Hideaway Cove (A Windfall Island Novel) (10 page)

Paige stopped, and for the first time since she’d broken their friendship, Maggie saw her look uncertain.

Adeline Hazelton, dressed in an eighties-era lavender polyester pantsuit and sensible pumps, looked at the loudmouth—one long, even look that had him ducking his head. Adeline ran what passed for a school system on Windfall Island. Her own kids were grown and gone, but she remained de facto principal, despite attempts to oust her. She didn’t take any crap from anybody, and her motto was
once a student, always a student
.

“You’re here,” Adeline said to Paige. “You going to let some yahoo with a big mouth send you running?”

Paige straightened, looked around the Horizon’s big dining room, then met Adeline’s gaze. “I’m here.”

“Question is, how?” someone else called out. “You didn’t bring her, did you, Maggie?”

“And have to fumigate my plane to remove the odor of brimstone? I imagine her broom is parked outside.”

The place erupted in laughter, making Maggie feel just a tiny bit guilty. For all of ten seconds, before Paige met her level stare with a pair of perfectly plucked and arched eyebrows.

“You don’t have the monopoly on travel between here and the mainland, Maggie.”

“I pretty much do,” Maggie said. She handled the air transport herself, but even if Paige had tried to book one of her charter boats, she’d have known about it. Still, there were any number of islanders and mainlanders with small watercraft they were willing to hire out. And Paige had a way of getting what she wanted. “Tell us about the scandal,” someone called out.

“Is that tape real?” another voice yelled. “Did you actually have sex with that director while his wife was right downstairs?”

“That’s enough,” George Boatwright said, stopping at the booth, his hands on his tool belt and a bland cop expression on his face as he panned his gaze over the crowd. “Go back to your own business. You’ll all have time to visit with Ms. Walker later.”

“Ms. Walker?” Maggie got to her feet, crossed her arms, made her expression just as cold and flat as George’s. “Pretty formal for a man who’s had his tongue down her throat.”

George reddened.

Once upon a time, he and Maggie had been a couple—a teenage couple, sure, but teenagers who’d been dating almost two years. Until Paige Walker realized there was something she couldn’t have, and set out to get it. She had, without considering the consequences to anyone else involved.

Paige had been a friend—hell, almost a sister—to Maggie, and there were rules about boyfriends, even ex-boyfriends. Maggie might not put a lot of stock in that kind of female foolishness, but loyalty, she’d always thought, ought to come before ego, greed, and ambition.

Judging by what the tabloids reported, Paige still hadn’t learned to think about the people who got hurt so she could feed her selfish desires. Except this time she’d messed with the wrong man. And the wrong man’s wife.

“Hollywood too hot to handle just now?”

Paige waved a hand adorned with a ruby big enough to qualify as an anchor. “I haven’t taken a vacation in years,” she said.

“The south of France all booked up?”

“Still haven’t learned to forgive and forget?” Paige shot back, the edge in her voice the first sign Maggie was getting under her skin.

“Betrayal is one of those things that’s hard to forget.”

Paige huffed out a breath. “Really, I don’t see why I have to take all the blame. You and George broke up—”

“We were reevaluating.”

“—and you said he’d never go out with one of your friends.”

Maggie took a step forward. “It wasn’t a challenge; it was a compliment to George. George has morals. You might have heard of morals, maybe pretended to have them for some role or other.”

Paige lifted a shoulder. But she wasn’t meeting Maggie’s eyes. “I just wanted you to see that no one is perfect.”

“So you betrayed me in order to prove I couldn’t trust George not to.”

Paige sighed with very convincing regret. “I didn’t reason it through very well.”

“He was a teenage boy, Paige. Did you really think he could resist you when you threw yourself at him? Even before you bought those tits?”

“Ouch. And these tits are mine.”

“Anything is available for a price.”

“Come on, Mags. I was a kid.”

“You were old enough to understand what you were doing. Better than I did as it turned out.”

“I…” Paige broke off, sighed heavily. “You’re right, Maggie. I’m sorry.”

Two simple words. Maggie would have begged for that apology once. Now she didn’t want to hear it. “Are you going to be sorry when the paparazzi descend on us?”

