CHAPTER ONE

Wednesday afternoon

HE’D THOUGHT he was ready for this.

The years away should have inoculated him against the emotions surfacing now—loss, pain, guilt and the familiar edgy tension that Kendall Van Allen had always inspired. He thought he’d dumped the baggage he’d been carrying when he left Sturgeon Falls seven years earlier.

He thought he’d gotten on with his life.

He was wrong.

Gabe rolled his BMW to a stop on the smooth driveway and studied Van Allen House. The fresh coat of creamy yellow paint, the green and rose of the contrasting trim and the flowers massed around the house all glowed in the sunlight. The house had certainly changed.

Had Kendall changed as much?

Would she welcome him? Or merely tolerate him?

Maybe he should have stayed away from her. The dedication committee had made the reservation, but he could have declined. Maybe he should have booked himself into one of the other B and B’s. Sometimes old wounds were better left alone.

No. He got out of the car and shut the door. He’d run away seven years ago, and he’d regretted it ever since. He was done with running away. The dedication of the high-school football stadium to Kendall’s late husband, Carter, had brought him back to Sturgeon Falls, but that wasn’t the only thing that was going to happen this weekend.

Kendall would need his help. Even though she didn’t know it yet.

***

THE DOOR KNOCKER SOUNDED just as Kendall was pulling on her black slacks. Shoving her feet into her image-enhancing Bruno Magli pumps, she finger-combed her short hair and then buttoned her blouse as she hurried down the stairs. The guest the dedication committee had booked into her bed-and-breakfast was right on time.

The tall, lean figure of a man was visible through the frosted-glass panels in the front door. Kendall took a deep breath, checked one last time to make sure all the buttons on her blouse were done up, plastered a smile on her face and opened the door.

“Welcome to Van Allen House,” she said to her prospective guest’s back. He was looking out over the expansive front lawn, hands in the pockets of his elegant charcoal slacks, apparently studying the formal garden.

Then he turned to face her. “Very nice, Kendall. You’ve done a lot of work. It doesn’t look like the same place.”

The shock of recognition hit her like a blow. Even after seven years, his black hair and blue eyes, his sensual mouth and beautiful face were unmistakable. Her smile vanished. “Gabe?”

“Hello, Kendall.”

Her hand curled around the door. “What are you doing here?”

“I have a reservation. Compliments of the dedication committee.”

“You’re my guest?”

“In the flesh.”

She itched to shut the door in his face. But the bill for the hot-water heater she’d just replaced still sat on the desk in her office. Even though she wanted nothing to do with Gabe Townsend or the memories that clung to him like stubborn cobwebs, she stepped aside and opened the door wider. “Come in.”

He strolled into the foyer, his curious gaze registering everything, from the slightly threadbare rug on the floor to the faint depression in the plaster left by her daughter’s soccer ball to the pictures of ancestral Van Allens that lined the wall alongside the stairs.

She closed the door a little harder than necessary. “Why did you come here? What do you want?”

He dropped his leather suitcase. “Other than a room? A ‘hello, Gabe’ would be nice. ‘Welcome back to Sturgeon Falls’ would be even nicer.”

“If you came to Sturgeon Falls looking for a welcome from me, you’re out of your mind,” she said, moving to the small office she’d set up in a closet beneath the stairs. “There’s nothing here for you.”

“The committee made the reservation,” he said. “Maybe they thought it would be nostalgic.”

“I’m not much for nostalgia.” She studied him, noticing the confident way he held himself, registering his assumption that he belonged. “I didn’t think you were, either.”

He shrugged. “That’s what this dedication is all about, isn’t it? Old memories? Looking at the past through rose-colored glasses?”

“I don’t want to look at the past at all.”

“No choice this time,” he said lightly. “You’re coming to the ceremony, aren’t you?” He set his credit card on her desk.

“Of course I am. The girls are thrilled about the whole stupid thing. They’ve been talking about it for weeks.” Dragging her gaze away from his long, elegant fingers, she swiped Gabe’s card through the reader so hard it flew out of her hand. She grabbed it and slapped it back down on the desk.

