Silver Linings

by Mary Brady

  Her tongue explored his mouth and he retaliated by putting his fingers just inside the edge of her lace panties. She had not been this free for a long time. Free to be the woman she had been headed for. Free to feel the things that were glorious in the world.

  When the tip of his finger reached out, she felt a rush of heat, knew that she had been freed from bonds, truly freed.

  She could have Hunter.

  She could have Hunter until...

  No.

  She couldn’t do this. She had someone else to think about besides herself.

  Oh, what had she done?

  She put her hands on his chest and pushed away.

  “Hunter, I didn’t mean that. I mean, I meant to kiss you and I loved it, but I didn’t mean to start something between us that can’t lead to anywhere for either of us.”

  * * *

  AND SHE LEFT HIM.

  Sitting at his desk wanting her more than he had ever wanted her before, and hell, more than he had ever wanted any woman.

  Damn her for being so unlike anyone he’d ever known.

  Damn her for being both the most adorable woman he had ever met and the hottest by far. He also knew if he had called out to her, she would have come back to him. He could have been making love to her right here on Shamus’s desk.

  He ran his hand across the surface where she had sat with her skirt hiked up, her lips soft and her hands roaming. When his imagination tried to fill in the blanks, he leaned over and picked up the papers that had fallen to the floor.

  The room grew dark, lit only by the emergency lights near the stairway. Long after the lust had faded, he could not stop wanting her.

  He chuckled. Then he laughed out loud. The woman of his dreams had just walked out on him, and sadly, the funniest part was he had less to offer her than when he’d walked out on her years ago.

  He laughed again as he tried not to imagine the shocked faces she would leave in her wake if she told them she had hiked her skirt up, sat on his desk and kissed him mindless.

  If, and he knew it was not true, she had come to his office to use her feminine wiles on him, she was very good at that part, but the part about getting what she wanted by using them, she wasn’t very good at.

  The thing was, he might have given her anything she wanted if she had stayed. His life was unstable at best, so he’d have had to take it back when he came to his senses, but first he would have fallen like a tall pine tree under the lumberjack’s saw.

  Instead he opened the Anning boy’s file, flipped through Shamus’s Rolodex, found the card under Private Investigator and dialed the off-hours number.

  * * *

  DELAINEY FINALLY GOT Brianna to sleep, but she could not find a single cell of her brain that wanted to let her close her eyes. Instead she wandered around her house in the dark, trying out different places, never finding one that was comfortable.

  She had crossed the line with Hunter. Worse, she’d led him to believe something that was not true. She squeezed her hands together and wondered if she should call him and apologize.

  No. She had no idea what she’d say to him.

  Bless Shamus. He was taking Hunter around to meet people and schmooze tomorrow. With a modicum of luck, she wouldn’t see him at all.

  She finally sat at her kitchen table, elbows resting against the hand-me-down black-and-white Formica tabletop.

  She imagined his hand touching her agonizingly slowly along her thigh. Felt the tip of his fingers dip under the elastic of her panties while his lips made wild searching promises.

  When he touched her...

  Hunter Morrison the college grad had been a fun and exciting lover. Hunter Morrison the man would be a wild and wonderful lover. And then he’d be gone.

  She was oh so tempted not to care about the last part.

  She also knew she would not survive another round like the first one.

  But it was wonderful. He was wonderful to let her go at her pace, go as far as she wanted and then let her walk away. He’d had a choice. He could have asked her to stay. She would have, too. She admitted her willpower would only have let her walk away once. After that he would have to be the one walking. Like the last time, leaving her...no doubt a brokenhearted woman.

  Her phone rang and she almost yelped.

  “Deelee, can you talk now?”

  Delainey sat up in her chair. Christina sounded distressed.

  “Are you all right? Is something wrong? I mean...is it something from the accident? Oh, I’ll shut up and let you tell me.”

  “I love you—you know that, don’t you?” Her sister sounded sad. Christina never sounded sad.

  “Okay, you’re scaring me now.”

  “Hey, unless you saw my poor car, you wouldn’t know I was in a car accident at all, okay? Well except for the small bruise on my face.”

  “You’re sure you’re okay? No extra bruises, bumps, aches?”

  “I’m good, really, and I thought you were going to shut up.”

  “Zipped.” Delainey closed her mouth tightly.

  “I’m in a most pathetic mood and I don’t know what to do.”

  “Where’s—? Never mind.” Delainey looked out the window to see Monique’s lights on. Lenny wouldn’t be off work for another two hours. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes if Monique can come and stay with Brianna. And where is ‘there,’ anyway?”

  “Let me come to you so you don’t have to disturb Brianna.”

  “I think I have that covered,” Delainey said as she pulled her coat from the closet and sat down to put her boots on. “Where are you?”

  “I’m in Cora. Are you sure?”

  She was so sure. She was looking at another night of mental pacing, and she might as well put it off for a little while. “If I need you to come here, I’ll call. Bria has a tendency to wake up when someone is here and we’re talking.”

  “Like Hunter?”

  Delainey shook her head even though her sister could not see her. “I got careless with her in the house. That won’t happen again.”

