Twenty
Felicity’s first stop was Rivendell. Gabe saw that he hadn’t thrown her off schedule with their walk and quick swim, and the fresh dress she’d put on looked as good as the one that had gotten wet. The women attending tonight’s party were dressed up, waiting for the car Felicity had arranged to take them into the village. Audrey Frost was driving herself and Daisy Farrell. In the two years since his grandfather had moved to assisted living, Gabe had learned not to make assumptions about the elderly residents and their motives, capabilities or health.
Of course, party-planner extraordinaire Felicity MacGregor had arranged with the staff to make sure she had a little something for those who weren’t attending, including anyone on restricted diets.
While Felicity saw to her craftspeople, Gabe checked in with his grandfather at his small apartment. “I always liked Felicity,” his grandfather said after Gabe explained why he was there. “Thought you two would be married by now, but you never did like to do what anyone thought you’d do.”
“Saying I was a difficult teenager?”
“Difficult, period.” The old man grinned. “I was blunt even before I hit eighty.”
“Plain-spoken,” Gabe amended.
“And maybe unpredictable is a better way to think of you. Do you still like to be unpredictable?”
“I don’t know if I ever liked it. These days I like to think I’m spontaneous and flexible, able to maneuver after a setback and capitalize after a coup.”
“You’re not set in your ways.” His grandfather sank deeper into the worn cushions of his well-used chair. “I thought I’d die at home. To be honest, I never thought I’d see seventy-five, never mind eighty-five, and here I am.”
“For a while, I hope. I have to run, Gramps. Be good.”
He winked. “No fun in that. See you, Gabe. Enjoy your party. The girls had a good time doing up those critters. The writer and artist—what’s her friend’s name again?”
“Kylie Shaw, but she writes under the name Morwenna Mills.”
“I wouldn’t have kept that straight at forty. She’s talented. She and Felicity both are.”
“That they are,” Gabe said. “Want me to bring you your slippers or something before I go?”
His grandfather eyed him as if trying to gauge if Gabe was teasing him. Finally he shook his head. “All set. G’night, and you be good, too.”
Gabe met Felicity in the parking lot, and they continued into the village. He watched the scenery out his window, appreciating how little had changed since he’d moved away. No ex-urban sprawl here. The air was clear and dry. The stars would be bright again tonight.
When they arrived at the library, he helped carry things in. Kylie and Russ arrived, but Felicity shooed them inside. “This is my job,” she told Kylie. “Yours is to be Morwenna Mills.”
Kylie smiled, obviously ambivalent about the evening ahead. “I love seeing people, but an event like this—it does take a lot out of me.”
“You’ve got Russ this time,” Felicity said.
“And a bunch of your badger buddies,” Gabe said, lifting the box out of the back of Felicity’s Land Rover. “Did you bring Sherlock?”
Russ grinned. “Always.”
Kylie smiled, too, looking less jittery. “Sherlock, Russ and friends. Can’t go wrong.”
If she was worried about Nadia, she didn’t say as she headed up the steps into the library. Maggie Sloan arrived in her van with the food for the evening. She burst out of the van with her usual energy, her red hair coming out of its pins and clips. She’d been like that in high school, too. Gabe grinned at her. She seemed to read his mind and put him to work.
“Brandon still hiking?” he asked, grabbing a covered tray.
“Home tomorrow. He loves it. Sloan & Sons has tons of work with all the construction going on around here, but he needs these excursions. They keep him from getting restless. We were separated for a while, did you know?”
“I heard something about that.”
She nodded. “I’m not surprised. We’ve been together since the beginning of time, I swear. We got married and had kids young, but we both wanted to see what was beyond Knights Bridge.”
“That’s not unusual for those of us from small towns,” Gabe said.
“We’re both happy being back here. It’s a great place to live and to raise our boys. We’ve made a place for ourselves with the work we do. Brandon’s a damn good carpenter, and we’ll see how he does with his first adventure travel excursion.”
“Are you worried he’ll like it too much?”
“Not worried at all. I used to think Knights Bridge wasn’t a great place to be young and single, but that hasn’t been the case lately, that’s for sure.”
“Is that a hint?”
“You’re a tumbleweed, Gabe, but one of these days you’ll get swept somewhere and stick, don’t you think?”
“See me back in Knights Bridge?”
“I didn’t see Brandon and me returning, but we did, and now we’re having the best time of our lives. Our work, our boys, our extended families, life here. It’s all good, Gabe. It’s not without problems, of course, but that’s life.”
He smiled at her. “I’m glad to hear it, Maggie. Really.”
