The Chesapeake Diaries Series 7-Book Bundle: Coming HOme, Home Again, Almost Home, Hometown Girl, Home for the Summer, The Long Way Home, At the River's Edge (44 page)

“Dallas, you remember Steffie Wyler.”

“Steffie? You’re Steffie Wyler? Little Steffie?” Dallas’s brows rose in genuine surprise. “I never would have recognized you. The last time I saw you, you were just a cute little girl, and now here you are, all grown up, and positively gorgeous.”

Behind the counter, Steffie Wyler blushed to her roots.

“All grown up, gorgeous, and quite the entrepreneur, dear. Steffie owns Scoop, and she makes all her ice creams herself.”

“You make up the flavors yourself?” Dallas asked.

Steffie nodded, still apparently too flustered to speak.

“How do you know how to do that?” Dallas pressed her.

“I … I don’t know, I just look at what fruits are available, in season, and try to think of what might taste good together.”

Dallas licked a bit of ice cream that had started to ooze onto her cone.

“This is amazing. Seriously delicious.” Dallas meant every word. It
was
seriously delicious. “I’d say you found your true calling in life. I could become addicted.” She turned to Berry. “I highly recommend the peach pecan.”

“Oh, dear, and I had my heart set on the pineapple coconut … whatever.” Berry frowned.

“Have a scoop of each,” Dallas suggested.

“I couldn’t …”

“Of course you could.” Dallas smiled at Steffie. “Make them small scoops so she can’t complain too much.”

Steffie served Berry, then rested her forearms on the counter and asked Cody, “Have you decided yet?”

Cody nodded.

“What’s it going to be?” Steffie asked.

“Chocolate and strawberry,” he told her solemnly.

“Would you like to try the chocolate peppermint?” Steffie asked. When he nodded, she gave him a sample spoonful.

“Yum.” His face lit with pleasure. “I like that.”

“One scoop of chocolate peppermint and one of strawberry?” she asked.

“Yes, please.” Cody added, “On a cone, please.”

“Maybe you should try a dish,” Dallas suggested, but Cody shook his head. She mouthed the words
small scoops
to Steffie, who complied. Dallas went to the cash register and took her wallet from her bag preparing to pay, when a young girl of perhaps twelve appeared at the register. Steffie stood behind her and showed her how to enter the sale.

Dallas smiled at the girl, who looked away quickly.

“Dallas, this is my niece, Paige.” Steffie met Dallas’s gaze. “My brother Grant’s daughter.”

If Dallas was caught off guard, she did her best to hide it. “How nice to meet you, Paige.”

“Hi.” Paige never took her eyes from the register.

“Dallas is Miss Eberle’s niece, Paige. She used to spend all her summers in St. Dennis,” Steffie explained.

“I
know
that,” Paige muttered rolling her eyes. “Then she went to Hollywood and became a big movie star.
Everyone
knows that.”

“Is your father all settled into his new clinic, Paige?” Berry ignored the girl’s rudeness.

“Yes,” Paige replied.

“Cody, Paige’s father is the veterinarian in St. Dennis,” Berry went on.

“Do you have a dog?” Cody asked.

“We have three,” Paige told him in a flat, too-bored-to-be-bothered voice.

“Three dogs? You have
three dogs
?” Cody’s jaw dropped at the thought of it. “Wow. You are really lucky.”

Paige shot him a look over the top of the cash register, then seemed to soften when she saw how young he was.

“My dad brings in the dogs from the shelter that no one wants to adopt. He said it’s not good for them to stay in the shelter for too long because they get sad,” she told him. “But he has lots of really nice dogs—really good dogs—at the shelter. If you’re looking for one, you should go and see if there’s one you like.”

“Could we, Mom? Could we go take a look?” Cody begged, his ice-cream cone held at a precarious angle.

“We need to talk to Berry about that.” Dallas reached over and righted his hand.

“Berry said she wanted a small fluffy dog that could sit on her lap,” Cody reminded her excitedly. He turned his small face up to Paige and asked, “Are there any small fluffy white dogs that could fit on Aunt Berry’s lap?”

“I help my dad with the animals in the shelter, so I’ll be there later and I can look for you.” Paige smiled for the first time since they’d engaged her. Up until then, Dallas had seen no trace of Grant in Paige, but there, in the smile that turned her mouth up on the
left just slightly more than on the right, she saw the girl’s father, and remembered how that smile had set her world on fire, once upon a time.

