Mick’s eyes brightened. “Of course.”
As Jake pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, Will started to stand. Moments like this reminded him of just how far he was away from marriage and a family. “I should be getting back to work.”
“Hold on a minute,” Mick commanded, then took the cell phone from Jake and studied his granddaughter’s latest pictures. “I’m not saying my girls weren’t the most beautiful babies on earth back in the day, but this little one is something special.”
“Don’t say that in front of Abby,” Will cautioned. “I’m sure she thinks Caitlyn and Carrie were pretty special as babies, too.”
“Well, of course they were,” Mick said. “And when Abby gets around to having another baby, I’m sure he or she will be the cutest baby on earth, as well. Right now, this is the baby I get to dote on.”
Will chuckled at his logic.
Mick returned the cell phone, then turned to Will. “I just wanted to be sure you’ll be at Sunday dinner this week.”
There was something in Mick’s expression that made Will very nervous. He knew that look. It was born in meddling. “I hadn’t planned on it,” he said candidly. And if he hadn’t already decided against it, Mick’s pointed invitation would have convinced him to stay far away from the O’Briens’ house. Things between him and Jess were tense enough with Mick getting in the middle of whatever was going on—or, more precisely, not going on—between them.
“Then you need to change your mind,” Mick said flatly. “I have some sketches ready for Jess. I know she’d like it if you’d take a look, too.”
“What sketches?” Will asked suspiciously.
“The redesigned attic for the inn and a house for the property,” Mick said. “She told me you’d had some thoughts about both. We’d appreciate your input.”
Jake and Mack were listening, their expressions amused. Clearly they both knew precisely what Mick was up to, and architectural sketches had nothing to do with it. These were just a convenient excuse.
“The inn is Jess’s baby,” Will said. “It has nothing to do with me.”
Mick’s gaze narrowed. “Is there some reason you don’t want to come by?”
“I have other plans this week,” Will told him.
“What plans?” Jake inquired innocently.
“A date,” Will said, giving his friend a sour look. He might not have one right this second, but he would the minute he got back to his office and called one of the matches on his Lunch by the Bay list.
Mick didn’t look as if he believed him. Either that, or he was just unhappy to hear that Will was seeing someone other than his daughter. Giving him a disgruntled look, Mick stood up.
“I’ll tell Jess you couldn’t make it,” he said. “I imagine she’ll be disappointed.”
“Another time,” Will said, relieved to watch Mick walk away.
“Oh, boy,” Jake murmured.
Will scowled at him. “What?”
“You lied to Mick,” Mack said, his expression as dire as Jake’s.
“I did not lie,” Will said.
“You really do have a date?” Jake asked skeptically.
“I will within the hour,” Will said.
“Doesn’t matter,” Mack said. “The point is you blew off a chance to spend time with Jess. Mick won’t forget that. It’ll be a black mark against you from now till eternity.”
“What’s he going to do?” Will asked. “Forbid me to ever see Jess again? I’m not seeing her now. That’s Jess’s choice, not mine, by the way.”
“Do you suppose Mick understands that she’s the problem?” Mack wondered thoughtfully.
“Of course he does,” Jake said. “That’s why he was here issuing the invitation, instead of leaving it to Jess.”
“How twisted is that?” Mack muttered. “I’m so glad that Susie… Well, that Mick isn’t her father.”
Jake chuckled. “Yeah, Mick would have insisted the two of you get off the dime a long time ago.”
Will listened and shook his head. It wasn’t that they were saying anything he didn’t already know, but it was a reminder that it might be wise to continue steering clear of Jess. He gave Jake a sympathetic look. “I feel for you, my friend. Hard to believe you willingly married into this family.”
Jake laughed. “After jumping over about a million hurdles, yes, I did. Bree’s worth it. And don’t try to kid us, my friend. You’d do it too, in a heartbeat, in fact, if you could get Jess to come around.”
Will sighed. “You’re probably right.” It wasn’t something he especially liked about himself.
Jess found herself taking extra care with her appearance on Sunday. She tried on half a dozen outfits before settling on a pair of linen slacks and a sleeveless linen blouse. Both were impossible to keep pressed, so she rarely wore them. When she actually took her makeup kit out of the back of a drawer, she frowned and put it right back.
“You’re being absurd,” she told her reflection in the mirror.
“Up here talking to yourself?” Abby inquired, walking into her room without waiting for a response to her knock.
“Sadly, yes,” Jess admitted.
“You look lovely,” Abby said, surveying her. “That peach color in your blouse suits you. It brings out the color in your cheeks.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s the special occasion?”
“No occasion,” Jess said, flushing.
Abby regarded her with disbelief. “Then it doesn’t have anything to do with those sketches Dad’s been working on, the ones he was going to show you, me and Will today?”
“Why would I get dressed up to look at Dad’s sketches?” Jess asked, feigning innocence.
Naturally Abby saw right through the pretense. She hadn’t practically raised Jess without learning a thing or two about her younger sister’s moods.
“I was thinking it might have more to do with Will,” Abby said. “And I came over here to alert you that he’s not going to be at dinner. I didn’t want you to be disappointed and let Dad catch wind of your reaction when you found out.”
