A Season of You

by Emma Douglas

  “What do you think, Lou?” Mina said. “Any ideas?”

  “He never told me anything about it,” Lou said, looking unhappy. “But if I had to guess, I’d say it was probably a woman.”

  “A lover?” Zach said. “He wasn’t seeing anyone seriously then, was he?”

  Lou shrugged. “Not that we knew about. But that much money, even for Grey, is meaningful.”

  Faith was biting her lip. “A woman. Or there’s another possibility.”

  Mina had no idea what she was talking about. She didn’t care about the money. They all had more money than they could spend in their lifetimes. But the thought that Grey had hidden someone important to him in those last months made her want to cry.

  “What possibility?” Zach said.

  Faith hitched her shoulder. “Another kid. That much money, it could be a pay-off.”

  Mina’s mouth fell open. “You think Dad had another kid? That he never told us about? Even after he got sick?” She looked at Lou, hoping for a denial, but Lou still looked troubled, twisting the band of sapphires she wore on her right hand. The last thing Grey had given her before he died.

  “I don’t know,” Faith said. “But you can’t deny that with Dad, anything is possible.”

  “Well, we need to find out,” Mina said, feeling sick.

  “The lawyers are working on the bank that received the money. It’s in Switzerland. It’s going to take some time. But I thought we all needed to know. I’ve talked to Danny and Billy and Shane and they’re all claiming to know nothing. They don’t have any reason to lie, so I guess we’re just going to have to wait.”

  “I don’t see why he’d keep it a secret,” Mina said. “Not when he didn’t have long to live. Wouldn’t he just tell us?”

  Lou put a hand on her knee. “No point speculating until we know what’s going on. You’ll just drive yourself crazy trying to figure your father out.”

  That was true. That had always been true. But that didn’t make it any easier. God. Mina wanted to talk to someone. And she realized with a sinking heart that the person she really wanted to talk to was Will. Which wasn’t going to be happening any time soon. She stood, pushing back her chair. “I’m going for a walk.”

  chapter twenty

  She walked back to the cottage, still in a terrible mood. Grey had had another kid? Or a lover? Someone he hadn’t told them about?

  Someone he’d never been able to share with them? Someone who hadn’t been there when he’d died?

  Fuck. She didn’t want to think about it. It made her heart hurt.

  It made her want to cry all over again, and she wasn’t sure she had any tears left.

  As she got nearer to the cottage, she could hear Stewie barking. He didn’t usually make much of a fuss when she left him for a short time. Was someone there? She broke into a jog only to pull up short when she came around the corner from the garden path to see Stefan Fraser standing just outside her front gate.

  Perfect.

  Why shouldn’t her crappy day get worse?

  “Stefan,” she said warily as she walked over to the big man. He wore his usual plaid shirt, jeans, and boots. Along with an expression that was distinctly unfriendly. “Can I help you?”

  He held out an envelope. “This came for Will.”

  “Shouldn’t you be giving Will’s mail to Will?”

  “Not sure he needs this mail.” He thrust the envelope closer. “Take it.”

  She obeyed, not seeing many other options. She could, of course, call security to get Stefan to leave but that seemed like overkill. But without extra manpower or something like a forklift, she had no chance of making Stefan move an inch if he didn’t want to. Will was tall and solid, but up this close, Stefan seemed suddenly gigantic in comparison.

  The envelope was slightly wrinkled and smelled faintly of beer. Today was Sunday so there wouldn’t have been any mail unless the guys at the post office had decided to make a late run to deliver any last-minute Christmas parcels and mail. But the envelope was plain white, though the paper was heavy and expensive. She flipped it over. The DeVitt Gallery was printed in a familiar logo across the left hand corner.

  “That’s the place you’re having your art show, isn’t it?” Stefan asked.

  She nodded. “Yes, though I’m not sure why they’re writing to Will.”

