Chesapeake 10 - A Seaside Christmas

by Woods, Sherryl

  “Maybe it is different,” Jenny agreed. “Maybe I just feel a little guilty.”

  “What on earth do you have to feel guilty about?”

  “I don’t like thinking I might have had even a tiny part in your breakup with Lori’s mom.”

  Dillon shook his head. “Deanna and I shouldn’t have been together in the first place. I knew better, but from the minute you and I split up, I was a little bit lost. I know we agreed it was for the best, that we were way too young to be serious, that it was crazy to try to maintain a relationship when we were at different schools, that we should be open to new people.” He gave her a rueful look. “Turned out I wasn’t all that eager for new experiences.”

  Jenny regarded him with regret. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” He stared straight ahead, then said, “I heard you broke up with Caleb Green.”

  Jenny felt herself smiling at his attempt to make the comment appear casual. “Gee, you mean you saw the tabloid headlines at the supermarket and the clips all over the entertainment shows when the whole thing blew up after a photographer caught him with his hands all over another woman?”

  “Something like that,” he said with a grin that faded quickly. He regarded her soberly. “That must have been hard. You doing okay?”

  “I’m getting there,” she said, convinced if she said it often enough it would be true. Maybe if people stopped mentioning Caleb in those hushed, worried tones, she would be fine.

  “So, want to have dinner sometime while you’re in town?” Dillon asked.

  She gave him a startled look, thinking that even something as simple as having dinner with an old friend had complication written all over it under these circumstances.

  “Oh, Dillon, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” she protested. “Wouldn’t it just confirm what Deanna thought?”

  “It’s a little too late to be worrying about that,” he commented. “Come on, just two old friends catching up. What’s the harm in that?”

  “Maybe lunch sometime,” she countered, thinking that would be easier somehow, not as subject to misinterpretation by the meddling folks in Chesapeake Shores. Of course, tongues were going to wag no matter when they were seen together. Hadn’t he just said that no one in town had forgotten their history?

  “Whatever you want,” he said eagerly, then stood up. He hesitated, then dropped a quick kiss on her forehead. “It’s real good to see you again, Jenny. I’ll be in touch about that lunch.”

  “Bye,” she whispered, watching him go and wondering why she no longer felt even the tiniest whisper of longing.

  She knew the answer, of course: Caleb. That didn’t mean she had to like it.

  * * *

  Caleb had been just outside the door when he’d seen the man walk into the rehearsal hall to join Jenny. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he’d eavesdropped on their conversation, at least enough to know that he was an old flame.

  That had ignited a flash of jealousy so powerful he’d finally stepped away. He knew he couldn’t walk into that room with a chip on his shoulder and an angry outburst on the tip of his tongue. Jenny didn’t owe him a blessed thing anymore. He had to keep reminding himself of that. When he saw her, it had to be with hat in hand.

  After the man left, he waited a suitable length of time before stepping into the rehearsal hall. By then, Jenny was sitting in a chair, strumming her guitar lightly, fine-tuning the lyrics to a Christmas song of some kind. Something for the play, no doubt.

  He listened to the refrain a couple of times, then joined in, his voice blending with hers in perfect harmony. Her gaze shot up then and for an instant, he was sure he saw naked longing in her eyes right before her expression shut down. Her words, when she spoke, were cold enough to make him shiver.

  “You’re not welcome here,” she said flatly.

  He took another step into the room just the same. “I didn’t expect to be,” he said, holding her gaze.

  “Then why come?”

  “I have a whole list of reasons, beginning with needing to tell you how sorry I am about everything that happened,” he said quietly. He gave her a long look, surprised that she’d seemed so startled to see him. “You weren’t expecting me?”

  “Expecting you? Hardly. I never thought you’d have the audacity to show your face around this town.”

  “I thought maybe Margo would have warned you,” he admitted.

  Her eyes widened at that. “You spoke to Margo?”

  “Yep. Just so you know, she wasn’t one bit happy about my coming here. That’s why I was so sure she would have been on the phone to you two seconds after she’d hung up on me.”

  Jenny closed her eyes. “She probably was,” she admitted with a sigh. “I had a voice mail from her, but I tossed my cell phone into a drawer without listening to it. I figured it was about work and I could deal with whatever was on her mind once I got back to Nashville.”

  “You always did have a habit of tuning out the world when you were caught up in a new project,” he commented.

  “Obviously a habit I need to overcome,” she said wryly.

  “It worked out better for me that you haven’t made that change just yet.” He regarded her curiously. “No call from Jess O’Brien, either?”

  Her jaw dropped. “You’ve seen Jess? Why?”

  “She let me stay at the inn last night. Just so you know, she wasn’t very happy about it, either, but she didn’t have it in her to turn me away.”

  “Unfortunately, most women find it impossible to resist you,” she said with a touch of bitterness. “I found that out the hard way.”

  Caleb winced at the direct hit. “I’m sorry. I know my apology is late in coming, but I never meant to hurt you. I wasn’t thinking straight back then. You know that as well as anyone. You told me often enough to get some help with the drinking. Unfortunately, for way too long, I didn’t think I needed help. I figured I’d earned the chance to unwind after a concert. Then I needed a little something to relax before going onstage. Pretty soon I had a rock-solid excuse, or so I thought, for every drink I took.”

