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“I’d be obliged if you could get Tommy over there, but I’ll call the insurance people and there’s no need for a cleaning crew,” Cora Jane insisted. “I’ll be back first thing tomorrow with the girls. With them pitching in, we can clean the place up in no time.”
Boone’s heart seemed to still at her words. The girls could only be her granddaughters, including the one who’d dumped him ten years ago and taken off to start a better life than she thought he’d be able to give her.
“Emily, too?” he asked, holding out a faint hope that she wouldn’t be back here, in his face, testing his belief that he’d long ago gotten her out of his system.
“Of course,” Cora Jane said, then added a little too gently, “Is that going to be a problem, Boone?”
“Of course not. Emily and me, that’s in the past. The distant past,” he added emphatically.
“Are you so sure about that?” she pressed.
“I moved on, married someone else, didn’t I?” he said defensively.
“And lost Jenny way too soon,” Cora Jane said, as if he needed reminding of his wife’s death just over a year ago.
“But not our son,” Boone said. “I still have B.J. to think about. He’s my life these days.”
“I know you’re devoted to that boy, but you need more,” she lectured. “You deserve to have a full and happy life.”
“Someday maybe I’ll find the kind of happiness you’re talking about,” Boone said, “but I’m not looking for it, and it sure as heck isn’t going to be with a woman who didn’t think I’d amount to much.”
Cora Jane drew in a shocked breath. “Boone, that is not what happened. Emily never judged you and found you lacking. She just had all these pie-in-the-sky dreams for herself. She needed to leave here and test herself, see what she could accomplish.”
“That’s your spin. I saw it a little differently,” Boone said. “Maybe we’d better not talk about Emily. We’ve stayed friends, you and me, by keeping her off-limits. She’s family and you love her. Of course you’d defend her.”
“You’re family, too,” Cora Jane insisted fiercely. “Or as good as.”
Boone smiled. “You’ve always made me feel that way. Now let me make those calls and see what I can do to get this place back in working order before you get here. I know you’re going to want to plug in the coffeepot and open the doors as soon as the power’s back on. I should warn you that could be another couple of days. You maybe ought to consider staying with Gabi until it’s fixed.”
“I need to be there,” Cora Jane replied determinedly. “Sitting around here and worrying isn’t getting anything accomplished. I imagine we can get by on that generator you had installed after the last storm.”
“I’ll make sure it’s working and check the refrigerators and freezer to make sure things stayed cold. Anything else you need me to do before you come home?”
“If Tommy gives you a fair estimate on the roof, tell him to get started, okay?”
“You have my word, he’ll be fair,” Boone assured her. “And you’ll be first on his list. Like I said, he owes me.”
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Cora Jane said. “Thanks for checking on things for me.”
“It’s what family does,” he replied, knowing it was a lesson he’d learned from Cora Jane, not from either of his own parents. Being supportive simply wasn’t part of their makeup.
As he hung up, he couldn’t help wondering if there would ever come a day when he’d not regret that his ties to Cora Jane and her family weren’t of a far more permanent variety.
* * *
It took Emily two frustrating days to make all the right connections from Colorado to North Carolina. More annoying than the time wasted in airports was imagining Gabi’s I-told-you-so when she finally landed in Raleigh on a clear day that bore no lingering evidence of the nasty weather that had blown through the state two days before.
But when she emerged from the airport with her carry-on luggage, it was Samantha who awaited her. Her big sister enveloped her in a fierce hug.
Though huge, fashionable sunglasses hid most of her face, and her artfully streaked hair was swept up in a careless ponytail, there was no disguising that she was somebody famous. It had always amazed Emily how Samantha could wear faded jeans and a T-shirt and wind up looking like a cover model. She just had that celebrity look about her, even if her acting career had never taken off quite the way she’d envisioned.
“Where’s Gabi?” Emily asked, glancing around.
“Three guesses.”
“Gram insisted on going home,” Emily said readily.
“Got it in one,” Samantha confirmed. “The minute they allowed residents back out there, Gram packed her bag. Gabi stalled her for a day, then told her if she was going to be stubborn as an old mule, at least she wasn’t going alone. They left this morning at dawn, so I stuck around to be your designated driver.”
“Do you actually remember how to drive?” Emily inquired skeptically. “You’ve been living in New York a long time.”
