Sighting Tim, the dog yipped, and jumped into the back seat.
Tim pulled open the door handle and the dog shot out, frantically licking Tim’s face.
“You Scamp,” Tim muttered. Giving the floppy eared dog a playful rub on top of his head, Tim threw his duffle bag onto the back seat.
“Well, who have we got here?” Tim’s dad asked, giving Emily an easygoing smile.
“This is Emily, Dad. She’s visiting her aunt, who lives down at the other end of the point in the Dragonfly Falls subdivision, not too far away from here. We need to drop her off there. She decided to go for a walk, and ended up at the ice rink and forgot to go home because she was so impressed with our moves.”
Jack snorted. “Okay, Son. Whatever you say.”
Tim chuckled glancing at Emily, who was grinning.
Apparently curious, Scamp jumped back into the front seat to greet Emily as Tim pulled open the passenger door.
“Well, get on in here Miss Emily, where it’s warm,” Tim’s father said. “You can sit with Scamp. It looks like he’s already taken a liking to you.” He grinned. “She loves kids.”
As she climbed into the front seat, Scamp started licking Emily’s face now instead of Tim’s.
Emily began to giggle. She’d never really been around many dogs before, and the ones she’d met had been trained not to do things like lick peoples’ faces.
Tim’s dad was such a nice man, Emily thought as they drove along the road toward the subdivision. He asked if she was getting anything special for Christmas. When she told him she wanted a new keyboard, he teased her a little by asking if she would consider giving Tim a few lessons. Apparently, Tim was taking piano lessons but wasn’t catching on very quickly.
Tim just laughed.
But then Mr. Atkinson studied her thoughtfully. “Wait a second. Are you Emily Richardson, the girl I read about in the paper?”
Emily turned solemn as she nodded yes.
“Ah.” He winked at her. “Don’t worry,” he reassured her, nodding back at Tim. “I can keep it quiet.”
Emily sighed heavily. “That’s okay.”
“What’s okay?” Tim asked from the backseat, looking at his dad.
“Don’t you remember me telling you about the famous singer, who was visiting Crystal Rock?”
“Yeah,” Tim answered, looking puzzled.
“This is her.”
Tim’s eyes met hers as she gazed at him over her shoulder.
“You’re the one who won The Next American Star?”
She grimaced as her head moved up and down.
“For some reason, I thought you’d be older.” Tim hesitated. “I do have one question, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Her eyes went wide as she answered. “No.”
Looking serious, Tim asked, “Why sing country music? I’m not a big fan. Have you thought about switching over to rock instead?”
Surprised at the question, she stared at Tim for a long moment before responding. “Yes. But my mom won’t let me!”
Tim’s dad barked out a laugh.
When Tim laughed along with his dad, Emily began to giggle.
Chapter One
Eight years later.
He still couldn’t believe it. This was really the end of it, Tim thought bleakly as he strolled along the beach at Dragonfly Pointe. Every dream, every thought about his future had apparently been based on unrealistic expectations, because Lucy Callahan was getting married tomorrow.
And not to him, but to someone else.
As Tim stopped and gazed across the lake toward the edge of the horizon, he didn’t see the beautiful fiery sunset, or the shimmering amber haze it cast upon the water.
Now he needed to seriously consider his life without Lucy in it. There was no way he wanted to stay in Crystal Rock where Lucy would be living with her new husband and stepdaughter.
Tim began to walk further along the beach and was ready to make his way up the trail leading back toward the Dragonfly Pointe Inn, when he heard a faint whimper from what sounded like a wounded animal, echoing from near the edge of the woods.
A moment later, dulcet soothing tones sung out from what was most definitely a feminine voice.
Looking ahead, Tim hesitated while searching the direction from where the singing was coming from.
Uh, oh. Someone was in trouble, he decided moving quickly along the path. He stepped off from the trail and made his way through the denseness of pines and birch, walking down towards the base of the cliff near the rocky edge of the beach.
