“You have reached your destination.” The efficient GPS voice pulled her from her thoughts.
Darling glanced around, taking in the intersection that made up the town’s center. It seemed familiar, like a dream she’d had before. There really wasn’t much to the place. The police and fire stations were situated next to the Melody Bar and Grill, the only such establishment in town. On the other side of the square sat her aunt’s real estate office and the pharmacy/grocery store. The last building was an odd marriage of a liquor store and feed supply shop. From the looks of it, what few shoppers had wandered out into this rainy day were picking up cases of beer and bags of horse feed in the same visit, so that business model must be working. Unlike many lake towns, this one wasn’t much of a tourist area. The grocery store had a few inflatable floats for kids and some swim goggles on display out front under the eave of the building, but you wouldn’t find tacky souvenir shops or fancy gear there.
Secret Lake was large enough for watercraft and beaches, but so much of it was privately owned that there just wasn’t much public access. Quite a bit of the lake area was surrounded by unbuildable marshy acreage.
Darling’s grandmother and her late husband had built a rather large three-story lake house on the land they owned. They wanted room enough for their children and their children’s families. Shortly after the house was completed, Darling was born and the family spent their first summer there. Her aunt and uncle brought their son, Logan, the following year. The tradition continued for a couple more years until her aunt and uncle built their own house on the other side of the lake.
Darling parked the loaner, pleased that she’d had no mishaps. She had a driver’s license, but since she’d lived and worked in New York City these last years, she didn’t drive often. Perhaps she should get a vehicle of her own, depending on what she decided to do. If she stayed in Uniontown, she’d need something to get around in, but if she went back to the city, public transportation was really more convenient and cost-effective. Oh well, her new roommate was subletting her half of the apartment out for the summer, so she had time to figure it out.
She got out of the car and unlatched the hatchback to let Beauty Belle out. The golden retriever hopped down and followed her obediently toward the building. Leave it to Link and Madison to have a dog professionally trained by a Hollywood film animal handler. Beauty Belle probably knew more commands than a NYPD bomb-sniffing dog, and she was just a family pet Link rescued.
The bell on the door chimed, announcing Darling and Beauty’s entrance. She’d pick up the keys and get the house in order before her guests arrived. How did Madison manage to talk her into having her family and a guest stay for the weekend? Never mind that John Ross was a rather cranky but very sexy guest. Stop thinking like that and get your head in the game. He’s a widower and a drummer, for Christ’s sake! He’s not interested in a chubby little mouse like you anymore than he’d want burnt muffin tops for breakfast. Darling rolled her eyes at her errant thoughts.
It had been a few years since she’d seen Aunt Tracy, but the woman remained as lovely as ever. She was in her mid-forties, but her light brown hair still neatly swept her shoulders, and other than some faint lines, her face remained youthful. Her aunt came out of the back room with a wide smile in place, subtly emphasized with tasteful lipstick that almost perfectly matched her rose-colored silk blouse.
“It has been forever since I’ve seen you, Darling. Oh, and you have a dog too.” Tracy walked toward her to meet halfway.
Darling dropped her bag and walked into her aunt’s arms. It had been too long. “Yes, I’m dog-sitting for a friend. Hope you don’t mind her coming inside with me.” Her aunt shook her head, smiling at the well-behaved dog.
Aunt Tracy was her father’s sister, but after her mom was officially declared dead, they just didn’t see her that often. It was too painful for her dad to come up to Uniontown, and that was where Tracy lived. She got the real estate business and the house in the divorce. Her mom’s brother, Uncle Ryan, agreed to a cash settlement and seemed happy to get out of real estate sales and embark on a new career writing travel guides. Darling kind of sided with Uncle Ryan—she couldn’t picture herself shuffling anxious buyers from property to property, not when traveling to exotic places and writing was the alternative. She stepped out of her aunt’s embrace and looked her over again.
