Almost twenty-two years later

Crystal laughed as her granddaughter, Aurora, tried to scoot her chubby body towards her.

“You can do it,” she encouraged the almost seven-month-old.

“Mom, it’s still too early,” Serenity said from her spot across the room.

“Don’t be silly.” She waved a hand towards her daughter. “You started crawling around this time.” She encouraged her granddaughter towards her again.

“Crystal.” Ben, her son-in-law, interrupted the moment. They had come over that evening to help her track down a thief.

Earlier that year, she’d hired a new store manager, Kayla Thomas. She’d married Crystal’s nephew Rowan earlier that month and was now Kayla Holley. The wedding had been held in the back gardens at Holley Hall, her home since her parents had perished years before.

The mystery was who had stolen almost twenty thousand dollars from the business that Crystal had started shortly after Johnathan’s death. Serenity’s Attic had been borne out of the ashes of her life and with the help of a very small loan from her parents, which she had paid back within the first year of running the store in downtown Silver Cove.

“Did you find something?” she asked, getting up off the ground and picking up Aurora, to the little girl’s delight. Instantly, her chubby fingers found the locket around her neck and placed it between her gums, which were swollen from teething. Crystal walked over to the large oak desk that had been her great-grandfather’s at one point. Now, the desk held her laptop, which Ben had been staring at for the past hour without a single word.

“I found what Kayla had found. The money disappeared from your accounts, but since the computer at the store that had all the info on it was shot…” He looked up at her over a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. “We’re still thankful you and Kayla survived that whole mess.”

“Go on.” She smiled, trying to block out the night she and her employee, and soon-to-be niece-in-law, almost died at the hands of a crazed wife who believed that Crystal had paid her husband for sex.

“Well, the statements your bank has provided have some information on here, but since I’m not a financial wiz, I couldn’t tell you what it all means, only that several transfers were scheduled from your business account to this account.” He tapped the screen with his finger. “At least I think it’s an account. I haven’t seen bank information like this before. Anyway, the last transfer was shortly before you hired Kayla.” He turned towards her. “You’re lucky you hired her when you did. From what she tells me, there were more transfers scheduled, but because she changed your security measures…”

Crystal smiled and let out a deep sigh. “Yes, who knows how much longer I would have leaked money. Did you know, since I’ve hired her, I’m saving almost a hundred dollars on the electric bill at the store?”

“How did she do that?” Serenity sat up.

“Replaced all the light bulbs with those LSD ones.” Crystal shrugged.

“LED?” Ben chuckled.

“That’s it.” Crystal snapped her fingers. Instantly, Aurora grabbed her fingers and started chewing on them. “I replaced all the lights here, too. I’ve saved almost half on my electricity bill this month alone. Plus, I’m saving the planet.” To her, this was even better news.

“We replaced the lights at the resort almost three years ago.” Serenity smiled. “I did suggest you do the same back then, but… what do I know.”

“Don’t be silly. Back then, those lights were just a fad. Besides, I’d read a report…”

Serenity’s laugh interrupted her story.

“Mom, we’ve heard this conspiracy story from you a hundred times.” She walked over to take her daughter from her arms. “It’s dinnertime.”

Crystal reluctantly let the baby go. If she could, she’d hold the girl all day, every day. But she knew her daughter needed some mommy-daughter time too.

“So.” Crystal leaned closer to the screen. “What do you suggest?”

Ben leaned back. “I might know someone, an old family friend. He used to be an investor, but recently started his own financial security firm in Boston.” Ben sighed. “He’s a little… intense.”

“Will he find my money?” Crystal asked.

Ben looked up at her. “If nothing else, he should be able to find who took it in the first place. Might even save you more money while he’s looking.”

“How soon can he get here?”

Ben looked up at her. “I’m sure he could do whatever he needs from Boston.”

“I’m not going to trust someone hundreds of miles away that I’ve never met before.” Crystal stood straight and shook her head. “I’m trusting, but not that trusting. Not after I’ve been taken like this.”

“Mom, maybe—” Serenity cut off when she met Crystal’s gaze. She turned to her husband. “Maybe you can convince him to stay up here while he looks into this. It’s not like Mom doesn’t have the room to put him up.”

