Summer Day Dreams

by Verity Norton

  Matt raised a single eyebrow. “But you can’t help yourself.”

  Alex released a heavy sigh, looking over at his lifelong best friend. “It’s hard, you know? I’m here. She’s here. How can I not?”

  “It’s only natural.”

  “Yeah, maybe so, but—”

  “But it’s all-consuming?”

  “It just doesn’t feel right. Even thinking about her. Now that Sophie and I are together.”

  Matt reached over and slapped him on the back. He had his sympathy. Clearly he was torn between two women. He just didn’t know it yet.

  “So, tell me, cuz, do you come here often?” Alex nodded toward the server who had greeted Matt with a kiss on the cheek.

  “Trying that distraction technique of ours again, are we?”

  “Just wondering what’s up with you and your love life, or rather lack there of.”

  “I haven’t exactly been a monk for eight years if that’s what you’re implying.” Matt turned to greet a group of three women who had just walked into the bar.

  “Hey, Matt, good to see you again,” one said.

  “Mmm, missed you,” another said, giving him a lingering hug. “What’s it been? A week?”

  “Just about,” Matt said.

  “Way too long.” The third one pushed past the first and second women so she could get in her hug.

  “So, aren’t you going to introduce us to your—let me guess—another cousin?”

  Matt laughed. “The dark hair and blue eyes give it away? This is Alex, ladies. But he’s off the market. Engaged to be married.”

  “What a shame.”

  “At least you and Sean are still single.”

  “Okay, I get it. So you haven’t been a monk,” Alex said after the women had torn themselves away from his blushing cousin. “And you obviously come here often.”

  “Yep. Sean and I come here quite a bit when we want—”

  “To get away from the prying eyes of the McCullough clan?”

  “Exactly.”

  Alex took a long sip of beer to wash away the tension in his stomach that he convinced himself wasn’t jealousy. In the old days it would have been him and Matt. But it was his own fault, he reminded himself. He was the one who had left.

  “Another round?”

  “I think I’d better pass. Two’s enough. I have to drive back to the ranch.” Suddenly he was anxious to get back to Sophie to make sure she really was okay after the unpleasant incident at the picnic, although he was not about to introduce the subject if she didn’t.

  He drove the twelve miles in silence, appreciating the peace of the countryside. It was the one thing he missed. Not true. He missed everything about Winslow and Canden Valley and the ranch. He missed his family and friends. He missed working on the ranch. And he missed riding a horse almost every day of his life.

  Unfortunately the emptiness was overshadowed by the painful nostalgia that came with being here. And the guilt. Distracted, he managed to miss the Jameson driveway that he’d ridden down thousands of times in his life and ended up at the entrance to the Callahan ranch next door. He pulled to the side of the road and climbed out of his Jag.

  There she was, riding around the arena on the back of a horse, her jet black hair flying out behind her. He watched her for close to an hour, observing her posture and her easy control of the stallion that he would have found challenging now. But she was a good rider. He should know. He was the one who had taught her to ride.

  Sean McCullough came to a halt outside the Callahan ranch. He sat for a few minutes before turning around and heading to the farm. He could deliver the items Sherry Callahan had ordered from the store another day. They’d been in his truck for two days now. Another day wouldn’t hurt.

  He did not want Alex to know he had seen him. What surprised him was that his cousin hadn’t heard his truck pull up behind him, only a few yards away. He hadn’t once turned around or removed his focus from the object of his attention. He wondered how long Alex had been watching Cassie ride. He wondered if he would bother mentioning it to Cassie. Or to Sophie.

  Sophie was smiling as she swung open the door to the Canden Valley General Store. Maybe today she would swallow her pride and buy herself a pair of jeans and hope that Sean wouldn’t make one of his snide comments. Although Skye had assured her she could use hers as long as she wanted, she wouldn’t mind having a pair that wasn’t quite so tight. Skye’s would have fit perfectly if she hadn’t been working out at the club and doing so much aerobic dancing recently. Besides, she wanted a souvenir from Canden Valley. She didn’t know how long it would be before they returned.

  “Ah, come to claim your apology soda?” Sean asked.

  “I did.” She hopped onto her favorite barstool, shoved a quarter in the juke box, pressed B6, hit it on the top with her fist and looked up at him. “Need help making it?”

  “Naw, I think I have it down. It’s not rocket science, you know.”

  Sean suffered through the familiar song. “The Nearness of You.” No kidding. Even with a lunch counter between them, being in the same room with her was enough to tempt a saint. And he was no saint.

  Sophie watched him create the soda as he deliberately made a point to do it exactly the way she had shown him. He even remembered the extra whipped cream and jimmies. So far so good. Not one rude word out of his mouth and she’d already been there for three minutes. Actually he’d hardly said anything at all. He seemed to be avoiding talking to her. But something had shifted. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but he had softened toward her.

