The Cottages on Silver Beach

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “Do whatever you think is best for you and your kids. Go after her or go on with your own life. It’s your choice.”

  The other man still looked dumbstruck, as if Elliot had just dropped a live grenade into his lap, which was nothing less than the truth.

  He reached a hand out and squeezed his friend’s shoulder, knowing that one small act of compassion could do nothing to ameliorate seven years of mistrust.

  “I shouldn’t have done this here. I’m sorry. It’s Megan’s night and I didn’t want to ruin it for her.”

  “Why did you?” Luke looked more curious than condemning.

  “I saw you there and it seemed right. I figured seven years was long enough not to know.”

  The other man acknowledged that with a nod. “I’m glad you told me. Even tonight,” he said after a moment, his gaze still fixed blindly on the piece of paper in his hand.

  Elliot turned to go and in that moment his gaze met Megan’s. She looked stunning in a soft silvery cocktail dress that seemed to shimmer and catch the light with every movement, but the expression in her eyes was anything but welcoming. She was frowning between him and her brother, as if Elliot were the last man on earth she wanted at her gallery opening.

  His heart aching, he headed for the door. He meant what he said. He didn’t want to ruin the night for her. He would leave, before he made things worse.

  * * *

  “WILL YOU PLEASE excuse me?”

  She gave a polite smile and turned away, not at all sure of the words just spoken by the elderly man who had been talking to her about the composition of a photograph she’d taken during the Lights on the Lake Festival the previous Christmas.

  She could only hope she hadn’t offended someone who might be interested in buying one of her works, but right now her brother needed her.

  The moment Elliot left, Luke had sagged onto one of the padded benches set around the gallery and was staring at something in his hands.

  “What’s wrong? What did Elliot say to you?” she demanded.

  Her brother looked at her as if he barely knew who she was. After a moment, he handed her a piece of paper with a name and address in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

  “What’s this?”

  “Elliot found Elizabeth. She’s had plastic surgery and is living under an assumed name at this address on the Oregon Coast.”

  “Oregon.”

  Troubled or not, why had her sister-in-law walked away from a husband who loved her and two amazing children? Who had she been afraid of? Megan knew it wasn’t her brother but now she wondered if there were other secrets she’d never known about her sister-in-law.

  Her heart ached with worry for her brother and what he must be going through. She had always suspected Elizabeth had walked away from a life that wasn’t living up to her expectations. It was one thing to suspect it, another to know with surety.

  “Are you...okay?”

  “I’m numb, to be honest. It’s going to take some time to process it.”

  She hugged him, heart aching for the road ahead of him and his children. “What do you need from me?”

  “Nothing right now. We don’t need to worry about this now. Enjoy your night.”

  This was what Elliot had been doing for the last week, why no one had been able to contact him. This. He had been looking for Elizabeth. He was a bloodhound, a bulldog, as his family said. He had put those skills to work, relentlessly trying to find her sister-in-law.

  For Luke, for Cassie, for Bridger.

  For her.

  Her heart gave a hard sharp ache inside her chest. She loved him beyond words.

  Did she have the strength to take this chance?

  She had to. She loved him too much. She couldn’t let the possibility of life-changing happiness simply walk out the door.

  Showing her photographs to the world had been an act of great courage, something she hadn’t been certain she could find the strength to do. It would take far more courage for her to grab hold of this chance with Elliot.

  This was a risk she had to take. As with any great risk, the reward would be greater, too.

  “Will you excuse me?” she said to Luke.

  Her brother looked first at her and then toward the door where Elliot had disappeared. His eyes flashed with the concern of an older brother watching over his sister and then his expression turned to one of resignation.

  “You’re going after him.”

  “Yes. I have to. I’m in love with him.”

  Luke gave a little groan. “I don’t want to hear about it. He better treat you right. That’s all.”

  “He will,” she promised. Somehow she was certain of it.

  She flew out of the gallery, leaving behind everything she had worked her entire life to earn. Only for a moment, she told herself. Elliot was worth that sacrifice and more.

  She caught up with him four storefronts down from the gallery, in front of the bookstore and coffee shop she had seen the week before.

  Did he notice the window display featuring his new book? He would be blushing in mortification if he did.

  She loved that about him, that he could create gripping, intense books that earned him acclaim everywhere, yet still be embarrassed at the praise that justifiably came his way.

  They could help each other in that department. She would celebrate his skill as an author while he was very good at appreciating her photography.

  “Elliot. Wait,” she finally called. In these high heels, she would never catch up with him.

  He turned around, shock flaring in his gaze. “What are you doing out here, Meg? You need to go back inside. This is your big night.”

  “You came.”

  The emotion of earlier returned a hundredfold and she felt tears begin to trickle out, despite her efforts to hold them back.

  “Your show was amazing. Everything I imagined and more. I didn’t get a chance to take a look through the whole exhibit, but the pieces I did see were spectacular. Well done.”

