“Consider it a preemptive strike,” Bobby said. “I wanted to be the first to tell you that I was over at Ann-Marie’s last night.”
“Too late,” King said succinctly.
Daisy’s grin spread. “Told you,” she said to Bobby.
Bobby seemed unconcerned. “At least you can’t complain that I didn’t tell you myself,” he said to King.
“Seems to me you’re a little late, but I’ll let that pass,” King said magnanimously. He had other fish to fry. “Mind telling me what possessed you to go scurrying off to her place after all this time? I thought you were finally getting some sense, now that that Kennedy woman is hanging around.”
“Leave Jenna out of this,” Bobby said, his good humor vanishing in a heartbeat. “I’m not discussing her with you.” He cast a pointed look at his sister. “Or anyone else, for that matter.”
King took comfort from the fact that Daisy smirked knowingly. He was pretty sure that meant she knew things that King didn’t. Positive things. He’d have to find some way to corner her later, but for now he intended to concentrate on getting an explanation about last night’s activities.
“Look, son, you know how people in this town talk about everything a Spencer does. You dropping by to visit with your ex-fiancée is big news. If you intend to make a fool of yourself, that’s up to you, but remember that what you do reflects on all of us.”
“I’m not worried,” Daisy said cheerfully.
Bobby scowled at his sister, then turned his attention to King. “Did any of the self-appointed gossips who called you happen to mention that both Anna-Louise and Jenna were with me?”
Now that put an entirely different spin on things, King decided, taking heart. He should have known the callers had left out something that would have rendered the gossip far less juicy.
“No,” he conceded.
Bobby regarded him with tolerant amusement. “Feel better?”
King stubbornly shook his head. “I won’t feel better until I know what you were doing there. For all I know, Anna-Louise was trying to negotiate a truce between you and Ann-Marie. One of her missions in life seems to be making peace between old enemies. Once she has everyone getting along like a house-afire, this town will be downright boring.”
“Actually, that was an interesting by-product of the meeting,” Bobby told him.
“Dammit, son—”
“Simmer down,” Bobby said, cutting off the tirade King was about to launch. “That wasn’t why we went there.”
As Bobby described the bullying incident, King’s hackles rose. “Have you spoken to Tucker about this?”
“I mentioned it,” Bobby said.
“I should hope so. Those kids have been hanging around down by the river for too long now with no adult supervision. It was bound to take a nasty turn eventually. What about the other parents? Did you talk to them?”
“Every one of them,” Bobby confirmed. “Everyone’s taking it seriously. And I suspect you’ll be hearing a sermon on the topic this Sunday in church. Anna-Louise doesn’t intend to let the subject drop.”
King turned his gaze on Daisy. “Much of this stuff go on in school?”
“I hear some, but there’s probably a lot more I don’t hear,” she said, her expression thoughtful. “I think I’ll recommend that the teachers have some workshops on how to deal with this before school starts in September.”
King nodded approvingly. “I imagine Anna-Louise and Frances would both have some valuable things to say.”
“Speaking of Frances, are you two still seeing each other?” Bobby asked, leaning back in the booth and feigning innocence. “She hasn’t been out at Cedar Hill for Sunday dinner for a couple of weeks now.”
“She’s been busy,” King said, instantly defensive.
Daisy regarded him with alarm. “She didn’t break up with you after that fight the two of you had, did she?”
“What fight?” Bobby asked.
Daisy shrugged. “All I know is that Daddy said something to offend her and she went tearing out of here.” She peered at King. “Did you send flowers?”
“Of course I did. I told you I would, didn’t I? I went straight from here to the florist. Picked out a real pretty bunch of posies.”
“And?” Bobby prodded. “Did you two make up?”
The truth was, King hadn’t had the nerve to call Frances after the prickly way she’d reacted to the topic of moving their relationship forward to another level. And she hadn’t even called to thank him. Instead, she’d sent a polite little note to the house: “The flowers were lovely. Thank you. Frances.” Prim and to the point, he thought, still disgusted with the impersonal nature of her response. She hadn’t exactly left the door open for further contact.
“Not yet,” King said tersely, all but squirming under their attentive gazes.
“Why not?” Daisy demanded. “Daddy, you know that Frances is the best thing to happen to you in years. Don’t you dare let her slip away.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, it’s not as if I asked the woman to marry me and she turned me down,” King retorted impatiently. “We’ve just been out a few times. It’s no big deal if we go on seeing each other or if we don’t.”
He realized Bobby was studying him with a thoughtful expression.
“Is that the problem, Daddy? Is Frances expecting marriage?”
King balked at getting into that. It was none of Bobby’s concern. Daisy’s, either, for that matter. “I am not discussing this with either one of you. It’s between Frances and me. We’re both adults. We’re both perfectly capable of deciding what we do and don’t want.”
Bobby hooted at the response and grinned at Daisy. “I guess he told us.”
“Sure did,” she agreed, grinning just as broadly.
“And I, for one, intend to remind you of those precise words the next time you decide to interfere in my love life,” Bobby declared.
“As if you even had one,” King muttered, not meeting his son’s gaze.
