Redemption Bay (Haven Point Book 2) (Contemporary Romance) (9 page)

“He asked you to give up your life and your job in Chicago to come back here and, just like that, you did it?”

“Of course.” She was a little surprised he even made it sound like a question. “He needed help. What else could I do?”

“I don’t know. He could have sold his holdings or taken on someone local to manage them for him.”

“Great advice. I have two words for you. Fletcher Barnes.”

He winced at the reminder of the property manager he had hired, who had caused such trouble here while Ben wasn’t paying attention. “Point taken.”

“Here’s the thing. I had a great job in Chicago and they were very good to me there. I had friends and an active social life, but it only took me a few weeks back home to realize I was much happier here.”

“Do you still manage your father’s business interests?”

She shook her head. “He died of another heart attack about six months after I came back. I consider those six months a gift. He and I spent a great deal of time together—out on the water, hiking in the mountains, watching old movies together.”

Rika made a little snuffly noise in her sleep and McKenzie smiled over at her dog and at a sudden tender memory. “He even gave me Rika for my birthday, a few months after I came back. Adele would never let Devin or me have pets. She thought they were too much trouble and didn’t like the mess, but since I had moved into a little rental of my own up near the Hell’s Fury, Dad thought I needed a fierce guard dog to keep me company. You can see how well that turned out. She’s great company and I truly adore her but she’s not so great in the fierce-guard-dog arena.”

“We all have our strengths.”

She laughed. “Yes. Rika’s strength is that she loves everyone. She’s a great salesperson in the store, though somebody could probably rob me blind and she would just lick them to death.”

“I’m learning Hondo is quite social for a German shepherd, but he’s protective enough to get the job done.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do with him?”

He gazed at the two dogs. “No,” he answered. “I’m looking around for a good home. Are you sure Rika doesn’t want some company? Between the two of them, they would scare away even the hardiest of intruders for you.”

She smiled, entirely too drawn to him here in the moonlight. “Tempting. But no. One dog is more than enough for me to handle.”

“I’ll figure something out. Maybe Aidan will take him here at Snow Angel Cove. He’s already got a couple of dogs. He probably won’t notice one more.”

“Or you could keep him, as your friend intended.”

He made a face. “That’s probably not going to happen. But anyway, back to you. You ran your father’s holdings here. Then what? How did you move from Point A to Point Made Flowers and Gifts?”

He was very quick to change the subject when it touched on uncomfortable topics he didn’t want to discuss. She thought about pressing him, then decided this was another area that wasn’t her business.

“After my father died, Devin and Adele and I decided to sell everything. I used my share of the inheritance to buy my store—which is everything I could have dreamed and more.”

“Sounds like you’ve figured things out.”

She frowned as he poked a spot she never realized was tender. “For me, yes. I’m no COO of a Fortune 500 company. I run a small floral and gift shop in a tiny struggling town in Idaho. It might not be much, but I’ve worked hard to make it a success and I couldn’t be happier.”

She regretted her testy tone as soon as she heard it out loud.

“I have nothing but admiration for anyone who finds something she truly loves.”

“I suppose I can be a little touchy. Sometimes I wonder if I should be doing more with my MBA, but I truly do love living here. When I try to imagine myself doing something else, leaving Haven Point, the picture just won’t jell, you know?”

“I get it,” he answered.

He sounded sincere and genuinely interested in the choices she had made that led her here.

It made it difficult to blow on the embers of her anger at him. She was finding it increasingly tough to remember her objective when the two of them were alone on a lovely summer evening with flames dancing in the gas fire pit and stars spreading out above them in a bright spangle.

She was supposed to be convincing him of the wisdom of moving the new Caine Tech facility to Haven Point. This would probably be a good place for her to talk about how great the town was—about the decent, hardworking people who lived here, who only wanted opportunities to keep their children from moving away.

No. She wouldn’t push the matter tonight. No sense belaboring the point and stirring up possible conflict between them.

The impulsive decision had nothing to do with those butterflies or the warm light in his eyes or the lovely evening with its sweetly scented breeze.

That’s what she told herself, anyway.

Though she was tempted to sit out here with him in this quiet peace for two or three more hours, she didn’t think that would be very wise, either.

“I should probably go. I’ve got an early-morning meeting with the police chief.”

