Chapter 2

"Summer, calm down." Tim Avery put his palms up and rounded his enormous walnut desk in his enormous, expensively decorated office, with his enormous girth jutting over his belt.

Normally, I liked our attorney, Tim. I hadn't the need to call on him often through the years, but he'd always been patient and composed. There was no calming me now. I'd pushed through the outer glass doors on Main Street, marching right past his flustered secretary and into his office down the hall. He'd taken one look at me and ended his phone call.

"She wants to take the house from me!"

"Look, I was filing away some old documents and discovered the discrepancy. I contacted her lawyer to work it out."

"You-How did you even know how to contact her? When Daddy died, you said you couldn't reach her."

Gesturing to a chair, he sat, expecting me to do the same. When it was clear I wasn't going to follow suit, he sighed and shook his head. His thin, dark comb-over didn't budge with the motion. He swiped at his sweaty brow with a handkerchief before stuffing it back in his breast pocket.

"I only have her lawyer's info. I've had to contact her exactly twice in the past twenty years. Once to have her release all custody rights over to your dad, and the other to let her know he was sick."

So, Sharon had known. While I had struggled with college and bills and doctors, and while my father was losing a painful battle with cancer, my mother had known and still hadn't come. Sharon was as heartless as I'd hoped she wasn't.

It had been an extremely difficult time in my life. I'd battled with depression on and off throughout childhood and adolescence, but those first years when Daddy had been sick were when it had become necessary for me to take an anti-depressant. Most college students went out drinking and dreaming of a future. I'd stayed home and hand-fed my father, thinking there was no future anymore.

"There's a few things we can do," Tim said, opening a folder in his pudgy hands. "We can ask Sharon to sign all rights to you as the will mandates. If she agrees, you may have to buy out her half, similar to a divorce agreement. If she disagrees, we'd have to go to court. Unfortunately, I don't think we have a leg to stand on. Both of your parents bought that house thirty years ago. Tom never changed the deed."

I sat in the chair next to him to keep from getting sick. "Why didn't you tell me about this when you first found out?"

Looking genuinely upset, his gaze softened. "I had no way of knowing she'd come back to Wylie. I thought we could work it out and I'd tell you after the fact, or after I'd learned more. I'm sorry, Summer."

Absently rubbing my arm, I stared off into space. "I can't lose that house."

"I put in a call to her lawyer." He tried for a reassuring smile and failed. "I'll call you or come by when I know more. Try not to worry."

When I stepped outside into the hot Carolina sun, the humidity did little to chase the chill away. What was I supposed to do now? If that house was gone, there'd be nothing left of my father, my memories.

Needing to get my mind off the problem, as it was out of my hands for now, I weighed my options. I was too hyped up to work on a painting. Ian's store was two blocks down on my left. He would be as rightfully angry as I was. As my best friend, he'd always been on my side, even when it was the wrong one.

But he'd worry about me. I couldn't put him through that again. Ever since he'd found me after my father had died, I'd vowed not to concern my friends like that again. Before his death, I'd kept most of my problems to myself, but after, I'd told no one. I wanted Ian, but that just wasn't wise until I was calmer.

Which left Matt. He lived two hours away in Greensboro. We had an open relationship, but we'd known each other as kids from summering at Seasmoke. Last year, we'd decided to make a go of it and started dating. In the beginning, it had felt more like a business arrangement than a relationship, but things had changed since then. We'd done everything but consummate.

Maybe a drive would do me some good. Perhaps a decent, hot round of sex would be better medicine. Except Matt's 'no sex before marriage' rule would halt that. He was an extremely devout born-again Christian. It would be nice to just have someone hold me and say it'd be all right, which he'd do.

Decision made, I pulled my cell from my pocket while walking across the two lane street to my car. The traffic was lessoning after the lunch rush, but would soon pick up again as people got out of work. This was the main strip in our small community. Running south, it covered all of Wylie, South Carolina, and north, into Charlotte, was a fifteen minute drive.

I left a voicemail on the answering machine at Matt's house, knowing he'd get the message right when he walked in the door. I checked my watch. He'd be out of work in a half hour. Grinning, I started the car and headed for 85.

Two hours later, I fidgeted under Matt's gaze. Before I could even ring the bell, the front door to his cape cod had swung open and his eyebrows rose. Still wearing my jeans and T-shirt splattered in paint, I wasn't exactly dressed for a date.

He must've just finished with a shower. His dark red hair was slick, making his fair skin seem lighter. His long, trim body leaned against the doorway, his height towering over me.

