The Truest Thing: Hart's Boardwalk #4 Read online

  He watched her for a while.

  Then, with a shuddering sigh, he made his way up the beach to the boardwalk. At least he knew he had something to look forward to beyond the gut-wrenching task of telling Cooper about Dana.

  Feeling more nauseated the closer he grew to the bar, Jack’s irritation increased as his cell rang in the back pocket of his jeans. He took it out and saw it was Rebecca.

  It was late for a call from his little sister.

  “Becs, what’s up?” he asked, coming to a stop outside the bar.

  “It’s not your sister. It’s your father.” Ian’s brittle voice sent an icy shiver down Jack’s spine.

  “Where’s Becs?”

  “Something’s happened. Your sister is in serious trouble. I need you at the house.”

  Trepidation filled him. “Is she okay?”

  “Just get to the house.” Ian hung up.

  Jack threw the bar a regretful look and jogged down the boards to Main Street where he’d parked his car.

  The truth about Dana would have to wait.

  6

  Emery

  Five years ago

  Not for the first time in my life, I felt like a naive fool.

  Jack Devlin hadn’t shown up to take me on that date he’d promised. I’d sat on my porch swing overlooking the water, waiting. And waiting.

  At fifteen minutes past seven, I wondered if he was late because of work.

  At seven thirty, I wondered if we shouldn’t have exchanged phone numbers.

  But by eight o’clock, I knew I’d been stood up.

  Maybe I was wrong about Jack.

  Maybe his kind eyes were a trap.

  Maybe it had been like that time at Daltry Prep when Lucinda Weymouth told me she’d set me up on a date with her brother, Logan, who was a beautiful senior boy I’d crushed on forever. When I’d risked my grandmother’s wrath and snuck out of the estate to go meet him, Logan, Lucinda, and their friends did an egging drive-by on me. They literally threw eggs at me as they drove by in their expensive SUV. Apparently, they’d gotten the idea from some teen movie.

  It was not only humiliating but I was covered in bruises from those goddamn eggs. Getting hit with an egg when the thrower was on the rowing team hurt like a mother. In more ways than one.

  The prank had been the talk of the school for weeks.

  Plus, I’d had to return home covered in egg yolk and my grandmother officially grounded me for a month. It seemed pointless to ground me. My entire life was one big grounding.

  Was Jack playing a cruel joke on me by asking me out and then standing me up?

  That didn’t seem like him.

  There was a possibility he’d changed his mind. But it had been almost a week since he stood me up, and I hadn’t seen or heard from him. He usually came in for his coffee every morning.

  Jack was definitely avoiding me.

  I cursed the flush of heat that crawled across my skin at the thought and said goodbye to a customer who’d bought an entire pile of beach reads.

  Sighing as the bell tinkled above the door announcing her departure, I rested my elbows on the counter and stared unseeingly at the stacks of books opposite my coffee counter.

  For four years, I’d watched Jack Devlin from afar, and my stupid crush had only intensified. I’d often wondered what it was that I found so attractive about him. I mean, of course, Jack was handsome, but it was more than that. When I talked to him, he went from handsome to the sexiest man I’d ever met. He just had that thing. That je ne sais quoi. He brimmed over with charisma and a genuine charm.

  Not that disingenuous, smooth kind of charm like I’d encountered before with Tripp Van Der Byl and only realized was disingenuous after the fact.

  Perhaps what fascinated me about Jack had more to do with my own feelings than Jack himself. Until I moved here and met the black sheep of the Devlin family, I’d honestly thought something had broken inside me. That Tripp had broken something. He seemed to have hit the kill switch on my attraction for men. I felt nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.

  Until Jack.

  Suddenly, everything was zinging in all the right places again.

  No way did I think I’d ever have the courage to agree to a date with him.

  But I couldn’t help myself. There was something about Jack that made me want to be brave.

  Silly of me, really. I’d confused the town’s love for him as something I could trust over the fact that for four years, I’d watched in painful longing as he made his way through a smorgasbord of female tourists. Jack was not the settling-down type, no matter what he somewhat promised me on the beach ten days ago.

  God, I wished I could stop thinking about him.

  Someone who stood me up and then didn’t tell me why was not worth wasting thought and energy on.

  The bell above my door tinkled and I straightened off the counter, a warm, welcoming smile prodding my lips as Iris Green stepped inside the store.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, sweet girl.” Iris came to a stop at the counter. “Ira is in the mood for one of your lattes today. I’ll have one too.”

  Noting the crease between her brow and the preoccupied way she avoided my gaze, concern hit me. “Are you okay?”

  Her eyes flew to me. She studied me a moment. “Did you hear?”

  “Hear what?”

  “Jack handed over his company to Ray English. Just handed it over.” She threw her hands in the air, frustration furrowing her brow. “Who does that? And what’s worse … he’s gone to work for his old man. Ian Devlin. Jack hates Ian!”

  Despite my lack of friends in town, Iris had filled me in on the social dynamics of everyone as the years passed. And I people watched. A lot. I felt like I knew everyone, even though we rarely talked.

