Moonlight Cove (22 page)

She looked startled by the comparison. “After yesterday, how can you ask that? I think you’ll be able to keep things fresh and exciting for a very long time.”

He smiled. “Good to know,” he said, though he doubted it would be that easy. He imagined that making love, even spectacularly, could drift into a familiar pattern after a while unless a couple really worked to keep the sparks alive. He’d never been with anyone long enough to test that theory, though. Neither had Jess.

He looked into her troubled eyes. “Jess, what’s really going on in that head of yours? This isn’t just because you forgot to place a couple of orders or messed up a reservation.”

“Probably not,” she admitted. “I guess it made me
realize that I’m never going to grow out of the ADD. It’s always going to be with me.”

“More than likely,” he agreed.

“How can you put up with that?” she asked plaintively.

“Because it’s just one piece of who you are. You have to stop defining yourself by your ADD. You’re Jess O’Brien, owner of a successful inn. You’re beautiful, smart, funny, impulsive, just a little crazy and quite possibly the most exciting woman on the planet.”

She finally allowed herself to smile. “You’re just saying that because you want to get lucky again tonight.”

“I got lucky enough yesterday for a week, though I certainly wouldn’t say no to a repeat performance,” he told her. “My point is that I love
you,
Jess. The whole package.”

“But I’m so flawed,” she said.

Will knew she was serious, but he laughed. “Aren’t we all? Your flaw just happens to have a name. I have a whole list of my own. Stick with me long enough and you’ll have to deal with all of them.”

She regarded him with amazement. “Do you have any idea how good you are for my battered ego?”

He grinned then and beckoned to her. “Come over here and show me.”

She laughed. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

She glanced around his office. “You know, Will, this is one of those times this place could benefit from a couch,” she said as she settled onto his lap.

“I’ll get right on that first thing in the morning,” he
promised, then lowered his lips to hers. “Until then, we’ll just have to do the best we can.”

It was amazing to discover just how clever they could be.

Thomas had suddenly vanished, or so it seemed to Connie. She hadn’t seen him since the Sunday dinner at the O’Briens, and she’d heard from him only once. She had no idea what to make of it, and she was almost afraid to call and ask him what was going on.

Now that they had Nell’s blessing and the fear of family conflict had abated, was he bored with her? She hated that so many doubts had surfaced, and hated even more her unwillingness to make the call that could resolve them. What was she? Sixteen?

Unfortunately, as she sat staring at her phone, willing it to ring, or maybe trying to convince herself to pick it up herself and use it, Jake walked in.

“You look gloomy,” her brother declared. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Connie, you’ve never been the kind of woman to sit around and sulk with no reason.”

“I am not sulking,” she retorted indignantly. “I’m just thinking about a few things.”

“Such as?”

She frowned at him. “Since when do you want to have deep, philosophical discussions about the state of my life?”

“Since you started dating a man I’m not convinced is right for you,” he said. “Is that it? Are you having second thoughts about Thomas?”

“Not at all,” she said at once, then drew in a deep breath. “But he may be having them about me.”

“No way!” Jake said at once.

Connie smiled. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Come on, sis. What’s not to love about you? You’re beautiful, you’ve always had your head on straight, you’re the ultimate nurturer, you’re a terrific cook, and you handle things around here for me as if the job were next to nothing, when I know otherwise.”

“Gee, if I were looking for a new job, that would be great on my resume,” she said wryly. “Are you so sure any of that is what keeps a man interested?”

“Of course it is. Well, except for the part about how smoothly you run this place.” He grinned. “That probably matters more to me than it would to Thomas.”

“Unless I decided to take a job with his foundation,” she said idly.

Jake immediately looked alarmed. “You can’t be serious.”

“No, not really,” she admitted. “Though I do love working with him. It’s probably best, though, if I continue to do that as a volunteer. I’d hate to go to work for the foundation, then have our relationship blow up. How awkward would that be?”

“Has he asked you to consider a job there?” Jake persisted, still looking concerned.

“No, I was just thinking out loud,” she said. She patted his hand. “Not to worry. I’ll still be slaving away here when I’m in my dotage.”

“I know this might not be the most fulfilling job you could ever have, but your being here handling the day-to-day stuff has been a godsend for me. I know everything is under control so I can concentrate on the
landscaping part, which is what I love the most. We’ve been a good team, don’t you think?”

She smiled. “I told you, you can stop fretting. I’m not leaving.”

“But I don’t want you to hate your job. How about a raise?”

She laughed. “I’m not about to turn down a raise, but I wasn’t angling for one.”