  “Because he asked for an invitation to your opening night,” Stefan said. “He was planning this whole surprise for you in the new year.”

  He was? But why? They were meant to have been broken up by Christmas … unless.… “Oh,” she said, eyes blurring suddenly. Will had been hoping to convince her not to end it. He’d been planning on still being with her.

  “Yeah,” Stefan said. “So I’m thinking you can probably put that to better use now. No point him having it.” He stared down at her, dark eyes unhappy. “Unless, there’s a reason he might still need it.”

  “I—”

  “You know,” Stefan said. “I’ve seen him hurt before. Seen him grieving. Not sure I’ve ever seen him heartbroken.”

  “I didn’t mean to—I mean, we agreed it was just casual.”

  “Well, that hardly ever works,” Stefan said. “Not when one of the two people involved was already mostly in love with the other.”

  “What?” Mina said. “I hardly knew Will. How could he have been in love with me?”

  “From where I’m standing, I’m not entirely sure. Bad luck, I’m guessing. But he’s had a thing for you from the first time he saw you. Never did anything about it because you were married and then you were widowed. Will was never going to let himself mess anything up for you. But then you gave him an opening and I guess he just couldn’t resist. Maybe he thought he could win you over. Which is also his bad luck, it seems, because it turns out he couldn’t. And now he’s the one who’s messed up.”

  Mina stared up at Stefan. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him talk so much at one stretch. Not even back in the day when she and Adam had gone to parties at Salt Devil. He’d always been the quiet observer in the back of the room. But here he was doing his version of reading her the riot act as far as she could tell. She stroked the envelope with a finger.

  “How is he?” she asked.

  “How do you think he is?” Stefan said, scowling.

  She flushed. “It’s not that I don’t … care about him.”

  “Then what is it? Because I have to say that you look just as bad as he does.”

  “I just … can’t. I lost Adam. I can’t go through that again.”

  “So you’re just going to be alone for the next sixty or seventy years?” Stefan said.

  “Have you been talking to Faith?” Mina asked, suddenly suspicious. This speech was awfully familiar.

  “Nope. But if we’re all saying the same thing to you, maybe you should listen. Because that’s a long time to be alone. I mean Will, he’ll move on eventually. He wants a family. Wants to build something with someone. Which means it’ll be just you in this lighthouse. Is that what you want?”

  Put like that, it didn’t sound great. Not when she added in the mental image of maybe having to watch Will get married to someone else. Her dad had given half a million dollars to someone he hadn’t been able to be with just before he died. He’d obviously had regrets over something. Is that how she wanted to end up?

  Stefan was watching her. He looked less mad and more … concerned, maybe. “You know, Will’s not the kind of guy who leaves. He stands by people. Hell, he moved to this island so I could make whiskey the way I wanted to even though he hates the ocean.”

  That made her smile. “He said you were very persuasive.”

  “I didn’t have to try too hard. I’m his brother and he wanted to make me happy. You saw him, he’s the guy who runs into a fire for you. I’m guessing if you gave him a shot then the only way you’re likely to ever have to say goodbye to him is … well, something out of his control. And even then, I reckon that if heaven exists, he’d be the first
person you’d see waiting for you.”

  Her eyes did blur at that. More than blur. Tears splashed onto the envelope she still clutched because she knew that Stefan was right. Will wouldn’t leave. She might still lose him but he wouldn’t leave her. So the question was whether she was willing to risk paying that price again for a chance of letting him prove that to her.

  “Oh crap, don’t cry,” Stefan said. “I’ll take the damn envelope back.”

  She hugged the envelope to her chest, shaking her head and trying to smile at him through the tears. “No. No. I’ll give it to him myself.”

  * * *

  Will looked up as Stefan came into the office, feet thudding on the floorboards.

  “Something up?” He braced himself, not sure he could take one more thing going wrong.

  “You about done with that?” Stefan asked, nodding at the computer.

