“Wow. That’s all I can say. Wow. That dress is perfect for you. The coloring, the style, everything.”
“That’s why I spent far more than I could afford on it. Stupid, isn’t it, for a dress I’ll probably only wear once.”
“Every girl needs something completely, outrageously impractical hanging in her closet.”
“I guess I’m covered, then.”
“Not yet. Let’s see what Abigail has in her magic box.” She held out the jewelry box that contained what had been another of Abigail’s passions—vintage costume jewelry, which she wore loads of at every opportunity.
Even when she worked in the garden, Abigail would wear some kind of gorgeous jeweled earbobs and a matching necklace.
“I need to glitter,” she used to say with that mischievous gleam in her blue eyes. “It takes the attention away from my wrinkles.”
To Sage’s shock, Anna turned the box with its jumbled contents and upended the whole thing onto her bed.
The two of them stared at the huge sparkly pile for a long moment. Sage hadn’t given much thought to the collection, but now she couldn’t seem to look away.
“Do you suppose any of it’s real?” Sage whispered.
“I don’t know.” Anna spoke in the same hushed tone. “I’m not sure I want to know.”
She started pawing through the collection, pulling out a gleaming strand of pearls here, a chunky citrine and topaz necklace there.
Finally she stopped and pulled out an Art Deco choker in stones the exact midnight shade of the dress. “This is it. It’s perfect.”
The stones felt as smooth and cool as polished sea glass. After another moment of treasure hunting, Anna pulled out a pair of matching dangly earrings that seemed to capture the light and reflect it back in a hundred different shades of blue.
“I guess we really should have this collection appraised,” Anna said while Sage put them in.
“You don’t sound any more enthusiastic than I am.”
“They’re Abigail’s. I hate the idea of parting with any of her things. But let’s face it, the upkeep on the house is going to be more than either of us can afford. The heating bill alone is almost as much as I was paying for rent on my condo.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“You’re right. No depressing talk,” Anna said firmly. “Let’s just get you ready. We can worry about heating bills and extravagant jewelry collections another day.”
Already Sage could feel her hair slipping out of the style. Before the whole thing could fall apart, Anna fiddled with a few strands, smoothed a few more, then stepped back to admire her handiwork.
“All done. What do you think?”
Sage stared at her full-length mirror at the stranger gazing back at her. Not a stranger, she corrected. She only had a single picture of the slim, lovely mother she barely remembered, a picture rescued and hidden away when her father started to purge that part of his life after his second marriage.
She hadn’t looked at it in a long time, but somehow she knew if someone snapped a picture of her right now and compared it with that precious photograph, the two women would be nearly a match.
Tears burned behind her eyelids, but she choked them back. “Oh, Anna. Thank you. The necklace and earrings are exactly right.”
Anna stepped back and studied her. “It’s almost spooky the way they match, as if Abigail bought them just to go with that dress.”
Maybe because she had been thinking of her mother, but Sage could swear she felt invisible fingers gently brush her cheek.
She shivered a little and was grateful when the doorbell rang.
“There’s Eben,” she said, then felt ridiculous for the inanity. Who else would it be?
“Have a wonderful time,” Anna said. “Give my love to Stanley and Jade.”
“I will.”
Anna looked bright and animated, Sage thought, so very different from the stiff businessman she had always considered her. She really was becoming a dear friend, something Sage never would have expected.
She reached out and gave Anna a quick, impulsive hug. “Thank you again.”
Anna looked stunned but pleased. “You’re very welcome. I’ll go let him in. Wait up here a moment so you can make a grand entrance down the stairs.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. I’m not in high school.”
“Trust me. Stay here.”
Anna flew down the stairs and a moment later, Sage heard Eben’s deep voice greeting her. She tried to count to twenty but only made it to fifteen before she started down the stairs, certain she was going to trip in the unaccustomed high heels and break her neck.
Eben stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her in a dark suit and tie. He looked sinfully gorgeous and she had to admit his thunderstruck expression more than made up for the sheer extravagance of the dress.
By the time she reached the bottom step, Anna was ushering Conan into her apartment and closing the door behind them both with one last delighted smile at Sage and Eben in the entryway.
Eben grabbed her hand and brought it to his mouth in a gesture that should have felt foolish but seemed exactly right.
“You look stunning,” he murmured.
“I feel like I’m on the way to the prom.”
He gave a surprised laugh. “I sincerely hope I’ve moved beyond the arrogant jackass I was at seventeen.”
“Well, I have to admit my prom date didn’t bring along his eight-year-old daughter.”
“Left her home with a sitter, did he?”
She laughed at the sheer unexpectedness of his teasing. “Something like that.”
“I should probably tell you, Chloe’s over the moon about spending the evening with grown-ups. We had to rush out and buy her a new dress and everything.”
Thank heavens they hadn’t bumped into each other in the few Cannon Beach clothing stores. “The Wus have a dozen grandchildren. Trust me, they’re going to adore her.”
He drew in a deep breath, his eyes filled with doubt. “I guess we’ll find out in a few moments, right?” He held out his arm. “Shall we?”