“Excellent. That tray is holding delicate tarts. Don’t go bull-in-a-china-shop on me, okay?”
He promised he wouldn’t and managed to get the tray up the stairs, into the library and on the food table without incident. At that moment, nothing seemed more important. Maybe it was true—maybe nothing was more important.
As he headed back outside, he glanced at his phone in case he’d missed a message from Nadia, but there was nothing. He paused and looked up and down South Main and across the common, but he didn’t see her. There were no obvious rentals or out-of-town cars parked yet on the street or in the parking lot, but he knew that would be happening soon. Security wasn’t his job tonight, but he did feel responsible for Nadia.
Felicity eased in next to him. “Nadia’s not in the library. I checked with Russ. He made sure she’s not hiding in a bathroom or one of the library’s nooks and crannies—although it’d be hard to check every single one of them. That’s why Daphne Stewart’s secret sewing room in the attic went undetected for so many years.”
“Decades,” Gabe said.
“She loved creating a mystery. Nadia’s more straightforward, I think. I’m sorry she’s had it rough lately.”
“I’m sorry, too, but there’s no reason for her to take her troubles out on anyone else.”
A black town car pulled up to the library. Gabe tensed, but when the back door opened, a man in his mid-to late-thirties got out, thanked the driver and shut the door and turned to Gabe with a grin. “Relax. I’m Marty Colton, Russ’s big brother.”
Gabe introduced himself and Felicity.
Marty glanced at the retreating car. “Man, I wish I had a picture of my arrival. I’ve always wanted to make a grand entrance.” He turned back to Gabe. “If we want to call arriving at the Knights Bridge public library an entrance.”
“Point taken.”
“But, hey, it counts. The car wasn’t as expensive as I thought. I got in early yesterday and took a day in Boston to get my feet under me.”
“Is Russ expecting you?” Gabe asked.
Marty shook his head. “I’m surprising him. I figured this is as good a time as any to see his new town. Good Lord, it’s cute, isn’t it? I’m such a desert rat. Daphne’s told me about this place in bits and pieces over countless French martinis.”
“I can imagine,” Gabe said. “You were on the same flight as Nadia Ainsworth. Do you happen to know where she is now?”
Marty shook his head. “No, I don’t. She seemed nice. Any problem with her?”
“We used to work together.” Gabe decided that was enough. He motioned to the library entrance. “Russ and Kylie are inside if you want to surprise them.”
“Russ isn’t easy to surprise. He’ll know I’m here by now. Probably knew the minute my car crossed into Knights Bridge.” Marty sighed as his younger brother emerged from the library. “See?”
Gabe stepped aside as the two Coltons greeted each other. Russ seemed genuinely pleased that Marty had made the trip East for the party, but he’d obviously had an eye on the hired car and whoever was in it. The pair went inside, and Gabe resumed helping Felicity get the evening festivities set up.
“Kylie told me Marty didn’t make it to the wedding. Hates to fly,” Felicity said.
Gabe nodded. “He was severely injured in a helicopter crash in which his father died.”
“That’s terrible. I knew there was a reason, but it wasn’t the moment to ask for details. How did you find out? Did Russ tell you?”
“Shannon.”
“Ah. She could work security herself. Well, Russ seems thrilled Marty’s here now, and I know Kylie will be.”
Kylie’s sister arrived. She introduced Lila to Felicity and Gabe, no one awkward at the intermingling of personal and professional relationships, given Felicity’s role that evening. Gabe didn’t think he’d ever seen her so comfortable in her own skin—at ease with her work, herself, her place in her hometown. No way was he messing with that.
“Feeling cocky?” she asked him during a moment’s lull, after they’d finished setting up.
“About what?”
“That you were right about me. Aren’t you taking a little credit for my new life as an event manager?”
He grinned at her. “Let’s see if the badgers behave first.”
“A few aren’t tightly sewn. I hope their stuffing holds through the night.”
“I know the feeling.”
She laughed. “Don’t we all.”
“You don’t seem as nervous tonight as you did at the boot camp. Kylie’s well-known.”
“She is, but she’s not you, is she? She’s a friend. Not that you aren’t, but I hadn’t seen you in such a long time, and we’d had quite a parting of ways. I mean, it involved brownies.”
“It involved deception about brownies,” Gabe said lightly.
“I’m ignoring you. The boot camp was a first, too. A lot was at stake, not just for me but for people I care about—Dylan, Olivia, Maggie, Brandon, Noah, even Phoebe. Russ, too. And you.”
“You didn’t want to screw up.”
