Summer on Moonlight Bay

by Hope Ramsay

  Abby stood there blinking for a long moment, trying to process this idea. “Why?”

  Lia leaned in. “So Ethan can win the game.”

  “But—”

  Lia put her hand on Abby’s shoulder. “Like Jenna said, it’s not about winning. It’s about the museum. And right now it’s about Ethan and your father. And also about Noah and your father. We both know Noah has issues, right? This would help him deal.”

  “At my expense? Why should I do that?”

  “You ladies having a coffee klatch out there?” Harry Bauman hollered from the plate.

  “Pitch to him. For me,” Lia said.

  “For you?”

  She shrugged. “Yeah. Because I’m sweet on your brother. And if he never figures out his relationship with your dad, he’s never going to decide to stay here.”

  And just like that Abby understood. “This is for Momma, right?”

  Lia nodded. “Yeah, I guess it’s for her too. So maybe she could stay here in the town she loves so much.”

  “Ladies…” Harry was losing his patience.

  “Do it,” Lia said and turned toward home plate, took a couple of steps, and then stopped and turned her head over her shoulder. “And let’s hope the fly ball doesn’t go in Kate’s direction.”

  “I’m with you there,” Abby said with a smile. And not because she wanted the other team to win. She just didn’t want Kate to be tagged with another error either.

  Lia took her place behind home plate.

  “What were y’all talking about?” Ethan asked. He looked worried.

  Lia leaned toward him. “How to get you out and win the game,” she said with a smile.

  He blinked and frowned. Then he glanced at the dugout. “Well, I’m going to disappoint you,” he said, determination in his voice.

  Lia assumed her catcher’s crouch. Abby wound up and let fly with a pitch that was flat and slow and right across the plate. Even Kate Joyner could have hit that pitch. And Ethan was a better hitter than Kate by a long shot.

  Of course Ethan tattooed that ball, sending it way over the outfield fences. And the look on his face when he realized that he’d just scored three runs and put the First Responders ahead was almost as priceless as the hug he got from Daddy on his way back into the dugout.

  Damn. It didn’t feel so bad to have given up those earned runs. Maybe the Merchants could get them back in the bottom of the inning. But even if they didn’t, Abby found that she didn’t care very much. Maybe Jenna was on to something. Maybe right now, this minute, it wasn’t about who won or lost. It was about that hug Daddy gave Ethan as he came home.

  Her brother could be a pain in the butt most of the time, but she loved him. And it was kind of nice to see him being hailed as a hero for once. It was nice to see Daddy pounding his back instead of criticizing him. And she didn’t feel one iota of guilt about making that happen.

  Especially when Noah, standing to one side, turned toward Lia with a 300-watt smile and mouthed “Thank you.”

  Well, damn. Lia had orchestrated this with Abby’s somewhat unwilling help. But now that it was done, Abby was happy about it. For once, Noah was on the sidelines while Ethan got all the attention.

  And as for her? Well, she’d never expected much from Daddy. Unlike the boys, she didn’t remember living in the same house with him. And he’d been indifferent to her for her entire life, which made her somewhat indifferent toward him. She often thought that maybe she was the lucky one.

  Because getting Daddy’s attention could be a real burden.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lia suspected that most of the members of the Merchants’ team knew what she and Abby had done, orchestrating Ethan’s moment of glory. But no one said a word about it, even when the team was unable to earn back the runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. So they lost the game, but that didn’t actually bother anyone except maybe Colton St. Pierre, who was a lot more competitive than either of his brothers.

  Despite the loss, the event had been a complete success. Attendance had far exceeded anyone’s predictions, the street fair sales had been brisk, and the amount of contributions to the museum fund counted in the thousands.

  And fun had been had by almost everyone, except maybe Kate Joyner.

  “I think this calls for a round of beers at Rafferty’s,” Jenna said after the last out had been made. “We can drown our sorrows, or maybe just quench our thirst.” She gave her husband, a man known for his sobriety, a sappy smile. “You can drink Gatorade if you’d prefer.”

