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

  “I was. I came home.” She walked past him and went into the living room and flopped on the sofa. “A bunch of boys came over and everyone was acting so lame.” She made a face.

  “How’d you get home?” He sat on the arm of an overstuffed chair. “Did Quinn’s mother drive you?”

  “She wasn’t there”—Paige continued to feign indifference—“so I walked.”

  “Whoa. Back up there. What do you mean, her mother wasn’t home?” The no-big-deal posturing was beginning to make sense. “You told me she was going to be there.”

  “Quinn said she would be. I guess she decided to go out at the last minute or something.” Paige finished the cookie, wiped her hands on a napkin, and got up to leave the room.

  “Not so fast, kiddo.” Grant motioned for her to return to the sofa. “Go back to the part where you walked home from Quinn’s.”

  “Yeah. I already told you that part.”

  “I didn’t hear the part where you said who walked with you.”

  “No one walked with me.”

  “You walked all the way home from Quinn’s by yourself?” Grant’s eyebrows rose. “In the dark?”

  “It’s no big deal, Dad. It’s only a couple of blocks.”

  “It’s four blocks, and it is a big deal.” He couldn’t even bear to think of what could happen to a young girl alone in the dark. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  Paige shrugged.

  Grant knew what she was thinking: this was his fault for not calling Quinn’s mother himself. That’s what Krista would have done. If anything had happened to Paige …

  “Next time something like that happens, you call me to come pick you up, understand? You don’t do that again, okay?”

  Paige made a face. “You sound like Mom.”

  Well, I suppose that’s a good sign, he told himself.

  “So did you have fun?” she asked.

  “Yes, I did. But don’t try to change the subject. You shouldn’t have been here alone, Paige.”

  “Dad,” Paige said with infinite patience, “this is St. Dennis. Safe place, remember? That’s what you always tell Mom, anyway.”

  “It’s summer. Who knows who’s in town these days?”

  “I have the dogs to protect me,” she said as the old rottweiler collapsed at her feet. “See? Schultz loves me. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt me.”

  “Schultz has doggie Alzheimer’s and has hardly any teeth,” he reminded her.

  “But he’s got a really big bark.”

  “Paige …”

  “All right. Next time I’ll call you. Promise.” She crossed her heart, then paused for a moment. “Dad, are you still going to take us to Baltimore to see the American Idol concert tomorrow night?”

  “I said I would.”

  “Thanks, Daddy. We’re all so excited about it.”

  “So who’s the best dad?”

  “You’re the best dad ever.” Paige stepped over the dog that had begun to snore loudly. She kissed her father on the cheek and started to run up the steps. She’d gone halfway up when she stopped and turned back.

  “Dad?” She grinned conspiratorially. “I won’t tell Mom about tonight if you won’t.”

  Before he could reply, she scampered up the steps to the second floor and disappeared into her room. Grant sighed and checked to make sure all the doors were locked, then turned off all but the porch lights. He’d certainly had an interesting evening, he mused as he went upstairs, one that ran the gamut of emotions, from feeling like an eighteen-year-old romancing the girl of his dreams to feeling like the hundred-year-old single father of an almost-teenage girl. He wasn’t sure he’d handled either situation particularly well, but, hey, no harm, no foul, right?

  “There’s always tomorrow, Scarlett,” he muttered as he went into his room.

  It didn’t occur to him until later, when he’d almost fallen asleep, that he’d only have until the end of the summer with both Paige and Dallas. By the first week in September, they’d both be gone, both off to lives that didn’t include him. The unhappy truth kept him awake for most of the night.

  “Dallas, did I remember to tell you that I was taking Cody and Logan to Ballard today?” Berry poked her head into the office the next morning, drawing Dallas from a daydream in which she and Grant had been engaged in activities that might have shocked Berry, had she known. Then again, probably not, Dallas thought as she sat up. No one could say that Berry hadn’t lived.

  “You mentioned that you were going to take Cody to a movie, but I don’t remember that you were taking Logan. Not that it matters, of course, as long as you’re up to it.”

