WATERCOLOR WISHES: Love Along Hwy 30A, Book Four

by Chambers, Melissa

  Chase stared at her, his brow still furrowed, and then he finally nodded. “I know you do.”

  She pulled him to her, resting her cheek on his massive chest. Chase wasn’t a bulky guy, but he was about six and a half feet tall, so he might as well be a giant compared to her. He wrapped his arms around her, settling in for a long hug. “I wish you’d consider staying with Shayla and me.”

  She huffed a laugh against his chest. “I may have a hard time catching a clue sometimes, but I know better than to move in with a couple in love on the verge of walking down the aisle.”

  “We’ve got the pool house. Shayla lived there.”

  Marigold pulled away eyeing him. “Yeah, and she was so out of your way there that you just happened to fall in love with her.”

  “Come on. Just think about it.”

  “You’re forgetting the pesky little fact that I have no job.”

  He waved her off. “You don’t need any money. I’ve got money.”

  She smiled at him, knowing he was partially serious and loving him for it. “If I ever decide I need sugar parents, I’ll head your way.”

  He kissed the top of her head like a loving brother. “Be safe, okay? If you have any trouble with anything, call me, anytime.”

  She nodded, her heart crumbling with the thought of leaving this place and the people she adored so much here. She held the tears off as he got in his car and backed out of the space, holding up a hand in a wave.

  She headed back inside her empty shop where Desiree was sweeping the floors. She emptied the dustpan into the trash. “I was thinking you weren’t getting out of here until the end of November.”

  “That was the plan, but my landlord said he would forgive November’s rent if I’d get out early. He has a tenant ready to move in now. She’s putting up one of those drop-in child care centers.”

  “Sounds like a goldmine to me—all these tourists who want a break from their kids.”

  “I hope they can find her back here,” Marigold said.

  Desiree set the broom in the corner. “I really wish you’d consider staying. I think Cassidy’s looking for help for Thanksgiving. She always gets a lot of pie orders.”

  “I know. She already mentioned that to me. But it would just be temporary. Besides, I kind of need to go now.” She gave Desiree a look, hoping she would read between the lines.

  Desiree, always intuitive, just nodded. “Well, I certainly do understand that. Oh, before you go,” Desiree picked up her purse, “I need to give you this.” She handed Marigold a check, the word commission in the notes section.

  Marigold eyed her. “Uh, did I sell something of yours in my sleep?”

  “The lady you sold my last painting to bought two others that I had just gotten back from a restaurant that had them on the wall for years.”

  She handed Desiree the check back. “You’re high if you think I’m taking your money. I didn’t lift a finger.”

  “You made the initial sale. I’d never have sold the other two without you.”

  Marigold stared at the check. “God, what if we could do this for real?”

  “You think I haven’t thought about it? Me painting, you selling. We’d make a damn good team.”

  Marigold nodded. “We’ve both got to work on that lottery win.”

  Desiree smiled. “I bought a ticket yesterday.” She pulled Marigold in for a hug. “I’ll miss my girl. You swear you’re coming back when that hotel gets built?”

  Marigold swallowed hard. That had been the promise Malcolm had made to her. Come home and train with him and then work at the hotel on 30A once it was built, but Marigold knew her family wanted her home. For all she knew, they never even submitted a proposal to build this hotel. “Yep, I promise,” Marigold said, her heart falling apart already.

  30

  “So, that’s the new reservation system,” Malcolm said with a proud smile. “It’s way more user-friendly than the old system. The staff loves it. Well, they will love it. Some are resistant to change, but we’ve all got to evolve, right?”

  “Hmm? Oh, yes. Of course.” She smiled and nodded, her body physically in Appleton’s flagship hotel in Savannah, but her mind back on 30A.

  “Come on. I’ll take you to lunch.”

