The One Real Thing (Hart's Boardwalk) (10 page)

I held out my hand and opened my mouth to speak, but Bailey beat me to it. “Dr. Jessica Huntington. She’s a guest at the inn and she’s wonderful like me so of course we hit it off.”

I laughed and shook Iris’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ira.” The man shook my hand as soon as I let go of Iris’s. “Iris’s husband.”

“Pleasure.”

“So what brought you to Hartwell?” Iris said with curiosity sharp in her eyes.

I decided to give the less complicated explanation. “I work in Wilmington. I wanted to go on vacation but not too far away from work.”

“Hmm. Workaholic,” she pronounced and then swung her hand to the wall behind the cash desk. “Our daughter, Ivy, is just the same.”

I stepped closer to take a look at the photographs. One in particular caught my eye. A gorgeous brunette wearing a floor-length ivory evening gown stood on a red carpet. Standing next to her, his arm around her waist, was a handsome older man in a tux.

“Ivy is a Hollywood screenwriter,” Ira said with pride. “Engaged to Oliver Frost, the director.”

“Wow.” Oliver Frost was a big-time director in Hollywood. He’d
just wrapped up filming the last in a teen dystopian franchise that had shot its young stars into the celebrity stratosphere.

“Cool, huh?” Bailey grinned at me. “Ivy and I went to school together. We were best buds until she moved to Hollywood.”

Iris threw her arm around Bailey’s shoulders. “Bailey girl, you are still best buds. You know she loves you more than anyone.” She sighed and stared almost forlornly at the photographs. “Kid just got busy.”

Bailey gave her a squeeze. “I’m showing Jessica around and our first stop is ice cream at Antonio’s. Nothing but the best.”

The couple grinned. Ira moved to behind the counter. “Now, then, let’s see. I recommend a two-scoop: double chocolate chip and mint chocolate chip.”

“No, no.” Iris followed him. “The strawberry delight with the white chocolate.”

Ira made a face. “That’s crazy talk, woman.”

“Don’t you call me ‘woman’ in front of customers.”

“It’s Bailey girl and her friend.” Ira shrugged as if to say,
What’s the big deal?

“Move over and let me get them ice cream.”

“The ice cream counter is my domain.” Ira stood in front of it with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Are you seriously blocking my way?”

“Um, guys.” Bailey cleared her throat. “Today would be nice.”

“Fine.” Iris nodded. “Two strawberry delight and white chocolate coming up.”

“No, two double chocolate chip and mint chocolate chip coming up,” Ira said equally firmly.

I stepped up to the counter, trying my best not to laugh and almost failing. “We’ll have one strawberry delight and white chocolate and one double chocolate chip and mint chocolate chip.”

Iris and Ira blinked at me.

Iris finally nodded and cleared her throat. “Well, alright, then.”

A little while later we walked out of Antonio’s with our cones.
I had the strawberry and white chocolate. And Bailey was right. The ice cream was creamy and smooth and delicious. I licked at it greedily, feeling like a kid again.

“They are always like that,” Bailey said, laughing. “They argue about everything. But they really love each other. And Ivy.”

I was curious about Ivy. “Is there a story there?”

“I’m not sure.” Bailey tilted her head to the side in thought. “Ivy and I still talk, but it’s not the same as it used to be. A year or so back she got really closed off and distant. With her mom and dad, too. They blame this Oliver guy, but I’m not sure what’s really going on there.”

I thought about how close-knit the community here appeared, with Bailey growing up with Ivy and being best friends with the business owner next door to her inn, plus her obvious affection for Cooper. It really was a small town.

It seemed so nice.

Like a big extended family.

I found myself envying Bailey again.

“So ice cream, check,” Bailey said as we wandered past Paradise Sands. She stopped and my gaze followed hers to Cooper’s. “Now the explanation I promised.” She licked at her ice cream and turned to me with a smirk. “I’m not telling you it all, because it isn’t my story, but I’ll tell you something I think will help you understand Cooper’s reaction better. Mainly what you need to know is that Cooper has had his share of betrayal. The latest was fairly recently, in fact.”

She continued to walk and I practically twisted my neck craning back to look at the bar. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Maybe a glimpse of the man himself?

