Chapter Thirteen
Grace glanced around the nearly full dining room of the Cranberry Inn and tried to focus on anything other than the image still replaying in her mind.
The elegant bed-and-breakfast, named for its deep red-colored exterior, sat at the north end of town and opened its dining room to the public each evening from five until nine.
Its Victorian décor matched the architecture of the grand old building, giving the space a refined charm that felt worlds away from the lively bustle of Sassy’s.
There, laughter usually rose above the steady hum of conversation, and the bar area stayed packed with regulars gathered beneath glowing television screens tuned to whatever game was on.
Even the dining room carried an easy energy.
The Cranberry Inn was different. Soft lamplight spilled across draped tables, polished wood floors gleamed beneath crystal fixtures, and conversations drifted through the room in low, measured tones. Normally, Grace loved the calm atmosphere. Tonight, it only gave her too much room to think.
Bonnie lifted a hand in greeting to one of her regular customers across the room, then turned her attention back to Grace. “Are you all right, Gracie? You’re awfully quiet, and you’ve barely touched your dinner.”
She stopped pushing her penne alla vodka around her plate and forced herself to meet her aunt’s gaze. “I’m fine, Aunt Bonnie. Guess I wasn’t that hungry after all.”
The lie tasted as flat as the food now sitting untouched in front of her. There was no way she could tell Bonnie the truth. She couldn’t admit that, less than twenty-four hours after Sean had kissed her senseless at her front door, she’d seen him walk into Sassy’s with another woman.
The sting of it still sat like a stone in her chest.
Worse, it dredged up an old memory she would have preferred stayed buried—a college boyfriend she’d once trusted, only to learn he’d been seeing someone else at the same time.
The humiliation of that discovery had taken months to shake.
This felt even worse because she’d actually let herself believe this time might be different.
Bonnie knew her too well to buy the excuse, but she also knew better than to push when Grace wasn’t ready to talk. Instead, she caught the waitress’s attention and asked for a container of the inn’s chicken and rice soup to take to Dan.
The small act of kindness eased some of the tightness in Grace’s chest.
After dinner, she drove Bonnie back to Main Street.
The streets had grown quieter, most storefronts now dark except for the pools of light spilling from the restaurants and bars still serving the dinner crowd.
Grace waited while Bonnie carried the soup upstairs to Dan’s apartment above the hardware store.
Once she was sure her aunt had made it inside, she pulled away from the curb and headed west.
As she passed Sassy’s, her foot eased off the gas. Without meaning to, she searched the row of parked cars for Sean’s Mustang. She didn’t know what unsettled her more—that she hoped to see it or that some part of her hoped she wouldn’t.
When she didn’t spot it, her stomach dipped.
Had they already left? Had he taken the woman back to the beach house?
The thought sent a sharp pang through her, even as another part of her felt foolish for caring.
Disappointment and relief tangled together in a knot she couldn’t begin to sort through.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to face facts. It shouldn’t matter. She and Sean had shared a few meals since returning to Whisper, but none of them had been official dates. They’d simply fallen into easy companionship, two old friends reconnecting after years apart.
That was all.
The kiss they’d shared had clearly meant more to her than it had to him, and the realization hurt more than she wanted to admit. Still, Grace refused to sit around waiting while a man kept his options open. If Sean wanted to date other women, that was his business.
Once her business was up and running, she would find a way to meet new people. For now, she’d have to be content with the few she knew in the area.
“Maybe tomorrow I’ll go to the shelter and adopt a kitten. At least that would be something I could cuddle up with.” The words sounded hollow even to her ears, but saying them out loud helped push back the thoughts she’d spent the entire drive trying to ignore.
By the time she pulled into her parking space and let herself into the condo, the idea had taken root. The silence waiting inside made up her mind. She would swing by the animal shelter sometime tomorrow.
She’d had a cat when she was little—a gray tabby named Muffin who had followed her everywhere and somehow always known when she needed comfort.
Since moving to Whisper, she’d told herself she was too busy getting Pro-Care ready to think about pets.
Tonight, the stillness of the empty condo made that excuse feel thin.
