“Thank you for today.”
Sebastian shook his head. “There’s nothing to thank me for, Brooke.”
“There is. You could have made that really difficult and you didn’t. Being able to be with her, see her in the water, watch how amazing a young woman she’s become, it’s more than I could have hoped for, Sebastian.”
“That sounds like an ending. Is there something you’re trying to tell me?” He was joking. At least, she thought so, given the quick flick of humor in his eyes. Though it reminded her she still had to convince him she wasn’t the same intimidated girl she’d once been.
“I told you I’d stay awhile and I meant it.” She’d actually made more progress in the two weeks she’d been here than she’d ever expected. “When I do leave, I promise I won’t do it without saying goodbye.”
He shrugged, as if brushing off her promise. “It doesn’t matter what you say to me. Mandy is the one who matters.”
She’d been naive to assume one lovely afternoon would erase the distrust and pain between them. And maybe she’d fallen into her teenage fantasies where Sebastian was concerned, out there on the ocean, where they seemed to have left the reality of their lives back on shore. As much as she’d wanted to believe they could be a family, that they were one on the boat, real life had descended as soon as they stepped onto the dock.
As they turned the corner, the Victorian house BethAnn called home speared up among a smattering of cottage homes and bungalows, most having undergone recent upgrades and renovations. The for-sale signs, while abundant, weren’t nearly as many as this time last year, according to the gossip she’d heard while working at the diner.
So much had happened in the years she’d been gone, so much that wasn’t necessarily visible to someone newly arrived. Waitressing had offered an education in recent town history, besides service agility.
Butterfly Harbor’s rebirth as a tourist destination was in full swing, especially with the promise of the Butterfly Sanctuary being built up on the hill beyond Duskywing Farm. There was a revival taking place, as well, with new stores arriving each month and new residents moving into town or snapping up vacation homes now that property values had stabilized.
Twilight descended around them, bathing the narrow streets in that wondrous combination of reds and yellows. Only now was Brooke beginning to feel the exhaustion creep in. The ache in her head was a familiar one and it told her she’d overexerted herself. She wasn’t going to be able to avoid the medication she’d been trying to reduce. Not if she was going to make it into the diner tomorrow morning for the Sunday breakfast rush.
“Did you want to come in for some coffee before you head home?” Despite the uneasy tension between them, the offer came naturally.
“No, thanks. I want to get back and make sure Mandy eats something relatively healthy.”
“Right.” Brooke’s lips twitched. “I can’t believe she ate more hot dogs than you and Monty.”
“Yeah, well, Monty outdid her on the potato salad. Look, Brooke.” He reached out and caught her arm when she turned up the walk to BethAnn’s house.
“Yes?” Her heart pounded with expectation.
“I want you to have a chance to get to know Mandy. Really get to know her. Not only because it’s what she wants, but because you seem to need it.”
“But?”
“But you and me?” He shook his head. “We can’t... It isn’t...” His brow furrowed.
Before she thought better of it, she reached up and brushed her fingers across his forehead. She missed being with him. Missed touching him. Missed holding him. Those years with Sebastian had been the only time in her life when she’d felt truly herself, truly free. But walking away as she did had created a debt she could never repay.
“There’s no future for us, Brooke.” He caught her hand, slipped his fingers through hers. “I still care about you, but I can’t let myself...”
Her heart dropped even as she lifted her free hand and placed a finger against his lips. She nodded, forcing back the tears she knew would flow later.
Seeing him again, she’d expected old feelings to surge like the evening tide, and they had. Only they’d brought even more feelings—feelings that went deeper than a first love. Feelings she’d have to learn to ignore if she hoped to have a relationship with their daughter.
“I understand. Some things can’t be forgiven,” she whispered and brushed his wind-tousled hair off his forehead. “Let’s consider this the goodbye we never had. Tell Mandy good-night for me.” She stepped away, and hurried toward the house.
* * *
“HOW DID THINGS GO with Mom?”