Tim finally spotted a girl who seemed to be drenched, sitting beside the water on the pebbly sand. It looked like a puppy had been trapped within a plastic garbage bag and left to drown in the lake, and the girl had dragged the bag from the water and disentangled the pup from inside.
The scrawny little pup looked none the worse for wear as he sat in the girl’s lap, licking her face non-stop. The girl sputtered and spat, and finally quit singing to the dog because she didn’t seem to be able to quit giggling.
Tim grinned. The puppy was a mangy little thing with brown and cream colored markings. Tim couldn’t stand it when someone treated an animal this way. It was a good thing there was finally a no-kill animal shelter being established in the town of Crystal Rock, he couldn’t help thinking as he began walking towards the girl and the dog. Jake and Danielle Loughlin’s purchase and restoration of the Dragonfly Pointe Inn had brought along a lot of positive changes in the community these past ten years.
“Is everything okay?” Tim asked, approaching them.
The girl stilled at the sound of his voice.
When she finally turned and glanced at Tim, she seemed to be afraid.
In fact, she looked scared to death, Tim realized and frowned. What was that all about?
But she must have decided Tim wasn’t a threat, because she suddenly began to smile.
Wow, her smile sure lit up her face, Tim thought. Probably about fifteen, she was a pretty little thing with beautiful gray eyes.
And ash brown hair, he supposed. It was kind of hard tell since her hair was wet and plastered to the sides of her face and the top of her head.
She looked awfully familiar though. Had they met somewhere before?
Staring at Tim, she stood up with the pup still in her arms. “I found this guy in the water. Someone was trying to drown him. Why would anyone do something as awful as that?” she demanded to know. Water sprayed through the air when she kicked the garbage bag that the dog had been extracted from with her wet sneaker.
“I know exactly where you’re coming from,” Tim growled. “There’s a no-kill shelter here in town, so there’s no excuse as far as I’m concerned.
Nodding her head firmly in obvious agreement, she hesitated, looking at the pup.
“What?” Tim asked.
“I’m not sure what to do next. I hate walking through the lobby of the hotel like this.” Holding the puppy closer before staring down at her shapeless wet sweatshirt and jean shorts, she rolled her eyes upward. “I was only trying to take a quick jog along the beach before I heard this guy whining, and saw his head popping out from under the water. Luckily the bag wasn’t very well tied up, or he probably would’ve suffocated.”
Tim moved in a little closer. “Are you staying at the Dragonfly Pointe Inn, then?”
She nodded yes, biting down on her lip.
“How about I walk the two of you back? My car’s parked near there anyway. I also happen to know where there’s another entrance, so you’ll be able to sneak inside.” He grinned. “I’m Tim, by the way.”
Was it just his imagination, or did she seem startled when he mentioned his name?
“I’m, ah...Em,” she finally answered.
“Nice to meet you, Em.” Tim smiled. “So. What do you want to do with this guy?” he asked, reaching out and letting the pup sniff his fingers.
Em grimaced. “I’m not sure.” She was staring rather longingly at the mutt in her arm
s. “I’m only here for the weekend, for a wedding. Did you say there was a shelter where I might be able to take him?”
Tim nodded his head up and down slowly, scratching the scrawny pup behind the ears. The dog was becoming friskier, even though a glance as his ribcage was enough for Tim to recognize he’d most likely been neglected and mistreated and was probably starving. “I suppose I could bring him into the shelter for you. I know the people who run the place.”
Holding the puppy closer when he began to squirm, Em closed her eyes and sighed. “Okay,” she finally answered.
Tim looked upward at the sky. “We’d better get a move on. It’ll be dark soon. Ready?”
Em nodded slowly as she turned and began walking towards the Dragonfly Pointe Beach.
“Hold on,” Tim said, pointing at the shoreline. “We don’t need to backtrack towards Dragonfly Pointe. There’s a path I usually take that runs beside the lake. It’ll lead us directly to the inn. It’s kind of narrow and grown over, but it’ll be quicker.”
