Sea Glass Island (10 page)

She patted his cheek. “Said with so much enthusiasm,” she teased. “I’ll look forward to it.” She opened her door, slipped from the car, then leaned back in the open window. “Just so you know, since it’s a date, I’ll be looking forward to a kiss at the end of the evening.”

With that, she sashayed off, leaving Ethan with his heart in his throat and a whole passel of anticipation.

* * *

“Rumor has it you were out with Samantha last night,” Boone said when he dropped by Ethan’s on Saturday morning, two large containers of coffee and a box of warm doughnuts in hand.

Ethan regarded the offerings with suspicion. “No need to ask why you’re here,” he commented dryly. “Who sent you? Emily or Cora Jane? And what makes any of you think that information can be bought with coffee and doughnuts?”

Boone grinned. “Experience has taught me you’re much more amenable after coffee. The doughnuts were Gabi’s idea. I gather Wade started making solid inroads with her when he showed up with them. I figured it was worth a shot. Besides, I never miss a chance to grab a box of these whenever I can.”

He proved his point by opening the box and nabbing an old-fashioned glazed doughnut, which he finished in three bites before reaching for one iced in chocolate.

Ethan leaned against his kitchen counter, sipped his coffee and shook his head as he watched Boone devour three doughnuts in a row.

“Care to explain why you’re so nervous?” Ethan asked eventually, moving the box out of reach before his friend made himself sick.

“I’m not nervous,” Boone insisted. “What do I have to be nervous about? I’m marrying the love of my life a week from today.”

“So you’re not having second thoughts about Emily?”

“Not a chance,” Boone said emphatically.

“What, then?”

Boone hesitated, then asked, “You swear to God you won’t say a word about this, not to a single person?”

“As your best man and your friend, my lips are sealed,” Ethan promised.

“It’s this whole Los Angeles thing,” Boone admitted, his voice low as if he feared being overheard. “The restaurant’s doing great. Emily’s all caught up in these safe houses she’s designing and refurbishing. B.J.’s in a good school.”

“But,” Ethan prodded.

“I hate it,” Boone admitted. “I wish I could explain why, but I don’t have an answer. How am I supposed to talk Emily into getting out of there if I can’t explain why the place makes me crazy?”

“My hunch is it’s not about Los Angeles at all,” Ethan said, empathizing with him.

“What, then?” Boone asked, obviously eager for an outside viewpoint.

“It’s not home,” Ethan suggested. “You grew up here. You have roots here. You’re close to Cora Jane and think of her as family, even though she’s Emily’s grandmother. Now even Gabi and Wade are settling here, so more family ties. Your business started here. Even Jodie and Frank are here, for whatever that matters. This is home, simple as that.”

Boone’s eyes lit with understanding. “That’s it, exactly. And I feel guilty as sin, because I can see that Emily’s thrilled to pieces. Home’s supposed to be where the heart is, right? And Emily is my heart.”

“But Sand Castle Bay and the ocean breezes are in your blood, same as me,” Ethan suggested.

“It’s a coastal community,” Boone countered. “Lots of water. Los Angeles has a great big ocean, too.”

“Not the same,” Ethan said. “It’s on the wrong side, for one thing.”

Boone laughed, just as Ethan had intended. “True, but I can’t see Emily buying that as an argument. So, how do I tell her? Or do I? Maybe I just need to suck it up and make peace with being there.”

Ethan regarded him worriedly. “You haven’t had this conversation with her at all?”

Boone shook his head, his expression miserable. “How can I? She’s so ecstatic about her work, so grateful that I came out there. I guess she just assumed I was making a permanent move.”

“And you never so much as hinted that you saw it as a temporary compromise?”

“No. I didn’t want some endless long-distance relationship, so I came up with a solution. Open a restaurant out there, give her some time to take advantage of this incredible opportunity she’d been given and then we’d come back here. I figured it was understood.”

“But she assumed it was permanent?”

“Yes, and she’s already looking at some jobs that will extend into next year or even the year after,” Boone said. “As soon as she told me about them, I realized we were not on the same page at all.”

“Then you have to tell her,” Ethan said.