Jess couldn’t hide how deflated she felt by Abby’s announcement. “How do you know Will won’t be there?”
“When I arrived earlier, Dad was grumbling to Mom about it. He said something about Will having another date.”
Jess sat down hard on the edge of her bed. “I see,” she said softly.
“You okay?” Abby asked.
“Sure,” she lied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Maybe because you’re finally figuring out that you ought to be giving Will a chance.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jess insisted. “Don’t make too big a deal out of it. I don’t intend to.”
“It’s probably just one of those computerized match-ups, anyway,” Abby consoled her.
“More than likely,” Jess agreed. “It’s just as well he won’t be there. All we do is argue lately, anyway.” She forced a smile. “We’d probably better head over to the house. Gram likes to get dinner on the table promptly at one on Sundays.”
Abby hesitated, a worried frown puckering her brow. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Absolutely.” She plastered a smile on her face, more to practice for the rest of the family than out of any belief that Abby would buy it. “I can’t wait to see Dad’s designs.”
“Me, too,” Abby admitted, following her down the stairs. “He swears to me his cost projections are very reasonable, at least for the attic renovation. Did you know he was designing a house, too? What’s that about?”
Jess nodded. “I mentioned something about maybe building one on the property if I ever have a family, and Dad ran with it. I told him it wasn’t anything I’d need in the immediate future, but you know Dad.”
“He’s put two and two together where you and Will are concerned and is ready to reserve the church,” Abby said, giving her a sympathetic look. “Of course, if you and Will stop playing games and get your signals straight—”
Jess’s scowl effectively silenced her sister, at least for the moment. Now all she had to do was suffer through dinner and look over those sketches without letting on that she was bothered by Will’s absence. If she passed this test, maybe she ought to try out for Bree’s theater company.
Will’s date was rapidly turning into a disaster. He’d been so distracted that the woman, a lawyer from Annapolis who’d once worked with Connor in Baltimore, lost patience.
“Why did you ask me out?” Anna Lofton asked eventually.
Will forced himself to meet her gaze. She had dark brown eyes that seemed to see right through him. He imagined that worked well for her in a courtroom interrogation.
“It seemed as if we had several things in common,” he said.
“I thought the same thing,” she said, leaning forward. “But you haven’t really been here since we sat down. Are you already involved with someone else?”
“Absolutely not,” he said hurriedly, startled by her perceptiveness, but unwilling to acknowledge the accuracy of her assessment.
She laughed. “That answer came way too fast. Who is she? The girl who got away?”
Will sighed. “I never had her in the first place,” he admitted. “And I’m truly sorry about the way this date has gone. I never should have asked you out for today. It was a knee-jerk reaction.”
She studied him curiously. “To what?”
“Believe me, if I told you, it would only make me look like a worse jerk than you must think I am now.”
She actually laughed at that. “Now I’m seeing that self-deprecating sense of humor I liked in your emails.”
Will grinned. “Should we try this again another day?” he asked. “It might go better.”
Anna shook her head. “Not until you get this other woman out of your system,” she said. “If that happens, call me. I like you, Will Lincoln, but I don’t want to waste my time. Thanks for lunch, though.” She looked around. “If nothing else, I should thank you for introducing me to Chesapeake Shores. I like this town. I have no idea why I’ve never been down here before. I’ll have to come for the weekend next time.”
“There’s a great inn,” Will said, then winced.
“Why do you look as if you regret telling me that?” she asked.
“The woman who owns it…” he began.
Anna’s eyes lit up as she caught on. “Ah, she’s the one. Now I really will have to come back. What’s the name of this inn?”
“The Inn at Eagle Point,” he said reluctantly. “You’ll love it there. It has terrific views of the water and a great chef.”
“Is this woman of yours the chef, too?”
“No, just the owner.”
Anna stood up. “Well, maybe I’ll see you around before too long,” she told him.
Will dropped cash on the table for the bill, then walked her to her car. “Again, I really am sorry about how this went. It’s certainly not a very good reflection on Lunch by the Bay’s matchmaking skills.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think the match was great. Unfortunately, you just happen to have unresolved feelings for someone else. I’ll bet you didn’t tell the computer that.”
Will chuckled. “Hardly. I try not to tell anyone that. Unfortunately, in this town almost everyone already knows.”
“Sounds like the curse of small-town living,” Anna said. “Tell Connor hello for me if you run into him.”
“I will,” he promised. “Drive safely.”
He watched her put her sexy little sports car into gear and then drive off. Only when she was out of sight did he sigh. Under any other circumstances, maybe even on another day, Anna would have intrigued him.
Instead, he knew she’d just been a substitute for Jess, a way to prove to Jess and everyone else that she wouldn’t always have him tied into knots. Ironically, though, what this afternoon had proved was exactly the opposite.
9
Jess tried to work up some enthusiasm for her father’s sketches on Sunday afternoon. Mick regarded her curiously when she merely nodded from time to time and occasionally muttered, “Nice.”
“Okay, that’s it,” he said finally, clearly losing patience. “I did these for you, Jess. Have you lost interest already?”
