Seaview Inn

by Sherryl Woods

  “Hey, I’m in no rush. This has worked out great for me, too, so don’t think I’m doing her any favors.”

  “You’re the one climbing up and down a ladder, despite your injury,” Hannah said. “That counts as a favor in my book.”

  He gave her an odd look. “Don’t try to paint me as a hero, Hannah. Believe me, I don’t qualify.”

  “Something tells me that there are a lot of people who would say otherwise, Grandma Jenny included, but if you want to be modest and humble, who am I to argue with you?”

  “We should get back,” he said tightly.

  “You’re not on a time clock,” she reminded him, but she stood up, anyway.

  “Maybe not, but your daughter has guests booked into the inn in a couple of weeks and something tells me she’s going to expect everything in perfect order when the first ones arrive.” He glanced at her. “Does she get that perfectionism from you?”

  Hannah nodded ruefully. “Probably.”

  “Don’t say that as if it’s a bad trait,” he teased. “Just remember that sometimes relaxation is as important as getting it all right.”

  “You’re not the first to suggest that I could use more balance in my life,” she said. “It’s a favorite refrain of Grandma Jenny’s. What about you? Is your life in perfect balance?”

  He laughed. “Hardly, but unlike you, I’m working on it.”

  “Can you actually work on relaxing? Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

  “No more than practicing taking deep, cleansing breaths,” he said. “Breathing comes naturally. You have to teach yourself to do the other kind.” He shrugged. “Or so I was told in rehab.”

  “I took yoga once,” Hannah said.

  “How’d you do?”

  “I flunked.”

  “How can you flunk yoga?”

  “The teacher said I was too intense. I was making the rest of the class nervous.”

  Luke chuckled. “I can actually see that happening. You probably tried to get everyone to breathe faster, so you could finish up and get back to work.”

  Hannah laughed with him. “Something like that.”

  “So how do you relax?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, then suddenly realized that until the past few days, she couldn’t recall the last time she’d done anything solely for fun or relaxation. She hadn’t even taken a bubble bath in months, something she’d once savored. She was not going to admit that, though.

  “I get together with friends,” she said eventually.

  “And talk business?” he inquired, amusement lurking in his eyes.

  “Sure, sometimes,” she said, then winced. “Okay, what about you? Are you any better?”

  “Not much,” he conceded. “But I have seen the error of my ways. I’m here right now, taking a walk along the beach with you, while there’s painting to be done back at the inn.”

  “Well, heck, if that counts, I’m doing it, too.”

  “There you go,” he said. “Maybe we’re a good influence on each other.”

  “I think it’s going to take more than one walk on the beach and an ice cream cone to drag us out of the ranks of the compulsive workaholic,” she said dryly.

  “Speak for yourself. I’m reformed,” he insisted again. He took her hand and wove his fingers with hers. “I’ll make you a deal. For as long as we’re both here, we will do something just for fun every single day. How about it?”

  Hannah couldn’t immediately spot any drawbacks. “Sure. Why not?”

  “It’s a deal, then,” he said, and lifted her hand to brush a kiss across her knuckles.

  Heat shot through her at the contact, along with a sizzling awareness that had nothing to do with making an innocent pact. There it was, she thought with a shiver of panic. That was the drawback. She’d just committed to spending more time with a man who had the ability to distract her from all the things she should be dealing with. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.

  Somehow, though, she couldn’t seem to regret it.

  Every single day, Luke’s leg was a little less painful. He figured it was the combination of hard, physical work and taking walks on the beach with Hannah that kept it limber, and the slanting rays from the afternoon sun as he sat on the porch that soothed the aching muscles.

  So far, five days after they’d made their pact, he and Hannah had kept each other honest and spent a part of each afternoon doing something relaxing. He’d challenged her to a croquet match one afternoon after setting the wickets up in the backyard in preparation for the inn’s first guests after the reopening. The following day, they’d played a vicious game of badminton after he’d put the net up in the side yard. Hannah had beat the socks off him, though he’d blamed it on his injuries and dramatically limped away after the game. They’d walked on the beach and stopped for ice cream twice. Yesterday, he’d convinced her to take a bicycle ride around the island. He still hadn’t decided what today would bring.

  He glanced up as Grandma Jenny emerged from the house carrying two glasses of iced tea. She handed one to him.

  “You and my granddaughter seem to be spending a lot of time together,” she commented.

  “She’s good company.”

  “Yes, she is.” She gave him a hard look. “But she has an awful lot on her plate right now. I’d hate to see her get mixed up in something that has the potential to hurt her.”

  Luke nodded slowly. “Warning duly noted. And just to reassure you, we’ve agreed that our lives are too complicated for anything serious to happen.”

  Grandma Jenny chuckled. “You’ve agreed. Now, that is reassuring,” she said with tolerant amusement. “No wonder both of you are alone. You actually think you get to control these things. Trust me, Luke, if temptation’s got a foot in the door, all the logic in the world can’t fight it.”

