The Chesapeake Diaries Series 7-Book Bundle: Coming HOme, Home Again, Almost Home, Hometown Girl, Home for the Summer, The Long Way Home, At the River's Edge

by Stewart, Mariah

  “Oh, he’s serious, all right. And quite indignant about it, too.”

  “Knowing Emilio, the only thing he’s trying to rehabilitate is his reputation. How like him to use the malady du jour as an excuse for his very bad behavior.”

  “That’s exactly what I said. He’s trying to stir up sympathy so that, once he’s ‘cured,’ everyone will forget what a jerk he is.”

  “Surely no one’s memory is that short.” Berry tsk-tsked. “He’ll go off in a blaze of camera lights, portraying a tragic, solitary figure. The man who lost it all. No wife, no children, to bid him adieu and Godspeed.” Berry sighed dramatically. “Surely you didn’t agree to meet him? Or to let him see Cody?”

  “No, of course not.” Dallas shook her head, then asked, “Do you think I did the right thing?”

  “Absolutely. Good Lord, what else could you have done? Invited him here to St. Dennis? Rushed back to the coast with Cody to allow him to use the two of you to gain sympathy? Don’t second-guess yourself. He isn’t worth it. The sooner your divorce is final, the better off you and Cody will be.” Berry paused. “You didn’t tell him where you were, did you?”

  “No, but I’m sure he’d be able to figure it out after he’s called every one of my friends and realizes I’m not with one of them. And he is smart enough to know that if the tabloids aren’t reporting that I’m in this hotel or that, at this one of our houses or the other, I’m probably not in California. And where else would I go but here?” Dallas shook her head. “I’m sure he remembers that this was always my refuge.”

  “Well, if he comes here, we’ll deal with him.”

  “He won’t waste the time. He said he’s leaving in a few days.”

  “How long do you suppose he’ll stay?”

  “I don’t know. I suspect it would have to be at the very least a month, if he’s trying to make this appear at all credible.”

  “Credibility is exactly what he’s after. I’m sorry, dear. I know these past few years have been very difficult for you.” Berry squeezed Dallas’s shoulder. “But you know, he was never right for you. You need someone stronger, someone whose feet are on the ground. Someone who understands what it means to be a real man.”

  “Well, now listen to you.” Dallas forced a smile. “Aren’t you a font of advice.”

  “I’ve been around the block a time or five.” Berry smiled coquettishly. “I’m sorry that your marriage didn’t work out, and that Emilio is exactly what I thought he was. You and Cody are better off without him. I doubt you’ll ever regret divorcing him, but I do believe you’d regret taking him back.” Berry looked out toward the Bay. “And there are few things sadder than regrets when it comes to matters of the heart.”

  “Odd,” Dallas observed. “That’s the second time since we’ve been here that you mentioned regrets. I don’t remember that you ever admitted regretting anything in your life, Berry.”

  “Mom! Aunt Berry!” Cody ran to them, his cupped hands held out in front of him, a huge smile on his face.

  “I got one! Want to see? We can all watch it fly away together …” he called as he dashed across the lawn.

  “Yes, dear, bring it here, and we’ll admire it before you let it go,” Berry told him.

  “Here it goes …” Cody opened his hands and waited for the insect to fly off. When it had disappeared, he turned to Berry and said, “I’ll bet you’d be real good at catching lightning bugs, too, Aunt Berry. Maybe almost as good as me.”

  “Now, that sounded like a challenge, young man.” Berry rose and made her way down the steps, the sparkly stones on her sandals catching the light. “Let’s just see who can catch the next one. Starting now …”

  Dallas watched the old woman and the small boy hunt lightning bugs in the faded light.

  There are few things sadder than regrets when it comes to matters of the heart.

  Dallas knew that, throughout the years, Berry had been romantically linked with this leading man or that director. She tried but couldn’t recall any one man in particular having been a part of Berry’s life for any real length of time. Certainly she’d never had gentlemen in her home when Dallas and Wade were visiting. A curious Dallas wondered who Berry looked back on with regret. Perhaps one day soon, she could persuade Berry to bring out her old scrapbooks, and see if she could ask the right questions that would lead her to the answer.

