by Jill Sanders
“Well, at least that’s something,” she said dryly.
“I’ve let Martha go,” her father shocked her by adding.
She stopped dead in her tracks. “You believe Martha…” She couldn’t fathom the audacity of her father. Martha had worked her him for several years. “You believe someone who’s been loyal to you would, what? Suddenly poison you and force you to change your will so that she still received nothing? Father, you’re blind as well as stupid.” She almost hung up, but her father jumped in.
“I never said that.” She waited. “I let her go because she didn’t stand up and say anything to me about how Bridgett was acting. She even signed the forced will as a witness.”
Aubrey thought about that. “Why?” She shook her head. “Why would she go along?” She would have thought the woman would have at least called Dr. Williams. It hadn’t even registered that her father’s loyal housekeeper and assistant, someone who had controlled her father’s every move for the past few years, had allowed Bridgett to rush in and rule the roost.
“That’s why I let her go. John claims she’s the one who cancelled my yearly physical with him.”
She heard a couple heading her way and ducked down a different pathway. “What happens now?”
“I’ve returned my will to its previous format.”
“I don’t want a dime.”
“I know you don’t, but it’s the least I can do. Hell, when I’m gone, do what you want with it. Give it all to charity for all I care.”
“Then you do it,” she offered.
He was silent for a moment. “That isn’t my legacy to leave. I’ve built up a reputation—”
“Change it,” she challenged him.
He was silent again. She knew he was still there because she could hear him breathing.
“You really don’t care about the money, do you?” he asked quietly.
“I never have. Tell me if you had anything to do with my mother’s death.”
“I didn’t,” he said quickly. “The drugs…” He sighed loudly. “Messed with my mind. Honest, I would have never harmed Nora or you. She’d given me the one thing I had given up hope on long ago.”
“The drugs?” she asked. “Mom didn’t do or sell drugs.”
“No, but the man she’d been seeing…” Her father shocked her.
“Man?” She stilled. “What man?”
He sighed again. “His name was Davis Evans. That’s all I know. After Nora’s death, the man dropped off the radar.”
“Did the police look at him as a suspect in my mother’s death?” she asked.
“No, there was no need. The note your mother left you was in her handwriting and the apartment had been locked. The front door deadbolted from the inside. The police ruled it a suicide quickly.”
She thought through things and then sat down in the sand. She hadn’t even realized she’d walked to the private beach while talking.
“Aubrey, if you ever make it back up to the city…”
“I won’t,” she countered quickly.
“I understand.” He was quiet for a moment, then added, “This isn’t how I expected things to be. I know it probably doesn’t mean much to you now, but I’m sorry.” Before she could respond, he hung up.
Dropping her phone into the sand, she hugged her knees to her chest, dropped her head on them, and cried.
She lost track of time, but when arms wrapped around her, she glanced up through blurry eyes to see Elle.
“I’ve called the others. Whatever it is, we’re here for you,” her friend said with a smile.
“My dad,” she said.
Elle’s arms tightened around her.
“Is he…”
“No,” she replied quickly. “We just… He just… He said he was sorry.” She shook her head. There was no way she could explain how much those words meant to her. Even more than if he’d told her that he loved her. Those three words were the most powerful in her book, and he’d just said them to her. Finally.
It was like a weight had been lifted off her chest.
“Oh, sweetie,” Zoey said as she, Scarlett, and Hannah all rushed to her side. Each of them sat in the sand next to her.
“Is everything okay?” Hannah asked, wrapping her arms around her as much as she could, since Zoey and Scarlett had gathered around her while Elle still held onto her.
“Yes.” She smiled up at them. “My father told me he is sorry. I don’t know why I’m being stupid about it, but…” She laughed as the five of them almost toppled over.
“He’s okay?” Scarlett asked.
Out of the five friends, Scarlett had been the most like-minded when it came to their feelings about their dads. Scarlett hadn’t forgiven her father for abandoning his family before he’d died.
Now here she was, crying over the fact that her father had simply said he was sorry. Shaking her head, she sighed deeply.
“How did you find me?” she asked as her friends settled beside her.
“I was heading to dinner when I saw you on the phone. I felt terrible, but I followed you when I noticed you were upset,” Elle answered. “I’d thought at first you and Aiden…”
Aubrey laughed. “The only thing we’ve ever fought over is…” She frowned. “Well, we haven’t fought. Not once.” She glanced around at her friends as she dried her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket.
“Not once?” Zoey asked. “Even Dylan and I go at it every now and then.”
“Ugh, don’t talk about your sex life.” Scarlett nudged her sister with a chuckle.
Zoey’s smile grew. “Okay, make-up sex is the bomb.”
Everyone groaned, causing Zoey to shrug. “Fine.” She threw up her hands.
“No,” Aubrey continued, “we have had a few disagreements.” She thought about it and realized the only problems they’d ever had was a direct result of her lack of ability to commit. She took a deep breath and realized that, as much as she hated to admit it, her father had passed his ability to not admit things onto her. “I screwed up,” she said out loud.
