Redemption Bay_Contemporary Romance

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “Thank you. You know a little about loss yourself.”

  “More than I’d care to. Yes. The first year was definitely the hardest after Lily died. I remember the first time I laughed again at a joke on a television show. I felt so terribly guilty afterward, I cried myself to sleep. But then I began to find more and more things to smile about and realized my life wasn’t over, just different.”

  “Yes. That’s it exactly. It’s a perspective shift. I’m still finding my way but at least I don’t feel like I’m floundering through quicksand anymore.” He appreciated that she was willing to push beyond the usual platitudes and the superficial sympathy.

  “I know I said it at the funeral but I truly am sorry for your loss. Joan was a wonderful woman.”

  “Thank you. She was.” In light of the direction the conversation had taken, he thought perhaps he should just say goodbye and hang up, but it felt so very good to talk to her. He didn’t want it to end.

  “The hardest thing for me is eating alone. Would you...go to dinner with me sometime?”

  Silence met his question and his palms seemed suddenly sweaty. Lord. Why was this so much harder at fifty-seven than it had been at seventeen?

  “Yes,” she finally said. “Yes, I think I would like that very much.”

  The sun suddenly seemed blinding off the water. “Great. Perfect. What about Sunday? There’s a concert at the park afterward, if you’d like to go. Bluegrass, apparently.” He wouldn’t have known that except he was staring right at the poster on the wall outside the diner.

  “Why don’t we start with dinner, then we can go from there.” She sounded overwhelmed suddenly, as if she regretted agreeing to go. He wondered if this was as awkward for her as for him.

  “Dinner is a good start. A very good start. I’ll see you then.”

  And with luck, he would find a way to see Ben before then, too, one more time—and maybe finally, after all these years, together they could pull back the lid containing all the secrets between them.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MCKENZIE GAZED AROUND her workroom at the women gathered there.

  Her troops.

  Her sister, Devin, sat next to Megan Hamilton, who owned the inn that had burned down last year, and across from Lindy-Grace Keegan, McKenzie’s right hand at the store. All around the battered table in the workroom of Point Made Flowers and Gifts sat her dearest friends, the other members of the Haven Point Helping Hands.

  Her heart swelled as she gazed at their beautiful faces. One urgent phone call, that’s all it had taken, and she had fifteen women willing to drop everything on a busy Saturday morning to see what they could do to help.

  Hazel Selby Brewer and her sister Eppie had obviously been playing tennis, at least judging by their matching white skirts and short-sleeved sweaters that showed off their knobby knees, varicose veins and age spots. Though a year apart—Irish twins, they always informed people proudly—they dressed almost identically. The two were inseparable and had even married twin brothers—though since Hazel’s husband, Donald, died two years earlier, Eppie’s husband, Ronald, had taken over escorting both women around town.

  Hazel and Eppie wore their wrinkles well. They were the oldest of the Helping Hands at eighty-three and eighty-two. The youngest, Samantha Fremont and her best friend, Katrina Bailey, were in their early twenties. They dressed in short shorts and tight T-shirts and both looked a bit hungover, as if they’d partied a little too late on Friday night at the Mad Dog, which had featured a live band the night before.

  In between the two ends of the spectrum were housewives, a real estate agent, a couple of teachers. They weren’t particular about who could come to the Helping Hands meetings.

  She loved every single one of them.

  McKenzie drew in a deep breath that smelled of flowers and raffia and sage. “Thank you all for coming to meet with us. I know everybody is crazy busy right now, especially on a summer Saturday with Lake Haven Days in less than a week. I hardly have time to take a shower most days, and I imagine it’s the same for all of you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate each one of you for dropping everything and coming for this impromptu meeting.”

  “What’s going on?” Linda Fremont demanded. “Marie wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  “Because I don’t know anything,” Marie Caldwell said in a testy tone. “All I heard from Hazel was that Kenzie had called an emergency meeting and it was all hands on deck. That’s the message I got and the message I passed along.”

  “It had better be important,” Linda Fremont said, her features as sour as ever. “I need to be at the store. This is one of our busiest days of the summer.”

  McKenzie gave a patient smile. Linda didn’t need to be there, since her daughter Samantha had come as well and could have passed along any message—but then Linda would have had to miss something, which she would have found intolerable.

  “This won’t take long, I promise.” She tried her best to be sweet to Linda, even when the woman was at her most annoying. Which was quite often, unfortunately.

  “I think I can guess what this is about,” Barbara Serrano said. “Does it have anything to do with our unexpected visitor and your companion at the diner this morning?”

  Only a few people looked confused—but that was still a few more than McKenzie had expected. She had anticipated the news of Ben’s return would have already spread through Haven Point like a late-October frost, touching everything in its path.

  “Who was it?” Sam Fremont asked, blue eyes widening with interest. “Are you dating somebody, Kenz?”

  “No! Absolutely not! Anyway, why would I call an emergency meeting to tell you all about my date?”

  “Breaking news?” Devin asked.

  She glared at her sister. “It wasn’t a date. I can’t believe you all haven’t heard this already, but, okay. Here it is. Ben Kilpatrick is back in town.”

