Moonlight Cove (3 page)

“In this day and age, that’s perfectly understandable. Maybe you should reconsider.”

“I can’t just not show up,” she protested. “That would be rude.”

“Then I’ll come with you,” he said decisively. “Not on the date, of course, but just to be nearby in case there’s a problem.”

She studied him oddly. “You’d do that?”

“I feel obligated to, as a matter of fact. Someone needs to look out for you, and we’re practically family.”

She laughed at the serious note in his voice. “Do you know how old I am?”

“I have some idea. What’s your point?”

“That I’m old enough to look out for myself.”

“Not if this man turns out to be some kind of
smooth-talking predator,” he insisted, his jaw set determinedly.

“Why am I starting to think that stopping by here was a bad idea?” she said, amused despite herself at his overly protective attitude. And maybe a little touched, if she were to be totally honest.

He smiled at her, the smile that always made her toes curl. “Since you obviously aren’t here for my protection, why did you stop by?”

To see that smile, for one thing, she thought but didn’t dare say. Her conflicted feelings for Thomas O’Brien were a constant source of dismay to her. She couldn’t imagine them ever going anywhere. At the same time, she couldn’t seem to stay away. She was drawn to his passion for his work, his caring personality, his wicked sense of humor…to
him,
for that matter.

“I haven’t seen you since the last of the summer events,” she said. “I wanted to catch up on how fundraising is going and see what I can do to help over the winter.”

“Now I’ve had a few ideas about that,” he said at once. “Why don’t we go a bit early to this lunch of yours and have coffee while we wait for your date to arrive? Once I’ve met him and seen for myself that he means no harm, I’ll fade into the woodwork,” he promised.

Connie could see all sorts of things potentially disastrous about that plan, but she couldn’t seem to tell him to forget it. Coffee with Thomas sounded a whole lot better, frankly, than lunch with a total stranger.

“That would be great,” she said.

They walked to the restaurant her date had suggested, chose a table overlooking the nearby Severn River and ordered coffee. Connie was so engrossed in
what Thomas had to say, she barely noticed when another man approached the table and stood looking down at them with an irritated expression on his face.

“You’re Connie Collins?” he asked.

She jumped guiltily. “I am. Steve Lorton?”

He nodded, then scowled at Thomas. “Am I interrupting?”

“Of course not,” Connie said before Thomas could reply. He had an oddly territorial look on his face that she didn’t quite trust. She introduced the two men. “Thomas and I were just discussing the latest progress in his foundation’s efforts to protect the bay. I’ve been doing some volunteer work for him.”

Steve looked somewhat mollified by the explanation, but when Thomas made no move to leave, he was forced to drag a chair over from a nearby table. He sat down next to Connie, as if to claim her for his own. Connie couldn’t recall the last time she’d been caught in a turf war between two men, if ever, but she discovered she didn’t like it nearly as much as she’d always imagined she might.

“Thomas was just leaving,” she announced pointedly, though, to her dismay, he didn’t seem to be budging.

“I’m sure Steve won’t mind if I stick around a little longer,” Thomas said.

His jaw was set in a way Connie recognized. She’d seen it on other O’Brien men often enough.

She was about to push him to leave, anyway, when he added, “There are several more things we need to discuss, Connie.”

Connie stared at him in confusion. “What things?”

“Our plans for next weekend, in fact.”

Now she really was confused. “We have plans?”

“We
do,
” he said emphatically, staring down Steve as he said it.

Steve stood up so suddenly his chair fell over. “Look, I had no idea you were already involved with someone,” he said to Connie, his gaze accusing. “You should have told me.”

Before she could defend herself, he turned and left without another word.

She stared after him, then whirled on Thomas. “Why would you do that? Why would you deliberately chase him off?”

“I didn’t like him,” he said, without even a hint of remorse.

She stared at him incredulously. “I think the point of going on this date was to find out if
I’d
like him.”

“You wouldn’t have,” Thomas predicted. “He’s too self-absorbed.”

“You could tell that from the two minutes he was sitting here?”