  “I’m ready to celebrate,” Abby said. “Even if I’m not old enough to drink beer. I think we should invite the other team.” She stalked off toward the First Responder dugout before anyone could stop her. Grant Ackerman watched her approach with clear interest on his face. But when she sidled up to him, he took a giant step back and glanced at Ethan Cuthbert and her father.

  Abby rolled her eyes and gave him a peck on the cheek, right there in front of the world.

  “Well, I have to say that Abby is one brave girl,” Kerri said.

  “It’s not Abby who’s brave. It’s Grant,” Lia said. “It’s got to be intimidating if you’re dating the police chief’s daughter.”

  “Yeah, well, I have this feeling Abby was a ringer for the other team,” Colton said in a slightly disgruntled voice, confirming Lia’s suspicions that her moves out there on the field had been noticed by all.

  “Get over it, Colton,” Micah said, turning his brown eyes on Lia and giving her his holy brand of evil eye. “I don’t think Abby was a turncoat, but I have my doubts about you, Radar. What are you up to?”

  “Me?” She pretended innocence but she probably overplayed the part.

  “Yeah,” Colton said, turning in her direction. “What was that long consultation on the mound about, anyway?”

  “Active compassion,” she said, and gave the Rev a wink.

  “Well, imagine that. Someone was listening to my sermon last Sunday.”

  “Active compassion?” Colton asked. “What the hell is that?”

  “It’s about intent and doing good,” Jenna said, giving Colton a friendly pat on the shoulder. “And remembering that this was never about winning and losing.” She turned away from her brother-in-law. “Come on, everyone. The drinks at Rafferty’s are on me.”

  “I’ll be going home,” Kate said, getting up from the dugout bench. Her eyes looked shiny with unshed tears. She turned and jogged away toward the outfield fences.

  “Damn,” Kerri said.

  “Go get her,” Jenna said. “And drag her to Rafferty’s if you must. I won’t have anyone feeling bad about what happened today.”

  Kerri and Lia took off in hot pursuit and caught up with Kate in the parking lot.

  “Come on, honey. We all want you at our celebration,” Kerri said.

  “I can’t. I need to go now.”

  Lia’s radar, or intuition, or whatever the hell it was, chose that moment to sound the alarm. “This isn’t about the game, is it?” she asked as she ducked between Kate and her car door.

  “Please. I don’t want anyone—”

  “Is it?” Lia repeated, giving Kate her best X-ray stare.

  Tears sprouted from Kate’s eyes. “I have to go home and get Nappy, and…” Her chin quivered.

  “And what, girlfriend?” Kerri asked, putting her arm around Kate’s shoulder. “You running away?”

  Kate nodded, tears tracking down her face. “I need to go before Bud gets home,” she said in a watery voice. “I thought I could make it work, you know, but when he started heckling me in the field…”

  “Oh, baby,” Kerri said.

  “And don’t tell me it was just a game. It wasn’t to him. And it’s not about who won. He made it clear that I had no business playing against the First Responders. And he made it clear he thought I couldn’t play and shouldn’t even be trying. But the thing is…you know…he’s been saying bad things to me for years and years. And I just believed him.


  “And maybe I’d still believe him if I didn’t know what was going on. He’s been cheating. I heard him talking to Joshua Moore on his cell phone the other day all about how he was going to look the other way on fire code violations…for a price.

  “And I confronted him about it. And that’s when he got so mad. And he lit into Nappy, and…” She broke down in tears.

  “Come on,” Lia said, taking command. “We’ll take you home to get your stuff and the dog. And then you need to talk to someone in authority. I guess Greg Cuthbert.”

  “No. The chief of police isn’t going to do anything about Bud. They’re old friends. The chief has probably known all about this and is looking the other way. I just want to get the dog to a safe place. That’s all I want.”

  “All right,” Lia said. “First things first.”

  Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at Kate’s house, a classic beach bungalow built several miles east of town on the road between the beaches and the bay. Everything about the home screamed love and attention to detail. Kate was one hell of a homemaker, right down to the pretty flowered curtains in her spic-and-span living room.

