Things We Never Said: A Hart’s Boardwalk Novel

by Young, Samantha

  Panicked at the thought of having to spend time with and touch Michael, I shook my head. “No. Two weeks is not enough time.”

  He frowned. “I’ve never known you to shy from a challenge before.”

  “A challenge? Kell, this isn’t a challenge, this is impossible.”

  “You know that word is not in my vocabulary, Dahlia,” he tutted with a shake of his finger.

  Jess snorted beside me and I cut her a filthy look. She took a sip of her tea, but I heard her muffled bark of laughter.

  “Kell,” I said, trying to keep my impatience out of my voice, “Wendy is one thing. She’s small, there’s less fabric to work with. But Michael is five eleven and built like a brick shithouse. That’s a lot of Lycra.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wondered what the hell I was panicking about. Michael would never agree to be in a parade as a cartoon character, let alone one who wore Lycra! I relaxed.

  Kell’s eyebrows rose to his forehead. “Your Boston accent is showing, along with your surprising familiarity with our good Bostonian detective.”

  Oh hell.

  Bailey swallowed a smile and flicked her gaze to Emery whose mouth twitched suspiciously. She gave Jess a furtive look to find her shaking with quiet laughter.

  Traitors.

  All of them.

  “I … uh …” Oh Jesus, whatever I told Kell would make it around town like wildfire, but if Michael was determined to pursue me, people would find out soon enough. “Yeah, we know each other. No big deal.”

  The councilman’s eyes were alight with this newfound knowledge, but I stared at him stone-faced. He was getting no gossip from me!

  “I see.” He stood. “Well then, that’ll make the fittings less awkward.”

  “Kell—”

  “You’re doing this, Dahlia. If you need help, all you have to do is ask.”

  “He won’t do it.” I shrugged. “There’s no way he’ll do this.”

  “Well,” Kell gave me a mischievous smirk, “Dana Kellerman is playing Elastigirl.”

  The mention of Dana, Cooper’s ex-wife, killed my friends’ quiet amusement. Not only had Dana cheated on Cooper when they were married, she’d cheated on him with his best friend. Jack Devlin. Yes, the second youngest Devlin son. Once upon a time, Jack had been a good guy. A construction foreman who wanted nothing to do with his father or the family business. Jack and Cooper had been best friends their whole lives, more like brothers, until Jack mysteriously quit construction to work for his dad, and then committed the ultimate betrayal by sleeping with Dana. Both Jack and Dana became persona non grata with us all.

  Unfortunately, in an effort to win back the hearts of Hartwell, the once-popular town beauty had started forcing her presence into events. First the Punkin’ Chunkin’ Festival last November. Dana held a charity raffle for a children’s hospital. Now the parade. Her choosing to be Elastigirl over any of the other characters that would have allowed her to dress up as a princess had seemed weird at first. Then I realized she got to show off her rockin’ body in a Lycra superhero suit. Plus, she would herd and look after three little Incredibles, and I suspected she thought the imagery of “playing mom” was good PR.

  Fitting her had not been fun. She complained and whined constantly.

  And I did not like Kell’s insinuation that Michael would be tempted to play her cartoon husband.

  I glowered.

  Kell was smug. “Dana has promised to persuade Detective Sullivan to take part.”

  My heart lodged itself in my throat.

  “Why?” Bailey snapped.

  “Oh, surely you’ve heard she pounced on the man his first day on the job?”

  “No, we have not heard that.” Bailey leaned forward, her face pinched. “What is she doing?”

  “My guess? Actively pursuing the only good-looking man left in town who doesn’t have firsthand knowledge of her traitorous little ways.” Kell looked directly at me. “I haven’t seen such a gleam of determination in her admittedly beautiful eyes since she first decided to go after Cooper.”

  Jess gave a sharp intake of breath behind me, and her hand came to a rest on my arm.

  “Not that it’s anyone’s concern here.” He smirked knowingly at me. “Mind you, if you’re friends with him, Dahlia, maybe you ought to warn him.” With a wink and a “ta ta,” he skipped out of the bookstore as if he hadn’t just detonated a social bomb.