“When you were looking for a place to stay here, did you come across the Hartwell Grand Hotel?”

“Yeah.” It was a four-star hotel in the middle of town. “It looked nice, but I wanted to stay on the boardwalk.”

“Most folks do. The Grand is owned by the Devlin family. Ian Devlin is the patriarch of that particular group of bandits. There
are four sons and a daughter. They own a few stores on Main Street as well as the hotel and they own Ocean Blue Fun Park—the fairground a few blocks from here. They’re wealthy . . . and they don’t pretend to be nice on their way to accumulating more wealth. They’re more than ambitious. They’re ruthless.”

Intrigued, I said, “How so?”

“We’ve all had our personal dealings with the Devlins and some of us are more than a little suspicious that they may have obtained buildings through underhanded means. There is a possibility they’re paying off town officials to get what they want. Maybe even state officials . . . like health inspectors.

“I had a friend, Stella, who had owned a café on Main Street for a decade. Five years ago the café didn’t meet the health inspection requirements even though there had never been problems before. Stella was meticulous about cleanliness. But they didn’t pass her and every time she tried to get it sorted out there was a roadblock put in her way. She was already in debt and in trouble, so when Ian Devlin showed up and offered to buy the building she took the offer and moved out of Hartwell. Hers isn’t the only story like that. Everyone knows Ian Devlin has been trying to get property on the boardwalk for years. When my parents were retiring and handed the inn over to me, Stu Devlin, the eldest devil, got pretty aggressive trying to get them to sell.”

I was completely engrossed in her story. “Aggressive how?”

“At first it was just Stu constantly in their face about it. He sent them presents, which they sent back, and when they’d spurned about ten gifts, things got ugly. We started to receive threatening letters, stuff that pretty much said we should get the hell out of Hartwell or we’d lose everything, we’d get hurt, stupid stuff like that. We knew it was coming from them, but there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it.

“Anyway, I get my stubbornness from my parents and they refused to be bullied. And that’s all it was. As far as we know, the Devlin family is underhanded, but they’ve never resorted to physically
hurting anyone. Anyway, my parents didn’t want to leave me, but I told them that we would only be letting them win if they didn’t go, so off they went. Sure enough, they backed off after that. It helped that the old Boardwalk Hotel went up for sale at that time.

“Until Vaughn Tremaine came on the scene. He just swept in with all his money and he so far outbid the Devlins there was nothing they could do. And oh, man, were they pissed. I dislike Vaughn, but the Devlins
hate
him.”

“Wow,” I said. “They sound like real-life villains.”

“Oh, they are. Every town has ’em, right?”

And wasn’t that the awful truth. “Right.”

“Anyway, the point of the story is the third brother, Jack Devlin . . . he’s gorgeous, charismatic, and down-to-earth. The rest of them, gorgeous, yes, but that’s about it—well, his sister, Rebecca, was nice, which is probably why she left town as soon as she could, but the rest of them think they’re so superior to everyone else. Jack wasn’t like that. He was kind of the black sheep. He refused to go into the family business and . . . he was Cooper’s best friend.”

“Okay,” I said, a little warily. If this was a tale about betrayal I didn’t like where it was going.

“A few years back, out of nowhere, just after Vaughn outbid the Devlins on the hotel site, Jack quit his job as a construction foreman. As far as we were all aware he loved that job. But nope, just up and quit, and went to work for his father.” She took a deep, shuddering breath, pain suddenly etched in her features. “And then one day, not too long later, Cooper walked in on Jack with Cooper’s wife, Dana. Now his ex-wife.”

The ice cream cone that I’d just eaten churned in my stomach at the thought of such a betrayal. I barely knew him, but I was overwhelmingly sad and angry for Cooper. “God,” I whispered.

“Poor Coop stopped talking to Jack and Jack got even more immersed in his family’s business. He’s distant from all of us now. He doesn’t seem to care about anything.”

“And Cooper and Dana?”

“Well, Coop divorced her a while ago and went from a completely one-woman guy to a no-strings-attached lothario. All seemed okay, but a few months ago Dana started harassing him for reconciliation. He doesn’t want her, but she’s making his life hell right now.” Bailey’s green eyes darkened. “Not for long if I have anything to say about it.”

