Reunion on Rocky Shores Read online

  He had meant what he said. She crowded him and he couldn’t deal with it anymore.

  He knew after his outburst just now that she wouldn’t make any effort to spend time with him, but they were still bound to bump into each other once in a while and he had just proved to himself that he had no powers of resistance where she was concerned.

  He had no other option but to escape.

  He pulled out his cell phone. He knew the number was there—he had dialed it only the night before but in the end he had lost his nerve and hung up.

  With the wind still whipping the tree branches outside like angry fists, he found it quickly, hit the button to redial and waited for it to ring.

  As he might have expected, he was sent immediately to voice-messaging. For a moment he considered hanging up again but the sweet scent of spring flowers drifted to him and he knew this was what he had to do.

  He drew in a breath. “Eben, this is Will Garrett,” he began. “I’d like to talk about your offer, if it’s still open.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Simon, hands to yourself.”

  Her son snatched his fingers back an instant before they would have dipped into the frosting on the frill-bedecked sheet cake for Sage’s wedding shower.

  “I only wanted a little smackeral,” he complained.

  Julia sighed, even as she fought a smile. This was why she was destined to be a lousy mother, she decided. How on earth was she supposed to have the gumption to properly discipline her son when he knew he could charm her every time by quoting Winnie the Pooh?

  “No smackerals, little or otherwise,” she said as sternly as she could manage. “After the bridal shower you can have all the leftovers you want but Sage wouldn’t want grimy little finger trails dipping through her pretty cake, would she?”

  “Sage wouldn’t mind,” he grumbled.

  All right, he was probably correct on that observation. Sage was remarkably even-tempered for a bride and she adored Julia’s twins and spoiled them both relentlessly.

  But as their mother, it was Julia’s responsibility to teach them little things like manners, and she couldn’t let him get away with it, smackerals or not.

  “I mind,” she said firmly. “Tell you what, if you promise to help Anna and me put all the chairs and tables away after the shower, you can appease your sugar buzz with one of the cookies you and Maddie and I made last night.”

  He grinned and reached for one. “Can I take one to Mad? She’s in her room.”

  “As long as you don’t forget where you were taking it and eat that one too along the way.”

  “I would never do that!” he protested, with just a shade too much offended innocence.

  Julia shook her head, smiling as she put the finishing touches on the cake.

  Simon paused at the doorway. “Can we eat our cookies outside and play with Conan for awhile since the rain finally stopped?”

  “Of course,” she answered. After an entire week straight of rain, she knew both of her children were suffering from acute cases of cabin fever.

  A moment later, she heard the door slam then the pounding of two little sets of feet hurtling down the stairs, joined shortly after by enthusiastic barking.

  Unable to resist, she moved to the window overlooking the backyard just in time to see Maddie pick up an armful of fallen leaves and toss them into the air, her face beaming with joy at being outside to savor the October sunshine. Not far away, Conan and Simon were already wrestling in the grass together.

  The two of them loved this place—the old house, with its quirks and its personality, the yard and Abigail’s beautiful gardens, the wild and gorgeous ocean just a few footsteps away.

  They were thriving here, just as she had hoped. They already had good friends at school, they were doing well in their classes. Maddie’s health seemed to have taken a giant leap forward and improved immeasurably in the nearly two months they had been in Cannon Beach.

  She should be so happy. Her children were happy, her job was working out well, they had all settled into a routine.

  So why couldn’t she shake this lingering depression that seemed to have settled on her shoulders as summer slid into autumn? She shifted her gaze from the Brambleberry House yard to another house just a few hundred yards up the beach.

  There was the answer to the question of why she couldn’t seem to shake her gray mood. Will Garrett. She hadn’t seen him since their disastrous encounter nearly two weeks earlier but her insides still churned with dismay when she remembered his blunt words telling her to leave him alone, and then her own presumptuous reply.