“I can’t thank you enough for handling all the maintenance issues and paperwork this last year until I could finish out my contract and get up here. Neither Dad nor I have really wanted to come back since that summer. I know I’m being ridiculous.” Darling’s voice was steady, but her eyes were watering and about to betray her true feelings.
“Oh, sweetheart, you really don’t need to do this. I could get people to come clean up the house and have it on the market in a couple of weeks. A nice house, waterfront, and with plenty of acreage would sell fast and leave you with quite a nice little inheritance. It would certainly give you the freedom to figure out what it is you really want to do if you’re sure teaching isn’t for you.” Tracy squeezed the crucifix she wore around her neck and placed a hand on Darling’s shoulder. Darling glanced up at the ceiling to try and dry her moist eyes. She would not cry in her aunt’s office.
She shook her head and wiped the escaping tears with her fingers, flicking the moisture onto her jeans. “No, Auntie, it’s okay. I think this is something I have to deal with. I’ll just stay for the summer, maybe do some writing, and figure it out. I just don’t think I want to sell, but I need time to decide.”
“I love you, honey, but I really think you’re making a mistake. I know your dad would agree with me, but because of his trip, he’s not here to weigh in.” Tracy frowned a bit, betraying her dislike of her brother’s new young wife. “Anyway, why don’t you come over to dinner at my house tonight. Logan is here for the summer and staying with me, at least until he goes back to school in the fall. I just have one closing to attend over in Popplewell but would be back by six, and that way you wouldn’t have to worry about grocery shopping or cooking today.”
“Oh, that’s sweet, but I have to go to the grocery store next. I’ve got friends coming to stay through the weekend, and I know I’ll need some supplies for Beauty Belle.” She gestured to the retriever. “Besides, I should probably get there and do some cleaning of the guest rooms. In fact, is there anywhere around here I can get some new bed linens and basics? I know you told me the house has furniture and all grandma’s kitchen stuff, but I assume that at her age she wasn’t changing up sheets and vacuuming cobwebs regularly.”
“Well, don’t worry about the house. I hired Sheriff Brickman’s daughter to pick up some new things and do a basic cleaning. I had expected to be showing the house for sale, but it’s just as well for your arrival.” Tracy turned on her heel and headed toward a counter at the back of the small storefront office. She poured herself a coffee from the steaming pot and turned around. She’d narrowed her eyes and stood watching Darling silently. Darling felt like a little girl about to be chastised yet not quite sure what she’d done wrong. When she couldn’t take the silence any longer, she walked a bit closer and reached out her hand to her aunt. Tracy accepted her hand and patted her arm.
“I’m sorry. I just worry about you staying there, between that being the last place you saw your mom and what happened to poor Mr. Jenkins, the handyman. Please try and make up your mind soon. I don’t think Uniontown is the place for you, though.” Tracy stepped aside to reach into a desk drawer and handed Darling a key ring. “Here you go, call me if you need anything. I’ll send Logan around to check on you.”
Chapter 5
It was after six o’clock when Darling finally heard Link and Madison’s Land Rover pull up outside the house. She peeked out the window just to be sure and scampered down the stairs and onto the lower deck so that she could wave them up. Madison hopped out of the driver’s seat, slammed the door, and gave her a big wave. “Oh, this place is gorgeous. You really are
waterfront here, and it’s so private. I can’t wait to be out on that big deck watching the sunset.” Madison hurried around the other side of the car where Link had gotten out and was unhooking baby William from his car seat.
“Hang on. I’ll come down and help you with some of that stuff.” Darling went down the last few steps to the driveway.
John Ross eased his long legs out of the backseat, took a wary look around, and stopped her in her tracks. “We got the bags and all, so how about you just hustle back up there, Darlin’, and crack me open a beer. I’m going to need something if you all are going treat this weekend like an Agatha Christie novel.” He headed to the back of the Land Rover and hauled his giant duffel bag out of the trunk. He took what Darling assumed was Will’s Pack ’n Play out as well. He stopped a foot away from where she stood. “Well, after you, little darlin’. Lead the way. I’m anxious for that drink you’re gonna pour me.” He smirked, gesturing with his bag to the stairs.
