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He sputtered. “Nora Ledger? Seriously? Youdidhave a meeting.”
“I might have met with the sheriff and a few other townsfolk to talk about town business. Your name might have come up.”
“How?”
“Well, because your little fishermen group is slowly being worked over by love. First, there was Mason and Lila, and then Parker and Jade. That leaves you and the sheriff, and we all know who the sheriff is gonna end up with.” She gave him a pointed look.
“Do we?” he asked as innocently as possible.
“Don’t play the fool, Jack. Really.”
He helped Mrs. Francis up her front steps and into her home. It was hardly the first time he had walked her back to her place. When he had first moved to Half Moon Key to take over his uncle’s cabin, he had spent quite a bit of time with Mrs. Francis.
Was it because he had known her for a very long time? Probably.
Mrs. Francis had way more sass than ever before. The only thing that had changed was the color of her hair … now a flossy white. She still had the same keen eyes that never missed a thing.
“You go back to your cabin now and think about what we’ve said. You’ve got it?”
“Of course, Mrs. Francis.”
Jack did make his way back to his cabin, but he didn’t understand why … all of a sudden … all the people in town wanted to see him matched.
Not just matched, but actually with someone from town.
Mrs. Francis mentioned two of his friends who were newly in relationships, but that didn’t mean he needed someone. He was just fine by himself. That’s what had brought him to Half Moon Key in the first place. He could hardly go back on his promise to stay far away from all things love and relationships.
All thingsfamily.
Family was dangerous. He learned that the hard way, and he didn’t need a refresher course.
Jack was alone … lived alone … for a reason, and that wasn’t about to change because the woman he’d secretly been pining for was supposedly into him.
Nothingwould change his mind.
Nothing.
THREE
NORA
For the Ledger family, Sunday night dinners were a very important affair. It was impossible to skip or miss one … unless you wanted a whole lot of Ledgers to wind up on your doorstep, at any given time, seeking an explanation.
These dinners probably didn’t look like anyone else’s family meals, but the Ledgers were special. They owned and operated family businesses: one restaurant and one ice cream parlor. Time was a commodity, and they found time to be together in the strangest way possible.
They met at The Spaghetti Bowl at around noon, where everyone was given a task. They ate promptly at three in the afternoon to be done with dessert and the dishes before the five o’clock rush began the moment they opened the restaurant.
Nora didn’t have the heart to tell her parents that it was the same thing every night the restaurant was open, but Sundays were mandatory. That was the only difference.
“We want all of our grown children together in the same room at least once a week,” Mom insisted.
Dad nodded along. “Exactly.”
“Right, but we are in the same room every day because we all work together.”
“Sundays are different,” Mom insisted. “It’s family time. We sit, we chat.We don’t fight,” Mom emphasized.
Nora couldn’t help it if, on Sundays, when there was no one but the family in the restaurant, she could actually defend herself. When the restaurant was full of customers, and her brother or sister or even her parents or in-laws made a joke about how shy she was, Nora couldn’t do anything.
