“Yep,” Austin agreed as he eyed the nearly empty tray of pancakes.
If there’s any left.
A new batch of visitors arrived at the B&B that morning, and they were big eaters. It seemed to take Karen and Sly by surprise. Austin had a vague frame of reference for what it took to run the bed and breakfast, but this week, when he wasn’t spending time with Sara and the kids he’d seen the larger scope of the workload it entailed.
He was even more grateful to Karen and Sly, who stepped in and seamlessly kept his grandparents’ legacy not just running but thriving. After the festival, when things settled down a little, he planned on sitting them down to formally thank them. And once Sara was done going through the books, he’d ask her if there was room in the budget to give them a bonus for their hard work.
But the big question was, would he be asking her that question over the phone, or would she agree to stay. An unsettled feeling had been resting in his gut since he’d popped the question last night of her remaining in Whisper Lake, and he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if he regretted it or wanted to take it back, something just didn’t feel right about it.
“Austin.” Charlotte tugged on his arm. When he looked down, one of her arms was raised in the air, her way of asking him to hold her, and the other was bent as she rubbed her eyes.
It looked like Trevor wasn’t the only sleepy one this morning. Reaching down he lifted the little girl and she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder.
Austin’s heart practically burst through his chest. His protective instincts went into overdrive as he held her with one arm and filled her plate with the other. In that moment he knew he’d do anything, anything, to keep her safe, to keep Trevor safe, to keep Sara safe. There was nothing more important to him than these three people that he hadn’t even known existed a week ago.
He still wasn’t sure how that was possible. It was hard for him to imagine a time in his life when he didn’t know that Charlotte’s favorite book was Clifford the Big Red Dog, or that Trevor was allergic to oranges, or that when Sara was working on one of her posts, she mouthed and sometimes whispered the words that she was typing.
What was more implausible still, was trying to imagine his life without them in it.
When he made his way back to the table Sara stood with her arms out to take Charlotte, who’d fallen asleep on his shoulder. He shook his head, not ready to let her go just yet. As far as he knew, the plan was still for Sara and the kids to leave tomorrow, and he wasn’t sure how many more opportunities he’d get to hold her.
After he set down the plate, he stepped one leg over the long bench that ran the length of the table, sat and then swung the other over, careful not to jar the sleeping princess.
“Well, it looks like breakfast is a bust.” Sara commented as she ran her hands through Trevor’s hair. He’d folded his arms on the table and was using them as a pillow as he snoozed.
“We can grab something later. What time is the rehearsal?”
“Ten.” Sara smiled up at him, with the look he was starting to recognize as appreciation for not being the only adult dealing with things like missed breakfasts, or scraped knees, or lost toys. The amount of respect he had for the woman sitting next to him grew exponentially with each passing day.
Last night she’d told him about her childhood, how she’d basically raised her siblings and then as soon as she was done with that, she’d gotten pregnant with Trevor. And she’d done all of it alone. But if it was up to him, she wouldn’t be anymore.
“What time did you want to go to the castle?” Austin asked, since he knew that Trevor had been looking forward to it all week.
Sara had been using it as a bargaining tool. If Trevor started to talk back, or whine, or misbehave, Sara pulled out the castle as the carrot on the stick. And it had worked like a charm.
“I was thinking we could go after the performance tonight.”
“What do you think about me taking Trev and you and Charlotte sitting it out?” Austin rubbed the little girls back. “It’s pretty spooky and I don’t want it to really upset her. I thought maybe you could go get this one cotton candy.”
That had been the leverage she’d used for Charlotte.
The same emotion he’d seen on her face when he’d filled her tires returned and this time there were tears accompanying it. “Thank you.”
“For what?” This wasn’t the same as him putting air in her tires. They’d all planned on going to the castle together.
“For being you,” she said simply before her expression changed and a wrinkle appeared between her brows as her gaze moved to just beyond his shoulder. “Austin.”
He looked to see what was causing her concern and what he saw took him a moment to process.
Brielle was standing in the doorway of the dining hall holding a baby. She looked…tired. Exhausted, really. And she was crying.
“Is that…?” Sara whispered beside him.
“Yes.”
“Here, let me take her.” Sara began to lift Charlotte out of his arms, but in doing so it woke her up.
“No!” Charlotte groggily protested not fully awake as she tightened her grip on his neck. “No!”
“Go see Mommy, sweetie.” Austin said in a soothing voice.
Trevor stirred when he heard Charlotte getting upset and he asked where Austin was going.
“He has to go talk to his friend,” Sara’s voice was soothing and calm.
Trev looked up at Austin with panic in his eyes. “Are you still taking me down to the lake after breakfast?”
He’d promised Trevor that they’d go collect rocks this morning before the talent show rehearsal. Austin wasn’t sure what to say, he’d promised him but that was before Brielle had shown up.
“I’ll take you,” Sara chirped cheerily.
“No!” Trevor exclaimed. “I want Austin to take me! He promised!”
“Trevor Paul,” Sara spoke in a clipped tone as she worked to pry Charlotte’s arms from around Austin’s neck. He was trying to disentangle himself, but she was like a spider monkey.