  “Of course, I’m up to it. It’s the film adaptation of one of the books they read at the library last week, and they’re both excited about it. And after the movie—assuming they behave while in the theater—we’ll stop and have pizza on the way home. Then, if there’s still time and they haven’t stuffed themselves to the point of illness, we’ll make a stop at Scoop for dessert.”

  “Sounds like a pretty full afternoon.”

  “I’m looking forward to it. The boys are such fun. They’re both so smart and so polite. It’s a pleasure to take them places.”

  “That’s nice to hear.”

  “That’s what Brooke said, too, when she called last night,” Berry went on. “How nice it was to hear good things about your children. I’ve never had my own, of course, but I always took pride in the manners that you and Wade showed.” She paused. “Well, Wade … perhaps not always. He did go through a spell. But you were always well mannered.”

  “Thanks, Berry.” Dallas tapped her pen on the side of her laptop.

  Ally began to bark at the front windows. Fleur flew down the steps to join in.

  “Oh, that must be Brooke’s car I hear. She asked if she could drop off Logan around eleven while on her way to Annapolis. A cousin’s wedding, I believe she said. I told her to go and enjoy herself and not worry about her boy, that I’d give him dinner and will drop him off later this evening …” Berry’s voice faded as she drifted toward the front door.

  Dallas got up from the desk and closed the office door. The last person she wanted to see—or hear—was Brooke. She forced her attention back to the scene and the dialogue she’d been working on before Berry stopped in. Soon the voices from the front hall faded, and she was lost in Pretty Maids once again.

  “Mommy, Aunt Berry’s taking me and Logan to the movies and for pizza, and if we’re good, we get to go to Scoop!” Cody bounded into the library with Logan and Fleur at his heels.

  “Well, I suppose that means you will both be very good at the movies and at the pizza place.” She swung the chair around and stood. “Come give me a hug before you go.”

  Cody wrapped himself around her legs. “Logan, you gotta hug my mom, too.”

  Logan quietly joined Cody and gave Dallas a halfhearted hug.

  “Thank you, boys.” She patted them both on their heads. “Now don’t keep Aunt Berry waiting. And remember to behave.”

  “We will,” the two boys cried in unison, and raced out of the library.

  “Would you like the door closed, dear?” Berry asked from the doorway.

  “No, you can leave it open.” Dallas glanced at the door as she sat back at the desk. “My, aren’t we looking fine today. Not to mention stylish.”

  Berry smoothed the short-sleeved white linen jacket over her hips. She wore a matching calf-length linen skirt and a hot pink tank, and flat leather sandals that looked like snakeskin. Dallas didn’t ask if they were real: Berry never went for faux anything.

  “One never knows who one might run into.” Berry slid her dark glasses down onto her face and repositioned the straps of her shoulder bag. “Come, boys. We’re off for an afternoon of fun.”

  The house was eerily quiet once the three had departed, and after trying to work through a section of dialogue that she just couldn’t get to ring true—even after speaking all the parts aloud—Dallas went into the kitchen. She
’d eaten little at breakfast and hadn’t had lunch, so hunger might be the cause. Low blood sugar, she told herself as she poked around in the refrigerator. She found the last bit of Anita’s chicken salad and some fruit salad from yesterday’s lunch, and ate both standing next to the table, looking out the window.

  The sound of an approaching boat drew her attention, and she watched the bowrider slowly pass their pier as it headed out to the Bay. Well, if that’s the same boat we saw last night, at least the driver has its speed under control today, she thought as she polished off the cantaloupe. She thought the boat might be having engine trouble, as it appeared to be idling on the river when she went out the back door with the dogs a few minutes later. But as she drew closer to the trees, the boat resumed its journey.

  Dallas found the red ball on the grass and tossed it to Fleur, who chased it merrily while Ally rested herself in the shade.

