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  Heather flushed. “I thought it was a good one,” she admitted, then added earnestly, “Connor’s right. You should at least give Will a chance.”

  Jess decided she needed to point out the obvious. “Will doesn’t seem to want a chance. He’s right here with someone else. I’m not going to turn around and look now, but he seemed happy enough to be with her when I arrived. And not that long ago, he was here with Laila.”

  Connor looked startled. “Laila? Will had a date with Trace’s sister?”

  “He did,” Jess said. “Obviously he’s enjoying playing the field. Now will you please stay out of my business?” She grabbed her to-go order when the waitress came, then gave her brother a sour look. “Thanks for lunch, by the way. It’s been lovely.”

  She stewed all the way back to the inn, stormed into the kitchen and tossed her food onto one of the stainless steel countertops. Gail took one look at her face and turned to Ronnie.

  “Transfer the calls back to the front desk,” she ordered. “And stay there to take them.”

  “Sure thing,” Ronnie said willingly.

  Jess stared after him. “Did you hypnotize that man?”

  “It’s amazing what you can accomplish when a guy sees you wielding a carving knife,” Gail said with a laugh. “Haven’t had a bit of trouble with him.”

  Jess shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s a strategy many employers could get away with, but I’m grateful.”

  “Okay, so tell me why you’re tied up in knots and looking mad enough to chew nails,” Gail said. “And split that panini with me. It smells fabulous and I’m starved.”

  “Need I point out that you’re a chef with an entire pantry and a freezer at your disposal?” Jess said even as she put half of the sandwich on a plate, added a few of the French-fried sweet potatoes and handed it over.

  “I’m much too busy to cook for myself,” Gail claimed. “My boss—that’s you, by the way—insisted on very labor-intensive hors d’oeuvres to welcome the guests on Friday nights. I had Ronnie helping out, but you sent him on his way, so I’m on my own. Now tell me what happened. I’m pretty sure you intended to eat lunch at the restaurant.”

  Jess told Gail what she’d found when she arrived. “I don’t know what they were thinking,” she said of her brother and Heather.

  “That you need to wake up and smell the roses before it’s too late,” Gail suggested.

  Jess scowled at her. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

  “Because you’re the only one who hasn’t seemed to notice that Will is perfect for you.”

  Jess still wasn’t buying it. “The most obnoxious, infuriating, patronizing man in Chesapeake Shores is perfect for me? What does that say about me?”

  “At the moment, it says that you’re blind and stubborn,” Gail said cheerfully. She slid a knife in Jess’s direction. “Now chop those mushrooms or send Ronnie back in here. I have work to do.”

  Jess started chopping, then glanced sideways at Gail. “I need to remember that when it comes to sympathy, you are definitely not my go-to girl.”

  Gail laughed. “Not in my job description, that’s for sure. Now, chop.”

  At least the effort to avoid cutting off her own fingers kept Jess from spending too much time thinking about Will and the pretty blonde who’d been hanging on his every word. She’d have plenty of time to relive that sight when she was lying all alone in her bed tonight.

  4

  Megan looked up from the canvas she was framing in preparation for an upcoming show at the gallery to see Mick heading her way, a scowl on his face.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she asked her husband when he’d settled on a nearby stool in the workroom behind the gallery.

  “I just spotted our daughter—”

  “Which one?” Megan interrupted to ask.

  “Jess. She was storming off from that sandwich shop up the street looking as if she was itching for a fight. She didn’t even turn around when I called out to her.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t follow her,” Megan said dryly.

  “Did you not hear me?” Mick asked impatiently. “I said she looked like she wanted a fight. Even I know better than to try to deal with her before she’s calmed down.”

  Megan smiled. “So, you have learned a few new tricks since we remarried,” she teased.

  Mick scowled. “Will you stop worrying about me and my tricks? We need to focus on our youngest daughter. Something’s up with her, Meggie. She’s not happy. I tried to get some information out of Connor and Heather, but they clammed up on me.”

  Megan regarded him with confusion. “What do Connor and Heather have to do with this?”

  “That’s who Jess couldn’t get away from fast enough, at least that’s how it looked to me.” He frowned. “Or maybe it had something to do with Will.”

  Now he had Megan’s full attention. “Will? He was there?”

  “At the next table, with some woman I’ve never seen before. A pretty little thing.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Jess wouldn’t be upset by that, would she?”

  Megan didn’t know how to respond. She’d thought for some time now that Will and Jess had unacknowledged feelings for each other, but she’d kept her suspicions from Mick. He wasn’t the kind of man who could sit back and let things happen at their own pace. He’d been fretting about Jess’s lack of a social life for some time now. He’d be meddling the instant he saw any reason for it.

  “I have no idea,” she said eventually, which was true enough. Jess had never once mentioned to her that she felt any attraction to Will.

  Mick studied her skeptically. “Why do I get the feeling that was an evasive answer? Did you leave some kind of loophole in there?”

  “Why would I do that?” she asked, hoping her tone sounded innocent enough to fool him.

  “Because you don’t want me interfering,” he said at once. “You think I lack tact.”