“I could make you a partner,” Jake said, his expression turning thoughtful. “Then you’d have a real stake in the company.”

Though the conversation hadn’t started about her career path, Connie couldn’t help being intrigued by the idea. “I certainly don’t have any money to invest,” she reminded him. “Not with Jenny in college.”

“I’d say you’ve earned plenty of sweat equity in the place.”

“Not enough to have controlling interest, I’m sure,” she said, grinning.

“Heaven save me,” Jake said fervently. “No, you don’t get to take over. Let me think about this some more, see what I can work out that’s fair. You interested?”

“Will it mean more work?”

Now he grinned. “No.”

“Just more money,” she said. “Yes.”

“And a bigger say than I have now.”

“You have plenty of say right now,” he said. “You just don’t have control, and you still won’t. My vote will always count more than yours.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s been that way since you were a baby. You had Mom and Dad wrapped around
your finger the day you were born. When you got a little older, you started working on me.”

“Stop complaining. Have I not been the best brother in the entire world?” he taunted. “Was I not there for you when Sam left? Was I not the best uncle ever for Jenny? I even kept her groping boyfriend’s hands off of her.”

“At least as far as we know,” Connie said wryly. “I try not to think about what’s going on now that she’s away from home.”

Jake winced. “Yeah, let’s not go there.” He studied her. “So, are you feeling better about things?”

He looked so hopeful, she could only nod. “I’m feeling a whole lot better about work,” she said truthfully.

Fortunately, Jake was a typical guy. He missed the subtext completely.

“That’s great,” he said. “We’ll talk more in a day or two.”

She shook her head as he left the office whistling, obviously pleased with himself. Then she scowled at the phone on her desk. “Ring, darn it!”

But the other man in her life remained stubbornly silent.

W
ill was having lunch with Mack and Jake when Laila approached, her expression troubled.

“Do you have a minute?” she asked him, after greeting the other men.

“Sure,” Will said. He turned to Mack. “Order a grilled ham and cheese for me, would you?”

“As if you needed to say it,” Jake taunted. “That’s what you have every Thursday.”

Will frowned. “Are you suggesting I’m predictable?”

“Disgustingly so,” Mack agreed, laughing. “There have been bets placed on how long it will be before you actually shake things up and order something different.”

“My money’s on never,” Jake added.

If Laila hadn’t been standing there, Will might have said something more pointed, but he settled for a scowl, then muttered, “I’ll be back, and we’ll finish this conversation then.”

Laila led the way outside and headed toward one of the benches on the town green, still looking grim. Even
after they were seated, she couldn’t seem to summon up a way to get into whatever was bothering her. In a woman he’d always found to be direct and forthcoming, her behavior was uncharacteristically reticent.

“Do you need counseling about something?” Will prodded carefully. “Would you be more comfortable in my office?”

She shook her head. “Truthfully, I don’t know quite how to get into this,” she began, then took a deep breath and added more bluntly, “I think there may be a problem with your dating service. A serious one.”

Alarm bells immediately went off for Will. “What sort of problem?” he asked, dread settling in his stomach.

“Once a match is made, you pass along contact information, right?”

“Only with each party’s permission,” he said. “Why? What’s happened?”

“I’ve been getting some calls in the past week. First, it was just a couple of odd hang-ups, but twice now there have been obscene messages left on my answering machine. I brought the tape.” She reached into her purse and handed it to him.

“Why not take it to the sheriff? And what makes you think it has anything to do with Lunch by the Bay? I’m not questioning you, just asking how you came to that conclusion.”

She nodded, not looking the least bit offended. “The timing, I guess. It could be some random jerk, I suppose, but it started right after I turned down a second date with this one guy I’d met through your company.”

Will winced. “Are you sure it’s the same man leaving the messages?”

“Not a hundred percent, no,” Laila said. “I tried to check the number for the incoming calls, but it’s blocked. I’ve listened to the tape maybe four times now, hoping I could tell for sure if it’s his voice, but I can’t swear to it. I’d had a prior message from the guy before we went out, but I’d erased it as soon as I’d called him back.”

“No reason not to,” Will agreed.

“I came directly to you because I thought maybe you’d want to check it out before the police get involved,” she told him. “If it turns out I’m right and this goes public, it could ruin your company’s reputation. I certainly didn’t want to take a chance on that without proof.”

“Damn the company!” Will said heatedly. “I don’t want my clients harassed like this. It’s wrong. Why don’t we go back to my office right now and call this guy? I’ll put him on speaker phone, and we can compare his voice to the tape. Maybe if we do it together, we’ll know for certain. Then, one way or the other, we’ll go straight to the police.”

