Love and Rumors: A Summer Sisters Beach Reads Contemporary Romance (The Summer Sisters Book 1) (31 page)

“It’s up to Hailey,” their mother said. “She’s carried the burden long enough, so she makes this decision.”

“What if destiny makes it for me?” Hailey teased.

“That would be fine, too.” Her mother smiled, and Daphne clapped her hands together.

Tigger, who was just off the veranda, trying to tame chipmunks by bribing them with sunflower seeds, said, “I got one! Ohhh, he ran away.”

“Don’t move, Tigger,” Daphne called over the railing. “You’re scaring them. Be very still. And quiet.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Maybe we
should
sell the place,” Maya said. Her eyes roved over the veranda as though checking the structure and estimating its real estate value. “We could take the proceeds and rent something each year. Maybe in Florida one winter?”

Daphne gave her a wistful smile, but Hailey could already see the look of loss in everyone’s eyes. She’d continued the Nymph Island tradition and fallen in love with Finian here—or at least it was where she first really realized she was in love with him and said “I love you.” She wanted to give her sisters the opportunity to follow that tradition, as well. Even if it was going to be difficult.

Finian, as if sensing her thoughts, gave her a gentle squeeze.

How was she going to do that while she and Finian trotted around the globe, covering her photography shows and his movie filming and premieres?

She shook her head, knowing that it was meant to be, it would happen.

Her mother tugged at the blanket draped over her lap as the leaves on the maples and oaks whispered to each other on a breeze.

“Are you cold, Mom?” Daphne came over and tucked the blanket around her.
 

“Okay, how’s this for an idea?” Maya took a sip of her drink. “I’ll sell a few business articles to get us closer to our tax goal, and we’ll rent this place out as an executive retreat for a week or two. Hailey got, like, eight hundred dollars for a couple of days, so if I—”

Hailey sat forward, eager to jump in with suggestions.

“Hailey,” Maya warned. “This is my idea, my plan, my way of trying to help, and it’s going to be different from your ideas, so let me continue.”

Finian’s hand slipped to Hailey’s knee and she eased back in her seat. “Sorry, go ahead.”

“Anyway, we can get more if we offer it as a rustic retreat for businesses and corporations. I can work as an assistant, which will be great for me—I really need more experience on my résumé for when I move to Toronto in the fall. I can do up an ad and put it on Kijiji later today.”

“What about your jobs, though?” Daphne asked.

“They both suck. I need to rub elbows with real mucky-mucks.”

“But we can’t use the cottage if you rent it out.” Daphne frowned, hugging herself.

“Use it and lose it. Besides, it’ll only be for a week or two. We’ll survive.” Maya took a gulp of her drink and winced. “Why are we always having cold drinks? They give me brain freeze.”

“Because we love you, and are trying to prevent you from getting drunk faster than the rest of us.” Daphne smiled at Maya, who gave her a playful shove. “I’ll ask for honorariums where I volunteer. Maybe they can help, or I can have some sort of sale. I have all those paintings I’ve made. Maybe I can sell some at the farmers’ market or Simone’s.”

The sisters nodded.

“Did you send in the tax appeal?” Melanie asked Hailey.

“I did. I haven’t heard back, but Betsy said she’d try and expedite it for us.”

“I think it’s time we were all responsible for our fair share of the tax bill,” Melanie said. “Full cost.”

“And upkeep and maintenance,” Maya added.

“And I think we owe Hailey a lot for how much she’s covered over the years.” Melanie flipped a page in the notebook where she’d been tallying and writing all afternoon.

“No, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine,” Maya said. “We need to help you, Hailey.”

“Help is fine, but there’s no need to try and cover me retroactively.” Hailey turned to Daphne, who was the poorest of the sisters. “Don’t worry, Daph. We can arrange something.”

“You can work off your portion of the bill,” Maya suggested.

Melanie tapped her notebook. “Where have you been getting all this money, anyway, Hailey?”

“I do have a job, you know.”

Melanie gazed at her, eyes serious, quiet, probing. “Did you remortgage your house? Or leverage it or something? Win a lottery, perhaps?”

