A Small-Town Reunion (5 page)

“Damn.” He shoved out of his chair and stalked to the window, staring at that jade-green sweep of lawn, at the ribbony drive leading to the iron gates, and he felt it all weigh on him until he could barely draw breath for his next words. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“I’m in excellent health, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Then why did you choose to discuss this with me now? And why are you giving me Chandler House?” He turned to face her, his fingers gripping the sill. “Why not leave it to Tess? She loves this place.”

“Yes, she does. But I’ll see to it that she has the means to build a house of her own design. A new house, a unique one. A home that reflects her talents as an architect. She’ll prefer that, I’m sure.”

“Have you asked her? No, of course not,” he said. “She’d have told me.”

“The only person I’ve discussed this with is Ben.”

Ben Chandler, Geneva’s favorite cousin. Ben would
soon marry her friend, Maudie Keene. Charlie Keene’s mother, his new friend Jack’s soon-to-be in-law. Incestuous place, Carnelian Cove.

Geneva calmly sipped her coffee. “I notice you haven’t asked why the estate won’t be inherited by anyone else.”

Dev snorted. His grandmother had never disguised her displeasure in her children or their choices. “I don’t blame you for skipping a generation,” he said.

“No.” Geneva’s faint sigh hinted of weariness. “There’s slightly less…satisfaction there. Besides, I doubt Tess’s mother would care to abandon the city’s social whirl for the quiet of the Cove. She’d sell this place in a flash.”

“And break Tess’s heart.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I could sell it to her.”

“To Tess? She wouldn’t take it, not like that.” Geneva set her cup aside. “Quinn wouldn’t let her.”

“What makes you think I won’t sell it to someone else? Someone outside the family?”

Geneva’s mouth curled, catlike, at the edges. “Would you sell it, Devlin?”

He couldn’t say it; he couldn’t disappoint her. Not again.

Overwhelmed by the challenges of this place—and dreading this favor his grandmother wanted to ask of him—he turned and stared again at the seemingly endless horizon stretching over the countless ocean swells.

“Damn,” he whispered.

A
DDIE FOUND IT INCREASINGLY
difficult to stay focused on her task Saturday afternoon. She hunched at her desk, staring at a depressing spreadsheet and gloomy financial projections on her monitor. Manipulating the figures led her to the same conclusions, even with the outrageously high fee she’d charged Geneva as a down payment for her repair work, her business was still listing in a sea of red ink.

She saved and closed her files and refocused on a much more pleasant scene beyond her shop windows. Bathed in soft sunshine and balmy weather, tourists strolled along Cove Street, stopping for a treat at Giulietta’s Gelateria or pausing to admire the merchants’ displays. It looked as though Cal Penfold’s wine shop was enjoying a brisk business today, and Becca Spaulding seemed to be selling quite a lot of her handmade jewelry.

Addie silently willed the browsers to do more than briefly admire her art before moving on. She’d increase her chances of a sale by at least one hundred percent if only someone would open her door and enter.

One young couple stopped and studied a circular piece in a fruitwood frame—a fanciful rainbow trout foiled in copper with a verdigris finish. The man
seemed intrigued, pointing out the brilliant colors and the contrasting textures of the seedy-glass fish and the rough-rolled blues Addie had chosen to represent rippling, shimmering water. The woman shook her head, and the couple moved on.

With a silent sigh, Addie stood and stretched some of her tension away. Rather than stare at columns of numbers or dig into repair work or watch potential customers pass her by, she decided to take a break and enjoy the view on the opposite end of her work space.

Mick O’Shaughnessy bent at the waist to measure and mark a length of shelving. His biceps flexed beneath tan skin as the blade buzzed through the wood, and his blond-tipped locks swung over his forehead. He straightened with the short board in hand, winked at her and sidled through the gap in her counter to nail the new piece in place on the sidewall storage bins.

A woman had to appreciate having her very own handyman, especially when he looked and moved like a big, tawny lion, all golden tones and rippling power. She wasn’t fooled by his slow and easy manner—she’d seen him in explosive action on the ball field, twisting to make a dramatic catch, bulleting the ball to the infield or smashing a home run into the stands. And she was no longer taken in by his slouchy Texas twang—she’d heard too many examples of his biting wit and keen intellect.

She’d met Mick nearly four weeks earlier, when Jack and Quinn had arranged an outing to the local minor league park. Tess had played matchmaker, and Addie had gone along with her plans. Since then, she and the ballplayer had shared a handful of casual dates and several sweet, lingering kisses. There might have
been more between them, but his team had been on the road a great deal, and they both worked long hours.

Which was a thin and shabby excuse.

Mick offered everything a woman should want: kindness, generosity, a sense of humor, a solid work ethic. So why didn’t Addie want him as much as she should?

