The Dalmatian Dilemma

by Cheryl Harper

  Brisa hugged her sister and then hugged Sean. She poked his lapel again and Sean winced. “I fixed this problem. I have one more mess to clean up and then we’re set.”

  “Do you need help?” Reyna asked.

  Brisa shook her head and faded into the crowd.

  “What was that about?” Sean asked. “What problem?”

  “I’m not sure what the second mess is, but the first one was you and whatever Brisa said to convince you I believed my father’s hype about me.” Reyna frowned. “You do know she was wrong, don’t you?”

  Sean slipped his hand in hers and pulled her toward a balcony that led to the other side of the hotel rooftop. From here, he could see the beach and the water, but the party might as well have disappeared. “Let’s talk about that. Want to?”

  She tangled their fingers together and pulled him farther away from the crowd. Sean laughed. Eventually he’d get used to how strong and determined these Montero women were. He hoped he had a lifetime.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  AS SOON AS they reached the deserted side of the rooftop, Reyna pushed Sean down onto one of the lounge chairs clustered near the railing. They had a beautiful view of Miami lights glowing in the growing shadows. She wished she’d rehearsed what she planned to say here, but she’d been so focused on getting Concord Court handed over that she...

  “You remember how we had a couple of issues with being together? As I recall, number one on the list was that you were my boss,” Sean said as he leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “You were worried about what would happen if I lost my job.”

  “Because of me. If you lost your job because of me, that would have caused a problem. One way or the other, that had to change.” Reyna paced one direction and then stopped in front of him. “I was doing it again, wasn’t I? What Brisa accused me of? Deciding to make the sacrifice and taking your choice out of your hands.”

  “Taking the whole weight of the world and making decisions based on what you thought was right instead of whatever anyone else thought? The same way Luis does?” Sean nodded. “Yeah.” And she was going to do it again and again. This was the first time they’d work through this, but he understood he had to be okay with talking things out with Reyna.

  If the other choice was living without her, he’d happily talk things out for the rest of his life.

  She eased down next to him, the swirl of her dress settling over her knees. “I should stop doing that. I know.”

  Sean tapped the rose pendant dangling on the gold chain. “I remember this. Sometimes it flashes through my mind from that day you wore it to brunch.” He ran his finger over the chain, her warm skin tickling his fingers, and watched her shiver again. “This is an address that requires diamonds. I’m shocked there’s no Montero vault with family heirlooms tucked away.”

  Reyna snorted. “There might be, but this rose means everything to me. I wore it because I thought Brisa might need to see it. She gave it to me a long time ago and it’s been around the world, too. I never went anywhere without it. Whatever my father thinks, my family was always with me. Miami is a part of me. I’ll always be a Montero. I hope you’re ready for that. We don’t change easily. You’re going to have to remind me that we make decisions together.”

  Relieved, Sean ran his hand over her nape. When she shivered, he celebrated his stupid suitcoat for the first time that evening. He draped it over her shoulders. “Training. You and I are both going to need some work.” There would be more yelling.

  “Instead of cheese, let’s use kisses. Food doesn’t work as well on me as it does for Dottie.” Reyna wagged her eyebrows at him.

  The cute, in this moment where the two of them were locked together, was too much. Sean experienced that breathless, overwhelmed sensation of diving too deep, as if he’d been paddling along in love and a wave had washed over him.

  “You do know that I’ve trusted you, don’t you?” Reyna wrapped her hand around his. “More than anyone ever, I’ve trusted you. I trust you. It’s important you understand what I’m saying.”

  “I do. It’s been the most jaw-dropping thing I can remember, stepping up beside this completely capable hero when she needed me. Honestly, tonight I realized something. All my life, I wanted to be a hero. I thought that meant a career like my dad’s, but...” Sean brushed the hair away from her eyes. “My mom and grandmother made him into that hero. If he’d been a mechanic or a policeman or a doctor, they’d have done the same thing because they loved him. He was a regular guy, but that love made him more. Your father does the same thing for you because he’s proud of you.”

