Half Moon Hill: A Destiny Novel Read online

  Something in the simple question made her want to cry. It’s because Tessa assumes everything is still good between us—and I don’t know why it isn’t. “Um . . . yeah.”

  “So . . . I have a weird question to ask you,” Tessa began then, sounding tentative.

  And Anna wanted to hang up the phone. She’d had enough weird today to last her whole life and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.

  “The summer carnival starts on Wednesday,” Tessa went on, “and I wondered if you’d want to go with a big group of us.”

  Anna was confused. “That’s a weird question?”

  “Well, the weird part is . . . Jeremy wanted me to ask you. And I don’t know how serious you and Duke are. Like, if you two are way into each other and it’s all hot and heavy, totally feel free to say no—no problem. The thing is—I couldn’t really tell Jeremy you were seeing somebody because of Duke not wanting anyone to know he’s in town yet. So I told him I’d ask. And I thought I should. Just in case. Because he’s totally smitten with you, Anna. And don’t get me wrong—I love Duke—but . . . well, I couldn’t help thinking how fun it would be if you and Jeremy hit it off, too.”

  Anna just stood there listening to Tessa rattle on, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. And when she finally finished, Anna was stunned. She’d known Jeremy was taken with her yesterday, but she hadn’t thought any farther ahead than that. She’d mainly been thinking about getting home to her man. The one who didn’t want her anymore.

  She asked a necessary question. “Does Lucky know?”

  “He noticed Jeremy was into you. How could he not have? And he just said it looked like Duke had some competition. He’s not a buttinski like Mike. Even if Duke is his best friend. So I think . . . whatever you want to do would be fine with him.”

  Anna quickly weighed her options. Duke didn’t want her. Jeremy did.

  The answer seemed pretty simple.

  So, raising her voice enough that Duke might hear it through the open windows, she said, “Well then, yeah, I’d love to come. Tell Jeremy I’m glad he asked you to invite me and I’ll look forward to seeing him.”

  “Are people so unhappy when they love?”

  Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera

  Eighteen

  “So what’s up between you and my sister?” Lucky asked the next day as he held a plank of pale yellow clapboard while Duke nailed it in place. Anna had just left for a shift at the bookstore, and he supposed Lucky had saved the question until she was gone.

  Duke kept his eyes on what he was doing as he said, “Less than was up before. Why?”

  “Just wondered. Since she’s going to the summer carnival with Tessa’s brother on Wednesday.”

  “Hmm,” Duke replied. He’d pretty much figured that out from overhearing Anna’s phone call yesterday, and he knew he had no one to blame but himself. But on the other hand, he saw it as just saving himself from getting any further into . . . caring about her. Being attached to her. He’d found it strangely easy to be attached to Anna Romo.

  But now it stopped.

  And she could move on to somebody who made sense for her, somebody the whole town of Destiny would approve of. Hell, probably even Lucky would think it was a better idea.

  “You okay with that?” he asked Lucky as they reached for the next board.

  “With her and Jeremy? If that’s what she wants, sure. He’s a great guy. Big hero.”

  “That’s what I hear,” Duke murmured under his breath.

  Which is when he caught Lucky arching one eyebrow in his direction. “You jealous?”

  Duke met Lucky’s gaze for a second, then lowered his eyes to the clapboard as they lifted it into place. “No, brother, can’t say that I am.” Liar. The word echoed in his mind. Where had that come from?

  “Mind if I ask what happened between you and her? I mean, you two seemed . . . good together when you came over last week.” Then Lucky pinned him with a hard look. “You danced with her, dude.”

  Again Duke gave his friend a quick glance, but drew it away to reach for the hammer in his tool belt. He knew exactly what Lucky was getting at—for Duke Dawson to dance with a girl, that kind of dancing, to fast music . . . well, to someone who knew him well, it probably seemed like one step below a marriage proposal. But he decided to play it off light. “Guess I was a little drunk. And I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, that’s all.”

  “That’s all my ass,” Lucky accused.

