by Susan Fox
The smile did it. This was the Destiny Island Realty guy; his photo was on all their signs.
Luke half rose to shake his hand. “Hey, Bart. Good to see you. I noticed you and Cathy having dinner.” He waved in the direction of a window table a little ways away, and Miranda saw a dark-haired woman in a navy dress with a matching jacket. She’d definitely seen her before, working in the credit union as some kind of manager.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen you,” the older man said, “so I figured I’d come say hi and meet your lovely companion.”
“Miranda, this is Bart Jelinek, owner of Destiny Island Realty and an old friend of the family. Bart, this is Miranda Gabriel, Aaron’s sister.”
“Miranda, I’m so glad to meet you.” Jelinek extended his hand.
“I’m pleased to meet you, too.” Unsure whether to call him Bart or Mr. Jelinek, she omitted his name. She put down her fork and took his hand. He gave her a warm, hearty shake.
“A belated welcome to Blue Moon Harbor,” Jelinek said. “I hope you’ll be with us for a long time.”
She gave a polite smile. “We’ll see how things go.” Right now, she just wanted to enjoy this fabulous meal and Luke’s company.
The man returned his attention to Luke. “Cathy and I ran into your mother and Forbes at Destiny Cellars a week or two ago. It was nice to catch up with them. I told them we needed to get together for dinner soon.” He pressed a finger against the bridge of his glasses, like he was pushing them up except they were already in place. “Haven’t seen that stepbrother of yours on the island for a while. He’s making a name for himself, isn’t he?”
“Yes, Julian’s doing great,” Luke said. “His career keeps him busy.”
“It’s always nice to see a Destiny Island boy doing so well.”
“To the extent that Julian’s an island boy. He only lived here for a few years and he’s never seemed that fond of the place.”
“Oh. Well . . .” Jelinek shifted his weight, looking restless. “I’d best get back to Cathy. She’s always saying that when we go out, I spend more time socializing than talking to her. But that’s what it’s like on a small island, isn’t it? I know almost everyone who lives here, and it’s the friendly thing to say hi.”
But not at the expense of leaving your wife alone, Miranda thought. Or interrupting someone else’s meal while their food grew cold.
“We won’t keep you any longer,” Luke said.
Jelinek took a couple of steps away from the table and then turned back. “By the way, don’t know if you heard, but Walter Franklin’s planning on retiring when his term ends. Some folks have been after me to run for his spot. If I did, could I count on your vote, Luke?”
Luke smiled. “I’d think you could count on my whole family’s votes, Bart. You’d make a great trustee.”
The man rubbed his hands together and beamed. “That’s what I like to hear. With support like that, how could I not run?”
As he made his way back toward his wife, shaking hands with other people along the way, Miranda grabbed her fork and took a large bite of jambalaya. After swallowing she said, “He’s going to run for office?”
“It seems, if Walter Franklin does retire. The man holds one of the island’s two trustee positions with the Islands Trust, and he’s had it for a long time. Do you know much about local government?”
“Only that it’s complicated. Some things are federal, some are provincial, there’s the Capital Regional District, too, and then the Islands Trust. And local commissions and committees and so on. But I don’t really know which body is responsible for which stuff.”
“A lot of people don’t. And, oddly, it mostly all works out. Anyhow, the Islands Trust is responsible for preserving the special ecosystems on the Gulf Islands. Land zoning and community planning fall under its jurisdiction. Each Gulf Island elects two trustees for three-year terms.”
She cocked her head. “So the Trust is basically anti-development, or at least it makes sure that development is properly controlled?”
He nodded.
“That’s a wonderful concept.” She frowned. “But Bart Jelinek owns a realty company. Mightn’t he be pushing for development, because that’d bring him more income?”
“He’s not like that. I mean, yeah, of course he wants to make a decent income, but he’s not in favor of big development. He’s a great guy. He’s been president of the Rotary Club forever, and they’ve raised funds for a bunch of community projects. The medical clinic, parks, playgrounds, equipment for the volunteer fire department. And Bart’s the one who spearheaded the efforts to bring the Al-Khouri family here, and help them get settled.”
The Al-Khouris were a family of Syrian refugees who’d been sponsored by the island. Blowing Bubbles had donated a number of items to the cause, from children’s furniture to stuffed animals.
Luke was going on, reciting Jelinek’s virtues. “And he’s coached softball, sponsored the school band, mentored a number of island kids.”
“Wow. He does sound like a terrific guy.” Yet she didn’t find herself liking him much. Maybe it was just one of those weird things that happened now and then, when you inexplicably were drawn to or repelled by someone. Pheromones or whatever. “He’s a friend of your family?”
“Yeah. Dad was in the Rotary as well. When he got sick, Bart was there for us. Mom leaned on him, and his wife, Cathy, as well. After Dad died, Bart tried to help me, invited me to hang out with him sometimes. We’d toss around a softball. He had turned an outbuilding on their property into his ‘man cave’ and we’d watch sports movies and eat popcorn. I appreciate what he was trying to do, but it didn’t sit right. I preferred being with Candace and our friends, or with Viola and the animals. I couldn’t let a man get close to me because it felt like I’d be replacing my dad. Same thing when Mom married Forbes.”