  She wanted to clutch his words to her chest and hold them there. “Thank you. Thank you for making the effort to be here and for what you just did for Luke. You found her. He told me.”

  “I didn’t solve any mystery. We still don’t know what happened to her after Pendleton or what she’s been doing all this time. That’s a riddle Luke will have to solve, if he wants.”

  Would her brother go after Elizabeth? She didn’t know the answer to that. Right now that didn’t matter. Luke would figure it out.

  “That’s what you’ve been doing the last week, isn’t it? You’ve been searching for her.”

  “Luke and his children deserve some answers. So do you.”

  Oh, she loved him. He could be reserved sometimes and focused on his work, but he was a good man. A tender, kind, compassionate man who would always watch out for her and do all he could to give her what she needed.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “We might never know the whole story but at least Luke now knows how to open the book.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She had to tell him. She couldn’t let this awkwardness remain between them. “Elliot, I—”

  “Go back inside, Meg. This is your night. I shouldn’t have come. All I did was distract you.”

  She tried to find the courage to tell him she loved him but the words wouldn’t come. “Did you know the FBI is looking for you?” she asked instead.

  He gave a rueful half smile. “That’s the rumor.”

  “Do you know why? You’re not being punished further for the shoot-out. In fact, you’re to earn a commendation. You rescued the granddaughter of an important man.”

  “I heard. I was finally in contact with the higher-ups in the FBI. Apparently everything’s all good now. I’m no longer the Bureau’s fall guy.”

  “You sound bitte
r.”

  “Not bitter. Maybe a little cynical. I don’t see why the identity of any of the girls matters. I didn’t know one of them was the granddaughter of some bigwig when I rescued her and the others. I didn’t care. My decision would have been the same, no matter whether they were all Chinese peasants or granddaughters of Chairman Mao.”

  He did the right thing for the right reasons. That would always be Elliot’s motivation.

  She stepped forward and touched his cheek. “To me, you’re a hero. You’ve always been a hero.”

  He gazed down at her, eyes suddenly blazing. How could she ever have been so blind as to think him stoic, unemotional?

  “Megan.”

  That low ragged voice breathing her name seemed to sear through her. She heard everything he hadn’t said, tenderness, warmth, and a vast, deep love.

  Joy began to seep through her, sweet and healing and beautiful.

  “Elliot. I’m sorry I pushed you away. I was wrong. I was afraid.”

  “Of me?”

  She shook her head swiftly. “Never. I was afraid of myself. I’ve spent a lifetime questioning my own judgment, probably a holdover from my past. But I was wrong to ever question this.”

  He blinked, looking stunned and wary at the same time but with a slow, dawning joy that seemed to send every last insecurity trickling away on the cool mountain air, replaced by the courage she found in knowing Elliot was the perfect man for her.

  “I love you, Elliot Bailey,” she murmured.

  He stared down at her, that same fierce happiness in his eyes. Then he shifted his gaze back down the streets of Hope’s Crossing to the gallery where most of her friends and family were here to celebrate with her.

  “You’re telling me this now, in the middle of your gallery opening?”

  The happiness inside her bubbled out into a laugh. “Crazy timing, I know. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. I’m in love with you. Wyn pointed out to me that I have been for a long time.”

  Before the words were even out, he was pulling her to him with a groan. His mouth found hers and everything inside her seemed to sigh. This was where she belonged. Right here, in his arms.

  He kissed her with heat and wonder, wrapping his arms around her as if he didn’t intend to ever let her go.

  After a long, delicious moment, he lifted his head. “I don’t even want to ask how Wyn possibly knew how you felt before I did.”

  “Before I did, too.” She smiled against his mouth, unable to contain all the joy inside her. “I love your family, Elliot. But not as much as I love you.”

  “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her with so much gentle tenderness, her throat welled up with tears.

  “I love you. I have loved you forever, Megan. You make me laugh and ache and feel. This last week without you has been miserable. The entire time I was in Oregon, I wanted you with me to bring out the beauty around me with your camera. It’s a gorgeous area, but I saw none of it because you weren’t with me. You bring color and life into my world. I never knew how desperately I needed that until these last few weeks.”

  She had to kiss him then and it was several more moments before she finally forced herself to pull away.

  “Will you come back inside? I want you with me tonight. That’s the only thing that could make this night more perfect.”

  “You won’t be able to get rid of me now,” he vowed.

  She didn’t want to. As they walked together down the streets of Hope’s Crossing, hand in hand toward the gallery where a few of her dreams had come true, Megan caught a hazy glimpse of the future.

  She could see the two of them at her little cottage on Silver Beach. He would be working on his books and doing some cold-case investigative work on the side, simply because he was the sort of man who needed to find answers. She would be running the inn and taking pictures and loving every moment of her life beside the man she loved.

