by Mia Ross
Several of the others piped up in agreement, and Bree smiled as she took out her trusty steno pad. “That’s what I was counting on. Just so I have my facts right, are you Georgia or Carolina?”
“Georgia.” The delightful woman giggled like a high schooler. “I keep my hair a few shades darker, but it doesn’t help. Folks mix us up all the time, even though I’m a whole year younger. Ever since we were kids, we’ve both answered to either name. Isn’t that a hoot?”
Not long ago a conversation like this would have driven Bree off her rocker. Now she found it charming. “Definitely. Thanks for the heads up on how to tell you apart,” she added with a wink.
Another laugh. “Oh, that’s a good joke. I’ll have to remember that one.”
As Georgia wandered over to join her sister, the bell hanging over the door jangled again. Bree glanced up to find Julia coming toward her. They hadn’t spoken since the tense scene in Cooper’s office earlier that week, and Bree wasn’t at all sure where they stood.
Thankfully Julia ended that uncertainty by extending a graceful hand. “Good morning, Bree. It’s so nice to see you again.”
Swamped by relief, Bree smiled back. “Same here. I know it’s early, so thanks for coming to help me out.”
“Anything I can do, please let me know.” Worry clouded her gorgeous eyes. “We all need to pitch in to save this wonderful place.”
Her polite tone made it clear she didn’t want anyone to hear about their caper, so Bree played along. Motioning for Julia to sit, she joined her on a wide love seat done in a floral print. “You’ve been all over the world with your parents. What makes Holiday Harbor so special?”
“The fact that I’ve been all over the world,” she replied in a wistful tone. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a remarkable way to live, and I’ve had experiences most people only dream of. But I never had a home.”
She paused, and Bree gently nudged. “Then you came here.”
She nodded. “A friend recommended it for a vacation. When I drove over the rise and saw the lighthouse, I knew I was home.”
Julia’s description so closely resembled Bree’s first impression of the town’s landmark, she felt her skin prickle. But she had to remain objective, so she dialed her reaction down several notches. “I know what you mean. It’s a really special place.”
“I’m so glad you see that. With your talent for writing, I hope you can convince everyone a big development is the worst possible thing we could imagine.”
“You’ve read my work?” Bree asked, honestly surprised. “I had no idea.”
“Your story about Sammy.” Sighing, Julia rested a hand over her heart. “I just read it yesterday, and by the time I was done, I was in tears. You have a real gift for making people feel what you’re feeling.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So, what would you like to know?”
As they chatted about the town and Julia’s ideas for increasing tourism, the bells announced a new arrival. Focused on her notes, Bree caught a tall, familiar figure in the corner of her eye.
She knew perfectly well why he was here, but she smothered a grin and kept her eyes on what she was doing. “Did you need something, counselor?”
“A minute, if you’ve got one.”
Taking the cue, Julia stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get one of those scones before they’re all gone.”
Cooper took her seat, but Bree remained silent. She didn’t appreciate the way he’d treated her, and she was still peeved enough to enjoy making him squirm. The women clustered around the refreshment table made a good show of talking to each other, but it was obvious they were listening in.
Unfazed by the attention, Cooper looked her squarely in the eye.
“I’m an idiot, and I’m sorry.”
She was astonished by how he got right down to it. No legal waffling, no excuses—he went straight to the manning-up stage, and she was impressed. Meeting his eyes, she saw what her revelation had done to him over the past few days. Shadowed from lack of sleep, they held a resigned misery that broke her heart.
Normally she held a grudge for a long time. Because this was Cooper, she forgave him on the spot.
Taking his hand, she gave him an encouraging smile. “We won’t let him get away with this power grab, I promise. Look.” Sliding her tablet from her bag, she woke the screen to show him the graphics she’d started working on last night. “I designed a campaign poster for you.”
“‘Landry for the Future,’” he read, smiling over at her. “I like it, especially the watermark of the lighthouse in the background.”
“Much classier than Vote for Derek,” she agreed, rolling her eyes.
“I haven’t talked to you since Tuesday,” he pointed out. “How’d you know I’d be running?”
“I knew once you came to your senses, you’d do the right thing.” Resting her arms over the tablet, she leaned in with a more personal smile. “You’re just that kinda guy.”
That got her a wry grin. “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t.”
“I don’t,” she assured him quickly. “I like you just the way you are.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Flashing her an admiring smile, he pushed off from the couch and got to his feet. “I really should get going. Could you email me that file so I can get it to the printer? Derek’s been campaigning for months, and as a write-in, I’ve got some serious catching up to do.”
“I’ve got their address right here. I can send it if you want.”
He shook his head. “I’d rather it came from me.”
“So no one connects me to this mess. Clever.” Not to mention gallant. He was willing to take all the grief for his decision to run, rather than share the blowback with her. Amazing.
In typical Cooper fashion, he shrugged. “No need to make this worse than it has to be.”
