6. Matt #2
“Have a nice day, now,” he called after her.
“You too,” Carrie said absently, her mind already returning to Matt’s problem.
Carrie walked back toward Matt, balancing two coffees in one hand and sugar packets tucked between her fingers.
The sun pressed on the back of her neck and made the lids of the cups feel hotter than they should.
A scooter whined past and left a thin ribbon of exhaust fumes.
She kept moving, her eyes on Matt, who sat on the bench under the shady palm, his documents across his knees, and the phone resting face up, as if he did not trust it to stay put.
She stopped in front of him. “Coffee,” she said, offering the cup. “I did not know how you take it, so I brought sugar and milk.”
He reached for it and looked like he remembered how to focus only when the heat touched his palm. “Black is fine,” he said. His voice had a rough edge.
Carrie sat beside him. The bench slats were hot through her dress; she shifted and set her cup on her knee.
For a few breaths, she let the noise of the street fill the space where words would normally go.
She knew the look in his eyes. She had seen it in families who had just been handed a fact that refused to fit.
“Did you get the property company on the phone?” she asked.
He lifted his screen and held it so she could see the call log. “The office is closed,” Matt said. “Until further notice.”
She felt a small jolt just under her ribs. “Closed.” It came out flat. She took a careful sip of coffee and set the cup down again. “Where are they located from here?”
“Two blocks,” he said. “On the corner near the palm nursery.” Matt frowned, as if the precision of that detail annoyed him. “I went there a time or two when the deal for the house was going through.”
“Well, then,” Carrie said, taking another sip of coffee. “Let’s have our coffee and then take a walk there.”
He turned his head and studied her face as if he were checking for certainty. “I don’t want to drag you into my mess. You have already been so kind and helped me.”
“You are not dragging me into anything,” Carrie assured him, taking another sip of coffee.
“This isn’t the best coffee.” She gave a shudder, stood, threw the half-finished cup into the bin, and turned back to Matt, who was taking a sip of his.
“Come on.” She took the cup from his hands and ditched it beside hers in the bin.
“Let’s go see what’s going on with that property company.
” Her eyes narrowed. “Do you have an attorney?”
Matt rose, looking over her and making her pulse race. She ignored her reaction to him, keeping her mind focused on the task. “No, not really.” He shook his head, his voice flat, and his eyes dark with despair. Carrie’s heart pulled.
“Don’t worry,” Carrie told her, an idea formulated. “I know a very good one that will help you.”
“Thank you,” Matt said, his shoulders relaxing a bit. “I’d appreciate that.” He pointed down the street. “It’s this way.”
They walked side by side, a set of shadows that kept pace with the awnings.
Carrie's senses opened the way they always did on streets she did not know well.
She counted storefronts without trying. She noticed who stood in a doorway and who kept moving.
A delivery driver eased a dolly down a curb.
A woman with a straw hat crossed the street with a bag of ice tucked under her arm.
Normal life made a soft, steady sound around them; that sound helped.
She kept her tone light. “Sometimes property sits on land that is leased. Did you buy a long leasehold, or was it a standard sale?”
“It was a sale,” he said. “Outright. It is mine.” His jaw set on the last word.
She nodded. It matched what she had expected him to say.
Leaseholds occurred, although not often in places like this, and when they did, they came with a pile of clear language about the terms. A sale that looked clean on paper and then buckled under a word like probate did not match any version of simple she had ever seen.
The office appeared around the next bend.
White stucco walls that had weathered well, a shaded glass door, and black letters above the awning with a name on it that Carrie didn’t even glance at because her eyes were drawn to the center of the glass window, where a paper notice sat taped at four corners.
The edges of the tape lay flat against the surface.
The corners lined up with the frame as if whoever had put it there had taken time to press each one smooth.
Closed indefinitely.
Carrie did not move closer right away. She looked at the door, then at the lockset, then at the lines where paint met glass. Whoever shut the office must have planned for it, because they had printed out the standard county’s closing form and placed it with a steady hand.
Matt stood a step back from the door like he did not trust the air close to it. His shoulders squared. “What on earth is going on?” he said. The words came out controlled, which was somehow worse than if he had raised his voice.
Carrie kept her face neutral. She could feel her pulse pick up. “Maybe they moved,” she said. The line came out because it was what people said when they needed one inch of hope, even if they did not believe it.
She stepped forward and read the small print at the bottom right corner of the notice. There was a number for record inquiries. She took out her phone and took a clear photo of the sign.
“We’re going to need this,” Carrie told Matt, not registering she’d just made a silent decision to help him get this sorted out.
Carrie stepped back and looked up at the company’s name on the window: Key Developers .
The name hit her like a freight train, and her heart leaped into her throat. Oh, no! Her mind screamed. No, this can’t be right.
“What now?” Matt’s voice was low, and his shoulders were slightly slumped.
Carrie pulled her attention away from the company name on the glass. She shifted her weight and chose a softer entry to the next question that she really didn’t want to ask but knew she had to. “Who did you deal with directly when you bought the house?” She swallowed. “We’ll need a name.”
He kept his gaze on the notice for one more second.
Then he looked at her with something raw in his eyes that she recognized from too many kitchens and too many porches after bad news.
She felt the pull to fill the silence for him.
She let it be his instead, waiting for him to answer, her breath catching in her throat.
A car rolled past at an easy crawl. The driver looked ahead with the blank focus of someone who had things on his mind and a list on his dashboard.
Sun caught on the windshield and flashed across the door.
A gull coasted above the street and settled on a roofline three stores down.
A woman came out of the nursery with a fern tucked against her chest and a smile for a text on her phone.
And the silence between them was thick with the question hanging in the air.
Matt looked at the sign one last time before looking at her, his eyes dark with emotion.
“Trevor Carlton,” Matt said, his eyes holding hers. “Lori’s husband.”
THE END
Take me to Book 2 of Lost Love Cove!
Lost Love Cove (Sunset Keys Romance Series Book 2)
She came to the cove to escape her past. He came to rebuild his future. Neither expected to find the one thing they’d both given up on—love.
After a near-fatal shooting and a broken heart, sixty-year-old police captain Carrie Ware heads to Florida’s dreamy Sunset Keys to regroup. Swapping homes with her childhood best friend for the summer, she hopes Lost Love Cove will offer the peace her soul desperately needs.
But peace is hard to find next door to Matt Parker.
At sixty-five, Matt is a gruff, grieving widower with a hammer in one hand and a broken past in the other. He's not just rebuilding a house—he’s rebuilding a life. The last thing he expects is to clash with his new neighbor… or feel anything again.
When an unexpected land dispute unearths whispers of fraud, missing heirs, and old betrayals, Carrie’s instincts kick in—and so does her heart.
As the mystery deepens and danger creeps closer, Carrie and Matt must decide if they’re ready to let go of their ghosts and trust the tide that brought them together.
Set against a lush, coastal backdrop where the sea carries secrets and legends promise redemption, Lost Love Cove is an uplifting later-in-life romance with a light twist of mystery and magic.
Fans of heartfelt second chances, seaside legends, and clean, sweet romance with a touch of mystery will fall in love with Sunset Keys. Don’t just read the legend—live it.
Grab your copy ofLost Love Covenow and discover why love always returns to the cove.
Take me to Book 2!