There was something about a bookstore. Granted, she didn’t know a life without one; she’d only ever lived upstairs from one her entire life. But it was a life she enjoyed. Most kids her age hated being cooped up at home and wouldn’t be caught dead at their parents’ work. She’d never felt like that. She loved her dad. More important, she liked him. He was fun to hang out with, and he always, no matter what else he had going on, listened to her. He made time for her. A lot of time.
A nagging uncertainty clawed at her heart. What was he going to do when she left? And she was going to leave. College would only be the beginning for her. She had her sights set on the world, traveling every chance she got. But that would mean her father was...alone. And that, she didn’t like. Not one little bit.
Her dad wasn’t clingy. That was good. He gave her space, which she appreciated, but not so much that she didn’t see the boundaries. He’d be the same with anyone in his life—if he had anyone else in his life other than Uncle Monty and Aunt Frankie, who had been her father’s best friends almost his entire life. Mandy sighed. Sometimes she wished he’d expand his circle, do something other than work or go on a boat ride or come to her sporting events. Go out on a date for a change.
Oh, man, what she wouldn’t give for her father to start dating again. That would solve all her problems.
Especially since she knew he wasn’t thrilled with her hanging out with Kyle Knight.
Just the thought of Kyle had her stomach doing that jittery butterfly dance. Kyle had been working a lot, which was good, but that meant she didn’t get to see him as often as she’d like to. He’d asked her to go to the movies on Saturday, but Saturdays were father-daughter days, and as much as she wanted to be with Kyle, she knew how much her dad looked forward to their Saturdays together. She liked them, too. She and her dad were, as Uncle Monty and Aunt Frankie always declared, two peas in a pod.
The bell over the door rang. Feather duster in hand, Mandy headed to the front of the store to greet the newcomer. “Welcome to Cat’s Eye. Anything I can help you find?”
“Um, no, thank you.” The woman seemed startled at the welcome. She touched a hand to the flouncy knit cap she wore and tucked a strand of bobbed blond hair behind her ear. She blinked quickly at Mandy and gave her a quick smile. “I just wanted to see...” She trailed off, as if she couldn’t find the words. Mandy was about to ask if the woman was all right when her customer cleared her throat and straightened a few inches. “I’d just like to look around, if that’s okay?”
“Of course.” Mandy inclined her head. There was something familiar about the woman. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Maybe she’d seen her before at the veterinary clinic where Mandy volunteered. “My name’s Mandy. If you have any questions, just holler.”
“Thank you, Mandy.” The woman’s voice sounded a bit shaky.
Mandy returned to the counter after doing a quick check on Charlie and Simon, who currently had their heads together at one of the tables in the children’s section. Sure enough, Zachariah had planted his furry gray butt right near them, but the kids were managing around him just fine.
“Hey, Tribble. Up you go.” She hoisted the other cat onto one of the wall shelves above the counter. The winding maze of shelves, beams and perches that traversed the walls above the book displays provided hours of entertainment to the cats she and her dad had fostered over the years. She missed having a whole bunch underfoot...mostly. She did not miss getting up at 5:00 a.m. to feed them before school started.
Mandy caught a glimpse of herself in one of the hand-carved wooden mirrors they had for sale at the register. She put her lips together, reapplied her lip gloss and checked her teeth. Lip gloss was all the makeup Dad allowed. At least until she was sixteen, which seemed ages away. A scooter, makeup... Everything had to wait until she was sixteen. It was all right, she supposed. She figured it was the least she owed her father given he’d shown her how to shave her legs by shaving his own with her, an event she teased him about to this day. He was so good with that kind of stuff. The “girl stuff,” as she and Eleni called it. Nothing freaked him out. He even brought her hot compresses and chocolate-chip cookies when she had cramps. How many dads did that?
She almost set the mirror back in place, but then raised it again and looked at her eyes. The blue-green eyes that were nothing like her father’s. But she had seen them somewhere. In someone else’s face.
