Hawthorne Harbor Box Set

by Elana Johnson

  But she barely had her head above water in Hawthorne Harbor.

  She sighed and gave up trying to fall asleep. She sat up in bed and picked up her phone, staring at Bennett’s name in her texting app. “Can’t text him,” she said to herself and she pushed the button to call him.

  The line rang and rang and eventually went to voicemail. Frustrated in an instant, Jennie jammed her finger on the redial button and put the call on speaker.

  “Hello?” Bennett answered on the fifth ring, as if he didn’t know who was calling. He didn’t sound like she’d woken him either. Wasn’t out of breath.

  “Hey,” she said just as he said, “Hello?” again.

  “Hey.” Jennie stared into the darkness draping her bedroom. “Look, I wanted to say thank you for coming to help today.”

  “Sure.”

  Jennie’s emotions stormed through her. “I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just…I’m still worried this piece won’t get done.”

  “Right.”

  “Are you going to use single-word sentences for the whole conversation?” Jennie regretted her words immediately and ran her fingers across her eyes.

  “Probably.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I get in trouble when I say something you don’t like.”

  Jennie’s heart pinched, and she felt like a complete jerk. “You should be able to say what you want.”

  “Okay.”

  But he said nothing.

  “Bennett.”

  “What, Jennie? What do you want me to say? That you should’ve started this huge project weeks ago? What would that accomplish?”

  “I know I should’ve started it earlier,” burst out of her mouth.

  “Exactly. So why should I say it? So you can snap at me?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, the words finally there. “I’m sorry, Bennett. Please come tomorrow and keep me company while I paint. I might—” She clamped her mouth shut so she wouldn’t say she needed him.

  But she did need him.

  And not just to get her a salad or keep her company or dry a section of paint so she could go back and add details. She needed him in a way she hadn’t needed anyone for a while, and she had no idea what to do with those feelings.

  Bennett sighed. “What time tomorrow?”

  “Nine?” Her voice sounded like she was seconds away from crying, and that was how she felt too.

  “I’ll bring bagels.”

  Jennie nodded, though he couldn’t see her. “I’m sorry, Bennett.”

  “I know, love. I heard you.” His voice held a soft edge too, and the endearment he used made her blood bounce around in her veins. “Talk to you tomorrow.” He hung up, and Jennie watched her phone screen darken when the call ended.

  She lay back down in bed, utterly exhausted in every way. She’d get up early and check the sculpt, make sure every line was right. Then she’d call her parents, feed the cat. The mundane things worked through her mind until everything was lined up.

  Then, she was finally able to sleep.

  * * *

  The next morning, Jennie woke to knocking on her door. And not the front one. Oh, no. She sat straight up in bed, her heart hammering out of control. The knocking came again, a little heavier this time, along with “Jennie? Are you in there?”

  Bennett.

  Panic threatened to flatten Jennie, but she breathed. Again. Then she said, “Yes, I’m here.”

  “Okay.”

  Through the door, she heard him retreat down the hall, and she made a swipe for her phone. Nine-twenty, and her alarm for seven that morning had been turned off. She had a brief recollection of doing that, vowing to get up in just five more minutes.

  “Nine-twenty,” she muttered, getting up and hurrying into the bathroom. Her hair looked like a horrible version of rope, but she didn’t have time to shower. She could bathe and eat when the piece was installed in the Mansion.

  But Bennett….

  She took precious minutes to brush her teeth and wrangle her hair into a braid. She had the distinct thought that she should cut it, then it would be easier to deal with. She’d loved her long hair in California, but she wasn’t even close to the same person here as she’d been there.

  Deal with that another time, she told herself as she changed out of yesterday’s sculpting clothes and into today’s painting ones.

  Ten minutes after she’d been awakened, she stepped into the hall, expecting to see Bennett waiting there. He wasn’t.

  He was, however, perched on a barstool at her kitchen counter, sipping coffee from one of her mugs, a half-eaten orange scone on the counter next to him.

  Her mouth watered, and not only at the sight of pastries. “Morning,” she said with as much dignity as she could.

