A Roof Over Their Heads

by M. K. Stelmack

  Then as Marlene opened her door, another vehicle pulled in behind her. A van with Centre News emblazoned on the side. Of course, they’d follow up on Seth’s appeal. Out came a man with a camera and a young woman with a microphone.

  Paul and another police officer quickly stepped over to them. “He’d better be telling him that none of this is to be filmed,” Alexi said fiercely to Seth.

  “Human tragedy turned into something to enjoy with popcorn,” Marlene said as she came up to them, fat briefcase bouncing off her leg. “Media gets involved, and suddenly the whole process is out of our hands. I’ve seen solid cases cave like a house of cards because of media pressuring departments to make decisions they otherwise wouldn’t.”

  She made a loud clicking noise. “Yep. A real shame if that were to happen.”

  Marlene, who’d always cut to the truth, was saying something entirely different. Marlene strode forward and yelled up to Matt.

  “Here I am, just like you wanted.”

  Matt waved, said nothing.

  Marlene dropped her briefcase with a thud. “So, what do you want?”

  “I want to go home.”

  Alexi’s heart stopped.

  “You were at home,” Marlene said. Her shadow on the lawn stretched clear across to Alexi’s feet. “It was you that ran off.”

  “I didn’t want to.”

  “Did someone make you go?”

  “No.”

  “Did you feel safe there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you want to be there?”

  “Yes.”

  Marlene raised her hands. “Then, get off the roof and go home.”

  “I can’t. Because if I do, then you’ll take my dad away from me.”

  “Your dad? Who’s your dad?”

  “Seth Greene.”

  Alexi felt Seth’s arm wrap around her shoulder, felt his entire body tense. Marlene pointed her thumb at Seth. “What? You saying this man is your dad?”

  Alexi banded her arm tight around Seth’s waist, as tight as when she’d helped him the day he’d come to the farm.

  “Yes,” said Matt. “He’s Dad.”

  Alexi understood what Matt was declaring. Seth was not Daddy like his biological father nor Daddy-R like Richard. Seth was Dad. Alexi and Seth. Mom and Dad.

  Seth pulled Alexi close to him. He’d picked up on it, too.

  “Yes,” Alexi said, loud enough for Marlene to hear, for Matt to hear, for the whole neighborhood and world to hear. “This man is his dad.”

  Marlene shifted her focus to Seth. “You agree?”

  His hold on her tightened. “I do.”

  Marlene turned back to Matt. “Then who am I to stand in the way?”

  Matt still didn’t move. “Promise?”

  Marlene snorted. “On behalf of whomever I represent, I promise. Now get down before I climb up there myself, and let me tell you I don’t know if that roof is strong enough for the both of us.”

  In the circle of Alexi’s arm, Seth shifted but it was Mel who said it. “Yes,” he called, “it is.”

  Marlene didn’t have to carry through on her threat because Matt began his descent under the supervision of the fire department. The whole exchange between Marlene and Matt felt staged. Alexi caught Marlene and Connie exchanging a quick, secretive glance. Her two enemies colluding for her benefit. Or Matt’s. Or Seth’s. For them all.

  She tightened her arm around Seth’s waist, and his around her shoulders did the same as it had when he’d been about to whisper what she had hoped were the three words she’d said to him.

  But he was looking straight ahead at Matt, at everybody else except her. She swallowed against the rise of tears.

  “I love you, Alexi Docker.” Seth’s words were loud, loud enough for everyone to hear. Matt’s foot on the ladder froze in midair. His head came up. “I love you and your kids, and the second Matt’s feet hit the ground, we will be together and stay together.”

  He looked at her then, and there was no holding back the tears. Thankfulness welled inside her but she didn’t say that. Instead she said what she’d always meant. “Your love fixes me every day of my life.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Matt, on the ground, half running to them. Just as he reached them, Bryn stepped up and slapped him upside the head.

  “That,” Bryn said, “was for scaring Mom.”

  Then Bryn hugged his brother, and soon they were all hugging, arms wide and tight. Bound together, stretched together, loving and loved.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this debut

  Heartwarming story by M. K. Stelmack,

  watch for Connie’s story in June 2018.

  Available at www.Harlequin.com or wherever Harlequin ebooks are sold.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE WAY BACK TO ERIN by Cerella Sechrist.

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  The Way Back to Erin

  by Cerella Sechrist

  CHAPTER ONE

  WHEN THE CLOUDS first rolled in, Burke had felt disappointment. Thirty minutes later, he wondered if the weather had known what was coming well before he did and had conspired to provide an appropriate backdrop to the day.

  As he stood there with the June rain pouring down, soaking through his tuxedo and slipping down the back of his neck, he shivered. The guests had retreated, taking shelter in the tent where the reception was to be held. He felt like he should take charge, make an announcement, tell them to go ahead and enjoy the dinner that had already been bought and paid for. But his father-in-law...no. He brought that thought up short.