Bree pulled up the email she’d already drafted and sent it to him. “Done. If you need anything else, let me know.”
“Actually I was wondering if you’re busy this afternoon.”
“Not a bit. Why?”
“Sammy got into something nasty yesterday, so he’s gonna be at the groomer’s most of the afternoon. I was hoping maybe you and I could hang out for a while.”
The hopeful glimmer in his eyes was more than she could resist, and for the first time since shattering his bubble, she managed a genuine smile. “I think I could fit that in. Where did you want to go?”
He just grinned, and she laughed. “Will I like this surprise?”
“I think so. See you at one?”
“Sure. I’ll meet you at your office.”
He lingered a few moments, and she waited for him to say something else. Apparently he changed his mind and simply said goodbye before heading out the door.
“What was that all about?” Amelia asked as she strolled over with a friend.
Keenly aware that no one could know what had prompted Cooper’s decision, Bree kept it vague. “Cooper decided to run for mayor after all, and he thought it might make a nice detail for my latest article.”
“Run for mayor?” Amelia echoed, eyes wide with astonishment. “What on earth for?”
“You’d have to ask him that.”
The observant woman studied her for what seemed like a very long time, and Bree endured the scrutiny as calmly as she could. Amelia obviously knew something was up, and while it was tempting to confide in her, it wasn’t Bree’s place to step into the middle of this. If Cooper wanted to include his mother in his plans, he would.
For her part Bree was going to do the smart thing and keep her mouth shut.
Chapter Twelve
Standing at the tip of Schooner Point, Bree left her camera strap looped around her neck and just stared. Situated about a mi
le up the coastline from the Captains’ Chapel, the spot had once served as a lookout post, with rotating shifts of watchmen posted there to scan the horizon for incoming ships, Cooper explained. Their job was to identify them as quickly as possible, so the town would know who was coming—and if they were friendly or not.
Soaring a hundred feet above the sea, the highest ground in Holiday Harbor felt like an island, completely isolated from the surrounding grassland and trees. Its unique shape mimicked the lines of an old schooner, which had inspired the name.
“This is incredible,” she said with admiration.
“I thought you might like seeing what all the fuss is about.”
“If I was going to build a bunch of houses around a golf course, this is where I’d put them, too.”
“You’re not helping,” Cooper scolded, unrolling the proposed site plans across the hood of his Jeep.
Hoping to avoid a lot of questions, he’d intentionally parked in the shelter of a stand of oaks where no one could see him. Bree appeared near his shoulder and peered in at what he was doing. “What’s this?”
“There’s fourteen residential properties on here. And at least ten owners of vacant land stretching across the bluff.”
Cooper tapped the incomplete list of landowners Granddad had filed under T in a file marked Traitors. Cooper had had to go through every drawer in the old cabinets, but when he finally found it, he grinned at the old man’s opinion. “There’s a bunch of folks in the Sell column, along with some of the people who’ve been calling me.”
“Oh, no,” she groaned. “That doesn’t sound good. How many calls did you get?”
“Enough that I quit counting.”
“I see five who definitely want to sell. What about the others?”
Cooper shrugged. “Some want to stay, some said if the price is right they might sell this property and buy another one nearby. A bunch of them insisted they’d pull up stakes rather than be neighbors to a snobby development full of mansions and fancy foreign cars.”
“That last one was Jack, wasn’t it?” When Cooper nodded, she laughed. “Sounds like him. I love that guy.”
“He’s a character, all right.”
“So,” she commented, glancing around. “Is this part of the mayor’s tour? Because I can tell you the ladies will definitely line up for a little one-on-one with you.”
“They used to, when I was in New York,” he confided with a frown. “It’s not as much fun as it sounds.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes it’s hard to find that special person.”
The revelation surprised him, since the cagey reporter had gone out of her way to keep that kind of personal detail to herself. Cooper took it as a sign that she viewed him as something other than a source of information. “You will. You just have to keep an open mind, so you’ll recognize him when he comes along.”
Her eyes locked with his, and a jumble of emotions passed through them. Hesitation first, then wariness. The one that settled in was wistful, as if she’d found what she wanted but didn’t know how to ask for it.
Cooper wasn’t one for taking risks, but this one seemed worth it. Moving slowly, he eased closer, giving her time to pull away. When she didn’t, he leaned in and gently kissed her. Drawing back, he gazed into those dark eyes for some clue about what she was feeling.
Reaching up, she rested her hand on his cheek and pulled him in for another, longer kiss. He gathered her into his arms, amazed at the way she fit against him, filling all the empty spaces he’d tried so hard to ignore.
This time Bree broke away with a troubled look. “I’m leaving at the end of the summer.”
He was tempted to argue that as a freelance reporter, she wasn’t bound to anything with her job, and she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted. It could be a month or a year—it was up to her.
But he feared her independent spirit would interpret that as pressure, so he took a mental step back and played lawyer. “Is that what you want?”
