Chapter 3
HARPER
CHAPTER THREE
It was easy to forget the quirks of small-town living until you were thrown back into the trenches to experience them for yourself.
I’d traveled all over the world, had been transported in buses, trains, subways… Hell, I’d even ridden on a donkey once. But there was nothing quite like the ride in the back of an old man’s car, the taped piece of paper in the windshield declaring it Starlight Cove’s non-Uber, and the lack of working air conditioning to remind me just how far out of city life I was.
From the age of ten until I was almost eighteen, I’d spent every summer in Starlight Cove. My family had made the trip from Connecticut to our summer home on the beach, and I’d been in heaven for three months. This place had held a sort of ethereal quality to me back then—it’d been a fairy-tale getaway. Where, for a few months a year, I’d pretended I had a different life.
I’d adored it here…adored everything Starlight Cove had to offer. Until I hadn’t.
Until a certain dark-haired, blue-eyed, mysterious bad boy had done exactly what everyone had warned me he would.
I’d come a long way since running from this town with a broken heart and without a backward glance. At least until last year, when a freelance assignment had sent me back to the one place I’d never intended to return. And now I was here for six weeks.
Six. Fucking. Weeks.
No matter how much I didn’t want to be back in this tiny town along the Maine coast, and no matter how much I absolutely knew he didn’t want me here, it seemed fate had other plans.
When the editor in chief of Weekend Wanderlust had reached out and offered me this assignment, all while dangling the carrot of a permanent position at my dream company if she liked what I delivered, I wasn’t going to turn it down. I’d be stupid to do anything but show up with a smile and pretend like being back here didn’t reopen old wounds I’d rather not revisit.
For the past twelve years, I’d done exactly what I wanted. Had given myself the freedom I’d never had as a child. As soon as my eighteenth birthday had rolled around, I’d turned my back on the carefully crafted plans my senate-hopeful father and Stepford mother had made for me. Without my input. Without my consent.
Up until that point, my entire life had been prepped, planned, and designed by other people. Each detail meticulously laid out for me without a care of what I wanted. Of what my dreams had been.
And while I’d spent the past decade-plus building the life I wanted, I’d grown restless. Unsettled.
The trouble was, I didn’t know what I was still looking for.
“Here you are, dear.” Arthur pulled up in front of the café on Main Street, the sidewalks on either side of the road bustling with people.
As luck would have it, the café was directly across from my temporary home while I was in town, an apartment just above Starlight Cove Gazette’s corner shop. Mabel—owner of the newspaper, the town’s surrogate feisty grandmother, and my landlord for the next six weeks—had promised I could use the newspaper’s resources whenever I needed. Just another example of small-town living…
“Thanks, Arthur. I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot more of you while I’m here.” Especially since I wasn’t renting a car. No need when everything but Starlight Cove Resort was within walking distance.
After passing him some cash—Venmo might as well have been in another language to him—I climbed out of the car and grabbed my suitcase from the trunk.
Before my afternoon appointment, I was meeting Mabel to get the keys and a tour. After that, I’d be heading over to the high school to interview Chase Lockhart—former pro hockey player to the rest of the world, former best friend to me.
When we’d been younger, he’d been the third person in our little summertime trio. Somehow, despite that trio shattering, Chase had managed to rekindle our friendship years later. I’d tried like hell to sever all ties to this town, him included, but he hadn’t let me. That was Chase in a nutshell, though—determined beyond reason. Hell, he’d been chasing after his now-wife for ten years, apparently. And if that wasn’t dedication, I didn’t know what was.
Since I had some time to kill, I hitched my purse over my shoulder and rolled my suitcase straight into the café. I’d had two delayed flights on my way here, which meant I’d been up since ass o’clock this morning. If I wanted to obtain anything usable this afternoon for my article, I needed to get some caffeine in me, stat.
The café was cute, with its weathered tables and mismatched chairs, black-and-white photos of Starlight Cove through the years covering the walls. I much preferred the diner at Starlight Cove Resort, though. But since the resort was run by the McKenzie family, and Levi McKenzie was the one and only person I planned to avoid like my life depended on it, I was going to have to make do with the café instead.
It was late morning, too late for the breakfast crowd but too early for lunch, so only a handful of people were inside. My gaze snagged on one just as she noticed me.
