Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Renn
The Ex
“Good morning, you must be that fourth Hart brother I’ve been hearing so much about?” The barista in the local coffee shop that looked more like a secret garden said it loud enough for the entire shop to hear.
As the only son of a horse wrangler, Renn was used to blending into his surroundings, as the second-string quarterback for the Aces for six years he was expert at standing in when needed, but as the newly accepted fourth brother to the Hart family he was off kilter.
“Good morning?” he said, not exactly acknowledging her statement.
“Okay, so are you another grump like Wes or just broody? You’re definitely not the loud, flirty type like Levi, and too mysterious to be as charming as Dalton. No offense—he just comes off like a Disney prince on a SWAT team.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “That is oddly a great description.”
“I’m c. This is my shop and I’m besties with Brooke …”
“Dalton’s wife,” Renn finished for her.
“Correct. So, as you can imagine I’ve been hearing all about the new member of the Hart family.”
Renn held his finger up to his lips. “Would it be okay if we didn’t share this conversation with the entire shop?”
“Aww first thing you need to know about this small town is everyone already heard about you, and it’s virtually impossible to keep a secret.”
Renn nodded. “In that case, can I get an iced coffee with coconut creamer?”
“Ahhh great choice, coming right up. Welcome to Sandy Point, Renn,” she said with a smile that disappeared when the door chimed and another guest entered.
A man with his polo collar popped up, wavy brown hair, aviator sunglasses, and boat shoes walked up to the counter. Renn moved down the line to wait for his beverage but was still in earshot.
“Good morning, May, I see you still haven’t bothered to update your seasonal menu. You do know a pumpkin latte is only a fall beverage,” the smug man said.
“And you know I make my own rules and if my customers enjoy a spiced pumpkin latte all year then I’ll offer it to them 365 days.”
“You may as well remove the beverage because she can’t afford to buy coffee out—pretty soon she’ll probably have to sell the ranch and move on out of this town.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear, Dubois, we had a vote at the town hall meeting, and all agreed it’s your family that should leave. And take your ridiculous popped collars with you. That style went out with the patriarchy in, like, the eighties.”
“Two venti iced coffees, with cream and one sugar,” the man said with a snarl.
May sighed heavily. “Two large, iced coffees—you can put in your own cream and sugar.”
The man paid for his beverages and looked around but then his eyes landed right on Renn, attempting to size him up.
Renn recognized him from the first night he met Miranda, at the bar, and realized this must be one of the men that Miranda had been engaged to.
Renn could tell the man was trying to place where he might know him, and could tell the moment the stranger recognized him.
“Here you go, the first one is on the house,” May said, interrupting the standoff with the stranger. “I hope you enjoy that and will come back again soon.”
“Thanks, May, it was nice to meet you.”
Renn exited the shop but could still feel Miranda’s ex’s eyes on him and knew it was only a matter of time until most people in town knew who he was.
Especially if he signed with the Aces. Instead of heading back to the inn, he decided to head toward the water.
According to the legal documents he was now part owner of the Sandy Point pier and boatyard but hadn’t seen either up close.
The inn was on Main Street at the opposite end of the pier, providing a picturesque backdrop for the town.
But what he hadn’t realized before he walked to the end of the street and stood on the boardwalk was the big letters on either side of the A-frame roof that read H A R T.
And he was struck with just how little he knew about his father, yet again.
A businessman with three sons, or as it turned out, four sons.
That was all he’d known. He didn’t even know how his mom had met him, and now he probably never would.
*
The loud sound of a siren got his attention as he stood in the middle of the boardwalk staring up like a tourist at the name plastered on the side of the pier. And he looked over to see Wes getting out of an SUV with red and blue lights on top.
“Morning, you looking for something?”
“Is it weird if I say I’m not sure, but it feels like I am?”
“No, actually that sounds exactly like how I’d feel if I were in your shoes. You want a tour?”
“That’d be great.”
Renn followed Wes’s lead as they walked back to his SUV.
“So, you found our pier. It usually pulls in a little profit after insurance since we rent it back to the city for public use, but last year it needed some overdue repairs, and the taxes were a killer. I’ve been working with a new CPA to see if we can’t figure out some other mechanisms to monetize it to at least cover the taxes. ”
“Cool, and I take it the marina is located somewhere else?”
“Yup, just a short drive over toward the lighthouse, which is also where one of two graveyards in Sandy Point are. The one at the church is where our dad and my mom are buried. In case you wanted to know.”
“Got it.”
They each got in the car and were silent on the drive to the marina, but once they arrived Wes seemed to shake off the cloud that had settled over them at the mention of his parents’ grave.
“Do you sail?”
“No, I’ve never really liked the ocean much—it seems too volatile.”
“Ain’t that the truth. I think summer is my least favorite season due to all the near-drownings. The ocean is too unpredictable and people who come here on vacation don’t always know that.”