“How?” Elle asked.
“I told Aiden that I couldn’t commit to him,” she admitted.
“Couldn’t?” Hannah asked. “Or wouldn’t? You are in love with him, aren’t you? I mean, you moved in together and all.”
Aubrey thought about it and swallowed her pride. If her father could admit to his darkest fears, then maybe she could as well. Did she love Aiden?
Scenes of how they’d met to all the great times they’d shared over the last three years played in her head.
He was the only man she trusted, completely.
“You love us, right?” Zoey asked.
“Of course,” she answered quickly. “You’re my sisters.” She held out her hands, and they all shifted into a circle, holding each other’s hands.
“Love is easy,” Zoey said softly. “When it’s with the right people.” She smiled and Aubrey watched in horror as a tear slipped down her face.
“Don’t cry,” Aubrey begged.
“Hormones.” Zoey waved her hand, the one that was attached to Hannah’s. “I’m allowed to cry. My point is, Aiden is the right person for you. We may not have known it for the past three years…”
“Because you all thought I was into girls,” Aubrey added with a chuckle.
Zoey’s eyes narrowed as she smiled. “Okay, I take it back, Aiden is all wrong for you. If he can’t keep a secret—”
“No,” Elle jumped in with a chuckle. “That just means that love was more important to him than the friend code.” She squeezed Aubrey’s hand. “I’d break the friend code for Liam. It’s love.”
“Friend code, but not Wildflower code, right?” Zoey asked.
“Of course not.” Elle chuckled. “Wildflower codes are unbreakable.”
“Agreed,” everyone said quickly.
“I want some wine.” Aubrey sighed. “Do we really have to work dinner tonight?” She almost groaned it.
“No,” Elle jumped
in. “That’s the joy of being the bosses. What do you say to taking this party up to the apartment? Now that it’s empty, we can hide ourselves away up there and have some sister time.”
“That sounds like a perfect ending to an otherwise shitty day.” Aubrey stood up and then hugged her friends, her sisters, and knew that just like her father, she had to come clean with Aiden and admit that she was in love. For the first time in her life, she was going to give a man the one thing she’d hidden away and protected all of her life.
Chapter 26
Aiden had been so busy over the past week that he hadn’t even realized that Aubrey was purposefully avoiding him.
There had to be a better way for preparing for a storm. He and his crew had done it more than half a dozen times since he’d started working at the camp. Most of the storms had passed with only an hour or two of heavy rain, while others had taken out trees or just caused a mess with leaves and branches.
Cleanup usually took a day or two, but preparation took much longer. Small things like a stack of two-by-fours could turn into deadly projectiles and had to be stored properly.
They had small metal storage pods for most of their building supplies, to keep them out of the weather or out of sight. But some of the bigger supplies couldn’t fit into the pods. There were only three cabins left under construction, but plenty of supplies and equipment had to be moved and stored.
It was not only keeping him busy, but very tired and sore. By the time he crawled into bed each night, he was too tired to notice if Aubrey had been there for long. Instead, he pulled her close to him and held onto her while he slept. If he couldn’t have as much time with her as he wanted during the day, at least he could dream about her.
The following morning, he made a point to carve out time in his morning and drove her up to the main building to enjoy breakfast with her.
“My dad called me last night,” she said as he pulled away from their place.
He glanced over at her. “And?” His stomach knotted just thinking of her being left alone after such a call.
She sighed and rested her head back. “For what I suspect is the first time in his entire life, he apologized.”
“Really?” He shook his head. “Guess you can teach an old dog… and all that.” He reached over and took her hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, my sisters helped me.” She smiled at him. “It’s the reason I got home just before you.” She giggled. “And have a slight hangover this morning.”
He glanced at her and chuckled. “It looks good on you. Being happy.”
Her smile fell instantly, and he wondered what he’d said.
“Is it weird that we never fight?” she asked as he parked.
He flipped off the truck and turned to her. “No, not considering I’ve seen you in action, remember?”
Her smile was back. “I mean—”
“I know.” He pulled her closer. “I guess because we started out with things between us just being physical and let it grow into something more, we focused on pleasing one another instead of the relationship aspect of things.” He shrugged. “But if you want… I could always start complaining about how you never carve out time for me or you can nag me about working too late.”
She sighed. “What’s the point. You’re getting things ready around here for the storm. If you spent more time with me, that would mean leaving this place vulnerable.” She turned and looked out the front window to the massive three-story main building. “And I’d never do that. This place is my heart.”
His eyes were glued to her face, and he could see the love clearly in her eyes. An ache started around his heart as he dreamed of the day that she’d say that to him instead.
“We’d better go inside. I only have half an hour before I have to be across town to help out with Hammock Cove.”
“The storm’s supposed to hit later tonight,” she said as they walked up the pathway. “It’s so strange. It’s like ninety degrees out and not a cloud in the sky.” She glanced around and he stopped to do the same.