She and Luke had finished their first servings of the entrées, and they went back for seconds. “How does Forbes get along with him?” She could imagine some jostling for position between the two men.
“Okay. They’re kind of opposite people. Bart’s ‘establishment’ and Forbes isn’t. But Forbes respects Mom’s friendship with the Jelineks, and appreciates what Bart does for the community.”
“And Julian? Does he like Jelinek?”
Luke shrugged. “Haven’t a clue. Why?”
She mirrored his shrug. “Just curious.” There was no reason to tell Luke that she hadn’t warmed to his friend, and was wondering if she was the only one.
Watching Ellen serve dinner to the elderly couple at the next table, Miranda said, “A bunch of islanders have seen us here. Word’s going to spread that we’re . . . you know.”
“Dating? You can say it. Dinner at C-Shell definitely constitutes dating. Are you okay with that?”
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have come.” He was handsome and sexy. He was a great father, he did worthwhile work, and he was popular in the community. A woman would be crazy to not want to date him. Why hadn’t she realized that from the beginning? “I wouldn’t have asked Eden’s sister to babysit, thereby notifying Eden and her family, not to mention my brother.”
She put down her fork, knowing she had to stop nibbling in order to leave room for dessert. “It was kind of hard,” she admitted. “I’d told Aaron and the others that I wasn’t going to date. That I was totally focused on Ariana, my job, and my studies.”
“This doesn’t take away from those priorities.”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t. Eden’s family’s been after me to have more of a social life, so they’re happy. Di and Seal think you’re wonderful.”
“The feeling’s mutual. But I notice you didn’t say that Aaron feels the same.”
“Oh, he has only good things to say about you.” Except that he’d expressed doubt whether Luke would ever get over loving Candace. That might be true, but starting to date was at least a step in the direction of moving on. “But you heard him the other night. It’s me he’s skep
tical about. It’s taken me forever to even get my GED, and he doesn’t want me to lose focus.”
Looking concerned, Luke asked, “Are you in danger of doing that? I don’t want to get in the way of you pursuing your career.”
She pressed her lips together, giving his question serious consideration. “I feel focused. It’s the first time in my life that it’s actually felt achievable, me getting a great job with a reliable paycheck.” Toying with an abalone earring—a Christmas gift from Eden’s sister—she said, “It does hurt my pride that I’ve only gotten here by letting people help me. I do what I can to pay them back, but it doesn’t even out.”
“I bet they’re not keeping score.”
“No, I’m sure they’re not,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t.”
“People like to help. It makes them feel good.”
She studied him, this man who on the surface seemed to have it all together, but who’d admitted to accepting lots of help: from Candace, from the old vet, from his family. “It truly doesn’t bother you, having to accept help from others?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, and then Ellen was there to clear their empty plates. “Room for dessert?” She held up two menus.
“Do I look crazy?” Miranda asked.
Ellen laughed and put the menus down.
After she’d gone, Luke said, “No, it doesn’t bother me. I think maybe it’s because of my dad. He was a strong guy. A healer. I looked up to him and we were close. Closer than Mom and I were, in some ways. We did stuff together, hiking and boating, things Mom wasn’t into. Anyhow, then he got sick.” The flecks in his eyes were subdued now, gray clouds supressing the sunshiny sparkles.
“He needed help,” he said. “From doctors and other caregivers, Mom and me, other family members, friends like Bart. But that didn’t make him any less a strong person. He taught me that it’s a strength to be able to know when you need help and to ask for and accept it.” He gave a wry smile. “You’re frowning. You don’t agree, right?”
“No, I . . . I don’t know. I’d never thought of it that way. But it kind of makes sense.”
“You’d have liked Dad. He’d have liked you.”
“Seriously? Why would he have liked me?”
“Because your heart’s in the right place and you’re interesting.” He leaned across the table. “Want to hear a secret?”
“Always.” Intrigued, she leaned forward, too.
“Bart Jelinek?” he murmured. “He and my father were good friends because they shared lots of activities and a vision of what was right for Destiny, but Dad confessed to me that he got tired of all that heartiness. He said Bart didn’t have much depth.”
She grinned. “I do think I’d have liked your dad. But really, you think I have depth?”
He gave a snort of laughter. “Says the rosebud with thorns.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“It’s kind of like saying you’re an onion, but more flattering.”
“An onion?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Layers? Lots and lots of layers, like a rosebud. And peeling them makes a person cry, as does pricking yourself on a rose’s thorns.”
“You’re saying I make people cry? Luke, I—”
“Not intentionally. Just that you’re complicated and you’re prickly. You’ve had some crappy things happen to you. You’ve got strong views about being independent. And you’ve got a ton of defenses.”
She wrinkled her nose, considering what he’d said. “I guess I can’t argue with any of that. Which leads me to wonder why on earth you’d want to spend time with me.”
Chapter Ten
Miranda’s question took him aback. Stalling, he said, “For all sorts of reasons.”
“I’m really different from Candace,” she said softly.
