CHELSEA COULD FEEL fall coming. It didn’t arrive in a dazzling blaze of autumn color but with cooler nights, and each day the sky grew darker just a few minutes earlier. While people in other parts of the country might not notice such small incremental daily changes, here in the Pacific Northwest, where summers were short, and never got too hot, residents wanted to hang on to them as long as possible.
“Are you getting nervous?” Chelsea asked Brianna as she, Jolene and Lily had lunch at Leaf.
“Only because I want to get it over with,” Brianna said, picking at her salad. “No, rewind. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that I fell in love with Seth when he shared his Ding Dong with me in the first grade, and I finally want to be married.”
“Me, too,” Jolene said. “Though I didn’t fall for Aiden until high school. Then we spent all those years apart, so we were very different people than we are now. I was also wary of commitment, but your brother’s a hard man to resist,” she told Brianna.
“I’m probably biased. Okay, I am. But all my brothers are special in their own individual ways.”
“Seth is no slouch,” Lily said.
“He’s the closest thing any woman could ever find to perfection for me,” Brianna agreed. “And maybe it’s a hormonal thing caused by so much sex, but I am so ready to start our family.”
“When you do, I’ll give you my list,” Chelsea volunteered.
Jolene, who’d been watching the ferry coming in to dock, turned her full attention to Chelsea. “What kind of list?”
“A sex list.”
“You have a sex list?” Brianna, usually the model of public propriety, asked loudly enough to have people at nearby tables turning to look at them.
“I was going to type it up and save it for your baby shower gift, but now that you’ve seen fit to broadcast it, yes, I do have a list I got from women at my foster mom group on ways to have sex with kids in the house.”
“I’d never thought of that problem. But I guess it’s a thing.”
“Believe me, it’s a thing,” Chelsea said. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to find yourself in sexual droughtland.”
“Well, that saves me from asking whether or not you and my brother are having sex,” Brianna said. “I suspected it, but except for that dinner at Sensation Cajun, I haven’t seen any suggestion that you two were getting it on out at the lake house.”
“Thanks to the list, the sex has been sensational. Some of it’s a bit unconventional, but it’s surprisingly hot.”
“I so want to wash my brain out with Clorox at the thought of my brother getting naked and having unconventional sex—”
“You don’t always have to get naked,” Chelsea said with a Cheshire cat smile.
“No!” Brianna covered her ears and shut her eyes. “Now I’m never going to be able to unsee that and it’s all your fault.”
“You did bring up sex,” Lily reminded her.
“I did not. I brought up having a baby.”
“Which involves sex. Unless you’ve had a visit from an angel bringing you tidings of great joy recently,” Chelsea said. “So as not to upset your apparently delicate sensibilities any further, I’ll just put this out there and let you decide if you want to explore it. Did you ever make a blanket fort when you were a kid?”
“Of course. It’s a long winter and there are a lot of days when we kids couldn’t go outside, so...oh!” She covered her mouth.
“Let’s just say your brother is very, very skilled at capturing the fort. And planting his flag.”
“I am never going to be able to look at him again without picturing that.”
“Picture Seth instead and I’ll bet it won’t bother you so much. In fact, why don’t you try it out on your honeymoon. Wargame it, so to speak.”
“I still can’t believe they gave you a list.”
“I only wrote down what they were saying. It wasn’t a list list until then. You’d be surprised at the ways and places you’ll be able to ensure your first baby won’t be your last.”
“OMG. That’s why Gabriel bought that fancy new motorhome. None of us could figure it out since he’s going back to Manhattan, where he definitely couldn’t drive it around the city.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny.”
“You don’t have to. It’s written all over your face.” Brianna stabbed a fresh strawberry with her fork, which stopped halfway to her mouth. “Wait a minute. Does this mean he’s not going back to New York?”
“Oh, he’s going, right after Labor Day. Just as he said.”
Brianna sobered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too,” Jolene said.
“Me, three,” Lily chimed in.
“You were the one who suggested a summer fling,” Chelsea reminded Lily.
“Exactly. A fling. As in a short, intense version of friends with benefits. You’re not supposed to fall in love with a fling.”
“I did,” Jolene volunteered.
“With a guy who wasn’t going anywhere. In a town where you can’t go out for milk and eggs without running into a dozen people you know. You don’t have a fling with a man you’re still going to see every day when it’s over. Flings are for long weekends at a winter ski lodge. Or a Caribbean cruise. Two ships passing in the night. Or, in the case of a small-town girl and a guy who’s got a short shelf life, before he goes back to the city.”
“It’s just sex,” Chelsea insisted, ignoring Lily’s knowing look. “Summer fling sex.”
If she could only make herself believe that, everything would be hunky-dory.
“Okay,” Brianna said. She glanced down at her watch. “Let’s table this discussion because Chelsea, Jolene and I have ten minutes to get over to The Dancing Deer and try on our dresses.”
“And I have to get back to work on the new semester press release and invitations for the scholarship reception,” Lily said.
