by Debbie Mason
Her plate felt a little lighter, and she rose to her feet with a smile still on her face, thanking the good Lord for giving her a break. She had a feeling she’d need all her mental acuity to deal with whatever lay ahead for Maura and Sean. She cocked her head at the sound of upraised voices coming from the dining room and looked at the anchor-and-chain clock above the bar. Exactly fifteen minutes, just like she’d predicted. She was good.
But her prideful moment was cut short not only by concern for the guests who were having their leisurely brunch disturbed, but by the hulking man who pushed open the manor’s dark medieval door and stood there taking everything in like he was king of the castle.
“Aye, it’s good to be home, it is,” he said in a thick Irish brogue with a roguish grin Colleen would recognize anywhere. And if she hadn’t recognized the slash of white teeth in his ruggedly handsome face, she’d have recognized his twinkling Gallagher blue eyes. Daniel had come home to Harmony Harbor. The last time they’d seen him at the manor was ten years before, at his father’s funeral.
If her heart were still beating, it would’ve given a nervous hitch. Wherever Daniel went, trouble was sure to follow. Women too. He’d been a lady’s man from the moment he’d come out of Kitty’s womb. Colleen had adored the wee charmer, but she’d had her grandson’s number. She always could tell when he was up to no good. And right then, she could practically see a plan forming in his canny brain.
“What is it, my boy? What’s brought you home at long last?” At almost the same time as she asked the question, the fragment of a memory crossed her mind and a puzzle piece fit neatly into place. She’d been right. There’d be no peace at the manor. Daniel was the missing piece in the Maura-and-Sean puzzle. “Lord help us.”
* * *
Logan bowed his head as another frantic text came in from his brother. He’d received texts from his father, his mother, his grandmother, and Michael seconds after stepping out of the shower.
This was Connor’s third text. Logan didn’t respond as he closed the tower room door and headed for the spiral staircase to the floor below. It always struck him as odd that Connor, one of the top defense attorneys in Boston, couldn’t deal with his own parents. Then again, Logan supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. It’d always fallen on him to act as intermediary in family disputes. Maybe because he was oldest.
He glanced at his phone when he reached the third floor, wondering if he’d missed a call from Jenna when he was in shower. Jenna, the woman he’d made love to last night on a public beach. He gave his head an irritated shake. Who was he to be critical of his brother? Logan protected people for a living, and he’d broken every rule in an agent’s handbook. He hadn’t done either himself or Jenna any favors. His attempt to lose himself inside her, forget about his worries, help her forget about hers, had just opened a big can of whoop-ass. And his ass deserved to be whooped. He’d seen the way she looked at him this morning, and it was a look he recognized all too well.
She probably thought she had feelings for him now. The female brain was wired differently than a man’s. When women had sex, they bonded, formed an attachment. It was just the way their neurochemicals worked. He knew it was a generalization, but it fit with what he’d learned about Jenna. A woman who believed in knights in shining armor and happily-ever-after. For her sake, he hoped Lorenzo had cured her of the beliefs. Healthier for her if he had. But whether it was healthier or not, Logan would much rather it be her ex and not him who’d cured her of her happily-ever-after fantasy.
He sighed. It seemed Jenna wasn’t the only one who’d formed an attachment. It wasn’t a big deal, he told himself at the tension tightening his shoulders. She was sweet, funny, and surprisingly sexy…and unsurprisingly giving, even in bed. And he’d left her cradling a half-dead bird in one hand while digging in the sand with the other, trying to find the ring that had been meant to buy his freedom. He wanted to stay, but she insisted he leave, apparently as concerned about his mother as he was. No, not just apparently. One thing he knew for certain about Jenna was she was kind and compassionate. Her concern had been genuine.
As genuine as her attempt to protect him this morning with her crazy cover story about why she was half-naked on the beach. Another strike against him; he should’ve gotten them out of there before the sun came up. His mother’s voice reached him then, just as he hit the second floor. He glanced over the wooden railing, noting shadows in the atrium just off the lobby. When he’d suggested they get her someplace private, he was thinking along the lines of the library or study. The outer wall of the atrium was frosted glass cubes, and its wall of windows faced onto Kismet Cove. Far less privacy than his mother on a tear warranted.
