She walked around to the back of the house before her imagination had her dialing 911, then stopped at the edge of the back porch, wondering if she could flee quietly before anyone knew she’d been there.
“Well, look who’s here. Hello, sweetheart.” Curtis had turned at the exact moment she’d rounded the corner. “Jason, look who’s stopped in. Checking up on our progress, no doubt.”
She felt heat rise along her collar as blue eyes swept over her. She hoped she’d at least gotten all the cobwebs brushed away. “Hi, Pop.”
Trapped, she took another ten steps to kiss her grandfather on the cheek.
“Jason.” She forced a smile. The last time she’d seen him—other than a few times over the past month or so in her dreams—she’d been falling apart after receiving Chris’s phone call.
“Sophie. I heard you were coming back this week.” Jason’s smile was warm, as always, and he politely looked beyond her hair, lack of makeup, and the clothes she’d been in since five that morning, dust and road grime included.
“Wow, look at this!” Sophie’s gaze was drawn to the garden. “I can’t believe what you’ve done here. It’s beautiful.”
“Thanks, but it’s still a work in progress,” Jason said. “We have a few more weeks till completion, but it’s coming along.”
“It looks like the painting,” she murmured.
“What painting?” Jason asked.
“A painting that’s hanging in my office.” She pointed to the bank of trees that bordered the far end. “Those trees are in the painting. And these shrubs. And the irises … they’re all in the painting.”
“Oh, you like it, do you?” Curtis looked pleased. “I thought you might.”
“Jesse told me that you brought it in for me.”
“At one time, it hung in my office on the second floor. It came home with me when I retired, but when Violet mentioned she was fixing up an office for you, I suggested that she might consider that one for you. She mentioned she was undertaking the décor of your new work space.”
“Thank you, Pop. I love it.” She turned back toward the garden. “I love that it looks like this.”
“Many years ago, someone in the family commissioned several paintings of the house and the grounds from different angles,” Curtis explained to both Sophie and Jason. “One hangs in the upstairs hall here, one in the conference room at the office, and the third—the painting of the garden—now hangs in Sophie’s office. That one was always my favorite, so I’m glad you like it, too.”
To Jason, she said, “I can’t believe how much your garden looks like the one in the painting. It’s uncanny. You must be psychic.”
“That, or your grandfather showed me some photos that were taken when this place was in its heyday.”
She rolled her eyes. “I should have known. Either way, you’ve done a remarkable job. It’s a shame it won’t be done by the weekend. It would have made the perfect spot for a romantic wedding.”
“Jesse and Brooke have their spot all picked out and it’s at the old church up the road,” Curtis said. He turned to Jason and said, “I did mention that my granddaughter here has decided to join the firm?”
“I think you may have a time or ten, yes.” Jason nodded. “Congratulations, Sophie. I know that Jesse and your granddad are both really happy.”
“Very happy.” Curtis beamed. “The name over the door will remain Enright and Enright, and I couldn’t be more pleased or proud.”
“Thanks, Pop. I’ll try to live up to the firm’s reputation.”
“No doubt you will, my dear. No doubt at all.” Curtis patted her on the back. “Now, was there anything in particular …?”
“Oh, no, no.” Sophie shook her head. Curtis and Jason had been deep in discussion over their landscape plans when she showed up, and her grandfather was obviously interested in getting back to them. The conversation she’d planned on having would have to wait until another day. “I just wanted to let you know I’d arrived.”
“I appreciate that. Thank you.”
“Look, I can see you’re busy. I’ll stop over again, Pop.”
“I don’t want to run you off,” Jason said.
“Oh, no. I have to get over to the house. Jesse’s, that is. I have a lot of unpacking to do.”
“I’ll see you on Saturday, if not before, then.” Curtis kissed her on the cheek.
“Anything I can do to help?” Jason asked. “Carry boxes, help empty the car?”
