His Winter Rose

Both wore the same stunned expression she’d had the day she’d driven around the town.

“More than. I’m sure lots of people come back in the summer but the number of permanent residents is sinking fast. I’m guessing that’s why the mayor thinks the town has to act now, before it’s too late.”

“Back to the mayor.” Row and Ash exchanged looks, then watched her, waiting.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Are you sure this mayor didn’t have anything to do with your decision to move back?”

“No.” Piper sighed, recognizing the futility of trying to withhold anything. “I’ve actually been considering it for a while. After Vance died I poured myself into work. I didn’t want to think about God taking my husband—or anything else.”

“And work hasn’t been enough?” Ashley asked softly.

“For a while I thought it was. But this birthday has me thinking, I’m not getting any younger.”

“Neither are we. But we’re not closing up shop and moving back here.” Rowena’s voice sounded harsh, but her eyes brimmed with pity. “Have you been so unhappy?”

“That’s not the right word, Row. I’ve been rudderless, without any real goal. Serenity Bay is offering me a chance to stretch, to think outside the box. I need that challenge.”

“Need?”

Piper nodded.

“Need. I want the Bay to prosper, to grow, to provide years of fun and joy for other kids, for other families—just as it did for us.” She waved a hand. “This is where I want to spend my days, maybe someday raise my kids. I might even get back into Papa’s gold studio during the long, frosty winter nights, see if I can create again.”

“You always did have a flair for the unusual,” Rowena said. “People still stop me to ask where I got this.” She fingered the four-inch gold mask brooch she wore on her lapel.

“If it doesn’t work out or I get tired of the solitude, I can always go back to the city. But moving here, this job—I have to try.”

“Cathcart House is the perfect place to do it.”

They sat together, each musing over the changes that had come into their lives.

“I keep expecting your grandmother to bring out a jug of hot chocolate and tell us to button up.” Ashley sipped her tea, a half smile curving her lips.

“Last night I thought I heard your grandfather’s snores.” Rowena shrugged at their surprise. “What? Even I have normal dreams sometimes.”

“They left Cathcart House entirely to you, Pip? You don’t have to share it with your brother or anything?”

“They left Dylan cash. He never seemed to like the Bay, remember?” Piper shrugged. “I never understood that but he seemed happy enough with his share when I talked to him after their wills were read.”

“Was your father at the funeral?”

“No.” Piper swallowed hard. “At least, I didn’t see him.”

“It would be a bit much to expect him to show sorrow, wouldn’t it? As I recall there was no love lost between your grandparents and him.” Rowena tossed the rest of the tea over the side of the deck. “Though I must admit, I never heard them say a word against him.”

“Gran always said God would handle him so she didn’t have to worry.”

The three remained silent for a few moments in sober remembrance.

“So you’re not too concerned about your father or his plans?” Ashley asked, her forehead pleated in a tiny furrow.

Concerned, worried and a whole lot more. But Piper wouldn’t say that or these two friends would fuss about her. She didn’t want that.

“I want to be here to help with development if I can. That beach is glorious. There’s no way I’m going to sit back and watch a Wainwright hotel ruin it.”

“You’re sure that’s his plan?”

Piper nodded. “One of them.”

“And if he sways the council to his way of thinking? What will you do then?” Ashley pressed, her face expressing her concern.

“Pray.” Like praying had saved Vance’s life. Piper pushed down the anger. God’s will, not mine, she reminded herself.

“Changing Baron Wainwright would take an act of God, all right.” Rowena snorted. “Other people’s plans have never mattered to him. Did you hear about that Wainwright project in London? There are rumors that officials received bribes to pass some inspections.”

“I hadn’t heard.” Piper sloughed off her gloomy feelings, determined that nothing would spoil her joy in having her friends visit. “Anyway, I’m going to do what I can here. This job means I’ll be kept abreast of everything that goes on in Serenity Bay so, hopefully, I’ll be one step ahead.”

“Ever the optimist, that’s our Pip.”

“It’s not optimism, Row. It’s determination.” She narrowed her gaze trying to make them understand. “I want to prove something and this is the perfect place.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to us, honey.” Ashley rose, moved to fling her arms around Piper. “We already know you can do anything you set your mind on.”

“Thank you.” She hugged Ash right back. “But I have to prove it to myself, here, in this place. I didn’t come back to see my grandparents as often as I should have when they were here. Maybe I can keep their dreams for Cathcart House and the Bay alive.”

“Do it for yourself, Piper. Don’t do it to prove something to your father,” Row warned. “We all know he’s not worth the effort, not after his behavior toward Vance. Just know that if this is what you want, we’re behind you all the way.”

“She’s right. The Bayside Trio takes on tough challenges and rides ’em out no matter what. We’re fearless females just waiting to vanquish our foes.” Ashley thrust her arm above her head in the charge they’d chanted since grade nine. “Onward and upward!”

“Onward and upward,” Piper and Row repeated, grinning as if they were fifteen again and the world was just waiting for them.

“Here’s to your thirty-first year, Pip. You go, girl.”

Rowena dumped a splash of the hated tea into her cup and the three friends held up their mugs in a toast. Their admiration went a long way toward reassuring Piper that she’d made the right decision. She drank to her own success, giggled at Rowena’s jokes and answered Ashley’s questions as best she could.

But that night, after the party was over and her friends had left to return to their own lives, Piper lay alone in the big house and let her thoughts tumble into free fall. It was time to face the truth.

She’d told Ashley and Rowena that she wanted to help the Bay grow, and that was true. But more than that, she wanted to stop her father from ruining the one place she called home. And he would ruin it. He ruined everything he touched. Her childhood, her relationship with her brother. Every summer that she’d returned here from boarding school he’d arrived to make a scene about her coming back to live with him. She’d gone back twice—and regretted both. She’d even tried to work with him once. He’d ruined that, too, treating her like a stupid child. So she’d left Wainwright Inc., built a name for herself.

And even after that she’d given him one more chance, a chance to make the difference between life and death, a chance to prove he loved her. He’d blown her off, refused to help.

Well, he would not ruin Serenity Bay. There would be none of the gaudy neon lights his hotels boasted, no famous rock bands blaring till four in the morning and leaving mayhem behind, nobody wandering the streets at all hours, causing a disturbance. Not here. Not while she could stop it.

Curious sounds so different from the city noise she was accustomed to carried down the cliff’s side on a light breeze that fluttered the bedroom curtains.

Piper got up for a glass of water, and noticed someone moving across her property toward the peak of the cliff. At a certain point he or she stopped, removed something from a backpack and knelt down. A second later the figure had disappeared.