  He looked up, his vulnerability there on his face for a fraction of a second before he covered it. “Good morning. I hope I didn’t startle you. I couldn’t find you, and you weren’t answering your phone.”

  “I silenced my alarm.” She tried for a smile, but it didn’t feel quite right on her face. She approached him, her nerves hopping around like rabbits. “We’re okay, right? I mean, I know I was a jerk-face, and I’m sorry—”

  “We’re fine.” Bennett nodded toward the stove. “Hot water there for your tea.”

  Jennie glanced at the kettle but didn’t move toward it. She threw her arms around Bennett and buried her face in his neck, taking a deep breath of his skin, cologne, musk, and a hint of dog and wood in there that belonged uniquely to him.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “It’s fine,” he said, bringing his arms around her and holding her tight. “We all get stressed.”

  She pulled back but didn’t step out of the circle of his arms. “You should get to say what you want.”

  “I’ll work on that.” He looked at her with soft eyes, lifting his chin so his mouth aligned with hers better. She kissed him, waiting for his eyes to drift closed before she closed hers. And while she wasn’t completely convinced that everything was okay between them, she felt his affection for her in the stroke of his mouth against hers.

  “So,” he said as he pulled away. He cleared his throat. “We should get to work, right? I mean, the clock’s ticking.”

  Jennie stepped away and poured herself a mug of hot water, opening her cupboard as she said, “Yes, let me just make a cup of tea real quick, and we’ll get in the studio.” She put in her tea bag and turned when he rattled the paper bag he’d brought.

  “Cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese,” he said. “Gotta keep your strength up.”

  She obliged by eating the best bagel in town, sipping her tea as Bennett talked about Patches and Gemma. “I don’t think you’ll get them apart,” he said. “How’s your mom doing?”

  Jennie groaned. “I was going to call them this morning.” She glanced at the clock, the minutes slipping by like water down a drain. “I’ll do it once the piece is done.”

  His phone chimed, and he glanced at it. A frown pulled at his eyebrows. “Lauren’s texting me?” He picked up his phone as Jennie wondered where she’d put hers. She’d had texts that morning when Bennett had knocked her awake, but she wasn’t sure who they were from.

  “She says, do you know where Jennie is? I need to know when to be available to install that final piece and I can’t get ahold of her.” Bennett looked up from his phone, expectation in his eyes.

  “I’ll go find my phone and let her know.” Jennie walked with purpose out of the room, but her knees were shaking. She had no idea what to tell Lauren. The piece might not be done until midnight tonight.

  She’d left her phone on the bathroom counter and she called Lauren without looking at the texts.

  “Jennie, there you are.”

  “Sorry,” she said, and really meaning it. “I’ve been busy.”

  “I’m sure. I’m just wondering when you need me at the Mansion to install. We have a few minor touch-ups today, and then we’re done.”<
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  Jennie looked at herself in the mirror and took a deep breath. “What about first thing tomorrow morning? I’m finishing the painting today, and it’ll need overnight to dry.” Not a lie. She didn’t need to disclose that she hadn’t even started the painting yet. She’d definitely be finishing it today.

  “Ten, maybe? The unveiling isn’t until seven that night. We should have plenty of time to install at ten.”

  “Ten sounds great.” Relief rushed through Jennie. She wouldn’t sleep through her alarm again.

  “Mabel told you about the photographers, right?” Lauren said. “Apparently she’s called every paper and magazine from here to Seattle.”

  Jennie’s throat tightened. “She didn’t mention that, no.”

  “Well, I hope you have a nice dress,” Lauren said. “Because she’ll want some of you with your pieces, and without, and probably everything in between.”

  “A dress,” Jennie said flatly. For weeks, she hadn’t even thought about anything but finishing her pieces. And now she had to go shopping too?

  “See you at ten tomorrow. Should I send Jaime with the van?”

  “Definitely,” Jennie said. “This piece is huge.”

  Lauren said, “Can’t wait to see it,” and they hung up.