“A week before our wedding?” Boone protested. “How can I do that?”

“Because if you wait until after the wedding, it’ll blow up in your face. Resolve this now, pal. That’s my advice.”

Boone sighed. “I know you’re right.” He glanced at his watch and groaned, muttering an expletive. “Dear old Dad and his perky young wife are due any minute now. Mother’s due to arrive pretty soon, too. I’d better get home before warfare breaks out.” He gave Ethan an exhausted look. “You are coming to this dinner thing tonight, right?”

“Looking forward to it,” Ethan said wryly.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Boone retorted. His gaze narrowed. “Or is it true that you’re bringing Samantha? In that case, I can almost believe you are looking forward to it.”

“I’m picking her up,” Ethan conceded. “Don’t make too much of it, though. In fact, you might want to consider the possibility that we’re simply conspiring to play all sorts of nefarious tricks on the happy couple before your big day. I hear that’s something that the best man and maid of honor are almost duty-bound to do. Try messing with my life, and I can make yours hell.” He beamed at his friend. “I’m just saying.”

Boone laughed. “Message received. I’ll back off. Unfortunately, I can’t speak for my bride-to-be, her grandmother or her sister.”

And that, of course, was where the real danger lay.

* * *

Gabi pinned Samantha with an eager look. “What happened after I left you and Ethan alone last night? Spill. I want details.”

“Not a thing,” Samantha told her discreetly. “And thanks for that, by the way. You embarrassed me.”

“Oh, fiddlesticks!” Gabi replied. “You don’t embarrass that easily. Besides, you need to keep the goal in mind. You want Ethan. We’re all doing our part to see that you get him.”

“How am I supposed to know if I really want him when I spend most of our time together trying to defend my crazy family?”

“If you’re not taking advantage of these little opportunities,” Gabi said, “then you’re not the sister I looked up to for dating inspiration.”

Samantha shook her head. “Here’s the problem with your theory. I was great at dating. I was the queen of dating...in high school, Gabi. Not lately. And dating is not exactly the goal here, is it?”

“And what might the real goal be?” her sister inquired, a twinkle in her eyes. “Sex? A short-term fling? A genuine relationship? Marriage? We’d all be a whole lot more effective if we knew exactly what you’re after.”

“It is not my goal to ensure your effectiveness. I want you to butt out,” Samantha declared, knowing full well it wasn’t going to happen.

In fact, Gabi merely waited her out with the patience of a woman who understood that the tactic of silence always worked. Cora Jane had always been notorious for getting them to reveal their secrets simply by sipping tea and waiting.

“I’ve been down here a week,” Samantha finally retorted with exasperation. “That’s not exactly long enough to formulate a plan for the future with a man I barely know. I do know that an old crush years ago for a man I idolized from afar is not a solid foundation for forever.”

Gabi nodded. “Fair enough. Which way are you leaning, though? You think he’s hot, right?”

“Of course he’s hot,” Samantha said impatiently. “Last time I checked, that wasn’t a good basis for a lasting relationship.”

“But it is a fascinating place to start,” Gabi countered.

“So says the woman who managed to ignore the very steamy Wade for months.”

Gabi frowned at the comparison. “When you all plunked him down in front of me like some decadent dessert, I was already involved, remember?”

“No, you weren’t,” Samantha said. “You were deluding yourself.”

“True, but be that as it may, I
thought
I was in a committed relationship.”

“And then you knew you weren’t. You still resisted.”

“I was pregnant!”

Samantha shrugged that off, too. “Yeah, well, it didn’t seem to bother Wade. He fell for you, anyway.”

“Why are we getting sidetracked?” Gabi demanded, her frustration plain. “This is about you and Ethan.”

“I thought it was a conversation about sexual attraction versus a meaningful relationship.”

“Same thing,” Gabi insisted. “One can lead to the other. A real relationship has to start somehow. Hopping into bed could definitely kick-start it.”

“Ethan doesn’t just hop into bed,” Samantha said. “I admire that about him.”

“How do you know? Is that what he says or have you actually tried to seduce him?”

“Enough!” Samantha said, unwilling to reveal such intimate details about her relationship with Ethan. “This is ridiculous.”