Hailey tucked herself closer to Finian, who tipped her chin upward to read the truth in her eyes. Damn, they were tag-teaming her.

“Hailey!” the women cried together.

“You could lose your house?” Melanie said. “Oh, my God, Hailey!”

Hailey looked at her feet.

“Somebody, pour me another margarita,” Maya said, waving her glass. “We have to sell this place.”

Daphne poured a new round for everyone.

“Can we give destiny a little more time?” Hailey asked.

The sisters shared a look.

“Destiny? Why?” Finian asked.

“Because we all love this place and it’s a part of us,” Maya said. “Hailey’s our big sister who loves us, as well as a big idiot who thinks she has to take care of us.” She got up to give her big sister a hug.

Melanie cracked up, joining in the hug. “Sometimes, Maya, no filter between your mental gas pedal and your mouth is an okay thing.”

Hailey released her sisters and snuggled closer to Finian. She gave Maya a knowing look. “This is a year of destinies. Destinies and dreams. Let’s hang in there a little longer and see what the universe brings us, shall we?”

C
HAPTER
17

Hailey rolled her eyes at Maya and gave Finian a quick peck on the cheek. He’d been in Canada for two weeks and was starting to talk about leaving some clothes at her place when he had to go back to Hollywood in a few days. She liked it. She liked it a lot. Especially since she was going to his movie premiere as his official girlfriend.

Cinderella, shove over, Hailey was in the house.

“Move that table there,” Maya commanded, as Hailey grabbed one end of the large table in the cottage’s large attic. “Connor MacKenzie is going to be here in less than two hours and I want to be early to meet him at the airport. It’s essential we get off on the right foot.”

“You’d think he was the king or something,” Hailey laughed, giving Finian a bump with her butt as he walked by with some power cords for the WiFi hub Maya was trying to set up. Hailey only hoped the cottage’s ancient solar panels could keep the old battery charged well enough to power everything Maya needed. If she had to run the generator to charge the battery it would cost her a fortune in gas.

“Hailey, you don’t understand. Connor is one of Toronto’s biggest businessmen. He
is
royalty in the business world. Everything he touches turns to—”

“Gold?” Hailey interjected, dusting off the table with the sleeve of her sweater.

“Sold?” Finian added.

“Spending two weeks with him could alter my entire future.”

“No pressure.” Hailey lined the table up in the alcove and breathed in the attic’s warm, old-wood smell. Would Maya’s spending two weeks on Nymph Island with a man continue the island’s legacy of matchmaking? If Hailey didn’t have to go to New York to accept an award, or down to L.A. to set up a last-minute show she’d snagged, or to Finian’s premiere, she’d stay parked here, watching and waiting. “I still can’t imagine you taking orders from some business dude.”

“I’m his assistant, not his maid.”

“Aren’t those essentially the same thing, when he’s not bringing any of his own staff and you offered maid service with the rental, Miss Assistant?” Hailey shot her sister a mischievous grin.

“I know what happens on this island,” Finian said with an eyebrow waggle.

Hailey blew him a kiss and smiled. “Good things.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. This could be my big break.” Maya let out a breath and rolled her shoulder before giving a clap. “We need to straighten the cords from the surge protector. And do you have the WiFi thing set up Finian?”

He shrugged. “I think so.”

“Well, I need you to know so.” With shaking hands, she connected her phone to the WiFi network to test it. “Everything has to be perfect. My whole career depends upon this. He could shoot me up the corporate ladder. Plus, he’s renting this place for enough that we might be able to fix the chimney.”

“Actually, girls…” Finian gathered the two sisters together with a hand on their shoulders. “I took the liberty of hiring someone to fix the chimney.” He drew them onto the small deck and had them look up to where the chimney stood, repaired and restored. “I figured half the charm of the living room was a working fireplace, and that your renter would like a fire now and then.”

“Finian!” Hailey paused, staring at the perfect chimney. No more missing bricks or crumbling mortar. “This money should have gone to one of your charities!” His neighborhood needed his support more than the Summers needed a working chimney.

“Your mother gave me her blessing.”

