Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

Sunday morning rolled around with far too much sun and heat. I was just going to drop off the food and make my excuses to Macy. I'd slept for shit. I missed my cat, and my house was too damn quiet without him.

Nolan had sent me a text that he'd covered breakfast which only heaped on the guilt since I hadn't gotten up early to feed him. First day, and I'd already screwed up.

Not to mention I'd been too tired to strip my bed and change the sheets when I got home. The stupid scent of cinnamon had chased me through far too many dreams where I was running after some shadow.

My shitty love life? Harriette? Who knew?

Eventually, I'd given up on sleep and sat up reading Harriette's journal until the damn birds started singing.

I looked like crap, and I was sad because that poor woman had lost so much.

Is that what she'd wanted me to know?

She'd definitely made sure I'd noticed this particular diary when I had been in that room.

The pages had been full of her longing for a baby. Of her visits with friends and seeing their children grow and how she'd felt so bereft after her stillborn baby, along with four other miscarriages previously. Not exactly unheard of for the 1800s, but it was still heartbreaking.

Her husband had tried to make her feel better with the gift of the library room and the gorgeous stained glass to commemorate their child, but she hadn't been able to come back from the sadness. She'd pushed her husband away after one last miscarriage until it was only her, alone, in that big house.

I slid my hand across my middle as I sat in my car in Macy's driveway. I couldn't imagine losingone baby, let alone so many.

With each page, she'd gotten progressively more distraught, remembering each loss.

The final page of the diary left me with so many more questions.

Did she get over her loss?

I knew there were more diaries in that room, and I needed to read them.

Not that Nolan would let me into that room, dammit.

I glanced around. Thankfully, his truck wasn't here, so maybe I'd be able to get in and out before he showed up.

"Hey, Dahlia."

I jumped at the voice. Dani, with her neon green hair, was standing at the top of the drive. I opened my door. "Hey, Dani."

"Did I scare you?" Her feet snapped with the flip flops she was wearing as she came over to my car. She had on a screaming pink and slime green crocheted coverup over a black bikini that I'd bet made Gideon's eye twitch. When the heck had Dani grown up?

"Need help?"

I handed her the lemon bars. "You can take these."

"Sweet!" She peeked under the Pyrex cover. "Oh, yeah. My favorite."

"I may have made them with you in mind."

Dani snapped the top back down. "We're in the back. Dad is playing with his new toy."

I laughed as I reached over to the passenger seat for the pasta salad. The pang from making it with Nolan yesterday hit me and I pushed it away. "I hear we're doing a barbecue of epic proportions."

Ugh . My voice sounded far too chipper.

"Dad seems to think so. BMom has only threatened to put him in the smoker twice."

I kinda loved that Dani had short speak for Macy as her bonus mom. I wasn't jealous of that whole family. Nope. Not at all.

"Wow, it is a banner day."

She snapped her gum and grinned. "Smells really good, at least."

We walked around the side of the house to the backyard. Through the slats in their gate, I could see the smoker was certainly chugging away and Gideon's mini-me, Michael, had a matching apron on as he listened to his father explain the fine art of letting meat rest.

My stomach rumbled at the pulled pork that was being carefully transferred to a platter.

"How many weeks left of school?"

Dani groaned. "Too many. We're just studying for finals so everything is boring. I already know everything."

"So, how many times have you snuck over to the library?"

She gave me a sly grin. "Just once. Darby set aside the new Penn Masterson graphic novel for me, and I've been savoring it. I can't believe Vee is related to him by marriage."

"I'm surprised you didn't ask for a signed copy."

"No way, that's too embarrassing. I can't wait to start babysitting this summer so I can buy my own copies. Maybe then I'll ask him when I have the whole set."

I bumped her arm with mine. "No shortage of babysitting around here."

"No kidding. I'm going to make bank." She turned around to open the gate with her butt. "Dahlia's here!" she called out.

Gideon looked up from his manfully huge platter of meat. "Long time no see, stranger."

"Hey, Gideon. Smells amazing."

Michael sped around the smoker with a plastic flipper. "Dahl!" He crashed into me and hugged my legs. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

I transferred the salad bowl to one hand so I could ruffle his dark hair. "Hey, buddy."

"Do you want to see my pork?"

I resisted the snicker. "You ready to do all the shredding?"