Suddenly, Mandy remembered. The mirror clattered onto the counter as the bell over the door rang again.
Mandy raced around the counter, toward the woman who had just left. She yanked open the door, darted out and looked in one direction, then the other, but didn’t see anyone. Only familiar faces who offered warm smiles of greeting. “It couldn’t be,” Mandy whispered. Could it?
Her heart pounded so hard it made her ears hurt.
“Mandy?” Charlie tugged on her shirt. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Mandy forced a smile onto her lips before she faced Charlie. “Yeah, I’m fine, Charlie. Thanks. You want to get one of those books?” She ushered the little girl back into the store.
“Yes, but I don’t have enough money. I need to go ask my dad.” She grinned her crooked, little-girl smile. “Dad never says no to books.”
“Then I’ll hold them here for you. Simon?”
“I’ll take mine.”
“Be sure to come back and show me your drawings,” Mandy said as she rang up his purchase. “I’d love to see them.”
“Sure.” Simon beamed. “Charlie and Phoebe MacBride are going to help me with the characters, ’cause they don’t think I know enough about girls to use one in the story.”
“He doesn’t,” Charlie declared. “We are complicated.”
“That we are,” Mandy agreed. She was practically vibrating while the kids lingered, but the second they left, she pulled out her cell and dialed.
“I’ll be at the store in a bit, Man,” her father said by way of answering. “Hunter and I were just—”
“Dad, you need to come now.” Mandy pressed her nose up against the glass door and looked up and down the street.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t be sure, but I think...” Mandy swallowed hard and shivered. “Dad, I think I just saw Mom.”
* * *
“THANKS FOR COMING IN on your day off, Willa.” Sebastian kept his voice down so his browsing customers didn’t hear the unease in his voice—the unease that had landed on him this morning when he’d answered Mandy’s call. It took a lot to unsettle him, and right now he felt like one of Holly’s shake machines at the diner that had been left on turbo speed for too long. “I hope I didn’t mess up any of your plans.”
Willa O’Neill flipped her waist-length, razor-straight brown hair behind the shoulder of her gray sweater and shook her head. “I wasn’t doing anything more than getting some chores done around the house. It’s not nearly as messy since Jasper moved into the firehouse.”
She set her travel mug on the counter behind the register and stashed her purse in the cubby underneath. Willa was fast becoming one of Butterfly Harbor’s most reliable employees. After seeing how well she’d been doing at the Flutterby Inn as one of their receptionists, Sebastian had quickly offered her a part-time position so he could get out of the bookstore once in a while. She was wonderful with the customers and knew the stock in the store better than he did, and talk about responsible.
“Is everything all right? You sounded a little stressed on the phone.”
“I’m not sure,” Sebastian admitted. “I just need someone to keep an eye on the store. Mandy’s upstairs packing to spend the rest of the day with Monty out on his boat. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
Willa slipped out of her sweater. “I’m free the rest of the day, so please don’t rush on my account. My sister Marley’s over at the youth center with Phoebe taking that ca
r-mechanics class Roman’s developed for kids. Scheduling it for when the kids were off school was a genius move. Jasper’s off duty, too, so he’s keeping an eye on Mom and helping her with some yard work.”
“I’m glad to hear your mother’s doing better.”
“Mom’s doing great, actually.” Willa flicked him a smile. “And this job has been such a help with finances. She doesn’t wake up in a panic in the middle of the night over money anymore.”
“Then it’s working out well for both of us.” The bell over the door jingled. “Hey, Monty.” The band of tension around Sebastian’s chest eased. It didn’t matter when he called Monty or for what—his best friend always had his back. “Thanks for coming to get Mandy. I know you didn’t plan to take her until tomorrow—”
“It’s not a problem.” He shifted friendly eyes to Willa, but Sebastian could see the worry on Monty’s face. “Thought we’d stop at the diner and grab lunch to eat on the boat.”