Gabi’s eyes widened. “You have, haven’t you?” she gloated. “You tried to get him to sleep with you and he wouldn’t.”

“Not discussing this,” Samantha said, grabbing her coffee and heading back upstairs. She’d suddenly remembered the downside of being surrounded by sisters. They could be totally intrusive pests. For once she regretted that baby Daniella wasn’t screaming her head off to distract Gabi from her morning mission.

Instead, Gabi was right on her heels as she climbed the stairs. When Samantha shut her bedroom door in her sister’s face, Gabi merely opened it and followed her inside. Sadly, while the doors might have locks, the keys had vanished long ago. Samantha regretted not having dealt with that on an earlier visit.

“Go away,” she ordered. “I’m about ten seconds from tossing you down the stairs.”

Gabi openly laughed at that. “Not worried. One of these days you’re going to admit you don’t have a clue how to get what you want with Ethan and you’re going to beg Emily and me for tips. Cora Jane, too.”

Right now Samantha was thinking she was more likely to be asking for tips on where she could dump the bodies.

10

T
he tension in the air in the Boone’s Harbor private dining room that night was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, Ethan decided. Some of that could be attributed to the uncensored barbs being tossed around between Boone’s parents, but Samantha seemed to be at odds with Gabi, and Boone and Emily were outside on the deck, obviously exchanging heated words. He had a terrible feeling he knew the topic under discussion.

“What’s with those two?” Samantha asked, gesturing toward the supposedly happy couple as she joined him.

“A difference of opinion, I’d say,” Ethan said. “How about you and Gabi? Did something happen between the two of you?”

“Just the usual sisterly disagreement,” she said, obviously minimizing it.

“Granted, I’ve never had a sister, but it seems more serious than that to me,” Ethan said. “You didn’t fight because she bailed on you last night, did you? I told you it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Nothing like that,” she insisted, but offered no further explanation.

“If you say so,” he said, just in time for the door to the deck to burst open. Emily stormed inside, grabbed her purse off a table and sailed through the dining room, ignoring everyone who called out to her, including her grandmother.

“Oh, no. This can’t be good,” Samantha murmured, and ran after her, as did Gabi and Cora Jane.

Boone entered more slowly, his expression shell-shocked. “Sorry about that,” he said, though his voice was barely loud enough to be heard by those close by. He headed directly to the bar, ordered a drink, then faced everyone. He tried for an upbeat expression, but it fell flat.

“I hope you’ll all stay and enjoy dinner,” he said stiffly. “Emily’s not feeling well. She had to leave.”

B.J. ran to his dad’s side, his expression filled with worry. “Daddy, Emily looked mad. Did you have a fight?”

Boone ruffled his son’s hair with a halfhearted gesture. “Just a little disagreement, son.”

Ethan thought otherwise. He also thought Boone was maybe a split second from shattering. Ethan didn’t want that happening in front of B.J. Keeping a concerned eye on his friend, he approached Boone’s mother. “Could you keep an eye on B.J. for a bit? I need to speak to Boone privately.”

She blinked at the request, obviously not used to playing the role of doting grandmother, then nodded. “Sure, I can do that. You don’t think there’s real trouble in paradise, do you?”

“Hard to say,” Ethan replied tersely.

The other party attendees, sensing a real crisis, were wise enough to give Boone a wide berth. Ethan crossed over to the bar, ordered his own drink, then waited. Boone finished the drink in front of him, then ordered another.

“Can I assume you just filled Emily in on your thoughts about Los Angeles?” Ethan inquired eventually.

Boone responded with a wry expression. “Oh, yeah. Bad idea, Ethan. Ironically, I actually think she’d been expecting it, but she didn’t take it well, just the same.”

“Better now than later,” Ethan said, sticking to his guns.

“You saw her. Did she look as if she might forgive me any time this century?”

“Forgive you for what? Being open and honest with her?”

“That’s not exactly how she sees it. She said, well, she said a lot of stuff, not the least of which being that I’d deceived her. I believe the word
betrayal
was thrown around quite a bit, as well.”