  Chapter 6

  Berry was right, Dallas decided as she set out on foot toward St. Dennis’s commercial center. Using the morning hours for shopping was better than waiting until the afternoon. For one thing, the morning hours were cooler, the tree-lined streets offered shade, and the breeze off the Bay was crisp. Once the sun rose high in the sky, it would beat down on the bayside town unmercifully.

  The other good thing was that the shops were less crowded, which meant she’d run into fewer tourists who’d be elbowing each other when she passed by.

  “Hey! Isn’t that …?”

  It had taken the media exactly three days to find her, and since then, she’d been photographed from every possible angle. Whether professional photographers or tourists wielding digital cameras or cell phones, she figured she’d been good for a half mile’s worth of four-by-six photos if they were all placed end to end. But no one had really bothered her or harassed her, and several people had so shyly and politely asked if they might have their picture taken with her that she couldn’t bring herself to say no, as long as Cody wasn’t photographed. So far, she suspected that some of those photos had found their way onto their owner’s Facebook pages, but she hadn’t seen them surface anywhere else. Everyone had respected her wishes about Cody not being included in the pictures. She drew the line at having her son’s photo taken by strangers. You just never knew.

  But Berry had also been right about the residents of St. Dennis accepting her as one of their own, and that had given Dallas particular satisfaction. When camera crews from a network entertainment program showed up in town, suddenly no one had much to say about Dallas. As her aunt had predicted, discreet phone calls gave them quiet notice, so that Dallas could decide whether to come into town, or not. No one had given away the location of Berry’s house, though she realized it wouldn’t be too difficult to find for anyone who knew that Beryl Townsend, the great star of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, was her great-aunt and that the family name was Eberle.

  Not so hard to discover for someone who took the time to dig into Berry’s bio, Dallas knew. As yet, no one had, but it could well be just a matter of time before she awoke one morning to find paparazzi parked along River Road. But Dallas understood that the less she made of her presence here, the less everyone else did, too.

  And that was just skippy, as far as Dallas was concerned. Since arriving in St. Dennis, she felt everything around her slowing down, as if the earth itself were spinning a little slower. The days seemed longer and more pleasant, the afternoons spent languidly relaxing on the dock or in the hammock in the shade of Berry’s ancient oak tree. Dallas had become a regular at Book ’Em, gobbling up the latest mysteries and romances and memoirs the way a starving woman would attack a buffet. For years, she’d read nothing but scripts and entertainment magazines and movie reviews. She’d forgotten what a wonderful world there was to be found between the pages of books. She read quickly, and once finished, the gently read books were donated to the local library. In the week since she’d been in St. Dennis, Berry had taken five new bestsellers to the library on Dallas’s behalf. The books had been gratefully accepted, since funding for new purchases had been cut.

  Every day felt like a holiday, something to be savored and celebrated. She awoke each morning to the sound of the breeze blowing through the long thin branches of the willows, birds gathering in the pines along the side yard, or boats heading to the mouth of the river and the Bay beyond. She’d shower, have a leisurely breakfast with her son and her aunt, and then there’d be hours to do as she pleased, to read or to take walks, swim in the river or simply lie back on the g
rass and let her mind wander through the clouds that floated high over the Chesapeake. There seemed no reason to think about how long they might stay. That she’d found some bliss here was all she needed to know for now.

  And Cody, it would seem, had found his own bliss. He and Berry had gotten into the habit of heading to the library in the mornings for the children’s story hours. Every day her son had returned bubbling over, eager to tell her about the book the librarian was reading to them, or the book Berry checked out for him, or the kids he’d met that morning. Dallas had never seen him so engaged in any activity.

  Just like a normal, happy boy, Dallas had told her friend Laura, the night before on the phone. They’d been young starlets together, though their career paths had taken different turns.

  “Of course he’s a normal happy boy,” Laura had replied. “Why are you so surprised?”

