by Debbie Mason
Despite years of practice locking the image away, it took some extra effort to do so today. It was because she was here in the house on Mulberry Lane. The cedar writer’s shed Hazel had built for Josh had sat in a grove of trees at the back of the property, far enough away that no one recalled seeing Julia that night. Hazel had the shed torn down as soon as the HHPD gave her the okay. But even with the structure gone, it was difficult to be here. Julia did her best to avoid the house on Mulberry Lane.
She turned the burner to low, distracting herself by digging for the burnt bits with the wooden spoon.
The refrigerator door closed. “Look, it’s even the same brand.”
Julia glanced over her shoulder. Hazel held up a bottle of pink Moët and Chandon and went to retrieve two champagne glasses from the brushed-silver coffee bar, a recent addition to the otherwise utilitarian kitchen.
“We should probably join the guests. They’ll be wondering where we are,” Julia said as she stealthily tapped the burnt specks onto the spoon holder beside the stove.
She’d fled the living room with the excuse she had gravy to make. Like Hazel did every year, she’d invited her staff and heads of departments who didn’t have family in the area to celebrate Thanksgiving with her. For many of the guests here today, it had become a long-standing tradition. Paul Benson was one of those guests. He was also the reason Julia needed an escape.
She liked Paul, and that was part of the problem. She didn’t like him like him, and he was acting like he liked her a lot. There was no denying the man was handsome. He reminded her of Tom Selleck. Emmeline had never missed Magnum, P.I. when she was alive, something Julia had just remembered, and it only added to the creepy factor of her dating a man twenty-three years her senior. He was old enough to be her father. He was also a very nice man, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
Maybe it was unfair, but she blamed Aidan for everything that had gone wrong in her life these past six months. He was indirectly responsible for the conundrum she now found herself in with Paul. And no matter how much Aidan denied it, she had no doubt he’d stuck his nose in his father’s love life and was the reason Julia hadn’t already hung up her fairy wings. He was also the reason she was behind on her deadline. Of course, that was unintentional on his part, but still…
There was something else though, something far more troublesome and threatening. She’d felt it when she was lying on Maggie’s front lawn with Aidan towering over her, his broad shoulders blocking out any light. She’d felt the same something again when his big body crowded her on Maggie’s front porch and when his hand closed around her arm. And that something was an undeniable sizzle of attraction.
It was like her nerve endings had pulled tight, heat pooling… where it wasn’t supposed to be pooling. And there’d been a lot of heat and lustful thoughts where he was concerned. Way more than was safe given her involvement in the cover-up.
He was a threat, a danger to her freedom. And to Hazel, she reminded herself. Hazel was the real reason Julia had done what she had that night. She’d been protecting the woman who’d welcomed Julia into her small family of two within minutes of meeting her. The mother figure Julia had been missing since the day she’d lost her own. And if the truth ever came out…
Hazel handed her a glass. “Don’t worry about them. They have plenty of appetizers and drinks.” At the sound of laughter, she rolled her eyes and added, “Entertainment too.”
Julia recognized the voice. It was Dr. Bishop. She hoped his story had nothing to do with Kitty Gallagher and her archrival Rosa DiRossi. They’d been fighting over Dr. Bishop since last summer. The rivalry between Aidan’s grandmother Kitty and Kitty’s childhood best friend had gotten so bad that Paul had threatened to throw them in jail.
Julia prayed Kitty and Rosa were over Dr. Bishop, or she would be forced to date Paul again to keep Aidan’s grandmother out of trouble. And like it sometimes did if Julia wasn’t careful, a small flicker of anger at Josh flared to life inside her. In the past, she’d dealt with it by reminding herself how badly he’d suffered for what in the end had been a horrible mistake.
Hazel pulled Julia from her thoughts before she had a chance to remind herself of all that Josh had been through, and the anger inside her grew unchecked. But a watery smile from his mother as she clinked her glass against Julia’s took care of the dark and troubling emotions.
