“We both know that’s not true. There’s not a job in your company you can’t do.”
“Maybe, but being able to caulk a window isn’t going to help me if the baby comes early. If that happens, I’m going to be calling on you.”
“I’m a vet,” Seth said mildly. “I’ve delivered puppies, kittens, foals and even a camel—”
“A camel?”
“Don’t ask. I’ve never delivered a human, but don’t worry. This baby is not going to come early. First babies never do.”
“You’d better be right about that or I’ll sue you. And then I’ll bring the baby to our poker nights.”
Seth gestured toward the house. “Do you need something to calm your nerves? I haven’t stocked the fridge yet, but I might be able to find a beer.”
“That is tempting, but my pregnant wife wants peaches, so I guess I’d better find her peaches.” He flashed Seth a smile and strolled to his car. “One day this is going to happen to you, Seth Carlyle, and that will wipe that grin off your face. In the meantime, if you could ask Harriet about walking Hero, I’d be grateful.”
Holding his smile in place, Seth bent to give Lulu a belly rub, watching as Chase reversed the car and headed down the lane toward the main road.
Lulu whined and licked his hand, understanding that something wasn’t right.
It was lucky for him Chase wasn’t so perceptive.
And lucky for him Chase needed help with a dog.
He told himself that offering to ask Harriet about dog walking had everything to do with helping his friend, and nothing to do with creating another opportunity to talk to Harriet.
SEA BREEZE.
Fliss parked and stared at the house. It hadn’t changed. Same weathered clapboard, same gravel drive that had skinned her knees so many times. Juniper and cypress lined the driveway, and clusters of Rosa rugosa bushes erupted with delicate pink blossoms.
Right now she didn’t feel as if she’d changed much either.
What had happened to her confidence? The grit and drive that had propelled her this far?
She couldn’t stop shaking. Not because of the dog, but because of Seth.
She’d been prepared for everything except bumping into him.
She’d told herself that she’d built it up in her head, but in the end seeing him in person had been worse than she’d imagined. She hadn’t anticipated the powerful jolt of chemistry or the sudden frantic fluttering inside her. It seemed that time could heal a lot of things, but not the strange, indescribable pull that drew her to Seth Carlyle. It would have been easy to dismiss it as sexual attraction. Easy, and incorrect.
None of which explained why she’d been stupid enough to pretend to be Harriet.
Frustrated with herself, she grabbed her small suitcase, retrieved the key from under the flowerpot and let herself in.
Calm descended like a comforting blanket. Apart from the odd occasion when their father had joined them unexpectedly, this was the place she’d always been happiest.
She stood for a moment, drinking in familiarity. The large seascape on the wall had been painted by her grandfather. The basket on the floor, stuffed with boots and flip-flops, had been there forever. There were towels, neatly folded, ready to mop sand and mud from overeager dogs because here, at the beach, there had always been dogs.
It had been a place of noise, chaos, chatter and laughter.
No one had to tiptoe. No one had needed to watch what was said.
Summer in the Hamptons.
She stepped forward, and the planks creaked under her tread. How many times had her grandmother scolded her for running into the house with sandy feet?
She pressed down harder, feeling the wood give a little beneath the pressure. Right there. That was where she and Harriet had hidden their “treasure.” Fliss knew about the loose floorboard because she’d been careful to tiptoe around it whenever she’d sneaked out to meet Seth. Harriet had returned from one of her many trips to the beach, her pockets stuffed with shells and stones rubbed smooth by the ocean. She’d wanted to take them back to the city, as a memory, but they both knew their father would throw them out, so Fliss had found a box and tucked them out of sight under the floorboards.
They were probably still there.
She stared down at the floor, lost in memories of happy times. And, despite everything, there had been happy times. And perhaps those times had been all the happier, even more precious, because of the tough times that surrounded them. The good moments shone brighter because of the dark.
She strolled through the house, and the years fell away. She remembered the camps they’d built, the games of hide-and-seek they’d played, the hours spent splashing in the waves and digging in the sand. In this place, Fliss had seen her twin sister blossom. The tortured, tongue-tied silence that punctuated their days in New York had been replaced by conversation. Reluctant at first. Tentative. A trickle of words. And then the trickle became a steady stream and the stream became a torrent, like a surge of water escaping past an unwanted obstruction. Harriet’s stammer had reappeared only on those rare occasions their father visited.
That was all in the past now.
These days there were no unexpected visits. He stayed out of all their lives.
Pushing aside that thought, Fliss shoved the door closed and walked into the kitchen.
It had all the signs that the occupant had left in a hurry.
A pan lay unwashed on the stove, a carton of milk on the countertop.
Fliss threw the milk away and washed the pan.
Domesticated? She could do that if she had to. And maybe she’d even ask her grandmother for a cooking lesson while she was here. That would surprise Harriet.
She moved through the rest of the house, checking everything. The back door was locked, so presumably whoever had helped her grandmother from the garden had taken the time to secure the house. She went upstairs and checked her grandmother’s bedroom. The window was secure, the bed made.
She wandered past the room her brother, Daniel, had occupied whenever they’d stayed and took the stairs up to the attic room she’d shared with her sister. Instinctively she stepped over the fourth step with its telltale creak, and then realized what she’d done and smiled. She knew a hundred ways to sneak out of this house undetected. She knew which stair would betray her, which window would stick and which door would creak.
She pushed open the door of the bedroom, remembering how she’d oiled the hinges.
Her mother slept like the dead, but had her grandmother known she was sneaking out?
Harriet had known, but she’d never said anything. She’d pretended to be asleep so she wouldn’t have to lie if questioned.
Fliss glanced around the room.
Not much had changed. Two beds were tucked under the slope in the roof so that you had to duck your head before you stood up in the morning. She strolled to the window and gazed down into the garden, noting the offending apple tree with its curved branches and thick trunk. The roots were visible on the surface, as if it was trying to remove itself from ground it had occupied for so long.
And there, beyond the apple tree, was the gate.
She’d oiled