Harlequin Special Edition November 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2

by Lilian Darcy

  “No, because if it won’t come clean enough, I want to take the responsibility for it. If it’s really bad, we might have to get the carpet store guys back to shift the carpet around or patch it. What is it about brand-new carpet that attracts red wine? It’s like it’s magnetic!” She set off for the cabin in question, armed with two buckets of different cleaning supplies, and marching with intent.

  And just a few minutes later, the honeymooners rolled in, glowing with sun-kissed color and happiness. They’d been out of touch all week, with just the occasional honeymoonish photo or silly text, Whee! Jet boating! for example—showing up on Mary Jane’s phone. They had no idea about any changes in Lee’s life.

  At Mary Jane’s prompting, Lee had called their mom and dad and told them her news, and they were thrilled about the baby. “Our first grandchild!”

  But they couldn’t quite hide their questions and concerns about the lack of a committed relationship. She’d told them, “We’re working on it, Mac and I,” so that Mom and Dad would realize it was a joint project, not a battleground.

  Even if occasionally it was.

  Mom was already talking about coming up for a visit, and planning a longer stay to help around the time of the birth, and again Lee felt as if six months was a lifetime away and also no time at all.

  Weird.

  Odd.

  The honeymoon couple’s return was a little weird, also, to be honest. At the wedding, there had been enough people and activity to distract from any awkwardness, but now it was only the three of them, two climbing out of a vehicle, one standing on the office porch on a mild, sunny day, all of them smiling at each other.

  Lee didn’t think that Daisy and Tucker were even aware of it, but she was. When she looked at him, she just thought, Nope, not right. Nice guy, yes, but not interested. And yet once she’d come so close to marrying the man, and it really spooked her, to be confronted once again with her bad decision.

  What was I thinking? How could I have gotten it so wrong?

  She couldn’t remember all the steps down that mistaken path. She’d taken herself far away from here, not long afterward, largely because she’d wanted to heal herself and rebuild herself in private.

  The broken engagement—almost a jilting at the altar, really—had seemed like a massive signal that she didn’t really know who she was, and something had told her very clearly that she wouldn’t be able to find that out if she stayed here, with Mom and Dad and Mary Jane all tiptoeing around her, biting their tongues.

  Lee had made a good life for herself in Colorado for more than ten years, first in Arapahoe Basin, then Aspen. Now she was back, and probably to stay, and she so much didn’t want this to be a backward step. She liked who she was now. Self-sufficient. Active. Happy. Independent.

  Other people seemed to like her, too.

  Mac liked her.

  She liked Mac liking her, and she liked him.

  But what if being this Lee needed conditions that couldn’t be met back here at Spruce Bay? What if her return muddied the waters of her decision making, and brought another huge mistake? She kept a guard around herself that she didn’t want to let down. She didn’t want to change, and definitely didn’t want to go back, and—

  Well, she didn’t really understand it, but seeing Tucker and Daisy just spooked her.

  Daisy gave her a warm, giant hug. “So good to see you properly. We barely talked at the wedding. When are you heading back to Colorado?”

  “I’m not. Did you come here direct from the airport? Your bags are still in the back.”

  “Just wanted to say hi on our way through, and make sure Mary Jane didn’t need any help after the weekend.”

  “We didn’t have the restaurant open or anything,” Lee reassured her. “Only two cabins booked. They loved your picnic hampers, by the way. It’s still very quiet here, so we were fine.”

  “I thought you might have started back already. Wait a minute, you’re not, you said? What do you mean, you’re not?”

  “Stuff to talk about.” She waved it all away. “Not now.”

  “Yes, now,” Daisy insisted. “Where’s Mary Jane?”

  “Defeating a wine stain in cabin 9. Battle to the death, I think. Go home and unpack your bikinis.”

  “You’re pushing me away.”

  She was.

  And Daisy wasn’t taking it.

  “We said to each other we might stop for coffee, and now we definitely are!” She headed inside, and Tucker followed her at a relaxed amble, grinning in appreciation at the sight of his new wife in take-charge mode. The blondest member of the family, Daisy did things like that so prettily, and with such sparkling energy.

  Upstairs in the kitchen, she looked around for a moment and said, “Wow, you really have moved back! You’ve brought your mugs.”

  “Which one do you want for your coffee?” Lee drawled.

  Her sister laughed. “Don’t attempt to distract me with irrelevant details.”

  “Then you’re getting unicorns in the moonlight. So cute you’ll puke.”

  “Don’t joke about that, please!” Daisy rested a hand on her lower belly, with an expression on her face that was half grimace, half grin. She added, all coy and feminine, “We have an announcement.”

  Lee did a double take, while Tucker growled, “So much for not saying anything for a bit, sweetheart.”

  “You were the one who said we should tell people right away,” Daisy answered.

  “And you were the one who said we shouldn’t, and now you are. After about five seconds.”

  “Daisy, wait a minute,” Lee interjected. “You’re saying what I think you’re saying?”

  She shrugged and grinned even wider. “We jumped the gun on the wedding. Fun honeymoon experience, shopping for a pregnancy test in Nassau.” Then she saw Lee’s face and stopped grinning. “What’s the problem?”