  When Lia was a child, she’d dreamed of living in a place like this. With thick carpets and a clean kitchen, and a dog with a waggy tail. There was nothing about this place that jangled her nerves or suggested spousal abuse.

  Which only proved that sometimes appearances could be deceiving. And hadn’t she been deceived by Roy Tate? Roy and Sam had lived in a house like this. Perfect in every detail. And Lia had bought the lie. Even her intuition had been fooled.

  “You can come stay with me, honey. I have no problems taking in your dog either.” Kerri said this as she got down on her knees to play with the little gray poodle.

  Lia helped Kate find a suitcase and dump a few necessities into a couple of shopping bags. They were just about to leave when the front door opened and in walked Bud Joyner, limping on his bum knee but otherwise looking like Santa in a red Magnolia Harbor Fire Department team shirt.

  “What the hell is going on here?” he growled in a voice that was the antithesis of jolly.

  “I’m leaving you,” Kate said in a surprisingly calm voice, her shoulders straight and her stance wide and powerful.

  “What? No. You can’t leave me. How would you survive?”

  “With me,” Kerri said. “I’m gonna help her.”

  “You’re going to leave me and go live with some black woman? Really?”

  “I am, Bud. I’m tired of listening to you tell me all about the things I can’t do.”

  “Well, that list is pretty long.”

  Kate’s shoulders sagged as if her resolve was melting away. Maybe Bud had only physically abused her that one time, but the man had been doing a number on her head for years.

  “Come on, Kate. Let’s get out of here,” Lia said.

  “Who the hell do you think you are, coming into this town and stirring things up?” Bud asked. “Honey, do not listen to this woman. She’s an outside agitator or some damn thing like that.”

  “Well, maybe it’s time for me to be agitated,” Kate said, winding Nappy’s leash around her fist. The dog whined and shied away from Bud, a clear indication that he feared the man.

  “Come on,” Kerri said, placing her hands on Kate’s shoulders and giving her a gentle nudge toward the door. Kate started to walk, and once she got moving her pace picked up.

  “You can’t go,” Bud said.

  “Watch me,” Kate replied as she opened the door and stepped out onto the porch and then down the steps. They had almost reached Lia’s Trailblazer when the explosion sounded behind them.

  Lia froze, a dozen horrifying memories filling her head. She recognized the sound as the pop of a firearm. And it startled her back into a nightmare of that day in January when the gun had sounded and she’d stood there like a jerk.

  She had the same startled reaction at first. But this time, she wasn’t in the company of a group of well-trained marines. This single gunshot didn’t set off a four-second gunfight that left a bad guy dead and bleeding. This time, the two women with her screamed.

  Somehow their instant terror reached through the fog in Lia’s brain. She didn’t have backup here. It was all down to her.

  “Down,” she shouted, a moment later than she should have. But thank the Lord Bud Joyner wasn’t wielding an M4 semi-automatic. So she had time to push Kerri and Kate to the sandy soil in the front yard. She hit the deck beside them, turning her head toward their attacker. Bud Joyner stood on the landing by the last porch step with a shotgun in his hand.

  Lia’s training kicked in like a familiar friend. Her heart rate slowed, and she studied the gun in the man’s hands. The safety was off, but Bud’s finger wasn’t on the trigger. He had the gun pointed at Nappy, who was sitting beside Kate shivering.

  “You come back here,” Bud shouted, “or I’ll kill the dog with my next shot.”

  Kate wailed. And something broke open inside Lia.

  She inched up until she could capture Kerri and Kate’s terrified gazes. “Listen to me,” she whispered. “The car is unlocked. When I give the signal, you guys get into the car, and if need be, you drive away as fast as you can.”

  “No, you can’t—”

  “Just do what I say.” A note of command had entered her voice as she dug in her pocket and passed the car keys.

  “You coming, Kate? I got the dog in my sights.” Bud’s voice sounded raspy and dangerous.

  “Please,” Kate sobbed.

  “Keep it together,” Lia whispered.