  “Malcolm,” she said as a warning. When she’d made the decision to come back to Savannah and give the hotel business a try, Malcolm had been overjoyed, slathering himself to her side from the second she’d arrived. She’d warned him that he was going to have to back off. He was engaged after all. So, he’d promptly broken up with Heather. As shitty of a thing to do as that was, Marigold figured it was better Heather know the truth about her potential husband now rather than continue to get strung along by him.

  Marigold didn’t have the ego to think he’d broken off his engagement because he loved her. He’d wanted nothing more than to be a part of the Appleton family since they were in college. A marriage to her sealed his fate and his inheritance.

  “A working lunch,” he said. “We’ve got a lot to cover still.”

  “I need a break, Malcolm,” she said, truer words never having been spoken.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure? We can do Cotton & Rye?”

  “I’m sure. I brought some vegetables.”

  An employee grabbed Malcolm’s attention, and Marigold took the opportunity to find her way to the kitchen where she’d stored her lunch. Her sister sat at a round table reading from a tablet while Marigold took her lunch out of the employee refrigerator. “How’s your day?”

  “Busy,” she said without looking up. “How’s training?” she asked, blatant irritation in her voice. It’d been that way since Marigold returned.

  Marigold plopped down next to her. “Should I be bold enough to think your irritation is aimed at me, or are you just having a rough day?”

  She gave a sardonic shake of her head. “Leave it up to Marigold to get right to the point. You always did.”

  “Should we dance around the fact that you’ve welcomed me home with the warmth of a snowman this past week, or do you want to get this out in the open?”

  Camellia put down her tablet. “Okay, why did you let Malcom end things with Heather?”

  “Let him? I’m his mommy?” Marigold asked.

  “I liked her and I was looking forward to having a sister-in-law of sorts. But now that’s done. He’ll be back to square one. You know he’s not the most charming guy on the planet. Heather put up with a lot of crap, including Mom.”

  “What did Mom do to her?”

  “Oh, please, Marigold. Don’t be so naïve. It was Mom’s idea for Malcolm to propose to Heather. She thought you’d go insane with jealousy and come running back.”

  Marigold narrowed her gaze, not believing her mother. “Are you serious?”

  “Don’t act so shocked.”

  Marigold rubbed her forehead. “I just can’t understand. Why now, after all these years, do they want me back so bad?”

  “They’ve wanted you back all these years, but you’ve had the shop. When you talked to Dad about moving the shop to a new hotel on 30A, they saw their opportunity.”

  Marigold tossed up her hands. “Why?”

  Camellia let her head fall to one side. “I really have to spell this out for you?”

  “Apparently so.”

  “It’s baby-making time,” Camellia said with such venom Marigold was afraid she was going to strike at any moment.

  Marigold remembered Malcolm saying Camellia and Pete were trying to get pregnant. “You don’t want to have a baby?”

  She picked up her fork and dropped it. “I don’t want to do a lot of things.”

  “Like what?”

  She started packing up her lunch. “Nothing.”

  Marigold put her hand on Camellia’s forearm. “Please, tell me.”

  Camellia considered Marigold and then let out a sigh. “Maybe if my whole life wasn’t determined for me before I had a chance to make my own decisions, I wouldn’t res
ent some of these things.”

  “What things?”

  She tossed up her hands, glancing around. “Working at this stupid hotel. Agreeing to marry Pete, which we all know was pretty much an arranged marriage. And having babies, which most women my age are doing, but when it’s expected of you it really takes the joy out of it.”

  Marigold sat there, taking all of this in for the first time. “Camellia, I had no idea you felt this way about your life.”

  “Of course you didn’t. You’ve been living your own life down in Florida. I’ve had to stay here and take the brunt of all this. Do you know how hard Mom is on my ass about taking prenatal vitamins and eating right? No fish for me, not until after I’ve had all the children they require.”

  “You don’t have to do any of this. You can live your own life.”

  Camellia eyed her. “I’m not you. I can’t detach from our family.”

  A wave of guilt engulfed Marigold. “I didn’t detach. I just needed some space.”

