The One Real Thing (Hart's Boardwalk) (33 page)

Standing on the balcony of the ocean-view room that had been mine for my first three weeks in Hartwell, I searched for that peace that had come over me when I stood there the first time.

But it wouldn’t come to me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and even as I dreaded looking at the caller ID I did it anyway.

Cooper calling.

I hit the red button and shoved my phone back in my pocket.

For the past few days I’d been avoiding him because I felt like just as big a liar as Dana. I hadn’t lied when I told Cooper I wanted children. I did want kids. I did.

But how could I even start talking about a future with our kids in it when Cooper didn’t even know the whole truth about me? There was no way I could tie him to me forever like that without him knowing
everything
.

I guess I just hadn’t really thought about that until the subject of kids came up.

My phone vibrated again and when I pulled it out I had another text from Cooper.

What the hell is going on?

I blanched, squeezing my eyes closed. If I didn’t answer him soon he was just going to show up.

Busy
,
I texted.
I’ll call you later. x.

“Jess. Earth to Jess.”

I spun around, surprised to find Bailey standing by the bed with her hands on her hips. “Hey.”

“Hey. I’ve been calling your name from the doorway for the past thirty seconds.”

“Oh.” I was so out of it. “Sorry.”

Bailey frowned. “What are you doing in here?”

I shrugged. “I just like it in here.”

“Well, the new guests will be checking in soon, so we better skedaddle.”

I nodded and followed her out.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she said as we walked downstairs.

“I’m a little preoccupied,” I admitted.

“You don’t say.”

“Do you and Tom ever talk about having kids?” I blurted out.

Bailey almost stumbled on the last step. She shot me a look of surprise over her shoulder before marching toward reception. “What makes you ask?” She spun around, eyes wide. “Are you pregnant?”

“God, no,” I assured her. “I just heard about Dana and Cooper’s situation before the divorce. So we had a talk. About kids.”

“You want them, right? Cooper wants kids.”

“I’m well aware.” My voice sounded really high-pitched.

Bailey cocked an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“I want kids, too. It’s just . . . I’ve never had to discuss the idea with someone. It’s a little . . . intense.”

“Yup.” She made a face and then looked at the computer screen. A little too intently.

“So you and Tom?”

“Hmm?”

I was the mistress of avoidance and I knew another mistress when I saw one. I leaned on the desk, ducking my head so she had no choice but to look at me.

“What?” She sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “Okay. Fine. Every time I bring up the subject he gets cagey. He’s cagey about marriage and children in general. For Christ’s sake, he still has his own apartment.”

“How long have you been together?”

“Coming up ten years. But that’s his point.” Now it was her voice that was getting all high-pitched. “He says that we don’t need a piece of paper to tell us that we’re together. While I say that if we’re going to have children then we need to protect them and each other legally by getting married so that if anything happens to either one of us, the other and the kids will be okay financially.”

“Good point.”

“I know!” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “But then he gets all mumbly and immature because the subject of children has been mentioned. He tells me that he does want kids but not right away. And he’s been saying it for eight years! Come on, Jess, I’m thirty-three years old. I hit
thirty
and started panicking about it being too late to have kids. Can you imagine how I feel now?”

I flinched at her yell. It appeared I had unwittingly awoken a dragon. “I can.” I’d also had similar periods of panic since turning thirty. I hadn’t wanted a relationship until Cooper so my future plan had been to be artificially inseminated or to adopt, but the timing had just never felt right. But both Bailey and I were only two years away from mature pregnancy age. I knew all the possible risks and complications that might come with pregnancy in the mid to late thirties.

So yes, I could imagine how Bailey was feeling and more.

The bell jingled above the front door just as Bailey opened her mouth to fire a second launch of pent-up frustration. Her eyebrows immediately slammed together and she snapped, “What the hell are you doing here?”

At this, I half expected to turn and find Vaughn standing in the hallway but was surprised to find an older, very distinguished-looking gentleman. He was tall, fit, and had strong facial features. He was dressed immaculately in a three-piece suit.

Cold, dark eyes narrowed on Bailey. “Do you speak to all your guests like that?”

“No, but then, my guests are not Ian Devlin.” She huffed and rounded the desk to stride over to him. “That was my roundabout way of saying
get out
.”

He gave her a blank, cold look. “I’m not here for you. I’ve come to speak to Dr. Huntington.”

I’d been so busy studying the villain I had heard all about, but had yet to meet, that I was shocked out of a daze at him saying my name.

“What do you need from Jess?” Bailey got all mother hen on me.

“That’s a matter for Dr. Huntington and me only.”

“I don’t—”

“Bailey, it’s fine,” I interrupted, striding over to him. “Whatever you have to say, just say it.”

Something smug entered his expression. “Believe me, Dr. Huntington, you’ll want to discuss this in private.” He gestured to the front door. “Take a walk with me.”

“Don’t, Jess.”

But I was curious and more than a little worried that I’d caught the attention of this man. And I didn’t like the look in his eyes.

“It’s fine. I’ll be right back.” I squeezed her shoulder, ignoring the concerned look on her face.

Following Ian Devlin outside and onto the boardwalk, I didn’t like the feeling I got off this guy. He might look distinguished and well coiffed, but there was a slickness about him, and something
I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it was just because my friends had filled my head with stories about him, but this guy immediately rubbed me the wrong way. I just wanted out of his presence. “Well?”

He moved over to the railing to look out over the beach. “Do you like it here, Dr. Huntington?”

“If I didn’t, staying was asinine.”

He flicked me an unimpressed look. “May we continue without the immature smart-ass comments?”

