Redemption Bay (Haven Point Book 2) (Contemporary Romance) (19 page)

She glanced up at her sister. She had almost forgotten Dev was still there.

“You’re doing fine from here,” McKenzie assured her, then realized what she said and winced. “Sorry.”

Devin only smiled briefly before she took on that worried look again. “You’re right. That’s enough for both of us. You might as well tell me what’s going on. What did Connie want?”

Oh, prissy Constance would
hate
being called Connie. It made her smile a little and filled her with deep love and gratitude for her sister.

“She came to gloat. That’s the only reason she was here. To rub our pathetic little noses in it.”

McKenzie wanted to cry suddenly. To cry and then find Ben and slug him hard, right in the gut.

She sank down into the chair where the remains of her Chinese takeout still littered the table. “How
could
he?” she practically wailed.

Devin sat down beside her, that worried look a little more pronounced. “Who are we talking about? What’s going on? Who’s got you so upset? Not Connie, is it?”

McKenzie drew in a deep breath. She was annoyed with Connie. Constance. She was
furious
with someone else entirely.

“Ben. I wasn’t supposed to talk about it but I guess it doesn’t matter now. We were in the running for a new Caine Tech facility.”

Devin’s eyes widened. “Really? That would be amazing!”

“It would, except apparently Ben has decided Shelter Springs would be a better fit.”

She said the other town’s name like the most vile curse word she could think of, and right now it felt that way.

Devin sat back in surprise. “Really? Why? And when did he decide this?”

Had he known this whole time? When they were out on his boat with the boys last evening, or, the night before, while they watched fireworks bursting out over the lake and he had kissed her with such sweet hunger?

They were
friends
, damn it. She had confided in him about her life after coming here. He had told her about how difficult Joe had been and then his mother’s shocking revelation about Dr. Warrick the night before.

She had trusted him, kissed him, embraced him. She was falling for him...

She shied away from that, focusing instead on her deep sense of hurt. Why wouldn’t he have thought to mention, in all those conversations, that he had already decided the new facility should be built in Shelter Springs?

“I doubt Haven Point was ever even a serious contender,” she said, in a voice that wobbled just a little. “He doesn’t care about this town at all. I don’t know how many times he has to prove that to me over and over again.”

Devin gave her that careful look again, the one that always made her feel as if her sister could see straight through all her pretense to her very heart.

“Before you take the word of Constance Martin, maybe you need to get Ben’s side of things.”

“He’s given me his side of things. He told me from the very beginning he had strong reservations about Haven Point and was only here because Aidan insisted.”

She should have listened to him. She stupidly thought she could change his mind, that if only he spent a little time in town, he would come to love it as much as she did, as much as Eliza and Aidan did, as much as the people who lived here did.

Devin cleared the rest of their takeout from the table, stowing the leftovers in the little mini refrigerator in the corner.

“I’m going to get out of your way, since you’ve got to finish the arrangement and I’ve got to be at the senior center in half an hour. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“I’m fine.” McKenzie forced a smile. “Thank you for lunch. I’m sorry it ended like this.”

“Seriously. Talk to Ben. And call me after you do, okay?”

“I will. ’Bye, sis.”

Devin hugged her, reached out and adjusted one of the orchids and then hurried out of the room, leaving McKenzie with her anger.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

B
EN
WAS
SO
TIRED
, right now as he walked into his vacation rental, he wanted to open every window to the breeze coming off the water, climb into bed and crash for about a week.

He hadn’t slept more than an hour the night before, still reeling from the news his mother had dropped on him. He felt like the survivor of a massive earthquake, where everything in his world had been shaken, shattered and rearranged.

Finding out Joe wasn’t his father—and that Dr. Warrick
was
—still seemed like an interesting abstract concept that wasn’t at all grounded in reality. Every time he closed his eyes, though, he relived the moment when his mother had blurted out the truth, after all these years.

He hadn’t called her. He would have to at some point but he wasn’t ready. Not yet.

Hondo whined to be let out and Ben forced himself to engage instead of standing in the doorway in a stupor.

“Come on. Outside.”

He headed for the back door and opened it for the dog, who immediately raced outside in relief and gratitude.

The vacation rental had definitely been a good idea. Even if Ben hadn’t had Hondo with him on this trip to complicate everything, he would have favored this over an impersonal hotel room in Shelter Springs. He liked the extra room, he liked having a kitchen even if he wasn’t much of a cook and he loved the private dock. If he were going to have a house on a lake somewhere, a dock was a necessity.

He stood out on the patio looking down at the lake in the moonlight. Twenty-four hours ago, his life had changed completely. He still couldn’t take it in.

Hondo raced to the nearest tree to take care of business—not the kind that needed scooping, yay—then started sniffing around the yard, looking for interesting scents. Ben took a seat in the Adirondack chair on the terrace, feeling some of the tension that had gripped his shoulders in sharp talons begin to ease.

He enjoyed watching the dog. Playing with him, walking, petting him was
restful
somehow, in a chaotic, intense world.

