Home to the Riverview Inn

by Molly O'Keefe

  Gary rushed to hold her hair back and pat limply at her waist. “Sorry,” he said, wincing as Carrie heaved some more. “My wife is pregnant.”

  “Oh my gosh,” Daphne said, her heart going out to the poor woman. “Please come to my house. I’ve got Popsicles.”

  Carrie straightened, wiping her mouth. “That actually sounds edible,” she said. Gary looked delighted and surprised as though Popsicles were the answer to a riddle he’d been struggling to figure out.

  Gary curled an arm around Carrie’s back and took a step then stopped. His gaze was fixed on something over Daphne’s shoulder.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought you were leaving last night.”

  Daphne turned and saw Jonah, his hands in his pockets, standing in the middle of the road.

  His eyes, sad and resigned, were locked on her face.

  Her heart surged against her ribs.

  Oh God, he came back. That thought ran so loud in her head she couldn’t think about anything else.

  It was stupid. More stupid than having sex with him in her bed last night. More stupid than falling in love with him in the first place, but she could not control the ecstatic pounding of her heart.

  He was staying.

  But something wasn’t right. How did Gary know Jonah?

  Her heart was getting this moment all wrong.

  Static filled her head and she embraced it. She held on to it for as long as she could so that she couldn’t do the simple math that was staring her in the face. If she stayed stunned like this, she couldn’t connect the dots and she wouldn’t be the biggest fool in the entire world. She’d just be a woman confused about what her lover, who screwed her and left her last night, had to do with the land he knew she wanted.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Larson, this is my business partner, Jonah Closky,” Gary said.

  Daphne closed her eyes, a giant chasm opening up under her heart.

  15

  Jonah jumped in fast. He knew he had a lot of explaining to do. But he also knew Daphne would understand. After the explaining. Because right now—face pale, eyes closed, hands curled into fists—she didn’t look so understanding.

  “Daphne.” Jonah reached out to her but she flinched away from him. “Listen to me. I did not know we bought that land. I didn’t know that night of the gala and I didn’t know last night. I swear to you.”

  He waited. He waited a million little deaths and she didn’t say anything. Growing frantic, he turned on Gary.

  “You said we didn’t buy that land.”

  “When?” Gary asked.

  “Yesterday, on the phone, you said, no land,” Jonah said.

  “I said, no land should cost that much. We had a bad connection,” Gary clarified.

  Bad connection. Great. His life was falling apart thanks to a bad connection. But he didn’t go through what he went through last night, only to give up this morning. He’d driven to the city and back for this woman. He reorganized his life, changed this viewpoint. Decided to find out what happy meant to him. It meant her.

  “Daphne, I swear. I didn’t know. I didn’t even know you were interested in the land until our drive into the city. As soon as we got to the hotel I called Gary and told him not to buy the land.” He shot Gary a disgusted look. “Which he didn’t do.”

  “The week before, you said buy the land, so I bought the land,” Gary said, throwing his hands up. “Is this some kind of contract dispute, because Sven didn’t mention other offers.”

  “Why would he?” Daphne finally asked, her voice a rasp. “When you offered so much.”

  What does that mean? Jonah searched her face for clues to what she was thinking, but he got nothing from her.

  “It’s just money,” he said, feeling as though he needed to fill the silence. Her back went straight, her jaw tight and he realized that might not have been the right thing to say. “Look, Daphne, we can give you some of the land.”

  “Give?” Gary cried. “Have you lost your mind?”

  Finally Daphne faced Jonah, her green eyes, through which he could usually read her like a book, were opaque. She’d closed a door on him.

  “What are you going to do to the land?” she asked. “Condos?”

  He opened his mouth but Gary beat him to it.

  “A hotel,” Gary said, sealing Jonah’s coffin. “A great one. A waterslide and spa. I can show you some drawing—” He finally stopped talking as if cluing in that he’d said something wrong.

  Daphne had gone red.

  “You were going to put the Mitchells out of business?”

  “That was my plan originally,” Jonah admitted. “But it’s changed.”

