Holiday In the Hamptons

by Sarah Morgan

  He’d told her about that night his father had died, right through from his mother’s frantic 2 a.m. call to the mad dash to the hospital. And he’d told her about his feelings when he realized he was too late and wasn’t even going to get to say goodbye. Regret chasing regret. Things he wished he’d said, and hadn’t. Time he wished he’d spent, and hadn’t. The realization that control is an illusion. That tragedy picks its victims randomly and without mercy. That a perfect life could change in an instant and that time, once gone, was gone forever.

  All useless, wasted, pain-inflicting thoughts.

  “Couldn’t you delay things until you’ve had time to get used to the idea?”

  “If we’re going to do it, then it’s better to do it sooner rather than later. We need to sell it before it starts to need a ton of upkeep, and if Chase has a potential buyer then I can’t afford to ignore that.”

  “In that case I’ll come with you.”

  “I don’t want you to do that. It’s not going to be fun.”

  “We’re friends. Friends are there for the tough bits as well as the easy bits.” She locked her car and shoved the keys in her pocket. “Let’s go.”

  He found that he didn’t want to argue. “With luck, I’m going to have the easiest sale in the history of real estate. Mom won’t have to worry about money again.”

  “But you don’t care about the money,” she murmured. “You never did. With you it’s never about the money.”

  “I was lucky enough not to have to think about it.”

  “Plenty of people don’t have to think about it, but still think about it all the time. It dominates everything, influences all their decisions. Are they doing the right thing? Behaving the right way? Wearing the right clothes? Being seen in the right places, mixing with the right people? You never cared about any of that. And you won’t care that the market is good, or whether Chase has got you a great deal. You do care that you’re selling your family home, somewhere you spent summers and Thanksgiving for more years than you can remember.”

  He remembered them. He remembered all of them.

  “The place is full of memories. For Mom, that’s hard. But for me—” He hesitated and she nodded.

  “I understand. It’s somewhere you still feel close to him. Selling it feels like handing those memories on to someone else.”

  “It’s about what’s right for Mom, not me. I’m not the one who matters here.”

  “You matter to me.” She slid her hand into his, and he stroked the backs of his fingers over her cheek.

  The sun had dusted her nose with freckles and lightened her hair, making her eyes seem bluer than ever.

  He wondered how she could possibly think she was the “bad” twin.

  She was one of the most fiercely loyal people he’d ever met and straight as an arrow. For some reason he found himself thinking of Naomi, and her complicated manipulation.

  Fliss was straightforward. She didn’t play games.

  If Chase Adams was surprised to see Fliss, he kept his feelings to himself. Instead he gave her a hug, thanked her again for what she’d done for Matilda, assured her he was deeply in her debt and then turned to introduce his friend.

  Todd Wheeler was an investment banker who worked on Wall Street. His phone rang constantly. It would have driven Seth insane, but Todd seemed to regard it as a normal part of his day.

  “Wheeler.” He answered the phone in blunt, crisp tones. “No… That’s right… That stock is going through the roof—”

  Seth didn’t care what happened with the stock as long as Todd had the money to buy his house, but the man didn’t seem interested.

  Was a guy really going to part with a substantial portion of his capital for a place he’d barely glanced at?

  Todd ended the call and Seth managed a polite smile. “Busy day?”

  “Normal day.” Todd glanced at his watch. “Let’s do this.”

  Seth refrained from asking if he was sure he had the time. Instead he walked through the rooms, the emptiness of the house enveloping him.

  He probably should have been giving an effusive sales pitch, filling the echoing silence with patter about why this house was perfect, but he couldn’t summon the energy.

  In the library Todd took three more phone calls in rapid succession and Fliss glanced at Seth and rolled her eyes.

  The face she pulled made him feel better.

  Later, he decided, they’d go back to his place and walk on the beach.

  When Todd finally dropped the phone back into his pocket for the fifth time, Seth showed him the rest of the downstairs. He lingered in the formal dining area, where his mother had hosted more noisy dinner parties than he could remember, then walked through to the large kitchen that had been the heart of the home and had sweeping ocean views.

  When Todd took another phone call, Seth started to wish he’d let Chase show the house without him. He could feel his father in every room.

  He remembered the last Thanksgiving they’d spent together here as a family. Naomi had joined them, and from the moment she arrived it had been obvious to him he’d made a mistake inviting her. She’d read too much into the gesture and he’d heard her giggling with Vanessa. It was obvious they’d been plotting together, and that he was the subject of the plot.

  She’d been waiting for him to propose.

  When he hadn’t, she started dropping hints. When he hadn’t taken those hints, she’d grown more and more exasperated. And then moody.

  Seth had left her with Vanessa and gone sailing with his father. This late in the year the waters around Gardiner’s Bay had been choppy, and they’d needed all their skill and experience to keep the boat on course. It had been both terrifying and exhilarating, and they’d had one of the best days sailing Seth could ever remember.

  And he remembered another thing, too. He remembered his father saying that choosing a partner was one of the most important decisions a man ever made. That you should choose someone who wanted to run with you, not hold you back.