What was he going to do about the dog when he left here in a few days?

In light of everything else that had been going on in his world, that question had slipped a little down the priority chain but now, watching the dog, it reemerged.

If only he could figure out a way to carve a space for Hondo in his world...but it wouldn’t be at all fair to the dog. He worked fourteen-hour days and didn’t have any live-in household help to take care of his needs. An active German shepherd would find all kinds of mischief to get into if left alone all day in that big house.

He supposed he could hire a dog sitter, but that seemed indulgent and also not really fair to the dog.

He would just bite the bullet and talk to Aidan, see if Jim and Sue, Aidan’s caretakers at Snow Angel Cove, could take on another dog.

As if knowing he occupied Ben’s thoughts, Hondo wandered up to the porch, tail wagging, and came closer, looking for a little attention. He complied, scratching between his ears and petting him. He would miss the dude, though.

Hondo’s big, alert shepherd ears suddenly perked up and a second later he took off next door, almost before the terrace light came on and McKenzie and Rika walked out.

He was aware of a little catch in his chest as he caught sight of her, a strange shifting and settling. She greeted the dog and immediately looked over to his house. He lifted a hand in greeting, though he wasn’t sure whether she could see him, since she didn’t wave back or call a greeting.

He hesitated for a moment, that exhaustion weighing on him, then he decided he should at least go over and say hello and thank her for her concern the night before. He didn’t remember it all with perfect clarity but he had a feeling he hadn’t been at his most gracious.

“Evening,” he said, when he reached her terrace.

“Hello.” Her voice was as clipped as Mr. Twitchell’s hedges.

She made no move to come closer to him. Indeed, he could sense by her posture and what he could see of her expression in the dim outside lighting that she didn’t seem very happy to see him. He frowned, wondering what he’d done. He was too tired to deal with this tonight. Maybe he should have stayed on his own side of the property line.

He was here. He should at least do what he came to do.

“Thank you for listening to me last night. It’s a strange situation and I appreciate the listening ear.”

“Have you spoken with your mother?” she asked, still in that cool voice.

“Not yet. I plan to call her tomorrow.”

“That’s probably a good idea. It would be cruel to leave her hanging too long.”

“Right.”

They lapsed into an awkward silence, something unusual for the two of them. Usually he had no problem talking to her but he couldn’t quite gauge her mood right now, maybe because of the fatigue that seemed to have soaked into his bones.

He was about to tell her good-night, grab Hondo and head back to the vacation rental when she broke the silence.

“How was your dinner?” she asked.

He stared at the unexpected question. Was that why she was pissed? That he dared share a meal with the mayor of the town she considered a rival? “The company was a little stuffy but the food was good,” he said calmly. “Catered, I understand, from Serrano’s.”

“No wonder it was good, then.”

He narrowed his gaze. “How did you know I was having dinner?”

“Most people do. Every day, even. It seemed a logical assumption.”

He sensed more to the story. Somehow she knew
where
he’d eaten dinner and wasn’t happy about it. He hadn’t been all that thrilled, either, but it was all part of what he had come here to do.

“Constance Martin stopped into the store today,” McKenzie finally said, her voice cool. “She came in ostensibly to order flowers, but mostly to gloat.”

He had tried to keep an open mind about the Shelter Springs mayor and his wife but ten minutes into their dinner party, he had decided Wallace seemed the decent sort but Constance grated on him. She was one of those women who pretended to hang on to his every word. After ten minutes, he found her extremely annoying. He had never been the sort who needed the constant ego gratification of relentless simpering.

“To gloat about what?” he asked McKenzie. “That she and her husband were hosting a stuffy dinner party for me and a bunch of prosy city council members?”

“Don’t bother pretending.” Now her voice wasn’t simply irritated, it was harsh and angry, a tone he had never heard from her before. Where was this coming from?

“Constance was delighted to tell me all about the new facility Caine Tech is building in Shelter Springs—which, by the way, she informed me in a rather condescending way would be nothing but good for Haven Point. She told me you’ve made your decision, that you’ve all but signed the deal to set up shop in Shelter Springs.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Is that right?”

This was all news to him.

“You never had any intention of putting the Caine Tech facility in Haven Point, did you? We were never a serious contender. You only came to appease Aidan. Admit it.”

If he weren’t so tired, he might have been able to handle this in a far more diplomatic way. His usual savvy communication skills seemed to be floating on the night breeze out to the middle of the lake.

“My position on the matter was never a secret to you or to Aidan,” he finally said.

“You made me think otherwise! These last few days, you made me hope Haven Point might have a chance. The last thing I expected is that you would go with Shelter Springs!”

The betrayal in her voice stung—and, worse, made him question everything of the past few days. She had been so sweet to him. Those tender kisses out by the lake, the evening out on his boat with her friend’s sons, that embrace on the dock the night before that had been both comforting and healing.

He couldn’t help thinking of all the times in school when people only wanted to be his friend because his family was relatively well-off and lived in a huge, sprawling house by the lake, because his father owned the boatworks where many of
their
fathers were employed.