  She had been way out of line to bring Robin and Cara into the whole thing, to basically accuse him of dishonoring his wife and daughter’s memory simply because he continued to push Julia away.

  She had had no right to tell him how he ought to grieve or to pretend she knew what his wife might have wanted for him. She had never even met the woman.

  Because of her lingering shame at her own temerity, she was almost grateful she hadn’t seen him since, even to catch a glimpse of him through the pines as he moved around his house.

  That’s what she told herself, anyway. If she stood at her window at night watching the lights in his house, hoping for some shadow to move across a window, well, that was her own pathetic little secret.

  With one last sigh, she forced herself to move away from the window and return to the kitchen and the cake. A few moments later, with a final flourish, she judged it ready and carefully picked it up to carry it downstairs to Anna’s apartment.

  Since her arms were full, she managed to ring the doorbell with her elbow. Anna opened almost immediately. Though she smiled, Julia didn’t miss the troubled expression in her eyes.

  She was probably just busy setting up for the shower, Julia told herself. She knew Anna had been distracted with problems at her two giftshops as well, though she seemed reluctant to talk about them.

  Julia smiled and held out the cake. “Watch out. Masterpiece coming through.”

  Anna’s expression lifted slightly as she looked at the autumn-themed cake, with its richly colored oak and maple leaves and pine boughs, all crafted of frosting.

  Sage wasn’t one for frilly lace and other traditional wedding decorations. Given her job as a naturalist and her love of the outdoors, Julia and Anna had picked a nature theme for the shower they were throwing and the cake was to be the centerpiece of their decorations.

  “Oh! Oh, It’s beautiful!”

  “Told you it would be,” Julia said with undeniable satisfaction as she carried the cake inside Anna’s apartment to a table set in a corner.

  “You were absolutely right,” Sage said from the couch. “I can’t believe you did all that in one afternoon!”

  Julia shrugged. “I don’t have a lot of domestic skills but I can decorate a cake like nobody’s business. I told you I put myself through college working in a bakery, so if the teaching thing ever falls through, I’ve at least got something to fall back on.”

  She grinned at them both and was surprised when they didn’t smile back. Instead, they exchanged grim looks.

  “What is it? What’s wrong? Is it the cake? I tried to decorate it just as we discussed.”

  “It’s not the cake,” Anna assured her. “The cake is gorgeous.”

  “Did somebody cancel, then?”

  “No. Everybody’s still coming, as far as I know.” Sage sighed. “I just hung up the phone with Eben.”

  She frowned. “Is everything okay with Chloe?”

  “No. Nothing like that. Julia, it’s not Eben or Chloe or anything to do with the shower. It’s Will.”

  Her stomach cramped suddenly and for a moment she couldn’t seem to breathe. “What…what’s wrong with Will?”

  “He’s leaving,” Anna said, her usual matter-of-fact tone sounding strained.

  “Leaving?”

  Sage nodded, her eyes distressed. “Apparently he’s taken a traveling job with Spencer Hotels. A sort of
carpentry trouble-shooter, traveling around to their renovation sites and overseeing the work of the local builders. He’s starting right after the wedding. He accepted the job a few weeks ago but apparently Eben didn’t seem to think it was anything worth mentioning to me until just now on the phone, purely in passing.”

  She scowled, apparently at her absent fiancé. Julia barely noticed, too lost in her own shock. Two weeks ago. She didn’t miss the significance of that, not for a minute.

  They had kissed right here in this very living room and she could think of nothing else but how he had all but begged her to leave him alone and then in her hurt, she had said such nervy, terrible things to him.

  Ask yourself if your wife and little girl would want you to spend the rest of your life wallowing in your pain, smothering yourself in it.

  Oh, what had she done? Now he had taken a traveling job with Eben’s company and she could hardly seem to work her brain around it. He was leaving Cannon Beach—the home he loved, his friends, the business he had work so hard to build.

  Because of her.

  She knew it had to be so. What other reason could he have?

