The Chesapeake Diaries Series 7-Book Bundle: Coming HOme, Home Again, Almost Home, Hometown Girl, Home for the Summer, The Long Way Home, At the River's Edge (86 page)

“Not tonight.” Stef shook her head. “I need to get home and get to sleep. I’m back in the shop at five tomorrow
to make ice cream. The stuff I sell isn’t delivered by truck every day, like some people’s merchandise is.” She stood and stretched. “I promised Berry Eberle that I’d have something lemony for her tomorrow, and I have to get working on it.”

“Think the way to a guy’s heart is through his great-aunt’s stomach?”

“I’m afraid someone else has won his heart, Ness.” Stef shrugged and shoved her hands in her pockets.

“Well, if I can’t sleep tonight, maybe I’ll see if I can get ‘Daz’ to tell me who that someone is.” Vanessa walked Stef to the front door and opened it. “If nothing else, you’ll know who the competition is.”

Steffie shook her head. “There’s no competition. The game’s over. Someone else won, and I lost.”

The sun had barely started to burn off the early-morning fog when Wade slipped quietly through the front door for a run along River Road toward the center of town. Once he hit Charles Street, he passed the occasional vacant storefront and noted several shops that he was pretty sure hadn’t been there during his last visit home: Sweetie Pies, a bakery, and The Checkered Cloth, which, according to the sign out front, closed every day at three. He slowed at the window of the upscale pet boutique, Bow-Wows and Meows.

Did someone really think that was a good name?

Only his need for exercise kept him from stopping and staring at the display. Galoshes. Hoodies. Party clothes. T-shirts with clever sayings.

Halloween costumes. For dogs.

Shaking his head, he continued on, the soles of his feet slapping softly on the concrete. Across the street, lined up like old friends, were places he remembered: the market, an art gallery, an antiques shop, a bookstore. Next came Bling, a relatively new classy women’s clothing and accessory shop, and
Sips, which sold only beverages. On his right, Cuppachino, the coffee shop where the townies gathered every morning for news and gossip before going about their workday, had been the Coffee Corner when he was a kid, but served the same purpose. Upscale Café Lola was still owned by ninetysomething-year-old Lola, who continued to go to the docks every morning to select her fish for the day’s entrées. Petals and Posies, the flower shop on the corner of Charles Street and Kelly’s Point Road, was now run by the original owner’s daughter. Wade turned right at the florist and headed toward the Bay.

The last of the mist was still rising off the pavement, the sun still not quite high enough to clear the trees and announce the new day. Bright lights illuminated the municipal building parking lot, where the police cruisers were lined up in their numbered spaces. The big public lot across the road was empty now, but by noon it would be filled to capacity as the day-trippers arrived for end-of-the-season shopping. Summer was over, and in leaving, it took most of the summer folks. The few who remained were mostly retirees, empty nesters, childless couples, or young marrieds. Soon they, too, would go back to wherever they’d come from once the weather turned cool and damp and the town lost some of its charm—well, to all but the residents. Those who were from St. Dennis loved her in each of her seasons.

Wade was partial to autumn. He loved the cool, crisp evenings and mornings that gave way to ample sunshine and warm afternoons. He especially liked mornings like this one, mornings with just a bit of snap to the air that hinted at the cool weather to
come. The sky seemed bluer and the waves on the Bay—just a few hundred feet away—seemed to churn up whiter foam. At the end of Kelly’s Point Road he jogged onto the boardwalk that ran along the waterline as far as the marina, where many of the slips were empty, the fishing boats having already made their way out onto the Chesapeake, the crabbers long gone. Only the pleasure boats remained at dock, their owners having the luxury of sleeping late should they choose to do so. Those who made their living on the Bay had no choice but to rise before the sun.