“Yes,” Crystal jumped in. “Besides, with the holiday’s coming, maybe he would like to bring his family up for a mini vacation while he works?”

“He’s unmarried. I don’t think he has kids,” Ben said, frowning at the computer screen. “It may not take him that long. Christmas is still two months away.”

“Still, Silver Cove is known for holiday cheer and is one of the top five places in Maine to spend winter.”

“I’ll ask.” Ben flipped her laptop closed while she waited. “Now?” he asked when he noticed her look.

“There’s no time like the present.” She smiled and patted his shoulder. “Now, I’m going to go in and start dinner.” She glanced over at Serenity who was still feeding Aurora. “I’m making your favorite tonight.”

“Zucchini lasagna?” Serenity’s eyes lit up. Joy spread in her chest so quickly, she almost danced into the kitchen to start the dinner.

It wasn’t that she didn’t care about the missing money, but her store was doing very well for her. It had since the week she’d opened its doors years ago. In recent years, she’d expanded her yoga hours and had remodeled the back area to house two small massage rooms. She had steady employees for both areas. She loved to teach yoga herself, but had two other instructors that could fill in for her. Joe Stoker had been her employee for almost three years. He’d been her on-again, off-again lover for a few months almost a year ago. The man knew how to please a woman, but there wasn’t much upstairs, so she’d found her more recent pleasures elsewhere. As of late, her time had been consumed with her daughter and granddaughter.

Moving around the massive kitchen always reminded her of her own mother and grandmother. Sadness always threatened to surface when she thought about her folks, but she pushed it away and remembered the good times, the laughter and love they gave her and her younger sister, Genie, Rowan’s mother.

She hoped she’d given her own daughter even half of the love and joy that her parents and grandparents had given her. As a single parent, it had been difficult at times.

She’d been so young when she’d met and fallen in love with Johnathan. She’d gotten pregnant at eighteen. She’d instantly fallen in love with Serenity, but watching her soul mate fade away had taken its toll on her. She’d had a few short years with her parents after losing Johnathan, which had helped bring the light back into her core.

Then she’d focused on Serenity and her business, putting her own desires on the side until her daughter was old enough to spend time across the street with her sister, Genie, and her family. Only then had she allowed the desires that had built up to flow freely.

And flow it had. She smiled as she added the finishing touches to the meal. She’d taken many lovers over the years. Most of them she remembered very fondly. Some not so much, but still, she wouldn’t take back a moment of the pleasures she’d had or the knowledge she’d gained.

“You have one of those wicked smiles on your face.” Serenity walked in, rocking a sleeping Aurora in her arms.

“I was just remembering some of the good times.”

Her daughter smiled. “There are many more yet to come.”

It was her father’s saying and instantly made her smile grow. “Yes, there are.”

“Can I help?” Ben walked into the room.

“You can help by telling me the number wizard is going to come and fix my accounts,” she said, looking over her shoulder.

“He’s moving a few things around, but says he’ll be on the first train up here on Monday. I’ll pick him up from the Portland station and bring him here.”

“Wonderful.” Crystal clapped her hands softly, as to not wake the sleeping baby. “Lay Aurora down.” She motioned to the folding crib in the corner of the dining area. “Then we’ll eat.”

Crystal sat around the table and felt the excitement of what was to come. She itched to read her cards and charts but knew nothing would have changed since she’d read them that morning. Something was coming. Change was coming.

* * *

Rory Sinclair was second-guessing himself. How had he let Ben talk him into heading out of state at one of the busiest times of the year?

Since starting his own company, Sinclair Financial Security, he’d taken a hit to his own pocket book, but he was his own boss. You couldn’t put a price tag on that. Not after some of the jobs he’d held down.

As the train carried him north, he manually changed his calendar around and emailed his clients that he’d be out of town for the next few weeks. In truth, he expected the job to last only a few days, but Ben had convinced him to take a week at East Haven Resort, on him.

Who would pass up a week’s stay at one of the best resorts along the East Coast?

For now, he would be staying at Ben’s mother-in-law’s house, helping her figure out where some of her business money had disappeared to.

Financial problems were his forte. Not only had he worked in the field all his life, but he loved crunching and finding hidden numbers. People, on the other hand, he knew little about.

