Harbour Lights. Sherryl Woods

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СКАЧАТЬ Davy’s hand tucked in hers, Bree came over to join him, plopping down on the grass and setting the jar where Davy could watch it, his brow furrowed now in concentration.

      “I can see lightning in the distance,” she commented, her gaze directed toward the bay. “Heat lightning, most likely.”

      “Maybe,” Kevin said.

      “Then, again, it could storm in an hour or two,” she said, clearly making small talk. “I hope so. We could use a good rain.”

      Kevin didn’t respond, just waited, wary. Bree rarely dropped by for no good reason now that she was married. She had better things to do with her evenings than to sit with him and chat about the weather. Usually if he kept quiet, she’d eventually get to the point.

      Tonight, however, the tactic didn’t seem to be working. Bree just sat there, gazing out at the water, seemingly content. He knew better. Like him, she was biding her time.

      “Why aren’t you home with Jake?” he asked eventually, hoping to forestall whatever had brought her over here by guiding her toward what was usually her favorite topic, her new husband.

      “Mrs. Finch had a lilac emergency,” she said with a smile.

      Mrs. Finch’s obsession with her lilacs was legendary. She nearly drove Jake crazy with her insistence on overseeing the annual mulching and trimming he did for her, but she was one of his landscaping business’s best customers, so when she called, he went. Kevin grinned. “Better him than me.”

      Bree laughed. “That’s right. I’d forgotten you used to do lawn work for her when you were a kid.”

      “I only helped Jake, so he’d finish sooner and we could go out chasing girls,” he corrected.

      “You and my husband chased girls together?” she asked with a narrowed gaze. “I don’t remember that.”

      “Oops!” Kevin replied, trying to inject a note of contrition into his voice. He couldn’t quite manage it. If he’d just thrown Jake to the wolves, so be it. Maybe it would get Bree’s focus off him.

      Apparently, though, she was more than capable of multitasking, because she turned her attention right back to him.

      “I met Shanna today,” she said, all innocence. “She said you’d been looking for me.”

      “I was.”

      “Any particular reason?”

      “I mentioned I might go into town and Gram immediately claimed she wanted a few flowers to fill in an arrangement.” Gram’s request had been a blatant lie, and they’d both known it.

      “But you never picked up any flowers,” Bree said, looking confused.

      “Because her garden’s in full bloom,” he said. “I know a manipulation when it slaps me in the face. She just wanted to be sure I kept my word and got out of the house. It’s her latest mission in life.”

      Bree grinned. “She’s not half as sneaky as she likes to think she is.”

      “Never was,” he said, waiting for another shoe to drop.

      “I hear you hung out for a while at the bookstore,” she finally said, her tone oh-so-casual.

      He shrugged. “I was waiting for you. Shanna was having trouble with her cappuccino machine, so I offered to set it up for her. It was like the one I used to have at home. No big deal, certainly nothing to bring you running over here with all these questions.”

      Her brow lifted. “She didn’t mention that you’d helped her out.”

      “Like I said, it wasn’t a big deal. Is there some point you’re trying to get to?”

      “Not really,” she said, sitting back in companionable silence just long enough to lull him into a false sense of complacency before asking, “What did you think of her?”

      “Who? Shanna?”

      She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that who we’ve been talking about?”

      He regarded her evenly. “A second ago we were talking about Gram.”

      “Oh, please. I know what you think about our grandmother. Yes, Shanna, dolt. She’s attractive.”

      “I didn’t notice.” It was a lie. He’d noticed that her cheeks flushed easily, that her hair had a tendency to curl haphazardly, that she barely came up to his chin. But he’d also seen something else: trouble. She was vulnerable and needy, and not because she couldn’t get her cappuccino machine working, either. It was something else, something he’d read in the depths of her eyes. He couldn’t cope with needy. He could barely cope with his own life these days.

      “Well, she is attractive,” Bree said. “Single, too. At least she wasn’t wearing any kind of a ring, and she never mentioned anything about a husband.”

      “Do most people you know spill their entire life story the second you meet them?”

      “Of course not. I’m just passing along what I observed.”

      Kevin scowled at his sister. “I hope you’re not planning to indulge in some unsolicited matchmaking,” he said in a tone he hoped would quell any ideas she had along that line.

      “No one in this family approves of meddling,” she said piously.

      “That doesn’t seem to stop ‘em from engaging in it,” he retorted sourly. “Before you go getting any ideas, keep in mind that I’m so far from wanting a woman in my life, I might as well be living in a monastery.”

      “Which is a waste, if you ask me.”

      “I didn’t ask, did I?”

      “Come on, Kevin,” she coaxed. “Live a little. You don’t have to marry the woman. You don’t even have to date her. Just have coffee with her, help her out getting the store organized, something that will bring a little human contact back into your life.”

      “With you, Jess, Abby, Gram and Dad on my case, I have about as much human contact these days as I can handle,” he grumbled.

      “We don’t count. You need to interact with the outside world.”

      “Leave it alone, Bree. Leave me alone.”

      He stood up, then reached down to scoop Davy off his feet. “Bath time, kiddo.”

      “No! More flies,” Davy protested, clinging tightly to his jar with both hands.

      “Two’s enough,” Kevin told him. “That’s quite a catch. Thank your Aunt Bree and tell her good night.”

      Davy dutifully smiled at his aunt. “Bye, Bwee.”

      “Good night, lovebug.” She grinned at Kevin. “Night, pain.”

      He laughed. “Ditto.”

      She fell into step beside him as СКАЧАТЬ