“You get to help?” Cody’s eyes were shining with a combination of awe, envy, and admiration. “Whenever you want?”

“Sure. I help out every day.”

“Wow. You really
are
lucky.” He tugged on his mother’s arm. “Mom …”

“It’s a big decision,” Dallas reminded him. “One we can’t make right now, especially since we haven’t decided how long we’re going to stay in St. Dennis. Let’s get ourselves settled before we do something that important.”

“Okay.” Cody’s disappointment was obvious but he chose the high road and didn’t argue. A point in his favor, Dallas noted.

“Whenever you’re ready, you get your mom to bring you to the shelter.” Paige addressed Cody but still had yet to really look at Dallas.

Dallas knew he was dying to press her, but to his credit, he simply told Paige, “Okay.”

“Steffie, it was great to see you again,” Dallas said, ushering Cody toward the door. “I know we’ll be back soon. I have a feeling Scoop might become one of our very favorite places in St. Dennis.”

“I hope so.” Steffie waved and turned her attention to the customer who’d just come into the shop. “Come back anytime.”

“There, now,” Berry said when they were outside. “That was worth a stop, too, wasn’t it?”

“Besides the fabulous ice cream, yes. I was glad to see Steffie. I remember her as such a precocious little
thing.” Dallas smiled at the memory. “So nice to see how she’s grown up and has her own successful business. Her family must be very proud of her.”

“Of course they are.” Berry walked along the boards. “Where would you like to go now?”

“I don’t know. How many places am I supposed to visit today?”

“Maybe just a few shops on Charles Street.” Berry paused. “But I think I might like to drive up and park in one of those little lots so I won’t have to walk so far. The heat is starting to get to me.”

“Are you all right, Berry?” Dallas’s eyebrows knit in concern. She couldn’t remember a time when the heat of summer had prevented Berry from doing anything.

“Of course I am. It’s just a long way to walk in the hot sun if you don’t have to. And since the car is close by, I don’t have to.”

Berry had driven her old Mercedes sedan, telling Dallas, “I’ll drive, dear. We don’t want any of the tourists to know what car is yours, or you’re liable to be followed every time you venture out on your own.”

“I thought you said someone already saw me when I drove into the driveway yesterday.”

“Oh, that was Tom. He’s probably already forgotten that he saw you,” Berry had assured her. “Besides, he’s an old friend. He wouldn’t give you away.”

They returned to the car, and Berry drove to Charles Street, where she found a parking spot in a lot behind Book ’Em. They went into the bookshop through the back door, and Berry reintroduced Dallas to the owner, Barbara Noonan, who had, once upon
a time, been Berry’s next-door neighbor and who now lived five houses away.

“Barbara, do you remember my grand-niece, Dallas?” Berry smiled, knowing Barbara often bragged about how well she knew the family.

“Of course.” Barbara beamed, and with a smile, excused herself from the customer she was assisting, who did a triple take when she saw Dallas. “I heard you were here for a visit. And this is your little boy …”

And on it went for the next hour, from Book ’Em to Bling, the upscale women’s boutique a few doors down, where Dallas was introduced to Vanessa Keaton.

“Her brother is our wonderful chief of police. He was married just recently to a lovely girl. They had the most beautiful wedding,” Berry noted while Dallas looked through a colorful pile of T-shirts. “Oh, but you must remember Gabriel Beck, Dallas.”

“Of course I do. And you did tell me about the wedding.” Dallas smiled at Vanessa. “Please tell him I said hello and congratulations when you talk to him.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.” Vanessa beamed, and Dallas was pretty sure she’d be relaying the greeting by phone the minute Dallas left the shop.

A few minutes later, she’d selected several pairs of shorts and a few matching tops, then it was across the street to Cuppachino. They ordered lattes that were every bit as good as Berry promised, and chatted with Carlo, the owner, and several of the patrons.

“Berry, I see you dragged Dallas in for an iced latte.” Grace Sinclair waved from a table near the front window.

“I didn’t have to be dragged,” Dallas told her, and without hesitation, went to the table and leaned over to hug the older woman. “How are you, Miss Grace?”

“I’m very well, dear.” Grace smiled broadly.