  “Nearly.” Will studied the spreadsheet in front of him, eyes threatening to blur. He and Stefan had spent the week dealing with the aftermath of the fire. Cleaning out what could be salvaged at the bar—which wasn’t much—then moving everything that wasn’t smoke contaminated or ruined from Stefan’s cottage to the empty rooms downstairs from Will’s as temporary living quarters. Then the really nerve-wracking part—going through the rackhouse to test the whiskey. The news wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It wasn’t all good either. He was just about done cataloguing that and readying the samples they were sending to be tested in case there was something in the whiskey that he and Stefan couldn’t taste in the barrels they’d decided were okay.

  In a twisted kind of way, he’d been glad to have something so all consuming to focus on during the days. It had kept the worst of his feelings about Mina at bay. Stopped him thinking about how stupid he’d been to give his heart to someone who clearly hadn’t wanted it. Or how the hell he was going to survive without her. But all of those feelings came back during the long, long nights. He was exhausted.

  “I thought we should go to the carol service,” Stefan said.

  Will felt his mouth drop open. “What?”

  “You need to get out of the house. You look terrible.”

  “It hasn’t been the greatest week of my life,” he pointed out, hearing the defensiveness in his voice.

  “I know. And you’ve had some time to wallow. But you have to go out sometime.”

  “And you thought carols might cheer me up?”

  “You’re the one who was a choirboy,” Stefan pointed out with a smirk.

  “‘Was’ being the relevant part of that sentence.”

  “You’re on the festival committee. This is the last event.”

  “I’ve been to more than my share of events.” He scowled at Stefan, who’d been pretty steadfast on avoiding most of the Christmas Festival. Not a big joiner, his brother. So why the sudden change of heart?

  “Yes. So you should see it through.”

  Huh. That argument he could understand, coming from Stefan. His brother was big on keeping promises. On finishing what you started. But his brother should also understand how Will felt. After all, Stefan still hadn’t climbed back on the horse after Lizzie had dumped him. Or maybe he did understand. Maybe this was him trying to make Will feel better somehow. Might have been easier to say it by bringing an expensive bottle of Scotch and drinking with him, but then again, whiskey was kind of a sore subject this week.

  But still, if Stefan had decided to embark on a “get Will out of the house” campaign, Will knew from experience it would be easier to just go along with it. Only question was, would Mina be there? He hoped not. At least most of him hoped not. But there was a secret masochistic part that just wanted to see her face. And maybe that part just needed the band-aid ripped off before the wounds had any hope of healing over. He took a breath. Nodded at Stefan. “I need to finish this up. About another hour.”

  “The carol service starts at five.”

  That gave him ninety minutes. Might be cutting it fine. He definitely needed a shower before he could appear in public. “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Good,” Stefan said. His expression was odd, but Will was too tired to try to figure it out. “Make sure you do. Or I’ll be coming to find you.”

  * * *

  She was hovering. She’d never really understood what “hovering outside” something meant before. But, as she waited outside the gate murmuring apologies to people trying to make their way into the Methodist church—whose turn it was to host the Christmas Eve carol service this year—feeling conspicuous and anxious, “hovering” seemed to fit.

  Where the hell was Will?

  Probably just as well she wasn’t standing on church grounds while she was thinking that. After the way she’d behaved with Will, she was fairly certain she’d made Santa’s naughty list this year. No point risking getting struck by lightning for swearing on church land or something.

  Maybe Will wasn’t coming? She should have asked Stefan if they were planning on coming tonight. But he might have said something to Will. Well, it wasn’t a big island. She could hunt down Will Fraser if she had to.

  Unless he’d gone home for Christmas. Though he’d said something about his mom being overseas. But he had other family.

  Crap.

  She really should have asked Stefan. If Will didn’t show, she’d just wasted several hours of planning.

  “Everything okay?” Faith asked from behind her. “We’re saving you a seat.”