Little had changed after Caine Tech exploded onto the high-tech scene. As one of the founders and highest-ranking executives of a multi-billion-dollar company, he was used to people trying to curry favor with him.

Was she really no different from Constance Martin, just better at hiding her obsequiousness?

Anger growled to life, probably magnified by his exhaustion. He was used to exhibiting ironclad control—his childhood had taught him that—but right now it seemed beyond him.

“Is that what these last few days have been about? You just trying to push your cause? I have to say, Mayor, you really go above and beyond for your town.”

She drew in a sharp breath. “I’m not going to justify that with a response.”

“You seem very quick to make assumptions about my behavior. All I did was have dinner in Shelter Springs. What’s so wrong about that?”

“It’s not about the dinner! It’s about the deception. You made me think we had a chance. Why did you even waste time coming here in the first place? You never would have considered Haven Point, even though Aidan wanted you to.”

He didn’t want to do this right now. He wanted to grab his dog and head back into his rental house. No, he wanted to pack up his Delphine and get the hell out of this town that had brought him nothing but trouble.

Except those sultry kisses.

And a fledgling friendship that had come to mean something to him, one he had apparently destroyed.

“You know the worst part?” she said, a wobble of pain in her voice. “I was starting to think maybe you weren’t the evil creature I painted you all this time, when you didn’t bother to pay more attention while your incompetent property manager was shoving this town into an early grave. I can’t believe I was so wrong. You’re worse. You had an unhappy childhood here. I’m sorry for that but I can’t forgive you for punishing the people of this town because of it.”

“I’m not punishing anyone,” he exclaimed. “That’s ridiculous.”

“What does Shelter Springs have that Haven Point doesn’t? Answer that!”

“Besides bridges that aren’t falling apart, roads that have been better maintained and a wider tax base, you mean?”

“We would have all those things if not for you!”

Any last clinging tendril of restraint seemed to have gone to sleep without him. “Okay. You want truth, Mayor Shaw, I’ll give you truth. Constance Martin is crazy. I don’t know where she got the idea I’d settled on Shelter Springs but the reality is, I have no intention of recommending Shelter Springs
or
Haven Point to Aidan for the new facility. I think moving anywhere near Lake Haven would be a financial and strategic mistake. I am sticking with my original recommendation, that we expand our existing satellite office outside Portland, where we already have a base.”

“Portland.”

She sank into a chair looking defeated and small suddenly.

He ran a hand through his hair. He shouldn’t have sprung it on her like this. He didn’t know how he would have told her—maybe in an email or a memo, or just let Aidan do the honors. But that would have been cowardly. He supposed it was better this way, even though it hurt.

“On a purely financial basis, it would be a huge mistake to move here, sixty miles from a major airport in a mountain valley with harsh weather and no institute of higher education to cull graduates. Neither town is ideal. In Portland, we already have one facility in place, we own enough surrounding land to expand it and the infrastructure is already set up for our needs. It’s the only logical decision and I’m sure Aidan will see that.”

She nodded curtly once, twice. “I...see. Well. Yes. That does make sense. Logic is everything, isn’t it? Thank you for being frank.”

“Kenzie—” He felt terrible, suddenly, as if he’d just kicked several cute, cuddly kittens into the lake.

“No need to apologize. It’s a business decision. I get it. I suppose it’s some comfort to know you were stringing Shelter Springs along, too.”

She placed her hands on her thighs as if she couldn’t quite get up without bracing herself, then rose to her feet. “I do wonder how far you were going to let things go between us before you told me the truth. Would you have told me if I’d slept with you?”

“I didn’t intend for any of this between us when I came here. It just...happened.”

He had come to care for her, more than any other woman he’d ever met. Yet another thing he was too tired to deal with right now.

“Many mistakes
do
just happen,” she retorted. “The only thing you can do is move on and try to make sure they don’t happen again.”

She grabbed Rika and headed back to her house without another word, leaving him cold, suddenly, though the evening was pleasant.

Hondo gave a pathetic sort of whine and Ben refused to think how perfectly it echoed the emotions chasing through him.

What a mess, he thought as he made his way back across the lawn to his house. The hell of it was, he didn’t know what he could have done differently. He had
told
her, straight up, that he was against moving the facility to Haven Point. If she chose to believe he might be changing his mind, that wasn’t on him, was it?

Right now he was heartily sick of this town. Could he leave in the morning? No, he realized. Not with everything still out there with his mother. He needed to at least meet with Doc Warrick, to figure out if they could forge some sort of new relationship, after all these years.

After that, he would load up the Delphine, drive away and leave all this pain behind.

* * *

M
C
K
ENZIE
LET
HERSELF
into her house, holding tight to Rika’s collar to keep the dog from lunging back outside until she could safely close the door behind them.

She couldn’t believe she had been such a fool. It was one thing to pin her hopes for the town’s future on the man. It was another thing entirely for her to start secretly wondering if the two of
them
might actually have a future together.