“Well, if and when I do, you can be sure that you’ll be the last to know,” Bobby replied.
King chuckled at that. “Not unless you’re carrying on in Richmond or Baltimore,” he said, deliberately placing a little emphasis on Jenna’s hometown. “Anything you do in Trinity Harbor, I’ll hear about within the hour.”
Bobby sighed heavily in apparent recognition of the truth in King’s words. “What ever possessed me to come back here, when I could have stayed in Paris?”
King gaped at the suggestion. “This is home,” he said with the indignation of a true believer in the supremacy of the American South. “Anyplace else in this country would come in a poor second. You leave the United States of America, and it’s no contest at all.”
Bobby met his gaze. For an instant, it looked as if he might make some smart-alecky reply just to annoy King, but he finally shrugged. “Yeah, bottom line, I guess you’re right. But there are days when you make being here a real challenge.”
“Well, of course, I do,” King said proudly. “Any father that doesn’t give his children fits to make them better people isn’t doing his job.”
“Any idea when you’ll consider the job done?” Bobby inquired dryly.
King grinned at him. “I’ll keep you posted.”
The mystery of the missing carousel horse, which was front page news in The Trinity Harbor Weekly for two straight editions, got picked up by the Richmond media, then slowly spread around the state. Just when he’d thought he could put the ridiculous incident behind him, Bobby started hearing from classmates he hadn’t talked to since they’d moved out of town ten years ago. He was delighted he was able to provide so much blasted amusement for everyone.
It was all Jenna’s fault. If she hadn’t had the cockamamie idea to send that horse in the first place, none of this would be happening. His resentment of that bubbled up until it was just as heated as it had been on the Sunday he’d found the horse on his front lawn. He determinedly set out to ignore th
e attraction that had been simmering in the interim.
As a result, he’d flatly refused to see Jenna on any of the occasions when she’d dropped by his office with her completed proposal for the boardwalk. Maggie was fit to be tied.
“I am not lying to her one more time,” she told Bobby firmly, scowling at him across his desk. “You promised that woman an appointment and you’re going to give her one, or you can kiss me goodbye. Frankly, I can’t think of anyone else in town who’d take the job, either.”
“Good for you,” Daisy said, walking into his office without even bothering to knock.
This was all he needed, he thought with a resigned sigh. It was the first time Bobby had seen his sister since the morning they’d confronted King at Earlene’s. He’d been deliberately avoiding her, too, since he knew she’d be an even worse nag than Maggie about his bad manners, to say nothing of the fact that he’d gone back on a promise. In fact, she grinned at his secretary now and shooed Maggie toward the door.
“I’ll take over,” Daisy said, looking like a woman on a mission.
“Thank you, Lord,” Maggie replied fervently, casting a gaze heavenward. “I certainly can’t get through to him.”
She took her own sweet time about leaving, though, probably because she was hoping to overhear at least the start of Daisy’s lecture. Unfortunately for Maggie, his sister kept silent until the door was closed. Then she sat down opposite him.
“Okay, what’s going on?” she asked, her penetrating gaze never once wavering from his face.
Bobby refused to flinch. If he’d learned nothing else after all these years of being her brother, he’d learned that it didn’t pay to let Daisy know when she had the upper hand.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said mildly.
Daisy rolled her eyes. “You’re avoiding Jenna. Why?”
“What did she do, come running to you, begging for help?”
“She mentioned that you refused to see her or even to look at her proposals for the boardwalk. Backing out on a promise is not good business, and you know it, Bobby. So something else must be going on. I decided on my own to see what it was.”
“This is what’s going on,” Bobby said, picking up a stack of clippings and waving them under Daisy’s nose. “This place is the laughingstock of the entire state, thanks to that woman.”
“Really?” she said, sounding doubtful. “Because somebody stole a carousel horse from your front lawn?”
The way Daisy phrased it, it didn’t sound that bad. “Because it was there in the first place,” he muttered. It didn’t help that someone in town had sold a snapshot of him in his boxers to one of the state wire services. He pointed to the picture. “I look like an idiot.”
“Oh, you do not. You’re gorgeous. Women everywhere are probably fanning themselves over their cereal just at the sight of you.”
Now it was Bobby’s turn to roll his eyes.
“You ought to consider all of this a blessing,” Daisy advised. “Every single slip at the marina is filled. Your restaurant hasn’t had so much statewide publicity since you opened it. It’s been booked solid. I know, because Walker and I couldn’t get a reservation all weekend long.”
That was news to Bobby. He knew they’d been busy, but he’d had no idea his sister had been turned away. “You should have called me,” he apologized. “There’s always room for family.”
She regarded him impatiently. “You’re missing my point. You’re making a fortune as a result of all this publicity. You should be thanking Jenna, instead of shutting her out as if she ruined your business. And what about Darcy? Ever since you rushed in to save the day, you’ve been that little girl’s hero, and you’ve been ignoring her, too.”
Bobby sighed. Daisy was right. He’d been deluged with customers for the last two weeks. Even midweek, the place was packed.