“They don’t know where I am. Or where I’m from.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re ashamed of Windfall Island.”

Paige shook her head, looking truly sad. But then, she was a hell of an actress. “Are you ever going to forgive me? I was young and stupid.”

“You were never stupid. Neither was I.”

P
aige flounced her way into the other side of the booth across from Jessi. Jessi ignored her to check on Benji for the thousandth time. He sat at the table with his father and grandmother, looking bored while Lance talked to Josiah Meeker, of all people. Josiah rarely lowered his standards enough to frequent an establishment like the Horizon, where the food was simple and so were the people.

Benji looked over and grinned at her before Joyce Proctor said something and turned his attention away again.

“So,” Paige said, “what’s going on with these beautiful men I keep hearing about?”

“Romance,” Jessi said, concentrating on the chili AJ had dropped off after Maggie walked away. Stupid, she thought, to fixate on people gossiping
about
Paige and not realize they’d be gossiping
to
her as well. “At least in Maggie’s case. She’s getting married to Dex Keegan.”

“What does he do? What’s he like?”

“I think you should ask Maggie those questions.”

“Well, that would be a short conversation.”

“Then ask anyone else.”

“Afraid of her?”

“Afraid? No. Loyal? Yes. She was here when I needed her, Paige. I’m not going to talk about her behind her back. To anyone, about anything.”

Paige sat back. “You’re right, Jess. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I wasn’t here when you needed support.”

“I was fine. I am fine. And you were going after what you wanted. There’s no need to apologize.”

“Who are you?” Benji climbed up on the bench seat, slinging an arm around Jessi’s neck and leaning into her. “Who is she, Mom?”

“Manners, Benj,” Jessi said, but she hugged him back.

“My name is Benjamin Randal,” Benji said. “Everyone calls me Benji, which is okay for now, but when I get older it’s gonna have to be Ben because Benji’s a kid’s name.”

Looking bemused, Paige took the hand he’d stuck across the table. “Paige Walker,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m meeting a lot of people this week,” Benji said. “I just met my dad. We’re having dinner. He said I could introduce myself later, only I’ve never met a movie star before, and he was busy talking to adults, so…”

“I’ll tell you a secret about movie stars,” Paige said, “We’re just like everyone else.”

Benji grinned hugely. “That’s what my dad said.” And off he went to sit with Lance again.

“He’s a great kid, Jess. And it’s obvious you’re the center of his world. That won’t change because Lance is back.”

Jess sighed, pulled her gaze off her son. It wasn’t easy, but she had to trust in the bond they shared. “Suppose you tell me something about your life,” she said to Paige.

“My life is on every tabloid and magazine cover in the supermarket,” Paige evaded. “I want to know what’s been going on here.”

“Interesting, considering you’ve only asked about Dex Keegan and Hold Abbot. They’re not Windfallers, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh, I think I’d remember them, considering what I’ve heard. What’s interesting is that you don’t want to talk about them. It just naturally excites my imagination.”

“This isn’t Hollywood, Paige,” Jessi said evenly, although she was more than a little irritated. “You can tell by the lack of a script and a soundtrack. Windfall is the same boring place it always was. There aren’t plots around every corner.” She smiled fondly. “Except the ones dreamed up by the gossips.”

Paige smiled with her, just as fondly. “Then why do I smell a secret?”

“I don’t know…because you’re used to living in a place where everyone has an agenda?”

Paige shrugged that off—a more elegant version of Maggie’s shoulder bump, but they’d gotten the gesture from each other. And they’d each have hotly denied it. “I’m just concerned, Jess. You and Maggie are my friends.”

“Are we?” They’d been inseparable, she and Paige and Maggie, but high school was a long time ago now. “You left, Paige. Poof. Neither one of us has heard from you in nearly ten years. You can’t just show up and expect us to invite you to a sleepover so we can braid each other’s hair and share our deepest, darkest secrets.”

“I wish you would. You know I could never stand to be left out.”

“You left yourself out this time,” Jessi said, but gently.

“Well,” Paige said, “you can’t get any clearer than that.”

“I’m not trying to hurt your feelings.”

Paige smiled a little as she slid over and stood. “I know that, Jess. You were always the kindest one of us.”

