He hadn’t thought this whole thing through, he realized as they approached the walk-up window. Rats. Inside, he could see Lacy Murphy Walker, who went to high school with him and whose family had owned and operated the ice-cream parlor forever.
She had been one of Robin’s best friends—and as much as he loved her, he was grimly aware that Lacy also happened to be one of the biggest gossips in town.
“Hi, Will.” She beamed with some surprise. “Haven’t seen you in here in an age.”
He had no idea how to answer that so he opted to stick with a polite smile.
“We’re sure loving the new cabinets in the back,” she went on. “You did a heck of a job on them. I was saying the other day how much more storage space we have now.”
“Thanks, Lace.”
Inside, he could see the usual assortment of tourists but more than a few local faces he recognized. The scene was much the same on the picnic tables outside.
His neck suddenly itched from the speculative glances he was getting from those within sight—and especially from Lacy.
She hadn’t stopped staring at him and at Julia and her twins since he walked up to the counter.
“You folks ready to order?”
He hadn’t been lumped into a folks in a long time and it took him a moment to adjust.
Sometimes he thought that was one of the things he had missed the most the last two years, being part of a unit, something bigger and better than himself.
“Hang on,” he said, turning back to Julia and her twins. “Have you decided?” he asked, in a voice more terse than he intended.
“Bubblegum!” Simon exclaimed. “In a sugar cone.”
Lacy wrote it down with a smile. “And for the young lady?”
Maddie gifted Lacy with a particularly sweet smile. “Strawberry cheesecake, please,” she whispered. “I would like a sugar cone, too.”
“Got it.” Again Lacy turned her speculative gaze at him and Julia, standing together at the counter. “And for the two of you?”
The two of you. He wanted to tell her there was no two of you. They absolutely were not a couple, just two completely separate individuals who happened to walk down the beach together for ice cream.
“Two scoops of vanilla in a sugar cone,” he said.
“Make that two of those.” Julia smiled at Lacy and he felt a little light-headed. It was only because he hadn’t eaten, he told himself. Surely his reaction had nothing to do with the cherry blossom scent of her that smelled sweeter than anything coming out of the ice cream shop.
Lacy gave them the total and Will pulled out his wallet.
“My treat,” he said, sliding a bill to Lacy.
She reached for it at the same time Julia did.
“It is not!” Julia exclaimed. “You weren’t even planning to come along until we hounded you into it. Forget it, I’m paying.”
Even more speculative glances were shooting their way. He could see a couple of his mother’s friends inside and was afraid they would be on the phone to her at her retirement village in San Diego before Lacy even scooped their cones.
Above all, he wanted to avoid attention and just win this battle so they could find a place to sit, preferably one out of view of everyone inside.
“Nobody hounded anybody. I wanted to come.” For one brief second of insanity, he thought, but didn’t add. “I’m paying this time. You can pick it up next time.”
The minute the words escaped his mouth, he saw Lacy’s eyes widen. Next time, he had said. Rats. He could just picture the conversation that would be buzzing around town within minutes.
You hear about Will Garrett? He’s finally dating again, the new teacher living in Abigail’s house. The pretty widow with those twins. Remember, her family used to rent the old Turner place every summer.
He grimaced to himself, knowing there wasn’t a darn thing he could do about it. When a person lived in the same town his whole life, everybody seemed to think they had a stake in his business.
“Are you sure?” Julia still looked obstinate.
He nodded. “Take it, Lace,” he said.
To his vast relief, she ended the matter by stuffing the bill into the cash register and handing him his change.
“It should just be a minute,” she said in a chirpy kind of voice. She disappeared from the counter, probably to go looking for her cell phone so she could start spreading the word.
“Thank you,” Julia said, though she still looked uncomfortable about letting him treat.
“No problem.”
“It really doesn’t seem fair. You didn’t even want to come with us.”
“I’m here, aren’t I? It’s fine.”
She looked as if she had something more to say but after a moment she closed her mouth and let the matter rest when Lacy returned with the twins’ cones.
“Here you go. The other two are coming right up.”
“Great service as always, Lacy,” he said when she handed him and Julia their cones. “Thanks.”
“Oh, no problem, Will.” She smiled brightly. “And let me just say for the record that it’s so great to see you out enjoying...ice cream again.”
Heat soaked his face and he could only hope he wasn’t blushing. He hadn’t blushed in about two decades and he sure as hell didn’t want to start now.
“Right,” he mumbled, and was relieved when Simon spoke up.
“Hey, Mom, our favorite table is empty. Can we sit out there and watch for whales?”
Julia smiled and shook her head ruefully. “We’ve been here twice and sat at the same picnic table both times. I guess that makes it our favorite.”
She studied Will. “Are you in a hurry to get back or do you mind eating our cones here?”
He would rather just take a dip in the cold waters of the Pacific right about now, if only to avoid the watching eyes of everyone in town. Instead, he forced a smile.
“No big rush. Let’s sit down.”