She slipped her arm through his. The rain forced them to stand close together and share his umbrella and she could smell the deliciously spicy scent of his aftershave.
This was a make-believe night, she reminded herself as he helped her into his luxurious rental car. She needed to remember that by morning this would all be a memory.
A wonderful, glorious, heartbreaking memory.
Chapter Twelve
“Mrs. Wu, this fortune cookie is delicious. I like it very much. Would you mind if I had a second one?”
Eben observed his daughter’s careful politeness with amazement. What kind of well-mannered gremlin had snuck in when he wasn’t paying attention and replaced his headstrong daughter with this sweet, polite little person?
He glanced over at Sage and caught her suppressing a smile.
Jade Wu only beamed at Chloe, her lovely, ageless features glowing with delight. “You have as much as you want, child. Fortune cookies are not really from China, did you know that?”
“I didn’t know that. Really?” Chloe looked enthralled.
“They were invented right in your town of San Francisco by a smart baker at a Japanese restaurant. But our guests expect them, so we have perfected our own recipe.”
“You make them here?”
Jade smiled at her. “They are not hard. I can show you how, if you would like.”
Chloe’s eyes widened with delight. “Oh, could you? That would be so cool! Can you show me now?”
Sage made tiny sound in her throat, enough that Chloe gave her a careful look, then moderated her glee to a respectful smile toward Jade Wu. “Only if it wouldn’t put you to too much trouble, of course.”
Jade looked as amused as Eben ha
d ever seen her in their brief acquaintance. “Not at all. Not at all. I am certain we could find a good apron to put over your lovely dress.”
“Thank you very much,” Chloe said calmly but Eben could see her nearly vibrating with excitement.
He couldn’t help breathing a huge sigh of relief. Chloe had been perfectly behaved all evening. She had been respectful of both of the Wus, had waited her turn to interject a comment or question and had used impeccable table manners.
He knew exactly who deserved the credit for the remarkable transformation—the stunning woman sitting beside him. Sage caught his gaze again and smiled in a conspiratorial way and his heart seemed to stutter in his chest.
Emotions tangled in his throat as he looked at her—tenderness and admiration and something else, something deeper he wasn’t sure he could afford to examine closely.
“You should ask your father first, of course.”
Chloe grabbed his hand and pressed it between both of hers in her dramatic way, as if she were pleading to save a life instead of only asking permission to bake a cookie. “Oh, please, may I, Daddy?”
“Of course, as long as Mrs. Wu doesn’t mind showing you and you do exactly what she says.”
She kissed his cheek and Sage smiled at him again. For some silly reason, Eben felt as if he had just hand-delivered the moon to both of them.
“Sage, would you care to come with us?” Jade asked her. “I will find an apron for you as well.”
“I’d love to see how it’s done,” she answered. “But I believe I’ll just watch, apron or not.”
Eben rose when the three lovely females did and watched them head for the kitchen, Jade in the lead, leaving him alone with Stanley.
The other man didn’t seem in any hurry to resume his seat even after the door closed behind the women, so Eben stayed on his feet as well. “Thank you for dinner. It was exceptional, as usual. Tonight, I especially enjoyed the duckling.”
Stanley continued to study him out of impassive eyes. Just before the pause between them would have turned awkward, Stanley turned and headed away from the table. “Come with me, Eben Spencer.”
Baffled and more than a little edgy, he followed Stanley to the suite of rooms that contained the hotel’s administrative offices.
Stanley sat behind his elegantly simple desk and with a solemn look in his eyes he gestured for Eben to take a seat.
“My wife and I have loved this hotel,” he said after a long moment. “It has been our home and our lives for many, many years. We have raised two strong sons here and had hoped one of them would choose to carry on for us, but our sons have chosen other paths to follow.”
Eben wasn’t quite sure where Stanley was steering the conversation so he opted to remain silent and let the man lead.
“My wife and I are old and we are tired. We spend so much time caring for those who stay here that we have no time to enjoy our older years. The moment has come for us to make a decision about the future of this place we love.”
Eben held his breath, doing his best to contain the nerves shooting through him.
“I know you have been impatient with us for the delays. But I hope you understand how difficult it is for us to let go and surrender our dream to another. We needed to be certain. Completely certain. Tonight, seeing you with your beautiful daughter, we are sure of our decision. A man who could raise such a delightful child will take good care of this hotel, the child of our hearts.”
The other man pulled out the file Eben knew contained the paperwork for the sale of The Sea Urchin to Spencer Hotels. He signed it in his small, neat script, then handed the papers over to Eben.
He had negotiated hundreds of deals in his dozen years at Spencer Hotels, but Eben couldn’t remember any victory tasting as sweet as this one. He wanted to laugh out loud, to throw his fists in the air.
To find Sage and kiss her senseless.
She deserved every bit of credit for this. If not for her and her miraculous effect on Chloe, he wouldn’t be sitting here watching Stanley Wu hand him exactly what he wanted, ownership of this graceful old hotel.