Laila nodded. “Thanks. I thought I was a pretty tough woman, but I have to admit these messages shook me up. You’ll see what I mean once you’ve listened to them.”

“I can see how much they’ve disturbed you, and you’re not the kind of woman who gets rattled without good reason,” Will said grimly. “Let’s go and see what we can find out.”

“What about your lunch?”

He gave her a wry look. “Haven’t you heard? It’s the same old boring thing.”

She laughed. “I’ll take you out for something more exciting as soon as we get this resolved,” she offered.

“Sounds like a deal to me.” He studied her as they walked. “You okay?”

She forced a smile. “I will be, as soon as this guy’s off the streets.”

“Until that happens, why don’t you stay with your folks or Trace and Abby?”

“I don’t want them to know about any of this. They’ll just worry. Plus, you know Trace. He’ll never let me hear the end of the fact that I used a dating service in the first place, even yours.”

“Then stay over at the inn with Jess.”

She gave him an amused look. “You going to stand guard over both of us?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I’ll think about it. It makes sense, actually, though I hate giving in to fear.”

“Sometimes fear can be a healthy thing. In this case, I think it’s justified.”

After he’d heard the tape, then placed the call to the man they suspected, Will felt even more strongly about that. When he spoke to Vince, he was careful not to suggest he was aware of the calls to Laila. He acted as if he were only inquiring about how Vince liked the Lunch by the Bay service.

“It’s been great, man!” Vince said enthusiastically. “Thanks to you, I’ve found quite a few women I otherwise wouldn’t have met. I’ve been staying in close contact with a couple of them.”

“Which ones?” Will asked innocently. “I like to know which matches seem to be working out.”

“That Laila from the bank? She’s a real hottie.” He named another client, as well.

Will shuddered as he listened. Though the comment
could have been made in all innocence by any man, there was an unmistakable undertone that set off alarm bells.

Will wondered if the other woman had been receiving the same kind of calls. Rather than saying something that might give away the true reason for his call, Will forced his voice to remain neutral.

“Thanks for the feedback, Vince. I really appreciate it.”

When he’d hung up, he glanced at Laila, who looked as if she’d been sickened by the call.

“He’s done this to someone else, hasn’t he?”

“Possibly,” Will said. “I’ll call her to find out, then I’m turning everything we have over to the police. Okay with you if I have them come here right now?”

She nodded, but her complexion was ashen.

“Want me to call Jess and have her come over here?”

She looked relieved by the suggestion. “Would you? I don’t know why this has shaken me so badly, but I have to admit knowing I was right has turned my stomach.”

“No problem.” He made the call, then explained the situation to Jess. “I think Laila could use your support right now.”

“Give me five minutes,” she said at once.

“Thanks.”

“I’d like five minutes alone with that son of a bitch,” Jess said furiously. “I’d teach him a thing or two about being a real man.”

Though the situation wasn’t even remotely amusing, Will smiled. “That’s one of those things I love about
you. You’re always willing to jump right into the fray for your family and friends.”

“Of course,” she said. “It goes without saying. Tell Laila to hang in there. I’m walking out the door of the inn right now.”

Will disconnected the call and relayed the message. He was about to place the call to the other woman but decided to wait until Jess arrived and could sit with Laila. He’d make the call more privately, then notify the police.

Just thinking about how something he’d intended to be a good thing for the lonely singles of Chesapeake Shores could turn out this way made him want to slam his fist into something. Agreeing with Jess, he thought the most obvious choice would be Vince’s face, or perhaps some other more appropriate part of his anatomy.

Jess was still boiling mad that anyone could have done this to her friend. She’d been tempted to call Connie but had stopped herself, uncertain if Laila would want anyone else to know about the obscene calls.

When she stormed into Will’s office, she found Laila looking pale and shaken, but her usual spirit was sparkling in her eyes.

“Oh, sweetie, this just sucks,” Jess said, pulling her into a hug, then dragging a chair closer, so she could sit right next to Laila.

“How are you doing?” she asked, as Will left the room to make phone calls.

“Better, now that Will’s handling things and you’re here,” Laila said. “On one level, I’m scared to death. I didn’t realize I was until we pretty much confirmed
it was the man I thought it was. It put a face to it, you know?”

“I know,” Jess said.

Laila tried to smile, but it never reached her eyes. “On another level, I’m spitting mad. I’d like to take this guy apart with my bare hands.”

“You wouldn’t have to do it alone,” Jess assured her. “I’m ticked, and I can only imagine how infuriated Will must be.”

“I don’t want something like this to ruin this company of his,” Laila said.

