Just Married! (15 page)

Charlie nodded, then leaned over and placed a kiss on Amanda’s cheek. The tension between the two still hung in the air, but Vivian read pain in both husband and wife’s eyes, as if they wanted to scale the wall keeping them apart, and didn’t know how. “I’ll be home after lunch.”

A moment later, the two men were gone, leaving Amanda and Vivian alone. Amanda’s gaze, however, lingered on the spot where Charlie had sat earlier.

“Do you want some more ice cream?” Vivian asked. “I’ll pop inside and get you a refill, or make you up a sundae, if you want.”

Amanda jerked to attention. “Huh? Oh, sorry. No, I’m fine.”

“Charlie’s heartbroken, Amanda. You can see it in his face.”

Amanda looked away, her heart-shaped face filled
with clouds. “I know. Everyone expects us to be all happy, to be lovey-dovey every second, to go everywhere together, but…” She sighed. “All we do is argue. We’re not acting like newlyweds at all. It’s like…we can’t talk anymore. We try and try, and just go in circles.”

“Do you think you got married too fast?”

Tears filled Amanda’s eyes, and Vivian wished she hadn’t asked the question. “No. I just think maybe we married the wrong people. I mean…I love Charlie, I love him more than anything, but we can’t seem to make this work. When we were dating, it was all so easy. We had our own lives, then we had us together, know what I mean? But then we got married, and everything changed. I guess we just got off on the wrong foot, especially with a baby already on the way and everything.” She pressed a hand to her stomach.

While they’d been growing up, and in the weeks she’d been here, Vivian had never seen two people more suited for each other than Charlie and Amanda, despite the difficulties they’d been having lately. If those two couldn’t make a marriage work—then what hope did everyone else have? She was sure they could fix whatever problems they were having, if they just found the right path. “Have you told him how much you want your marriage to work out? Told him how much all this is bothering you?”

“He knows I want us to work. And he knows
what’s on my mind.” Then the clouds lifted a little and a light dawned in her eyes. “Well, maybe I haven’t said all that in so many words. I mean, I thought he knew me. We’ve been together so long, and he should just be able to read my mind.”

The pink, yellow and white Frozen Scoop sign hung just a few feet away, bright and happy, and the complete opposite of the image of Vivian Reilly. No one who knew her in this town would ever think she had always had such traditional dreams. “Look at this place, Amanda, and tell me how many people who knew me when I was a teenager would have ever guessed that I would open a shop like this?”

A smile crossed Amanda’s lips. “Almost none. And I don’t mean that in a mean way, just that…”

“I was never the traditional type,” Vivian finished, gesturing at her fitted V-neck black T-shirt decorated with a rhinestone beach scene, and dark wash frayed denim shorts.

The clothes she’d brought with her to St. John’s Cove because they were what people expected to see on her, not because they were what she usually wore in L.A. Because Vivian had somewhere, deep inside, been still living up to some mental image when she came back home.

“You’re right, Viv. No one ever saw you as traditional.” Amanda laughed a little. “At all.”

“I want this shop, and a few more, if everything goes well.”

“A corporate mogul in the making?” Amanda grinned. “Viv, you do surprise me.”

“My whole plan was to come into town, open the Frozen Scoop, then leave without telling anyone I owned it. I didn’t think anyone would believe that I could own a shop like this successfully.”

“Based on your past history.”

Vivian nodded. “But what if…” She paused, bit her lip, searching for the right words. For the first time in her life, Vivian Reilly felt unsure. She was launching something new here, something much bigger than a banana split. “What if who I was back then isn’t who I really am? What if this—” she waved a hand toward the Frozen Scoop sign “—is?”

“Traditional, but with a touch of fun.”

“Exactly.” She grinned. Amanda, one of her closest friends, had seen Vivian in the shop. “And no one knows that about me, or that I wanted any of those things out of my life, because I’ve never told them.”

Amanda cocked her head and studied her friend. “Why not?”

Vivian let out a long breath. “That’s a long story. For another day. All I want to say is that sometimes people can’t tell who you really are, or what you really want, unless you hang up a sign and advertise the real you.”

Amanda thought about that for a moment. “You think that’s all I have to do? Sit down and talk to
Charlie, and tell him what I really want for our marriage?”

