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

  “Who told you that it was for sale?”

  Sophie shifted uneasily in her seat. “I’d rather not say.”

  Jesse laughed out loud. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “Violet’s secret is safe with me.”

  “She told you?”

  “No, but you just did. I figured it had to be her. Who else is there?”

  “She doesn’t want anyone to know she was involved, Jess.”

  “You mean, she doesn’t want Pop to know she’s involved,” he corrected her. “But Soph, you need to tell him before someone else—like Ham Forbes—tells him. He’ll feel blindsided.” He left out like I did, but she heard the words all the same.

  “I know that you think this is folly on my part. But it’s something I’ve always wanted.” When he started to speak, she held up a hand, then continued. “Let me finish, please. I think I can make this work. It’s going to be a while before I’ll be able to open for business, I realize that, and longer still before I can even think about working on that second-floor apartment, so I’m grateful to be able to sublet your place. I’m going to be working over there in the mornings—painting and whatever I can do on my own—but I’ll be here in the office in the afternoons. I’m hoping that by the time the restaurant is up and running, I will have passed the Maryland bar and I’ll be able to take on more responsibility for you. In the meantime, I’ll write your appeals and I’ll do as much of your research as you need me to do. I can interview clients and I can do a lot of the legwork for you.”

  “And once the restaurant is opened?”

  “Same deal. I’ll work there till two or so, then come in here and do whatever you need me to do. At least, for as long as I can. This year for sure. We’ll see what next year brings.”

  “I don’t see how you’ll be able to pull it all off. You’re talking about two full-time jobs, Soph. And what do you know about running a restaurant?”

  “I can do it. You’ll see. I spent some time while I was home picking Shelby’s brain, and she gave me some excellent advice. And I have a plan. It’s going to work.”

  “For your sake, I hope it does.” He added, “I just hope it doesn’t kill you.”

  “It won’t.”

  “If you want my advice, you should call Cam O’Connor to take a look at the place, give you an idea what it’s going to cost to fix it up. He’s the best contractor in the area, and he’s one of the most honest people I know.”

  “I’ll call him. Maybe I’ll even get him in there next week. I don’t have any idea what it’s going to cost to fix the place up.”

  “Maybe you should have called him before you came to an agreement with the owner.”

  “We had the property appraised and inspected. The structure is sound, the wiring and plumbing were updated about twelve years ago, and the roof’s good.”

  “Still …” Jesse shrugged. “A pig in a poke, and all that.”

  “Are you angry with me for not telling you sooner?”

  “Not angry. I just don’t understand why you didn’t.”

  “You so obviously disapproved of the idea, and I was so happy to finally have a chance to do something I’ve thought about doing for so long that I …”

  “Didn’t want anyone raining on your parade?” Jesse finished the thought for her.

  “Something like that.”

  “I get it—and I’m sorry. I should have been more open-minded. I still don’t know if it’s the right thing for you to do, but it’s your life and you have to do what you think will make you happiest.”

  “I’m glad we agree on that much. But I’m confident I can make this work.” She smiled slowly. “Unless of course I start thinking too much about how much work and how much money this is going to take. Otherwise, I’m good.”

  “Good. Now, when can you start? We’re still backed up. The new paralegal lasted exactly four weeks, then quit because she missed her fiancé in Hoboken.” He stood. “We set you up in the little back office, just as you requested. Let’s see if you approve.” He held the door for her, and both went into the hallway.

  “Oh, I love it!” she exclaimed as she stepped into the room that would serve as her new office. “It’s perfect. I love the color of the walls.”

  “As much as I’d like to take the credit, I cannot tell a lie. Violet did all this. She said she had some ideas of what you might like, so I told her to do whatever.”

  “Where is she? I noticed she wasn’t in the reception area when I came in.”

  “She took the afternoon off. Said she had some personal business to tend to.”

