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

  “Stop. You’re making my head spin,” Lucy told them.

  “Believe it or not, but I’m telling you, Alice is here sometimes,” Vanessa insisted. “Not all the time, just sometimes.”

  “How do you know when she’s here?” Lucy could not believe she’d actually asked that. Still, she looked around the room. “Is she here now?”

  “Uh-uh. I know when she’s here ’cause I can feel her.” Vanessa took a few sips of her club soda.

  “You mean, like, breathing down your neck? Or does she pinch you …?”

  “No, no. Nothing like that. I just sense her. She’s not mean at all, she’s really rather sweet and protective. It’s comforting, actually. Grady still has his wilderness guide business and he’s often out west for a week or so at a time, which means I’m often here alone at night. Sometimes I just feel her here, and it’s like, I don’t know, like having your grandmother stop in to see if you’re doing all right.”

  “I don’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Lucy muttered.

  “I can see you’re skeptical.” Vanessa smiled. “I used to be, too. So did Stef. But you live with something, you start to run out of explanations for things happening. You hear footsteps and tell yourself that it’s the heater, but then you remember that it’s July and the heater hasn’t been on in months. Or the curtains move, and you tell yourself it’s just a breeze, but the windows are all closed. You smell flowers when there aren’t any in the house. After a while, you just come to accept.”

  “Does Grady believe she’s here?” Lucy asked.

  “Grady won’t go so far as to say he believes, but he’s not saying he doesn’t believe,” Vanessa said. “He’s being pretty cagey.”

  “I can’t say I believe either. I do think there are things that happen that can’t be logically explained,” Lucy admitted. “But I am confused about how my mother fits into all this.”

  “I think Alice taught Grace stuff, or told her stuff. I’m not really sure of the details, but she seemed pretty happy when I gave her Alice’s Ouija board.” Vanessa sliced a piece of cheese for herself.

  “My mother has a Ouija board?” Lucy’s eyes widened at the thought. Mom? Playing at Ouija?

  “She has Alice’s.” Stef nodded. “Ness found it upstairs in the attic and gave it to Grace. But not before we used it right here one night—Grace and I—remember, Ness? Remember it kept spelling out ‘Daz’ and we couldn’t figure out what that meant?”

  “And then we found the heart written on the wall under the wallpaper in your house …” Vanessa reminisced. “ ‘Horace loves Daisy.’ ”

  “And we found something in one of Alice’s journals that made us realize she was Daisy …” Stef continued.

  “Sorry but my head is spinning again.” Lucy raised a hand to her temple and laughed.

  “I think I told you when you stayed with me in December before the wedding that my house used to belong to my mom’s cousin Horace and that he left it to me when he died.” Stef turned to face Lucy. “When Wade and I were stripping the old wallpaper, we found a big heart drawn on the wall. Inside the heart it said, ‘Horace loves Daisy.’ How romantic is that?”

  “It’s terribly romantic,” Lucy acknowledged. “But I’m still not clear on what all this has to do with my mother.”

  “Just that Grace was a friend of Alice’s and I think they can communicate, that’s all,” Vanessa said.

  “You think my mother can communicate with ghosts,” Lucy said flatly.

  “Maybe just with Alice. I don’t know if she’s in contact with anyone else. Stef, did Miz Grace ever mention anyone else?”

  Steffie shook her head. “Nope. Just Alice.”

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” Lucy murmured.

  Stef leaned over and refilled Lucy’s empty glass, and Lucy took a sip. Everything she’s just heard about her mother was at odds with the mother she knew. Mom—her mom—in league with the town witch? That would be crazy talk even if there was a town witch. Which there wasn’t. Alice Ridgeway had been a nice old lady. A bit eccentric, sure, but still, just a nice old lady. Lucy took a sip of wine and glanced from Vanessa to Steffie. Surely the two of them just fed off each other’s fanciful natures. If she looked at this in that context, it was sort of amusing.