  This caused a minor stir. Sam and Kat gaped at each other, probably trying to figure out how they had missed the news that a gorgeous billionaire bachelor was suddenly in their humble midst. Hazel and Eppie also looked shocked. Other than that, most of the women wore expressions ranging from curiosity to disgruntlement to outright anger.

  “Betty Orton came into the store this morning and told me but I didn’t believe it.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything, Mom?” Sam demanded.

  “I just said, I didn’t believe it. What’s the point of passing along gossip without a shred of proof?” she said. McKenzie almost rolled her eyes. Linda delighted in sharing any tidbit she heard and rarely bothered to authenticate any of it.

  “It seemed impossible to me and that’s what I told Betty. How can he dare show his face here after what he’s done to this town?” Linda glowered.

  “I’ll admit I was pretty surprised, too, when he sauntered into the diner this morning like the cock of the walk.”

  “Oh, he was always such a polite boy,” Hazel exclaimed. “And so handsome. Remember how handsome he was, Eppie?”

  Eppie beamed. “Oh, yes. I remember, with those brooding blue eyes. Like a young Paul Newman in From the Terrace.”

  “Oooh, I loved that movie,” her sister exclaimed.

  “Is he still as handsome, Mayor?” Eppie asked.

  “Well, yes, Eppie dear. But that’s not the point.”

  “What does he want?” Linda Fremont demanded. “Let me guess. He and Aidan are going to raze the whole downtown and build a golf course.”

  “What?” Hazel exclaimed. “That’s not right! We don’t need a golf course! Shelter Springs already has one. That would be just plain crazy!”

  “We could take up golf next, Hazel,” Eppie protested. “I think it would be fun.”

  Okay, she dearly loved all these women and they had been amazingly sweet to her over t
he years but sometimes during these meetings, McKenzie felt as if she was trying to grab hold of a whole herd of greased piglets.

  Did piglets run in herds?

  She pushed away the stupid random thought. “Nobody is building a golf course, I promise. Look, our time is limited here. Lindy-Grace and I have a busy Saturday ahead of us and I know the rest of you do, too. Let’s try to stay focused so we can all get back to it. The truth is, as much as I would like to, I can’t tell you exactly what Ben is doing here—I don’t know specifics anyway and he’s asked me to keep what little I do know to myself.”

  “Then what’s the point of calling a meeting if you’re going to be Miss Locked Lips?” Marie demanded.

  “The truth is, I need your help. I know you all love Haven Point as much as I do. None of us is happy about what’s happened here the last five years. This has been a dark time for us.”

  Because of what she intended to ask, she was careful not to remind them the town had suffered mostly because Ben had ignored his responsibilities and let the downtown fall into disrepair.

  “This is our chance to turn things around,” she went on. “Aidan and Ben are considering something that might improve things around here. That’s all I can say about it right now. Trust me, this would be very good for us.”

  “What do you need us to do?” Ever wise, her friend Julia Winston, one of the librarians at the Haven Point library, struck to the heart of the matter.

  She sighed, looking around the assembly of her dearest friends. “This is difficult for me to ask. I know how you all feel about Ben. I share your feelings, believe me.”

  “You mean, you think he’s hotter than a billy goat with a blowtorch?” Hazel asked.

  Eppie laughed and so did just about everybody else in the room, even Devin. McKenzie felt her face heat, finding it extremely difficult to be appropriately mayoral and dignified around this crowd.

  “Okay, first of all, how hot can a billy goat with a blowtorch really get? And why does he have a blowtorch in the first place? But that’s not the point, is it? No. The point is, it’s extremely important that while Ben is here, we work very hard to show Haven Point in the best possible light.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” Devin asked.

  “That’s where I need your help. I need some ideas about how we can prove to him that this town is warm and neighborly, that he won’t find a better place anywhere in the mountain west.”

  “I think we need to kill the man with kindness, even when we want to strangle him,” Lindy-Grace suggested.

  “Excellent. Excellent. If you see him on the street, stop and say hello. Show him genuine interest. Be neighborly and welcoming.”

  “That would have been easier if he hadn’t made such a mess of things,” Marie protested.

  “If it were easy, I wouldn’t have to call an emergency meeting and beg you all to help me,” McKenzie said.

  “You don’t have to beg,” Eppie said. “Hazel and I will be nice to him—so nice, he’ll think he’s died and gone to heaven and has two wrinkly old angels at his beck and call.”

  Oh, gosh. That was an image she didn’t need. “Don’t overdo, ladies. Just be kind. That’s all I ask.”

  “You want us to suck up to Ben Kilpatrick, after everything he’s done?” Linda Fremont demanded.

  “Not suck up to him, exactly. Just put aside your anger for now in the interest of helping the town. An investment, if you will, in something that could pay off for all of us. And please ask your brothers and husbands and fathers to do the same.”

  She wasn’t sure it would work—or if it was even right. He shouldn’t get a pass for all the things he had done to harm this town, simply because he was here on behalf of Aidan.

  “He did come at a great time for seeing Haven Point at its best,” Julia said.

