Driftwood Lane (4 page)

But he was the logical choice, wasn’t he? As he turned up the familiar flagstone path, he recalled Eva’s merciless teasing about his being a confirmed bachelor. And he was. He’d told his sister more than once that he wasn’t even sure he wanted kids. But these children were his blood relatives, the only ones he had left. He wished he’d never said those things to Eva.

But none of that mattered now because T. J.’s daughter had legal rights to the kids, according to Noelle. And if he knew anything, he knew how complicated bureaucracy could be. It had stolen too much from him. There was nothing he could do about those years, but no way would he let them bungle his niece’s and nephews’ lives.

When he neared the porch, Piper raced around the corner.

“Hey, girl.” He rubbed behind her ears, then took the porch steps, steeling himself for the fact that Eva wouldn’t be waiting with a gentle hug. Steeling himself for the stranger inside. The one who surely had ulterior motives.

If she’d taken the kids to get the property, she wasn’t going to come out and say so. He had to be smart. Careful. He needed to get a read on her.
Wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove
, like the Bible said.

He started to turn the doorknob, then his eyes caught on the white paper taped firmly to the door. He read the neatly typed words. P
LEASE KNOCK AND WE’LL BE RIGHT WITH YOU.
T
HANK YOU
.

What the . . . ? It was a bed-and-breakfast. People came and went all the time.

He guessed the note applied to uncles too. Shaking his head, he dropped his duffel bag on the bench beside the door and knocked. He wondered what other rules she’d implemented. Eva and T. J. had been pretty relaxed.

He rubbed his jaw, feeling the whiskers he hadn’t shaved in a couple days. He was wearing his old
Comfort Heating and Plumbing
T-shirt and a faded pair of jeans. Maybe he should’ve gone to his loft first, been more presentable. But then, who was he trying to impress?

The door opened, and his eyes lowered to the face of an attractive brunette with wide brown eyes and a guarded smile. She was small with curves in all the right places. She didn’t
look
crazy, but after researching the illness, he knew the phases of depression and mania could be separated by periods of normality.

“May I help you?”

Before he could respond, her eyes dropped to his T-shirt. “Oh, you’re with Comfort.” She checked a clipboard, and a tiny frown puckered her eyebrows. “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow, but no matter. Come in.”

Jake offered a stilted smile, then stepped over the threshold. He should explain. He didn’t work for Comfort during the winter, though he was sure his buddy Wyatt would be glad to have him back early. Still, he should correct her.

But then he glanced to the left, where the kids’ school photos stair-stepped up the wall. Noelle’s cute freckles, Max’s dimpled smile, Benny’s missing tooth. Then he glanced back at the woman, possibly a mentally unstable woman, who held their futures in her greedy little palms.

Wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove . . .

Five

Raw manpower. Those were the first words that entered Meridith’s mind as the man from Comfort Heating and Plumbing stepped over the threshold and shrank the room in half. She held Piper outside with her knee, then shut the door and pulled the clipboard to her chest, sizing the man up. He had a certain restrained energy. Confident. No, cocky. There was a definite cockiness to his square jawline and direct stare.

And he was staring.

So was she. She cleared her throat. “I’m Meridith Ward.”

He held out his hand. “Jake.”

He had brown eyes. Caramel, really.

His hand swallowed hers in a firm, warm grip, then released it just as quickly. She swiped it down her leg as if she could erase the touch.

“I have an extensive list of repairs and projects, and I’m in the process of getting bids.” She perused her list. “You’re licensed for heating and plumbing?”

“Right.” He had a nice voice. Smooth, deep. Like good espresso.

“Let’s start with the boiler then. It’s in the basement.” She wound her way through the dining room and down the wooden stairs, conscious of Jake’s presence behind her. These bids were eating up her days, between the heating, plumbing, carpentry, and electrical problems.

“Well, there she is.” Meridith gestured to the boiler and explained the problem they were having keeping the house warm.

