to answer. If she stopped for a second and let herself think, she’d say it was incredibly difficult, which was one reason she’d let her grandmother persuade her to do all these renovations. It left little time for thinking, especially about her mother’s losing battle with cancer. And she had yet to walk into the suite of rooms that had been her mom’s. She’d spent too many hours in there right before she died.
“I don’t think I’ve let myself focus on that at all,” she admitted.
“How can you not think about it?” Kelsey asked. “She was so much a part of Seaview Inn. You must see her everywhere you look, like those old sand pails she collected. They looked like rusty junk to me, but she’d get all misty-eyed when she told me about how they reminded her of when she was a girl.”
Hannah choked back an unexpected sob. She could recall her mother’s excitement every time she came across one of the tin litho sand pails with their colorful images in one of the antique shops she haunted. Her eyes would light up as if she’d just recaptured a hundred old memories, all good ones. Hannah had deliberately avoided looking at the shelves that held the prized collection. Only now did she see how much of the past two days she’d spent in denial.
“She loved them, all right,” she said, when she could speak again.
“Oh, Mom, are you crying? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
“I think I’ve just been pretending since I got here that everything was normal, that she was just away on a trip or something. I haven’t wanted to deal with the reality that she’s gone forever.”
“Maybe having me there will be a good thing, then, huh?” Kelsey said. “I can distract you.”
“Given the reason you’re coming, I’d say that’s a sure thing,” Hannah said wryly. “See you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Bye, Mom. Love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said slowly, and disconnected, only to have the phone immediately ring again. She was tempted not to answer it, but given the work crisis she’d missed yesterday, she didn’t want to risk another lecture from Dave about her inopportune absence. Glancing at the caller ID, though, she saw that it wasn’t Dave at all, but Sue Nelson, who’d been her best friend since Hannah had arrived in New York nearly twenty years ago.
“I want to know why I had to find out from your secretary that you’ve skipped town again,” Sue demanded when Hannah answered.
“Sorry. The trip came together pretty suddenly.”
“Jane said your grandmother was having a hard time coping without your mom. Is that why you went?”
“Pretty much. I’m hoping to convince her to sell the inn and move to a retirement community.”
Sue chuckled. She’d met Grandma Jenny and could imagine her reaction. “And how’s that going?” she asked.
Hannah laughed with her. “About like you’d expect. I didn’t even get the words out of my mouth before she was warning me off in no uncertain terms.”
“Then why aren’t you heading home? I’d think being there right now would be really hard. Besides, don’t you have a three-month cancer screening coming up?”
“I postponed it.”
“Hannah!” Sue protested. “You can’t do things like that. This is too important.”
“Don’t overreact. I only postponed it a couple of weeks. I’ll go in the day after I get back to New York.”
“Can I get that in writing? I know you’re dreading it.”
“Well, of course, I’m dreading it, but I’m not stupid. I know I can’t put it off indefinitely.”
“What’s the new date?”
“Why? Do you think I’m lying?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you, but that’s not why I’m asking. I want to put it on my calendar, so I can go with you. I told you when you first got diagnosed that you’re not going through any of this alone.”
Hannah’s eyes stung for the second time that night. “You’ve been wonderful and I will never be able to thank you enough,” she said. “But you’ve spent enough of your time babysitting me through surgery and chemo. I can go to one appointment on my own.”
“But why should you have to?” Sue asked. “Especially when we can go out afterward and splurge on an outrageously expensive dinner to celebrate that you’re just fine.”
“Hush. Don’t say things like that. It’s just asking for something to go wrong.”
“I thought you weren’t superstitious,” Sue teased.
Hannah thought about how recent events had conspired to make her question that. “I’m reexamining my beliefs on that subject.”
“Oh?”
“Long story, and you and John must be about to have dinner.”
“He won’t mind waiting for a few minutes,” Sue said. “Tell me why you’re suddenly leery of black cats and walking under ladders.”
“It’s not about cats and ladders,” Hannah told her. “But trust me, bad things do come in threes.” She paused, then announced, “Kelsey’s pregnant.”
“Oh, my God, you’re kidding!”
“Not something I’d kid about,” Hannah said.
“No, I don’t suppose you would. When did she tell you?”
“Last night.”
“How did you react?”
“You know me. I’m a control freak. I ordered her to come down here before making any decisions. I need to see her. I want to see for myself that she’s okay.”
“And she’s coming?”
“Tomorrow,” Hannah confirmed.
“Okay, now tell me how you’re really feeling.”
“I’m mostly numb, to be perfectly honest,” Hannah replied. “I never expected this.”
“I doubt mothers ever do, unless their daughters are wild ones, which Kelsey definitely is not,” Sue said. “Is Kelsey okay or is she totally freaking out?”
“She sounded calm, but I know she’s falling apart. She’s definitely not thinking clearly. Right now her solution is to quit college and move back to New York with me.”
“Oh, boy! I’m amazed I didn’t hear your reaction to that all the way up here.”
“So am I,” Hannah said.
“Anything I can do?”
“Just knowing you’re there when I need to talk is enough,” Hannah told her.
“I could fly down there and mediate, if it would help,” she offered.
“I’d have to give you combat pay,” Hannah joked. “No, I’ll muddle through this. Just start shaking the martinis the second I get back to New York.”
“You’ve got it, and the minute you decide you need anything more, all you have to do is call.”
“Thanks, Sue. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Thick and thin, that was our deal all those years ago,” Sue reminded her, then added dryly, “Too bad some of my marriage vows didn’t last the way our friendship has.”
“Only because you had extraordinarily bad taste in men before you met John. He’s a keeper.”
“Yeah, I think so, too, which means I’d better get in there and feed him. We miss you, sweetie. Hurry home.”
“Thanks for calling.”
Hannah disconnected the call with a smile on her face. She had other friends in New York, including Dave and his wife, and plenty of acquaintances, but Sue Dyer Martinelli Nelson was the best. If Hannah had said she needed her in Florida, Sue would have been here by morning, no questions asked. Knowing that was almost as comforting as it would have been to be sitting on the porch with her right now, a shaker of martinis between them.
Chapter 3
The Seaview Inn looked like hell. Luke Stevens hadn’t seen the place for twenty years and it was showing every one of those years with its fading paint, untended lawn, and half a dozen posts missing from the railing that wound around the sprawling front porch. In fact, it looked a lot like he felt, as if it had been tossed aside, a victim of neglect.
If the assessment of his life sounded bitter, he figured he had a right. Like too many other men returning from Iraq to find their old lives in tatters, he’d spent months in a rehab hospital in Washington, then faced the fact that going back to the life he’d left in Atlanta wasn’t an option. His wife had filed for divorce two weeks before a car bomb had shattered his leg. The doctors had saved his leg, for which he’d be eternally grateful. Even so, he was a long way from being able to stand in an operating room doing the kind of orthopedic surgery that had been his specialty before he’d come out of military retirement and answered the army’s call for doctors. Yeah, he was bitter and not one bit apologetic about it.
Sitting in a wheelchair during his recovery, staring out at the snow that had blanketed Washington one January morning a couple of weeks back, he’d suddenly had a yearning for the sunshine and palm trees he hadn’t seen since leaving Seaview Key for college more than twenty years ago. Though his family had moved away from the island to live with his sister in Arizona, Seaview had continued to have a special place in his heart. It was home. It was where he’d fallen in love for the first time, where he’d learned to fish and swim, where he’d volunteered with the local rescue squad and discovered his passion for medicine. It was, he’d decided, the perfect place to heal.
There were no memories of Lisa, his soon-to-be-ex-wife, in Seaview, no images of his kids on the stretch of white sand there. After being gone for so long, he could only hope that no one there would remember him all that well. Most of the kids in his class had fled, chasing dreams of more excitement than the tiny town could offer. If he was right about that, there would be no pitying looks to bear, no questions to be answered, just the peace and quiet he craved while he figured out what to do with the rest of his life.
Twenty years ago, there had been only one place to stay on the island, Seaview Inn, a sprawling bed-and-breakfast run for three generations by the Matthews family. Hannah had been in his class, and like the rest of them, she’d been eager to flee. He had an image of a quiet, studious girl whose face lit up when she laughed, which was all too seldom. She’d been best friends with Abby Dawson, his first love, so they’d spent a lot of time on the inn’s front porch, rocking for hours and talking about the future while sea breezes stirred the palm trees and stars sparkled like diamond chips scattered across black velvet.
He shook his head, struck by how simple life had been back then. His biggest problem had been trying to figure out how to rid Abby of her bra without getting slapped. He’d finally mastered the technique by the end of summer. He grinned as he thought of how well that skill had served him in college.
Once they’d all left for college, though, distance had taken its toll, and they’d lost touch. He’d met Lisa and stepped into his future, Seaview Key all but forgotten until recently.
With one call to Information, he’d found the number for the inn, but it had taken him days to get through to anyone. He’d found it odd and discouraging that there didn’t even seem to be an answering machine, but he’d persisted just the same, unwilling to give up on the only plan that had appealed to him in months.
When the phone had finally been answered, it was by a woman who sounded ancient and annoyed. “What do you want?” she’d demanded without so much as a pleasant hello.
“Is this Seaview Inn?”
“That’s the number you dialed, isn’t it?”
He’d grinned despite her tone. Clearly old Jenny Matthews was having a bad day. He could relate.
“It certainly is,” he agreed. “I was hoping to reserve a room.”
“We’re closed.”
Luke decided to try another approach. “Mrs. Matthews, this is Luke Stevens. I don’t know if you remember me—”
“My mind’s not gone yet,” she snapped. “Of course, I remember you. You’re Mark and Stella’s boy. Used to hang around here with that Dawson girl. She was all wrong for you, by the way. I sure as heck hope you had the good sense not to marry her.”
“I don’t know how much good sense was involved, but we didn’t get married,” he said, impressed by her memory.
“Good. Last I heard she was working in some bar up in Pensacola and hanging out with a rowdy crowd. Bikers, I suspect.”
Luke chuckled despite himself. The last he’d heard, Abby had owned a restaurant in Pensacola and been married to a minister. He saw no need to debate the point with Mrs. Matthews. There would be plenty of time to settle the matter when he saw her.
“You said you’re closed right now,” he said, trying to get back to the point. “How soon will you be reopening?”
“That depends on Hannah.”
Luke didn’t even try to hide his surprise. “Hannah’s still in Seaview?”
“No, Hannah’s in New York, but I’m working on that. Once I get her back here, I figure I can convince her to stay. After that it’ll take a couple of weeks to whip this place into shape for guests.”
