Summer Heat

by Sanders, Jill

  This was news to him. He’d chatted with Julie at the front desk, trying to get information from her about how well the business was doing, but she hadn’t really talked about business. Instead, she’d flirted with him, which had made him feel bad, since he hadn’t meant to lead her on.

  “That’s good news,” he said.

  “You sound surprised?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “No, not surprised, just . . . I’d wondered about the financial aspects of this place. I mean . . .”

  “Don’t be.” Her chin rose slightly. “You’ll get your paychecks on time.” She turned and stormed into the office. It took him a few seconds to catch on to her genuine anger before he followed her inside.

  “Hey.” He took her hand and stopped her from sitting behind the desk. “I’m happy that this place is making it. Really, it’s just I’ve never taken part in the business side of things before.”

  She was silent for a while. “But Paradise Investments is your family’s business.”

  He nodded, feeling even more ashamed. “My father’s business, which he’s made sure that Owen is ready to take over.” Again, she was silent.

  “Your dad must have shared some part of it with you.” She searched his eyes.

  Hell, why not be honest with her about this part of his life? He already felt like shit whenever he looked back at it now. It was funny—until he’d come here, he hadn’t felt bad about any part of his past. Now, however, he wished he’d worked harder in those areas.

  “If he did, I was too busy being a spoiled kid to pay attention.” He leaned against her desk and crossed his arms over his chest while she sank into her chair. “Part of me wonders if his disappearance isn’t his way of teaching us how to sink or swim.”

  Her head tilted. “You mean, you think he’s disappeared so the three of you will step up and run the business?” When he nodded, she continued, “Then what are you doing here?”

  He sighed, heavily. “Again, following a hunch.”

  “You mean, checking to see if I had something to do with his disappearance?” she asked. When he remained silent, she stood up slowly. “I have a ton of work to do still, if you don’t mind . . .” She nodded toward the door.

  “Elle.” He stood up and rested his hands on her shoulders. “For what it’s worth, I know you had nothing to do with my father’s disappearance. Like I said, I’m sure it’s just him . . . being his old self.”

  She nodded, but he could tell she was done talking. Surprising her and himself, he leaned in and laid a gentle kiss over her lips.

  “Think about going away with me after Dylan and Zoey return. Regardless, I’ll set everything up. All you’d have to do is pack and show up.” He kissed her again, this time letting his words sink in a little as he touched her softly. He felt her relax into his touch. “Night,” he said softly, then slipped out of the room, shutting her office door behind him.

  He made his way to the back door and stood outside in the warmth. He realized his body was still vibrating from that kiss. Maybe he should have realized he’d be just as affected as she would. He shoved his hands into his pockets and started his rounds by walking by the firepits.

  Seeing that everyone was gone and the fires already put out, he moved on to his normal rounds. Which included the pathway that led to Zoey and Scarlett’s mother’s place. Seeing a dark figure leaving from the narrow pathway and heading toward the boathouse, he stilled, then quickly followed the shadow.

  It wasn’t until the man crossed under a light that he realized it was Reed Cooper. He must have heard the gravel crunch under Liam’s feet, because suddenly the man tensed. Liam could easily see why most people in camp thought he was a spy. The man looked ready to defend himself, to the death if necessary.

  “Burning the midnight oil?” Liam said.

  Chuckling, Reed relaxed.

  “Just out for an evening walk.” He tucked his hands in his pockets, like Liam.

  “And a sail, apparently.” Liam nodded to the man’s small sailboat, bobbing in the water at the end of the dock.

  “True.” Reed smiled. “Still playing security guard?”

  “It has its benefits, like knowing who’s up to what.” Liam smiled back. “So, do Zoey and Scarlett know you’re seeing their mother?”

  Reed was silent for a while, and Liam could tell the man was about to deny having something going on with Kimberly, but then he shook his head and looked off toward the dock.

