“You okay?” Abby asked.
“Sure,” she lied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Maybe because you’re finally figuring out that you ought to be giving Will a chance.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jess insisted. “Don’t make too big a deal out of it. I don’t intend to.”
“It’s probably just one of those computerized match-ups, anyway,” Abby consoled her.
“More than likely,” Jess agreed. “It’s just as well he won’t be there. All we do is argue lately, anyway.” She forced a smile. “We’d probably better head over to the house. Gram likes to get dinner on the table promptly at one on Sundays.”
Abby hesitated, a worried frown puckering her brow. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Absolutely.” She plastered a smile on her face, more to practice for the rest of the family than out of any belief that Abby would buy it. “I can’t wait to see Dad’s designs.”
“Me, too,” Abby admitted, following her down the stairs. “He swears to me his cost projections are very reasonable, at least for the attic renovation. Did you know he was designing a house, too? What’s that about?”
Jess nodded. “I mentioned something about maybe building one on the property if I ever have a family, and Dad ran with it. I told him it wasn’t anything I’d need in the immediate future, but you know Dad.”
“He’s put two and two together where you and Will are concerned and is ready to reserve the church,” Abby said, giving her a sympathetic look. “Of course, if you and Will stop playing games and get your signals straight—”
Jess’s scowl effectively silenced her sister, at least for the moment. Now all she had to do was suffer through dinner and look over those sketches without letting on that she was bothered by Will’s absence. If she passed this test, maybe she ought to try out for Bree’s theater company.
Will’s date was rapidly turning into a disaster. He’d been so distracted that the woman, a lawyer from Annapolis who’d once worked with Connor in Baltimore, lost patience.
“Why did you ask me out?” Anna Lofton asked eventually.
Will forced himself to meet her gaze. She had dark brown eyes that seemed to see right through him. He imagined that worked well for her in a courtroom interrogation.
“It seemed as if we had several things in common,” he said.
“I thought the same thing,” she said, leaning forward. “But you haven’t really been here since we sat down. Are you already involved with someone else?”
“Absolutely not,” he said hurriedly, startled by her perceptiveness, but unwilling to acknowledge the accuracy of her assessment.
She laughed. “That answer came way too fast. Who is she? The girl who got away?”
Will sighed. “I never had her in the first place,” he admitted. “And I’m truly sorry about the way this date has gone. I never should have asked you out for today. It was a knee-jerk reaction.”
She studied him curiously. “To what?”
“Believe me, if I told you, it would only make me look like a worse jerk than you must think I am now.”
She actually laughed at that. “Now I’m seeing that self-deprecating sense of humor I liked in your emails.”
Will grinned. “Should we try this again another day?” he asked. “It might go better.”
Anna shook her head. “Not until you get this other woman out of your system,” she said. “If that happens, call me. I like you, Will Lincoln, but I don’t want to waste my time. Thanks for lunch, though.” She looked around. “If nothing else, I should thank you for introducing me to Chesapeake Shores. I like this town. I have no idea why I’ve never been down here before. I’ll have to come for the weekend next time.”
“There’s a great inn,” Will said, then winced.
“Why do you look as if you regret telling me that?” she asked.
“The woman who owns it…” he began.
Anna’s eyes lit up as she caught on. “Ah, she’s the one. Now I really will have to come back. What’s the name of this inn?”
“The Inn at Eagle Point,” he said reluctantly. “You’ll love it there. It has terrific views of the water and a great chef.”
“Is this woman of yours the chef, too?”
“No, just the owner.”
Anna stood up. “Well, maybe I’ll see you around before too long,” she told him.
Will dropped cash on the table for the bill, then walked her to her car. “Again, I really am sorry about how this went. It’s certainly not a very good reflection on Lunch by the Bay’s matchmaking skills.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think the match was great. Unfortunately, you just happen to have unresolved feelings for someone else. I’ll bet you didn’t tell the computer that.”
Will chuckled. “Hardly. I try not to tell anyone that. Unfortunately, in this town almost everyone already knows.”
“Sounds like the curse of small-town living,” Anna said. “Tell Connor hello for me if you run into him.”
“I will,” he promised. “Drive safely.”
He watched her put her sexy little sports car into gear and then drive off. Only when she was out of sight did he sigh. Under any other circumstances, maybe even on another day, Anna would have intrigued him.
Instead, he knew she’d just been a substitute for Jess, a way to prove to Jess and everyone else that she wouldn’t always have him tied into knots. Ironically, though, what this afternoon had proved was exactly the opposite.
9
Jess tried to work up some enthusiasm for her father’s sketches on Sunday afternoon. Mick regarded her curiously when she merely nodded from time to time and occasionally muttered, “Nice.”
“Okay, that’s it,” he said finally, clearly losing patience. “I did these for you, Jess. Have you lost interest already?”
Jess bristled at the accusation, which sounded all too familiar. Her father had had a very hard time accepting her ADD. More than once in the early days before her diagnosis, he’d suggested she simply wasn’t applying herself in school. After four children who’d all been overachievers, Jess had been a frustration