“Huh?” Sebastian looked up from his laptop. He’d been updating the monthly sales figures for the bookstore when Mandy strode in, dressed for bed at—he glanced at his watch—far earlier than normal. “You wear yourself out diving?”
“Nah.” She grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, settled in her chair across from him and munched on an apple. “There’s a new movie streaming tonight. Eleni and I are going to text while we watch it.” She snapped her fingers and jumped back up. “Gotta make the popcorn. You want some?”
“No, thanks.” There went any thought of getting any vegetables into her for the day. That said, he’d learned a long time ago that some days you just had to surrender. “You did really well this afternoon. Monty was impressed.”
Mandy laughed. “Monty’s biased. I’m his perfect goddaughter.”
That much was true. But Monty was also a good judge when it came to aquatic ability. He’d told both Sebastian and Brooke, once he and Mandy had climbed back onto the boat after more than forty minutes beneath the surface, that Mandy really was a natural and that he was happy to have her work for him during the summer. Monty was also going to look for a private dive coach for her, as part of her birthday present, who would work around her schedule. If Sebastian agreed to all that, of course.
As if Sebastian had a choice. He’d already caught Mandy designing new T-shirt and cap logos for WindWalkers.
“So?” Mandy set the Dutch oven on the stove, added oil and popcorn, then put the lid on to wait. “How did it go with Mom?”
“It was a walk. How was it supposed to go?”
Mandy bit into her apple. “I dunno. I thought maybe you guys talked or something. You seemed pretty happy on the boat. I even think I saw googly eyes.”
“We were happy to see our daughter having a good time. That’s all it was.” And there it was. The first time he’d ever lied to his daughter.
Of course, that lie would have to do with Brooke. Everything had to do with Brooke these days. It didn’t matter that she was still the only woman who made him feel anything beyond friendship. It didn’t matter that he wanted, more than anything, to kiss away the last fifteen years and pretend she hadn’t broken his heart when she’d left. It couldn’t matter. He couldn’t trust her and, when all was said and done, there was nothing stable that could ever be built without that foundation.
“Didn’t look like that to me,” Mandy said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Ha, that wasn’t all she was saying. Sebastian closed his laptop and pushed it aside. He knew that expression of expectation on his daughter’s face. It was the same expression he’d seen on Brooke’s just a few hours ago. “Mandy, if you’re hoping your mom and I are going to somehow get back together—”
“Why can’t you?” She tucked her bare feet up onto the edge of the chair. “It’s not like you’re dating anyone.” She batted her lashes at him as if daring him to remember previous conversations. “Neither one of you ever got married. It’s not such a big leap, is it?”
“Okay.” Sebastian rapped his fingers on the table. “First, unless I’m bringing someone into this house, whom I date or don’t date is none of your business.”
Mandy wrinkled her nose, then glanced to the stov
e when the first kernel popped.
“Second, things between your mother and me are complicated. And don’t roll your eyes like that. That’s not some platitude or excuse. There’s a lot more to Brooke’s and my history than can be stated in a few sentences, which, in actuality, are all you’ve heard.”
“Because you won’t tell me,” she muttered under her breath.
“What happened is between us, Mandy. Your mother and me. I’m going to be her friend, because that’s the smart road to take, but also because, and I quote you, ‘to be nice.’ For as long as she’s here.” It would make things a little easier on Brooke. Maybe. “If you plan to continue a relationship with her once she’s gone back home, that’ll be up to you.”
Mandy stopped eating her apple and swallowed as if in slow motion. “What do you mean once she goes back home? You mean she’s leaving again?”
He saw the first crack in his daughter’s oversize heart. “As far as I know, yes, she is. You knew that, Mandy. We won’t be one big happy family.”
“Well, we won’t if you keep pushing her away.”
Sebastian’s temper rose. When had this situation become his fault? There weren’t many times he’d had to put his foot down with Mandy. She had a good head on her shoulders and was practical and rational beyond belief. But occasionally...she was such a teenager. “I want you to listen to me, Amanda.”