“I could help with that,” he offered. “I don’t know what you need, but I can manage some odd jobs for you.”
“Not if you’re a guest, you can’t,” she responded, sounding scandalized.
“I don’t mind. It’ll be good to do something useful. If you feel strongly about it, you can give me a break on your rates. I hope to be there for a few weeks at least.”
She was silent for so long, he thought she was going to refuse, but then she asked, “When would you be coming?”
“The first week of February, if that would be okay with you,” he said.
“Perfect,” she muttered, more to herself than him. “Okay, Luke Stevens, you have yourself a deal and a reservation. You might have a fight on your hands with Hannah, but I imagine you’ll be able to handle her. Goodbye.”
She’d left him openmouthed then, just as the sight of the Seaview Inn had him openmouthed now. Apparently he’d been overly optimistic about just how idyllic this trip down memory lane was going to be.
* * *
Luke knocked on the front door of the inn, but when no one answered, he stepped inside and called out. “Mrs. Matthews, it’s me, Luke Stevens. Are you home?”
He heard a door to his left bang open and then Jenny Matthews came bustling out of the kitchen and across the dining room, drying her hands on a dish towel.
“You’re early,” she said, making it sound like an accusation. “I thought you weren’t coming for another week.”
“I was able to get away sooner than I expected. Since you mentioned having work to do around here, I figured the sooner I was here to help, the better. Is it okay?”
She looked troubled, but then shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I just haven’t had a chance to explain this to Hannah.” She shrugged, then gave him a rueful look. “Well, she’ll get used to the idea soon enough, I expect. Let me show you to your room.”
“You don’t need to do that,” he said, worried about her ability to negotiate all those stairs. “Just point me in the right direction. I can manage.”
“Okay, then. I’ll get you a key and you can take your things upstairs. Less running up and down I do, the better I like it.” She went to a small desk in the foyer, pulled a key from the drawer and handed it to him. “Since there’s no one else staying here right now, I’m giving you the room on the end. It has more space and the best view. Has a real nice bathroom, too. Hannah’s mother talked me into putting one of those Jacuzzi things in there. Said we could double the price if we did that.”
Luke thought of how wonderful that would be for his bad leg, which still ached like the devil when he stayed on his feet too long or tried to walk too far. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from testing his limits, though. Being incapacitated and less than his physical best bothered him more than he liked to admit. Being strong and athletic was as much a part of his identity as being a doctor.
“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
“I dusted in there myself just yesterday. There should be plenty of clean towels, but if there’s anything you need, let me know when you come back down. I’ll fix some lunch for you. You can eat out on the porch, if you like. I imagine you’ll find that more pleasant than sitting in the dining room all alone. Won’t be fancy, but it’ll be filling. Tuna sandwich, home-baked cookies and lemonade. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” He remembered her baking with the affection of a teenage boy for whom chocolate-chip cookies had been only a couple of rungs below stealing kisses on his list of favorite things.
“Will a half hour give you enough time to get set-tled?” she asked.
“More than enough. Thanks, Mrs. Matthews.”
“If you’re going to be staying here awhile, you might’s well call me Grandma Jenny.”
“I’ll do that, then,” he said, and impulsively gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “Thanks for taking me in.”
“Oh, you’ll earn your keep soon enough,” she assured him. “Now, hurry along. You need to be settled before Hannah gets back.”
He regarded her suspiciously. “Why is that?”
“Trust me, it’s just better that way.”
“You think she’s going to want to kick me out, don’t you?”
“Oh, I expect so,” she said nonchalantly. “But don’t worry too much about that, Luke. Despite what she thinks, I still have some say around this place. She hasn’t sold it out from under me yet.”
“Hannah wants to sell Seaview Inn?” he asked, astonished. “Why?”
“Because I’m old and she doesn’t want to be bothered with it,” she said succinctly. “I’d say that sums it up. Oh, she thinks I don’t know exactly what she’s up to, but I can read all the signs.”
Luke didn’t begin to understand the dynamics at work here, but he did know one thing. People shouldn’t be forced into doing something just for someone else’s convenience. He’d treated enough elderly patients with hip fractures to understand how many of them wound up leaving homes they loved because it put their children’s consciences at ease.
Until he knew more about this situation, though, he needed to keep his opinions to himself. It would be wrong to leap to Grandma Jenny’s side before he knew all the facts, as well as heard Hannah’s perspective.
“Well, there’s plenty of time to figure all of this out, I’m sure,” he told her. “At least you and Hannah are agreed on fixing this place up, so as soon as I’ve had some lunch, you can put me to work.”
“You’re eager. I like that,” she said approvingly. “Now, run along. Your lunch will be waiting on the porch as soon as you’re ready.”
“Will you and Hannah be joining me?”
“Not me. I have things to do,” she said, looking vaguely guilty.
“And Hannah?”
“She’s taking a walk on the beach. No telling when she’ll be back.”
Luke got it then. Grandma Jenny didn’t want to be anywhere in sight when Hannah discovered that he’d taken up residence at the inn.
“You’re a very sneaky woman, aren’t you?” he said, delighted by her spunk.
She grinned at him. “I have my moments.”
Luke had a feeling that coming here was about to take some very interesting twists. Oddly enough, the prospect of a few fireworks intrigued him.
* * *
The salt air and cool waters of the Gulf of Mexico usually worked their magic on Hannah, but today it was going to take a lot more than a walk on the beach to settle her chaotic thoughts. Though she loved her daughter dearly and was anxious to see her this afternoon, she was dreading the battle to come over college.
Oh, who was she kidding? The real issue wasn’t whether or not Kelsey remained at Stanford, but what she was going to do about the baby. Her daughter was pregnant! The thought still boggled her mind, at least when it didn’t make her angry. Of all the careless, irresponsible things Kelsey might have done, this was one that Hannah had never even considered.
Sure, college kids in lust took chances, made mistakes, but Kelsey had always had a rigid, almost puritanical set of values. They’d talked about sex being best in a committed relationship. They’d talked about precautions, just in case a situation got out of hand. Dammit, it was the one subject about which they’d always been on the same page!
As close as she and Kelsey were, Hannah thought she knew everything there was to know about her daughter’s life at school. She’d never mentioned any special young man, not even in answer to Hannah’s direct questions about her social life.
“Sure, I go out, Mom, but it’s nothing serious.”
Hannah could recall her precise words. Well, she’d call a boy responsible for an unplanned pregnancy serious enough to qualify for a mention.
Spilt milk, she reminded herself sternly. She needed to stop thinking about all the dreams that might be going up in smoke. She needed to be calm and rational by the time she picked up Kelsey at the airport. The last thing her daughter needed was a barrage of judgmental, unanswerable questions the instant she stepped off the plane. Nor did she need her mother stepping in and trying to fix things, the way Hannah was always inclined to do.
Crossing the street from the beach, Hannah spotted someone sitting in a rocker on the porch, a very masculine someone who looked vaguely familiar and very much at home.
“Hey, Hannah,” the man said, lifting a glass of lemonade in greeting. “Care to join me? Your grandmother left an extra glass.”
She gave him another hard look, took in the dark brown buzz cut, the angular features on a face that was almost gaunt, the broad shoulders, the lips threatening to curve into a grin. It wasn’t until she looked into his brown eyes, though, that she recognized him.
“Luke?” Her expression brightened. “Luke Stevens? How long has it been?”
“More than twenty years,” he said, his gaze sweeping over her with the kind of masculine appreciation she wasn’t accustomed to, from him. “You look good, Hannah. How’s life treating you?”
“Don’t ask. How about you?”
“Don’t ask.”
“You’re not still living in Seaview Key, are you?”
“No. I haven’t been back in years.”
“Well, what on earth are you doing here now?” She heard how that sounded and quickly amended, “Not that I’m not glad to see you.”
“I just came back for a visit.”
“Well, isn’t that an amazing coincidence?” Amazing and a whole lot more, frankly. It was troubling to discover that Luke still had the same ability to rattle her and make her tongue-tied. Forcing herself to remember the way things had been—Luke and her best friend madly in love, rather than Luke at least noticing her—she deliberately asked, “Do you ever hear from Abby?”
He shook his head. “You?”
“Not since college. So, where are you staying?”
“Here, actually. I moved in about an hour ago.”
Hannah, who’d been about to lean down and give him a friendly peck on the cheek, backed up so fast, it was only luck—and a sturdy railing—that kept her from sailing right off the edge of the porch.
“Here?” she said incredulously. “You moved in here?”
He chuckled and raised his glass of lemonade again. “Surprise!”
“But we’re closed. Who said you could stay?” she asked, though the answer was obvious. Grandma Jenny wasn’t taking any chances. Obviously she figured frugal Hannah wouldn’t turn away a paying guest.
“I made the reservation with your grandmother a couple of weeks ago.”
Hannah directed a sour look toward the house. No doubt her grandmother was sitting right beside a window to get a perfect view of this encounter. “Really. For how long?”
Luke shrugged. “Hard to say. I have some things to figure out. I told your grandmother I’d help the two of you get this place spruced up a bit.”
“Really,” she said again. This must be the help Gran had said was on the way. “She never mentioned you. Did you and my grandmother make any other plans without sharing them with me?”
“Not me,” he claimed. “I can’t speak for her.”
Hannah bounced up. “I think my grandmother and I need to have a talk.” She was about to walk away, when her intrinsic manners kicked in. She turned around. “It really is good to see you again, Luke, but one word of caution.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t get too comfortable. In less than two weeks, this place will be closed, I’ll be back in New York and my grandmother will be...” She faltered on that. “Well, she’ll be somewhere. Right this second a psychiatric facility sounds like just the place.”
She was about to storm inside and have it out with her grandmother when Luke stopped her.
“Hold it, Hannah. If me being here is going to be a problem, I’m sure I can find somewhere else to stay. I noticed a couple of new motels when I drove off the ferry.”
She was about to take him up on the offer when she realized she was being absurd. There was no reason he couldn’t stay in one of the guest rooms, even if having him underfoot was going to dredge up a whole lot of old memories of unrequited longing. It was only the fact that her grandmother had done this behind her back that grated.
She sighed and sat down in the rocker next to his. To buy herself a couple of minutes so that she didn’t sound totally irrational, she poured herself a glass of the ice-cold lemonade and took a sip.
“Sorry about sounding so inhospitable,” she said eventually. “You just caught me off guard. We’ve been closed since before my mother died a month ago. I had no idea that my grandmother had started taking reservations again.”
Luke looked genuinely shocked. “Your mother died? I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, Hannah. She was a wonderful woman. I always enjoyed talking to her. She really listened to all us kids.”
