Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3)

by Christi Barth

  “Hang on, I did the math. The numbers speak for themselves. If you amortize over the past ten years all the sex you should have been having with Piper if you guys hadn’t broken up, and divide it by all the sex you could have been having over the past fifteen days, it still doesn’t add up to the number of times I’ve put a perma-grin on Casey’s face. You know, for comparison.” Zane looked ridiculously pleased with himself as everyone burst into laughter. They were laughing so hard that they didn’t hear Joel and Dawn until the two appeared at the edge of the circle.

  Joel folded his arms over his chest. “I tell you we’ve got an emergency on our hands and this is your response? To talk about your sex life?”

  Gray snorted. “Ward and Piper not having sex is rapidly approaching a state of emergency.”

  “We were only masking our worry with humor.” Casey hurried over to her stepmother and grabbed her hand. “Seriously, what’s going on with you guys? Why the 911? Because I really am worried.”

  “Everything’s fine,” Joel said.

  “You should be worried,” Dawn blurted out at the same time. “We’ve got a huge problem.”

  Gray made a time-out sign with his hands. Or at least Piper assumed it meant time out. All her years cheerleading, she could never keep straight which was safe, out, or time out. “One at a time. Dawn, why don’t you help me get the other flavors of coffee started while Joel gives us the lowdown?”

  Masterful handling by Gray. Dawn was clearly in a tizzy. Giving her something to do with her hands would calm her down. Joel, on the other hand, was the ultimate calm-in-a-crisis guy. Facing down all those bullets and who knows what else in his former career probably gave him that alert but unruffled veneer.

  Joel’s gaze skittered around the loose circle. “Maybe you should all sit down.”

  Oddly ominous. “That doesn’t mesh with your ‘everything’s fine’ comment,” Piper said. “Especially since almost nothing is fine that requires getting up this early in the morning.”

  “Spit it out,” Ward ordered.

  “The police called. They found our ex-City Planner and ex-Treasurer.”

  “Found?” Ward dropped his arms and stepped forward, his entire body as taut as a retriever scenting a duck. “Like they’re closing in, about to drop the net on those idiot thieves?”

  Joel shook his head. “Even better. They’re not just found, but arrested.”

  Piper could hardly believe it. The same shock she felt was mirrored on all her friends’ faces. Larry Paulson and Pam Flickinger had disappeared from Seneca Lake back in May, along with every cent in the town’s bank account. As mayor, Dawn got vague updates from the police and the FBI. After all these months, a lot of people had given up on ever seeing Pam, Larry, or the money ever again.

  “Ooh—I’m imagining Pam in an orange jumpsuit. She won’t be able to get her quarterly Botox injections in prison, that’s for sure.” Casey rubbed her hands together with glee.

  “Where did they find them?” Gray asked.

  “Vegas, of all places.”

  Piper sucked in a breath. “Oh, no—Las Vegas? Did they gamble away all of our funds?”

  “They may be criminally stupid, but they’re not that stupid. That’s the rest of the good news. The FBI recovered the money, too. Traced it straight to a bank account in the name of Larry’s brother. Who, apparently, knew nothing about it. Turns out Larry and Pam were trying to stay under the radar, so they only spent a couple thousand.”

  Applause and whooping broke out. Then everyone surged forward to hug Dawn. She’d shouldered a ridiculous amount of blame for not sensing that those two were up to no good. Almost got booted from office. And then pulled the entire town back together by sheer force of will and her sunny personality. It had hurt them all to watch her struggle.

  Dawn banged a ladle on the stove to get them to quiet down. “I have to thank you all. When I thought about stepping down as mayor, you convinced me to stick it out. More importantly, you convinced me that I could still make a difference. The way you believed in me made me believe in myself.”

  “You’ve have done the same for every single one of us,” Ward stated.

  “Thank you, Ward. The sentiment is appreciated, but I’m also quite sure you’re just trying to get me to stop the speechifying before the waterworks kick in on all the girls.”

  His teeth flashed bright amid his dark beard. “You always did see right through me.”