I took in the hard light in her eyes and gave a guffaw of surprised laughter. “I really wouldn’t want to get on your bad side.”

She laughed. “In my case, the red hair . . . definitely a sign of a fiery temper.” Bailey turned us around and we started walking back the way we had come. The boardwalk was a mile long and the southern end was occupied by a number of private residences so there wasn’t anything touristy for me to see.

“The point of me telling you all this isn’t just to beat the gossip queens of this town to it but also to let you understand where Cooper is emotionally. His ex is just a constant reminder right now of betrayal.”

I understood and I felt my disappointment regarding him melt. But it didn’t melt completely. Because the truth was I had fancied myself a little “in like” with the guy. I hadn’t known what it meant or if it meant anything or if anything would come of it while I was on vacation, but now I knew for sure that nothing would come of it.

Plus Cooper was another no-strings-attached guy.

I had one of those already.

And Andrew and I had ultimately agreed to be each other’s one-and-only hookup for the sake of health and safety. Cooper was definitely out of the question.

I had to remind myself of what I’d told Fatima: I was happy
not
being in a relationship with anyone.

“So does that change your mind about him?”

I blinked, jerked out of my thoughts. There was a spark of hopefulness in Bailey’s expression and I recognized it as an ember from a matchmaking fire. I rolled my eyes. “I’m here for three weeks. I’m not here for a relationship.”

“Yes, but clearly friendship is in the cards.” She gestured between us. “So why can’t you be friends with him, too?”

It was complicated. But Bailey didn’t need to know about the complicated so I told her what she wanted to hear. “I guess I can.”

Bailey seemed happy with that answer and from there she led me off the boardwalk through Main Street. She told me more about the town, its people, and her family as we shopped and explored. By the time evening was falling, she led me back to Antonio’s for dinner. The place was packed, and Iris and Ira were too busy to stop and chat with us. I had their delicious pepperoni pizza and enjoyed the family atmosphere of the place.

“So all day I’ve been talking your ear off,” Bailey said after swallowing a forkful of pasta. “And I haven’t learned anything more about you other than you were a surgical resident—I repeat: I’m in awe—before you took the job at the prison. What about family? Friends? This not-really-a-relationship thing you have going with some guy?”

The pizza I was currently chewing became tough and hard to swallow. I felt cold all of a sudden, and a familiar tremble started in my hands. I was never very good at fielding personal questions. I wasn’t exactly what you’d call an open book. Taking my time, keeping my expression neutral, I finally managed to swallow my food. I hid my hands under the table so she couldn’t see them tremble. “I don’t have any family left. Not blood, anyway. My best friend, Matthew, is my family. He lives in Iowa, where we grew up.”

Bailey’s eyes were bright with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Jess. You don’t have to talk about them.”

“Thanks. It was hard losing them, but Matthew has always been there for me and because of him I have Perry, my goddaughter, and she’s just an adorable devilish angel.”

She grinned at my description. “Do you get to see her a lot?”

“Not as much as I’d like.” Partly my fault because of my work schedule and also because I didn’t like going back to Iowa. “But we FaceTime a lot.”

“And what about back in Wilmington? What about this guy?”

As we moved onto this safer topic, I felt the cold begin to leave me and my trembling eased. “Andrew. He’s a cardiothoracic surgeon. We met at the hospital while I was a resident. The hours were so insane—even worse than my hours now—it was impossible to have any kind of relationship with someone who wasn’t a doctor. And honestly I didn’t want a relationship. I still don’t. I like my autonomy and Andrew gets that. He gets all of it. We’re friends with benefits.” I thought about that term and snorted. “Except we’re not really friends, either.”

Bailey surveyed me. “And how long have you two been benefiting each other?”

I chuckled at the way she phrased the question. “We started a few years back and then he met someone so we stopped for the length of their relationship. That was about a year. He decided he didn’t want a serious relationship after all and so we started up our thing again.”

“And close friends in Wilmington?”

Until I arrived in Hartwell I hadn’t realized how much I lacked a social life back in Wilmington. I had no time for the realization to dawn on me. “You know, it occurs to me that I don’t have a whole lot going on in my social calendar. I have colleagues that I like, but we don’t go out or spend our free time together. I work long hours.”