From Temptation to Twins

by Barbara Dunlop

  His brain echoed her tone of incredulity. He couldn’t explain it to her, but he felt like he’d been doused with ice water. “I’ll set it up with the doctor. Let me know if there’s anything else Melissa needs.”

  Jules didn’t respond. She just blinked in obvious confusion.

  He finally forced his feet to move, turning away from temptation before he did something they’d both massively regret.

  * * *

  The next day, Jules struggled to keep Caleb’s kiss from her mind. She’d picked Melissa up from the hospital and tried to convince her to rest at home. But Melissa insisted on coming with Jules to the Crab Shack.

  As they walked in the door, Noah took in her bandaged hand. His gaze went immediately to where they had discarded the nail gun before swinging back to zero in on Melissa’s face.

  “What did I tell you?” he asked her pointedly.

  “Not to touch—”

  “What did you do?” He advanced on her.

  “I was only—”

  “Only what? Only what?” Noah’s shoulders were squared, his voice harsher than normal.

  “She was showing me how it worked,” Jules put in, surprised by Noah’s strong reaction. He was normally easygoing and totally restrained.

  Noah turned his head to give Jules a look of disbelief. “Can I speak with your sister alone?”

  “Not if you’re going to yell at her.”

  “I’m not yelling.”

  “He’s not yelling,” Melissa said, resignation in her tone.

  “She was at the hospital last night,” Jules told Noah. “They had to do surgery.”

  Noah’s expression immediately turned to concern. He flipped his attention back to Melissa. “Are you all right? No permanent damage, right?”

  “I’m fine,” Melissa said. “They only kept me overnight—”

  “They kept you overnight?”

  “Just because of the anesthetic. I was sleeping.”

  He gently took hold of her forearm and lifted her injured hand to look at it from a few angles. “You’re not allowed to touch anything.”

  “I get it. I won’t.”

  “Ever again,” he added. “None of my tools. None of any tools. I don’t want you hammering or sawing.”

  “Noah,” Jules interrupted, realizing he was going overboard.

  “Painting?” Melissa asked with a little tease in her tone.

  “Fumes,” Noah said.

  “I’ll wear a mask.”

  “You need a helmet and body armor.”

  “Oh, come on. I’m not that bad.”

  He gazed pointedly at her bandaged hand. “Yes, you are.”

  Jules realized the tone of the argument had changed. He wasn’t angry. They seemed to be having fun.

  “Well, I’m not doing all the work myself,” she put in lightly. “I don’t mind keeping Melissa away from sharp objects.”

  “And heavy and hard objects, too,” Noah said with a glance Jules’s way.

  “But she has to be able to help. We need her contribution.”

  He returned his attention to Melissa. “Painting is okay.”

  “I’m not sure who put you in charge of the project.”

  “I’m a skilled professional with industrial safety training. Have you had industrial safety training? When you can produce a certificate that says you have, you can be in charge of the jobsite.”

  Caleb’s voice interrupted from the doorway, tight and demanding. “You let her use your nail gun?”

  The memories of last night flooded back to Jules. Her skin heated up, and she swore she could smell Caleb’s woodsy scent.

  Noah clamped his jaw shut, and his gaze darkened on Caleb. “She wanted to see how it worked.”

  “And you showed her?” Caleb asked Noah.

  “I told her not to touch it without me.”

  “That didn’t work out so well, did it?”

  Melissa spoke up, “It was my fault, Caleb, not Noah’s.”

  “But you’re the one who got hurt,” Caleb said to her. “How are you? Should you even be here today?”

  “She insisted,” Jules said, finally finding her voice.

  Whatever had happened, or not happened, between her and Caleb last night, it was over. She needed to forget about it and move on. Though she’d spent most of the night restless and disappointed, he’d been right. They were on opposite sides of a fight, and that fact wasn’t about to change.

  “Melissa is going to sit down,” Noah said.

  He still had hold of her forearm, and he led her across the restaurant.

  Caleb moved closer to Jules, and her reaction to him intensified. She didn’t want to be attracted to him, but she couldn’t seem to turn it off. Logic, she told herself. If she used logic and reason, and remembered who he was and what he wanted from her, she’d be fine.

  She braced herself.

  “Can we talk?” he asked.

  “About what?”

  The last thing she needed was an intimate little rehash of last night. He’d had his chance. He didn’t take it. And she was glad of that. At least she would be glad of that, once her logic and reason kicked in.

  “Business,” he said, surprising her.

  “Oh.”

  His expression tightened, and his nostrils flared ever so slightly.

  “Sure,” she said, making to follow Melissa across the room.

  “Just you,” Caleb said, keeping his voice low.

  “What’s going on, Caleb?”

  “I don’t want to upset her.”

  “But you’re willing to upset me?”

  A beat went by before he answered. “There’s something you need to know.”

  She gave up trying to guess what he was getting at. “Sure. Fine. Out on the deck?”