“I could tell that when there wasn’t the slightest spark of interest in his eyes when you mentioned protecting the bay.”

She couldn’t deny that. Still, she felt compelled to say, “I think you might be a bit biased when it comes to the bay. Not everyone is as passionate about what you do as you are.”

He held her gaze. “You are,” he said quietly. “Can you honestly tell me you’d be seriously interested in a man who doesn’t care about his surroundings?”

“Probably not, but you don’t get to decide that,” she replied.

“I did you a favor,” he said stubbornly.

She sighed. She could tell she wasn’t going to win
this argument. To be honest, she wasn’t all that unhappy about what he’d done, not if it gave the two of them more time together. She wasn’t sure she liked what that said about her state of mind, but there it was, the honest-to-God truth.

“Let’s say I accept that you
thought
you were doing me a favor,” she said. “I drove all this way to have lunch. Does that mean you’re treating me now?”

His expression brightened and his booming laugh drew smiles from those at nearby tables. “I think it’s the least I can do,” he agreed readily.

“And what about those plans we supposedly have for next weekend?” she asked, suddenly feeling daring in a way she hadn’t in a very long time.

“Dinner at Brady’s on Saturday night?” he suggested.

Despite the little
zing
of anticipation that rushed through her at the suggestion, Connie hesitated. “Brady’s? Are you sure about that?”

“O’Brien turf?” he asked, proving he understood exactly what her concerns were.

“Pretty much.”

“Well, I can’t very well ask you to drive back to Annapolis, can I? We’ll just have to find someplace down there that my family hasn’t discovered. Chesapeake Shores isn’t the only town with restaurants. Leave it to me.”

“Okay,” she said, her hands suddenly shaking so badly she had to set her menu back on the table. Just to be sure she wasn’t misinterpreting what was going on here, she forced herself to meet his gaze.

“Is this a date, Thomas? Or a business meeting? I want to be clear.”

He didn’t answer immediately. In fact, it looked as if he was struggling to decide. “The smart answer would be to call it a business meeting, wouldn’t it?” he said, regret in his voice.

“It would probably be wise,” she agreed, not even trying to disguise her own disappointment. Then she reminded herself that she was over forty, not some shy little teenage wallflower. Thomas O’Brien was the first man in years who’d captured her attention. Why shouldn’t she throw caution to the wind? She looked him directly in the eyes then, and added, “But I’d really hoped it was a date.”

His expression immediately lit up in a thoroughly gratifying way. “Then a date it is!” He hesitated, then said, “But—”

“You don’t have to say it, Thomas. The family doesn’t need to know about any of this.”

“Not that I think there’s anything wrong with the two of us going on a date,” he was quick to say.

Connie laughed. “Believe me, I get it. Once unleashed, the meddling O’Briens are hard to contain.”

“Exactly.” He picked up his menu. “Suddenly I’m starving. I think I’ll have the seafood platter. How about you?”

Connie was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be able to eat a single bite. “A small house salad for me.”

“Nonsense. You need some protein before you have to drive home. At least have the crabcakes. They’re excellent here.”

She gave in because it made no sense to fight him. She knew she’d be regretting that salad halfway home when her stomach started growling. Still, she couldn’t let him have his way about it entirely. It would set a
bad precedent with a man as strong-willed as he obviously was.

“A crabcake sandwich, then,” she compromised.

“Excellent!”

She looked into his blue, blue eyes, sparkling with mirth, and thought she hadn’t been captivated by anyone like this as far back as she could remember, not even Jenny’s father. As much as she’d thought she loved Sam, he’d lacked strength, maturity, passion and compassion, all qualities Thomas personified.

She was smitten, all right. If only the situation didn’t have the potential for heartbreak written all over it.

E
ver since she’d found out that Lunch by the Bay was, indeed, Will’s new enterprise, Jess had been feeling more restless and out of sorts than usual. She’d been avoiding Laila’s calls as well, not sure she wanted to hear about how wonderful the date with Will had been. Jess knew, though, that she couldn’t put her friend off forever. In fact, it was childish that she’d done it this long.

