The Summer Place

by Pamela Hearon

  “Can I come in?”

  No! her mind screamed. She wasn’t ready to talk with him yet. Her emotions were still too close to the surface. But her mouth opened and “Sure” dropped out. She stepped back to let him in, motioning to the wingback where she thought he would be most comfortable.

  He carried a box of candy, which he placed on the table by the chair, and waited for her to sit. She chose the couch, as far away from him as the small room allowed. As he eased into the seat, he looked around, the blue shirt bringing out the turquoise hue of his eyes. “Nice place.”

  “Thanks.” Her eyes roamed over him. The way he sat so carefully. “Does it hurt much?”

  “Only when I sneeze.”

  “That’s good.” She scratched an imaginary itch on her nose.

  His steady gaze waited for more, and when it didn’t come, he settled deeper into the chair. The subtle movement said, I can wait.

  Okay, she could fake her way through this. She started with a fake smile. “How’s the therapy going?”

  “No nightmares so far.” He rapped his knuckles a couple of times on the table. “Ironic, isn’t it? I finally let go of Dunk, then you step in to haunt my dreams.”

  She tried to think of a snappy comeback, but her brain kept misfiring. She shifted uncomfortably and smoothed at a wrinkle she’d missed.

  “Is that the way you generally dress at home?” He handed her an escape.

  “No, I have a party.” She clenched her teeth to stop her mouth from adding “in a couple of hours.”

  “Then I’ll get to the point.” He leaned forward like he was going to put his elbows on his knees, and then straightened and leaned back again. “You quit coming to see me, and you won’t answer any of my calls. Obviously, you’re finished with me. But I need to hear you say it...and I’d like to leave knowing why.” The hurt emanating from those blue-green eyes spoke of more than just physical injury. They pierced her heart.

  Her brain scrambled for a lie or even a half-truth that would satisfy his curiosity and squelch his desire to know more. Something, anything that would allow him to walk out of there and never look back. But also something that wouldn’t make him hate her. No matter what she’d thought earlier, she couldn’t bear him hating her.

  “I...I...” she stammered, but the ocean of his eyes caught her thoughts in an eddy, swirling them around to the same point again and again, getting her nowhere. She was drowning in those eyes. Taking a deep breath, she changed her mind and plunged into the truth. “I think it’s best if we don’t get back into a relationship. I...I don’t deserve you.”

  “What?” His eyes and words alike echoed disbelief.

  “Your mom’s a good woman. She deserves men in her life like you, your brothers...your dad. I don’t. I’m not like her.”

  Even with several feet separating them, Summer could see the tightening of Rick’s jaw in his thin face. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “It’s not crazy.” Summer raised her chin. It quivered, and she lowered it again. “The day after you got shot, Mom and Dad went home for a while. While they were home, the guy called with the offer from the state, which was terrible by the way. It got me to thinking again about how much I wanted the camp, and if I could find a way to counter that offer. But more than that, it got me to thinking how much I wanted to be there again with you. I was being selfish, just like you said. I wasn’t thinking of Mom and Dad after all they’ve done for me. Just thinking of me, me, me and my happiness.” A heaviness centered in her chest at the admission.

  Hope softened the edges around Rick’s eyes—a hope she couldn’t let grow. It would be cruel, and despite what her mother said, that was one thing she wasn’t. She continued her story. “Your mom and I were standing in the hallway, watching your room. We saw the commotion. Everybody running toward it. That’s when your heart had st-stopped.” Her voice was shaking now, and the tears fell freely, but she pressed on. “Your mom had been talking about deserving a place in your life. It hit me then—the ripple effect you talked about. The one I caused. My marketing idea, like you said, had a purely selfish motive. I just wanted the publicity of that newspaper article. The same article that Howie’s dad saw, which gave him the idea to get Howie, which then got you shot.” She’d been forming circles with her hands. She let them fall into her lap with a shrug. “Selfish acts hurt people, and I’d graduated from fairy princess to queen of selfish. My actions are undeserving of a hero like you.”

  Rick leaned forward again, resting his elbows on his knees, studying the ground intently. “So what kind of woman deserves a man like me?” He raised his eyes to lock with hers. “Describe her to me.”

  “She’d put other people first.”

  He nodded.

  “She’d be strong in the face of danger. Courageous.”

  “With a pretty heart?” His mouth quirked at one end.

  She gave him a real smile to show she was going to be okay as long as he was. “Yes, with a pretty heart, the kind that reaches out to protect the people she loves.”

  “Would she risk her own safety for a child in danger? Would she face a drunken father and fight him physically to try and keep him from driving off with the child?”

  Summer saw where this was going. She shook her head in denial. “That wasn’t being heroic. That was a reaction born of panic.”

  Rick’s eyes widened, then he blinked slowly. He stood, picked up the box of candy and came to sit on the couch beside her. His nearness caused her skin to tingle. “This is for you.” He held out the box.

  “Thanks.” She took the gift and placed it on the coffee table.

  Rick picked it up and placed it back in her lap. “Open it.”

