Gordon raised his sunglasses to the top of his head, snorted, and placed his now-empty pipe next to the cash register. “You got in awfully late last night.”
“I thought you weren’t going to wait up.” It had barely been after one in the morning, and she knew for a fact she’d hardly made a sound when she had come in. She had even avoided the squeaky step on the stairway. “I discovered something last night.”
Gordon frowned. “Do I need to buy a shotgun?”
Juliet laughed and tried not to blush. Although no home runs had been scored last night, a couple of the bases had been tagged. “I was referring to you.”
“Me?” Gordon looked intrigued. “What about me?”
“I discovered why all the kids seem to be afraid of you.” Juliet sat on the stool behind the counter and grinned. “That question has been bothering me since the first day I got here.”
“Why didn’t you ask?” Gordon laughed. “It’s no secret.”
“I realize that, but the adults had the good manners not to believe it or bring it up in normal conversation, and the little kids were avoiding me too. I was guilty by association.”
“Who let the cat out of the bag?”
“Don’t you mean the bat out of the belfry?” Juliet was enjoying herself. “What I don’t understand is why in the world you let the kids think you’re a vampire.” She had put two and two together and couldn’t believe the four she came up with, but it all made sense. When she expressed her suspicions to Steve, he had come clean and admitted that even he had been scared of Gordon as a little boy.
It seemed Gordon played a very convincing vampire when he wanted to.
Gordon shrugged. “Winters get kind of boring here. The kids need something to inspire their imagination. Lord knows they don’t get it from most of the crap they have to read in school nowadays.” Gordon wrapped his arm across his nose and mouth and in a deep Hungarian accent said, “I vant to bite your neck.”
“Isn’t it a little too early for Halloween, Gordon?”
Juliet almost fell off the stool. “Mom!” Victoria Carlyle was standing in the doorway of the shop with her gaze glued to Gordon’s back.
Gordon slowly turned around and dropped his arm. “Vicki?” He couldn’t believe that Victoria was standing in his shop. Twenty-seven years since he had last seen her, and she hadn’t really changed that much. Her blond hair was now streaked with gray and cut short. Designer glasses were perched on her nose and her eyes were just as blue as he remembered. Her mouth was just as luscious. Brown leather sandals, well-worn jeans, and a sleeveless top with lots of embroidery clothed her still-trim body. Chunky wooden bracelets encircled both of her wrists.
No, Vicki hadn’t changed much over the years. She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on.
“Hello, Gordon.”
His brain froze and he forgot how to talk. All he could do was stare at Vicki and sink into the past.
Victoria flushed when he didn’t say anything in return and then turned to her daughter. “Juliet, you look wonderful.” Victoria walked over to her daughter and pulled her up off the stool. “Whatever you have been doing, it agrees with you.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Juliet kissed her mother’s cheek. “What brings you here?”
“Can I say I was in the neighborhood?” Victoria nervously glanced around the shop. She felt like an idiot. She shouldn’t have come, or at least she should have called first. Gordon hadn’t even returned her hello. He was standing there staring at her as if a ghost of Hamlet’s father had just walked into the bookstore.
Maybe it was Halloween after all, or at least the opening act of a great tragedy.
“I don’t think that one will cut it, Mom.” Juliet glanced over at Gordon, then back to her mom. “Misty Harbor’s a good five-hour drive, and that’s pushing it with no breaks. What time did you leave home, anyway? It’s only ten-thirty.”
“I spent the night at a small bed-and-breakfast outside of Camden.” She had found the place by pure luck late yesterday afternoon and decided to stop there for the night. She needed the time to build up her courage. Facing Gordon after all these years was going to take a heap more courage than she usually possessed. Besides, she had known that Gordon and Juliet were attending some wedding yesterday and wouldn’t be there anyway.
Seeing Gordon for the first time in more than two decades after driving for nearly six hours wasn’t what she wanted to do. She wanted to be well rested, fresh, and looking her best. She wanted to impress the hell out of him. Instead, he had gone totally speechless.
She didn’t consider that a good sign.
Gordon had every right to toss her tush back out on the street. She hadn’t told him he had a daughter for fifteen years. Then out of the blue she had dropped that bombshell by sending him not only a picture of Juliet but also a letter begging him not to have contact with her, and saying that Juliet was being raised by a loving man she thought was her real father.
She never should have come.
Juliet looked wonderful. There was color in her cheeks and her eyes were sparkling. Her daughter was not only fine, she seemed to have blossomed. The nightly phone calls home hadn’t been telling the whole story. “I’ve been worried about you.” It was the truth. Her quiet, shy, sweet Juliet had done something so out of character by coming to Maine all by herself. What mother wouldn’t have been worried?
No matter how many times Juliet had reassured her that everything was fine, she was fine, and that Gordon seemed very happy to have her there, she still had to come to Maine to see for herself. She was dying of curiosity to see and meet Juliet’s version of her Gordy, the man she had fallen in love with more than twenty-seven years ago. The man who had fathered her first child.
Juliet gave her a hug. “Mom, I’m fine. I told you everything was okay.”
Victoria hugged her daughter back and felt tears come to her eyes. “I know you did.” She turned her head and looked at Gordon through the tears.
