AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh, thank god. Saved by the shop door bell, and my mom.
I bring the older woman in for a tight hug and let out the breath I’m holding. “’Cause you were probably too busy gossiping with Deb and Dottie to look over here.”
She swats me on the back.
“Terrible,” she says with a laugh. “My son is just terrible.”
Over Mom’s shoulder, the mystery woman with the laptop has an entirely new expression.
She looks completely horrified.
ChapterTwo
Caroline
I don’t knowwhy I didn’t notice the resemblance right away.
That’s Cash James Young, son of my new best friends, Bonnie and Bill.
Bonnie and Bill talk about him constantly. And now that Cash and Bonnie are standing side by side, I see it. They have the same sharp cheekbones and chin. And I’m doubly a dumbass because there’s a photo of him on the shelf behind the register. I’ve been here three weeks and looked at that photo a thousand times.
I’ll have to ask Bonnie why she has no recent photos of Cash around the place because that photo was taken before he had scruff. And definitely prior to the arrival of chest muscles. Yep, a more recent photo could have prevented my snarky ass from making an idiot of myself.
“You’re Cash?” I ask dumbly.
Bonnie claps a hand over her mouth, aghast. “Oh my gosh, did he not introduce himself?”
Cash’s gaze is severe, locked on my eyes. His scruffy jaw tics. “You two…know each other?”
“Yes!” Bonnie exclaims. “This is Caroline! We’ve been having coffee together every morning for the last…how long, honey?”
I smile at the older woman. She and Bill are the only people allowed to call me honey.
“Three weeks to the day,” I tell her, and she gives me a warm smile.
“She’s staying at one of the Brendan’s River Rocks cabins.”
I nod and say, still trapped by Cash’s stony expression, “Yep. Cabin Number 2.”
And why did I just offer up the other exact location of where I sleep at night to a strange man? Not smart.
Still, I’m sure he’s safe. Everyone I’ve met since I took over Cabin 2 at the Brendans’ River Rocks Resort a month ago has been fantastic. Bonnie refuses to let me pay for my coffee. I’ve been to dinner at the homes of at least three retirees. The Snug’s Landing restaurant is a veritable hootenanny of gossip—nobody gets away with anything around here. Everyone on Paradise Lane is curious about the young lady at the fishing resort who doesn’t fish. And they all eagerly ate up the details about my past. I washed up on Paradise Lane after a month at a hotel in Ann Arbor. Before that, I was kicked out of my apartment in Crown Point, Indiana, where I’d lived for ten years since I was emancipated from my parents at 16. The sympathy from the older folks at that little fact got me an extra helping of dessert.
I can afford a place to live, don’t get me wrong. But housing is such a rat race, and I’m trying to focus on my writing, so I gave up looking. Instead, I’m moving from place to place until things settle down or until I get sick of it.
So far, I’m not tired of Paradise Lane.
Everyone knows me here. I’m sad that I’ll be leaving in two weeks for my book signing in L.A.
Cash, however, looks like he wishes I would disappear immediately.
“That’s a good cabin,” Cash says. “I used to help my mom clean it.”
I nod in agreement. “Itisa good cabin. And I’ll note the cleanliness when I leave my five-star review.”
Cash fixes me with the expression of someone who doesn’t know what to say next and is mad about it. He turns from me and addresses his mother.
“What happened to the Hamiltons? They always rent cabin 2 at River Rocks this time of year for the big family reunion and the community fish fry.”