“I’m no expert on long-term relationships, but it seems to me that you’ve been trying too hard to live up to an image, Amanda, instead of just creating the marriage that works for you and Charlie.”

As Vivian said the words, she caught her reflection in the plate-glass windows. The long, wild hair. The dark, tight-fitting clothes. She presented one image, when she really wanted people to see another one. Had she been part of the problem all along? Was she sending out one message and then wondering why people read another?

And then, another person stepped into the picture—

Colton, standing across the street, in front of the Town Hall, dressed in a neatly pressed golf shirt and khaki pants. The visual polar opposite to her. Yet, from across the street, his gaze met hers in the window, and for a moment, she thought she saw exactly the same longing in his blue eyes as she saw in her own.

Maybe Amanda wasn’t the only one trying too hard to live up to an image.

W
ITH
half his mind still on his earlier discovery, Colton stood on the steps of the Town Hall, talking with several St. John’s Cove residents about the new library. Everyone was excited about the bigger building, the technology that would be available to residents and the expanded book collection to be housed there next spring.

Just as the last person walked away, he noticed someone he knew crossing the street toward him. His pulse kicked up several notches as Vivian neared him. The sun lit her hair from above, making the red tresses seem like they were on fire. His fingers curled at his sides, aching to touch those silky tendrils, to take her in his arms and find out exactly where they stood. Because he was sure as hell tired of being on the dividing line between friends and something more.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Hello.” A grin spread across his face. “You’re up early. I thought you hated early mornings.”

“I used to. Now…” She drew in a deep breath, as if soaking up the sunshine and fresh air. “I love the mornings. Getting up, reading the paper, starting my day before anyone else.”

Yet another surprise about her. She looked the same, and was trying damned hard to act as if she was the same woman, but Colton got the feeling that a lot of things about Vivian Reilly had changed in the last five years.

She had more layers, more depth, than he’d ever known. Before, he’d dated her, with an eye on a future no deeper than the next few months. He hadn’t been invested in his own future back then, never mind his future with another person.

Now, he wondered if Vivian, the only woman who had ever really known him, the only one who had challenged him and dared him to step outside of his comfort zone, could be the one to fill that emptiness in his life.

He’d watched his father, and grandfather before him, ruin their marriages by pouring themselves into their political lives. Their wives had become accessories, not partners. But with Vivian, a strong, decisive woman who had her own life and career goals—

Would his future be different? Could he find the happy medium that had eluded all the other St. John men?

Amanda Weston crossed the street, too, her arms
loaded with purchases. “Hey, Colton. We were just talking about you.”

Colton shot Vivian a grin. “You were?”

“Wondering where you were. That’s all.”

The two women exchanged a glance, and he got the feeling they’d talked about more than his whereabouts. Had Vivian mentioned what had happened last night? How she’d left his questions unanswered?

“Did you happen to discuss anything about any…unfinished business?” he asked.

Vivian’s answer came quick, decisive as a butcher knife. “No.”

Amanda looked between Colton and Vivian, and the confusion in her eyes gave way to amusement. “Unfinished business, huh? At the rate we’re going, the entire Group of Six will be married before the end of summer.”

Vivian put up her hands. “Don’t look at me. I’m not getting married. I’m going—”

“Back to L.A.,” Colton finished for her. “You’ve said so a hundred times. And yet, you’re still here. In fact, you’ve stayed over a month. That’s a long time for someone who keeps talking about heading back. Is that maybe because there’s something in St. John’s Cove you can’t bear to leave?”

Amanda grinned. “I think that’s my cue to go. I’ve got to get home anyway. I want to prepare lunch for Charlie. Something…nice for him to come home
to.” She put a hand on Vivian’s shoulder. “Don’t forget to hang up the right sign outside, Viv.” Then she left, a smile on her face, and a hopeful, happy look filling her green eyes.

“Wow. Looks like things are improving on the Charlie and Amanda front. What’d you say to her?” Colton asked.

“Nothing much. I told her to stop trying to live up to the image of a happy marriage and just find the one that works for her and Charlie.”

Colton chewed that over for a moment, then nodded. “Makes perfect sense. And that’s coming from the man who has spent his life measured one way or another by other people’s image of what a St. John should be.”

“I know the feeling,” Vivian said softly.