  “It’s starting to snow.” Brooke Bowers blew in through the front door, a sprinkling of white in her hair and on her coat. She carried a flat white box that she deposited on the coffee table the second she entered the room. “Good thing I made extras. In case we get snowed in here, at least we’ll have cupcakes.” She turned to Lucy. “Hi, Lucy. I hear we have a date tomorrow.”

  Lucy nodded. “I can’t wait. I always wondered what the inside of that old house looked like.”

  “It’s fabulous,” Brooke assured her as she stripped off her coat, then draped it over the newel post in the front hall. “I had a ball dressing it for the house tour. I’m so glad we’ll get to show it off one more time before we have to start taking the decorations down.”

  “If you’re talking about the Enright house, it is fabulous,” Steffie agreed. “Wade and I went through when it was open. Brooke did an amazing job.” Stef turned to Lucy. “If you ever want to move your business back to St. Dennis, you should hire Brooke to help you decorate.”

  “I’m sure she’s terrific, but I’m not moving back to St. Dennis. I’m just doing this one more wedding at the inn because it’s too big to turn down.” Why, Lucy wondered, did she suddenly feel defensive?

  “Just don’t break my brother’s heart, okay?” Brooke said nonchalantly. “He’s bug-eyed over you, so just let him down easy.”

  “Clay and I have been friends for … forever,” Lucy told her. “He’s not bug-eyed, he’s …”

  “Bug-eyed. Over the moon. He can’t help himself. He’s always been sweet on you.” Brooke sat on the floor, cross-legged, and poured herself a glass of wine. “I’m only having one glass because I have cupcakes cooling at home that will need to be frosted and I have some packing to do.”

  “Do you have a moving date yet?” Vanessa asked.

  “Maybe the end of next week. Cam thinks the electricians will have finished by then. I can’t wait.” She snagged a cracker and topped it with a bit of cheese. “I love my family, but I need my own place. Mom is happily living in her new town house, and while I love and adore my brother, we both need to have our own space. Logan is excited about the move because I promised him he could have a dog once we were in the house.” She looked at Steffie. “Your brother said he has a great group of rescue dogs from down south someplace that we can pick from.”

  Stef nodded. “He does. We’re getting one, too. Wade thinks Austin needs a companion.”

  “I told Clay he should get one. There hasn’t been a dog at the farm since Harry the hound died ten or twelve years ago. Clay always loved his dogs.”

  “I remember a dog you used to have. He was really huge and all black,” Lucy suddenly recalled. “He used to chase the geese around the pond.”

  “Midnight.” Brooke nodded. “He was a great dog. Clay and I both cried for months over that dog when he died.”

  Lucy remembered. She’d cried, too. They hadn’t had a dog at the inn—too many people had allergies, her dad had told them—and she’d secretly thought of Midnight as hers. All of a sudden she found herself wanting a dog, too.

  Must be the wine, she told herself. She put her glass on the table, out of her reach.

  “Okay, now that we have the famous Hollywood event planner here, maybe we can get her to dish just a little.” Brooke grinned mischievously. “What was it like to do that fortieth birthday party for Julia Lucas? I read she’s an absolute diva …”

  For the next half hour, Lucy related some of her more memorable moments as an event planner. By the time she’d finished, everyone’s sides hurt from laughing, and somehow, Lucy’s wineglass had been filled and emptied again.

  “So, Lucy, can you think of anything else we could do to make our weddin
g special?” Vanessa asked.

  “Your wedding is going to be special because it’s yours. Everything else is just trappings. You have a good caterer, you’ll have fabulous ice cream and cupcakes and gorgeous flowers. I’d say you’re set.” Lucy opened her bag, took out a card, and handed it to Vanessa. “Don’t be shy about calling if you have any last minute questions about anything.”

  “I couldn’t. You’ve been all too generous with your time as it is.” Vanessa slipped the card into her pocket.

  “I was happy to stop over. It was fun.” Lucy stood.

  “Are you all right to drive?” Brooke reached out a hand to steady Lucy, who wobbled just a tad when she stood.

  “I’m okay.” Lucy stared at the empty glass in her hand before she placed it on the table. Had she really had three glasses of wine tonight?