  “I can’t wait to thank her.” Sophie smiled as she took it all in: the palest of green on the walls, the shiny cherry desk and the dark green leather chair, the paintings. “That’s Pop, right? The portrait on the left?”

  “I thought so, too, but Violet told me it’s actually Curtis’s father. He died long before we came along.” Jesse stood in front of the painting. “I was going to put some different paintings in here. You know, like, flowers or something, but Violet said no, you’d want these.”

  “I do want these.” She glanced at the three paintings in the office, then pointed to the one that hung on the inside wall. “Is that Pop’s house?”

  “Yeah. He brought that one over after I told him you were joining the firm.” Jesse stood in front of the landscape. “I think these are the gardens that Jason is re-creating.”

  She stepped closer to the painting for a better look. The gardens depicted were lush and glorious, a riot of color and symmetry.

  “I can’t imagine that the back of Pop’s place ever looked like that. Even harder to imagine that it could look that way again.”

  “Jason’s really good. I saw his sketches. If you’re nice to him, I bet he’ll let you see them, too.”

  “I’ll ask nicely.” She stepped around behind the desk. “Computer?”

  “You can use the one I bought for our now-you-see-her, now-you-don’t paralegal. She barely used it.”

  “That’s fine.” Sophie sat in the chair. It was a little big for her, but it would do. “This is great, Jess. I’m looking forward to getting started.”

  “Me too.” The phone in the reception area rang. “You can start right now by answering that phone …”

  Jesse’s right. I need to tell Pop what I’m doing before he hears it from someone else. Sophie sat in her car, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel. She sighed. No time like the present.

  She’d stayed at the office later than she’d planned, and she was still feeling road-weary from the long drive from Ohio, but the longer she waited, the more difficult it would be. She glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror and made a face. She looked every bit as beat as she felt, as if she wore every mile she’d driven that day. Makeup might have helped, but she doubted her grandfather would mind, nor would he care that she was wearing the same clothes she’d donned early that morning, clothes that were dusty from unpacking some boxes of files that Jesse had dragged down from the second floor, and whoops—a cobweb she must have picked up in the process of looking through them for a client’s will. She parked out front and practiced her opening line while walking to the front door.

  Pop, I have something exciting to tell you. She shook her head. Pop wasn’t going to be excited—at least, not in the same way she was.

  Pop, you know how you always say follow your dream … Wait. He’d never actually said that. That had been her mother.

  So Pop, you know how I’ve moved to St. Dennis and I’m going to be working with Jesse? Well, I’m going to be doing something else, too.

  “Crap,” she said aloud as she rang the doorbell.

  When no one answered, she rang the bell again, then a third time. She was just a little concerned—of course he could be out to dinner with a friend. Or maybe napping. She glanced at her watch. Way too late for an afternoon nap.

  Or he could have fallen and was hoping someone would come along to help him up.

  Or he could be
in the kitchen and hadn’t heard the doorbell.

  She walked around to the back of the house before her imagination had her dialing 911, then stopped at the edge of the back porch, wondering if she could flee quietly before anyone knew she’d been there.

  “Well, look who’s here. Hello, sweetheart.” Curtis had turned at the exact moment she’d rounded the corner. “Jason, look who’s stopped in. Checking up on our progress, no doubt.”

  She felt heat rise along her collar as blue eyes swept over her. She hoped she’d at least gotten all the cobwebs brushed away. “Hi, Pop.”

  Trapped, she took another ten steps to kiss her grandfather on the cheek.

  “Jason.” She forced a smile. The last time she’d seen him—other than a few times over the past month or so in her dreams—she’d been falling apart after receiving Chris’s phone call.

  “Sophie. I heard you were coming back this week.” Jason’s smile was warm, as always, and he politely looked beyond her hair, lack of makeup, and the clothes she’d been in since five that morning, dust and road grime included.

  “Wow, look at this!” Sophie’s gaze was drawn to the garden. “I can’t believe what you’ve done here. It’s beautiful.”

