He met his brother’s dark gaze, watching Shep’s eyes widen as he inclined his head toward Sienna like he was trying to tell Cole something. Shep raised a hand and pointed a finger toward his eye then lowered it to his chest and finally leveled it at Cole.
Eye. Heart. You.
I love you.
Cole still hadn’t said the words out loud, although he’d replayed them in his head countless times over the past week.
“Sienna.”
She swiped a hand across her cheek. “I can’t do this now,” she said softly and took a step away.
“Wait.” He leaned forward so fast he almost slipped off the platform. “Don’t go. Please. I need to talk to you. I need to tell you I love you.”
A chorus of cheers went up from the people watching, and Sienna froze. Cole waited for what seemed like an eternity until she finally lifted an arm, as if she were holding out her hand to him. Instead she reached forward and casually pressed the dunk tank lever.
* * *
Sienna watched Cole drop into the tank with a splash, droplets of frigid water hitting her face and shoulders.
He surfaced a moment later, sputtering and wiping water from his eyes.
“I tell you I love you,” he said, coughing violently, “and you dunk me?”
She shook her head and took a step back. “I dunked you for breaking my heart in the first place.”
He stilled for a moment, then grabbed onto the bars of the cage and pulled himself forward. “I’m sorry.”
“Dunk him again,” a man from the crowd shouted.
“Shut up, Shep,” Cole shouted back, then unlatched the cage and started out of the tank.
“You have five minutes left on your time, Sheriff,” Marlene called.
“I’ll donate a hundred dollars to the community center as a forfeit,” Cole said, hoisting himself over the metal side. Water sluiced from his body and his sheriff’s uniform clung to the hard muscles of his chest and thighs. Sienna had a ridiculous thought of Poseidon emerging from the sea.
Cole was a god in that moment and she was a mere mortal and how could she resist a god? His words had cut through the newly built defenses she’d erected around her heart, and she automatically turned away, afraid of how much she wanted them to be true.
He circled her wrist with his hand. “Please don’t go.”
His fingers were icy cold, but she could still feel the heat of his body behind her, and she wanted nothing more than to turn and wrap herself around him and never let go.
“I’m staying because this is my home,” she said, keeping her gaze straight ahead. “I belong here. I made that decision for me and no one else.”
He shifted his grasp on her arm, sliding his fingers across her hand and interlacing them with hers. “You’re my home,” he said quietly. “I belong anywhere you are, Sienna. I’m sorry I was too much of an idiot to tell you that when you needed to hear it.”
“Me, too,” she whispered.
Ignoring the crowd still watching them, he moved in front of her, keeping their hands linked together. “I’m saying it now, sweetheart. I love you with everything I am and if you give me another chance, I’ll prove it to you every day for the rest of our lives. I know you don’t need me. You’re so damn strong, and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that you finally know it.”
She drew in a breath. “You helped me understand that,” she admitted. “I’m not sure I would have believed it about myself if you hadn’t believed it first.”
“There was never a doubt in my mind.” He stepped closer, crowding her a little. “I know I hurt you, and I probably don’t deserve your forgiveness. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I can learn. I finally understand that I have to take some risks to get the life I want. A true home and a family—someone who will make my life complete. You, Sienna. I want you and I get that I have to be brave to earn my place at your side.”
She laughed as hope filled her, making her feel lighter than she had in years. “You know how to be brave. You’re the sheriff.”
“Not with my heart,” he told her. “Not until you. If you want me to walk away—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Don’t you dare.”
“I’ll never go far,” he finished quickly. “There’s no place I can imagine being except by your side.” He traced his thumb against the inside of her wrist, his touch sending shivers of awareness across her skin.
“I love you, Cole,” she whispered, then yelped as he lifted her in his arms and gathered her close. “But you’re a soaking wet mess.”
“I’m your mess,” he said. “Forever if you’ll have me.” He pressed his mouth to hers, the kiss at once tender and possessive. She was swept away on a wave of happiness so massive she wondered if she’d ever come back down to earth.
“I’ll take you on, Sheriff,” she whispered against his lips. “Forever.”
He spun her in a circle as their friends and family cheered. Sienna grinned, realizing she’d found so much more than she’d ever expected in Crimson. A family. A home. And love. Whatever came her way, she could face it fully with Cole by her side. Forever.
* * *
Rosa Galvez’s attraction to Officer Wyatt Townsend is as powerful as the moon’s pull on the tides. But with her past, Rosa knows better than to act on her feelings. But her solo life slowly becomes a sun-filled, family adventure—until dark secrets threaten to break like a summer storm.
Read on for a sneak peek at the next book in The Women of Brambleberry House miniseries, A Brambleberry Summer, by New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne.
A Brambleberry Summer
by RaeAnne Thayne
Chapter One
Summer Saturdays in a busy tourist town like Cannon Beach, Oregon, were not for the faint of heart.