Hailey gazed at him. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Almost as if…almost as if he was trying to help Nymph Island along in matchmaking Maya and Connor.

He pulled Hailey into an embrace. “And I do happen to find fireplaces romantic.”

She blushed, thinking of the first time she and Finian had made love, and how the firelight in the Sunflower Cottage had added to the moment.

“Wow. Thank you.” Maya turned to them, then hesitantly gave them both a big squeeze.

“Finian, you know you didn’t need to—” Hailey began.

He raised a brow.

“Fine. Thank you.” She gave him a squeeze in turn. Sometimes it was okay to let others help carry the load.

Hailey and Finian followed Maya down to the boathouse. They were all going to ride into town, in the newly fixed boat, so she could go pick up their new tenant. As they walked, Maya kept letting out loud, gusty sighs.

“Nervous?” Hailey asked, hitching her new camera backpack over her shoulder. Finian had been right; it was dang handy. And really not that expensive, if someone else was buying it as a gift.

“I’m so nervous I feel like I have to pee every five minutes.”

“It’ll work out.” Hailey bit her lips together so she wouldn’t offer advice, and Maya could own this task without an interfering big sister.

“Fire in the hole!”
crackled a voice from across the narrow channel.

Hailey ducked as a loud boom rocketed toward them, shuddering through her ear canals.

Finian threw himself over her, tugging Maya down onto the dock as small rocks rained around them.

“What the hell?” Hailey yelled.

Maya popped her head up from under her arms. “They’re blasting on Baby Horseshoe.”

Finian leaped up and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey!”

Maya stood beside him and added, “Ever hear of a blast mat?” She turned to Hailey. “They can’t be blasting right now. This is supposed to be a quiet business retreat, not a construction zone.”

A man in a suit stood on the dock across the narrow strait, waving.

“I’d like to give him the one-finger salute,” Hailey grumbled, dusting herself off.

“He’s coming over,” Maya said.

They watched the man row across the water, looking awkward and out of place in his suit.

“Bring a broom?” Maya asked, kicking rocks off their dock. “Maybe a first aid kit?”

The man stepped out of his rowboat, looking uncertain as he stood on their turf. “My apologies. The name is Aaron Bloomfield.”

“Harold, pleasure to meet you,” Maya said.

Hailey shot her a “be nice” look.

“It’s Aaron,” he corrected.

“So sorry.” Maya looked anything but. “We’re in a bit of a rush to meet someone. I expect you will have cleaned off our dock—and not onto our sand beach, please—by the time we return. And that you won’t have damaged our property any further.” She strode into the boathouse and climbed aboard their boat.

Finian, arms crossed, glowered at Aaron who stood watching, before following the sisters into the boat.

“I’m representing Rubicore Developments and the work we’re doing over on Baby Horseshoe Island,” Aaron said, standing beside the boat and pointing through the open door to where the sharp, rocky point on the island had been leveled by the blast.

The sisters shared a look. He was ruining it. Ruining the island, their view. Everything. This wasn’t what you did when you found a beautiful place.

“We’re planning to spiff up the cottages over there, and were wondering if your island was for sale.”

“No,” Hailey said, just as Maya replied, “Make us an offer and we’ll see.”

“Are one of you the owners?” The sisters nodded and Aaron presented them with a sealed envelope. “At your leisure. Offer expires in August.”

“You come prepared. I like that.” Maya started the engine, tucking the envelope in the pocket behind the driver’s seat. “Finian, cast us off, please.”

He obliged, then sat beside Hailey who gripped his hand, knowing the summer’s adventures were only just beginning, and that there would be something in store for all her sisters before destiny was done with them.

~ The End ~

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The Summer Sisters

Four sisters. One cottage. And four men who will sweep them off their feet and teach them what life is really all about.

Love and Rumors
~ This book with Hailey Summer and Finian Alexander.

Love and Dreams
~ Business woman Maya Summer continues the quest to save the cottage by providing an executive retreat for her business world hero, Connor MacKenzie. The only problem is that the real-life version of Connor is not the man she’s always dreamed of and every time she turns around, she’s further from saving the cottage, and further from merging with Connor and making a difference.