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EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" Chapter 3
Calder swallowed a sigh and perhaps a swear word or two as he pulled into the gravel lot and spied Jonah Blue standing at the ready, on the dry-land end of Blue’s Fishing Company’s main pier. The sun was setting over the pine tree–dotted ridge that fringed the hill rising up behind High Street at Calder’s back, casting Jonah’s tightly pinched features in a stark, mauve-shadowed relief that didn’t warm his expression in the least. Calder told himself he should feel lucky the old man wasn’t toting a shotgun. Although he supposed that didn’t rule out something equally lethal. Like a nice, sharp gutting knife.Feeling a little too close a kinship to a lobster swimming into a trap, he slid out the cab of his truck . . . and tried not to grimace when the sharp briny scent hit him. Calder had discovered that the air had a salty tang anywhere you went in Half Moon Harbor—in most of the Cove proper, for that matter. He liked it well enough, thinking it added a more immediate, visceral element
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 3.1
Surprised, Calder wondered where the man could stuff a wad of chew, his jaw was so damn tight.“Might as well head on back up your river,” Jonah said, at length. “Your like isn’t wanted here at Blue’s.”He said it as if Calder’s being a Blue was somehow . . . less Blue.“Once the town folk find out why you’re here, you won’t be wanted by them, either. Seems you River Blues still haven’t figured out how to tell the difference between where you’re wanted and where you’re not.”It was quite a speech, Calder thought. But rather than put him off, or piss him off, it did quite the opposite. The old man wants me gone, and it’s not because I’m a St. Croix Blue, he thought, surprised yet again. Calder didn’t know Jonah Blue from Adam, but he did know people, how to read them, how to work with them, for them, or get work out of them as the case may be. The success of the family business depended on it. Same could be said for Blue Harbor Farm. Jonah might well hate Calder with the kind of deep-s
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 3.2
“This has nothing to do with you and yours,” Jonah said tersely. “Done quite well without interfering in each other’s business now for well on a hundred years. I expect we can manage a few more without you riding to the rescue.” He all but spat the last words.“With all due respect, it’s not up to you what I do or don’t do, or why I choose to do it. You don’t know me. Never met me. Nor I, you. I was raised to think about Jeremiah’s branch of the family much the same as I imagine you were raised to think about Jedediah’s. And you know, I thought it was a pile of horseshit then, and nothing I’ve heard or learned since has ever changed my mind. Holding the sins of the fathers against their offspring, who haven’t so much as laid eyes on each other in generations? What possible good does that do?”“Stops them from doing any more harm to each other,” Jonah said, his eyes flat, his tone even flatter. “All that matters.”“Seems to me it’s more a bunch of stubborn old men who’d rather sacrific
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" Chapter 4
“Oh . . . wow.” Hannah let the car roll to a stop along the Cove road as she stared down the short stretch of Pelican Bay shoreline, then out to the Point, where the McCraes’ lighthouse stood, a proud old sentry, historic and beloved. The sun was just rising above the horizon line behind it, casting it in a pinkish-golden halo of light.Just shy of two hundred years old, and long since decommissioned, Pelican Point had been in the care of the McCrae family from its inception, both an honor and a burden. Hannah had always felt a little guilty that Logan had been left to somehow find a way to maintain the lighthouse, the keeper’s cottage, and the rambling main house. “But look at you now,” she breathed, astonished by the end result of the renovation that had begun a little more than a year and a half earlier.Even from this distance, she could see that the uniquely shaped exterior, a sort of boxed-out square with angled corners, had gotten a complete face-lift. The salted-over and weath
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 4.1
Hannah smiled, winced as it pulled bruised skin, but didn’t stop smiling. “Yeah, that might fall into the category of TMI, at least as it pertains to older brothers.” She shifted her gaze from Alex to the house, stunned all over again by just how much had been accomplished in such a relatively short time. “I meant thank you for this.” She took in the new shakes, the renovated and freshly painted frames around all the dormers inset into the roof, the siding, the porch . . . all of it. She looked to Alex. “You fixed my heart, my soul,” she said. “The house, but even more, the tower. It’s . . . majestic now. Like it should have always been. I can’t believe you did that.” She laughed a little self-consciously. “How did you do it?”Alex beamed with pride, clearly pleased by Hannah’s reaction, and maybe a little relieved as well. “It’s what MacFarlands do,” she said simply. “We let the lights shine again.”Hannah could only shake her head. “You have no idea how much that—” She paused, let o
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 4.2
“She had options? Like . . . she had to decide which one was worse? Than that?” Hannah immediately raised a hand. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know. Am I the only one who has never been subjected to such horror? I mean, there has been the occasional too-lemony shade of yellow or unfortunate butt bustle, but . . . what kind of friends do you have, anyway?”Fiona was laughing now. “Hey, you should have seen that dress yesterday before she helped me fix it. Oh my God, we were laughing so hard, so I just kept it on.”“You . . . fixed it?” Hannah said, dubiously, trying not to recall the unnaturally shiny monstrosity her sister had had on the day before and failing. Spectacularly. Where was post-accident amnesia when she needed it? “Really? What part?”Fiona’s topaz eyes gleamed. “Yours is even more delicious.”Alex was watching the interplay between the sisters with open interest. “I can’t decide if I am hating that I was an only child, or if I owe my dad yet another debt of grati