The shadows had drifted over Vivian’s features again, and for the hundredth time, Colton wondered what was troubling her. He gestured toward a picnic table on the boardwalk, and she nodded. They crossed to it and took a seat on either side. The ocean breeze whispered over them, providing a nice respite from the July heat.

Colton put the pile of papers in his hand on the table and leaned forward. “What did she mean about hanging up the right sign?”

“It’s…complicated.”

He chuckled. “That sounds like you.”

“It does?”

“You are a complicated woman, Vivian Reilly. More complicated than people think.”

“You’re right about that.” She let out a little laugh. “And about that sign thing…there’s something I need to tell you. That’s why I came over to see you.” Vivian chewed on her lower lip. He had never seen her this hesitant, and as much as he wanted to reach out and comfort her, he held back, knowing she would say what she wanted—when she wanted. Vivian Reilly was not a woman who could be pushed or prodded.

“You asked me a question last night,” she began.

He nodded.

“And I didn’t answer you. Then…or now.”

“No, you didn’t.” He leaned forward. “I think I deserve an answer, don’t you?”

She nodded. “I…I didn’t leave St. John’s Cove entirely by choice,” she said quietly, the words coming slowly, reluctantly.

Surprise socked him in the gut. “Not by choice? What does that mean?”

“I was…encouraged to leave.”

His mind rocketed back to that day, when Vivian had told him that her heart lay elsewhere, to the backdrop of a revving engine and a scowling mechanic at the wheel of the Harley.

Now he wondered…was there more to the story?

“Encouraged? By whom?”

“It’s not really about who told me to go, it’s about
why. I…” A breeze whispered across the table, ruffling the papers before him, and lifting the top page from the bottom. Vivian glanced down, and whatever words she’d been about to say died on her lips. “What’s that?”

He slid the papers to the right, as if moving them would make what was written on them go away. “I was on my way to file my nomination papers for the governor’s race.”

“Governor St. John.” A slight smile crossed her lips, then disappeared. “You’re running for governor?”

“I’m a St. John. I’ve already conquered Mayor Mountain. What else is there to do?” He grinned.

“But…why? I mean, you’re already mayor. Why go further?”

“I know, and I’ve enjoyed that time, but I want…more. I want to make a bigger difference.”

“You…you enjoy politics?”

He chuckled. “My father would love to hear me say this, but, yes, I do. I never thought I would. This has been the most frustrating, yet rewarding job I’ve ever held. I can touch people’s lives, and help this town grow.”

She cocked her head and studied him. “Are you thinking of going all the way to the top?”

“You mean to president? Like my father dreamed for me?” Colton looked past her, at a place far off, one he couldn’t see yet, a horizon still out of reach. “I don’t know. I’d like to try. I’m starting with
governor, moving on to the senate after that. And then…who knows? All I can say is I love this life. I love knowing my decisions matter. It’s rewarding, Vivian. It really is. You see a change in the town, in the people you govern.”

A soft smile stole across her lips. “I understand wanting to make a change.”

“Then you can see why this career is so important to me.”

Vivian nodded and bit her lip, and he swore he saw a tremor of emotion run through her eyes before the shadow flickered away. “You’d make a perfect governor, Colton, just as you made a great mayor. You have all the right qualities. You always did.” She rose, her tone as cool and dispassionate as if they had just met, belying the decades of history between them. “I won’t keep you then. I have some packing to do anyway.” Then she crossed the street and disappeared inside the Frozen Scoop.

Never saying what she’d come to say.

Colton knew then that he’d missed a valuable clue explaining what had happened five years ago. What it was, he still didn’t know.

But he wasn’t letting Vivian Reilly leave town until he had his answer. Then, they could finally close this chapter of their lives once and for all…or write a new ending. He was hoping for the latter, but pretty damned sure she had her heart set on the first option.

“Did you tell him the truth?” Kelly asked.

Vivian put her dirty dishes into the dishwasher, then washed and dried her hands. “What good would that do?”

“The man has a right to know, Viv. Besides, it’s been five years. Things could be different now.”

Vivian knew better. She may have thought, for the last few days, that she and Colton could have a chance at a relationship. Then she’d seen those papers on the table this morning, and it had reminded her all over again why she had left town.

He was going to run for governor. Then senate, on to the presidency. The plan was no different than before, when Edward St. John had sat up late into the night, talking to his son about the political future that could be his. If anything, the stakes were higher today than they had been five years ago.