She was flattered to see what looked like disappointment flash in his gaze—though, again, that might have been the result of an extremely overactive imagination.

“Of course.”

She stood up and started to clear away dishes but Ben held out a hand.

“Don’t worry about things here. I can take care of the cleanup.”

“And I can help,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone that discouraged arguments.

She picked up as many dishes as she could carry and headed into the house. The kitchen was small but modern, with gleaming granite countertops and stainless appliances—much nicer than her own.

She rinsed her plate. “Clean or dirty?” she asked, gesturing to the dishwasher.

“Dirty. But, again, I can load them. You’re a guest.”

She simply smiled and set them in along with a few other plates and a couple of cereal bowls. “I don’t mind helping,” she answered.

“I get the feeling you’re someone who likes to be in charge.”

“Sometimes,” she admitted.

Okay, most of the time. She had become used to taking care of herself from an early age. Her mother had been sick for two years before she died, so McKenzie had been forced to step up.

After she came here, her father had done his best to reinforce that she didn’t need to work for her room and board. Despite his best efforts, McKenzie had always felt the need to please both him and Adele and was always taking on tasks without being asked.

“Is that a problem for you?” she asked Ben now. “Most men are a little threatened by a strong woman.”

“Only weak men are threatened by strong women. Lucky for me, I’m not a weak man.”

He was standing very close, she suddenly realized, so close, she could smell that delicious soap again, the clean, masculine scent of him. Something flared in his gaze, something that left her suddenly breathless, dizzy.

She opened her mouth to draw a breath and saw his gaze land there, almost as if he wanted to kiss her.

He didn’t edge forward but she sensed his muscles gathering to do it. Before he could pass that point of no return, she edged away, toward the door.

So much for all her talk about being a strong woman. If she were truly as strong and sure of herself as she liked to think, she would be making out with Ben Kilpatrick right now.

She was fiercely attracted to him and was beginning to think—amazing as it seemed—that he just might be feeling the same. She wouldn’t do anything about it, however. The situation between them was complicated enough without throwing that into the mix.

She swallowed hard and forced a casual smile that made her feel as if her face was going to crack into fake little pieces. “Thanks for dinner. Next time, my treat.”

He watched her, his eyes unreadable. “I’ll look forward to it,” he murmured.

The butterflies inside her seemed to go into hyperdrive. “I’ll see you later, then. Good night.”

She gave him another of those quick, fake smiles and hurried outside.

“Come on, Rika. Time to go home.”

The dog whined a little but in the end, she brushed noses with Hondo, lumbered to her feet and followed McKenzie as she hurried across the lawn to the safe solitude of her house.

* * *

W
HAT
JUST
HAPPENED
HERE
?

Had he really come a heartbeat away from almost kissing the stubborn, frustrating, beautiful mayor of Haven Point?

Ben stood in the kitchen of the rental house, trying to figure out if he was more astonished at himself for nearly kissing her or more disappointed that she had pulled away before he could follow through.

McKenzie Shaw was a lovely woman. She was also completely unavailable to him—
so
unavailable, in fact, that he couldn’t believe he had entertained the impulse to kiss her for even an instant, no matter how softly romantic the evening had been.

He had a feeling McKenzie was the sort of woman who wouldn’t be happy with a quick affair, no matter what sort of currents zipped between them, and that’s all he wanted.

He enjoyed short-term, casual relationships with women who expected very little from him. He had always told himself he wasn’t interested in anything more—especially not terrifying words like
marriage
and
family
.

His home life as a kid had been an exercise in misery—dysfunctional didn’t begin to cover it—and his job had always been where he felt confident, comfortable. Safe.

Even as he thought it, his mind traveled toward Aidan and Eliza, seeing the two of them draw closer together these past several months.

Lately, he found himself watching his best friend with the woman he had fallen for and her little girl. Aidan had become a different person, more relaxed, more lighthearted.

They were like two lost, wandering souls who had finally found their way to each other.

While he might envy Aidan a little for the peace he had found with Eliza, Ben had no intention of following the path the two of them had laid out.

He was perfectly happy with his life the way things were.

Materially, he had everything he could possibly want. A beautiful house in the hills outside San Jose and another one on Big Sur. A private jet at his disposal. A career he loved.