“True.” Candace had been a thornless rose from the day he met her. A sunny yellow rose, all her petals open. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had depth, but she’d been warm and generous from the surface to her core, with no dark corners or secrets. If he’d fallen in love with Candace, why would he be attracted to a woman like Miranda? Surely it wasn’t just a holdover from his teen fascination with the bad girl.
Miranda ducked her head and studied the dessert menu. She didn’t pursue her question, and that made him want to give her a genuine answer.
“You’re intriguing,” he said. “Attractive, of course, and sexy. I like how you are with Ariana. I like how hard you try.”
She was looking at him again. “Try?”
“To create a better life for your daughter and yourself. I even kind of like the thorns,” he admitted. “You’re a challenge.” Whereas Candace had always been easy. Easy to hang out with, easy to like, easy to love. As a kid, with all the changes he’d been going through with his family, easy had been a wonderful thing. Now, though, he felt ready for a challenge.
“A challenge, eh?” A spark ignited in her eyes, and her lips curved a tiny bit. “So I shouldn’t make things too easy for you?”
Funny how she’d echoed the word he’d been thinking. “I know I’ll regret this, but no, maybe you shouldn’t.”
She laughed. “Good. Because I don’t think it’s in me.” She pointed to the dessert menu. “Have you looked at this?”
“I take it you want dessert?”
“They have a sampler for two.”
Obviously, that’s what they’d be getting. He caught Ellen’s eye and placed the order, with both of them ordering coffee as well.
And then the thing he’d been dreading happened. His phone pulsed with an incoming call. Checking the display, he saw that it wasn’t the babysitter, thank God. The name showing was Mrs. Goldfarb, the neurotic owner of a Chihuahua named Zeke. “A work call that I need to take,” he told Miranda. “Hopefully, I can deal with it over the phone.”
Responding to the call with a quiet, “Hello, this is Dr. Chandler,” he rose. “Hang on a minute, until I get to somewhere I can talk.” But of course she ignored his request, and as he walked toward the entrance of the restaurant, a moderately hysterical babble hit his ears. From it, Luke distilled the essence: Zeke’s dry eye was acting up despite the antibiotic eye drops Luke had prescribed. Not an emergency, even if Mrs. Goldfarb might think so.
After Luke had advised the worried owner what to do and asked her to bring Zeke by in the morning, he went back to the table.
“Do you have to go?” Miranda asked.
Seating himself, he shook his head. “No, it wasn’t an emergency. Sorry, but you’re not going to have that dessert platter all to yourself.”
Her nose wrinkled as she grinned. “Somehow, I’ll manage to survive.”
Studying the golden-haired rosebud sitting across from him and wondering if he was risking pricking himself, he asked a question that had been on his mind. “Aaron kind of implied that you don’t date good guys.”
She raised her eyebrows. It wasn’t exactly an invitation to go on, but nor had she shut him down.
“I wondered what that meant. And if it’s true, what does it say about us?”
She buried her face in her hands, shook her head, and then looked at him. “You really want to go there?”
“Wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t. Seems to me, if we’re starting a relationship, this would be good information for me to know.”
“I suppose it would,” she said wryly. “Okay, here goes. I have a thing for what Aaron calls bad boys. Guys who are edgy, unconventional, creative, passionate about something like acting or cooking. When I left the island as a teen, it was partly because I was miserable here but also because I’d met this guy in Vancouver, a musician with a band that was getting a few gigs. He was ten years older than me, all tats and ripped clothing, and I thought he was superhot.”
Another Julian. Oh, great.
“I was head over heels for him and flattered that he was interested in me. It lasted a few weeks, until I found out he was screwing three or four other groupies.”
“You didn’t come home then,” he commented.
“This island wasn’t home. Vancouver was my home. I knew how to survive on the streets. I got fake ID, got a job in a sleazy bar that didn’t look too closely, found a room with some other kids. I survived. Over the years, there were other guys from the same mold.”
“Ariana’s father being one of them, I take it.”
“Ah, Sebastian. He was an actor, in town for the summer Bard on the Beach season.”
“Bard on the Beach?”
“You really don’t get out much, do you?” she teased. “They perform Shakespeare in tents by the ocean. It’s really cool.”
“You like Shakespeare?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. I may only have a GED, but I read a lot. And if I volunteered to help, like as an usher, I got to see the shows. Anyhow, Sebastian was gorgeous, this utterly stunning black guy, and he had a posh British accent. He was talented and seemed really classy. And again I was flattered that a guy like him would choose me.”
“He doesn’t sound much like a bad boy.”
“He was the fancy version, and all he cared about was his career and sex. I got caught up in the façade and didn’t look below the surface.”
“When you mentioned him before, you said he told you he loved you. That doesn’t sound so superf icial.”
“Yeah, well, he was a good actor. Turned out I meant zero to him. He left at the end of the season, and then I found out I was pregnant.” Her mouth twisted. “I messaged him on Facebook and he freaking blew me off.”
“Did you think of, uh, options other than having a child and raising it?”
“Oh, yeah.” She sighed, looking weary. “Maybe I had no right to have a kid. Not having a proper job, a stable lifestyle.”