Hannah blinked back a fresh batch of tears. For a woman who’d always prided herself on keeping her emotions in check, since coming back here, she was turning into a regular waterworks.
“She was a good listener, wasn’t she?” she said, a catch in her voice. “I remember how often you or one of the other kids would sneak off to the kitchen to spill some secret to her. I swear she always knew stuff about my friends before I did. I was halfway jealous of that.”
“Your grandmother didn’t say anything about her dying when I called. I thought your mom must just be away on a trip or something.”
“Don’t feel bad. I know she’s dead and I feel the same way. I can’t quite believe I won’t turn a corner and bump into her.”
He hesitated, then studied her with a gaze filled with compassion. “Do you want to talk about it or should we move on to another topic?”
“To be honest, I’m not ready to talk about it yet. She had cancer and things didn’t go well, practically from the beginning, and...” She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest, that she was terrified her own future was destined to follow the same path.
“It’s an awful disease,” he said quietly. “And it’s really difficult to watch a loved one suffer.”
“You have no idea,” she said softly, then stood up abruptly. “Look, I have to catch the four-thirty ferry to the mainland and I really do need to talk to my grandmother about you staying before I go. Not that you being here is a problem, because it’s not, Luke. Really. I just have to be sure you’re not the tip of the iceberg and that hordes of other guests aren’t descending without warning. There’s a lot going on around here right now and, believe me, more unexpected visitors are not a complication I can handle.”
“My offer to find another place is still good,” he said. “I don’t want to add to whatever stress you’re under. I get what it’s like when things start piling up. Big or little, it doesn’t matter. Sooner or later, it’s just too much.”
Hearing the real sympathy in his voice, she fought back tears again. She shook her head, this time with more certainty. “No, stay. Please. Just be prepared for anything to happen. Once my daughter, Kelsey, gets here in a few hours, we may give new meaning to the phrase ‘dysfunctional family.’”
He smiled at that. “You’re not scaring me, if that’s what you’re trying to do. As it happens, I know quite a lot about dysfunctional families. I’ve recently taken a crash course.”
She studied him curiously. “Do you want to talk about that?”
“Nope. I want to forget about it, at least for a little while.”
“You realize we might not have much to say if we keep putting topics off limits,” she said.
“Oh, I suspect we’ll think of something. The weather’s always safe enough.”
She grinned. “At this time of year? The Chamber of Commerce brochures claim it’s always sunny and mild.”
“Except when it’s wet and chilly,” he countered.
“I’m pretty sure they never mention that.”
“But you and I don’t work for the Chamber of Commerce. We can be candid.” His expression sobered. “You can be honest with me, Hannah. You’re sure this is okay, me staying here?”
“I’m sure,” she said, this time without hesitation.
The truth was that the more she thought about it, the more she wanted him to stay. She had a feeling that having another rational adult around might be the only thing that would keep her from going off the deep end before all these family crises were resolved. All she had to do was make sure her already prancing hormones didn’t get any crazy ideas. Falling for Luke Stevens for the second time in her life—especially right now—would be so far beyond stupid there wasn’t even an adequate word to describe it.
Chapter 4
Instead of peace and serenity, Luke concluded he was smack in the middle of some Matthews family drama. He’d heard Hannah’s raised voice not two minutes after she’d left him on the porch. Whatever she’d said, though, hadn’t especially daunted her grandmother. Jenny Matthews had held her own. He couldn’t hear the words, but they’d matched each other in heat and determination. He had to admire the feistiness in both of them, but especially in Grandma Jenny. Too many of his senior patients were cowed by family members. Clearly that wasn’t the case here.
Ten minutes after the battle had died down, Hannah had stormed out of the house looking like a thundercloud, gotten behind the wheel of his rental car, which was almost an exact duplicate of her rental car, and tried to start the engine. Naturally the key hadn’t worked. She’d gotten out, kicked a tire, then glanced at the car beside it and apparently grasped her mistake. A minute later she’d squealed out of the driveway at a speed that had him wincing. She hadn’t acknowledged his existence with so much as a wave. He gathered things hadn’t gone her way with her grandmother.
As soon as she was out of sight, the screen door opened and Jenny slipped outside. “That girl’s going to get a ticket or run into a ditch if she keeps on driving like that,” she said disapprovingly.
“She seems upset,” he noted as the woman settled into the rocker beside his and poured herself a glass of lemonade, then grabbed the last cookie. Luke barely contained a sigh at the loss. He’d had plans for that cookie, even after all the others he’d eaten.
“I think her mood has something to do with her daughter,” she said, glancing sideways at him.
Luke chuckled. “And I think it might have something to do with you. You trying to put something over on her, Mrs. Matthews?”
“I told you to call me Grandma Jenny,” she said testily, then slanted a look at him. “Why would I be trying to put anything over on her?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. So far, here’s what I’ve got. You want Hannah to come back here and take over the inn. She doesn’t want to. You figured having a paying guest—me—would force her to stick it out here for a while, maybe start getting used to the idea.”
Jenny didn’t bother trying to deny it. “Think you’re smart, don’t you?”
“Far from it, but I know a con artist when I meet one. Is this just about you not wanting to sell this place because it’s been your home for all these years?”
She gave him a scathing look. “It is not,” she said emphatically. “I know that’s what Hannah thinks, too, but this is about her. She’s been living in New York for twenty years now, but she’s not happy.”
Luke bit back a comment. Hannah had seemed happy enough to him until she’d found out he was staying here. Then, again, they hadn’t done a lot of catching up before that.
“Oh, she thinks she is,” Grandma Jenny continued, “because she’s busy every second of every day, dealing with all sorts of powerful clients and going out to fancy dinners and the theater and hosting elegant parties in the hottest clubs. She sends the clippings from the newspaper down here, so I’ll be impressed with how successful she is, and I am. I’m real proud of her, but career success isn’t all there is to life.”
“Maybe not, but it doesn’t sound like a bad life to me,” he remarked. “Especially if it’s the one she wants.”
“It’s bad, if at the end of the day she goes home to an empty apartment and a cold bed. Her daughter’s clear across the country at Stanford. Her husband, who wasn’t worth much to begin with, is long gone, every bit as irresponsible as her daddy. She’s alone and she’s forgotten who she is and what’s important. She’s chasing the almighty dollar, is what she’s doing, and in the end, that’s never enough to make a person truly happy.”
Luke wondered what her assessment would be of his life. His view of success had matched Hannah’s for a time. Money had certainly been high on his ex-wife’s measure of success, as well. Now he saw Grandma Jenny’s point. He’d made a lot of money, but he’d never been entirely happy, though he hadn’t been able to say why. That was another part of the reason he’d come to Seaview Key. He wanted to believe he’d get his priorities in order while he was here, maybe get back to the values he’d been taught by his parents, to the love of medicine he’d had when he first went into practice.
“Do you think Hannah will rediscover herself here?” he asked.
“I’m hoping,” she said. “I love this shabby old inn, no question about it. My parents built it and my husband and I had a good life running it and raising our kids here. Hannah had a good life here, too, though she’s chosen to forget that. She was surrounded by family and a tightknit community, not millions of strangers who are scared to even look each other in the eye on the street. You must know what I mean. It brought you back here, didn’t it?”
“Not to stay,” Luke said softly. “Just to get my bearings.”
She gave him a sly look. “Seems to me like the place you go to get your bearings ought to be home.” She tapped her glass to his. “Something to think about, don’t you agree?”
“You could have a point,” he conceded. “And maybe I did come here because this was once home. I wanted to recapture a simpler time in my life.” He met her gaze. “I’m not really sure it’s possible to do that, though. Maybe all I’m doing is postponing dealing with reality.”
“If you’d care to explain what you’re talking about, maybe I could help you figure it out,” she said. “Lots of folks think with age comes a little wisdom.”
“I don’t question that for a minute, and maybe one of these days we will talk more about what’s going on in my life,” he said.
She patted his hand. “Whenever you’re ready to tell me, I’ll be ready to listen. Now I need to start thinking about dinner. Kelsey—that’s Hannah’s daughter—will be hungry after eating nothing but airline food today. I’m thinking fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, good comfort food. How does that sound?”
“Like it’ll clog all our arteries,” he said. “And better than anything I’ve had in months.” He watched as she struggled to her feet. “You want some help?”
Her expression turned indignant. “The day I can’t get into this house on my own two feet is the day I’ll walk away from it and check into that retirement home Hannah’s so anxious for me to move into.”
The show of spunk made Luke chuckle. “I meant with dinner.”
“Now, that I can use. You know anything about cutting up a chicken?”
“I’m a surgeon. I think I can manage.”
She gave him a startled look. “Well, I’ll be. I hadn’t heard that.”
“My folks moved away before I went into medical school, much less chose a specialty,” he said.
Luke waited with dread for her to ask him a thousand and one questions about why he was hiding out in Seaview Key, instead of back home performing surgery.
Surprisingly, though, she just gave him a knowing glance and another pat on the hand. “Like I said, this is a good place for figuring things out.”
Luke was counting on that. It was a far cry from the hospital in D.C., its hallways crowded with wounded soldiers whose souls were as shattered as their limbs. Compared to that or the hell that had been his life in Baghdad or the complications waiting for him in Atlanta, Seaview Key was pure heaven.
Iraq, a few months earlier
The calendar on the wall in Luke’s quarters had big, bold X’s marked through the days. Practically from the minute he’d arrived in Baghdad, he’d begun counting down the time until he could go home again. He’d signed up for one year of active duty, partly out of patriotism and partly out of a sense of obligation. The army had paid for his medical degree, and though he’d already served the required amount of time in return, he still felt a moral duty to sign up for another tour when guys he’d served with were sent to Iraq.
He and Lisa had had a blowup of monumental proportions when he’d told her about his plan to volunteer for reenlistment.
“You got out of the military, Luke,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “How can you even consider this? You’ve paid your dues. You have a family now. You have kids. Your medical practice is growing. We’re finally financially stable. If you walk away from it now, what will that do to our income? Do you expect us to live on a soldier’s pay?”
He’d lost patience with her then. “Plenty of other military families are forced to do exactly that,” he’d told her. “Fortunately, we have a significant amount of money in savings and I’ll work it out with Brad that a percentage of the money from the practice will continue to provide for you and the kids while I’m gone. Come on, Lisa. You’re hardly going to starve and you know it. This is something I have to do. I have medical skill that’s badly needed over there.”
“And that’s more important than your family?” she’d demanded angrily.
“Not more important,” he’d said. “But sometimes you just have to do what you know in your heart is the right thing. If I can help to save just one kid’s leg so he’ll be able to walk again, then I have to do this.”