  “It has?” Gary asked.

  “I don’t care,” she said. “You lied.”

  “I didn’t. I—” She glared at him. “All right, I lied by omission. But the point is, we’re not going to build a hotel here. We’re going to build Haven House here.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” Gary cried. “We can’t take a loss on this land. We just paid a fortune for it.”

  “I don’t care, Gary!” he yelled, feeling everything falling out of his hands. “We’re not building a hotel here.”

  He turned back to Daphne, tried to touch her, hold her, but she slapped his hands away and stepped back.

  Daphne shook her head, anger making her face rigid. He was losing her.

  “Daphne, I left you last night and I went back to the city and I realized what a mistake I had made walking away from you. My life is totally empty without you.”

  “Stop, Jonah—”

  “No, I won’t stop. I can’t. I’m ready to go down to the Riverview and forgive my father. I’m ready to give them my blessing to try again, if it means I can live here with you. Make a family with you—”

  “Are you nuts?” she cried. “Two weeks ago you meant to drive them out of business.”

  “That was two weeks ago,” he said. “I know it’s crazy. I know it makes no sense. But I’m trying to start over, here. I’m trying to be a better man.”

  “Why?” She shook her head as though she thought it was an impossible goal. “There’s no money in it.”

  That stung. Oh, that really stung. “I love you, Daphne, and I’m not going to walk away.”

  “You already did.”

  “And it’s a mistake I’m not going to make again.”

  Gary and Carrie were watching with dropped jaws, eyes wide and he tried to wave them away, but they ignored him, clearly not wanting to leave their front-row seats.

  The longer Daphne was silent the more frantic he felt. So frantic that the last of his unbreakable rules simply crumbled. “I’m begging you, Daphne,” he whispered, the words so hard to say. “I’m begging you to give me a chance.”

  She blinked, her face pale, beautiful. “So you can change your mind in another two weeks?” she asked. “No. I’d be an idiot to believe you, and I’ve already learned that lesson.”

  She turned to Gary. “If you try to build a hotel here, the entire community will fight you. You’ll have more enemies than you’ll know what to do with.”

  Then, to Jonah’s utter despair, she turned and walked away, without even once looking back at him. As if he meant nothing to her.

  The stillness she left behind was oppressive. Deafening. Like a giant black hole in the universe.

  “So,” Gary said, clapping his hand on Jonah’s back. “Let me get this straight. You, Jonah Closky, are in love with an organic farmer?”

  “I am.” He sighed, feeling the weight of every hour he’d been awake. Every moment of his life a knife in his chest. He scrubbed at his eyes. “What am I going to do?”

  “What you always do,” Gary said, smiling sympathetically. “Win her over.”

  “How?” he asked. “Maybe you didn’t just see her walk away like I’m nothing to her.”

  “Oh, Jonah,” Carrie said, pulling Jonah into a hug that smelled slightly of vomit but he was too heartsick to protest. “She w
alked away because you mean everything to her. But you’ve got some serious groveling to do.”

  “I can grovel,” he said. But he wasn’t all that convinced it would work on Daphne. He’d hurt her. Bad. And she wasn’t the type to hand out second chances.

  He sighed, digging his keys out of his pocket. “Let me further blow your mind and invite you back to the Riverview Inn to introduce you to my family.”

  “Your what?” Gary asked.

  Jonah smiled, wearily. “That’s what I used to think. Follow me.”

  He walked back to Daphne’s farm where he’d parked his Jeep, only to find Helen sitting in the driver’s seat, wearing a pair of pajamas under a denim jacket.

  “You trying to steal my Jeep?” he joked, his heart slightly lighter for seeing the girl.

  “No.” Helen shook her head then nailed him right in the chest. “You hurt my mom.”

  “I know,” he whispered. “But I’m going to try to make it better.”

  “Good.” She toyed with a button on her jacket. “She loves you.”

  “You think?”

  Helen nodded. “But she thinks you’ll leave us. She thinks that about everyone.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, making it a solemn promise to the girl.

