Jenny shook her head. “I can’t,” she said. “Not yet.”
She hated the unmistakable sorrow her response put into her mother’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I just wouldn’t be comfortable there.”
“Why not?” Connie pressed. “It’s your home.”
Jenny shook her head. “Grandma’s house where I grew up, where you and I lived when it was just the two of us—that was home. I imagine you sold it, though,” she said, unable to keep a note of bitterness out of her voice.
“No, I kept it,” her mother said softly. “Jake’s kept up the yard. Thomas has had Mick come in and make a few repairs and updates. He had it painted.” She held Jenny’s gaze. “He thought, we both did, that you might like to have it someday if you ever came back here to live.”
Jenny’s heart seemed to go still at the enormity of the gesture. “You saved Grandma’s house for me?” she whispered, incredulous. “Even though you knew I might never come back here?”
“I always hoped you would,” her mother said simply. “Maybe not to live, but it’s a great town for vacations.” She shrugged, looking embarrassed. “And Chesapeake Shores is home. At least I hope you’ll always think of it that way. I hope you’ll remember how much you once loved it here.”
“Jake and Bree never said a word,” she said, amazed. “And just now, until I mentioned it, you were pushing for me to stay with you.”
“Bree and Jake knew I wanted it to be a surprise. Plus, I guess I was hoping to maybe have you under my roof for just a little bit before you went off to your own place. If you want the keys now, though, you can have them. I brought them with me this morning.”
“Mom, I honestly don’t know what to say,” Jenny said, filled with a mix of gratitude and dismay that she’d thought her mother didn’t understand how she felt about that old house. She didn’t even want to think about what it meant that Thomas had understood as well. That he had shown such kindness to her, despite how aloof she’d remained, gave her a rare bit of insight into why her mom had fallen for him so hard.
Her mother’s smile was tinged with sorrow. “I take it you want the keys.”
“Absolutely,” she said at once. Not only was that house the only home she remembered, it would provide a refuge as she tried to figure out how to fit in with this new and overwhelming family.
Her mother fished in her purse and came up with a set of keys on a Chesapeake Shores souvenir key ring. She pressed them into Jenny’s hand, then enfolded it in her own. “We’ll transfer the deed into your name while you’re here, if you decide you want to keep it. Connor can take care of the paperwork.”
“Can we go see it now?” Jenny asked, unable to contain her excitement, even though she could see that her reaction was hurting her mom. Connie might have made this magnanimous gesture, but it was clear she’d hoped Jenny wouldn’t want to take advantage of it so quickly. Though she hid her disappointment reasonably well, Jenny could see through her act.
Because she didn’t want to deal with all the undercurrents, she forced a smile. “I rode by yesterday and saw that it looked like it had a new coat of paint. I was glad to see that someone was taking good care of it.”
“Then you can thank Thomas and your uncle for that when you see them.” Connie hesitated. “Will you at least think about coming to dinner at the new house tonight, so you can do that? I’ll make spaghetti or a pot roast, whatever you want, though I think pot roast is probably on the menu at Mick’s for Sunday dinner.”
Jenny desperately wanted to put off her first encounter with her new stepfather until Sunday when they’d at least be surrounded by a crowd of O’Briens, but maybe this would be better. There’d be no watchful gazes, no people ready to jump in to defend Thomas from any cutting remark she might make. Not that she would do such a thing intentionally. They’d both walked on eggshells whenever they were together for her mother’s sake. It would almost have been better if they’d blurted out whatever was on their minds and then dealt with the fallout.
“What time?” she asked her mother eventually.
The smile that spread across her mother’s face was worth any discomfort the evening was likely to bring, Jenny concluded, glad that she’d said yes. Now she just had to make a real effort to open her heart to the man who’d given her mom the bright future she’d never dared to envision.
“How about seven? Thomas is usually home from Annapolis by then. Now that he has Kevin on board, Thomas runs the foundation from home a lot of the time. Today just happened to be one of the days he needed to go into the office for meetings.”
“Has Mick finally accepted the fact that one of his sons is working for Thomas?” Jenny inquired curiously. “I know he hated it when Kevin first said that’s what he wanted to do, rather than working with Mick or doing something else right here in Chesapeake Shores.”
“Oh, Mick blustered for a few months, but he’s admitted more than once that he’s proud of the work both of them are doing to preserve the bay.”
“And he didn’t choke on the words?” Jenny asked incredulously.
“No. Mick’s mellowed now that he’s back with Megan and mostly retired. You’ll see.”
Jenny found it hard to imagine that the hard-driving man she’d known had eased into retirement that readily. “I’ll bet he’s still in his office poking around whenever he can.”
Connie laughed. “Matthew can attest to that. He says his uncle drives them all crazy. He still wants status reports on every development project they have going around the country.”
“His name is on the company,” Jenny said, understanding that sort of pride of ownership. She often found it painful to relinquish control of her songs once she’d sold the rights. One of the great things about collaborating with Caleb had been his willingness to let her hang around through the recording sessions. He’d claimed to appreciate the occasional insights she’d dared to offer about phrasing or holding a note for emphasis.
