Chapter 2
Aaron logged out of his email and closed his laptop. Quasi-vacation or not, work emails never stopped. While some he could leave until he returned home, others required more immediate attention. With all those out of the way, he considered himself free for the rest of the day.
“Uncle Aaron, Dad says breakfast is ready,” his eleven-year-old nephew, Mason, called from the other side of the door.
Since he was attending a conference in South Carolina anyway, he’d decided to fly down a few days before the conference started and visit his older sister and her family. While not exactly a vacation in some tropical location or Europe, the visit gave him a break from his normal routine and allowed him to spend time with people he saw far too little. And as much as he loved every minute here, sometime soon, he needed a true vacation. One that included either doing nothing on a warm beach while soaking up the sun or seeing all the historical sites in Europe he still hadn’t checked off his very long list—a list he’d started to compile while in high school. So far, he’d only crossed off a handful of places in England.
After shoving his cell phone in his back pocket, Aaron opened the door, not at all surprised Mason was nowhere to be seen. If there was food in the kitchen, the kid would be there filling up his stomach. In that regard, his nephew reminded him of himself at that age.
The scent of bacon greeted him before he reached the kitchen. The popular breakfast meat might not be the healthiest thing in the world, but man, it tasted and smelled heavenly—at least to him. His younger sister would disagree.
As he expected, Mason sat at the kitchen table shoveling food into his mouth as fast as humanly possible while Aaron’s older sister, Elise, sat across from him sipping coffee and reading a magazine. Elise looked like a younger version of their mom. In fact, if he looked at pictures of their mother at Elise’s age, you’d think Elise had somehow traveled back in time and sat for the photos. That being said, Elise inherited none of their mom’s skills in the kitchen. The woman ruined even oatmeal, and forget about something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich. Thankfully, her husband possessed all the skills his wife didn’t and prepared most of the family’s meals. At the moment, he stood at the stove cooking pancakes.
Aaron snagged a slice of bacon off the plate on the table on his way to the coffeepot over by the stove.
“Is the next batch done?” Mason asked after he stuffed a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.
“Almost, but your uncle gets first dibs.” Nick flipped a golden-brown pancake and glanced over at him. “Aaron, these have blueberries in them, but I can make some without if you want.”
“As long as you’re the one making them and not my sister, I’ll eat whatever you put in front of me.”
“Hey, your sister is getting better. She managed toast last week.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Aaron added a generous amount of cream and sugar to his coffee—no self-respecting New Englander drank it any other way—before sitting down at the table. “I can’t believe you read that—”
He caught himself before he finished, although Aaron suspected his nephew heard a lot worse than the four-letter word he had in mind while on the school bus. At least he’d heard much worse when he rode the bus at Mason’s age. Still, it never hurt to be more selective with one’s language.
“—stupid magazine.” He didn’t understand why anyone cared what people with more money than brains did on a daily basis.
Nick set a plate full of pancakes on the table and grabbed a slice of bacon. “I ask her the same thing.”
Elise closed the magazine and grabbed her son’s hand before he stuck his fork in the newest stack of pancakes on the table. “If either of you bothered to read it, you’d know Today Magazine isn’t a tabloid like The Star Insider, and it doesn’t just publish celebrity pieces. Besides, it has great crossword puzzles every week.”
Before his nephew made a second attempt for more food, Aaron took three pancakes and added them to the bacon on his plate. Then he pointed his fork toward the magazine. “Could’ve fooled me.”
A photo of a gorgeous blonde he’d seen on countless covers while standing in the checkout line at the supermarket occupied much of the magazine cover. Below the too-perfect face—no doubt the publication removed any imperfections prior to publication—was the headline “Caught In The Act.” Then, in the bottom left corner, there was a smaller picture of a man and—he assumed—the same blonde woman kissing. At the same time, a picture of another woman and who he guessed was the same dark-haired dude as in the left-hand picture occupied the bottom right corner. And while there was also a photo in the top right of a Connecticut high school student who’d started a program that helped the less fortunate get prom dresses, the main headline, unfortunately, overshadowed it. Even without opening the magazine, he assumed he’d find more photos of the blonde with the dark-haired man and a story about how the guy had been caught cheating on the brunette with the blonde. After all, it seemed to be the norm among celebrities.
“The story about Juliette Belmont isn’t the only one in there.” Elise added another pancake to her plate and poured maple syrup over it.
“Let me guess, she’s an actress and got caught with a married man?”
Elise shook her head, her expression asking what rock he’d been living under. “A model and President Sherbrooke’s niece.”
And those two facts make her so much more important than everyone else. If he’d been about twenty years younger, he would’ve rolled his eyes. Instead, he stuffed a forkful of food in his mouth.
“When are we leaving?” Mason asked.
He’d promised to take his nephew to the science museum today. Since Mason lived more than a thousand miles away, he didn’t spend as much time as he’d like with him. A day at the museum would give him a chance to spoil his nephew while giving his older sister and her husband some time alone. It seemed like a win-win for everyone.