  She could do this. She could face an old guy with a bum knee and a shotgun. He wasn’t nearly as scary as a turncoat Afghani soldier with an automatic weapon. And best of all, Bud Joyner had probably underestimated her.

  She readied herself. “Now!” she shouted, jumping to her feet and charging Joyner as the words of the marine who’d taught her a lot of hand-to-hand combat scrolled through her mind: Redirect, control, attack, take away.

  A long gun gave her a whole lot more leverage over a guy who outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds. She knocked the gun’s muzzle with the back of her right hand, redirecting the line of fire. Then she grabbed the barrel, stepped into Bud’s space, and grabbed the shaft of the gun between the trigger and the stock and pushed with the force of her momentum.

  She had effective control of the gun at that moment, and she rotated it up into Bud’s face so the stock hit his chin.

  He buckled on his bad knee, falling to the sandy ground. She stepped back and trained the gun on him, finger hovering over the trigger.

  “Get up and get back in the house. Kate’s leaving you.”

  He lay there blinking as if he couldn’t quite figure out what had happened. Or maybe she’d hit him harder than she’d expected. He kept rubbing his chin.

  A trickle of blood pooled at the corner of his mouth. “Damn it all, woman, I bit my tongue.”

  “Yeah, well, serves you right, aiming a shotgun at an innocent dog. Now get up.”

  He stood, glaring at her like an evil Santa before he turned and hobbled onto the porch and through the front door.

  Kerri and Kate hadn’t followed instructions. They hadn’t taken off or driven to safety. Damn it. So the car was still there in the drive. She ran to it, climbed into the back seat, and yelled, “Go!”

  Kerri hit the gas and hauled ass down the driveway, kicking up gravel and dust as they hit Magnolia Avenue. “The next time I tell you to leave, you get going, you understand?”

  “Lord have mercy, girlfriend, I hope we never have a next time. And where in the Sam Hill did you learn how to take a shotgun away from a man?” There was a note of real admiration in Kerri’s voice.

  “I had a lot of down time at sea, and there were always marines around willing to teach hand-to-hand.” Lia snapped the safety on the shotgun, collapsed back into the seat, and started to shake as hard as Napoleon, who chose that moment to crawl into her lap and give her a b
unch of doggie kisses.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The after-party at Rafferty’s was pretty festive, even for most of the Merchant team members. But not for Abby. For one thing, Colton St. Pierre continued to heckle her about the pitch she’d thrown to Ethan. And for another, Grant took a seat way down at the other end of the table with Daddy, Ethan, and Noah.

  He’d stepped away from her on the field, and now he’d taken a seat as far away from her as possible.

  Clearly he’d been intimidated by her brother and father. Or worse yet, he’d decided she wasn’t for him. She was annoyed about the first possibility and upset by the second. Grant was incredible between the sheets. And she really liked being with him. They could talk about R&B music for hours on end. She’d thought they had something…special. Which was a little unnerving because she hadn’t been looking for anything special. Just some experience.

  What was he up to? Was he sending her a message, or did the man think he needed to ask for her father’s permission to be seen with her in public? If so, that was super annoying because she didn’t need anyone’s permission.

  And besides, she had no reason to be upset, anyway. She didn’t need public displays of affection.

  Right?

  Wrong.

  She sat in her seat, sipping sweet tea for a good twenty minutes, stewing about things, before she realized that she didn’t need to stay. She could just get up and leave. And damn the rest of them.

  So she did. She stood up. Told a big fat lie about needing to get ready for work—she’d been excused from work today because she’d been representing Rafferty’s at the game—and headed out of the restaurant, her throat thick with emotions she couldn’t really explain.

  She kept her gaze trained on the sidewalk as she headed for home at a brisk walk. She wasn’t paying attention to what was gaining on her so it came as a surprise when Grant caught up with her three blocks away from Rafferty’s.

  “Hey, slow down,” he called from behind.

  She was tempted to redouble her pace. But that would be childish, and she was trying very hard to be an adult about everything. Especially her fling with Grant Ackerman. So she stopped and turned.