  She had made him too uncomfortable, had pushed too hard.

  I can’t imagine Robin would find it any tribute that you want you to close yourself away from life as some kind of penance because she’s gone.

  Her face burned and her stomach seemed to twist into a snarled tangle. What had she done?

  “What do you think, Julia?”

  She jerked her mind back to the conversation to realize Sage was speaking to her and as her silence dragged on, both women were giving her curious looks.

  It was obvious they expected some response from her but as she hadn’t heard the question, she didn’t know at all what to say.

  “I’m sorry. What?”

  “I said that you’ve known him longer than any of us. What could he be thinking?”

  “Oh no. I don’t know him,” she murmured. “Not really.”

  Perhaps that was the trouble, she admitted to herself. She had this idealized image of Will from years ago when she had loved him as a girl. Had she truly allowed herself to accept the reality of all the years and the pain between them?

  She had pushed him, harder than he was ready to be pushed. She had backed him into a corner and he was looking for some way out.

  This was all her fault and she was going to have to figure out a way to make things right. She couldn’t let Will leave everything he cared about behind because of her.

  The doorbell rang suddenly and Conan jumped up from his spot on the floor where he had been watching them. Now he hurried to Anna’s open apartment door, his tail wagging furiously and for one wild moment her heart jumped at the thought that it might be Will.

  Foolish, she realized almost instantly. Why would he be here?

  More likely it was Becca Wilder, the teenager she had hired to corral the twins for the evening while she was busy with Sage’s shower.

  Her supposition was confirmed a moment later when Anna went to answer the door and Julia heard the voice of Jewel Wilder, Becca’s mother and one of Sage’s friends, who had offered to drop Becca off when she came to the shower herself.

  She couldn’t do anything about Will right now, she realized. Sage’s bridal shower was supposed to start any moment now and she couldn’t let the celebration be ruined by her guilt.

  * * *

  Three hours later, as Sage said good-bye to the last of her guests, Julia began gathering discarded plates and cups, doing her best to ignore her head that throbbed and pulsed with pain.

  She knew exactly why her head was pounding—the same reason her heart ached. Because of Will and his stubborn determination to shut himself off from life and because of her own stubborn, misguided determination to prevent him.

  For Sage’s sake, she had done her best to put away her anxiety and guilt for the evening. She had laughed and played silly wedding shower games and tried to enjoy watching Sage open the gifts from her eclectic collection of friends.

  Beneath it all, the ache simmered and seethed, like a vat of bitter bile waiting to boil over.

  Will was leaving his home, his friends, his wife and daughter’s resting places. She couldn’t let him do it, not if he was leaving because of her.

  She carried the plates and dishes into the kitchen, where she found Anna wrapping up the leftover food.

  “It was a wonderful party,” Julia said.

  “I think everyone had a good time,” Anna agreed. “But listen, you don’t have to help clean up. I can handle it. Why don’t you go on upstairs with the twins?”

  “I just checked with Becca and they’re both down for the night. She’s heading home with her mom and is leaving the door open so we can hear them down here.”

  Anna stuck a plate of little sandwiches into her refrigerator, then gave Julia a placid smile.

  “That’s great. Since the twins are asleep, this would be the perfect chance for you to go and talk some sense into Will.”

  Julia stared at her, completely astounded at the suggestion. “Where did that come from?”

  Anna smiled. “My brilliantly insightful mind.”

  “Which I never realized until this moment is a little on the cracked side. Why would he listen to me?”

  “Well, somebody needs to knock some sense into him and Sage and I both decided you’re the best one for the job.”

  “Why on earth would you possibly think that? You’ve both been friends with him for a long time. I just moved back. He’ll listen to what you have to say long before he’ll listen to me.”

  Not to mention the tiny little detail that she suspected she was the reason he was leaving in the first place—and the fact that he had basically ordered her to stay away from him.