  Ward truly hated it when any of them cried. To his credit, though, it never ran him off. He bitched, moaned, cajoled and teased them into stopping, all while staying right by their side. All of a sudden, Piper realized how extraordinary that made him. How much patience and care it must’ve taken for a sixteen-year-old boy to hang with his friends when they were a total mess. How he had never taken the easy way out and disappeared until the tears dried up. It said so much about the sort of man he was, and the sort of husband he could be.

  Piper then realized she’d forgotten to breathe. Husband? Really? After barely being able to tolerate each other’s company for the past three years without a mediator. After only dating for fifteen days. She was really going to go straight from not being at all sure if she could date him for a month to leaping into daydreams about white dresses and happily-ever-after with Ward?

  Sure, they’d been best friends forever. Yes, she knew him inside, out, and every other which way. But it still felt like a leap. A leap that should’ve been planned and strategized and talked through. Not something her subconscious just belly-flopped into the front of her mind.

  “To Ward’s great discomfort, I’m going to keep going. Because you all are my family.” With tears just glistening at the corners of her eyes, Dawn smoothed a hand over Gray’s head, and then Zane’s. “Some newer additions than others. Not a whit less dear, because you’re both an integral part of this unit now. None of us actually connected by blood. But the way we all look after and love each other...well, that’s family to me.”

  Ward leaned over the counter, ripped off a hank of paper towels and wordlessly handed one to each of the sniffling women. His actions were often louder than his words. Piper was just fine with that. Most of the time.

  Moving to Dawn’s side, Joel put his arm around her waist. “And because you’re our family, we don’t want to keep secrets from you. But we don’t want you to take this next piece of good news the wrong way.”

  “You really are full of the ominous declarations this morning,” Piper noted. “Gray, you’re his boss—make him stop.”

  Gray lifted his hands, palms out. “All I do is sign his checks. Joel’s a brilliant cooking island unto himself.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m a chef, not a cook?”

  “Until I stop getting a kick out of watching you bristle like a hedgehog.”

  “Stop baiting the man,” Dawn ordered with a stern glare down her nose. “We’ve got a lot to get through and very little time.”

  “Are you kidding? With the money found, you can take a break. Stop worrying.” Casey drew the back of her hand across her forehead with an overly dramatic swoop. “Take a vacation, even!”

  Dawn smiled mysteriously. “You’re getting warmer.”

  “The FBI would like us to go to Vegas.”

  “Great.” Zane’s face lit up. “Are they going to fly you out there on one of their private spook jets?”

  “Is there such a thing?”

  Zane laid a finger aside his nose. “That’s a much longer discussion for another time. Probably classified. No, definitely classified. I just won’t tell you my source. That’ll be safer all the way round.”

  The coffeepots beeped, one after the other. Joel lined up all the mugs for Dawn to start pouring. “No private plane. Sorry to disappoint, Zane.”

  “Ah, well. There’s always another tim
e.”

  “I certainly hope not!” Dawn pushed two kinds of milk, three kinds of sugar and a handful of spoons to the middle of the counter.

  “The FBI aren’t insisting, but it’s already complicated enough with how many state lines Larry and Pam crossed, which is why the New York State Police aren’t the only ones involved. As the official representative for our town, it’d speed things up for the indictment if Dawn goes out there.”

  “Great. Indict away.” Casey made a shooing motion with her hands. “Far, far away.”

  “And since it is Vegas...while we’re out there, we’re getting married.”

  “We’re eloping,” Dawn blurted out right on top of him.

  For a moment there was silence. Nothing but the scrape of Ella’s spoon around her favorite yellow mug with pink polka dots. Then she dropped it to the counter with a clatter. “What?”

  “Are you serious?” Casey asked, sticking her face less than an inch from her stepmom’s.

  “Quite serious.” Although the smile splitting Dawn’s face in two looked anything but serious.

  “Hang on. Just...just wait a second.” Casey circled around to now push her face at Joel. “Didn’t you just go on your first date, um...”