“They’ve moved it up to a category three,” he reminded her. “I’ve been through enough of these in my lifetime to know that if it crosses into a four, we need to evacuate the entire area.” He took her hand and started walking.
“It’s funny calling a storm Laura. I mean, I knew a couple Lauras in my lifetime. None of them were ever hotheaded.”
He chuckled as they stepped into the building. “The only Laura I knew was definitely full of hot air.”
“When will we know if it moves up to a category four?” she asked as they moved through the buffet line.
“Could be any minute now or five minutes before it hits.” He shrugged. “My thoughts are we should all hunker down in the main building here.”
“The last guests are leaving this morning. Every time a storm hits, we have to clear out the cabins,” she complained.
“It’s for their safety as well as ours,” he assured her. “The last thing we want to do is have to rush out to a cabin and try to rescue someone.”
“True,” she agreed. “Still, it’s a pain cutting everyone’s trips short. Some of the guests actually complained and tried to stay put. As if they were above being bothered by Mother Nature.”
He took her tray from her and motioned to the juice bar. “I’ll carry these, you grab us some drinks.”
He set the trays down at their standard table, surprised that no one else was there already.
They were halfway through their meals when Zoey and Dylan walked in. A few minutes later the rest of them slowly made their way over to the table.
“I hate you,” Scarlett said to Aubrey. “Do you ever have a hangover?”
Aubrey chuckled and shook her head. “Only twice in my life,” she answered, and he knew he’d have to make a point to ask her what those two times were. Later.
Talk quickly turned to the storm, and everyone agreed that they would all meet up and camp out in the main building for the night unless the hurricane was changed to a category four or higher. In that case, they would all carpool north.
“Hurricane party,” Hannah said cheerfully.
“Dylan and Liam said they’d help you board up the windows on the main building later today,” Zoey offered.
“Thanks,” he replied. “I should be back here around noon. I have some loose strings to tie up at Hammock Cove this morning.” He checked his watch, and his phone chimed with a couple messages. “Well, they need me over at the site.” He bent over and kissed Aubrey. “See you later?”
“We’ll be here,” she replied.
For the next four hours, he hung heavy wood boards over all the brand-new windows he’d helped install at the club house at Hammock Cove while other workers rushed around securing the rest of the equipment.
“There has to be a better way of doing this,” Owen complained as they finished with the last board.
“There is, it’s called storm shutters,” he reminded him. “Which were scheduled to be installed a month from now.” He chuckled.
“Damn. Right.” Owen shook his head. “The company was booked solid until next month.”
“Yup, it’s one of the perks of living in the path of storms,” he joked. “I’m going to head back over and have lunch before doing this all over again at the camp.”
“You know, Hannah has talked me into hanging out at the camp tonight so she can be with all of her friends. I think she mentioned something about a hurricane party.”
He groaned. “She mentioned she was going to throw one again this time.” He rolled his eyes. “Last time we had about half an hour of rain. The party was good though.”
Owen laughed. “I told her it’s just an excuse for her to throw a party. She replied that it was an excuse for all of us to come together.”
He thought about it. “I guess we haven’t all gotten together for a while. I mean, sure, for breakfast and an occasional wedding,” he joked, “but nothing like this.”
“Just as l
ong as the storm doesn’t get too bad, we should be fine,” Owen replied.
“Agreed,” he added before heading out.
When he arrived at the campgrounds, he radioed and found out that Aubrey was out helping them close the storm shutters on the last cabins. Already, he could see the skies growing darker. Even though the storm wasn’t set to hit them full force until ten o’clock, the front was already moving in.
He gauged that they would have rain in the next few hours and he’d have to step up his timeline. He skipped lunch and headed directly to help hang the plywood over the massive deck windows on the pool house.
An hour later, Aubrey found him as he and Liam were finishing sealing up the dining hall with boards.
“Wow, it looks almost the same as it did before we opened the camp back up.” She held her rain jacket hood over her head.
He remembered the day he’d met Elle out at the camp to discuss fixing the place up. Joe had sealed the camp years before. Now it was looking more like a haunted summer camp rather than a functional one.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her raincoat just as the first drops of rain fell over them. “We’ve got another hour or so of work out here,” he said with a groan. “Why don’t you get in out of the rain and help out inside. I hear we’re having a party.”
Aubrey chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a storm without one.” She kissed him back before turning to go. “Oh, Elle wanted me to let you know, in case you were too busy to get the latest update yourself, Laura is still a three at this point.” She smiled. “And heading directly towards us.”
He frowned. “We could head to Destin?” he offered.
Aubrey stopped and frowned back at him. “And miss all the fun? Besides, they’re supposed to get hit too.” She shrugged. “I’d rather stay here with the people I love.” She turned around and headed down the path.
He’d been so shocked at her casual use of the word love that it had taken him almost five minutes to get back to work. Liam had to nudge him with a board to get him moving again.
The soft rain turned to a torrential downpour a half hour later, causing them to abandon their work and head inside.