He looked at her at a loss of what to do. Trevor was starting to get more worked up, Charlotte was crying, and he’d caused it.
“Just go, we’re fine.” Sara instructed with an assuring smile on her face when she was finally able to tug Charlotte onto her lap. Without waiting for him to respond she bent down and began speaking to Trevor quietly in his ear.
He hated walking away from them. Hated it so much it made him sick to his stomach. But he knew that he had to deal with Brielle. And he also knew that Sara had been right. He should’ve answered the phone.
CHAPTER 25
“Are those new sunglasses?” Shelby asked as soon as her face popped on the screen.
“No hi, how are you? Just jump right on the sunglasses?” Sara chuckled at her sister, who always got straight to the point.
“Hi. How are you? Are those new sunglasses?”
“Yes.” A flitter of butterflies spread through Sara’s stomach. “Austin got them for me yesterday. He said he noticed I was always squinting and trying to block the sun.”
“Wow.” Shelby’s response was short and sweet.
Sara followed suit. “I know.”
“How has it been since the kids came back and put the kibosh on your Marvin Gaye time?”
The worst thing about FaceTime was there was a very good chance Shelby could see Sara’s cheeks turning red right now. Her blush stemmed from the fact that while the kids coming back had slowed down the amount of Marvin Gaye time, it had definitely not stopped it completely. Sara had tiptoed across the hall and done exactly what the R&B icon sang about.
Shelby’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “You’re still getting busy! I love it.”
When Sara had seen her sister was FaceTiming her, she’d put her headphones in for exactly this reason. She was seated in the garden of the community center watching Charlotte and Trevor’s last rehear
sal for the talent show that evening, and although there was no one in her immediate vicinity, she felt better knowing no matter what her sister said, it would be for her ears only.
Her sister put her hand over her chest and smiled widely. “Grandma Betty would be so proud.”
“Shut up.” Sara was seriously regretting telling her sister about the connection between their grandma and Austin’s grandpa.
“I’m serious. She wanted you to go to Whisper Lake to experience its magic. Right? Well, I would definitely say you’re having the full David Copperfield experience.”
Well, that was true enough.
“And I mean, come on, he’s the grandson of her first love. How magic is that?!” her sister exclaimed.
It was magic, and now he was talking to his ex. Maybe that magic would wear off on them? The moment she’d seen the way the woman in the doorway, holding a baby had looked at Austin, she’d known it was his ex. And he’d been talking to her for hours, she should probably be more nervous about it than she was. She didn’t know if it was because she was leaving tomorrow so it didn’t matter or if it was the look on his face when he’d seen her. It had not been happy. And even though it was brief, Sara hadn’t seen even one speck of a spark.
It was probably the latter.
“Where is Mr. Magic now?”
Mr. Magic was better than Stranger Danger.
Sara glanced around once more to make sure that no one was within earshot. “He’s at the B&B…talking to his ex.”
“I’m sorry…” Shelby stared at her blankly. “I thought I heard you say he’s talking to his ex.”
“I did. He is.”
“The ex that cheated on him with his best friend?”
Sara nodded.
“The ex that got pregnant by his best friend?”
“Why in the hell would he be doing that?”
“She showed up—”
“Wait! She’s there?”
“Yes. I just said—”
Shelby’s mouth was agape as she shook her head. “I thought you meant he was talking to her on the phone.”
“No. She’s here.”
“And you left them there!?” her sister screeched.
Sara was really happy that she’d put earbuds in. “Of course I did. I was the one that said that he should answer her calls.”
“Why?!” Shelby’s voice went up several octaves.
“Closure.”
“How are we related?” Shelby shook her head. “You think the stair mom is nice. You tell Mr. Magic to talk to his ex.”
“I’m an adult.” Sara didn’t think that her behavior was that out of the ordinary.
“You’re a saint, that’s what you are.”
“Mama!”
Sara looked up to see Charlotte waving furiously as she and Sally were led on the stage, by Chrissy’s daughter Fiona. Sara had run into Chrissy earlier while she and the kids were walking around the lake. They’d talked for a few minutes and she genuinely seemed okay. She said that it had just taken her by surprise. It wasn’t that she’d never thought about divorce, it was that she’d always thought she’d be the one to file, so it was a blow to her ego more than anything.
The talk had given Sara the push she needed to write a blog post on the subject. There wasn’t one way that people experienced a marriage ending, and Sara wanted to give people a safe place where they could talk about it.
Familiar music started. “Charlotte’s about to dance.”
Sara switched the view on the phone so her sister could see the rehearsal. In the earbud, she could hear her sister oohing and ahhing at the cuteness overload. When the music stopped and they returned to their starting places to run it once more, she switched the view back.
“She looks so adorable,” Shelby exclaimed. “And she’s so good.”
Shelby might just be seeing Charlotte through proud-aunt rose-colored glasses, but since Sara saw her daughter through proud-mom rose-colored glasses, she agreed wholeheartedly. “I know, and she loves it. And she said that she and Sally have decided they’re sisters.”
“Sister’s huh? I didn’t know that you could choose those,” Shelby commented sarcastically. “And how’s the Trevinator?”