  “You better not,” she said and stood, poised on the edge of the door frame ready to jump. A little purple and pink daredevil. “Because I like you, too.”

  And then she jumped right into his arms.

  He drove up to the Riverview only to find Patrick leaning against Iris’s car. A Thermos and a stack of sandwiches sat beside him on the trunk.

  Gabe and Max sat in lawn chairs with cups of coffee, as if taking in a fireworks show. Max waved as Jonah jumped out of his Jeep wondering what sort of situation he’d stumbled across here.

  Jonah directed Carrie and Gary toward his cottage and told them to make themselves comfortable. They left gratefully, probably as tired of all the sudden drama in Jonah’s life as he was.

  “What’s going on here?” Jonah asked, coming up to stand behind his brothers.

  His brothers.

  He nearly laughed at how ludicrous it all was. It wasn’t even 7:00 a.m. and he’d declared his love, had his love rejected, claimed his brothers—at least in his own mind—and was about to bridge the gap with his father all so he and his mother could get on with their lives.

  I think I need a drink.

  “Well,” Gabe said, craning his neck to look at Jonah. “When you stormed out of here last night—”

  “Without saying goodbye,” Max said, taking a sip of coffee. “Delia and Alice are pissed at you.”

  “I’m back,” Jonah said and something in his tone made both men turn to look at him. He met their gazes and even, after a moment, managed to smile.

  Hi, guys, he wanted to say. I missed you.

  “Are we going to have to have some kind of group hug thing?” Max asked, turning back to his coffee. “Or can we just say we did?”

  “I think we can skip the hug,” Jonah said, staring at the horizon because his eyes were suspiciously damp.

  “Glad to hear it,” Gabe said after a moment, his own lips curled into a slight smile. “I got group-hugged out when Max decided to rejoin the living a while back.”

  “Bite me, Gabe,” Max grumbled, and Jonah smiled. Having brothers was great. Gary hated it when Jonah tried to insult him. “I seem to remember someone getting more than a little weepy and clingy a few months ago when Stella was born.”

  “Oh, right.” Gabe laughed. “Because you were so dry-eyed.”

  “Look,” Jonah interrupted, “as much as I love hearing what pansies you are, maybe it’s time someone told me what’s going on?”

  Gabe and Max exchanged a look that he couldn’t quite decipher, probably since he hadn’t yet gotten his brother decoder ring.

  “Maybe you can talk some sense into our parents,” Gabe said.

  “Why?”

  “Well, Mom is trying to leave,” Max said. Jonah didn’t even flinch when he said Mom. None of them did. He could share his beloved mother, if they were ready to treat her right. And it seemed they were.

  “And Dad is sitting on her car, so she won’t go,” Gabe said. “Now she’s holed up in the kitchen. She comes out every five minutes and yells at him, but he just sits there and says he’s not moving.”

  “Is it working?” Jonah asked.

  “Well—” Max shrugged “—she hasn’t left, but she’s getting pretty upset.”

  Jonah sighed and stepped through the narrow space between the lawn chairs. He hadn’t even had coffee yet, for crying out loud. He was running on adrenaline and love.

  “Jonah,” Patrick said with a curt nod when he approached. “Thought you left last night.”

  “I didn’t get very far,” Jonah said, settling down next to the old man. After a minute Patrick offered him a sandwich and Jonah gratefully accepted.

  “So, what’s your plan?” Jonah asked. “I mean, I get that she can’t leave with you on her car. But you can’t sit here forever.”

  “I’m gonna sit here until she sees reason,” Patrick said, definitively.

  “Yeah?” Jonah took a bite of ham sandwich. “And what’s reasonable between you two right now?”

  Patrick looked at him, watched him, trying to see down to Jonah’s studs and empty spaces. So, Jonah met his stare and let him.

  “I don’t know,” Patrick answered honestly. Jonah had to give him credit for that, considering that last night Jonah had been about to break his nose for looking at Iris wrong. “But I know I can’t let her leave.”

  “What’s different from last night?” Jonah asked. “Because last night it didn’t seem like you cared much.”