Which was one of the reasons he was still single at forty-two. Not that it was out of the norm for someone who’d focused on his career first and his private life second. Well, okay, actually, third, after his love for traveling. He didn’t get to travel as much now that he ran his own business, but he still allowed himself these kinds of small trips a few times a year.

Early in life, he’d chosen the military after the woman he’d expected to spend the rest of his life with had left him at the altar. Brokenhearted, he’d joined up and had spent the next four years getting the shit kicked out of him in as many ways as possible. If it wasn’t training or bullets flying by him, it was seeing some of his closest friends die in his arms.

So naturally, after getting out of the army, he’d chosen the safest path possible. Finance. Following in his father’s footsteps, he’d learned everything he could and had moved up in job after job.

Glancing out of the window on the train, he noticed that the sky was dark gray, a sign that snow wouldn’t be too far off. The weather app he’d checked before leaving said they were due for more snow later in the week.

He finished hitting send on the last email, to one of his long-standing clients. The man’s marriage was strained, and he wanted information on the state of his finances. Rory had sent him an update, which he hadn’t been too happy with. The man was in politics and had married a woman half his age, who he had been cheating on since before the ink had dried on their marriage license. Rory knew that the wife would take everything that she deserved. Still, his loyalties were with his client, until his invoices stopped being paid.

He closed his computer down and rubbed his eyes and forehead just as the train slowed.

Looking out, he noticed Ben Rothschild standing on the platform. Rory had worked for the younger man’s father at his first job. The man’s father Rory had little respect for, but the young Rothschild he’d liked immediately. So much so, he’d followed him when he started working for Elite Resorts International, the job Rory had left almost four years ago to start his own business.

When he stepped outside, he tucked his jacket closer around him as the wind whipped around. Setting his suitcase and laptop case down, he shook Ben’s hand.

“It’s good of you to come.” Ben wrapped him in a one-arm hug.

“Well, you have a way of being persuasive.” He shook his head when he stepped back. “I’ve been dying to spend some time at East Haven since you took over.”

“I didn’t take over; my wife, Sarah, is still in charge.” Ben smiled.

“Right, I’d forgotten. She was Harrison’s granddaughter. It’ll be nice to meet the woman who finally convinced you to take the leap.”

“She’s waiting at her mother’s place. They’ll have dinner ready.” Ben picked up his suitcase and Rory grabbed his laptop case.

“You have a daughter now as well. Aurora?” he asked.

Ben’s smile tripled. “Yup, you’ll meet her too.”

“Congrats, man.” He slapped Ben on the shoulder as they walked through the train station.

“Thanks.” Ben glanced over at him. “You never had any kids, did you?”

“Nope, chose a career instead of changing diapers.” He chuckled. They walked in silence as they made their way to Ben’s car. There was a light drizzle of rain as they stepped outside.

“So, tell me about your mother-in-law. What kind of business does she have?” he asked after they were on their way.

“She’s owned Serenity’s Attic for twenty-some years. It’s kind of a jack-of-all-trades kind of place. They do everything from yoga classes and massages to selling oils, lotions, clothing…”

“A hippie store?” Rory glanced over at Ben, who just chuckled.

“Yeah, you could say that. But it does pretty good business. Usually in the low or mid six figures a year.”

Rory whistled. “So, how much did they lose?”

“Twenty grand.”

“That’s not too bad.” He’d seen much worse over his four years of investigating fraud.

“It would have been more, but Crystal hired Kayla, her now… um, I guess, niece-in-law…” Ben was silent for a while. “She’s married to…”

“I get it.” Rory chuckled.

“Anyway, Kayla stepped in and changed everything up. Set up some new security firewalls and the flow of cash going out stopped.”

“Sounds like she earned her paycheck.”

“And then some. She and Crystal almost died.”

“What?” Rory frowned.

“Long story, but the short of it was that a crazy woman in town thought her husband was having an affair with Crystal or maybe it was Kayla…” Ben was silent again. “Anyway, she showed up one night and—here’s where you’re kind of screwed—the woman shot the only computer with all the business financials on it.”

Rory groaned. “No backups? Paper trails?”