It would be nice to have something waiting for her at the end of the day. Something warm and alive to greet her that she could talk to on nights when the quiet stretched too wide.
After switching on the lights, she dropped her purse on the entry table, hung up her coat, and slipped off her shoes. She carried the remains of her dinner to the refrigerator, slid the container onto a shelf, then made her way to the bedroom.
A few minutes later, dressed in soft cotton pajamas, she returned to the living room and curled up on the couch with a stack of magazines Bonnie had given her earlier in the week.
Refusing to let her thoughts drift back to Sean and the woman she’d seen with him, Grace reached for the remote, switched on the television, and flipped through the channels, searching for something light enough to distract her.
Anything but a romance. And definitely nothing sad enough to make her cry.
Sean showed Suki to the spare bedroom, then retreated to his own room to ditch the suit he’d been wearing since morning. By the time he changed into jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, some of the tension in his shoulders had eased, though the frustration of the day still clung to him.
When he stepped back into the living room, the house was quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator.
Beyond the wide windows facing the back porch, darkness had swallowed the beach, leaving only pale moonlight glinting across the restless surf.
The steady rush of waves rolling onto shore filled the silence, a familiar sound that usually helped clear his head. Tonight, it wasn’t enough.
He checked his watch. It was a quarter to ten.
Even though it was late, he knew neither of them would be sleeping anytime soon. There were still hours of reports to comb through, and if something was buried in those pages that they’d all missed, he intended to find it.
Dropping onto the couch, he reached for the folder he’d brought from the station, but his focus drifted to Grace.
The memory of her soft mouth against his surfaced without warning, stirring the same low ache of desire that had followed him all day.
He had meant to call her earlier, but after realizing he’d left his laptop locked inside the conference room, he and Suki had doubled back to the station before heading to the beach house. Now he wondered if it was too late.
Pushing himself upright, he grabbed his cell phone from the dining table and pulled up Grace’s number. She had entered it into his contacts the night before while they sat on her couch talking. Leaning against the doorway between the living room and kitchen, he hit send and listened to it ring.
Once. Twice. Three times. Then voicemail.
He ended the call before the leave-a-message prompt could finish. He wasn’t even sure what he would have said.
“Got a girlfriend you haven’t told me about?”
Sean glanced up to find Suki emerging from her room wearing gray sweatpants and a loose T-shirt, her dark hair hanging free around her shoulders. She crossed to where she’d left her briefcase near the porch door, picked it up, and carried it to the loveseat.
He shrugged and tossed the phone onto the couch. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.”
The corners of her mouth curved upward. “Want to talk about it?”
He shook his head. No chance. He barely understood what was going on in his own head, let alone how to explain it to someone else. Instead, he eyed the stack of firewood beside the brick hearth.
“We’re going to be up for a while, aren’t we?”
“I know I am. Why?”
A grin tugged at his mouth as he rubbed his palms together. “I’ve been looking for an excuse to start up the fireplace. What do you say?”
He pointed toward the neatly stacked logs. The days had turned warm, but the ocean breeze still carried enough chill at night to make a fire worth the effort.
Her face brightened. “Great. I’d love it.” She took a few steps toward the kitchen, then paused in the doorway. “You wouldn’t happen to have hot chocolate in here, would you? Can’t have a fire without cocoa.”
“Check the cabinet next to the fridge.” He crouched in front of the hearth and began arranging logs over crumpled newspaper. “There should be some for the Keurig. Make mine a cappuccino, please.”
“Sure thing.” She opened the cabinet, then glanced back over her shoulder. “By the way, you never mentioned you were working with a room full of good-looking guys. A little warning would’ve been nice.”
He rolled his eyes as he struck a match. “Sorry, but checking out guys for you isn’t exactly my area of expertise.” He touched the flame to the newspaper, waited for it to catch, then looked back at her over his shoulder. “Which one caught your eye?”
He wasn’t sure why he asked. Maybe it was simple curiosity, or maybe the conversation offered a welcome distraction from wondering whether Grace had ignored his call on purpose.