The way he said her name—Darlin’—was so familiar it left her feeling all warm and girlie. She gave herself a shake and returned to the house once she knew Link and Madison had the baby and the other bags in hand. She really couldn’t let that Texas drawl of his distract her too much. It was a good thing he’d be leaving on Sunday with the rest because she was already spending far too much time thinking about her fifth-wheel houseguest. But damn he was one fine-looking man, and she was only human, a human who needed to figure out what the hell she was doing with her life. Stop looking at him like a bulimic eyeing a donut display.
“So, notice anything strange around here this afternoon? Ghosts, bodies, screams erupting from the cellar?” John Ross asked.
She cringed at his mocking tone. “No, but it’s early still, and there is one body that I might want to see disappear, especially if he keeps on ordering me about.” Darling tossed the words over her shoulder and pushed her way through the front door into the spacious great room.
He chuckled, earning a glare from her. “Damn, girl, you don’t have to get all feisty on me like that. I’m just hoping you have a cold beer. Take pity on me. I’m a widower who just drove two hours with Mr. and Mrs. Lovey-dovey and their little cherub of baby cuteness. And I can tell you this much from the experience, it was painful, like being bucked by a steer in the balls kind of agony.” He sighed dramatically. “Please put me in a bedroom far away from the lovebirds and even farther away from that baby. That boy just don’t stop trying to talk, and he doesn’t say nothing that makes any kind of sense.” John Ross shook his head. He dropped his two bags on the floor and lowered himself onto the large leather couch.
Darling had to chuckle at his comments. She knew sometimes Madison and Link could carry on a bit, forgetting about their audience. It was nice to see a married couple so in love, but enough could be enough. She watched as John Ross stretched his legs out a bit, and then crossed and uncrossed them, not quite sure what to do with himself. In the end she took pity on him. “I tell you what, I’ll go get you a cold beer, and yes, if those boots of yours are clean, you can put them up on the coffee table and stretch out, but not for too long. I’m expecting you and Link to help with the grill. We’re having steaks tonight.”
He plopped his boot-clad feet up on the end of her leather ottoman and leaned back into the chair, lacing his fingers behind his head, “Now, Darling, that is about the sweetest thing you have ever said to me. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
“I don’t know about that—let’s not get carried away.” She hustled into the open kitchen just as the rest of her guests came through the door with their stuff. She called out to them, “Anyone else want anything? A beer or wine or a soda?”
“Beer, please,” called Link.
“Let me get in there and give you a hand. Here, Link, take the baby.” Madison strolled into the kitchen and started taking a quick inventory of the contents of the shelves.
“Well, looks like you’ve got everything. I see marinating steaks, beautiful salads, and—yummy—a nice rosé to go with dinner. This is perfect because we stopped on the way and got William some chicken and peas, so he’s all set until his nighttime bottle.”
“I’m glad to have you guys here these first few days, but I’m not sure this is the best deal for John Ross.” No one that hot would want to hang around near me. Darling pulled out another salad and gave it a quick stir.
“No, I think this is a great place for him to be. He spends far too much time brooding alone since his wife’s death. He needs to be out among friends and to start talking to people again. Besides maybe you and he…” Madison let her innuendo hang in the air.
“Oh, no way, Maddie. I’ve told you I am done with musicians. Fool me once, shame on you, and all that.” She whacked her friend on the arm lightly with her salad tongs.
“Okay, okay, no pressure from me, but I am leaving something for you just in case you change your mind.” Madison smiled like the Cheshire cat and opened a couple of drawers. “If you got a bottle opener, let’s pop this cork and get this barbecue started.”
“Unless it’s new baking equipment from a Pampered Chef party, I’m not interested.”
“Depends. Do they sell pastry bags about the size of a man’s—”
Darling cut her friend off. “Madison. You are almost evil. Now quit it and bring out the platter.”