"How did you know?" His silvery blue eyes widened.

"Just a good guess."

"Mom is gonna let me use the Wolverine claws!" He fist-pumped with his flipper like a sword.

I glanced up at Gideon in question. "They really do look like them." He bared his teeth. "Ready to shred?"

"Yeah!" Michael raced off to the stairs with his spatula.

Oh, to have that energy.

"No running!" Macy's voice thundered from the inside the kitchen.

"Aww, Mom."

"Don't ‘aww, Mom' me. It's a gorgeous day. I don't want to spend it in the ER for your fifth batch of stitches."

Michael giggled.

"C'mon in. You didn't have to bring anything," Gideon said as he lifted the platter with both hands. That was a hell of a lot of meat to shred.

I followed him up the back porch stairs into the kitchen, with Dani bringing up the rear. She set the lemon bars on the counter.

"If there's room in the fridge, you might want to put them in there. With this." I handed her the pasta salad.

"Got it." Dani went to the fridge and shoved them inside before slamming it shut. "I'll be outside."

"Take your brother," Macy called after her.

"Aww, c'mon."

"Hey! I gotta do the Wolverine!" Michael's lower lip jutted out.

Macy took the spatula from him. "Come back in ten minutes." She pushed a kitchen timer into his hands and set it. "Now scram."

"Can I swim?"

"Not until after we eat. Play with the cats. Now out!"

"Fine!" Michael stomped out after Dani.

"You run a tight ship, Mace."

She flipped me off.

I laughed. "Got any adult beverages in that fridge?"

"I have some Brothers Three hard cider. Have at it, since I can't have it for a while."

"So, the rumors are true?" I checked the fridge and rearranged my food items, so they didn't topple out. Ahh, teenagers. I found the bottles on the bottom shelf and snagged a Firefly.

"Yep." Macy hip-bumped Gideon. "Swimmers finally got the job done."

"Nice." Gideon gave her look before he bowed down to meet her mouth in a sweet kiss. "At least this time you aren't puking up your toes."

"Don't say that!" Macy whacked his arm. "It's still early."

He dragged her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Did you get an appointment with Dr. Jagger?"

"Yes." She hugged him back before pushing him away. "Such a killjoy. I'm not looking forward to the poking and prodding."

"Just want to make sure everything is good." He stroked a hand down her hair. Shouts from the backyard had him rolling his eyes. "I'll check on them."

"Everything cool?"

Macy sighed. "Yeah. We had a super early miscarriage last year."

"Oh, honey. Why didn't you tell me?"

She shrugged. "It's tough when everyone starts with the ‘sorries' and ‘aww, you can try again'. Doesn't really help, you know?"

I thought of Harriette and how isolated she'd become.

"Just know you can come to any of us."

"I know. I tried to keep it under wraps because of all the popping mamas around here. Didn't want to get anyone more nervous."

"Yeah, I get that. Shelby's also pregnant."

"Jeez, really? Is she happy about it?"

"When she's not green."

Macy held up her hand. "Yeah, let's not talk about that part. I am waiting for that to start any day. Honestly," she lowered her voice, "kinda hoping I do. The last pregnancy I didn't, so…"

Impulsively, I hauled her in for a hug.

"Hey!" She put her cup down with a thunk. "What's this?"

"Nothing. Just wanted to."

Macy patted me awkwardly. "What's going on with you?"

"Just a little misty today." I stepped back and picked up my cider. "I've been working on your brother's house."

"I heard. How's that been?"

I shrugged. "Okay. Beginning stages. But we found this secret room during the initial inspection and stuff got a little weird."

"What kind of weird?"

"Have you heard about the ghost?"

"Not the specifics, but that old place had to have at least one, right?"

"You believe it?"

"Sure, why not? Crescent Cove isn't your average town, so why wouldn't we have a ghost too?"

I laughed. "She's definitely not a… oh, is that a cold spot? kind of ghost. She was tossing books at Nolan like they were in a fight. Not that I blame her. He makes me want to chuck things at his head sometimes too."

Macy's eyebrow spiked. "Is that right?" She glanced over my shoulder. "You making friends again, No?"

I turned around and found Nolan just outside the screen door. His shaggy hair was freshly washed, and he wore a Halloween graphic T-shirt over ancient black jeans. He had a case of beer under his arm.