“Paige—”

“And here comes a handsome man to keep you company,” Paige continued, smiling brightly.

“You don’t have to leave on my account,” Hold said, leaning toward Paige as he did every woman, focusing on her alone and making Jessi’s eyes narrow when he took Paige’s hand. “Hold Abbot,” he said.

“Paige Walker.”

“And don’t I know it.”

Jessi started to slide out of the booth, but Hold dropped down beside her.

“’Scuse me, Ms. Walker,” he said politely. “It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” And he turned his attention to Jessi.

Paige stood there a moment, looking nonplussed, before someone called her name and she turned gratefully to join whoever had just spared her the embarrassment of being so completely passed off.

It was probably the first time in a decade a man had turned his back on Paige. Jessi wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but as she watched Paige stop next to Lance, saw the commiseration on his face, she understood one thing. Coming home was hell.

“What’s so fascinating on the other side of the room?” Hold wanted to know.

“Benji,” Jessi said, relaxing as she caught sight of her son.

Benji met her eyes, at least for a second or two before his gaze shifted to Hold and his bored, sulky expression brightened. He jumped off his chair and ran over to the booth.

Lance didn’t notice.

Jessi knew how she felt about that. Angry, and a little vindicated. He was talking to a movie star, in all fairness, but still.

“Hi, Hold,” Benji said, barreling up to him.

“Mr. Abbot.”

“Hold,” Hold corrected firmly. “You and me’re friends, Ben.”

Ben?

“Friends,” Benji said with a goofy, happy grin on his face.

As long as he was grinning like that Jessi didn’t care what Hold called him.

“So what’s going on?” Hold asked him.

Benji shrugged, tossed a look over his shoulder. “I was having dinner with my dad, but he said he’s gotta go.”

“What?” Jessi lurched forward to see around Hold. She couldn’t have cared less about the black look Lance sent Hold’s way. “Did he say good-bye to you?” she asked her son.

“Yep.”

“And you finished your dinner, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes in Hold’s direction.

“Moms,” Hold agreed solemnly. “They can be a pain in the butt—”

“Hey!”

“But where would we be without them, Ben?”

“You got a point, son,” Benji said in such a cute little mimic of Hold it was all Jessi could do not to laugh out loud. Then he laughed, and it was all she could do not to cry.

Benji’s laughter was such a happy sound. Despite her own confusing welter of emotions—resentment for Lance, pride over the way Benji was handling himself, the struggle to ignore Hold’s nearness—Jessi was ridiculously grateful her son was happy.

Maggie took Benji from happiness to ecstasy when she collected him to play video games with her.

The only trouble was, Jessi thought, that left her alone with Hold. Which was exactly what Maggie had intended.

The rat.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Hold said, bumping Jessi’s shoulder companionably with his.

She looked at him, smiled thinly. “I was thinking about Maggie.”

Being a meddlesome busybody, Hold would have bet. “She cares about you.”

“She definitely knows the way to Benji’s heart.” Jessi smiled more easily now. “He’s getting pretty fond of you, too.”

“He’s a likeable kid. Who’d’ve guessed with you for a mom?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It was meant as one,” Hold said, tamping down on his irritation. No wonder she was guarded, he thought—what with Lance Proctor showing up out of nowhere, and now Paige Walker and whatever they’d been discussing so intensely. Hold wanted to scoop Jessi onto his lap and soothe the shadows away from her face.

He’d get an elbow in his gut for his troubles, most likely. Jessica Randal was nothing if not self-sufficient.

“You ought not to worry about Benji so much,” he said anyway.

“It’s my job, along with washing his clothes, feeding him, and seeing he gets an education.”

“And making sure he’s happy?” Hold bumped her again, stayed shoulder to shoulder this time. “Who makes you happy, Jessica?”

She nudged him back. “I do.”

“Yeah,” Hold said glumly, still fighting to keep his hands to himself—instead of shaking some sense into her. “Why is that, exactly? Why can’t you lean a little, just once in a while?”

She exhaled heavily. “It’s complicated.”

“It’s about your mother,” Hold corrected.

“My mother was a saint.”

