“Grow up, Miles,” Kate said, kicking off her high heels at the door. “Mom is an adult. She doesn’t need our permission to get married. Hand me a water, will you?”
Miles tossed a bottle of water across the room and their sister, a former college softball player, snagged it easily.
“We don’t know a thing about this guy, Kate,” Miles said, opening his own bottle of water. “He showed up in town just after Dad died, and before that his life is a mystery.”
Kate groaned as she rummaged through Gavin’s pantry and pulled out his last can of Pringles. She popped the top. “He’s a veteran, for God’s sake,” she said before shoving a chip in her mouth.
“You’re a doctor and you eat that processed crap?” Miles looked at their sister in disgust.
She shoved a handful of chips in her mouth. “Mmm.”
“Help yourself,” Gavin mumbled as he grabbed a beer out of the fridge. Water wasn’t going to cut it. Not when it looked as if his brother and sister were making themselves at home, gearing up for a long argument.
“This Guy has a name and it’s Lamar Hollister. He’s served twenty-five years in the military police. He’s from Gary, Indiana. Married for five years before he divorced. He has a daughter in her twenties who’s a teacher at some prestigious private school in Chicago.” Gavin took a swig of his beer as his brother and sister gaped at him.
“How do you know this?” his sister asked a moment later.
“Simple. I asked him.”
Miles mumbled a few choice words under his breath before reaching for Gavin’s beer and guzzling.
“Hey! Why the hell do you keep drinking my beer? Get your own,” Gavin demanded.
“I’m campaigning, remember?”
Kate laughed.
“Who says the guy isn’t lying?” Miles continued on his quest to discredit Lamar.
“He’s not a politician, Miles. He has no reason to lie,” Kate said.
Miles flipped their sister off and she laughed even harder.
“If you two are just gonna eat my food and bitch at each other all evening, why don’t you go to Kate’s beach house? I’ve got work to do.” Gavin moved over to his drafting table in hopes that his annoying siblings would clear out.
“Give the man a television show and he becomes a prima donna.” His sister’s teasing was only making him angrier.
“Fine,” Miles said. “If you think this guy passes muster, so be it. You’re the one on the front lines here in town. You’ll be too busy dealing with the fallout when he breaks Mom’s heart that you won’t hear me screaming, ‘I told you so’!”
Kate’s face blanched as Gavin let the obscenities fly. “Who says I have to deal with it? Why am I the only one responsible for looking after Mom or keeping the company afloat?”
Midas scrambled into his crate at Gavin’s angry tone. Gavin himself was feeling a little anxious by the ferocity of his frustration with the situation, not to mention his smart-ass siblings. He had only a matter of weeks left until he could escape this town, but his brother seemed to be roping him back in, little by little.
“Gavin,” Kate said quietly. “What is it? What’s bothering you?”
“Don’t you dare say we haven’t pulled our weight here, Gavin,” his brother accused. “No one forced you to take over the business. We agreed to sell it, but you’ve never shown any interest in doing that. You don’t get to play the martyr card now.”
Tell them, his conscience screamed, but his chest squeezed, not allowing the words to escape. He’d kept his father’s secret this long. He could surely make it another few weeks without shattering his family’s illusions of the man they loved.
Kate waved Miles off as she took a step closer, her face awash with concern. “It’s never been all on you, Gavin. I can handle things with Mom.” Miles snorted behind her, but she ignored him. “But I only live here part-time, so I just need you to communicate to me—to all of us—if there’s a problem. Something tells me this isn’t just about Mom marrying the sheriff, though. Are you okay?”
He would be okay, once he got back to New York. Gavin glanced from his brother’s steely eyes to his sister’s worried ones. Shaking his head, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Just busy. That’s all.”
Kate still wore her I-don’t-believe-you look that probably worked well with her teenage patients who claimed they weren’t sneaking their parents’ beer, but it didn’t work on him. Miles opened his mouth to say something, but Gavin was saved by the sound of his cell phone, the ringtone identifying it as Morgan on the other end of the call.
“Yeah?” Gavin answered the phone.