  Dana Kellerman was pursuing Michael?

  Oh, hell no!

  Michael would never fall for her crap, right?

  Then again, he and Cooper weren’t that dissimilar, and Cooper had fallen for her crap before he knew better.

  Dana was beautiful.

  Like, on another planet level of beautiful.

  I felt sick.

  “Dahlia, Michael loves you,” Bailey said, her voice soft, reassuring.

  I lifted my eyes to meet hers. “And when he realizes he’s made a mistake coming here for me, who will he turn to then?”

  Her sigh was sad, almost weary. “If you’re so determined not to be with Michael, then why do you care?”

  “Because he deserves better.” I snapped to my feet. “If I think he deserves better than me, then for sure he deserves better than the selfish, nasty cow that is Dana Kellerman.”

  The girls called after me as I rushed out of the bookstore, but I didn’t want to be around anyone. I had to plan. Somehow, I had to make Michael see he and I were a bad idea while I kept him and Dana apart without him suspecting it was jealousy.

  It wasn’t jealousy.

  It was friendship.

  Okay.

  It was jealousy too.

  However, there had to be a way to do this without making it seem like it was jealousy.

  It was Day Four, as Michael was calling it. Day four on the job in Hartwell and he was getting antsy not seeing Dahlia. Time was almost up on that. Striding into the station that morning, two coffees in hand, Michael said hello to Bridget and a couple of the deputies. As he turned down the corridor that led to Jeff’s office, he saw Deputy Freddie Jackson coming toward him.

  The deputy’s eyes narrowed on Michael and as they neared each other, Freddie’s gaze moved past him, determinedly not looking at him. Michael noted the way his hands clenched into fists at his sides. For a man who had been smart enough to cover his own ass for years, his reaction to Michael wasn’t smart.

  “Deputy,” Michael acknowledged him.

  Jackson’s expression was full of loathing. He didn’t return Michael’s greeting.

  Shaking his head, he continued toward Jeff’s office.

  Jeff believed Jackson was taking payoffs from the Devlin family in return for providing them with information he picked up at the station and city hall. Jeff suspected Jackson was the one who’d bugged his office. Moreover, he was concerned about complaints of trumped-up charges filed by Jackson over the last two and a half years. He’d pulled people over for speeding, had claimed to find drugs in a car in one situation, and charged another with drunk and disorderly. Things that were hard to prove either way without reliable witnesses, of which there were none in these cases.

  The drugs could have been planted by Jackson, but there was no proof. The people he’d charged were people with businesses in Hartwell, people who had ended up either selling to Devlin or getting into bed with him in the business sense. Jeff believed Jackson was helping to intimidate and harass the people whose businesses were of particular interest to Devlin.

  Moreover, Jeff suspected Jackson had been covering up crimes committed by the Devlins, including an attack on Bailey Hartwell last year. The eldest Devlin son, Stu, had broken into Bailey’s inn wearing a ski mask and when Bailey caught him in her office, he attacked her. She was adamant it was Stu, but there was no evidence to prove it. The idea of someone attacking Dahlia’s friend pissed Michael off. The fact that Jack Devlin started sleeping with Bailey’s sister Vanessa, who owned a share in Hart’s Inn, which led to Vanessa offering to sell her sh
are of the inn to Ian Devlin, only substantiated Bailey’s claim that it was a Devlin who attacked her that night. Jeff explained Vanessa had sold her share to Bailey’s fiancée instead, thankfully cutting the Devlins out. Still, they were a shady family, and the idea they had a cop on the payroll didn’t sound too farfetched.

  Jackson’s edgy behavior since Michael’s appearance seemed to confirm Jeff’s suspicions. Thankfully, making Jackson edgy was one of the goals of bringing Michael in. The deputy was a smarmy little shit but from what Michael could tell, he wasn’t stupid. Merely arrogant.

  He’d left no paper trail of his crimes. But that arrogance had tripped him up because he’d put himself on Jeff’s radar. Still, they needed him to make mistakes. If he thought Michael was closing in on him, he just might.

