by Law, Kim
Also by Kim Law
The Davenports
Caught on Camera
Sugar Springs
Sugar Springs
Sweet Nothings
Sprinkles on Top
Turtle Island Novels
Ex on the Beach
Hot Buttered Yum
Two Turtle Island Doves (A Novella)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2015 Kim Law
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781477821220
ISBN-10: 1477821228
Cover design by becker&mayer! LLC
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014913870
To Paula Jenkins. Thanks for the title! I miss seeing your happiness every day.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER ONE
HANDS DOWN, THAT was the best ass she’d ever seen.
It was even better at fifteen times magnification.
Catherine Davenport Carlton leaned over the kitchen sink, resting her elbows on the faucet handles to steady her arms, and gripped the binoculars a little tighter. She bit down on her lower lip as she watched. The jogger was heading in the opposite direction—exactly as he’d done the last two mornings—and if recent events were any indicator, he’d be heading back up the beach and passing by her rental within the hour.
Cute Butt rounded the bend in the distance and disappeared from sight, and Cat straightened from peering through the window like a stalker. She pursed her lips as she thought about how she’d spent her mornings since she’d arrived in Maine. She really should stop ogling her neighbor.
But then again, maybe she should just get up the nerve and cross their backyards to introduce herself. Then she could ogle up close.
She grinned at the picture that brought to mind. What was an escape from reality without a summer tryst thrown in to take her mind off things?
Shaking her head at her unladylike thoughts, she dumped berries and protein powder into the blender and topped it off with yogurt and flaxseed. Her one true ability as a “cook” was a healthy breakfast smoothie—which, combined with daily yoga, barely kept the width of her hips in check. Then she went back to thinking about her neighbor.
She couldn’t have an affair. Even if she wasn’t in the last place she’d ever consider having a fling, it had been over four years since she’d been naked with a man. Nineteen years since she’d been naked with anyone other than her late husband. She wouldn’t know what to do with her neighbor if she caught him.
Of course . . . it was supposed to be just like riding a bike.
And she was there alone for three more weeks before her kids would show up.
She turned off the blender and grabbed a glass, reminding herself that she wasn’t that adventurous. Not these days. Maybe she had been nineteen years ago when she’d seen that other naked man. Only, with him at fifteen, he hadn’t exactly been a man. They’d both been only kids—but she had been willing to take a few risks back then.
Which had turned out like shit.
She sighed.
Her teenage tryst was the reason she’d chosen Maine as her getaway destination. Or rather, what had happened because of Brody was the reason. It was time to find closure. To figure out a way to forgive herself.
But she was also here for an escape. From her job as well as from her kids.
Her kids were great. Truly. They were her life. She loved them more than she could have ever imagined possible. But she’d been a single mother for four years now, and she needed a break.
And then there was her job.
She closed her eyes and rubbed a finger back and forth across her temple. Running her family’s foundation wasn’t easy. She was good at it, yes. Actually, great at it. She’d perfected the art of showcasing herself and her family in only the best light years ago. But she’d grown antsy over the past months. She wanted . . . more. Or maybe she wanted less.
A family legacy started by her great-great-grandfather, the Davenport Foundation served many organizations in the Atlanta area, as well as all of Georgia, and Cat had been director for the last five years. Only this year had she hired someone to share the load with her. But what she was finding was, the more the other woman did, the less Cat wanted to do. Yet Cat was a Davenport. Maybe it was no longer her legal name, but it would always be who she was.
How could she be any less?
And did she want to?
These were questions she hoped her time in Maine would answer. Not to mention, she now had to wrap her head around just who her family really was. They were supposed to be the revered Davenports. Upstanding, moral greatness representing the United States in one way or another for over a century.
They did no wrong.
Only . . . they had. A lot.
Her own secret flashed brightly in her mind. She’d believed for almost nineteen years that she was the only Davenport to risk tarnishing the name.
The flame of anger that had been churning inside her since her recent conversation with her brother grew brighter. Given the truth about her family that she now knew, her mother could have lessened her guilt all those years ago. All it would have taken was a few simple words.
Yet she hadn’t done it.
The reality was, she’d only made Cat feel more guilty.
