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

“She is looking fine, at least the quick glimpse I got on the water. It’s only right you should bring her back here. Good decision, son.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ve got a Verlaine myself. She’s not quite as smooth as the Delphine but she’s solid and dependable.”

“Good.”

“I don’t think I’m alone in hoping the reason you’re back in town might have something to do with new plans to open the boatworks again. Fine-crafted wooden boats have made a big comeback in recent years. Look at you, pouring all kinds of money and time into restoring a Delphine. You’re not the only one who sees the beauty there.”

He hoped he wasn’t going to have to defend his decision to close the factory all morning long. “I’m not in the boat-building business anymore,” he said quietly, hoping this would be the end of it. “My job at Caine Tech takes all my time and energy.”

“That’s fine for you,” Mick said in a low, even tone that matched his own. “What about for the people of this town? You’ve got obligations here, like it or not.”

He wasn’t responsible for these people. He barely knew them! Simply because his father had once owned the company that had once been the town’s largest employer did not make Ben some sort of feudal lord, for heaven’s sake.

He was saved from having to answer when another guy of about the same age as Mick sat down on his other side and asked Sargent a question about irrigation water shares.

Ben used their conversation as an excuse to get up. He started to head for the exit, hoping McKenzie wouldn’t notice. Unfortunately, at the same moment she began to walk toward him. She wore a tailored white shirt and a chunky blue-and-green necklace that reminded him of sunlight shifting across the lake. All that lovely dark hair was tangled up in some kind of a twist behind her head. She probably thought it made her look crisp and businesslike but he only wanted to pull a few pins out and trail his fingers through the soft strands.

The impulse came out of the blue, shocking him to the core, and he curled his fingers into his palm to keep from acting on it.

“Hi, Ben. I hope you’re enjoying breakfast. I wasn’t sure you would come.”

“I get the impression people don’t say no very often to the Haven Point mayor.”

Her mouth twisted into a wry expression. “You’d be surprised. Most people have absolutely no problem saying no to me.”

“That’s fairly shocking. I can’t believe I’m the only one in town who considers you a force of nature.”

She laughed a little but it still relaxed the tension in her features. “Not a force of nature. Mostly a pain in the butt. I have a...bad habit of putting high expectations on people. Some have even called them unrealistic.”

Who? Her family? He had been a teenager when McKenzie came to town and could clearly remember hearing gossip around town about the big-eyed, exotic-looking daughter who had suddenly shown up and moved in with the local attorney and his family.

It had set tongues wagging all around town. McKenzie had obviously been the product of an affair, as she was a few years younger than the Shaws’ only other living child, Devin.

What had life been like for her in that household? Adele Shaw had always struck him as a nice woman but she wasn’t a saint, by any stretch of the imagination. It couldn’t have been easy for her to have her husband’s love child suddenly thrust upon her.

He didn’t have the local monopoly on shitty childhoods, he suddenly realized.

“When you have unrealistic expectations of people, you’re setting yourself up for a firestorm of disappointment,” he said. “That’s a tough way to go through life.”

She shrugged. “I may be naive, but I like to put my faith in people, even if it’s overly optimistic. In my experience, if you demand much of people, they usually want to rise to meet those expectations.”

Or they fight back and do their damnedest to shatter them, he thought, but didn’t say.

“I overheard you talking boats with Mick Sargent.”

“He was talking about boats. I was mostly listening.”

Her smile was like the sun sliding over the peaks of the Redemptions after a miserable night. “That’s usually all you can do once Mick settles in for a chat. He’s a character. Eighty-three years old and still going strong.”

“He seemed old when I was a kid. I remember seeing him work a sander and wondering if he was going to keel over any minute.”

“Isn’t perspective a funny thing? When I was a girl, thirty seemed absolutely ancient. Now that I’m staring it right in the face, I feel like I’m still a baby.”

“You are still a baby. You’re probably the youngest mayor in the history of Haven Point, aren’t you? Though apparently not by choice.”

“Not really. I never sought this position and didn’t want it.”

“Why did you accept the nomination? Nobody can force you to run for office in this country, unless there’s some bizarre Haven Point compulsory service bylaw I don’t know about.”

She sighed. “You’re absolutely right. I could have said no.”

“But you didn’t.”

She gave a shrug that seemed both eloquent and simple. “This is my town and I love it here. People here embraced me when I was a strange kid who showed up out of nowhere. They have supported my business and opened their hearts to me in friendship. Haven Point isn’t perfect. We have our problems, like any other town—the economy being at the top of the list—but in general, this is a warm, caring place.”

She looked around the room. “I love this community—and if I can make it a better place to live for my neighbors and friends, I have an obligation to step up and do my part.”

He studied her, wondering if her earnestness could possibly be genuine. Yeah, he might be a cynic, but it seemed a little too good to be true. No one could possibly have this rosy a view of her hometown.

“And how’s that working out for you so far?”

He regretted the caustic words immediately, especially when her lovely dark eyes clouded and her mouth tightened.

“Great. And as a delightful perk of my job, I get to entertain all the visiting ass—” She caught herself at the last second before she could complete that particular sentiment and quickly amended the thought. “Er, awesome dignitaries.”

He deserved the original pejorative, he acknowledged. Finding himself the center of attention left him feeling awkward and uncomfortable and he was taking his unease out on McKenzie. Though she had misled him about the meeting, he still didn’t have the right to be a jerk to her.

“A difficult task, no doubt.”

“Sometimes. Last month, we had a delegation from the state clean water board. I got to enjoy four hours of stories about inorganics and metals, nitrates and nitrites. I now know more about water treatment procedures than I ever dreamed.”

She held up a finger suddenly. “That reminds me. I meant to mention to you that’s another big plus about Haven Point, by the way. We have a very plentiful supply of exceptionally clean drinking water. In fact, I’ve got an extra copy of their report that might be useful to you and Aidan. Follow me and you can take it with you.”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and headed down the hallway. Since he didn’t seem to have too many options unless he wanted to stand here by himself and deal with more of those sidelong glances, he followed her.

CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_c626bf52-6fcd-574a-8303-3968610a8cc0)

YES, THAT’S RIGHT, PEOPLE. Your stately, dignified mayor of Haven Point had almost called Ben Kilpatrick an A-hole.

On the way to her office, McKenzie wanted to stop in the hallway and bang her head against the wall a few dozen times but she forced herself to keep walking.

The man brought out the absolute worst in her. Okay, he had been a jerk but she was supposed to at least try to be nice to him. She was trying to convince the man to bring a major tech facility to her community that would be a total game changer and yet she couldn’t refrain from calling him names, deserved or not.

For heaven’s sake, what was it about him that brought out the worst in her and turned her into a second-grader in pigtails, sticking her tongue out at the cutest boy in school?

Forty-eight hours earlier, she had lectured all her friends to do whatever was necessary to be nice to the man during the short time he would be in town. Why couldn’t she take a little of her own advice?