Finding Love in Forgotten Cove (Island County Series Book 1) (28 page)

I held in my breath and debated until I was sure.

“I think today’s the day,” I said, more to myself than anything.

Mason slowly unwrapped his arm and took a deep breath in. “I thought that might be the case, so I have the rowboat down there and ready to go.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How’d you know?”

He shook his head. “Just a premonition.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Mason nodded and watched me wander up the steps. I walked through the entry and into my dad’s office where the urn remained on his desk. I wrapped my fingers around the cold porcelain and took a deep breath in. Everything was going to be okay. It might not always be perfect, but it would be okay and that was all anyone could ask for.

Cradling my father’s urn in my arm, I walked outside to where Mason was waiting. He’d wandered to the butterfly garden. He slipped his hand in mine, and our fingers locked together as we started down the path.

“Would you like me to carry it?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I got it.”

I knew we were both wondering the same thing. What if I dropped it?

I chuckled quietly and Mason squeezed my hand.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t be that angry if it happened. Your dad probably halfway expects it. Regardless, the trail is pretty close to the cove,” Mason assured me.

“What faith you have.” I smiled, clutching the urn even tighter.

We made our way down the last of the trail and to the rowboat. I set the urn in the boat as I slipped the life vest over my arms, a nervousness filling my veins. I hadn’t been out since my canoe flipped.

“It’s probably the last weekend we could do this before fall really hits,” I said.

“Definitely,” Mason agreed, tightening up my life jacket.

I picked up the urn as Mason helped me to step in the boat and get settled while I tried to calm my mind. This felt like the last step. The final step I needed to take to allow my dad to go home. Mason shoved the boat into the water a foot or so before he stepped in and pushed us off as I clung to the urn. Watching Mason row us to the middle of the cove flooded me with the realization of how much I almost lost by not allowing love in. I watched his gentle movements as we got closer to the place we’d talked about going to many times before but never quite made it.

He didn’t say a word. He just listened, listened to my silence, and listened to the wind as it guided us and led my father back home.

I lifted the lid off the urn, and set it on the bench next to me, and pulled out the plastic bag. Mason stopped rowing and brought his hands to my knees, resting them there, as I held my father’s ashes. I no longer needed to hear my mother’s voice because I felt her inside of me. I felt all of them inside of me. There was no more running from my memories or trying to forget what they taught me. Their spirit was part of me now and always would be, but their memories no longer controlled me, they only fulfilled me, and I knew it was time.

The wind was still as I shook my father’s ashes into Forgotten Cove, and I prayed for peace to find him as he danced with his soul mate once more.

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Love Redone in Hidden Harbor

Natalie
loves nothing more than waking up and going into work at the florist shop she owns in the heart of Fireweed Island. Every morning is pleasant and filled with sunshine and rainbows. That is until she sees an email for a wedding consult slide right into her inbox with the sender’s name of Cole Hill. Her hands get clammy and the cold winter’s day suddenly feels like it’s ninety degrees and climbing. It couldn’t be the same Cole Hill from high school. The universe isn’t that cruel.

But as she opens the email and reads the message, she realizes that it is, indeed,
the
Cole Hill from high school, and it is the universe’s turn to not only be cruel but downright evil. Cole broke her heart, but not in the normal fashion. He ensured the process was a long one filled with plenty of ups and downs. It all started in first grade and didn’t finally end until the second year of college. And now he is coming back to get married on Fireweed Island.

The perks of being the only florist in town! It’s a good thing she got over him years ago...

Keep reading for an excerpt from Love Redone!

“Sophie, you’re not going to believe who infiltrated my bubble.” I stared at my laptop screen, hoping the email taunting me from my inbox wasn’t from the same person who’d ripped my heart out and forgotten to ever apologize about it. I’d done an amazing job of tucking that ordeal away. I placed a bucket of white roses on the floor and adjusted my phone as I waited impatiently for my best friend on the other end to reply.

“What in the world are you talking about?” I heard the slam of a car door and realized she was on the way to her second job as a hostess at Island Bluff, one of the island’s upscale restaurants.

I hovered my cursor over the infamous name and dared myself to open the message. The subject kind of gave away what morsels were packed inside, but I didn’t want to believe the words. I’d created a world that worked in my favor, and this email dared to obliterate my peaceful existence. I’d heard about people’s luck changing for the worse, but I never thought that would happen to me.

I groaned and did a double tap of the mouse while the message popped up on the big screen.

“Come on, Natty. It can’t be that big of a deal.”

I took in a deep breath and scanned the first sentence of the message. Oh, yes. It was that big of a deal. Cole Hill, the boy I’d had a crush on since first grade, was coming back to town.

My town. Not his. He’d left a long time ago.

“Cole Hill is getting married,” I breathed into the phone.

Silence.

More silence.

Did I happen to mention that not only did I have a crush on him since the first grade, we’d dated all throughout junior high?

“You’re supposed to offer support…tell me it’s no big deal,” I chuckled, but she was my best friend, and she’d never lie to me—at least not over the phone. She might bend the truth if she had to look into my brown eyes and see the inner turmoil twisting my insides into knots, but not over the phone. She’d shoot it to me straight.

“Are you sure it’s the same Cole?” she finally asked.

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

“Positive?”

“Yes. I’m one hundred percent positive.”

“And he’s getting married?” she repeated.

I suddenly wished I hadn’t made her my first call.