“I’m sure he doesn’t care about that.”

Laila nodded. “That’s what he said. He suggested maybe I should stay with you at the inn until this is settled. Would that work?”

“Absolutely. You can have the room next to mine at no charge, or I can bring a roll-away bed into my room if you’d be more comfortable that way.”

“Will said he’d stand guard.”

Jess chuckled. “I don’t doubt that for a second. I can’t seem to shake him loose these days.”

“Do you want to?”

“No, which surprises the dickens out of me,” she admitted. “Scares me a little, too.”

“I’m glad things are finally working out,” Laila said. “You two wasted a lot of time.”

“More than I’d realized,” Jess said, looking up as Will returned. “How’d it go?”

“The other woman had the same problem but hadn’t told anyone. She’s on her way over. So are the police.”

Laila’s expression brightened. “Then this could be over today?”

Jess worried about her assumption. “Don’t get ahead
of yourself, Laila. The police might have to do their own investigating.”

“She’s right,” Will said. “I made a quick call to Connor to ask him how the police were likely to proceed. He thinks this will be enough to get things started, but even if both of you press charges and Vince is taken into custody, he could be right back out on bail.”

When he arrived, the sheriff’s deputy told them the same thing. He regarded both Laila and the other woman somberly. “If you’ve got someplace else to stay for a while, it might be a good idea to do it. Let’s get this guy behind bars for good before you let down your guard. The reason people like this leave their messages on answering machines is that they’re basically sick cowards. He’s not going to be happy about being identified.”

Will turned to his other client. “You have a place to stay?”

She nodded. “I have an older brother here in town. I can stay with him. I’ll probably need to be there to keep him from killing the guy, anyway.”

The deputy winced. “I did not just hear that.”

Laila smiled at her. “Ditto with mine, which is why I’m not saying a word to him just yet.” She looked pointedly at Jess when she said it. Jess nodded her agreement.

“Okay, then, we’ll go pick this guy up,” the deputy promised. “I’ll stay in touch with you, let you know what’s going on.”

“Thanks,” Will said.

He turned to Laila and the other woman. “Any expenses you have because you’re out of your homes, I’ll cover,” he assured them.

“That won’t be a problem,” the other woman said.

“And Laila’s staying with me,” Jess told him.

Will didn’t look appeased. “I’m just saying, if you need it, the help’s there, and I’m not just saying that because I’m worried about repercussions. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to both of you.”

Laila regarded him with concern. “Will, you’re not to blame yourself for this.”

“I agree,” the other client said. “It could have happened with any other service or in some online chat room. There are sleazy people in the world.”

“I know that,” Will said. “I should have figured out some way to weed them out.”

Jess could see from the deeply troubled expression on his face that he’d taken this incident to heart and placed all the blame squarely on his own shoulders.

Having Laila close by was more fun than Jess had anticipated when she’d made the offer. And, though she didn’t want to admit it, Laila also made a nice buffer between herself and Will. The intensity of their relationship needed to cool down, though she had to admit she missed some of their more impulsive escapades.

“You’re using Laila as an excuse not to spend time alone with me,” Will accused a week into the arrangement. “Why is that?”

“I’m not,” Jess denied automatically, then winced at his penetrating look. “Okay, maybe I am.”

“Why? Were the feelings getting too scary?”

Though she hated to admit to being afraid of anything, she nodded. “I hate that you can read me so darn well.”

He laughed. “I know. It’s a curse, isn’t it?”

“You’re joking, but it’s not that funny,” she retorted.
“I wonder sometimes if it wouldn’t be easier to be in a relationship in which I could remain a woman of mystery.”

“You’d go ballistic the first time some man didn’t know intuitively what was going on in your head.”

“Maybe so,” she said. “But I doubt it.”

“Want to test it?” he asked, regarding her with a challenging look. “You could always date a few guys, then report back.”

“I assume you wouldn’t be the one fixing me up with them,” she said, then realized the implication of her remark. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, as some kind of knock on Lunch by the Bay.”

Though he’d stiffened, Will said, “I knew what you meant, and no, I was most certainly not going to fix you up. I was just offering you a time-out, if that’s what you really want. Go, test the waters.”

Jess was more shaken by the offer than she’d thought she would be. “Do you want to get rid of me? Is that what you’re saying?”

Will’s tense expression immediately fled. He reached out and pulled her close. “God, no,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s the last thing I want.”

She relaxed into his embrace, feeling secure once more. “Good, because it’s the last thing I want, too. As for all this time with Laila, she needs our company right now, and maybe it is good for us to let things simmer for a bit, instead of turning the heat up so high we burn out.”