Brambleberry House. RaeAnne Thayne
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the pleasant early evening breeze when he suddenly heard excited barking.
A moment later, a big red mutt bounded into view, trailing the handle of his retractable leash.
As soon as he spied Will, he switched directions and bounded up the deck steps, his tongue lolling as he panted heavily.
“You look like a dog on the lam.”
Conan did that weird grin thing of his and Will glanced down the beach to see who might have been on the other end of the leash. He couldn’t see anyone—not really surprising. Though he seemed pondeorus most of the time, Conan could pour on the juice when he wanted to escape his dreaded leash and be several hundred yards down the beach before you could blink.
When he turned back to the dog, he found him sniffing with enthusiasm around the barbecue.
“No way,” Will muttered. “Get your own steak. I’m not sharing.”
Conan whined and plopped down at his feet with such an obviously feigned morose expression that Will had to smile. “You’re quite the actor, aren’t you? No steak for you tonight but I will get you a drink. You look like you could use it.”
He found the bowl he usually used for Conan and filled it from the sink. When he walked back through the sliding doors, he heard a chorus of voices calling the dog’s name.
Somehow, he supposed he wasn’t really surprised a moment later when Julia Blair and her twins came into view from the direction of Brambleberry House.
Conan barked a greeting, his head hanging over the deck railing. Three heads swiveled in their direction and even from here, he could see the relief in Julia’s green eyes when she spotted the dog.
“There you are, you rascal,” she exclaimed.
With her hair held back from her face in a ponytail, she looked young and lovely in the slanted early evening light. Though he knew it was unwise, part of him wanted to just sit and savor the sight of her, a little guilty reward for putting in a hard day’s work.
Shocked at the impulse, he set down Conan’s bowl so hard some water slopped over the side.
“I’m so sorry,” Julia called up. Though he wanted to keep them off the steps like he was some kind of medieval knight defending his castle from assault, he stood mutely by as she and her twins walked up the stairs to the deck.
“We were taking him for a walk on the beach,” Julia went on, “but we apparently weren’t moving quickly enough for him.”
“It’s my fault,” the boy—Simon—said, his voice morose. “Mom said I had to hold his leash tight and I tried, I really did, but I guess I wasn’t strong enough.”
“I’m sure it’s not your fault,” Will said through a throat that suddenly felt tight. “Conan can be pretty determined when he sets his mind to something.”
Simon grinned at him with a new warmth. “I guess he had his mind set on running away.”
“We were going to get an ice cream,” the girl said in her whispery voice. He had no choice but to look at her, with her dark curls and blue eyes. A sense of frailty clung to her, as if the slightest breeze would pick her up and carry her out to sea.
He didn’t know how to talk to her—didn’t know if he could. But he had made a pledge not to hurt others simply because he was in pain. He supposed that included little dark-haired sea sprites.
“That sounds like fun. A great thing to do on a pretty summer night like tonight.”
“My favorite ice cream is strawberry cheesecake,” she announced. “I really hope they have some.”
“Not me,” Simon announced. “I like bubblegum. Especially when it’s blue bubblegum.”
To his dismay, Julia’s daughter crossed the deck until she was only a few feet away. She looked up at him out of serious eyes. “What about you, Mr. Garrett?” Maddie asked. “Do you like ice cream?”
Surface similarities aside, she was not at all like his roly-poly little Cara, he reminded himself. “Sure. Who doesn’t?”
“What kind is your favorite?”
“Hmmm. Good question. I hate to be boring but I really like plain old vanilla.”
Simon hooted. “That’s what my mom’s favorite flavor is, too. With all the good flavors out there—licorice or coconut or chocolate chunk—why would you ever want plain vanilla? That’s just weird.”
“Simon!” Julia’s cheeks flushed and he thought again how extraordinarily lovely she was—not much different from the girl he’d been so crazy about nearly two decades ago.
“Well, it is,” Simon insisted.
“You don’t tell someone they’re weird,” Julia said.
“I didn’t say he was weird. Just that eating only vanilla ice cream is weird.”
Will found himself fighting a smile, which startled him all over again. “Okay, I’ll admit I also like praline ice cream and sometimes even chocolate chip on occasion. Is that better?”
Simon snickered. “I guess so.”
He felt the slightest brush of air and realized it was Maddie touching his arm with her small, pale hand. Suddenly he couldn’t seem to catch his breath, aching inside.
“Would you like to come with us to get an ice-cream cone, Mr. Garrett?” she asked in her breathy voice. “I bet if you were holding Conan’s leash, he couldn’t get away.”
He glanced at her sweet little features then at Julia. The color had climbed even higher on her cheekbones and she gave him an apologetic look before turning back to her daughter.
“Honey, I’m sure Mr. Garrett is busy. It smells like he’s cooking a steak for his dinner.”
“Which I’d better check on. Hang on.”
He lifted the grill and found his porterhouse a little on the well-done side, but still edible. He shut off the flame, using the time to consider how to answer the girl.
He shouldn’t be so tempted to go with them. It was an impulse that shocked the hell out of him.
He had spent two years avoiding social situations except with his close friends. But suddenly the idea of sitting here alone eating his dinner and watching others enjoy life seemed unbearable.
How could he possibly go with them, though? He wasn’t sure he trusted himself to be decent for an hour or so, the time it would take to walk to the ice-cream place, enjoy their cones, then walk home.
What if something set him off and brought back that bleak darkness that always seemed to hover around the edges of his psyche? The last thing he wanted to do was hurt these innocent kids.
“Thanks for the invitation,” he said, “but I’d better stay here and finish my dinner.”
Conan whined and butted his head against Will’s leg, almost as if urging Will to reconsider.
“We can wait for you to eat,” Simon said promptly. “We don’t mind, do we, Mom?”
“Simon, Mr. Garrett is busy. We don’t want to badger him.” She met his gaze, her green eyes soft with an expression he couldn’t identify. “Though we would love to have you come along. All of us.”
“I don’t want you to have to wait for me to eat when you’ve got strawberry cheesecake and bubblegum ice-cream cones calling your name.”
Julia nodded rather sadly, as if she had expected his answer. “Come on, kids. We’d better be on our way.”
Conan whined again. Will gazed from the dog to Julia and her family, then he shook his head. “Then again, I guess there’s no reason I can’t warm my steak up again when we get back from the ice-cream parlor. I’m not that