Because of him, his mother had enough money for beautiful houses in Tuscany
and
Paris if she wanted. He was fiercely proud of all he had achieved, despite his father’s harsh voice in his head, telling him he would never amount to anything.

Hondo scratched on the door to come back in. The dog greeted him with that same constant, dopey affection. He scratched at the sweet spot between his ears.

Okay, maybe lately Ben had sensed an emptiness to his life, a certain sort of
void
he wasn’t sure how to fill. He certainly didn’t need to start by jumping into something with a woman as completely inappropriate as McKenzie Shaw.

She was the last person who should interest him, whether he was looking for a quick fling or something longer term. She was inexorably linked to this town, like the crystal-blue waters of Lake Haven and the steep, craggy peaks of the Redemption Mountains.

He would just have to be careful to keep things between them on a purely professional basis. As they had enjoyed a lovely evening together, he could only hope maybe she wouldn’t give him the skunk eye every time she saw him.

He decided to consider that progress.

CHAPTER EIGHT

H
ER
FIRST
OFFICIAL
Lake Haven Days as mayor was turning out to be an unqualified success.

McKenzie couldn’t help the burst of pride as she walked back up Lake Street after climbing out of Carl Christopher’s beautifully restored 1959 Thunderbird at the end of the parade route.

She had been half dreading the parade since her election in November. A whole hour of being the center of attention, of having to wave her little heart out and be “on” for all that time seemed exhausting and, quite honestly, more than a bit mortifying.

In reality, riding with the city council near the beginning of the parade in Carl’s beautiful red convertible—behind the grand marshal—had actually been tons of fun.

It provided an entirely new perspective, the chance to see everybody along the parade route—small children waving little flags in honor of Independence Day, teenagers trying to look too cool to catch the taffy and bubble gum tossed their way, the older people on their lawn chairs clustered in groups who waved back with enthusiasm and vigor and clapped along with the military marching band coming up behind the convertible.

A dozen times during the parade, she had been aware of a goofy, warm burst of pride as she smiled at neighbors and friends on the perfect July morning, with the beautiful lake and mountains as a backdrop. Her town. How grateful she was to be part of it.

As she had been riding at the beginning of the parade, she decided to walk back to the grandstand at the intersection of Lake Street and Main to catch the last half. Though she had quite a walk, she didn’t mind. It gave her a chance to wave again and even stop to visit with a few people along the way.

She paused on her way to watch the high school band go past and couldn’t help thinking how much they had improved since the year before, thanks in large part to the infusion of a musical family with two sets of twins at the high school.

“Great parade, Mayor,” a woman’s voice called out.

She glanced over and found Eppie and Hazel, along with Eppie’s husband, Ronald, the surviving husband who squired around both sisters.

“Thank you, my dear,” she answered Eppie. She headed toward them and leaned down to kiss both their wrinkled cheeks along with Ronald’s. He smiled at her but said nothing—which wasn’t unusual for him.

“Why, in all our years here, I think this is one of the very finest Lake Haven Days parades we’ve ever seen,” Hazel said. “And it’s so wonderful that it’s on July Fourth this year.”

Eppie’s blue eyes twinkled at her sister. “You just like all those hunky firefighters who came through first.”

Hazel cooled herself vigorously with a red, white and blue fan. “Not true,” she protested in indignation, then gave an impish grin. “It was all those soldiers who came through before the firefighters. You know I do love a man in uniform.”

They both gave earthy laughs that made McKenzie shake her head. “Ronald, make these women behave themselves.”

He gave her a long-suffering look, the darling. “Believe me, I wish I could.”

She laughed and kissed his cheek again, hugged both women and continued on her way.

After several more stops to chat, she made it to the courthouse, where special guests had positions of honor on risers brought over from the baseball field at the high school.

This is where the city council members’ families sat to wait for them as well as members of the Lake Haven Days organizing committee, the grand marshal’s family and other town dignitaries.

Much to her surprise, Ben was sitting on the third row back wearing a baseball cap and sandwiched between Carmela Rocca and Roxy Nash, who looked as if they were talking over each other a mile a minute.

He spotted her and sent her a helpless
save me
sort of look, which she ignored. Instead, she gave him a smile and wave and headed over to sit by Edwin and Archie.