  She heard him out, but nothing in her expression softened even a tiny bit. “Is that part of the program?” she asked. “You’re supposed to acknowledge your mistakes, make amends? Fine. You’ve apologized. You can leave now.”

  Instead, he pulled over a chair and sat next to her. “I said I had a list of reasons for being here. That’s just the number-one item on it. The rest could take a while.”

  “That list couldn’t possibly be long enough to cover everything you’d have to say to make me not hate the sight of you,” she declared, her expression unyielding.

  So, he thought, this was going to be a little tougher than he’d imagined. He’d always known she had a stubborn streak, but this was the first time she’d directed it at him. He’d always been able to coax a smile from her, to charm her back into his bed, no matter how furious she’d been. He’d known how to deal with the heat of her anger, how to redirect it into passion. This chilly distance, though, was new.

  “I deserve that,” he conceded.

  “That and a lot more,” she said with candor.

  “Also true,” he said. “No excuses, Jenny. I’m not even going to try blaming my mistakes on the alcohol. The reality is I screwed up big-time. I know I hurt you and I know you didn’t do a thing to deserve it. We were friends a long time before we were lovers. I’d like to find a way to make things right between us, to get that friendship back again.”

  She regarded him with an incredulous expression. “Right? What on earth does that mean? You cheated on me. You chose booze over me. You drowned your career in a bottle and let your entire band down. How are you going to make any of that right?”

  Caleb winced at the fury in her voice. “I don’t know,” he said honest
ly, looking into her eyes. “I guess only time will tell if I can.”

  “You’re fresh out of time with me,” she said flatly.

  But even though her voice was steady, her words unyielding, Caleb found a shred of hope when he looked into her eyes. There, he was almost certain, he saw regret. He was going to use that, as fragile a thread as it might be, to bind them together once again. Heaven knew there was nothing more important in his life right now. And in that instant the song he’d come to plead for became secondary to what he really wanted: Jenny.

  * * *

  As hard as she tried, Jenny was pretty sure she hadn’t been able to draw in a single deep breath since she’d looked up and straight into Caleb’s eyes. She kept trying to remember that Dillon had been in the room only a moment before, that he was the kind of guy who never would have betrayed her, but it wasn’t working.

  She’d had to cling to her anger for dear life to keep from throwing herself straight into Caleb’s arms. Worse, he was saying all the right words, taking responsibility, apologizing with no excuses, asking for nothing, not even forgiveness, if she was reading him correctly.

  But when was the last time she’d read him correctly? He’d sworn he loved her—and she’d believed him—just days before those awful pictures had appeared in the tabloids. The irony had been that he’d sworn he had no memory of the incident or the woman. That had made it worse, somehow.

  She glanced over and noted that he was waiting patiently beside her, not so much as a muscle twitching to indicate any nervousness. That infuriated her all over again. Shouldn’t he be at least a little anxious? Instead, she was the one whose nerves were shot, who couldn’t seem to catch her breath.

  She forced herself to draw in a deep, calming breath, then said quietly, “You need to leave, Caleb. You’ve said what you came to say or at least the only part that matters. I’ve heard you. Now go.”

  He glanced sideways at her. “I told you, Jen. I’m just getting started.”

  “There’s nothing more I want to hear,” she said, feeling a little desperate to make him leave—the room, the inn, the town—before she did something insane and let him get to her.

  He smiled at that. “But there’s so much more I need to say. You can put in earplugs for all I care, but I’m not leaving till I’ve said my piece.”

  “Everything always has to be on your terms, doesn’t it?”

  He only lifted a brow at that. “Seriously, you did not just say that,” he said. “The entire time we were together, you had me twisted around your little finger. Do you have any idea how much grief I took from the band over that? They thought it was pitiful how much I loved you.”

  “Until you didn’t,” she said wearily.

  He shifted until he faced her, then tucked a finger under her chin when she would have looked away. “I never stopped loving you,” he said softly, but emphatically. “Never! If you believe nothing else I say, believe that.”

  Even as the words warmed her stupid heart, Jenny regarded him with shock. “Putting your hands all over some other woman in public is how you show me your undying love?”

  “That was a mistake, one I’ll regret till the day I die. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “You weren’t thinking,” she accused. “Wasn’t that the real problem?”

  He nodded. “That was the real problem,” he confirmed.

  “Caleb, I can’t do this. I’m here to do a job. I have family issues to resolve. I just can’t add you into the mix. It’s too much. Please, go back to Nashville or wherever you’re calling home these days.”

  His look was long and steady, maybe even tinged with regret. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why?” she asked in frustration. “We’ll get together when I get back to Nashville. We can have that long talk then.” They’d have it, she thought, when hell froze over.

  Caleb chuckled. “I know better. Once you’re back in Nashville, you’ll surround yourself with an entire army of people whose sole purpose will be to keep me away from you.”

  Sadly, he knew her too well. That was exactly what she’d had in mind.

  “So, how do you see this playing out?” she asked.

