He sounded angry, maybe even a little frantic. It was so unlike her easygoing brother, Emma was more alarmed than ever. “Okay, I hear you,” she said carefully. “Why is it so important to you that I come home?”
He hesitated. “It’s Dad,” he said finally. “He’s acting really weird.”
If Andy was an even-tempered kid, it was a trait he’d inherited from their father. Don Killian never raised his voice. When he was angry or disappointed, he managed to convey it without shouting. Jeff had always been able to push him to his limits, but Andy and Emma rarely ruffled his feathers.
“Weird how?”
“He and Jeff are getting into it all the time, but that’s pretty much par for the course,” Andy said. “Now he’s getting on my case all the time, too. It’s not like I do anything bad, but he jumps all over every little mistake and he does it in front of the customers. He’s been snapping at Mom a lot, too.”
“Mom and Dad are arguing in Flamingo Diner?” Emma asked, genuinely taken aback. They’d always prided themselves on running a neighborhood restaurant where the customers were considered guests. They’d done everything they could to ensure that the regulars who’d been coming since they opened the doors nearly thirty years ago felt welcome. Family squabbles—what few there were—were to be kept at home.
“A lot,” Andy said. “And Dad looks kinda sad, too. I’m scared they’re gonna get a divorce or something.”
“Oh, sweetie, that’s not going to happen,” Emma reassured him. “Mom and Dad are as solid as any two people I’ve ever seen. They have a strong marriage. I talked to them both over the weekend and they sounded great.”
“Sure,” he scoffed. “You talked to ’em for how long? Ten, maybe fifteen minutes? Anybody can put on a good show for that long.”
Stung by the suggestion that she no longer knew what was going on with her own family, Emma thought about her last conversation with her parents. It had been brief, but surely she would have sensed any unusual tension. “Andy, I think you’re reading too much into a couple of little arguments.”
“It’s more than a couple,” he insisted. “I’m telling you that something’s not right. I even asked Mom about it, but she brushed me off just like you’re doing. She says everybody has bad days.”
“Well, then, there’s your answer. If she’s not worried, why should you be?”
“It’s not one day,” he said, his voice rising. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Jeff didn’t, either. He says Dad’s always been short-tempered, but he hasn’t been, not with me and never with Mom.”
“I’ll call Mom—how about that?”
“She won’t tell you anything,” Andy said. “You need to be here and see for yourself. They can’t hide it if you’re here for a whole week, or even for a weekend. Please, Emma.”
“I was just talking to Kim about trying to get down in October,” she said.
“That’s too late,” he said. “You need to come now.”
Emma heard the urgency in his voice, but none of what he was saying made any sense. She’d picked up on none of the weird vibes he claimed had become commonplace.
“I’ll get home as soon as I can,” she promised finally.
“This week?”
“No, but soon.”
Andy sighed heavily. “Yeah, whatever.”
“I will get there, Andy. Meantime, try not to worry.”
“I know. I’m just a kid. If the grown-ups are having problems, they can fix them.” He sounded like he was reciting something he’d already been told, probably by Jeff.
“That’s true, you know. Mom and Dad have been married a long time. I’m sure they’ve had their share of ups and downs. They’ll weather this one too.”
“Whatever,” he said again.
“I love you,” Emma said, her heart aching for him. It was obvious he’d blown a few incidents out of proportion. He wasn’t used to being criticized by their father, so he’d taken whatever their father had said to him to heart. “Everything will be okay, Andy.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you’d been around here,” he said, sounding defeated.
Before she could try one more time to cheer him up, she heard the phone click and realized Andy had hung up on her.
“He’s exaggerating,” she told herself as she placed the phone back in its cradle. “He has to be.”
There was just one problem with that theory. Andy was the most conscientious, levelheaded kid she’d ever known. And he was scared. There had been no mistaking the fear in his voice.
Maybe she could get home sooner than October. She pulled out the calendar of auction dates and other appointments that were already scheduled for her and Marcel. July and August, the supposedly dead days of summer, were crammed with commitments. Early September was even worse. Maybe by the middle of September, she concluded, penciling in her trip on a weekend that looked clear at the moment.
But even as she went back to unpacking the new inventory, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she ought to find some way to make that trip sooner.
2
There weren’t a lot of big-time criminals in Winter Cove, and that was just the way Police Chief Matthew Atkins liked it. After working in the worst sections of Tampa for nearly ten years, he’d been more than ready to come home to Winter Cove, where arguing with citizens over parking ticket fines seemed to fill the bulk of his days.
Because most of the people in town had known him since he was in diapers, they seemed to think he owed them a favor. Hell, maybe he did. They’d all done their part to make sure he stayed out of any serious trouble, even after his no-account father had headed off to jail and his mother had all but disappeared into a bottle of booze.
No one in town had been kinder to him than the Killians. Rosa Killian had seen to it that he had something to eat and Don had given him not only work, but a strong sense of the man he could become despite his background. Together, the two of them had taught him that a marriage didn’t have to be volatile and that there was no place for violence in love.