“But,” Brianna said to Chelsea as they left Leaf after paying the bill, “we all still want that list.”
AS IF WANTING to give her own wedding gift to the brides, Mother Nature had turned benevolent, bringing back a perfect day of late-summer blue skies and clear air that allowed the mountains to glisten for as far as the eye could see.
Brianna, who’d once planned a formal wedding for a pair of dogs with a six-figure price tag, had decided she wanted a casual ceremony and reception at the Mannion Christmas tree farm to celebrate her marriage. Since she was marrying a Mannion brother, Jolene had readily agreed on the venue.
It was a family affair, with Caroline Harper, Seth’s mother, who’d become an ordained minister last year, performing the ceremony. Chelsea was attendant to both brides while Quinn was groomsman to his younger brother and the man his sister had loved since childhood.
Bastien and Desiree provided the music, as they had last summer for Kylee and Mai’s garden wedding. It was that wedding which had brought the two former lovers back together.
Brianna had chosen an understated ivory slip dress, a single pearl on a platinum chain and white ballet flats that wouldn’t sink into the turf of the back lawn as she welcomed guests in the reception line. Jolene, wearing her favored ’50s vintage style, had gone with a knee-length backless dress with a full skirt that swayed like a bell when she walked. Around her neck she wore a simple heart made from a piece of aqua sea glass found on the peninsula on a white gold chain. Aiden had given it to her one summer night, back when they’d still been in high school, before he’d gone off to Marine boot camp.
Despite the casual atmosphere, the grooms waiting at the head of the white satin runner were handsome in black tie.
Life had taken both couples down separate paths for many years until they’d ended up back here in Honeymoon Harbor. In this place, on this day. Unlike the last wedding they’d all attended, when Kylee and Mai had written their own vows, today’s words were simple, complex and timeless.
To love. Honor. Cherish. For better or worse. Richer or poorer. Forsaking all others. Until death we do us part.
Rings were exchanged, and as Caroline Harper pronounced both couples married, everyone in attendance stood up and applauded. Then as the couples walked up the aisle to Bastien and Desiree singing “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” the guests began dancing in the aisle behind them.
THE MOOD WAS festive as toasts were made; Seth and Brianna and Aiden and Jolene danced for the first time as married couples, then some guests joined them on the dance floor as others dug into the barbecue ribs, burgers and all the trimmings prepared by Jarle, a sous chef borrowed from Luca, and two line cooks hired from the college’s culinary arts school.
Chelsea, Gabe and the girls had just sat down at one of the round tables when his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, then told Chelsea, “I’d better take this.” Before she could argue that business could wait while he was at his brother’s and sister’s wedding, he was gone.
“I’M IN THE middle of something, Phil, so this better damn well be good.”
“If you want that senior slot, you’d better get back here ASAP,” Phil Gregg warned him. “Hendricks has been trying to poach your accounts and he’s definitely playing hardball politics, suggesting that having taken this break so soon after landing in the ER, you’re not up to the job. That maybe you’re too emotional over Carter, or maybe you’re burned out. You’ve got a lot of guys in your corner, but I’ve got to tell you, Gabe, I’m not sure we’re going to be enough to stop the coup by ourselves. You need to be on the scene before you lose everything you’ve worked for.”
Which was something Gabe had no intention of letting happen. Barry Hendricks was a trust fund baby, hired more for his social good-old-boy connections going back to the cradle. He’d been playing lacrosse and tennis at Groton while Gabe had been running cross-country track at Honeymoon Harbor High. He’d gone to Harvard while Gabe had received an excellent education at UW that had gotten him into Columbia, but a West Coast public school didn’t carry equal clout in East Coast boardrooms. But Gabe was smarter and tougher. And a better trader because people trusted him. Which couldn’t always be said for Hendricks.
“I’m on my way.” It took one call to arrange for a jet to be waiting at Sea-Tac to fly him back to Manhattan. Another for a car. Those details taken care of, he went in search of Chelsea. She wouldn’t be nearly so easy to manage.
HE FOUND HER on the dance floor with Hailey and Hannah. The two girls had gotten new dresses for the wedding. Hailey was wearing—what else?—pink, with one of those puckered-up tops. Smocked, he remembered Chelsea calling it during another fashion show the girls put on beneath the spotlight. Hannah was wearing a short turquoise dress with a white collar and cuffs. And looking frighteningly mature.
“Is Hannah wearing a bra?” he asked after he’d gotten Chelsea off the dance floor. The girls were now dancing with a boy who looked to be about Hannah’s age. “And who the hell is he?”
“Yes, to the bra. It was time. Girls are maturing earlier these days. As for the boy, he’s Ryan, a Harper cousin. His parents seem like very nice people.”
“Isn’t she too young to be dancing with boys?”
“It’s a wedding, Gabe. Kids dance at weddings. It’s not like he’s asking her to go to the movies.”
“To which you’d say no, right?”
“Seriously? This is what you want to talk about? Why don’t you fill me in on what that phone call was about?”
“I have to go.”
“Where?”