“Sonny, you better git your britches up here. We got a nice gusher going in the main bath. That crazy tattooed fella wants to wait for me to get all made up before I fix it. I’m shuttin’ off the water now before these new floors are ruined.”
Gavin sighed with relief. While he hated that there was a problem at Dresden House, at least it provided him with an excuse to get away from his sister and brother. Not to mention an opportunity to see Ginger. There’d been very little on-camera work for him this week, so the only time the two were together was when he crept into her room at night. He was getting a little tired of all the lying and sneaking around he was doing. The end of the show couldn’t come soon enough.
“I’ll be right there,” he told the plumber. He handed the nearly empty beer to Miles. “It’s been fun, but I’ve got an emergency up at the mansion.”
“You’re still coming to the house for the celebration dinner, right?” Kate insisted. “You know how Emily loves to play with Midas.”
Gavin handed the dog’s leash to his sister. “Take him with you. I don’t know how long I’ll be. Don’t wait dinner on me.” While he loved being around his niece, he wasn’t sure he wanted to face dinner with his family tonight. With his dog occupied, maybe he could sweet-talk Ginger into spending some time with him in the mansion’s music room.
“Great, that leaves me to grill the sheriff,” Miles said, tossing the now-empty beer bottle into the recycling bin.
“You will be nice, Miles, or Alden and I won’t transfer our voter registration back to Chances Inlet,” Kate said as she led a happy Midas out the door.
“At least then I’d be sure you didn’t vote for my opponent.” Miles clapped Gavin on the shoulder. “Nice move getting out of dinner,” he hissed. “Maybe I should have Morgan text me to come and help you guys?”
As he locked the door behind them, Gavin eyed his brother. Miles definitely knew his way around a toolbox—their father had insisted on it—but construction had never been his calling. He couldn’t resist teasing. “Yeah, but then you might ruin your manicure.”
* * *
“Why are we running?” Cassidy gasped as she and Ginger jogged along the shoreline that wrapped around the point of Chances Inlet. “It’s not like the shape shifters are freakin’ chasing us.”
Ginger continued to pound her feet into the sand, ignoring Cassidy’s complaints. She wasn’t running from anyone necessarily. Instead, she was running to maintain her sanity.
Diesel was being distant and aloof, keeping their interactions businesslike since her announcement about Marissa and his father coming to Chances Inlet. Worse still, he’d decamped to Yasmine’s house entirely, leaving her alone at the inn with only Cassidy and Lori to keep her company. Not that Lori had been much company. She’d slipped back into the shadows of the inn, quietly doing her job and avoiding any interaction. Ginger found she missed not only her wonderful meals, but their fledgling friendship, as well. Obviously, Diesel knew Lori’s backstory and was protecting her. But from what? She should have felt piqued at being left out of the secret. Instead, guilt nipped at her heels, forcing her to run faster.
“Hey!” Cassidy yelled. “Just because you ate three cupcakes today doesn’t mean you have to punish me for it!” She threw herself onto the nearest bench in a huff, sending the loitering seagulls scattering into the air.
A
nd then there were the cupcakes.
Ever since she’d inhaled the first one at the premiere party, Ginger had been sneaking a few each afternoon at tea. Fortunately, with her increased dance schedule she could afford her free fall off the diet wagon. The cupcakes were delicious, decadent and addictive. She realized too late that they were also very familiar. Ginger pulled up, hands on her hips as she caught her breath. Yep, she’d really bungled things for everyone when she’d conspired to bring Marissa and Marvin Goldman to Chances Inlet.
“A real trainer would have brought a bottle of water along.” Cassidy was able to mumble her complaint despite having her face pressed into the seat of the bench.
“A real trainer would be charging a hundred bucks for this run.” Ginger swatted the teen’s feet off the seat and sat down on the bench.
April had ebbed into May and the town was no longer a sleepy beach hamlet, but a crowded tourist destination. The finishing touches were being put on the mansion and the wrap party was fast approaching. So, too, were Ginger’s other projects: the ballet recital and the prom. She’d be gone by the time the prom was held and the thought made her even more irritable.
