Maggie Sloan burst into the kitchen through the front door, a brown paper bag on each hip and her two young sons, Aidan and Tyler, charging in behind her. “Not staying,” she said, hefting the bags onto the counter by the sink. “I’m dropping the boys off to swim in a friend’s pool. Why did my parents never worry when my sisters and I took off to the brook? Freezing-cold water, slippery rocks, slugs, leeches, spiders, ticks. Never occurred to them we’d be anything but fine.”
“And you were fine,” Olivia pointed out.
Maggie grinned. “Yes, we were. Even after Dad died and Mum started buying goats, we never were seriously hurt. The occasional cuts and bruises, but that’s to be expected. Which,” she added emphatically, “I will remind myself if Aidan and Tyler come back with Band-Aids on their knees. Cuts and scrapes I can handle. I don’t want broken bones, concussions—” She sighed. “I’ll stop now.”
Felicity helped Maggie unload the bags, an array of fresh vegetables they would use at tomorrow’s party. In her short time back in Knights Bridge, she’d discovered Maggie was far more organized in her work as a superb caterer than she was in her home life, but she seemed to thrive in the chaos.
Aidan and Tyler ran through the mudroom out to the terrace. Door banging, dog barking, boys yelling happily for no apparent reason.
“I’ll make them wash off the dog slobber before they get in the pool. I didn’t swim in a pool until I was in my teens at least,” Maggie said. She shut a cupboard and turned to Felicity. “Tomorrow’s going to be great. You’re not nervous, are you?”
“Just enough to keep me on my toes.”
“I’ll be here early if you need to find me.”
But she didn’t wait for an answer, instead heading out through the mudroom with such energy one of the empty bags blew off the counter. Olivia started to reach for it, but Felicity grabbed it, folded it and tucked it next to the refrigerator with a few other bags. “Are you going back up to the barn?” she asked.
“Not yet. Dylan’s meeting me here,” Olivia said.
Felicity glanced out the window above the sink and noticed Maggie and her sons heading through the side yard to her van. “I could use a dip in a cold brook right now myself.”
“Not me,” Olivia said with a smile. “I’d have to dash to the bathroom.”
They laughed, and Felicity took a moment to double-check Maggie’s groceries. Of course, everything was there, in order. As much as Felicity enjoyed the company of both women now, she hadn’t stayed in touch with Maggie or Olivia when they’d all been living and working in Boston. They’d run into each other on occasion when she visited Knights Bridge. Felicity remembered craving anonymity when she’d moved to the city, relishing a chance to do things without the intimacy of life in her small hometown.
She did like to think no one in Knights Bridge had a clue she’d slept with Gabe Flanagan the summer before college. It was their secret, and no matter what she did with the rest of her life, he would always and forever be her first lover.
She put that thought out of her mind and walked back up to the barn, past the sign for The Farm at Carriage Hill with its signature clump of blossoming chives, designed by Olivia herself. Her career change from full-time Boston graphic designer to innkeeper hadn’t been as radical as Felicity’s from financial analyst to event planner, but it hadn’t been without its drama, either. It had led, after all, to Dylan, his long-lost grandmother, marriage, a new home, new businesses—and, now, a baby on the way.
There was Buster, too, of course. The big dog had appeared on Olivia’s doorstep in the weeks before she’d written to Dylan in San Diego. She often joked he’d adopted her rather than the other way around.
Olivia also had dealt with the emotional and career fallout of a vampire friend who’d sucked her dry and stolen her job—something like that, anyway. Felicity had picked up bits and pieces of the story since her move to Knights Bridge but gathered the friend was now an ex-friend and no longer a factor in Olivia’s life. She was generous and trusting by nature, and the betrayal had obviously been difficult for her.
Felicity wondered if there was more behind Nadia Ainsworth’s trip to Knights Bridge and invitation to lunch than a desire to help Gabe and curiosity about her, the boot camp and his hometown itself. Whatever the case, Felicity would mention her when she spoke to Russ Colton about security tomorrow before the boot camp got rolling.
And Gabe?
Perfectly capable of watching his own back.
As she reached her Land Rover, she mentally went through everything that needed to be done before tomorrow’s party. Satisfied she had finished here, she got in her Rover and drove back out Carriage Hill Road and onto her quiet river road.
Gabe had left her a note on the kitchen counter.
Meet me at our old swimming hole. It’s hot. Time to cool off.
She let out a long, controlled breath.
Their swimming hole.
They’d tied a rope to a branch and nailed ladder rungs to the tree trunk to allow them to swing out from the steep bank and drop into the water without killing themselves. The rope had disappeared, and most of the rungs had been dismantled or rotted years ago.
But Gabe had been out to the Sloans’ for a rope...
And it was hot. Felicity decided she could use a break before she tackled her final checklist for tomorrow’s party.
Why not take a refreshing dip in the river?
* * *
Felicity changed into a swimsuit, added shorts and a T-shirt over it and slipped into flip-flops. Before she could change her mind, she set off on a path down through the trees toward the river.
