Shelbybacked up and plopped down onto a clothes-covered chair as she gaped up at Willa. Willa nodded. "Do you still think he's a candidate for a fling?"
"He … he asked you to marry him?"
"The very night of Abram's funeral."
"And … oh, my God, Willa, what did you say?"
"I hightailed it out of there the very next morning." Willa sat on the bed with a sigh. "It's a long story, Shel, so don't interrupt, okay? It all started when Spencer read Abram's will after the funeral." She paused, then shook her head. "No, actually, it started when the elevator door opened on the thirtieth floor of Tidewater International … "
Sam sat at the kitchen table, nursing a large mug of maple-syrup-laced coffee. Willa's home was a classic oldNew England farmhouse, surrounded by towering maple and elm trees, and the kitchen looked as if it hadn't been updated in the last fifty years. The cupboards were white bead-board that ran all the way up to the ceiling, and the counter was faded and chipped first-generation Formica. The appliances were copper-tone. There was even an old cast-iron wood cookstove on one of the outside walls,
looking as if it had just come out of a Montgomery Ward catalog. The floor was made of pine boards stained dark brown, and it tilted toward the inside hallway.
Something suddenly brushed up against his leg under the table, and he leaned over to find a one-eyed, semi-bald, wheezing gray cat that looked as old as the appliances. He extended his hand to it. "Hey there, old chump," he said, smiling when it pushed its scraggly face against his fingers. "You must be on, what, your ninth life?"
"Poor old thing's deaf," Peg said as she walked into the kitchen. She pulled a vacuum cleaner out of the closet. "Took me a while to figure that out," she continued, grabbing a dust rag, which she stuffed into her apron pocket. "I nearly sucked him up in the vacuum the second day I was here because I didn't see him sleeping under the coffee table. Cody said Willa found him on the beach, nearly starved to death, about three years ago. There's no telling how old he is. His name's Ghost."
"Cody?" Sam repeated, lifting Ghost onto his lap.
"Shelby's boy. There's Jennifer, who's sixteen, and Cody, who's ten. They're wonderful kids. You'll get to meet them at dinner tonight."
"I'm invited to dinner? Can I bring a friend?"
Peg narrowed her eyes at him. "Male or female?"
"Male. My housemate, actually. Emmett Sengatti is a close friend of Willa's. He was kind enough to take me in when she abandoned me on the dock yesterday."
"Better the dock than the middle of the ocean," Peg returned with a laugh. She wheeled the vacuum toward the living room. "And there's always room at my table."
Sam looked down at the cat on his lap. "So, Ghost, has Willa got you building your own casket, too?"
"We have a line of pet caskets and urns coming out this fall," Willa said, walking into the kitchen, her arms laden with clothes. "But the bulk of them will likely be shipped out, since most Mainers are too thrifty to spend money on something they're going to bury in the ground."
He set the cat on the floor and stood up. "Here, let me have those," he said, reaching for the clothes.
"Where are you going with them?"
"I'm moving out to the cottage so Shel can have my room," she told him, not relinquishing her load. Sam perked up at that. "You're moving to the cottage?"
She spun away and headed for the door. "Do you honestly have the audacity to miss your first day of work?"
"I have an empathetic boss. Levi told me not to come in until I'm ‘back up to snuff.' Kent Caskets is a rather laid-back company."
"You expect eighty-year-olds to be workaholics? They tell anyone with a hangnail to take the day off."
"Is your entire workforce retirees?"
She laughed at that. "Are you kidding? My production would be two caskets a year if I had to rely on my Grand Point Bluff residents. I have ten able-bodied men and women who do most of the real work."
"Yet you have at least twenty on the payroll."
"Which the older workers put right back into my business."
"Sam!"Shelby shouted from the top of the stairs. "Can you come up and carry this box down for me?"
Having figured out some time ago that Willa had a thing for his chest, Sam threw back his shoulders and puffed up, shooting her a grin. "Looks like your sister appreciates my muscles."
Willa immediately walked out of the house, muttering something about hormones. Sam headed into the hall, ran up the stairs, and stepped into the bedroom of a teenage girl. The furniture was white, the bedspread pink and green and blue-flowered lace. Like the rest of the house, Willa's bedroom seemed to be frozen in time.
"That's the box?" he asked in surprise whenShelby handed him a shoe box full of what looked like hair thingies.
"No. Put this in that box," she said, pointing to the bed. "And carry it over to the cottage."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Please," she quickly tacked on, her cheeks turning as pink as the curtains behind her. She sighed. "I'm sorry if I sound like a drill sergeant. With children, you either give orders or get ignored. Why did you tell my sister you love her?"
Sam stopped in mid-step. "Is directness another characteristic of motherhood?"
"Do you?" she asked, lifting her chin much as Willa did.
"Yes."
"Just like that? You know her a week, and you fall madly in love with her?"
He shrugged. "Not on purpose."
"Is that the price of love these days? A fat bankbook and a few shares of some business?"
Sam picked up the large box on the bed and walked to the door. "No," he said softly. "It's the price your sister has to be willing to pay to get back her soul."
Sam decided he rather likedMaine -at least, the area around Keelstone Cove and Prime Point, of which he was getting a firsthand and personal tour. He'd just sat down to his afternoon snack when Jennifer and Cody Bates had arrived home from school, and Jennifer had promptly thanked him for her new truck and boldly asked him to take her driving.
Even though Emmett had promised Sam he was in for a treat when he met Jennifer, the old man had failed to mention that for all of her precocious charm, the girl was also drop-dead beautiful. Shelbyhad blue eyes, but Jennifer's eyes were more the startling blue of Willa's. Her long hair was less curly and a bit lighter than her aunt's and definitely more manageable. But whenever the teenager canted her head just right or glanced over her shoulder with a mischievous smile, Sam got the eerie feeling that he was looking at a younger Willa.
His gut had twisted in a knot as he'd watched Jennifer wolfing down a large piece of cake. What if Willa did marry him and they did have children? And what if they had a daughter as beautiful as Jennifer? He'd never survive her teenage years! Not if the images that came to mind were any indication whenShelby asked her about a particular boy at school. Sam had become positively outraged when Jennifer said she'd heard he was planning to ask someone else to the homecoming dance. Was the boy an idiot? And blind?
"That kid, Steven, I think you called him," Sam said as Jennifer expertly guided her SUV down the narrow and winding road. "You can't take it personally if he doesn't ask you to the dance. Until the age of thirty, all males are self-centered idiots."
Jennifer briefly glanced over at him, then back at the road. "I rarely take anything personally. That's my aunt's infuriating habit." She sighed. "I really asked you to bring me driving so we could talk, Mr. Sinclair. I think you should know that I'm fully aware of what Abram's will said." She darted another quick glance in his direction, this time hitting him full force with her heart-stopping smile. "In fact, your being here means I won the bet. So, tell me, are you planning to find a way out of the bequest, or are you going to try to marry my aunt?"
She knew? And had even placed a bet? On him?
"If you're about to threaten me with bodily harm if I break your aunt's heart, you'll have to stand in line. I've already gotten this speech from Emmett and your mother, as well as from Willa's entire workforce."