  “I love your mother,” Patrick said. “I’m just a proud, stubborn man and I was an idiot last night. I’ve been an idiot all week. The second she came back into my life I should have thanked God and done whatever she wanted me to do.” Patrick tore off a crust of bread, tossed it onto the gravel at his feet. “I don’t know if you can believe that,” he said. “I don’t know if you can forgive me—”

  “I’ll give you my blessing,” Jonah said and saw Patrick’s chin tremble. “I’ll tell her to come out here and talk to you, to listen to you. But I need a promise.” He beat back the years of anger, the righteous rage, the voices that screamed this man wasn’t trustworthy.

  “Anything, son.” Patrick’s voice was a rasp, torn from his gut.

  “You can’t hurt her again.” A swell of emotion made Jonah’s skin prickle, his throat thick.

  “I won’t.”

  “Promise me,” he said. He set down the sandwich and met the moment head-on, emotion and everything. He looked right at his father. “Promise me. Promise me you forgive her. That you’ll care for her. That you will reward this risk she’s taking by treating her like a queen.”

  Patrick stood, held out his hand and Jonah took it. Gripped it hard.

  “I promise,” Patrick said and when Jonah didn’t move, didn’t turn away, Patrick pulled on Jonah’s hand and brought him close. Jonah knew what the old man wanted. What he was going to do if Jonah didn’t stop it. But he didn’t step away. He let his father pull him closer. Until finally, Patrick’s arms were around him, holding him so hard Jonah couldn’t move.

  Jonah’s ribs cracked and tears sat in the corners of his eyes, fat and hot.

  “I love you, son,” Patrick whispered and Jonah shut his eyes. He knew what he should say. If this were a movie, he’d be able to say it. But it wasn’t a movie and the words just weren’t ready.

  “I can’t—”

  “I know, son,” Patrick said, understanding what Jonah barely could. “It will take some time. But we’ve got lots of it. Right?”

  Patrick pulled back, looking for an answer, and Jonah nodded. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

  “Good.” Patrick pounded on Jonah’s back.

  “I thought we weren’t hugging,” Max said, just ov
er Jonah’s shoulder.

  “I’m not hugging you two,” Jonah said, taking in these three men who were his family. Were the family he’d dreamed about, and told strangers he had. Big men, honorable. Standing side by side no matter what.

  Pieces of his life he’d spent so long pretending he wasn’t missing just fell into place.

  “Jonah?” His mother’s voice at the kitchen door had them all turning.

  Iris stepped toward them, her black eyes flashing. “I thought you left,” she said.

  He smiled slightly to let her know that things were okay. Well, as okay as they could be at the moment. “I’m in love,” he said and everyone gasped. For crying out loud, is it so hard to believe? “With Daphne.”

  Mom blinked, fought a smile but not successfully. “Does she love you?”

  “She does,” he said and winced. “But I don’t think she’s real happy about it right now.”

  “What are you going to do?” Iris asked, her gaze ricocheting off Patrick, bouncing to Jonah, then back to Patrick as if he was a magnet. And Patrick stood beside Jonah, practically vibrating at the sight of her.

  Love was making fools of all of them.

  “I’m going to stick around until she gets happy about it,” Jonah answered. “Look, Mom, you were right all along. It takes sacrifices to be happy and being in love is hard and complicated and messy and sometimes requires more of us than we’re ready to give.”

  Her face shut down and she sucked her upper lip between her teeth. He stepped toward her, wrapped her in his arms because he didn’t want her to have to fight what she wanted. “It’s okay,” he told her. “It’s okay to love Patrick.”

  “Oh.” She stepped back, looking at Patrick over Jonah’s shoulder, her eyes flinging daggers at the man. “I’m fine with it. I’ve loved that man since the moment I saw him. He’s the one with the problem.”

  They all swiveled to look at Patrick.

  “I’m sorry,” Patrick said, riveted to Iris. “I’m sorry for the letters. For the silence. But I’m not sorry I didn’t divorce you. I’m not sorry for what we’ve had here the last week.”