Forbidden Fling (Wildwood 1)

Laughter broke out in the restaurant again, drawing Delaney’s gaze to the back room, where the open space was crowded with people closer to her own age. The huge television hanging on one wall played a Giants game.

Delaney scanned the space, searching for a head of golden blond and a smile that lit the room. She hadn’t seen or spoken to Ethan since she’d dumped the building permit application on his desk and he’d discounted both her abilities and the importance of this project in the scope of her life.

Her gaze grabbed hold of him where he sat at the end of a large table of men around his age, and even still pissed and hurt, the sight made her stomach float. It was a damn good thing this renovation had forced them to distance themselves, because she’d realized in their time apart that she was truly crazy about him.

Allowing that to grow would have ended in nothing but heartache.

Her insides jittered with the knowledge that she would face a lot of people in town here tonight for the first time in decades. People who both loved and hated her. She didn’t doubt Jack, Wayne, and Austin would pass through at some point, and she only hoped she could avoid direct contact with them. She wouldn’t back down from a confrontation, but she certainly wouldn’t instigate one either.

She took a deep breath, stepped toward the door, and her cell rang. Delaney gritted her teeth and sank back to a spot alongside the building to pull the phone from her bag.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Delaney,” a rough female voice responded. “It’s Avery. I know I don’t sound like myself . . .”

Delaney’s face broke into a smile, and excitement rushed into her belly. “Hey!” Just hearing Avery’s voice made a long-lost sensation of warmth and belonging swamp her. Tears of love and loss rushed to her eyes. Regret swelled in her chest. The urge to apologize for everything she’d done wrong as a teenager, for leaving too soon, seeped in. “How are you? Phoebe told me you’ve been sick.”

Avery cleared her throat. When she spoke again, she sounded more like herself. “Better now, but yeah. It hit me pretty hard. Sorry I didn’t call earlier. Phoebe told me about the bar. Man, that sucks. I want to help—I really do. You always take the brunt of everything, and it’s not fair. But, honestly, I’m always in the red. Phoebe floats me five hundred dollars every month, which is the only reason the collection agencies aren’t coming after me. But we all have our own problems. Mine are no rougher than yours. It’s all relevant, right?”

“God, it’s great to talk to you.”

“You, too. I’m sorry it’s been so long.”

And just like that, the eight-year gap closed and they were sisters again. Delaney closed her eyes, pushing tears down her cheeks. “Me, too. And I’m sorry it took this situation for me to call.” She tightened her muscles for the answer to her next question. “Have you heard from Chloe?”

“Off and on. She’s . . . well . . . she’s a nomad. Doesn’t stay any one place very long. Don’t tell Phoebe, but part of that five hundred goes to Chloe.”

The guilt expanded, and her tears flowed. Delaney pressed her fingers to closed lids to stem the flow. “But she’s okay?”

“I think so.” Avery laughed softly. “I guess we’re all survivors in our own way.”

“I guess. Phoebe said you and David are struggling? Do you think you’ll be able to work it out?”

“Nope,” she said, clipped and matter-of-fact. “I got the final divorce papers in the mail today.”

“Oh, Avery . . .” She slid her hand down to cover her lips. “I’m . . . God, I’m so sorry. That must be so hard.”

“Yeah,” she said on a heavy exhale. “It’s been a really long, rough road. I’ll be okay. You know, we’re always okay, but man . . .”

Delaney thought of Avery on the other side of the country, feeling abandoned by her husband, with no family to support her, and her heart broke. Enough was enough. “Bet you could use some serious Phoebe time right about now, huh?”

Avery chuckled. “Oh, God, could I.”

“If I bought you a plane ticket, do you think you could find time to come out? I’ll pick you up at the airport. I’m staying with Phoebe, so we’ll all be together. You can even sleep in the guest room with me—it’ll be like when we were kids—or I’ll take the couch. During the day you can hang at Phoebe’s shop or pound a few nails with me.” Delaney laughed. “Wouldn’t Dad just roll over in his grave if he knew you and I were wielding hammers in his bar?”

Avery burst out laughing, and the truly light sound gave Delaney hope.

“I’d really like to share my plans for the place with you,” she said. “Explain what that means for all of us in the future. It’s good, Avery. Really good. I want to do right by you and Chloe. I know it’s taken me too damn long to do it, and it isn’t the same, but . . . I really do.”

“Delaney, don’t. You did your best, and you held us together until Phoebe got there. You did more than enough.”

She couldn’t accept that, but she didn’t want to argue either. “The weather’s perfect right now. At night, the three of us can hang on Phoebe’s porch with a few bottles of wine and talk. It would be great. What do you say?”

She held her breath and prayed her sister said yes.

“Well, since I lost my two biggest clients while I had bronchitis, and they were my only daily deliveries . . . and since I’m not making any money anyway . . . and since I don’t have anything to stay here for . . .”

“I can have a first-class ticket in your in-box by midnight.”