Chapter Eight
The day before the reading of the will, Victoria slipped out of her room very early so she could take a long walk on the beach. She wasn’t near a beach like this in New York City and missed having a chance to stroll along the sand in the morning. She decided to take advantage of the opportunity every chance she got while she was on Valentine Key.
An early morning stroll on the beach was something she had always made a special point to do while she was on the key, particularly in her teenage years. There was nothing like walking on the sand as the waves rolled up and washed over her ankles.
Chilly, but invigorating.
She loved the air that was crisp even in the heat of summer. The term was relative. Crisp in the Florida Keys was warmer than up north, naturally, and it was beautiful first thing in the morning. There was something wonderful about being out before there were a lot of people staking out their place to spend the day on the beach.
Victoria had been a morning person for as long as she could remember. More than that, once her eyes opened in the morning, she had never been able to go back to sleep. Whether she’d been asleep for a mere five hours or an extended nine hours, the minute her eyes opened, she was up for the day.
Even in her comfortable bed at the inn—a vastly different environment than where she usually woke up—Victoria’s eyes popped open wide before dawn. She was up for the day. The Lovelock Inn’s buffet breakfast service didn’t begin until seven o’clock. That was over an hour away, so she decided to enjoy her Valentine Key ritual of a walk on the beach.
The eastern sky was starting to light up with stunning morning colors of peach, lemon and lavender. The beach right outside the Lovelock Inn was pristine. She supposed someone must come along and clean away any driftwood that made it ashore and didn’t wash back out. There were a few stones and some shells here and there. Otherwise, it was smooth walking. Perfect.
Victoria was lost in her own thoughts and casually looking for a natural point to turn around and go back to the inn when she spotted something unexpected in the distance, headed toward her.
Or, rather, someone unexpected.
The man was moving at a slow, steady jog. No, it can’t be. She squinted, sure she was seeing things. Nope. Not seeing things.
It really was Miles Lang, her father’s lawyer and right-hand man. The man who was probably like the son Horatio had always wanted.
To be fair, Miles was a good man. Victoria liked him. She had since meeting him ten years ago. In point of fact, she’d come to more than like him as she came to know him better.
He kept jogging, coming ever closer, not seeming to register who she was until they made eye contact. She stopped walking and he slowed to a stop a few paces away.
His expression mirrored her own surprise. “Victoria Lovelock?”
She couldn’t stop the smile. “Hello, Miles. I didn’t know you were an early bird. And a runner, too.”
He quirked a smile and rubbed one hand on the back of his neck. “I’d say more of a jogger at best. Mostly, I can’t stay in bed once my eyes open in the morning.”
Victoria grinned. “Me neither.”
His expression turned serious. “I’d like to say formally that I’m sorry about your father. I know the two of you had your differences, but I want you to know that I believe he loved you.”
Victoria doubted that. She didn’t think her father cared about her one way or the other, since she wasn’t his precious male heir. But she didn’t want to pick a fight with Miles and Aunt Lily had taught her better manners than that. Miles didn’t deserve the animosity she reserved solely for her father.
“Thanks for the sentiment,” she said. “I’m certain he loved me, in his own way.”
“Are you staying at the Lovelock Inn?” he asked, staring past her at the inn behind her in the distance.
Victoria nodded. “Yes. I guess you are, too, unless you ran here all the way from the Valentine Key Motel. That would be quite a distance.”
Miles laughed. “Yeah. I don’t know that I could do seven miles from there to get to this beach. Maybe when I was twenty, but have to tell you that I feel older every single day.”
Victoria chuckled with him. He looked pretty good to her, a tall and lean and very obviously a man who took care of himself. She figured he must be about her age, maybe younger. She knew he wasn’t married, but didn’t know if he’d ever been hitched. One of these days, perhaps she’d have the courage to ask all manner of questions.
She searched for something intelligent to say. “Are you ready for the reading of the will? I mean, I hope you are, since you’re the one doing it. I’m not surprised my father made you the executor.” Not really intelligent, but it kept the conversation going.
