Summer Street Secrets (The Hills of Burlington Book 3) Read online

  Nick had no doubt of that. His young niece had more guts at her young age than he and his sister had accumulated in a lifetime. "I'll call you tomorrow and we'll set something up then at your convenience." He pulled himself together, uncertain why he felt a sense of worry when he knew Carrie never said something she didn't mean. He felt more than saw the movement at his side, a hand reach out for his.

  "We'll do the best we can for your son." Court gripped the other man's hand in his, conveying what assurances he could. He might not like the man on principle but he understood family. And however you looked at it this young man was going to be family. "I imagine it won't be easy but it will all work out for the best."

  "Thank you." Nick hoped both heard the absolute sincerity in those two words that simply didn't say enough but were all he could come up with at that moment.

  Carrie walked him to the door in silence but before he could pass through the doorway she stopped him. "It will be okay, Nick." She could tell he was having a hard time speaking and decided despite that it was the time to say what else needed to be said. "Thank you for what you're doing for Addie. It means a lot to her."

  "It's something I want to do. I need to do. What was done to her was unforgiveable and could happen to anyone. What you're doing with the social networks and internet gives her a voice I can promise you her parents wouldn't have ever considered."

  Since she knew exactly what he meant she said nothing. Only nodded in acknowledgment before he turned to walk down the walk to the car waiting for him.

  "Carrie," Court spoke quietly from behind her, waited her to turn from where she stood staring blindly out the front door. No doubt, he thought wondering what she'd signed herself up for. When she turned those sightless eyes at him he just as quietly took her in his arms and held her close.

  "You do know what this means, don't you?"

  She heard the humor under the serious tone and tried to figure out where he found amusement in any of this, how he could keep his sense of normalcy when it didn't seem like anything would be normal again anytime soon. "I have no clue what any of this might mean especially whatever you're thinking it might mean." She tried for casual and failed abysmally when she lifted her eyes to his. "But I can't thank you enough for being here." She sighed deeply in an effort to catch her breath and rein in her emotions. "For backing me up and...just being here."

  "You're going to have to marry me, Carrie." He couldn't hold back the laughter at her sudden jerk. "And sooner rather than later."

  She kept her eyes steady on his. "You're serious."

  "I've always been serious, Carrie. This just speeds it up a bit."

  "Because of Nick?"

  "Because of his son." Court corrected gently. "It's not the same as Addie. Not by a long shot."

  "No." She agreed on a long breath. "I love you." She needed him to know that was the basis of everything to come.

  "I know, honey. I love you too. But you know that, don't you?"

  "Yes." She snuggled in closer to him. "Thank God."

  

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Wes played with Beth's fingers as he waited for her to work herself up to whatever it was she had to say. He knew what it was or had a pretty good idea what it was. Sitting where they were on the glider on her father's front porch they had a pretty good view down the street. She hadn't taken her eyes off the houses at the end of the street. There hadn't been much movement in the direction of the focus of her attention for a bit but nevertheless he knew she waited. Because he understood her worries he'd waited as well but was about to get the conversation going if she didn't.

  "I'm really happy for Court and Carrie," Beth finally said on a soft sigh.

  Wes didn't think about whether she'd heard his thoughts or simply sensed them because it was on her mind as well. One way or another it didn't matter to him. They'd come to an agreement in a tense discussion where he had made it clear the woman he cared for was the woman she was. He didn't care for that to change and had further made it unmistakably obvious she should be secure in who she was and not try to be anyone other than that for any reason or worry.

  "I know they'll be happy," Beth continued before Wes had a chance to comment one way or another on her previous comment. "They're just doing now what they would have gotten around to eventually anyway." Beth pulled her gaze away from the house down the street that would soon become Carrie's new home. She turned her gaze instead to her hands. She'd gotten used to Wes's habit of fiddling around with her fingers that it now drew her attention when he didn't.

  "Then what's bothering you?"

  Beth didn't think twice about sharing her worry with him. "Addie."

  To his credit Wes didn't flinch. Wasn't certain there was a reason to. But he also didn't know the situation nearly as well as Beth did. Court hadn't said anything to him which meant he might be as clueless as he. He wondered if that meant Carrie was as well.

  "In what way?" he asked even as he considered it for himself.

  "I think she's insecure about how this is going to affect her."

  The brevity of her answers told Wes she was going out on a limb, at least in her own mind, as to what she could say and not. Beth wasn't one to take loyalty or the lack of it lightly. If she'd been told something in confidence she wouldn't feel right about walking away from it. "You mean in terms of the time her aunt will be able to spend with her?"

  "I don't think Addie has thought it out in specifics." Beth let out a shaky breath. She felt comfortable talking to Wes about anything but wasn't keen on sharing what wasn't meant to be. "She's come so far since she got here. I just worry that the change in the situation might set her back."

  "Does she know this kid?"

  "Oh, Wes! She didn't even know he existed. And he's her cousin." Beth leaned her head against his shoulder. She'd stopped trying to analyze why she felt so easy with him, she didn't even care if her father walked out to the porch that very moment. "I know neither Jake or Casey knew about him and from what I heard Carrie knew but not because her ex-husband told her about him."