Surprisingly, Cassidy had applied herself to Ginger’s prescribed routine—today’s unsuccessful attempt at jogging being the exception. During the past weeks, the teenager had toned up her body and even scaled down some of the Gothic camouflage she’d been hiding behind.
“Isn’t it time for ballet with the ankle-biters?” Cassidy grumbled. Ginger smiled. In spite of her complaining, Cassidy had managed to have the Patty Wagon back at the inn just in time to accompany Ginger to the preschool ballet class each week. She was pretty sure the teen had been tagging along at first simply to run into Kyle Preston. But as the days wore on, Cassidy had begun to involve herself in the preparations for the recital, becoming as enthused about it as the young girls in the class.
“We have a few more minutes,” Ginger said.
“I’m not running another step.”
Ginger sighed. “No more running. Let’s just soak up some of the small-town atmosphere, then. I only have a couple of more weeks before I’ll be back amid the noise and the smog.”
Cassidy sat upright on the bench. “Why is it that people who aren’t from small towns always want to be from one?”
Shrugging her shoulders, Ginger stared out at the churning ocean. “There’s something idyllic about having roots, connections and friendships that span a lifetime.”
“I hate to break it to you, Gidget, but there’s nothing idyllic about life in a small town at all. Sure, everybody knows your name, but they also know your whole life’s story—even the parts you don’t want them to know.”
Ginger wasn’t surprised by the bitterness in the teenager’s tone. She’d been left alone to bear the shame of her mother’s behavior, after all. As far as Ginger knew, the girl had visited her mother only once, that day Patricia had taken her to the jailhouse in Wilmington. Mona would be released to a halfway house soon and, as usual, Cassidy kept her feelings about that buried beneath her prickly exterior. Pulling her feet back up onto the bench, Cassidy rested her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around her bent legs. “I can’t wait to blow this Popsicle stand,” she said as her body screamed otherwise.
“So you won’t ever come back? Not even when they throw you a parade for surviving a year on the space station?” Ginger teased her.
Cassidy leveled her death glare at her, but Ginger had become immune after the past few weeks.
“So what will you study in college, if not aerospace engineering?”
The teenager was quiet for a moment, returning her stare off toward the ocean. “You’ll laugh,” she finally said.
Something squeezed inside of Ginger. She’d learned since arriving in town that Cassidy didn’t let anyone see the real girl underneath. Ever. Cassidy could still be punking her, but Ginger took the risk anyway.
“I won’t laugh,” she said softly, subconsciously reaching down to rub her ankle. “I was a teenager once with big dreams.”
Cassidy snorted. “Yeah, that doesn’t instill much confidence in me, Gidget. I mean, look where you ended up, painting faces and teaching dance to rug rats and dance moms in a rinky-dink town.”
“This is just a pit stop.” The squeezing grew more intense as she acknowledged that she’d be leaving soon. “Just because you have a dream doesn’t make life easy, but it does make it bearable.”
“I want to be a novelist.” Cassidy pushed out the words reluctantly, as though by saying them aloud, they somehow wouldn’t come true.
“Really?” Ginger wasn’t sure what she’d expected Cassidy to say, but she couldn’t have been more surprised than if the girl had said that she really did want to be an astronaut.
“Yeah, like J. K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer.” Cassidy’s face had become a bit sheepish.
“Well, I see nothing wrong with aiming high,” Ginger said with a laugh.
“My guidance counselor says I need a college degree before I can start publishing my stuff, but some girl in England put her book online and made a freaking fortune. I wanna do that. No more food stamps or charity from this crazy town ever again.”
Cassidy’s enthusiasm took Ginger by surprise. “Have you already written a book?”
The teen rolled her eyes at Ginger before reaching down her shirt to pull out a jump drive she kept on a leather string. “I’ve got four of them on here. And they’re all blockbusters, Gidget.” She tapped a finger to her head. “And there’s more where these came from.”
“I’m impressed,” Ginger said, and she was. “I’m pretty sure the girl in England went to Oxford just as a fallback in case there weren’t any more novels up here.” She mimicked Cassidy tapping her head.
