Hunter's Bride and A Mother's Wish: Hunter's Bride / A Mother's Wish

“My family?” His mouth narrowed to a thin line. “No, Chloe, my family’s not perfect, either. Not by a long shot.”

A barrier had suddenly appeared between them. She couldn’t see it but she knew it was there. All the sunlight seemed to have gone from the day.

Secrets. She’d always known Luke had secrets to hide—always guessed it had something to do with his family.

But he wasn’t going to tell her, that much was clear. The illusion of friendship between them was just that—an illusion.

This was getting to be a habit. Luke sat on the porch late that afternoon, frowning at the computer screen. Once again, Chloe’s face intervened, hurt evident in her eyes.

He hadn’t meant to cause her pain with his questions earlier about her father. He’d just been curious, trying to figure out what made the sprawling Caldwell clan tick. But he should have realized he was prodding at a tender spot.

He glanced out at the water, absently watching a white sailboat curve across to the mainland. He hadn’t imagined it would cause Chloe pain to talk about it. He had no basis for comparison when it came to families, happy or otherwise.

All the more reason he shouldn’t get further entangled with Chloe and her family. He should let them get on with their work, while he got on with his.

He looked around, exasperated. The Caldwells were doing a fine job of that. Daniel and David had taken a few guests out on a dolphin cruise. Miranda had whisked out of the kitchen a few minutes earlier, deposited a pitcher of iced lemonade and a plate of molasses cookies at his elbow and disappeared again.

As for Chloe…he had to smile. Chloe was busy setting up a Web site for the inn. Her parents’ reluctance had been almost comical, but she’d finally gotten through to them. It looked as if Chloe had absorbed a bit about marketing from Dalton Resorts.

He was the only one not getting on with his work. He wanted—He wasn’t sure what he wanted, and that was an odd feeling.

Erasing the pain he’d seen in Chloe’s eyes might restore his balance. Then they could go back to their usual businesslike relationship, with no more delving beneath the surface to discover unexpected facets of each other. That would be far safer.

Two figures sauntered down the lane. The smaller one stooped to pick up a shell, then skimmed it out across the water. Sammy and Theo, obviously home from school. They turned, saw him, and seemed to hesitate, as if his presence disturbed their usual routine.

The yellow pup raced around the house, throwing himself at Sammy in an exuberant greeting. The boy dropped his knapsack and tussled with the puppy, then boy and dog raced toward him, with Theo following at a more sedate pace.

“Hey.” Sammy’s gaze fell on the plate of cookies. “Molasses. Bet my momma made those. She always makes them for guests.” He was obviously too polite to ask for one, but his eyes spoke for him.

“You’re right about that.” Luke slid the plate toward the boy. “I’m plenty full, but I don’t want to hurt your mother’s feelings by not eating these. You could do me a favor by taking some.”

Sammy nodded solemnly. “I guess that would be okay.” He took a handful of cookies, then smiled. “Thank you, sir.” Clutching the cookies, he whistled to the dog and then charged inside, the wooden screen door banging behind him.

Theo mounted the porch steps and leaned against the rail. “Sammy always acts like he hasn’t had a cookie in a week, but I happen to know Miranda put three in his lunch bag.”

Luke tried to picture a childhood in this place, where someone put homemade cookies in your lunch bag and you came home to the same welcome every day. He was watching it, but he couldn’t quite believe in it. People didn’t live like this anymore, did they?

Apparently the Caldwells did.

He expected Theo to hurry off, as Sammy had, but instead he lingered. Something self-conscious in the boy’s manner made Luke look more closely at Chloe’s little brother.

Theo had the height of his brothers, but his weight hadn’t caught up yet. He had the sun-bleached hair, too, falling on his forehead, and his father’s hazel eyes. But where the older man’s gaze was confident and unhurried, Theo had the eyes of a dreamer. A certain vulnerable something about his mouth reminded Luke of Chloe.

The silence stretched uncomfortably long between them. “So, how’s school?” A stupid thing to say, probably, but he didn’t seem to have any common ground with the boy.

Theo shrugged. “Okay, I guess, sir. Pretty boring, most of the time.”

“I remember that.” He’d usually found ways of livening things up that probably would never occur to Theo, and Chloe certainly wouldn’t thank him for bringing them up. “What do you do after school? Any sports?”

“Not this time of year.” The boy shifted uneasily against the railing. “Actually, I was thinking about getting an after-school job.”

Luke was faintly surprised at that. “I thought they kept you pretty busy around here.” Certainly the rest of the Caldwells seemed occupied with the family business.

“Guess they do.” A flush touched the boy’s high cheekbones. “A person wants to do something without his family once in a while. Didn’t you?”

He hadn’t had a choice in the matter. “I guess so. What’s this ‘something’ you have in mind?”

Theo looked at his scuffed sneakers. “There’s a job down at the yacht club. They’re pretty busy just now with lots of colleges having spring break. I could work there.”

Luke pictured the glistening white boats he’d seen moored at the yacht club, imagining the kind of people who owned them. “Sounds like a smart idea to me. That’s the kind of place where you meet people who count.”

“People who count for what?” Chloe asked.

He hadn’t heard Chloe come out, but she stood a couple of feet from him. She was close enough that he could feel the anger, close enough to see the sparks. Obviously he’d made a tactical error.

“Theo and I were just talking.” He heard the apologetic note in his own voice and wondered where it had come from. He didn’t owe Chloe an apology for taking an interest in her kid brother, did he?

Theo slid away from the rail. “Guess I’d best see if Miranda needs any help.” He vanished into the inn, leaving Luke to face the accusation in Chloe’s eyes.

“You were encouraging him to take a job at the yacht club.” She shot the words at him.

He closed the laptop and leaned back in the rocker, meeting her gaze with his own challenge. “I’m not sure encouraging is the right word. We were talking about it. Don’t you want me to talk to your brother, Chloe?”

“You implied that the yacht club people were important for him to know.”

He stood, setting the chair rocking behind him, and put the laptop on the table. It looked incongruous next to the lemonade and molasses cookies, reminding him that he didn’t belong here.

“I told him what I thought.” He frowned at her. “Unless being back here has softened your brain, you know how important it is to know the right people.”

She flushed, the color painting cheeks that were already glowing with sunlight. “That’s what it’s like in the outside world.”

“What if Theo wants to live in the ‘outside world’? You did. Are you saying he can’t make the choices you made?”

She took a step toward him, her hands curling into fists.

“Theo is too young to make choices like that. And you certainly don’t have the right to advise him.”

“He came to me, Chloe. And you brought me here.”

“Do you think I’ve forgotten that?” She glanced toward the inn, then lowered her voice. “This deception was your idea, not mine. You decided on it for business reasons, not because you wanted to do me a favor.”

“Maybe that’s true.” He wasn’t going to let her get away with shifting all the responsibility onto him. “But you’re the one who created the situation in the first place, remember?”

“I know.” She stood very straight, fists clenched. “But that doesn’t mean it’s all right for you to interfere with my family. I don’t want you giving Theo advice. I don’t want his values to be—”

“Contaminated by mine?” Whatever fascination he’d felt in seeing Chloe stand up to him disappeared in a wave of anger. “There’s nothing wrong with my values. They’re realistic in the world out there—” He jerked his head toward the mainland.

“Caldwell Cove is different.”