He glanced at his phone, scrolling through recent calls and messages. The last thing his mother needed was to hear about his arrest on top of everything else, but if she did, he wanted to be able to give her something to alleviate her worries. His too, he supposed. And his brother’s.
There was nothing from Jenna. Which meant she hadn’t found the ring or heard from Lorenzo. No matter what Michael said, Logan couldn’t put it off any longer. He had to reach out to his superior. But as he walked down the grand staircase, his finger hovering over the key, his mother ran crying from the atrium.
He shoved his phone in his pocket and rushed down the stairs. “Mom,” he called out to her, but she waved him off. She hurried into the sitting room near the bank of elevators, slamming the door shut. His father and another man nearly knocked him over as they raced after her, arguing.
“Where the hell do you get off? She’s my wife, not yours, Daniel.”
“She would’ve been mine had you not stolen her from me all those years ago,” the other man said with a thick Irish accent. “But I’m here for her now. And it’s a good thing I am. Leaving her to fight the cancer on her own.” The man tsked. “Makes me ashamed to call you brother.”
Logan reached them in time to catch his father’s fist before it landed in his brother’s face.
“Thanks, laddie. You’ve got a good grip on you. A fine punch too. I saw the damage you did to that Italian lad’s nose in the paper. You got that from me, you know.” His uncle shuffled his feet and did a two-punch jab. “I did a bit of boxing in my day. Shame about him charging you though. You want, I can talk to him. I’ve got a way with words. Something of a charmer, I am.”
The door opened, and his mother appeared, a tissue pressed to her nose.
“Aw, there’s my girl. Come here. Let Danny Boy give you a hug.”
His mother ignored the man, her focus instead on Logan. “What is he talking about, darling?”
Logan moved to his mother, recognizing his mistake a second too late. His father took the opportunity and punched his brother in the face.
Chapter Nine
Jenna sat in the passenger seat of Poppy’s Accord. The other woman glanced at her as she pulled in front of a white Colonial on Main Street. “Don’t get too attached to her, Jenna. The vet didn’t hold out much hope of her surviving.”
“Don’t listen to her, Pippa. You’re going to be just fine,” Jenna murmured to the baby bird, who the vet had informed them was a girl and who, he’d surmised, had been accidently stepped on as the boys raced by. Which only served to make Jenna feel a certain kinship toward the wounded peep, twice as guilty, and permanently attached.
After a few minutes of digging in the sand failed to turn up Lorenzo’s ring, Poppy had offered to take Jenna to the vet. They’d stopped off at the other woman’s house first so Jenna could clean up and change into a pair of Poppy’s shorts and a T-shirt. The last thing Jenna had wanted was to go home looking like she did without the ring on her finger.
“Yes, because the best way to stay unattached is to name the bird,” Poppy said, her voice laced with sarcasm.
“You sound like Arianna,” Jenna said, stroking the top of the bird’s fuzzy head where she lay tucked in brightly colored silk. Poppy had given her a scarf, and Jenna had tied it around her neck,
fashioning a sling-type carrier for Pippa.
Poppy laughed, but the amusement didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Bitter and cold?”
“No, of course not.” She tilted her head to the side. “Do you really think my sister’s bitter and cold?” It would almost be a relief if Poppy did. Jenna had seen Arianna with her customers and had been out with her socially. She was lovely, far kinder to other people than she’d been to Jenna throughout the years. But maybe Jenna had missed something and Arianna could be as sarcastic and cutting with others as she’d been to her in the past.
“I shouldn’t have said that. It just popped out.”
“No, I don’t think it did.”
“I guess you’re right. I heard her with you yesterday. You shouldn’t let her get away with speaking to you like that, Jenna. Especially…” She twisted in the driver’s seat to face her. “Promise me, if you ever feel anything close to what you did last night, you’ll call me.”