I huffed, “Only if we may continue without all the cloak-and-dagger crap. Get to the point, Mr. Devlin. What do you want?”

In answer he pulled out a piece of paper from inside his waistcoat. He handed it to me.

Bemused, I took it; and when I unfolded it, it felt as if the boards beneath my feet had suddenly given way.

Blood rushed in my ears and I couldn’t quite catch my breath.

“I have your attention. Good.”

I looked up from the paper, feeling it tremble in my shaking hands. “How? How did you get this? This was sealed by the courts.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Money goes a long way in this world.”

No.
No. NO!

The worst thing about myself, the one thing I didn’t want anyone to know, the thing I couldn’t even tell the best man I’d ever met, and this son of a bitch knew it.

I started to tremble, visibly, and I hated that this asshole could see what he’d done to me.

“Have you told anyone?” My voice shook, too.

“Why would I do something that’s not in my own best interests?”

Ugly understanding dawned. “What do you want?”

The muscle in his jaw ticked for a moment, his eyes hardening. “I’m sure you’ve heard I lost out on the Beckwith property.”

I nodded stiffly, my thoughts all over the place, as I imagined
him telling Cooper, telling Bailey, telling everyone and ruining my new life here.

“As you can imagine, I’m getting a little frustrated. But then I came across this little nugget”—he tapped the record in my hand—“and thought,
How can this benefit me?
”

“And how can it?”

He turned to face me fully. “I want Cooper’s pub and he won’t sell. And it looked like he never would . . . but everyone is all atwitter over how cuckoo he is for Dr. Jessica Huntington.” He gave me a shark’s smile. “The wonderful thing about small-town life, Doctor: everyone knows everyone’s business. And what everyone knows is that Cooper Lawson is in love. And he’d do anything for the people he loves.”

Disbelief struck me dumb.

Was he actually suggesting what I thought he was suggesting?

Was this blackmail?

“You’re going to convince him to sell that bar to me.”

My breath finally gusted out of me. “Are you nuts? This isn’t an episode of
Dynasty
, Mr. Devlin. This won’t work. Cooper would never give up his bar. Not even for me.”

“A man like Cooper will do it if you need him to. Tell him you’re in serious financial trouble. You do have student debt and I doubt working for Miss Hartwell is putting much of a dent in that debt. Or tell him you have an ill family member who needs the medical bills paid. Say whatever you need to. Stick to those kinds of things, though. Cooper likes to be a hero. He can’t help himself. Press that hero button and he’ll sell his bar. I’ll swoop in and make him a very generous offer. That’s a promise.”

“There’s no way I’m doing this.” I was in shock.

I couldn’t actually believe that real people pulled this kind of underhanded, ignoble shit.

“You’ll do it.” He leaned in to me and there was a new hint of menace in his voice. “Or I tell Cooper the good doctor’s dirty secret.”

I stared at him, not hiding my revulsion.

He must have considered my silence agreement, however, because he gave me that smug smile, nodded his head, and turned on his heel.

I watched him walking away, feeling as if the world had suddenly ended.

In a way it had.

At least my new life in Hartwell.

With Cooper.

I pressed a hand to my chest.

When my sister died, a piece of my heart broke. When my parents refused to have anything to do with me after it, another piece snapped apart.

What was left of it shattered into a million little pieces because I suddenly knew what I had to do.

“Jess?”

I glanced over my shoulder. Bailey stood studying me, concerned.

“What did he want?”

She can’t know. She’ll tell Cooper
.

Think. Think. Think!

I cleared my throat, trying to rid myself of any semblance of the agony that was pressing down on my chest and making it hard for me to breathe. “I . . . uh . . . I guess I should feel flattered, feel like one of you.”

“Why?” She stepped toward me. “What did that bastard say to you?”

“He thought somehow he would be able to convince me that Cooper should sell the bar.” I gave her a wry look as I moved toward her, calling on all my acting skills. “He gave some bullshit about Cooper being in financial trouble and said that I had to help him make the right decision.”

Bailey’s cheeks flushed red with anger. “That is bullshit. Cooper is doing fine.”

“I assumed, or he would have told me.” I let some of my pain leak through for the next part of my deception. “Anyway, even if
he weren’t, Cooper and I are nowhere near a partnership. His bar has nothing to do with me.” I started walking back to the inn.

“What does that mean?” Bailey hurried to catch up to me.

“We just have a lot to talk about.”

“You mean the kids thing?”

“That and other stuff.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

I sighed, heavily, shakily, desperately holding on to my refusal to burst into body-shuddering sobs. “I’m not sure it is. That’s why I’ve been out of it all day.”

“Are you breaking up with him?” Bailey grabbed my wrist, looking horrified.

I shook my head. “I just . . . I just really need to talk to him, sort things out.”

She studied me carefully. “Jess, you look really upset and worried.”

I shrugged.

“Okay.” She squeezed my wrist. “I’ll be a pal and be on call tonight so that you can talk to Cooper after he closes up the bar.”

My stomach flipped, and not in a good way, as I imagined that very thing. “Thank you.”

“It will all be okay.” She gave me a reassuring smile. “Communication is the key.”

I felt sick.

“Right,” I muttered.

My heart was pounding so fast I was sure I could see my racing heart beat through my shirt.

And I felt like I was going to be sick.

Shivers moved through me and my teeth were chattering. I wrapped my arms around my body, feeling cold even though it wasn’t all that cool on the boardwalk.

If I didn’t make a move soon I’d miss Cooper.

I already miss Cooper
.

God, I couldn’t catch my breath.

The front door to the bar suddenly opened and Cooper’s head popped around it. “Hey,” he called to me, “what are you doing out here?”