  “Right. One of the busiest but most fun weeks of the year, with Lake Days next week along with our July Fourth celebrations and all the events surrounding the wooden boat show.”

  “Don’t forget the service auction just a few days after that,” Lindy-Grace said.

  She nodded, heartened by the response. At least they weren’t throwing tomatoes at her just yet. “Exactly. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, really, unless Ben were to show up during the Lights on the Lake Festival. Since he’s not here at Christmastime, we’ll have to take what we can get. This is a perfect chance to showcase the best Haven Point has to offer. I will make sure he is invited to everything, from the mayor’s kickoff luncheon this week to the barbecue at the beach park to the fireworks.”

  Linda sniffed. “I don’t think we should have to kiss that man’s ass, no matter how hot Eppie and Hazel might think it is.”

  It was indeed a fine backside, but McKenzie wasn’t about to admit that.

  “I completely understand your feelings, Linda, and I’m not saying they’re off base. You have to do what you think is right. I will add that, like it or not, Ben could hold the future of our little town in his hands. I just want him to see that any decision he makes will have real impact on a town and a group of people who have already been through a great deal.”

  Most of the women in the group seemed to be on her side, though she sensed a few siding with Linda Fremont.

  “Be nice to him. That’s possibly a tall order, but manageable by most,” Devin said. “What else?”

  “That’s where I need your input. A good old-fashioned Helping Hands brainstorming session. Go.”

  * * *

  AS SHE HOPED, she was able to keep the meeting to less than an hour, and most of that was spent keeping the Brewer sisters from drooling over a picture of Ben with Aidan Caine that Kat Bailey had found on Google on her smartphone.

  Finally, game plan in hand, everybody went their separate ways except Lindy-Grace and Devin, who stayed to help pick up paper plates and cups from the few snacks McKenzie had been able to score at the last minute.

  “That went pretty well, don’t you think?” McKenzie asked both of them, her two closest confidantes.

  “I don’t know.” Devin shook her head. “Linda is a pretty tough sell, as always.”

  “I know. She can give stubborn lessons to a three-year-old. I just hope she doesn’t sabotage anything. Slash his tires or key his car or something.”

  “Sam will keep her in check. Don’t worry.”

  McKenzie sometimes thought she did nothing but worry. With her luck, she had probably picked up an ulcer in the few hours since Ben had told her the reason behind his return.

  Whatever Aidan and Ben might eventually decide about the new facility was completely beyond her control but that didn’t stop her from fretting about all the possible ways she could help sway him toward Haven Point.

  “I know. She’s not vicious anyway, just sometimes a little...opinionated,” she answered, which was a little like saying the surrounding mountains received a little snow during their legendary winters.

  “She might be angry at Ben but she’s not stupid,” Devin said with that calm rationale McKenzie envied so much. “She won’t do anything to screw up this chance if it means a single dollar more profit for the boutique she loves.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “She’s definitely right,” LG chimed in. “Anyway, enough boring talk about the fate of Haven Point. Let’s talk about me.”

  “A far more interesting topic,” McKenzie agreed.

  Lindy-Grace grinned. “I know. You’re still taking my kids Sunday night, right? I know it’s a huge favor and terrible timing, right after Lake Haven Days, but I can’t tell you how desperately Mac and I need some alone time, if you know what I mean.”

  “No. I have no idea what you mean,” she said with studied innocence.

  Her sister snorted. “That’s because you need to get out more. When was the last t
ime you went to dinner with anybody besides the city council?”

  “You’re one to talk. Have you even had a date since medical school?”

  “Yes. I’ll have you know, just last week Archie and Ed bought me breakfast at Serrano’s. Apparently they like the way I fill out a lab coat.”

  “Who doesn’t? You’ve always been a big hit with the over-seventy crowd.”

  “A girl’s got to take what she can get sometimes. So. Operation Charm Ben’s Socks Off. What do you need me to do?”

  For some weird reason, the idea of Devin charming socks—or anything else—off Ben bothered her far more than it should, but she told herself she was being ridiculous.

  “If I end up siccing my vicious dog on him because he’s driving me crazy next door, you can stitch him up for me,” she suggested.

  Devin laughed and ruffled Rika’s curly head. “Sounds like a plan.” She glanced at her watch. “If you need me to do anything else, you know where to find me. I’d better run. I’ve got a hundred errands to run on my first day off in weeks.”

  “Okay. See you. Thanks for making time today for the emergency summit.”

  “No problem.” Devin hugged her and McKenzie wrapped her arms around her sister, deeply grateful for the bond between them. When McKenzie showed up out of the blue all those years ago, Devin could have been cold and distant, resentful and embarrassed about having an illegitimate half sister thrust into her world.

  Instead, Devin had literally and physically embraced her from the very beginning and had never been anything but kind and loving.

  “So you didn’t answer me about next weekend,” LG pushed after Devin left.

  “Yes. I am planning on your two wild children staying at my place. I can’t wait.” LG’s boys were completely adorable, even though McKenzie was exhausted just thinking about entertaining them for thirty-six hours. “We’re going to have a fabulous time. I’m stocking up on all the sugary sweets I can find and fully intend to send them back to you with an epic sugar high bordering on illegal.”