In his youth, Wade had sailed these waters in every season and in all kinds of weather. He’d been the youngest member of a team that had won more than their fair share of sailing awards. Ironic that one of his old teammates was now chief of police here in St. Dennis, and another was dating his sister. Their biggest threat every year had come from the team headed by Clay Madison, who was Wade’s age but who was by far the best sailor in the bunch. Wade figured he’d run into Clay one of these days. Dallas mentioned he was living just outside of town on the farm that had been in his family for generations.

There was something comforting about being in a place where you could count on certain things staying the same, where the same families farmed the same fields or fished the same waters, where the names all had a familiar ring. Wade had liked Texas, enough to have stayed after grad school and build a business. He’d had some really good years there, but it was never home and he’d put down no roots. Sleeping beneath the roof of the old house his own family had called home for two hundred or so years had banished
the restlessness that followed him since he left St. Dennis.

Funny to see Cody asleep in his old bed, though. Funnier still for Wade to have opened his eyes to find himself sleeping in his own father’s room, with Austin’s crib set up along the back wall. All in all, being back in St. Dennis soothed his battered heart and his weary soul, and he regretted that he wouldn’t be staying longer. Being with his family filled those places inside him that had felt empty for months. He hoped that before he left town, he’d be able to soak up enough of that calm to last him through the coming year.

At the end of the dock, he paused to catch his breath. Though he’d once been a runner who’d never missed a day, it had been several months since he’d been out for a morning jog, and he found himself out of shape. With no one to watch late-sleeping Austin in the early hours, Wade had had to make adjustments to his schedule. That many parents would give anything for a child who slept late was an irony that wasn’t lost on Wade. Only Dallas’s promise to listen for his son should he awaken made this morning’s run possible. Another early riser, Dallas had insisted that Wade tie on his running shoes and take off for a while.

“Cody did survive his babyhood, you know,” she’d told him when at first he’d declined her offer. “Chances are I’ll know what to do if Austin wakes up before you get back.”

“It isn’t that,” he’d protested. “I just hate feeling like I’m taking advantage of you.”

“Take advantage while you can.” Dallas had unlocked
the front door and opened it. “And take your time. I’ll be here.”

Dallas was a peach, and that was a fact. The rest of the world might know her as a screen icon, an award-winning beauty with pale blond hair and lavender eyes, but to Wade, she was the best sister any guy could have. She was thoughtful and fun and more understanding than even he had given her credit for. Hadn’t she proved that last night?

She and Berry had been uncommonly understanding and nonjudgmental, under the circumstances. There’d been no jumping to conclusions where Austin had been concerned.

“As long as you’re sure this is what you what.” Dallas had reached across the table and taken his hand, and Berry had nodded her agreement.

“It is what I want,” Wade had assured them. “It’s the way it has to be.”

It
was
what he wanted. There’d been no question that he’d step up to the plate as soon as Robin had laid out the facts for him. It wasn’t how he’d imagined his life would play out, but there it was. Wade was okay with most of it—all of it, really, except for Robin dying.

As always, thinking about Robin made his heart ache.

It had been so strange last night, trying to explain everything to Berry and Dallas. So much was sheer emotion, so much was pain. Robin had been his best friend first, his business partner second. Hearing Dallas refer to Robin as his wife had given Wade a jolt. He’d never thought of her as his wife, didn’t think of himself as a widower, but technically, that was the
story. He’d married Robin, which made her his wife. She died, making him a widower. The fact that he’d married her
because
she was dying didn’t change things.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Austin was safe, he’d always be safe now. He was Austin MacGregor, and so his mother could go to her rest without the torment of not knowing what was going to happen to her son.

Wade started back toward Kelly’s Point Road, running alongside the water on the boardwalk. Up ahead he could see lights through the last remnants of mist, then realized he was looking at the interior lights of One Scoop or Two. As he drew closer, he saw movement inside, and he knew who was bustling about, preparing for the day. With the temperature projected to edge into the mideighties later, Steffie would be busy from the minute she opened her doors until closing that night.