She walked into the inn’s kitchen, where Gail was preparing food for the picnic baskets that several of the guests had requested.

“I’m going to take off for an hour or so,” Jess told her chef. “Call me on my cell phone if you need me.”

“Who’s working out front?”

“Ronnie’s got it.”

Gail regarded her with surprise. “Boy, you must be anxious to get out of here. I thought you didn’t trust Ronnie to handle the desk.”

Ronnie Forrest was in his early twenties, but he had the maturity of a preteen. His father, a friend of Mick’s, had despaired of Ronnie ever getting a responsible job
and holding on to it. Jess had been willing to take a chance on him, but so far the only task he handled without bungling was carrying bags for the guests. More often than not, he could be found in the main lounge watching TV, rather than doing any of the other chores assigned to him.

As frustrating as his malingering was, on some level Jess could identify with him. She’d wondered more than once if he didn’t have an undiagnosed case of the same ADD that had plagued her life.

Jess beamed at Gail. “Which is why you’re going to supervise him while I’m gone. You’re much tougher than I am. Maybe you can get him to take this job seriously.”

Gail didn’t deny her toughness. However, with a lifted brow, she inquired, “And just how am I supposed to keep an eye on him from here in the kitchen?”

“Transfer the calls to your line, if you want to, and bring him in here and assign him to peel onions,” Jess suggested. “Maybe he’ll start to figure out that my threats to fire him if he doesn’t shape up aren’t idle ones.”

Gail regarded her with surprise. “You’ve actually told him his job’s on the line?”

Jess nodded. “Last week. I had no choice after three people complained that no one had answered when they called to make reservations and I found him watching reruns of
Law and Order.
”

“What’s your father going to say?”

“I’ll tell him if he wants to give the guy a break, then
he
should hire him,” Jess said. “It might be best all around. Dad doesn’t tolerate anyone who doesn’t pull their weight on a job. Maybe he’ll even tell Ronnie’s
father to get him tested for ADD, which is what I suspect is going on.”

Gail studied her with surprise. “Seriously?”

Jess nodded.

“And that’s why you keep cutting him slack, despite the tough talk?”

“More than likely,” Jess conceded with a sigh. “Meantime, he’s all yours. I’ll send him in here on my way out.”

Of course, she didn’t find Ronnie in the lobby where he was supposed to be. Nor was he in the lounge. He was on the porch, an Orioles baseball cap pulled low over his eyes, sound asleep. The sight so ticked her off that she grabbed the back of the rocker in which he was seated and came close to upending him right off the porch and onto the lawn.

“What the…!” he muttered as he grabbed a post to keep himself from falling. He scowled at her. “Are you crazy?”

“Not half as crazy as you are, if you think this is an acceptable on-the-job performance,” she said, facing him down and suddenly realizing why Abby spent so much time annoyed with her.

“Did you not understand it when I told you last week that you were getting on my very last nerve?” she asked.

“Chill,” he said. “There’s nothing going on around here.”

“How could you possibly know that when the phone you’re supposed to be answering is inside? I’ve transferred the reservation line into the kitchen. Get in there and help Gail. If I don’t get a rave review from her when I get back, you’re fired. Is that clear enough?” This time,
she simply had to stick to her guns. She wasn’t doing him any favors by letting him get away with this kind of lackadaisical behavior on the job.

He finally looked at least moderately shaken. “Come on, Jess.”

“That’s Ms. O’Brien to you,” she snapped.

He grinned as if she’d said something hysterically funny. “Come on,
Ms. O’Brien,
you know my old man’s going to have a conniption fit if I lose another job.”

“Then don’t lose it,” she said and walked away before she said a few more things about his work ethic that he probably wouldn’t understand anyway. If Devlin Forrest complained to Mick about Ronnie being fired, she’d deal with her father. Insolence and laziness were two traits Mick would never tolerate either. She was confident of that.

Concluding that she needed the fresh air and a long walk to improve her mood, she hiked the mile or so into town, then headed for the bank. At the front desk, she greeted Mariah, then nodded toward the executive offices.

“Is Laila back there? Is she free?”

