Caught Between a Lie and True Love (Caught Between series Book 1) (3 page)

She fiddled with the charm bracelet around her wrist, squinted at the cobweb in the corner of her hostess’s living room, and wondered if the spider was dead. Or maybe just waiting to pounce on one of the eleven other women seated around the widow’s otherwise neat and tidy room.

Come on, Spidey, show yourself. This is borrr
—

A sharp elbow jabbed her in the side.

She jolted upright, her back ramrod straight, and dragged her attention back to the Serendipity Island’s Ladies Society meeting. Everyone was looking at her and she blinked back at them, uncertain if she’d missed something important.

She slumped back against the chair.

Probably not.

Nothing important ever happened at these meetings. They were boring, boring,
boring
. She needed to get off this island before she went crazy.

She pushed the threat of insanity down deep and glanced to her left where Matilda Hannibal, the current Madame President, resided over the closely knit group.

Right now, the older woman was tapping the crystal on her watch, and her blue on blue eyes stared back at her. “Delores, are you daydreaming again?”

Old cow
, she wanted to snarl. Instead, Delores forced an apologetic smile and sucked up. “Sorry. Thank you for keeping me on task. What did I miss?”

Matilda tilted her gaze downward, leaned just a smidgen toward her, and pointed at the pad of paper on her lap. “What’s next on the agenda?”

Delores stared at the multitude of blue-gray hairs mingling with the black on the older woman’s head, wondered why she didn’t color it, then turned her focus to the pad of paper. “Dearest Olivia. She has a request for the group and asked me to pass it on.”

Matilda discreetly glanced at her watch, making Delores wonder what she had to rush off to, then nodded once. “Go ahead, Delores, you have the floor. Of course we’ll do anything for one of our own.”

And indeed, that was the truth.

At eighty-seven, Olivia was the sweet old lady who lived across the alley from Delores’s house. They’d spent many an evening seated on Olivia’s back porch, exchanging recipes and gardening tips and watching the seasons change.

Although since Brody Jackson had returned to the island, Delores hadn’t had much time to spend on anything but plotting and planning ways to get him to pop the marriage question.

And while he still hadn’t asked her to be his bride forever, he was currently her best chance to escape the boredom of this island and become somebody other than a crazy thirty-three-year-old florist destined for spinsterhood.

Olivia was also the last of the founding members, although it had been Matilda’s grandmother who had originally suggested and implemented the Society meetings, despite the general discontent of the island’s men. Which is how the old cow had become Madame President. The other women revered her, but Delores didn’t.

Another poke in the ribs brought Delores back to attention and she was ready to jab Matilda back, maybe with the pencil in her hand.

Maybe in the eye.

Maybe she’d close her eyes, take a jab, and surprise herself.

“Delores?”

She focused her thoughts, lifted her head—she didn’t need to check her notes—and glanced around the room. “Olivia’s son just returned to the island and she’d like everyone to make him feel welcome.”

“Of course we will,” Matilda said with a warm smile, then with a glance at her watch—
again
—turned her smile on the other women in the room, deliberately meeting the gaze of each one, ensuring each woman would comply with the request. “We’ll welcome her son as if he was a member of our own family, right ladies?”

Everyone around the room nodded, including Delores.

She checked her notes and continued. “She says her son is an excellent handyman, but due to the downturn in the economy, he’s been out of work for quite some time now. So if everyone could find it in their hearts to hire him for a job or two, she would appreciate it.”

“Of course. Of course.” Matilda peered down at her watch, making Delores wonder exactly what the older woman was up to, and why it was important enough to keep watching the clock. As the owner of the sole real estate office on the island, Matilda had free reign over her schedule, and she never booked appointments to show houses on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Something that Delores had always found oddly suspicious.

Beside her, Matilda addressed the members of the Society. “I’m worried about Olivia living all alone in that big old house. If her son doesn’t stay, maybe we need to take some action of our own.”

Delores thrust her arm into the air and waved her hand to get Madame President’s attention.