And every single one of those nights, Jenna with her accusing eyes and her green-haired daughter had been at a prime table where he couldn’t miss them as he came and went from the kitchen. Apparently they had no trouble getting reservations. That was Maggie’s doing, no doubt. He’d had to harden his heart and make himself ignore Darcy’s hopeful expression, then pretend he hadn’t seen how shattered the kid had looked when he’d passed by without a word. Daisy was right about that, too. He was a complete louse.
“Okay, I’m not being fair,” he conceded grudgingly. “What do you suggest?”
“That depends on what you want from Jenna.”
“I don’t want anything from her. She’s the one who showed up here in town.”
Daisy regarded him with exasperation. “Oh, get over it. At the very least, you need to look at the drawings she’s done,” she told him. “If you hate them, tell her that and send her on her way. That’ll be kinder than letting her hang around here for days on end at her own expense.”
“This little vacation isn’t coming out of her pocket,” he retorted. “It’s a business expense.”
“That’s not the way I hear it,” Daisy insisted. “She’s here without her father’s permission or support.”
Bobby’s gaze narrowed. “Are you telling me this proposal of hers isn’t even from Pennington and Sons?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you—at least not officially, it isn’t. This is Jenna’s big chance to make an impression on her father. She’s taking a huge risk. You ought to be able to relate to that. You, Tucker and I have spent a lifetime trying to prove ourselves to Daddy.”
Bobby sighed.
Apparently sensing victory, Daisy added, “There’s just one big difference. We’ve always known that whatever grumbling he might do, Daddy is always in our corner when push comes to shove. Jenna’s not so lucky.”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” He paused, then asked, “Have you looked at the drawings?” He knew perfectly well that the question was a tacit admission that he was curious. Let Daisy make of that whatever she wanted to.
“Yes, and they’re wonderful,” she said, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “Jenna knows exactly what this town needs, Bobby. She understands Trinity Harbor and what it can be, the same way you do. I’ve heard you talk about what you envision, and it’s as if Jenna’s been right inside your head.”
She hesitated, then added, “Which brings me to another thing. I don’t think that’s the only thing the two of you have in common. Don’t throw away the chance to have someone really special in your life. When the two of you were at my house a couple of weeks ago, it was the first time in years that I’ve seen you genuinely happy.”
Bobby barely stifled a groan. His sister was right about that, too. He really, really hated admitting that, because it gave her a decided edge that she’d never let him forget.
“I’ll consider what you said,” he finally acknowledged grudgingly.
“Bobby,” she chided.
“Okay, okay, I’ll see Jenna’s drawings.”
“And make up with Darcy.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her grin spread. “And since I’m on a roll, take Jenna out on a real date.”
“Don’t press your luck.”
She shrugged. “It was just an idea. Will you be at Cedar Hill for dinner on Sunday?”
“Of course, why?”
“Just wondering,” she said, feigning innocence.
“I imagine Jenna and Darcy will be there,” Bobby guessed.
“Could be,” she conceded. “Just in case you haven’t followed through on your own by then.”
“I can run my own love life,” he reminded her.
“So you’ve said, but I’m with Daddy on this one. Until you show a little more evidence of that, I think I’ll help out a little.”
“Why aren’t the two of you on Tucker’s case?” he asked plaintively. “He’s the oldest.”
“I don’t know Daddy’s reasons, but mine are easy. Jenna’s here. And you’ve been ready for a new relationship for a long time. You’ve just been fighting it.”
“In other words, you’re practicing on me, because you think I’m easy?”
She laughed. “Something like that.”
“What if it doesn’t work? Is Tucker off the hook indefinitely?”
Daisy regarded him with the same haughty look she’d always used to put him firmly in his place. “As if it’s not going to work,” she chided.
Bobby sighed as his sister sailed out of his office. He was doomed, all right.
The first that Jenna knew about the extensive media coverage of the missing horse was when the phone rang in her hotel room and her father was on the other end of the line. She was so startled by the sound of his voice that she almost dropped the phone.
“Have you had detectives looking for me?” she demanded indignantly.
“I haven’t had to,” he retorted. “You’re big news in the Baltimore paper these days.”
Jenna’s heart began to thud dully. “What are you talking about?”
“Daniel handed me a clipping this morning. Pennington and Sons was mentioned prominently in an article about the revitalization of a boardwalk area in Trinity Harbor, Virginia, wherever that is.”
Jenna sank down on the edge of the bed. “Oh, my God.”
“Yes, I can see why you might be upset,” her father said sarcastically. “Especially since there is no such project on our schedule. Can you imagine what would have happened if the reporter had called me for a comment? What the hell were you thinking, Jenna? Have you completely lost your mind as well as that blasted antique carousel horse? And where did you get the money for that, I’d like to know? You didn’t dip into your trust fund, did you? I swear, if you did anything that ridiculous, I will personally see to it that whatever’s left of that money is tied up for years so that you can’t get a dime of it without my say-so.”
She held her breath during the tirade, then said very quietly, “This is precisely why I didn’t say anything, because you never give me any credit at all for knowing the business. I wanted to surprise you with a signed contract.”
“Well, I guess you should be pleased then, because I am surprised. No,” he corrected. “What I am is shocked that you would betray me and your brothers this way after all we’ve done for you.”
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