“Thanks, but no. I can do it, and Jesse’s home by now, so he can help. Besides, you have work …” And I need a shower, clean clothes, mascara, mouth-wash …
“Well, if you find you need an extra pair of hands, give me a call.”
“Thanks. Will do.” Looking like this? Not gonna happen.
She walked away self-consciously, acutely aware of his eyes on the back of her dusty jeans.
“Probably have cobwebs hanging off my butt,” she grumbled as she got into her car. “Figures. You always run into the hot guy when you look like a hot mess.”
Jesse’s house was minutes away, and she pulled into the driveway behind his car. With his help, she had the car emptied of its boxes in less than thirty minutes. Unpacking would take a day or so, but at least everything was in the house. She shared a pizza with Jesse, put some of her clothes away, and took a shower. Once under the covers, she closed her eyes, exhausted. Her last thought of the day was to wonder how much more interesting the evening might have been had she taken up Jason on his offer to help.
Chapter 14
“YOU know, you could have stayed with me this weekend.” Sophie hugged her mother in the lobby of the Inn at Sinclair’s Point. “With Jesse and Brooke leaving right after the reception for their honeymoon, there’s lots of room.”
“What, and miss an opportunity to stay at this fabulous inn that I’ve heard so much about?” Olivia Enright returned her daughter’s hug.
“Where’d you hear about the inn?”
“There was a feature about the Eastern Shore in one of those travel magazines last year. Several places on the Chesapeake were highlighted. Baltimore Harbor, Smith Island … several other locations, St. Dennis among them. They mentioned the inn—gave it four out of five stars, by the way—and some little ice-cream shop that’s apparently quite well known.”
“One Scoop or Two. The locals call it Scoop. All the ice cream is handmade by the owner right there in the shop. You’ll meet her—Steffie MacGregor—at the wedding.”
“MacGregor. Yes, I also read that Dallas MacGregor lives here and is building a film studio here.”
“Steffie is married to Dallas’s brother, Wade, who incidentally has started up a brewery with Brooke’s brother, Clay. They brewed the beer that’s being served at the reception.”
“Really?” Olivia smiled. “Well, that makes you and Dallas practically related, in some twisted small-town sort of way.”
Sophie laughed. “That sort of reasoning would make you practically Dallas’s mother-in-law, since your future daughter-in-law’s brother is partner to Dallas’s brother.”
“Ah, the bragging rights I’ll have back home.” Olivia grinned. “Now, have you had breakfast yet?”
“I did. I ate really early with Jesse. He has a meeting this morning, then he wanted to go into the office to finish up a few things there, but he said he’d see you tonight at the rehearsal dinner. How ’bout you?”
“I had a wonderful breakfast, thank you. They have an excellent chef here at the inn. So far, everything that article had to say about this place has been spot on.”
“Good. I’m glad you enjoyed your first night here in town.”
“I did. Now, what do you have planned for the day?”
“I thought I’d take you around, show you some of the sights. Nothing exciting to see, I’m afraid, but it’s a charming town. I’m still discovering St. Dennis myself.”
“I saw that very phrase on a mug on the reception desk. Discover St. Dennis. It must be th
e town motto.”
“Well, then, let’s do just that.” Sophie took her mother’s arm and headed through the lobby doors.
“It’s so much warmer here than in Pittsburgh,” Olivia noted as they walked across the parking lot. “The grounds here are just lovely, by the way. I had a walk after breakfast down to the Bay, and you can just tell that all those flower beds will be bursting with color come summer.”
“They had a lot of landscaping done last year. There was a really high-profile wedding here. Maybe you read about it—Robert Magellan, the dot-com gazillionaire? The owners wanted the inn to really shine because they knew there’d be a lot of photos taken. They hired a landscape designer and had the whole back and side of the property down to the water redone with new gardens and paths.”
“With all the daffodils and tulips and flowering trees in bloom, it’s spectacular. Whoever they hired did a fabulous job.”