Flamingo Diner had become Matt’s refuge, a place to go in the morning before school for a healthy meal and in the afternoon to avoid home and the steady parade of men who passed through his mother’s life. It had given him a surrogate family, not only the Killians, but all of the regulars who came there each and every day for food and gossip before work. He’d also met tourists from all over the world, which had broadened his view of life and reminded him that what he’d endured at home wasn’t the way it had to be.
The diner had also been the place where he’d fallen in love. Emma Killian with her huge brown eyes and cloud of dark hair had been sweet and sassy, and completely oblivious to the fact that Matt was head-over-heels crazy about her. She’d treated him with the same easygoing affection she showed her brothers. Even now, thinking about the torment of it made him sigh.
Of course, it was just as well. It had been clear from the start that the one thing in life Don wouldn’t give Matt was his approval for the often reckless, troubled young man to date Emma.
And, Matt was forced to admit, Don had been right. Not only was he four years older than Emma, but at that point he hadn’t proved that any of her father’s lessons had stuck. He’d had his father’s quick temper and his mother’s lack of self-esteem. It had been a dangerous combination. Back then, he’d needed to leave town and find his way in the world, to make something of himself before he could possibly have anything to offer a woman.
It had taken him a year of working odd jobs in Tampa before he’d been drawn into police work. During his training, he’d learned to defuse his own temper at the same time he’d learned how to defuse a tense domestic standoff.
Now he was back home with a respectable job, more than ready to settle down and raise a family, and Emma was still out of reach. And since it had been nearly ten years since he’d seen her, his feelings for her were more nostalgic than real. She was like an illusion, one he couldn’t seem to shake. Every time some oth
er woman caught his attention, every time he considered making a commitment, an image of Emma popped up and forced him to reconsider. It was not only pathetic, it was damned annoying.
As annoying as it was, though, it had been motivation enough to get him to say yes when he’d been approached about the police chief’s job in Winter Cove a few months back. It hadn’t hurt that the mayor had sent Don Killian to Tampa to do the asking.
Over the years Matt had come back to Winter Cove from time to time, so there had been little in Don’s practiced pitch that surprised him. He’d seen for himself that the sleepy little Central Florida town was growing, that its downtown was turning trendy with sidewalk cafés and the sort of unique little boutiques that appealed to tourists. The trailer parks and orange groves on the outskirts of town were slowly dying out and being replaced with golf courses lined by expensive townhouses. There were Sunday concerts by the lake during the cooler spring months, a winter arts festival, and an old-fashioned strawberry festival that now drew thousands, but somehow managed to maintain its small-town appeal.
Don had mentioned all of that when he’d come to Tampa to see Matt. He’d handed over a fancy, four-color brochure touting Winter Cove’s charms along with a packet of promotional material and statistical information put together by the mayor’s staff.
“Pretty slick stuff,” Matt had noted, watching closely for Don’s reaction.
“Bunch of damned nonsense,” Don had replied succinctly. “You’d think Habersham would know better. This isn’t the kind of thing that’ll get you to come back to Winter Cove.”
Matt had grinned. “What do you think will get me back there?”
“A chance to prove that you’ve made something of yourself,” Don told him without hesitation. “Not that you need to prove anything to anybody, but I’ve known you a long time, son. You’ve had a chip on your shoulder thanks to those folks of yours. This is your chance to get rid of it once and for all, especially now that your mother’s moved on to Orlando.”
That had been news to Matt. He’d made it a point not to stay in touch with her. “When did that happen?”
“A few months back.” Don had regarded Matt intently, then added, “When your daddy got out of jail.”
Matt had felt as if he’d been sucker punched. “She’s back with that lying, scheming, abusive son of a bitch?”
“Hiding out from him, more than likely,” Don replied. “He’s come through town once or twice asking questions about her and about you, but he’s been smart enough not to stick around. He knows people in Winter Cove haven’t forgotten what he did to your mother and to you.”
Clyde Atkins had been a mean drunk. He’d have gone on using Matt’s mother for a punching bag, if Matt hadn’t stepped in between them one night. Not yet thirteen and scrawny, Matt had been no match for his bigger, angrier father, but the resulting commotion had drawn the attention of neighbors and the police. A whole slew of charges had been filed against Clyde, and this time they’d stuck. Matt had seen to it that his mother didn’t withdraw them at the last second as she had in the past. And even if she had, his own bruises, carefully recorded by the police the night of the incident, would have been enough to convict the bastard.
Until that moment when he’d learned of his father’s release from jail, Matt thought he’d put all of that behind him, but the swell of anger and bitterness in his chest had told him otherwise. His father had made his childhood a living hell, and his mother hadn’t done much to help. He’d spent every day since trying to live down the reputation he’d inherited from the two of them.
He met Don’s understanding gaze. “You think I should take the job, don’t you?”
“I think you should give it some serious thought, for your own sake and for the town. Winter Cove can use a man with your experience, but more than that, it can use a man who knows what the town was, as well as what it can be. Personally, I don’t want to see us drift too far from our roots. We’re already dangerously close to doing that.”
Matt had frowned at that. “I’d be coming to keep law and order, not to block change.”
“Sometimes it’s the same thing,” Don told him.