“Especially in front of you,” she added pointedly.
“I guess I can understand that.” He tilted his head sideways, eyeing her. “I could make an argument that skinny-dipping in the river helped relax you for tonight.”
“Oh, sure. That was very relaxing. Technically I wasn’t skinny-dipping, but it was madness.”
“But fun?”
She smiled. “Maybe.”
“You have to cut loose once in a while, Felicity.”
“I hear you, but you don’t have to tell me what I need to do or don’t need to do. I’m not looking to you for that, Gabe.”
“As if you ever did.”
Her smiled broadened. “Now you’re getting the idea.”
A stream of guests came through the main library doors, and she was off to do her thing.
Gabe went into fly-on-the-wall mode, but it didn’t last. The Sloan brothers in attendance spotted him. Eric, Justin and Christopher. Adam, a stonemason and the quietest of the lot, wasn’t there, and Brandon was still in the White Mountains with his adventure travelers. Justin was with Samantha, his pirate-expert bride and one of Kylie’s first friends in town.
“How’s it going, Gabe?” Justin asked.
“Just fine,” he said, meaning it as he watched Felicity direct guests. “Just fine.”
* * *
As far as Gabe could tell, the evening was a smashing success. He’d never been to a party for a children’s book author and illustrator. To any kind of book party, in fact.
He wandered outside while Felicity wrapped up with the last of the guests. He’d help her clean up and load the Rover. Nadia, thankfully, hadn’t turned up.
Justin and Samantha Sloan trotted down the library steps. Eric and Christopher had left already for their shifts as police officer and firefighter. Justin was a volunteer firefighter—he and Samantha had met when she’d ducked into an old cider mill he owned and it caught fire in a lightning strike. It occurred to Gabe that as little time as he spent in Knights Bridge, he did know a fair amount about its goings-on, mostly thanks to his brother—but he could have told Mark he wasn’t interested, and he never had.
Justin and Samantha said good-night and headed off, hand in hand, across South Main and the common, toward their rambling, ramshackle inn. If anyone could renovate Red Clover Inn and make it better than it ever had been, they and the rest of the Sloans could—and would.
Gabe stiffened, noticing the silhouette of a woman on the common.
Nadia.
He glanced behind him. A few stragglers chatted in front of the library. He debated alerting Russ, who was inside, but decided there was no need. Let Russ enjoy the rest of the celebration with his wife and his brother. Gabe had no reason to believe Nadia would cause trouble, at least any he couldn’t handle.
He crossed the quiet street and walked through the lush grass on the common. Nadia stood in front of a World War II monument. She didn’t glance at him as he approached her. “Imagine all the dead and maimed during those terrible years,” she said, staring at the names carved into the polished stone. “It seems like such a long time ago, but my grandfather served in the Pacific. He seldom talked about it. I found pictures after my grandmother died of the two of them. He was in his uniform. They were so young.” She turned to Gabe, her skin pale, colorless, in the dim light. “The march of time, huh?”
“What are you doing here, Nadia?”
“Resisting temptation. I had a ticket for tonight’s celebration. I talked myself out of going. I realized today that I’ve upset people here. I didn’t want to be the skunk at the picnic.” She bit on her lower lip, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I’m sorry, Gabe. I hate that I’ve made your friends here nervous.”
“Then take a different approach, Nadia.”
“Like what?”
She sounded helpless, at a loss. “Go home,” Gabe said gently. “Change course. You’re dealing with big changes in your life. Talk to your family and friends. Get professional help if you need to.”
She sniffled and attempted a smile, but there was no hint of it in her eyes. “Yes, well, you make it sound so easy.”
“I know it’s not easy. Being truthful with yourself and others is a place to start.”
“That’s a polite way to call me a liar.” She held up a hand. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. I know I haven’t been entirely truthful, but sometimes everyone is best served by a social lie that doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“I’m not here to tell you how to live your life.”
“Good.” She shifted back to the monument. “I loved David, Gabe. His energy, his can-do approach to life, his charm. His laugh—he has a great laugh. I was devastated when he left me. I never saw it coming. I blamed myself for the failure of our marriage. Part of me still does.”
“I’m sorry, Nadia.”
“He’ll do right by the company we—you built. He’s not why I’m here. Not directly, anyway. I’m here because I’ve been so lost. I didn’t have a relationship with my grandmother in her last years because I always put David first, and now she’s gone. It’s over. I can’t undo the past and have a relationship with her.” She looked back toward the library, lit up against the dark night. “Seeing the people here—your family and friends—has made me realize what I gave up and can never, ever get back.”