“Oh, you’ll meet him—Jason Bowers, the landscaper, that is—at the wedding.” Sophie unlocked both of the car doors with her remote.
“Bowers …,” Olivia murmured as she opened the passenger door and got in. “Brooke’s last name. Related?”
“Jason’s brother, Eric, was Brooke’s first husband.”
“The war hero who died in Iraq. Logan’s father,” Olivia recalled.
“Yes.” Sophie strapped into her seat belt and waited while her mother did the same before backing out of the parking spot.
“Interesting that she’d invite someone from her late husband’s family to her wedding,” Olivia said thoughtfully.
“Jason was Eric’s family,” Sophie replied. “Their parents died when they were in high school. He and Logan are very close. Actually, he’s Logan’s only connection to his father. Brooke and Jesse both encouraged Jason to put down roots here for Logan’s sake. He lives here now.”
“He must be a nice guy if they want him to stick around for Logan’s sake.”
“He’s a very nice guy, Mom.”
“Oh?” Olivia raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t give me that arched-brow look.” Sophie waited for another car to pass before pulling out onto Charles Street. “I know what that means. All I’m saying is he’s a nice guy.”
“How old is he?”
“Early thirties, I guess.”
“Single?” Olivia persisted.
“As far as I know.”
“Good-looking?”
“Very,” Sophie reluctantly admitted. Her mother was not going to let this go.
“What else?”
“Nothing ‘else.’ I don’t know him all that well.”
“What do you know about him?”
Sophie sighed in resignation. It had been years since her mother had interrogated her about a guy and she could see where this was leading. Olivia had never warmed to Chris and seemed to be taking his cheating on Sophie personally. For the past six weeks, she’d made it no secret that she was hoping her daughter would find someone “more deserving of you than Christopher.”
“Jason’s apparently very good at what he does. He’s restoring the gardens behind Pop’s house, redoing the landscape there. It’s going to be gorgeous.”
“That’s all you have to say about a thirty-something-year-old man who’s good-looking and apparently hardworking.”
Sophie smiled. When it came to desirable attributes in another human being, hardworking was right at the top of Olivia’s list.
“What else do you know about him?”
Sophie thought about the gentle concern that Jason had shown to her grandfather at Logan’s science fair, of his concern for her on that same night. She thought of his love for Logan, of the hours he spent coaching the boy’s sports teams along with Jesse, of the Saturday nights he shared with his nephew instead of going out on the town with his friends.
She thought of the most amazing blue eyes she’d ever seen and a killer smile and a soft laugh. Of broad shoulders and long legs.
“Nothing else, really.” Sophie shrugged nonchalantly. Jason would be at the wedding, and she didn’t want to give her mother any reason to unduly focus on him and possibly embarrass the man. Nothing like an overeager mom to scare the bejesus out of a guy.
“Like I said, I don’t really know him all that well.”
“Pity.”
“Mom …”
Olivia smiled and changed the subject. “Where are you taking me first?”
“Too early for ice cream or I’d take you to Scoop.”
“We’ll save that for after lunch. How ’bout if you take me to see your restaurant?”
“It isn’t mine yet, and it’s pretty much a mess.”
“You told me that.” Olivia waved a dismissive hand. “You’re not the only person in the family with vision, you know.”
“We’ll have to stop in at the office to pick up the key.”
“Good. It’ll give me a chance to see Jesse before the rehearsal dinner tonight, and I haven’t seen Violet in years.” Olivia’s gaze swept both sides of the street.
“Oh, look at that darling little shop!” she exclaimed when they stopped for the red light in the center of town, where a small crowd of tourists—day-trippers and weekenders—drawn to St. Dennis by the exceptionally warm weather waited to cross.
“That’s Bling. Great clothes and accessories. Vanessa Shields owns it. I got my dress for the wedding there,” Sophie explained.
“I’ll have to make a point to stop in there before I leave. Slow down so I can see what’s in the window.” Olivia craned her neck to stare.