  “No, Kimberly wants to tell them.” He ran his hands through his hair. “It’s just been a few dinners, a couple rounds of Frisbee golf, and the zip line.” He smiled. “I never thought at my age I’d find the one.”

  “The one?” Liam asked.

  “Sure.” Reed chuckled. “I was a skeptic too.” He walked over to the edge of the dock, and Liam followed. “Hell, I’ve been married and divorced. I have a son about your age.” He glanced over at him. “Still, I’ve never felt the way I do around Kimberly.”

  “Does she know?” Liam didn’t quite understand why he asked.

  “You’re smarter than your brothers,” Reed joked and slapped him on the shoulder. “You remind me of your father.”

  Liam’s eyebrows shot up. “You knew our dad?”

  “In passing. We met when I purchased the place from him years ago.” He nodded to the dark waters. “I remember the three of you boys running around the yard when I looked at it. It was one of the draws, seeing you three enjoying it. I thought my boy, Ben, would like the place.”

  “Did he?” he asked, leaning on the railing.

  “A few summers. Until he decided to settle in school and live with his mother full time.”

  “Ouch,” he said under his breath.

  “Not his fault; I wasn’t always the best dad.” Reed glanced his way. “I was selfish back then. I thought I’d have all the time in the world to raise him, to mold him into the boy I wanted. I never thought about what he would want or what kind of role model I was to him. They don’t make you take a course to become a father.” He sighed. “Or how to be a good husband.”

  “Yeah.” Liam stood back up and shifted. “Well, I’ll let you get back home.” He started to go.

  “Liam,” Reed called out to him. “Dylan’s refused my services, but if you need help looking, just say the word.”

  “Thanks.” He waved at him before he turned and continued down the pathway.

  That night, he thought about his talk with Reed more than the kiss with Elle.

  It was strange, but most of his memories of his father were good ones. Sure, they’d had fights between the four of them. Mostly with Owen and their father, but still, those memories had fallen to the side.

  The times he remembered most were the family trips, them playing ball in the backyard, and the dinners they used to cook together.

  Then, all of that stopped one day, and Liam had to admit that he didn’t understand why. It had been shortly after he’d graduated high school, just before Joel had started working for their dad.

  Joel wasn’t a Costa, officially. Even though he could easily pass as one of the brothers, there was no blood between them, as far as any of them knew.

  Joel claimed he’d been an orphan, raised by a nice couple from upstate New York. Their father had left for a trip and returned with a new factotum. Basically, Joel did everything and anything their dad needed. He often ran around fetching lunch or making travel arrangements, but after a few years, the three of them just started looking at Joel like part of the family, even if their father couldn’t own up to it.

  It was shortly after Liam’s high school graduation that their father started acting off. His travels became longer, less planned. Even Joel didn’t always know where he would end up.

  When Liam finally did fall asleep, he dreamed of Elle and him swaying in a bed on top of the trees.

  The next few days were busy ones—so busy, he hadn’t even seen Elle. When he tried to connect with her at lunch, he was surprised when Zoey mentioned she’d gon
e off campus to pick up some supplies. He didn’t see her at dinner that evening either.

  It was as if she was avoiding everyone. He had even heard Zoey complain about not seeing Elle around.

  When Dylan and Zoey drove away for their two days off together, he knew at that point that his brother was gone on Zoey. Just the way his brother looked at her told him that there was no turning back. He’d never seen Dylan act that way before.

  Owen, on the other hand, had at one point had a girl he’d been crazy over, until she’d gone on vacation with some girlfriends and come back pregnant with someone else’s baby. His brother had been a broken man ever since, never trusting women too much and never getting close enough to be burned again.

  Liam hadn’t even gotten close enough to a woman to make the big jump into the love realm. Sure, he’d had plenty of girlfriends and even once had thought about moving in with one of them. But, common sense sank in quickly when Shelly’d confessed to him one night while she’d been too drunk to care that she was still in love with her ex-boyfriend. He’d quickly moved on, and less than a year later, she’d married the guy.

