Jilted: Promise Harbor, Book 1 (21 page)

On the way out he bumped into Elfreda Winning.

“Josh!” she said. “There you are, you dear boy. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said through gritted teeth. Christ, what was worse? Feeling like a pathetic loser or being wrongly accused of being an asshole? “How are you? How’s your arthritis?”

“My knees are swollen up like basketballs,” she said cheerfully. “Otherwise I’m fine.”

“Good, good. Nice to see you.” He made his escape, dashing directly to his parked vehicle in the small lot. Safely inside, he paused to get a breath, hands clenching the steering wheel. Dammit, what the hell had been going on all week?

As if he hadn’t felt guilty enough, although that had dissipated when his mom had insisted he didn’t need to come back, guilt now smacked him in the back of the head. He’d been off having fun with Devon—oh man, had they had fun—while the whole town either thought he was off licking his wounds and crying into a beer somewhere, or thought he deserved being left at the altar because he hadn’t been…what had Wyatt said…supportive? Holy fucking shit!

He’d just bought food but didn’t really feel like cooking. But as he pulled up in front of Prego Pizza, he paused. He was probably going to encounter someone else he knew who either thought he was a pathetic loser or hated his guts. So he changed his mind and drove home instead. He’d heat up a couple of the frozen Pizza Pops he’d just bought.

While the pastries heated, he called his mom. When there was still no answer at home, he called her cell phone, and hey, she answered.

“Mom,” he said. “Where are you?”

“Josh! Did you find Allie?”

He winced. “Er, no. I’m home now. I came by to see you today, but you weren’t home. Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine.”

“What about Greta? Where is she?”

“Greta…well, that’s a long story.”

His mom’s voice sounded funny. Softer. “But she’s okay?”

“She’s actually…fine.”

Seriously? Greta, the family screwup, was fine? What was Mom not telling him? “And Allie? Has anyone heard from her?”

“No.” Her voice sharpened. “I was hoping you had.”

“No.” Guilt backed up inside him again. What if Allie wasn’t okay? He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I did try, Mom, but I didn’t have any luck, and frankly, I have no idea where they went. I’ve tried calling her but she’s not answering.”

To his utter shock, his mother said, “Oh well.”

He held out the phone and stared it.

“We’ve all tried to call her too,” she said with a sigh, “and she’s not answering any of us. At least you did try. Are you okay, Josh? You must be devastated about this.”

He gave his head a little shake. “No, actually, I’m not,” he said. “I have to tell you, Mom, this past week made me realize that marrying Allie would have been a very bad idea.”

After a pause, she said softly, “Yes. I think you’re right.”

Holy shit. “Where are you, anyway?” he asked.

“I’m on Greenbush Island.”

What?
Once again he held the phone away and stared at it. Then, “Seriously?”

“Yes. With Owen.”

Once again he gaped. “Owen? Allie’s dad?”

“You know another Owen?”

“Uh. No. But…what are you doing there?” Jesus. Maybe he didn’t want to know that.

“We’re just having a little vacation.”

“Uh. Okay.” He gave his head a shake. This was freakin’ weird. “Are you two… Never mind.” Yeah, he did
not
want to know.

She laughed. “We’re fine, Josh. Anyway. I don’t know what came over Allie, but there must have been some reason for her to do that. But…rumor has it you weren’t alone on Greenbush Island.”

His jaw went slack. Man, nothing was secret in this town. “Mom…”

“We’ll talk when we’re back.”

“Uh. Yeah. Okay.”

What was up with his mom going off to the island for a vacation? Well, maybe it was good for her. Obviously, she was dealing with Greta’s marriage falling apart, and she seemed to be getting over him and Allie splitting up.

He was just cleaning up after eating when he heard a car outside. He headed to the front door and stepped out onto the veranda to watch Devon park in his driveway. Warmth spread through him at the sight of her.

She spotted him at the door and smiled. “Hey.” As she climbed the steps to the wide veranda, she looked around at the house and the yard. “This place is huge.”

“Yeah. And half-empty. But I got it for a good price because it needs so much work.”

She pursed her lips, no doubt taking in the peeling paint and the loose board on the steps. “It’s a great house, though.”

“I like it. Come on in.” He held the door for her. “I’ll give you a tour.”

He showed her the front rooms. He wasn’t sure what to call them since they had no furniture in them. “I guess this would be the living room and that’s the dining room.”

She gave him an amused glance. “You weren’t kidding when you said half-empty.”

He grinned. “I don’t need that much space. I mostly live in the kitchen and great room. I’ve already redone that. Come see.” He led her past the staircase and into the kitchen, which was now spacious and bright. “I knocked out the wall between the old kitchen and a bedroom and made it into one big great room.”

“Oh, this is nice.”

She surveyed maple cabinets and granite countertops, the counter of one long edge of the U-shaped kitchen separating the kitchen from living space with his big, blue leather sectional, a stone fireplace and big-screen television. French doors led out onto a deck overlooking the big backyard.

“Thanks. I planned to do a lot of the work myself, but I haven’t had time to do nearly as much as I wanted. I replaced all the windows right away—they were all old and drafty. I had to put in a new energy-efficient furnace and upgrade some plumbing and electrical. You can’t really see that stuff so it doesn’t look like I’ve done much yet. But the kitchen had to be the first thing. It was awful.”

She ran a hand over a shiny counter. “I love it.”

“I bought a bottle of zinfandel,” he said, moving to where it sat on the counter.

“Oh. Nice. Are you offering me a glass?”

He grinned. “Yeah, that was the idea.” As he removed the wrap and the cork, he said, “I’m told it has aromas of, um….berries and oak and…spices.”

She giggled. “Sounds lovely.”