Professor Gordon Hanley had been every college girl’s dream. He had been twenty-nine, six-foot-two, thin, with long, flowing black hair and hazel eyes that were either dreamy or sparkling with intelligence. They had been, until they made love, then his eyes turned a deeper green and filled with fire and love. At least she had thought it was love. Gordon had looked at her as if she were the only woman in the world. He had once called her his Juliet.
Their affair had started before Christmas, and by Easter break Gordon had shattered her heart and her dreams. She didn’t remember all the words he had spoken to her that night so long ago, but she did remember how much it had hurt, and that their relationship was over.
Eight weeks later, back at her parents’ house, she had discovered Gordon had left her with more than a broken heart. He’d left her carrying their child.
She had been so scared back then. If Gordon didn’t love her, how could he love their child? He wouldn’t. She had run to her old high school sweetheart and friend, Ken Carlyle, and cried her heart out. Ken had held her, comforted her, and promised her that everything would work out. And it had.
By July she and Ken were married, and no one had guessed that the bulge under the empire waist of her wedding gown was not Ken’s child. Ken had gently held Juliet the minute after her birth, and there had been nothing but pride and love on his face.
Juliet had been Ken’s firstborn child—his little dark-haired bookworm, as he liked to call her.
Ken had been a wonderful husband and father to all four of their children. She had fallen in love with him, but it was a sweet love, one that grew every year, until nine months shy of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One night while driving home from work he had been killed by a drunken driver.
That time, when she cried her eyes and heart out, she had been surrounded by their four children. That time it had been she who had held them and promised that everything would be okay. That everything would work out. And it had. Life went on and eventually the joy and t
he smiles came back into their lives. But Ken Carlyle had left a big void in all their lives.
“Victoria, you’re here!” Gordon seemed to snap out of his daze.
She stepped away from Juliet and straightened her top. If her daughter had found the courage to face the man who fathered her, so could she. “Hello again, Gordon.” His hair was still dark and flowing, but now it was streaked with gray. The angles of his face seemed sharper.
Gordon looked at Juliet, as if seeking her help. Whatever message passed between father and daughter, Juliet caught it.
“Mom, come, I’ll give you the nickel tour of Gordon’s shop.” Juliet grabbed her mother’s hand and tugged her over to a bookshelf. “You wouldn’t believe all the great books I’ve found here.”
Victoria let herself be led around the shop and listened as her daughter went on and on about the different sections of books and how she had convinced Gordon to make a separate section for children.
Although the books were interesting, Victoria liked the small selection of elegant stationery and the pens. Who would spend that kind of money on a platinum fountain pen?
“Come look at these, Mom.” Juliet tugged her away from the pens and over to a case filled with fancy containers.
“What are they?” Some looked like crystal, some wood, and some silver. Most looked like antiques.
“Gordon, why don’t you explain the tobacco humidors to my mom?” Juliet shot a look across the shop that dared Gordon to argue with her. “I think I’ll run upstairs and see what we have to make for lunch.”
“No,” she blurted out a little too fast. “I mean, it’s not even eleven o’clock. What’s the rush?” She didn’t want her daughter to leave her alone with Gordon. She didn’t know what to say to him.
“Your mother’s right, Juliet. There’s no rush.” Gordon walked across the shop and joined them by the display cases. “It’s good to see you, Victoria.” Gordon bowed. “ ‘ She walks in beauty, like the night.’”
“Lord Byron. Very good.” She smiled at the memory of the quote game they used to play—a game she had taught their daughter. “‘Whenever a man’s friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.’”
Gordon raised a brow. “Washington Irving. Really, Vicki, I expected better from you.”
Juliet’s laughter filled the room.
Victoria faked an indignant glare. “‘It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.’”
Gordon’s laughter joined Juliet’s. “Twain’s Pudd’n-head Wilson?” It took Gordon a moment to catch his breath. “I now know where Juliet gets it from.”
“Not everyone believes the English language rises and falls with Shakespeare.” She remembered nights lying in Gordon’s bed as he read Shakespeare to her.
“Careful, Gordon, I’ve heard her quote Janis Joplin once when she was really mad.”
“Janis Joplin?” Gordon looked impressed.
Victoria blushed a brilliant red and confessed, “It wasn’t Joplin. I lied. The quote was all mine. I yelled something I shouldn’t have, and at the time figured it sounded like something Janis would have sung about.”
Her daughter looked at her in awe. “Wow, Mom, I never would have put a tequila bottle and that particular body part together like that.”
Gordon’s laughter was contagious. The awkwardness had passed. It didn’t look like he was going to toss her tush back out on the street. At least not yet.
“It was very sweet of you to take us to dinner, Matt.” Sierra reached up and brushed a kiss across his cheek while Austin wasn’t looking.
“I told you Tony’s makes the best pizza around.” Matt waved to Austin as the merry-go-round he was riding made another rotation.