As it turned out, she had been so busy visiting on her way back to the grandstand that she caught only about five minutes of actual parade. She was able to see the search-and-rescue mounted posse riding past in formation, followed by a couple of young teens on an all-terrain vehicle and wagon on horse manure cleanup duty. After that came a flatbed trailer hauling one of the junior dance troupes, then Mike Bailey’s classic blue pickup bearing poster-board signs promoting his friend Luis Robles’s insurance company, and then finally one more patrol car to signal the parade was over.

Everybody clapped and stood up as it went past and the Lake Haven Parade became just another memory.

“Great parade, Mayor,” Edwin said with his customary smile.

“Thanks, but I didn’t have much to do with it. Marie and her committee did a great job,” she said, smiling at Marie, who had somewhat reluctantly agreed to organize the event this year.

Ben looked as if he was trying to head in her direction but he kept getting waylaid by people trying to talk to him.

She was struck again by the memory of that moment in his kitchen when he had almost kissed her. In the five days since, she had relived that moment a hundred times—the pulse of blood in her ears, the catch in her breathing, the thick anticipation curling through her.

And then the raw disappointment and regret when she had walked away.

She hadn’t seen him since, other than occasional glimpses in the evenings as he threw a ball for Hondo in the yard and once when she watched the two of them take off for a sunset cruise in his Killy.

How much longer would it take for him to realize he loved that dog and wouldn’t be able to find him a new home?

“Nice parade, Mayor.”

She turned at the welcome distraction from her thoughts to find one of her least favorite people in town, Gil Franklin.

“Thanks, Gil.”

The man considered himself her biggest rival. She mostly considered him a pain in the butt. He had served as mayor three consecutive terms until health reasons forced him to step down.

She hadn’t been completely truthful when she told Ben no one else had wanted the job. Gil would have liked to keep the job as mayor until his deathbed but his wife decided twelve years was long enough.

He made no secret that he thought she was far too young and inexperienced to do a good job as city administrator and was continually offering her what he probably thought was kindly advice but which she took as anything but kind.

“Personally, I wouldn’t have permitted those belly dancers, but I guess some people must not share my delicate sensibilities.”

“Apparently not.”

Ordinarily, she would have laughed at this overt criticism but this was the same kind of caustic nonsense he always tried to pull and she was growing a little tired of it.

“It was nice to see old Coach Radford as the grand marshal. Good man. Good man.”

“He is, indeed.”

“He led the Haven Point Eagles to an undefeated season and state championship back when my oldest was on the football team.”

“Yes. I know. That’s one of several reasons he was selected. That and his many years of service on the library board of directors.”

“He’s a great coach—but I do have to say, I find him a bit of an interesting choice this year, don’t you think?”

Not at all. She had even been the one to suggest Coach Radford’s name to the Lake Haven Days committee.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

Gil shrugged and his mustache quivered. “It’s just that I would have thought Aidan Caine the logical choice, considering how we all hope he has big plans to revitalize this town. Never hurts to send a few perks the man’s way. You can’t go wrong with a genuine gesture of goodwill.”

If they had selected Aidan, Gil would have found some reason to complain with the choice. She made herself smile politely.

“Good advice, as always. Thanks, Gil. We’ll definitely take that into consideration for next year.”

He gave a careful look around to see who might be standing near them before he turned back to her and spoke in a low voice.

“Speaking of Caine, what’s the story with Ben Kilpatrick coming back to town after all these years? Are he and Aidan up to something together?”

She wouldn’t tell him, even if she could, which made her feel about eight years old. “That’s something you’re going to have to take up with Ben, Gil.”

“I just might do that,” he said pompously. “We have the right to know what they’re planning for our town. The town hall meeting Aidan had with everyone after the holidays was well and good, where he talked about how he wants to revitalize the downtown area and some of his plans for new businesses, but I, for one, would like to see a few more specifics before we roll over and let the likes of Ben Kilpatrick walk all over us.”

“Nobody is letting anyone walk anywhere.”

“Ben Kilpatrick. Well, personally I think he’s got serious balls to show up after all he’s done to destroy this town. He ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Instead, everybody’s sucking up to him like he’s some kind of hero. When I think of all the times I tried to get him to do something with the property he owned here during my time as mayor, I get mad enough to chew nails.”

As annoyed as she could get with Gil, the reminder felt as if he had poked her under the ribs with one of those figurative nails he wanted to chew.