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 4.3
“I’ve missed you so much,” Fiona said, sniffling again, her face pressed against the annual police picnic T-shirt Barbara had given Hannah yesterday so she could get out of her Willy Wonka death-by-chocolate shirt.With the memory of her now-ruined silk blouse, Hannah’s thoughts went immediately to Calder Blue’s twinkling, whiskey-colored eyes as they’d shared that private joke grin. Bastard, she thought, but realized she was grinning again now, even as tears pricked at the ends of her eyelashes.“I have, too.”“It’s so good to have you home. To be home.” Finally, Fiona loosened up her death grip and noticed Hannah’s T-shirt. “Barbara?”Hannah nodded. “My blouse—well, you saw it. Everything happened so fast, and I guess I was more out of it than I realized. I didn’t even think about my luggage until I got to Barb’s last night. It was still in the back of my car. I picked it up this morning from Sal and he loaned me his nephew’s car to use.”“So, I saw,” Fiona said, waggling her eyebro
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 4.4
“Want to talk now?”Fi just got even busier sorting through what appeared to be a toolbox containing enough paraphernalia to make up the entire cast of Cirque du Soleil. Hannah might need all of that help and then some.“Let’s just focus on the rehearsal this afternoon and the celebration tonight. Fergus is so excited to be hosting the dinner afterward at the pub, it’s almost comical. God, I love him.”“Is that really what Alex wanted? Dinner at the pub? I mean, we all love Gus to pieces, but—”“Oh, they have a special bond, those two. You’ll see. It’s ridiculously sweet. He was one of the first people she met here. In fact, he was the one who initially hired her for the lighthouse project. Without telling brother dearest.”“Really? How did I not know that part?”Fi just gave her a look that said, Uh, because you have no time for a life? “Anyway, he offered and it was exactly the right thing for her. You should see him. He’s all but dancing a jig, absolutely loving being part of the b
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EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 11.4
She boggled at him. “Ten days to let someone with Brooks’s resources cover his ass? And what if I’m right and this was just the first volley?”Logan rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and swore under his breath. “Then we’ll cross that road when we come to it.” He kept talking when she would have jumped right back in. “I’m not canceling my honeymoon. It took too long to figure out the logistics in the first place. I won’t do that to Alex, and if you say anything, she’d be the first one to do it herself to help me.”“No, no, I wouldn’t want you to and I’m not going to say anything, I promise. I just—can’t someone you trust in a nearby precinct step in to handle things? Machias maybe? Or Lubec? It’s a hike, but they have more resources than we do.”“If something happens, then yes, at least temporarily until I can get back.” He looked at her. “If something happens, I will come back immediately, Hannah. But without any proof other than a string of hunches on your part—and mine,” he ad
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 11.3
“I can’t rule it out, but it doesn’t seem likely. Not based on what I know at the moment, anyway.”“Except you don’t know anything.”They both fell silent for a moment and she ran through the previous night again in her mind, then started to list everyone connected with the docks, with Jonah, with the proposed club . . . but nothing stood out, nothing niggled, nothing seemed off. Except Winstock. Who had a lock-tight alibi.Then Logan suddenly swore under his breath.“What?” Hannah demanded. “What just occurred to you?”“There is one other thing after all,” Logan said quietly.Something in his tone made her feel a thread of alarm. “Just tell me already.”“A possible motive for Calder Blue.”“What reason could he possibly have—”“You know the family feud story, that the children Jed took might have been his, or might have been Jeremiah’s.”“That was over a century ago. What on earth could tie that to—”“If they were Jeremiah’s kids, or even one of them was . . . it’s possible then that
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 11.2
“Tim and I are no longer together,” she said, just putting it out there, boom, done. He’d hear about it from Alex or their sisters anyway.He glanced at her, then reached over and put his hand on her arm, squeezed gently, before returning it to the steering wheel. “I should have called, or pushed, or gotten Barb to push. I’m—you know I’m not good at this stuff.”“Logan,” Hannah said quietly, abashed now, her irritation fleeing as quickly as he’d stirred it up. “I—I guess I owe you an apology. The whole family. Barb, too. I should have said something. Maybe not when it happened, but at some point since then. I just . . . I had to deal with it on my own. I didn’t say anything at the time, because we broke up over Christmas. I knew it was a special holiday for you and Alex, you’d been together a whole year.” She smiled over at him. “Fiona spilled to me in an e-mail that you were going to pop the question over the holidays.” She punched his shoulder, and he mock winced. “Who knew you were
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 11.1
