“I think you’re absolutely right, Miss Maddie,” she answered. “I’ve always thought Brambleberry House was just about the friendliest house I’ve ever been lucky enough to live in.”
Maddie smiled back and Julia could see a bond forming between the two of them, just as the children already seemed to have a connection with Conan.
“When can we move in?” Simon asked.
Julia winced at her son’s bluntness. “We’ve still got some details to work out,” she said quickly, stepping in to avoid Sage feeling any sense of obligation to answer before she was completely comfortable with the idea of them as tenants. “Nothing’s settled yet. Why don’t the two of you play with Conan for a few moments while I talk with Ms. Benedetto?”
He seemed satisfied with that and headed to the window seat, followed closely by his sister and Sage’s friendly dog.
Her children were remarkably adept at entertaining themselves. Little wonder, she thought with that echo of sadness. They had spent three years developing patience during Maddie’s endless string of appointments and procedures.
When they seemed happily settled petting the dog, she turned back to Sage. “I’m sorry about that. I understand that you need to check references and everything and talk to the co-owner before you make a decision. I’m definitely interested, at least through the school year.”
Sage opened her mouth to answer but before she could speak, the dog gave a sudden sharp bark, his ears on alert. He rushed for the open door to the landing and she could hear his claws scrabbling on the steps just an instant before the front door opened downstairs.
Sage didn’t even blink at the dog’s eager behavior. “Oh, good. That’s Anna Galvez. I was hoping she’d be home before you left so she could have a chance to meet you. Anna took over By-the-Wind, Abigail’s old book and giftshop in town.”
“I remember the place. I spent many wonderful rainy afternoons curled up in one of the easy chairs with a book.”
“Haven’t we all?” Sage said with a smile, then walked out to the stairs to call down to the other woman.
A moment later, a woman with dark hair and petite, lovely features walked up the stairs, her hand on Conan’s fur.
She greeted Julia with a smile slightly more reserved than Sage’s warm friendliness. “Hello.”
Her smile warmed when she greeted the curious twins. “Hey, there,” she said.
Sage performed a quick introduction. “Julia and her twins are moving to Cannon Beach from Boise. Julia’s going to be teaching fifth grade at the elementary school and she’s looking for an apartment.”
“Lovely to meet you. Welcome to Oregon!”
“Thank you,” Julia said. “I used to spend summers near here when I was a child.”
“She’s one of Abigail’s lost sheep finally come home,” Sage said with a smile that quickly turned mischievous. “Oh, you’ll be interested to know that Will was her first love.”
To Julia’s immense relief, Sage added the latter in an undertone too low for the children to hear, even if they’d been paying attention. Still, she could feel herself blush again. She really had to stop doing that every time Will Garrett’s name was mentioned.
“I was fifteen. Another lifetime ago. We barely recognized each other when I bumped into him earlier today outside. He seems...very different than he was at sixteen.”
Sage’s teasing smile turned sober. “He has his reasons,” she said softly.
She and Anna gave each other a quick look loaded with layers of subtext that completely escaped Julia.
“Thank you for showing me the apartment. I have to tell you, from what I see, it would be perfect for us. It’s exactly what I’m looking for, with room for the children to play, incredible views and within walking distance to the school. But I certainly understand that you need to check references and credit history before renting it to me. Feel free to talk to the principal of the elementary school who hired me, and any of the other references I gave you in our phone conversation. If you need anything else, you have my cell number and the number of the hotel where we’re staying.”
“Or we could always talk to Will and see what he remembers from when you were fifteen.”
Julia flashed a quick look to Sage and was relieved to find the other woman smiling again. She had no idea what Will Garrett remembered about her. Nothing pleasant, obviously, or he probably would have shown a little more warmth when she encountered him earlier.
“Will may not be the best character reference. If I remember correctly, I still owe him an ice-cream cone. He bet me I couldn’t split a geoduck without using my hands. I tried for days but the summer ended before I could pay him back.”
“Good thing you’re sticking around,” Anna said. “You can pay back your debt now. We’ve still got ice cream.”
“And geoducks,” Sage said. “Maybe you’re more agile than you used to be.”
She laughed, liking both women immensely. As she gathered the children and headed down the stairs to her car, Julia could only wish for a little more agility. Then she would cross her toes and her fingers that Sage Benedetto and Anna Galvez would let her and her twins rent their vacant apartment.
She couldn’t remember when she had wanted anything so much.
* * *
“SO WHAT DO you think?” Sage asked as she and Anna stood at the window watching the schoolteacher strap her children into the backseat of her little SUV.
She looked like she had the process down to a science, Sage thought, something she still struggled with when she drove Chloe anywhere. She could never figure out how to tighten the darn seat belt over the booster chair with her stepdaughter-to-be. She ought to have Julia give her lessons.
“No idea,” Anna replied. “I barely talked to her for five minutes. But she seems nice enough.”
“She belongs here.”