“Let’s cut to the chase, Gabe. I know I’m not the only bed-and-breakfast in town with a vacancy on a Wednesday this early in June. You could have stayed somewhere else. Why here?”

She couldn’t read his expression. His eyes were just as inscrutable as they’d always been.

“Staying at your B and B is business. And when I’m doing business, I like to keep it in the family,” he said.

“I’m not part of your family.”

“I’m Jenna’s godfather. Doesn’t that count?”

“I assumed you’d forgotten.”

Gabe held her gaze. “I take my obligations seriously.”

“We’re not one of your obligations, Gabe. We never have been. I thought I’d made that clear a long time ago.”

“Obligation or not, I’m here for the dedication. When the committee suggested I stay here, as ill-advised as they may have been, I agreed. Why spend their money anywhere else?”

“I’ve put the past behind me. You should have, too.”

He watched her for a long moment. “If you’d put the past behind you, Kendall, you wouldn’t be telling me to find another place to stay.”

Kendall took a deep breath, let it out slowly and then nodded. “You’re right. Business is business. You can be sure I won’t forget again.” She was an adult now, a successful businesswoman. His money was as good as anyone else’s. Pride wouldn’t pay for a new hot-water heater. She completed the paperwork and smiled stiffly.

“Let me show you the main floor before I take you upstairs to your room. This is the dining room…”

Before she could continue, he asked, “Is that coffee on the buffet?”

“Yes. Would you like a cup?”

“Please.”

She poured two mugs and absently added cream to both before handing one to Gabe. He stared at it.

“You remembered how I like my coffee.”

“I wasn’t thinking.” She forced herself to relax the tight grip on her own mug as she set it on the table. “I made it like mine.”

He took a sip, never taking his eyes off her. “It’s been a long time, Kendall. What have you been up to?”

She stirred her coffee, watching the dark liquid lighten as it mixed with the cream. “Raising my daughters. Running the B and B. Living. What about you?”

“I keep busy. My company demands a lot of time.”

Gabe wasn’t any more eager to share his life story than she was. The swallow she took burned a path all the way to her stomach. “Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, I’ll show you your room.”

She pushed away from the table, picking up a key attached to a laminated plastic business card on her way up the stairs. Gabe was close behind her. She turned to the right when they reached the second floor and opened a white-painted wooden door.

“This room has an updated bath and a view of the backyard and the beach,” she said in her best tour-guide voice as she gestured toward the window. “Will it be all right?”

“It’ll be fine,” he said without looking.

She stepped back, but Gabe made no effort to go in.

“Kendall…”

“Breakfast is from 7:00 until 9:00 a.m.,” she said. “I lock the front door each night at nine, but your room key will unlock it. The living room is a common area for everyone who’s staying in the house, so please make yourself comfortable. Is there anything else I can get for you?”

“Not a thing.”

She gave him a tight, impersonal smile. “Then, I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”

He didn’t move as she headed back down the stairs.

Pausing, she picked up the two abandoned mugs, carried them into the kitchen and emptied them into the sink. Like old dreams, the coffee swirled down the drain and disappeared.

***

A HALF HOUR LATER, Gabe walked into the living room again. Kendall was nowhere in sight. He wasn’t surprised.

Maybe she wasn’t avoiding him deliberately. But she wasn’t going to hang around, waiting to talk to him, either.

Running a bed-and-breakfast must be hard work, and Gabe was guessing that Kendall did it on her own. She’d always thrown herself completely into every job she’d undertaken, no matter how large or small it was.

And now she had an extra incentive for keeping busy. Being occupied and unavailable was much more graceful than simply telling Gabe to get lost.

He hadn’t expected a warm welcome. She’d made it clear seven years earlier that she wanted nothing to do with him. He couldn’t blame her. After all, as she’d pointed out at the time, he’d killed her husband.

The car crash had been an accident. The judge had ruled it an accident caused by icy roads and a snowstorm. But that didn’t change the facts. It was Gabe’s car. The police told her it had been going too fast. They told her Gabe had been driving. And Carter was dead.

Leaving her a widow with two young daughters and very little money.