  She couldn’t tell if that tiny glimpse was a vision or wishful thinking, but she supposed it didn’t really matter.

  However the future worked out for her and Elliot, it would be perfect. They would face it together.

  EPILOGUE

  IF LATE SPRING was her favorite time of year in Haven Point, late summer ran a close and competitive second.

  As August trickled into September, Megan stood beside the lakeshore savoring the long shadows of the evening and the warm, pine-scented air.

  She wasn’t ready for summer to end—especially this summer. It had been a magical one, filled with more joy than she could ever have imagined.

  She and Elliot had packed hundreds of memories into the summer—visits with him in Denver, long weekends at her cottage on Silver Beach, hiking trips into the mountains around them.

  And this.

  Family and friends.

  She filled her viewfinder with images of Mike Bailey wearing a brightly colored birthday hat, his sturdy, weathered features beaming at the children racing around the yard of his and Charlene’s house along the lakeshore while a trio of dogs scampered along in joy.

  The yard was packed with people, including children of various ages playing a heated game of soccer accompanied by much shrieking, barking and chaos. Right now her niece, Cassie, had control of the ball, her chin tucked as she focused on sneaking past Marshall’s son Christopher, six years older. Then she went in for a goal, to the delight of everyone.

  She smiled and cheered along with everyone else, thrilled to see Cassie and Bridger fitting in so well with the Baileys.

  Elliot’s family had made a concerted effort to include Luke and the children in their family gatherings over the summer. After a little initial reluctance, Luke had come around and brought them to more events.

  “Way to go, Cass. That’s it,” he called now.

  Megan shifted her camera to the sidelines of the makeshift soccer field, where her brother sat with Marshall, Elliot and Cade Emmett.

  All were handsome men but her gaze immediately went to Elliot. He was smiling at something Cade said and everything inside her seemed to sigh, as it always did when she saw his too-serious features in a lighter moment.

  Oh, she loved him. Sometimes it washed over her like a soft predawn rainstorm. Other times it was a torrent of emotion she couldn’t hold back.

  She lifted her camera stealthily. Somehow she never could manage to take a picture of him without his knowledge. He always seemed to know. It had become a bit of a game between them, with her trying to surreptitiously shoot him and him invariably catching her at it and giving her a half-amused, tolerant look.

  This time was no different. As she tried to click the shutter silently, he raised an eyebrow, a small, secret smile playing around his mouth.

  She loved that mouth, too, and the delicious things he could do with it...

  “What are you doing over here in the corner?”

  Megan flushed as Elliot’s mother plopped into the chair beside her. She could only be grateful the other woman couldn’t read minds.

  Megan held up her camera. “Um. Capturing the moment.”

  Charlene looked a little guilty. “I hope you know that when I asked you to take pictures at Mike’s birthday party tonight, I didn’t mean for you to spend the entire evening in the corner with your camera in your hands.”

  “I haven’t been,” she assured her. “I’ve only been here a few moments. I can’t resist, with the light so perfect right now. We don’t have many more summer nights left this year, do we?”

  “Isn’t it glorious? They’re that much more precious because they’re so rare.”

  The fading sunlight turned the other woman’s plump, rather average face into a serene work of art that Megan couldn’t help trying to capture, though she didn’t have the ideal lens on her camera body for a shot at this closer ra
nge.

  “It really is,” she said.

  “I’m so glad you and Luke and the children could join us to celebrate Mike’s birthday.”

  “Thank you for inviting us. We wouldn’t miss it.”

  “You’re part of the family, like it or not,” Charlene said, eyes crinkling with her smile.

  Megan did like it. She loved being part of the Bailey clan, in any capacity.

  She had worried a little about how Elliot’s sisters and mother would react once their relationship status became public—especially considering she had dated Wyatt first—but her concerns were unfounded. His family had embraced her, literally and figuratively—and that welcome quite clearly included Luke.

  She felt extraordinarily fortunate to have been loved by two such very different men.

  She and his mother sat in companionable silence for a few moments, watching the soccer match and the laughing children. After a moment, Marshall got up to demonstrate a move to his stepdaughter, Chloe, and that seemed to be the signal for all the adult men to join in, too—even Elliot, who showed some seriously impressive footwork to steal the ball away from his brother and head down the field with it.

  “I suppose his shoulder is okay now for him to be out there playing soccer,” Charlene said.

  She could personally attest that Elliot was in top physical form right now. Again she felt that blush steal over her features.

  “He should be fine.”

  Elliot laughed then, a sound that never failed to ripple down her spine as if he’d pressed his mouth along each vertebra. In the fading sunlight, he looked gorgeous—lean and hard and dangerous, even as his smile seemed to catch the fading sunlight.

  Charlene, always free with hugs and advice, suddenly sniffled and gave Megan a tight hug.

  “Oh, I do love you so,” Charlene said. “I don’t know what magic you have wrought over the last few months with my son, but I can’t thank you enough for it.”