  Jennie turned and faced the hallway. She couldn’t wait to see it either. She went into the studio to find Bennett already there, standing back and admiring her unfinished work. A terrible moment descended upon her, where she wanted to jump in front of him and shield her piece, snap at him that he shouldn’t have come in here without her permission.

  He slid his arm around her waist, breaking the moment, and said, “It’s awesome, Jennie. I can’t wait to see what you do with the color.”

  “Well, everyone keeps saying that.” She exhaled, not quite ready for the long day of work ahead. “So I better get to it.”

  * * *

  “Careful,” she said. “Careful.” She hovered behind Bennett as he carried most of the weight of the now-finished piece. Jaime was in the front, guiding them down the hall and out the carport door, which she’d propped open with a box.

  Bennett grunted, the only sign that he’d heard her. Of course he’d heard her. But Jennie felt two breaths away from a mental breakdown, and the last thing she needed was something getting damaged in transport. Because there was no more time to fix anything.

  Every bump on the way over made Jennie cringe, and she was sure when Jaime opened the back of the van, she’d find her sculpture in shambles.

  But it was fine. Bennett and Jaime got it upstairs, and Jennie stood back and watched while Lauren drilled and nailed and got it positioned perfectly in the corner. Everyone joined her several feet away and admired the piece, and Jennie couldn’t help the massive smile that stretched her mouth.

  “It’s stunning,” Lauren said. “I mean…I don’t even know how you do it. I thought the mirror was gorgeous.”

  “Thank you,” Jennie whispered, still admiring her work. Art was always different when put in the environment where it belonged, and the dark piece drew the eye from first entrance into the room. The hawthorn had brilliant red, orange, and brown leaves and flowed downward into more earthy browns, greens, and even some metallic golds in the roots.

  The Magleby crest was traditionally red and gold and black, and Jennie had stuck to that color scheme, finally putting all the letters in MAGLEBY at the bottom in black. It had seemed dark and foreboding in her studio, but in this light, airy room, with a few other metal accents in the lamps and light fixtures, and it was perfect.

  “I’ve never done anything with plaster, paint, and wood before,” she said. And not just wood, but a natural log from the environment surrounding the Mansion.

  “Get over there,” Bennett said. “Hand me your phone and I’ll take a picture.”

  “Just use yours,” Jennie said.

  “You don’t know where yours is, do you?” Bennett grinned at her, but Jennie didn’t feel the sting of his tease.

  She posed next to her piece while Bennett took her picture, and she went around with him as he took pictures of her pottery collection, her next to the mirror and beside the oil painting. Everything in the west wing felt made of magic, and Jennie couldn’t wait for that evening.

  Lacing her arm through Bennett’s as they walked down the huge staircase to the ground floor, she asked, “So lunch?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then I need to go dress shopping. Then I’m taking a nap.” She laughed, but she wasn’t joking.

  At the bottom of the steps, Bennett swept her into his arms. “I assumed we were going to the unveiling together.” He looked deep into her eyes, and Jennie felt herself falling, falling, falling. “We are, right?”

  “There’s no one I’d rather go with.”

  Bennett’s face burst into a grin and he kissed her quick. Too quick. “Great. So I’ll come by and get you around six-thirty?”

  “Sure.”

  “All right. Let’s go get lunch so you can get to your nap.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Bennett knotted his tie, a deep purple one with silver and bronze paisleys stitched into it. He wore a navy blue suit that almost looked black, and thankfully, it still fit. He hadn’t worn it since Miles Montgomery’s funeral, four years ago. And before that, at his own wedding.

  So it seemed fitting he’d wear it one more time to this unveiling. Then he’d probably need to get a new suit—because he wasn’t going to marry Jennie in the same suit he’d worn to marry Cynthia.

  “You’re thinking too far ahead,” he muttered to himself. After all, Jennie had just tried to push him away two days ago.

  But she’d apologized, and that was huge for her. He knew what it took for her to say I’m sorry, and it meant something for them.