Gabe poured himself a fresh mug of coffee from the thermos he found in the dining room and stared out the window as he sipped. The back lawn of Kendall’s home sloped gently down to a secluded private beach on Green Bay. As a major Midwestern tourist destination, Door County, Wisconsin, was host to a tangle of traffic jams, packed beaches and crowded shops every summer from June until September. But even though Sturgeon Falls was at the epicenter, Van Allen House was a calm oasis.

Kendall had clearly worked hard to cultivate that image.

Gabe gazed out at the Adirondack chairs on the grass by the edge of the beach, with matching tables set between them. On one side stretched the dense pine forest of a county park, on the other was the family cherry orchard.

The house itself combined family heirlooms and modern comfort. The rich cherry wood of the spool bed in his room had been polished by generations of Van Allens. Downstairs, the hardwood floors were covered by vivid oriental rugs, and the formality of the ornate mantel over the living-room fireplace was offset by comfortable overstuffed chairs and couches.

He saw Kendall’s hand in all of it.

The dazed young widow he remembered, who’d stood next to her husband’s grave clutching the hands of her two young daughters, had vanished completely. She’d been replaced by the cool, confident professional who’d opened her door to him that morning.

The door to the kitchen swung open and Kendall came through, holding a stack of plates. When she saw him, her hesitation was so brief that most people wouldn’t have noticed.

Gabe did.

He’d always noticed everything about her.

“Gabe. Is everything all right in your room?”

“Yes.” He gestured around the dining room. “You’ve done a nice job with the house. It’s beautiful.”

The plates clattered as she set them on the buffet. “Thank you. I had good bones to work with.”

She pulled a handful of silverware out of the pocket of her apron and arranged it in a wooden caddy next to the plates. He noticed that she’d changed her clothes. Instead of her expensive shoes and the dressy blouse, she wore a T-shirt, cutoffs and sandals. Her short blond hair looked as if she’d run her hands through it more than once. When she realized he was looking at her, she smoothed her hands over the faded blue apron she had on.

“Was there something you needed?”

She’d be surprised at what he needed. “Nothing at all. I’m just on my way out.”

She couldn’t quite disguise the flicker of relief in her dark amber eyes, although she tried. He set the coffee mug on the table with a sharp crack. “I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll be here.”

The weariness he thought he heard in her voice was probably just his imagination. When he paused and looked back, she’d already disappeared.

Time to deal with another piece of his past. Amy Mitchell had different claims on him than Kendall had, but they were almost as strong. At first, they’d been part of a debt of honor. But over the years, Amy had become a friend.

Climbing into his car, Gabe drove away from the seclusion of the estate and turned onto hectic County Road B. Merging into a steady stream of cars and trucks, he headed toward Amy’s house on the outskirts of town.

He stopped in front of a tidy white house that was surrounded by a picket fence, and smiled. If anyone was defined by a white-picket fence, it was Amy.

A woman with dark, curly hair knelt in front of a flower bed, digging in the sandy soil, a flat of colorful snapdragons on the grass beside her. She turned when she heard the car door and sat back on her heels, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “Hi, Gabe,” she said.

He walked through the arbor that arched over the sidewalk and sat on her front steps. “Hello, Amy.”

“I wondered when you’d show up. Are you here to make sure I don’t back down?” she asked.

“You’re not going to back down. You know you have to tell George.”

She placed a plant in the spot she’d prepared and pressed the dirt around it. “What happened is in the past.”

Gabe eased back against the stairs, the angled edges of the wood uncomfortable against his back. “No, it’s not. I think you know that, Amy.”

“George asked me once who Tommy’s father was. I told him it didn’t matter, that it was in the past and Tommy’s father wasn’t a part of his life. He accepted that.”

“Really?”

“George loves me. And I love him.”

“That’s why you need to tell him.”

Amy dug another hole, the dirt flying through her hands. “I promised I’d tell him, and I will. You didn’t need to come to Sturgeon Falls for the big show.”

“I had to be here anyway. And since I’m the one who’s pushing you, it’s only fair I help you through this.”

She flopped back onto the grass and sighed. “I’m sorry I’m being snotty,” she said. “I know how hard it was for you to come back.”