  "Have you met the ex-husband?" He knew what Court's feelings were on the man and he’d been surprised considering the way he'd heard the man had treated Carrie. But then, he thought to himself, Court had always been a soft touch. And, as his mother was fond of saying, it took one to know one.

  "No. But I saw the finished version of the tape he did with Addie."

  Wes waited for more and when it didn't come, "And...."

  "He seemed ... sincere. Really sincere. He talked about how strong Addie was in the face of what she was dealing with and how she was his hero." She was still surprised at how real he’d seemed after everything she'd heard about the man. Especially since she knew everything she'd heard was true. If she'd learned anything at all in the time she'd been with her father and around his family was that they might exaggerate some, some more than others, but they didn't lie outright. Ever. "In the video it's obvious that Addie’s surprised by what he says about her but that's what makes it so good." She struggled for the right word to describe what the video conveyed, what those finding it and taking the time to watch it would get out of it. "It's completely sincere and .... spontaneous."

  "I wouldn't mind seeing that myself."

  Beth heard the concern and with him she spoke without thought. "What do you know?"

  "It's not so much what I know as much as what I think." Wes turned her hand over in his, ran his thumb along the outline of her fingers never ceasing to be amazed at the mix of strength and fragility found there. "By agreeing to take on this teenage boy," he glanced at her with a touch of rare somberness in his usually easy going features, "which I can assure you from my own personal experiences will be no easy task..."

  "You have a teenage son out there somewhere?" Beth half teasingly said.

  "No." He squeezed her hand. "I was a teenage son once upon a time. I know what they're getting into and just by virtue of including him in their lives they will also be incl
uding Carrie's ex-husband in their lives."

  "Oh."

  "Yes. Oh." Wes agreed dryly. "I wonder how that's going to work out for the newly married couple."

  "I hadn't really thought that far." Beth could see where his concern was rooted. She wasn't certain she'd want that kind of tie to an ex-husband in a new marriage. It wasn't much different than if the two of them had had children but in this case only one of them had and it hadn't been Carrie. Her admiration for her father's cousin increased exponentially in light of that. The woman was far more courageous than she. And she told Wes the same.

  "I don't know about that," he said with a tinge of laughter in his voice.

  "How so?" She wondered out loud.

  "You've agreed to work with me and organize my clinic." And my life he added on in his thoughts.

  "I have?" She turned to him. "It's the first I've heard of it."

  "You have," he confirmed, staring at her. Wondering if he'd taken a misstep, playing out in his mind how to fix it if he had.

  "You're right," she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the surprise on his face. She'd done the unexpected and thrown him off guard. She knew her mother would have told her that was a good thing. And she would have added not to rub it in. So she bit down harder on the already tender skin of the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She knew that would definitely be rubbing it in. And since he'd offered her just what she wanted she didn't want to do that. "Maybe we could have Addie come out once in a while to help out. She loves animals."

  Wes closed his mouth hoping it hadn't fallen so far he looked like an idiot. "Sounds good to me." He took a breath. "Beth," he waited for her to look right at him with those eyes that had drawn him in from the beginning. Deep wells of compassion with that constant hint of sadness that could break his heart. "We'll make sure she doesn't backslide."

  Beth closed her hand around the one that still played gently with her fingers. "Yes," she said simply. Nothing else needed to be said.

  

  Mary knew she'd dragged Addie with her on the flimsiest of excuses. The project in the house was done. The restoration of the whole house was finished when you came right down to it. There was no real reason for a walk through in any of the rooms let alone the one they'd poured their heart and soul into. But as she stood there looking around the bedroom it hit her all over again.

  "You should consider studying interior design, Addie." She shook her head as she looked at her. "You did one heck of a job in here."

  "We both did," Addie corrected but she too was pleased with the end result of their efforts. "But that's not why we're here is it?" She asked as she continued to gaze around the room trying to tamp down the sense of pride in it she couldn't help but feel.

  "Busted," Mary confessed without a bit of remorse.

  "I'm okay, really," Addie insisted. She knew what the worry was and didn't want to come off sounding like a ten-year-old, jealous because the new baby was getting more attention than her. "I'm surprised Aunt Carrie agreed to it but at the same time, not so much. It's exactly like something that she would do." She thought about it more closely, turned it over in her head. "I guess more than anything I'm surprised she's doing it for Uncle Nick." She turned to Mary, the expression on her face not at all one of a child but a young woman who had been hurt badly and survived, the remnants apparent despite her efforts to disguise it. "I wouldn't. I think what he did for me was great and I really appreciate it. But if I was Aunt Carrie I would have politely told him to look elsewhere."

  Mary searched for how to respond but before she could come up with anything Addie continued.

  "That's why she's a far better person than I will probably ever be." Addie sighed deeply, the sound echoing off the walls of the room she helped design and turn into the fairy tale it was. "I hate to think what I would have said if it had been me."