  Duke narrowed his gaze on his friend and reiterated, “That’s all.”

  “Okay, okay. If you say it’s fine with you for her to go out with Jeremy, then guess I’ll believe you. Just seems . . . weird to me. Like I’m not getting the whole picture. And for what it’s worth, it’s not that I’m concerned only for Anna’s sake. I’m concerned for yours, too.”

  “Well,” Duke said, hammering a nail, “you don’t have to worry about me, brother. It was my idea to slow things down.”

  At this, Lucky just gave a short nod.

  And Duke added, “It’s okay if you’re relieved. That I’m not gonna corrupt your sister any more than I already have, I mean.”

  Lucky burst out laughing—and Duke even joined in a little.

  But then a moment later, as they continued working, Lucky said, “Truth is, I was kinda surprised about you and Anna at first, but . . . then I liked the idea. Too bad it didn’t work out.”

  When Anna had come to the Destiny summer carnival last year, she’d met up with Logan, dragged him onto the ferris wheel, and kissed him. All in all, it hadn’t gone well and she’d felt silly. This year, she felt like a different person. And she was thankful that Amy and Logan seemed to have forgotten the whole thing, both of them giving her a friendly wave as they climbed onto the ferris wheel themselves.

  “Wanna ride?” Jeremy asked her, pointing toward it.

  It seemed like a bad idea—like she had bad ferris wheel vibes now. “How about a different ride?” she suggested. “Tilt-A-Whirl? Scrambler?”

  He grinned. “Ferris wheel’s too tame for you, huh? You’re a girl who needs more action?” He added a wink.

  And she said, “Something like that, I suppose,” just to keep things simple.

  Even though, in some ways, she felt more “tamed” and appreciative of gentle things than ever in her life. Destiny was quieting her soul, and she thought that was a good thing. In fact, she thought she could be on the verge of a real, lasting happiness if . . .

  Well, the if didn’t matter. Her love affair with Duke was done, whether she liked it or not. It was time to move on. Time to give Jeremy Sheridan a chance to steal her heart.

  She glanced absently toward a star-filled sky as they walked along. Please, please, let him steal it. Let him make me forget all about Duke. Let him make the whole Duke thing seem like nothing more than just . . . some good times, like Duke had called it. Her heart ached at the memory.

  “You okay?” Jeremy asked.

  “Sure—why?”

  “Just looked like you didn’t feel well there for a minute. Sure the Tilt-A-Whirl’s a good idea?”

  She nodded. “I’m fine.” She was determined to have a good time tonight if it killed her.

  So they rode a few rides. And Jeremy bought her cotton candy, which they shared. Sometimes they hung with Amy and Logan. Other times they walked around with Tessa and Lucky—who, she noticed, said nothing to her about Duke, even when she quietly thanked her brother for helping with the clapboard siding these past few days.

  “Finished it up late this afternoon,” he said. She and Amy had gone straight from a shift at the bookstore to meet the rest of them at the Whippy Dip before heading to the park, so this was news to her.

  And since Lucky and Duke had been working their way around the house, starting on one side, wrapping around to the back and other side, leaving the front for last, it excited her to think the next time she saw her house, the front would look so different. “I can’t wait to see.”

  “It loo
ks good,” he told her with a matter-of-fact nod as they stood talking in the midway—and, foolishly, she almost wanted to ask him about Duke. Has Duke said anything about me? Do you know what happened between us? Is there any way to fix it? But then she got hold of herself, remembering: Why would I want a guy who doesn’t want me? And she remembered she’d come here with Jeremy—who was a great guy, a handsome guy, a sweet guy, and that it would make much more sense to focus her attention on him.

  So instead she just confirmed with Lucky that he hadn’t mentioned working on the house to Mike, now not only because of the hovering factor but because of keeping Duke’s presence just between them.

  “Don’t worry,” Lucky said. “He’s so freaked out about this baby thing that the last thing I want to do is give him something else to grumble about.”