Turning back, she hesitated. “Alright,” she finally answered, and followed the trail behind Tim as he began making his way in the opposite direction.
Tim kept looking back over his shoulder, and when he noticed she was shivering, he stopped. Unzipping and pulling his arms out from his hooded sweatshirt, he wrapped it around her and the squirming dog.
She cleared her throat, looking into Tim’s eyes. “Uh, thank you.”
The last remains of the fiery sunset intensified, highlighting the stunning features of her beautiful face. Tim was a little taken aback staring into her eyes. They were such a unique shade of gray, nearly lavender, he realized. He wasn’t sure what to say for a moment, and he was never usually at a loss for words.
Strange, he thought shaking his head a little dazedly. Why would he have trouble talking to a teenage girl?
With a start, he finally answered, “Um, you’re welcome. You two looked cold,” he said, turning around and continuing to lead the way.
When they reached the landing at the end of the trail, there was a long row of steps running down to the boat dock along with another set of steps leading up towards the inn. Tim turned and wrapped an arm around Em’s shoulders, guiding her from the steep incline onto the staircase.
He heard her breathe in a sigh of relief. “I wouldn’t advise walking this way at night.” Tim motioned at a wider pebbled pathway higher above the bank. “The trail over there is well lit and has some pretty landscaping along with seating for you to view the lake. It’ll lead you to the beach too.”
She gave him a smile. “Thank you. Yeah—I have walked that way a time or two, but I’ve been hiking along the road since we arrived because there were so many people using the trail.”
Tim smiled back. “You’re welcome.” He looked down at the pup. “Are you ready to give him up yet?”
Em grimaced. “Nah, not really.”
“I promise he’ll be taken care of,” Tim reassured firmly, reaching for the dog.
Holding the puppy near her face, she nuzzled him gently and let him attack her face with his tongue one last time before she finally sighed, handing him over to Tim. “I’m counting on that,” she answered huskily.
Tim had a feeling that as soon as he and the pup were out of sight, Em was going to cry.
“We’re getting closer to the entrance I was talking about.” Pointing toward the opposite end of the inn, he reached for her hand. “C’mon.”
At that moment, Tim thought there was a certain familiarity about the situation that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
That was it, he suddenly realized, turning and studying Em. It couldn’t be. Could it? This wasn’t the same girl who’d been wandering around Dragonfly Pointe at Christmas time about seven or eight years ago? Tim had been captain of the hockey team in junior high, and the games had always been played at the Dragonfly Pointe Bay outdoor rink.
One night, he’d been bundling up to go home after a game when he’d noticed a little girl sitting in the stands by herself. She’d been looking rather lost. Turns out she’d run away after having some kind of argument with her mother and had ended up at the hockey game.
Tim remembered that he and his dad had dropped her off at one of the nicer homes in the residential area, on the opposite end of Dragonfly Pointe. Her aunt had answered the door looking mightily relieved.
There’d been something unusual about that situation, come to the think of it. That’s right—the girl had been…
Suddenly disconcerted, Tim took a long hard look at the girl who was walking silently beside him. Wasn’t she too young to be her? Plus, right now, she resembled a wet mop rather than a famous country singer. Besides, if she was the same girl he’d met before, she’d be staying with her aunt instead of at the inn.
Wouldn’t she?
He and Em began approaching the inn. With huge pillars surrounding the structure and enclosing the wraparound porch, the towering Dragonfly Pointe Inn was reminiscent of the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island. Four stories shot upward and the balconies extending from the upper suites were lined with planters filled with a colorful assortment of shade loving annuals and ivy.
The solarium built along the lakefront held a variety of artfully arranged potted plants, and served as a banquet room for special occasions and holidays. He and Em peered inside as they walked further along the cobblestone pathway toward the café.
Tim led Em past the restaurant and halted near a door that opened into a breezeway. “This is actually the employee entrance and there’s a staircase running up to the offices. But it’s fine for guests to use the elevators too.”