She made sure everybody had something to drink and proceeded to take her guests on the ten-cent tour. All the bedrooms were on the second floor, and the third floor contained a storage room and a game room with a pool table. She assigned Link and Madison to the master bedroom as it had an attached sitting room that they could set William’s Pack ’n Play crib up in. She and John Ross each had a room on the opposite ends of the hall from the other, but she chose the room that had its own attached bathroom; it was her house after all. With their bags dropped off and baby Will’s port-a-crib set up, they went out to the large deck that overlooked the lake.
John Ross got to work right away preheating the grill while Link and Madison oohed and ahhed over the view. It was a spectacular view. The house sat on twenty acres and included three hundred feet of lake frontage. The lake was a mile long and about that wide, so you could just barely make out some houses across the other side. Darling took a moment to watch the sunset dropping over the lake. She really couldn’t see any of the neighbors adjacent to the house because of the way the lake bent in a bit, making it almost into a cove that her property sat in. Most of the hundred-foot dock going out to the lake looked to be in perfect condition. The trouble was at the end where the dock widened out and dipped into the water from the collapsed pillar. At that end the water was at least twenty feet deep.
Her dad used to have a good-size sailboat that he would take out for overnight fishing trips on the lake. The gazebo built onto the dock sat at an awkward angle as if ready to fall into the water at any moment. The whole setup had been built just for that boat, and just after it was completed, her mom had been gone, and they never returned to sail. Replacing the cracked and collapsed pillar would be expensive. She would have to find someone else to come make the repairs. Poor Mr. Jenkins. She’d never met him but still felt bad that the accident had happened on her property.
Darling sighed, taking in the only vaguely familiar view. The forest surrounding the house was thick and green, a jungle-like mix of ferns, pines, oak, and beech trees. There was a small lawn along the perimeter of the house just big enough for a game of croquet or for kids to throw a football or kick a soccer ball around, but everywhere else had been gobbled up by the woods. Even the driveway was long and forbidding; it was a quarter-mile-long narrow path done in gravel. The closest neighbor actually shared a portion of her driveway. She sort of remembered something about them. The Whitakers owned the tiny cottage. It had been winterized many years back, and their driveway was a small dirt lane that jutted out from her gravel one.
Darling shook the sad thoughts away and concentrated on how pretty the sun looked s
etting over the lake. It was a mild day, and the water was still as glass, beautifully reflecting the early summer colors. “So I thought we’d do dinner, maybe watch a movie or something, and call it a night. We can do some beach stuff tomorrow if you want. That shed over there is basically a boathouse. There’s a sunfish sailboat and kayaks that still seem to be in good condition.” Nobody said anything, so she asked again, “Guys? Does that sound okay?”
“Huh? Oh, I don’t care. Whatever everyone wants to do.” Madison returned to holding Link’s hand and looking out across the water, the two of them obviously distracted by each other and the romantic view.
“You play cards or anything there, Darlin’?” John Ross asked as he dropped the steaks onto the grill and let the flames lick at the meat.
“Well, my father taught me setback and poker if you’re interested in a few hands later.”
“Poker, huh? What’s a nice uptown girl like you doing playing poker?”
She pursed her lips. “I’m actually good at poker.” Shut up, Darling, you’re way out of your league.
“Are you talking strip poker or cash poker? Though I imagine those aren’t the versions your daddy taught you,” he said with a bit of a leer.
He was a Neanderthal. She wished he’d stop treating her like a little sheltered girl; she was a woman grown. Granted she wasn’t as vivacious and daring as Madison, but hell, she’d lived on her own in New York City for four years. Life had dealt her some crappy hands, and she’d come up just fine in the end. It was about time she channeled her inner Madison and worked it. She certainly wasn’t going to let some grouchy Texas drummer intimidate her, not on her own turf. “Oh, we can play any kind of poker you want. I’ll have you down to your tightie whities begging for surrender in no time.”
Darling's Desire Page 3