Samantha merely lifted a brow, which told Emily what her sister thought about her sense of humor. That was the thing about having an actress in the family. Samantha could convey more with a look than most people could with an entire diatribe. Emily had been on the receiving end of a lot of those looks over the years.
“Do not start with me,” Samantha warned. “I made it here, didn’t I?”
Emily nodded toward the waiting car. “Is that the same car you drove from New York? Or did you have to trade in a wreck?”
“You are not amusing,” Samantha retorted. She glanced at the compact carry-on Emily had brought. “That’s it? That’s all your luggage?”
Emily shrugged. “I’m used to traveling light. I was in Aspen on a job when I heard about the storm. I didn’t have time to go back to Los Angeles to pick up more things.”
“Anything in there suitable for mopping and scrubbing?” Samantha asked doubtfully. “I just don’t see you mucking out the family restaurant in your designer heels. Those are Louboutins, right? You always did have expensive taste.”
Heat climbed in Emily’s cheeks. “I work with people who are obsessed with designer labels, but you can bet I do my share of hard labor when I’m renovating a house,” she retorted defensively, then sighed. “But you’re right about my wardrobe not being suitable for cleaning. This trip to Colorado was a quick meet-and-greet with a new client, so I probably need to pick up some shorts and T-shirts someplace. What about you? You usually look like a fashion plate yourself. What’s with the faded jeans and...” Her eyes widened. “Is that Ethan Cole’s old football jersey?”
Samantha blushed furiously. “It was in a box of stuff in Gabi’s attic. I grabbed whatever still fit.”
“That shirt doesn’t fit,” Emily scoffed. “It’s at least six sizes too big. It makes you look like a fourteen-year-old girl with a crush on the captain of the football team.” She allowed a slow grin to spread. “Oh, wait, that was you, wasn’t it? Sitting in the bleachers all wide-eyed and hopeful?”
“Do you realize if you keep this up, you might not live long enough to get to Sand Castle Bay?” Samantha asked tartly. “I imagine I can find some deserted section of highway where I can toss your body.”
“Nice talk to your baby sister,” Emily retorted. “You always swore you loved me, even when I was being a total pain.”
“Back then I did,” Samantha confirmed with a grin of her own. “Who could resist a cute, chubby-cheeked little thing?” She shrugged. “Now, not so much.”
Once they were on the road heading east, Emily’s mood sobered. “Has anyone heard how bad things are over there? What’s Grandmother going to find when she walks into the restaurant?”
“Apparently Boone told her it was still standing, just badly flooded and in need of a lot of tender, loving care and, more than likely, a new roof.”
Emily froze, her heart doing an unexpected stutter step. “Boone? Surely you’re not talking about Boone Dorsett. What does he have to do with anything?”
“He and Cora Jane are thick as thieves these days,” Samantha said, then gave her a quick sympathetic glance. “Didn’t you know?”
“Why would I know? Nobody tells me anything.” At least not anything that might matter, such as the fact that her own grandmother and the bane of her existence, Mr. Boone Dorsett, were pals.
Oh, her grandmother had always had a soft spot for Boone. She’d taken to him the minute he’d started coming around with Emily the summer they’d both turned fourteen. While Emily had fallen for a bad boy with a dangerous edge most likely headed for trouble, Cora Jane had seen a boy rebelling against parents who didn’t care. She’d seen potential and, to her credit, nourished it.
Still, shouldn’t she have cut her ties with Boone when Emily had, out of family solidarity or something? Even as the thought formed, Emily knew better. Grandmother wouldn’t abandon Boone the way Emily had. In fact, though she’d never voiced her opinion, Emily knew Cora Jane had judged her harshly for what she’d done, choosing a career over the man everyone knew she loved.
“What’s Boone after?” she asked suspiciously.
“After?” Samantha echoed with a puzzled look. “I don’t think he wants anything. Cora Jane says he’s been a huge help to her with the restaurant. That’s all I know.”
“If Boone is being a huge help, then he wants something,” Emily declared with conviction. Wasn’t he always after something? That had been her experience, anyway. Once upon a time he’d wanted her, and when she’d said she needed time to explore the world a bit, he’d let her go and married Jenny Farmer about ten seconds later. Last she’d heard they had a little boy. So much for that undying love he’d declared he felt for her. Maybe she’d left, but he was the one who’d delivered a betrayal so deep she’d never really recovered.