“He’s good. He’s actually kind of excited about performing in the talent show because he gets to go to the haunted castle afterwards.”
“You’re going to a haunted castle.”
Shelby knew how Sara felt about being scared. She hated it.
“No actually, Austin’s taking him.” Or he was before his ex showed up. Sara didn’t want her sister to read any emotion about that on her face so she quickly followed up with, “We decided that it would be better if Charlotte sat it out, so I’m going to take her to get cotton candy, which I’ve been putting off because you know how she gets when she’s hopped up on sugar. But tonight is the final night of the festival so it’s now or ne—”
“We decided?” Shelby’s eyebrows slowly rose.
Sara knew exactly where her sister was going with this, and she wasn’t going to play into her hand. So she ignored her. “How’re the girls doing? I saw the picture Amy posted on Facebook yesterday. They’re getting so big.”
“They are. We’re all fine. And nice try.” Shelby leveled Sara with a knowing glare. “Who is this we?”
“You know who we is.” Sara lowered her voice even though the nearest person to her was at least twenty feet away, and they probably couldn’t care less about her conversation.
“Oh, I do.” Shelby nodded. “I just was checking to see if you did, since you’re apparently still planning on leaving tomorrow.”
“Shelby, I don’t want to talk abou—”
“Nope. Sorry, you don’t get to play the I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it card. That card is a privilege you have not earned in this situation,” Shelby stated proudly.
It was odd for Sara to be on the receiving end of the exact words she’d used on her sister and brother more times than she could count, especially through their teen years—and ninety percent of the time, she’d said those words to Shelby and not Matt. If Sara really thought either of her siblings were headed down a path that would end in disaster, she wouldn’t let them off the hook when they’d told her they didn’t want to talk about it. She’d revoke their card, explaining they hadn’t earned the right to use it, since they hadn’t thought their actions through.
“Wow. How long have you been waiting to say that to me?”
“Soooo long,” Shelby said dramatically.
Sara couldn’t help but smile. “Was it everything you’d hoped it would be?”
“Yeah, it really was,” Shelby confirmed. “So let’s review—”
“Are you serious?” That was the exact opening Sara had used when she had to have a come-to-Jesus talk with her siblings. She’d start with ‘let’s review’ and then list all the things she’d seen that she was worried about and then move on to list where she saw their actions taking them.
She really did love lists.
“Oh yeah. This is happening.” Shelby nodded with glee. “As I was saying. Let’s review. You met a man that fills the air in your tires before he even knows your name. Then that same man just happens to own the B&B that Grandma Betty stayed in all those years ago. He spends the week catering to your every need. And I do mean every need.” Shelby waggled her eyebrows. “He’s amazing with the kids. They love him. Your ex-husband even makes a point to tell you he thinks Austin is the one. He’s the grandson of grandma’s first love. You can work from home anywhere you want. Your house is sold. The movers are leaving tomorrow. And you don’t even want to give it a chance.”
“Shelby, you don’t understand. I can’t just uproot the kids—”
“Ehhh,” her sister made the sound of a buzzer. “Wrong answer. You already uprooted the kids’ lives.”
“Yeah, but that’s different. I did that to be closer to family,” Shelby shot back.
“It’s not different,” her sister deadpanned. “W
hat else ya got?”
Lowering her voice, Sara explained, “I can’t make this big of a decision based on a man that I’ve known for a week. What kind of example is that setting for the kids?”
“Fair enough. So let’s take him out of the equation.”
“What?” Sara wasn’t sure where this was going.
“Let’s say you hadn’t met him. That you’d gone to Whisper Lake and he wasn’t there. But you still met Ali, Jess, Brynn, and Chrissy. You still met Mrs. D, who knew grandma and you got the invite into the Needlepoint Mafia.” Shelby had thought the matchmaking mob trio was hilarious and that they ran the entire thing through the front of a knitting club. “Charlotte still met Sally. Trevor met those two girls that have decided he’s their bestie.”
Sara had to smile. Cassidy and Kimber were Trevor’s shadow. She was glad that her son wasn’t one of those boys that thought girls had cooties.
“You love it there, Sara. I don’t think you realize how much you’ve talked about the town this week. You told me how much you love waking up and seeing the lake outside your window, that it starts your day feeling peaceful and centered. How much you love walking downtown where all the businesses are whimsical and named after fairytales. You love that they have a gazillion festivals. You love the gazebo on Foster Pond and watching the kids play in a blow up castle while you drink wine around a fire pit. And you love the B&B, Karen Carpenter—not the singer—and her bear of a husband Sylvester—not the cat—the brownie sundae at the Drawbridge Diner, and parking at True Love’s Kiss make out spot, and the castle… I mean the list goes on and on.”
Sara sat silently, taking in what her sister was telling her. She hadn’t even realized she’d been talking about the town that much.
“I think you may have fallen in love with two things. Austin Stone and Whisper Lake.”
She knew her sister was right, but Sara still found herself shaking her head. “It’s not that easy. This isn’t my real life. I’ve been on vacation.”
Whisper of Temptation (Whisper Lake Book 4) Page 20