AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After saying goodbye, he started outside to his rental car. Laura caught up with him before he’d gotten halfway there.
“What’s going on?” She stepped in front of him to bring him to a halt. “This is your big entry back into the field, yet you look like you’re about to walk into a torture chamber. This has to do with Bee, doesn’t it?”
When he didn’t respond, her eyes gleamed with triumph. “I knew it. You said she couldn’t come with you because of work, but that was about as flimsy an excuse as plastic wrap. What happened?”
Adam wasn’t even sure—except that he’d failed to help Bee. He’d failedher. And that feeling was worse than screwing up an equation or making a mistake in an experiment.
He wanted desperately to be there for her. He wanted to prove he wouldn’t leave her the way so many other people had, that she wasn’t alone—didn’t have to be alone ever again. The urge was overpowering.
But he didn’t know what the hell to do about it.
“Nothing happened,” he told his sister, moving past her to the car.
“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
His heart slammed against his chest. He threw Laura a narrow look and got into the car. Even after he’d reversed and was heading down the driveway, he could hear Bee’s voice in his head.
“Sometimes letting yourself feel too hard about something or someone isn’t a good idea.”
Too late,he thought.
* * *
“Try to be super nice to her.” Balancing the massive box of Sugar Joy pastries in one hand, Aria Prescott patted Bee’s shoulder with the other. “I’ve been through more than one conflict like this in my time, and believe me when I tell you that you’ll catch more flies with honey. Which shouldn’t be difficult for you.”
She nudged Bee in the side, prompting a smile. Though Bee had felt sad and hollowed-out ever since Adam left yesterday morning, her friend’s support helped buoy her spirits.
And despite all her determination not tohopeanymore, she couldn’t stop thinking about all the movies she’d seen and books she’d read in which the townspeople came rushing forward at the end to rally around the hero.
Maybe—just maybe—Bliss Cove would do that for her and Captain Marcus.
The colonial-style town hall was still decked out in orange-and-black streamers and bunting from the weekend’s Spooktacular Festival. Tomorrow was Halloween, and all city buildings, including the library, would be closed.
The downtown businesses would be open for trick-or-treating, the high school kids were holding a dance in the gym, and most everyone else would be going to a Halloween party to eat their candy haul and watch scary movies.
Bee didn’t yet know what she’d be doing. She usually handed out candy at home to her neighborhood’s costumed hordes, but this year, she planned to leave a bucket of candy on her front porch and do…something else.
She just wasn’t quite sure what yet. Or how.
People were climbing the steps to the open doors of the town hall, pausing to greet each other and chat. Bee went into the main room to get seats while Aria went off to leave the Sugar Joy pastries at the coffee-and-treats table.
The room was about three-quarters full, with the town council members and Mayor Bowers—resplendent in a blue dress decorated with huge purple flowers and a matching hat—seated at a table on the dais.
Brooke Castle, whose grandfather ownedThe Bliss Cove Times, waved to Bee from the front row and indicated the empty seats beside her.
“I’m covering the meeting for Gramps,” Brooke explained after they exchanged a hug. “And you’d better believe I’m going to call Marilyn out for lining her pockets by brokering the deal for the tech center. It’s a conflict of interest.”
The question was whether anyone would care.
As Bee sat down, she caught sight of Destiny frowning at her from the other side of the room. She waved, but her friend didn’t wave back.
Her unease deepening, Bee glanced at Marilyn, who was across the aisle chatting with the owner of Treasures and Trinkets. As usual, Marilyn looked as if she’d stepped out of the pages of a high-end working woman’s fashion magazine with a sleek YSL suit, jewelry that was probably real gold, and blond hair sweeping in perfect waves to her shoulders.
A combination of envy and anger stirred in Bee’s gut. She didn’t want to be like Marilyn, but she wouldn’t mind having some of the other woman’s sense of confidence and place.
Marilyn knew who she was, and she was entirely at home in Bliss Cove. It was hardly a wonder she was so successful and had so much support.
After calling the meeting to order, Mayor Bowers went through the agenda items about parking fees, recruitment for the Winter Festival committee, and whether or not the Bliss Cove Band should be allowed to practice in the gazebo before noon on a Saturday.