  Allan Worth would not be his father-in-law after all. Not since Tessa had failed to show up, disappearing from the Delphine Resort where their wedding was being held.

  She was gone, as completely as the sun. The rain pelted his face, but he stubbornly remained outside, welcoming the hammer of the elements. It soothed his disappointment, his embarrassment, his confusion.

  Tessa didn’t want to marry him. Or so the note in his clenched fist claimed. It was a paltry offering with no excuses. Just two simple lines.

  I can’t marry you. I’m sorry.

  Burke raised his eyes and looked toward the portico of the hotel where his and Tessa’s closest family members and friends congregated. Paige, Tessa’s oldest sister, was gesturing wildly. Though he couldn’t read her lips, they were moving at a fast clip, probably worrying more over the blow to the family’s
reputation that a runaway bride would deliver rather than the fact that Tessa had disappeared. Harper, Tessa’s other sister, had her arms wrapped around their mother and was staring at her cell phone screen, as though willing it to ring.

  Allan Worth was nowhere to be seen. Tessa’s father was likely doing damage control among the guests, apologizing for the inconvenience, offering refreshments. Like Burke should be doing. But he didn’t have the strength to face the expressions filled with sympathy, the strange condolences for someone who hadn’t died yet had disappeared just the same.

  He shifted his gaze from the small crowd on the portico and caught sight of Molly Callahan, Tessa’s niece by marriage, playing tag with several other children, oblivious to how the rain stained their fine dress clothes. His lips tugged upward at the sight, and he wished he could abandon his dark mood and join them.

  He searched the group of children for his nephew, Kitt, and wasn’t surprised when he didn’t see the little boy among them. Ever since his father’s death two years before, Kitt had become a very serious child. Running through the rain wasn’t something he’d take part in.

  Burke moved his eyes back to the portico and found his nephew seated at Great-Aunt Lenora’s feet, the old woman’s hand absently stroking his hair. She leaned down and said something to the boy, but he didn’t respond.

  Burke’s heart twisted anew. Not for his own loss but for his nephew’s. Would Kitt never laugh again?

  Then again...would he? Between his brother’s death almost two years ago and now Tessa’s defection, he didn’t think there was much to smile about these days. His eyes continued to scan the group gathered on the portico, the kids scattered around the lawn, and the guests huddled in the tent, drawing into the center to avoid the rain that was blowing in through the open flaps.

  It wasn’t until he saw her approaching that he realized he’d been looking for her in particular.

  Erin. His brother’s widow, braving the downpour to get to him. Funny that no one else had bothered.

  When she reached his side, she held out an umbrella, and he almost—but not quite—laughed at the sight. She’d picked her way across the grass, letting the deluge soak her, and hadn’t opened the umbrella. What good would it be to either of them now?

  “Aunt Lenora says you should come in out of the rain.”

  He could only blink in reply. Erin took a step closer.

  “Burke, I’m sorry. But she’s not coming back. There’s no point in standing out here, waiting for her.”

  “I’d rather be out here than in there—” he gestured toward the tent “—where they can all stare at me.”

  Erin took his hand, the warmth of her fingers startling him. His own were chilled straight through to the bone.

  “No one’s staring, Burke. You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  Her words penetrated, and he laughed, an empty, bitter sound. “I’ve just been stood up by my fiancée on my wedding day, which was already ruined by this freak rainstorm. I kind of think I have something to be embarrassed about.”

  Erin’s eyes sparked. “Well, I imagine standing out here in the rain like an idiot only makes it worse.”

  His jaw sagged. “You know, most people would be feeling sorry for me right about now.”

  She sighed. “I do feel sorry for you, Burke. But I don’t pity you. Tessa’s not a cruel woman. If she didn’t want to marry you, then I suspect she had a good reason. Now, are you coming in out of the rain or not?”

  He swallowed, shifting his gaze from Erin and to the arbor that had looked so festive and fresh only an hour earlier. Now, the boughs of greenery were sagging, dripping water in rivulets down the white columns. The flowers had lost quite a few petals, beaten from their stems by the rain and littering the ground in a soggy mess.

  “I have nowhere to go,” he said, more to himself than to Erin. He’d lived for so long without a home that he hadn’t realized how much he was looking forward to finally settling down.

  All of his possessions were boxed up in Tessa’s garage. He was supposed to move in with her after their honeymoon. He felt a pang at the realization that he wouldn’t have a home after all.

  “You can stay at the Moontide,” Erin told him. “Aunt Lenora already said so.”

  “I can’t stay at the inn,” he replied, almost defensively.

  Erin frowned. She was a mess, the rain having washed her mascara in black lines down her cheeks. He felt a twinge of guilt that she was standing out here, in the rain with him, when no one else had bothered.