  She wasn’t about to admit that to Anna, though.

  “We’re like sisters to him,” Anna answered. “Naggy, annoying little sisters. You, on the other hand, are the woman he has feelings for.”

  She bobbled the plate she was loading into the dishwasher but managed to catch it before it shattered on the floor.

  “Wrong!” she exclaimed. “Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong. Will doesn’t have feelings for me. He…he might, if he would let himself, but he’s wrapped himself up so tightly in his pain he won’t let anyone through. Or not me, at least. No, he absolutely doesn’t have feelings for me.”

  Anna studied her for a long moment, then smiled unexpectedly. “Our mistake, then, I guess. Sage and I were quite convinced there was something between the two of you. Will’s been different ever since you came back to Cannon Beach.”

  “Different, how?” she asked warily.

  “I can’t quite put my finger on how, exactly. I wouldn’t say he’s been happier, but he’s done things he hasn’t in two years. Going for ice cream with you and your kids. Coming to the barbecue with Eben and Chloe without putting up a fight. Sage and I both thought you were slowly dragging him back to life, whether he wanted you to or not, and we were both thrilled about it. He kissed you, didn’t he?”

  Julia flushed. “Yes, but he wasn’t happy about either time.”

  Anna’s eyebrow rose. “There was more than one time?”

  She sighed. “A few weeks ago, when I helped him hang the new moldings in your living room. We had a fight afterward and I said horrible things to him, things I had no right to say. And now I find out he took a job with Eben’s company, and accepted it two weeks ago. I just can’t believe it’s a coincidence.”

  “All the more reason you should be the one to convince him to stay,” Anna said.

  “He told me to stay away from him,” Julia whispered, hurting all over again at the harshness of his words.

  “Are you going to listen to him? Go on,” Anna urged. “I’ll keep an eye on Simon and Maddie for you. There’s nothing stopping you.”

  Except maybe her guilt and her nerves and the horrible, sinking sensation in her gut that she was pushing a man away from everything tha
t he cared about, just so he could escape from her.

  Before she could formulate further arguments, a huge shaggy beast suddenly hurried into the room, a leash in his mouth and Sage right on his heels.

  “Conan, what has gotten into you, you crazy dog?” she exclaimed. “I can put you out.”

  But the dog didn’t listen to her. He headed straight to Julia, plopped down at her feet and held the leash out in his mouth with that familiar expectant look.

  She groaned. “Not you, too?”

  Sage and Anna exchanged glances and Julia was quite certain she heard Sage snigger.

  “Looks like you’re the chosen one,” Anna said with a smile.

  “You can’t fight your destiny, Jules,” Sage piped in. “Believe me, I’ve tried. The King of Brambleberry House has declared you’re tonight’s sacrificial lamb. You can’t escape your fate.”

  She closed her eyes, aware as she did that the pain in her head seemed to have lifted while she was talking to Anna. “I suppose you’re telling me Conan wants me to talk to Will, too.”

  “That’s what it looks like to me,” Sage said.

  “Same here.”

  Julia stared at Anna—prosaic, no-nonsense Anna, who looked just as convinced as Sage.

  “You’re both crazy. He’s a dog, for heaven’s sake!”

  Sage grinned. “Watch it. If you offend him, you’ll be stuck for life giving him his evening walk.”

  “Rain or shine,” Anna added. “And around here, it’s usually rain.”

  She studied them all looking so expectantly at her and gave a sigh of resignation. “This isn’t fair, you know. The three of you ganging up on me like this.”

  In answer, Sage clipped the leash on Conan’s collar and held the end out for Julia. Anna left the room, returning a moment later with Julia’s jacket from the closet in the entryway.

  “What if Will doesn’t want to talk to me?”

  It was a purely rhetorical question. She knew perfectly well he wouldn’t want to talk to her, just as she was grimly aware she was only trying to delay the inevitable moment when she had to gather her nerve and walk down the beach to his house.