The Girl From Summer Hill (Summer Hill 1)

She didn’t tell him that last night Devlin had mentioned the starlet. They’d been talking about themselves, comparing stories of education and relationships, when he’d said that he had dated Ms. Yates, who was a very pretty, up-and-coming young actress. But then she’d met Tate. “And that was the end of me,” Devlin said. She’d left a Christmas party with Tate, and Devlin never saw her again.

When Casey didn’t answer his question, Tate glanced at her and the teasing look left his face. “I’ve never met the young woman. Don’t you know that most of what you read in those magazines and see on the Internet is a lie? If I’m seen at the same restaurant as some starlet, the next day they’ll sa

y we were meeting in secret and she’s going to leave her husband for me.” He changed lanes. “We’ve got a long drive ahead of us so why don’t you tell me about yourself? I heard you used to run Christie’s in D.C. What made you quit?”

“How do you know I wasn’t fired for being a bad cook?”

“That pie I stole,” he said. “It was as addictive as a drug. Not too sweet, a bit tart. It had a cream base but was also crunchy. The owner of a restaurant would never fire somebody who could cook like that. So you must have left for some other reason. My guess is that your leaving had something to do with the perfect boyfriend.”

For a moment Casey looked out the window at the passing scenery. Virginia really was a beautiful state. The only person she’d told the truth of what happened to make her leave the restaurant was her mother.

But right now, being isolated in the car with a man she hardly knew—but who sent electricity racing through her—with the couple cuddled in the back, was making her feel like telling the truth.

“Who was the one who did the dumping?” All humor was gone from Tate’s voice.

“He was.”

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” He sounded sympathetic.

“I don’t know.” She paused. “I wasn’t there.”

Tate waited, but when Casey said no more, he said, “I love stories. It’s a lot of why I got into acting. My mother used to tell my sister and me fascinating stories about her summers at Tattwell. I—”

“Your family owned the place? I didn’t know that. Did you—?”

“Oh, no, you don’t. You first. Tell me how he broke up with you when you weren’t there. A Post-it note? Email? Twitter? What was it?”

His tone was lightening the mood. So far she’d only been able to cry at the thought of what happened. One night over a glass of wine she’d started to tell Stacy, but wine on an empty stomach had dulled her senses so much that she didn’t continue. “None of the above,” Casey said.

“Phone message? Skywriting? He had someone else tell you?”

Casey was beginning to smile. “He didn’t tell me at all.” She looked at Tate. “I didn’t know he was gone until ten days after he left.”

Tate glanced at her with what was supposed to be a concerned look, but he couldn’t keep it. He let out a burst of laughter so loud that Jack and Gizzy stirred.

“Shhhh, you’ll wake them up.”

“Then they’ll start kissing again and I’ll start looking at you and we know how that ends. I thought you were going to hit me with a spoon over a pie. If I stole a kiss you’d probably use a tire iron. You have to divert my mind. Move to the middle and tell me everything.”

“I don’t think— Why are you slowing down?” She knew the answer. “Okay, I’m moving. But don’t touch me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. Fasten your seatbelt. Now, tell me.”

“It was all my fault,” she began.

“Let me judge for myself.”

“I took on too much, and that caused the problems. You see, Mr. Galecki—he owns Christie’s—wanted someone to bring the old place back to life.”

“So he wisely chose you.”

“Actually, I was fifth on his list of possibles, but I didn’t know that until three years later. He’s a wily old man and I think he figured me out in an instant. He told me he thought I was too young to do the job.”

“And his words lit a bomb of determination inside you?”

“Exactly,” she said. “Everyone, even my mom, told me not to take that restaurant on. I thought she doubted that I could do the work, but no, she saw through Lecki.”

“My guess is that he hired you because you were young and alive with the old I-can-do-it attitude. And you were probably very cheap.”