  “These young kids, eh, Ally? All sass and energy, right?” Dallas took the ball from the returning Fleur and gave it one more toss. When the dog brought it back, she called them both into the house with her. After giving them each one of the organic treats she’d picked up at Bowwows and Meows and making sure there was fresh cool water in their bowls, Dallas went back into the library to work.

  “ ‘I really can’t bear to think about this right now.’ ” She read off the line she’d written for Charlotte, then revised it. “ ‘I don’t think I can bear to talk about this right now.’ ”

  She pondered both before making her selection, and moving on to the next line, then the next. She’d finished the first draft of the scene and was reading the lines aloud when the dogs began to bark. A moment later, the doorbell rang several times in quick succession. Dallas glanced at her watch on the way to the foyer. It was 4:20.

  Through the glass panels, Dallas could see Brooke on the other side of the door. When she reached for the bell to give it another ring, Dallas opened the door.

  “What do you want, Brooke?” Dallas made no effort toward civility.

  “I know I’m early to pick up Logan, but I wanted to have a few minutes to talk to you alone, before the boys got back with your aunt. May I come in?”

  “Why? Did you find another sleazy little tabloid story that you want to make sure I don’t miss?”

  “It wasn’t meant like that. I mean, yes, I wanted you to see it, but—”

  “All right. You showed me. I saw it.” Dallas started to close the door.

  “You don’t understand …”

  “You’re absolutely right. I don’t understand.” Dallas’s temper was ready to blow. “I don’t understand why you’d do something so cruel. Frankly, I don’t care why you’d want to hurt me. But do not ever—ever—bring such trash around here where my son might see it. Cody’s father is what he is, and Cody’s still trying to make sense of it all. You have a lot of nerve, coming here, after—”

  “I understand why you’re angry, but if you’d give me five minutes to explain. This is a total misunderstanding.”

  Dallas snorted. “Did I miss something? Was that Brooke’s evil twin who waved that tabloid in my face?”

  “Please? Just five minutes?”

  Dallas leaned against the doorjamb and looked at her watch. “Five minutes, Brooke. Starting now.”

  “I saw the paper in the market,” Brooke began. “I knew that you were in town and I was pretty sure that you wouldn’t want Cody to see it. So I bought the papers and I put them in the trunk of my car. I just wanted you to—”

  “Wait a minute. You bought them?” Dallas frowned. “How many did you buy?”

  “All of them.”

  “You bought all of the papers in the market?” Dallas asked incredulously. “Why?”

  “To hide them. Or burn them. So that no one else would see.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Look, I know I wasn’t very nice to you back when we were kids.” Brooke sighed deeply.

  “That’s putting it mildly.”

  “I know, I know. I did everything I could to make you hate St. Dennis so that you’d go away and never come back. I was not the nicest kid in my class. I admit it. But that was twenty years ago. I’ve grown up a lot since then.”

  “So what’s this got to do with that gossip rag?”

  “I didn’t know if you’d seen it …”

  “I hadn’t.”

  “… and I thought you should know what was being said, that’s all. I just wanted you to know that this was making the rounds here in St. Dennis in case someone said something to Cody. I thought you should be prepared.”

  Dallas stared at Brooke. Kindness from Brooke? Consideration from the girl who once made her life a living hell? This was one of the last things she’d expected.

  Dallas stepped back and held the door open. “Would you like to come in and finish this conversation inside over a glass of iced tea?”

  Brooke nodded. “I would. Thank you.”

  As they walked to the back of the house, Brooke said, “I know it sounds pretty stupid now. But I wanted to clear the air between us, and I thought that might be a start. I haven’t been back in St. Dennis for very long, and it seems like everyone I know is married or has moved away.”

  Except Grant, Dallas thought, wondering if there was any truth to the speculation that Brooke had come back to St. Dennis because she was hoping to catch his eye.

