Читать книгу Moonlight Cove - Sherryl Woods, Sherryl Woods - Страница 9

Megan looked up from the canvas she was framing in preparation for an upcoming show at the gallery to see Mick heading her way, a scowl on his face.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked her husband when he’d settled on a nearby stool in the workroom behind the gallery.

“I just spotted our daughter—”

“Which one?” Megan interrupted to ask.

“Jess. She was storming off from that sandwich shop up the street looking as if she was itching for a fight. She didn’t even turn around when I called out to her.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t follow her,” Megan said dryly.

“Did you not hear me?” Mick asked impatiently. “I said she looked like she wanted a fight. Even I know better than to try to deal with her before she’s calmed down.”

Megan smiled. “So, you have learned a few new tricks since we remarried,” she teased.

Mick scowled. “Will you stop worrying about me and my tricks? We need to focus on our youngest daughter. Something’s up with her, Meggie. She’s not happy. I tried to get some information out of Connor and Heather, but they clammed up on me.”

Megan regarded him with confusion. “What do Connor and Heather have to do with this?”

“That’s who Jess couldn’t get away from fast enough, at least that’s how it looked to me.” He frowned. “Or maybe it had something to do with Will.”

Now he had Megan’s full attention. “Will? He was there?”

“At the next table, with some woman I’ve never seen before. A pretty little thing.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Jess wouldn’t be upset by that, would she?”

Megan didn’t know how to respond. She’d thought for some time now that Will and Jess had unacknowledged feelings for each other, but she’d kept her suspicions from Mick. He wasn’t the kind of man who could sit back and let things happen at their own pace. He’d been fretting about Jess’s lack of a social life for some time now. He’d be meddling the instant he saw any reason for it.

“I have no idea,” she said eventually, which was true enough. Jess had never once mentioned to her that she felt any attraction to Will.

Mick studied her skeptically. “Why do I get the feeling that was an evasive answer? Did you leave some kind of loophole in there?”

“Why would I do that?” she asked, hoping her tone sounded innocent enough to fool him.

“Because you don’t want me interfering,” he said at once. “You think I lack tact.”

She chuckled despite herself. “I know you lack tact.”

“So you are deliberately hiding something from me,” he concluded. “Are those two involved? Will and Jess, I mean.”

“Not that I know of,” Megan insisted with total honesty.

Mick’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “But you suspect something, don’t you?”

She regarded him with impatience. “Mick, have you learned nothing from our other children? Meddling only makes things worse.”

“Which means there’s something going on you don’t want me meddling in,” he said triumphantly. “I knew it! Jess ran off because Will was there with another woman. Seeing him there upset her.”

His momentary delight in having figured that out faded almost instantly. “If that man hurt Jess, he’ll answer to me, by God!”

He started to rise, but Megan put her hand on his arm and locked her gaze with his. “Unless Jess comes to you and asks for your help, you will stay out of this, Mick O’Brien. Neither of us has any idea what’s going on with those two, if anything. If you go after Will, you could be making matters worse. You might even be humiliating your daughter.”

Mick sat back down, though he didn’t look happy about it. “Then maybe I should stop by the inn and have a talk with Jess,” he said. “Find out the score for myself.”

Megan cringed at the thought, but rather than telling him flat-out not to go—a waste of breath, if ever there was one—she settled for warning, “If you want to go and visit with Jess, that’s one thing. If you want to cross-examine her about Will or about what happened today, forget it. It’s a bad idea. Jess is her own woman.”

“She’s our baby,” he corrected. “And she always felt that neither of us paid enough attention to her. It may be late, but she has to know we’re here for her now.”

Megan sighed. “No one is more aware that I abandoned Jess when she was barely seven than I am. I think she’s finally come to understand all the reasons behind our divorce. I even think she’s starting to believe that I never stopped loving her. That doesn’t mean she’s ready for me to jump in and start parenting her at this late date. The same goes for you, Mick. We have to let Jess come to us.”

Mick heaved an unhappy sigh. “I don’t like sitting on the sidelines when one of my kids is miserable.”

“I know that,” she said more sympathetically. “But maybe she’s not miserable. Maybe she and Connor had one of their usual spats. That’s possible.”

“I suppose.”

“Why don’t you just drop in at the inn to see if she needs any help?” Megan suggested. “Fridays are always crazy over there once the weekend guests start pouring in. She’ll appreciate the gesture, and you’ll be there if she decides she wants to open up. How about that?”

Mick’s expression brightened. “I can do that. I’ll get the lay of the land and report to you over dinner. Are we still going to Brady’s tonight?”

“Unless you’d like to invite Jess to join us at the house,” she said.