He poured some into two glasses and handed her one. She breathed in the aroma, then took a sip. “Very nice.” She peered at the bottle. “Original Sin Zin?”

“Yeah. Hey, Wyatt recommended it. After he tore a strip off me for letting Allie down.”

“
What
?” She stared at him.

“Oh yeah. I’ll tell you about it in a minute. Let’s finish our tour. There’s a small bathroom and laundry room down here,” he said, showing her. She checked out those rooms, nodding. “Come on upstairs.”

The big staircase would be gorgeous one day. He’d already ripped up the ugly carpet runner, leaving bare wood steps, but they needed refinishing like the rest of the hardwood floors. “I want to do the floors,” he said. “And strip the paint off this banister. The bedrooms are all nice and big though.” He showed her two empty rooms, and then the third. “I redid this too, since I sleep here every night. I turned the smallest bedroom into an attached bathroom.”

She stepped into the master suite. The floor hadn’t been refinished, but a nice area rug lay on the worn floor, a sage green that matched the duvet cover. He’d painted the walls a softer shade of that green and the woodwork a creamy white. A big chair sat near the window, which also had a window seat. Then she spotted the double-sided fireplace in the wall between bath and bedroom. “Oh wow. A fireplace in the bedroom and the bathroom. But hey…it’s a gas fireplace.”

He made a face. “It’s more practical up here.”

“Uh-huh.” She shot him a smirk.

She walked over to peek into the bathroom. “Holy fishsticks. This is…decadent.”

He laughed. The bathroom was large, with lots of stone tile and a long vanity counter with double sinks. The raised whirlpool tub sat right beside another window that looked out onto the woods behind the house. “Yeah. I’m not one for long bubble baths, so I don’t make much use of the tub, but I thought…” He stopped. He’d thought women liked bubble baths, and the last few months he’d been imagining Allie living there with him. “Well, it’s nice to have. I like the shower.”

“It’s beautiful.” She turned away from him, but not before he caught the expression on her face, the droop of her mouth and lowered eyelashes.

He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t bought the house for Allie. He’d bought it for himself, but the reality was that Allie had been going to move in with him after the wedding. Although she didn’t really get why he wanted to buy a fixer-upper and thought he should have bought one of the new homes being built on the other side of town, which would’ve been much less work.

And since he’d been so busy helping out at the landscaping business, helping his mom take care of her place, relieving Allie when her family stressed her out,
and
doing his firefighting job, that might have been the better idea after all. He repressed a sigh.

“Devon.”

She turned to him, a bright smile in place. As always. “What?”

He didn’t know what to say. “I encountered some craziness today. How about you?”

Her forehead creased a little. “Just my dad.”

He laughed. “Your dad’s not crazy.”

“I’m not so sure.” She sighed. “But what did you encounter?” Holding her wineglass in both hands, she sat on the edge of his bed.

“Everywhere I went, I ran into people who knew about the wedding. Most of them were all ‘poor Josh, are you okay?’, but then Wyatt at the liquor store was all pissed and said I’d basically deserved to be left at the altar since I hadn’t given Allie the support she needed.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” He walked over and sat beside her. In his bedroom. On his bed. With Devon. “I guess people have been talking. Oh hell.”

“What?”

His mother’s comment about the rumor he hadn’t been alone suddenly made things a little clearer. “Um. Apparently there’s a rumor that I wasn’t alone on the island. I, ah…don’t know if people know it was you.”

“Oh.” She bit her lip. “Well. You know what this town is like.”

“I know. Believe me, I know. I mean, usually it doesn’t bother me. I just accept it. I love living here, and hey, it’s a small town, what do you expect? But today…well, they either thought I was a big loser or a big asshole.”

“You’re not a loser.”

He arched a brow, and she burst out laughing. “Or an asshole. And I’m sure they weren’t really looking at you like that.”

“Oh yeah. They were. Whatever. I guess it’ll pass. Eventually. Then when I got hold of my mom, I discovered she’s on Greenbush Island.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Apparently she was just getting off the ferry when we were getting on. Okay, maybe not, but we must have just missed each other. And what’s even more weird? She’s with Owen Ralston.”

“Allie’s dad?”

He laughed at her saying the same thing he had. “Yup.”

“Whoa. What are they doing together?”

“I decided I don’t want to know.”

“They’ve been friends a long time.”

“No. Mom and Lily were friends.”

“You know what I mean.”

He sighed. “Yeah. I guess I just don’t want to think of my mom…uh…”

“Hey.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “I know how you feel. Seeing my dad with Susan was a little freaky. But I guess…they have a right to move on, and have relationships with other people.”

He nodded. “I guess you’re right. Speaking of your dad, what was up with him?”

“I went down to the marina to see him, and he was fighting with an Excel spreadsheet. Apparently Hal retired a few months ago. I didn’t even know. So Dad’s been trying to do the books himself. I said I’d help him while I’m here.”

“Hey. I thought you were going to help me?”

She looked at him. He met her eyes. He couldn’t stop the smile that tugged his lips, and he watched her mouth curve in response. “I’m just so in demand,” she murmured. “Unfortunately not by Engblun and Seabrook.”

He shook his head. “Their loss, Dev. Seriously.” And then he leaned over and kissed her.

She tasted of blackberries and spice and wine, rich and warm. Like temptation and longing, comfort and excitement. His mouth moved on hers and she kissed him back, her lips clinging to his in a long, heated kiss. Lust shot through him and his groin tightened.

He drew back slowly. He dipped his index finger into his glass of wine and painted it over her full bottom lip. Then he leaned forward and licked it off. She moaned.

“I don’t know much about wine,” he murmured. “But I think this is the best I’ve ever had.”

He sucked briefly on her lip and then moved away again.

“I think I have to agree,” she said, her voice husky.