Mariah nodded. “Go on back. Maybe a friendly face will improve her mood.”

“She’s having a bad day?”

“Days,” Mariah confided, “but don’t you dare tell her I said so.”

“Any idea why?”

“None.”

Jess walked back to the office that had once belonged to Trace before he’d convinced his father that Laila was the one who belonged in it. Trace had done nothing during his brief stint there to make it his own, but Laila
had painted the walls a warmer shade of cream, then added bright splashes of modern art to the walls. The paintings had horrified her father, who thought they weren’t nearly sedate enough for a community bank, but Laila had stuck to her guns. It was the most cheerful room in an otherwise dreary old building.

Laila, however, looked anything but cheerful, at least until she looked up and saw Jess standing hesitantly in the doorway.

“I hear the mood is dark back here,” Jess said. “Is it safe to come in?”

Laila smiled wearily. “Come on in. I promise not to bite your head off.”

Jess took a seat and studied her friend. “You look worn out. What’s going on?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to keep some of our oldest customers from losing their homes to foreclosure,” Laila said. “I thought the economy was turning around, but we’ve still got people around here who are struggling. The board doesn’t want to hear their excuses. I’m arguing for compassion and a little ingenuity. I’m afraid I’m going to lose the battle.”

“I’m sorry. Having been on the other side of a foreclosure notice, I know how awful that is. If it hadn’t been for Abby coming down here to fight for me and straighten out the inn’s finances, who knows what would have happened?”

“But it worked out for you,” Laila said. “The bank knew you were good for the loan, just like I know these people will make good on theirs if we can just cut them a little slack. Putting families out on the street should be a last resort.” She waved off the topic. “Let’s talk about
something else. Do you have time for lunch? It’s been ages since we’ve talked.”

Jess grinned, relieved that the tension she’d been feeling had evaporated once she was actually in a room with her friend. “I was hoping you’d suggest that. Shall we have Connie meet us?”

“Absolutely,” Laila said, placing the call and getting Connie’s immediate agreement to meet them at a new soup and salad restaurant that had opened a few weeks earlier. When she’d hung up, she said, “I would have suggested Sally’s, but Will’s bound to be there, so I figured you’d rather go someplace else.”

“That’s why you’re my friend,” Jess said. “You know me so well. I do want to hear about your date with him, though.”

Laila regarded her doubtfully. “Really? I thought maybe that was why you weren’t taking my calls.”

Jess winced. She should have known Laila would recognize exactly what she’d been thinking. “It was,” she admitted, “but I was being stupid. I want to know everything.”

“And I want to hear about Connie’s date in Annapolis the other day,” Laila said, as she grabbed her purse and they left for the restaurant. “She mentioned he was an accountant. I could have warned her about that. We’re not that interesting, but I didn’t want to scare her off.”

Jess laughed. “I can’t speak for all accountants, but you are the least boring person I know,” she told her. “Maybe she got lucky.”

A few minutes later, though, when they were all seated at an outdoor table facing the bay, Connie squirmed when Laila brought up her date.

Laila regarded her knowingly. “It was a bust, right?”

“Totally,” Connie said, though her cheeks were bright pink. She hesitated, then said, “I wound up having lunch with Thomas, instead.”

Jess stared at her. “Thomas? My uncle?”

Connie nodded. “It just sort of happened. We got to talking about fundraising and stuff, and ended up having lunch. No big deal.”

But Jess could see it
was
a big deal. Laila, however, seemed to accept Connie’s explanation at face value. There were a hundred questions on the tip of Jess’s tongue, but she bit them back.

Connie quickly turned to Laila. “And your lunch with Will? How did that go?” She flushed guiltily, faced Jess and asked, “Are you okay with her talking about this?”

“I wish everyone would stop acting as if Will and I shared some big romance,” Jess complained. “We didn’t. We’ve never even been on a date.”

“Only because he thinks you don’t want to go out with him,” Laila said. “That’s what he told me.”

Jess frowned. “The two of you were talking about me on your date? No wonder your social life sucks.”