Ethan winced. “Okay, I suppose you can’t entirely blame her for feeling like that,” he said, then added quickly, “Not that you intended to do that, of course.”

Boone gave him a bleak look. “It’s over.”

Ethan regarded him incredulously. “Don’t be ridiculous. It is not over,” he said with confidence, then studied him worriedly. “Did she say it was over?”

“She didn’t throw the ring in my face, if that’s what you’re asking, but she might as well have. She says she doesn’t want to see me again, that she wants me out of the house in Los Angeles before she gets back since I hate it there so much. I’d say that’s pretty clear.”

“Heat of the moment,” Ethan said, even as he wondered if it could really be more than that.

“I can see the handwriting on the wall,” Boone contradicted despondently.

“You’re not a fortune-teller, Boone,” Ethan said with a touch of impatience. He was fully aware of the irony of him, of all people, giving a pep talk about lasting love. Still, he continued. “Stop anticipating disaster. It’s a bump in the road. You’ll work this out. You caught her off guard. Give her time to cool down and think this through.”

“Not this time,” Boone said. “Time’s not going to change anything.”

Ethan wasn’t used to being in the position of defending relationships, but he found himself advising Boone to trust in what he and Emily had. “You hurt her. She’s striking back. Please do not tell me you’re the kind of man who walks away at the first sign of trouble. I thought this woman was the love of your life. You let her go once. If you do it again, you’ll never forgive yourself.”

“She’s the one who walked out,” Boone grumbled. “Both times.”

“Meaning it’s up to her to fix this so your pride can remain intact? That’ll be cold comfort to you when you’re all alone in your bed. Don’t you remember how that felt?”

Boone sighed. “All too well,” he admitted.

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I wish I knew.”

“Well, talking to me isn’t the answer, I can tell you that.”

“And you think I’m going to get within a hundred yards of her tonight once Gabi, Samantha and Cora Jane turn that house into a fortress against the enemy?”

“A very dramatic description, but last time I checked, every one of those women adores you and wants you and Emily to live happily ever after. I suspect you can talk your way past them. Now, go.”

“I need to check on B.J.,” Boone protested.

“Your son is with his grandmother. She’ll make sure he gets home. I’ll check in on him, too. Stop delaying. Get over there and grovel, if you need to.”

“Groveling’s one thing,” Boone said. “I can do that. It still won’t solve the core problem.”

“And that’s what compromise is all about. You give a little. She gives a little. And voilà! A solution materializes and the wedding’s back on.”

Boone listened to what he had to say, then chuckled. “It’s no wonder you’re not married. Forget the infamous Lisa. You live in some sort of delusional world when it comes to women. I’m going to pay for this. I’ll be living in Los Angeles till I’m ninety just to prove how much I love her.”

“Then you’re not the man I thought you were,” Ethan told him. “Rumor has it you have excellent negotiating skills. Seems to me it’s never been more critical that you put them to good use.”

Boone didn’t seem to buy the pep talk, but he did head out.

Ethan pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called Samantha. “How are things where you are?”

“Ugly,” she said in an undertone. “Hold on.”

He waited while she apparently sought some privacy.

“Ethan?”

“I’m here. Boone just left. He’s on his way over to make peace.”

“Seriously? Is he delusional? He can’t turn up here with flowers and champagne and make this right. He led Emily to believe that he understood her need to live in Los Angeles. She thought they had an agreement.” She sighed, then added, “Okay, to be honest, she
hoped
he’d adapted.”

“And he thought it was a temporary compromise,” Ethan responded. “Till this job was wrapped up.”

“He talked to you about this?” Samantha asked incredulously. “You knew he wanted to move back to Sand Castle Bay?”

“We discussed it this morning,” he confessed, “but I’ve had a pretty strong hunch all along that’s what he was thinking. Boone’s roots are here. This is home to him, the same as it is for me.”

“And that’s it? You’re the men, so you win?”

“Why are you getting annoyed with me?” he asked, bemused by her attitude. “It’s not a matter of winning or losing. Mature couples compromise all the time. They can split their time between coasts. Or Emily might find that she can have an equally fulfilling career here. Boone’s given Los Angeles a try. Maybe she could give Sand Castle Bay a try. I don’t know what the answer is for them. I do know they’re the only ones who can figure it out.”