  “How ’bout I drive you home?” Brooke raised herself from the floor. “I can just swing by the inn, drop you off, and tomorrow on your way back from Enright’s, Clay can drop you off here for your car.”

  “I hate to admit it, but that might be for the best.” Lucy turned to Vanessa. “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I think the wine’s crept up on me.”

  “It can happen to anyone.” Vanessa put an arm around Lucy’s shoulders. “Actually, it has happened to all of us, at one time or another. You get together with the girls, you open a few bottles of wine, and the next thing you know, a couple of hours have gone by.”

  Lucy glanced at her watch. “It has been a couple of hours. I can’t believe I’ve been here all this time …”

  “It flies when you’re having fun.” Steffie handed Lucy her coat.

  “I did have fun.” Lucy slipped into the coat.

  “So did we. Come back next time you’re in town and we’ll do it again.”

  “Thanks. I will.” Lucy followed Brooke to the door. “Good luck with the wedding. Take lots of pictures so I can see how gorgeous you look.”

  “I guess there’s no chance you’ll be around that weekend.” Vanessa’s hand was on the doorknob.

  “Sorry, no. I have a sweet sixteen party that same Saturday.”

  “Well, then, next time …” Vanessa opened the door.

  “Next time.” Lucy nodded.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Brooke told Vanessa as she followed Lucy outside and closed the door behind her.

  They hurried through the chilly air to Brooke’s ride, a big pink van with a huge cupcake painted on its side.

  “Wow, way to advertise,” Lucy said.

  “Clay had been using this old van to haul around produce. It had a lot of body rust and the paint was worn in places, but I needed a van to distribute my cupcakes. So I asked him if I could paint it, and he said sure.” Brooke laughed.

  “So he was okay with the pink paint job and the big cupcake?”

  “Let’s just say that now he uses his Jeep more and the van less to make deliveries.” Brooke unlocked the passenger door.

  Lucy climbed into her seat and slammed the door just as Brooke got in and slid behind the wheel. “Thank God Clay has such a good sense of humor.”

  “He does, that,” Lucy agreed. She leaned back in the seat and stared out the window.

  Brooke started the van and drove to the end of Cherry Street, then made a left onto Charles. St. Dennis was quiet at this hour of the evening: there were no pedestrians and no other cars.

  “I guess they really do roll up the sidewalks early around here,” Lucy remarked.

  “I guess it’s early to you, being from L.A., but around here, eleven o’clock is practically the middle of the night.” Brooke put on her turn signal and pulled onto the drive leading to the inn. The big sign out front was floodlit, the only light on the street at this end of town. The van followed the winding path to the back of the inn and Brooke stopped outside the double doors.

  “Just so you know,” Brooke said, “I wasn’t kidding about my brother. He really does have a thing for you. I’d hate to see you hurt him.”

  “I have no intentions of hurting Clay,” Lucy all but snapped.

  “I doubt you intended to the last time, but you did.” Brooke put the van into park. “Are you going to try to tell me you weren’t aware of how much you hurt him back then?”

  “I … I wasn’t. I didn’t know …”

  “You were as close friends as anyone I’ve ever known, and you stopped speaking to him without warning. You dumped him as a friend, and you didn’t think that would hurt him?”

  “I didn’t think,” Lucy said softly. “I just didn’t know.”

  “Didn’t know or didn’t care?” Brooke’s words stung.

  “Didn’t know. I never didn’t care.” Lucy opened the door and jumped out. “I never thought …”

  “Maybe you should have.”

  Lucy reached in and grabbed her bag from the floor where she’d dropped it.

  “I should have,” Lucy admitted. “Yes. I should have. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

  “Have you told Clay that?”

  Lucy nodded. “I told him.”

  “Look, I don’t know what happened back then, but I know it affected my brother for a long, long time. I just don’t want to see him go through that again. I realize it’s none of my business, but if you really only think of him as someone you used to know, please don’t encourage him.” Brooke’s voice softened. “Clay’s a great guy. He deserves someone who appreciates what a truly great guy he is.”

