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KATE MET ABBY, BEN, THEIR kids, and her mom and dad at The Sea Orchid at the Leaping Water Inn on the southern tip of Tallulah Cove, for their traditional bimonthly brunch. Her parents started the family tradition when they moved to town, in an effort to wrangle time with their daughters. Or to torture them.
The jury was still out on that.
Ordinarily, Kate would have spent the morning sneaking treats to her niece and nephew, while dodging questions from her nagging mother about when she was going to settle down.
Like she hadn’t already settled down.
Twice.
One would think her mother had gotten the message that Kate wasn’t good at it. Or at least that maybe the two husbands in the ground were some sort of cosmic sign that Kate should find other companionship.
Like a cat.
She could be old Aunt Kate. Crazy Cat Lady.
“So, what’s new in your life, Kate, dear?” her mother asked around a bite of cantaloupe she had cut into pieces small enough for a toddler. Kate didn’t know why. It’s not like Amelia would eat it. All she had ever done with cantaloupe was shoot it across the room with an amazingly good throwing arm.
She should tell Sebastian about that. Maybe it was a sign.
Kate wished she could get away with throwing food and everyone still found her cute after.
It wasn’t cute at almost forty.
Abby kicked Kate under the table when she didn’t answer. Kate decided that today she might as well go for honesty. Maybe then her mother would leave the pamphlets about fertility in her purse.
“I’m diddling pro baseball player Sebastian Macina. He’s in his twenties,” she said before taking a sip of her mimosa.
Abby’s mouth fell open.
Ben hid a smile behind his hand.
Her mother choked on a pea-sized piece of cantaloupe.
Her father’s skin went bright red, and that vein in his temple started throbbing.
But Amelia took the cake when she said, “What’s diddling mean?”
The table broke out in chaos with everyone talking over one another. Ben lifted Amelia into his lap and distracted her from the fray.
“I’m going to go to the ladies’ room,” Kate said, making her escape.
Call her a coward, but her mother had been pressuring her to move on.
She finally had.
Okay, so maybe that hadn’t been the best idea. But dammit, it had been four days since she’d seen Sebastian, and phone calls just weren’t cutting it. Especially when he sounded stressed and tense on the other end.
She pushed her way into the bathroom and clutched the counter.
But had she?
Could she really claim she had moved on when William still sat in that damn urn?
The events of the past week cast a haze over her memories with William. Before Sebastian, when she’d remember, everything seemed so clear.
The pieces fit.
Now, everything was unfocused, and she couldn’t find a place for her in the memories.
Because she was still alive.
And William was never coming back.
She needed to let him go.
A tear slipped down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away. She’d spent two years grieving. No more. She was moving on.
A petite blonde in a teal bandage dress sidled up next to her and pulled out a compact.
Kate glanced down at her own sleeveless hunter-green blouse and ivory silk pants, and resisted rolling her eyes, just barely.
Where did this woman think she was, at a nightclub?
The woman leaned forward, thrusting her breasts out, and swiped on a fresh coat of pink lipstick. “Did I hear you say you were seeing Sebastian Macina?” she chirped, never taking her eyes off of her own reflection.
“Maybe.” Kate had no idea where this was going, but hey, she could be a good sport.
The woman looked her up and down. The top corner of her upper lip lifted slightly, as if she just found used toilet paper stuck to her brand-new Manolo Blahniks. “I just hope you don’t actually think it’s serious. I mean, he’s part of that circle of ballplayers, the ones who’ve made a pact to only date old women.”
Kate froze. Her ears buzzed. She clenched her hands into fists and then forced them to relax.
She. Was. Not. Old.
Kate turned and stepped up to the fetus in heels. She took pleasure in watching the little bimbo topple on her four-inch spikes and catch herself on the paper towel holder.
“Excuse me?” Kate said, her voice low with fury.
Who the fuck was this little shit to come in here and try to put her in her place, like Kate was some pathetic wannabe?
“No need to get upset. It’s just one of those little games the guys play, you know? This month is finding the hottest cougar. Next month it will be finding the best body.” She looked Kate up and down again.
If she didn’t stop doing that, Kate was going to make her eat the paper towel dispenser.
“How do you know this?”
“Oh, that? Well, the guys, Sebastian’s friends, were at the bar the other night, and they were talking about it. They said they were coming out here to check out the cougar Sebastian landed this month.”
Kate locked her jaw and sucked in a breath through her nose.
“It’s nothing to get worked up over. Those guys are like that. New flavor of the month every time you turn around. Some of us get lucky and get the ring,” she said, a big smile on her face. “Some of us don’t,” she said, directing a pointed look at Kate before ducking out of the bathroom.
She hoped the twit tripped on her heels in just the right way that she fell on them and gave herself a new hole.
In a really painful place.
Sebastian.
How could he? All that crap about not wanting to date a fetus and being tired of the women who threw themselves at players daily for years.
It was all just bullshit.
Marry me.
The way he’d said the words, she’d almost convinced herself they were genuine and he was around to stay. She hadn’t said yes, but she had wanted to see where they went.
Well, not now. Fuck him.
This is what happened when you set aside common sense and believed in whirlwind fairytales and love at first sight.
She’d been flirting with disaster since the very first time she’d laid eyes on him, and it bit her in the ass.
Her heart squeezed, letting her know that the hard line she took was more her way of convincing herself that she didn’t need him, when the truth was the peace she had found to fill the hole inside her had just disappeared.