“Harper, hey!” Addison McKenzie—now Lockhart—stood at the counter, exuding the kind of presence someone a foot taller than her would give off. Her confident demeanor wasn’t really a surprise since she’d grown up with five older, overbearing, protective brothers and had to learn how to hold her own against them.
“Hi, Addison.” I offered her a warm smile and strode toward her, pulling my suitcase behind me.
“I take it you just got into town?” she asked, eyeing my luggage.
“After the travel day from hell, yes. I’m dead to the world, and it’s not even noon.”
“I know what you mean.” She sagged against the counter, her eyes looking more tired than I could ever remember seeing. “I’ve been exhausted lately. We better get you a coffee. My treat.”
After placing our orders with the barista, coffee for me and chamomile tea for her, we stood off to the side and waited for our drinks.
“I hear congratulations are in order.” I tipped my chin toward the delicate band on Addison’s left ring finger—not exactly the sizable rock I was used to seeing the WAGs of professional athletes wear, but it fit her.
She jerked her hand away from her stomach, her entire body jolting as she stared at me with wide eyes. “What? Congratulations about what?”
I tipped my head to the side, brow furrowed. “Your…marriage?”
“Oh! Right. My marriage. Of course. Thanks!” She flashed me a smile, her previous weirdness gone, before glancing down at her adorned finger. “Still feels surreal. Ten years of practically nothing, and now suddenly I’m married and we’re renovating the main inn to make it our forever home.”
“Chase never was one to let an opportunity pass him by.”
“He’s a persistent pain in my ass, that’s for sure.”
My lips twitched at her frank appraisal of my once-best friend. “He is. But you love it.”
She blew out a long-suffering sigh and shook her head. “God help me, but I do.”
With a shared laugh, we grabbed our drinks from the barista before scooting over to the condiment stand to fix up our orders.
She dumped an obscene amount of sugar into her tea and shot me a glance. “I’m so sorry we didn’t have any cottages open for you while you’re staying in town.”
I waved her off as I added a splash of creamer and three sugars to my coffee. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I would’ve loved to have you stay with us, but the main inn is in shambles with the renovation. Aiden and Avery are staying with us at Chase’s cabin. Which is a fucking nightmare, by the way. Even if the walls were five feet thick, I still don’t think it’d be enough to drown out the sounds of my brother banging my best friend.” She snapped a lid on her tea and shuddered. “And ever since that viral video last year, the resort cottages have been booking out for months.”
“Seriously, don’t apologize. I love that the resort is finally seeing the success it deserves.” Their family-run business was a Starlight Cove staple—had been for decades—but it’d always been on its last legs. Now, it was thriving in a way I wasn’t sure it ever had. “Besides, Mabel hooked me up with a short-term rental in town. It’ll be a lot easier staying on Main Street since I don’t have a car.”
She hummed and took a sip of her tea. “Mabel, huh? Don’t let that sneaky old woman corner you, or she’ll be pitching you this month’s special.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Addison raised a brow. “Not until she explains, in great detail, the benefits of the most powerful clit suction toy she’s ever offered.”
I sharply inhaled the sip of coffee I’d just taken and spiraled into a coughing fit.
“Oh shit! Sorry, sorry.” Addison shoved a wad of napkins my way before patting me on the back. “But I have to prepare you for it, you know? Don’t want you walking into the lion’s den unaware. Mabel’s always been…colorful, but the field in which she grows her fucks has been barren for a while. The woman’s not afraid of anything or anyone. I didn’t want you to be caught off guard.”
“Yeah, no,” I said through a tight throat, my eyes watering. “Being caught off guard in the middle of a public café while drinking hot liquid is definitely better.”
A loud, unrestrained laugh burst from her, the sound infectious. “Happy to help.” She grabbed her tea, hooking a thumb over her shoulder as she gestured toward the door. “I gotta run and grab Chase, but I’ll see you later today at the school, right?”
It might’ve been my first day in town, but there was no time like the present to start gathering content for this article. I ignored the whisper in the back of my mind that wondered if Levi would be there. He and Chase were still extremely close, as far as I knew. And with as big of a deal as opening day on this hockey camp was for Chase, it made sense that Levi would be around.
But I didn’t care. And I certainly wasn’t going to concern myself with it. If he was there, I’d ignore him. Just like I’d been doing for twelve years. He wasn’t worth my worries.
He wasn’t worth anything to me.
I pasted on a smile and dipped my chin in a nod. “I’ll be there.”