Page 10 of Kiss the Bride

“You don’t know?”

At her confused glance, he shrugged. “Humor me. It’s been a while. Jason and I stayed in touch while he was in college. We’d catch a hockey game together or grab a pizza when he came home for a weekend. But after he moved to New York and I headed for Maine, we almost never made it back to Heart’s Landing at the same time. So fill me in. What’s been happening with you?”

Across from him, Evelyn’s forehead crinkled. “Okay. But tell me this first—why Maine?”

He smiled. Playing catch-up had been the right move. She hadn’t kept tabs on him any more than he’d kept up with her comings and goings. “I went to work for my dad straight out of high school. Stayed on until I got accepted into an apprentice program with Josh Morgan, the top restoration specialist in the country. I spent a dozen years in Maine working with him. I’d still be there if he hadn’t retired. He moved to Florida. He has family down south.”

“So you came back here? Didn’t want to stay in Maine?”

“I missed seeing all the brides.” He grinned as if he was just joking around, but the truth was, there was no place quite like Heart’s Landing. He liked watching couples meander up and down the tree-lined streets, ducking in and out of shops with names like I Do Cakes, The Glass Slipper, or Favors Galore. He enjoyed the laughter and good wishes that spilled out of Bow Tie Pasta whenever a wedding party arrived for a rehearsal dinner. And the church bells—they rang out day and night in celebration of couples who’d just exchanged their “I do’s.” He’d missed the lighthearted air of a town that put its best foot forward twenty-four-seven. He’d wanted to be a part of it all. Turning the Boat Works into a wedding venue let him do that.

“The brides, huh?” Laughter danced in Evelyn’s eyes.

“That, and winters up north are brutal.” Another truth.

“You’ve been here how long?”

“Two—no, three years. Dad thought I’d come back to join Court Builders. I suppose that was only natural.” With his entire family in the construction industry, he’d learned to calculate board feet over dinner the way other kids recited their multiplication tables. “I worked for Dad through high school and summers, then full-time for a while. My brothers wouldn’t think of working anywhere else.”

“But you had other plans?” Evelyn prompted. She toyed with the remains of her dessert.

“I never saw the point of building something new. So many houses could be perfect with some TLC. Dad and I didn’t quite see eye to eye on the subject.” Ryan exhaled. When he’d announced his intention to branch out on his own, start his own restoration business, his old man had acted like he’d had the rug pulled out from under him. “I guess buying the Boat Works was the last straw. Proof I was never going to be what he wanted me to be. Things have been strained between us ever since.”

Evelyn put down her fork. “They should be proud of you. I’ve seen some of the work you’ve done here at the Captain’s Cottage.” She pointed to his cell phone. “If those pictures you showed me are any indication, you’ve done an outstanding job with the Boat Works.”

“Thank you. That means a lot.” But he’d monopolized the conversation when he really wanted to know more about her. “How about you?” he asked, turning the tables as deftly as he could. “Last I heard, you were headed for Julliard. From there, the sky was the limit. We all expected to see your name on the marquee of some big show on Broadway.”

“Well.” Across the table, the redhead expelled a long, slow breath. “Julliard’s one of those places where you learn if you’ve got the ‘it factor’ or not.” With slender fingers, she framed the phrase. “Some of the other students in my class had more talent in a single strand of hair than I had in my entire body. Being around them, I had to lower my expectations. I’m local-theater good. Not big-stage good.”

Not so. She’d always been a star in his book. While he and Jason had taken turns as the swashbuckling heroes of countless backyard plays, she’d stolen show after show with her feisty heroines and swooning damsels in distress. Later, she’d captivated audiences in school plays and pageants. At sixteen, she’d landed her first lead role as the youngest actress ever cast as Laurie Williams in the Heart’s Landing Little Theater presentation of Oklahoma. She had talent and plenty of it.

Ryan opened his mouth to protest, but a dismissive wave of her hand silenced him.

“I didn’t give up right away.” Evelyn fussed with her napkin. “I figured I owed it to myself to try, so I headed to New York. I gave myself two years to make it.” Her lips turned down. “I answered every casting call, went to at least fifty auditions that first year. Every once in a while, I’d land a bit part. But I had to work temp jobs and short-term assignments to pay the rent.”

“That must’ve been rough.” Ryan shook his head as he pictured her rushing from job to job, from tryout to tryout.

“Yeah. At first it was. There’s not much call for untrained office staff, even in New York, so I enrolled in a few night classes.” Evelyn grinned. “I discovered all those hours in Mrs. Cunningham’s math class weren’t wasted after all. I was pretty good at bookkeeping. That led to better paying jobs, ones that—surprise, surprise—paid the rent and the grocery bill. I started answering fewer casting calls and taking more temp work. Soon, I got to the point where I was ready to chuck the whole acting gig.” She steadied herself with a breath. “That’s when Uncle Dave got sick.”

“And you moved home.” Ryan nodded. As the eldest in his generation, Jason’s dad, David Thaddeus Heart, had inherited the Captain’s Cottage from his father.

“My family needed me.” Evelyn straightened her napkin. “I quit my job, gave my roommate two months’ rent, and was home by the end of the week. Thanks to my newfound skills, I was able to take over the books here. Which let Jason concentrate on spending whatever time was left with his dad.”

Ryan grimaced. David Heart’s loss had shaken Heart’s Landing. “He was a good man, your uncle. He passed too soon.” He set his own crumpled napkin on the table beside his plate. “He was the one who got me interested in restoration.”

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. “I did not know that.”

Ryan tipped back in his chair while he gestured to the hallway and beyond. “There’s always something to fix in a place like this. The finish on a banister wears thin. Someone drops a plate and nicks a floorboard. A piece of wallpaper lifts. Somewhere else, the owners might see that as an excuse for replacing the banister, laying down new flooring, ripping out the paper and painting.”

Evelyn’s forehead wrinkled. “Not here.”

“Right.” Preservation was the name of the game at the home that had housed generations of Hearts. “Your uncle liked that sort of work and did a lot of the repairs himself. Sometimes, he’d commandeer Jason and me as his helpers. Uncle Dave noticed I shared his interest and encouraged me to pursue it.”

Curiosity flickered in Evelyn’s gaze. “I always wondered why you hung around, even when Jason wasn’t here.”

Ryan nodded. There’d been other reasons. She’d been one of them—not that he’d ever tell her that. “Your uncle was the first to show me I could have a future doing what I love.” Unhappy with the way the conversation had once more focused on him, he swallowed. “And now you.”

“I handle the payroll and accounting for the Cottage and make sure we have everything on hand to keep this place running.”

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