“We were talking about you, because you were like this huge elephant in the room. We couldn’t ignore the obvious. He has feelings for you, and contrary to all your claims, I think
you
have feelings for
him.
”

“I think he’s annoying,” Jess said. “Is that what you mean?”

Laila rolled her eyes and Connie chuckled.

“The denials aren’t working for me,” Laila said, then grinned at Connie. “How about you?”

“Nope,” Connie said.

Jess was within a second of blowing that smug
expression off Connie’s face by blabbing what she knew about Connie’s feelings for Uncle Thomas, but when push came to shove, she couldn’t do it. If there was something going on between those two, she didn’t want to be the one to ruin it by getting the whole family in an uproar. Kevin and Connor had obviously felt the same way when they’d sworn her to secrecy.

“Look, you two, think whatever you want,” Jess said. “Will and I would never work as a couple. We barely tolerate each other as friends. And if he were as interested in me as you two seem to think and we were at all suited, wouldn’t that fancy computer program of his have spit us out as a match?”

“He didn’t put his name in when he ran yours through,” Laila revealed.

“See what I mean?” Jess said, seizing on that. “He doesn’t want anything to do with me. That proves it. Let’s just drop this, okay? I don’t want to talk about Will or about the fact that this stupid company of his is a fraud.”

Both of her friends regarded her with dismay. “That’s a little harsh,” Laila said. “Just because Connie’s first date and mine didn’t work doesn’t mean the next ones won’t.”

“You’re going to accept more dates?” Jess asked incredulously.

“Why not?” Laila said. “Nothing’s changed about the reasons we all signed up, right, Connie?”

Connie nodded, though Jess thought her expression looked doubtful.

“I’m game,” Connie said with lackluster enthusiasm.

Laila focused her attention on Jess. “You paid your money. You can’t back out now.”

“Since I haven’t had a single email or phone call, I’m thinking I should demand my money back,” Jess said. “In fact, the next time I see Will, I intend to tell him what I think of this whole ridiculous online dating scheme of his.”

“You have to give it a chance,” Laila insisted. “You don’t want just any old match. It has to be the right one. Give it time.”

“Like you and Will were such a great match,” Jess said sarcastically. “Or Connie and her accountant. Come on, guys, admit this was a mistake. When it comes to this matchmaking stuff, Will is an amateur.”

“I’m not throwing in the towel yet,” Laila replied determinedly. “Neither is Connie, and you promised you were in, too, Jess. Are you going back on your word to us?”

“It’s not as if we’re double-or triple-dating, for goodness’ sakes,” Jess protested. “You two can do whatever you want to do. I’m out.”

“A promise is a promise,” Laila persisted.

Jess sighed and caved. “Okay, fine. I’ll give it a little longer.”

But despite Laila’s optimism and Connie’s reluctant agreement, no one was going to persuade Jess that it wasn’t a big old waste of time and energy.

Will’s client, a single woman who’d despaired of ever finding the right man, arrived for her appointment with a man in tow.

“This is Carl Mason,” Kathy Pierson told Will, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “I hope you don’t mind, but I asked him to sit in on our session today.
We met through Lunch by the Bay, and we’re getting married.”

Will saw the blush on her cheeks and the adoration in Carl Mason’s eyes and realized this was exactly what he’d hoped for when he launched the company. Unfortunately, though, he also knew that Kathy had a way of rushing into things without giving them sufficient thought. What if this was one of those occasions? They couldn’t possibly have had more than a handful of dates. He was pretty sure he’d arranged the match less than two weeks ago.

“When something’s right, it’s right,” Carl told him, obviously picking up on Will’s lack of enthusiasm for the news. “I know it must seem fast to you, but the minute I met Kathy, something clicked.”

“I’m happy for you both. I truly am,” Will assured them. “But marriage is a huge step. Shouldn’t you spend a little more time together before you make that kind of commitment?”

Kathy frowned at him. “I’m forty-six years old. I’ve waited my whole life to meet a man like Carl. I’ve already lost my chance to have children, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late for love. You’re the one who’s been telling me that for months now. I’ve finally found it, and I don’t want to wait.
We
don’t want to wait.”