  He knew she was right, knew how tempted he’d been on more than one occasion to haul Hannah into his arms and kiss her, despite their agreement. He’d seized a few too many opportunities just to touch her as it was.

  “Are you saying we should avoid each other?” he asked.

  “Not for me to say. I don’t know what the complications are in your life, do I? I’m just saying if they’re insurmountable, then don’t start something with my granddaughter that will break her heart.” She smiled. “Of course, if those complications are just something you’ve blown up out of all proportion, then you have my blessing to get on with pursuing Hannah.”

  Was that what he’d been doing? Pursuing her? Of course it was. He hadn’t been married for so many years that he couldn’t recall what it had been like to court a woman, to seek her out, flirt a little, relish the slow buildup of sexual tension. That was exactly what was happening with Hannah and more than likely, it was a huge mistake. She wasn’t the kind of woman to have an affair and walk away unscathed, and he was in no position to offer more.

  He stood up abruptly. “I think I’ll walk into town, check out a few shops and have an early dinner at The Fish Tale,” he said.

  Her gaze narrowed. “I thought you and Hannah did something around this time every afternoon.”

  “We have been, but I think you’re right. It’s a habit we probably ought to break.”

  “Then you should be man enough to stay here and tell her that face-to-face. Don’t leave it to me,” she said.

  “Come on. Give me a break here. I’m trying to do the right thing.”

  “Are you sure you know what that is?”

  “I know what’s right for this moment. Long-term? Not a clue,” he admitted. He bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the wake-up call.”

  “That is not what I intended when I sat down here,” she grumbled.

  He grinned. “I know, but sometimes when you start a ball rolling, it’s impossible to know where it will end up.”

  She shook her head. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

  He winked at her. “Sometimes you’re very wise,” he said before turning and w
alking away.

  An evening at The Fish Tale with some idle conversation with Jack, maybe a few minutes with Lesley Ann, and some time to figure out what the hell he was doing with Hannah, that was what he needed tonight. Tomorrow? Well, tomorrow would take care of itself.

  Hannah flatly refused to let her grandmother see how disappointed she was by the announcement that Luke had taken off for town without her. Instead, she muttered something about having things to do and marched back inside and tackled the project she’d been putting off—organizing the inn’s business files.

  As she’d suspected, her mother had been no better at record-keeping than Grandma Jenny was. Both of them preferred the interaction with the customers to the business side of operating the inn. Other than annual tax forms, which were handled by an outside accountant, there wasn’t a decent set of records since her grandfather had kept them. Receipts had been stuffed into file folders or envelopes, sometimes by year, sometimes by category, seemingly without any rhyme nor reason.

  She found everything that appeared to pertain to the current year and spread it out around her in the middle of the floor. She was trying to sort through it all when Kelsey came in.

  “What on earth are you doing, Mom?”

  “Trying to make sense of all the bills and receipts for this place. Tax season is just around the corner. Since the inn was closed for most of the year, it should be simple enough to pull everything together.” She shook her head in exasperation. “Or it would be if anything was ever filed properly.”

  “The inn needs a computer,” Kelsey said. “I mentioned it to Grandma Jenny and she looked at me as if I was suggesting she make a pact with the devil.”

  “It’s probably a waste of money,” Hannah said. “You won’t be here forever and she’ll certainly never touch it.”

  “I could have my computer from school sent here,” Kelsey suggested. “Jeff could do that. In fact, I really need to have him pack up everything and ship it to Florida. There’s no point in paying rent for an apartment if I’m not going back.”

  “Or you could go back and get it yourself. If you’re serious about quitting school, there are probably things you need to do.”

  “I can’t leave now,” Kelsey protested. “There’s too much to do with the first guests arriving in a couple of weeks. Jeff can handle shipping the stuff and I can call the registrar’s office about dropping out. I can probably do the paperwork online.”

  “Relying on Jeff is asking a lot of a man you refuse to marry,” Hannah suggested.

  “He won’t mind.”

  “Does he even know what you’re planning?”

  Kelsey shook her head, her expression guilt-ridden.

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s going to be really upset about it,” she admitted. “He says we can’t resolve anything if I’m clear across the country.”

  “He’s right.”

  “But it is resolved,” Kelsey said earnestly. “I’m having this baby and I don’t want to get married.”

  “But you love this boy,” Hannah reminded her. “That’s what you told me.”

  “Yeah,” Kelsey said softly. “He’s a great guy.”

  “Then I just don’t understand,” Hannah said with frustration.

  “It’s too soon,” Kelsey said with finality. “I’m not ready to be anybody’s wife.”

  “But you are ready to be someone’s mother?”

  Tears welled up in Kelsey’s eyes. “Not that, either.”

  “Sweetheart, what is it you’re not saying?”

  “I want to give the baby up for adoption.” She put a hand protectively over her stomach. “It’s too late for anything else and I promised Jeff not to end the pregnancy, anyway. But I can’t raise a child. I’ve thought and thought about this, Mom. I’m not being totally selfish, even though it probably sounds that way. I’m trying to think about what’s best for the baby. I swear it.”