As always, the sidewalk outside Rosa Galvez’s gift shop, By-The-Wind, was packed with tourists. Kids in swimming suits. Parents with sunburned noses, their arms loaded with buckets and towels and umbrellas. And, her favorite, older people arm in arm, enjoying an afternoon of browsing through the local stores.
The long, wide stretch of beach that gave the town its name was only a half block from her store, which meant she had a nonstop view of the action, both in front of her store and farther down the beach.
One could never grow bored watching the kites, the recumbent bicycles, the children building sandcastles.
Some hardy souls were even swimming in the shallows, though Rosa always considered it entirely too cold. Maybe her childhood in Honduras had left her too warm-blooded.
Instead, she was busy working the cash register at her gift shop while her newest employee and dear friend, Jen Ryan, rearranged a display of tiny hand-carved lighthouses an artist in Lincoln City had crafted for her.
Nearby, Jen’s six-year-old daughter, Addie, giggled at something in the small children’s area Rosa had created, complete with a miniature kitchen and dollhouse. The children’s area worked beautifully to keep little hands away from the more breakable items in the store while their parents browsed.
While she finished ringing up a cute handmade teapot for her customer, she kept a watchful eye on Jen. This was only her second day working in the store, though she and Addie had been in town for a few weeks. She still seemed anxious, and was constantly looking toward the door as if she expected something horrible to burst through at any moment.
Rosa hoped that with time her friend would lose that skittish air, the impression she gave off that at the slightest provocation, she would grab her child and bolt out the door of the shop.
How could Rosa blame her, after everything Jen had been through? It was a wonder she could even go out in public. All things considered, she was doing remarkably well and seemed to be settling into life here in Cannon Beach. Having her living at Brambleberry House was a joy.
&n
bsp; She finished carefully wrapping the customer’s teapot in bubble wrap so it would be safe in whatever corner of luggage it was stuffed into.
“There you are,” Rosa said, handing over the bag. “Thank you for shopping at By-The-Wind.”
“Thank you. This is such an adorable shop. We’ve been to every store in town and you have the best merchandise. Authentic and charming souvenirs. I’ll definitely be back before we leave town.”
“I am very glad to hear this.” She smiled and waved the woman and her husband on their way. She was replenishing her supply of bubble wrap under the counter when the front-door chimes rang out again.
She happened to be looking in Jen’s direction and didn’t miss the way her friend’s features tensed with fear and then visibly relax when a woman came in, trailed by a young teenager.
Rosa’s day, already good, immediately brightened even further, as if the sun had just come out from behind the clouds.
“Look who it is,” she exclaimed. “Two of my favorite people!”
“Hola, Rosa,” the girl said, beaming brightly at her with a mouth full of braces.
“Hello, my dear.” Her friend Carrie Abbott brushed her cheek against Rosa’s.
“What a wonderful surprise. How may I help you? Are you looking for a gift for someone? I have some gorgeous new purses in and also some fantastic jewelry from an artisan in Yachats you might like.”
“Where’s the jewelry?” Like a little magpie, Bella was instantly drawn to anything shiny.
Rosa showed her the new display and they spent a moment looking over the hand-beaded pieces.
“Ooh. Those turquoise starburst earrings are gorgeous! How much are they?”
She named an amount that had the girl’s shoulders slumping. “I better not. I’m saving for an electric scooter.”
“You know, that’s the markup amount. I can probably drop the price by ten dollars.”
Bella looked tempted. “I’m babysitting this weekend. If they’re still for sale, I’ll come back and get them.”
“I’ll set them aside until you can get back in,” Rosa promised, which earned her another braces-filled smile.
“You’re too tempting!” Carrie said, shaking her head. “I could blow my entire mad-money budget in here. Believe it or not, we didn’t come in to buy earrings, no matter how lovely they are.”
“Is there something else I can help you find? You should try the new soaps from Astrid Larsen.”
Carrie laughed. “Stop. We’re not supposed to be shopping! I came in because I need to talk to you.”
Against her will, Rosa’s gaze shifted to Bella and then back to the girl’s mother. “Oh?” she said, hoping her voice sounded casual.
Carrie leaned against the counter. “Yes. How are you, first of all? I haven’t talked to you in forever.”
Carrie did not usually drop in just to chat. What was this about? She looked back toward Bella, who was holding the turquoise earrings up to her ears and looking in the mirror of the display.
“I have been good.” She smiled. “Summer is always such a busy time here but I am glad for the tourists. Otherwise, I would not be able to keep the store open. And how are you?”
“Good. Busy, too. Bella is going in a hundred different directions, between babysitting and softball and her music lessons.”
Such a normal, happy childhood. It warmed her heart. “Oh, that is nice.”
“Did I tell you, we have tickets to the theater in Portland next month?” Bella said. “It’s a traveling Broadway production of Hamilton. And then we’re driving down the coast to San Francisco. I cannot wait!”
Rosa hid a smile. Bella had only mentioned the upcoming trip about a hundred times since spring, when she and her parents had first started talking about it. “That will be wonderful for you.”