"Been working on a masterpiece?" he asked with a grin.

"Har, har. Let me in."

Crouching to my eye level, he stole a kiss, quick and...nice, before backing up and allowing me inside.

Though we'd been dating about a year, I'd only been to his place a handful of times. Usually, he came to Wylie to see me. His living room, decorated in muted gray tones, made me want to go nuts with color someday when he wasn't looking. Everything was clean lines and angles. I was going to ruin his furniture with my soiled clothes.

"I think I'm dry," I said, gesturing, though uncertain.

"I don't care." His gaze raked over me with caution anyway. "I missed you. What brings you all the way to Greensboro?"

There was a loaded question. I wanted to get away for a bit from the norm. I wanted comfort from the terror I was feeling. I wanted the peace of mind only he offered, because Matt never pressed me for serious conversation or wanted to know why I did the things I did. He was just there. Actually, we didn't have real conversations at all. If anything, he catered to me, cared for me, but we knew very little about each other.

Kinda sad.

Swallowing, I walked down a short hall and into the small but efficient kitchen. This room, too, needed life. The cabinets, countertops, and walls were white. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard, I filled it with water from the tap. I looked out the window over the sink to his yard as he came up behind me. He had a decent-sized in-ground swimming pool, about eight feet deep, and just long enough to swim laps. Around the pool, past the deck, were non-flowering bushes lining a cedar privacy fence. Even the yard needed color.

He kissed my neck. "What's wrong?"

Setting the glass on the counter, I turned in his arms, resting my cheek on his chest and breathing in some exotic spice scent. "My mother came to the house today."

Stepping back, he looked down at me with eyes rounded in surprise. Matt had grown up with me and my friends, at least in the summers, so he knew about my mother, though I'd rarely spoken about her. He didn't know the torment Sharon's absence had caused me growing up, or the way I'd stupidly let it shape my life. Even now, it should be something long past, but it was still a very real void. Something I just couldn't let go.

"What did she want?"

Shrugging, I told him the short version and then what the lawyer had said. "I guess I just have to see what she does."

"Do I need to get you a new attorney?"

I shook my head. He would bring the logical into the equation and leave out the emotional. I so needed that right now. Not someone to worry over me and know just how devastating this could turn out to be. "Daddy should have fixed this a long time ago, though Tim should've seen it sooner. It was just a...mistake."

Pulling me close, he rested his chin on my head. "I ordered takeout. Thai. It should be here soon. We can eat by the pool, if you like."

I hated Thai food, yet grinned up at him. "Okay. But I have to head back after that. I have a class to teach in the morning."

His hazel eyes watched me for a long time before he swallowed. Reaching up, he lifted a piece of my hair, rubbing the long, blonde strands between his fingers. His jaw was narrow, his cheekbones high. Matt wasn't the traditional kind of handsome, but he was good-looking in that 'aw shucks' southern way. Like the boy next door. Which was hilarious because Matt looked nothing like Ian, the actual guy next door.

"What were you working on today that required red paint?" He seemed amused by the splotches of color in my hair.

The landscape I'd been working on before the doorbell rang this morning came to mind. I'd been trying to capture Main Street in Wylie at sunset. The cars were still, the people from town captured mid-stride walking on the sidewalks, window shopping, or chatting. Geraniums and marigolds popped out of enlarged flower pots near the light posts.

"You'll have to come over and see." I smiled.

His return smile was easy, like his personality. "I was planning on visiting Wylie on Sunday, if you don't mind. I wanted to talk to you about something that happened today."

"Tell me now. I'm here."

His smile faded. "You had a rough day and have enough to think about. We'll talk later."

His gaze darted out the window over the sink and then back to me. Something in the way he was staring at me had my pulse hammering and my breath short. Damn if I knew why. Intuition?

"I love you," he said.

I stilled. Okay, first he wanted to talk, then he dropped 'I love you' for the first time. Was this the part of our relationship where we moved on from contentment to more? Did I love him? He was the husband and two kids kind of guy. Did I want that with him?

Well, I wanted four kids. Four happy, spirited kids running down to the creek like me and Ian had in our youth. Four kids with a mother and father who loved them more than life itself. I'd never really pictured who that guy with me would be, though.

And me and Matt had never talked about the future before. Everything had always been casual. Too casual. Something was going on with him, something big enough to 'talk' about. Could we actually pull off a real conversation?

Before I could contemplate an answer, the doorbell rang, and Matt grinned. "Worry not, Summer. You don't need to say it back yet." Leaning in, he kissed me and then went to answer the door.