  “How does Jeff feel about relinquishing his parental rights?”

  “He says he won’t do it,” Kelsey admitted. “He wants the baby, no matter what.” She met Hannah’s gaze. “But I want the baby to have a dad and a mom. I just can’t be that mom.”

  Hannah knew she had no right to try to influence her daughter one way or another. This had to be Kelsey’s decision, and Jeff’s. All Hannah could do was make sure they weighed all the options carefully and thoughtfully.

  Once again, she suggested, “Maybe you should fly back to California—”

  “No way,” Kelsey said before Hannah could even complete the thought.

  “Just to pack up your own things and try to resolve all of this with Jeff.”

  “No,” Kelsey said flatly.

  “Kelsey, these are decisions the two of you need to be making together.”

  “I’ll call him and tell him,” she said. “It’ll be better that way.”

  “Because it won’t be as easy for him to talk you out of it if you’re not face-to-face?”

  Kelsey nodded.

  “That should tell you something, then, shouldn’t it? If your feelings for this young man are that strong, if your love and respect run that deep, then perhaps you should try to make this work.”

  “Haven’t you heard a word I said?” Kelsey demanded in frustration. “I won’t give up my chance to figure out who I am. Just me, as a person. Not as somebody’s wife or mother.”

  “But you are going to be somebody’s mother, whether the timing’s right or not,” Hannah said. “You are responsible for the baby’s well-being.”

  “I know that,” Kelsey replied. “And the responsible thing is to give this baby to two people who desperately want a family.”

  She sounded so sure of herself, but Hannah knew she’d live to regret her choice. Maybe not right now when desperation had her grasping for an easy solution, but later when she thought about the child she’d given away.

  “Why are you so determined not to marry a boy you love, if you’re having his child? I don’t think you’ve told me the real reason yet.”

  “I won’t do it, because that’s what you did when you married Dad,” Kelsey blurted. “You got married too young. You had me too soon and just look how that turned out. It ruined everything for you.”

  She whirled around and left the room with her words still hanging in the air. Hannah stared after her in shock. That was what Kelsey thought? That Hannah’s life had been ruined by her ill-fated marriage and by Kelsey herself? Nothing could be further from the truth.

  But how on earth was she going to undo twenty years of actions that had led to her daughter reaching that conclusion?

  10

  Since Luke had slipped away from the inn specifically to avoid Hannah and had spent the entire evening fighting valiantly to keep her out of his head, it was disconcerting to come home at midnight and find her on the front porch, staring morosely out into the darkness.

  All of his resolve and good intentions went up in smoke. He walked over and took a seat beside her.

  “I thought you’d be in bed long ago,” he said, sliding a glance in her direction.

  “Is that why you stayed out so late, to avoid me?”

  “Pretty much,” he admitted.

  He caught her faint frown.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Something your grandmother said earlier.”

  “Was she matchmaking again?”

  “No, to the contrary, she was warning me off. I have to admit it came as a surprise, since she’d clearly been advocating earlier for something to happen between us.”

  Hannah seemed as startled as he’d been.

  “She’s been trying to throw us together since you got here,” she said. “I wonder what suddenly changed?”

  “She said you had enough on your plate and that unless I was serious, I should steer clear.” He shrugged. “Or words to that effect.”

  “And you actually took what she said to heart?” she asked, sounding incredulous. “You ran off because she told you t
o? That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “Truthfully, I ran off because it seemed like the wise thing to do.” He met her gaze, held it. “You should probably know that under other circumstances, I probably would have taken her warning as a challenge, tried my best to get you into my bed, preferably tonight.”

  Beside him, Hannah’s lips curved. “Now I may have to kill her,” she murmured.

  Luke studied her, tried to decide if she was serious about wanting him. It would change a lot if she was. Though he thought he was getting to know Hannah well, he couldn’t tell, so he gave her a rueful glance. “Please don’t. She was one hundred percent right about one thing. I need to be fair to you. I don’t know where this thing with us is going, if anywhere. To be honest, I don’t know much of anything these days. I’m just getting to a point where I can look beyond the next hour.”

  “Well, join the club,” she said with surprising bitterness.

  He gave her a startled look. “What happened?”

  “Apparently I have inadvertently given my daughter the impression that my life was ruined because I married young and then divorced her dad. Never mind that he had commitment issues and walked out on us more than once until I finally told him he had to stay or go for good. What stuck with Kelsey was that I had to raise her on my own with very little help from her father beyond child support.”

  Though Luke was relieved by the abrupt change of topic, he was stunned by what Hannah was telling him. “She said that?”

  “Yep. She said that’s why she flatly refuses to marry the father of her child.” She regarded Luke with a bemused expression. “I worked so hard to make sure she had everything she needed, yet somehow she interpreted that as struggle and sacrifice, and she wants no part of it.”

  “She’s young,” Luke reminded her. “The world is just opening up to her. She doesn’t know what she wants.”