“Back to Manhattan.”
“Well, I know that. You’ve been very clear about your plans to return after the boat festival.”
“No, I mean I have to go back now.”
“Now?” She combed a hand through her hair. “I’m confused. Are you talking about after the reception? Or right now this minute?”
“I have a plane waiting for me at Sea-Tac. And a car on the way here to take me there.”
“I see.” She folded her arms as both her voice and eyes turned to frost. “I’m surprised you didn’t hire a helicopter to land on the center of the dance floor and whisk you away to the airport so you don’t have to suffer that inconvenient ride in a limo.”
“I deserve that,” Gabe said, feeling whatever Zen he’d manage to achieve in the past weeks going up in flames around them.
“Yeah,” Quinn’s deep voice behind him said. “You do.”
“Once again, you’re right. But it is what it is. If I don’t get back there ASAP, everything I’ve worked for all these years could go down the drain.”
“I’d suggest that’s an exaggeration,” Quinn said, his eyes and mouth hard. “But you’re obviously not ready to hear that.”
“Our situations are different,” Gabe argued. “You didn’t enjoy your work anymore and found your niche making great beer and running the pub. And as happy as I am for you, bro, that’s not me.”
He turned back toward Chelsea. “You can take the Range Rover back to the house. And feel free to use it while you’re staying there.”
“Gee, thanks bunches for the offer, but I like my car. As for the house, did you already buy it?”
“No, but that doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me. The girls and I aren’t staying alone in a house owned by someone we don’t know.”
“We’ll pick up your stuff,” Quinn suggested. “Then I’ll take you to the farm. You can stay there while we figure out a plan.”
“I hate to impose.” She dragged an unsteady hand through her hair again. Gabe hadn’t just blown up his Zen. Chelsea and the girls were turning out to be collateral damage. Like the sex fog was too thick for you to have seen that coming?
“I have a situation to fix,” he said. “Then I’ll be back as soon as possible. Quinn’s idea is a good one. You can stay at the farm. We can still have the rest of the summer.”
She lifted her chin. If looks could kill, he’d be six feet under. “Surely you’re not serious.”
“It’s just a glitch.”
“And this is your sister’s and brother’s wedding reception. But your glitch apparently is more important. Remember the night I rowed across the lake? When I told you about my messed-up family and said that I envied you yours?”
Gabe saw it coming and decided there was nothing he could do but take the hit. “I do.”
“I still envy you for them. But here’s a newsflash—” she pointed a finger at his chest “—you don’t deserve them. Now, since there’s nothing else to say to each other, we’re done. And I’d like to go back to dancing with my soon-to-be adopted daughters.”
“Well,” Quinn said as they watched her march away. The smile she greeted the girls with was nothing like the steely look she’d given him. “You sure as hell screwed the pooch on that one.”
“I don’t have a choice. If I don’t get back to New York right away, I’m not only going to lose my chance to be the youngest trader at Harborstone to make senior partner, I could well be out of a job. Because once people find out I let some piece of shit rich guy undercut me, my reputation will be shot and all those places that recruited me when I got out of Columbia won’t want me.”
“First of all, may I point out that you, too, are a really rich guy. So, using that as an epithet isn’t exactly your best use of words. And second, it’s just as well that you forced Chelsea into a corner where she had no choice but to break off whatever it was you thought you had going. Because you know what she said about you not deserving your family?”
“She was angry.”
“She was right. And here’s another newsflash, baby bro—you don’t deserve her or those kids, either.” He shook his head. “I never realized you’d turned into such a dumbass. Now, I’m going to go have barbecue with the terrific woman you let get away. Then I’m going to dance with the three of them, and later take her to that house you’re going to buy, which you don’t, in any real-life scenario, need except to turn a damn profit from.
“Then, once they’re packed, I’m taking them to the farm. Where they’ll be treated like they deserve.”
That said, Quinn walked away.
Gabe watched Chelsea talking to the girls. Hannah shot him a look, then turned toward him and although Chelsea obviously tried to stop her, she shook off the restraining hand and headed his way.
“You said you weren’t leaving until after Labor Day.”
“That was my plan. But something came up.”
“Chelsea already said that. Did someone die?”
“No. You wouldn’t understand. It’s a work thing.”
“You’re wrong. I would understand because I’ve heard all the excuses. Yours is one of the weakest though, it’s not even original because we’ve already had two families where the dad got a work transfer and they decided we weren’t worth taking along. So, yeah, I get it. I’m just mad that I was stupid enough to think you were different.”
Her eyes swam and her lips, which he noted had been tinted a pale pink, quivered. Then she squared her shoulders, which she hadn’t done since those early days, and resolutely blinked the tears away. Except for one that managed to escape, which she furiously swept away with the back of her hand.
“So go back to New York City to your fancy job in your fancy office and your fancy apartment in some fancy skyscraper and enjoy making all that money. Because we don’t need you.”
That said, she spun on a heel and went running back to Chelsea and her sister. Leaving Gabe just as he’d been for all these years since leaving home—alone.