She’d hardly known Poppy when she told her the lie this morning, but after spending so much time with her today…
“Don’t be mad at me, but I lied to you this morning. I wasn’t so distraught after Lorenzo dumped me that I tried to drown myself.”
Poppy reared back. “Shut up. You had sex on the beach with Logan Gallagher?”
“Okay, I know it’s pretty unbelievable. But you could’ve faked that it wasn’t entirely inconceivable that a man like Logan could be attracted to me.”
She frowned. “What are you talking about? I’m not surprised Logan would be attracted to you. Why would I be? What surprised me is that you had sex with him on a public beach just hours after your fiancé dumped you. I don’t know. I guess I took you for a goody-goody.”
“You’re right. I’m a ho.”
“Trust me, no woman in her right mind would give up the chance to have sex with Logan Gallagher. Ho or no ho.” She undid her seat belt and opened the driver-side door. “Was he as good as I’m imagining he was?”
“Better,” she said without thinking, and then realized what she’d done. Even though it was the truth… “This is off-the-record, Poppy. You can’t tell anyone. Ever. Ryan and Lorenzo would use it against Logan.”
“I never thought about that, but you’re probably right. Ryan definitely has it in for the Gallaghers, and if Lorenzo didn’t have it in for Logan, he would if he found this out.”
“I know, right?” she said as she closed the passenger-side door and joined Poppy on the sidewalk.
“Yeah, men. You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them.” Poppy sounded a little bitter and cold just then.
“Yes, you can…live without them, I mean. And that’s exactly what I plan to do. I’m thinking about starting a self-help group for women who were brought up on fairy tales and believe in true love and Prince Charming.” Okay, so she sounded a little bitter now too.
“Sign me up.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. For sure. Julia might even let us use Books and Beans for our meetings.”
“Um, Julia has a weekly story hour for the kids and dresses up as characters from fairy tales. I can’t see her wanting anti-fairy-tale women holding their meetings at her bookstore, Poppy.”
“You’re right. She’d probably stage an intervention. I bet Shay would let us hold our meetings at the Salty Dog.”
“She’s marrying a Gallagher prince, remember?”
Poppy opened the door to the newspaper, walked in, and turned on the light. “We can hold our meetings here. I have a feeling we won’t have all that many members.” She turned, frowning at Jenna. “Wait a minute. Does this mean you’re staying in town?”
She nodded. Logan had suggested it last night when they were lying in the afterglow, looking up at the night sky to find the North Star. “At least until the will gets settled.” Her cell phone buzzed with an incoming message. Being careful not to jar Pippa in the sling, Jenna pulled her phone from her pocket. “It’s Arianna again. I better get going.”
“Just go. I honestly don’t want your money.”
Poppy hadn’t cashed Arianna’s deposit check, but it was important to Jenna that her stepsister saw that she’d taken care of it. She’d return the check to Arianna, along with the paid-in-full deposit invoice. “Everyone else is getting paid their deposit, Poppy. I want you to take it. You could’ve booked another wedding.”
“Fine. But I’m only taking a hundred bucks.” She nodded at Jenna’s cell phone. “Did you ask her where they moved your car?”
“I’ll do that now.” Jenna had noticed her car wasn’t where she’d left it when she and Poppy had driven by. Her keys hadn’t been in the Tie the Knot bag, so she assumed Arianna or Serena had them.
Poppy walked to the desk across the room, pushing papers aside to locate the cash register underneath. “My brother’s a slob,” she said as she punched in the charge. “I’m running my photography business through the newspaper, so it’ll show up as the Gazette on your statement.”
“Great.” When she didn’t receive a response about the car from Arianna, she walked over and held her iPhone over the cash machine. “You’re set up with Apple Pay, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” Poppy reached over and cleared the machine when an insufficient funds message appeared on the screen. “Try again.”
She did and got the same message. She was positive she’d used her wedding savings account, which had more than sufficient funds. Though it was possible she’d used her checking account, which could be running low. “I’m sure I used the right account. Would you mind trying again?”
