That Summer at the Shore. Callie Endicott

Kruger’s attention kept moving in Brad’s direction. “Do you think you’ll ever get married again?”

      “I don’t know, Mrs. Kruger. Right now I’m focusing on my business,” Jamie answered patiently. The motherly types who remembered her from childhood were interested in her romantic plans, though some of the younger wives were also inquisitive, but for entirely different reasons. Jamie had already learned a sour truth—a youthful divorcée was considered dangerous by some women, although her genuine friends weren’t worried.

      Mrs. Kruger’s curiosity was transparent as she squinted at Brad Denning. “Is he a friend?”

      “He’s from the resort. He just stopped to sample the berries.” Jamie didn’t want to say that Brad had needed to rest.

      Disappointment clouded the kindly woman’s features. “What a shame. Your grandfather prized a good gab. Gabe would come to get the berries for me, and they’d sit for hours talking baseball. Speaking of which, I should go and get that jam started.”

      Waving cheerily, Mrs. Kruger drove away and Jamie walked to the trailer. Brad was eating strawberries and his brow was less tense.

      “We can go now, unless you’d rather hang out here,” Jamie told him.

      “You don’t lock up?”

      “There’s no point. It’s easy to break in and then I’d have to repair the latch.”

      Brad asked to be dropped at the resort entrance, saying it was only a short distance to his brother’s apartment. Jamie didn’t push; the man had the right to decide things for himself.

      Later as she snuggled onto her smooth cotton pillowcase with Marlin purring against her on the bed, Jamie’s mind wandered through the day’s events. It was annoying that she kept thinking about Zack Denning. She’d appreciate it if he would stay on his property and leave her alone, but it was a reasonable bet that she’d have another encounter with his lordship in the near future.

      The man hadn’t given up. He was probably in a tactical retreat while he devised a new plot to get Granddad’s land.