  “I guess because he’s so different here,” Dallas told her. “He’s … I don’t know, lighter. More lighthearted. More like a little boy than a …”

  “A clone of every other kid in Hollywood?”

  “Yeah. That, too, but he’s more engaged, less serious. Even before Emilio’s latest escapade, I felt Cody was too serious for a six-year-old.”

  “Well, look at the way things have been for the past few years, babe. His mom and his dad were rarely together, and when you were, you were arguing. Dad’s picture was in the tabloids almost every week. Cody may not have been able to read, but he sure as hell had eyes to see that the woman his father was cozying up to on the magazine covers was not his mother. Kids absorb hostility. They soak up your anger and your unhappiness like sponges.” Laura hesitated, then added, “Plus, you’ve been working like a fiend for the past three years. You’ve gone from movie set to movie set, location to location. How much time did you really spend with Cody last year?”

  “Jeez, Laura.” Dallas frowned. “If I felt like being kicked around a little, I’d call Emilio.”

  “Sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to come across so harshly.” Laura sighed. “I’ve just gotten real sensitive to this sort of thing since, well, since Alissa and Kevin had all those problems last year. We’ve been spending a lot of time together, just the three of us. They were more deeply affected by the divorce than either Paul or I had realized. And I’ve put off the wedding to Brock indefinitely. I’ve come to the conclusion that the kids need more time to adjust. One of the things that came out in our therapy sessions was that they were bothered by the fact that I could leave their father and take up with someone else so quickly. While the situation is far from being that simple, it’s made me stop and reevaluate a lot of things in my life.”

  “Wow. All that from Laura Fielding.”

  “I know,” Laura said wryly. “The ditzy blond bimbo actually has a brain. Who knew?”

  “Anyone who knows you knows that the roles you’ve played are not who you are.”

  “True enough, but I’ve been typecast for so many years, no one thinks I can pull off a more serious role.”

  “They said the same thing about Marilyn Monroe,” Dallas said pointedly. “One word, my friend: Niagara.”

  “I keep reminding myself of that, but I haven’t worked in months.” Laura sighed again. “All those stupid films I made when I was younger … I should have followed your lead and refused to take my clothes off. I even went brunette, but it seems like I can’t buy a part in a legitimate film these days.”

  “Have faith in yourself. The right role will come your way.”

  “I hope you’re right, Dallas. It’s been hell on the ego to be turned down for so many projects, but on the plus side, I’ve had time with my kids and we’re really getting to know each other. I can honestly say I like them both, and I think they like me a lot more now.”

  “Good for you. It sounds as if you’re getting it all together.”

  “I am. We are. Look, I have to run. I’m taking Alissa to dinner and then we’re going to a movie. We go once a week now, just the two of us. Honestly, I’ve learned more about my daughter in the past two months than I have in the past thirteen years. Paul’s taking Kevin to dinner and a ball game. We’re actually almost a normal, happy family, now that we’re divorced. Go figure. Hey, give my love to Cody, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  Laura’s words stayed with Dallas through the night and into the next day.

  Like Laura, Dallas was learning things about her child she’d somehow missed before, like the fact that he liked to take his time to observe new situations before he participated, or that in social groups, he needed to understand everyone else’s role before he decided on his own. What she had always perceived as shyness was actually Cody’s way of taking his time to study a situation and observe before joining in. She saw that he liked to try new things but was cautious, wanting to know how all the parts worked and fit together, whether the new thing was a toy or a social situation. Like when they dragged the old canoe out of Berry’s carriage house and down to the river a few days ago. Cody had wanted to know where everyone would sit and how the paddles were handled and how they made the canoe go before he wanted to take it for a spin. She’d always known he was clever and curious; she just hadn’t realized how deep his curiosity went.

  Working at a job you love was a good thing, she’d concluded, unless it crowded out everything else. While she’d tried to balance work and motherhood over the past few years, in retrospect, she had to admit she hadn’t done nearly as well as she could have. Laura had been right about that. She’d made three films back-to-back-to-back, leaving her little time for anything else, including Cody.