“No problem,” Poppy said, but she eyed the machine nervously.
INSUFFICIENT FUNDS flashed once again on the screen. “I don’t understand.”
“Jenna, you said your car keys and your wallet weren’t in the bag Serena left at the bar. Is it possible someone at the Salty Dog stole them or that someone stole them from Tie the Knot? It was unlocked for—”
“Oh no, don’t say that. Arianna will never let me live it down if that’s what happened. It couldn’t have happened at the Salty Dog though. Shay had the bag behind the bar with her, and no one messes with Shay.” She wished she were more like her best friend.
“Same could be said for Arianna, you know. And everyone knows Ryan is interested in Serena, so I don’t think they’d mess with her either. Unless…Jenna, is there any chance Lorenzo stole your car and the money from your account?”
“No. Logan said Lorenzo wasn’t charged with anything and left right after giving his statement. They interviewed him first so he could go to the hospital.”
“Okay. Give me a minute. I’m going to check on a couple things.” Poppy pulled out a chair and had Jenna sit while she went to the neat and uncluttered desk in the corner of the room.
While she waited, Arianna responded. How would I move your car? I don’t have your keys. Not to mention, why would I?
Which most likely meant she didn’t have her wallet either. She was about to share the information with Poppy, but she was on the phone with North Shore General. She disconnected and met Jenna’s gaze. “Lorenzo never showed up at the hospital last night. In Bloom is across from where you parked. They have a security camera.” She was back on the phone before Jenna could tell her not to bother.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she could see Lorenzo striking out at her like this. He was probably holding her car and bank account hostage until she gave him back his ring. A ring she didn’t hold out much hope of finding. She called him. It went straight to voice mail again. This time she didn’t leave him a message; instead she called her bank. She’d have them freeze her account. Within seconds of giving her banking information and punching in her security password to prove her identity, she learned she had nothing to freeze.
“They got him on camera stealing your car, Jenna. He had your keys, so that probably means he has your wallet too. You should call your bank.”
She stared at her phone, her vision blurred. “I
did. He cleaned me out.”
“Don’t panic. We’ll call the police. You weren’t married yet, so it’s not like he can claim communal property, right? You know what? You should call Logan. Get him to put you in touch with his brother Connor.”
Jenna bowed her head and squeezed her eyes tight. Tears still managed to leak out the corners. How had she not seen who he was?
She felt a hand on her knee. Poppy was crouched beside her. Jenna cleared her throat. “A couple days ago, he suggested we have a joint account. Supposedly his family gives cash as a wedding gift, and he said the bank was giving him a hard time setting up an account because he only had a visitor’s visa. I didn’t check out his story. I just did as he asked. But I didn’t think he’d have access to my savings account. It was only supposed to be the checking account. I feel like such an idiot.”
“The guy stole your car and your money. Don’t let him steal anything else. You need a lawyer, Jenna. Call Logan. He’ll—” She broke off when a tall man with blond hair rushed into the office. “What are you doing here? I thought you were having brunch at the manor.”
“I was until all hell broke loose. Hey. Jenna, right? I’m Byron. Poppy’s brother.” He smiled and came around the desk. Pulling out his chair, he plunked himself down, pushed up his sleeves, and wiggled his fingers.
“You get a big story or something?”
“You got it,” he responded to Poppy. Then he glanced at Jenna and grimaced “But I just realized it’s not going to play in Logan’s favor, and he’s a good guy.”
“What happened?” both she and his sister asked at almost the same time.
“Things got out of hand, and he was trying to break up a fight between his father and his uncle.” Byron took out his phone and held it up. “As you can see, it looks bad for him. I think he was trying to block his uncle’s punch and elbowed his father in the nose while he was at it. Someone must’ve called the cops, and Wilson arrived on the scene. He started shooting off his mouth about Logan having an uncontrollable temper and thanked him for strengthening their case against him. Then Logan’s father and uncle came to his defense. Wilson didn’t take kindly to their threats and arrested them.”