Sherryl Woods - Home to Seaview Key

“Goes without saying,” he said, smiling. “Nice to see you’re still smart and direct.”

“Will you tell Hannah you stopped by?”

“Of course.”

“Would you tell her that I’m looking forward to seeing her?” she said. “But I’ll leave that ball in her court.”

Luke nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

As he walked back to his car, he couldn’t help wondering, though, how Hannah would respond. As well as he thought he knew her, they’d never really talked about his old relationship with Abby except in passing. Now, out of the blue, it appeared they might be forced to deal with it. He had to admit he wasn’t looking forward to it.

4

Hannah went through the motions of getting dinner ready, but she was so distracted she burned the chicken and overcooked the pasta. She tossed both in the garbage and started over, this time with baked potatoes and steaks that could be thrown on the grill whenever Luke got home. At least she hadn’t destroyed the salad, too. She put the bowl on the table.

She glanced at the clock and realized Luke was running late. There must have been some sort of emergency that kept him at the clinic. Just as well, since that would give the kitchen time to air out before he got here to ask questions about the ruined meal.

Hannah didn’t want anyone, least of all Luke, to get the idea that she was intimidated by having her childhood best friend—and Luke’s old love—back home again. Yet the instant her grandmother had told her of Abby’s return about a million insecurities had crowded in, followed by a cascade of memories from the summer that Luke and Abby had fallen in love and Hannah had had to sit by on the sidelines while the teen romance flourished right in front of her.

The three of them had spent countless hours on the porch at Seaview Inn, playing games and talking into the night. She’d been forced to turn a blind eye as Abby snuggled against Luke’s side in the old swing. On too many nights, as they walked off hand in hand, tears had leaked from Hannah’s eyes and she’d gone to bed crying. The only thing saving her from complete humiliation was knowing that Luke hadn’t realized just how miserable she was. Abby might have guessed, but she’d pretended otherwise, either to soothe her own conscience or to protect Hannah’s secret.

But they were all grown up now. Hannah was the one who was married to Luke, and she had not a single reason to believe he would ever be unfaithful. Once he made a commitment, he kept it. After he’d come home from Iraq, he would have gone back to his wife, if she hadn’t already started divorce proceedings so she could marry the partner in his medical practice.

That faith in Luke, of course, belonged to the strong, confident Hannah, not the one whose body had been disfigured by breast cancer and ravaged by chemotherapy. That woman had enough self-doubts to keep a psychologist busy for years.

She stiffened her resolve to keep those doubts to herself. She didn’t want her grandmother or Luke watching her constantly to see if she was on edge about Abby’s return. How did the saying go, “Fake it till you make it?” Well, she was going to fake being thrilled about Abby’s return or die trying.

“Sorry I’m late,” Luke called out, startling her as he jogged up the porch steps, then joining her in the kitchen.

“Last-minute emergency?” she asked, turning her face up for his kiss.

“Not exactly. I’ll explain later,” he said, a guilty flush in his cheeks. “I see you have the grill ready to go. Are we having steak?”

She nodded.

He sniffed the air. “Then why do I smell something that reminds me of scorched chicken?”

“Blast,” she murmured. “I thought I’d aired the place out. I need to get some of that stuff that wipes out odors.”

Luke frowned. “Something up? You never ruin a meal.”

She forced a grin. “That’s what you think. Maybe I’m just very good at hiding the evidence. After all, when I lived in New York, I excelled at takeout, not cooking. Ask Kelsey. She’ll testify to that.”

“If you say so. Let me get those steaks on the grill. I’m starving.”

Hannah thought he was awfully eager to escape the kitchen and she was pretty sure it wasn’t because he was hungry. Something was going on. The knot in the pit of her stomach—or maybe sheer paranoia—told her it had something to do with Abby. So did his strained efforts at making small-talk during their meal.

Still she couldn’t seem to bring herself to mention Abby’s return. Once she opened her mouth, she’d have to pull off that pretense that her world hadn’t been turned upside down.

After dinner, when she and Luke sat on the deck, watching the sun set in a blaze of color over the water, a kind of calm settled over them. She finally drew in a deep breath. This conversation couldn’t be put off another second.

“Have you heard that Abby might be back in town?” she asked Luke, keeping a close eye on his face as she spoke.

“Seth mentioned it this morning,” he said, his tone as casual as hers had been. The only thing that betrayed his nervousness was the searching look he gave her. He was obviously worried that she might overreact. “How’d you hear?”

“Grandma Jenny came by.”

“I figured she would.” He held her gaze. “You should know that I paid Abby a visit on my way home.”

Hannah’s heart seemed to stop. He’d heard Abby was back and had immediately gone rushing over to see her? That wasn’t good. “Really? How is she?” Her calm words belied her panic.

“She’s good. She says she’s back here to make a fresh start for herself. Apparently she’s divorced. And she’s the one who’s developing Blue Heron Cove.”

“I see,” Hannah said, a shiver of dismay chilling her. She reminded herself that she couldn’t let Luke see how that news terrified her. She forced herself to look directly into his eyes. “I think we should invite her to dinner. It will be great to catch up.” She managed to get the words out without choking on them.

“If that’s what you want,” he said oh-so-carefully, unmistakable worry in his eyes. “Are you sure, Hannah? It would be understandable if you wanted to keep some distance between you.”

“Understandable, why? Because you two have a history? That’s the very reason we need to reach out to her,” Hannah said. “Seaview Key is too small to start trying to avoid people. And you know how people talk. They’ll be speculating about what’s going on with us. Why give them any reason to gossip?”

Luke looked relieved by her response, which told her she’d managed just the right tone, casual and breezy.

“Okay, then,” he said. “Maybe we should include Seth.”

“Why?” she asked. Recalling what her grandmother had said earlier, a thought occurred to her, one that actually eased her mind just a little. “Luke Stevens, are you playing matchmaker? I thought that was Grandma Jenny’s domain.”

Luke chuckled, clearly more relaxed now that he was convinced that she’d taken the news of Abby’s return in stride. She gave herself a pat on the back for the successful deception.

“Hardly,” he said. “But Seth is the one who rescued Abby from drowning today. Maybe they should cross paths under more favorable circumstances.”

Unsaid, she knew, was that he hoped Seth would provide a buffer if things among the three old friends got awkward. Since she couldn’t deny that a buffer would be good, she nodded.

“Sounds great, but you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to freak out and start imagining things about the two of you,” she told her husband, deciding to be open about the elephant in the room. “We’ll just have a nice evening catching up. Asking Seth to join us makes sense. He needs to do more socializing. I worry sometimes that if he gets too lonely here, he’ll decide to move on.”