  “Fifteen days ago,” Ward offered.

  “Yes. The same as us. Fifteen days,” Piper echoed softly. How ironic, that she’d just been thinking about how crazy it was to be thinking about marriage so soon. On the other hand, she and Ward had been best friends far longer than Dawn and Joel. Huh. Piper wondered if Ward’s head would explode if she suggested a double elopement. Just burst like a balloon full of confetti.

  “Technically, that’s true. But we’ve been close friends for years. The feelings were always right here.” Joel thumped his sternum. “All we did was unlock the door to them.”

  “We’ve found our soul mates in each other. Our happiness shouldn’t follow anyone else’s timetable.” With a rueful laugh, Dawn added, “If we both hadn’t been so stubborn, we’d have realized we felt this way ages ago.”

  Joel and Dawn were a heck of a lot smarter than she and Ward had been. Because their wasted years spent apart from guilt and hurt and stupidity added up to a lot more.

  Ward stuck his hands in his pockets and said, “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start right away.”

  “Another old chestnut from your quote-a-day calendar?”

  “Nope. Closing scene of When Harry Met Sally.” He jerked a shoulder toward Ella, Casey and Piper. “These three watched it so often I couldn’t help but memorize it.”

  Joel yanked at his black curls with a groan. “Every time you tell us a story like that, I want to force you to binge watch all ten Die Hard movies.”

  “There aren’t ten.”

  “There will be before Bruce Willis kicks it.”

  Piper couldn’t help herself. Because Dawn was the mayor. As well as proprietor of a general store that basically every single person in town visited on a regular basis. This out-of-the-blue life change wouldn’t go unnoticed. Or unremarked. “What will people think? What will they say?”

  “Some may call us crazy. Some may be happy that we’re seizing our joy with both hands. Hopefully, there are more true romantics than skeptics.”

  Piper believed in romance. And she was truly happy for Dawn and Joel. Dawn hadn’t even dated anyone since Casey’s father went nuts and left her for a cult seventeen years ago. She deserved a second chance at love. No doubt Joel would be a much better husband. It was because she so wanted things to work out for Dawn, however, that Piper was so concerned about the town’s reaction to this seemingly whirlwind romance. She wanted it to go un-smudged by gossip and narrow-minded judgment.

  After a quick slurp of his coffee, Joel shrugged. “Frankly, we don’t care what anyone outside this room thinks. We do care that you all support our decision.”

  Gray nodded. “Of course we do.”

  “Wholeheartedly,” Ella added.

  “Are you kidding? I’m thrilled to get a stepdad. Especially one who makes such amazing short rib macaroni and cheese.” Casey gave both Joel and Dawn a huge hug. “I’d support it a teeny, tiny bit more, however, if I could be there in person, holding your hand as you walk down the aisle to become Mrs. Joel McMurray.”

  “Oh, I’m keeping my name. A Cosgrove has always run this general store. I don’t want to buck that tradition.”

  Tradition. Wedding traditions meant cake and flowers and...oh my gosh, the dress. Piper couldn’t imagine skipping over the fabulous fashion portion of a wedding. She’d been daydreaming about her wedding dress since she first put a linen napkin on her head as a makeshift veil.

  And although even Casey and Ella didn’t know about it, she had a secret Pinterest board full of ideas. Okay, two boards. One for a dreamy, candlelit casual wedding amidst her family’s vines. The other was art deco elegance all the way. Maybe by the time she decided on a groom, she’d be able to decide between the two options.

  In a hushed and horrified tone, Piper asked, “Does this mean no white dress for you? Slinky or floofy?”

  Dawn laughed. “We haven’t gotten as far as the dress code.”

  “We only got the call from the Staties at dinner.” Another quick slurp of coffee, as if Joel suddenly remembered it was in his hands. He must have eight hundred things whizzing through his mind. “We stayed up all night working through it all. We’re not trying to cut you guys out of the wedding. It’s simply a too-good-to-pass-up opportunity that dropped in our laps.”

