chapter 20

Colin had been away from his home base in San Diego for a couple of weeks now to deal

with Redmond's death, the funeral, and then the McCrays. Issues were piling up that he

needed to deal with, not only with the Palm Springs land deal, but also with their

commercial tenants, their charitable foundation, and their investment portfolio.

In the family room of his parent's house, he settled himself into a comfortable chair

in front of the big fireplace and fired up his laptop to see what new urgent crises were

being thrown at him today.

Colin sorted through what seemed like hundreds of e-mails: some spam, some

regarding Delaney business, some from people or organizations soliciting donations from

the foundation. The seller of the Palm Springs property still hadn't signed the contract.

There seemed to be an issue involving the property boundaries, which would require a

call to the county tax assessor's office.

When Colin finally managed to extricate himself from work, he felt drained in a way

he hadn't felt since he'd left his condo in San Diego the day of Redmond's death. He

prepared himself mentally for the phone call to sort out the property lines, and then was

relieved to realize that it was now past five p.m. and the Riverside County government

offices were closed.

He felt unsettled and out of sorts, and spent a moment contemplating what he should

do next. He could spend the next five or six hours wading through the various demands

of his role as the family lawyer; he could relax a bit and then have dinner with his family;

he could go back to the lodge and settle into his room with a pizza and some beer and

catch up on the TV-watching he'd neglected since the beginning of his law career.

But he didn't want to do any of that.

What he really wanted was to hear Julia's voice.

Chances were that if he asked to spend some time with her alone, she'd tell him she

needed to soothe Drew's emotional wounds, or get to know the Delaneys, or settle in at

Ryan and Gen's house. But even if that were the case, he still just wanted to talk to her, if

only for a few minutes.

He closed his laptop and sat back on the sofa, enjoying the heat from the fireplace,

and called her.

"Colin," she said. Not hello, just his name. Was he imagining the warmth he heard in

the word? Was he imagining that she was happy to hear from him?

"I just wondered how things were going," he said. "How are Ryan and Gen treating

you?"And despite everything that was going on, despite how emotionally fraught the

the entire situation was with his family and hers, she simply gushed.

"Oh, Colin. The ranch is gorgeous. I always thought I lived in the most beautiful

place in the world, but Cambria … God. Why in the world did you move away? I love

Ryan and Gen's house. It's so cozy, so much home. And Gen's great. I haven't had

much time to talk to Ryan yet, but Gen is just the nicest person. I couldn't have asked for

a better welcome. And I know Drew is going through a lot right now, I know he's angry

and stressed, and I should be thinking of him right now, but I'm just really excited to

meet everybody and to see everything."

When she finally stopped to take a breath, he found himself smiling. He was going

to say I'm glad you're having a good time, or That's great to hear, or maybe, Yeah,

Gen's really a sweetheart. But instead, he said something different.

"Have dinner with me."

"Dinner?" She said it as though it were a new concept, a word she hadn't yet

mastered.

"Yeah. The meal that people customarily eat in the evening, often in a social context.

Dinner."

"I'm supposed to go to the main house for dinner. Your mom invited me. Actually,

it's more like she summoned me."

That sounded like his mom, all right.

"I'll explain it to her," he told her. "I can take care of my mom. Just … let me take

you out. I really want to." As he said it, he realized just how much he wanted to. So many

things were pulling at him. His work, the family, his nagging sense of discomfort

whenever he was surrounded by his parents and his siblings. If there was a comfort to be

had, it was with her. If there was something he could do to soothe himself and make

himself feel okay, he knew it would be spending time in her presence.

"Please," he said.

"You're sure your mom won't be upset?" she asked.

He chuckled. "Oh, she'll be upset. But it'll be with me, not you. And believe me, I'm

used to it."

She didn't say anything, so he moved in to close the deal. "I know a place you'll

like. I'll pick you up in half an hour."

He hung up before she could argue.

Smoothing things over with his mother turned out to be much easier than expected.

When he told her why neither he nor Julia would be having dinner at the family home

that night, she'd barked, "You're telling me you've got a date with a woman who's a real

person, and not some glossed-up Barbie doll? Well, I guess I'm not about to stand in the

way of that! You take her someplace nice, boy—not to some hole in the wall for buffalo

wings, by God."

It occurred to him to wonder how his mother—all the way up here, so far from his

home in San Diego—even knew that he was in the habit of dating glossed-up Barbie

dolls, but he didn't linger on it much. His mother knew everything.

When Sandra had said to take Julia "someplace nice," there was no question that

meant Neptune. The big, brick seafood restaurant in a historic building on Main Street

had the best food in town, and that was saying something, considering the array of

restaurants that catered to the steady flow of tourists who came through Cambria.

The fact that one of Ryan's best friends, Jackson Graham, was the head chef there

was an added factor. If Colin decided to take Julia anywhere else, he'd probably face a

grilling from Ryan about why he hadn't taken her to Neptune. So, there was that.

When he picked up Julia at Ryan's place, she was decidedly un-Barbie-like. She was

wearing a pair of jeans and a cream-colored cotton sweater, a poofy-down jacket, and a

pair of low-heeled leather boots.

"Was I supposed to dress up?" she asked uncertainly as she climbed into his car. "I

wasn't sure, but I only brought casual things, so …"

"You look great," he said and meant it. There was a thing she had going on, a kind

of glow, that had nothing to do with her clothes. When Julia smiled in a certain way, she

could have been wearing a hazmat suit or a Santa costume and he would only have

noticed the smile, the glow. He wondered if he'd ever glowed like that, and he thought he

probably hadn't.

On the way to the restaurant, they chatted about her day, and how she was settling

in, and about Drew.

"I thought maybe you wouldn't want to leave him on his own, at the mercy of my

family," Colin said.

"Honestly, I need a break from his brooding. I mean, I get that he has issues to work

through. Anybody would, in his place. And I want to help him get through it—that's why

I came. But it's a lot of negativity when you're around it every day."

"And it doesn't help when Liam picks fights with him," Colin added. "I wouldn't be

surprised if those two come to blows at some point."

"God. I hope not." Julia looked at Colin. "Liam seems to think there's some kind of

scam going on, to cheat the Delaneys out of their fortune. But Drew never asked for this.

He never expected or wanted any of this."

"I know." Colin nodded grimly. "And Liam knows, too. This isn't about Drew. It's

about grief. He and Redmond were close. Redmond's death has been hard on Liam. He's

pissed off, and he can't be pissed off at Redmond, because he's gone. Drew probably

seems like a handy substitute."

"Drew's having dinner with your family tonight, at the house. Liam will be there, I

imagine." She shuddered a little.

"Don't worry. If they come at each other with steak knives, my mother will knock

their heads together and send them to their rooms." He grinned, thinking about his

mother.

"She probably would, too," Julia said.

"Oh, hell yes."

They drove up Main Street toward the restaurant, and Colin said, "I'm glad you're

here. Not just coming to dinner with me tonight, but here in Cambria. I'm glad you

came."

He felt that special Julia glow all the way over in the driver's seat as he found a

parking space on the curb.