While Jake looked it over, Meridith paced. She’d come to a couple crucial decisions in the past week. Number one: Uncle Jay was not getting his hands on her siblings. She’d heard enough from Ben and Max to realize why she’d been her father’s first choice. The uncle was little more than a vagabond, irresponsible and lacking in good reasoning skills.

Number two: She would accept guardianship of the children. What other choice did she have? She couldn’t let them go to foster care, and according to Mr. Thomas there was no one else. Her fiancé was a reasonable and loving man. He’d understand once she got up the nerve to tell him.

Number three: She couldn’t uproot the children in the middle of the school year. She’d let them finish the year, then they’d move back to St. Louis. She lived in a nice neighborhood in a great school district, and while her house wasn’t huge, there were three bedrooms and a cozy fenced-in yard. Meanwhile, she’d get Summer Place up to snuff so it would sell quickly and painlessly.

She’d finalized the financial matters with Mr. Thomas and signed the guardianship paperwork. T. J. and Eva had a small life insurance policy, but after funeral costs, there wasn’t much left. When she did get the check, she wanted to put it back for the children’s college fund anyway.

Thank goodness there were enough funds in the business bank account to make the repairs on the house. At least, she thought there would be. She was only beginning to receive bids. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much equity in the place, apparently due to a second mortgage Eva and T. J. had taken out a couple years before.

She didn’t know why her father and Eva hadn’t made the repairs already. Some of the problems were potential health risks; others were lawsuits waiting to happen.

Unfortunately, when she’d requested an extension on her leave of absence, her boss denied it. It was the children or her job. She’d chosen the children.

So when she returned to St. Louis, she’d be looking for another job, but with her connections and experience, she was confident she could find one. In the meantime, paying her mortgage back home would eat into her savings, but it couldn’t be helped.

“All right, got what I need,” Jake said.

Meridith led him back upstairs to inspect the dishwasher. Did he have to walk so close behind her? She jogged up the remaining few steps and turned toward the kitchen.

“Nice place,” he said as they entered the kitchen. “Had it long?”

“Uh, no.” She crossed the room, her heels clicking on the tile. “The dishwasher’s been leaking.” She moved in front of the sink.

“Let’s have a look.”

Meridith turned on the faucet and washed her hands, then dried them on a nearby towel. When she turned, Jake was inches away. She hadn’t realized he was so . . . broad. There was something about him. He was like a cougar ready to spring. Contained passion. She pressed her spine to the sink ledge.

His jaw sported at least two days’ stubble. His upper lip dipped in the middle, just the right size for a fingertip.

“Need in there,” he said.

Under the sink. Of course. Heat flared up her neck, into her cheeks. She bolted across the room while he opened the cupboard and sank down to his knees, straining his Levis.

He was
so
not getting this job.

He looked under the sink, fiddled with the pipes and hose. Meridith turned and stared out the window. The sun sparkled off the water, blinding. The ocean continued for miles, disappearing into a hazy sky.

She was so far from home. So far from all that was familiar. No wonder she was jumpy. Her life was on hold, her job gone. Then again, what did she expect when she’d requested three months’ leave. Still, she’d never taken so much as a vacation.

“Looks like a crimp in the hose. New one, and you’ll be leak-free.”

Well, that was good news. The last guy made it sound worse. Maybe they wouldn’t need a new dishwasher after all.

Jake pressed on the cabinet base. “Looks like you’ve got water damage, though.” He sat back on his haunches.

“I have some carpenters coming to bid on it and a few other projects.”

She pretended to jot a note on her clipboard as he sprang to his feet, surprisingly agile for his height.

“I do carpentry.”

“Are you licensed?”

“In pretty much everything—can build a house from the ground up and then some.”

Oh. Working with one contractor would be more convenient than five or six. But there was still the matter of cost. And the matter of—

Her eyes darted toward him, then back to the clipboard. She found herself hoping for a high bid.

“Well, let me show you the other projects. The first thing I want completed is a divider between the main house and the family wing.” She led him to the staircase. “I’d like a door here with a double cylinder dead bolt. Something heavy-duty like metal and— do you have a notebook or something?”

“Good memory.”