Instead of leaping up to go in search of Sage, he settled for holding his hand out across the desk to shake the other man’s hand.
“Thank you, Mr. Wu. I give you my solemn vow that you will not regret this.”
They would have to go through this again in the morning with attorneys present, but Eben knew Stanley would not change his mind now, not after he had given his word.
They spent several moments discussing a few of the myriad details involved in the sale. He tried his best to focus, but inside he couldn’t wait to find Sage and tell her.
Stanley must have finally sensed his impatience.
“All this can wait until tomorrow with the lawyers. Tonight is for being with those we love,” Stanley said, then paused. “Our Sage, I have never seen her looking so lovely.”
An odd segue, he thought, rather discomfited. “Uh, right.”
“And she is just as lovely on the inside. A man would be a fool to let such a rare and precious flower slip through his fingers.”
Eben couldn’t have said why this particular conversational detour left him slightly panicked. Would Stanley rip up the papers if Eben told him things weren’t serious between him and Sage?
He searched the other man’s features but could see nothing behind Stanley’s serenity.
“Shall we join our women in the kitchen? I am always looking for good fortune.”
Still feeling a bit off center, Eben followed Stanley into the kitchen. They stood in the doorway, admiring the lovely picture of women across three generations working together.
The delicious-smelling kitchen was busy and crowded as the head chef and his workers served the other dinner guests. Jade had taken over a workspace in the corner and was overseeing as Chloe and Sage—aprons tucked carefully over their dresses—folded thin circles of soft-cooked cookies into half-moons around little slips of paper, then curved and tucked them into the traditional fortune-cookie shape.
Chloe was laughing with delight as she worked, he saw, and so was Sage, her lovely features bright and animated.
He could barely look away.
Something shivered in his chest, a sense of rightness, of belonging, that had been missing for a long time.
She glanced up and for a tiny sliver of time, their gazes locked together. Her smile slid away, her eyes suddenly as deep and fathomless as the Pacific.
He would be leaving her tomorrow. The grim knowledge churned through him and he suddenly hated the very thought of it. But what other choice did he have?
Chloe caught sight of him. “Daddy, come and see my fortune cookies! I made one just for you. I even wrote the fortune and put it inside and everything.”
He jerked his gaze away from Sage, from that stunning, tensile connection between them, and smiled at the cookie in her outstretched hand. “Thanks, kiddo. It’s too pretty to eat, though.”
“But if you don’t eat it, you won’t get to see the message.”
Four sets of eyes watched him as he broke open the cookie and pulled out the folded slip of paper inside. He unfolded it, only to find Chloe’s girlish handwriting, much tinier than usual, was almost indecipherable.
With effort, he was finally able to read the message aloud. To the best Daddy ever. I love you better than all the fortune cookies in the world.
To his complete astonishment—and no small amount of dismay—tears welled up in his eyes. Eben blinked them back rapidly, shoving them down as far as he could into his psyche.
“It’s great,” he said brusquely when he trusted his voice again. “Thank you very much.”
Chloe was obviously looking for more from him. Her features fell. “You don’t like it.”
“I do.” He tried a little more enthusiasm. “I love it. The cookie tastes grea
t and the fortune is...well, it’s not true.”
Now she looked close to tears. “It is too. I do love you more than all the fortune cookies in the world.”
He would have preferred this conversation anywhere else than in the busy, noisy kitchen of the hotel he had just agreed to buy—and anywhere else but in front of Stanley and Jade Wu and Sage Benedetto. “I know you do, sweetheart. I just meant the first part isn’t true. I’m far from the best daddy in the world, but I’m trying.”
She smiled her relief and threw her flour-covered hands around his waist. “Well, I think you’re the best.”
He hugged her back. “That’s the important thing, then, isn’t it?”
* * *
He had won. The Sea Urchin was his.
Neither Eben nor Stanley mentioned the matter for the rest of the evening. Even after the three of them took their leave of the Wus, Eben didn’t say anything, but Sage somehow knew.
She didn’t need to possess any kind of psychic ability to correctly read the suppressed excitement in his features.
So this was it. They would be leaving soon. His mind was probably already spinning as he made plans. For all she knew, he may even have made arrangements for a flight out tonight.
She sat beside him battling down a deep ache as he drove down the long driveway of The Sea Urchin, then turned in the direction toward Brambleberry House.
She wasn’t ready for another loss so soon. She was still reeling from Abigail’s death and now she would lose Eben and Chloe as well. How could she ever be happy in her quiet life without them?
She should never have let them so far into her world. It had been a huge mistake and she was very much afraid she would be paying the price for that particular error in judgment for a long time.
He would probably return to Cannon Beach at some point. She could at least console herself with that. His company had dozens of other hotels around the world, but The Sea Urchin was important to him, he had made no secret of it.
Now that she knew how much he cared about the hotel, she couldn’t imagine him just buying the place for acquisition’s sake alone. While Sage doubted he would have direct involvement in the future management of the hotel, she expected he would at least have some participation in decision-making.
A Soldier's Return ; The Daddy Makeover Page 31