Honesty compelled him to admit that if it hadn’t been for the dedication, he might not have come. “All the same, now that I’m here, I’ll stay until you get this resolved with George.” He hesitated. “And maybe I can help Kendall, too. She’s going to be devastated.”

“I know.” Amy dashed a hand across her eyes and Gabe saw tears glistening there. “I really screwed up, didn’t I?”

“You were seventeen,” Gabe said gently. “Making mistakes is part of growing up.”

“But some of us screw up worse than others.”

Gabe held her gaze. “At least you didn’t kill anyone.”

“That was an accident,” Amy said, her voice sharp.

“Accident or not, Carter’s still dead.” He forced the crash and its aftermath out of his mind. “So let’s not use the words screw up, okay? You made a mistake.”

Amy smiled through her tears. “I’m still making mistakes when it comes to men, aren’t I? Of all the men in the world, I had to fall for Kendall Van Allen’s brother.”

“Your heart doesn’t always listen to your head when it comes to love,” Gabe said, his mouth twisting. “I’m the last person to give advice on relationships.”

“What about Helen, back in Milwaukee?”

“What about her?”

“She sounds very nice.”

Gabe sighed. “She is, but I broke it off before I came up here. There was no spark between us. It wasn’t fair to her.”

Amy’s expression softened. “Oh, George and I definitely spark.”

“You can’t let a secret poison your relationship.”

“I know you’re right,” she said. She brushed the dirt off her hands and moved the snapdragons into the shade. “I told myself it didn’t matter, but the truth elbows its way between us whenever we’re together. I can hardly bear to look at him right now.” She wrapped her arms around her knees. “I’m so scared.”

“But you’re going to do it anyway. You’ve always been gutsy, Amy.”

She rolled her eyes. “Right. That’s why you have to hold my hand now.”

“You don’t really need me,” Gabe replied. “I’m just here for moral support.”

Amy reached out to touch him, looked at her dirt-stained hands and drew away. “You’ve been a real support all these years. “Carter was lucky he had you as a friend.”

“It went both ways,” Gabe answered. “Carter was a good friend to me, too.”

“Was he?”

“He was the brother I didn’t have. We didn’t always agree, but we were still there for each other.”

Amy dropped another snapdragon into a hole and pushed some dirt around it. “Does Kendall know you’re in town?”

“Yes. I’m staying at her bed-and-breakfast.”

“Oh, Gabe. Why did you do that? If Kendall finds out you’re involved with this, that you’ve kept in touch with me, you’ll spoil any chance you might have with her.”

Gabe gave Amy a smile that was devoid of humor. “I gave up any chance I had with Kendall some time ago.”

“Is she the same woman she was when you left?”

“I have no idea. She didn’t exactly welcome me with open arms.”

“I’ll wait until you leave Sturgeon Falls to tell George. Kendall will never have to know that you knew all along.”

“I’m not leaving, Amy. It’s time to put these secrets in the past.”

“You’re willing to risk a relationship with her?”

“I have no relationship with Kendall. You know that. She wants nothing to do with me.”

“But you’d be good together.”

As Amy studied him, Gabe felt his nerves jump beneath his skin. He didn’t want anyone seeing that deeply inside him. He didn’t want anyone to know him that well. “You’re a hopeless romantic, Amy.”

“I’m not the one who’s carrying a torch.”

“I am not carrying a torch for her.” He closed his eyes, blotting out the memories. “And you’re getting off the subject.”

“I worry about you, Gabe. I want you to be happy. As happy as I am with George. Except for…”

Gabe pounced on the chance to change the subject. He stood and pulled Amy to her feet. “I’m glad you found someone who makes you happy,” he said. “And I know you’re worried. But if George Krippner is half the man I think he is, he’s not going to reject you because of something that happened long ago.”

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? He’s very close to his sister.” Amy brushed her hands against her cutoffs and walked into the house with Gabe behind her. “I have no idea how I’m going to tell him. I hope he’ll realize I’m a different person than the child I used to be. But if he doesn’t?” She turned on the faucet at the kitchen sink, and Gabe saw she was still fighting tears. “Well, I guess that’s my punishment for sleeping with a married man. I can’t make this right until I tell George what I did. Until I tell him that Tommy’s father is Carter Van Allen.”