He was happy. Rewarded by his career. She would never dare to ask him to change paths. Instead she’d do the right thing—and get out of his way.

“If I thought it would change anything, I would.” Vivian tossed the dish towel onto the stainless steel counter and let out a sigh. “But if there’s anything these last few days have shown me, it’s that nothing has changed. And nothing will. Colton is still a St. John—”

“And a St. John shouldn’t get wrapped up with a woman who isn’t cut out to be Mrs. Mayor.”

“Or Mrs. Governor, or First Lady.” Vivian ran a
hand through her hair and let out a sigh. She would never be suited for the life of a political wife. Once, she had met Colton’s mother—a quiet woman who spent her days serving tea and keeping a perfect house. She had no life, no opinions, and most of all, no spirit left in her. She seemed all…gray and completely unhappy. It was as if being married to Edward St. John had drained the best of Anna’s self.

Vivian could never become that woman. She would shrivel up and die if she had to live like that. And how happy would Colton be, married to her if she was like that? No, she wouldn’t do that to him. “The best choice is to go back to the way things were.”

“Run back to L.A., you mean.”

“I’m not running. I’m simply being smart.”

Kelly took a long, skinny glass dish down from the shelf and scooped in some chocolate, then some vanilla ice cream. She brought the dish over to the toppings station and slathered on strawberry syrup on one end, pineapple in the middle, hot fudge on the far end, then topped the whole concoction with a generous dollop of fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of chopped nuts. She slid the bowl across the counter to Vivian. “Here.”

“Thanks, but I just had some.”

“It’s not a snack, it’s a life lesson.”

Vivian laughed. “In a sundae?”

“Of course.” She gestured toward the dessert in
gredients. “Here’s a group of ingredients you’d never think would go together. Strawberry, pineapple and chocolate? Yet, it works. They find a way to meld.”

“I take it this is supposed to be Colton and me?”

“If the dish fits your life situation…” Kelly grinned. “Seriously, Viv, you know the old adage. Opposites attract.”

“They can attract, but that doesn’t mean they’re good for each other.” With one fast, hard movement, she pushed the sundae away. The fragile tower of whipped cream and nuts slid down the side and over the edge, puddling on the counter.

Ever since she’d returned to St. John’s Cove, she’d had this tiny window of hope, one she’d refused to acknowledge, even to herself until just now.

Hope that maybe this time, she and Colton could find a way, like the sundae melting in the glass dish, to meld their two different personalities, and two vastly different life paths, and finally be together. But as the ice cream melted into a milky mess, she finally faced the truth—

She and Colton were better off apart than together.

Colton had half the pieces of the puzzle, but he knew he was missing the most important one. Vivian had said she hadn’t left St. John’s Cove by choice.

Someone had encouraged her to go.

Colton couldn’t exactly see the motorcycle riding mechanic Jack Hunter telling Vivian what to do. Or
her father kicking her out—theirs had always been a close relationship, despite her wild ways. That meant it had to be someone else, someone more forceful. Someone with a reason to want Vivian Reilly out of town.

By four o’clock, Colton had a full conspiracy going. He’d enlisted the Group of Six—all but Samantha, who was still on her honeymoon—as well as Daniel, Vivian’s father, to pull off a plan that he hoped like hell would work.

Because he was running out of ideas. And options.

If he didn’t move fast, Vivian would return to L.A., and be out of his life again. He could follow her, of course, but he had a feeling that his best chance was here, in St. John’s Cove.

Where everything had started.

And everything had ended, five years ago.

At the time, he thought he’d known why. Thought Vivian had left because she’d been in love with Jack. But now, he wasn’t so sure. Ever since she’d been back in town, nagging doubts had plagued Colton, telling him far more had been behind Vivian’s sudden departure. Now he knew for sure.

He glanced around the massive house he had lived in ever since his father’s death, the same Victorian that had housed three generations of St. Johns. The emptiness echoed.

Colton decided he had had enough of that. If he
could find a way to make things work with Vivian, maybe…

Maybe this house would find the kind of happiness it had never really enjoyed before.

“I’ll have her there,” Amanda promised on the other end of the phone, drawing Colton out of his thoughts. “Seven-thirty, right?”

“Yep. And remember, tell her it’s a get-together for the old gang. I want this to be a total surprise. Really sweep her off her feet.”