“Uh-oh. Full-name time.” The smile disappeared as quickly as it flashed. “Sorry.”
“Whatever happens with me and your mother is between the two of us. End. Of. Story.”
“You still love her.” The accusation shot across the table at him like a harpoon.
“That...doesn’t—”
“Keep telling yourself that, Dad.” She got up and stood at the stove, watching the last of the corn pop. “You don’t have to be alone. And one more thing.”
“What?” Sebastian sighed.
“You’re wrong. She didn’t just come back for me.” She flicked off the stove and pulled the pot free of the heat, dumping the popped corn into her usual bucket-sized bowl. “She came back for you, too.”
* * *
“I NEED YOUR GUYS’ HELP.” Mandy slipped into the booth next to Charlie and Simon, slid her backpack to the floor of the Butterfly Diner and leaned her arms on the table. She’d raced over as soon as school let out, hoping to talk to the creative pair before her mom’s shift ended. She and Brooke were going shopping for curtains and some odds and ends for Brooke’s new apartment upstairs—something Mandy informed her father of this morning, as if to disprove his theory that Brooke was indeed planning on leaving again.
“Our help?” Simon Saxon’s eyes went huge behind his thick-rimmed glasses. His eyebrows formed a V. “With what?”
“I don’t have a lot of time to get into details. Not here.” Mandy lowered her voice. Charlie scrambled onto her knees and leaned nearly her entire body on the Formica-topped table.
Mandy had been trying to find an opportunity for days to talk to the two of them alone, but between school, her hours at the vet clinic and two new foster cats who had landed on the back doorstep of Cat’s Eye Sunday afternoon, she’d barely been able to catch her breath. Here it was Wednesday and, as far as she knew, her parents hadn’t been on the same street, let alone in the same room, since their outing on the boat. If her mom really was staying for only two months, Mandy was running out of time.
“What’s going on?” Charlie’s eyes glimmered with excitement. Her red pigtails were straighter than usual, and rather than her trademark colorful overalls, she had on jeans and a T-shirt that declared her Queen of the Universe. She’d crossed out Princess herself and written Queen in bright purple puffy paint.
“I want to get my parents back together.” Mandy glanced to where Holly and Brooke were commiserating about something over the milkshake machine. “I was thinking maybe you guys might have some ideas?”
Charlie pressed her lips together as her eyes gleamed.
Simon groaned. “Not this again.” He dropped his head into his hands and heaved a sigh of adult proportion. “I’ve been through this already with her.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” Charlie beamed. “I got my dad, like I wanted.”
“You almost drowned,” Simon reminded her. Mandy cringed. She remembered the day Charlie had gotten trapped in the caves down at the beach looking for the town’s legendary “wish box.” Too bad no one had taught her about high tide before her quest to nab Fletcher Bradley as her new dad. Despite the near disaster, hers and Simon’s plan had worked.
Mandy remembered standing transfixed by the image of Charlie’s mother, Paige, waiting on the beach, looking terrified as Deputy Bradley had gone into the caves to rescue Charlie. Would Brooke have reacted the same way if it had been Mandy who was trapped?
“I don’t need anything as drastic as a cave rescue. I just need to get them talking to each other.”
“Oh. Well, that’s simple.” Simon shrugged one shoulder. “Tell them something like you want a real family dinner because you’ve never had one.”
“I have family dinners all the time,” Mandy argued. They’d had one just last night with Aunt Frankie and Uncle Monty at Flutterby Dreams, Jason Corwin’s restaurant at the Flutterby Inn.
“But not Mom-and-Dad dinners, right?” Charlie asked.
“I guess so. I already pulled the I-have-homework-I-forgot routine. I don’t think that’ll work again.”
“Oh! I know!” Charlie exclaimed. “Get them out on one of Monty’s boats! Simon, how do you strand a boat without doing something really damaging?”