“Oh, thanks. At least I should be able to make it up to my room sight unseen.” Em’s grin was wry. “Except most likely by my mom,” she muttered under her breath.
“You say you’re here for a wedding?” Tim asked, pulling open the door and motioning for her to go inside.
“Uh, huh.” Em answered stepping into the breezeway.
As Tim followed closely behind, she walked up to the elevator punching the call button.
Hesitantly, Tim continued, “By any chance, is it Lucy Callahan’s wedding?”
Em blinked, turning and looking at Tim. “How’d you guess? I know there’s at least two other weddings happening here over the weekend.”
“I…uh, just had a feeling. I’m a friend of Lucy’s.” It was weird how this encounter with Em had made him forget about Lucy completely.
Em seemed hesitant to say more. “Her sister Kelly and I have been friends for years,” she finally admitted.
And then she stood staring at the puppy dejectedly. “You’re sure he’ll be alright?”
Tim nodded, glancing down at the dozing puppy in his arms. The eventful day must have finally caught up with him. “Tell you what—I’ll let you know how it goes when I see you at the wedding tomorrow. Okay? I’m probably not going to be able to drop him off at the shelter until the morning anyway. I’ll take him home and feed him and keep him at my house until then. How does that sound?”
When Em gave Tim the most beautiful smile he’d probably ever seen, he nearly dropped the puppy he was holding in his arms. Something weird was going on in his brain, and this girl was having a very strange effect on him. But maybe it just had something to do with his lack of sleep, since he’d been so down in the dumps about losing Lucy.
But the fact was, he’d never really had her in the first place. Lucy had always looked at him as her best friend. It’d been one-sided between the two of them, and Tim had never been able to get over her.
Now he didn’t have much choice about the matter; it was time to move on.
Tim shook his head, attempting to clear his foggy brain. “I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
Em nodded yes as the elevator doors sprung open. One by one, she pulled her arms out from the sleeves of Tim’s sweatshirt and handed it over before bending down and kissing the puppy’s head. Stepping inside the elevator she spun around and gave Ti
m a rueful grin before the doors came together and she was out of sight.
Tim let out a long loud sigh, looking down at the sleeping puppy. “I sure get myself into some weird situations. Don’t I?” he muttered.
Reaching for the handle of the breezeway door, he stepped back outside.
* * *
Jack Atkinson grinned when Tim walked through the doorway into the kitchen with the puppy in his arms. “Aw, what have you got there?”
Hmm. Maybe there was a possibility Tim wouldn’t have to take the dog to the shelter after all, he thought, studying the kindly expression on his father’s face. When they’d lost Scamp the previous year, he and his dad had been heartbroken. But the mixed breed bulldog terrier had been nearly sixteen years old, and he’d lived a good life. Their grief probably had more to do with the fact that Tim’s mother had been the one to bring Scamp home when she’d found him wandering along the side of the road. His mom had passed away from cancer the following year.
His father walked up to Tim with his arms held out. When Tim handed over the squirming puppy to his dad, the dog immediately proceeded to clean his father’s face with his tongue.
Tim snorted, rolling his eyes upward. “I promised the person who found him that I’d take him to the shelter tomorrow morning.”
Just as Tim expected, his dad wasn’t happy at the news.
Dad frowned. “This sweet little guy?” he cooed, nuzzling his face against the dog’s.
Tim grinned, listening to his father’s tone of voice. Yep, Dad was definitely ready for a new dog. What a relief actually, because Tim had been trying to get his father enthused about something, anything, for these last few months.
Of course, maybe his own sour mood had been rubbing off on his dad since he’d known how Tim had felt about Lucy, but had never really voiced an opinion one way or another.
Which was weird since Dad always seemed to have something to say about everything.
Tim watched as his dad rested the scrawny puppy gently on the floor, and then pulled open the door of the fridge.
“Hmm,” he said, studying the contents. Reaching inside, his father peeked under the lid of a plastic container. “How about some of this pot roast?”
A Kiss Upon A Star Page 2