Page 88 of The Kiss Keeper
Nat nodded as her cousin started down the tree. But before she began her descent, she stared out at the ocean, and her grandfather’s words echoed in her mind.
The tide comes in, and the tide goes out. All you can do is accept what it brings and go from there.
“What will you bring me?” she whispered to the water, then shook her head at the silly question and followed her cousin down to the ground.
12
Jake
“I’ll take whatever’s on tap.”
Jake nodded to the bartender, then sat down on a worn barstool and cradled his head in his hands.
Why the hell was he still here in the middle of freaking nowhere Maine? He huffed a pathetic little laugh. What a stupid question! He was there because he had nothing to go back to in Denver. It wasn’t like that city was ever his home. No place had felt like home for the last fifteen years until…
He let out a weary sigh as the bartender set a glass of amber ale in front of him. He slid a twenty to the man. “Keep the change,” he said, staring into his beer as if waiting for a message, telling him what the hell he was supposed to do now.
The last two days had been pure hell. After his heart had disintegrated inside his chest, watching Natalie sail away, he’d run into Charlie, who’d been waiting for him by the lodge.
The man tore into him—every which way.
You’re through.
Your reputation is shit.
You can forget making the big money, you, pathetic orphan.
But like the summer rain, the man’s words trailed down his cheeks and disappeared into the dirt. He didn’t give a shit about Linton Holdings or, as Charlie put it, the chance of a lifetime he’d just pissed away. No, the only thought in his mind at that point was why.
Why hadn’t he come clean to Natalie?
Why didn’t he tell Hal and Bev that a developer was scheming to get their land?
What did he think was going to happen? Could he believe that Charlie would slink away or forget about Woolwich Cove? His phone blowing up with texts from the man should have clued him in on the fact that this was no ordinary property acquisition. But he’d been too busy pretending to be the Jake Natalie deserved. The agonizing catch was that the kind of man Natalie deserved wouldn’t have used her in the first place. But that didn’t change his broken heart, and it didn’t suppress the ache in his limbs, sleeping without her in his arms the last two nights.
Christ! What he wouldn’t give to hold her, kiss her, lose himself in the slide of their bodies, and the endless pools of green in her ocean eyes.
The door to the tavern opened, and the bartender, hunched over his phone, shot up as if he’d been summoned for active duty.
“Look at this, Dominic. It’s the Garden of Eden cowboy I was telling you about.”
Now it was Jake’s turn to come to attention. “Sister Evangeline?”
“Well, it ain’t the Pope,” the nun answered with a sly expression, hoisting herself onto the barstool next to him as a young man set two helmets and a keyring on the counter.
“Hello, Sister,” the bartender stuttered. “Is Sister Anne with you?”
“No, I’m here with Dominic today, and I’d like my gin martini,” the woman answered, smoothing out her habit.
The bartender winced. “But Sister Anne said—”
The nun raised a wrinkled hand. “If Jesus can turn water into wine, an old nun can sneak off to enjoy a nip of gin, don’t you agree?” She narrowed her gaze. “And it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen you at mass, Trevor.”
The bartender shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Yeah, sorry, Sister. I—”
“Am too busy fixing Sister Evangeline’s martini,” the nun supplied with the twist of a grin.
The bartender nodded and went to work, mixing the drink, and the nun swiveled in her seat.