“You know, I can still hear Josh’s voice when he called to tell me he was bringing you home like it was yesterday. I knew right then that you were special. He’d never brought anyone with him before. Hadn’t even bothered making the effort to come home two years running, so him bringing you here was a big deal that year.”
He hadn’t come home for Thanksgiving because he couldn’t live with what he’d done. But Julia hadn’t known that then. She hadn’t found out until the night in the writer’s shed.
“Hazel, everyone’s wondering… Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” said Delaney Davis, Hazel’s chief of communication and constituents.
Two years older than Julia, Delaney was her exact opposite. At five foot four, Julia was short. At five foot ten, Delaney was tall. Julia had dark hair, and Delaney had blond. Delaney was head-turning gorgeous with blade-sharp cheekbones and a willowy figure. Julia fell more in the cute category with pinchable round cheeks and a body that was more curvy than thin.
But the biggest difference was that Delaney Davis would walk over anyone and everyone to get what she wanted. The woman was ambitious, and right now her ambitions were tied to Hazel. Delaney would do anything to ensure her boss won another term. Which Julia assumed was the reason she was on the receiving end of Delaney’s aggravated stare. She wanted Hazel out there mingling instead of in here with her.
“Well, they can wait. Julia and I—” Hazel began.
Julia cut her off. Obviously Hazel didn’t notice that her assistant’s cheeks had flushed with anger. That was another big difference between them, Delaney had a temper and Julia didn’t have much of one to speak of.
“Delaney’s right. You should get out there and enjoy your company, Hazel. Dinner’s almost ready to be served. We’ll have lots of time to talk after everyone leaves.”
“Actually, Hazel and I have things to discuss after dinner.”
Julia forced a smile to cover her disappointment. It wasn’t like she wanted to continue the conversation about Josh, but she and Hazel always watched a movie after everyone left. “Oh, okay. I’ll just—”
Her lips pressed in a firm line, Hazel silenced Julia with a raised, manicured finger. “Whatever you want to discuss will have to wait, Delaney. Thanksgiving movie night is a tradition for me and Julia, and one I hold dear. Just like Julia is dear to me,” she said, a chiding tone in her voice.
Huh, so maybe Julia had been right all along and Delaney didn’t like her. The underlying message in Hazel’s comment seemed to confirm Julia’s suspicions.
“I didn’t realize. Not about you being close to Julia of course, but that you had a movie-night tradition.”
Which was undoubtedly true. Delaney wasn’t from Harmony Harbor. She’d moved to town to take the job when Hazel’s former chief of communications left in January.
Delaney continued. “Perhaps we can take a few minutes in your study during dessert, then. We really do need to firm up details for the Ladies Auxiliary Christmas lunch.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Julia will handle it for me, won’t you, dear?”
Julia glanced from Delaney’s tight face to Hazel’s smiling, expectant one. She really didn’t want to be caught in the middle, especially since Delaney didn’t seem to be the forgive-and-forget type.
Before Julia could come up with an excuse, Hazel answered for her. “I don’t know why I even bothered to ask. Of course you will. We’re a team. Do you remember how hard we worked to convince Josh to move back home? You should have seen us in action, Delaney. You’d have thought we’d known each other for years.”
Delaney m
ight not be able to roll her eyes in front of her employer, but the action was evident in her voice. “I can imagine.”
Hazel’s remark probably sounded like hyperbole, but it was actually the truth. They’d had an almost instant connection and a common goal. The moment Josh had turned off the highway and into the charming coastal town of Harmony Harbor, Julia could see herself living there. The feeling had grown even more pronounced during a walk after Thanksgiving dinner.
She’d been enchanted by the copper-domed clock tower, the twisty, narrow streets that were lined with the Colonials, Cape Cods, and Victorians that had once been owned by sea captains and merchants. The family-owned boutiques, art shops, pubs, and gift shops that were housed in quaint ocean-blue and sea-foam-green clapboards, had her skipping along Main Street in joyous wonder. And as though carried on the brisk ocean breeze, an idea came to her that day. She knew exactly what she wanted to do with her future. New York wasn’t the place where her dreams would come true; Harmony Harbor was.