He made the mistake of glancing inside the ice-cream parlor one time as he was sliding into the picnic table across from her—just long enough to see several heads swivel quickly away from him.
With a sigh, he resigned himself to the rumors. Nothing he could do about them now anyway.
* * *
SHE WAS QUITE certain Conan was a canine but just now he was looking remarkably like the proverbial cat with its mouth stuffed full of canary feathers.
Julia frowned at the dog, who settled beside the picnic table with what looked suspiciously like a grin. Sage and Anna said he had an uncanny intelligence and some hidden agenda but she still wasn’t sure she completely bought it.
More likely, he was simply anticipating a furtive taste of one of the twins’ cones.
If Conan practically hummed with satisfaction, Will resembled the plucked canary. He ate his cone with a stoicism that made it obvious he wasn’t enjoying the treat—or the company—in the slightest.
She might have been hurt if she didn’t find it so terribly sad.
She grieved for him, for the boy she had known with the teasing smile and the big, generous heart. His loss was staggering, as huge as the Pacific, and she wanted so desperately to ease it for him.
What power did she have, though? Precious little, especially when he would only talk in surface generalities about mundane topics like the tide schedule and the weather.
She tried to probe about the project he was working on, an intriguing rehabilitation effort down the coast, but he seemed to turn every question back to her and she was tired of talking about herself.
She was also tired of the curious eyes inside. Good heavens, couldn’t the poor man go out for ice cream without inciting a tsunami of attention? If he wasn’t being so unapproachable, she would have loved to give their tongue
s something to wag about.
How would Will react if she just grabbed the cone out of his hand, tossed it over her shoulder into the sand, and planted a big smacking kiss on his mouth, just for the sheer wicked thrill of watching how aghast their audience might turn?
It was an impulse from her youth, when she had been full of silly dreams and impetuous behavior. She wouldn’t do it now, of course. Not only would a kiss horrify Will but her children were sitting at the table and they wouldn’t understand the subtleties of social tit-for-tat.
The idea was tempting, though. And not just to give the gossips something to talk about.
She sighed. It would be best all the way around if she just put those kind of thoughts right out of her head. She had been alone for two years and though she might have longed for a man’s touch, she wasn’t about to jump into anything with someone still deep in the grieving process.
“What project are you working on next at Brambleberry House?” she asked him.
“New ceiling and floor moldings in Abigail’s old apartment, where Anna lives now,” he answered. “On the project I’m working on in Manzanita, the developer ordered some custom patterns. I liked them and showed them to Anna and she thought they would be perfect for Brambleberry House so we ordered extra.”
“What was wrong with the old ones?”
“They were cracking and warped in places from water damage a long time ago. We tried to repair them but it was becoming an endless process. And then when she decided to take down a few walls, the moldings in the different rooms didn’t match so we decided to replace them all with something historically accurate.”
He started to add more, but Maddie slid over to him and held out her cone.
“Mr. Garrett, would you like to try some of my strawberry cheesecake ice cream? It’s really good.”
A slight edge of panic appeared around the edges of his gaze. “Uh, no thanks. Think I’ll stick with my vanilla.”
She accepted his answer with equanimity. “You might change your mind, though,” she said, with her innate generosity. “How about if I eat it super slow? That way if decide you want some after all, I’ll still have some left for you to try later, okay?”
He blinked and she saw the nerves give way to astonishment. “Uh, thanks,” he said, looking so touched at the small gesture that her heart broke for him all over again.
Maddie smiled her most endearing smile, the particularly charming one she had perfected on doctors over the years. “You’re welcome. Just let me know if you want a taste. I don’t mind sharing, I promise.”
He looked like a man who had just been stabbed in the heart and Julia suddenly couldn’t bear his pain. In desperation, she sought a way to distract him.
“What will you do on Brambleberry House after you finish the moldings?” she finally asked.
He looked grateful for the diversion. “Uh, your apartment is mostly done but the third-floor rooms still need some work. Little stuff, mostly, but inconvenient to try to live around. I figured I would wait to start until after Sage is married and living part-time in the Bay Area with Eben and Chloe.”
“I understand they’re coming back soon from an extended trip overseas. We’ve heard a great deal about them from Sage and Anna. The twins can’t wait to meet Chloe.”
“She’s a good kid. And Eben is good for Sage. That’s the important thing.”
He was a man who loved his friends, she realized. That, at least, hadn’t changed over the years.
He seemed embarrassed by his statement and quickly returned to talking about the repairs planned for Brambleberry House. She listened to his deep voice as she savored the last of her cone, thinking it was a perfect summer evening.
The children finished their treats—Maddie’s promise to Will notwithstanding—and were romping with Conan in the sand. Their laugher drifted on the breeze above the sound of the ocean.
For just an instant, she was transported back in time, sitting with Will atop a splintery picnic table, eating ice-cream cones and laughing at nothing and talking about their dreams.