  She wasn’t in the mood for chocolates—or anything—but his tone didn’t allow for a refusal. She worked the lid off the box, which didn’t contain chocolates, after all, but held a thick set of papers.

  She unfolded them and scanned the legal document. Her hands began to shake so hard she couldn’t keep it in focus. “What is this, Rick?”

  He smiled. “The deed to the Camp Sunny Daze property. It’s yours.”

  It couldn’t be! Her pulse swished through her ears. “Chance bought it. Investors. How...?”

  “My parents and I were the investors. We only let Chance put in a dollar so he could tell your parents he was buying it.” One side of his mouth rose again. “We didn’t want them to sell it to us out of sympathy at too much of a bargain price.”

  Summer shook her head, too dazed to think coherently.

  The backs of his fingers brushed her cheek. “We want you to have it as a thank-you. You deserve it.”

  “For what?” The question exploded from her lips. “For...for almost getting you killed? No. No!” She thrust the papers back at him and tried to stand, but Rick’s arm slid across her waist and held her in place.

  “For saving my life.” His voice was husky with emotion. He let go and fished in his pants pocket, pulling out a chain. His dog tags dangled from it, slightly bent, but still intact. He pressed the chain into her hand, holding on with both of his. “The doctor said the angle of the bullet should’ve hit my heart, but it ricocheted off something...something very hard. They found shards of green granite in the wound, Summer.” He cleared his throat, his gaze never wavering from hers. “If you want to talk the ripple effect, you need to find the true action that started the ripple. You started Fairy Princess Parties to empower girls. You taught them about their pretty hearts and how to earn their wands. I was given one of your wands, and it blocked a bullet from hitting my heart. It saved my life. You saved my life.”

  With a trembling finger, Summer caught the single tear as it left the corner of Rick’s eye. “Oh, Rick...”

  He took her hand and pressed it to his lips. “If you believe that everything happens for a reason, you’re the reason I’m sitting here today. I think it’s a sign we’re meant to be together.”

  Summer’s heart swelled with joy until
she thought it would rupture. “I love you so much.” The words came out as a whisper, although she felt like shouting.

  “I love you, too.” His hand caressed her cheek, then moved into her hair, pulling her face close to his until their mouths touched. He kissed her long and deep, and she responded with the fervor his lips were deserving of.

  She leaned her head back to look him in the eye. “I get you and the camp, too? You’re not moving back to Arkansas?”

  Rick chuckled. “I’m planning on sticking around here. Forever.”

  Summer raised her chin and gave him an impish grin. “We’ve never even been on a date, and we’re talking about forever.”

  “Would you have dinner with me tonight?” He leaned over and nibbled on her ear, sending a shiver from her head to her toes.

  “I’d love to.” She sighed, delirious with joy and thankfulness.

  “Then I think our forever just began.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Ten months later

  RICK CLOSED THE DOOR of the dishwasher and hit the start button for the—he counted—fifth time that day. The next time they held a public event, he would insist they use the big kitchen...and maybe an outside caterer. If he was going to be this fatigued, it should be from something more gratifying than cleanup duty.

  The open house had been a huge success. The calendar for their rustic resort, which they’d officially christened the Summer Place today, was filling up faster than either of them had ever dreamed it would.

  Rick smiled to himself. Although Summer had been afraid the new name would sound too self-indulgent, everyone else gave it a thumbs-up.

  The camp had definitely needed a new beginning.

  He pulled out a chair and sank into it just as Summer came in the kitchen carrying their wedding picture. A frown pinched her mouth.

  “What’s wrong, babe? Not having regrets, are you?”

  The corners of her mouth curved slowly upward as her eyes settled on him. She cocked her head. “What is there to have regrets about?”

  He patted his leg, and she snuggled onto his lap. “Oh, I dunno. Marrying me?”

  She shook her head. “Nope.”

  “Eloping to Vegas?”

  “Nadda.”

  “Having a cheesy theme wedding?” He pointed to the picture. “You look beautiful as a fairy princess but your groom looks like a sweaty dork in his suit of armor.”

  She giggled as she examined the picture. “You don’t look like a dork. You look dashing...like every woman’s fantasy.”

  “That damn metal suit was like standing in an oven.”

  “Mmm.” She nibbled his earlobe, sending a jolt of electricity straight to his groin. “Five months later and you’re still hot, baby.” Her mouth seared a line of kisses up his neck, and he decided he wasn’t nearly as tired as he’d thought he was a few minutes ago.

  “Know what Charlie said when he saw it?” she asked.

  Rick cleared his throat to let loose his best Charlie impression. “Damn wild child.”

  “You got it.” Summer laughed—a sound he would never grow tired of. She ran a fingertip down the slope of his nose and then pointed at the picture. Her mouth drooped again. “But look at all these smudges on the glass. I’ve used almost a whole bottle of glass cleaner today trying to keep it clean.” She laid the photo on the table.

  “Hide it next time.”

  She clasped her arms around his neck and hugged him. “No way. But I am going to find a prominent place on the wall so people won’t pick it up.”