Hazel had been over the moon at the thought of her only son moving back from New York and had quickly become Julia’s staunchest supporter. It had taken more than a year for them to finally get Josh on board. Little did Julia know then that the decision would ultimately lead to her fiancé taking his own life.
Chapter Four
Paul stuck his head in the kitchen, saving Julia from going down the “if only” path again. “Sorry to interrupt, ladies.” He gave her a warm smile.
As she did each and every time, she made note of his exceptionally white teeth. He had great teeth—kind of like a mouthful of Chiclets. The better to eat you with, my dear. She swallowed a laugh at the inappropriate thought.
“Maggie just arrived,” he told her.
“Okay, great, thanks.” Julia didn’t have to work on swallowing her laughter now. It dried up with the knowledge nothing had changed between Maggie and Colin.
As though Paul picked up on something from her smile, he looked at her more closely and sauntered to her side. He was a tall man—though not as tall or as powerfully built as Aidan—and had an easy way about him, unlike Aidan, who’d yet to shed the persona he’d assumed while working undercover investigating a motorcycle gang for the DEA months before.
The first two words that came to mind when she thought about Aidan were dangerous and badass. Well, maybe not the first two exactly, hot and… What are you even doing? she asked herself. In her head, of course. She had to stop thinking about the man.
“Hazel, why don’t you and Delaney start bringing out the food while I help Julia with the gravy? I’ll carve the turkey while I’m at it.”
Julia stifled a groan. Somehow Paul knew she’d burned the gravy.
As most people did when he made a suggestion in his smooth, low-pitched voice, Hazel and Delaney did as they were told. But not before the mayor’s narrowed gaze moved from Paul to Julia. And that suspicious glance had nothing to do with Hazel expecting Julia to be true to her son’s memory and stay single for the rest of her life. No, the woman who would have been her mother-in-law was on the hunt to find Julia a man.
Hazel wanted her married and living in Harmony Harbor for the rest of her life. Even though it could be a tad annoying, the reason behind Hazel’s matchmaking was endearing and a little sad. She was afraid Julia’s brothers and father would eventually convince her to move back to Texas. Julia was the only family Hazel had.
From the look the older woman was giving Paul, he wasn’t in the running for Julia’s hand in marriage. No doubt she’d hear about it before the night was over. Probably when they were watching While You Were Sleeping, their favorite Thanksgiving-night movie.
“How did you know I burned the gravy?” Julia asked Paul when Hazel and Delaney carried the vegetable dishes and warming trays out to the dining room table. With twenty-four guests, they had gone with a buffet instead of a sit-down dinner.
Paul’s thick mustache twitched as he pointed at the black pieces rolling around in the pot.
“How did they get there? I could have sworn I got them all.” That settled it. She had to go on a gravy hunt. Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t be the same without it. She reached back to untie her apron. “I’ll go to the manor. I’m sure they have gravy to spare.”
“No need. I’ve got this.” He rested his big hands on her shoulders, turning her so he could retie her apron. She tensed at the feel of his fingers grazing her butt, a little surprised because he’d always been the perfect gentleman. But the more she thought about it, the more she was convinced it wasn’t intentional. Between where the apron strings fell, the size of his hand, and her good-sized behind, it had to have been an accidental finger brush.
“Can’t have you messing up your dress,” he said, tying the apron strings into a perfect bow.
Knowing what he was alluding to, heat rose to her cheeks. They’d gone out for a spaghetti dinner on their third date. She hadn’t quite mastered the fork and spoon roll and splattered sauce all over the front of her blouse. Paul had fashioned a bib out of her linen napkin.
He smiled, a warm gleam in his brown eyes. “Did I tell you how pretty you look today?”
“Yes. Yes, you did.” Several times. It’s why she’d escaped to the kitchen. “You look pretty too. I mean handsome.”
He did. He wore a camel-colored crewneck sweater that showed off his well-toned upper body. An image of Aidan at the beach wearing nothing but board shorts tiptoed across her mind. Really? She had to stop thinking about the man and comparing the two. It wasn’t like she was dating either one. Her brain sabotaged the not-thinking part of her plan by flashing a memory of Aidan’s bulging biceps, ripped pecs, and six-pack.