“Yes.”
Despite the quick response, uncertainty clouded her features. He’d never been one to tell another person what they wanted, but he wasn’t ready to give up on her just yet.
“Then we should make the most of the time we’ve got.” Holding a hand out for her, he asked, “Would you like the rest of the tour?”
“You mean there’s more?”
“If you like wild blackberries, then yes, there’s more.”
After another moment’s hesitation, she took his hand and they headed for a nearby hedgerow. It wasn’t exactly a promise to put aside her career plans and stay in Holiday Harbor with him. But it was a start.
* * *
Something had shifted between them, but Bree couldn’t define it because she’d never experienced it before.
Strolling through a seaside meadow seemed like a very romance novel-ish kind of thing to do, totally unlike her. But while he relayed some more town history and pointed out various landmarks to her, she found herself enjoying this afternoon more than she’d have thought possible a few short weeks ago.
The fact that she was spending it with Cooper didn’t escape her. It took very little effort to imagine more of them, filled with lighthearted banter and lively discussions about everything from music to books to politics. They wouldn’t agree on much, she suspected, but they’d have a blast defending their opinions.
Discouraged by moving from one failed relationship to the next, Bree had always blamed the other person. It was easier that way, and required no soul searching on her part. Now she faced up to the qualities that had always been presented to her as flaws.
She was tough to manage, but attempting to keep her true nature under wraps hadn’t worked very well for her. Instead she needed to surround herself with people who appreciated her drive and wouldn’t try to tame it out of her.
People like Cooper, she thought with a smile. No matter what ended up happening between them, she’d always be grateful to him for accepting her just as she was.
As they walked, they dropped berries into her empty camera bag. Farther up the bluff, they found a large rock to sit on and enjoy their snack. The freshly painted Captains’ Chapel stood out on its picturesque cliff, but beyond that she noticed something along the far coast she hadn’t been able to see from the lighthouse.
“What’s over there?” Bree asked.
She pointed across the harbor, and he answered, “A string of sea caves. Most of them are below water level all the time, but a few have upper ledges you can reach when the tide goes out.”
“They look like the ideal spot to hide pirate booty,” she commented, popping a berry into her mouth. “I wonder if anyone ever used them that way.”
“I don’t know about real pirates,” he replied with a chuckle, “but when we were kids, they were a great place to pretend we were pirates.”
“Was it really safe for you guys to play down there?”
“If you picked the right caves, you were fine. Some of ’em echo your voice back in a real spooky way, and we got a charge out of scaring people who were out clamming.”
“Nice.” Tilting her head in a chiding gesture, she said, “I didn’t take you for a troublemaker.”
Clearly unfazed, he gave her an innocent look that had probably rescued him from all kinds of scrapes over the years. “It was all Nick’s idea.”
“I’m sure. Although the scary-voice thing sounds like something he’d do even now.”
“No doubt.”
Cooper leaned back on his elbows, stretching out his long legs while the late summer breeze rustled through his sun-streaked hair. He made quite the picture, but she decided to follow his advice to forego the camera and just enjoy the view. The relaxed, confident pose captured the essence of who he was, and she drank in the image, tryi
ng to cement it in her memory.
She’d never gone mushy over anyone in her life, and the knowledge that she was heading in that direction was an uncomfortable stretch for her. Her parents’ wreck of a marriage had convinced her that you had to choose: a successful career or a serious relationship. You might be able to enjoy each at some point in your life, but keep them balanced simultaneously? Impossible.
Sitting here with Cooper like this, the warmth of his kisses still fresh in her mind, made her think that maybe—just maybe—she’d been wrong.
* * *
Cooper and Bree were laughing when he pulled up in front of his mother’s bookstore and parked behind Bree’s car.
“Thanks for a fun afternoon,” she said. “Normally I’m not a big fan of history lessons, but yours was very entertaining.”
A rare twinkle lit her brown eyes, and he barely resisted the urge to drop in for another kiss. Reminding himself the center of town wasn’t the place for private moments, instead he opened the driver door of the little hatchback for her. “Have a good evening.”
“You, too.”
After she’d driven away, Cooper turned to find Derek standing behind him. And he didn’t look happy. “What’s this?” he demanded, waving one of Cooper’s new posters at him accusingly.
Cooper would have liked nothing more than to answer that question in excruciating detail, just to see the guy squirm. But he couldn’t do that without dragging other people into the fray, so he shrugged. “Turns out I have some ideas for this place, and I want to see them get done.”
“Just tell me what you have in mind. I’ll take care of it.”
Reasonable as his tone was, the desperation in his eyes gave him away. Until that moment Cooper had some lingering doubts about what was really going on, but this confirmed it for him. Derek was in this up to his neck, and the water was rising fast. If Cooper continued on as mayor, Ellington’s plans were worth less than the paper they were printed on. And Derek knew it.
