and Jason.
“I’ll let it go this time because I get to spend some more time with my girl, but I’m warning you, man.” Jason shook his head. “There will come a day when that smooth tongue of yours is going to fail.”
“Envy is a terrible thing.” Michael let Ashley tug her arm out of his grasp, and poured two cups of coffee from the decanter she’d left on a side table. “After you, madam.”
She went with him, because to refuse would be to create a scene. Besides, Piper and Jason needed time together without her in the room.
“You and Jason sound like you’ve known each other forever.”
“That’s what it seems like. Jason could be the brother I never had,” Michael admitted. “We clicked the day I arrived back here and he offered to help me move in.”
“He is a nice guy. I’m glad he and Piper found each other.”
“You two have been friends for a while, I take it?”
“The three of us, Piper, Rowena and I, were inseparable as kids.” She smiled. “We all came from here, went to boarding school together and stuck by each other through thick and thin. We still try and get together as often as we can. And we phone a lot.”
“Nice.” Mick handed her a cup. “This deck has the most fantastic vista.” He remained beside her, staring across the treetops. “Years ago people considered the view and built accordingly. Now it seems like we raze everything to the ground and then try to recreate nature. Most of the time we don’t do nearly as good a job.”
“Why won’t you help Piper with the play sets?” she asked, refusing to dance around the issue any longer. “She’s worked so hard on this, trying to get Serenity Bay on the map so people can live here year round and earn a good living. It can’t be that hard to build a few sets.”
Michael kept staring outward, as if he were ignoring her.
“Are you against the winter festival or against bringing more tourists to town?”
“Neither.” He did look at her then, surprise covering his face. “I’m for both. The more the merrier. I think Piper’s done a fantastic job of developing Serenity Bay.”
“But you’re against development, is that it?”
“Not at all.” He shook his head, frowned at her. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, you’re not helping, so—”
“It’s not that I don’t want to. I think the winter festival is a great idea. Bringing back some of the old ways to teach the kids, showing them firsthand how trappers worked—all of it is going to be very educational and fun. That’s the way kids learn best.”
“Not to mention the people it will bring to town just to see the contestants,” she murmured. She kept her focus on him. “So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is time. Actually a lack of it.” He sipped his coffee, then reached out, plucked a tumbling leaf from her hair. “I don’t have enough of it. I teach full-time. I have a young daughter to raise and a house to clean. I’m already struggling to keep up in all three of those areas, Ashley.”
It wasn’t the answer she wanted, and Ashley had a hunch it wasn’t the whole answer, either. There was something Michael wasn’t saying. What was he hiding?
“I finally remembered you,” he said quietly.
“P-pardon?”
“From when you lived here before. Ashley Adams. You lived in that big silver-gray house on the waterfront. I used to envy you.”
“Me?” Ashley turned to look at him. “Why would you ever envy me?” You had parents and sisters who loved you, a stable home.
“That’s easy. You could get up in the morning, walk a hundred feet and dive into the water,” he explained.
“So could you. Serenity Bay is almost surrounded by water.”
“Ah, yes, but I had to bike to get to the beach. You lived right beside it. You could swim anytime you wanted. For someone like me who is addicted to water, your house was perfection. It’s up for sale, did you know?”
“No, I didn’t.” The house she’d once loved had become a cold empty place. Her father wasn’t home much during the year so he’d only kept the sparsest of furniture. Summers he spent in the backyard or on his boat. By an unspoken mutual agreement, neither of them spent more than the necessary amount of time inside.
“Well, it is. I looked at it when I moved here last spring. It might need a bit of work but the location is still its biggest asset.”
“You weren’t tempted to buy it? Access to water and all that?”
“I wish.” Michael shook his head. “I couldn’t afford it. Anyway, it’s a place meant for a big family to enjoy and right now there’s only Tati and I.”
“She’s a beautiful child.”
“Yes, she is. Beautiful and headstrong with a tendency to spill stuff.”
Ashley remembered her own childhood. “Aren’t all kids clumsy, to some extent?”
He snickered. “You don’t know Tati very well. To some extent doesn’t begin to cover my child.”
There were several comments Ashley could have made just then, but none of them seemed kind. So she kept her mouth shut and after a couple of minutes of silence Michael described his daughter’s attempt to “help” him make dinner two nights before.
“Every smoke alarm in the place was ringing. I had to toss the toaster outside eventually. That’s when I found out she’d put cheese slices on the bread she’d buttered before she put it in the toaster. The house still smells.”
“Accidents happen,” she told him, suppressing her laughter.
“Once could be called an accident but yesterday I had to take my DVD player apart.”
“She put something in it?” Ashley asked, trying not to stare at him as his expression changed from chagrin to laughter.
“My socks. Tati claimed she was trying to make a video for her grandmother.”
“A video of socks?” Ashley frowned.
“To show Granny the holes so she could get me new ones for Christmas,” he admitted. “Tati’s a little focused on Christmas at the moment. She has her special Christmas dress all picked out.”
“Smart girl. It’s good to be prepared.”
His shoulder brushed hers. Since Ashley was in the corner of the railing she could hardly move away. Leaving would only prove—to herself most of all—how much he affected her. So she stood there.
“It must be fun to have a child in your life.”
“Fun, yes. Also very scary. Since you knew me back when, you might remember I was never an A student when it came to responsibility. Being the youngest kid does that, I guess.” He studied her. “Are you cold? Would you like to move nearer the fire?”
Ashley nodded, followed him to the lounge chairs. He waited till she’d sunk into one, then sat down on the end of it.
“What about you? Do you want children?”
“Someday.” She panned a look. “I’d like to get married first, though.”
“Smart lady.” He flicked her cheek with one finger, chasing away a mosquito. “If I remember correctly, you were always popular with the boys.”
“You remember incorrectly,” she chided, peeking up through her lashes. “Or you’d remember me hugging your mother’s ficus plant in the corner at her parties. I was usually the wallflower. Too shy, I guess.”
“You