“Emily thought they had.”

“Then she wasn’t really listening, was she?”

“I can’t talk to you right now,” Samantha snapped. “My sister needs me.”

And that, Ethan thought as he heard the sound of the call being disconnected, was precisely why he didn’t believe in happily-ever-after. If Boone and Emily, who’d loved each other practically forever, couldn’t even make it through the vows, what chance did the rest of them stand?

* * *

“Who was that?” Emily asked suspiciously when Samantha returned to the bedroom where Emily had been crying her eyes out for the past hour.

“Ethan,” her sister admitted. “He says Boone is on his way over.”

“I don’t want to see him,” Emily said, even though her expression was filled with longing.

“Do you really think avoiding him is the answer?” Gabi asked gently.

“She knows it’s not,” Cora Jane chided. “Honey bun, the two of you need to talk this through. Don’t let it turn into some mountain that can’t be climbed.”

“You mean rather than the molehill you consider it to be?” Emily asked wearily. “I know you’d love it if I’d just cave in and agree to move here.”

Cora Jane regarded her patiently. “Where you live isn’t up to me, now, is it? Boone saw how important this job in Los Angeles was to you, and he uprooted himself and B.J. to accommodate that. He even opened a restaurant out there. That shows the lengths he was willing to go to just to make you happy.”

“And now it’s my turn?” Emily asked miserably. “There’s nothing for me here.”

“Except family, history and potential,” Cora Jane reminded her. “And there was nothing in Los Angeles for Boone except you. He made it work.”

“You wouldn’t be the first couple to take turns following each other’s career choices,” Gabi suggested. “I saw it all the time. One partner would get a fantastic offer someplace and the couple would move. Next time, they’d go where the other one landed a dream job.”

“I’ve seen that, too,” Samantha chimed in. “One actor has a movie role on location and his wife and kids go along. Next time the wife lands a part in a sitcom and they settle in Los Angeles while that’s taping. You work things out.”

“If you say anything about it being the mature way to handle things, I may have to smother you with a pillow,” Emily warned.

“Then I won’t use that word,” Samantha said. “Even if it does apply.”

Emily sighed. “You all make it sound so blasted reasonable. It didn’t feel reasonable when Boone dropped this bombshell on me earlier.”

“Did he demand that you come home to North Carolina immediately after the honeymoon?” Samantha asked.

“No. He just said that he hoped it was something I’d consider once this safe house project was completed.”

“That sounds pretty reasonable to me,” Cora Jane said.

Emily frowned at her. “It probably is. It just felt like a betrayal. And it was even worse, because I’d been half expecting it all along. I’d just hoped I was wrong about how miserable he was out there. I don’t understand why he had to bring this up now, a few days before our wedding.”

“Maybe he understood that you’d gotten the wrong idea and thought it was important to get these particular cards on the table before the wedding,” Samantha suggested. “Perhaps you should give him points for trying to be honest and up front with you. How would you have felt if he’d waited and hit you with this in a few months?”

“I don’t want to give him points for anything,” Emily grumbled, then sighed when there was a knock on the door downstairs.

“You going down?” Samantha asked. “Or do we send him away?”

Emily glanced around at the expectant expressions everyone was wearing and sighed. “Of course I’m going down there,” she grumbled. “But he’s not off the hook yet.”

“Wouldn’t expect him to be,” Gabi acknowledged with a grin.

As Emily started from the room, Cora Jane called out to her.

“What?” Emily asked.

“Just keep in mind how much you love this man and how much he loves you. Do that and everything will turn out all right,” Cora Jane told her.

Samantha wrapped her arms around her grandmother. “And
that’s
where we all get our romantic optimism.”

She couldn’t quite decide if that was a blessing or a curse.

* * *

Cora Jane turned to Samantha as soon as Emily had left the bedroom. “Now let’s talk about you,” she said, an unrelenting note in her voice.

Samantha regarded her with surprise. “Me? Why?”

“Did you or did you not fight with Ethan when he called just now to let you know Boone was on his way? I could see it in your eyes when you walked back in here that you were furious.”