Wes parked near the entrance to the marina, which had to be at least the size of a football field, with dozens of boats docked, a stone jetty on one side and a bait shop halfway down the main dock.
“The Hart Marina has been leased for ten years to a local family that offers charter boats, rentals, and boat slips to rent seasonally or annually.”
“Business looks good.”
“Ya, and they got a heck of a deal from me because I had no idea what I was doing. But they never miss a payment, and we can get a boat anytime we want.”
Renn nodded. “You weren’t interested in taking over your dad’s business?”
“Honestly, I never really understood what our dad did until he died, and while he dabbled in some lucrative real estate like the marina, the family estate, and a few other pieces further out in the country. He mostly managed the family stock portfolio.”
Renn laughed. “Ya, me either. So, you decided to become the local sheriff to keep an eye on Dalton and Levi?”
“Sort of, it wasn’t my first choice at the time when Dad died, but it was a living, and I’ve come to really love it. I guess my calling found me.”
Wes pointed to a bench along the pier. “Let’s sit.” The view of the boats and water was hard to beat, and they both sat to enjoy the view.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t fight the idea of staying in this town permanently. I kept thinking it was temporary until I thought I might lose my job, and this local idiot thought he’d run for sheriff against me.”
“Maybe that’s how I should look at this quarterback opportunity; it’s not like the offers won’t expire after this season. If I don’t take the chance now, they’ll all forget about me.”
“I wouldn’t even pretend to know what kind of pressure that must feel like, or to assume that the goal was always to be the starting quarterback. But when you were in college, I assume you started?”
“Yep, two out of four years. But I wasn’t drafted.”
“Okay, so how’d you end up playing for the Aces?”
“I was a walk-on. They liked me and signed me as third string.”
“Then?”
“After a year I fleeted up to second string when the other guy took another job.”
“So, after college, instead of going into any other line of work you went through the grueling process of being a walk-on for an NFL team, who then fleeted you up to starting quarterback within six years, and you took that team to the AFC championships.”
“Yes.” Renn laughed, knowing his older half-brother was trying to make a point.
“Renn, is there a chance you do want this, and you’re just scared? You don’t have to answer that, but as an outsider looking in, I’d say you’ve had an intense year.”
Renn nodded and watched as several families loaded onto a boat. The dads were helping the kids tighten their life vests and the moms were snapping pictures.
“Were you guys like that?” Renn asked.
“Like what?”
“Summer family vacations, fun activities, lots of pictures?”
“Ya, I’d say we had that quintessential, privileged, and sheltered childhood in a small town. But it all came crashing down when Mom and Dad died.”
“Fate can be a real piece of work.”
“The thing I wonder now is, were there always cracks that we didn’t see, or did they develop over time?”
“You mean because our dad had an affair with my mom?”
“That and I used to think my mom was going to divorce our dad. But now I wonder if maybe my dad asked for the divorce.”
“How do you know they were getting a divorce?”
“The paperwork was recovered in the car crash, with their bodies. But Levi and Dalton were young, and I didn’t think they needed to know once they were gone.
Of course, like all dirty secrets, it came out to bite me, and I told my brothers when Dalton moved home, after being gone for fifteen years. ”
“I think you’re right—in the end it doesn’t matter, and just because they had paperwork drawn up it doesn’t mean they would have gone through with it.”
“We’ll never know, maybe Dad finally told my mom about you, and he was trying to do the right thing.
I guess I’d like to think it wouldn’t have ruined their marriage, just as much as you’d probably like to think he was going to be with you and your mom.
Maybe we should both just assume the best outcome from our own points of view. ”
Renn nodded. “When people asked my mom about why she never married, she used to say because her one true love died.”
“Damn.”
“Ya. Aren’t we a barrel of fun.”
Wes laughed.
“You know the woman who runs the coffee shop refers to you as the grump, Levi is the player, and Dalton’s Prince Charming.”
Wes burst out laughing and Renn couldn’t help but join in.
“So, what’s that make you?”
“I’m not sure I want to know.”
“May is good people, but she’s taken.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not interested in risking falling on her bad side. Did you know she names drinks after people too?”
“Ya, it’s a great way to find out who the idiots in this town are.”
Wes’s radio went off with a call about a traffic accident.
“I better get back to work. I can give you a ride back to the inn?”
“Nah, I think I’ll walk a bit.”
“Okay, see you later at Gran’s for dinner?”
“Anytime Mrs. Hart invites me over, I’m just treating it as an order.”
“Good approach, and you better start getting used to calling her Gran.”
Renn thought maybe of his three brothers he was most like Wes, a bit quiet and maybe a little suspicious of others. But it was probably the most honest conversation he’d had in his entire life. And he liked the ability to suddenly have several people to count on and talk about his past with.