“And have you cooking at the end of a long day?” Mick chided. “I’ll invite her to join us at Brady’s. I’ll call and let you know what she says.” He walked around the counter and kissed her. “Marrying a sensible woman was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

Megan laughed. “Then isn’t it nice that I gave you the chance to do it twice?”

She watched him leave, then shook her head, wondering if sending him over to the inn had been the smart thing to do. She knew all about Mick’s good intentions. They lasted just as long as he wanted them to, then got lost the minute he concluded he knew what was best for everyone.

She could trust him to stick to the plan or she could call and give Jess a heads-up that her father was on his way. Either path had its risks.

In the end, she opted to do nothing. After all, she was the one who’d said her daughter was her own woman now. She had to trust that Jess could handle Mick and his well-meant interference.

Then again, she also knew better than anyone that handling Mick required a delicate balancing act between staunch self-confidence and the quick footwork and blocking skills of an offensive lineman. Otherwise Mick could bulldoze right over you.

Jess had a crowd of new arrivals at the desk trying to check in. Ronnie had vanished twenty minutes ago. She was about two seconds from a nervous breakdown when she glanced up and caught sight of her father.

“What can I do to help?” he asked. “Need me to carry some of these bags for you?”

“Would you?” she asked, not questioning why he’d appeared just when she needed him. She was too grateful to have an extra pair of hands.

“Not a problem,” Mick told her. “Where’s that Forrest kid? I thought this was his job.”

“Don’t get me started,” she muttered, then smiled at the couple who’d just finished registering. “Mr. And Mrs. Longwell, you have a room on the second floor with a view of the bay. Dad, can you help them with their luggage?”

“Of course,” Mick said, grabbing the two small suitcases and heading for the stairs.

He was back by the time she’d finished registering the next guests, two women who’d come from New Jersey. Within an hour, all of the guests had been checked in, and several were already relaxing in the lounge with the inn’s complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. Jess had just taken her first deep breath of the afternoon when her father reappeared.

“Everyone’s settled,” he assured her. “Looks like business is good.”

“It should be like this at least through the end of October,” Jess told him. “We’re almost full for Thanksgiving, too.”

“Good for you,” he said, beaming at her. “You should be proud, Jess. This place is every bit the success you thought it could be. Your mother and I are so happy for you. You’ve done a terrific job.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she said, genuinely appreciative of his praise. “What brings you by, anyway? I’m sure you didn’t come over here to carry suitcases for me, though you were certainly a godsend this afternoon.”

“Happy to pitch in,” he said.

“Would you like a glass of wine or some of Gail’s hors d’oeuvres?”

“Not for me. I wanted to see if you’d like to join your mother and me for dinner at Brady’s tonight, if you’re not busy.”

Jess stilled. “Why?”

“Why not?” he countered. “You deserve a night out, don’t you? Unless you already have plans, of course.”

“Dad, you and Mom are practically still in the honeymoon phase. I know these dinners at Brady’s are your official date nights. Why would you suddenly want me along?”

He flushed guiltily. “We haven’t seen much of you lately, that’s all.”

“I was at the house for dinner last Sunday,” she reminded him. “And I stopped by the gallery for coffee with Mom earlier this week.”

He shrugged. “She didn’t mention that.”

Jess studied her father with a narrowed gaze. “This doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you saw me take off from Panini Bistro earlier, does it?”

Mick frowned. “You heard me calling you?”

“They could have heard you in Ocean City, Dad.”

“Well, why didn’t you stop? You looked upset. I just wanted to make sure everything was all right.”

“I’m sure Connor and Heather filled you in.”

“They didn’t tell me a blasted thing,” he grumbled. “I think I figured out a few things for myself. You want to tell me if I got it right? Did it have anything to do with Will being there with that woman?”

Jess tried not to let it show that his question had thrown her. “Why on earth would you think that?” she asked, hoping to keep a tremor out of her voice.

She had no idea why seeing Will with another woman had shaken her so badly. In fact, she’d told herself initially that her annoyance had been aimed solely at Connor and Heather. Only after she was well away from the restaurant had she conceded to herself that seeing Will on a date, especially one likely arranged by that online dating service of his, had infuriated her.

She forced herself to meet her father’s gaze. “You do know there’s nothing going on between Will and me, right?”

“Is that so?” he said, sounding skeptical. “I’ll admit it was guesswork on my part, but when I ran the theory past your mother, she didn’t deny it was a possibility.”

“So you and Mom have been speculating about this already?” Jess said, having no problem at all making her tone icy. Just the thought of it chilled her. It was a little late in life for the two of them to suddenly start caring about her feelings.