  Leaning back, she brushed her fingertips through one side of his hair and smiled. “Are you too tired to go for a walk?”

  “To the bedroom?”

  “We’ll come back to the bedroom. Or the couch. Or...” She gave the table a pat and wagged her eyebrows suggestively. He watched the edges of her eyes soften. “But first, I’d like to go back to the Byassee place.”

  Until that morning, Summer hadn’t gone near the Byassee place since the shooting. Rick thought once they’d moved into the apartment on the premises back in December, she’d get over the pain and stop avoiding the area, but she hadn’t.

  When Tara’s dad showed up this morning to bless the camp, it occurred to Rick that blessing the Byassee homestead might give Summer back her favorite place.

  Apparently, his idea worked.

  She slid off his lap and held her hand out to him. “I’ve got something I want to show you there.”

  The early May evenings were still cool enough to require a light jacket. Grabbing the ones hanging by the door, they sauntered out into a world of wild dogwood blooms capped by a pink-and-purple sunset and scented heavily from honey locust.

  They exchanged tidbits of information each had learned throughout the day from the plethora of visitors.

  “Tara’s ready for school to be out. She said she’d help me with those flower beds.”

  “M&M had grown so much I almost didn’t recognize her.”

  “Buck Blaine said Nila Gerard’s engaged, and the guy’s a winner. Treats Howie like his own son.”

  Summer’s hand gripped Rick’s tighter at the last comment, and she quickened her steps.

  “What’s the hurry?” Rick was back to working out every day. His body still wasn’t in marine shape, but it was getting there. Even with his long stride, he had to hurry to keep up with her tonight.

  “We need to get there before it gets dark.”

  Maybe the blessing hadn’t quelled all of her fears, after all.

  Rick picked up his pace. Everything in good time.

  They turned from the main path onto the less worn one and walked the rest of the way to the clearing in silence. A doe munching on sweet clover didn’t hear them approach. Startled when they broke from the tree line into the open, she bolted away.

  They stood quietly, holding hands, listening to the sounds of the birds beginning to roost in the tops of the surrounding trees. An opossum beat a hasty retreat out of the broken-down house, glaring sullenly at them on his way to the woods.

  “It’s so quiet here right now.” Rick swiveled his head to catch the sounds. “It’s hard to believe a month from now, it’ll be crawling with kids again.”

  Summer took his other hand and turned to face him. “Actually, a few months from now, this place may never be quiet again.” Her mysterious smile didn’t mesh with the tears shining in her eyes.

  “Why is that?”

  She let go of his hand and reached into her pocket, bringing out some kind of stick. She held it out to him.

  “What’s this?”

  She laughed softly. “My new magic wand.”

  Rick squinted in the fading light. “Positive,” he read aloud.

  Summer nodded. “Positive by about two weeks, I think. So in about eight and a half months...”

  Eight and a half months? It took several seconds for the math to catch up with him, but then his heart started to beat at a quick rhythm. “You’re pregnant?”

  Summer nodded, her face breaking into a radiant smile.

  He couldn’t, didn’t want to, contain his happiness. “Ooh-rah!” He let out a whoop sure to be heard all the way to the lake.

  In one leap, Summer was in his arms, her legs locked around his waist, and he was twirling around and around, in a dance of the most ecstatic joy he’d ever known.

  They laughed and kissed and shouted, then laughed and kissed some more, until Summer finally begged to be put down.

  “I don’t want to get sick,” she insisted, and he reluctantly set her on her own feet.

  He looked around at the Byassee place. The ramshackle old house seemed an odd choice for such an announcement. Catching Summer’s chin with his finger, he raised her face. “So the angels have returned?”

  “The angels never left.” She took his hands and kissed them tenderly. “They were here watching over us the whole time.”

  He pulled her close and lowered his mouth to hers. “I can’t argue with that,” he whisp
ered. “Right now, I’m holding two of them in my arms.”

  * * * * *

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  CHAPTER ONE

  IT WAS WET and dark and cold. At first she didn’t know where she was, then she realized she was in the car, the wipers working overtime, the road a shiny black ribbon stretching in front of her. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, but it felt rubbery and insubstantial beneath her hands. Panic welled inside her. She knew what was coming next. What always came next.

  Then she saw it, the dark mass of rocks blocking the middle of the curving mountain road. Her scream was swallowed by the explosive crash of glass breaking and metal crushing as the car hit, then there was nothing but pain and the realization that she was going to die out here on this godforsaken stretch of road....

  Mackenzie Williams bolted upright, heart racing, sweat cold and clammy on her body. The bedclothes were a heavy tangle around her legs and for a few disoriented seconds she fought to free herself before reality reasserted itself.

  She was alive. She was at the beach house in Flinders. And she ached. God, how she ached. Her hips, her shoulder, her back...

  She scrubbed her face with both hands, then let out her breath on an exhausted sigh. It had been almost two months since she’d had a nightmare and she’d hoped they were a thing of the past. No such luck, apparently.