  She wasn’t going to turn around. She knew Faith would be looking amused. Lou and Seth were already inside, along with anyone else Mina considered a friend on the island. It didn’t exactly take Sherlock levels of deduction to figure out who she might be waiting for.

  “I’ll be in soon, I’m fine.” That was a lie. And if things went how she planned, she wouldn’t be in at all. She was kind of sad about that. She liked carols. Had been hoping that this year, they might be easier to listen to. That maybe she was getting Christmas back. But then again, that was before she’d been an idiot and broken up with Will.

  “If you say so,” Faith said. Mina heaved a relieved sigh when she heard the tapping of her sister’s boot heels retreating back down the path to the church.

  The number of people still arriving had slowed to a trickle. Still no sign of Will. Damn it. He wasn’t going to show up.

  But just as she was about to turn and leave, she heard a very familiar engine rumble coming down the road.

  Her heart started pounding as Lulu came into view. Will pulled into one of the few parking spots open and shut off the engine. Maybe he hadn’t seen her?

  But when he didn’t emerge immediately from the Mustang, she figured he had. And that he was probably sitting there wondering whether or not to start the engine again and drive away.

  Not going to happen. She jogged over to the car, wondering if anyone else could hear the blood roaring in her ears. Probably not. She bent and knocked on the window. Her leather gloves turned the sound to a dull tap, but apparently it worked. Will rolled down the window.

  “Mina,” he said warily.

  She stared at him for a moment, drinking him in. He looked tired, shadows dulling his eyes. Well, she knew how he felt. She’d spent several hours with every lotion and potion in her bathroom trying to make herself look a little less like a total wreck. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d been successful.

  “I was wondering if you might like to take a walk with me,” she said in a rush before she lost her nerve.

  “I’m meeting Stefan at the carol service,” he said. His tone was cool. Very cool.

  She ignored him. “That church is packed already. You’ll never get a seat.” She was babbling. She couldn’t help it. She took a breath. “Please, Will?”

  His lips pressed together. Oh God. He was going to say no. Or maybe not. Her heart felt like it was going to burst through her chest, it was beating so fast. He climbed out of the car slowly. He stood by Lulu, studying her, his face very serious. She tried to remember h
ow to breathe as she waited for him to say something, all her attention on him. He was wearing a suit. A very nice navy suit. Which did very nice things for his body.

  Please.

  She waited while he pulled a coat over his suit and locked the car. “So. Let’s walk,” he said, shoving his keys deep into his pocket.

  Mina nodded, trying to ignore the relief that made her legs suddenly shaky, and set off. The church was a few blocks back from the harbor. Not too far. The carol service was held early so no one had to keep their kids up too late and people could do whatever else they wanted to do with their families on Christmas Eve. The sun was starting to set as they walked, sending long fingers of golden light across the town.

  Will didn’t say anything. Just walked beside her, keeping a distance between them.

  “Is your whiskey okay?” she asked tentatively. Anything to break the silence that was ratcheting her nerves up to the breaking point.

  His brows flew up. “Who told you about the whiskey?”

  “Lou. She said something about how the smoke might ruin it.”

  He nodded. “We’ve lost about half the barrels of our most recent batch. Those were stored on the wall of the rackhouse that faces the fire. Luckily for us, the wind changed before the smoke could taint all of it. Our oldest batch is fine as far as we can tell. We’re doing some last tests, but it looks like we’ll be able to launch next year, like we planned.”

  “That’s good,” she said. Relief managed to wash some of the nerves away for a few seconds.

  “It is?” He sounded puzzled.

  “It’s what you want to do, right?” she said. She turned onto the harbor road, heading out along the marina path.

  “Yes. But I didn’t think that was something you were a fan of.”

  She didn’t answer that. Not yet. “Let’s walk.” Will nodded. He was starting to look a bit more cheerful. Almost smiling, she decided as she took a sideways peek at him. Hopefully that was a good sign.

  The shadows were lengthening fast. December sunsets didn’t last long.