“Yes. Cole Hill has found the love of his life and is getting married on Fireweed Island. It says so right here. And the happy couple would like to make an appointment to come in and discuss flowers for their wedding.” I gritted my teeth and glanced at Pickles, the shop cat. She was probably thrilled with the news.

Did I happen to mention Cole and I also dated all through high school?

And college?

“I bet he doesn’t know you own the florist shop,” Sophie assured me.

“Why in the world would he want to come back and get married on Fireweed Island? He didn’t want anything to do with this place.”

“His family still has that house he grew up in, but now I think they use it as a vacation home. I mean why not? It’s a great location on the bluff overlooking Oyster Bay. Maybe that’s where they want to get married. It would be a nice spot,” she offered.

I bristled at the notion. Cole and I were supposed to get married at Oyster Bay. At least that was what he told me when he proposed.

Yeah. Did I forget to mention that part too?
I’d been engaged to Cole Hill.

“You’ve got this. You’re a professional and the only florist on the island.”

“I could always send them to a florist on a different island,” I sighed.

“You’re better than that. Besides, aren’t you a little bit curious?” she asked.

This was the problem with best friends. They knew you too well.

“Maybe a little.” Okay, I was
dying
to see what the future Mrs. Cole Hill looked like.

“You know what I say?” she asked, but she didn’t wait for my answer. “I say, don’t sign your name to the reply and surprise him when he and his fiancée show up for the appointment. I’d love to be your assistant on that day.”

Pickles yowled and eyed me suspiciously.

“What the heck was that?” Sophie asked.

“Pickles. I think she’s about to attack me. She’s got that funny look in her eyes again.”

“Put down the phone and back away slowly,” she whispered. “It sounds like Pickles is still Team Cole.”

The cinnamon and cream fluff ball shot me an icy stare and licked her lips before yawning and flashing her tiny, glistening fangs in my direction. As if I needed a reminder of what those things could do.

“I don’t know how you’ve put up with Pickles for so long,” Sophie laughed into the phone.

“Not now. I’m sure she knows what you’re saying.” I took a couple steps back and watched Pickle’s tail twitch.

“How long have you had Pickles?” Sophie ignored me and kept going. “What was it? Ninth or tenth grade?”

“Cole got her for me the summer before tenth grade,” I responded, bumping into a bucket of red tulips. I knew not to take my eyes off Pickles. That’s how she’d gotten me the last time. I’d turned my back on her and she’d pounced.

Two rounds of antibiotics and one stitch later, I knew she held the upper hand and so did she.

Pickles jumped off the counter and slowly wound her way over to me. She slinked in between my ankles and stretched before walking away. Clearly, she’d made her point. This was her flower shop. I just owned it.

I made my way back to the computer and glanced at my schedule. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other weddings planned for the weekend they’d picked to get married.

“Well, I had to tell someone. It appears my luck has started to change.”

“Don’t start thinking that way,” Sophie commanded. “Years from now, you’ll be able to laugh about this little meet up. It just might sting a little right now.”

“Do you think he ever thought about me after he left?” I mused.

“I’d imagine so.”

My mind flashed back to Cole and me…our last time together. We’d just finished up sophomore year in college, and I’d finished packing everything in my dorm. I sat on my naked bed and waited for him to pick me up in his truck.

And waited.

And waited.

Once he was an hour late, I knew something wasn’t right. When he finally arrived, and I looked in his eyes, I realized I’d need to find my own way back to Fireweed Island for the summer.

It was a confusing end to a dream relationship. The news he’d shared had been a complete surprise. He gave me some excuse about changing schools in the fall and not being able to get the major he truly wanted at this school. Everything he relayed had been in bits and pieces. His parents were upset with him, and he wasn’t going back to Fireweed Island for the summer. He’d already made arrangements for a place in Georgia, and he wanted me to come visit—blah, blah, blah.

But once I came to my senses, I quickly realized that his offer was for a pity visit, and I never took him up on it. In fact, I lost his number and never looked back.

Okay, that last part wasn’t how it went, but that was exactly how I wanted to deal with the breakup. I wanted him to be nothing more than a blip on my radar, but that wasn’t what he’d become. He’d become my everything and losing him hurt in a way I didn’t know possible. I couldn’t just dust him off and move on like he didn’t matter. Cole and I had shared dreams together. We shared our lives in the most formative of years and losing him hurt. He wasn’t only my boyfriend, he’d been my best friend. I wanted to imagine myself as the woman who would never allow herself to be put in a position to get hurt, but that wasn’t what happened.

What actually happened was I came back to Fireweed Island that summer, and in between working long hours at Norma’s Corner Café and helping out at the flower shop, I cried my heart out and cried some more. And that was my last summer on Fireweed Island until long after I graduated. I was embarrassed I’d let a guy torment me that much and have that much control over my emotions. Never would I fall for that twice.  Fool me five times, shame on the world and all that.

 “You’ve gone silent. You doing okay?” Sophie asked, her voice softening.

“I think so. I don’t know. This just sucks. How can I suddenly feel like I’m back in college wondering what I did wrong?”

“You were in love,” Sophie sighed. “Time is a funny thing. It’s supposed to heal all wounds, but I don’t think time does that at all, especially when it comes to matters of the heart.”

“I am over him,” I promised her. “I’m just in a little shock. Time has done wonders to heal my wounds.”

“I think time likes to hide in the dark making you think you’re over it, and then when the moment is right, time rips open old wounds like it was yesterday,” she cautioned.

I glanced at Pickles, who was licking her paw in the front window display. I’d traded out Christmas for Valentine’s Day and the entire window was drenched in white tulle and red roses.