“Haven’t the changes been good for your business? Aren’t you busier now than ever at the diner?”
“True enough, but I don’t know everyone who walks through the door the way I used to,” Don had lamented. “Especially not in mid-February when all the snowbirds are tying up traffic and taking up tables where my regulars like to sit. One of these days we’re going to have a fistfight over that. I can see it coming. Habersham’s likely to be in the thick of it, too. The mayor’s got his favorite table in the corner where he can be seen by everyone. Three sweet little old ladies with blue hair and stretch pants were sitting there when he came in the other morning and he stood there glowering down at them. I thought he was going to have a stroke, especially when one of them responded to his intimidation tactics by beaming up at him and inviting him to join them.”
Matt chuckled. “And you want me around to personally keep the peace in your restaurant?”
“I want you around because Rosa and the boys and I miss you,” Don had said. “We consider you part of the family and you haven’t been home nearly enough.”
The fact that he hadn’t mentioned Emma spoke volumes in Matt’s opinion. Or maybe Don had just been wise enough to know that any reference to Emma would have been taking unfair advantage of old feelings.
Matt hadn’t been able to resist the opening, though. “You didn’t mention Emma. How’s she doing these days? Is she still in Washington?”
“Yes, more’s the pity,” Don said with a shake of his head. “I don’t understand what she sees in the place, much less in that man she’s working for. He’s got sneaky eyes, if you ask me. And you’ll never convince me that Marcel D’Avignon is his real name. More likely, Marty Birdbrain, straight out of rural West Virginia. Maybe I should get you to check him out.”
Matt would have liked nothing better than to investigate any man in Emma’s life, even if theirs was only a working relationship, but something told him Don was only half-serious. “Say the word and I will,” he’d told him.
“And have her come down here and tear a strip out of both our hides? I don’t think so,” Don said with obvious regret. “And if she didn’t, Rosa surely would. No, Emma’s got a good head on her shoulders. I just have to have faith that she can look out for herself and not let the man take advantage of her.”
“Does she get home much?”
“Not nearly often enough.” Don had given him a knowing look. “But maybe you could change that.”
His words were tantamount to a blessing and gave Matt the hope he’d never had before where Emma was concerned. The slimmest possibility that Don could be right had been an added incentive for him to take the job once it was offered.
Maybe if the mayor had sent someone else, maybe if Matt hadn’t handled way too many domestic disturbance calls on his last shift, he might have been able to turn the offer down flat. As it was, he’d jumped at the chance to explore going back to Winter Cove in a respectable position. The salary and benefits had hardly mattered. Don had pegged him exactly right. Matt had wanted a chance to prove something to the people of Winter Cove. And he’d clung to the likelihood that sooner or later, he’d catch a glimpse of Emma and see if he’d finally outgrown his infatuation.
His first few months on the job had gone smoothly enough. Even without a visit from Emma, he had no regrets about his decision to come home. Don had been right about the number of strangers around, but there were still a lot of familiar faces, and Matt had made it his business to get to know the strangers, as well. Little went on around town that he didn’t observe or hear about.
Like the scene he’d witnessed in Flamingo Diner that morning. It wasn’t the first time Don had lost patience with Andy lately. Nor was it the first time he’d snapped at Rosa, but each troubling incident took Matt by surprise. Years ago Don would never have taken
that tone with any of them. In fact, over the years, whenever Matt thought of the Killians, all he remembered was the laughter and Don Killian’s gentle, persistent way of teaching all of them the right way to do things. The little displays of temper, mild in comparison to what Matt had lived through in his own home, were still worrisome because they were so totally out of character.
But as much as Matt loved the family, as much as he’d always been made to feel as if he were part of it, he wasn’t sure if it was his place to step in and ask Don if anything was wrong. Maybe he didn’t want to admit that his mentor might have flaws. Besides, people had their bad days. Even he could be short-tempered, snarling at anyone who crossed his path. But until the last few weeks, he’d never witnessed Don saying an unkind word to anyone, especially a member of his own family.
Matt wasn’t the only one concerned, either. Since that morning, half a dozen people had stopped him on the street and asked if he knew what was on Don’s mind. Having everyone know about every little mood swing was both the blessing and the curse of a place like Winter Cove. There was something comforting about knowing how many people cared, but it could be disconcerting, too. Matt was still getting used to all the teasing questions about his own social life, which was nonexistent at the moment since he’d recently broken off a brief flirtation with a local investment adviser because she’d been more serious than he was.
Fleetingly, he considered calling Emma and filling her in on this new tension at the diner, but he knew in his gut that his motives weren’t entirely pure. Why stir her up over something that she wasn’t here to fix? As genuine as his concern was, it was a pretty pathetic excuse to hear the sound of her voice and see if it still had the power to make his knees weak.
He uttered a rueful chuckle. Here it was after midnight, and unable to sleep, he was cruising along the lakefront dreaming up ways to make contact with a woman he hadn’t seen in a decade. Even more absurd was the fact that he was still carrying a torch for a woman he’d never even kissed, a woman who’d been little more than a girl the last time he’d seen her.
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