Cat peeked out the kitchen window again at the still-quiet stretch of beach running past her rental, grateful for her in-laws. They’d been able to fly to Atlanta a few days earlier than planned so she could go ahead and get away. They were all staying at Cat’s house now, but the kids had Disney World to look forward to, then another week at their grandparents’ Florida condo before returning home, and eventually up here to Maine. It was time to introduce them to the town the Davenports had once called home.
This wouldn’t be a one-time-only trip, either. She intended to resume her long-ago ritual of summer breaks on coastal Maine. Becca and Tyler deserved that.
And she deserved to move on from the past.
Of course, they all had to su
rvive her mother’s and father’s pasts first—which she hoped stayed buried.
She rinsed out the blender as she thought about what the next few months might bring.
Her mother was running for reelection for her Senate seat in the fall, and her opponent’s family was known for slinging mud. Congressman Harrison was looking for dirt. And it seemed he had his pick to choose from.
Lies, secrets, and illegitimate brothers. All his for the taking.
All he had to do was find them.
Cat ground her teeth together as she grabbed her smoothie and cell phone and headed to the deck, remembering at the last minute to take the binoculars as well. Her kids would be calling soon to wish her a good morning.
And then her neighbor would be making his way back down the beach.
Since family values had been blown out of the water, she figured she might as well embrace the new peeping-tom side of herself. Why worry about maintaining high morals when no one else around her did?
Twenty minutes later, as Cat sat at a bistro-size table on the overlarge deck, her eyes glued to the blue-gray waves beyond the sand, her cell finally rang. She took the last sip of her smoothie and reached for the phone.
It would be Becca. At seven years old, Becca was the oldest and was very similar to her mother in that she took pleasure in making sure things got done. She and Tyler were supposed to call every morning after they got up. Thus, Becca would wear her grandmother out until that happened.
Cat relaxed into her chair as she answered. She’d rarely been apart from her kids, and though she would enjoy the extended time away, she couldn’t help the sudden feeling of being alone in the world as she sat there, eleven hundred miles from everyone who meant anything to her.
“Hello, sweet girl,” she answered, making sure she emoted nothing but happiness.
“Hey, Shortie,” her brother’s deep voice said into her ear.
Cat jolted upright at JP’s words. She was still mad at him for keeping her in the dark about the family secrets. He’d been trying to reach her for days but she’d ignored his calls. “What are you doing calling me from my house?” she asked.
“I had to. It was the only way to get you on the phone.” When she said nothing, he added, “Come on, Cat. You have to talk to me.”
No she didn’t. He’d lied to her for months. It infuriated her.
Of all her family members, JP was the one she was closest to. She’d thought they’d had a bond. He was not supposed to keep things from her.
Especially things that could potentially drag their whole family into a scandal.
But most importantly, he was not supposed to keep things from her.
“Don’t hang up,” JP said, clearly sensing that she might do just that. “I needed to make sure you’re all right.” His voice took on a brotherly concern that she knew well, which only irritated her more. “I dropped a lot on you the other day,” he added. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay,” she snapped. “I just don’t want to talk to you. I’d think not returning your calls would have sent that message. Now put my daughter on the phone.”
“I will as soon as we finish. Plus, they’re eating right now. I made them French toast.”
Oh . . . her stomach growled, even though it was full of fruit and flaxseed. JP’s French toast was the best.
“I’m sure their grandmother would have made them breakfast,” she muttered. Though JP’s food was still ten times better than anything Colette Carlton was likely to make. JP had once hired a celebrity chef to train him.
“Of course she would have, but I wanted to see them before they left town. Plus, Becca bribed me into cooking.”
Cat could picture her blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter doing just that, and another pang of loneliness engulfed her. Unlike the middle-child tendency to always try to smooth things over that Cat couldn’t seem to shake, her daughter often took another tack. That of bribery to get what she wanted.
“What did she do?” Cat asked, her tone easing, but only because she was thinking of her child. “Threaten to tell your new wife that you like to play with dolls when she’s not around?”
JP chuckled, assuring her that Vega already knew all his secrets, and the happy sound of his voice softened Cat’s heart. Her brother had been through a lot in his life, and even though she was mad at him, it didn’t lessen her love.
Nor her gratitude.
He’d been the perfect uncle over the years, making sure both of her kids had a father figure in their lives after her husband, Joe, hadn’t returned home from Afghanistan. It had meant more to her than she would ever be able to express.
Which only added to her frustration now.
