CHAPTER 6

After Luke left, Avery turned her attention to the lost-and-found box, which Kate had been keeping under the reception desk. She’d been meaning to sort through it for a while now, since the container was filled to the brim. She pulled the items out one by one and laid them on the desk.

“Oh,” Kate said, coming through the door from the parlor, “you’re organizing the lost-and-found box. Good.”

“There sure is a lot of junk in here,” Avery complained, pulling out a bent umbrella and showing it to Kate. “I can’t imagine anyone would want this anymore. Why are we keeping it?”

“You have a point. Why not throw away the broken things and keep the others? And you know my policy: six months and then tough luck.”

“It’s probably safe to throw this away, then,” Avery said, holding a purple bikini bottom between her thumb and forefinger.

Kate looked at the offending garment with distaste. “Ugh, yes.”

“Okay. I have a plan. Don’t worry about this stuff. I’ll take care of it, Aunt Kate.”

“Thank you, dear.” Kate smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

Avery sorted through the rest of the items. Twenty minutes later, the box was organized—clothing on one side, odds and ends on the other. She put the box back under the reception desk and walked to the kitchen, where she found Kate talking to Buster Quigley. He was wearing a thick jacket and had his baseball cap in his hands, and when he saw her, his eyes widened.

“Hi, Buster,” Avery said, giving him a little wave. “Good to see you again.”

Buster gave her a short nod, but didn’t speak.

“How are things at the LMK this morning?”

“Fine,” he said.

“Buster was just delivering the pastries,” Kate interjected.

“Yep,” was the man’s only comment.

Avery tried not to smile. She hadn’t quite realized how quiet Buster was.

“Good seeing you, Kate,” Buster said gruffly. “I’ve got to get back.” He settled his cap on his head and slipped out the back door.

Avery waited until he was out of earshot. “What was that about?” she asked.

Kate waved her hands dismissively. “Oh, nothing,” she said, placing the pastries into the refrigerator. “Just catching up. So is the lost-and-found box organized?”

“Yes. I threw away a bunch of stuff.”

“Good, dear. Very good. Well,” she said, “I have some things to do at the house. I’ll be back later.”

“All right.” Her aunt threw on a coat and headed out the door. Just then, Avery’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and picked it up. “Hello?

“Hi, Avery.” Emma’s soft, clear voice came through the line. “I’m calling to ask if you’d like to join me and James for dinner tonight.”

“That’d be great, Emma. I’d love to. Want me to ask Aunt Kate?”

“I already called her. She told me she just wants to rest this evening.”

“Okay,” she said. Goodness knew Kate needed to rest, but she always shot down the suggestion when Avery made it. “But I’ll be there. Can we make it early? I got roped into something later on this evening. I’ll tell you about it tonight.”

“Sure. Come on by around six. Can’t wait to see you.”

“Great. ’Bye.” Avery clicked the phone off. She hoped Kate made the most of her night off. Her aunt was so insistent that she was well that Avery sometimes forgot what an ordeal Kate had experienced. She couldn’t even imagine having her body poked and prodded like that, not to mention having poison pumped through her veins. Chemo was brutal, yet Kate had taken it like a champ.

Avery sighed. Why couldn’t she be more like Kate? Brave. Stoic. Calm. She hadn’t even been able to make it through that last horrific meeting with Mia’s family without breaking down and sobbing. Of course, there was the issue of Mia’s child.

The whole reason Mia had been at the Back Bay Recovery Center was that she’d been ordered to complete the three-month recovery program by the Department of Family Services to be eligible to regain custody of her five-year-old daughter, Faith. At first, Mia hadn’t wanted to be there at all, and she’d resented Avery and the other staff members, blaming them for keeping her from her kid. But over time, she’d grown to trust Avery, opening up to her. Avery had really felt as though she’d gotten through to Mia, who was on track to successfully complete the program. She had even written up a draft recommendation for the court suggesting that Mia be awarded custody. But with five days to go in the program, Mia had been found dead in Center housing. She’d relapsed and overdosed, and Avery had no idea why. After her mother’s death, the little girl was permanently placed with her father, whom Avery suspected of domestic abuse. Luckily, Faith had a good relationship with her grandmother, who’d taken her to the meeting, but Avery couldn’t even look at the child without seeing her own failure. Not a day went by when she didn’t think about Mia and Faith, and how she could have done things differently.