Willa, ever observant, backed away. “I’ll just see how the customers are doing.”
“Doesn’t miss a trick, does she?” Monty said.
“Hard not to pick up on the vibes.” Sebastian glanced up uneasily to the second-floor apartment.
“Is Mandy sure it was her?” Monty kept his voice low.
Sebastian shrugged. “It’s been fifteen years. It’s not like I have any recent pictures of Brooke.” But he did have plenty from before she’d left, and Mandy was familiar with each and every one of them. “What is she doing here, Monty? You don’t think...?” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the thought, let alone the sentence.
“What?” Monty asked. “That she’s come back to take Mandy away from you?”
Sebastian winced. “Hearing it out loud makes me feel a bit sick.”
“She’s got no standing.”
The edge in Monty’s voice caught Sebastian off guard. Monty was one of the most easygoing, friendly people on the planet. His barely restrained hostility when it came to Brooke only increased Sebastian’s concern that something was afoot. He didn’t need Mandy caught in a custody war zone.
“She gave up any right to Mandy when she left town, remember?” Monty said. “She walked out on both of you. Just because she’s back doesn’t mean anything more than that. Besides—” Monty rapped his knuckles on the glass countertop “—anyone tries to take Mandy away from you is going to have an entire town to deal with.”
“Right.” Sebastian felt a little better. Still, Brooke came from money. A lot of money that could be used against him in a potential custody battle. If he was honest that was more like Brooke’s parents’ than Brooke. Not that they’d ever had any interest in their granddaughter. But fifteen years was a long time. Who knew what kind of person Brooke was now? “I just... Oh, hey there.” He faced his daughter when he caught the flicker of warning in Monty’s expression. “You all ready for a day on the open water?”
Mandy rolled her eyes so hard she gave Sebastian a headache. “Stop acting like I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She dropped her backpack to the floor and finished rubbing sunblock on her face. “You going to find Mom?”
Sebastian glanced at Monty, who merely shrugged. “I’m going to try to.” He had never once lied to his daughter. He wasn’t about to start now. “If she’s in town, I’ll find out.”
“Are you going to tell her to leave?” Mandy pulled on a baseball cap and tugged her ponytail through the hole in the back.
“Do you want me to tell her to leave?” Sebastian honestly didn’t know what he was going to say to Brooke. He’d given up hope Brooke was ever coming back soon after Mandy’s first birthday.
“You don’t have to for me.” Mandy nodded. “She can’t take me away from you.”
Sebastian straightened. “Mandy, that isn’t even—”
“Dad.” She thrust out a hip and glared at him. “I mean it. She can’t. I know enough about custody law to know someone my age would have an absolute say in what happens. Even if she wanted to get custody, I don’t want her to, so there you go.”
“Where’d you learn about custody law?” Monty asked as she hefted her backpack onto her shoulders.
“Kyle.” She flashed a grin that said “aren’t you glad you asked?” at both of them. “He learned a lot while he was in juvie and then he got firsthand experience waiting for Matt and Lori to adopt him. The judge asked him out loud what he wanted. What he said mattered. And I’m far better adjusted than he was at the time.” She sighed an overdramatic sigh that had Sebastian’s lips twitching. “Sorry, Dad, but you’re stuck with me. Just...do me one favor?”
“What’s that?”
“Be nice to her.”
Sebastian’s eyes went wide. “I’m always nice.”
“Yes, you are.” Her dimple deepened with her smile. “Remember that.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “See you tonight. Ready, Captain.” She offered Monty a salute, rounded the counter and headed toward the door.
“That’s quite a kid you’ve got there,” Monty told him and gave his own salute. “I’ll get her back in one piece.”
“I know you will.” Sebastian watched them leave, a smile breaking across his face when he saw Monty catch up to Mandy before they headed down to Monarch Lane and the Butterfly Diner. As soon as they were out of sight, he grabbed his keys and his lightweight jacket. “Willa? I’m heading out. Feel free to order from the diner if you want.”