  After popping an ice cube in his mouth, Sean stuck a straw in the soda and leaned back against the counter to watch her take her first sip. Masochistic of him perhaps, but he couldn’t resist. Her first sip was always an event, he had surmised. At least it had been at the picnic when she took her first bite of the fresh organic watermelon from his family farm. The same was true of the homemade lemonade Anne had poured for her. And the bite of her cheeseburger his Uncle Grant had prepared for her. And the homemade potato chips his Aunt Nan had served her. And the chocolate ice cream soda she had helped him make a couple days ago.

  She was smiling as she swallowed that first sip today. Definitely an event.

  “So, how is it?”

  “Perfect.”

  Like you, he thought. “You look happy,” he said.

  “I am. I love it here.”

  “Do you?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Better than the big city?”

  “No contest.”

  “Why is that?”

  “It’s kind of hard to find horses in the city. And general stores with old-fashioned soda fountains and organic farms and—” She stopped to take a bite of her chocolate chip ice cream. “You get the picture.”

  “I get the picture.” How was this going to work out? he wondered. His cousin was determined to stay in the city, and his fiancée loved small town and country life. If indeed it was going to work out, considering that his cousin was having trouble taking his eyes off another woman. Suddenly he wasn’t feeling quite so guilty for lusting after his cousin’s fiancée. He just had to keep his thoughts to himself and control himself from acting on them. He’d be sucking on a lot of ice cubes over the next couple weeks.

  Sophie took another bite of her ice cream, closing her eyes to savor the taste. Sean shook his head, wondering when watching someone eat ice cream had become such a turn-on.

  “This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had, other than the homemade ice cream my friend Arielle and I used to make when we were kids.”

  “It’s organic,” Sean told her, clearing the hoarseness from his throat.

  “I wonder if they have it in San Francisco.”

  “If not, you can always make more trips down here. We’ll be sure to keep the chocolate chip in stock.”

  Sophie looked into those vibrant blue eyes. What was it she was seeing in them? They were the same eyes that she’d seen on Alex and Anne and Ma
tt and Skye, but there was something different about Sean’s. She shook her head, deciding it was just her imagination. But she sure was happy he had made the decision to be nice to her. Maybe he was actually coming around to believing she was worthy of joining his family.

  “So, when’s the big day?” he asked.

  “Big day?”

  “Wedding?”

  “Oh, we haven’t decided. I’m kind of hoping for a Christmas wedding.” Her mind flashed on the Christmas tree farm that she could imagine adorned with lights. Her vision journeyed to the front garden which was also alight with the Christmas spirit. “In the front garden?” But then her mind jumped quickly from that image to another one, this one a memory. A memory of when Alex saw Cassie and the two of them were in that same garden, staring at each other as if time had stood still, as if everyone else had disappeared, as if nothing had ever changed between them.

  “Maybe not,” she said quickly. “Maybe at the Christmas tree farm. Or maybe an autumn wedding. Inside.”

  “What does Alex think?”

  “We haven’t really discussed it. He’s pretty much leaving the decisions up to me.”

  “Alex? My controlling cousin?”

  Sophie laughed and Sean thought sure that time had stopped for an instant. “He must have a lot of faith in you.”

  Sophie smirked. “He thinks I’m very sensible and that I make good choices.”

  “Are you? Do you?”

  She laughed again and Sean wondered if it was possible to bottle a laugh. If he could find a way, he would be a very rich man.

  “Sometimes I am, do. On occasion. I guess, when it’s important—to him.” She took a few more sips of her soda, wishing Sean were eating something too, instead of just staring at her. Since he was smiling, she figured she wasn’t doing anything disgusting like sipping the soda too loudly or getting the chocolate jimmies in her teeth.

  “So, you mentioned there was another little matter you wanted my help with?”

  “Oh, right.” She took one last bite of the ice cream and shoved it away.

  “Too much?”

  “I’m still full from lunch. Your grandmother again.”

  Sean chuckled. “Yes. My grandmother can definitely do that to you. Let me guess, you got stuck playing checkers with my grandfather too.”

  “It was fun. I think he let me win though.”

  “He must really like you. My grandfather never lets anyone win.”

  Sophie wiped her eyes, startled by the tears that had suddenly made an appearance. She loved spending time with his grandparents. They would soon be hers too.

  Sean shoved his hands in his pockets before he could reach out and touch the tears he’d seen starting to roll down her cheeks. Something had made her emotional. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” She forced a smile.

  Obviously she didn’t want to talk about it. He would respect that, and attempt to ease her embarrassment. He leaned down and took a sip of the soda through the straw. “Not bad.” Then he picked up the spoon and took a few bites of the ice cream. “Good combination. Maybe we should put it on the menu.”

  “Definitely.” She took a deep breath and released it, looking him straight in the eye. “I hear you’re a private investigator by trade.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t do a background check on you before you marry into the family.”

  “Well, actually, I was kind of hoping you would.”

  Sean put down the spoon and looked at her.

  Sophie shrugged. “I don’t imagine there’s much call for PI work around here.”

  “You’d be surprised. I do a lot via computer and go on jobs when I need to. Although this month I’m pretty much tied up at the store.” His forehead wrinkled and she thought those eyes could see right into her thoughts. “You’re stalling. Why do you want me to check into your background?”