Avery hated to admit it, but she wasn’t half as good at compartmentalizing her emotions as she’d like to be. If she cared about someone, she couldn’t help but be fully invested in that person. It was in her nature. Ironically, it was probably why she’d chosen her current profession. But it also meant that it all came crashing down when bad things happened to the people she cared about.

Hoping to make herself feel better, Avery went to get a cup of hot chocolate from the kitchen. But even her favorite drink couldn’t help her get rid of the sickening feeling of loss in the pit of her stomach.

“Heya, Theo,” a warm voice spoke. Theo didn’t need to look up to see who it was. Shutting his book—a tome on eighteenth-century piracy he’d borrowed from the Star Harbor Historical Society—he lifted his head to smile at Lexie, who was standing behind the counter at the LMK.

“Hi. What’s up, Lexie?”

The small woman leaned her elbows on the counter. “You give new meaning to the phrase ‘lost in a book,’ you know that? Anyway, I hate to interrupt you, but it’s almost closing time.”

Theo glanced at his watch. “Wow. Eight-thirty already? I had some pie at what, three o’clock?” He looked around at the almost empty dining room. “The kitchen’s closed for dinner orders, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but you know what the best thing about me marrying Seb is?” she asked.

“Other than the fact that you’re going to make him insanely happy?”

“You’ll be family. And that’s a good thing, because being a family member has its privileges.” She held up a pan and grinned. “Another slice of apple pie before I close up?”

Theo grinned back. “You know it.”

As he tucked into his slice, he couldn’t help but think how lucky Seb was to have found his match. Lexie was Seb’s equal in every way, and a good woman, to boot. Theo himself was thrilled that he now had not one, but two people to make him delicious food. He couldn’t cook worth a damn, a source of much embarrassment considering that all of his brothers could cook and Seb was a celebrity chef. In San Francisco, Theo had pretty much subsisted on takeout and the kindness of friends.

With a mouthful of ambrosial pie, he realized how easy life was here in Star Harbor. Family, friends, food, and now, inspiration in the form of the delectable Avery Newbridge. It was enough to make him consider staying in his hometown, if not forever, than at least for the immediate future. Though he couldn’t deny the charms of California, to his mind, winter in Star Harbor beat summer in San Francisco any day. Both were freezing, but at least Star Harbor got snow, a plus in Theo’s eyes. He hadn’t been lying to Avery when he told her that winter agreed with him. He loved the season. It was the best time of year to get good writing done, too. Nothing to do but hunker down and search inside himself.

At least, that’s how it had been until he came up against that brick wall. But he was finally regaining some momentum. He could feel it.

Theo could see now that his privileged life in San Francisco had made him much more focused on people’s accomplishments than on who they really were inside. It never used to be that way. Not here in Star Harbor.

But every moment he spent in town—and in the company of a certain flame-haired woman—he was forced to reexamine everything he thought he knew. It was more than the emotional connection he was starting to build with her; it was the raw need that hit him in the gut whenever he was around her. His affairs in San Francisco had been so cold, bloodless, even, that he’d almost forgotten how invigorating passion could be. Nothing like a little—or a lot—of tension to fuel his fire. He’d always thrived under pressure, and it seemed as if his desire to woo Avery—and her resistance to his advances—was simply ratcheting up the stakes, day by day.

It had taken a woman like Lexie to bring Seb to his knees. He was beginning to realize that Avery had that same potential for him. His titian-haired beauty was like one of those wooden box puzzles—one he wanted to solve, layer by layer, to find out what lay beneath the surface. Never before had he been as interested in figuring someone out. Far from making him nervous, the prospect intrigued him.