“You have family and friends,” Gabe said.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” She turned back to him, her expression less strained. “I know my relationship with David has nothing to do with you, but did he tell you he planned to leave me? Did you guess?”
“Nadia...”
“Unfair question, sorry. It’s not your fault my marriage dissolved. The signs were there. I just didn’t see them.”
“Nadia, don’t take on what he did. Why don’t I walk you to your car—”
“I can’t help but have regrets. You’re young, Gabe. You’re very young for what you’ve accomplished. Don’t isolate yourself the way I did. You have friends and family here in Knights Bridge. You matter to them. They matter to you.”
“I know that, Nadia.”
“Do you?” She crossed her arms on her chest, as if she needed to hug herself. “I’m parked in front of the country store. I don’t need you to walk me over there.”
“Where are you staying tonight?” Gabe asked.
“My grandmother’s house. The buyers are talking about turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. They shared some of their ideas with me. It’ll be a sweet place if they can pull it off. This has been difficult emotionally, but it’s also been...” She paused, sighing. “Cathartic, you know? In a good way. Has being back here been good for you?”
He didn’t want to talk about himself. “You’ll get through this, Nadia.” He motioned toward South Main. “I need to go. I’m chief box hauler tonight.”
She laughed, or tried to. “I can think of a dozen people off the top of my head who’d love to see you right now, playing the Knights Bridge hometown boy. Enjoy your box hauling, Gabe.”
“Take care, Nadia.”
He watched her walk across the common toward Main Street and the country store. He could see a car parked there. He waited until its headlights came on. Then he let out a breath and returned to the library. When Gabe crossed South Main, Felicity was shoving an empty box into the back of her car. She glanced at him with a measure of sympathy. “Nadia?”
“Yes.”
“Fun way to end the evening. You okay?”
He nodded. “I’m fine. Come on. I’ll help pack up.”
* * *
No way was Felicity going into her house first. Gabe could see that thought take root as she pulled into her driveway and turned off the engine. “What if Nadia booby-trapped the place?” she asked, hands still on the wheel.
“Do you believe that?”
She sighed, loosening her grip on the wheel. “No. That’s why it’s a what-if question. She doesn’t strike me as dangerous. That said...” She turned to Gabe in the dark. “I’d have felt better if she’d come inside tonight and enjoyed herself instead of lurking out on the common, but all this talk about locking my doors has me a bit on edge. She’s your friend.”
He felt his jaw tighten. “Friend is a stretch.”
“Yes, well—you go first. Reconnoiter and come back and tell me she didn’t short-sheet my bed or spread dog poo on the kitchen counters.”
“What if she’s hiding in the bushes by the driveway and jumps you while I’m inside?”
“Good point.” She let go of the wheel and reached for the door handle. “I’ll go with you and stand outside the screen door until you give me the all clear.”
They got out of the Rover, and, leaving everything they’d brought back from the library in the car, they headed across the driveway to the house. Gabe understood Felicity’s humor and intentional exaggeration were in response to his somber mood since they’d left the village. Nadia’s troubled state of mind didn’t automatically make her a danger to anyone. But wasn’t that often the way? People would see signs and ignore, downplay or dismiss them, only later to wish they’d done something when the unacceptable behavior first arose. At the same time, Gabe knew he’d done what he could to steer Nadia onto a better course for herself. Russ Colton had agreed they had no reason to do more. So had Marty, who’d spent hours on a plane with her the night before. Her family knew she was struggling. She knew she was struggling.
If she showed up in Knights Bridge again, that could change things.
Felicity did as promised and stayed just outside as Gabe made quick work of a search of her house. He was convinced no one had been inside. It wasn’t just drama on Felicity’s part, he knew. Nadia had behaved badly, lying and sneaking around, justifying her intrusiveness because of her own emotional pain. Her misplaced actions would only get her into real trouble if she didn’t come to terms with the big changes in her life.
“All clear,” Gabe said as he opened the door for Felicity. “Anything we need to get out of your car?”
“Nothing that can’t wait until morning, but we might as well get it over with.”
He followed her back to the Rover. All the badgers had gone home with guests, leaving just the empty box. There were a few other items to deal with—her laptop, binder, decorations and posters. Three trips and they were done.
“What’s your next event?” Gabe asked, opening the refrigerator.
Felicity plopped onto a chair at the table. “Let me enjoy pulling this one off before I think about the next one. Not that I haven’t been thinking about it. I mean now.”
“Good to take time to celebrate a great night.”
“It wasn’t my night. It was Kylie’s night.”