  But for now, for as long as they were in St. Dennis, life was better. Life was good. And whatever lessons they learned here could be taken with them when they returned to L.A. She still hadn’t given much thought to when that might be. There hadn’t been a reason to plan. Part of the whole holiday ambience was just going with the flow.

  Like now, having the morning to herself to walk into town and shop. She followed River Road to its end at Queen Anne Street, then walked three more blocks to Charles. Six blocks up Charles, the business district began with the bank on one side of the street and a small grocery on the other. The closer she came to the center of town, the closer the shops were to each other, until every house on the last two blocks had been converted into a shop or a restaurant. It was interesting, she thought, that so many homeowners had either sold their properties or converted their first floors into shops when St. Dennis had been “discovered.” She passed by several Victorian-era homes where she’d played as a child, or where friends of Berry’s had once lived. Walking the streets had made it all familiar to her again.

  Dallas crossed the street and went directly to Bling. She opened the door and went in, the little bell tinkling to announce her, and found herself alone.

  “Hello?” she called. “Vanessa?”

  She heard a muffled giggle from the rear of the shop, and seconds later, Vanessa emerged from the back room, her hands smoothing her skirt, a tall, ruggedly good-looking man walking close behind her.

  Ah, that explains the giggle, Dallas mused.

  “Hi, Dallas.” Vanessa smiled even as a blush crept from the open collar of her cotton shirt to her hairline. “Ah, have you met Grady?” She gestured to the man who was approaching the counter where Dallas stood. “Dallas, this is Grady Shields. Grady, meet Dallas MacGregor.”

  “Good to meet you.” He extended his hand. “I’m a huge fan.”

  “Why, thank you.” She shook the hand he offered. “It’s nice of you to say.”

  He turned back to Vanessa and kissed her on the side of her face. “I’ll see you soon.”

  “Be careful, you hear? And take something that shoots real bullets. In case of bears.” Vanessa watched Grady walk to the door. “And call me before you leave, okay? And when you get back.”

  “Will do.” He winked and was out the door.

  “He’s a wilderness guide.” Vanessa turned to Dallas. “He take
s people into the mountains in Montana and they hike and they camp and shoot rapids and all sorts of stuff that could be dangerous. He’s taking a party out on Friday into some remote area and they’re staying for five days.”

  “I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”

  “Yes, but there are bears in those mountains. And wolves.” Vanessa looked worried. “You never know …”

  “If he’s experienced, he’ll prepare for those things.”

  “Oh, of course he will. I know he will.” Vanessa waved a hand as if to dismiss her own thoughts of doom and gloom. “I just can’t help it. I imagine these scenarios and my mind just takes flight.”

  “Well, if you don’t mind my saying so, he’s one great-looking guy.”

  “He is, isn’t he? Best guy, ever.” Vanessa beamed, the sparkle returning to her eyes. “Now, what can I get for you today? We have some new short skirts, if you’re interested.”

  “I was hoping to find a pair of these shorts in khaki.” Dallas stepped back to allow Vanessa to see what she was wearing.

  Vanessa’s eyes narrowed. “Didn’t you buy those in khaki last week?”

  “I did, but we—Cody and I—were rummaging around in Berry’s carriage house last night and I got the pocket caught on a nail and ripped a good-size hole in them.”

  “That sounds like something I’d do.” Vanessa sorted through the stack of shorts on display near the counter. “Here you go. I think these are your size.”

  Dallas looked at the ticket. “That was my size last week, and it may be my size today, but I’m afraid another few weeks of eating the way I’ve been doing and I’ll be coming back for a larger pair.”

  Vanessa laughed. “We do have some pretty good restaurants, especially if you like seafood.”

  “Last night for dinner at Captain Walt’s, I ate seven steamed crabs—seven!—and a whole order of french-fried sweet potatoes. Polished it off with a slice of that ridiculously fabulous sponge cake with the fudgy frosting.”

  “The nine-layer job?” Vanessa grinned knowingly.