“I’m worried about you,” Mick said unrepentantly. “That’s what fathers do.”

“You didn’t worry all that much when I was seven, did you?” she said accusingly. “Mom had just left, and you were running all over the country on various jobs. Neither of you spent a lot of time taking my feelings into account back then.”

Mick frowned. “Different time,” he said, not even trying to defend the indefensible. “I’m right here now, and I care about what’s going on in your life.”

Jess knew the only way to get him to back off was to tell him some kind of tale that would reassure him. “Look, Connor and I had words earlier, that’s all. It was no big deal. We’ve been fighting since we were toddlers. We always get over it.”

Mick didn’t look entirely convinced. “And that’s all it was, just a spat with your brother? It had nothing to do with Will?”

“Nothing at all,” she insisted. “Everything’s fine with me. I promise I’ll even be speaking to Connor by the time Sunday dinner rolls around.”

“Okay, then,” Mick said, accepting the explanation with obvious reluctance. “And you’re not interested in dinner tonight?”

“I wish I could, but I don’t like to leave here when we’re swamped. One of the guests might need something.”

He pulled her into an embrace, then kissed the top of her head. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

She let go of her irritation, glad to have the matter settled for now. “I will, Dad. I promise. Thanks for helping out this afternoon.”

“Anytime, kiddo.”

She watched him leave, then breathed a sigh of relief, only to jump when she heard Gail’s chuckle right beside her.

“You fibbed to your daddy,” Gail taunted.

“I did what I had to do to throw him off the scent,” Jess told her. “If he had any idea I was annoyed about Will, neither one of us would be safe from Dad’s meddling.”

“Are you scared he’d meddle, or are you terrified he might be good at it?” Gail asked. “Meaning?”

“The way I hear it, once Mick O’Brien sets his mind to something, things usually work out the way he intended.”

“My father can meddle from now till doomsday, and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference when it comes to Will and me,” Jess retorted.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t half as much conviction behind her declaration as there probably should have been.

When another week passed without even one date being arranged by Lunch by the Bay, Jess became even more infuriated. It was worse now that she knew it was Will’s company. It proved just how little he thought of her.

She could practically hear his recitation of all the reasons why he didn’t want to match her with any of the men paying for his service. He thought she was flighty. He thought her dating history was too erratic. He knew her too darned well—or thought he did—and didn’t want to risk his stupid company’s reputation by pairing her up with some poor sap.

Just thinking about the way he’d dismissed her made her see red. Add in the fact that he’d never even acknowledged her enrollment in the service and that he didn’t have the courage to return her money, and she was ready to tear into him if they ever crossed paths.

Not that she intended to go looking for him, of course. In fact, it might be best if they didn’t cross paths for months, maybe even years.

And then, long before she’d had a chance to work off her full head of steam, she spotted him in the bar at Brady’s on a rare Friday night away from the inn.

“There he is, the worm,” she grumbled to Connie and Laila as she got to her feet. The two glasses of wine she’d consumed on an empty stomach made her a little unsteady.

“Sit back down,” Connie pleaded. “Dillon Brady may adore you, but he will not be happy if you cause a scene in his restaurant. It’s the classiest place in town. He doesn’t condone bar brawls.”

Jess turned her attention to Connie. “Then Will should leave,” she declared. “He’s scum. He’s impossible. He’s annoyingly judgmental. And he’s a coward to boot.”

“Talking about me, I assume,” Will said, pulling out a chair to join them.

Connie gave him a warning look. “This may not be the best time,” she murmured.

“Oh, I’m used to having Jess take potshots at me,” he responded easily. “It’s what she does whenever she thinks I’m getting the best of her in a discussion. Instead of offering rational arguments, she resorts to personal attacks.”

Jess’s temper kicked up another notch at his thoroughly condescending tone. “We don’t argue,” she retorted. “You’re just plain stuffy and pompous. You utter decrees as if they’re the gospel truth and we mere mortals shouldn’t dare to question you.”

Will stared at her incredulously. “When have I ever done that?”

“All the time,” she said.

“Name once,” he challenged.

Jess faltered and took a sip of her wine. Unfortunately, specific instances seemed to be lost in the depths of her faintly inebriated brain. “I don’t have to. You know I’m right,” she said, proud of her evasive maneuver.

Will, blast him, merely smiled in that superior way he had that always set her teeth on edge.

“Oh, go away,” she said irritably.

“Not five minutes ago I thought you had things you wanted to say to me. Now’s your chance. Go for it.”

“I changed my mind. It would be a waste of breath. You never listen to a word I say, or at least you never take anything I say seriously.”

“No, go ahead,” he urged. “Bring it on. I can take it.”