  Reyna wrinkled her nose. “You get how it’s different for me, though? Your father is gone. He can’t fall off the pedestal that other people built for him, but I’m still here and teetering on the edge of falling. That was the pressure I felt growing up Montero and coming home, too. Other people have called me a hero, lifted me up here, but I’m human. I’m going to make mistakes. It’s so shaky up on the pedestal when you have a whole life to live. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, so I’ve got to get down before I fall, you know?”

  That was the part he’d missed all along. “Absolutely. Now I do. I couldn’t see it before.”

  “I should have chosen better words when I was yelling at you on that beautiful beach.” Reyna’s lips were curved when he met her stare. Together, they smiled slowly. “We’re going to have to get used to emphatic conversations, aren’t we?”

  Sean grinned. “Maybe. But when you look at me like this, I can’t imagine disagreeing with you. That look in your eyes... It’s what I’ve been missing, seeing myself through your eyes. We aren’t that different after all. We love our families. Our work is important. And when we’re together, we’re unstoppable.”

  Her sweet smile was the boost he needed. Words weren’t his talent, but he was speaking from the heart. It was working, too.

  “Is love really like this?” she whispered as she moved closer. “From one heartbeat to the next, you’re in so deep you can’t imagine living without someone?”

  “I’ve only been in love once.” Sean stared at her lips. “And yes, it is.”

  Reyna’s lips held the warmth of a smile as she met his, a sweet promise of a lifetime of dogs, some yelling and more kisses.

  * * *

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  PROLOGUE

  “IT’S ONLY A JOKE. No one’s gonna die or anything.”

  Fifteen-year-old Gracie Winters clutched on to Cassie’s reassurance as tightly as the folded paper in her hand. She’d already delivered the first note to her cousin, Brandon. That part had been easy because her mother had asked her to return two eggs she’d borrowed the day before. Gracie made small talk with her aunt in the kitchen but kept an eye on her cousin, playing his new Nintendo game in the den. She made an excuse to go to the bathroom before leaving and on the way, darted into Brandon’s bedroom to set the note on his desk next to his iPod so he wouldn’t miss it.

  Getting the other note to Ella Jacobs was trickier. She and Ella had fallen out halfway through the summer when Gracie began to think Cassie was right and Ella was just being friends with her because she had a crush on Gracie’s older brother, Ben. And it was true that Ella wasn’t as much fun anymore. She spent more time reading in the lounge chair on her cottage deck or tanning on the beach across the road. When the three of them were together, Ella was
often quiet. Except when she came over to Gracie’s house. At first, Gracie had thought the old Ella was back. Then partway through the summer Cassie made a comment that ruined everything for Gracie.

  “Haven’t you noticed that she only acts like this when Ben is around?”

  Other summers Ben never spoke a word to them unless he had to, going in and out of the house without a glance their way. Suddenly he was around more, sticking his head into Gracie’s bedroom to ask if they wanted anything from town or if they wanted to use his iPod.

  The day Gracie happened to look through the big window of Pete’s Grill to see Ben and Ella sitting together in a booth confirmed all that Cassie had been whispering in her ear for weeks. She’s using you to be near your brother.

  The idea for the prank didn’t come up until the last week of August, before the end-of-summer beach party. Cassie predicted Ella wouldn’t go unless Ben did. Two days before the party Gracie mentioned that Ben wasn’t going because he and their father were driving to Augusta early the next morning to take a load of stuff to the college dorm where Ben was registered for his freshman year. Ella’s disappointment was painfully obvious and when she phoned later to say she wasn’t going to the party Gracie ran to Cassie. They gossiped about Ella and when Gracie blurted that Brandon thought he was in love with Ella, Cassie was silent for a long moment before saying, “I have an idea.”