Jess bristled at the accusation, which sounded all too familiar. Her father had had a very hard time accepting her ADD. More than once in the early days before her diagnosis, he’d suggested she simply wasn’t applying herself in school. After four children who’d all been overachievers, Jess had been a frustration to him. It was that old annoyance that she heard in his voice now.
Before she could snap out a response, Abby stepped in to smooth things over, as always.
“Of course she hasn’t,” Abby said, rushing to her defense. “The designs are amazing, Dad. I’m sure Jess loves them.”
Jess forced herself to smile. “I do, Dad. And I really appreciate the time you spent doing them.”
“Then what’s the problem?” he demanded, clearly not pacified. He regarded her curiously. “Does your mood have something to do with Will not showing up today?”
“Leave Will out of it,” Jess commanded irritably. “The attic renovations have nothing to do with him. It’s my project.” She turned to Abby, determined to end any discussion of Will. “What do you think about the costs? Can we pull this off?”
Her sister didn’t hesitate. “If Dad does the majority of the work and he can stick to the budget he’s given us, I think we can.”
Jess finally mustered some genuine enthusiasm. Up until now—Will aside—she simply hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up. Abby had rightly kept a tight rein on the inn’s finances ever since she’d saved Jess from foreclosure. Though turning to her sister to bail her out had been humiliating, at least she had her inn today because of it. She’d vowed never to mess up financially again, even if she chafed at some of the restrictions. To have Abby loosen the purse strings for this was a huge vote of confidence.
“Seriously?” she asked her sister. “I can move forward?”
Abby nodded, a smile spreading across her face. “I think the expenses are totally justified. You’ve been in the black for a while now. I’ll talk to Trace’s dad at the bank about financing.”
“Let me go to Laila,” Jess pleaded. “I need to handle things like this on my own. I swear I won’t sign anything until you’ve looked it over.”
Abby’s faint hesitation grated, but eventually she nodded. “That seems reasonable. If you need backup, just let me know.”
Mick stepped in. “Jess, let me finance this and leave the bank out of it,” he said. “The renovations aren’t that expensive. I don’t want you putting the inn at risk again.”
Jess shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, Dad, but this is my business.”
“Did I say it wasn’t?” he grumbled. “Why make a fuss over such a little thing?”
“Because I want everyone, especially Lawrence Riley at the bank, to acknowledge that I’ve turned the inn into a success. Me, Jess O’Brien. Not my sister. Not my dad. Mr. Riley was so darn sure I couldn’t do it. I want to rub it in his face that I have.”
Mick relented. “Now, that I can understand. Just don’t be too proud to ask for my backing if you need it. Understood?”
Jess threw her arms around her father. “Thanks, Dad.” She turned to her sister. “You, too, Abby. If you hadn’t had faith in me even after I screwed everything up a few years ago, the inn wouldn’t even exist, much less be profitable.”
“It was all your vision and your execution,” Abby reminded her. “I just got you back on track with the finances.”
Jess thought of her promise to Ronnie. “Speaking of that, I need to talk to you about adding a small line item to the budget.” She hurriedly explained about Ronnie’s enthusiasm for cooking and Gail’s conviction that he had talent. To her surprise, it was her father who spoke up.
“I knew you’d do something to get that young man on the right track,” he said. “Abby, s
urely there’s a way to help the boy out. That father of his is an idiot not to encourage him to do what he wants with his life. I’ve half a mind to tell him so myself.”
Jess chuckled. “Dad, I doubt that yelling at Ronnie’s father will accomplish much.” She gave Abby a pleading look. “Can we find a few hundred dollars a term to help with his tuition?”
“He’s agreed to stay on to work at the inn once he graduates?” Abby asked.
“Absolutely. I’m sure he’ll put that in writing if we want him to,” Jess assured her.
“Then I suppose it’s a solid enough investment in the inn’s future,” Abby said. “Let me play with the numbers and I’ll get back to you with an answer.”
Delighted for Ronnie and totally enthused about the renovation project now that it had a green light, Jess faced her father. “How soon can you get started?”
“How about next week?” he suggested.
Jess appreciated his willingness to plunge right in, but she shook her head. “I need to get the bank’s okay first.”
“Then as soon as that’s in place,” Mick said. “I need to remind you again that it will be slower going than usual because I have to keep overseeing the Habitat for Humanity work, but we’ll get this done, Jess. It’s going to be everything you want it to be.” He met her gaze. “You want to take a look at the house plans, as long as we’re here?”
She shook her head. In her mind, those plans were all tied up with Will, which was ridiculous, but there it was. “Save them for me, okay? One of these days I’ll need them.”
Mick nodded and, for once, didn’t press the point. “Whenever you’re ready to take a look, just say the word.”
“I think I’ll get back over to the inn and finish cleaning the rest of that junk out of the attic,” Jess said. Even such an odious task appealed more now that she knew it was going to lead to the renovations she’d been dreaming about since she’d opened the inn.
“How about some help?” Mick offered.
“That’s okay. I’ve got it.” She hugged him tightly. “Thanks again, Dad.”
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