  He ran into Elle finally just after Zoey and Dylan had pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Hiding?”

  He stopped next to her and bumped shoulders with her, lightly.

  She glanced up at him as if she hadn’t heard him approaching.

  “No.” She shook her head and hugged her notepad to her chest. “I’ve been super busy.” She turned and started walking toward the doors.

  “Too busy to eat?” He fell into step with her. “Like now, I bet you haven’t had breakfast yet.”

  “I had an apple after class.”

  “An apple?” He frowned. “That’s not breakfast, that’s a midmorning snack.” When she broke into a laugh, he took her arm and turned their direction toward the dining hall instead. “If you’re not hungry, you can at least sit and watch me eat.”

  She sighed but followed him into the building. “I suppose I could have a bagel.”

  “Again, that’s a snack, not a meal,” he said, handing her a tray and taking one for himself. They walked through the buffet line. He piled up mounds of food, while she scooped onto her plate a small spoonful of egg whites, a bagel, and some fruit.

  When they sat down at a small table, one that he picked for the purpose of being left alone, he nodded to her food. “At least it’s more than an apple.”

  “Lunch is my big meal,” she admitted before nibbling on the eggs.

  “Every meal is mine. Where have you been hiding yourself?” he asked after a moment of silence.

  “I told you . . . I’ve been . . .”

  “Hiding,” he finished for her, causing her eyes to narrow. “What I want to know is why?”

  She finally relented. “I’ve had some . . . things to look into.”

  “Like?” he asked between bites.

  “Just things.” She shrugged, and he could tell she was hiding something from him. It wasn’t something generic but something to do with him specifically.

  “Does it have to do with my father?” He felt his stomach roll. When her eyes avoided his, he shoved his plate aside. “What?”

  He’d come to the conclusion that Elle and his father would never have been lovers, as they had suspected. But just knowing that she had some information on his father that she wasn’t comfortable telling him sent his stomach into flips.

  “I did get a call from him. He left a message that he wanted to meet. I didn’t get the message until late, by that time . . .” She shook her head. “He never showed.”

  “Okay,” he said. “When was this?”

  “Early spring,” she admitted with a shrug. “March sometime.”

  “You haven’t heard from him since?” he asked, his stomach settling some.

  “No, but there is something else.” When her blue eyes met his, he felt his heart skip a beat.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Liam, your father is . . . my godfather,” Elle finally admitted. “It wasn’t a well-known fact. Only my grandfather and . . . well, your father knew about it.”

  “What?” He shook his head. “I . . . don’t understand.” His hands were resting on the table, but she watched them slowly curl into fists.

  “Leo Costa and my mother were . . . had . . . a history together. Or so Joe said.” Her eyes moved back to the table as tears started to burn them. “According to my grandfather, Leo was the man my mother should have married instead of . . . my father.”

  “Did your mother have an affair with my father?” His words came out almost as a whisper, but she felt them as if he’d slapped her across the face.

  Is that what he’d thought all along? First he accused her of sleeping with his father; now he was accusing her mother? Is that why he’d gotten close to her? To use her as he believed his father had?

  “There was something in one of the news articles . . .” he started.

  “As you said, you shouldn’t always believe everything in print.” She jerked her words out as if they stung.

  She stood up slowly and braced herself on the table. As her eyes met his, she knew she projected anger, but damn it, he’d just accused her and her mother of . . . of . . .

  “No, Liam. Neither my mother nor I, to the best of my or my grandfather’s knowledge, ever had an affair with your father.” She turned to go, but he was there, holding her in place.

  “I told you, I never thought . . .” He dropped his hands when she glared at them. Then he ran his hands through his hair and tugged on the long locks. “I know your father was and is a . . . killer. There’s no excuse for what he did to your mother, but after finding out . . . there has to be a reason . . .” He groaned. “God, I’m fucking this up. Big time. Take a walk with me.”