  The notes were basically identical, except one was signed “Ella” and the other “B.” Cassie wrote them and Gracie’s job was the delivery because she could get into Brandon’s house, and Ella’s cottage was closer to the Winterses’ place. Besides, Gracie was the one who was more often alone with Ella than Cassie.

  Meet me at the path to the lighthouse about 8 tonight. I want to say goodbye—in private!

  Making sure that Ella got her note was more of a challenge. It had to be done in a place where Ben would logically be, so Gracie called Ella to invite her for their annual end-of-summer book exchange. Every year they traded books for the long winter months ahead and returned their favorites each July. Ben would be home packing.

  The way Ella’s face lit up when she saw Ben ticked Gracie off. After the book exchange, Ben stuck his head in Gracie’s bedroom doorway to ask if anyone wanted a cold drink. Ella leaped off the bed to follow him into the kitchen and Gracie tucked the note into Ella’s book bag. Then she carried it with her to the kitchen and set it on the table.

  Gracie and Cassie arrived early, excited to attend their first end-of-summer beach party. Gracie guessed there were about twenty kids clustered around the bonfire, sitting on blankets and sharing snacks and drinks. Someone brought the fixings to make s’mores and Gracie was toasting her marshmallows on the end of a metal skewer when Ella arrived. Cassie gave Gracie a “what did I tell you?” nudge as they shifted to make room for Ella on their blanket.

  “How come you changed your mind about coming?” Cassie asked.

  Ella just shrugged, silently scanning the group. Looking for Ben, Gracie figured. Brandon arrived a few minutes later and sat across from them on the other side of the fire. He kept staring at Ella, which made Gracie nervous. A few minutes before eight o’clock, Brandon got up and walked pointedly toward them, veering off at the last second to head for the dark sand dunes behind them. Someone shouted a comment about using the facilities at home first and the gang tittered.

  When Ella checked her watch and whispered, “I think I’ll go home. This is boring,” Cassie caught Gracie’s eye and winked. As soon as she disappeared in the same direction Brandon had gone, the two girls scrambled to their feet. Someone called out, “Hey! What’s going on?” as the girls dashed down the path leading to the lighthouse and the meeting place.

  The line of dunes several yards back from the water formed a natural shelter, protecting the bonfire and the revelers from the coastal winds. Cassie and Gracie hid behind thick scrub edging the junction between the dunes and the grassy trail leading to the long rocky point where the lighthouse perched. The waxing moon and the glow of the bonfire from the other side of the dunes gave Cassie and Gracie enough light, but Ella had thought to bring a pocket flashlight, which she was aiming at Brandon just as the two girls dropped behind the bushes.

  “Brandon! What’re you doing here?” Ella cried.

  Brandon’s wide smile, spotlighted by the light’s beam, faltered. “You asked me to meet you here.”

  Ella snorted. “I did not.”

  Confusion spread across his face. “Yes, you did. I got your note. You asked to meet me to say goodbye.”

  “Why would I want to say goodbye to you?”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “I’m meeting Ben. I’m here to say goodbye to Ben. Not you!”

  That was the moment when Ella’s expression said she was putting it together. She and Brandon had both been tricked. Of course, the giggle that erupted from Cassie at the same time was a big clue, too. The two girls ran back to the party and had barely sat down before Ella appeared. Cassie and Gracie pretended to be chatting, stifling their laughter as she stood, staring defiantly at them from the other side of the fire. Then she tossed the piece of paper in her hand into the flames and strode off into the darkness beyond.

  Long after Gracie had gone to bed, still smiling at the expressions on Ella’s and Brandon’s faces, a loud banging awoke the Winterses’ household. Gracie navigated the stairs down to where her parents and Ben were huddled at the opened front door, talking to some men. She reached it in time to hear one of the uniformed men saying, “Brandon never came home from the beach party. Would any of you happen to know where he might be?”

  Copyright © 2020 by Janice Hess

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  ISBN-13: 9781488068201

  The Dalmatian Dilemma

  Copyright © 2020 by Cheryl Harper

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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