The House on Blackberry Hill (Jewell Cove 1)

“You didn’t know? He didn’t tell you?” Jess smacked her forehead with her hand. “No wonder you were still so angry! Our cousin is so stupid. He never comes right out and says what he means anymore.”

“I’ve noticed that,” Abby remarked dryly.

“Well, he did get burned. Like the night Erin and Josh got engaged and he made a fool of himself at the Rusty Fern. We were all there.”

“Erin was dating Tom?”

“Oh, yeah. She was vacationing here with her family that summer before going off to basic. Tom was young too, and full of piss and vinegar as our mom would say. We all knew he was sweet on her. And then Josh came home from school and swept her off her feet.”

“Tom didn’t fight for her?”

Sarah wiped her fingers on her paper towel. “He and Josh had grown up like brothers. Bryce, too. We’d been through a lot as a family that year. Our dad died in a fishing accident and Josh was a mess. When Tom knew Erin felt the same way for Josh, he stepped aside. Problem was, he’d fallen in love with her anyway. I think a part of him hoped the thing with Josh would burn hot and fast and flame out. Or that Josh would go back to med school and that would be the end of it and Erin would come back to him. Only it didn’t work that way. Erin spent Christmas with our family that year. It was barely four months after they met, and Josh proposed.”

“That’s fast.”

Jess smiled. “They were happy. But Tom … he hadn’t gotten over her. The night of their engagement announcement he got drunk, stood on a table, and told everyone that Erin was marrying the wrong man. That she could have done better with him and how he’d had her first anyway. It was quite an uncomfortable few minutes until Bryce came in and told him to get off the table or he’d take him to jail, brother or not.”

Abby tried to imagine Tom standing on a table in a drunken state and making that sort of announcement. Not Tom, who kept his emotions hidden. Who hid behind a slick exterior of charm without really showing his true self. Even the night he’d kissed her, he’d hedged. He’d only done it because he wanted to. No deeper explanation. Just an impulse. Abby suspected the closest she’d gotten to seeing the real Tom Arseneault was probably the fire burning in his eyes as he told his cousin the first punch was free.

“That doesn’t sound like something Tom would do.”

“Oh, the old Tom would. He’s changed since then,” Sarah confirmed. “Josh and Erin got married and Tom retreated to his cottage out at Fiddler’s Rock. We hardly saw him for a long while. We really thought that once they were married, Tom would get over her. But he didn’t. He put all his t

ime and energy into his business. Seriously, you’re the first woman he’s shown any interest in at all. We took it as a good sign.”

“Kind of backfired.” Abby sipped at the wine. Goodness, Jess really did know how to pick them. First the pinot at her shop and now this lovely bold shiraz. “This is really good, Jess.”

“Drink up.” She raised her still-full glass. “And cheers. To new friends and new babies.”

They touched glasses and laughed, a new comfort level settling in around them. Friends. Twenty-four hours ago Abby wouldn’t have thought it. But Jess and Sarah had an easy way about them that was hard to resist for very long.

By nine-thirty the pizza was down to two lonely slices and Jess had opened Abby’s bottle of wine. Abby was still on the floor, leaning back against a chair munching on potato chips as she watched the two women with affection. It had been the best evening. She didn’t really want it to end. “Know what? I think we should have a pajama party.” It was a crazy suggestion. She hadn’t had a sleepover since she was twelve years old.

Jess giggled. “I’m on the downhill slide to thirty and you want to have a slumber party? Are we going to get into your parents’ liquor cabinet and sneak out the windows to meet boys?”

Abby grinned. “I think the ship has sailed on the liquor. And sneak out one of those windows and you’ll break your legs. Sarah would have to drive us to the hospital.”

“We have a doctor in the family. Besides, maybe Josh will take a shine to you, Abby.”

“No way. I’m not getting in the middle of those two again.”

“In the middle?” Jess put on an innocent look. “But if there’s nothing between you and Tom…”

“That’s what Tom said,” Sarah confirmed, waggling her fingers for the chip bag. “Nothing between you at all.”

It stung that he’d said that to them and Abby set her lips in annoyance.

Jess leaned closer. “Unless he lied. Look at her, Sarah! She’s not saying anything. Come on, Abby, out with it!”

“If that’s what Tom said, then it must be right,” she hedged. And if she didn’t want there to be anything between them, why did his blithe dismissal of their kiss get on her nerves so much?

“You’re a terrible liar. Something has happened, hasn’t it?”

They both stared at Abby, looking for the juicy details.

“He just kissed me, that’s all.”

The resulting whoops through the room made her grin crookedly. “Oh, shut up.”