  Michael knocked and then strode in with a coffee for the sheriff. Morning coffee together had quickly become their ritual.

  “Passed Jackson,” Michael said as he sat down in the chair opposite Jeff’s desk. “If looks could kill, I’d be fuckin’ ash right about now. He’s edgy around me.”

  “Good.”

  “You got an unmarked car Jackson won’t recognize?”

  Jeff lifted an eyebrow as he sipped his coffee. “You thinking of tailing him?”

  “Think I need to. If he’s as nervous about my sudden appearance as he seems to be, then he’ll likely go to the Devlins in a panic. He’ll want reassurance from them.”

  Jeff nodded. “I’ll get you a car. In other business, Kell Summers just got off the phone. He’s a councilman, and he does the events around here. The Winter Carnival is in two weeks, and the theme of the parade is Disney. Kell wants you to dress up as Mr. Incredible.”

  Not sure he’d heard right, Michael didn’t respond.

  The sheriff chuckled. “Do you even know who Mr. Incredible is?”

  “I have pseudo-nephews,” he said, thinking about Levi and Leo. “So, yeah. I’m also thinking you’re not actually asking me to do this. Put on a fuckin’ leotard?”

  He scowled. “No. I think it’s ridiculous Kell even suggested it and I told him no. It’s hard to keep you under the radar in a small town, but we can do our best. Putting you in a fucking parade is the last thing we need or have time for right now. As it is, I had a hard time trying to dissuade my deputies from taking part, but if they want to, I can’t stop them.”

  The thought made Michael’s insides shrivel. “Yeah, there’s no fuckin’ way I’m doing it. That’s not why I’m here.”

  “Kell knows that now. Heads-up, though. He told me Dana Kellerman would try her best to persuade you because she’s playing Mr. Incredible’s wife.” Jeff quirked an eyebrow. “What’s that about? She sniffing around you?”

  The blond beauty who had introduced herself in the supermarket had been getting in his face a lot these past few days. As stunning as she was, there was something hard about her. And something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Whatever it was, his gut told him to stay away. Not that he was interested anyway.

  Michael nodded. “Yeah, she’s been pretty obvious about that.”

  “I’m not one for gossip, but you should know she’s not well liked around here. She’s doing her best to ingratiate herself with everyone again, but she’s not to be trusted.”

  “I got that impression. What did she do?”

  “Well, other than being a spoiled brat … You know Cooper’s? The bar.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Owned by Cooper Lawson. Good guy. Well respected and well liked. She was married to him, cheated on him. With his best friend. Jack Devlin.” Jeff let that sink in. He’d filled Michael in on the dynamics of the Devlin family, and so he knew that until recently, Jack had nothing to do with his family business. “Then apparently, she tried to pull more shit when Cooper moved onto something better. He’s married to one of the local doctors now.”

  None of that surprised or bothered Michael. “You don’t need to warn me off Dana. I’m not interested.”

  Jeff nodded. “Your mystery woman?”

  Michael smiled into his coffee, thinking about Dahlia. Four days was too long. He needed to drop by her shop. See where her head was at.

  “Just be prepared for Dana. Kell said she’s determined to have you by her side in the parade.”

  “No one is talking me into that. It’s ludicrous to even suggest it.”

  Jeff rubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know what I was thinking letting the others do it.”

  “Community spirit,” Michael offered. “It’s not that bad. I think people will love seeing their officers do it. Just not me. And it’s not like you’re doing it.”

  “It’s not that I don’t enjoy town events.” Jeff shrugged. “But there’s no way I’m putting on a fucking costume and parading around town like an idiot. As for you, I’ll tell Kell to back off. Dahlia will find another Mr. Incredible to suit up.”

  The mere mention of her caused Michael’s heart to speed up. “Dahlia?”

  “She owns the gift store on the boardwalk. A talented artist, makes her own jewelry. She also does the costumes for the Winter Carnival.” He wore a small smile as he stared into his mug. “Everyone always looks great.”