“Your uncle’s the same way about this place,” Connie acknowledged. “Jake put me in charge of operations and I know he trusts me to get the job done, but he does have his moments when he tries to micromanage every detail.”
“Will you ask him and Bree to come to dinner tonight, too?” she said, needing the reassurance of familiar faces. “I’ll want to thank him for what he’s done to the house.”
“Anything you want,” Connie agreed readily. “If that will make you more comfortable, I’ll see to it they’re there. With Sean and Emily Rose around, the adults may not get a word in edgewise. Maybe that’s for the best for now.”
“Thanks.” She knew it wouldn’t completely quiet her nerves, but it would be comforting.
Connie gave her a knowing look. “It’s going to be okay, sweetie. I promise. We’re family. You’ve known Thomas most of your life.”
But he’d only been her stepfather for a few years, most of them in her absence. That was a huge adjustment to make when she thought about him and one she had yet to fully accept. Clearly, though, the time had come to make a real effort.
* * *
Bree tucked her cell phone back into her pocket and regarded Jenny curiously. “Dinner at your mom’s tonight?”
Jenny nodded. “I couldn’t say no. It would have been like kicking a puppy or something, especially after she told me about renovating our old house and keeping it for me.”
Bree’s eyes lit up. “She finally told you about that? Keeping quiet when you and I have talked these past few weeks has been killing me. Have you seen it?”
“We walked through on the way over here. The renovations are amazing. It’s a lot more than a fresh coat of paint, which was what I’d been expecting. They even put in a whole new kitchen with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances. And the bathrooms are straight out of a design magazine.”
“Isn’t the whole place amazing?�
� Bree said. “Dad thought of every detail. There are advantages to having a famous architectural genius in the family.”
“I’ll say. He even managed to expand the master bath and put in a huge walk-in shower, plus a Jacuzzi. When I look at it, it’s hard to remember how tiny the old one used to be. I can hardly wait to climb into that tub with a glass of wine and soak till I shrivel up like a prune.”
“It’s big enough for two,” Bree commented. “Jake and I tested it.”
Jenny laughed. “Of course you did.”
“Well, I needed him to see how essential it was to have one put into our house.”
“The experiment paid off?”
“Oh, yeah,” Bree said, her cheeks turning pink. “Just so you know, we raced home to our own bed. That fancy king-size bed in your place hasn’t been slept in.”
“Good to know,” Jenny replied, amused by their sense of decorum. “Now, can we focus on these lyrics? What do you think of what I’ve written so far?”
“They’re amazing,” Bree said enthusiastically. “They capture the tone of the play and the whole holiday spirit in exactly the right way. I can’t wait for the cast to hear them. The professionals will be here next week. I’ve already been doing readings with the locals since it takes them a little longer to nail down their lines. Think you can have these songs polished up by Monday? That’ll give us three full weeks of rehearsals. We open three days before Christmas and run through New Year’s Eve. No shows on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, though.”
“Even so, that’s a lot of performances,” Jenny said, surprised. “You can fill the theater that many nights?”
“And two Saturday matinees,” Bree confirmed. “We’re virtually sold out. We have a lot more season ticket holders than I ever imagined and the Christmas play always draws from the entire region. People are anxious for a holiday event the whole family can enjoy at a reasonable price.”
“Bree, that’s fantastic! Congratulations!” she said, genuinely thrilled for her.
Bree grinned. “I have to say when Jake and I first talked about my opening a theater here, I wasn’t a believer. I wasn’t convinced it would last a year. Yet here we are in year five. We’ve even gotten some great reviews from critics in Washington and Baltimore, too.”
“Okay, I know you’re not one to rest on your laurels. What’s next?”
“I want to write an original play with Broadway or at least off-Broadway potential,” Bree said at once, then grinned. “When I dream, I dream big.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Jenny said. “And that’s not exactly a new dream. You’ve been working toward it your entire career. You deserve whatever success comes your way.”
“Thanks.” Bree glanced at her watch. “I need to get onstage and start running lines with the cast. You’re okay here in the rehearsal hall?”
“I have my guitar and some paper. That’s all I need,” Jenny confirmed. “Go create magic.”
Bree laughed. “You do the same.”
Jenny thought of all the times when she’d struggled to find the perfect word or the perfect note. And it still thrilled her when she heard one of her songs on the radio. Now that, she thought with a smile on her lips, truly was magic.
Chapter Four
“I always knew you were going to be a big-time son writer,” Dillon Johnson said, stepping into the rehearsal hall just as Jenny set aside her guitar. “That was incredible.”
A smile spread across Jenny’s face at the sight of her first real boyfriend. He was taller now and had filled out his lanky frame. The boy she’d last seen years ago was now a man, and a good-looking one at that.
“Dillon! Where’d you come from?” she said, jumping up to give him a hug. “And look at you, wearing a suit and tie and all grown up. How’d that happen?”
He laughed. “Time passes, at least for most of us mortals. You, however, look exactly the same. Still beautiful.”