  Lee sat heavily in a kitchen chair. “I think this is going to kill Mary Jane.”

  Daisy sat, too. They’d both forgotten all about coffee. “She’s a better person than that, isn’t she? I know she wants a man and a family. But she’s been so generous about the wedding. She’ll be even more generous about a baby, I’m sure. She knew we were planning on trying right away.”

  Lee took a deep breath. “Not when it’s two of us.” She closed her eyes. “This is not the way I planned for this conversation to go, by the way.”

  “Lee! Lee?”

  “I know.” She opened her eyes again. “You haven’t even met Mac yet.”

  Daisy repeated Lee’s words from half a minute ago. “Now you’re saying what I think you’re saying? Pregnant, too!”

  “Yep.”

  “Who is—? Well, it’s obvious who Mac is. But beyond that, who is he? Where is he? How long have you known him? Is it serious? Do you have plans? What are you going to—?”

  Lee cut in. “Mary Jane pretty much did this, too, even though Mac was standing in the room at the time. If you would pause for breath, I could tell you.” She added drily, “And congratulate you.”

  Daisy laughed. “Well, thanks! Same back at you, sis!” They grinned a little sheepishly at each other.

  “Do you have a due date?”

  Daisy nodded. “We worked it out. Mid-November.”

  “Then I’m ahead of you,” Lee drawled. “Late September.”

  “Oh, wow!”

  “That is mostly what Mary Jane said. She did really well with it, and then half an hour later she got all prickly when she found out Mac and I haven’t even decided to live together, let alone get married. I think she’d just run out of energy for being generous.”

  “So you’ve told her. She already knows.” Daisy grew thoughtful. “So I’m the one who has to decide whether to hold off a little, so as not to hit her with th
e double whammy.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Hold off?” Tucker said. He looked doubtful.

  “It’s a tough one,” Lee agreed.

  “It is,” Daisy said. “That’s why you’re moving back, though? Because of the baby? To be around family?”

  “Seemed like a good idea.”

  “And Mac?”

  “Mac moved, too.”

  “Is there a wedding happening? No, you said you have no plans, and you’re not even living together.”

  “Nope,” she said, very firmly, because she was getting a little tired of everyone mentioning marriage and weddings.

  Tucker hadn’t said anything beyond that one question about holding off, but now he shifted on his feet. “You have to tell Mary Jane as soon as you can.”

  “You think?”

  “Can’t turn things like this into secrets. If they come out later, they come out worse.”

  Daisy nodded, and something went back and forth between them. Lee guessed it was something to do with his father’s long-ago affair, and the resulting half brother who was much younger than Tucker. He’d never spoken about that stuff with Lee, which was a pretty good signal, in hindsight, that the relationship had never been right. She’d learned about it from Daisy, not Tucker himself.

  “Have to pick the right moment, though,” Daisy said.

  “But if there isn’t a right moment, you have to tell her anyhow,” Tucker insisted. “You can’t use waiting for the right moment as an excuse.”

  “Before we tell Mom and Dad? Lee, have you told them about you?”

  “Yes, I called a couple of days ago. Sorry, would have let you tell it first, if I’d known.”

  “No problem. Can’t always be neat about these things.”

  “Exactly, Daisy,” Tucker said. “Don’t make it so Mary Jane thinks she’s the last person to know, because then she’ll think you thought she couldn’t handle it.”

  They heard the sound of the door downstairs, then footsteps, and Mary Jane herself arrived. Somewhere along the route from cabin 9, she’d rid herself of the cleaning equipment, but the weariness of battle was written all over her face. “I think it’s come out enough,” she announced. “You can still see it in a bright light. When it’s dry, I’ll move a chair to camouflage it a little. Hi, you two, by the way. Welcome back. Is that coffee going?”

  It wasn’t, because they’d gotten too distracted, but Mary Jane clearly needed some. She turned to Lee’s magnificent machine and began the process.

  “Not the right moment now,” Daisy mouthed to Lee.

  She nodded in agreement.

  They could wait a little, even if Tucker didn’t approve.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I see no reason whatsoever why pregnant women shouldn’t paint boats,” Lee said to the world in general, down by the lake at midmorning on Wednesday.

  Maybe not really to the world in general, maybe to Mac, even though he wasn’t here.

  “It’s a little late to get defensive about it, since we are already painting them,” Daisy suggested.

  “Not quite. We’re sanding, not painting.”

  “I hate sanding. I especially hate these masks.” Daisy put hers on again, and resumed the sanding they’d both taken a break from, in order to grab a drink of water. Lee hated the mask, too, but she wasn’t letting herself take it off for a second while the sanders were on, because breathing in old paint particles definitely seemed like it would be a bad idea for a pregnant woman.

  For early April, the weather was gorgeous, and the fleet of Spruce Bay dinghies and canoes needed a fresh coat of marine paint to match the remodeling of the resort that already made the place look the best it ever had. Gorgeous new deck opening from the restaurant, landscaped barbecue area and pool surround, new garden beds and walkways everywhere, new bathrooms and decor and paintwork. Once the trees leafed out and the new spring plantings took hold and began to flower, it would be truly beautiful here.