Connie sighed. “I think I’ll go up to the bar and get another drink. Laila, you want anything?”

“Are you kidding?” Laila said, standing up. “I’m coming with you.”

“I’ll have more wine,” Jess said.

“Not a chance,” Connie replied.

Her two friends left her sitting there with Will, who seemed to be waiting patiently for her to say something.

“Well?” he urged. “Does this have anything to do with you seeing me at Panini Bistro with a woman last week? You seemed upset.”

“I was not upset,” she said. “Why would I be upset? You mean nothing to me. Less than nothing.”

He didn’t look as if he bought her denial. “Then what’s going on in that head of yours? You’re obviously ticked off at me about something. More than usual, in fact. Just get it out in the open, so we can deal with it.”

“That’s your solution for everything, isn’t it? Talk it to death.”

“I find communication to be helpful, yes,” he said, fighting a smile. “Try it, why don’t you?”

She wanted really badly to wipe the smug expression from his face. “Okay, fine,” she said. “Why haven’t you matched me up with anyone on that stupid computer system of yours? I have half a mind to charge you with fraud or something.”

He lifted a brow. “Fraud?”

“You promise to find dates for people. I paid my money, and I haven’t had a single date! You haven’t even had the gumption just to tell me you’re never going to match me with anyone.”

“Right now there’s no one in the system who’d be a good match,” he said. “I’m adding new clients every day, though. The perfect guy could come along tomorrow.”

“Nice spin,” she said. “We both know it’s because you don’t think I’m good enough. You think I’m a messed-up scatterbrain, and you’re not willing to put your precious reputation on the line to recommend me to one single client.”

To his credit, Will looked genuinely stunned by the accusation. “That’s what you think?”

“It’s what I know,” she said stubbornly, unable to keep a hurt note out of her voice. “You’re supposed to be my friend, even though you know about the ADD. That doesn’t make me a bad person, Will Lincoln. You, of all people, should get that. It doesn’t mean I can’t have a decent relationship. Maybe I haven’t had one up to now, but if this system of yours were any good, you could find the right man for me.”

Will shook his head as her tirade wound down. “You are without a doubt the most exasperating, infuriating, mixed-up woman I have ever known.”

“See?” she said, seizing on his words. “That’s exactly what I mean. You have a very low opinion of me.”

“Hush,” he said, sliding his chair closer.

“Why?”

“Just hush,” he repeated, reaching out a hand to cup the back of her neck.

Jess was so startled, she simply stared at him. “Will?”

He gave her an exasperated look. “Do you not know how to be quiet for just ten seconds?”

He leaned forward and sealed his mouth over hers. The kiss did what nothing else had done. It silenced her. In fact, it pretty much knocked her senseless. Will’s mouth was firm, persuasive, tender.

When he released her, she blinked. “Will?” This time when she murmured his name, she sounded breathless. She was breathless. Talk about an unexpected turn of events! Who knew the man could kiss like that, with barely leashed passion simmering just below the surface?

Dazed, she asked, “What just happened here?”

“There you go again, talking,” he said, once again covering her mouth.

This kiss went on and on until her heart was pounding and she was just about two seconds from ripping the man’s clothes off right where they were. Will’s clothes! That thought had her breaking free and regarding him with shock.

“You kissed me!” she announced, as if he might not be aware of what he’d done.

“I did,” he said calmly, looking disgustingly unruffled by the encounter.

Her gaze narrowed. “Are you going to do it again?”

He smiled, most likely at the disgustingly wistful note in her voice. “I might.”

“When?”

“That remains to be seen.” He stood up.

She stared at him in shock. “You’re leaving? Now?”

“I think it’s best.”

“Why?”

“I’ll let you figure that out on your own. See you, Jess.”

She stared after him as he walked out of Brady’s, then blinked when Connie and Laila sat back down beside her.

“That was interesting,” Connie said, looking amused.

“That was hot!” Laila declared, fanning herself.

When Jess remained silent, Connie gave her arm a tug. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, shaking off the stupor she’d been in since the kiss. She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice when she told them, “Will kissed me. I mean, he really kissed me.”

Laila laughed. “We noticed. Everyone in here noticed. Kate even ran and dragged Dillon out of the kitchen to watch. I’m surprised there weren’t cheers. It was quite the show. If Chesapeake Shores had a TV station, that kiss would be on the eleven o’clock news.”

Still dazed, Jess said, “He said it might happen again.”

“Well, hallelujah!” Laila responded with enthusiasm.

Jess wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened here tonight, but she was pretty sure a few choruses of hallelujahs were definitely in order.

What she didn’t know was what on earth could possibly happen next. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be any more surprising than that kiss.