  “We could start with dinner tonight,” he suggested. “What’s that restaurant you used to talk about, the one on the water? Brandon’s? Brady’s?”

  “Brady’s,” she replied, surprised he’d remembered. “Sorry. I have dinner plans with family.”

  “Breakfast tomorrow at the inn,” he countered.

  Though Jenny was thankful he hadn’t suggested that he be invited to join her family tonight, breakfast at the inn was a terrible idea, too. If the two of them were spotted at a cozy table in the inn’s dining room first thing in the morning, who knew what people would make of that. There might not be a lot of paparazzi in Chesapeake Shores, but that was the sort of news that could have the tabloid stalkers here in a heartbeat.

  “I don’t think so,” she responded flatly.

  “Then you tell me,” he said.

  “Nashville,” she repeated, though without much hope that he’d agree to postpone this conversation he was so dead-set on having.

  “Try again.”

  Jenny caved in. He clearly wasn’t going away anytime soon, at least not without this chat that had brought him to town. “Lunch here tomorrow,” she said eventually. “Have Jess’s chef at the inn pack up something or stop at the pizza place up the street. I don’t care.”

  “In other words, you don’t want to be seen in public with me,” he said, clearly amused. “Don’t you think if people around town recognize me, they’re going to put two and two together anyway? Why else would I be here, if not to see you? Or were you thinking I should stay in my room and avoid all contact with the public?”

  “I suppose that would be asking too much,” she said, unable to keep a wistful note from her voice.

  “Yes, it would. As long as I’m here, I want to see the town you were always talking about. I’d like to meet your family, too.”

  She regarded him with dismay. “Why? They don’t like you any more than I do right now.” Or at least they surely wouldn’t if she made her case to them.

  “Exactly why I’d like the chance to change their minds. I made a mistake, Jenny. A terrible one, but I’m not evil incarnate.”

  She knew that all too well, at least about him not being evil. That was the real problem, wasn’t it? If he stuck around here long enough, she might start to remember all his good qualities—his sensitivity, his kindness, his humor and, okay, the way he’d once made her toes curl with little more than a look.

  And that, she thought with an edge of desperation, simply couldn’t happen.

  “If I agree to this talk tomorrow, you have to promise that you’ll leave,” she told him.

  He shook his head. “I’m not going to lie to you, Jenny. Leaving’s unlikely.”

  “But why? You always claimed to feel claustrophobic in small towns like this. You said they reminded you of all the tiny bars and low-rent honky-tonks you played when you were scrambling to make it.”

  He shrugged. “Chesapeake Shores doesn’t feel that way,” he claimed, then met her gaze. “Maybe that’s because you’re here and this town means something to you.”

  “Stop it!” she ordered. “Stop trying to charm me or seduce me or whatever it is you’re trying to do.”

  He laughed. “It would only upset you if it were working.” He stood up, dropped a quick kiss on her forehead, then headed for the door. “See you tomorrow. I’ll be here at noon.”

  Jenny watched him leave, her pulse racing in a way that was all too familiar. She tried blaming it on annoyance, but she knew better. He’d gotten to her, all right. Blast the man!

  Regretting that she didn’t have her cell phone with her, she went in search of Bree and
borrowed hers. Without thinking of the possible consequences of being overheard, she found the number for Jess’s private line at the inn and hit speed dial.

  “You let Caleb stay at the inn?” she said to Jess without preamble.

  “He showed up in the middle of the night,” Jess confirmed. “It was freezing outside. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Tell him to go jump in the bay,” Jenny suggested. “That might have solved a lot of problems.”

  Jess started to laugh, then stopped herself. “You know you wouldn’t have wanted him freezing to death on your conscience. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted it on mine. However, if you want me to kick him out today, I will. Something tells me, though, he’ll just find someplace to stay outside of town. I don’t think he’s going far until he’s accomplished whatever he came here to do.”

  Jenny sighed. “Yeah, that was my impression, too.”

  “So, does he go or stay?”

  “One more night,” Jenny said reluctantly.

  “I’ll hold the room for him indefinitely,” Jess said. “I know you didn’t ask for my opinion, but maybe you should give him a chance to explain what happened. Maybe that will at least give you closure if you decide it’s not going to work out.”

  “It’s not going to work out,” Jenny said emphatically. She simply would not allow herself to take that kind of risk with her heart again, not with a man who’d already proven he couldn’t be trusted.

  Chapter Five

  No sooner had she handed Bree’s cell phone back to her than Jenny realized Bree had overheard every word of her conversation with Jess. It was clear she had a million questions on the tip of her tongue.

  “Caleb’s here? In Chesapeake Shores? And he was here to see you a few minutes ago?” Bree said, her expression stunned. “Why? No, scratch that. We all know why. He’s here to win you back. How do you feel about that?”

  “How do you think I feel?” Jenny asked. “I want him gone. But he says he’s not going and Jess says he’s booked himself into the Inn at Eagle Point and that he seems to be here for the long haul unless I tell her I want him gone. She doesn’t think he’ll leave the area even if she does kick him out. Unfortunately, I think she may be right. When we talked just now, he seemed pretty determined to stick around. He wants to prove he’s changed.”