Matilda nodded her head in that regal fashion that made Delores want to smack her and smack her hard. Because she hated when the older woman looked down her nose at her
subjects
.

“You have the floor, Delores.”

Everyone’s focus shifted her way, and for a moment she felt the thrill of being at the center of their attention. It turned her stomach in a deliciously wicked way, like those roller coaster rides that were on the east end of the island. Up and down, around and around, until she thought for certain that she was going to throw up.

She swallowed the nausea down, lowered her arm, snapped the elastic band on her wrist, and smiled at the women in the room. Strangely, they all gasped and leaned back. “It would kill Olivia to leave her garden and the longer she’s able to stay in her own home, the better. I volunteer to check on her every day to make sure she’s okay.”

“Morning, noon, and night,” Matilda interrupted, regaining the room’s attention. “Wonderful idea, Delores. If you need assistance, you can draw up a schedule and send out reminders each day so no one forgets.”

Delores did a mental eye roll.

Blah, blah, blah. How the woman went on. Oh, where was a shovel when she needed one?

Matilda smiled at the women around the room. “It’s unanimous then. We’ll check on Olivia three times a day and help her stay in her house as long as possible.”

Delores bent over the pad of paper on her lap and scribbled a note before the old bat could heckle her some more. Like she needed help to take care of her dear elderly neighbor. Olivia was her favorite person on Serendipity Island.

Well, except for Brody…and when it came to Brody, there was no doubt in Delores’s mind that Olivia had her back.

A ping of something desperate zapped Delores hard in the back of her neck. Gripping the pencil in her hand, the wood snapped in half. She stared down at it in surprise.

An age spotted hand covered her own, extracting the broken pencil from her grip. “Is everything all right?”

“Hunky dory,” she lied.

Matilda squeezed her hand. “Good.”

Delores wanted to squeeze back until she broke a finger or three.

“We’ll make Olivia’s son welcome. That’s part of being a member of the Ladies Society. When newcomers come to the island, we treat them as if they were our own family. Right, Delores?”

“Family,” she repeated and met Matilda’s gaze with a smile of her own. “I can do that, treat them like my family.”

It had been so easy. A shovel to the back of her mother’s head. A little e-coli in her dad’s meatloaf.

No one had suspected a thing.

If Olivia’s son didn’t treat her right, Delores would make him regret it, like she’d made her own family wish they’d treated her better.

She pulled another pencil out of her purse, wet the tip against her tongue, and poised it above the paper, ready to write.

Matilda checked the notes on her lap. “Before we adjourn this meeting, I have one last order of new business. As you all know, our Mayor is unable to fulfill his term, and he handed in his resignation last night.”

A chorus of disappointed noises hummed through the room.

“Yes, it’s very sad, but we must move on and be prepared. I move that the Ladies Society enter the political ring, and nominate and support a Mayor’s candidate of our own.”

Into the quiet that followed her suggestion, voices exploded around the room. Matilda held up her hands for silence and the yammering settled down. “The floor is open for nominations.”

Delores raised her hand and spoke before Matilda could acknowledge her. “Brody Jackson. He’s perfect for the job. Young enough to handle the demands long into the future. Smart, well-liked—”

Without looking her way, Matilda interrupted, her voice edged with steel. “Thank you, Delores. Anyone else?”

She stared at the other woman’s profile. The old bat had cut her off and was ignoring her on purpose. Delores lowered her arm, touched the elastic band around her wrist, and snapped it.

Hard
.

Pain radiated through the bones in her wrist and hand, bringing her anger back under control.

Indignant, Delores crossed her arms over her chest and silently refused to record anything else until the old bat acknowledged Brody as a candidate.

But when no one else came forward with a nomination, Delores’s lips twitched into the beginning of a smile.

Beside her, Matilda clapped her hands together and spoke into the silence. “I recommend the group nominate Judge Harry Malone.”

Delores’s head snapped around.

Hanging Harry? What a laugh. Delores had seen him drive off the ferry with his brand new motorhome. Then he’d taken a roundabout route home as though he was sneaking the humongous unit past the island’s residents.