By unspoken agreement, they stood, cones finished, and started walking back down the beach while Conan herded the twins along ahead of them.
“I’m boring you to tears,” Will said after some time. “I’m sorry. I, uh, don’t usually go on and on like that about my work.”
She shook her head. “You’re not boring me. On the contrary. I enjoy hearing about what you do. You love it, don’t you?”
“It’s just a job. Not something vitally important to the future of the world like educating young minds.”
She made a face. “My, you have a rosy view of educators, don’t you?”
“I always had good teachers when I was going to school.”
“Good teachers wouldn’t have anywhere to teach those young minds if not for great carpenters like you,” she pointed out. “The work you’ve done on Brambleberry House is lovely. The kitchen cupboards are as smooth as a satin dress. Anna told me you made them all by hand.”
“It’s a great old house. I’m trying my best to do it justice.”
They walked in silence for a time and Julia couldn’t escape the grim realization that she was every bit as attracted to him now as she had been all those years ago.
Not true, she admitted ruefully. Technically, anyway. She was far more aware of him now, as a full-grown woman—with a woman’s knowledge and a woman’s needs—than she ever would have been as a naive, idealistic fifteen-year-old girl.
He was bigger than he had been then, several inches taller and much more muscled. His hair was cut slightly shorter than it had been when he was a teenager and he had a few laugh lines around his mouth and his eyes, though she had a feeling those had been etched some time ago.
She was particularly aware of his hands, square-tipped and strong, with the inevitable battle scars of a man who used them in creative and constructive ways.
She didn’t want to notice anything about him and she certainly wasn’t at all thrilled to find herself attracted to him again. She couldn’t afford it. Not when she and her children were just finding their way again.
Hadn’t she suffered enough from emotionally unavailable men?
“Look what I found, Mom!” Maddie uncurled her fingers to reveal a small gnarled object. “What is it?”
As she studied the object, Julia held her daughter’s hand, trying not to notice how thin her fingers seemed. It appeared to be an agate but was an odd color, greenish gray with red streaks in it.
“We forgot to bring our rocky coast field book, didn’t we? We’ll have to look it up when we get back to the house.”
“Do you know, Mr. Garrett?” Maddie presented the object for Will’s inspection.
“I’m afraid I’m not much of a naturalist,” he said, rather curtly. “Sage is your expert in that department. She can tell you in a second.”
“Oh. Okay.” Maddie’s shoulders slumped, more from fatigue than disappointment, Julia thought, but Will didn’t pick up on it. Guilt flickered in his expression.
“I can look at it,” he said after a moment. “Let’s see.”
Will reached for her hand and he examined the contents carefully. “Wow. This is quite a find. It’s a bloodstone agate.”
“I want to see,” Simon said.
“It’s pretty rare,” Will said. He talked to them about some of the other treasures they could find beachcombing on the coast until they reached his house.
“I guess this is your stop,” Julia said as they stood at the steps of his deck.
He glanced up the steps, as if eager to escape, then looked back at them. “I’ll walk you the rest of the way to Brambleberry House. It’s nearly dark. I wouldn’t want you walking on your own.”
It was only three houses, she almost said, but he looked so dete
rmined to stick it out that she couldn’t bring herself to argue.
“Thank you,” she said, then gave Maddie a careful look. Her daughter hadn’t said much for some time, since finding the bloodstone.
“Is it piggyback time?” Julia asked quietly.
Maddie shrugged, her features dispirited. “I guess so. I really wanted to make it the whole way on my own this time.”
“You made it farther this time than last time. And farther still than the time before. Come on, pumpkin. Your chariot awaits.” Julia crouched down and her daughter climbed aboard.
“I can carry her,” Will said, though he looked as if he would rather stick a nail gun to his hand and pull the switch.
“I’ve got her,” she answered, aching for him all over again. “But you can make sure Simon and Conan stay away from the surf.”
They crossed the last hundred yards to Brambleberry House in silence. When they reached the back gate, Will held it open for them and they walked inside where the smells of Abigail’s lush late-summer flowers surrounded them in warm welcome.
She eased Maddie off her back. “You two take Conan inside to get a drink from Anna while I talk to Mr. Garrett, okay?”
“Okay,” Simon said, and headed up the steps. Maddie followed more slowly but a moment later Julia and Will were alone with only the sound of the wind sighing in the tops of the pine trees.
“What’s wrong with Maddie?”
His quiet voice cut through the peace of the night and she instinctively bristled, wanting to protest that nothing was wrong with her child. Absolutely nothing. Maddie was perfect in every way.
The words tangled in her throat. “She’s recovering from a bone marrow transplant,” she answered in a low voice to match his. It wasn’t any grand secret and he certainly deserved to know, though she didn’t want to go through more explanations.
“It’s been four months but she hasn’t quite regained her strength. She’s been a fighter through everything life has thrown at her the last two and a half years, though—two rounds of chemo and a round of radiation—so I know it’s only a matter of time before she’ll be back to her old self.”
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