Anna snorted. “And you figured that out in one quick fifteen-minute meeting?”
“Not at all.” Sage grinned. She couldn’t help herself. “I figured it out in the first thirty seconds.”
“We still have to check her references. I’m sorry if this offends you, but I can’t go on karma alone on this one.”
“I know. But I’m sure they’ll check out.” Sage couldn’t have said how she knew, she just did. Somehow she was certain Abigail would have wanted Julia and her twins to live at Brambleberry House.
“Did you see her blush when Will’s name came up?”
Anna shook her head. “Leave it alone, Sage. You engaged women think you have to match up the entire universe.”
“Not the entire universe. Just the people I love, like Will.”
And you, she added silently. She thought of the loneliness in Anna’s eyes, the tiny shadow of sadness she was certain Anna never guessed showed on her expression.
Their neighbor wasn’t the only one who deserved to be happy, but she decided she—and Abigail—could only focus on one thing at a time. “Will has had so much pain in his life. Wouldn’t you love to see him smile again?”
“Of course. But Julia herself said she hadn’t seen him in years and they barely recognized each other. And we don’t even know the woman. She could be married.”
“Widowed. She told me that on the phone. Two years, the same as Will.”
Compassion flickered in Anna’s brown eyes. “Those poor children, to lose their father at such a young age.” She paused. “That doesn’t mean whatever scheme you’re hatching has any chance of working.”
“I know. But it’s worth a shot. Anyway, Conan likes them and that’s the important thing, isn’t it, bud?”
The dog barked, giving his uncanny grin. As far as Sage was concerned, references or not, that settled the matter.
CHAPTER THREE
SAGE AND ANNA apparently had a new tenant.
>
Will slowed his pickup down as he passed Brambleberry House coming from the south. He couldn’t miss the U-Haul trailer hulking in the driveway and he could see Sage heading into the house, her arms stacked high with boxes. Anna was loading her arms with a few more while Julia’s children played on the grass not far away with Conan. Even from here he could see the dog’s glee at having new playmates.
Damn. This is the price he paid for his inaction. He should have stopped by a day or two earlier and at least tried to dissuade Anna and Sage from taking her on as a tenant.
It probably wouldn’t have done any good, he acknowledged. Both of Abigail’s heirs could be as stubborn as crooked nails when they had their minds made up about something. Still, he should have at least made the attempt.
But what could he have said, really, that wouldn’t have made him sound like a raving lunatic?
Yeah, she seems nice enough and I sure was crazy about her when I was sixteen. But I don’t want her around anymore because I don’t like being reminded I’m still alive.
He sighed and turned off his truck. He wanted nothing more than to drive past the house and hide out at his place down the beach until she moved on but there was no way on earth his blasted conscience would let him leave three women and two kids to do all that heavy lifting on their own.
He climbed out of his pickup and headed to the trailer. He reached it just as the top box on Anna’s stack started to slide.
He lunged for it and plucked the wobbly top box just before it would have hit the ground, earning a surprised look from Anna over the next-highest box.
“Wow! Good catch,” she said, a smile lifting her studious features. “Lucky you were here.”
“Rule of thumb—your stack of boxes probably shouldn’t exceed your own height.”
She smiled. “Good advice. I’m afraid I can get a little impatient sometimes.”
“Is that it? I thought you just like to bite off more than you can chew.”
She made a wry face at him. “That, too. How did you know we needed help?”
He shrugged. “I was driving past and saw your leaning tower and thought you might be able to use another set of arms.”
“We’ve got plenty of arms. We just need some arms with muscle. Thanks for stopping.”
“Glad to help.” It was a blatant lie but he decided she didn’t need to know that.
She turned and headed up the stairs and he grabbed several boxes from inside the truck and followed her, trying to ignore the curious mingle of dread and anticipation in his gut.
He didn’t want to see Julia again. He had already dreamed about her the last two nights in a row. More contact would only wedge her more firmly into his head.
At the same time, part of him—maybe the part that was still sixteen years old somewhere deep inside—couldn’t help wondering how the years might have changed her.
Anna was breathing hard by the time they reached the middle floor of the house, where the door to the apartment had been propped open with a small stack of books.
“I could have taken another one of your boxes,” he said to Anna.
She made a face. “Show-off. Are you even working up a sweat?”
“I’m sweating on the inside,” he answered, which was nothing less than the truth.
The source of his trepidation spoke to Anna an instant later.
“Thanks so much,” Julia Blair said in her low, sexy voice. “Those go in Simon’s bedroom.”
Will lowered his boxes so he could see over them and found her standing in the middle of the living room directing traffic. She wore capris and a stretchy yellow T-shirt. With her hair pulled back into a ponytail, she looked fresh and beautiful and not much older than she’d been that last summer together.
He didn’t miss the shock in her eyes when she spied him behind the boxes. “Will! What are you doing here?”