  "I think you may have surprised yourself, Addie." Mary tiptoed through the conversation carefully. A part of her agreed with the young woman yet she also could see and feel exactly as her cousin did in making the hard decision she'd made.

  Addie laughed a cynical and sad sound. "I don't know Mary. I understand why she kept quiet about it all these years. I even have a pretty good idea of why she paid the woman even though she didn't care if people learned about the kid. She did it for the kid and I may have done the same. But putting myself in the position of being around a kid that reminded me every single day of the choice my husband made that put me at the back of the line and someone else in front of me, no, I don't get that. And I'm not certain I ever would." She shook her head slowly. The action almost a mirror image of the look on her face.

  "Your uncle was very kind to you." Again Mary felt her way carefully through the minefield of family dynamics. "I saw the video several times. I have no doubt in my mind he meant every single word he said."

  "So do I," Addie agreed easily. She glanced in Mary's direction, wondered if this conversation was of her own accord or at her aunt's request. She decided with only a slight bit of skepticism that it was likely a little of both. "Especially considering what he does for a living."

  "Meaning."

  "Let's face it, most politicians don't have a high rating in the minds of most people. There's a reason for that."

  Mary decided she wasn't going to get anywhere close to that one regardless of what she thought on the issue. Especially since she agreed with Addie completely.

  "But you're right, he was awesome. I didn't expect a lot of what he said. Aunt Carrie would be the first to tell you I know her a whole lot better than I know him." She happened to see Mary bend over and run her fingers along the floor boards. "What are you doing?" She couldn't help the laughter that snuck into her voice.

  Mary stood quickly, slightly embarrassed to be caught in her ongoing and often fruitless search. "It's silly." She tried to shrug it off.

  Addie walked over and studied the floor where they both now stood. She wasn't certain she saw what Mary might have but the action had stirred her memories. She looked up then and slowly gazed around the room before returning her attention to the woman now in front of her. She recognized the embarrassment. Had felt it plenty of times herself and wasn't going to rub it in when it was the last thing she wanted others to do to her. "You're looking for a secret room like what you and Casey found at your house."

  "It's silly," Mary began again or tried to.

  Addie was on a roll. "Aunt Carrie told me about it and Aunt Charlie took me up to her sister's hidden room above the side porch at her house."

  "We were lucky she remembered about it," Mary tried not to let Addie's enthusiasm pull her in. "And I don't know that I would describe what we found at my house as secret rooms as much as forgotten storage areas." And she'd give just about anything to find one here she thought to herself as she mentally walked through each room of the Summer Street house. The house where her great-grandmother had lived throughout most of her marriage. Most of her life for that matter. She simply couldn't believe the woman who put such value in the family legacy wouldn't have left something behind in her own home. Especially considering her abilities which Mary now believed had been far stronger than her own. More than likely her great-grandmother had been more like Jake's daughter. Finding herself in possession of a blessing that was also a curse. All the more reason she believed her ancestor would have left something behind in this house that had been her home. Especially since she had reason to believe that much that had been found in her attic had been left there not by her grandmother...but her great-grandmother.

  "But you're thinking she may have left something behind here," Addie continued to pursue it.

  "More like wishful thinking," Mary admitted to the young woman and herself as she gazed around the room as she already had numerous times. This room and every other room in the old house.

  "Not really when you think about everything else you found," Addie pressed. She thought the whole thing of the family having extra abilities wa
s awesome and wished not for the first time she was related by more than just marriage.

  "I wish." Mary sighed at the disappointment in Addie's expressive face. "Sorry," she added when Addie began to walk out of the room.

  "I just thought of something," Addie said over her shoulder even as she continued to walk down the long hallway on the second floor. She stopped in front of the linen closet positioned between two of the bedrooms on the back side of the house. When Mary came up to stand beside her she reached out to open the door of the closet. They had painted the shelves inside with bright colors to lighten the small space. Closing the door she simply stared at it thoughtfully.

  "What?" Mary asked in her quiet way. She could see that Addie had something in mind but couldn't for the life of her understand what it was.

  "Maybe nothing but...." But there was something that persistently brought her back to this door. Something just didn't seem right. Somehow off. She suddenly turned away from Mary to face down the other side of the hall from where she'd come. She lined her feet up with the edge of the closet and counted her steps, carefully lining her heel of one foot with the toe of the other, until she reached the door of the next bedroom on that side. Once inside the room she did the same from the same spot of the doorway to the wall on the other side of the linen closet. "Oh, Wow!" She breathed out softly to herself. She counted the steps again to be sure. Both from the wall to the doorway and from the doorway in the hall back to where she'd started at the linen closet. She looked at Mary with excitement brimming in her eyes. But before saying anything she held up a finger silently asking Mary to give her a minute and did the exact same thing from the other side of the closet where Mary had been standing down to the bedroom on that side of the hallway and again from the inside of the doorway of that bedroom to the wall going back toward the closet. But this time she didn't double check as she had in the other bedroom. She didn't need to. She closed her eyes and gave herself a huge mental pat on the back. "Mary!" She rushed back out into the hallway where Mary still stood waiting in silence for her at the closet.