Everyone knew Hanging Harry was ready to retire. Everyone except Matilda, that is, who only saw what Matilda wanted to see.

Delores felt her hope die.

Half the women in the room blindly followed Matilda’s every whim. The other half were secretly crushing over the Judge. And since he spent most of his waking hours on the golf course, he was golfing buddy to most of the men on the island.

Brody would be no match for the older man.

But she had to try. The only thing better than being a star quarterback’s popular and much in demand wife would be reigning over the island citizens as
First Lady
.

She gritted her teeth and raised her hand, once again speaking without permission, determined to fight for her man. “Brody would be the better choice.”

Matilda turned, her face like stone. “We can’t have two candidates.”

“Why not? It’s a free country.” She turned to the other women in the living room, who had all gone silent. “The Judge is ancient, ready to retire. We need someone young, someone who will be in the position for many years to come.”

Matilda huffed out a sigh. “Fine, we’ll take a vote—”

Delores didn’t wait for her to finish. She stuck her hand in the air and asked, “All those in favor of Brody?”

Slowly, one by one, five of the younger women sided with her. Brody was, after all, one of the few single men currently living on the island, and Delores knew that she wasn’t the only one hoping he’d pop the question.

She did, however, plan to be the only one to get him down the aisle, no matter what it took.

Matilda grabbed Delores’s wrist and yanked it down. Then she gave each society member one of her steely-eyed glares, and raised her own arm. “Make the right choice, ladies. All those in favor of Judge Malone?”

Ten hands went up in the air, including those who had originally voted for Brody.

Matilda smirked and pushed to her feet. “The meeting is adjourned. All those in favor?”

Everyone raised their hand, including Delores. She pushed to her feet, intent on escape before she did something she’d later regret, like drill her fist into the manipulative bat’s nose.

But Matilda laid one hand on her forearm and stopped her escape. “I’d like to have a word with you.”

Teeth gritted, Delores counted off the seconds as the women filed out of Matilda’s house. In all that time, the old bat’s claws remained firmly around Delores’s wrist, pressing the tiny charms of her bracelet into the tender flesh.

The pain was almost exquisite.

As the last of the members departed, Matilda released her arm and pushed to her feet.

Delores met her gaze, ready to give her a resounding
no
.

“My dear, I have a huge favor to ask of you.”

Lips pressed together, she glared at her hostess.

Matilda’s eyes narrowed, magnifying the lines at the outer edges of her eyes. “I want custody of Hope and I believe you can help me with that.”

Delores exhaled. “What’s in it for me?”

“Brody. I know you want to marry him, and when that happens, you don’t want to have an annoying teenager underfoot, do you? One, I might add, that is sure to draw his attention away from you.”

“It’s as though you can read my mind,” Delores breathed, now totally on board with whatever the older woman suggested.

“One of my many talents,” Matilda said with a small smile, which made Delores want to gag. “All you have to do is steer Hope toward the idea of living with me. I promise I won’t breathe a single word of this to anyone.”

“That’s it?” Getting Hope to want to live with her grandma instead of trying to convince Brody to send the brat off to boarding school seemed a whole lot easier. For some strange reason, Brody seemed
attached
to the girl he’d only known for four months. She smiled, and ignoring Matilda who backed up a few inches, gathered up her things. “I’ll do it. But if one word of this gets back to Brody, I’ll make you regret it.”

Delores escaped out the front door, slipped through Olivia’s yard, and crossed the alley into her own yard. In the quiet comfort of her home, she dropped her purse onto the dining room table, then threw herself face up on the couch, and squealed.

Mayor Brody Jackson had such a nice ring to it.

An even better sound was
First Lady Delores Peabody-Jackson
.

CHAPTER FOUR

Serendipity Island would be the idyllic place to live if it wasn’t for the fact that guilt and obligation had forced Brody’s return.

He was still finding his way on the island. Fixing the house his parents had left him when they’d retired and moved to a luxurious condo on the other side of the island.

Wondering what to do with all the hours between sunrise and sunset that his forced retirement had given him.