  “I need space,” Camellia said, pointing at her own chest.

  “Then take it.”

  “It’s not that simple, not for me.”

  “Why, because you don’t want to disappoint Dad? Trust me, it’s simple. I do it all the time.”

  “Oh, please. You know you’ve always been his favorite,” Camellia said.

  Marigold about fell out of her chair. “Me? We’ve always mixed like oil and water. You’ve always been his favorite.”

  “Only since about college, and only because I’ve worked my ass off for it. Do you have any idea how hard it is being your sister? Do you have any idea of the way people look at you and then the way they look at me? How is it fair? We have the same parents, but you turned out beautiful, and I turned out like this.”

  “Camellia, we look alike.”

  “We resemble one another, but you’re like a buffed and shined version of me. Dad always looked at you with pride and me with sympathy.” She huffed a laugh. “God, listen to me. I’m a grown woman acting like a child. Just forget it. I’ve got to get back to work.”

  “Don’t you see?” Marigold asked, pleading with her sister. “This is what family does to us. This is why people move across the country to get away from their families. They make us crazy. They reduce us back to children. Look at me. I’m still driving this ridiculous car Dad gave me when I was sixteen because I’m trying to hold on to a piece of him, or of me, or of our relationship, or God knows what.” She shifted in her seat. “Look at the two of us, fighting over who our father adores more, and all he wants is for us to make babies, apparently. Why is that, by the way? They just want to be grandparents?”

  “They’re consumed with Appleton being a family business. It’s all about branding, Marigold,” she said with lazy, sarcastic eyes.

  Marigold let out a sigh, resting her elbows on the table. “So I guess I’m supposed to be pumping out kids with Malcolm?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Marigold tossed up her hands. “And I’m not even a part of it.”

  “That’s the Appleton way,” Camellia said, arms spread out wide. She focused in on Marigold. “Why did you come home?”

  “I ran out of options. My business failed. I put out umpteen resumes for real jobs and it was nothing but crickets. I even tried applying for waitressing jobs, but nobody’s hiring this time of the year. We’re going into the slow season.”

  Camellia gave her a look. “You didn’t want to apply to work at a hotel?”

  Marigold dropped her head to the side, giving her lazy eyes as a response. Camellia of all people knew working at any hotel other than an Appleton would be a betrayal beyond any either of them could possibly inflict on this family.

  Camellia pursed her lips in concession.

  Marigold went on. “I can’t afford to live on 30A on a retail salary or even in PCB or Destin. Those places aren’t cheap either. I’d have to find roommates, and at that point what am I doing all of it for? All my friends are on 30A.”

  Camellia narrowed her gaze. “Is money really the only reason you came back here?”

  Marigold let out a sigh. “Maybe not completely. I may have been running away from…a boy.”

  “Ah, so now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. Tell me about the boy.”

  Marigold told Camellia all about Dane and how he was the most incredible man she’d ever known. She told about Erin and the boys and the impossible situation.

  Camellia let out a huge huff of air. “Well, I know the sisterly thing for me to do is to tell you to steer clear of this complicated situation. And Mom and Dad would definitely want to steer you right away from this guy and toward Malcom.” She held up a hand. “And I definitely think you do need to work on getting your life back together before jumping into anything with him.” She eyed Marigold. “Maybe this is just me wanting to rebel against Mom and Dad, but I’m telling you now that if you stay here, you’re just going to keep getting distance from him. Go back to 30A. Start the process of rebuilding your life, and then when you’re ready, check in with him.”

  Marigold let out an exhausted sigh. “I hear you, and I’d like to have that option, but—”

  “How much do you need?” Camellia asked.

  “Money?”

  “Yep. How much? Money’s something I’ve got tons of. Dad pays Pete and me a fortune.”

  “I can’t take your money,” Marigold said, wanting desperately to take the money.

  “Ten grand? Twenty? What do you need? One of us needs to get out of this place.”