“And that’s just the problem— No, don’t fire up on me,” he said when he saw temper spark in her lovely green eyes. “I only meant she set a hell of an example, from what I’ve been told by everyone who knew her, and I know you feel you have to live up to it.”

“Well, of course I do.”

“Including the part where she spent the rest of her life alone after your dad died, except for you and Benji.”

“She made the choice to put me—us—first.”

“Exactly. It was a choice. Do you think she’d want you to be alone for the rest of your life, too?”

“Doesn’t he deserve that?”

“He deserves a mom who’s happy.”

“Who says I’m not happy?” She reared back. “You? And you’re going to fix that for me?” She crossed her arms, fuming. “Happiness starts inside you, Hold. If it’s not there to begin with, looking to someone else is asking for heartbreak.”

“I’m aware, Jessica, but you’re so bright and giving…” He spread his hands, missing the words to capture the exact essence of everything she had to offer. “You weren’t made to spend the rest of your life alone,” he finished helplessly.

“You don’t know the first thing about the real me.”

“And you do?” Hold leaned in, kept his voice down as she had, but he let all the frustration he felt, all the disappointment, show. “When you make a decision, large or small, what do you base it on?”

“Logic, consequences…I weigh the facts and—”

“And then you ask yourself what your mother would have done. You’re living your life according to the idealized version of a woman you might not have known as well as you think, Jessi.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that she was human.”

“And so am I. It’s all right to make mistakes, right? That’s what you’re going to say next.”

“The only mistake I can see you’ve made was in choosing Lance Proctor, but you handled the consequences with a hell of a lot more maturity than most teenagers. And if Lance wasn’t such an ass—”

“He was young, too, Hold.”

And now she was defending him, Hold thought. He’d wanted to maneuver her into his own arms, not Lance’s. “Sure, but I figure it’s my luck you didn’t marry him. Don’t roll your eyes at me,” he added when she did just that. “I’m not saying all this to get you in bed.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want a relationship, and they don’t come with guarantees. People try each other on. Sometimes they fit; sometimes they don’t want to make alterations to be together.” He held up a hand before she could fire back. “And in your case, there are two people to get to know.”

“You understand that no matter how you and I fit, Hold, if Benji is unhappy—”

“It’s a deal breaker. All I want is a chance, Jessica, for all of us.”

She was silent a moment. Hold could almost hear the internal battle being waged before she said, “How am I supposed to argue when you use flattery
and
logic on me?”

“You’re not supposed to.”

She looked up at him, and her lively green eyes sparkled teasingly into his. His mouth went dry, all the moisture burned away in a sudden burst of heat, of need. He eased forward; she stopped him with a hand on his cheek this time, rather than on his chest.

He lifted his gaze from her mouth, met her eyes, soft now with concern and something deeper, hotter. “Not here. Please, Hold.”

“Where?” he rasped. “When? God, Jess, you’re killing me.”

“I keep trying to establish boundaries. You keep ignoring them.”

“There’s something about a line that just naturally makes me want to cross it. ’Specially if you’re on the other side, sugar.”

“How about we take it one day at a time?”

“Does that deal include nights, too?”

“Not this one.” But her lips curved, a little cat-that-ate-the-canary smile that told him it pleased her to know she had that kind of power over him.

Let her feel her oats, he thought, as long as when she got an urge to sow them she sowed them with him. And while he sat there daydreaming, she changed the subject. To him.

“My life?” he said in answer to her question.

“Gen— What you came here for is your hobby,” she prompted, careful not to say too much in a room where they never knew who might be eavesdropping.

And just about the only thing he was willing to talk about. “More than a hobby,” he said. “I take a lot of this kind of research. The pay isn’t great, but I don’t need much, and the work is fascinating. Even when I’m working for a regular, everyday person.

“Once, I traced a postal worker in my hometown back to Marie Antoinette. Not all that much of a stretch, considering the history of the state, but still, pretty good bragging rights for a man who walks the same route day after day.” He’d steered the conversation carefully away from himself.

Not that Jessi noticed, busy searching the room for Benji.

“He’s with Maggie,” Hold said.

Jessi relaxed back into her seat. “It’s getting pretty late. I should get him home.”