She looked down, but rather than appear embarrassed, she smoothed her hand down the exceedingly shiny and very purple skirt, which spread outward over an untold number of what appeared to be white lace petticoats, at least from what he could see in the opening that split down the front of the skirt. Then she lifted a hand to carefully straighten her bonnet, and looked him straight in the eye with a small smile that could only be described as saccharine sweet. “Actually,” she said, her voice a syrupy drawl, “why, I was just running a few errands in town before dashing off to save Tara.”He barked out a laugh. Now who was charming whom? “Why, Miss Scarlett, flash one of those smiles, and I do believe you could save Tara and the entire Confederacy, even this deep into Yankee territory.”He watched her mouth soften into a more natural smile, and was pleased with himself more than was wise. Even banged up and bruised, she was a very beautiful woman, but the unexpected wry humor was the far
Just get back on the horse and ride it already! She gave a rueful smile, thinking that sentiment applied to so many things in her life at the moment. Not a single one of which she felt remotely ready to climb back up on, much less let loose for a long ride. And that visual made her thoughts swing right back to Calder Blue. Oh, for the love of . . . She groaned, tempted to pull over, lean forward, and just rap her forehead repeatedly on the steering wheel. However, she’d already been punched in the face with one steering wheel this week, so clearly that wasn’t going to knock any sense into her.She turned into the parking lot of the Rusty Puffin. She’d promised Fi she’d help decorate for the rehearsal party after stashing Alex’s present in Gus’s office, but at the moment her thoughts weren’t on hanging copious quantities of tissue-paper wedding bells and crepe-paper streamers. Her thoughts were still all tangled up with Calder Blue. And climbing up on . . . things. And riding them. Har
“I appreciate the mayoral insight into the new direction the town is taking,” Calder told Owen Hartley. “And the history lesson.” He leaned his hip on the hardware store counter, thinking he could have saved himself a lot of time and energy if he’d just talked to Hartley first. Brodie had mentioned him as a good source on all the goings-on and he’d been spot-on about that. With a good word from Brodie, Owen had already given Calder a general outline of what was happening in terms of town growth and who the main players were and how they all interconnected. For his part, Owen knew Calder was in town at Winstock’s behest, to take on the construction of the yacht club, and that Calder was hoping to use the deal as a way to open dialogue between the two sides of his feuding family, but was curious as to why Winstock would bring him in, in the first place.“I don’t know if it will help you any,” Owen said, brushing off the front of his shop apron. He was a slender man in his late forties w
Owen was nodding his head as Calder spoke. “I share that sentiment.” He took a breath, let out a little sigh. “Well, as the story goes, and this comes not only from journals kept by Blue family members, but from the diaries of other townsfolk, some of which have become part of the public record. At least, if a person were so inclined to want to read them, anyway.”“Something the local historian might have done.”Owen smiled briefly, still looking somewhat troubled over having gotten himself into this particular conversation. “Indeed,” he said. He paused and Calder was just about to ask him where he could gain access to those journals directly when he continued. So Calder fell silent, and simply listened.“When Jedediah and Jeremiah had their disagreement, initially Jed wanted to keep the family empire united, but he didn’t want to be tied down to the Cove. He thought of it as branching out, expanding on the empire rather than splitting it. Jeremiah wouldn’t hear anything of the sort.
“They had a younger sister, Josephine. Her husband died young, shortly after they’d all settled here. She wasn’t even twenty yet, had two babies already, both sons. Story goes that Jo’s husband died soon after Jed had taken off, so Jeremiah took her under his roof and helped raise her kids. Not as his own, per se, but they were Blues, nonetheless. And—Cove history is wishy-washy on this, though I’m sure Jonah has records somewhere—but whatever his sister’s married name had been, those kids used the surname Blue. Jonah descends from them.”Calder took a moment, letting all the information settle a bit.“You have family?” Owen asked.“No kids, if that’s what you mean. I have three brothers. All younger.” He smiled at Owen’s wide eyes. “Two are married, two daughters apiece. The baby is still in college. Not a one of them cares a lick about what’s going on out here.” They’re too busy arguing with me. “So . . . yeah, we weren’t really raised to even think about this side.”“Well, Brooks w
As the door swung shut behind him, Calder squinted at the bright late-morning sunshine. Interesting day. Idling at the curb was the blue beast . . . and a pensive-looking Scarlett. And it’s not even noon yet. He’d expected she’d be testy from being kept waiting. He really needed to stop assuming the worst about her.“Your gravel, ma’am,” he said and motioned toward the trunk.She looked up, clearly startled from her thoughts, making him wonder what had brought that brooding expression to her face. Then her eyebrows climbed even higher. “You. Again.”“Small town,” he replied, motioning again to the trunk.She leaned down and reached around for the lever, then popped the lid for him. “Why are you here?”“According to you? To destroy the Blue family and civilized life in the Cove as you know it.”She gave him an arched look. “I meant here at Hartley’s, but never mind, it’s none of—just never mind. If you could put that in the trunk, I really need to get back over to the pub. Careful, the
He chuckled at the way she’d said that, like a closing statement meant to brook no further comment. “Yeah. You sound overcome with it.”She looked at him squarely then, which drew his fingertip along her cheek, down to her chin. “I’m very happy for my brother. I couldn’t be happier for him.”“Then why do you look so miserable? I figured it was from getting smacked in the face with an air bag. You got some other sort of unrest going on back at the plantation, Miz Scarlett?”She gave him a penetrating, no-bullshit stare, much the same way he imagined she’d look at someone she was about to cross-examine on the stand. It was impressive. But because he wasn’t on trial, it didn’t faze him in the least. He also noted she didn’t shift away from his touch. Now that fazed him.“No unrest. Everything will be fine,” she said. “Is fine.”He smiled, which spread to a grin when she scowled. “Good thing you’re not on the stand right now. You’re perjuring yourself.”Despite herself, she smiled a littl
He searched her eyes, but couldn’t read her. Something was going on in there, likely something that had a lot to do with that uncertainty she’d spoken of when they’d run into each other earlier that morning. He wasn’t sure that should matter. It was her issue. She was an adult, making her own choices.“Good point. So . . . what do you want to do? For fun.”She held his gaze, then slowly straightened in her seat, trapping his fingertips under the seat belt as it was pulled taut once more. “I want to hijack you.”His eyes widened briefly. The exceedingly snug fit of his jeans, however, remained an abruptly increasing concern. “Don’t you have a rehearsal to get to? A sister in dire need of white gravel?”“We can drop the gravel off at Gus’s. She’ll understand the rest. It was her idea, after all.”“I’m thinking maybe I was too quick to judge your sister. We are talking about the same one?”“Crazy chick in the wacked-out bridesmaid dress driving the Prius?” she said, settling in her seat