  Marigold felt her eyes widening. “Camellia, I can’t take your money.”

  Camellia grabbed her purse from the chair beside her. “Seriously, get out from under Mom and Dad before you get sucked in and can’t get out.”

  Marigold giggled and then covered her mouth, feeling guilty. “This is nuts.”

  Camellia met her gaze. “Do you love this guy? I mean seriously like head over heels, want to rip his clothes off all the time, miss turning down your own street because you can’t get him off your mind love him?”

  Marigold squeezed her hand. “Yes, like a million times all that.”

  “Then you’re going. And I’m banking it.”

  Marigold’s heartbeat raced. She couldn’t believe she was considering this. “Come with me,” Marigold said, still not even sure she was going.

  “To 30A?”

  “Yeah. Why not?”

  “Because I’m married, for one.”

  “Do you love Pete?”

  “Since when did that have anything to do with marriage?”

  Marigold’s shoulders sagged. “You don’t have to live like this.”

  “I know. I’m just complaining. It’s okay a lot of the time. But it wouldn’t be for you. You’ve never cared what Mom or Dad thought. You’ve always been an independent thinker. I need their approval. It’s a sickness.” She smiled at Marigold. “Go back to 30A. I’m going to write a check for you.” She pulled a pen out of her purse and clicked the bottom of it. “It’s a gift, not a loan. I’ve got more money than I know what to do with. Consider it an investment in your store or whatever. What do you want to do, open another one in a better location? We drove by your store when we were there. Your location is pitiful.”

  Marigold thought about Desiree’s comment about winning the lottery and opening their own gallery. “Actually, I won’t take your money, but I will let you consider an investment. How do you feel about art?”

  31

  Marigold dangled the key to her treasured convertible over the palm of the guy who’d given her his card that night of the hotel announcement. She wasn’t ready to hand it over, but if she was going to get her life together, ridding herself of this ridiculous car from her childhood was a good first step.

  “You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” the guy asked.

  She let out a sigh and met his gaze. “You promise you’ll take good care of it?”

  “Honey, this car is for my g
randdaughter. I’m going to have this thing so spiffed up by her sixteenth birthday you won’t even recognize it.”

  She huffed a laugh. “I hope it gets her into as much trouble as it got me into back in the day.”

  “When it does, her granddaddy will be right there to bail her out,” he said with a wink. She dropped the key into his hand and watched him settle in behind the wheel.

  When she got back inside Seaside Sweets, Cassidy was coming through the swinging half-doors. “Last of the pies. We still have the order of cupcakes that needs to be picked up.”

  “The Captain America ones?”

  “Yep.”

  “Poor kid. Having a Thanksgiving birthday can’t be fun.”

  “Would be better than a Christmas birthday.”

  Marigold made her way behind the counter. “This is true.”

  Cassidy, being the amazing person she was, had welcomed Marigold back with open arms. She needed her through to Christmas and had floated the possibility of Marigold keeping the store open in January and February while she traveled. But Marigold knew she was just trying to help. Marigold would test it out, and if she found she wasn’t hitting a certain weekly goal, she wouldn’t continue to take Cassidy’s money.

  “So, you’ve been back a week now. Have you spoken to anyone yet?” Cassidy asked.

  She didn’t need to clarify who anyone was. “I haven’t been brave enough just yet. I’m trying to get myself in order before I even think about going there. I mean, it sounded like he was looking at trying to get more involved in those boys’ lives, not less. I want to be with him, but I’m not sure I can handle all of that.”

  Cassidy nodded as if she understood perfectly. “The boys are too much,” she said definitively.

  “Well, no, they’ve actually been fine the couple of times I’ve been around them. It’s just living this life where you never know if your day is going to include kids or not. I can’t live like that. And besides, look at me. How am I supposed to provide emotional support for two boys with a mom who keeps dumping them off? They need stability. I’m about the furthest thing from stable that there is.”