He’d seen in her eyes that she just didn’t get it. Maybe no wife would, especially when he was volunteering to put himself in harm’s way. He’d only known that it was where he needed to be, what he had to do.
Though she’d eventually resigned herself to his decision, she’d been no happier about it by the time he left. She’d pulled out every stop, heaped on every bit of guilt she could think of, and when the day of departure had come, she’d refused to see him off. He’d said goodbye to her and his kids at home. There’d been no one waving a flag or blowing him kisses when he’d finally taken off. He’d tried not to let it hurt, but it had.
Once he was in Iraq, though, he hadn’t had time for regret. He’d barely had time to sleep. The days flew by in a haze of misery and pain, too many soldiers, too many hours standing over an operating table, his back aching, his eyes blurring from exhaustion.
It was the successes that kept him going, and the e-mails from home. Lisa was good about that, at least, and so were the kids. As young as they were—Nate barely in kindergarten, Gracie only in second grade—they still managed to write, “I miss you, Daddy.” And every so often a package would arrive with home-baked cookies, photos of the birthday party he’d missed and drawings in crayon. The drawings went on the wall by the calendar on which he was marking off the days until he saw them all again.
“Doc, there’s another chopper setting down,” Kenny Franklin told him. “The OR’s set up. You ready?”
Luke tore his gaze away from the latest picture of his kids. “I’m on my way,” he told the young medic, already on his feet. He cast one last look at the snapshot, grinning at Nate’s gap-toothed smile. He’d gotten a whole dollar from the tooth fairy, he’d told Luke in an e-mail.
He thought about that a few minutes later when he was examining the soldier whose face had been sliced to ribbons by the same mine that had ripped off part of his leg. Nate’s smile would be whole in no time at all, the missing tooth replaced by another one. The boy on the table in front of him, not yet nineteen, according to his records, wouldn’t be that lucky. He’d be lucky to live. Only a decade or so older than Luke’s little girl, and this boy had put his life on the line for his country.
Luke had to steel himself against the tide of dismay washing over him as he snapped out orders and made his first incision. An hour later, it was over. The kid was dead. He’d lost too much blood and they hadn’t been able to seal off all the bleeders fast enough.
“Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, Doc,” Kenny said.
“Yeah, I know,” Luke responded. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.”
On days like this it was hard to remember that he’d come here to save lives. It was hard, in fact, to remember why he’d left his home, his family, his life for this. If he thought about the devastation waiting for some family back home, if he thought about any of it, he wouldn’t be able to function. All he could do was head back to his quarters and try to snatch a couple of hours of sleep before the next transport came in.
* * *
“Luke!”
The sound of Grandma Jenny’s voice snapped him back to the present.
“Luke, are you okay? You’re pale as a ghost. Sit down for a minute and I’ll get you something to drink.”
“I’m fine,” he said, then realized he was standing over a chicken with a knife in his hand. “I’ll just finish cutting this chicken up for you.”
“I can do that,” she said, nudging him aside. “Sit.”
Suddenly too exhausted to argue, he sat.
“You want to tell me where you went just then?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“Something tells me you ought to be talking to somebody about it. Bottling up the things that upset you isn’t good.”
“No, it’s not,” Luke agreed. But he’d talked this particular subject to death while he was in rehab and it hadn’t made the memories fade. If anything, they were clearer and more deeply embedded in his mind than ever.
“So, talk. You said you’re a surgeon. Where?”
“In Atlanta. At least, that’s where my practice is.”
“You have a family there?”
He got to his feet. “No offense, Grandma Jenny, but I can’t talk about any of this right now. I’m going for a walk, if you don’t mind.”
She gave him a hard look. “You’re not going to keel over the second you walk out the door, are you?”
He managed a faint smile. “I hope not.”
“Then go.” She shook a finger under his nose. “But don’t think I won’t still have the same questions tomorrow or the day after.”
“I never doubted it,” he said. “Right now, though, I need some fresh air.”
“You’ll be back for dinner, though, right?”
“I’ll be back,” he assured her.
He felt her concerned gaze on him as he left. There was something sweet about that. He couldn’t recall the last time anyone had cared about his comings and goings. His ex-wife had stopped caring months ago, by his calculations. His kids, well, right now they were mostly confused. Very soon, when he felt more centered and sure of himself, he needed to fix that. They needed to know that he still loved them, that he was going to be there for them. To do that, though, to make that commitment, he had to figure out who the hell he was now...or who he wanted to be.
“So, have yourself a damn pity party, why don’t you?” he muttered in disgust as he walked the few blocks into downtown, taking note of the many changes that had taken place since he’d left. Storefronts had been spruced up. There was more variety in the merchandise for sale. The tourists walking the streets tended to be families, rather than fishermen traveling solo. And a whole lot of people were riding around in golf carts, despite the fact that the nearest golf course was over on the mainland.
By the time he’d reached the small grocery store on the island, which was thankfully unchanged, he was in pain, but his mood had improved. He bought a half gallon of rocky road ice cream, which he vaguely recalled had once been Hannah’s favorite. Or was it Abby’s? At any rate, they’d eaten a lot of it way back when. Maybe it would be just the thing to put everyone in a good frame of mind tonight.
Then, again, that was asking a lot of a bowl of ice cream, no matter how big and decadent it was. Of course, at the pace he was walking these days, there was a good chance it would be soup by the time he got it back to the inn.
* * *
Kelsey took one look at the plate piled high with fried chicken and the huge bowl of creamy yellow mac and cheese and went running for the nearest bathroom. Morning sickness, which was a misnomer if ever she’d heard one, basically sucked. She hated heaving her guts out several times a day.
The doctor she’d seen assured her it would pass soon, but she wasn’t counting on it. She had a feeling this baby was going to punish her from now through eternity for not wanting it. If it wasn’t morning sickness, it would be something else...colic, or teething accompanied by cries of pain or, down the road, a teenage rebellion of monumental proportions. She figured she’d deserve every miserable minute.
Though she could hear the low murmur of voices from the kitchen while she was in the bathroom, the second she crossed the threshold, silence fell. Obviously they’d been talking about her. She hoped her mother hadn’t filled her great-grandmother in on the news of her pregnancy yet. Grandma Jenny was going to have a lot to say about it and Kelsey didn’t want to hear any of it. She’d made a mistake. She knew it. She was going to deal with it. What more was there to say?
Even her mom had known there was little to be said on the subject, because she’d been silent and withdrawn all the way from the airport to Seaview. Despite the careful silence, Kelsey had felt her judgmental stare every few minutes throughout the ride.
Now, as she glanced from her mom to Grandma Jenny, she caught a glimpse of someone else in the room who hadn’t been there a minute ago. She turned to get a good look at the man hovering near the sink. He seemed intense. Dark and good-looking, but definitely intense.
“Kelsey, this is Luke Stevens,” her mother said. “He’s staying here right now. We were friends when we were kids.”
Kelsey studied him curiously. All her visits to Seaview had been rushed and she’d rarely ever met anyone who’d known her mom years ago. As far as she knew, no one ever stuck around the island if they could get away. To hear her mom tell it, only losers stayed behind, but this guy didn’t look like a loser.
“Nice to meet you,” Luke said. “Seems as if you all have a lot to catch up on, so I’ll just fix myself a plate and head up to my room.”
“No,” Kelsey said, as did both her mother and Grandma Jenny.
“Besides, you went out and brought home all that ice cream,” Grandma Jenny added. “You need to sit right here and eat it with us.”
Luke stared at them with amusement. “Gee, I’ve never felt so wanted.”
Kelsey grinned, despite her lousy mood. “Every family needs a good buffer.”
“Nice to know I can fill a niche around here.” He stared pointedly at Grandma Jenny. “Though I thought I was here to do odd jobs for a couple of weeks.”
Grandma Jenny shrugged. “I’d say being a mediator for the three of us fits that, wouldn’t you?”
“Just warn me ahead of time if I’m going to need a weapon or body armor,” he said dryly.
Kelsey noted that even her mother had to fight a grin at that. As she munched on a handful of Saltines she’d managed to find in a cupboard, the rest of them dove into dinner. A few minutes later, Kelsey risked a little mac and cheese, then a chicken wing.
She looked around the table and suddenly felt the knot in her stomach ease for the first time since she’d found out about the baby. Maybe, like dinner, her life was going to turn out okay, after all.
Suddenly, acid burned the back of her throat and she bolted from the table.
As she wiped her face with a damp cloth after throwing up her dinner, she corrected herself. She was going to spend nine months heaving her guts out, the baby was going to arrive, and then things were going to get complicated, especially if Jeff refused to back away from his demand that they get married and keep this baby. In no scenario she could imagine would her life ever be okay again.
Chapter 5
Luke didn’t have to have a medical degree to know what was going on with Kelsey and why she’d come to Florida in the middle of the school year. She was pregnant. Hannah obviously knew it, which was why there’d been a pinched expression on her face when Kelsey had bolted for the bathroom for the second time since they’d arrived home from the airport. If Grandma Jenny knew, she wasn’t giving anything away. She just poured a glass of ginger ale, set it down on the table at Kelsey’s place and announced she was going to her room.
“Something tells me you and your daughter need to talk,” she said to Hannah, then looked pointedly at Luke. “They could probably use some privacy, too.”
Luke acknowledged the suggestion with a nod and stood up.
“That was subtle,” Hannah murmured after she’d gone. “Are you sure you want to stick around here after tonight? I told you it was going to get messy.”
“Do you want me to go?” he asked, studying Hannah’s expression. “I mean now. Earlier both you and Kelsey seemed anxious to have a buffer. Maybe an impartial third party could help.”
Hannah looked relieved. “To tell you the truth, I don’t want to get into any of this tonight and I imagine Kelsey would rather postpone it indefinitely. Stay, please.”
Luke acquiesced and sat back down, though not without some trepidation. “Does your grandmother know about the baby?”
“I haven’t told her, if that’s what you mean,” she said, not bothering to deny that her daughter was pregnant. “But she knows. I’m sure she noticed the handful of crackers that Kelsey grabbed earlier. That’s why she left that glass of ginger ale, too.”
“You okay?”
She gave him a wry look. “I’m not the one who’s still more than a year away from graduating from college and about to have a baby.”
“No, but you are the mother of a young woman who’s about to have one, and apparently without a husband, or am I wrong about that? Is there a wedding on the horizon?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” She regarded him sheepishly. “Then, again, apparently I’m the last to know a lot of things. I didn’t even know there was a man in her life.”
“Maybe there’s not,” he said, phrasing his words carefully.
“Oh, I’d say a man’s involved in this,” Hannah retorted.
