To Love

by Laura Scott

  It took him the entire day to finish the tile in the yellow room. Jazz finished painting and came over to join him, staring in awe at how it turned out.

  “Dalton, this is incredible!” She gently swiped her hand over the glistening tile. “It’s perfect and looks like something out of a fashion magazine.”

  He was pleased by her reaction. “I’m glad you like it. I should be able to finish up the blue room bathroom tomorrow.”

  “The painting is finished in there already,” she said. “Come and see.”

  He followed her across the hall to the blue room. The four-poster bed looked amazing against the navy-blue wall, and the rest of the room was clean and bright. He also liked the dark blue curtains she’d hung in there, along with the white bedspread dotted with tiny blue flowers.

  “It’s incredible,” he said, impressed with her efforts. “You have a good eye for decorating.”

  “That’s what comes from working in real estate,” she admitted shyly. “But I think it turned out pretty good, too. Once the bathroom is finished, it will be ready to go.”

  “Tomorrow,” he repeated.

  “How do you feel about grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup?” she asked, stretching her head from side to side. “I’m not up to cooking a big meal.”

  “Fine with me.” He reached up and gently massaged her slim shoulders. “But I’ll make grilled ham and cheese while you heat up the soup.”

  “Deal,” she said, groaning in appreciation as he worked the kinks out of her muscles. “Ohh, that feels amazing.”

  For him, too, but he kept his thoughts to himself. “Maybe you should treat yourself to a day at the spa once all the work is completed.”

  She glanced at him over her shoulder. “That seems a waste of money. A hot bath will do the trick.” She stepped away, and he dropped his hands before he did something really crazy like kiss her again.

  After they finished dinner, he caught a glimpse of movement at the Stevenson house. Through the window, he could see Melanie Ryerson and a short rather pudgy guy examining the charred portion of the house where the lightning had struck.

  “Excuse me, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He went out through the French doors and quickly strode over to join them.

  Melanie’s expression was strained. “Hi, Dalton. This is one of the owners of the property, Mr. Rich Stevenson.”

  Dalton shook Rich’s hand, grimly realizing the guy couldn’t possibly be the one he’d chased the night he’d slept outside behind the gazebo. He was too round, especially around the middle, not to mention shorter by several inches than the guy he’d chased.

  “I’m sorry about your house,” Dalton said, gesturing with one hand toward the damage. “The storm last night was really something.”

  Rich curled his lip. “I’m not so sure the storm caused this. I asked the police to do a full investigation just to be sure.”

  Dalton’s temper began to simmer. Was this why Deputy Waldorf’s questions had been so pointed? “What are you talking about? Look at it,” he said in a sharp tone. “The burn goes from the roof to the ground. It wasn’t made by a human hand, only a lightning strike causes something like that. I’ve seen it before, when lightning struck a tree near my house.”

  “So you say.” Rich Stevenson didn’t look convinced.

  Melanie looked frazzled. “I spoke to the firefighters myself, and they agreed that the burn was caused by lightning. It’s just one of those freak accidents of nature.”

  Dalton wondered why the guy was being so obtuse about the cause of the damage. It wasn’t as if Jazz had anything to gain from trashing their house.

  Just as he was about to ask about the price they were asking, a Sheriff’s deputy vehicle rolled into Jazz’s driveway. Deputy Lewis slid out from behind the wheel and walked over toward them.

  “Mr. Stevenson? Thank you for agreeing to be fingerprinted today, and if you could please let us know when your brother will be in town, I’d appreciate it. The sooner we can check his, the sooner we can clear both of your names.”

  “I told you I had nothing to do with that petty vandalism,” Rich said furiously. “It’s insulting!”

  “As I said, the sooner we can get your brother’s fingerprints to rule him out as a suspect, the better,” Deputy Lewis said in a calm tone.

  “I’d think your brother would come in right away. Normally people are anxious to clear their names,” Dalton pointed out.