She’d told herself, at first, that she didn’t want to become seriously involved with a man who might be leaving Carnelian Cove at the end of the ball season. Now that her two best friends were getting married and settling down, she’d renewed those same goals for herself—with an emphasis on that settling down part. And settling down meant staying here, in the Cove.

But the fact was that she and Mick didn’t generate the right kind of heat, that white-hot passion that fused a couple together and promised to keep their bond toasty for the long haul. Still, she liked him well enough to hope he might make the Cove his home. And she cared for him enough to dream their relationship might deepen, that their friendship could somehow catch on fire and move to the next step.

It could happen. Relationships took a lot of work, at times, and it was only reasonable that some of them might need more of that work in the early stages. She was willing to try. Was Mick?

“A penny for your thoughts,” he said.

“Huh?” Addie blinked, her cheeks warming as she realized she’d been staring at him. “Oh. Well.” She gestured awkwardly at her desk. “I’m not sure I have any pennies to spare.”

The bell over her door signaled a customer, and she turned to greet a woman and her young daughter. Mick
quietly slipped behind her counter to take a break at her work bench. He sipped from his can of soda while she answered their questions about mosaic supplies and sold them a kit for assembling a pretty mirror frame.

“Given any more thought to those stained-glass lessons you mentioned?” Mick asked after her customers had left. He’d returned to his project, hooking his tape over the edge of a board to measure for another length of shelving. “I know a couple of people who might be interested in signing up.”

Addie sank into her desk chair and smoothed a hand over her paperwork. “It’s a frustrating situation. I know I’d sell more supplies. And I’d earn some extra money from tuition, of course. But first I’d have to spend some money to get things set up for the class. Money I don’t have to spare right now.”

“Money for what?” Mick pressed his nail gun against the base of the storage-bins shelf and pulled the trigger.
Whomp.
“Stocking up on those supplies you’re going to end up selling anyway?”

“Money for an expanded work area for the students to use. More table surface, more outlets for the irons. Better lighting.”

She wandered around her current worktables, visualizing the setup. She’d have to move some boxed inventory into her cramped living quarters temporarily, but she’d gladly sacrifice space for income. “I’d need to replace the bit on one of my old grinders or buy a new machine for the students to use. And I’d need to enlarge the grinder bench to hold it.”

“Good thing you know a carpenter.”

“Mick.” Addie sucked in a deep breath and turned
to face him. “I can’t keep relying on you to help me out like this.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“If I can’t afford to buy materials, I can’t afford the labor.”

“How about a trade?” He bent to measure another length of wood. “My mama’s birthday is coming up real soon, and I’ve left my shopping until the last minute, like I always do. You’d be doing me a big favor if you let me take my pick of one of those pretty glass pictures hanging in your window. I’m sure she’d love it.”

“None of those pieces is worth as much as what I’d owe you.”

He shot her a sly glance as he set the saw for the cut. “How about throwing in the wrapping? And the shipping?”

She waited until the buzzing whine of the saw had stopped. “And a card?” she asked.

“Good idea. That’ll save me some shopping time, too.”

“You’ll have to find the time to sign it.”

“Lady, you drive a hard bargain.” His grin spread wide. “But you got yourself a deal. Tossing in the card was the clincher.”

She sighed, still unconvinced the deal was a fair one. “Which piece did you have in mind?”

He dropped the saw, stepped over the boards and strode to the front of her shop. “This one, right up there.” He pointed without a moment’s hesitation to a tangle of opalescent irises rising over a rippling blue pond, and Addie quickly figured out he’d been planning on a trade—or a purchase—all along.

“Mama has a bunch of these spiky flowers in her garden,” he told her, “so I know she’d like it. If she got something this nice from me, she’d be as happy as a gopher in soft dirt.”

“All right then.” Addie joined him beneath the displays suspended against her large shop window. “I agree—it’s a deal. That bit about the gopher was the clincher. When do you want me to send it?”

His smile turned sheepish. “How about today?”

“When’s her birthday?”

“Tuesday.”

Addie masked her dismay at the thought of the expense of custom packaging and express shipping for such a fragile item. Still, whatever her costs might be, Mick was the one coming out on the short end of this deal. And he’d be working overtime for her, squeezing this favor in between his part-time work for Quinn Construction and his commitments to his team. “No problem,” she said.

“That’s my girl.” Mick laid one of his big, capable hands on her shoulder and bent to press a quick, affectionate kiss to her cheek as her door clicked open and set the bell above it jingling.

She turned to find Dev in the entry, his hands in his pockets and a strange, unreadable expression on his face. Heat rushed into her cheeks and she froze in place, trapped between embarrassment and annoyance. “Dev.”

“Hi.”