He opened the door and his gaze slid over me. His eyes were hidden behind his usual dark sunglasses, but I could still feel his attention travel along every inch of me. I'd put on a short dress with built-in shorts under it—and pockets, because damn right.

Handily, those pockets hid my fisted hand, thank you very much.

"Is she talking about Harriette again?" He set the case on the kitchen island and gave Mace a half hug as he slung his arm around her shoulders.

"Yes, mostly about her tossing books at your head." Mace grinned up at him.

He grunted. "Probably just uneven floors."

"Please," I muttered.

"Got room in the fridge for a few of those?" He pointed to the beer.

"Bottom shelf."

"Cool." He pulled out four and went to the fridge.

"Mr. Nolan!" Michael started to open the door.

"What's left on that timer, pal?"

The door slapped shut again and he sighed. "Five minutes."

"Scram!"

He blew out a sigh. "Come with me, Mr. Nolan! You can see my Nerf gun."

Nolan grabbed two beers from the island. "I'm pretty good with a Nerf gun. You sure you want to do that?"

My stomach flipped at the change of his gruff voice for the little boy.

"Yeah!" Michael practically vibrated on the porch. "I have a bulze set up."

Nolan shot a look at Macy.

"He means target with a bullseye."

"Oh, got it."

"That's what I said!" Michael said, full of all the exasperation a five-year-old could muster.

Nolan grinned and his face transformed from the gruff and staid to one with a hint of pure joy. Not all the way, but definitely more than I'd ever seen. "Prepare to be trounced, little man."

He glanced over his shoulder at me before following the happy chatter of his nephew.

Once he left, Macy leaned on the kitchen island and gave me a long look. "You banging my brother?"

I choked on the sip of Firefly.

"That's a yes." She picked up the water bottle and took a long sip.

I set my bottle down and pressed my lips together. "I…"

"It's fairly obvious."

"I was …doing that."

"You can say it. Obviously, I still do it." She patted her flat middle. "Soon it'll be..." She made a big curve as if she was super pregnant. "Damn giant of a husband."

I blew out a breath. "Okay, first of all, why didn't you tell me you had a brother?"

"Long story. Mostly family shit. I used to go out with his best friend."

"Oh, well, crap." And here I was, not exactly going out with my friend's brother, but I was definitely, kind of, sort of involved. At least I had been.

"Yeah, got a bit sticky. Especially since his best friend ended up being a shit."

I played with the tail of my braid. "We only hooked up a few times."

"A few times?" Macy drank deeply from her straw. "I don't want to know details, thanks."

"Good, because no way."

We both laughed.

"But we…" Hell, I didn't know what we were. "We just fight. And then he pisses me off and we rinse and repeat. I'm tired of it."

" Hmm ."

"What?"

"Nothing." She took another long drink and the echo of her hitting the bottom of the cup was the only sound in the room.

"I just need to focus on the house and getting the build done."

"Sure." Macy went to the fridge and refilled from the water dispenser on the door.

"We can work together. It'll be fine."

"If you say so."

"I do." I drained the last of my bottle. "Now what do you need help with?"

"We'll let the men do the meat thing. Everything else is done. Let's let them wait on us for once."

I grabbed another Firefly. "I'm good with that."

I followed Macy onto the porch. Michael was running circles around Nolan with his Nerf…something. Maybe a bow and arrow type thing?

Nolan was sizing up the target even though Michael was doing everything he could to distract him. There was already a foam arrow stuck to the board on the ring outside of the red bullseye.

Nolan deliberately dropped the plastic bow down and shot next to Michael's arrow.

"He let him win."

Macy grinned. "Yeah, he did. He used to do the same with me. Nice to know some things don't change." She headed down the stairs. "I'm next!"

"Mom! You wanna play?"

"Yeah, sure. Can you show me?" Michael skipped around as Macy crouched for a lesson. She cocked the bow and shot Nolan who immediately fell to the grass. "Like that?"

"Mom!"

"Not like that?" She hauled Michael close in a headlock. "Show me again."

The laughter made my chest ache.

I remembered the Macy I'd first met and gotten to know. The woman who rarely let anyone close had changed so much when she'd had a family.

My gaze tracked to Nolan, who was smiling at the interaction.

Nope.

Not for you, Dahlia.

But oh, how a big part of me wished it was.