  Rich whirled to face him, his fingers clenched into fists. Dalton stood his ground, but of course, the older guy wasn’t about to hit him in front of a deputy.

  “Mark will be here soon,” Rich said between clenched teeth. “Our mother passed away last month, and he’s still trying to get everything squared away. One would think we’d be offered a little consideration, under the circumstances.”

  Dalton felt bad hearing about the loss of their mother. Maybe that’s why they recently listed the property.

  Was it possible they weren’t responsible for vandalizing Jazz’s home and gazebo?

  But if not them, then who? The Tates?

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said, meaning it. “I know it’s not easy to lose someone you care about.”

  Rich looked mollified. “No, it isn’t.”

  “Well, don’t forget to send Mr. Mark Stevenson my way,” Deputy Lewis said. “Take care now.”

  The deputy left as quickly as he’d arrived. Dalton wondered if he’d mentioned clearing Rich’s fingerprints to Jazz or not. It didn’t mean much yet, not until they had Mark’s prints on file.

  Dalton turned to head back toward Jazz’s house, then paused and glanced back at Melanie. “What’s the asking price on this property?”

  Rich and Melanie exchanged a long look, and Dalton could tell that Melanie had urged Rich to lower the price from his original asking price.

  She named a sum that was still too high but closer to what he estimated the value to be.

  “Are you interested in buying?” Rich asked, his expression hopeful. The guy’s previous rudeness had vanished. “It’s a great place, you won’t find a better location this close to the lake.”

  “Maybe,” Dalton said. “But I think that price is still too high, especially considering this most recent damage.”

  “We’re willing to entertain any reasonable offer,” Melanie interjected with a bright smile.

  Dalton stared at her for a long moment. “Good to know. I’ll be in touch.”

  As he headed back to Jazz’s house, he could hardly contain his excitement. He was going to place an offer, and by the looks of things, the Stevenson brothers would likely accept.

  He was putting down roots in McNally Bay.

  13

  When Jazz saw a much older version of Rich Stevenson than she remembered as a child, she bolted out of the house and headed over to join them. It was encouraging that Deputy Lewis was involved in the conversation, but by the time she arrived, she only heard something about fingerprints.

  “What happened?” she asked, as she and Dalton returned to her house.

  He explained that Rich’s fingerprints weren’t a match to the prints found on the sledgehammer, but they were waiting for Mark to come in to test his.

  She thought it was interesting. If the brothers were working together, Rich could have done the website destruction, leaving the physical stuff to his brother. And the fact that Mark hadn’t shown up yet to cooperate with getting his fingerprints tested made her wonder if he was trying to hide his guilt.

  Dalton disappeared into the master suite, and she didn’t see him again until the next morning. He was already hard at work tiling the blue room. She squinted at the clock, unnerved to see it was barely past 6:00 a.m. Was he trying to finish up the last of the tile work before he left town for good?

  She left him to it, heading downstairs to start breakfast. As she made French toast, finishing up the last of the bread, she tried to think of a way to convince him to stay.

  Stickin
g around had to be his decision, but surely there was something she could say to help change his mind.

  Unfortunately, no bright ideas were forthcoming.

  She walked over to the staircase leading up to the second floor. “Breakfast is ready.”

  “Be down in a minute.”

  Jazz sipped her coffee as she waited for Dalton to come downstairs. He looked happy and well rested, different from the way he’d seemed yesterday.

  Not that she should talk, she’d been rough around the edges yesterday, too. Even today, she couldn’t shake off the impending sense of doom.

  “This is great, thanks.” Dalton dug into his breakfast with enthusiasm. He looked happy, fit and full of life, and she wished he could see how much he’d changed since they first met, when he’d asked for work.

  Was it really only nine days ago?

  She went still, wondering how it was possible for her life to change so dramatically in such a short period of time. Of course, the same thing had happened the night of her rehearsal dinner, but in the here and now, that seemed like a lifetime ago.