Thanksgiving, guests, dinner, she silently repeated in her head in an effort to keep her mind where it should be instead of where it shouldn’t. “So, how are we going to save the gravy?”
Obviously, they weren’t. Paul dumped the entire contents into the sink. She grimaced upon seeing the blackened bottom of the pot. She must have been daydreaming for way longer than she’d thought. As Aidan and a pair of handcuffs flirted with her brain, she picked up the champagne glass from the counter and tossed back its contents.
While Paul moved the turkey pan with the leftover drippings onto the front burner, Julia walked to the coffee bar to pour herself another glass of champagne. “Can I get you something to drink, Paul?”
“No, I’m good, darlin’. Now get over here so I can show you how this is done.”
Julia inwardly cringed. Like the whole rolling spaghetti with a fork and a spoon, Paul’s teaching sessions never ended well. She’d almost destroyed her exhaust system when he’d given her parking pointers.
“I’ll just say a quick hi to Maggie.” Before Paul came up with a reason for her to stay, Julia grabbed a pickle tray with her free hand and fast-walked toward the dining room.
In contrast to the stark kitchen, the living and dining rooms were elegant and inviting. The walls were painted a calming slate gray with white wainscoting and dark hardwood floors, a perfect complement to the old Victorian house and its antique furniture.
Hazel wasn’t big on food preparation, but she loved to entertain. At that moment, she and Delaney were standing by the Queen Anne table they’d moved against the wall in the dining room talking to a handsome, golden-haired man and his equally attractive sister.
Byron and Poppy Harte were good friends of Julia’s. They published the Harmony Harbor Gazette and usually spent Thanksgiving with their grandmother, who’d left last week to spend the winter in Florida.
Julia wondered if Poppy and Byron were second-guessing their decision to join them today. Delaney was trying to convince them that dedicating a full page to Hazel and her plans for Harmony Harbor was just the thing to boost weekly readership.
“We wouldn’t have to worry about declining numbers if I could find Colleen Gallagher’s memoir,” Byron said, turning his head at Julia’s gasp.
Panic made her stumble. She’d wrongly assumed Byro
n had given up hunting for Aidan’s great-grandmother’s book, The Secret Keeper of Harmony Harbor. A hundred and four when she passed away last November, the Gallagher matriarch had known a lot of secrets, including Julia’s. Rumor had it that Collen had recorded everything she knew about everyone in town in her book. Julia figured there was a fifty-fifty chance that Colleen had written about her.
Byron reached out to steady her. “Careful, love.” He took the pickle tray and placed it on the table.
“Thanks. I hope I didn’t splash anyone. I must have caught my heel on the rug.” She made a production of checking the bottom of her shoe, spotting Maggie in the living room as she did.
Even in the crowded room the attractive redhead was hard to miss. She stood in a corner beside the baby grand piano wearing a pumpkin-colored silk shirt with matching wide-leg pants, her gold and copper bangles jangling as she raised her hand to her mouth.
Assuming Maggie’s concern was meant for her, Julia smiled and finger-waved. “I’m okay.”
Maggie’s gaze flitted to her, and she offered Julia a small smile. So she hadn’t been looking at her after all. Byron, Julia decided. The tense expression on Maggie’s face didn’t have anything to do with Julia and everything to do with the book. Maybe they should start a club. Because Julia knew for a fact that she and Maggie weren’t the only ones worried about the book being found.
But it wasn’t like there was much they could do about it. Colleen’s memoir had been missing since she’d died. Julia prayed it stayed that way. She imagined Maggie did too. Though she had no idea what the other woman’s secrets were. She didn’t know a lot about Maggie. She’d opened her art gallery in town a little more than a year after Julia opened Books and Beans.
She waved Maggie over and then went up on her toes to kiss Bryon’s sun-bronzed cheek and Poppy’s pale one hello. Julia hadn’t figured out if Byron used bronzer or had a tanning bed in his home. “I’m so glad you both decided to come.”