  “Hang on. A Vegas wedding with no bachelor party first?” Zane clasped his hands to his chest and slid bonelessly onto a high-backed stool. “You’re killing me here, Joel.”

  “I somehow doubt Casey would be thrilled at the thought of you taking me around to strip bars. Besides, I’ve been to the ones in Thailand. Everything over here is tame in comparison.”

  Zane slid the stool six feet over to Joel’s side and stage-whispered from behind one hand. “I’m going to need to hear the long version of that story someday.”

  “So here’s the plan.” Dawn held up her right hand and started ticking off points on her fingers. “We’ll get the legal obligations out of the way first. Then we’ll get married.”

  Piper’s hand flew to her chest. “At some drive-thru chapel with an Elvis lookalike officiating?”

  “That idea may have been mentioned.” Joel gave Dawn the side-eye. “It didn’t get unanimous approval, though.”

  Dawn switched hands to tick off more points. “No drive-thrus and no Elvis. We found a lovely hotel that does them on the observation deck on the hundred and seventh floor. It seems fitting, since my head’s been in the clouds since Joel asked me to marry him.”

  “Then we’ll hop on a late flight to Hawaii. Wake up to fresh mangoes and sand underfoot. That’s where you all come in. That’s why we called you all together so early.”

  “This is harvest time.” Dawn literally wrung her hands. Piper didn’t realize people did that anymore outside of black-and-white movies. “Leaf-peepers are arriving in droves every day, and, well, I can’t just up and leave. Not without knowing I’ve left Cosgrove’s in good hands.”

  Piper cut to the chase. “You want us to cover for you.”

  The supernova radiance of an expectant bride Dawn exuded moments ago had vanished. Horizontal lines of guilt settled deep onto her forehead. “Casey, I know the park is overrun with visitors now. And all those visitors are staying at Mayhew Manor, which will run Gray and Ella ragged. Piper and Ward, your businesses will be just as swamped.”

  “Stop. Don’t give it another thought. We can manage.” The assurance popped out of Piper’s mouth automatically. The actual logistics would be another matter entirely. Even with her talent for organization, this would be
a massive stretch. There simply weren’t enough hands to go around. Not that she’d say that to Dawn, of course.

  Joel took another quick slurp then turned to Gray. “I’ll work up two weeks of specials before I leave. There’s a buddy of mine who teaches at the CIA who’d probably be willing to pinch hit for me in the kitchen.”

  Gray waved off Joel’s concern. “We’ll make it work. I happen to make a killer grilled cheese sandwich. The secret is putting horseradish and mustard on the bread.”

  Casey rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, that’d knock Joel’s famous soufflés right off the menu.”

  “Unbeliever. Don’t knock it till you try it.”

  Zane tapped his spoon on the counter. “Warning—brilliant idea on the way.”

  “Hell, Professor,” Ward snapped. “Why does every single thought that comes out of your head get classified as brilliant?”

  With a shrug and a cocky smile, Zane replied, “I call ’em like I see ‘em.”

  Joel snorted. “Egotistical education snob.”

  “Ungrateful cook.”

  They were pretty adorable. They could also keep going on like this for ten minutes straight. Piper had seen it happen several times in the past few months. She put a hand on Zane’s arm and gave him her most interested, wide-eyed gaze. It was the same one she used during her annual yawn fest with her accountant so as not to insult him with her utter boredom. “Tell us your idea. We’ll all vote on the level of brilliance attached to it.”

  “What we really need is bodies. People smart enough to run a cash register but who don’t expect to be paid much. In other words, the very definition of a grad student.”

  “I like where this is going.”

  “Grad students are always hard up for cash. Especially those attending a school that costs an arm and a leg.”

  Joel winked. “Gotta pay your overpriced salary somehow, Professor.”

  “I’ll ask my students. At the very least, it’ll fill in the gaps for when we’re stretched too thin.”

  The vertical lines bracketing Dawn’s pursed lips said that she wasn’t wholly convinced. “Are they trustworthy?”