“He probably wants the Castle’s by the Sea property,” Emily speculated direly. In her dark days, hadn’t she entertained that thought more than once, imagining him courting her even back then with an ulterior motive? How else to explain his rapid-fire marriage to someone else after she’d gone? True love couldn’t possibly have been so fickle. “I’ll just bet he’s hoping this hurricane will be the last straw and Grandmother will sell that prime beachfront location to him.”
Samantha slanted a wry look at her. “You do know that Boone already has three very successful seafood restaurants, right?”
“Three?” Emily echoed, startled.
“Sure enough. Boone’s Harbor on the bay opened first. Now he has one in Norfolk and one over in Charlotte. I think there’s some guy who’s like his administrative assistant who scouts out the new locations and gets them operational, but Boone’s definitely in charge. Grandmother says the reviews have been great in all those cities. She has a collection of them. I’m surprised she never sent them to you.”
“She probably assumed I wouldn’t be interested,” Emily said, oddly deflated by the news. She wanted to believe the very worst about Boone. Needed to believe it, in fact. She didn’t like thinking she’d misjudged his ambition or that she might have made a terrible mistake in being so quick to let him go. She didn’t believe in regrets, so what were these twinges all about?
Her sister studied her with obvious confusion. “I thought you were long over him. You did break up with him, right? Not the other way around? I always thought Jenny was his rebound romance.”
“Over him?” Emily huffed indignantly. “Of course, I’m over him. Haven’t given him a thought since I left here ten years ago.” Liar, liar, her conscience shouted.
“Then why the attitude?”
“I just don’t want him taking advantage of our grandmother, that’s all. Cora Jane is too trusting for her own good.”
Samantha laughed at that. “Cora Jane? You must have some other grandmother in mind. Cora Jane’s as savvy as they come where business is concerned and sharp as a tack when it comes to judging people.”
“She’s not immune to a man with Boone’s considerable charm, that’s all I’m saying,” Emily said irritably. “Let’s drop this. It’s giving me a headache.” She looked around and frowned. They were in the jammed parking lot of a discount store. “Why are you pulling in here?”
“To stock up on your brand-new hurricane cleanup wardrobe,” her sister said, then added, a little too cheerfully, “Let’s not forget the flip-flops and sneakers.”
Emily regarded her with dismay. The only flip-flops she wore these days came from a designer shoe salon on Rodeo Drive.
“Okay,” she said sourly, “but you and Gabi better remember that I don’t scrub windows.” She hesitated, then added, “Or floors.”
Samantha draped an arm over her shoulder as they crossed the busy parking lot. “Fine, Cinderella. We’ll leave the grease trap to you. That’s always fun.”
Emily scowled at her. It promised to be a very long couple of weeks, especially if Boone was likely to be underfoot.
2
“Daddy, are we gonna help Ms. Cora Jane?” B.J. asked, his expression as excited as if they were going to the circus.
“If she’ll let us,” Boone told his eight-year-old son. In his experience Cora Jane never asked for help and wasn’t real crazy about accepting it when offered. He’d learned to be incredibly sneaky about making sure she and the restaurant were looked after.
“Do you think she’ll make me pancakes like Mickey Mouse?” B.J. asked. “The little pancakes that make the ears are the best part.” A guilty expression passed over his face. “Hers are better than Jerry’s, but don’t tell him. I don’t want to hurt his feelings.”
Boone laughed, well aware of how competitive the cook and Cora Jane could be at times. “I doubt she’ll have the kitchen open,” Boone told him. “The storm water’s barely receded. You know what a mess things are over at our place. Castle’s didn’t look much better when I checked it out yesterday.”
He also knew that Cora Jane was the kind of woman who liked to feel in control of things. No hurricane would throw her off course for long. By tomorrow, she’d probably be cooking whatever she could on the gas grill even if she couldn’t get the oven up and running.
He gave his son a warning look. “Don’t be asking her for pancakes, okay? Not till we see what the situation is. We’re here to help, not to make more work for her.”
“But she always says making special pancakes for me isn’t work,” B.J. said earnestly. “She says she does it out of love.”
Boone chuckled. Of course she’d tell B.J. something like that. Hadn’t she always made him feel he was no trouble, too? Even when his own folks thought he was more of a nuisance than anything else. If it hadn’t been for Cora Jane and the jobs she’d given him to keep him busy and out of mischief, his life would have gone in a whole different direction. He owed her. He surely did. And he counted himself fortunate that she hadn’t pushed him out of her life when Emily had dumped him. Given the fierce family loyalty among the Castles, it could easily have happened.