  She turned then to see Jeremy surrounded by a small crowd of people, all of them smiling, clearly glad to have the hometown boy back in the fold. Time and again tonight they’d been stopped by various Destiny-ites, not to fawn over the long-lost Anna Romo for a change, but over Jeremy Sheridan.

  What was it like to have that many people care about you, to have a long, special history with them, to be such a valued part of a community? When she’d come here, the idea of that had overwhelmed her—there’d been too many people and too much care, and it had felt almost artificial in a way because none of them had really known her; they’d only known the little girl she’d been before she’d gone away. And so she’d retreated to Half Moon Hill—just like Duke had, even if for very different reasons. But now they had come to know her, and she to know them, and she began to like the idea of . . . more than just fitting here, and being able to function here—but the idea of really being a part of it, building memories with the people here, having what Jeremy had.

  “Sorry about that,” he said with a smile when he rejoined her. “My old basketball coach from high school and his wife wanted to say hello—and then some of my parents’ friends.”

  She shook her head. “Nothing to be sorry for—it’s nice.”

  He tilted his head and gave her a speculative grin. “You probably got a lot of that when you first came home, too, didn’t you?”

  She tried to go with a light version of the truth. “Kind of. Though I didn’t really know anyone, so it was a little different for me.”

  He nodded as if he realized how unusual her own return to Destiny had been. Maybe Tessa had filled him in. “But things are easier now, right?”

  She nodded. “Getting that way.”

  “Good,” he said. “You’re a nice person and you’ve been through a lot, so you deserve things to be easy now.” And then he kissed her. Right there in the middle of the midway between the swirling lights of the rides, the bells and whistles of games, and various and sundry residents of Destiny strolling leisurely past.

  It wasn’t a long, passionate kiss, but it wasn’t just short and sweet, either. His hand was on her cheek and his mouth was firm yet gentle on hers. It was . . . a nice kiss.

  And when it was done, Jeremy cast her a slightly embarrassed smile—though his eyes shone a glassy blue beneath the lights and she could tell he felt something, that he wanted her. “Sorry about that, too,” he said. “But I can’t blame that one on anybody else but me. I don’t usually go kissing girls I barely know in the middle of a crowd, but guess I was just . . . swept up in the moment.”

  Anna could barely nod—because it had surprised her so much that she was still trying to process it. And that’s when a group of guys around their age approached, one of them saying, “Hey Sheridan, heard you were back in town!” just as another said, “JerSher, back in the house!”

  Jeremy looked up with a laugh and she could tell he was glad to see them—probably old high school buddies. She watched as a bunch of “guy hugs” and backslapping ensued—and just then a hand touched her arm and she turned to see Mike.

  “Hey,” she said with a smile.

  He returned it. “So . . . you and Jeremy Sheridan, huh?”

  And like an old habit, her defenses went up. “You have a problem with that now?”

  But he actually laughed as he gave his head an easy shake. “Relax, because no, I still think he’s a great guy. And who you’re seeing is none of my business anyway, right?” He sounded surprisingly self-deprecating for Mike. “But I figure if you’re actually seeing a guy I approve of, I may as well not keep it a secret.”

  Well, what a relief. And a pleasant surprise. Even her overprotective big brother liked her seeing Jeremy. It was easy to tell, in fact, that everyone who’d seen them together tonight liked the idea of her and Jeremy. Destiny’s favorite-son-turned-war-hero with Destiny’s long-lost-child-princess—it probably seemed like . . . a fairy tale. One she could actually buy into. It would be nice to be “his girl.” He would treat her like a queen; she already knew that. On his arm, she’d become as deeply embedded into the community as he was. She had come to love the people of Destiny—and if she was with Jeremy, she’d naturally become someone they would love in return. And they wouldn’t love just the memory of her as a little girl, or the idea of who they wanted her to be—they would really love her. And it would be the perfect happy ending to the tragic nightmare that had started when she was taken all those years ago as a child of five.

  It sounded pretty great to her.

  She only wished his kiss had made her feel the same zing she experienced just by catching a glimpse of Duke walk past her window.