“You look wonderful. Cody, come meet Miss Grace.” Cody stood shyly behind his mother. “Miss Grace is a dear friend of Aunt Berry’s and mine …”

After twenty minutes in the coffee shop, where Dallas did her best to ignore the whispers among the startled patrons, Dallas gave Grace a good-bye hug after promising an exclusive piece about her recollections of her childhood summers spent in St. Dennis for Grace’s newspaper.

“No more, Berry,” Dallas pleaded when they reached the sidewalk. “Let’s leave a few shops to visit another day.”

“All right, dear.” Berry led the way back to her car. “I’m sure that by now, phone lines all over St. Dennis are simply abuzz. You did very well, Dallas.”

“Oh, it wasn’t an act. Actually, I enjoyed myself.” They’d reached the car and were settling in, the doors open momentarily to let the hot air trapped inside the sedan to escape. “I can honestly say that there wasn’t one person I saw today that I wasn’t genuinely happy to see.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Berry smiled, obviously pleased. “Sincerity always plays so well.”

For Berry, all the world really
is
a stage
, Dallas mused as they drove back to the big house overlooking the river, and it probably always would be. Dallas had no doubt that if she had given her aunt any encouragement at all, they’d still be up on Charles
Street, shopping and chatting and renewing old acquaintances that would, as Berry insisted, offer some protection once word spread that she and Cody were in St. Dennis.

It’s already out there
, Dallas reflected after she’d tucked in Cody that night. She’d not been oblivious to the number of cell phones and small cameras that had been directed her way that afternoon while she was on the sidewalk or in the shops. While they’d been in Cuppachino visiting with Grace, every now and then she saw the flash of a camera, but pretended not to notice. The only concession she made to the picture takers was to keep Cody between her and Berry, so he’d not appear in any of the shots. So far, no one had approached her, and no one had made a big deal out of her presence, so maybe there was something to Berry’s theory.

We’ll see
, Dallas thought as she pulled on an old favorite nightshirt that she’d earlier found in the bottom drawer of her dresser and tossed into the washer after dinner. She told herself she wanted to wear it just for old times’ sake, but she knew it was more than that.

She wanted to feel the way she used to feel in this house, to remember the sure belief that the whole world was waiting for her, that she’d grow up to be a huge star and that her life would be beautiful, filled with success and love that would last forever and happiness that would never fade. Well, she had become a big star, that much came true. But as for the rest of it, well, some part of her still wanted to believe that it could all still happen. Her divorce would be
final soon and she’d be free to move on. She hoped she’d be wiser in her next relationship.

Assuming, she thought wryly, that there’d be such a thing. How do you know who you can trust not to cheat on you?

Dallas sat in the dark on the window seat and looked out on the night. The moon rose high and full, and she couldn’t help but think back to all those summer nights she’d sat right there, dreaming of the glorious days she just knew were waiting for her. Mostly, she’d been waiting for Grant Wyler to appear on the lawn under the window.

“Hey,” he’d call up in as loud a whisper as he dared.

“Hey, yourself.” She’d raise the screen and sit on her knees and lean out the window as far as she could without falling. “What are you doing here?” she’d ask, even though she knew.

“Came to see you, what do you think I’m doing?” Even through the dark, she’d sensed his smile, and a little thrill ran through her, every time.

Dallas sighed at the memory. Those days had been filled with innocence and exploration, of love that had yet to be tested but was nonetheless true. She’d never forgotten the girl she’d been then, or the first boy who’d won her heart.

Back then, it had been easier to trust. She hadn’t yet learned that people weren’t always as they seemed, that marriage wouldn’t always guarantee happiness, and that true love didn’t necessarily last forever.

It had been odd this afternoon in Scoop, seeing his daughter, searching for traces of him in her face, and wondering—in spite of her resolve not to—what the woman he’d married was like.

*   *   *

“Stef, slow down, will you?” Grant Wyler tucked the phone against his shoulder and skimmed the patient chart of the Chesapeake Bay retriever who at that moment shivered with trepidation in the vet’s waiting room. “Who was where …?”

“Dallas MacGregor.” Steffie was all but out of breath with excitement. “In my shop. Eating my ice cream.”

“Oh.” Dallas was in town? He’d been caught off guard, and for once, couldn’t think of anything clever to say.

“She is so gorgeous,” Steffie gushed. “And she didn’t have much makeup on and she was dressed just like anyone would be. Nothing fancy or too frou frou, you know? She’s staying at her aunt’s house. I guess all that scandal about her husband got to be too much for her. At least, that’s what they’re saying on TV.”