Sophie laughed, but rode the brake past the shop, where a display of leather bags in spring colors took center stage.
“I may have to go there today,” Olivia said. “After lunch. There’s a fabulous mustardy-colored bag …”
“Because you have so few bags.”
Olivia waved her hand to dismiss her daughter’s remarks. “We all have our vices. How much farther to the office?” Before Sophie could reply, Olivia rolled down the car window and leaned out slightly. “I love the architecture in this town. There’s a lovely Federal-style house back there right next to a Victorian with a wide sweeping front porch and a huge bay window that goes three stories up.” She turned back to Sophie. “And the trees! You’re weeks ahead of us when it comes to the flowering trees. The town looks so pretty. No wonder you decided to come back to stay.”
“I can’t claim that the magnolias and the weeping cherries and all those other pretty trees had anything to do with my decision to move to St. Dennis. I’ve never been here in the spring. But I admit, it’s pretty to look at.”
She made a right turn onto Old St. Mary’s Church Road, then another right when she arrived at the corner where the office was located.
“Enright and Enright.” Olivia pointed to the sign. “I suppose it hasn’t been lost on anyone that with you joining the firm, it’s still …”
“Yes, Enright and Enright. I know. You’re about the twentieth person who’s mentioned that.” Sophie blew out a long breath. “Sorry. Twenty might be an exaggeration. But it has been said that me agreeing to work here is keeping the tradition alive.”
“I suppose it also hasn’t been lost on you that if your father hadn’t been such an ass, you’d be able to skip this step and concentrate on your restaurant.”
“I can’t say that it hasn’t crossed my mind, but it is what it is, Mom. It may take me a while longer to get where I want to go, but I will get there.”
“That’s my girl.” Olivia leaned across the console and patted her daughter’s arm. “I wish … well, I wish that you could have skipped this step, that’s all.”
“It’ll work out. I’ll be fine.” Sophie took the keys from the ignition. “You coming in?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t see Jesse’s car,” Sophie noted. “Maybe he’s still at his meeting.”
The office door was locked, Jesse apparently still out, and with Violet having the day off, the office was empty and
quiet. Sophie grabbed the key from her desk drawer where she now kept it and tried to keep her excitement under wraps as she drove to River Road.
“Now, it’s rough, like I said …” Sophie parked in front of the building.
Wordlessly, Olivia got out of the car as soon as it came to a stop. She stood, hands on her hips, staring first at the structure, then at the surrounding property.
“It’ll look a lot better when the weeds are cut down and the doors painted,” Sophie said somewhat weakly, trying to see the place through her mother’s eyes.
“What’s on the second floor?”
“There’s an apartment.”
“Are you going to live there?”
“Eventually. I need to get the restaurant up and running before I can start to work upstairs. I can sublet Jesse’s place at least until the fall, when his lease expires.”
“What’s next door there? Behind that God-awful Cyclone fence?”
“I don’t know.” Sophie paused to take a better look. “Looks like a couple of trucks and some sort of heavy equipment.”
“That could turn out to be an eyesore.”
“I can always plant some evergreens, I suppose, to block the view.”
Nodding, Olivia walked closer. “That would definitely help.”
“I thought it would be pretty to have some flowers planted under the windows and next to the door.” Sophie pointed to the flower beds that in her mind already existed.
“Some roses, yes.” Olivia nodded as if she could see it, too. “Daylilies. And something else …”
“The door painted green, maybe. Or blue.”
“Something light.” Pointing upward at the sign, Olivia asked, “Name?”
“I haven’t come up with one yet.”
“There’s time. Let’s go inside …”
Sophie unlocked the door, this time grateful that she didn’t have a flashlight with her. Maybe her mother wouldn’t notice just how much work needed to be done.
She should have known better.
“Well, you do have your work cut out for you,” Olivia said after having had the grand tour of both the restaurant and the apartment. “But I think it’s going to be fabulous once you’re done. I can hardly wait to see it.”
At the River’s Edge Page 15