  “That’ll work.” He turned for the door.

  She followed, out into the sunny June afternoon. Seagulls swooped through the salt-tang that hung in the air. The tide was high, waves battering the rocky shore, sending spray into the air and roaring softly in rhythm.

  “Talk,” Jules said, widening her stance and tipping up her chin.

  Caleb halted at the rail and turned. “I’ve been talking to my lawyer.”

  “You can’t sue us.”

  “I’m not going to sue you. Sue you for what? Why would I sue you?”

  “I don’t know. What else do lawyers do?”

  Her comeback seemed to stump him for a moment.

  “Defend criminals,” he suggested.

  “Have you committed a crime?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then why do you need a lawyer?”

  He reached behind himself and braced a hand on the wooden rail. “He’s a corporate lawyer.”

  “So you’re dissolving the Whiskey Bay Neo location.” She knew it was a long shot, but she figured she might as well go for the brass ring.

  Caleb gave her a crooked frown. It was kind of endearing. No, no, no. She didn’t want him to be endearing.

  “My lawyer was looking at the land survey of your property.”

  “You can’t have my land, Caleb.”

  “I don’t want your land. Okay, I’d take your land if you didn’t want it. Would you sell it to me?”

  “And then I couldn’t build the Crab Shack.”

  “Brilliant deduction.”

  “Don’t get all superior on me.”

  “I’m not superior. I’m trying to tell you something.”

  “Then spit it out. Put some nouns and verbs together that make sense.”

  “I would if you’d be quiet for a minute.”

  Jules might not like his hostility. But her keeping quiet was the on
ly way he could tell her what was on his mind. She made a show of zipping her lips shut. Then she folded her arms across her chest and waited.

  Caleb’s chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “There’s no easy way to say this.”

  “I’m getting that impression,” she muttered.

  “I thought your lips were zipped.”

  She rezipped them.

  “You have an easement. It’s for your access road, and it goes across my land.” He looked toward the shore, and she followed the direction of his gaze. “If I revoke the easement, nobody can get to the Crab Shack.”

  It took a minute for his words to penetrate.

  When they did, she couldn’t accept them. What he was saying didn’t make sense.

  “No,” she said simply.

  He had to be lying.

  “It would take me a while to give you all the details,” he said. “But it is the truth.”

  “I want the details.”

  He reached for his inside pocket and handed her an envelope. “This isn’t a bluff.”

  “It can’t possibly be true.”

  “Stroke of a pen, Jules. It’s my land, and I can revoke your rights. Even if you build the Crab Shack, nobody will be able to come.”

  She felt the world shift beneath her. “You wouldn’t.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “It can’t be legal. I’m getting my own lawyer.”

  “That’s your choice.”

  “You bet it’s my choice.” Like he could stop her.

  “But I’d rather we worked together and made both places a success.” He looked completely unfazed by her threat.

  “You think you can scare me into removing the noncompete clause.” She tilted forward, trying to look tough.

  “I’m not trying to scare you. I’m attempting to appeal to your sense of reason and logic.”

  “By threatening me?”

  “It’s not a threat.” But then he paused, obviously framing his answer, obviously knowing, as she did, that it was a threat. “Remove the noncompete, and I’ll give you the easement. It’s a mutual win.”

  “You call that mutual?”

  He might win, but she sure wouldn’t.

  “I want to help you,” he finally said.

  “No, you don’t.” Of that she was certain.

  “I like you, Jules.”

  She scoffed in disbelief.

  “Last night—” he began.

  “We are not talking about last night.” She sure wasn’t going to let him use her colossal lack of judgment against her.

  “I knew last night. I knew about the easement last night. I couldn’t...” He raked a hand through his short hair. “I couldn’t let things go any further between us before I was honest.”

  “You want points for that?”

  “I want you to know why I stopped.”

  Even through her anger, she had to admit it was the honorable thing to do.

  But she couldn’t give him credit for a single honorable thing. She wouldn’t give him credit for that. He was still trying to destroy her dream by any means possible. And that was far, far below the bar anyone would set for honorable.

  Four

  Caleb forced himself to keep his distance for a few days in order to let Jules think things through. Though he was anxious to hear her answer—which he had to believe would be an agreement to work together—he didn’t want to press too hard. She might be stubborn, but she was smart enough to know that any other approach would be just plain foolish.

  He made it to Thursday evening before he cracked. Then he sought her out, knocking unannounced on the door of her house. The lights were blazing, and he could hear a Blake Shelton tune through the open windows.

  He knocked again and waited, half bracing himself, half humming with the anticipation. Despite their animosity, he’d missed her. He’d missed her a lot, and he couldn’t wait to see her.

  But it was Melissa who opened the door. She seemed startled to see him standing there. Her hair was in a high ponytail. She was dressed in a gauzy purple blouse and tight blue jeans. Her makeup looked fresh, and she was wearing a pair of jazzy copper earrings.

