Harlequin Superromance November 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2

by Mary Brady

  “So wha’ if it’s that pirate you’ve got over there in that wall?” Skinny Earl spoke before she could answer. He had moved down to sit at the corner of the bar next to Charlie Finn.

  She laughed. “Then I named the Pirate’s Roost well.” If she could deflect him, that might be very helpful for the peace in the town.

  She turned away. “You haven’t said much, Mr. Beaudin, what would you like to see the Roost offer?”

  “I don’t much care,” Monique’s granddad said and it was almost a mumble.

  “Hey, Stan, maybe you could’a had the baptism celebration there for that surprise grandchild of yours,” Earl said louder than he needed to be heard by everyone in the bar.

  “Stan, I heard he’s the cutest grandbaby ever born,” Mia said because she knew Earl had just shot a dig at Stan.

  “You must have been talking to my wife,” Stan said, maintaining his jovial tone. “Strappin’ boy if I ever heard one.”

  “Gave his opinion several times in church that day. Make any granddad proud,” Edwin added.

  “So can we come across the street and have a look?” Earl seemed to be feeling his beer and she wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

  Mia wanted to talk to Edwin more, but decided the best way to get away from Earl’s questions was to remove herself. She swallowed her last sip of wine and slid off her bar stool.

  “I had a great time, fellas. Do you mind if I come back, say Saturday?”

  “Anytime, Ms. Park-ah,” and several variations thereof came from the patrons at the bar.

  “See ya, Mia,” the bartender added as she heaved open the heavy wooden door.

  She hurried out into the cool air. A good night for a walk. She patted her neon green car on the hood and hiked on up the street toward home. One of the great things about a small town. There were a lot of places one can walk to and from.

  The closer she got to home, the more the night cleared her head.

  Edwin Beaudin seemed to have been prepared for her subtle inquiries, or maybe she hadn’t been as clever as she had wanted to be. She had wanted to be able to report to Monique about which way the wind was blowing with her granddad.

  She thought of the darkened windows in the Pirate’s Roost and wondered if she would ever make them bright with life, if folks would ever play a hand of cards or celebrate a baptism there. If they could, would people like Edwin stay?

  She smiled when she thought of Stan’s sweet cherub grandbaby. He was the cutest thing ever. Even Father Murray didn’t judge a child for being conceived before marriage.

  Her thoughts traveled to another time. Two hundred years ago Archibald Fletcher’s daughter might have married under similar circumstances. If the woman had been in love with Liam Bailey and then married so quickly after Bailey disappeared, maybe there had been a baby involved.

  If there had been a baby and if that baby was born, say, six months after the wedding, Liam Bailey could indeed have an heir. Holy cow. Tomorrow she’d have to check the records at the church.

  She hurried the rest of the way up the hill to her house. When she got there she sat on the porch swing and looked out over the town and the people she loved. Dappled moonlight shined through the pine boughs and stars twinkled overhead.

  Eventually the cold slipped inside her coat and she went indoors for a long warm shower. That and the wine should make her sleepy.

  When she finally lay in her bed, she couldn’t keep her eyes closed.

  Could she really keep people here if she got Pirate’s Roost open? Could the Roost give the residents of Bailey’s Cove a place to hang out, a place to gather?

  Did Liam Bailey have a child?

  Could she find out in the church records? Luckily, the priest had kept them in the rectory in the 1950s because the church was so small. That kept them safe from the fire that nearly destroyed the old church. She needed the wedding date...birth date...

  Sleep. She needed sleep.

  An hour went by and all she could do was think and plan. Try as she might, she could not reckon how she could talk Markham Construction into opening up a new spot for her or if the bank would restructure for her so she could lower her payments.

  Sleep!

  No. Use.

  A good run would help her sort out her jumbled thoughts. She could pick up her car so tomorrow when she was too tired to drag her pitiful self around town, she’d have wheels.

  She donned her running gear and jogged down Blueberry Avenue’s hill in the twin beams of her headlamp cap. There were no streetlights on the side streets, but she’d soon be down on the main street and there would be less chance of twisting her ankle or tripping over a night creature. She and a raccoon had almost collided on one such restless night. She wouldn’t soon forget the challenge in those piercing eyes.

  As she turned on Church Street, the crisp night air in her face made for a wonderful run. To the old church and back home was her six-mile route. Tonight it would be easy.

  The old brown dog that roamed the streets of Bailey’s Cove and that everyone fed met up with her at the corner and loped without effort at her side. He had gotten left behind by someone passing through town, maybe on purpose. He never seemed to pine for whoever left him, he just adapted. Maybe he wasn’t left, maybe he chose to stay.

  “Hey, Brownie. You can’t sleep, either?”

  The dog trotted on silently, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth.

  “Well, I’m glad for the company.”

  She passed the post office. Bailey’s Cove was one of the lucky towns. They still had their own tidy little redbrick post office. After the post office came the hardware store and the small building with paper covering the windows that used to have a deli on the ground floor. She wondered if the people who had owned the deli had left town yet. Rumor was they were going to find jobs that didn’t suck the life out of them.

  She wished them well.

  As she and Brownie trotted closer to her car, she noticed there was light coming from the windows of Pirate’s Roost, bright light. It was then she realized the car parked on the street across from hers belonged to Daniel.

  Her heart thudded hard as she stopped close to the dirty windowpane and Brownie ran on. “See you later, boy.”

  Daniel stepped into the half-demolished doorway of the back room holding two of the pieces of granite in his gray-gloved hands. He didn’t look up at her and was trying to see if the pieces fit together. He was reassembling the crypt.

  The backlight put him in silhouette, chiseling his features and his fine body into art.

  Mia remained perfectly still, so as not to attract his attention, watching as he put one of the pieces on a tarp he had spread out and picked up another. She wondered if he wanted any help.

  Suddenly and with only subconscious permission, her hand leaped out and rapped hard on the window.

  Silly hand. She stuck it in the pocket of her warm-up suit as the other waved at Daniel, who was squinting to see what mad person was outside disturbing his work at two in the morning.

  She let herself in and Daniel met her halfway across the front section, granite pieces in his hands.

  “Good morning?” She smiled at him.

  “And you’re up in the middle of the night because?”

  “Couldn’t sleep. I jogged over to get my car and saw the lights on here.” I wanted to see you, to kiss you and have you hold me in your arms and see where our feelings take us. “And you?”

  “Working the 3-D puzzle.”

  “Because you always work at two in the morning?”

  He put the pieces of granite into one hand and reached the other out to her. When he lightly touched her cheek with the back of one gloved finger, it felt like warm silk touching her and she closed her eyes for longer than a blink.

 
She had the feeling his hands gave his deepest desires away, too. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. That did not help quench the desire inside her.

  “Couldn’t find a way to get to sleep, either. Do you want to help me?” He gestured toward the other room and she followed him in.

  “An insomniac’s dream.” She pulled a pair of gloves from the box on the corner tarp. He had set up two lamps and spread out the tarp for serious work.

  She hunkered down near where he had separated out the most promising shards.

  “Have you found anything?”

  He picked up several pieces and crouched beside her. “I started collecting pieces with discoloration on them, but they’re harder to sort out because I think there is discoloration from more than one cause. See the different shades of brown.”

  “Where do I start?” Her breath trembled in and out as she tried to function, to think when his body heat seeped into her, his warm scent filled her. Where do I start? To find the strength to resist her feelings for an unavailable man.

  “Chances are, when the stones were knocked loose, they flew as a group. So if you pick up stones from the same general area, that might help find matches.”

  His eyes moved over her, caressing her, stoking the already blazing fire. Where do I start? To begin to dig him out of her heart, because that is where he was firmly lodged.

  “Are you trying to put together the whole thing or just the area with markings?”

  “I think the markings will tell us all we need to know for now.”

  They sat, hunkered down or wandered, picking up pieces of the tomb and patiently fitting them together.

  “Mia, is there a possibility you could move Pirate’s Roost to a different location?” he asked after they had worked in silence for a while.

  “It seems like such a simple solution, but I passed the point of no return on this place a long time ago.”

  * * *

  DANIEL SAT ON the plastic tarp and listened to what Mia had to say. If he was going to destroy her plans, he needed to know how much damage he was doing and if he could help.

  “I put a lot of effort into planning Pirate’s Roost. I made and revised a business plan about ten times. I chose the site by looking at traffic flow in the area, the visual appeal and the view, of course.” He remembered that view of the harbor, of the sea birds soaring and the bustle. Great view for a restaurant. “I have given everything I have to Pirate’s Roost, and have too few resources left to move anywhere else.”

  She did not seem embarrassed by what she was saying, but sadness was something he knew well, and she radiated hopeless loss at this moment.

  “You did everything right.”

  “Everything except check the walls for skeletons.”

  He studied her face and it wasn’t hard to see there was more. “Tell me the rest of it.”

  She looked down at the two pieces of granite in her hands and after another moment, nodded.

  “I got a building big enough to do the job. Made sure there was ample parking. Lined up money from the historical society, local citizens, two banks via the small business association, even my granddad has chipped in a little of his savings.”

  She dipped her chin.

  “What were you hoping for? Not the business, but what did you really want to do with this place?”

  She shook her head and turned away.

  He pushed up from the floor and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly. He knew she would, and how much of a cad did that make him?

  He kissed her silky hair. “Tell me.”

  “I want them to stay. I want the families who breathe life into Bailey’s Cove to stay. I want the young people with their imagination and drive. I want the retirees, the people who are the living history of the town to stay and to hand their wisdom and legends down to the next generation.”

  He held her against his chest and let her talk.

  “I didn’t even know how much until I sat down and started listening to them. I knew I wanted to be here because Bailey’s Cove is a paradise of the normal and...and...I don’t know. I love life here.”

  She took a slow breath and continued. “If the folks of Bailey’s Cove don’t reinvent this town, there are only two choices. The town continues to fade away or the outside world moves in and has it their way.”

  She leaned back and looked up at him.

  He picked up the tail of the long red scarf she always seemed to be wearing. Lady in Red, he thought and the song begin to play inside his head. When he started to sway, she looked up at him.

  A smile curved her lips and lit her face, made her more beautiful than he had ever seen her.

  “What are we dancing to?”

  He brushed her nose with the tail of her scarf and told her.

  She put her arms around his neck and her cheek against his and they danced to the creaking of the old building. Daniel had never heard more beautiful music.

  “Thank you.” Her whisper brushed his ear and he wondered if he could let himself love her, and if he did, could he keep her from loving him?

  And he wondered how many ways he could let himself break her heart before he had to walk away from her and stay away.

  “I think the music stopped,” he said as he stepped back.

  “Does that mean get to work, slacker?”

  “I don’t think I’d have used the term slacker, but it fits.”

  After a few minutes of studying the pieces with markings she looked thoughtfully over at him. “What do you think we’ll find if we get all the pieces together?”

  “That’s one of the things I like best about this science. Sometimes we aren’t looking for a specific answer. Sometimes we’re just searching for whatever might be there. One thing’s for sure, whoever wielded that hammer after the bones were removed did more damage than necessary to break the tomb apart.”

  “Stupid hammer has caused me all sorts of trouble. Maybe the person using it was mad because there was no treasure here.”

  “Tomb robbers have all sorts of motives. Sometimes it’s just to destroy things.”

  She held up a hand, came closer and whispered, “Did you hear that?”

  He listened. “Sounds like old building noises.”

  “I know this old building. There’s no wind and it’s not cold enough to make her wood creak like that. It sounds like someone is walking around upstairs.”

  He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “We’re not alone.”

  She giggled and huddled closer. “Oh, Danny, you’ve got to save me.”

  Sudden pain shot through him. He stepped quickly away and clenched his fists.

  It was all happening again. Sammy’s face as they put the tiny boy into another scary, noisy piece of high-tech medical equipment. Mandy pleading, “Danny, you’ve got to help me find some way to save him. There must be something we can do. He’s only a baby, Danny.”

  Then Mandy trying her best not to lay blame exactly where it belonged.

  On him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  MIA WATCHED DANIEL stiffen. His face ashen as if he were in the middle of some horrible nightmare.

  “Daniel, are you all right?”

  She put her arms around his stiff body and hugged him. Slowly, he dropped his chin until it rested lightly on top of her head.

  They stood like this until he relaxed in her arms, and then she leaned back to look into his face. “You don’t get hugged much, do you?”

  His expression remained grim. “Not many huggers in my life.”

  “What about your family?”

  By the look on his face, that was one huge step backward. Something terrible had happened to his family, something so dark he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it.

  �
�Come on.” She took his hand and led him toward the door. “You need some sleep.”

  “I need to check upstairs.”

  “Upstairs it is.”

  They were careful to avoid several sets of large sneaker prints on the stairs and in the hallway leading to a back room. Funny, she couldn’t feel anything but annoyance tonight about the sneaker prints. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry, if then.

  The window gaped open and outside a ladder leaned up against the building. Whoever had been inside left in a hurry.

  They closed and locked the window, put the ladder inside and locked up the building. The police could look at things tomorrow, or today after the sun came up.

  They stood outside the building in the chilly air. Mia knew they needed sleep, desperately.

  “Come to my house.”

  “That’s not a good idea.”

  “If you’re worried about gossip, rest assured they’ve been talking about the two of us since about three minutes after you first arrived at Pirate’s Roost.”

  “I can’t let you...”

  She put her hand on his cheek and made him look at her. “It’s a small town. We’ve got a movie theater that gets movies after they’ve been at the budget theaters in Bangor and Portland.”

  When he didn’t look convinced, she said, “We’ve no symphony, not even mini-golf. Our shopping mall has eight little stores and our yarn and craft store specializes in gossip. What’s a person to do?”

  Brownie came over to see what was up. Sniffed each of them and then moved on.

  “Brownie thinks it’s okay.”

  He gave a quick nod.

  A few minutes later, she let them in her front door and turned on the lamp in the small foyer. The dim light spread into her living room of neutral colors with splashes of red, filled with the odds and ends of life.

  He looked around and smiled. “Thanks, Mia. I like your house. It’s welcoming, like you.”

  “You’re welcome here anytime, Daniel.”

  She hung her red scarf and coat on a hook behind the door and took his vest and hung it beside them. “I’m going to brew some tea. Make yourself at home.”