that for service?”
“Oh, it’s beautiful! Think of how many ships have sailed past it on their way into the harbor. All the sailors and crewmen, just imagine the stories they could tell.”
“I’ll be finding out later on.” Bree shared her plans for interviewing the fishermen. “It should be good background for the article.”
“You like it there, don’t you? I can hear it in your voice.”
“It’s fine.” The mayor was especially fine, but she wasn’t going there. Mom would get all kinds of romantic notions from that, and Bree didn’t need the aggravation of having to fend them off. Completely focused on resurrecting her career, she had no time for distractions, however attractive they might be.
“I have to be honest,” she continued, “I didn’t think much of the town ’til I saw the lighthouse. You’d love Mavis Freeman. She’s been running things since her husband died three years ago, but they still call her the keeper’s widow. The house is full of antiques, including her, and I’m convinced she’s memorized the history of every ship that ever went by.”
“You’ve got a love of the sea running through your blood. I’m not sure you remember, but one of my ancestors was a sea captain. Seamus O’Connell was his name.”
“I researched him. He was a pirate, and when the British finally caught him, they hanged him.”
“That may be true, but he still loved the sea. I’m sure that’s where you get it from.”
Thankfully, a beep alerted Bree that she had another call. When she checked the ID, her heart tripped over itself with the alarming combination of excitement and dread that had become all too familiar lately. “My editor’s trying to reach me, Mom. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“I’ll be here!”
Bree said goodbye and switched over to the other call. “Hello, Nick. What can I do for you?”
“Just making sure you got up there in one piece.”
Her intuition was sizzling, which meant there was more to this call than a simple check-in. Not long ago she’d have confronted him directly, but these days she was playing things a little closer to the vest. If she’d done that before, she’d still be working at her dream job in Boston.
She wasn’t thrilled about being flung so far down the ladder, and hopefully being more reserved would keep her from tumbling out of the business altogether. “My connecting flight was delayed, and the bus took a while, but I got here around noon.”
“Good. How’s everyone treating you?”
“Very well, thanks.” While she could tell he was fishing, she had no idea what he was angling for. “Is there anything in particular you want me to include in my article?”
“Lots of local color, anything unique that catches your eye. You’re not from there, so you should be able to pick up on things that’ll appeal to visitors. I want you to paint a great picture of Holiday Harbor so our readers can’t wait to book a ticket up there.”
After getting a few more similarly vague instructions, it dawned on Bree that her questions were too subtle. Despite her vow to be more reserved, she broke down and went the direct route. “What am I really doing here? I mean, it’s quaint and charming and all, but ‘sleepy little town’ is an understatement. The best article in the world won’t change that, and I can’t see why you’d pay me to come all this way to write about this place.”
“Cooper didn’t tell you?”
“Only that you grew up here.”
Nick chuckled. “Yes, I graduated a couple years after Cooper. He tutored me for a while, and without him I never would’ve gotten accepted at New York University. Anyway, when he asked me if Kaleidscope could do the town a favor, I was happy to help. We do have a national audience these days, you know.”
Nick had a reputation for being tightfisted, and she’d picked up on something totally unlike him. “So they’re not paying you to promote Holiday Harbor?”
“Nope.”
Nick had hired her to do a story that wouldn’t financially benefit his business? To her, that was a foreign concept. “That’s generous of you.”
“Hey, we do what we can, y’know?”
Actually, she didn’t know. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d met someone she honestly admired, but it seemed her prospective new boss fell into that category. She heard a smothering sound, then Nick’s voice came back full volume. “There’s a problem with tomorrow’s layout, so I have to run. Do a stellar job on this, Bree. There’s a lot of good people counting on you.”
The line went dead, and Bree shut her own phone off. Tapping it against her chin, she gazed out at the water, lulled by the rhythm of the waves crashing on the rocks. The sun played over the spray, forming minirainbows here and there in the mist. With the weathered lighthouse as a backdrop, it was a remarkable sight.
In spite of her earlier skepticism, Bree reflected on the possibility that her mother could be right. Maybe the old pirate’s love of the ocean was getting to her after all.
Chapter Three
On his way back out to the lighthouse later that afternoon, Cooper congratulated himself on a successful residential closing. Granddad had always handled those, so Cooper hadn’t done one in a while. Fortunately the two real estate agents knew their stuff, and all he’d had to do was dot the i’s and cross the t’s for his client. Before long another young family would be calling Holiday Harbor home. It was a great way to end what had become an interesting day.
Bree Farrell fascinated him. At a young age he’d learned to read people, mostly by shutting up and listening to them talk. During long days on the water Granddad had taught him to watch the fish closely, reading their movements to predict where they were headed. You could do the same with people, he’d explained, interpreting their body language as well as their words to get a clear picture of how they actually felt. That skill came in handy when their behavior contradicted what they were saying.
Based on what he’d seen so far, Bree was fighting a bigger battle than she was admitting to. Despite her bravado, he saw the uncertainty in her dark eyes, muting the spark of intelligence that managed to snap through frequently enough to intrigue him. Fortunately she’d be leaving soon. All he had to do was get through the Fourth, and she’d be on her way back to Richmond.
It was better that way, he knew. He’d once gotten in way too deep with a woman committed to her career, and her rejection of his marriage proposal still stung. He had no intention of making the same mistake again.
As he pulled in at the lighthouse, he shoved those old regrets to the back of his mind. Someday, when he finally had time to get back into the dating scene, it would be with someone down-to-earth who loved the ocean as much as he did.
When he got to the end of the drive, he was surprised to find Bree waiting for him on the front stoop. He was even more surprised to see her scratching Reggie behind his ears, while the little pig grunted in delight.
“That’s not something you see every day,”