  “Thanks, but it’s still a work in progress,” Jason said. “We have a few more weeks till completion, but it’s coming along.”

  “It looks like the painting,” she murmured.

  “What painting?” Jason asked.

  “A painting that’s hanging in my office.” She pointed to the bank of trees that bordered the far end. “Those trees are in the painting. And these shrubs. And the irises … they’re all in the painting.”

  “Oh, you like it, do you?” Curtis looked pleased. “I thought you might.”

  “Jesse told me that you brought it in for me.”

  “At one time, it hung in my office on the second floor. It came home with me when I retired, but when Violet mentioned she was fixing up an office for you, I suggested that she might consider that one for you. She mentioned she was undertaking the décor of your new work space.”

  “Thank you, Pop. I love it.” She turned back toward the garden. “I love that it looks like this.”

  “Many years ago, someone in the family commissioned several paintings of the house and the grounds from different angles,” Curtis explained to both Sophie and Jason. “One hangs in the upstairs hall here, one in the conference room at the office, and the third—the painting of the garden—now hangs in Sophie’s office. That one was always my favorite, so I’m glad you like it, too.”

  To Jason, she said, “I can’t believe how much your garden looks like the one in the painting. It’s uncanny. You must be psychic.”

  “That, or your grandfather showed me some photos that were taken when this place was in its heyday.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I should have known. Either way, you’ve done a remarkable job. It’s a shame it won’t be done by the weekend. It would have made the perfect spot for a romantic wedding.”

  “Jesse and Brooke have their spot all picked out and it’s at the old church up the road,” Curtis said. He turned to Jason and said, “I did mention that my granddaughter here has decided to join the firm?”

  “I think you may have a time or ten, yes.” Jason nodded. “Congratulations, Sophie. I know that Jesse and your granddad are both really happy.”

  “Very happy.” Curtis beamed. “The name over the door will remain Enright and Enright, and I couldn’t be more pleased or proud.”

  “Thanks, Pop. I’ll try to live up to the firm’s reputation.”

  “No doubt you will, my dear. No doubt at all.” Curtis patted her on the back. “Now, was there anything in particular …?”

  “Oh, no, no.” Sophie shook her head. Curtis and Jason had been deep in discussion over their landscape plans when she showed up, and her grandfather was obviously interested in getting back to them. The conversation she’d planned on having would have to wait until another day. “I just wanted to let you know I’d arrived.”

  “I appreciate that. Thank you.”

  “Look, I can see you’re busy. I’ll stop over again, Pop.”

  “I don’t want to run you off,” Jason said.

  “Oh, no. I have to get over to the house. Jesse’s, that is. I have a lot of unpacking to do.”

  “I’ll see you on Saturday, if not before, then.” Curtis kissed her on the cheek.

  “Anything I can do to help?” Jason asked. “Carry boxes, help empty the car?”

  “Thanks, but no. I can do it, and Jesse’s home by now, so he can help. Besides, you have work …” And I need a shower, clean clothes, mascara, mouth-wash …

  “Well, if you find you need an extra pair of hands, give me a call.”

  “Thanks. Will do.” Looking like this? Not gonna happen.

  She walked away self-consciously, acutely aware of his eyes on the back of her dusty jeans.

  “Probably have cobwebs hanging off my butt,” she grumbled as she got into her car. “Figures. You always run into the hot guy when you look like a hot mess.”

  Jesse’s house was minutes away, and she pulled into the driveway behind his car. With his help, she had the car emptied of its boxes in less than thirty minutes. Unpacking would take a day or so, but at least everything was in the house. She shared a pizza with Jesse, put some of her clothes away, and took a shower. Once under the covers, she closed her eyes, exhausted. Her last thought of the day was to wonder how much more interesting the evening might have been had she taken up Jason on his offer to help.