  Something about Jeff’s expression stirred an uneasy feeling in Michael. “Sounds like you know her quite well.”

  Jeff’s smile wilted a little. “I used to know her quite well.”

  What the hell did that mean? “How well?”

  Hearing the hint of accusation Michael couldn’t hide, Jeff’s gaze jerked to him and his eyes narrowed. “We dated.”

  Jealousy seized Michael. Vicious and ugly, twisting his gut. Was this the guy? Was this the guy who managed to make Dahlia forget about him? Yeah, he hadn’t forgotten her admitting that there had been one guy who pushed Michael out of her thoughts for a while. She also admitted she broke up with him. “Dated? Past tense? Who broke up with who?”

  Jeff sat up, his expression carefully blank. “She broke it off. Woman has commitment issues.”

  “You didn’t want it to end?”

  “This is feeling like an interrogation.” Jeff scratched his stubbled jaw. “No, I didn’t want it to end. Dahlia’s pretty special.”

  Jesus fuck.

  Michael looked away, his jaw clenched tight. He liked Jeff. Respected him. He did not want to fuckin’ resent him.

  “How did I not put two and two together?” Jeff sighed heavily. “You’re both from Boston. Dahlia’s your mystery woman. You two are a thing?”

  Clearing his throat of the thick ball of emotion, Michael shook his head. “We were. I’m here because I want her back … Tell me something. You over her?”

  Jeff didn’t answer. Instead, they shared a look filled with a lot of unspoken things and the easy camaraderie that had sprung up between them from the moment they met was altered. Tension shifted between them. Tension Michael hated.

  It had never occurred to him that he and his new boss would be interested in the same fuckin’ woman.

  Michael threw back the rest of his coffee and stood up. “I better get back to work.”

  “This going to be a problem between us?” Jeff asked, straightforward as ever.

  Michael decided he owed Jeff to be equally up-front. “I like you, Jeff, and I respect you as a man and as my boss. But I’ve let Dahlia McGuire slip through my fingers too many fuckin’ times, and I won’t let anyone, anyone, get in our way this time.”

  Jeff nodded, his blue eyes hard in a way Michael didn’t like. “Got it. But if she doesn’t want you in her way, I’ll be there to make sure you stay out of it.”

  With a soft exhalation of frustration, Michael gave him an abrupt nod and strode out of his office.

  When the gift store was quiet, I spent most of my time in the workshop. If the shop was closed, I blared my music and got to work. It was still open, however, so I needed to keep one ear out for the tinkle of the bell above my door. Which meant no music.

  Hammering the final piece in the summe
r collection I was creating to put in the window display during high season, my brain didn’t switch off like it usually did. Most of the time I got lost entirely in silversmithing, but not this time. Not after Kell’s bomb about Dana and Michael over lunch. The only thing that had calmed me down was the fact that my dad called as I was letting myself into the shop.

  After Michael first showed up, I called my dad to see if he knew Michael intended to come to Hartwell. He didn’t. The only person who knew Michael had left his job was Dermot, but he hadn’t known why. I was reassured that my family hadn’t let me walk into that shock without a heads-up.

  Dad had been calling every day to check on me. I wasn’t sure if it was worry or if he wanted to see how Michael was progressing in his pursuit of me. My guess was it was the latter because he seemed awfully disappointed to learn that Michael had not approached me since Monday.

  I was seconds off the phone with my dad when Davina gave me a quick call to ask if I’d make a bracelet for Astrid’s birthday. I had texts from Dermot and Darragh, and I’d been on the phone with Dermot for an hour last night talking about the redheaded administrative assistant he was interested in at the station. She sounded too young, and I told him so.

  It was nice, though.

  It was beyond nice.

  My family was in contact with me all the time, and I couldn’t be more grateful for how easy they’d made it. How quickly they had welcomed me back into the fold. Darragh even let me chat with Levi and Leo the other night, but since they’re kids, talking on the phone was not one of their favorite things.

  Still, it was awesome.

  What wasn’t awesome was the missed call from Bailey and the following text: