CHAPTER 10
C HAPTER 10
R ae’s alarm went off at four-fifteen, an hour earlier than usual. She rose and dressed in sports singlet and running shorts. While she was drinking her morning brew, her phone pinged with an incoming message.
From Curtis Gage.
Confirming his arrival in an hour. Thanking her for allowing him time to discuss an urgent legal matter.
His text was remarkably absent of anything remotely friendly. So unlike the normal sort of Carolina contact, where even the most pressing commercial issues were addressed with polite familiarity. Rae texted back that she had no idea when she would return, she might need to overnight, sorry.
His response was immediate. One word: Understood.
Rae wasn’t sure how she felt about Curtis coming along. In the end, though, she decided it was an interesting way to transit from the past to today. As in, firmly set the superheated teenage romance in her box of fond memories, once and for all. Take this guy at his word. Look at Curtis in the light of what she’d learned from her aunt the previous evening. About Curtis’s late wife. And the family that never was. And how he now possessed scar tissue where his heart had formerly resided.
There were any number of things to love about calling Atlantic Beach home. These dawn runs were definitely high on Rae’s personal list. The town’s out-of-season population was around twelve hundred. The high season was still a month away, and Monday mornings like this held a breathless quality. The air was sparked with a salty chill. Even the birds sounded excited over the day that had not yet taken hold. Rae never ran with earpods. The ocean’s faint whisper, the gulls, the silence, all this formed what she secretly called her island symphony.
Any question she might have had about Curtis and his motives were erased the instant she sprinted around the final corner and found him leaning against the fender of a late-model Cadillac mini-SUV.
He straightened at her approach, said, “I really appreciate this.”
She leaned over her knees, waved in his general direction. A silent request for breathing space.
But Curtis kept pressing forward. “If you’ll allow, I’d like to drive. Free you up to take notes, make calls, whatever is required to move this issue forward. I’ll cover the cost of a limo for your return, including any additional stops you need to make, as long as it’s required.”
Rae straightened slowly, coming to terms with the presence of a man she no longer knew. “Ten minutes.”
“Rae, wait.” When she turned back, Curtis held out a dollar bill. “Just to make this official.”
Rae climbed the stairs to her condo and quickly prepared for the day ahead—a bowl of yogurt and berries and granola left on the counter, taking a spoonful every time she came within reach. She showered and started to don what she had laid out before her run. Then changed her mind and went for her number one courtroom suit, the one used for impressing judge or jury or client. Or an old flame.
Since Rae’s law school days, she had carried a vision of her someday home. She had actually bought a property on the outskirts of Beaufort, then sold it when a developer had offered her half again as much as she’d paid. The house would either be old and fully renovated, or new with an old-timey feel. It would possess a huge screened-in porch, protecting her evenings from snakes and mosquitos. She and her friends and her family would sit in rockers beneath slow-motion ceiling fans. They would enjoy the passing hours, sipping spiked lemonade and telling each other lies.
But a major component was missing from that dream, the secret reason why she had agreed to sell her property. Which was also why she remained where she was, living above a dress shop, one block down from her law office.
She liked how Curtis did not try and insert himself into her private world. She liked his calm manner, though it also left her aching at some very deep level. Rae had several clients who were military veterans. Several of the nation’s largest bases were nearby, and any number of them retired along the Crystal Coast. Curtis reminded her of them, despite being less than half their age.
She gathered up the notes and laptop and the two files spread across her dining table, stowed them in her shoulder bag, checked her hair in the front hall’s mirror, locked her door, and started down the stairs. Curtis was exactly where she had left him, leaning against the SUV and texting on his phone.
“You’d actually cover a limo from Raleigh back here?”
“It’s already booked.” He finished texting, pocketed the phone, asked, “Does this mean we can take my car?”
Soon as they were underway, even before they crossed the bridge, Rae knew he wanted to launch straight in. Talk about all the pressures that had him tense and running full bore at a quarter past five in the morning. Which was why she insisted, “I need a few minutes to review work related to my Raleigh meeting.”
He offered a grudging nod. “Understood.”
She shifted slightly, so she rested partly on the side door. She smelled a masculine scent, very faint, little more than woodsmoke on the wind. She opened a file and took a pen from her purse and pretended to review.
Ten minutes later, she admitted defeat. Rae closed the file, stowed it away, and said what was actually foremost on her mind. “We need to talk. And don’t you dare pretend you don’t know what I mean.”
He glanced over. So worried now, he looked almost grim.
But at least he didn’t say no.
“Emma gave me a partial lowdown on what you’ve been through. And I’m really, really sorry.”
Curtis merely shot her another look. He drove with his shoulders slightly hunched over. As if fearing an incoming blow.
Rae decided the only way this would work was if she launched straight in. About her least favorite subject. Herself.
She said, “Those weeks and months after your forced departure shaped a lot of who I am today. On the one hand, I never wanted to be hurt so badly. Not ever again.”
“I understand that,” he said. “Better than I could ever possibly say.”
“I’m not blaming you. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I’m sorry just the same.”
Rae found herself thinking about John, her soon-to-be fiancé, the man who was so perfect for her. Ask anyone. It was the logical next point. But she couldn’t bring herself to discuss it. Not with Curtis. Not now.
Instead, she said, “When I look back, those months after burying your father become all mixed up with you and your mom leaving for Little Rock. I know that sounds crazy, the two events were over a year apart.”
“No, Rae. That doesn’t sound crazy at all.” He was gradually relaxing now. Intent. A vague hint of the man she had once loved there in his gaze now. “It’s how I see it, too.”
Which made it very easy to continue. “It became this immense time of upheaval. My parents were getting divorced; my dad moved out; my mom thought I was just a brokenhearted teen.”
“But it was more than that.” Curtis was with her now. Fully engaged.
“Of course, she was right on one level. I was a teen and I was brokenhearted.” Rae struggled to encase that hurricane-force tumult in a few words. “I began to ask all the questions I needed to answer if I was going to take control of my life. Begin forming the woman I wanted to become.”
“All the hardship you faced split you from the girl you once were,” Curtis said. “You were free to redefine yourself.”
This was one of the traits she had most loved about him. How she could speak, and he understood not just what she said, but everything that remained unspoken. “One moment, we were so intensely together and in love; the next, your home was sold and your lives packed up and you were gone. In the bad moments, and there were a lot of those, I felt torn apart. But there were secret moments. Quiet hours, usually in the middle of the night, when I felt . . .”
“Tell me.”
“I felt relieved. I’m sorry, that must sound so callous.”
“It sounds honest, Rae. I felt the same.”
“No, you did not.”
He weaved his head back and forth, neither agreeing nor denying. “As long as we were together, everything I wanted had to do with us. Then you weren’t there anymore. The longer we were apart, the clearer it became . . .”
This time, it was Rae who softly insisted, “Tell me.”
“I wanted more. Maybe if we hadn’t moved away, I would have been happy to stay here and live the island life. But the longer we were apart, the more I felt drawn to the world beyond those boundaries.”
“It’s why you didn’t come back,” she said.
He nodded. “It was. Yes.”
“And it’s why I didn’t beg. When you stopped writing, why I didn’t demand answers.” Rae studied this man she almost did not recognize, and recalled how her aunt had actually wept as she described the pain Curtis carried. The loss of a wife and mother. The child that would never draw a first breath. She said, “I’m glad we had this talk.”
Curtis breathed, “So am I.”
Rae wanted to talk about the life he’d forged for himself. But to do so meant treading on the pain he clearly wanted to avoid. So she pulled out the yellow legal pad, turned to a fresh page, and said, “All right. Let’s talk work.”
* * *
Curtis responded almost instantly. “I have two problems. They’re so tightly linked, it’s tempting to think of them as one and the same. But they’re not.”
Rae imagined him standing by the car, watching the sunrise and preparing this, like he would a script. “And the first problem is . . .”
“How to bring the locals on to our side.”
“By ‘our,’ I’m assuming you mean the Fortunate Harbor development.”