“Make sure they don’t have the keys to get back,” Simon said. “You can use a family outing as a way to get them on the boat. Then go back and get them when you think there’s been enough time for them to talk out their problems.”
“That would probably take a super long time.” Mandy bit her lip. “But it’s also a good idea. My mom loves the water. And my dad has access to Monty’s boats now that they’re partners.”
“That seemed too easy,” Charlie complained.
“Not easy exactly.” Mandy picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “But definitely inspired. Thanks. Next time you stop by the store, ice cream is on me.”
* * *
“YOU’RE SURE ABOUT THIS?” BethAnn stood at the bottom of the stairs as Brooke came down with her suitcase. “You know you don’t have to go.”
“I do.” Brooke set her bag by the door and faced her godmother. “You’ve been great, giving me a place to find my footing. I’ve got it. Or, at least, almost. Besides—” she hugged BethAnn “—after I do some painting and stuff, Holly can rent the apartment to someone new.”
“I can only imagine what your mother would think if she knew you were moving in above a diner.” BethAnn didn’t look overly impressed herself.
“Well, she’d only think something if she knew about it. Which she doesn’t. Does she?” An odd prickle of fear worked its way down Brooke’s spine. “You haven’t been in touch with her, have you?”
“I did speak to her once more after you arrived.”
“BethAnn!” Brooke took a deep breath.
“She kept calling, Brooke. The only way I could get her to relax was to tell her you were fine and to suggest she might give you this time to figure things out. Don’t worry.” BethAnn motioned for Brooke to follow her into the kitchen. “She was getting on one of those river cruises for a few weeks. It’s not like she’s going to turn up in Butterfly Harbor again.”
“That’s true.” Her mother had always despised this place. Brooke, on the other hand, had since fallen in love with the small town all over again. Her reentry might have had a few bumps, but she’d landed on her feet. The past week since her day on the boat with Mandy and Sebastian had her settling into a routine that felt as if she’d finally found where she fit. Finally felt
where she belonged.
While she’d only seen Sebastian in passing, she saw Mandy nearly every day after school, when her daughter stopped at the diner for a snack or just to touch base before her next obligation. They’d gone bowling, had dinner in town and Brooke had even gone with them to the ball field to watch them practice for Mandy’s final tryout with the softball team. It all seemed so...normal. So perfect. Even Sebastian seemed comfortable having her around. They were becoming... Brooke hesitated to say it out loud, but she was beginning to believe they could be friends.
More important, the relationship Brooke had always dreamed about with Mandy was forming. She’d take it. For as long as she was here.
“BethAnn, can I talk to you—” Brooke’s decision to ask for her godmother’s advice vanished at the sound of the doorbell.
“Now I wonder who that could be,” BethAnn said with far too much innocence in her falsetto voice.
Suspicion and curiosity had Brooke following BethAnn to the front door. When she opened it, however, it was clear their visitor was a surprise. “Penny. And Myra. Elliot? What are you all doing here?”
Recognizing some of the names of the Cocoon Club, Brooke walked up behind BethAnn. The three looked like an odd collection of characters from Myra’s tangerine hair and her trademark bamboo purse to Penny’s heavy mascara-thick eyelashes.
“Is everything all right?” Brooke looked beyond them to where Penny’s sister Polly was guiding a determined Oscar Bedemeyer with his walker. “What’s going on?”
Myra gave Penny a not-so-subtle elbow.
Penny muttered, “Stop pushing. I’ve got this.” She straightened her sweater and cleared her throat as if readying to make a proclamation. But when she looked at Brooke, an odd defeated expression shone in her eyes.
“Why don’t you come in?” Brooke squeezed past BethAnn and motioned them inside. The club members glanced at one another, as if communicating by telepathy. Elliot slipped a finger under the collar of his button-down plaid shirt before retrieving a gift-wrapped box off the porch table.
A Match Made Perfect--A Clean Romance Page 15