“Did someone die?”Hannah turned to find her brother in his big, police-issue SUV, idling at the curb. “No,” Hannah said, sniffling and smiling as she wiped her eyes. “Just . . . sister stuff.” She reached down for Alex’s hand, and squeezed it, felt better when Alex held on just as tightly.“I’m getting calls,” he said, mildly. “If you guys are going to keep this up, could you at least do it somewhere less . . . public?”Hannah looked back at the other three, then glanced past them to the gold letters painted on the shop window. They were all still standing outside Linda’s Nail Emporium on High Street. “Oh,” she said, looking back at Logan. “Right.” She gave Alex’s hand a final squeeze, then let go and walked over to the curb.“Actually,” Kerry called out, “we were just talking about The Lumber Yard. You know, that male strip club in Augusta.”Logan’s eyebrows did a slow climb as he looked from Kerry to his lovely bride-to-be.To Kerry’s delight and Hannah’s surprise, Alex simply smil
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" Chapter 11
“No strippers?” Kerry shook her head at the other three women. “If Delia were here, she’d side with me.”“She finally got the inspector out at her new place—no way was she missing that for a mani-pedi. And it would still be two against three,” Fiona said, beaming smugly.“My disappointment, it is deep,” Kerry replied gravely. “It’s like you all have lost your will to live.”“Maybe we’ve just lost our will to drive several hours to see men disrobe in front of a room full of women,” Fi shot back, smiling even more sweetly.“You all can go if you want to,” Alex said hastily. “I just—” She shrugged. “I’m good with the hot, naked guy I already have.”“Nobody likes a spoiled winner,” Kerry said, but she was giving Alex a high-five as she did so.Fiona groaned and clapped her hands over her eyes. “Bad images, bad images. I’m happy for you, but seriously, consider the audience.”Kerry rolled her eyes and slung an arm around Fi’s shoulders and pulled her in for a side hug. “That reaction is pr
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 10.5
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”For his part, Calder just leaned back and propped his booted foot on his knee again. He didn’t need Hannah’s help, but the entertainment value alone made it well worth any potential future complications. Professional or personal. He liked seeing Hannah in litigator mode. Anyone who thought her cold must not have been paying attention. She was fiery, passionate, anything but icy. He felt other parts respond to that train of thought and deliberately looked back at Logan. Yeah, that took care of that. For now.Calder spoke. “I’ve already explained to your brother, the chief here, that I was looking out over the docks and the harbor after my meeting was canceled, trying to figure out what Brooks Winstock’s bigger plan might be, when I ran into you lecturing some poor jerk in D.C. who was trying to hire you—”“That’s not pertinent to this investigation,” she inserted calmly enough, but he’d been watching her and hadn’t missed the brief flash of su
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 10.4
“Hannah,” Calder said, as Logan also stood, but she merely nodded at him before turning back to her brother. It was only then that he noted she was carrying her leather day planner, and—a briefcase? Who brought a briefcase with them while on vacation for a family wedding?Hannah McCrae did. He found himself fighting a smile as he pulled out the chair next to his. “I won’t need that,” she said to him, “but thank you.” She looked at Logan. “Calder didn’t torch Jonah’s boathouse,” she told him. “And you’re wasting valuable time you could be spending on finding out who actually did.”“Excuse me, Counselor,” Logan interrupted, appearing surprised, but otherwise not at all perturbed by her sudden intrusion. “I’m not done questioning Mr. Blue. I’ll be happy to talk to you separately. In fact, you’re next on my list.”“There’s a list?” she asked. “Good. That’s very good. But I’m not leaving.” Calder shifted behind the chair, and pushed it in for her as she apparently changed her mind and took
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 10.3
Logan nodded, but didn’t say anything.“So, with that theory in mind, I was walking the harbor road, scoping it out from a contractor’s viewpoint, trying to see it as Winstock might envision it. With the shipyard out of his reach, the only real place he could have a presence on the waterfront would be in Blue’s spot. After that, it’s government-owned property with the Coast Guard, and then you’re out of the pocket of the harbor itself into less showy property units.”“What makes you think his vision includes more waterfront property?”Calder shrugged. “That’s all he’s gone after so far. If he wants to make his mark, and especially if he envisions tourists being any part of his scheme, the waterfront is really the only place to do it.”Logan made more notes, but said nothing.“Bottom line, I can’t help but think Winstock is using me, somehow, some way, to get to Jonah. I told Jonah as much the day we met, and that was before my talk with Owen. It’s the only reason I can see for Winstoc
EVERY BRIDE NEEDS SOMETHING "BLUE" 10.2
Calder drew in a slow breath, let it out, and got his thoughts in order. “I was supposed to meet with Brooks Winstock the evening prior. Wednesday. To discuss the details of a job he’s hiring me to do.”“Which is?”Calder sighed. So, it’s going to be like that, is it? McCrae knew damn well what he’d been hired to do, but was going to put him through his paces. Calder decided that was a good thing. Neat and tidy, all the facts lined up, i’s dotted, t’s crossed. “Building the yacht club. He acquired the property last August and originally had wanted the thing done by this July fourth, but the winter came in early, stayed late, and then he apparently had a falling-out with the architect, hired a new one, then the original contractor walked due to the architect switch.” Calder lifted his shoulders. “When he—Winstock—accepted my bid, he seemed pretty worked up about getting this thing under way as quickly as possible. But he ended up postponing our original Wednesday meeting to yesterday,