  Seth knew his father didn’t think Naomi was right for him, and he’d agreed.

  It was one of the last serious conversations he’d had with his father, and it had been the beginning of the end of his relationship with Naomi. It was the day he’d stopped looking for someone who made him feel the way Fliss did and resolved instead to find Fliss.

  His father’s death shortly after had reminded him that life was too short to spend it with the wrong person.

  They moved upstairs to the bedroom suites, and he heard Todd asking Chase a question about rental yield.

  Rental yield?

  For Seth, owning property wasn’t about financial return, but emotional return. He didn’t measure real estate in terms of square footage but in terms of lifestyle.

  It was the reason he’d chosen his place on the edge of the nature preserve.

  He’d seen the potential. Not for a financial killing but for a future that was good. Somewhere he could plant roots. Somewhere to make memories. And yes, somewhere to have a family one day. He still wanted that. Maybe, on one level, he’d always wanted that.

  Todd was on the phone again, so Seth opened the French doors and walked onto the balcony. The house faced over dunes that sloped down to a wide sandy beach. He’d played there with his sisters, acted as referee as they’d quarreled and argued about things so small and insignificant he couldn’t even remember them.

  All he heard now was the gentle hiss of the waves as they hit the sand.

  He heard footsteps behind him and felt Fliss’s hand on his arm.

  “That man is driving me insane. Is he really your only buyer? Because if it’s okay with you I’d like to kill him. I promise to keep the blood to a minimum. I thought I might push him off the balcony or drown him in the pool, along with that damn phone of his.”

  He hadn’t thought he was capable of smiling today, but he found he was smiling. “I guess he has a job to do.”

  “His job right now is to look at this
house.”

  “He’s not going to buy the house, Fliss.” And it was only now, when it was obvious it wasn’t going to happen, that he realized how badly he’d wanted this part to be over. If Todd walked away, he’d be faced with endless months of dealing with a Realtor.

  Strangers would tramp through the house, leaving footprints on his memories.

  Fliss tapped her foot on the floor. “If he put the phone down for five minutes he might be able to focus long enough to fall in love and decide to buy it.”

  “Guys like Todd Wheeler don’t fall in love with houses. He thinks only in terms of return on investment. He’s not seeing a potential home, he’s seeing eight thousand square feet of oceanfront property with easy access to a heliport.”

  Fliss narrowed her eyes. “Hmm. We’ll see about that.” She stalked back into the house, leaving him with no choice but to follow.

  Not that he was afraid she actually would drown Todd Wheeler in the pool, but he wouldn’t put it past her to do some damage.

  She marched through two of the upstairs bedrooms before she finally tracked down Todd and Chase in a guest room overlooking the gardens.

  “Excuse me.” She planted herself in front of Todd and offered up a friendly smile. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”

  Seth paused just outside the doorway and saw Todd frown.

  “Sure.” Then his phone rang and he glanced down at it. “I need to answer this, so if you’ll excuse me—”

  “No, in fact I won’t.” Her smile fixed, Fliss removed the phone from his hand. “My advice is to make them wait. They’ll be more interested.”

  Guessing that it wouldn’t do much to ingratiate himself with his buyer if he laughed, Seth moved out of sight.

  He couldn’t be bothered to call Todd out, but it seemed that Fliss intended to.

  “You should focus all your attention on the task at hand,” she said, “which is deciding whether or not you’re interested in this house. Because once you walk out of that door, it will all be over and let me tell you, if you lose this place you will kick yourself. And if I were your wife, and frankly I’m glad I’m not because I would never want to be in a threesome with a cell phone, I might be tempted to kick you, too. You will never again have the opportunity to own a property with as much potential as this one.”

  “I’ll need to talk to an architect before I can assess that.”

  “I’m not talking about its potential as a building project. I’m talking about its potential to add quality to your family life. I’m helping you to see something you don’t seem capable of seeing by yourself.”

  “Look, the property is great, but it’s not the only property on the market. There are several larger beach properties I have to see.”

  Seth felt a thud of disappointment. It was as he’d suspected.

  “Larger?” Fliss obviously wasn’t ready to give up. “How many children do you have, Todd? Ten? Eleven?”

  “Two.”

  “And are you planning to live with extended family? Your mother-in-law, perhaps? A whole stream of cousins?”

  “Just the four of us.” His tone was cautious. “I don’t see what that—”

  “I’m trying to work out what you would do with more space than this. With four of you, you could move in here and not sleep in the same bedroom for a week. You can entertain lavishly—there’s even a guest cottage. When your kids hit their teenage years there is enough space to give them a wing each if they turn moody. Sure, you could buy something with more room, but why?”

  “It’s called investment.”

  “So you’re not looking for a home, you’re looking for profit.”

  “That’s a factor.” He studied her for a moment. “I understood from Chase it isn’t even on the market yet.”

  “A house this special doesn’t need to go on the open market. The appeal that dragged you down here in the middle of your very busy working week is the same appeal that has had other buyers knocking at the door. Seth only agreed to let you see it first because you’re Chase’s friend. So I guess it boils down to one basic question. Are you in love with the house?”