Sierra waved too. Austin was really enjoying himself, and she had missed his smile horribly these past couple of days. She had met Jake at the same restaurant along Interstate 95, near lunchtime, and retrieved their son. Austin had talked her ear off on the first hour of the drive back to Misty Harbor, but then he had fallen asleep. Jake and Aunt Jean had obviously catered to his every whim for the past five days and spoiled him. Jake had ended up buying another suitcase for all the clothes and toys they had bought Austin during his stay in Boston.
Matt had met them at the Alberts’, and she suggested a relaxing evening at home with some hamburgers on the grill. Matt suggested that they go into Sullivan for pizza and the amusements to celebrate Austin’s return. Her son had very vocally seconded that suggestion. She had been outvoted by a bunch of men.
Austin’s only complaint so far had been that Tyler hadn’t joined them. Tonight she wanted her son all to herself and Matt. She wanted to pretend that they were a family.
Sierra felt Matt wrap his arms around her waist and tug her against the front of him. She relaxed in his arms as she watched her son tighten his grip on the pole with both hands and continued to ride the white wooden horse like a pro. Austin was growing up so fast. He didn’t even need her to ride the merry-go-round with him any longer.
Soon he would be in school all day and then college. Then he’d be getting married and starting his own family. She sighed as the years flashed before her eyes.
“What’s the matter—tired?” Matt tightened his hold.
She wasn’t just tired, she was exhausted. She was burning the candle on both ends and doing a very fine balancing act. It was just a matter of time before all those balls came tumbling down on top of her head. “I was just thinking about how fast he’s growing up.”
Matt chuckled. “He’s only four.”
“Old enough for nursery school this fall.” If that wasn’t enough to make her want to cry.
“Come on, Sierra, think of all the friends he’s going to make.”
How could she think that when she had absolutely no idea where or if her son would be attending a nursery school?
Matt chuckled as Austin did another rotation. This time when he went by Austin didn’t even wave. Her son was too busy talking to the little girl on the horse next to him. “He’s going to be a ladies’ man, I can see it now,” Matt said.
She could feel the vibrations of Matt’s laughter against her back. She didn’t even want to think about that one. Her son couldn’t even take his own shower yet. “Then he’d better learn that soap is his friend.”
Matt was still laughing when the ride came to an end. “I’ll get him,” Matt said as he hurried around the barricade and up onto the ride. A crowd of parents rushed the merry-go-round, all anxious to get to their kids before the little guys tried to dismount on their own.
She watched as Matt swept Austin off his horse and up into his arms. The smile and trust on Austin’s face said it all.
“Mom, Matt says I have to ask you if I can ride the horse again.” Austin held out his arms to her.
She took her son out of Matt’s arms. “You just had two really big slices of pizza.” She really would rather have the pizza stay in his little tummy. “We’ll come back some other time and you can ride it then.” She made a mental note to squeeze in some time for another trip to Sullivan with Austin. If she could find a way to buy a couple more hours in every day, all those titanium credit cards in her wallet might actually do her some good.
“Hey, they have Skee-Ball,” Matt said, distracting her son from the horses.
Austin’s gaze followed Matt’s finger to a row of Skee-Ball machines. “I don’t know how to play.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you.” Matt hurried over to the row of machines and grabbed a spot that had three lanes open next to each other. “I’m a pro at this.”
Austin eyed the short wooden lanes and then he gazed at the red and white–striped cart near the entrance to the amusements. “Can I get some of that?” He pointed to a towering swirl of blue cotton candy on a stick the vendor was handing to a little boy.
She shuddered at the thought of all that sugar. “No, but if you’re st
ill hungry after we’re done playing, then I’ll think about getting you a snow cone.”
“A blue one?”
“Can I get a brown one?” Matt asked with a little-boy look on his face.
She chuckled as she shook her head at both of them. “Only if you both behave.”
She stood at the end of her Skee-Ball lane and tried to remember how to play. She looked over at Matt, who was dropping quarters into Austin’s machine and showing him how to hold the ball.
Her heart didn’t know whether to sing or sink. They weren’t pretending, they did look like a typical family out for a good time.
Two hours later Matt carried a sleeping Austin into his bedroom while she hauled the giant tiger Matt had won him by shooting a basketball into a hoop three times in a row. She had no idea what they were going to do with a four-foot tiger that Austin had already named Tony, in honor of either the pizza shop or the cereal tiger. She wasn’t sure which.
Matt laid Austin on his bed. “What do you want me to do with him?” There was a chuckle in Matt’s voice. Austin was out for the night and hadn’t so much as fluttered an eyelid since being removed from the car.
“Take his shoes and socks off; I’ll get the rest.” She sat Tony in the corner of the room and then hunted down a clean pair of pajamas. Thankfully she had taken Austin into the ladies’ room and cleaned up most of the mess that the blue snow cone had left.
Within five minutes Austin was in clean pajamas and tucked in for the night. He never woke up. “Come on, I could use a glass of wine.” She pushed Matt out of her son’s bedroom and shut off the light.
“Sounds good to me.” Matt followed her into the kitchen. “Does he always go to sleep that fast?”
“No, Jake and his aunt must have kept him very busy for the last few days. He even took an hour nap on the way back to Misty Harbor this afternoon.” She went to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wine. “I picked up some beer today in case you would rather have one.”
A Misty Harbor Wedding Page 24