All those times she’d agonized over her age and told him. She groaned. What had she been thinking telling him all that?
Despite the trust she had put in him, he’d played her anyway.
He’d hurt her, and she’d let him into her heart to do it.
She was the idiot.
She rushed back to their table, where order was restored, and grabbed her purse. “I’m sorry to take off on you, but something came up, and I have to go.”
“But, honey, you hardly ate,” her mother said.
“I’ll grab something in a bit.”
“What happened?” Abby asked.
She looked her sister in the eye, and tears welled up. Unable to say a word, she shook her head and headed for the door.
Abby caught up with her at her convertible, slapping her hand over the handle before Kate could open the door.
Abby grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “Hey, what the hell happened in there?”
A sob broke free, much to Kate’s mortification. “I just found out that Sebastian and his buddies all made it their goal to hunt down older women for a good time before dumping them for whatever flavor they all go for the next month. Nice, huh?” Tears streamed down her cheeks. Angry, hot tracks that pissed her off even more, because she had given him enough power to make her cry.
She’d buried two husbands, dammit. She didn’t cry over guys. She especially didn’t cry over them after one crazy fling.
“Oh, honey. Are you sure?”
“Yes, they were overheard having a conversation about it. Apparently, all his ballplayer buddies are here to meet his cougar of the month.”
“Oh, Kate. I’m sorry. Jesus. What the hell was he thinking, playing with you that way?”
“It was all a game. Life is just one big game to guys like him.” She shook her head and wiped her tears. “I have to go. Please, cover for me with Mom and Dad. I don’t care what you tell them. Just make them understand.”
“I can tell them you were struck with instantaneous diarrhea?”
Kate burst out laughing through her tears. “Hitting me when I’m vulnerable... sure, why not? The next pamphlet will be all about rotaviruses. Maybe we’ll do brunch at home next time to spare the public the gruesome details.”
Abby smoothed a hand over Kate’s hair. “You got it.” She pulled her in for a tight hug. “I love you, Kate. I’m always here.”
Kate nodded and pulled open the door when Abby stepped back. “Thanks, kid.”
Sebastian watched for her on Sunday afternoon, but she never showed. He sat on his balcony every day for the following three days, but no Kate.
Worried something happened to her, he went to Tallulah Cove Dental, the office he thought he recalled her saying her sister worked at.
He pushed through the door, causing the bell to jingle. Three people in the waiting room turned to him, one of the men’s eyes lighting up, but Sebastian made a beeline for the front desk.
Normally he wouldn’t snub a fan, but this was an emergency.
“I’m looking for Abby. Is she here?” he asked the young lady behind the counter. With her fiery-red hair and freckles, she looked twelve.
“Uh, yes. Give me just a minute and I’ll go get her.” She hurried off into a back room, and moments later returned with a trim woman with cinnamon-colored hair who was wearing scrubs with molars all over them.
When she spotted him, her smile slipped, and she glared at him. “You,” she said.
“I guess you’re Abby.” She had the same dark hair and olive eyes as her sister.
“You think? What the hell do you want?”
And maybe a bit of her temper, too.
“Why are you mad at me?”
She glanced around, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to the side. “You played games with her, and worse, she had to hear it from some bimbo who was all too eager to fill her in on how you were just using her to pass the time.”
“What?” His voice shot up to a pitch he was almost certain he hadn’t hit since before puberty. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Some nitwit overheard your baseball buddies talking about how the goal for you guys this month is finding cougars to nail. Next month, it’ll be something new. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for her?”
“We never made a deal like that,” he said. But he had talked to Randy, who was in a bar at the time, and if someone was listening in, like groupies, the message could have been misconstrued. Since the guys had arrived in town early Sunday morning, it was quite possible groupies had followed.
“Right! You athletes are all the same. Users.” She crossed her arms. “Now, leave.”
“Oh, no. Not until we get something straight. That conversation was one I had with my friend, Randy, over the phone no less, so whoever overheard him heard only the one side because I was in my bungalow here in Tallulah Cove.”
“So what?”
“So, we never said anything about finding cougars. We did say that from here on out none of us was interested in dating anyone under thirty. That would have been right before I told them about your sister, and made plans for them to meet her Sunday afternoon. She never showed. Where did she hear this tidbit?”
“At The Sea Orchid. It’s a restaurant inside the Leaping Water Inn.”
“Right where my guys are staying. Fucking groupies,” he muttered.
Abby’s hands flew to cover her mouth, and her eyes went wide. “Oh, no!”
“Yeah,” he said, shoving a hand through his hair.
“She was so hurt.”
He could imagine. When he thought back to all of those conversations—Jesus—could she have possibly heard anything worse?
“Do you know where she is?”
“She’s at the beach this afternoon. It’s her birthday.”
He put his hands on his hips and sighed. “I was just there; I didn’t see her.”
She shook her head. “Did you think she would go back to where you could find her?”
“I suppose not.”
“If you head up the Pacific Coast Highway about half a mile north of the Tallulah Cove city limits, there’s a pull-off up there. You’ll see her car.”
“Any chance you can come with me?”
She glanced over her shoulder then back to him. “Now?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Why?”
He scratched the days’ worth of growth coming in. “For protection. She won’t harm a pregnant woman.”
Abby’s eyes softened, and she smiled. “Do you love her?”
“It’s only been a few days.”
“So?”
He nodded in affirmation. “Yeah, I love her.”
“What are we waiting for, then?”
TALLULAH NIGHTS 
CHAPTER NINE