  She chuckled despite herself. “I know you lack tact.”

  “So you are deliberately hiding something from me,” he concluded. “Are those two involved? Will and Jess, I mean.”

  “Not that I know of,” Megan insisted with total honesty.

  Mick’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “But you suspect something, don’t you?”

  She regarded him with impatience. “Mick, have you learned nothing from our other children? Meddling only makes things worse.”

  “Which means there’s something going on you don’t want me meddling in,” he said triumphantly. “I knew it! Jess ran off because Will was there with another woman. Seeing him there upset her.”

  His momentary delight in having figured that out faded almost instantly. “If that man hurt Jess, he’ll answer to me, by God!”

  He started to rise, but Megan put her hand on his arm and locked her gaze with his. “Unless Jess comes to you and asks for your help, you will stay out of this, Mick O’Brien. Neither of us has any idea what’s going on with those two, if anything. If you go after Will, you could be making matters worse. You might even be humiliating your daughter.”

  Mick sat back down, though he didn’t look happy about it. “Then maybe I should stop by the inn and have a talk with Jess,” he said. “Find out the score for myself.”

  Megan cringed at the thought, but rather than telling him flat-out not to go—a waste of breath, if ever there was one—she settled for warning, “If you want to go and visit with Jess, that’s one thing. If you want to cross-examine her about Will or about what happened today, forget it. It’s a bad idea. Jess is her own woman.”

  “She’s our baby,” he corrected. “And she always felt that neither of us paid enough attention to her. It may be late, but she has to know we’re here for her now.”

  Megan sighed. “No one is more aware that I abandoned Jess when she was barely seven than I am. I think she’s finally come to understand all the reasons behind our divorce. I even think she’s starting to believe that I never stopped loving her. That doesn’
t mean she’s ready for me to jump in and start parenting her at this late date. The same goes for you, Mick. We have to let Jess come to us.”

  Mick heaved an unhappy sigh. “I don’t like sitting on the sidelines when one of my kids is miserable.”

  “I know that,” she said more sympathetically. “But maybe she’s not miserable. Maybe she and Connor had one of their usual spats. That’s possible.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Why don’t you just drop in at the inn to see if she needs any help?” Megan suggested. “Fridays are always crazy over there once the weekend guests start pouring in. She’ll appreciate the gesture, and you’ll be there if she decides she wants to open up. How about that?”

  Mick’s expression brightened. “I can do that. I’ll get the lay of the land and report to you over dinner. Are we still going to Brady’s tonight?”

  “Unless you’d like to invite Jess to join us at the house,” she said.

  “And have you cooking at the end of a long day?” Mick chided. “I’ll invite her to join us at Brady’s. I’ll call and let you know what she says.” He walked around the counter and kissed her. “Marrying a sensible woman was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

  Megan laughed. “Then isn’t it nice that I gave you the chance to do it twice?”

  She watched him leave, then shook her head, wondering if sending him over to the inn had been the smart thing to do. She knew all about Mick’s good intentions. They lasted just as long as he wanted them to, then got lost the minute he concluded he knew what was best for everyone.

  She could trust him to stick to the plan or she could call and give Jess a heads-up that her father was on his way. Either path had its risks.

  In the end, she opted to do nothing. After all, she was the one who’d said her daughter was her own woman now. She had to trust that Jess could handle Mick and his well-meant interference.

  Then again, she also knew better than anyone that handling Mick required a delicate balancing act between staunch self-confidence and the quick footwork and blocking skills of an offensive lineman. Otherwise Mick could bulldoze right over you.

  Jess had a crowd of new arrivals at the desk trying to check in. Ronnie had vanished twenty minutes ago. She was about two seconds from a nervous breakdown when she glanced up and caught sight of her father.

  “What can I do to help?” he asked. “Need me to carry some of these bags for you?”

  “Would you?” she asked, not questioning why he’d appeared just when she needed him. She was too grateful to have an extra pair of hands.

  “Not a problem,” Mick told her. “Where’s that Forrest kid? I thought this was his job.”

  “Don’t get me started,” she muttered, then smiled at the couple who’d just finished registering. “Mr. And Mrs. Longwell, you have a room on the second floor with a view of the bay. Dad, can you help them with their luggage?”

  “Of course,” Mick said, grabbing the two small suitcases and heading for the stairs.

  He was back by the time she’d finished registering the next guests, two women who’d come from New Jersey. Within an hour, all of the guests had been checked in, and several were already relaxing in the lounge with the inn’s complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. Jess had just taken her first deep breath of the afternoon when her father reappeared.

  “Everyone’s settled,” he assured her. “Looks like business is good.”

  “It should be like this at least through the end of October,” Jess told him. “We’re almost full for Thanksgiving, too.”

  “Good for you,” he said, beaming at her. “You should be proud, Jess. This place is every bit the success you thought it could be. Your mother and I are so happy for you. You’ve done a terrific job.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” she said, genuinely appreciative of his praise. “What brings you by, anyway? I’m sure you didn’t come over here to carry suitcases for me, though you were certainly a godsend this afternoon.”