  “I can’t.” She raised her chin. “I have work.” She picked up her tablet, which she would have forgotten on the table, and turned to go.

  “Elle.” The tone in his voice stopped her. “Meet me somewhere for lunch. We need to finish this.”

  She dipped her chin slightly. “I can’t. I have work.”

  “Then, meet me in your office. We need to be alone,” he suggested.

  “Fine. Noon,” she said and then left.

  She held it together until a breeze that was warm and filled with salt air hit her face. Glancing around, she realized she’d walked to the small beach area without noticing. Seeing that the beach wasn’t deserted, she found the shade of a tree and sat down underneath it.

  She pulled up her iPad and tried to focus on the numbers on the screen, but when everything turned wavy, she gave up and tucked her head to her knees and cried. Had her mother been in love with Leo Costa? Probably so at one time. She would have been far better off with any man other than her father. Maybe if she’d chosen Leo, would she still be alive today? But wouldn’t that mean that she herself never would have been born? It would be a small price to pay, if she could turn back time.

  Her mind turned to Jeff and how her friends had tried to warn her away from the domineering man. Did her mother have friends who had warned her about her father? Had anyone known that she’d been in trouble? Or had she been alone until the end?

  Elle could only remember a few things from before her death. They were more like feelings than true memories. She remembered her mother reading her a book before bed or helping her with homework. One memory she had was of baking with her mother and enjoying the hot cookies once they were out of the oven. Still, her eyes stung every time she thought of her.

  “Everything all right, sweetie?”

  The voice shook her from her self-pity.

  Glancing up, she smiled at Kimberly as she moved over and sat next to her. Zoey and Scarlett’s mother was a beautiful woman inside and out. Her natural silver hair was something that most women, young and old, envied. Her skin had a warm tan glow to it, and when the woman smiled, her dark-hazel eyes almost glowed like her daughters’.

  “Yes.” She sniffled. “
I’m just . . . wallowing in self-pity.”

  Kimberly chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Elle, I’ve known you for a very long time. I’ve never seen you wallow in self-pity before.”

  Elle relaxed into the embrace. Over the years she’d known Zoey and Scarlett, their mother had been nothing but kind to Elle and the other Wildflowers. On several occasions, Elle had visited the girls at their place in Jacksonville and had gotten very close to their mother in the process. It was one of the reasons Elle had agreed to (and had even suggested) moving Kimberly onto the campgrounds.

  “I’ve never had any cause to before,” she answered.

  “What has you doing so now?” Kimberly asked, giving Elle’s shoulder a squeeze. “A boy?”

  Elle sighed. “Ugh, I’m that predictable?”

  Kimberly chuckled. “Men will always push a strong woman to her knees. Whether it’s by physical force or just a good old-fashioned mental breakdown.”

  Elle chuckled and wiped her eyes. “He thought I was sleeping with . . .” She couldn’t even say it. The thought of someone accusing her of being with the man she’d always thought of as Uncle Leo hurt her beyond anything. Leo Costa had never been anything but kind to Elle. Whenever he’d visited her, before or after her mother’s death, he’d showered her with small gifts. “Never mind.”

  “Someone else?” Kimberly suggested.

  “Yes.” She nodded, not liking the sour taste in her mouth the thought gave her.

  “Men.” Kimberly sighed and rested back against the tree.

  Elle glanced over at her. “How are you liking living here?”

  She knew she was changing the subject, but talking about something else could help get her mind off the hurt.

  Kimberly glanced at her and nodded, as if she understood. “I love it here.” She smiled and patted her knee. “Thank you so much for all that you’ve done for me and my girls.”

  Elle placed her hand over Kimberly’s. “You deserve happiness.”

  “So do you,” Kimberly said. “Men can be jerks—trust me, I was married to one of the biggest of them. But . . .” She smiled, and Elle noticed a light in the woman’s eyes that she’d never seen before. “Some other men make up for it. You just need to be patient and find the right one.”