The One Real Thing

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?”