  She only wished the very thought of her wildman didn’t make her long to be back in his arms without a thought for who loved her or why. She’d felt so safe there. She’d felt appreciated and desired for exactly who she was at her very core, no trying necessary, no particular memory or image she was trying to live up to.

  But the same thing she’d had to keep reminding herself for the past few days came back to her now, too. Duke doesn’t want you anymore. And he obviously never cared as much as you did. So no matter how it seemed, you have to let go of that—you have to move on.

  “Fun house?”

  She looked up to find Jeremy back at her side. And Lord, he was handsome. Tawny-haired, blue-eyed, lean but muscular body, perfect smile. But what seemed most important at the moment was—he appreciated her. He wanted her in his life. So she smiled back at him and said, “Sure.”

  The rest of the night was a whirlwind for Anna. So much going on, so many people, so much fun. And it really was fun—once she let herself go, once she stopped thinking about Duke.

  Of course, there were more serious moments—like when the group of them ran into Jenny Brody and her husband, Mick. While Mick talked to Lucky and the rest of them, Anna asked Jenny how things were going, and Jenny said, “Did you hear about what happened between me and Rachel at the party?”

  Anna hadn’t, and according to Jenny, “I said horrible things to her. About her not wanting to be pregnant. And the worst part is, I meant them. I didn’t want to mean them, but . . . it was just hard to hear her complaining about it. And then I stomped off in a huff, like . . . a baby.” She stopped, sighing at the irony. “I’m afraid I’ve ruined our friendship forever.”

  “You can’t help how you felt in the moment,” Anna told her. “And you can’t take back how you reacted. But just give it a little time . . . and maybe it’ll work itself out.”

  Jenny was hard to convince, though. “I was really horrible, Anna. I mean, I might be entitled to my feelings, but . . . ugh, jealousy is such a horrible thing. I can’t believe I was so ugly about it.”

  “Well, maybe Rachel would love to just let it go, too,” she suggested.

  But Jenny still shook her head. “I saw her tonight, a little while ago. I tried to smile at her and she looked away. Just plain looked away. It was awful.”

  The truth was—hearing about Jenny’s problems at least helped distract Anna from her own. Though she wished she’d felt she’d helped Jenny more, in the end just advising her to be patient and not beat herself up
over it. “We’re all human,” Anna reminded her. “We all make mistakes.” God knew she’d made a few. And she’d probably make a few more. But she was doing her best and she’d come to the conclusion that most people were.

  It was later, when Jeremy suggested the ferris wheel again and Anna agreed this time, that he kissed her some more. Longer this time. And it was . . . romantic. Warm summer night. Charming, handsome man. It was the kind of moment young girls dreamed of and old women remembered with wistful sighs.

  Only it’s with the wrong guy.

  When the pesky thought entered her head, she ignored it and kept kissing him. She shut it out. She didn’t want to ruin it. She wanted to one day be the old woman looking back on this with a wistful sigh.

  I can have it all. I can have the perfect Destiny romance with the perfect Destiny guy. I can make Mike happy—I can make the whole town happy. Oh God, her parents in Florida—wait until they heard, because she already felt pretty darn confident that they’d love her being with Jeremy Sheridan, too.

  When finally the kisses ended, Jeremy gave her a sexy, dreamy sort of look, his eyes falling half shut, to say, “I knew coming home was gonna be good, but I didn’t know it was gonna be this good. I’m so glad you’re here, Anna.”

  She tried to relax, told herself to feel happy.

  She heard herself force out some words. “Me too.”

  But as she stepped off the ferris wheel hand in hand with her brand new war hero a few minutes later, she realized it was the first time she’d ever missed being called Daisy.

  When she got home that night, the house lay still and dark. She’d almost gotten used to that again—to the emptiness, to knowing Duke would rather sleep in the woods than with her.

  They’d worked hard to keep their distance from each other ever since that last heartbreaking conversation—and it had helped that she’d been scheduled to work at Under the Covers every day since and that Lucky had come over bright and early each day to help turn her house a buttery shade of yellow.