“Let your uncle at least eat his breakfast,” Elise said. “And while he does, why don’t you go upstairs and work on cleaning your room.”
He’d seen his nephew’s room. It’d take some effort and maybe some heavy machinery before it even resembled moderately neat.
As expected, Mason frowned. “But, Mom—”
His sister’s eyebrows inched up, and she blinked a few times. Aaron remembered their mom doing the same thing when she was about to deliver a statement they weren’t going to like. “If you’d rather stay home today and work on your room, that’s fine with me.”
Mason gulped down the rest of his milk and pushed back his chair. “I’ll go work on it now.”
Aaron suppressed a grin. “Don’t worry. I’ll come and get you as soon as I’m done, buddy.” Picking up his empty coffee cup, he stood. “You should get the kid a bulldozer to clean his room. Does it even have a floor?” He hadn’t known where to step when he went in the other day. Clothes, books, and various pieces of sports equipment covered whatever parts of the floor that weren’t occupied by furniture. “Do you want more coffee?”
With a nod, Elise handed him her cup. “Believe it or not, I helped him clean it a few weekends ago.”
If Elise said she’d helped Mason, he’d take her word for it, because it looked like the room hadn’t been touched in years.
“What do you two plan to do while we’re gone?”
“A round of golf and then we have dinner reservations.” Nick put another stack of pancakes on the table and took the seat across from his wife. “We haven’t golfed together since the fall.”
The cell phone next to his sister’s plate chimed. As a certified midwife, the woman was never far from her phone.
Accepting her coffee, she picked up the device and glanced at the text message. “Mom said someone called yesterday and rented all five cottages for the next three months.”
Although his mom closed up the majority of the cottages around the lake after the second weekend in October and didn’t open them again
until the first weekend in May, she always kept five open. Some years people rented them out every weekend during ski season, and other years the cottages remained empty for weeks on end. During the summer, it wasn’t unusual for a group of relatives to rent out cottages so they could vacation together, but never this time of year. And as far as he could remember, no one had ever rented out a cottage for such a long period of time. But he knew his mom wouldn’t complain, because the agreement would guarantee extra revenue.
“Mom must be happy. Did she say how many people she is expecting?”
Two of the larger cottages still open each accommodated up to six people, assuming two people slept in each bedroom and two people slept on the pull-out sofa. The other three cottages available in the winter each had one bedroom and a sleeper sofa.
“One,” Elise answered.
“One person needs five houses? Who’s staying there, the Queen of England?” Nick asked.
His brother-in-law made an excellent point. If an individual had rented out all the available cottages, they either didn’t want any neighbors or they considered themselves superior to the rest of society.
“What do you think I’m asking her now?” Elise didn’t look up as she typed out a new message. When she finished, she set the device down and reached for her fork. “But whoever it is, Mom expects them tomorrow.”
Although she’d grown up in New England and still spent a fair amount of time there, Juliette could probably count on two hands the number of times she’d visited New Hampshire. And many of those times involved visits to see her cousin who’d moved to the state the previous year. During those visits to Pelham, she’d thought the town was rural. The more she drove through Avon, the more she realized how wrong she’d been about where her cousin lived. While Pelham had some small farms and a charming town green, it also had one fast-food restaurant, a chain coffee shop, and two traffic lights. So far, she’d seen no sign of any of those things here.
“You want to take the next left,” Holly instructed her.
Since Holly hadn’t seen her family in months, she’d offered to make the drive with her. She planned to stay with her parents for a little while and then catch a flight back to New York.
Juliette turned onto a road that actually had a sidewalk and a street sign. They’d crossed into town about ten minutes ago, and many of the streets she’d traveled so far were unmarked. Evidently, the town didn’t want to make it easy for outsiders to find their way around.
Judging by the buildings lining both sides of the road, Main Street was the heart of Avon. On the right-hand side, a large municipal complex stood. The sign out front stated it housed the town hall, the police station, and the fire station. A store called Gorham’s Shop and Save was across the street from the complex. It shared its parking lot with a small movie theater and a liquor store. Considering the old-school marquee listing the four movies currently being shown mounted over the entrance, she didn’t expect to find any luxury loungers or IMAX screens inside. A mom-and-pop-style diner and coffee shop completed the businesses on the left side of the road. Not long after passing the municipal complex, she spotted a series of school buildings and the town’s public library.
“Let me guess, this is considered downtown,” she said as they passed the post office and a hair salon.
“There are a few other businesses scattered around town, but yeah, I guess you’d consider this the downtown area. It makes 5th Avenue look dull, doesn’t it?” Holly asked, laughing. “It’s not as bad as you think. We don’t have many retail businesses here, but North Conway is only about forty minutes away. You can find just about anything you need there. And since it tends to be a popular tourist destination, they also have some nice little artist studios and boutiques. Ashford, the next town over, has some restaurants and shopping as well.”
She’d have to keep a visit there in mind for another day because once she got out of the car today, she had no intention of getting back inside it.
“Unless you want to do a little exploring, you’ll want to take a right at the stop sign.”