“Other than that, everything is pretty good,” Carrie said. “Well, okay. I do have one small problem I was hoping you might be able to help us out with.”
“Of course. What can I do?”
“Don’t answer so quickly. It’s a huge favor.”
Carrie had to know Rosa would do anything for her. Theirs was that kind of friendship.
“I was wondering if you’ve found a tenant to sublease your empty apartment until fall, when your renters come back.”
Rosa lived on the top floor of a sprawling old Victorian, Brambleberry House. She managed the property for her aunt and her aunt’s friend, Sage Benedetto Spencer.
Right now, Jen lived in the second-floor apartment, but the older couple who had been renting the furnished ground-floor apartment for the past year had moved to Texas temporarily to help with an ill family member.
“It is still empty for now.”
She didn’t have the energy to go the vacation-rental route, with new people constantly coming in and out.
Carrie’s features brightened. “Oh, yay! Would you consider renting it for the next month or so?”
Rosa frowned. “Why would you need a place to rent? Are you doing something to your house?”
Carrie and her husband lived in a very nice cottage about a mile from Brambleberry House. She had recently remodeled the kitchen but perhaps she was thinking about doing the bathrooms.
“Not for me,” Carrie assured her. “For Wyatt and Logan.”
Rosa tensed at the mention of Carrie’s brother and his young son. While the boy was adorable, seven years old and cheerful as could be, his father was another matter.
Wyatt Townsend was a detective for the Cannon Beach Police Department and always seemed to look at her as if she was up to something illegal.
That was surely her imagination. She had done nothing to make him suspicious of her.
“I thought he was staying with you while his home is being repaired.”
“He is. And I would be fine with him living with us until the work is done, but everything is taking so much longer than he expected. It has been a nightmare of wrangling with the insurance and trying to find subcontractors to do the work.”
Wyatt’s small bungalow had been damaged in a fire about a month earlier, believed to have been caused by faulty wiring. It had been a small miracle that neither he nor his son had been home at the time and that a neighbor had smelled the smoke and called the fire department before widespread damage.
Rosa knew from Carrie that the fire damage still meant he had to renovate several rooms and had been living with his sister and her husband while the work was being completed.
“That must be hard for Wyatt.”
“I know. And after everything they have both been through the past three years, they didn’t need one more thing. But he’s doing his best to rebuild.”
Rosa certainly knew what it mean to rebuild a life.
“The work will take at least another month.”
“That long?”
“Yes. And to be honest, I think Wyatt is a little tired of sleeping on the sofa in my family room with his leg hanging over the edge. Since the insurance company will cover rent for the next few months, he said last night he was thinking about looking around for somewhere to stay temporarily. He even brought up the idea of renting a camp trailer and parking it in his driveway until the repairs are done. I immediately thought of your empty apartment and thought that would be so much better for him and Logan, if it’s still available.”
The apartment was available. But did she really want Wyatt Townsend there? Rosa glanced over at Jen, who was talking to Addie in a low voice.
She could not forget about Jen. In the other woman’s situation, how would she feel about having a police detective moving downstairs?
“I know it’s a huge ask. You probably have a waiting list as long as my arm for an apartment in that great location.”
Rosa shook her head. “I have not really put it on the market, to be honest. I have been
too busy and also I know the Smiths want to move back if they can at the end of the summer, after June’s mother heals from her broken hip.”
That still did not mean she wanted to rent it to Wyatt and his son. She could not even say she had a compelling reason not to, other than her own unease.
The man made her so nervous. It did not help that he was extraordinarily good-looking.
He was a police officer and always seemed to be looking at her as if he knew she had secrets and wouldn’t rest until he figured them out.
That wouldn’t bother her, as she did not usually have much to do with him. Except she did have secrets. So many secrets. And he was the last man in town she wanted to figure them out.
She should just say no. She could tell Carrie she had decided to paint it while it was empty or put in new flooring or something.
That wasn’t completely a lie. She had talked to Anna and Sage about making a few cosmetic improvements to the apartment over the summer, but had not made any solid plans. Even if she had, none of them was urgent.
The apartment was in good condition and would be an ideal solution for Wyatt and his son while repairs continued on their house.
She had to let him stay there. How could she possibly say no to Carrie? She owed her so very much.
What would Jen think? Maybe she would find comfort in knowing a big, strong police detective lived downstairs. Their own built-in security.
“Yes. Okay. He can stay there, if he wants to.”
“He will,” Carrie assured her, looking thrilled. “I should mention that he has a dog. He’s the cutest little thing and no trouble at all.”
Rosa was not so sure about that. She had seen Wyatt and Logan walking the dog on the beach a few times when she had been walking her own dog, Fiona. Their beagle mix, while adorable, seemed as energetic as Logan.
“It should be fine. The Smiths had a little dog, too. The ground-floor apartment has a dog door out to the fenced area of the lawn. Fiona will enjoy the company.”
A Place to Belong Page 36