He grinned at the evidence that she hadn’t entirely lost her sense of humor. “I meant anyone she’s serious about.”
“Are you suggesting she was just casually sleeping around?” she asked, her indignation stirring. “No way. I may not know much else, but I know that.” She sighed. “Truthfully, we haven’t broached the daddy factor yet. I just found out about this myself the night before last, right after I got down here. Kelsey flew here because I insisted. She’s not thinking very clearly right now. She wants to quit school and move back to New York.”
“And you disapprove?” He could read it in the set of her jaw and the tone of her voice.
“Strongly. Am I wrong?”
She gave him a surprisingly helpless look that made Luke want to fix this for her. He hardly had the right to even offer a suggestion, though. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he said eventually.
“Me, neither,” she admitted. “I don’t know if I have the right to push her to stay in school, or if it’s even the right thing to do. I’m out of my league with all this.”
“I don’t think any parent’s ever prepared for this moment.”
“Do you have kids?”
“Two, but they’re a lot younger than Kelsey. Thank God, I don’t have to worry about something like this for a long time.”
“Trust me, the time passes before you know it. A part of me still thinks of Kelsey in a frilly party dress, blowing out candles on a birthday cake, surrounded by a bunch of other toddlers. Instead, she’s this amazing young woman whose life is about to be turned upside down. If she were a different girl, if she’d been flighty or reckless, I could understand how this could happen, but she’s not. She’s always been very much in control of everything.”
The bathroom door opened and they fell silent. Kelsey looked pale and drawn, but she managed a wobbly smile.
“Sorry,” she said. She spotted the ginger ale and took a tentative sip. “Where’s Grandma Jenny?”
“She went upstairs,” Hannah told her.
“I think I will, too,” Kelsey said, avoiding Hannah’s gaze. “I know it’s early, but I’m beat. I’d like to sleep for a week.”
Hannah regarded her with disappointment. “I thought we could talk,” she said, though it sounded halfhearted.
“In the morning, Mom, please,” Kelsey said. “I’m just not up to it tonight.”
“Okay, sure.” Hannah was a little too quick to cave in, proving just how reluctant she was to have this conversation. “Get some rest, sweetie. I love you.”
Kelsey bent down and kissed Hannah’s cheek. “Love you, too. Good night, Luke. I swear I’ll be better company tomorrow.”
“Your company is just fine,” he said.
She grinned. “You actually said that with a straight face. I think I like you.”
Then she was gone and Luke was left alone with Hannah, who looked as if she were near tears.
“You’re not going to cry, are you?” he asked worriedly. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she did. He could handle combat better than he could deal with a woman’s tears. His wife had known that and used it to her advantage more times than he could count. The only time it hadn’t worked had been when he’d reenlisted in the army.
“It’s entirely possible that I’ll bawl my eyes out before the night’s over,” Hannah admitted. “You can run for your life, if you want to.”
Since she’d offered him an easy out, naturally he felt compelled to deny he wanted one. “Now, why would I do that? I’m just asking for advance warning, so I can get you some tissues. As for running me off, in general, let’s just accept that I’m here for the duration, okay?”
“You are gallant, aren’t you? Kelsey was right.” She dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. “Just for that, I will not cry. I’ll clean up these dishes and then make some iced tea. You want to join me for some on the porch?”
“Forget the tea,” he said. “I want some of that ice cream. How about you?”
Her eyes brightened perceptibly. “I’d forgotten all about that. What kind did you get?”
“Rocky road.”
She gave him a surprised look. “Was that a lucky coincidence or did you actually remember that was my favorite?”
He shrugged, his expression sheepish. “I remembered we ate an awful lot of it that summer I was hanging around here. It had to be somebody’s favorite.”
“Honesty. Wow, that’s a rarity. Most men would grab the credit for being that thoughtful,” she said.
“Only if they were trying to impress you, which I’m not.” His gaze met hers and he felt something shift. There was an unexpected spark that took him by surprise. If Hannah’s expression was any indication, she was as startled by it as he was. Talk about lousy timing. Both of them had way too much on their plates to consider adding another complication. Even so, it might be impossible to ignore this pull. It had been a long time since he’d been with anyone, an even longer time since he’d wanted a woman other than his wife. That had to explain this sudden spark between him and a woman who’d never been more than a friend. Whatever the reason, the reaction was undeniable.
“Maybe I should amend that,” he said quietly.
“Amend what?” she asked, a faintly breathless quality in her voice as their gazes held.
“I’m not trying to impress you yet.”
The moment seemed to last an eternity before she grinned and the spell was broken. “Let me know when you’re going to start trying,” she said lightly. “I think I’d better be prepared. Something tells me you’re a very dangerous man when you decide to throw yourself into something.”
He chuckled, relieved to be back on more familiar footing. Teasing her had always been one of his favorite pastimes. “Hannah Matthews, are you flirting with me?”
She blushed furiously. “You started it. Now, scoop up that ice cream, Luke. It’s gotten awfully warm in here.”
He deliberately held her gaze a bit longer, then grinned. “Indeed, it has.”
He retrieved the ice cream from the freezer, lingering with the door open in an attempt to cool down his overheated libido.
While he had his back to Hannah, he told himself he was an idiot. He was here to get his priorities in order. And her life appeared to be even more of a mess than his own. As much fun as flirting with Hannah—or a fling—might turn out to be, neither of them needed the potential heartache. He’d do well to remember that.
Besides, it had been years since he’d had a friend to confide in. That was the role he needed Hannah to play. This little zing he’d felt was an aberration. Tomorrow they’d go back to being pals the way they’d been years ago.
He was so busy formulating his plan that he didn’t notice right away that Hannah was staring at him with amusement. When he did, he muttered, “What?”
“That’s a lot of ice cream, even for you,” she said, gesturing toward the bowl, which must have had a whole pint scooped into it.
He grinned and shoved the bowl in her direction. “Actually that one’s for you. I recognize a woman in need of a chocolate fix when I see one.” He doled out a huge dollop of hot fudge sauce to prove it.
She eyed the bowl skeptically, then picked it up. “You could be right. Come on out to the porch when you’re finished.”
Luke told himself he ought to be anywhere except on the porch tonight, but when he had his own bowl filled with ice cream, he couldn’t seem to make himself climb the stairs to his room. Instead, he headed for the front door...and most likely straight for trouble.
* * *
“Why didn’t you tell me your daughter is pregnant?” Grandma Jenny demanded the second Hannah wandered into the kitchen in the morning following the aroma of coffee brewing.
Hannah wasn’t ready to have this conversation before she’d had caffeine. A lot of caffeine, in fact. She and Luke had been up way too late talking. They’d carefully avoided any repeat of the flirting that had gone on earlier, sticking to memories of old times, catching up on news of friends they’d each kept in touch with. He’d done a better job of that than she had. After a couple of hours of talking about old times and old friends—yet somehow avoiding any mention of Abby, who’d been so integral to both their pasts—they’d said a casual good-night and gone their separate ways. As they’d climbed the stairs, they’d kept a careful distance apart, pretending that the spark they’d both felt earlier had never happened.
Now Hannah deliberately ignored her grandmother, grabbed the biggest mug she could find and filled it to the brim with strong, fragrant coffee. Only when she’d had several sips did she dare to meet Grandma Jenny’s expectant gaze.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Luke staying here?” Hannah retorted, hoping to buy herself a couple of minutes, since she didn’t have any real answers about the whole lousy situation.
“Don’t try that with me,” Grandma Jenny said. “I told you yesterday why Luke’s here. Now I want to know why my great-granddaughter has shown up here with a baby on the way. And don’t deny it. I’m not so old that I can’t recognize the symptoms.”
“I wasn’t going to deny it,” Hannah said. “But to be honest, I haven’t asked her a lot of questions yet.”
“I left the two of you alone last night precisely so you could talk.”
“Never happened. She went to bed. Luke stayed.” She gave her grandmother a defiant look. “I asked him to.”
“I see.”
“I doubt it,” Hannah replied. “I was so thrown when Kelsey told me about the pregnancy the other night, I couldn’t think of anything to do except get her here so we could talk about it. Now that she’s here, I don’t know where to start.”
“The father seems like a good place to me. Where’s he in all this?”
Hannah shrugged. “Not a clue.”
“Don’t you think maybe you should ask?”
“I’ll get around to it. With Kelsey, it’s better to let things unfold at their own pace.”
Her grandmother rolled her eyes. “Up to you, but I’d recommend you get answers before that child’s due date.”
“Grandma Jenny?” Hannah was surprisingly hesitant. This whole disaster was so far beyond her ability to control or fix, she honestly didn’t know what to do next. “What on earth am I supposed to do?”
To her surprise, her grandmother pulled a chair up next to her and took her hand. “You keep on doing just what you’re doing. You’re here for her. So am I. Together, we’ll figure out what comes next,” she said matter-of-factly. “To do that, though, we need to get all the cards on the table.”
“You’re not upset that I told her to come?”
“Don’t be silly. This is your home as much as it is mine,” her grandmother reminded her. For once it seemed as if she was merely stating a fact, not sending a pointed message. “And that makes it Kelsey’s home, too. Where else should she go when there’s a crisis?”
“When she told me, all I could think about was convincing her to stay and finish college. I didn’t think for one second about how hard that would be or what would come later. She’ll have a baby to raise all on her own. She’s not ready for that.”
“None of us are entirely ready for a baby, no matter what we like to think,” Grandma Jenny told her. “Before your mama came along, I read every book. Made your grandfather read ’em, too, but it didn’t do a lick of good. Every baby’s different and every cry seems like a crisis until you get to know your own child. Eventually you just settle in and handle whatever comes along. Kelsey will, too. She’s your daughter, isn’t she? I imagine she has enough organizational skills and strength to get through this, even if the baby’s father isn’t in the picture.”
“Am I wrong to want her to finish her education, no matter what?”
“Getting a good education is never wrong, but you won’t know if now’s the time for it until you sit down and really listen to her, will you? In the end, this has to be her decision.”
“I suppose so.” Hannah leaned over and rested her head on her grandmother’s shoulder, taking comfort in the familiar rose scent of her cologne. “I love you, Gran. I know I came down here to bulldoze you into doing things my way, but I only did that because I love you and worry about you.”
Her grandmother winked. “Then it’s a good thing you’re not the only one in this family with a stubborn streak, isn’t it? I don’t get bulldozed that easily. Now, go upstairs and talk to your daughter. You two need to start figuring things out. And if you run into Luke while you’re up there, tell him he can take me to that hardware store on the mainland for some paint in an hour.”
“Paint? We bought paint,” Hannah protested.