  “I thought … I don’t know, I guess I thought maybe we could be friends. Logan likes Cody so much, and they seem to be such good friends. It’s been hard on him, too, these past few years. Losing his dad, then moving from our home in Florida to Myrtle Beach to stay with my mom after both my dad and my husband died. It took Logan a while to get settled there and to make friends. I guess to him, it seems he had no sooner gotten comfortable there than we moved again.” Brooke swallowed what must have been an enormous lump in her throat. “He was all loose ends this summer, until Cody started coming to the library story hours. Cody’s friendship means so much to him. I wouldn’t do anything to spoil that.”

  “Nor would I.” Dallas pulled a chair out from the table and offered it to Brooke. “Please,” she said, “have a seat.”

  Brooke sat and looked around the room while Dallas found glasses and took the pitcher of iced tea from the fridge.

  “I’ve driven past this old house a thousand times over the years, and I always wondered what it looked like inside. It’s really beautiful. I love that all the old wood is still natural and the moldings are all so ornate.”

  “Thank you. Berry’s done a fabulous job in maintaining it. It’s her pride and joy,” Dallas said.

  “And you have this wonderful view of the river.” Brooke turned her head and stretched her neck to see out the window. “You must love coming back here.”

  “I do.” Dallas poured their tea and took both glasses to the table. “I haven’t been here in a long time—not to spend any significant time, that is—but I’m glad we’re here now.”

  “Logan said Cody told him he was staying for the rest of the summer.” Brooke took a sip of tea. “He said until September seventh, as if that was some magical date.”

  “I guess for Cody it is.” Dallas laughed. “He memorized it so he could tell everyone. He was so happy when I told him. He was having a hard time of things back in L.A., and he was so glad to leave and come here. I think he would have been happier anyplace than in L.A. But for the record, I’m equally pleased that he found such a nice friend in Logan. He’s a really nice boy.”

  “I appreciate that. Thank you. He’s so much nicer than I ever was as a kid,” Brooke said matter-of-factly. “Don’t bother trying to think of something nice to say. It’s the truth. I was an obnoxious child, and a mean girl in high school. You have no idea of the number of things I regret having said or done back then.”

  “Is there anyone who doesn’t look back sometimes and think, ‘I wish I hadn’t …’?”

  “Oh, but I took it to the extreme. Take you, for example. I really d
isliked you from the first day you arrived. There was just something about you …” Brooke shook her head. “Not that you did or said anything, but even back then, I knew that you were going to be trouble in my life.”

  Dallas laughed.

  “Seriously. You were such a thorn in my side. And it used to kill me that you just didn’t seem to be aware of it, that you just didn’t care.”

  “I knew. I cared,” Dallas said softly, remembering the years of snubs and whispers behind the hands of the girls who hung around with Brooke. “I just didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t really know how to make friends with any of you.”

  “Except for Grant.”

  “He was the first person who was nice to me. Actually, now that I think about it, he was the only person who was nice to me.”

  “That’s because he was in love with you.”

  “Not when we were eleven,” Dallas said.

  “Yes, starting when we were eleven. That’s why all the girls hated to see you arrive back in town, didn’t you know that? Everyone had a crush on him. During the school year, things would be great. We all went out with him at one time or another. Parties, football games, dances.” Brooke rested her arms on the table. “Then every year, June would come around, and there’d be no more Grant until September. And all the other guys would sort of hang around, hoping you’d get tired of Grant and give them a chance.”

  “Gee, this makes me feel swell.”

  “I’m sorry. It was a lifetime ago. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Ally came into the room from her living-room perch where she watched for Berry, and went to the back door.

  “Want out, girl?” Dallas walked to the door and opened it. “Stay right where I can see you.”

  She turned to Brooke. “I can’t believe I talk to this dog as if she’s a person. But if Berry came home and her dog was missing … yowzer.”

  “Is that one of the dogs you got from Grant?” Brooke asked.

  Dallas nodded.

  “He mentioned it the other night, that he’d found a dog for your aunt and one for your son. Of course, now Logan must have a dog, too, and Grant would be happy if we took one, but I don’t know if I want to take on a dog right now. I’m still geting used to being in St. Dennis again. It’s very odd, coming back to the place where you were a child, living in the same house you grew up in.”