She looked around the downtown area at all the shuttered buildings, the peeling paint. Aidan was working on revitalizing the buildings but it was a slow process, one property at a time.

If only Caine Tech would move the facility here, perhaps her town could begin to heal again. How could she convince Ben?

“He’s here now,” she said to Gil. “There’s a chance we can all work together to turn things around in Haven Point, but not if we let anger and resentment for the mistakes of the past stand in the way of progress. He trusted the wrong people and they took advantage of him and of this town and he didn’t care enough to check on them. Great harm was done here. We all know that, but at some point, we have to let that anger go and move on, for the good of Haven Point.”

Gil suddenly looked over her shoulder with a pained sort of look and she knew before she even heard his voice that when she turned, she would find Ben standing there.

“Nice speech, Mayor.”

How much had he heard? Most of it, probably. She could feel her face heat to be caught talking about him—but she hadn’t said anything to Gil that she hadn’t already said to Ben.

“I’m glad you think so,” she answered. “I’m working on letting go of my anger. Can you say the same?”

He gazed down at her out of those blue eyes the same color as the lake. For one arrested moment, she felt as if the rest of the crowd had just slipped away. The noise and laughter, the traffic that had resumed after the parade—all of it seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of them standing with a sweet summer breeze blowing off the lake.

With perfect, almost painful, clarity, she remembered that moment in his kitchen—the house settling around them, the tingling in her stomach, the soft hoot of an owl outside.

Oh, for crying out loud. She needed to shove that memory away once and for all. He hadn’t kissed her, thank heavens. She could still hold on to a
little
bit of sanity.

She drew in a sharp breath and jerked her gaze away. “Ben. You remember Gil Franklin. He was the previous mayor.”

Ben nodded to the older man. “Hello. Good to see you again. I went to school with your son, Scott, right?”

“Right. My oldest. The two of you played ball together.”

“I remember. He was a great shortstop with a hot bat. How is he?”

“Good. Good. He still plays in a couple of rec leagues and still has a hot bat. He’s an electrician in Boise. You would not
believe
the work coming his way. He could work round the clock if he wanted. He and his wife built a house last year that has to be five thousand square feet, at least, with six bedrooms and a four-car garage, including a guest suite that’s like a four-star hotel. The wife and I go stay with them whenever we can and it’s like having our own little condominium in the city.”

“That’s great. Good for Scott.”

Ben sounded genuinely happy for the other man, something she found a little endearing. Compared to his own success as the chief operating officer at Caine Tech, a five-thousand-square-foot house, even with a four-star guest suite, was probably nothing.

Gil went on to talk about his two other children, girls much younger than Ben that he probably had never even met, but Ben still made polite conversation with the man and seemed genuinely interested.

It offered fresh perspective on the man she wasn’t completely comfortable about, that he could share small talk and set others at ease. She didn’t know how long Gil would have kept up the mostly one-sided conversation if his wife, Nancy, hadn’t stepped up with an impatient look.

“Gil, we’d better go. Aren’t you supposed to be selling brooms and raffle tickets for the Lions Club over at the fair? Hi, McKenzie.”

She smiled at Mrs. Franklin, who volunteered at the library several days a week. “Hello. Good to see you.”

“If I didn’t have my wife to keep me on schedule, I wouldn’t remember to breathe in the morning—at least according to her.” Gil shook his balding head. “But she’s right, I do have to run. Good to talk to you, Kilpatrick.”

How had Gil so easily shifted from being antagonistic and angry toward Ben to just about eating out of his hand? Ben had a way of making people think he was genuinely interested in them. Was it an act or sincere? And had she been stupid enough to fall for the same thing?

After Gil and Nancy took off for the fair, she and Ben were alone—except for the dozens of other people still hanging out at the grandstand, anyway.

“So,” she began. “You haven’t been to a Lake Haven Days in years.”

“Looks like a few more people come out than I remember.”

“It’s become a big summer event in the region. People come from miles around to enjoy the lake and our quaint small-town celebration. There are a dozen activities going on around town. A quilt show, an antiques sale, a craft fair over at Lake Park. There’s a baseball tournament over at the sports complex all day long and a tractor pull over at the fairgrounds. Oh, and don’t forget the wooden boat festival. There’s a regatta down at the marina and a boat show. People come from hundreds of miles away to show off their boats. You’ll see plenty of Kilpatricks.”