  The electric sanders shattered the lakeside peace with their noise, but another half hour of it brought the hulls of two boats to a smooth finish, ready for a final wipe with thinner before they began to paint. There were eight boats altogether, and they planned to spread the work out, tackling them two at a time. Since their father had given his best attention to the boats and had sanded and repainted them almost every year, they needed only a light refresher coat.

  “Painting is much more peaceful than sanding,” Daisy said. She opened the can and began to stir. Dad had always gone for a bright sky-blue, a color that, no matter where she encountered it now, always reminded Lee of summers on the lake, and cold, peaty-fresh water, and that unique, musical sound of water slapping on a boat hull. “Mmm, not loving these fumes!” Daisy added.

  “I wouldn’t do this if we were in an enclosed space,” Lee agreed. “But I’m not putting that mask on for this part! Turn away from the paint can when you breathe.”

  “Yeah, that’s better. And you’re right, it’s fine as soon as I’m away from the can. The breeze takes the fumes away.”

  “You haven’t said anything to Mary Jane yet, have you?” Lee asked, after they’d been painting for a few minutes.

  It seemed so strange that they were both pregnant at the same time, yet in such different circumstances. Some sisters in Daisy’s position would have been a little miffed at Lee for getting in first. Baby announcements belonged to radiant new brides, not independent single women with no marriage plans and a new boyfriend whom the rest of the family had barely met.

  “Still trying to pick my moment,” Daisy said.

  “You were out shopping for poolside furniture with her for three hours yesterday. There wasn’t a moment during that?”

  “I didn’t want to spoil it. We had fun with it, stopped for coffee and cake halfway through, had some really good laughs.”

  “I love the look of what you ordered.”

  “Delivery in three weeks, good to have it in place, although probably a little soon for guests to want to sit out there,” Daisy said.

  “Except on a day like this. You have to tell her, Daisy. I think Tucker is right about that. And Mac thinks so, too.”

  “That’s because Mary Jane isn’t their sister.”

  “I think that helps them to see more clearly. If she knew we were out here right now, for example, talking about how to protect her feelings...she’d hate that.”

  “She would. But I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “Bite the bullet. Then ride it out. Only way.”

  “You tell her, then.”

  “You know that would be worse. It’s not my news to tell.”

  Daisy sighed. “I know.”

  Mary Jane appeared an hour later, when they were almost done. “I thought you two could do with some lunch. It’s just sandwiches. Shall I bring them out here or do you want to come in?”

  “Bring them out,” Lee said. “It’s so nice today.”

  “If you’re working hard physically, or wearing a jacket!” Mary Jane had been indoors all morning, working on the summer reservations that were starting to come in.

  “So put on a jacket! By the time you get back, we’ll have the brushes soaking and our hands clean, and we can have a picnic.”

  “It would be fun, the three of us,” Mary Jane agreed. “How long has it been since we’ve sat and had a picnic on the dock? Since we were kids, almost. You guys never came back here in the summer, or at least not both at the same time.”

  “She’s handing it to us on a plate,” Daisy said after Mary Jane had gone back.

  “And you’re not talking about a sandwich.”

  “Nope.”

  “Just say it.”

  So Daisy did, when the three of them were sitting in a row, chicke
n salad sandwiches in hand, with their legs dangling off the edge of the dock, and their butts warmed by the wooden planking that had heated in the sun. “Guess what, Mary Jane? Tucker and I have some news.”

  “Oh, you do?”

  “We’re having a baby in the fall!”

  Mary Jane’s sandwich stopped halfway to her mouth. “What, you, too?”

  “Yes, about two months after Lee.”

  “You’d already told Lee, obviously.”

  “Well, it just came up. You know how it is.”

  “This morning,” Mary Jane said. “I guess it would, with the two of you out here.” Lee opened her mouth to say no, actually, not that morning, but Sunday afternoon, pretty much as soon as they saw each other. But before she could get the words out, however, Mary Jane went on speaking. “That’s so great! That is really great news! I am so happy for you!”

  She sounded it, too. She really did. No need to tell her that she’d been the last to know.

  “This is wonderful! This is fabulous!”

  And yet Lee could tell it wasn’t completely sincere. Beside her, she could almost feel Daisy picking up on the difference, too. Mary Jane was saying all the right things. Doing the right things, also. Trying like anything to be generous enough not to mind...for the second time this week.

  Mary Jane hugged Daisy, who was the one sitting in the middle. She asked for details on due date, and how Tucker felt, and whether they were hoping for a girl or a boy. She said yet again how happy she was. “Two babies together! That is so cool!”

  Really impressive performance, sis.

  Lee’s heart went out to her, and if she hadn’t been so sure that moving positions on the dock so that she could hug her and tell her she totally understood how hard this was for her would...well, would have been the worst thing in the world, she would have been there in a heartbeat. Mary Jane didn’t want her cover blown.

  Daisy did the same as Lee—pretended she didn’t know how much Mary Jane was pretending.

  Because sometimes that was what you did when you loved someone.

  You let them think they had you fooled.

  * * *