  “Am I interrupting?” he asked. “Did you have a date?”

  “No.” She gave a quick shake of her head. “No date.” But her gaze strayed to the staircase behind him.

  “How’s the hand?” he asked, attempting to gauge her mood.

  If Jules had told her about the easement, he’d expect her to be angry. She didn’t seem angry, exactly. But she did seem unsettled.

  She raised her hand to show him. “Getting better fast. It really doesn’t bother me much.” She gave a little laugh. “The doctor said I have good aim. A quarter inch in either direction and I’d have done some real damage.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Caleb realized how it sounded. “I mean, I’m glad it wasn’t worse.”

  “Me, too.” She let her hand fall to her side again.

  He glanced past her into the house. “Can I speak to Jules?”

  “She’s not here.”

  The answer took him by surprise, putting the brakes on his plans.

  But then he wondered if Jules was dressed up, too. Did she have a date? He hated the idea that she might.

  “Can I help you with something?” Melissa asked.

  The question gave him an idea.

  He hadn’t considered the merits of explaining the situation directly to Melissa, bypassing Jules. It was obvious to him she was the more reasonable of the two. There were even a couple of moments when he thought she would have supported some of his ideas, had it not been for Jules’s staunch refusals.

  Maybe he’d been talking to the wrong sister.

  “You might be able to help me,” he answered. “Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

  She hesitated for just a second, glancing behind him again. “Sure.”

  He knew he should ask if it was a bad time, offer her an out if she hadn’t been sincere. But it wasn’t often he saw her alone. And co-opting her could turn out to be a good idea. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before.

  She opened the door wider and moved out of his way.

  Although the Parkers had been neighbors his entire life, due to the family feud he’d never been inside their house. As he moved from the small foyer, he saw that it was compact. It was mostly kitchen with aging fir cupboards and light green walls. The ceiling was off-white, and a row of three windows looked over the bay. It was a clear night, and the moon reflected off the black water.

  A faded sofa and armchair took up the corner beside a stone fireplace. Nothing was new, not the brocade furniture, nor faded linoleum nor powder blue countertops. But nothing was shoddy either, and everything was clean.

  “Can I offer you some iced tea?” Melissa asked, walking farther around the corner, turning down the music and moving into the kitchen.

  “Thank you,” Caleb answered following her.

  He stopped partway, bracing his hands against one of six kitchen chairs. They were painted white, made of wood, with curved backs with dowels spaced at four-inch intervals and cotton-print cushions tied onto the seats.

  She filled two glasses with ice and retrieved a pitcher of tea from the refrigerator.

  He tried to guess at the refrigerator’s age. It had to have been around for several decades. All he could think was that they didn’t make them that sturdy anymore.

  “I guess Jules didn’t mention the easement,” he opened.

  Standing silent while she poured drinks and letting her wonder about his purpose didn’t seem productive.

  “She told me about it,” Melissa said.

  It wasn’t the answer he was expecting. “She did?”


  “You expect me to be hostile.”

  “Yes. No. On the surface, it’s a setback for you.”

  “On the surface?” Melissa crossed to the table and handed him a glass.

  She pulled out a chair, and he followed suit, sitting down cornerwise. “I would say all the way through.”

  She still didn’t seem angry, and he had to wonder if they had a counter-strategy.

  Rather than argue, he came to his point. “She didn’t get back to me on it.”

  “She said she gave you an answer.”

  “In the heat of the moment, maybe. I didn’t assume it was final.”

  “You expected her to change her mind?” Melissa’s tone wasn’t accusatory, more curious, and perfectly pleasant.

  Again, he had to wonder if they were up to something. “I thought she’d think about it, at least consider the implications.”

  Melissa gave a light laugh. “I can assure you, she’s fully considered the implications.”

  “And?” He was growing more curious by the minute.

  “And she called our father. And then she called a lawyer.”

  “What did they say?” Caleb asked, braced and ready.

  She gave a smirk. “I don’t think I’ll repeat what my father said.”

  Caleb could only imagine. “He never did like me.” Caleb took a sip of the iced tea while he digested the information.

  “You have a particular gift for understatement.”

  “Can you tell me what the lawyer said?”

  “In a nutshell. That you have a case. That we also have a case. And that it’ll take a long time and a lot of money to resolve it.”

  He rotated his glass, the ice cubes clinking against the sides. “There’s no benefit in that.”

  “Not for you,” Melissa said.

  “Or for you.”

  She took a drink and set her glass carefully back on the wooden tabletop. “That’s where you’re wrong. There’s a benefit to us if we win.”

  “You won’t win.”

  She looked him square in the eyes. “What do you want, Caleb?”

  “To be friends.” He realized he meant that. “I truly don’t want to annihilate the Crab Shack.”

  She smiled indulgently but gave an eye roll at the same time. “Forgive me if I have a hard time believing either of those things.”