Jenny doubted that. It had been hours since she’d run a comb through her hair, and her lipstick no doubt was history. She’d chosen her most comfortable pair of jeans and her warmest sweater this morning, but neither was exactly fashionable.
She had a real superstitious streak about that sweater, though. She’d worn it when she’d written her first big hit, scribbling lyrics onto scraps of paper late into a cold, snowy night in Nashville. For every song thereafter, she’d made it a point to pull on the same sweater when she’d first started writing down ideas and words. This morning she’d wanted to bring that same luck to everything she wrote for Bree’s holiday production.
“Liar,” she teased. “But thank you for the compliment just the same. What brings you by?”
“Ethel mentioned that you were in town—”
“Of course she did,” Jenny said, surprised there hadn’t been a banner announcing her arrival on Main Street.
“She does like to be the bearer of good tidings,” Dillon said. “Anyway, I had a few minutes between appointments. You probably heard I’m working with my dad now in his insurance business.”
“I did hear that,” Jenny confirmed. “I have to say I was surprised.”
His expression turned sheepish. “You mean because I always swore I’d rather die than sell insurance?”
“You were pretty emphatic about it,” she recalled.
“When I got out of school, there weren’t a lot of jobs around. I needed to work.”
“That’s right. You’re married and the father of a little girl,” Jenny said. Bree had hesitantly passed on that information, clearly uncertain how Jenny would feel about the news. She’d had a momentary twinge of regret, but that was all.
“Mostly true,” he said, a shadow passing over his face. “Deanna moved out and filed for divorce a few months ago. She said she was tired of competing with my past.”
Jenny frowned at that. “Meaning?”
“You, of course. She said she could tell that every time one of your songs came on the radio, I started thinking about what might have been. It probably didn’t help that they were all downloaded onto my iPod, too.”
Shocked, Jenny sat back down, picked up her guitar and held it protectively in front of her, her fingers idly strumming as she bought time to consider what he’d said.
“But, Dillon, surely that wasn’t true,” she responded eventually, hoping his wife had been wrong. “You and I called it quits when we left for college. That was a long time ago. We hadn’t even been in touch.”
“I told her that.” He shrugged. “She didn’t believe it, especially after we moved to town and everyone she met mentioned our history. I don’t think they did it to be cruel. It’s just that people in Chesapeake Shores have long memories, and you’ve become a celebrity in the music world. Everyone in town is so proud of knowing you.”
Jenny shied away from the description. “A celebrity? Hardly. Most people have no idea who wrote the songs. The focus is on the artist who performs them.”
“Unless the writer is romantically involved with the performer, I imagine,” he suggested quietly.
Jenny sighed. He was right about that. Because of her relationship with Caleb, she’d been in the public eye more than most songwriters who weren’t performers themselves. “I’m really sorry.”
“Not your fault. And, to be honest, maybe Deanna was right. Maybe you never entirely get over your first love.”
Jenny had. She’d moved on with Caleb and, in the rare moments when she allowed herself to be completely truthful, she knew that was the relationship that still lingered in her heart. Bree had been right about that. She was determined, though, not to listen to that traitorous bit of nostalgia. She’d left Caleb in the past. He needed to stay there.
“What about your little girl, though?” she asked, thinking of her own parents’ divorce, her father’s disappearance from their
lives and the scars that had left. “Don’t you owe it to her to try harder?”
Dillon seemed taken aback that she would expect that. “Lori’s okay,” he insisted, his tone defensive. “She’s only two. She knows she has two homes, one with Mommy and another one with Daddy. They’re not far away. They’re living in Annapolis.”
Jenny started to argue, then waved off what she’d been about to say. “Never mind. It’s not my place.”
Dillon sat down beside her, then nudged her with an elbow. “That never stopped you before. Say what’s on your mind.”
“Just that I remember what it was like when my dad left. I’m not sure I ever got over it.”
He frowned at that. “That was completely different. He moved to another state. You never saw him. You barely even heard from him. And then you found out he’d never wanted kids in the first place.”
“That was a kick in the pants, all right,” Jenny acknowledged. “From then on I figured it was all my fault that he’d left, that if my mom had never gotten pregnant with me, they’d have stayed married.”
“You knew better, though,” Dillon reminded her. “Your mom wouldn’t have traded having you for anything, not even keeping your dad around. I heard her say so myself.”
“Sure, that’s what she always said. Still, it’s hard not to wonder. She must have been in love with him at the beginning.”
“I’m sure she was, but didn’t she tell you that they’d fought over having children, that he knew how important it was to her but refused to even consider it? Despite how he felt, she never even gave a moment’s thought to having you when she found out she’d gotten pregnant. There were choices she could have made.” He met her gaze. “Personally I think it’s one of those things people take for granted when they’re dating, assuming they’re on the same page about everything. When they discover otherwise, it changes how they feel.”
“I suppose,” Jenny conceded.
“Well, in my case, I’m right here. Lori will never have to wonder the way you have. She’ll always know how much I wanted her and love her.”
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