“Paper trails, yes, tons and tons of paper. But, nothing showing where the money would have gone. Well, none that Kayla or Crystal have found in the past six months.”

Rory wondered if the trip was going to be worth it.

“Hey, don’t worry. I promise you a couple things: one, you’ll enjoy where you’re staying and two, you’ll be eating some of the best food around. Not only is Crystal a top-notch cook, but Adam Carriveau just got back from his vacation with his wife. They sailed up to Canada. Took almost two months off. Lilith, Adam’s wife, is Sarah’s best friend. They had postponed their trip north until after Aurora was born.”

“Sounds like you’ve dug yourself in deep around here,” Rory said, looking out the dark window. He’d been up to the area once before, but it had been years ago. From what he could remember, the scenery was gorgeous. Now, however, it was too dark to see anything but his reflection in the glass. He was looking forward to spending some time away from the city.

His doctor had gently suggested that he do something to lower his stress levels. One of the other reasons he’d decided to take Ben up on his offer.

He’d been having some minor health issues and he’d had to see a doctor more than he wanted to. Nothing major, but slight pains that hadn’t been there before. He still worked out four times a week, went running when he had free time, and ate as healthy as he could. At least when he wasn’t on the run and grabbing fast food.

“If you’re going to dig yourself into a place, this is the place to choose,” Ben was saying as they drove through the small picturesque town. Rory watched classic homes go by outside the window. Then they drove straight through the small downtown area. It looked like it could be on a postcard.

The car stopped in front of a massive house that was lit up with Christmas lights. “Come on,” Ben said after he turned the car off, “they’ll be waiting for us.”

Rory stepped onto the sidewalk and tried to take in everything he could about the place. “Some place.” He shook his head.

It was a massive three-story colonial that took up the entire block. He normally didn’t get in the holiday spirit until after Thanksgiving, but it was hard not to feel excitement for the season when looking at the brightly decorated house.

Since the rain had turned into sleet, he quickly followed Ben up the stairs and shook the water from his jacket and hair on the front porch.

“This place was built by the Holley family. It’s recently been designated as a historic landmark,” Ben said, opening one of the massive glass doors, which had a large wreath covering the stained glass.

“Doesn’t she lock her doors?” he asked. Ben turned and smiled at him and continued to walk inside. “No wonder someone’s stolen from her,” he said under his breath.

When he stepped into the house, he was instantly hit with the smells of the holidays. It was like someone had baked gingerbread cookies right before he walked in. He looked around and realized how old the building must be. There were high arches decorated with molding and classic Gone-with-the-Wind-style stairs leading up. Even the carpet and furniture looked like he’d stepped back a few centuries. Every inch of the place was classically decorated for the season, as if he’d stepped directly into the television and right into It’s a Wonderful Life.

She may run a hippy store, but she cared more about her home and belongings than any hippy or want-to-be-hippy he’d ever met.

Ben hung his jacket up on a coat rack and then offered to take his. “You can set your bag there.” He nodded to the base of the stairs. “I’m sure Crystal will show you to your rooms after dinner.”

Rory was still looking at those impressive stairs when he felt his heart kick. There, at the top of the stairs, stood the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

Her long blonde hair reached all the way down to her hips. She was wearing a long white sweater skirt with a bright red belt that hugged her slender waist. When she started to move, he noticed her bare legs and he literally forgot time and place.

The woman had the most gorgeous long legs. His eyes traveled up and down her entire body as she made her way down the stairs.

As she stopped at the foot of the stairs, he noticed the painted red toe nails at the end of those legs and felt his entire body react to the woman standing in front of him. Her hand was resting gently on the wood railing, which had been decorated with holly vines. His eyes moved up and met hers as a slow smile caused a slight dimple to the left of her sexy red-painted lips. His eyes zeroed in on the spot as daydreams about kissing just there filled his mind.

“Rory, this is my mother-in-law, Crystal Holley. Crystal, Rory Sinclair.” Ben made the introductions. Rory was slightly shocked that this was the mother of the woman Ben was married to. The woman looked to be in her early thirties, easily.

Crystal moved towards them and came to a stop less than a foot from him. Her blue eyes met his.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” she said softly.