Miles didn’t immediately say anything, as if carefully weighing his words. Either that or he was staring at her for some other reason. Honestly, she was more interested in what that other reason might be than getting an answer to whatever she had asked him.
Finally, he said, “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Will there be drama abounding?” Victoria said, trying for humor.
Miles’s expression flickered to something she couldn’t quite read and she thought she heard an apology in his tone when he said, “I wish I could tell you, but I’m not allowed to divulge anything until the actual reading of the will in front of the entire family.”
“Interesting. Okay. Well, I hope there won’t be anything too shocking.” Victoria was now running through her head what possible shocks there could be during the reading of her father’s will.
She wasn’t expecting Horatio to leave her anything, so if she did get something, that would be fine. If she didn’t, that would also be fine. She had long ago learned to keep her expectations low when it came to her father.
“I guess that depends on your definition of shocking,” he said under his breath.
He was standing so close, he had to know she’d heard him. Victoria noted the closeness and did not move away.
Well, now two sources had indicated it would be good idea to expect the unexpected at the will reading—Aunt Lily and Miles Lang. Victoria was forewarned.
Aunt Lily had hinted there was some stipulation that would need to be met before any of the girls could inherit, but she’d been vague. She figured her aunt knew what was going to happen and didn’t agree with it or didn’t want to be the one to spill the information. Or she didn’t know, but had heard enough from her brother to make some assumptions and wanted to warn all of Horatio’s daughters as best she could in her letter.
Either way, Victoria would be on her guard when the last will and testament of Horatio Beauregard Lovelock was read.
As if they’d reached some silent agreement, Victoria turned and started walking alongside Miles as they made their way to the Lovelock Inn. The sun had breached the horizon. As they walked, it rose higher in the eastern sky, lighting up the beach and warming the air.
They took their time, strolling slowly along the wet sand. Victoria found Miles incredibly easy to talk to as they spoke about innocuous things. He asked her about living in New York City and if she liked it. She asked him about living in Philadelphia and if he would ever consider moving. Miles admitted he had thought about moving.
Before she could ask for details on that intriguing topic, he changed the subject to Angelica. She gave him a quick rundown on her daughter’s move to Oregon, her job, her relationship.
As she spoke, part of her wondered if he was thinking of leaving Philadelphia because, technically, he didn’t work for her father anymore. Was his last official act for her father the reading of the will?
Maybe he worked for Lovelock Enterprises in some other capacity. She felt a stab of guilt that she knew so little about this interesting man’s life beyond what she’d gleaned over the years when she’d run into him at her father’s Philadelphia mansion. Surely she could have taken the time to get to know him better.
Instead, she was always more focused on bracing herself to see her father and reminding herself to not feel so disappointed when he didn’t make the time to see her. Of course, after he’d died so unexpectedly, she had wondered if rather than being too busy with work to see her if he’d been too ill to see her. And that was another thing she didn’t wanted to dwell on.
As they neared the inn and the end of the unexpected pleasure of a walk with a handsome, personable man, Victoria realized she didn’t want to say a permanent goodbye to Miles Lang. She hoped he wouldn’t be gone out of her life the moment her father’s will was read and all the bequests had been finalized and settled.
She liked the way he leaned slightly toward her as they walked and talked, their pace gradually slowing. It was as if he didn’t want to miss a word she said and wasn’t in a hurry to end their walk.
Victoria realized that if anyone saw them, she and Miles made a rather intimate picture of a couple exchanging secrets. Not that they were.
She decided she didn’t care what anyone thought.
She liked Miles and sort of got the idea that he liked her, too.
She’d been alone for a very long time. Victoria lived in New York City. Miles was in Philadelphia. The distance hadn’t stopped her from making an effort to see her father, a man she had to honestly admit she didn’t like half as much as she liked Miles Lang.
As she looked up at the tall man beside her, took in his easy smile and compelling voice, Victoria seriously contemplated what it might be like to date again.