  She didn’t care about Tom or Megan, for that matter. Somehow, things had worked out exactly the way they were meant to. Starting a new business with her twin sister was exciting, and despite the odd Tate family feud toward the McNallys, she liked the small-town life.

  “I, um, have to head into town early this afternoon,” Dalton said. “Do you mind giving me a ride? Is there anything else you need from the hardware store?”

  She wanted to ask what sort of errand he needed to attend to but managed to keep her insatiable curiosity in check. “Actually, I do need groceries, so we can go whatever time works best for you.”

  “Great. I’d like to finish the tiling first, though. I was able to get an early start, so I should be finished by one p.m. or so.”

  “Do you want to have lunch in the diner?” she asked. “Or we can try somewhere else, if you’d rather avoid the Tates.”

  “Oh, I don’t think the Tates are a threat after the way you handled them last time.” Dalton grinned. “In fact, I hope they are there again, we can kill them with more kindness.”

  She chuckled. “Yes, that was pretty amazing, wasn’t it? I think that’s only the second time I rendered someone speechless.”

  “What was the first?”

  Her smile faded. “When I caught Tom kissing Megan, and I mean really kissing her, as if they were in need of a private room somewhere. I told him the wedding was off but that I’d be happy to donate my wedding dress to Megan if they still wanted to make good use of the church and reception hall.”

  His eyes widened. “You didn’t.”

  “Yep, I sure did.” She shrugged. “Then I tossed his ring at him. I was pretty civil, considering. I think most women in that situation might have thrown a bridezilla hissy fit. But I kept my cool.” The night had once been imprinted vividly in her mind, but now it was a foggy memory.

  “Pretty impressive.”

  “Yeah, but now that I think about it, that should have been my first clue that I didn’t love him the way I should love the man I was planning to spend the rest of my life with. I was more embarrassed about telling my family, particularly my four older brothers, that the wedding was off than losing Tom to another woman.”

  Dalton surprised her by reaching across the table to take her hand. “You’re better off without him.”

  “I know.” She dropped her gaze to their joined hands for a moment, wishing for more, before coming to her senses and pulling away. “I’m happier here, fixing up my grandparents’ home so I can run my own business, than I would have been staying in Bloomington with Tom.”

  Dalton looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, I have to agree this is a nice area. I’ve never spent a lot of time on the water, and I have to say it’s really incredible being on the lakefront like this.”

  “A nice place to put down some roots,” she said suggestively. “A place to start over.”

  Dalton nodded in agreement but didn’t say anything more. Instead, he finished his French toast and downed the last of his coffee. “I hate to leave you with the dishes again, but . . .”

  She waved him off. “Go, it’s no problem. I can’t do the tile work the way you can.”

  “Thanks.” Dalton flashed a grin and disappeared back upstairs to the blue room.

  There was something different about Dalton, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly it was. He hadn’t jumped on her comment about McNally Bay being a great place to put down roots, so it couldn’t be that he’d had some sort of abrupt epiphany.

  And what in the world did he need to go into town for anyway? She couldn’t imagine what errand could be so important.

  She washed the breakfast dishes, then wrote up a grocery list. Although much of what she needed to buy depended on whether or not Dalton was staying or going.

  Deciding to hope for the best, she increased the quantities of food to include him. If he didn’t stay, she’d make the meals anyway and freeze the leftovers for when Jemma and Trey arrived.

  She spent a couple of hours online, drafting a wedding package that would offer the gazebo and the entire B&B for one low price. Of course, that required a bit of number crunching, and math made her head hurt.

  But she was able to figure it out and smiled with satisfaction at the possibility of hosting weddings there. Then she counted up the extra bookings she’d gained by opening the B&B sooner. In a matter of days, she’d doubled their reservations. There were still lots of open dates, though, especially for mid to late summer, but hopefully their little business would keep growing.

