Carla Neggers - Cider Brook

“Is she looking for treasure?”

“In Knights Bridge?”

Julius grimaced. “Right. What was I thinking? Goats, herbs, country roads, antique houses and hardheaded people. Although Duncan was after stolen British jewels. Think Samantha got wind of them?”

“I told you, I don’t know what she was up to then or now. I just know that she didn’t tell the truth, and Duncan fired her.”

“Did he give her a chance to explain?”

“Explain what? No. There was no point. He said he wanted her to go on her way.”

Julius looked at her. “Did you two discuss his work?”

His scrutiny made her feel self-conscious. It wasn’t like her. She shook off her discomfort and said, matter-of-fact, “I didn’t know Duncan that well. I’ve known Dylan for years, but I didn’t meet his father until a few months before his death.”

“Ah,” Julius said, knowing. “Regrets?”

“I don’t have a lot of serious regrets, but I’m in my fifties, Julius. You are, too.” She avoided his eye and watched the pool water ripple in a breeze. “If we don’t have regrets at our age, we haven’t been living.”

He slung an arm over her shoulders. “Does Dylan know about you and his father?”

She swallowed. “Yes, but we don’t discuss it.”

“Does that mean you’re not discussing it with me?”

“Tenfold.”

“Dylan had never heard the name Samantha Bennett until she showed up in Knights Bridge this afternoon?”

“That’s right. His father never told him about her. Neither did I. Why would I?”

Loretta didn’t wait for an answer. Instead she quickly relayed what Dylan had told her about the fire at an old cider mill up the road from Carriage Hill.

Julius grinned. “A cider mill? You’re kidding, right?”

“People could have been killed, Julius.”

“Yeah, but...” He shook his head. “All right, all right. I’m glad no one was hurt.”

“I haven’t told Dylan what I know about Samantha, but I will. Whatever she’s doing in Knights Bridge, he can handle her without my help.”

“You want to believe that, but you don’t.” Julius drew her close and kissed her on the top of her head. She was almost as tall as he was. “Let’s grab something to eat. You’re a desk lawyer, Loretta. You know contracts and money. You don’t have a sixth sense about people.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “And you do?”

“Damn straight. Come on. We can walk. It’ll be good for us.”

She grabbed a lightweight jacket, and they headed out. It was cool, but it would be cooler in Knights Bridge. She’d found she liked to check the weather there. She supposed it helped her feel as if she was still a part of Dylan’s life. The emotions of this new chapter in his life had hit her hard—harder than they would have, no doubt, if she hadn’t slept with his father during his last days. Duncan had died before their relationship had had a chance to move beyond a mad night of sex to wherever it could have gone.

Now, two years later, here she was holding hands with Julius Hartley. Was he a new chapter in her life, or was he a passing fling? A distraction?

“How can you walk in those shoes?” he asked her, interrupting her thoughts.

She glanced down at her strappy sandals. “They’re fine. What’s wrong with them?”

“The heels. Don’t they kill you?”

“I’m used to them. I like them. I think they make my legs look sexier, don’t you?”

“Sexier than what?”

She sighed. “Than without heels.”

“That’s one of those ‘do these jeans make me look fat’ questions women should never ask men, and men should never answer if they do.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Julius—”

“Your legs always look sexy.” He winked at her. “How’s that?”

“You sound like a prepared witness.”

“But you’re laughing.”

She tugged him closer to her. “Yes, I’m laughing.”

They walked a few blocks to her favorite seafood restaurant. It was early for dinner, but she’d worked through lunch, after a late rising thanks to Julius turning up last night. He said he’d had business in San Diego. She hoped she wasn’t out of her mind getting involved with him. She wasn’t worried about getting hurt. If he decided she was nuts and moved on, she would manage. She just didn’t want to hurt him.

They sat at a cozy round table overlooking the water below them. She gazed down at the waves. She loved this place. She’d grown up here and had moved back after she’d graduated from law school. She had no desire to live anywhere else. Zip, zero. As far as she was concerned, the hillside, seaside community of La Jolla, California, was paradise, never mind the high cost of living.

But she found herself picturing Dylan on the sunlit stone terrace at The Farm at Carriage Hill, with the flower and herb gardens, the shade trees, the open fields and the old stone walls.

The leaves were turning in New England, he’d told her. She should come back out there and see them.

She pushed back the image and focused on the handsome man across the small table from her. “Why do you think Samantha Bennett is in Knights Bridge?”

Julius didn’t hesitate. “To redeem herself.”

* * *

Julius left after they got back from dinner. He headed back up to his house in Beverly Hills or Hollywood Hills or wherever it was. Loretta hadn’t been there yet. It was his world. His daughters were there. His ex-wife. His clients and the law firm he worked for. She envisioned him with a Sam Spade sort of office but supposed that was nonsense.

She hated to see him go but at the same time was relieved.

She’d never married—she’d never wanted to marry—and she’d had damn few long-term relationships in her life. It hadn’t been a plan, it had just worked out that way. She wasn’t promiscuous. She’d had long dry spells between men.

“Like a decade,” she muttered as she went out to her pool. It was heated. She hated cold water.

She kicked off her sandals and dipped a toe into the water. She’d gone skinny-dipping with Duncan their one night together. Talk about madness. She in her fifties, he in his early seventies. They’d had a blast, laughing, enjoying life. She didn’t know why she’d fallen for him, but she had no regrets, not about that. She’d been his last love. They hadn’t fought, or really had a chance to get to know each other.

She hadn’t told his son because—well, because her relationship with his father was none of Dylan’s business. That was just a fact. It wasn’t good or bad. What she and Duncan had shared was about them. It wasn’t about Dylan.

With no indication that Duncan was in anything but excellent health, it had been a terrible shock when she’d gotten word of his death.

What a two years it had been since that dark day.

Loretta didn’t dare trust what she had with Julius. It wasn’t just lust, and that scared the hell out of her. Did she want to get serious with a man at this point in her life?

What if Julius freaking dropped dead, too?

She blinked back tears. How had her tidy life become so complicated?

“Damned if I know what I want.”

She splashed the water with her foot and almost fell into the stupid pool. Wouldn’t that serve her right? An independent, successful professional falling ass-over-teakettle into the pool over a man.

She was more raw than she’d realized after Duncan’s death and now Dylan’s engagement to a woman in this little New England town. She hated not knowing what to do about Julius. About her feelings for him. That wasn’t like her. She always knew what to do.

Duncan had known he had no choice, but he’d still disliked firing Samantha Bennett, then wondered if he’d done the right thing. “In my work, Loretta, I can’t take chances on someone who deliberately lied to me—whatever her reasons. But I’m not a heartless SOB, either.”