  “I understand.” Lucy backed away from the van. “Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “See you.” Brooke waved.

  Lucy slammed the van door, and watched the taillights snake back toward Charles Street, her shoulders hunched against the cold. When she finally went inside, the warmth felt positively tropical.

  To her surprise, the family’s living quarters were dark except for a lamp in the hall. She went into her room and tossed her coat onto the bed, toed off her shoes, and sat in the chair next to the window. She pulled her legs up under her and leaned close to the glass. There was moonlight on the Bay, and the shadow of an owl swooping across the quiet lawn.

  All in all, it had been an interesting evening, mostly because the past few hours made her aware of the lack of friendship in her life. Oh, she and Bonnie were friends as well as business partners, but they never got together just to chat or to have a fun social evening. If they met for dinner, it was always a working dinner to discuss an upcoming event. How had it happened that she had spent fifteen years in California and had developed no social friends? She and Bonnie had worked equally hard to build up their business and to make it a success, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t enjoyed the work and the satisfaction it brought.

  But she found herself envying Vanessa, Stef, and Brooke for the network they’d formed, the friendships they shared. She’d enjoyed the evening at Vanessa’s, enjoyed the companionship and the laughter.

  For just a little while, she’d felt at home there.

  And then there were those comments Brooke made about Clay, the ones Lucy’d been trying all night to push to the back of her mind.

  “Bug-eyed. Over the moon,” Brooke had said. “He can’t help himself. He’s always been sweet on you.”

  As hard as she’d tried to pretend it wasn’t so, Lucy had known in her heart that Clay thought of her as more than an old friend. If there’d been any doubt, there was that kiss …

  She sighed and sank deeper into the chair. That Clay felt that way was one thing. That she was starting to feel the same way about him was something else entirely. After all these years, he was still the best guy she’d ever known, still could make her laugh in ways that no one else could. The difference now was that he was also the one who made her heart beat faster. When he’d kissed her, there was no sign of her usual defenses—that urge to pull away she always felt when someone got too close to her. While that feeling of being suffocated, of having her space violated, generally did pass within an instant, she couldn�
��t remember the last time someone had been that close to her when her initial reaction hadn’t been to flee. Actually, she wasn’t really certain that she hadn’t been the one to kiss him.

  And the confusing part was that she couldn’t decide whether she should be happy about it, or scared to death.

  Chapter 11

  “So, are you ready?” Clay held Lucy’s hand as they ascended the front steps of Curtis Enright’s house, which took up the whole last block of Old St. Mary’s Church Road.

  “I’m so ready.” Lucy’s face was a study in joyous anticipation. “I’ve waited all my life to get a peek inside this place.” She nudged him with an elbow. “Knock already, or I will.”

  Clay raised a hand to the large polished brass lion’s head that served as the door knocker, but before he could do the deed, the door opened.

  “Hey, Clay. Hi, Lucy.” Jesse Enright stood in the doorway of his grandfather’s home. “Come on in. Brooke tells me we’re giving a private tour this morning.”

  “This is so nice of you,” Lucy told Jesse. “I was just telling Clay that I’ve waited forever to get a glimpse inside this house.”

  “Glad we could accommodate you.” Jesse stepped aside to admit them. “Brooke’s around here somewhere.”

  “Oh, wow.” Lucy stood in the center of the entry hall that was dominated by one of the biggest Christmas trees she’d ever seen. “This place is even grander than I expected.”

  “It’s something, all right.” Jesse closed the door softly. “I have to admit, the first time I stepped through that front door, I was as dazzled as you are.”

  “It’s a pretty amazing place,” Clay agreed. “I got my first look at the house during last month’s tour, along with all the other gawkers. I don’t know too many people in town who’d been in the house before, so there were a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ that day.”

  “I can understand why. Look at that tree … and the garland on the stairwell. Oh, and that crèche there on the table.” Lucy appeared to be at a loss as to where to look first.

  “All Brooke’s work,” Jesse told her with no small amount of pride. “All I did was follow orders.”