Redemption Bay: The ultimate uplifting feel-good second-chance romance for summer 2019

“She was a good woman and I miss her every day, even a year later. I try to stay busy but, well, you know. I have cut back, though. I’ve taken on a go-getter young partner and she’s doing most of the work these days. You may remember her from school, though I think she was a bit younger than you. Devin Shaw.”

McKenzie’s half sister, he recalled. He had never known her well but he remembered her as being scary-smart.

“So how long are you back in town?” Warrick asked him.

“I’m not sure,” he hedged. “A week, maybe. Ten days.”

“You’re still working with Aidan at Caine Tech?”

“I am.”

“He’s a good man,” Warrick said with a smile.

Ben still found it odd that his best friend had a life here that he loved. It was more than a little surreal that the world where he had lived his first seventeen years had merged with the world he had created since leaving—and he still felt more than a little guilty about selling Aidan his holdings here.

If he’d had any idea Aidan had a brain tumor when the other man offered an exorbitant amount for Snow Angel Cove and his commercial holdings in Haven Point, Ben never would have agreed to the deal. The whole situation still left a bad taste in his mouth, even though he had sold the property for far less than market value.

In the end, Aidan had come out ahead—as he usually did—but Ben knew the other man never would have even made an offer for property in this obscure corner of Idaho if the tendrils of a benign tumor hadn’t been pressing on key decision-making areas of his brain at the time.

After Aidan’s diagnosis, Ben had tried to back out of the deal and invalidate the sale but Aidan refused to let him. For reasons Ben still didn’t understand, Aidan had fallen for this place and for Snow Angel Cove.

“You’ve done well for yourself with Caine, haven’t you?” Warrick said.

“He’s a good man,” he answered.

From their first encounter when Caine Tech was just a start-up like thousands of others in Silicon Valley, they had clicked. They made a damn good team. Aidan was inarguably the tech wizard behind the success of the company but Ben liked to think he was the business genius.

“I could always tell you had big things ahead of you,” Warrick said, with an odd note in his voice that almost sounded like pride.

Ben didn’t know quite how to answer that so he remained silent.

“Your mother must be thrilled to have you back in town, even if it’s only for a few weeks.”

The band of tension around his shoulders seemed to ratchet a notch tighter. “I haven’t had the chance to tell her,” he said curtly. “I don’t believe she’s around, anyway. Last I heard she was going to Tuscany.”

He should have called her, anyway. The moment he gave in and agreed to come to town on this assignment, he should have dropped her an email. Technically, Lydia lived in Shelter Springs—well, she had a condo there anyway, purchased after Big Joe died, but she lived there only in the summer months. Most of the time, she lived in the San Diego area, near one of her sisters, where she had moved after the divorce.

He wasn’t estranged from his mother. They spoke on the phone or emailed weekly but theirs was a strained relationship.

Though he might tell himself he was over the past, he could never quite forgive his mother for the choices she made and he supposed that was the reason he preferred a casual, superficial relationship between them. Over the years, she had given up trying to forge a closer bond.

Dr. Warrick gave him a long, thoughtful look. “Shelter Springs is only a ten-minute drive, son. If she’s in town, I’m sure she would love to see you.”

He didn’t want to be rude to the man but he also didn’t particularly care to discuss with him the complicated relationship he and his mother shared. Especially not in a crowded diner.

“I’m sure you’re right,” he said in a noncommittal way.

The doctor seemed to sense he had overstepped. He gave a kindly smile and stood up.

“I should probably head to the hospital. Injured and sick people aren’t always the most patient people on earth. Pun intended.”

Ben forced a smile. “Good to see you,” he said. It was the truth. Russell Warrick was at least a friendly face in a town that didn’t seem very inclined to look favorably at his return.

Warrick studied him with that intense expression he sometimes wore when he looked at Ben. “I would love a chance to catch up more while you’re in town. Maybe we could arrange dinner sometime.”

“I would enjoy that,” Ben answered. “I’m staying in a rental on Redemption Bay. The old Sloane house.”

“I know it. Perfect. I’ll drop by one day soon so we can make arrangements.”

The doctor reached out a hand and shook Ben’s. “Good to see you, son. I mean it.”

With another of those kindly smiles, he walked out, leaving Ben alone with his memories and a restaurant full of people who didn’t want him there.

* * *

RUSS WALKED OUT of the diner into the beautiful blue of an Idaho summer morning feeling shaky, off balance at the unexpected encounter. He walked a few dozen steps on autopilot, then turned into the small alley next to the restaurant used by delivery trucks. When he was sure no one could see him, he rubbed a hand over the ache in his chest.

Lydia’s quiet, thoughtful boy had grown into a tall, handsome man. A man any parent would be proud of.

But, oh, the shadows in those blue eyes.

When he woke that morning and decided to grab a bite to eat at Serrano’s before work, he never expected to find Ben drinking coffee and looking out at the lake.

How could he have? As far as he knew, Ben hadn’t been back since the day of his sister’s funeral.

He stood, lost in indecision, while the lake sparkled in the distance and the peaks of the Redemption Mountains gleamed white in the sunlight with snow that hadn’t melted yet.

This had been easier when his wife was still alive. Joan had provided a necessary buffer, somehow, to keep him from doing something stupid.

She was gone now, bless her. After a year, he was finally learning to make his way without her, one baby step at a time.

Perhaps it was time he took a giant step into the unknown and finally faced all the murky secrets of the past.

He picked up his cell phone. A quick web search revealed the number he had purposely avoided looking up for a year.

He was ridiculously aware that his palms were sweating as he selected “call” on the phone options.

It rang four times. Just before he was certain the call would go to voice mail, a slightly breathless voice answered. “Hello?”

He swallowed. “Lydia. Hello. It’s Russ Warrick. Is this a bad time?”

After a long, awkward pause, she spoke again, clear surprise in her voice. “Russ. Hello. No. No. It’s not a bad time. I was in the middle of yoga.”

He tried not to picture her, limber and prettier at fifty-four than she had ever been.

“Sorry to interrupt. You can call me back when your class is over.”

“No class. Just a video at home. I paused it. Really, this is fine. Is something wrong?”