  “I’ll need all the poop when you get here.”

  Great, Delainey thought when she hung up. Sammy. That little rat. He was as good as anything else to get her mind off her seducing Hunter and then walking away.

  When Delainey let herself into Cora, Christina was sprawled on the rug on the floor in front of the fire with sheets of papers scattered around her. Cora was going to be a stately lady. The three homes would rival the Painted Ladies on the streets of San Francisco.

  Her sister’s long hair lay limp and straggly. The bruise on the side of her face was dark purple in one area and fading in others. Her eyes had dark circles of worry under them and she looked as though she needed a hug.

  Delainey sat down beside her and wrapped her arms around her. “You have a rug. That’s new.”

  “I found it cheap. Your friend Monique, as it turns out, was selling it at the dry cleaner’s,” Christina said, and laid her head on Delainey’s shoulder. “Apparently, some woman refused to pay for getting it cleaned and didn’t want it back. Monique was selling it only to recover costs. Did you know she’s part owner now?”

  “A prewedding present from Mr. Wetherbee. About time, too. She’s been running the place for a long time. The rug looks nice.”

  Christina sat back and gave Delainey a weak smile. “I just might keep it in the foyer when all is said and done.”

  Delainey recognized the papers spread around her sister. The sample contracts she had brought over for Christina to study. “How are you coming with those?”

  Christina stacked the papers up. “Well, it seems the most important thing to do is to figure out exactly what I want and have everyone bid on the same stuff rather than letting each contractor come in and bid
on what they think they want to do. So I’m going to find someone who inspects these old buildings and knows what has to be done to restore them.”

  Her sister’s words were sound, but her voice trembled.

  “So what’s up with Sammy?”

  Christina leaned back with her hands on the floor behind her. “My Deelee. Blunt and to the point. Sammy doesn’t like the idea of the bed-and-breakfast at all. He thinks working 24/7 when guests are here is ridiculous. He wants me to leave with him.”

  “He didn’t quit his job.”

  “No. He has to be back to work on Monday.”

  “He gets that it’s not always every day of the year and that at some point you can have someone manage the place when you want time off.” She scooted behind Christina, pulled her sister’s hair back off her face and began to braid the long blond tresses.

  “I don’t think he gets me at all, and for sure he has no idea how to be in a relationship.”

  “I’m so sorry, Christina.” She finished the braid and reached for one of the elastic hair bands that always lived in her pocket.

  “I’m going to send him back to Boston with a fond adieu.”

  “Are you sure you’re all right about that? About Sammy not being here?”

  Christina looked at her with eyes as gray as her own. “I think I’m fine about Sammy not being in my life—ever.”

  “The Talbot sisters have bad luck in love.” Delainey rubbed the stiff muscles along the back of Christina’s neck and shoulders.

  Her sister sighed. “That feels so good. I’ll give you about an hour to stop.” Then a laugh burbled from Christina. “Let’s see. I have a man who can’t give me what I want. You have a man with the same fault. I have an insurmountable workload, and because you already work your fingers to the bone, you’ve taken on more. We’re each going to end up with debt the size of Baxter Peak and we’ll have to share a home because we are bad at picking mates, and poor Brianna will have to look after both of us when we get old.”

  “She is a dear child, but let’s not tell her yet. If she finds out her mother and her aunt will be her lifelong responsibility, she’ll most likely run away from home as soon as she can carry a suitcase.”

  Christina flapped her arms. “Wait! Wait!”

  Delainey laughed at her sister’s antics, glad she wasn’t down for the count because of Sammy.

  “This is the first time I’ve ever been equal to my sister at anything and it sucks.”

  “Oh, come on. You’re equal or better at a lot of things.”

  “Really. You never had to follow you, so you don’t know what it’s like.” She snorted and brought her braid around front to run her fingers down the weave. “We’re a funny pair. Pitiful, really. Say, do you think being funny and pitiful will help us when we go in and try to get a lower interest rate on our loans?”

  “Worth a try.”

  Her sister turned around and tugged on the toe of Delainey’s sock. “Now, what’s up with you and Hunter?”

  Delainey dropped her face into her hands.

  “That bad. I’m so sorry, but you can have Sammy if you want him,” Christina offered in a conciliatory tone.

  Without lifting her face from her hands, Delainey said, “I tried to seduce him.”

  “Tried. There would be no try. He’s yours for the asking. So what happened?”

  Delainey lifted her head and huffed out a breath. “I chickened out. You’re right. I could have had him. In his office.”

  “Wow.”

  “On his desk.”

  “And you let that pass, why?”

  “I’m getting in over my head. I don’t want to feel this way toward him. He’s leaving. It won’t be in three weeks this time, but letting him go again will kill me.”

  “You want happily ever after. I get it. I so get it.” Christina’s eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

  Delainey held her sister’s arm gently. “I can’t stop believing there is someone out there for me and for you. If not, we’ll adopt that third sister you were talking about and take in boarders.”

  “I hope you’re right. And while we’re depressing ourselves...”

  “What’s up?” Delainey had a very bad feeling about what Christina might have to say.