“I’ve decided white’s too boring for the outside of an inn on the beach. Don’t know why I let you talk me into it.”
“Boring?” Hannah repeated nervously. “Meaning what?”
“I’m going with the turquoise, after all. Thank good-ness this isn’t one of those silly towns that go all crazy about permits for this and that. Do you believe some places even have a boring color palette you’re required to choose from? That’s not for me. I want to breathe new life into this place. We should stand out from the crowd.”
Hannah winced. “Are you sure?” She couldn’t imagine a new buyer being drawn to a turquoise structure, but she supposed that was the least of her worries. Grandma Jenny clearly didn’t intend to fall in with her plans for selling right now, anyway.
“I’m sure,” Grandma Jenny insisted. “But I’ll see if Luke agrees before I go wild.” She gave Hannah a sly look. “He seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Have you noticed that?”
Hannah regarded her with suspicion. “You don’t have some hidden agenda for Luke and me, do you?”
“I don’t even know if the man’s married,” her grandmother said innocently. “If you want me to, I’ll ask him while we’re out. Get the lay of the land, so to speak.”
Hannah groaned at the glint in her eyes. “Leave it alone, Gran. I’m sure Luke will tell us anything he wants us to know.”
“Some things it’s better to know at the outset,” her grandmother retorted firmly. “You deal with Kelsey. I’ll handle things with Luke.” She stood up. “Now that we have a plan, let’s get going. We can’t waste the whole day lollygagging around here.”
Hannah glanced longingly out the window toward the gentle waves lapping at the shore a few hundred feet away. Lollygagging sounded a whole lot better than going upstairs and facing her daughter. She was tempted to sneak out of the house and head straight for the beach, but a knowing look from Grandma Jenny told her she’d never get away with it. “Okay, okay, I’m going upstairs,” she said defensively.
“Now?”
“Now,” Hannah agreed, though with a hefty amount of reluctance. When had she turned into a woman who hoped that ignoring problems might make them go away? When had she developed this powerful desire to stick her head in the sand and pretend that everything was okay?
It had to be the influence of Seaview Key, she thought as she trudged up the stairs. And that was just one more reason she needed to get back to her busy, organized life. In New York, she was “Go-to-Hannah.” Down here, she was about to turn into someone who lacked motivation or drive or answers. Hannah, the slug. She shuddered at the thought.
* * *
Kelsey heard the tap on her door and knew it was her mom. “I have to go,” she told Jeff. “I’ll call you later.” She turned off her cell phone and jammed it into a bedside drawer before telling her mother to come in.
“Who were you talking to?” her mom asked.
“Nobody.”
“I heard your voice.”
“Must have been the radio,” Kelsey said.
Her mother’s gaze narrowed. “You’re lying, Kelsey, and you’re not very good at it, so don’t do it.”
Kelsey winced. “It was just a friend from school.”
“The baby’s father?”
“Why would you...?”
“You’re actually talking to the father of the baby?” her mother continued as if Kelsey hadn’t even attempted to deny it. “Why?”
“I never said—”
“Kelsey, how does this man feel about your being pregnant? What kind of man leaves you to deal with something like this all alone?”
“Mom, you don’t know what you’re talking about, so drop it, okay?”
“After your father, I think I do know a thing or two about men who can’t handle responsibility. You don’t want someone like that in your life, Kelsey. Forget about him now. You have your grandmother and me. We can see you through this.”
“This isn’t your life, Mom, and Jeff isn’t Dad. Far from it, in fact. I’m the one who doesn’t want to get married. I’m the one who’s having trouble facing all this. I don’t want a baby now. I’m not ready. I’d have an abortion, but Jeff got furious when I even mentioned the possibility, so I promised him I’d think about everything before I did anything that drastic.”
Kelsey felt awful when she saw the look of dismay that crossed her mother’s face. “I know you don’t believe in it, either, but how can I bring this baby into the world under these circumstances?”
“Sweetie, we don’t always get to choose the circumstances, but a child is a blessing, no matter when it comes along.”
“Really? Tell that to some poor woman who’s been raped.”
“Kelsey!”
“Well, it’s true. There are circumstances when it’s not a blessing, when the timing’s all wrong or the people are all wrong together or a thousand other reasons. Shouldn’t I have the right to say this is not right for me?”
She could tell her mother was struggling to be fair, to be impartial, even though she had very strong opinions of her own. And the truth was, after her initial desperate reaction to the pregnancy, Kelsey hadn’t been able to see herself getting an abortion, either.
“You do have a right to make your own choice, but only when you’ve weighed this very, very carefully,” her mom said. “This is one of those times when you can’t go back and undo an impulsive decision. You have to live with it for the rest of your life. And, to be honest, I’m probably not the best one to help you decide. We’re talking about my grandchild here. I might not have chosen this moment for him or her to come along, but that’s life. Things happen. We deal with them.”
Kelsey felt tears welling up. “I don’t want to deal with them. I don’t want to deal with this,” she said, and threw herself into her mother’s arms. “How did I screw everything up so badly?”
“I think we both know the answer to that,” Hannah said, a hint of levity in her voice. “Why don’t you tell me about Jeff? That might be a good place to start. You’ve never even mentioned him before, but he must be important if the two of you are about to have a baby together.”
Kelsey didn’t know how she felt about Jeff anymore. A part of her loved him. Another part was furious with him for his role in this predicament. Because her feelings about him were so conflicted, she said, “Could we go for a walk on the beach, instead? I think that’s what I need right now.”
Her mom looked as if she wanted to insist that they sit right here and talk, but eventually she relented. “Maybe a walk will do us both good,” she conceded. “Watching the waves come in, knowing they’ll still be doing the same thing tomorrow and the next day and long after we’re gone helps to put things in perspective. Problems never seem as huge and overwhelming by comparison.”
Kelsey gave her mom a wry look. “I was just thinking that maybe for a little while it would make me feel like a kid again.”
Hannah grinned. “Okay, that, too.”
“I remember the last time I was here, not for Grandma’s funeral, but before that. I was a junior in high school, I think, and you let me come down by myself during spring vacation.”
“Hardest thing I ever had to do, watching you get on that plane,” Hannah admitted as they slipped into sandals and walked across the street to the beach. “I knew you were old enough and responsible enough to travel alone, but it was terrifying for me. We’d never been separated for more than a couple of days before. I sat at the airport until the plane was in the air and then sat by the phone at home until you called me that afternoon. That was, without question, the longest week of my life.”
Kelsey regarded her with surprise. “Really? I thought you were glad that I was spending time down here, getting to know Grandma and Grandma Jenny.”
“I was. I wanted you to know the rest of your family, to feel that connection to them.” She gave Kelsey a rueful look. “I think I was scared you’d fall in love with Seaview Key. A lot of people who leave New York in the middle of winter and discover it’s possible to be warm in February develop an infatuation with Florida. And to someone who didn’t grow up here, Seaview Key does have its charms.”
“Like being able to walk to the beach from your house and having everyone in town know who you are,” Kelsey said, pausing to kick off her sandals and dig her toes into the cool sand at the water’s edge. “I couldn’t believe it when I went to the store with Grandma and every single person said hello and called me by name. They all knew who I was. At least, the locals did. It was kind of cool.”
“I didn’t think so when I was a kid and every one of those people would call my house if they saw me misbehaving,” her mom countered. “I’d walk in the door and your grandmother and Grandma Jenny would be waiting for me, ready to let me have it.”
“I guess that would suck.” Kelsey grinned. “Did you misbehave a lot?”
“Enough,” Hannah admitted.
“Tell me,” Kelsey begged. “Come on, Mom, spill everything.”
“I am not going to give you ammunition to use against me,” Hannah retorted indignantly, but she was grinning.
“I’ll just ask Grandma Jenny,” Kelsey threatened. “I bet she remembers every bad thing you ever did.”
“I don’t doubt it. She always took great pleasure in telling me I’d messed up.”
Kelsey’s mood sobered. “Mom, you know she and Grandma really loved you and were proud of you, right?”
Hannah stared at her. “What makes you think that?”
“They told me. When I was here, they asked a million questions about your job and your friends and all the places we’d been. I wish they’d visited us more in New York.”
“I invited them, but they hated it the one time they came,” her mother replied defensively. “I offered to send them plane tickets every single Christmas, but they always came up with an excuse and it always had something to do with the inn.”
“It was their business, Mom,” Kelsey said impatiently. “You, of all people, should understand about responsibility. Until you got sick, I don’t think I ever remember you taking a real vacation.”
“We traveled all the time,” her mother protested.
“Only if you had to go somewhere for work. I hated those trips. When I was little, you’d leave me shut up in the hotel with some babysitter. When I was older you let me go sightseeing, but it was no fun doing that all alone while you were working.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“It was exactly like that,” Kelsey insisted. “Sure, we went to all sorts of exciting cities, but you never had any fun and I was always lonely.”
Her mother looked crestfallen. “I’m sorry. I never realized you felt that way. I always thought how amazing it was that you were getting to travel to places I’d never even dreamed of when I was your age.”
Kelsey felt guilty about ruining her mom’s memories of those trips. “It wasn’t all bad,” she told her. “Room service could be pretty awesome. It certainly spoiled me for staying in your basic motel.”
Her mom groaned. “Make me feel even worse, why don’t you.”
“Mom, I didn’t say any of that to make you feel bad. I was just trying to make a point about you being as much of a workaholic as your mother and Grandma Jenny. I think you have more in common with them than you realize.”
“I don’t think so. We always argued about everything. You don’t know what it was like.”
Kelsey chuckled. “Really? Come on, Mom. Think about it. You and I have our moments. It comes with the territory. It wasn’t until the past couple of years, when we’ve had some space between us, that we stopped arguing and started treating each other like actual people, instead of mother and daughter. You just moved away from here so I don’t think that ever happened between you and your mom. She was actually pretty amazing.”
“Well, I know that,” her mother responded, that defensive note creeping back into her voice.
“Do you really? Did you know she was on her college swim team? Did you know that she was the first woman president of the Chamber of Commerce here?” Kelsey saw the flush in her mother’s cheeks. “You didn’t, did you?”
“No. How do you know that?”
“Because we talked, just like you and I are doing now. Every day I was here, we would walk on the beach and she’d tell me stories about this place and her life. And at night, on the porch, Grandma Jenny would tell me things about her past, too.”
“Such as?”
“She won a prize once for doing the tango in a dance competition.”
“Grandma Jenny? You have to be kidding.”
Kelsey chuckled at her stunned reaction. “Not kidding. It’s true. She and Great-Grandpa could really dance. He sang, too.”