  “Happy to pitch in,” he said.

  “Would you like a glass of wine or some of Gail’s hors d’oeuvres?”

  “Not for me. I wanted to see if you’d like to join your mother and me for dinner at Brady’s tonight, if you’re not busy.”

  Jess stilled. “Why?”

  “Why not?” he countered. “You deserve a night out, don’t you? Unless you already have plans, of course.”

  “Dad, you and Mom are practically still in the honeymoon phase. I know these dinners at Brady’s are your official date nights. Why would you suddenly want me along?”

  He flushed guiltily. “We haven’t seen much of you lately, that’s all.”

  “I was at the house for dinner last Sunday,” she reminded him. “And I stopped by the gallery for coffee with Mom earlier this week.”

  He shrugged. “She didn’t mention that.”

  Jess studied her father with a narrowed gaze. “This doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you saw me take off from Panini Bistro earlier, does it?”

  Mick frowned. “You heard me calling you?”

  “They could have heard you in Ocean City, Dad.”

  “Well, why didn’t you stop? You looked upset. I just wanted to make sure everything was all right.”

  “I’m sure Connor and Heather filled you in.”

  “They didn’t tell me a blasted thing,” he grumbled. “I think I figured out a few things for myself. You want to tell me if I got it right? Did it have anything to do with Will being there with that woman?”

  Jess tried not to let it show that his question had thrown her. “Why on earth would you think that?” she asked, hoping to keep a tremor out of her voice.

  She had no idea why seeing Will with another woman had shaken her so badly. In fact, she’d told herself initially that her annoyance had been aimed solely at Connor and Heather. Only after she was well away from the restaurant had she conceded to herself that seeing Will on a date, especially one likely arranged by that online dating service of his, had infuriated her.

  She forced herself to meet her father’s gaze. “You do know there’s nothing going on between Will and me, right?”

  “Is that so?” he said, sounding skeptical. “I’ll admit it was guesswork on my part, but when I ran the theory past your mother, she didn’t deny it was a possibility.”

  “So you and Mom have been speculating about this already?” Jess said, having no problem at all making her tone icy. Just the thought of it chilled her. It was a little late in life for the two of them to suddenly start caring about her feelings.

  “I’m worried about you,” Mick said unrepentantly. “That’s what fathers do.”

  “You didn’t worry all that much when I was seven, did you?” she said accusingly. “Mom had just left, and you were running all over the country on various jobs. Neither of you spent a lot of time taking my feelings into account back then.”

  Mick frowned. “Different time,” he said, not even trying to defend the indefensible. “I’m right here now, and I care about what’s going on in your life.”

  Jess knew the only way to get him to back off was to tell him some kind of tale that would reassure him. “Look, Connor and I had words earlier, that’s all. It was no big deal. We’ve been fighting since we were toddlers. We always get over it.”

  Mick didn’t look entirely convinced. “And that’s all it was, just a spat with your brother? It had nothing to do with Will?”

  “Nothing at all,” she insisted. “Everything’s fine with me. I promise I’ll even be speaking to Connor by the time Sunday dinner rolls around.”

  “Okay, then,” Mick said, accepting the explanation with obvious reluctance. “And you’re not interested in dinner tonight?”

  “I wish I could, but I don’t like to leave here when we’re swamped. One of the guests might need something.”

  He pulled her into an embrace, then kissed the top of her head. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

  She let go of her irritation
, glad to have the matter settled for now. “I will, Dad. I promise. Thanks for helping out this afternoon.”

  “Anytime, kiddo.”

  She watched him leave, then breathed a sigh of relief, only to jump when she heard Gail’s chuckle right beside her.

  “You fibbed to your daddy,” Gail taunted.

  “I did what I had to do to throw him off the scent,” Jess told her. “If he had any idea I was annoyed about Will, neither one of us would be safe from Dad’s meddling.”

  “Are you scared he’d meddle, or are you terrified he might be good at it?” Gail asked. “Meaning?”

  “The way I hear it, once Mick O’Brien sets his mind to something, things usually work out the way he intended.”

  “My father can meddle from now till doomsday, and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference when it comes to Will and me,” Jess retorted.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t half as much conviction behind her declaration as there probably should have been.

  When another week passed without even one date being arranged by Lunch by the Bay, Jess became even more infuriated. It was worse now that she knew it was Will’s company. It proved just how little he thought of her.

  She could practically hear his recitation of all the reasons why he didn’t want to match her with any of the men paying for his service. He thought she was flighty. He thought her dating history was too erratic. He knew her too darned well—or thought he did—and didn’t want to risk his stupid company’s reputation by pairing her up with some poor sap.

  Just thinking about the way he’d dismissed her made her see red. Add in the fact that he’d never even acknowledged her enrollment in the service and that he didn’t have the courage to return her money, and she was ready to tear into him if they ever crossed paths.

  Not that she intended to go looking for him, of course. In fact, it might be best if they didn’t cross paths for months, maybe even years.

  And then, long before she’d had a chance to work off her full head of steam, she spotted him in the bar at Brady’s on a rare Friday night away from the inn.