  Offering the wedding package would help. She took an extra hour to figure out the best places to advertise her wedding package and picked a few free sites, along with a couple of paid ones.

  You had to spend money to make it, right?

  When she’d finished updating her website, she put the laptop computer aside and went to work on some basic chores she’d neglected over the past week.

  Just before one in the afternoon, Dalton came looking for her. “Come check out the bathroom and let me know what you think.”

  She followed him upstairs and into the blue room. When she caught a glimpse of the bathroom she sucked in a quick breath. “Dalton! It’s incredible! Look at how the tile sparkles in the light!”

  He beamed with pride. “You were the one who picked it out, and it works perfectly in here.”

  “I absolutely love it.” She smiled up at him. “I think the blue room is now my favorite one of all. I’m going to use this as the bridal suite, if anyone signs up for my wedding package, that is.”

  “They will,” Dalton said with confidence. “It’s an awesome marketing plan.”

  She wanted to hug him but held back, unsure of their relationship. Were they back to being friends? Their last kiss was fresh in her mind, but he hadn’t made any further attempts to kiss her again.

  It was depressing to think he didn’t want to.

  “So, ready to hit the town?” Dalton asked. “I’ll need a few minutes to clean up, but then I would like to get going.”

  “Sounds like you’re in a bit of a rush.”

  He nodded but didn’t elaborate.

  Ten minutes later, Dalton joined her in the truck. As she drove into town, she glanced at him. “Lunch first? Or errand?”

  “Drop me off at the bank first” he suggested. “This shouldn’t take too long, and I can meet you at Daisy’s.”

  Bank? What did he want at the bank? “Oh, that reminds me, I need to pay you for the past couple of days.”

  “Not now,” Dalton said. “We can talk about that later.”

  “Okay.” She could barely contain her curiosity. She braked to a stop near the bank entrance. “Meet you at Daisy’s.”

  Dalton slid out of the passenger seat and strode purposefully into the bank. She sat in the parking lot for a long minute until someone beeped their horn at her, demanding she move out of the way.


  Jazz headed over to Daisy’s and snagged the last open booth overlooking the street. Then she glanced around the café, looking for Leon Tate or his daughter, Mary.

  They weren’t dining today, or maybe they’d been and gone. Their animosity was still puzzling, but she chalked it up to nothing more sinister than simple jealously. Relaxing, she ordered a lemonade and sat back to wait patiently for Dalton to finish whatever he was doing at the bank.

  After fifteen minutes, she grew fidgety. Her stomach was growling loud enough to be overheard by the other patrons, so when Ashley approached her for the third time, she broke down and ordered a cheeseburger, loaded with the works.

  Halfway through her burger, she began to worry. Maybe Dalton’s errand wasn’t going very well. Was he looking into a loan to buy a car so he wouldn’t have to hitchhike any longer? Or maybe he needed a loan to get money to pay for a cheap place to rent here in the McNally Bay area.

  She hoped it was the latter.

  Could she and Jemma afford to provide Dalton a room of his own for a while? Maybe, if he agreed to start working on the garage apartment. It might be worth the loss of revenue to gain the additional living space.

  Yet, she already had reservations for all their available rooms rolling in. This was something she’d have to discuss with her twin as it would impact both of them.

  She glanced at her watch again. Where was he? Then she saw him, jogging toward the diner. When he caught sight of her through the window, he waved.

  Thank goodness, she thought, waving back. He pulled open the door and came over to join her.

  “That looks good,” he said, eyeing the leftover half of her cheeseburger.

  “Ashley will be back in a moment I’m sure,” she said.

  “I have news,” Dalton said just as her cell phone rang.

  “Hold that thought.” She pulled her phone out, frowning when she saw her sister’s name on the screen. “Jemma? Is everything all right?”

  “Hey, Sis, where are you?” Jemma’s voice sounded strained. “Me and Trey are here at the B and B, a little earlier than planned.”