  I turned away to make Iris’s and Ira’s coffees.

  “And he won’t talk to me about why. He won’t even tell Cooper! And moody! That boy has never been ill-tempered with me in his life and he actually told me to back off. And he used the F-word. I thought Cooper would swing at him for that one. No, something not good is happening with Jack. Something very not good.”

  My breath caught.

  Was this “something not good” the reason he’d stood me up?

  Ugh.

  That’s incredibly self-involved, Em.

  “What do you think is going on?”

  “Don’t know.” Iris sighed heavily. “But I’m worried about him.”

  I slid the coffees across the counter and waved off her attempt to pay me. “Free coffee for life, remember?”

  She gave me a sad, soft smile. “You’re a good girl.” She shook her head. “You know, I once had hopes for you and Jack. Stupid thought. Even more stupid now that he’s acting like a jackass.”

  I blushed at the notion of Iris attempting to match me and Jack and changed the subject. “I’m sure there’s a reason for his behavior.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. I’ll just need to keep pushing. Ivy always said, the worst thing about having me as a mom is that I’m like a dog with a bone when I think something’s going on I should know about.”

  I laughed. “I don’t think that’s a bad way to parent.”

  Iris patted me on the arm. “Thanks, sweetheart. Okay, I’m off. We’re still on for dinner Sunday night, right?”

  “I’ll be there,” I promised.

  Once Iris left the store, I let my mind reel.

  What on earth was going on with Jack? If something was wrong … should I be brave? Perhaps approach him to see if I could be of help?

  By the time I gathered enough courage to approach Jack, it was too late.

  One Friday, a month after my talk with Iris, the news was all over town.

  Cooper Lawson had caught Jack and Dana having sex on his couch. I couldn’t process how the man who’d come to me for advice could then cheat on his best friend with his wife!

  None of it made sense.

  Cooper was devastated, and my heart hurt for
him.

  Everyone shunned Jack and Dana.

  Iris was heartbroken and sure that something had happened to Jack to make him do this.

  I wanted to believe that. I did.

  For a while, both Iris and I did.

  She suspected that even Cooper hoped for an explanation. However, more months passed, and more …

  And Jack got further away from who he used to be until we all started to forget.

  Now he was just another one of the Devlins.

  Not to be trusted.

  And I couldn’t understand why that hurt so much more than it should, considering we’d never even had that first date.

  7

  Jack

  Four and a half years ago

  Life for Jack was a daily exercise in going through the motions, compartmentalizing the shit he knew about Ian’s dodgy business dealings, and the sour attitude of people who’d known him his whole life. Everyone hated him for betraying Cooper.

  Jack despised himself.

  Some nights he closed his eyes and all he could see was the look on Cooper’s face when he walked into the house and caught Jack thrusting into Dana.

  He hadn’t even wanted her.

  But he’d taken what she offered and poured all his frustrations into hate sex.

  Rationally, he knew it was for the best.

  But it didn’t mean it didn’t fucking hurt. It was like grief. Every day was moving through the weighted fog of mourning.

  Jack grieved for the guy he used to be. However, he mourned Cooper more.

  His cell was connected to his car and it rang, jerking Jack out of his heavy thoughts. Ian’s name showed on the screen and he sighed, hitting the answer button on the steering wheel. “What is it?”

  “Good morning to you too.”

  Jack didn’t respond.

  Ian sighed. “I’m just checking you’re on your way to Bill Succoth’s place in Millton.”

  “Yup. I’m on my way to drop off the contract.”

  “Do it with a gentle reminder.”

  “I will fucking not.”

  Ian sighed again.

  Events beyond his control had forced Jack into business with his father, but Jack had to draw the line somewhere. If Ian wanted to blackmail people into doing business with him, he could get Stu or Kerr to do that shit for him. Jack would play errand boy, but he wasn’t blackmailing anyone.

  Bill Succoth owned a catering company in Sussex County. He catered to businesses all over, to great success. Ian Devlin wanted Bill to make sandwiches and snacks to be sold at a bakery he’d bought in Aspen Meadows. But Ian didn’t want to pay what everyone else was paying. So, he had Kerr follow the poor guy, discover he was cheating on his wife with a pretty young thing in Essex, and used photographic evidence to blackmail Bill into catering at a discounted rate. And by discounted rate, Ian had barely left any room for the guy to make a profit. It was repulsive.

  Just one of many repulsive ways Ian Devlin ran his business.

  “Fine. Just get that contract signed.”

  Jack hung up before Ian because it gave him a small satisfaction to hang up on his father. He needed to find those moments wherever he could these days.

  Parking his car in the lot behind Bill Succoth’s kitchen, Jack grabbed the contract and got out to knock on the rear entry door. It had gotten easier over the last few months to be the cold son of a bitch he needed to be. Because he was frozen. Through and through.

  “Oh, it’s you.” Bill glared at Jack as he pushed open the back door to the kitchen.

  Jack held up the contract.

  Without a word, Bill gestured him inside. Jack ignored the two other people in the kitchen preparing food. He waited in the doorway as Bill washed his hands and strolled back to Jack. He held out the papers to the man, along with a pen.