  “I know things are messy enough for you right now, Deelee, and I hate to be the one to break the news.”

  Delainey scooted back to lean on the couch for support. “I’m trying not to think the worst here. Tell me, because I’ve already made up some pretty bad things in my head.”

  “Mom needs to have surgery for a hip replacement.”

  Her mother had had arthritis problems for years but always said it wasn’t serious. She walked everywhere she could. Sometimes when it rained, she had more pain and had to slow down, but she was always out there doing what she wanted to, or at least, that was what Delainey had thought.

  Now her mother needed surgery.

  “I’ve done this to her.”

  “What are you talking about? She’s had arthritis since we could remember.”

  “Yeah, but I sent a child to her house for her to run after day after day. Year after year. Christina, if I hadn’t sent Brianna... If I had found some other way...”

  “Honey, I’m sorry about Mom, too, but it’s not your fault. If anything, Brianna gave her something to be cheerful about most days.”

  “When? How soon?”

  “Mom says there’s no hurry.”

  “Do you suppose that means the doctor told her she should have had it done last month?”

  “So what does that mean for you and Brianna?”

  Delainey bit her lip.

  “It means we’ll have to give Mom the help and support she needs and not be a burden anymore.” Even if that meant postponing law school.

  She’d listened when her mother had said it was no trouble taking care of her grandchild, that she loved having Brianna. Delainey could have left, gone to school, found the resources somewhere.

  Christina reached out a hand. “I don’t think Mom thinks of you two as a burden.”

  “I do.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THURSDAY, AFTER A day spent with Shamus meeting clients and talking and listening for hours, Hunter volunteered to stop at Pirate’s Roost to pick up dinner for Shamus and Connie. Connie had made a request for the Roost’s special lobster bisque and since neither man cooked, carry-in was more often than not a favorite for all of them.

  He and the Murphys had made an agreement. They would not fret about retiring to their suite of rooms, and he would fend for himself, and if Connie needed anything at all, she or Shamus would please use him as their delivery man. It was the least he could do.

  He was getting used to living with people. When his furniture arrived, he might feel a bit of regret leaving those two behind. In the short time he had been there, he’d already become more comfortable around them than he’d ever been around his parents. If that made him a bad son, he couldn’t help it.

  He pulled up to the curb in front of the Roost, when he spotted something that he could not possibly be seeing. A tall, thin dark-haired woman, dressed more stylishly than the women here in Bailey’s Cove disappeared into Braven’s Tavern. It couldn’t be Callista White. His mind was tricking him. He had been sure he had seen her at the airport. He had thought the woman leaving the variety store the day he met Brianna might have been her. He had been wrong both times, but the woman he’d just seen entering Braven’s Tavern had the walk and the hair color of Callista White.

  That she could be in Bailey’s Cove was impossible. No one had known where he was going except his boss and his secretary. He hadn’t made any court appearances or gotten his name in the papers as far as he knew.

  He parked and hurried across the street
.

  The tavern wasn’t big. It had a squared U-shaped bar with barstools all around the U. Several stools were occupied by locals, some of them bearded and some not, all of them turned to see who had come in the door. A few remained interested and some turned back to their beer.

  A hallway ahead led toward the restrooms, and a room to the left had several tables, two of them occupied by couples. None of the people looked even remotely like the woman who had come into the bar or like Callista White.

  “Hello, Mr. Morrison.” The tall, lean dark-haired man behind the bar addressed him.

  Hunter smiled at the man, but instead of asking about the woman, he took a seat at the foot of the bar between an older gentleman with a shortly cropped beard and a round-faced younger man with mostly no hair.

  “What can I get for you?” the bartender asked as he wiped the spot on the bar in front of Hunter with a pristine white rag.

  “Whatever you have on tap that’s not lite.”

  The bartender nodded and pulled a draft with a frothy head and set it in front of Hunter. “I understand you’ll be in Bailey’s Cove for a while.”

  “I’m helping Shamus Murphy for a bit.”

  The man smiled a big friendly smile and reached a hand over the bar. “I’m Michael Erickson, very distant relation to Shamus Murphy. I was a couple years ahead of you in school.”

  Hunter returned the smile. “You were on the basketball team. Of course I know who you are. They called you Hondo.”

  The man laughed. They both knew the basketball team had been more heart than talent back then, but they’d still had fun.

  “Hondo. Ah-yuh, I always wished I played B-ball that well,” the bartender said, and moved off to pour a beer for a big guy with an even bigger dark beard sitting at the far end of the bar.

  Hunter drank his beer and chatted up the men at the bar. One, it seemed, was a retired fisherman and grandfather to Delainey’s neighbor Monique. The other was a somewhat younger fisherman who had recently married his high school sweetheart. The big dark-bearded man on the far end of the bar gave the newlywed they called Whiss a little jab about being at the bar without his new bride.

  “She don’t make me come to her book club or her cooking classes and I don’t make her come to the bar.” Whiss’s answer got a chuckle from the men around the bar. It was easy to see by the camaraderie and comfort that they frequently drank together.