  “Okay.” She might as well just say it. “I don’t know who my father is. My mother won’t tell me. She insists he was—” She looked down at her lap for a moment—”A one-night stand.”

  “Wow.”

  “Wow?”

  “Just not what I expected. So you’ve decided you want to find him.”

  “I started thinking about his walking me down the aisle and suddenly I’ve become consumed with the idea of knowing my father.”

  “I can understand that. Tell me everything you know. What’s your mother’s name and where have you lived?”

  “Barbara Weldon. I was born in Rhode Island, but we moved to San Jose when I was little. She still lives there.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. My mother will not tell me anything.”

  “What about your grandparents?”

  She shook her head, the sadness returning to her eyes. “I never knew them. They died when I was a baby. My maternal grandparents, that is.”

  Sean set her soda glass next to the sink and came around to sit on a barstool beside her. “Let me ask you something, Sophie. What if—what if it turns out your father really was just a one-night stand and he doesn’t know you exist and—”

  “Doesn’t want to know I exist?” she finished for him. “It’s a possibility.”

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  “I’d prefer a different scenario, but it’s better to try and be disappointed than to not even try.”

  “True.”

  “But I think she’s lying. I have memories from when I was tiny. I remember a man holding me in his arms, holding me up really high and smiling up at me and rocking me to sleep and putting a band aide on my finger and one time—when I was in the pool under the water, I remember a man’s legs coming toward me to pull me out. And I know it wasn’t just some friend of my mother’s or the husband of one of her friends like she tries to convince me. I just know it.” She pressed her hand against her stomach as if to indicate that it was her gut instinct telling her.

  “Just a feeling?” Sean said.

  “Pretty stupid, hunh?”

  “Hey, I happen to know the answer to that one. Ignorance is not having learned something. Whereas stupidity is not wanting to learn it or putting someone else down for not knowing it,” he said, quoting what she had said to him the day before.

  Sophie laughed. “Touché.”

  He put his hand on top of hers, but as soon as he felt the ring on her finger, he jerked his hand away. “Hey, instinct—intuition—whatever you want to call it, is important in my business. Sometimes it’s all we have to go on. Is there anything else that’s making you suspicious?”

  “Well, when we stopped to visit her on our way down here, and I brought up the subject, she kept looking away. She wouldn’t look at me. And the way she said she didn’t want to talk about it, made me suspicious. I guess it’s just the feeling that she was lying to me.”

  “Did Alex notice that too?”

  “He was sleeping.”

  “What did he think when you told him?”

  “I didn’t tell him. He already thinks I’m obsessing,” she blurted out.

  Sounded like Alex, at least the Alex of recent years.

  “Is that enough to go on?”

  “If it’s all we have, we’ll make it be enough.”

  Sophie looked up at him, that enchanting smile warming the room. “You think we can find him?”

  “I’m never met a person I couldn’t find,” Sean joked.

  “I’ve hired detectives before. They didn’t have any success. What makes you think you will?”

  His deep blue eyes met hers. “Because I care.”

  Sophie jumped off her barstool and hugged him. His breath caught and he knew he should push her away, but being an expert rationalizer, he convinced himself that would make her wonder why he didn’t want her hugging him, so he let her stay there, in his arms, and he allowed himself to enjoy the feel of her soft body pressed against his. And he prayed she didn’t notice just how much he was enjoying the feel of her against him.

  “Thank you,
Sean.” She sat back down on her barstool.

  “I haven’t found him yet.”

  “But you’re willing to try. When can you start?”

  “When can you start helping out at the store?”

  “Really? I’d love to.”

  “Good, come in tomorrow and I’ll show you the ropes. I can start with research on the computer so I’ll be here. You won’t be on your own. And of course, there’s Sally.”

  “Besides Sally, there’s no one else to help out here?”

  “Having second thoughts?”

  She shook her head, her golden curls flying softly through the air. Her grey-blue eyes lit up as she looked around the store. “Not at all. It will be fun. I’m just surprised that, considering the number of cousins in your family, there’s no one else to help out.”

  “There are plenty. They’re just not very reliable. Kieran—he’s the aspiring writer in the family, is around, but if an idea pops into his mind, even when he’s ringing up customers or in the middle of making a banana split, he stops to write it down. The twins, Allie and Aidan, usually come home from college for the summer and work at the store but this year they stayed in England. And my brother Sloan is off working at a wilderness camp. We have a couple other employees. We always like to hire outside the family as well to support the community—”

  “And to hold down the fort during family events?”

  “That too. They always take their vacation in the summer because Sloan and Allie and Aidan are home to help out. We didn’t know they’d all stay away so we’re left with just Sally and me. My grandfather helps out if we’re desperate or if they need me at the farm for an extended period.”

  “Will you need to go out of town? To find my father?”

  “Possibly, but let me start doing some research first. What’s your full name?”

  She cringed. “You really need to know that?”

  “I really need to know that.”

  This time it was an out-and-out flinch. “Sophie Imogen Weldon.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Imogen?”

  “My mother’s grandmother’s name.”

  “Ever think of dropping it?”

  “Many times.”

  “Actually it’s kind of cute . charming.”