Return To Rose Cottage: The Laws of Attraction

“No, of course not, but—”

She laughed. “No buts, darling. You’re off the hook. I’m weak, not stupid. To be perfectly honest, I’ve known for months now that we’re not a good match, not for the long term. I guess I was hoping that Daddy was right, because you are so damn nice.”

Josh was getting a little tired of being nice tonight. Nice guys usually finished last. Sometimes he wondered if that wasn’t why he was so uncomfortable in a courtroom. He hated going for the jugular. He preferred mediation to confrontation.

“You’re probably letting me off too easy,” he told her. “I doubt your father will be half as understanding. Would you like me to explain all this to him?”

“Forget about Daddy. I’ll talk to him,” Stephanie assured him. “I won’t let him kick you out of the firm over this.”

“You don’t need to go to bat for me,” Josh said. “I’ll handle your father if I decide I want to stay on.”

“If? You’re thinking about quitting your job?” she asked, clearly far more shocked by that than by his decision to break up with her.

“Actually I am,” he admitted. “But I’m trying not to do anything hasty.” He was a plodder, after all. He liked knowing that all his ducks were in a row before doing anything too drastic. It had taken his immediate and intense attraction to Ashley to get him to make this decision. Otherwise he might have drifted along indecisively for a while longer just because being with Stephanie was comfortable.

“I do love you, you know,” she told him. “Just not the way you ought to be loved. And I want you to be happy.”

“I want the same for you.” He recalled the lively sounds of the party. “Something tells me you won’t have to wait too long.”

“What about you?” she said. “What kind of woman do you really want?”

An image of Ashley resurfaced for about the hundredth time since they’d met that afternoon. He wasn’t about to mention it, though. He wasn’t that foolish. Stephanie might be taking the breakup with a great deal of grace, but he doubted she’d like knowing that he’d found a replacement already.

“I’ll let you know when I’ve figured that out,” he promised.

She laughed. “Please do. Will you call me when you get back to Richmond?”

“Sure, if you want me to.”

“I’d like us to stay friends,” she told him with unmistakable sincerity. “You’re the best one I ever had. I’m not sure I realized that until tonight, when you set me free.”

“Then this is a good thing for both of us?” he asked, still worried a bit by her calm demeanor.

“It really is,” she assured him. “Now go out there and find the woman who’s really right for you, and I’ll dance at your wedding.”

“You’re amazing,” he said sincerely.

“I know,” she said, laughing. “I think I’m just now figuring that out, too.”

Josh hung up and sighed. Relief washed over him. That had gone a thousand times better than he’d anticipated. If only all the other decisions on his plate would go half as smoothly.

Ashley had scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned out the refrigerator, rearranged the cupboards and even considered the bags of bulbs that Melanie had surreptitiously left on the back steps. She might be going stir-crazy, but she wasn’t quite ready for a close encounter with the garden worms just yet.

Still, it was barely midmorning, and she’d already done every single thing she could think of to do inside the house. She’d passed her limit on coffee for the morning and eaten a bran muffin and a banana, which was more than she’d usually consumed by this hour.

Normally by late morning, she’d been to the gym and had already been at her desk for hours. There was little question that exercise was what she needed now to take the edge off the stress.

Suddenly she recalled the kayak that used to be stored in what had once been a garage but was too small to accommodate anything other than the smallest of today’s vehicles. She found the key to the lock and opened the creaky door. Sure enough, the kayak was still inside, along with its paddle.

Pushing aside all the boxes that had been stored around it, she finally managed to drag the kayak out. She hosed it down, then dragged it to the water’s edge. She found a baseball cap on a hook in the kitchen, retrieved the paddle from the old garage, then climbed into the kayak and shoved off, praying that paddling was like riding a bicycle, something one never forgot.

At first she stayed close to shore to be sure the kayak was still seaworthy and hadn’t sprung any leaks over the years. When she was finally satisfied that it wasn’t going to sink and that she still had the hang of paddling it, she grew more ambitious.

The September sun was beating down on her bare shoulders and glaring off the water. She wiped the sweat off her brow and paused long enough to twist her hair into a knot on top of her head and stuff it under the cap, then began to paddle in earnest.

It took Ashley some time to find her rhythm and longer to move at a pace that provided real exercise. When her arms and shoulders started aching, she let the kayak drift, leaned back and closed her eyes. The sun felt good now that it was being tempered by a breeze. Her body felt energized and, in an odd way, lazy at the same time. Maybe this was what relaxing felt like. If so, she might be able to get used to it eventually.