  “In love?” He shot her a bemused glance. “Real estate is a financial decision, not an emotional one.”

  “This isn’t a piece of real estate, Todd, it’s a home. As a matter of interest, how do you propose to present this to your wife? ‘Hi, honey, I bought us a house but don’t bother unpacking or getting too comfortable because if the value increases enough I’ll sell it right out from under you.’ Is that what you’re planning? Because if so, I feel sorry for her. And your kids. What are their names? How old are they?”

  “Grant is six and Katy is eight.”

  “A boy and a girl. And you’re buying this because you want to be able to spend summers at the Hamptons. I bet they’re going to just love the beach.” Her tone warmed. “They’ll spend time playing hide-and-seek in those dunes just beyond the house. Sandy feet, sun on their faces, happy children. Lucky children.”

  Seth frowned.

  She’d painted a picture so clear he could taste the salt air and hear his sisters’ laughter. Hear his mother warning them to wipe their feet so that they didn’t trail sand into the house.

  Todd said nothing.

  “Maybe you’ll take Grant sailing, like Seth’s father did.” Fliss’s tone was desperate, and Seth wondered why she didn’t just give up. Did she really think she could convert Todd Wheeler from hard-nosed businessman to family guy in one conversation?

  “Fliss—”

  “Has he told you they used to spend every spare hour here doing up their boat? Not down at a boatyard, but at the dock right there in front of the house. Or maybe it will be Katy who loves being on the water. And when you’re spending time messing around with boats, whether it’s on dry land or the water, it’s not about the boat, Todd. It’s about the time you’re spending together, the conversations you have while you’re varnishing planks or sailing a boat into the wind. Whatever you do, however you spend your time in this beautiful home, those are the things your kids will always value about your relationship. They’re the moments Grant and Katy will remember, not how much money their dad made on a property when he sold it. This house isn’t just bricks and wood, it has a heart and a soul.”

  Her words were met with silence.

  This time, it seemed, Todd had nothing to say.

  Neither did Seth.

  He realized she wasn’t trying to convert Todd, or reform him in any way. She was selling his house, and she’d done it with as much passion and conviction as if she’d been selling her own.

  She’d painted a picture like an artist, skillfully weaving visions of an idyllic lifestyle until Seth would have bought the house himself had he not already owned it.

  Todd frowned. “I don’t think—”

  “Think of it like this.” She didn’t give him time to speak. “When you invest money, you expect a return. But who says that return always has to be financial? This house is an investment in quality family time. Happy moments become happy memories, and they last forever. Nothing can ever take that away, not even a crash in the market. Take your son sailing, teach your daughter to surf, and they’re going to be remembering those things into adulthood. And when they leave, they’ll take all those memories with them. If that’s not an investment, I don’t know what is.”

  They’ll take all those memories with them.

  Seth felt a pressure in his chest.

  He’d thought the memories belonged to the house, but Fliss was right. They belonged to him. They were inside him and they would always be inside him, no matter where he went or what he did. Selling a house wasn’t going to change that.

  Swallowing down the emotion, he walked into the room and Chase reappeared at the same moment, full of apologies.

  “Sorry, that was Matilda. She wanted me to pick up a few things on my way home. Have you finished? Is there anything else you need to see, Todd?”

  “No. I need to get bac
k to the office.” He gave Fliss and Seth a brief nod. “Thanks.”

  Seth said nothing. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Fliss had said.

  “I’m driving Todd back to the airport.” Chase slapped Seth on the shoulder. “I know you said you were working over the holiday, but are you free in the evening? Matilda and I are having a few people over. We’re keeping it low-key as Rose is so little and Matilda is tired. My brother, Brett, will join us if he can, and a couple of other friends.”

  Seth forced himself to concentrate. “I’m on call during the day. Tanya is covering the evening.”

  Todd raised his eyebrows. “Are people really going to need a vet on the Fourth of July?”

  “It’s always a busy few days for us. First there’s the heat—people leave pets in cars and forget about them while they’re barbecuing on the beach. They feed them table scraps, they have people around who leave doors and gates open so pets escape. And don’t even start me on fireworks. And it doesn’t end there. The day after when the yard is full of debris, the dogs eat it.”

  Chase looked surprised. “I had no idea.”

  “Neither does half the population, which is why I’m always busy.”

  “You can bring your phone to our place. Fliss?”

  “Grams and I are cooking lunch for her friends. I’ll be clear by five o’clock easily, and Grams goes to bed early.”

  “Great. Then the two of you should come over.”

  The two of you.

  Seth noticed that Chase had bracketed them together, as if they were an item. It was typical Chase. Another friend might have been delivering a caution. Reminding him this hadn’t worked out the first time and that he was risking heartache for a second time.

  Chase understood that some things were so important they were worth every risk.

  He smiled at his friend. “Are you cooking?”

  Chase looked offended. “Hey, I can grill. But as it happens, no. I’ve hired a chef. Do you know Eva?”

  Fliss nodded. “She’s part of Urban Genie, the concierge business in New York that is responsible for the stratospheric growth of our business. Is she cooking? Because if the answer is yes, then I’ll be here.”