He flicked a glance over her head at Mick, who had yet to remove his hand from her shoulder…and who had probably felt her body go rigid when she recognized the man who’d entered her shop. Mick’s fingers tightened reassuringly.

Possessively.

His hand slid away, in a light stroke down her back, and she cleared her throat. “Dev Chandler, Mick O’Shaughnessy. One of Quinn’s crew members. He’s, uh, fixing some shelves for me. Dev’s an old—” What was he, exactly? She waved a vague, introductory wave in his direction. “He’s Tess’s cousin.”

Dev’s mouth twisted in an ironic smile. She shut her mouth before her rambling got out of control.

Mick released her and leaned forward, offering his hand, as casual as could be. Dev took it with a nod.

“What are you doing here?” she asked Dev.

Stupid, stupid, stupid
. This is a shop, she reminded herself. And what would Mick think of her squeaky voice and her gawky manners?

“I came to check on the windows,” Dev said. “As a favor. For Geneva.”

“Oh. Of course.”

She flinched when Mick yanked his tape measure from his toolbelt. He stalked back toward his small pile of lumber and sawdust. Dev’s gaze tracked his every move.

Addie aimed a thumb over her shoulder. “They’re over here.”

She stepped behind the counter, into her work space, and waited for Dev to join her there. He followed slowly, scanning the items on her shelves and displays. He’d never been in her shop. Not once, in all these years.

And why would he? It wasn’t as though they were old friends, as she’d nearly told Mick. Two people had to be friendly to make that claim.

Tucked into a rear corner, beneath a tall set of
shelves filled with boxes of inventory, stood a neat row of thick foam boards, plywood sheets and crates, all stacked on end. She dragged out one of the large, narrow boxes Quinn had built to protect the windows while they were transported and stored, and pointed to the identifying information scrawled in fat, black lettering. “I won’t be able to do much until I get a space cleared,” she said as she shoved the container back into place. “They’re bigger pieces than I normally work on.”

Dev frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets as Mick’s saw screamed through another cut, waiting to speak. “What are you going to do to them, exactly?”

“Exactly?” She paused, considering how much detail she wanted to go into with Mick keeping one eye on her and Dev keeping one eye on Mick. “A lot of that depends on what I find when I start to take them apart.”

“Apart?”

Whomp, whomp, whomp.
Mick’s nail gun fastened one more narrow edging strip to the front of the remodeled storage bins.

She nodded. “I can’t simply cut a new piece of glass to replace the broken one and slip it back into place. I’ve got to start at one side and work my way in, piece by piece, dismantling the caming until I reach the area that needs the repair.”

“Caming.” Dev paused to watch Mick stretch his tape measure across a board. “Is that the lead?”

“Yes.”

“Sounds like taking a corner of a puzzle apart to try to reach a piece near the middle.”

“Exactly.”

“Do you work on repairs at night?”

“No.” She shook her head and waited through another of Mick’s noisy cuts. “I have plenty of time during regular shop hours to do repair work. Not that I don’t have lots of other business to keep me busy,” she added quickly. The last thing she wanted Dev to know was how precarious things were at times.

Most of the time.

“I’ll have to get started on the windows for Tess’s project soon,” she said. “Those will keep me tied up for months. And I’ll need still more space for those, too.”

“How long does it take you to make a window—a window of the size Tess has in mind?” he asked.

She stared at Dev, trying to decipher that strange new element in his expression—that odd, banked heat. If she didn’t know him better, she’d think he was interested in her. Or in what she was saying. But he couldn’t possibly be.

So why was he sticking around for so long and asking so many questions? “Why do you want to know? Did Geneva send you to spy on me?”

“No.” His eyes creased at the corners, reminding her how she used to hate feeling as though she was the butt of his private jokes. “I’m just curious,” he said.

A customer walked into her shop, and she excused herself to greet him. Dev stayed where she’d left him, watching her pull a couple of lengths of caming from a shelf and stretch a few pieces before ringing up the sale.

“Now I’m really curious,” Dev said after she’d returned to the rear of her shop. “What did you do with those strips of metal?”

“I stretched them.”

“Why?”

“It has to do with the molecules in the lead.” She crossed her arms and leaned against her worktable. “If you’re really interested, I could explain it all in detail. Some other time, maybe.”

She tightened her fingers on her arms, holding herself steady beneath the scrutiny of that stomach-knotting, crinkly-cornered stare.

“Okay,” he said at last. “Some other time, then.”

She walked him to the door. “Please tell Geneva I’ll get to work on her windows as soon as the replacement glass arrives. I want to make sure I’ve got everything I need before I start.”

Dev pulled the door open and then paused, shifting slightly, his face a few inches from hers. “Anything else you’d like to say?” he asked in a low, intimate tone.

She bit her lower lip and shook her head.