She managed the foundation. She managed both her mother and JP—in one form or another. She cleaned up the family messes. Why in the hell was she suddenly relegated to a need-to-know basis?
The slight made her want to say screw it to both of them and go do her own thing.
And that was the real issue.
She was a mother, a sister, a daughter, a Davenport. She would someday be the final caretaker for her in-laws. But she couldn’t remember the last time she’d simply been Cat.
She caught herself straightening her spine as if someone might see her and think she wasn’t prepared for whatever was thrown her way. Of course she was prepared. She was always prepared.
“I also called because I wanted to tell you about today’s headline.” JP spoke softly, as if trying not to be heard. His tone yanked Cat’s mind out of her seething, and a pinch started in the dead center of her shoulder blades.
“What’s happened now?” she asked. She closed her eyes and pictured herself relaxing, the stress easing from her body.
The fact that the Harrisons had begun snooping into Davenport business had been the impetus for JP to come clean about what he’d learned last summer. He hadn’t wanted Cat to be caught unaware, he’d said. Therefore she’d learned that their older brother, Bennett, was not a biological Davenport.
And that they also had an illegitimate younger brother who was a Davenport.
Then there was the whole payoff thing both her parents had been involved in with the mother of the eight-year-old. And oh, by the way, JP was now funding the kid’s private education.
Cat could not understand how any of that had happened. This was not who they were!
“The tabloids ran a story today,” JP began, and a dull pounding started just behind her left temple. She squinted against the pain. “They suggested that Mom got the Senate appointment last year because of her relationship with Governor Chandler.”
“She did not!” Cat argued. There was no way her mother had slept her way into the Senate, no matter what family scandals she might have kept hidden. “Did they happen to have any facts to back it up?”
She was already running scenarios through her head of things they could do to bring the right kind of focus back to their mom’s campaign. She’d make some calls, check into regional billboards showcasing the good her mom had already done during her short time in office. A TV spot wouldn’t hurt, either.
“Of course not,” JP answered. “They only pointed out the close relationship Governor Chandler has had with all of us over the years. And not-so-subtly hinted that it was a lot more than friendship with Mom.”
They were all good friends. More so over the last eight years since their dad had died.
And yes, the governor did have a crush on their mother. That had been clear to the siblings for a while now. But it had never become more than that. Despite everything else, Emma Davenport prided herself on her abilities. She’d worked long and hard to see her family succeed in politics—always her husband’s support, keeping the name first and foremost in the community, and at times, probably being more of an elected official than her husband had been. No way would she stoop to sleeping her way to th
e top.
She’d simply been the best person for the job, and Chandler had known that.
That wouldn’t matter to the Harrisons, of course. They’d use whatever they could find, whether facts or lies.
Cat sighed into the phone and once again slumped back in the chair. “I hate this, JP. I’m sick at how nasty the next few months could get. I hate knowing that I have to be even more careful with everything I say, and anybody I say it to.” She stared out at the ocean and let the sound of the waves penetrate her mind. “Sometimes it’s enough to make me want to live in a place like this with Becca and Tyler. One where we can just be.”
Her kids would love it there. They would start and end every day on the beach. In between those hours, they’d be normal kids with normal lives.
“They’re going to have the best time when they get up there,” JP said. He and Vega would be bringing them up later in the month. “They’ll be begging you to take them back every year.”
“I’m not talking about a summer trip, brother,” she said drily.
She cut her words off and closed her eyes again. She didn’t mean it, of course. Her job was with the foundation. Her commitment to her family. She couldn’t just run away.
But oh, how she often wished she had more choices in her life.
JP was quiet for several seconds before hesitantly asking, “Are you serious?”
Yes!
“Of course not,” she answered.
She opened her eyes and focused on the clear blue sky. It was going to be another beautiful Maine day. Inside her chest, she ached. But for what, she didn’t really know.
“Just ignore me,” she said. “I’m still upset about all the lies. About you keeping everything from me. And about all that our parents were up to over the years.” That thudding in her temple increased.
“I know, and I am sorry,” JP apologized. “I should have told you last summer when Lexi first came to me about Dad being the father of her son. But I knew you and Dad were close, Cat. I hated the thought of tarnishing that for you. Since Lexi has no interest in Daniel’s lineage coming out, it felt like I didn’t have to.” JP’s serious tone made a sad smile lift the corners of Cat’s lips.