“In the church choir,” her mother said slowly. “I remember hearing him when I was little.”
“Not just in the choir. With a band. They played all over Florida. She showed me pictures.”
Her mother turned to her with a bewildered expression. “How did I miss all this?”
Kelsey shrugged. “Maybe you never asked or never listened.”
“Probably not.”
“Let’s never be like that, Mom, okay?”
“Never again,” Hannah said pointedly.
“I love you,” Kelsey said impulsively, giving her a fierce hug.
“Love you more.”
“Thanks for letting me come here. I know you’d be happier if I were in school, but I need this time to think and I needed to do that here. Not even in New York, but right here with you and Grandma Jenny.”
Maybe on Seaview Key she could start to understand who she really was and where she came from in a way that would be impossible anywhere else. Maybe she could figure out what family was supposed to be, so the thought of creating one of her own wouldn’t be so absolutely terrifying.
Chapter 6
Luke managed to avoid Hannah for most of the day. First, he’d gone to the mainland with Grandma Jenny to exchange the paint she and Hannah had bought. When they got home late in the afternoon, he made an excuse about needing some time to himself and walked into town.
Seaview’s official downtown, which was a few blocks farther away from the inn than the mom-and-pop grocery store he’d walked to the night before, had grown over the years, but it still wasn’t much. There were two or three new restaurants, maybe half a dozen clothing boutiques and gift and antiques stores, and a couple of places that called themselves art galleries. He was no expert, but the works on display seemed more like some of the crafts his kids brought home from school than high-end art. Still, it made him smile to see that Seaview had gone upscale. In the old days, those spaces had sold bait and tackle and cheap T-shirts.
Though he’d had no particular destination in mind when he’d left the inn, he found himself in front of The Fish Tale, an unpretentious place that used to offer the best grouper sandwiches he’d ever tasted, along with ice-cold beer. The memory of that particular combination drew him inside.
He aimed straight for the bar and was stunned when he recognized the man behind it. Jackson Ferguson—Jack to his friends—had opened the place thirty years ago. Luke could remember the occasion as if it had been yesterday. As rustic as it was, it was the first real restaurant, besides the local diner and a couple of hot dog and hamburger stands, that catered to beachgoers. There’d been one bar that had catered to a rowdier crowd, but for too many years the full-time population of Seaview had been too small to support anything more.
There’d been balloons out front to celebrate The Fish Tale’s opening, a small room with pinball machines off to one side to keep kids entertained, and a determinedly family atmosphere throughout. No one ever got drunk and unruly on Jack’s watch. If anyone had a few too many before Jack caught them and put a stop to it, they were escorted outside and tucked into the island’s only cab for a hasty ride home. If the cab driver—former New York cabbie John Blake—had gone home for the night, the cop on duty would provide the shuttle service.
Right now, Jack was busy at the far end of the bar, so Luke had a minute to study him. He still looked tanned and fit, though his face was more weatherbeaten than Luke remembered. He was filling orders with the alacrity and friendliness of someone who loved talking to people. When he spotted Luke, he blinked and then a grin spread across his face.
“Luke Stevens, I never expected to see you back in Seaview.”
Luke reached across the bar and shook his hand. “I never expected to be here, either. How’s Greta?” he asked, referring to Jack’s beloved wife, who’d worked this place by his side.
Jack’s expression fell. “Lost her last year,” he said gruffly. “Heart attack. Damn near killed me, too, but this place doesn’t run itself, and in the end, it saved me.”
“I’m sorry. How about your kids? Are they still in Seaview?”
Jack pulled a draft and set it in front of Luke without asking if he wanted it. “Bill left right after high school, same as you. He had big dreams. Made good on ’em, too. He’s a lawyer now. He works over in Biloxi. His home got hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, so the family came here for a couple of months, then went back to rebuild.”
“And Lesley Ann?”
“You stick around tonight, you might see her. She’s pregnant with her third baby and about two minutes from her due date, but that hasn’t slowed her down any. She’s over here once a day like clockwork to pester me about working too hard, telling me to hire more help.” He shook his head. “That woman can nag worse than her mama.”
Luke grinned. He’d had one memorable date with Lesley Ann and she’d done the same thing to him, nagged him from start to finish. Apparently some things never changed. “I’d like to meet the man she married,” he said. “He must be very tolerant.”
“That man worships the ground she walks on. He just lets all her talk roll right off his back. Maybe that comes with marrying later in life. They were thirty when they met, eloped two weeks later and never looked back.” He shook his head. “Listen to me going on and on. Did you want something to eat to go with that beer?”
“You still have fried grouper sandwiches and fries?”
“Put us on the map,” Jack said. “Of course we do. You want a table, you’d better get one now. This place’ll be crowded in another half hour or so.”
“I’m good here,” Luke said.
“I’ll put in your order and check in on you from time to time.”
“Thanks, Jack. It’s good to see you.”
The older man started toward the kitchen, then turned back. “You staying at Seaview Inn?”
Luke nodded.
Jack shook his head. “I feel real bad for Jenny. She loves that place, but I don’t see how she’s going to keep up with it now that her Maggie’s gone. I hear Hannah’s here now, but that she’s not staying.”
“That’s my impression,” Luke said.
“It’s a shame when there’s no one left to take over a family business. I’d figured on leaving this place to Bill, but ironically it’s Lesley Ann who’s taken to it. Once she has this baby, she’ll be back here full time, pestering me to modernize this or to experiment with the menu.” He shook his head. “I hope I don’t live to see the day when she refuses to serve fried food. She already carries on about transfats.”
Luke laughed. “I hear you.”
“I’d best get your order in so you can finish it before she turns up. Otherwise, you’ll be in for a lecture on what it’s doing to your arteries.”
Luke didn’t waste time telling him he already knew—probably better than Lesley Ann—the dangers of fried foods. But some food was meant to be cooked that way and he figured he’d survive anything in moderation.
Once he was alone with his cold beer and his thoughts, he tried to make himself focus on the future, but all that came to him was an image of going back to Atlanta to a life nothing like the one he’d left behind. Atlanta was big enough that he and Lisa could probably co-exist and maybe even manage to be civil to each other for the sake of his kids, but going back to his medical practice was out of the question. The man who’d once been his best friend and business partner had moved in on his wife the minute his back was turned. Luke doubted he’d ever be able to see Brad Reilly without wanting to punch his face in. He could hardly practice medicine with him.
Just thinking about Brad with Lisa stirred his temper. He couldn’t decide which of them he hated more. Betrayal, no matter how it happened, was devastating, but his best friend—the man he’d trusted to look out for his family while he was in Iraq—and his wife? He could still recall exactly how he’d felt when Lisa had told him in an e-mail. He could still feel the sense of shock as he read the words, the twisting pain in his gut as they sank in, and then the numbness that had followed.
What kind of woman told a man something like that when he was far from home, facing danger every single minute of every day? What kind of man blindsided a trusted friend by taking advantage of such a situation?
He knew the answer, of course. They were both self-absorbed. He’d known that about Brad since the day they’d met. Of every intern and resident he’d worked with, Brad’s vanity had been legendary. Luke had looked past that and seen that he was a damn fine surgeon. Their partnership had been based on mutual respect of their abilities. Their friendship, apparently, had been built on quicksand.
As for Lisa, on some level he’d probably recognized the same trait in her, though it hadn’t been exposed until the moment he’d told her about doing a tour of duty in Iraq. She’d made it plain just how unhappy she was, but he hadn’t expected her to repay him by going out and having an affair with someone. He wondered if she’d gotten involved with Brad specifically because she knew that would cut out his heart.
Before he could sink all the way into a really good depression, Jack was back with his meal and another beer. He studied Luke intently for a minute.
“You need a side of conversation with that?” he asked, his expression concerned.
Luke forced a smile. “Not tonight, thanks.”
“You change your mind, I’m always around,” Jack said. “This job should earn me a degree in psychology. I’ve heard just about everything at one time or another.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke promised.
“You going to stick around Seaview for a while?”
Luke nodded. “For a while.”
“Okay, then, I’ll let you get to your dinner before it gets cold. Holler if you need anything.”
Unfortunately, Luke figured what he needed wasn’t served in The Fish Tale, not unless Jack had a fortune-teller on staff that could offer him a clearer picture of the future than he’d seen for himself. The one he envisioned seemed pretty darn bleak.
* * *
After her walk with Kelsey, Hannah returned to the inn determined to take advantage of the afternoon and evening to get a start on some of the cleaning and paperwork that had to be done. Kelsey might be here to sort through the decisions she was facing, but Hannah had flown down here to get this place ready to sell. Despite Grandma Jenny’s strong objections, that was still the plan.
Dragging a vacuum cleaner, dust rags and furniture polish with her, she went from room to room in the guest wing, only to find that the rooms were already in good shape. Apparently her grandmother had gotten there ahead of her, either to prove she was still capable of running the place or in anticipation of reopening.
She approached Luke’s room last, but couldn’t seem to make herself open the door with her passkey. It felt too much like an invasion of his privacy. Or maybe she feared learning something about him she didn’t want to know...such as whether or not there was a woman waiting for him back home.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she muttered under her breath, and forced herself to go inside.
To her surprise the large room was neat as a pin. The few clothes Luke had brought with him hung in the closet. Towels had been placed on the racks in the bathroom, rather than tossed in a damp heap on the floor. The bed had been made with an almost military precision, sheets tucked in tight, the spread smoothed. If there was a speck of dust anywhere, she couldn’t find it. Nor did she see anything personal beyond a snapshot of two kids—a gap-toothed boy and a girl—stuck into the frame of the mirror above the dresser.
Drawn to the view from the spacious room, she stood by the window and saw Luke’s car turn into the driveway. Her grandmother emerged with several packages as Luke unloaded cans of exterior paint and set them on the porch. Hannah shook her head when she saw a sample streak of the bright turquoise color dabbed on the side of one can. Apparently Luke had approved of Grandma Jenny’s choice.
Expecting to hear the sound of voices when they came inside, she slipped hurriedly from Luke’s room and shut the door securely. To her surprise, she was greeted with silence following the familiar slap of the screen door swinging closed.
As she descended the steps, her grandmother glanced up with a startled expression.
“Hannah, what on earth are you doing?”
“I was going to clean the guest rooms, but they didn’t need it.”
“Well, of course not. I cleaned them just a few days ago myself.”
“Gran, that’s too much for you,” Hannah protested.
“Don’t be silly. Besides, Jolene Walker’s girl, Macey, comes over once a week to help me. She scrubs the bathrooms and gets down on her hands and knees to dust around the baseboards.”
“She does a good job,” Hannah conceded reluctantly.