The teenager scoffed at the idea. “I’ve already got the money saved to hire an editor. I just need the money to format it and design a cool cover and I’m on my way. I told you, I’m not college co-ed material.” Cassidy paused, a pained look crossing her face. “But I can’t do anything while I’m still a minor. My mom pawned my laptop once so she could buy some blow. If she wants to be a drunk and a druggie, that’s her problem. I’m not funding her, though.” She heaved a sigh. “Which means I’ll take the scholarship, go to school for the first semester and hang out until I’m eighteen in November. I’ve survived living with my mother all these years. I can survive rooming with a preppy sorority chick for a few months.”
Ginger had to admire the fact that, like her, Cassidy was making the best of the circumstances life threw at her. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll make some friends.”
Cassidy laughed at that. “Let’s not get carried away. I’m not you, Gidget. I don’t need everyone in the world to like me.”
Ouch.
Jumping off the bench, Cassidy turned to her, a ghost of a smile on her face. “But at least at college, I can finally be whoever I want to be. I won’t be Cassidy Burroughs, the swine prom queen.”
“Hey,” Ginger teased as she got to her feet. “Don’t go polishing your crown yet. The prom is still a few weeks away.”
“You know something, Gidget? You’re tougher than you look. Most people don’t like to be in my orbit.”
Ginger suspected that if Cassidy gave people the chance to get close to her—the real Cassidy—she’d have plenty of friends. But right now, the teen needed the buffer zone she’d built around herself. “Well, this is a small town and there aren’t too many choices for workout partners.”
For a moment, she thought Cassidy might say more. The side of her mouth quirked up before she reined it in. “We’d better get to the studio before you have a mob of angry dance moms hunting you down because their little darlings can’t tolerate class starting late.”
“You wouldn’t run interference?”
“Again, let’s not get carried away, Gidget.”
As they made their way into the foyer leading to the ballet studio a few minutes later, Ginger caught a glimpse of Gavin
out of the corner of her eye. Standing in the McAlister C & E workspace that now doubled as his brother’s campaign headquarters, Gavin was doing battle with his office manager. His amazing mouth sported a sexy, full-dimpled smile that was practically melting Bernice into a puddle beneath her bright peach wedge sandals. “I’ll handle the inspectors, Bernice,” he was saying, deftly appeasing the older woman.
If Bernice wasn’t so blinded by his smile, though, she might have noticed that he looked a little ragged around the edges, his eyes tired and his voice raspy. Ginger was one of the few people who knew he’d been doing double duty, diligently designing his project in Wilmington while putting the finishing touches on the renovations at Dresden House. All the while, he’d been showing her body the same attention to detail every night, often into the wee hours. If that wasn’t enough on his plate, she’d observed him playing referee these past few weeks between his siblings and their mother over Patricia’s engagement to the sheriff. Ginger worried her bottom lip as she studied his face, noting the signs of strain there.
Gavin ended his conversation with Bernice and her breath caught as their gazes connected. He covertly angled his head slightly, indicating his loft. She hesitated only briefly, checking over her shoulder to see that Cassidy had already made her way into the studio. Tossing a flirtatious wave at Gavin, she hurried up the stairs and into his loft. Midas let out a joyous bark as he scrambled to his feet just as she heard the dog’s master take the stairs two at a time.
Both the dog and Gavin reached her at the same time. Midas slobbered a wet kiss on her palm just as Gavin pinned her to the closed door, his mouth descending on hers for a hot, wild kiss. His steady hands cruised over her hips and her body leaned into his. She angled her head to give him deeper access, and a growl of appreciation rumbled from deep within his throat, reverberating throughout her own body.
They both were breathing hard when he finally broke the kiss. Her body quivered for release, but there wasn’t time. Downstairs, a roomful of kindergarten ballerinas and their mothers were waiting on her to teach a class.
“It feels like weeks since I left your bed, but it was only this morning,” he breathed against her neck. His thumb brushed over her nipple, pulling a gasp from her throat as her sex throbbed. “Mmm, you miss me, too.” The brush of his five o’clock shadow against the tender skin along her jaw made her knees go weak with need.
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