  Bill snatched them out of his hand and placed the paper on the door beside Jack to lean on it. As he signed, he muttered under his breath, “You and your entire family are bottom-feeding scum, you know that, right?”

  Jack didn’t flinch. He was way past used to this kind of disdain.

  Bill huffed as he handed over the signed contract. “If you were my only business, you’d cripple me with this contract.”

  He waited patiently for the man to move aside.

  “Nothing to say?”

  “I think all that needs to be said has been said. Now move out of my way.”

  “Cold son of a bitch,” Bill murmured, stepping aside to let Jack out.

  The kitchen door slammed behind him, and Jack drew a deep breath. As he did, a flash of blond hair across the street caught his eye.

  He tensed at the sight of Emery Saunders marching down the street. She wore a long coat over what looked like a cream dress, a big blue scarf wrapped around her neck. The tails trailed behind her as she strode with purpose. She disappeared into a brown stucco building before he could have his fill of looking at her.

  Emery.

  Jack’s pulse picked up and suddenly his feet were moving in that direction.

  What was Emery doing in Millton on a Monday morning? Why wasn’t she at the bookstore? Having avoided her the last six months, Jack didn’t know what she was up to these days. He’d barely seen her around town, catching one or two glimpses of her now and then. Glimpses that made him feel temporarily warm and alive.

  As he approached the building, he noticed the signage and frowned.

  BALANCE: Counseling Center for Children and Adults.

  What the hell?

  Blood pumping for the first time in months, Jack wrenched the door open and stepped inside the building. It was toasty, making his cold cheeks flush warm. The reception area was empty except for a young man behind a desk whose eyes were glued to the pages of the paperback in his hands. Jack ignored him and strode down the wide hall in search of Em.

  A burst of laughter brought his attention to double doors at the end of the corridor. Stopping outside, he peered in through the glass panes and he zeroed in on her. She’d taken off her coat and scarf and was lowered to her haunches in front of a young boy of about seven or eight years old.

  Emery beamed that beautiful smile as she talked, and the boy burst into laughter.

  Other kids approached her. Awe moved through Jack as he watched her engage with the kids in a way he’d never seen from her. She was like a totally different person, and the kids seemed to gravitate to her, even though she wasn’t the only adult in the room.

  “Uh, can I help you?”

  Jack startled at the voice and turned to find the young man from reception standing next to him.

  He hadn’t even heard him approach, he’d been so focused on Em. “What is this?” he pointed to the room.

  The young man frowned. “Why?”

  Jack glowered fiercely at him.

  A flicker of unease moved over the guy’s face, and he swallowed hard. “Well, uh, it’s a playgroup for children who either have cancer or have loved ones who have or are dying from cancer. It’s a form of therapy and togetherness but in a normalized environment.”

  “And why is Emery here?”

  “You know Emery?” The guy’s entire face brightened at her name. “Oh, she’s one of our volunteers. She’s a total sweetheart. Comes every Monday morning to play with the kids. They love her.”

  The information moved through Jack in a painful ache as he turned to watch her.

  It was like losing his chance with her all over again.

  He mourned her.

  He mourned her and what could have been.

  But this … this evidence of her goodness just reminded him how far out of his reach Emery Saunders had become.

  Jack’s chest tightened. It was too tight. His skin too.

  Without another word, he marched out of the building. He sucked in a giant gulp of crisp, chilly air and rested his hands on his hips as he tried to get himself together.

  He was shaking, for Christ’s sake.

  Glaring across the street at the f
ancy car he now drove, Jack tried to force himself to move toward it. There was no reason to stay. There was no reason to engage in conversation with her. That’s what he told himself.

  Yet, he couldn’t move.

  Jack stood outside that building for an hour until people, presumably parents and guardians, arrived to pick up their kids. Most of them came back out not long later with children in tow.

  Then she was there.

  She stepped outside as she wound her scarf around her neck. He watched as she moved to the side, her mind elsewhere, and pulled her long hair out from underneath the scarf. It fell down her back in thick, silky waves and slim braids, and Jack imagined for the millionth time what it would feel like to run his fingers through her hair.

  “Emery.”

  Her head jerked in his direction, her expression one of surprise.

  But for the first time since he’d known her, Emery didn’t blush upon seeing him.

  Her surprise turned to utter blankness.

  And that fucking killed him.

  “Jack.” She nodded at him.

  And then walked right by him.

  As if he didn’t exist.

  As if he hadn’t waited for over an hour just to see her.

  But what else had he expected?

  He’d stood her up and then weeks later screwed his best friend’s wife.

  Jack turned to watch Emery walk away.

  It hurt.

  It hurt a fucking lot.

  Good.

  It’s only what I deserve.

  Taking a deep breath, Jack turned from watching Emery and strode across the street to the fancy car he hated. He got in, making sure not to wrinkle the fancy suit he hated, and he drove back to South Hartwell to the fancy house he hated.

  By the time he got there, he felt nothing but cold again.

  8

  Emery