A part of her immediately rebelled at the thought. She wasn’t going to get used to this. She needed excitement and challenges. This was just a little break, a chance to regroup.

To prove her point, she sat up straight, grabbed the paddle and put herself into the task of rowing back to the cottage. She was not about to turn into some goalless, lazy slacker, not even here. Not even for three weeks.

Her sisters might have taken away her legal pads and her pencils, but the stores in town would have more. Suddenly it seemed vital that she get new supplies and put her nose to the grindstone. Pleasant as it was, she was wasting time out here.

Her enthusiasm waned almost as quickly as it had peaked when she realized that she had no real work to do. She was supposed to be thinking, contemplating her future, but the idea held no appeal at all. She could make lists and prioritize all she wanted to, but something told her she would only be floundering right now. Her brain really did need a break.

Well, hell, she thought, letting the paddle fall idle as tears stung her eyes. She brushed at them impatiently and took up the paddle again. Dammit, she was not going to wallow in self-pity. If she couldn’t excel at law right now, then she could excel at kayaking, she decided with grim determination. Maybe the world had enough lawyers anyway…at least for a few more weeks.

His situation with Stephanie resolved, Josh had finally let his thoughts turn to Ashley. It had taken him a ridiculously long time the night before to get it straight that all three women in the room were D’Angelos and that they were the granddaughters of Mrs. Lindsey, the woman who’d been a good friend of his own grandmother.

As a kid, he’d envied the boisterous activity that went on just up the road at Rose Cottage. He’d been a bit of a nerd, far too studious for his own good, and way too much of an introvert to ask to be included in the impromptu gatherings that seemed to be going on all the time whenever the four granddaughters were in town. Besides, those four beautiful girls had drawn admirers from at least two counties. Josh hadn’t stood a chance.

He’d matured a lot in the years since then, in both attitude and physique. He’d found a sport he loved— tennis—and a gym he hated but used regularly. A brilliant student, he’d gained confidence in law school, then added to it when he’d been selected for Richmond’s most prestigious law firm. Beautiful women no longer intimidated him. Nor did money and power.

Knowing that he could have it all—lovely, well-connected Stephanie Lockport Williams, the money and the power—had somehow been enough. Discovering that he didn’t want any of it had been the shocker.

That’s why he was here, in fact, to wrestle with himself over how incredibly stupid it might be to throw it all away. He was having far fewer second thoughts today, now that the breakup with Stephanie had gone so smoothly and left him feeling so thoroughly relieved. It had made him wonder if the timing wasn’t precisely right for a lot of dramatic changes in his life.

He was up at dawn, anxious to get out on the water, where he could while away the morning fishing…or pretending to. He rushed through breakfast, put away the few clothes he’d brought along, then made a quick call to his folks to let them know he was settled in.

Eventually, armed with bottled water, a sandwich, a fishing pole and bait, he headed for the bay where it lapped against the shoreline at the back of his family’s property. He climbed into the seaworthy old boat at the end of the dock and pushed off. Paddling just far enough away from shore to sustain the pretense that he was at sea, he dropped anchor, cast his line, then leaned back, his old fishing hat pulled low over his eyes.

He was just settling down, content with the warmth of the fall sun against his bare skin, when something crashed into the boat, tilting it precariously and very nearly sending him over the side. The splashing of icy water all over his heated skin was as much a shock as the collision.

Oddly enough, he wasn’t all that surprised when he peered over the bow to see Ashley with her face buried in her hands, the paddle floating about three feet away from her kayak.

He couldn’t help chuckling at her crestfallen expression. “You know, if you wanted to see me again, all you had to do was call. If you keep ramming into me like this, I’m not going to have any modes of transportation left.”

“Obviously I am completely out of control on land or sea,” she said in a tone that bore an unexpected edge of hysteria.

Josh stared at her. “Are you okay?”

“Sure. Fine,” she said at once, putting on a brave smile to prove it.

She was reasonably convincing, but Josh wasn’t buying it. She might be physically fine, but there was something else going on, something that had to do with this vacation she was taking with such obvious reluctance. Her sisters had alluded to it last night.

“Maybe you should come aboard,” he suggested, not liking the idea of her being on the water alone when she was obviously shaky. On closer inspection, he thought he detected traces of dried tears on her cheeks. Maybe if he focused on her turmoil, he could put off his own decisions.

“I have my kayak,” she protested.