  “Why not?” she demanded.

  He couldn’t explain it to her, couldn’t give voice to his feelings on the subject. There were so many reasons for him to stay away from the bed-and-breakfast. Despite the fact that it had been his permanent home for four years as a teenager, he had never felt like he belonged there. And even less so now, knowing it was the house where Erin and Gavin had made their home, even though his brother had been deployed in the army for much of that time. Maybe it shouldn’t have mattered, given that the inn was over two centuries old and had housed hundreds, maybe thousands, of guests during its lifetime. What was one more?

  But it wasn’t that simple. Not for him.

  While this internal argument ensued, Erin’s fingers tightened on his, the heat of her skin briefly bringing some feeling back into his own.

  “It’s either the inn, or we ask Allan to put you up in the Delphine.”

  This snapped some sense back into him. “I am not going to ask my fiancée’s father to put me up at the resort he owns after she ditched me.” He coughed. “Ex-fiancée,” he corrected.

  Erin frowned. “You said it yourself, you have nowhere to go.”

  He closed his eyes at the reminder. How had he ended up here? Just an hour ago, he’d had everything he ever wanted—he’d been about to become a husband, hopefully within the next year or two, a father, and he’d finally felt a sense of belonging. At peace. Settled.

  But now all his dreams had washed away with the coming of the rain...and Tessa’s desertion.

  The Delphine and the Moontide were the only two hotels in town. The Lodge had boarded up its doors last year. So he could either drive an hour outside of town and use his credit card to put himself up at a motel on the outskirts until he could figure out his next move, or he could go begging Allan Worth for a free room at the Delphine.

  He was sure his father-in-law—correction, his ex-fiancée’s dad—would have let him stay in the suite he and Tessa were meant to have for their wedding night, but no way did he want to set foot in that room now. Nor did he want to stay at the Delphine at all, where the staff and Tessa’s family could take note and whisper about him behind his back.

  That only left the Moontide.

  Erin stood there patiently, letting him sort through his options before she spoke up once more.

  “It would make Aunt Lenora happy,” she pointed out. “She’s always said that the years you lived there were some of her happiest.”

  He hadn’t lived at the Moontide since he was eighteen years old. Other than a handful of visits, he hadn’t spent any length of time at the bed-and-breakfast since he and Gavin had lived there as teenagers.

  “She’s missed having you under her roof,” Erin added.

  He swallowed, not daring to voice the question that rose unbidden.

  And you, Erin? Did you ever miss me?

  He quashed the thought as quickly as it came. There was no point in thinking along these lines. He had spent several long years burying that question as deeply as he could. The only reason it surfaced now, he told himself, was because he was feeling vulnerable and betrayed. But he would not even consider the subject because it no longer mattered.

  His heart protested, whispering, It does matter. It’s always mattered.

  But he ignored his heart’s cry and tugged his hand free of
Erin’s.

  “All right. If Lenora has a room to spare, I’ll come to the Moontide.”

  Erin looked at him so intently that he shifted away from her.

  “But only tonight, Erin. Just until I get things sorted out.”

  Erin didn’t argue with him, and no matter how hard he tried to bury the feeling, part of him wished she would.

  * * *

  THE UNEXPECTED STORM had blown over, but it left behind a few threadbare clouds and an unseasonal chill in the summer air. Erin laid out Kitt’s long-sleeved pajamas and left him to dress for bed before checking in on Burke.

  Her brother-in-law had collapsed onto the bed in the Galway Room, one of the Moontide’s middle-size bedrooms, as soon as they had returned home from the Delphine.

  As she peeked inside the door he’d left ajar, she could see he hadn’t moved from where she’d left him, and the gentle rise and fall of his chest told her he’d fallen into a sound sleep. She moved into the room and opened the armoire, pulling out one of the family afghans, knitted years ago by Aunt Lenora’s grandmother.

  She buried her face briefly into the soft, worn cotton, inhaling the scents of lavender and cedar from the armoire’s interior before she unfolded it and stepped toward the bed. She draped the blanket over Burke’s sleeping form, arranging it carefully, the same as she did for Kitt when he fell asleep on the couch while reading.

  She lingered in the room, tidying up small details like centering the pair of porcelain songbird figurines sitting slightly askew on the fireplace mantel, pushing the ceramic pitcher and basin on the bedside table away from the edge and tugging a stray cobweb free of the wooden desk chair.

  At one time, Aunt Lenora kept a girl on the payroll to come in twice a week for detailed cleaning of the rooms at the B&B. But in the last year, the inn’s revenue had dropped so much that she’d been forced to try to clean the rooms herself. At eighty-nine, scrubbing floors and washing windows had taxed the older woman to her limits. When Erin had come upon her one day, leaning on the wardrobe in the Killarney Suite and heaving for breath, she had known it was time to take over.