“Correct.” He glanced at her. “You don’t represent any of the current legal proceedings against us, do you?”
“I don’t, no.”
“Three are still pending, correct?”
“After the assembly two days ago, my guess is they will drop two. Possibly all three. They were all nuisance claims, put forward by Harvey Sewell as reasons to milk the group.”
A tightening of the skin around his eyes was perhaps as close to a smile as Curtis could come. “You don’t like the man, I take it.”
“He’s the reason why the world is full of lawyer jokes,” she replied. “Back to your problem one. My professional take is, you’ve got precisely zero chance of achieving your aim.”
Another pursed breath. “My group’s long-term goals all depend on proving you wrong.”
She settled further. Adjusting to the idea of treating this man as a client. “What is your company’s name?”
Curtis shook his head. “I can’t answer that.”
“Why on earth not?”
“For reasons I can’t divulge, I am required to keep that confidential.” His words were carefully spaced out, as if he read from a script. “I can tell you the name on the hotel’s title. But it’s a blind. A Delaware company with no other assets.”
“Curtis, I’m your attorney. Which means I’m legally required to maintain strict confidentiality . . .”
He lifted one hand from the wheel. “If we move forward, you will definitely need to know. But not yet. And assuming we move forward, and you hear the reasons, I think you’ll agree that secrecy is of paramount importance.”
“Okay, one question. Is your group involved in anything illegal?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then why . . .” She stopped midsentence because of how his tension started building once again. “Never mind. Back to your problem one. I take it, you have an idea how to appease the locals.”
“Not like, how all the hostility is suddenly going to vanish. But a first step toward proving us to be good neighbors. Yes, I do.”
“Second step,” she corrected. “I’d say the new beachside park is a move in the right direction.”
He shook his head. “That was a trade-off. A solid corporate move. It brought the park service to our side. But the locals who are against us will see it for what it is.”
Rae nodded slowly. Not so much because she agreed, which she did. Rather, Curtis was seeing this from an honest perspective. “So, what’s your big idea?”
A glance. “This is where you come in.”
“Go on, I’m listening.”
“Did Gloria tell you about our acquiring Reddit Ryder’s place?”
“Yes. But I’m not clear on why you asked Gloria to reveal this acquisition.”
He offered another of those lightning-fast smiles. “Oh, I think you know.”
“You want her to handle anything that comes from this, and the Dixons will be on point.”
“Correct.” He glanced over. “I can’t tell you how much it meant for Emma to introduce me to Gloria. That is one great lady.”
“On that, we definitely agree.”
“Now that the sale is concluded, I want this project to break ground immediately. And the news to begin filtering into the community as soon as possible.”
She worked through half-a-dozen questions, settled on, “Where’s the money for this new café and inn?”
“I’ve left instructions with our banker. The escrow account should be set up by the time we arrive in Raleigh.” He began tapping one forefinger on the wheel in time to his words. “Between the inn and the street, we’re putting an oversized secure parking area. Right now, we’re running a bus service from Beaufort and Morehead to the hotel. My plan is to also have a water taxi. Three times an hour, six to midnight. Free to all Catawba County locals. Electric buggies on the other end, running to the hotel and the park. If it works, I’m hoping resort owners and hotel guests will also leave their cars on the mainland. Erase any complaint about our adding to the traffic problems.”
“Curtis . . . how much will all that cost you?”
“A lot.”
When he did not go further, she pressed, “Okay, as your attorney, I need to tell you straight out. It’s a great idea, but doing this and trying to keep your group’s identity a secret is—excuse the legal terminology here—Curtis, it’s totally off-the-wall idiotic.”
Curtis did not respond.
“I don’t care what your reasoning is. This mystery will soon be part of why so many people are against you. They’ll insist your hotel and the resort are all built on illegal gains. Money laundering. Worse.”
“I’ll inform my superiors of your concerns.” As formal as a judge. “That’s all I can do.”
She was tempted to argue, press, demand. But something in his expression told her it was a futile effort. “Okay, so on to problem two.”
This time, his smile lingered. “This is where things get interesting.”