“Thanks. I’ll lock up if you aren’t back by closing.”
Sebastian didn’t respond. He’d be back before then. Because it wasn’t going to take long to guess exactly where Brooke was. And, most important, what she wanted.
* * *
BROOKE COULDN’T SEEM to shake the cold from her bones. It had been one thing to dream about seeing her daughter again, to imagine what Mandy would look like, sound like. The last time Brooke had seen her, her daughter had been a cooing, drooling infant of six weeks. To see her now, a fully grown teen, smiling, friendly and looking at Brooke with wide-eyed acceptance, had set Brooke’s knees to trembling and her heart to stuttering.
She should have waited until she’d gotten her energy back up. The drive from South Carolina had taken more out of her than she was willing to admit, but she hadn’t been able to wait any longer. If she didn’t do anything else to follow through on her promise to herself, she was at least going to see her daughter.
Now that she had, what was she going to do? Despite the unseasonably warm weather, she shivered and wandered down to Monarch Lane to try to lose herself in the shops and store windows, taking notice of the change as well as the steadfast sentries of the past. Locally owned, locally run. Locally patronized. No chain stores or commercial advertisements along this main stretch of road in town. Just like she remembered. She’d loved the years she’d spent here in high school. That her daughter had been raised here was one thing she knew she’d done right.
She paused near the door to the Butterfly Diner, the main local eatery where she and Sebastian and Monty and Frankie had spent countless hours eating onion rings and sipping on shared cookies-and-cream milkshakes. Then it became just her and Sebastian. Oh, the times they’d shared here. The diner gleamed with all its glass and stainless steel and the smattering of metal monarch butterflies dotting the door frame. The only thing that was different was the help-wanted sign in the window.
Did Mandy come here? Brooke wondered. Had Sebastian told her how this had been one of their special places? That it was in this diner Brooke had told him she was pregnant only to have him propose two weeks later? She touched a hand to the chain around her throat, swallowing against the pain.
The past spun around and pushed her on, to the only place she knew she could find solace. The only place she could think about the daughter she’d finally laid eyes on.
Now that she’d seen her daughter, new questions took hold. Had she always h
ad long hair? Would those blue eyes of hers have deepened or brightened with age? What was her favorite color? What did she like studying in school? Was she a good student? An athlete? Did she have a boyfriend? Brooke had envisioned her in a million different ways, all of them perfection.
Her daughter was gorgeous. Okay, so maybe she was a bit biased. Brooke had been barely able to form words of greeting when Mandy had spoken to her. Mandy was tall, but was she tall for her age? Brooke didn’t know. Her hair was long, and draped in slight waves all the way down her back. She’d been wearing jeans and a bright pink T-shirt—nicely dressed because she’d been at work. And that smile. Brooke’s heart skipped a beat. Oh, that smile of her daughter’s could power a small city for a full winter season.
Every moment Brooke had spent away from her daughter spun like a cyclone. All the anger, the resentment, the hurt she’d felt since the day she’d left bubbled up. Anger at her mother for giving her a life-changing ultimatum, at her father for not speaking up and defending her until it was too late. But mostly at herself for not having the courage to take hold of the life she’d been offered with Sebastian.
Instead of taking the chance, Brooke had spent the last fifteen years existing, not really living. She’d done what was expected, playing the dutiful daughter all the while sleepwalking from one moment to the next, helping one of her mother’s affluent friends run her special-event catering company in South Carolina. Given her mother was a “professional fund-raiser,” Brooke’s schedule was pretty busy.
She hugged herself, pulling her elbows in until her arms went numb. Everything was a jumble inside of her. Her emotions, her thoughts. After the accident, the doctors and therapists had told her it would take time to readjust, to get herself back on track. She’d have to be patient and not push herself, either emotionally or physically. She was beginning to think she’d done both.
A Match Made Perfect--A Clean Romance Page 3