  Chapter 14

  “You know, you could have stayed with me this weekend.” Sophie hugged her mother in the lobby of the Inn at Sinclair’s Point. “With Jesse and Brooke leaving right after the reception for their honeymoon, there’s lots of room.”

  “What, and miss an opportunity to stay at this fabulous inn that I’ve heard so much about?” Olivia Enright returned her daughter’s hug.

  “Where’d you hear about the inn?”

  “There was a feature about the Eastern Shore in one of those travel magazines last year. Several places on the Chesapeake were highlighted. Baltimore Harbor, Smith Island … several other locations, St. Dennis among them. They mentioned the inn—gave it four out of five stars, by the way—and some little ice-cream shop that’s apparently quite well known.”

  “One Scoop or Two. The locals call it Scoop. All the ice cream is handmade by the owner right there in the shop. You’ll meet her—Steffie MacGregor—at the wedding.”

  “MacGregor. Yes, I also read that Dallas MacGregor lives here and is building a film studio here.”

  “Steffie is married to Dallas’s brother, Wade, who incidentally has started up a brewery with Brooke’s brother, Clay. They brewed the beer that’s being served at the reception.”

  “Really?” Olivia smiled. “Well, that makes you and Dallas practically related, in some twisted small-town sort of way.”

  Sophie laughed. “That sort of reasoning would make you practically Dallas’s mother-in-law, since your future daughter-in-law’s brother is partner to Dallas’s brother.”

  “Ah, the bragging rights I’ll have back home.” Olivia grinned. “Now, have you had breakfast yet?”

  “I did. I ate really early with Jesse. He has a meeting this morning, then he wanted to go into the office to finish up a few things there, but he said he’d see you tonight at the rehearsal dinner. How ’bout you?”

  “I had a wonderful breakfast, thank you. They have an excellent chef here at the inn. So far, everything that article had to say about this place has been spot on.”

  “Good. I’m glad you enjoyed your first night here in town.”

  “I did. Now, what do you have planned for the day?”

  “I thought I’d take you around, show you some of the sights. Nothing exciting to see, I’m afraid, but it’s a charming town. I’m still discovering St. Dennis myself.”

  “I saw that very phrase on a mug on the rec
eption desk. Discover St. Dennis. It must be the town motto.”

  “Well, then, let’s do just that.” Sophie took her mother’s arm and headed through the lobby doors.

  “It’s so much warmer here than in Pittsburgh,” Olivia noted as they walked across the parking lot. “The grounds here are just lovely, by the way. I had a walk after breakfast down to the Bay, and you can just tell that all those flower beds will be bursting with color come summer.”

  “They had a lot of landscaping done last year. There was a really high-profile wedding here. Maybe you read about it—Robert Magellan, the dot-com gazillionaire? The owners wanted the inn to really shine because they knew there’d be a lot of photos taken. They hired a landscape designer and had the whole back and side of the property down to the water redone with new gardens and paths.”

  “With all the daffodils and tulips and flowering trees in bloom, it’s spectacular. Whoever they hired did a fabulous job.”

  “Oh, you’ll meet him—Jason Bowers, the landscaper, that is—at the wedding.” Sophie unlocked both of the car doors with her remote.

  “Bowers …,” Olivia murmured as she opened the passenger door and got in. “Brooke’s last name. Related?”

  “Jason’s brother, Eric, was Brooke’s first husband.”

  “The war hero who died in Iraq. Logan’s father,” Olivia recalled.

  “Yes.” Sophie strapped into her seat belt and waited while her mother did the same before backing out of the parking spot.

  “Interesting that she’d invite someone from her late husband’s family to her wedding,” Olivia said thoughtfully.

  “Jason was Eric’s family,” Sophie replied. “Their parents died when they were in high school. He and Logan are very close. Actually, he’s Logan’s only connection to his father. Brooke and Jesse both encouraged Jason to put down roots here for Logan’s sake. He lives here now.”