He shrugged, uncomfortable at her obvious shock. Why shouldn’t he be here helping? It was the neighborly thing to do. Had he really been such a complete jerk the other day that she find his small gesture of assistance now so stunning?
“Do these go into the same room?”
She looked flustered, her cheeks slightly pink. “Um, no. Those are my things. They go in my bedroom, the big one overlooking the ocean.”
He headed in the direction she pointed, noting again no sign of a Mr. Blair. On some instinctive level, he had subconsciously picked up the fact that she wore no wedding ring when he had seen her the other day and she had spoken only of herself and her children needing an apartment. Was she widowed, divorced, or never married?
He only wondered out of mild curiosity about the road she might have traveled in the years since he had seen her. Or at least that’s what he told himself.
In her bedroom, he found stacks of boxes, some of them open and overflowing with books. The queen-size bed was already made up with a cozy-looking comforter in soft blue tones, with piles of pillows against the headboard.
An image flashed in his head of her tousled and welcoming, her auburn hair spread out on those pillows and a soft, aroused smile teasing the edges of those lovely features.
He dropped the boxes so abruptly he barely missed his toe.
Whoa. Where the hell did that come from?
He had no business thinking about her at all, forget about in some kind of sultry, welcoming pose.
When he returned to the living room, her cheeks were still flushed and she didn’t meet his gaze, as if she were embarrassed about something. It was a damn good thing she couldn’t know the inappropriate direction of his thoughts.
“I’m sorry.” She fidgeted with a stack of books in her hand. “I probably sounded terribly ungracious when you first came in. I just didn’t expect you to show up and start hauling my boxes inside.”
“No problem.”
He started to head toward the door, but she apparently wasn’t content with his short response. “Why, again, are you helping me move in?”
He shrugged. What did it matter? He was here, wasn’t he? Did they really have to analyze the reasons why? “I was heading home after a job south of here and saw your U-Haul out front. I figured you could use a hand.”
“How...neighborly of you.”
“Around here we look out for each other.” It was nothing less than the truth.
“I remember.” She smiled a little. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back to Cannon Beach. I remembered that sense of community with great affection.”
She set the stack of books down on the coffee table, then turned a searching gaze toward him. “Forgive me, Will, but...for some reason I had the impression you weren’t exactly overjoyed to see me the other day.”
And he thought he’d been so careful at hiding his reaction. He shifted his weight, not sure how to answer. Any apology would only lead to explanations he was eager to avoid at all costs.
“You took me by surprise, that’s all,” he finally said.
“A mysterious stranger emerging from your distant past?”
“Something like that. Sixteen seems like a long, long time ago.”
She nodded solemnly but said nothing. After an awkward moment, he headed for the door again.
“Anyway, I’m sorry if I seemed less than welcoming.” It needed to be said, he decided. Apparently, she was going to be his neighbor and he disliked the idea of this uneasiness around her continuing. That didn’t make the words any easier to get out. “You caught me at a bad moment, that’s all. But I’m sorry if I gave you the impression I didn’t want you here. It was nothing personal.”
“I must say, that’s a relief to hear.”
She smiled, warm and sincere, and for just an instant he was blinded by it, remembering the surge of his blood every time he had been anywhere close to her that last su
mmer.
Before he could make his brain work again, Sage walked up carrying one bulky box.
“What do you have in these, for Pete’s sake? Did you pack along every brick from your old place?”
Julia laughed, a light, happy sound that stirred the hair on the back of his neck.
“Not bricks, but close, I’m afraid. Books. I left a lot in storage back in Boise but I couldn’t bear to leave them all behind.”
So that hadn’t changed about her. When she was a kid, she always seemed to have her nose in a book. He and her brother used to tease her unmercifully about being a bookworm.
That last summer, he had been relentless in his efforts to drag her attention away from whatever book she was reading so she would finally notice him....
He dragged his mind away from the past and the dumb, self-absorbed jerk he’d been. He didn’t want to remember those times. What was the damn point? That stupid, eager, infatuated kid was gone, buried under the weight of the years and pain that had piled up since then.
Instead, he left Sage and Julia to talk about books and headed back down the sweeping Brambleberry House stairs. On the way, he passed Anna heading back up, carrying a suitcase in each hand. He tried to take them from her but she shook him off.
“I’ve got these. There are some bulkier things in the U-Haul you could bring up, though.”
“Sure,” he answered.
In the entryway on the ground floor, he heard music coming from inside Anna’s apartment. Through the open doorway, he caught a glimpse of her television set where a Disney DVD was just starting up.
Julia’s twins must have finished playing and come inside. He spotted Julia’s boy on the floor in front of the TV, his arm slung across Conan’s back. Both of them sensed Will’s presence and looked up. He started to greet them but the boy put a finger to his mouth and pointed to Abigail’s favorite armchair.
Will followed his gaze and found the girl—Maddie—curled up there, fast asleep.
She looked small and fragile, with her too-pale skin and thin wrists. There was something going on with her, but he was pretty sure he was better off not knowing.
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