Strike two. Detail-oriented people got the job done right, in her experience. He’d be lucky if he remembered every project. The thought comforted her as she took him upstairs, pointing out the missing banister, the switch in the bathroom, and the corridor that needed a doorway.

“I’d like to keep the business going while repairs are being made.” She didn’t know why she said that. He was not getting the job.

“I’ll work around your schedule,” he said when they were descending the main staircase. “What are your plans for the place?”

That information was given on a need-to-know basis, and he didn’t need to know. “Just getting the place up to code.”

She went to the front door and pulled it, eager to see the back of him. When she turned, she found herself wishing she’d worn higher heels. It didn’t help that the man didn’t seem to have a regard for personal space.

Meridith cleared her throat. “Well, get back with me and let me know how much we’re looking at.”

He nodded. “Will do.”

She closed the door and loosened the clipboard from the clutches of her cramped arms. Removing the pen from the clamp, she followed the list of contractors down to the words
Comfort Heating and Plumbing
and scratched through it with a dark, deep line.

Six

Jake set the flowers on the mound of dirt beside a collection of clusters in varying stages of decay. A breeze ruffled the cellophane and carried the tang of salt and the earthy smell of freshly turned dirt.

It hadn’t seemed real until two minutes ago when he’d found T. J.’s and Eva’s fresh gravesites at the foot of a barren tree. She really was gone. His beautiful, sweet, funny sister. He would never again walk into one of her warm hugs or pester her until she smacked him on the arm. She would never serve him up a platter of eggs and bacon and tease him about his bottomless stomach. His eyes burned and he clenched his jaw, fighting the emotion.

They were in a better place now. He could be thankful for that. Eva had never been shy about her faith. He stared at the clusters of browning flowers, a tangible reminder of the time that had passed since their deaths, and a hollow spot formed inside.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he said.

The kids had been Eva’s world. If she were watching from heaven these past weeks, he was sure she was screaming for him to get his roaming butt back to Nantucket and see to the kids.

But she and T. J. had left Meridith in charge. The realization was a sucker punch. They’d thought he wouldn’t want to be saddled with three kids, that he wouldn’t rearrange his life for them, that he was too unsettled.

Maybe it was true. It wasn’t something he could’ve seen himself doing before. But now . . . now he was the kids’ only lifeline. He couldn’t turn his back on them.

He was certain Eva never dreamed it would come to this. How often were kids orphaned these days? He felt a sense of déjà vu.

But the unthinkable had happened. And now that woman had legal guardianship of his niece and nephews. His chest expanded and deflated rapidly.

He reviewed the time he’d spent with Meridith that morning. Why was she having all the work done on Summer Place? Was she going to sell it and move the kids away? Away from their home, their school, their friends? The poor kids wouldn’t know what hit them. Was she even capable of making rational decisions?

He stared at the freshly turned earth. Those kids weren’t going to suffer more than they already had. Not on his watch. And he sure wasn’t going to stand by while this stranger stripped them of everything familiar and subjected them to God knows what.

“I’ll take care of them, Eva. I promise.” He swallowed over the lump in his throat, backing away.

When he turned toward the road, he checked his watch. He had just enough time to shower and call Wyatt at Comfort Heating and Plumbing before the kids’ school dismissed.

Jake leaned his elbow out his truck window, watching the front doors of the school as if he could will them to open and produce his niece and nephews. Now that his plan was in motion he was impatient to proceed.

A line of yellow buses snaked along the drive waiting for kids. Would he have time to explain? Was it too much to expect from them, especially young Benny?

But he had to do it. The opportunity couldn’t be coincidental. It was almost as if Eva were orchestrating it from heaven. He wasn’t going to blow it.

He hopped from the truck and went to stand behind the nearest tree. He was grateful he had the pickup, but he missed his cycle. He’d called Levi from his loft, and the man had already arranged shipment.

A faint bell trilled, and Jake took two automatic strides closer to the front door. He had to be careful. It wouldn’t do to be recognized by anyone but the kids. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and waited, praying they wouldn’t be the last stragglers.