  “Okay, guys,” he said to the dogs upon walking into the living room. “There’s water and food. I’ll be out late.”

  Gemma didn’t even get off the couch like she used to. She looked at him with hooded eyes, as if to reprimand him for waking her during her evening nap with something as trivial as food and water.

  Patches’s tail started to thump against the couch, and Bennett gave both animals a healthy body rub before heading for the door. For some reason, his nerves seemed to be electrified, and his collar felt too tight as he pulled up to Jennie’s house.

  All the windows were lit with yellow, and when he knocked on the front door, she called, “Come in, Bennett!” from somewhere inside.

  He caught a swish of cream fabric as she dashed down the hall. “I just need to put on jewelry.”

  Jennie didn’t wear much jewelry, but she returned to the living room thirty seconds later with diamonds dripping from her ears. Bennett was struck speechless with her beauty, the radiance she carried in her face, the confidence in her shoulders.

  Her dress was indeed cream, but it was laced with gold stitching. It hugged her torso and chest, left her shoulders bare, and flared at the waist. She wore a pair of ivory heels with it, and she was flawless from head to toe.

  “How did you do that with your hair?” he asked, gazing at the three knots poking up from the back of her head.

  “I didn’t,” she said. “I paid Charlotte to work her magic and get my hair off my neck.” She smiled and stuffed her phone in a tiny purse with no strap. It too was cream colored with a gold hummingbird sewn into the quilt-like fabric.

  “You’re gorgeous,” he breathed, taking a step toward her. “Stunning. Radiant.” He took her effortlessly into his arms and kissed her.

  She kissed him back, and Bennett thought he couldn’t have asked for a more perfect start to an evening.

  “You’ll ruin my lipstick,” she said against his mouth, but she didn’t sound upset about it.

  “You can redo it,” he murmured, claiming her mouth again. He never wanted to stop kissing her, and he almost dropped to both knees right then, ready to proclaim his love and ask her to marry him.

  He didn�
�t, because he knew that would effectively ruin the evening. Just because Jennie kissed him like she loved him didn’t mean she did. And just because she acted like she was ready to take their relationship to the next level didn’t mean she actually was.

  So Bennett waited while she went to fix her lipstick, and then he put his hand in hers, determined not to kiss her again until it didn’t matter if her lipstick was smeared or not.

  “You’ve got some on your lips,” she said with a giggle. “Unless you want to walk in wearing romance in red.”

  Heat filled Bennett’s face, and he ducked into her guest bathroom to make sure he looked presentable. He did want romance in red—or any other color Jennie dictated—but not all over his face.

  They finally started toward the Mansion, but the lots were full. So he parked down at the beach and rode the shuttle up with dozens of other people. Jennie clutched his hand tightly as they walked inside, the atmosphere festive and lively. Classical music pumped from the speakers overhead, and fancy yellow lights hung from trellis and archways, along with greenery.

  The chatter seemed at an almost intolerable level, but he and Jennie managed to find their seats. Surprisingly, they sat at one of the front tables, with a large RESERVED sign on it. Lauren and her date, Trent Baker, had already arrived, and Bennett felt a rush of gratitude that he was with familiar faces and friends.

  He started talking with Trent about the K9 unit, as he had four German shepherds he was training to be police dogs for the force in Hawthorne Harbor. Trent had grown up in Bell Hill too, and though he was several years younger than Bennett, they’d still been friendly.

  The minutes ticked closer to seven o’clock, and right on the dot, Mabel stood up from her spot at the head table. Some of her extended family sat up there with her, as did all of her staff right down to the gardener.

  Bennett like that. Mabel was a huge personality in town, but she didn’t run this place on her own, and she honored those who worked with her to make Magleby Mansion the jewel it was.

  “Good evening,” she said, her glittery silver dress sending sparkles into the crowd from the string of lights overhead. She wore a bright smile that Bennett had actually never seen before. “Welcome to Magleby Mansion. We’ll eat first, do a short program, and then the west wing will be unveiled!” She clapped her weathered hands together, and the audience copied her, applauding for much longer.