“Celebrate a job well done, then.”
She opened her mouth but shut it again before speaking. He pulled a bottle of champagne out of the fridge. “Where did that come from?” she asked.
“Imagine.”
“You sneaked it in here? That’s an expensive label. Did you buy it in town?”
“Boston,” he said, setting the bottle on the counter.
“In anticipation of a reason to celebrate?”
“Champagne is always correct.”
He got two glasses out of a cupboard and set them on the counter before opening the champagne. He filled the glasses and handed one to Felicity. She rose with it, nodded toward the living room. “Sit outside and drink champagne to the stars?”
“I was about to suggest that myself.”
“Uh-oh. We’re thinking alike.”
But he heard an odd note in her voice that he couldn’t pinpoint—whether she was being sarcastic, frank, funny, hopeful. He let it go and followed her out to the deck.
“Let’s not light any candles or turn on any lights,” she said softly next to him.
He slipped into the living room and kitchen and turned off any interior lights. He went back out to the deck and stood next to Felicity, turned to her to click glasses with a simple “cheers.” They leaned on the rail, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. The stars were out, spread across the night sky in sharp relief, as bright as he’d anticipated they’d be.
“No moon tonight,” he said. “It’s beautiful out here at night.”
“You don’t do much stargazing these days?”
“Even if I took the time for it, the stars wouldn’t be as amazing in Boston or San Diego as they are here.”
“It’s a good spot,” Felicity said, picking up her champagne again.
“I didn’t pay much attention to the stars when I was growing up here.”
“Neither did I. We didn’t know what we were missing.”
“We didn’t know what we had,” he said.
She let out a deep breath. “Heavy, Gabe. Damn.”
“Stars and bubbly bring out the Yoda in me.”
But he couldn’t quite make his attempt at humor sound genuine or stick, and he settled for drinking his champagne in silence next to Felicity.
“Will you go back to Boston in the morning?” she asked after a while.
“I don’t have a set schedule. I didn’t expect to be back here so soon. Justin Sloan offered me a room at Red Clover Inn if I end up staying longer. They haven’t started renovations. They’re still working on the plans. He says the rooms are in good working order.” He paused, finished the last of his champagne. “I don’t want to be underfoot here.”
“Whisking me off to swim in my undies isn’t conducive to getting work done.”
“Can’t beat it for a break on a summer day.”
“Not unless you get me arrested. Well, since you don’t have a plan, we can worry about tonight. I say we plan on pancakes and sausage at Smith’s in the morning.”
“Works for me.”
She yawned. “Champagne and post-event wind-down are taking their toll. I’m turning in. Thanks for the help with the party.” She angled a smile at him. “Swimming today was fun. A little well-chosen rule-breaking once in a while is good for the soul.”
Gabe let her go without a word. He didn’t know why, except that he hadn’t the vaguest idea what to say—which also troubled him. He might say the wrong thing but he always said something.
He walked down to the river in the dark, without the benefit of a flashlight. The stars helped but not as much as a full moon would have. He jumped onto a boulder that jutted into the water. He used to come out here as a boy. His parents never noticed, or if they had, they’d never said anything. Normal in their world, a kid slipping down to the river in the dark.
A different time if not a different place, he thought, watching bats swoop in the sky above the river, against the stars. If he had any sense, he’d head to Red Clover Inn now, before it got too late and he risked waking Justin and Samantha.
But when had he ever had any sense, at least here on the river?
He dipped a toe in the water, the river swifter and colder here than at the swimming hole. He could feel the air turning, a front moving in that would lead to cooler, dryer air. In Boston, he’d be—doing what? He didn’t even know. Having drinks with friends, maybe. Flirting with pretty women. Thinking about life back in Knights Bridge. His grandfather in assisted living, his brother and his wife looking forward to their new baby. His father, working on his old motorcycles. Friends. Family. Where did Felicity fit in?
He looked behind him, up the steep bank toward the house. Her house. But wasn’t that as he’d always seen it?
Aggravated with himself for overthinking, he headed back up the footpath to the deck. Felicity had left her glass on the rail. He grabbed it, and his, and headed inside. He thought he’d wash them, but he left them in the sink.
He walked down the hall and raised his hand to knock on her door, but she opened it before he could make contact. She was in her nightgown, hair down, face washed of makeup, eyes wide and soft as they connected with his. “Gabe, what are we doing?”
“I have a feeling you know.”
“I have a feeling I do, too.”
There would be no Red Clover Inn tonight. No guest room across the hall from Felicity, and no couch.