If seeing her and listening to her brag about her three granddaughters, including the woman who’d been the love of his life, was painful, well, that was just the price he had to pay for having Cora Jane as the kind of compassionate, nonjudgmental moral compass he definitely needed.
As soon as Boone had parked beside the restaurant, B.J. was out of the car and running.
“Hold it!” Boone commanded, waiting until his son had skidded to a stop and faced him. He walked closer and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder and pointed. “What have I told you about the need to be real careful right now? Just look around. There’s wood all over with nails in it and who knows what kind of glass on the ground. Take your time and pay attention.”
B.J. gave him an impish smile that reminded him so much of Jenny, it made his heart ache. Jenny had been the sweetest woman on the planet, and losing her to an out-of-control infection that had proven resistant to antibiotics had been devastating to him and to B.J.
With the resilience of childhood, B.J. was bouncing back, but Boone wasn’t sure he’d ever get past his grief. He knew some of that was colored by guilt because he’d never loved Jenny half as much as she’d loved him. How could he when a part of his heart still belonged to Emily Castle? No matter his feelings, though, he thought he’d done the best he could by his wife. Jenny had never wanted for anything. He’d been a good husband, a devoted father. Late at night, though, he couldn’t help wondering if it had been enough. It didn’t help that Jenny’s parents blamed him for everything from ruining Jenny’s life to contributing to her death. He just knew they were looking for any excuse to try to take B.J. from him. That, he thought fiercely, would happen over his own dead body!
As for the rest, well, it was water under the bridge now, he told himself, as he took a deep breath and followed his son. Alerted by Cora Jane that all three of her granddaughters were coming home to help with the storm cleanup, he braced himself for the first glimpse of Emily after all these years.
Inside the water-ravaged restaurant, though, he spotted only Gabriella, looking frantic as Cora Jane teetered on the top rung of a stepladder. Gabi was holding it steady with a white-knuckled grip.
“Cora Jane Castle, what do you think you’re doing?” Boone demanded, wrapping an arm around her hips and lifting her down until her sneaker-clad feet were firmly on the ground.
She whirled around and glared at him. “What do you think you’re doing, Boone Dorsett?” she inquired, her brown eyes flashing with indignation, even as he gave the obviously relieved Gabi a wink.
“Saving you from a broken hip, most likely,” he said. “Didn’t I tell you a long time ago that I’d take care of fixing all the lights whenever they needed it or to have Jerry or your handyman do it?”
“Well, Jerry’s not here yet and my handyman’s nowhere to be found,” she retorted. “And since when do I need you to screw in a few lightbulbs?” Hands on her hips, she tried her best to stare him down. Given their relative size difference, she wasn’t half as intimidating as she obviously hoped to be.
“You could at least have let Gabi do it,” he replied.
She seemed to fight a smile at the suggestion, avoiding her granddaughter’s gaze. “Bless her heart,” she confided in an undertone, “Gabi is scared of heights. She got two rungs up the ladder, and I thought she was about to faint.”
“It’s true,” Gabi replied, an embarrassed flush in her cheeks. “It was humiliating, especially when she went scampering right on up the ladder.”
Thankfully, just then B.J. tugged on Cora Jane’s hand. “Ms. Cora Jane, the power’s back on, right?”
She smiled and ruffled his hair affectionately. “Came on about a half hour ago, as a matter of fact.” She gave him a knowing look. “I imagine you asked because you’re hoping for pancakes.”
B.J.’s eyes lit up. “Uh-huh, but Daddy said not to ask because we’re here to help.”
Cora Jane rolled her eyes. “Well, since your daddy seems intent on taking over the most dangerous chores himself, I imagine I can try to rustle up some pancakes for my favorite customer. You gonna help?”
“Sure. I’ll mix the batter like you showed me last time,” B.J. offered, trailing after her.
Boone watched them go, shaking his head. “I don’t know which of them’s going to give me my first heart attack, but odds on, it’s your grandmother.”
Gabi laughed. “She has that effect on all of us.”
“She told me you and your sisters were all coming home to help put this place back in working order,” he said, hoping he sounded casual, rather than panicked, which was the way just thinking about Emily made him feel.