He wanted to knock on her door and explain things to her. Not that he owed her an explanation—it wasn’t like they were an item. They weren’t even dating. Frankly, he didn’t know what they were, so why, he asked himself, did he think he needed to explain anything to her? That he couldn’t define the source of his conflict annoyed the hell out of him. All he did know was that he’d seen the look on her face, the confusion in her eyes, when she realized that
he
was the daddy Austin had been calling for.

Because of Beck’s wedding, Wade admitted. That for a few hours that night, he’d allowed himself to put aside the drama that had been unfolding back in Texas and had responded to his attraction to Steffie
without bothering to snap on the appropriate restraints. He’d left her standing confused and angry and hurt in the inn’s parking lot while he raced to the airport to make his flight. There’d been no question that he’d be leaving that night—not after he’d received that phone call—as much as he’d wanted to stay with Stef in St. Dennis and try to figure out what it was that they had between them since she was seventeen and had asked him to her senior prom. He’d taken her, but had kept his distance. Even then, he knew he was attracted to her, but she was just too young.

And then the night of the wedding he’d left St. Dennis—and Steffie—because Robin had needed him. Wade would have walked through fire to get back to Texas that night, even though he knew the price he’d pay for going: He’d probably be ruining any chance he’d ever have with Stef, but he’d had to go.

In the dark, Wade hesitated near the side of the building and watched Steffie as she hustled around inside. He wondered if he should stop in for a moment, just to say hello. He could tap on the window and ask her to unlock the door.

She did keep the door locked when she was there alone, didn’t she? Anyone could be prowling around at this early hour.

When he put his hand on the knob and turned it, he’d only thought to test it. To his surprise, it opened, the bell overhead ringing loudly and breaking the silence.

Behind the counter, Steffie jumped a mile.

“Wade?”

“Why is this door unlocked? Don’t you know that anyone could just walk in here?”

“Obviously.
Anyone
just did.” She stood with her hands on her hips, her honey-blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, a blue-and-white-checked apron covering her T-shirt and shorts. Her feet were bare, the toe-nails painted dark purple to match her fingernails. Across one cheek, there was a streak of something cream-colored that reached almost to her ear.

“What’s up?”

“I just wanted to test the door. To see if it was unlocked.”

“Why?”

“Because it isn’t safe to leave the door open. The door should be locked when you’re here alone.”

“I’m not alone.” She pointed behind him. “Tina is on her way in.”

He turned as one of the women he’d seen in the shop the previous night came up the walk.

“So, while I do appreciate this sudden concern of yours—and if I weren’t so busy, I’d ask what’s up with that—but unless you’re here for ice cream … and really, I’m not open, as you can see, but if you’re having a sudden uncontrollable craving for some chocolate monster mash, maybe I could scrape something together. But if not—if you’re just stopping by to say ‘hey’—you said that last night. And besides, I’m really, really busy.” Her hands still on her hips, Steffie met his gaze dead-on and raised one eyebrow. “Was there something you wanted, Wade?”

Before he could open his mouth, the bell over the door rang again and Tina came into the shop. She smiled at Wade and went past him.

“Morning, T.” Stef still continued to stare him down, her expression unchanged.

“Morning, Stef,” Tina replied as she headed toward the back room.

“Sorry,” Wade mumbled. “I just thought that maybe … Sorry.”

He watched her watch
him
as he backed out the door and into the snip of sunlight that spilled through the lifting clouds. He closed the door behind him sheepishly and headed up Kelly’s Point, feeling like a complete ass all the way back to River Road.

By eight a.m., Steffie had made her day’s worth of ice cream and the handmade cones she was becoming known for. She could make the generic flavors—chocolate, vanilla, strawberry—in her sleep. The specialties of the day, her own concoctions—lemon meringue, peach divinity, pecan fudge ripple, and in honor of Halloween coming up, chocolate monster mash—took a little more time. But she’d gotten her recipes worked out over the weekend, and all told, it took her only three hours to make all she planned to sell that day. When it was gone, it was gone, and that little bit of exclusivity had made Scoop a must-stop on many a tourist’s agenda.