She wouldn’t mind getting a better look at the town she planned to call home for the next few months. However, they’d spent roughly seven hours in the car today, and she needed another bathroom break. “Maybe I’ll do some tomorrow.”
A few miles and a handful of turns later, she got her first glimpse of Avon Lake. “I expected the lake to be much smaller.” Why, she didn’t know, but she’d expected it to be about the same size as the one not far from her cousin’s house. The body of water on her left was at least fifty times larger, if not more.
Holly reached for her purse, pulled out her cell phone, and typed a message. “This is the third-largest lake in the state. If you ask my brother, he can probably tell you exactly how many acres it covers and how deep it is. All I know is it is huge. Right now, we’re on the southernmost portion of it,” Holly explained as they drove.
Homes of various sizes and ages dotted the shore. Several had docks leading into the water, and when the temperatures warmed up, Juliette assumed boats would be parked alongside many of them. The houses continued for several miles before they stopped and were replaced with trees for a short time before ending at a public beach.
“The easternmost side is actually part of Ashford. There are several restaurants right on the water over there. In the summer, people will take their boats out for a few hours and then stop at one of them for lunch or dinner. And if we’d turned onto Timberlane Road instead of Harris, we eventually would have reached the kids’ summer camp along the western section of the lake. I used to love going there.”
Since the street signs remained sparse, she didn’t know which roads Holly referred to—not that it really mattered. She didn’t need a summer camp.
“Besides the campground, is there anything else where we’re headed?”
“Nope. The Wrights own almost all the land and have for about a hundred years or so. Again, if you ask my brother, he’ll know. He’s a walking textbook of town facts.”
The sound of a rooster crowing came from the device in Holly’s hand. Why her friend used such an annoying sound to alert her to text messages was a mystery to Juliette.
“Mom’s on her way. My sister is with her.”
When Holly had informed her mom she was headed home and explained the reason why, Eleanor offered to go grocery shopping so Juliette wouldn’t need to worry about it. Although fully capable of doing the task herself, she’d accepted the offer immediately, since it meant she could avoid any public places for at least a little while. The food and other items Eleanor picked up wouldn’t last forever, but perhaps by the time she needed to replace them the media would’ve found a new juicy story to focus on.
“How long do you think you’ll stay with your parents?”
Eleanor and Holly’s twin brother, Marc, frequently visited New York, so she knew them both well. She’d only met Holly’s dad and sister a handful of times. Regardless, she knew the Lamberts were a close-knit family much like hers. But no matter how much you adored your family, after a while you usually wanted to get away from them. At least that tended to be the case for her. Holly had a similar personality, so she didn’t see it being any different for her.
“A few days. A month. I don’t know. I might even go visit my cousin in Maine before I head back home.”
“Is that the one who had a baby in September?” They hadn’t passed a single house in about ten minutes, and Juliette kept a lookout for any signs they were almost at their destination.
“Yes. And right before Valentine’s Day, she and her husband moved into the house they spent the last eight months building. The road you want is about another mile or so on the right.”
Unfortunately, the information didn’t help her much. She’d never been great at determining distance. When she received any kind of directions, she needed landmarks, not the number of miles she needed to travel before turning left or right. And forget about telling her to drive east or
west. Unless the words were attached to specific streets in the city, they had no meaning to her.
Eventually, a road came into view on her right. A sign with the words Wright’s—Private Way hung from a pole.
Holly gestured toward the road before slipping her cell phone back into her purse. “This is the road you want.”
Calling this dirt path a road was a bit of stretch, but at least it was well maintained.
After rounding a curve in the road, a large shingle-sided home came into view. While her taste in homes tended to lean more toward either a contemporary design or something more like her parents’ home, she couldn’t deny that this style so often found along the ocean in places like Newport and Martha’s Vineyard fit its surroundings. Actually, it reminded her of a smaller version of Walker’s Point Estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.
She pulled in next to a Honda Accord already parked in an extended portion of the driveway marked Guest Parking.
“That’s Mom’s car. She must be inside talking to Mrs. Wright. They’ve been friends since elementary school.”
Her dad’s home office in Weston was larger than the one she followed Holly into. Then again, perhaps a large space wasn’t required for running a campground. Despite the size, it was tastefully decorated.
Holly’s mom and sister greeted them both with hugs the moment they entered. She’d learned early in their friendship that Holly’s mom was a hugger. In fact, she’d hugged her the very first time they met. Evidently, Mrs. Wright was as well, because she came from behind her desk and embraced Holly.
“It’s great to see you,” Mrs. Wright said before turning her attention Juliette’s way and extending her hand. “Welcome. I have a few things for you to sign, and then I can show you down to your cottage.”
She expected a handful of papers to read through and sign; instead, the owner retrieved an iPad and stylus from her desk. While she glanced through agreements, Mrs. Lambert and Tara, Holly’s sister, filled Holly in on something that had occurred in town the previous week. Considering the surprised look on Holly’s face, she knew the parties involved.
The Billionaire's Kiss (The Sherbrookes of Newport Book 14) Page 2