Barefoot Bay: Second Chance Summer (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  “Mia wanted me to take a look at her house before she puts it on the market. She called to have me give her some ideas on how to spruce it up.”

  “If I was a betting man, I’d bet that she’s not selling anytime soon. If you’ll excuse me, I need to talk with her.” He looked beyond Linda, and when he saw Mia headed to her car, he bolted off the steps. “Mia! Wait! There’s something you need to know.”

  With the car door partially opened and her hand on top of the door, she stopped and looked toward her feet. “I can’t take this, Scott. We’re living a lie. Why don’t I just leave quietly and you can finish the roof, and then we can both get on with our lives.”

  “Because I can’t. I won’t. And if you really want to know the truth, I don’t want to. When I said I loved you, I meant every word.” He came up next to her, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and placed his hand on hers. “I’ve only wanted one thing since you’ve been gone, and that’s you, Mia. I’ve only ever wanted you back and I’ve cursed every minute that I let you leave the first time. I should have gone after you. Every couple of weeks, or sooner if I had the chance, I’d go and sit at Ms. Icey’s.”

  “The ice cream parlor where we first met,” Mia said. She looked up at him and he wiped away the single tear that rolled down her cheek.

  “Yes. The place where we first met. I hoped to find you again.”

  “That’s right, honey,” Linda said. “This guy’s crazy about you. If you don’t mind, I’m taking off. I need to meet with another client, so if you’d like me to take a look at your place for a possible sale, give me a call and I’ll come back.” She shook Scott’s hand and hugged Mia before she left.

  “You hadn’t listened when I tried to explain about Lisa.” Scott pulled out his cell phone and brought up the text message he read earlier. “So before you keep jumping to conclusions, I need to show you the text that Mike sent. Then if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.”

  Mia took his cell phone and walked away so she could read the text without any input from him. Scott’s attention was drawn to the roof where Tony was diligently ripping off the shingles. “How’s it looking?”

  “Not as bad as we thought,” Tony called back. “So far, I think we’ll only need to replace half of the underlayment.”

  “Okay. Give me a little time and then I’ll be up to help.” Scott turned and saw Mia headed his way. She looked pissed and he couldn’t blame her.

  ***

  “This,” Mia said holding up the phone. “The text from your lawyer. Is it true?”

  “Did you read the entire text and the one that followed?”

  “I read enough.” Mia gave the phone back to Scott. “So, tell me. Is it true?”

  “Yes.” Scott shifted his feet and she saw the anger in his eyes. “Lisa Neely is Doug’s niece, and her boyfriend isn’t a boyfriend. He’s really Doug’s nephew. Doug purposely wanted to break us up. He’d convinced me that your aunt’s cottage was sold and when he found out that we were dating, he did everything he could to break us up. This way, he could get me to work on the house without you there to run any interference.”

  “So, Doug sent his niece and nephew to do that. To pretend that she was really breaking up with her boyfriend and dating you,” Mia said.

  “That was their plan. I guess he wants to develop this part of the island and he thought he’d start with the home that he felt needed the most work. Your aunt just happened to be going into a nursing home at the right time. If he could get her house at a fire sale price, he thought he’d be able to buy more and develop this part of the street.” Scott shook his head. The sadness she saw in his eyes mirrored her own. “Unfortunately, your mother’s going to get hurt because of this.”

  “What do you mean? What about my mother?”

  “You must not have read that part.” Scott shifted uncomfortably and glanced up at Tony before continuing. “Doug is a fraud. That’s why he concocted the idea of getting married in Vegas. He married your mother to get the cottage.”

  “That’s a bit bizarre for anyone.”

  “I know. They’re not sure why Doug thinks he can get away with this, but from what I’ve been told, he’s committed frauds like this in the past and he’s disappeared each time the feds were close to an arrest.”

  Stunned, Mia didn’t know what to say. “My mother’s going to be devastated. After the divorce, she’d met Doug and he swept her off her feet. The rest of us didn’t approve, but she was happy.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be the one to bring you bad news.”

  She could tell by his stance that he didn’t like telling her about Doug and how hurt her mother would be, but he wanted to help. For that, she was appreciative. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “So what now? How do we even deal with something like this?”

  “Mike, my attorney, is working with the feds to make sure Doug doesn’t get away with this any longer. They said your app actually helped them find the information they needed.”

  “My app? Really? But it’s…wait a minute.” She took out her phone and saw several missed calls, all from the developer she had been working with to test the product. She smiled at Scott. “You got it from my developer, didn’t you?”

  “You’re the one who mentioned it and I figured what better way to test it.”

  Mia grabbed his shirt and pulled him close. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he pressed into her.

  “I take it I’m doing the roof myself today?”

  They both looked up at Tony, and Scott laughed. “Sorry, dude. I had to take care of something first.”

  Tony smiled and waved him off. “No worries.”

  “Oops. I kinda forgot about him,” Mia said looking into Scott’s eyes.

  “That’s okay. You’re the only one I want to think about right now, and I hope you won’t leave ever again,” Scott said. He ran a hand down her arm and wrapped his fingers in hers. “I’d like to think you’ll stick around this time. Hopefully for good.”

  EPILOGUE

  Ten months later…

  The warm spring breeze blew through Mia’s hair. She leaned back against Scott’s chest and stretched out her arm to catch the glitter of the large diamond sparkle in the sun.

  “Is that good enough, Mrs. Chase?” Scott asked.

  Mia turned and wrapped her arms around him. “No. It’s not.” She laughed when she saw the surprised look on his face. “You’re enough. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.”

  “I’m happy you said yes.”

  Married less than a month, with the house slowly being renovated, Mia was relaxed and everything seemed to be falling into place. Her mother filed for divorce as soon as the authorities gathered enough evidence to finally convict Doug and his niece and nephew. They had been sought by Las Vegas authorities for fraud and passing bad checks, and Mia was glad they were finally out of her family’s life.

  “I can’t believe how much we’ve gone through this past year,” Mia said. “It seems like a dream.”

  “And to think the app your company developed helped put Doug behind bars.”

  “It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t develop it further, if it weren’t for the privacy issues, but I’m glad another company was able to buy it and will put it to good use.”

  “What did they want it for again?” Scott asked.

  “They’re developing a special security system for corporate and government clients. You know, I never would have been able to do that if it weren’t for you and the faith you had in me.” She brought her lips to his. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

  A message from Jennifer Perkins

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