“Do you think I’d keep her on if she didn’t?”
Hannah bit back a sigh. “How did your shopping trip go? I see you got the color paint you wanted.”
Grandma Jenny’s expression brightened. “Luke agreed with me that a little color was just what this place needed.”
“Did he really? Or did you bully him into saying what you wanted to hear?”
“He’s a man who knows his own mind. Besides, I was asking his opinion. Why would I bully him into anything?”
Hannah dropped the no-win subject. “Where’s Luke now?”
“He went for a walk. He told me he’d get supper in town.” She gave Hannah a sly look. “He mentioned something about The Fish Tale. You could join him if you wanted to. I can fix something for Kelsey. It’ll give us a chance to talk. Maybe I can get to the bottom of what’s going on with her.” She paused. “Unless you managed to do that.”
“We talked. She told me the baby’s father wants to marry her, but she’s not ready for that. Then she changed the subject.”
“And you didn’t push?”
“I thought it would be counterproductive,” Hannah admitted.
“Well, I’m not so timid.” She waved Hannah toward the door. “Go on now. Take a walk and see if you can find Luke. Maybe you’ll have better luck figuring out what’s going on with him than you had with Kelsey.”
“What makes you think there’s something going on with Luke?”
“He appears back here after all these years without any explanation. He’s all alone. A man who looks as good as he does ought to have a woman in his life, a family.”
“He has children, so there must be a woman.”
“Well, she’s not with him, is she?” Grandma Jenny said. “Don’t even try to tell me you’re not curious. I saw you studying him the other night. And I remember the look in your eyes when he and Abby used to be over here every single day. You had a crush on that boy then, and something tells me it wouldn’t take much to spark it again.”
“You see entirely too much,” Hannah muttered.
“And I can hear, too, so don’t be making comments under your breath,” her grandmother retorted.
Hannah chuckled, despite her annoyance. “Just stop matchmaking, okay? Promise me.”
Her grandmother gave her a guileless look. “What can I say? It’s second nature. Besides, you need a man in your life. A real man and not some ne’er-do-well who’ll take off, rather than face his responsibilities.”
Hannah didn’t want another lecture on her ex-husband. That water was too far under the bridge. “I’m going to put these things back in the supply closet and then I’m taking a walk,” she announced.
Her grandmother gave a nod of satisfaction. “Tell Jack I said hello.”
“I never said I was going to The Fish Tale.”
Grandma Jenny shrugged. “You’re a fool if you don’t, and I don’t think we raised any fools in this house.”
“You just finished telling me I made a foolish choice when it came to picking a husband,” Hannah reminded her.
“You were young. It was a mistake. Now you have a second chance to do things right.”
“Why are you so sure Luke would be right? You don’t know anything about his life since he left here.”
“I know enough,” she replied. “And I’ve seen that look in his eyes before. He’s seen his share of sorrows. A man who feels things that deeply has strength of character.”
“If you say so,” Hannah said doubtfully. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and fix dinner?”
“I already told you I want some time alone with my great-granddaughter.”
Dismissed, Hannah put away the cleaning supplies, washed her face and hands and brushed on a light coating of lipstick. As she gazed at her reflection in the mirror, she noticed that her cheeks had some much-needed color in them. Her hair, usually tamed with spray, was windblown from her earlier walk on the beach and had more curl than she was accustomed to. She looked almost carefree and relaxed. Which was a lie, given everything she had on her mind, but maybe for a few hours she could pretend that all was right in her world.
And her grandmother was correct about one thing: Luke was the most intriguing male distraction to cross her path in eons. She’d enjoyed talking to him on the porch last night. She’d enjoyed testing her out-of-practice flirting skills on him. If that was as far as things ever went between them, it would be enough to remind her that, cancer or not, her life wasn’t over yet. She needed to live every moment that remained as if it might be her last.
* * *
Hannah strolled through town, assuring herself that The Fish Tale didn’t have to be her destination. She could explore for an hour or so and go home. Luke would never have to know that she’d gone out intending to track him down.
She shook her head. She was acting like a teenager with her first crush. How many times had she and Abby plotted to run into Luke “accidentally on purpose”? More times than she could count. None of those encounters had had the desired result, though. It had taken something far more dramatic to finally catch Luke’s attention. Abby had nearly drowned and Luke had saved her. Afterward, he’d finally taken notice. From then on three of them had been inseparable. The situation had tortured Hannah, who’d developed her own crush on Luke but kept silent about it, especially after Luke had chosen Abby. Girlfriends didn’t poach. Luke was as off limits to her as if he and Abby had had rings on their fingers.
When she reached The Fish Tale, she stood outside the door debating whether to go inside.
“The food’s really good,” a chipper voice announced behind her. “I can vouch for it. My family owns the place.”
Hannah whirled around, a smile spreading. “Lesley Ann?”
“Oh, my gosh, Hannah! I can’t believe it,” Lesley Ann said, enveloping her in a hug made awkward by the size of her belly.
“You’re having a baby,” Hannah said, standing back to look at her. “And you’re absolutely glowing.”
“My third,” Lesley Ann told her. “He’s due any minute, so I’m not even supposed to be here, but I like to come down and check on Dad about this time every day. Since my mom died, he works too hard, but getting him to slow down is like talking to a wall. I imagine you’re having the same problem with Jenny.”
“Oh, yeah,” Hannah confirmed.
“Come on, let’s go in. I’ll treat you to dinner on the house,” Lesley Ann offered.
Hannah nodded, relieved not to be walking in alone.
Lesley Ann pulled open the door and stepped inside. “Hey, Dad, look who I found lurking on the sidewalk.”
Just as she spoke, Luke slowly swiveled around on his seat at the bar and met Hannah’s gaze. His lips quirked into a smile, though Hannah wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or Lesley Ann.
“And look who turned up here earlier,” Jack called back to his daughter, gesturing toward Luke. “Why don’t you three find yourselves a table and catch up? I’ll bring over some drinks. Hannah, what can I get you? A beer? Soda? Something to eat?”
“A beer and a fish sandwich,” she said at once.
“Just some water for me, Dad,” Lesley Ann said, then wove her way between the tables. “Let’s take that empty table by the window, instead of a booth,” she added, rubbing a hand protectively over her stomach. “This tummy of mine doesn’t fit in the booths so well at the moment.”
She led the way toward a table and pulled out a chair before Luke could get to it. He shrugged and gestured for Hannah to sit in the one he’d pulled out.
“Same old independent streak,” he said to Lesley Ann.
“My mother taught me well,” she retorted. “Now, tell me everything about yourselves. Hannah, you’re living in New York, right?”
“Yes, and working in public relations.”
“That sounds so exciting. Do you love it?”
“I do. It’s everything I ever wanted,” she claimed, then wondered why, if that was true, she wasn’t happier these days. It had to be because of all the pressure she was under lately, not any dissatisfaction with her life.
“Luke, how about you?” Lesley Ann asked. “I haven’t heard anything about you since your folks moved away while you were still in college.”
“There’s not that much to tell,” he said tightly. His expression shut down momentarily, then turned to relief when Jack came over with their drinks and Hannah’s sandwich.
Hannah took her first bite, then sighed. “It’s every bit as good as I remembered.”
Luke grinned. “I said the same thing.”
“Well, of course it is,” Lesley Ann said indignantly. “It was Mama’s recipe and we don’t let anyone mess with it.”
“I hear you’re going to take over one of these days,” Luke said.
“I am, that is, if I can ever talk Dad into retiring.” She glanced toward the bar where Jack was once more chatting with a customer. “How can I push it, though, when this place is all that keeps him going now that Mama’s gone? You must know what I mean, Hannah. It must be like that for your grandmother since your mom died. Seaview Inn must mean more to her than ever.”
Hannah nodded slowly, hating to admit that Lesley Ann was right. “But I don’t see how she can keep up with it at her age.”
“Hire someone to help her,” Lesley Ann said matter-of-factly. “Or come back here yourself. I know you two were both anxious to get away from Seaview. I suppose we all were back then. But I have to tell you, I appreciate it now. It’s been a great place to raise kids and the slow pace is just right for me. Tourist season is a madhouse, but the rest of the year there’s plenty of time to catch my breath.”
Hannah didn’t want to cast a damper on her enthusiasm, but it was already the height of the tourist season, and by her standards, Seaview was as slow-paced and boring as ever. Sure, business was hopping here at The Fish Tale, but what else was there to do in town?
“I’m afraid I’d lose my mind living here,” she admitted. “I’m used to going to the theater and concerts, to going out for any kind of ethnic food I want, and to spending an afternoon at a museum or an art gallery when I have the time.”
Luke studied her intently as she spoke, then asked, “When was the last time you had the time? According to your grandmother, you’re a workaholic.”
Hannah winced but saw little reason to deny it. “Okay, yes, I am, but it’s all there if I want to go,” she said.
“It’s wasted if you don’t take advantage of it,” he said.
There had been a time when she had, she remembered. She’d studied the endless list of gallery openings in the paper and chosen the ones she wanted to attend. She’d gone to free concerts practically every weekend, scraped up money for a balcony seat at the ballet or the latest Broadway musical. Even with money tight, she’d seen to it that Kelsey was exposed to every bit of culture that New York had to offer. When had that changed? Now she had enough money and sufficient contacts to sit front row center at just about anything in the city and she rarely took the time to go anywhere.
“Where do you live?” she asked Luke. “I’ll bet it’s not anyplace like Seaview. I’ll bet it’s a big city that’s bustling with things to do.”
“I was living in Atlanta,” he said, suddenly looking distant again.
“Was?” she repeated, studying his expression for some clue about why he’d phrased it like that. “Aren’t you going back there?”
“Maybe,” he said, then shrugged. “Probably.”
“Why so noncommittal?” Lesley Ann asked.
“Long story,” he said succinctly. “And it’s getting late. I need to get some rest if I’m going to start painting in the morning.”
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Sherryl Woods
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: Hannah Matthews is undeniably tough—a single mom, a top-tier PR exec, a breast cancer survivor. She prides herself on being go-to Hannah, who can handle any crisis.But with her grandmother balking at going into a retirement home, her daughter unexpectedly pregnant and an old flame suddenly underfoot, Hannah is facing a few crises of her own. And being back home on Seaview Key is definitely adding to the stress.Luke Stevens understands crisis. While serving in Iraq, his wife dumped him for his best friend—with whom Luke shares his medical practice. Seaview Key seems like the perfect place to hide out for a while. The last thing he expects is to fall in love…with his old hometown and with Hannah.Sometimes, though, the unexpected is just what it takes to heal the heart.