Chapter 10

IF EDEN'S RIDGE WANTED to bring tourism in, they needed a better web presence. That was Kennedy's estimation after she spent some time Googling to see what services and accommodations were available. The information that was out there was spotty and disconnected. The town itself needed something dedicated to tourism to connect prospective visitors with all the various options. But despite the less than stellar representation, there was the seed of tourism out there. Tourism in the Ridge.

She could just hear Athena scoffing at the idea, as she'd scoffed at the suggestion that anyone would think of Pru's new workspace as a mini-spa. But the kind of people who'd be drawn to a place like Eden's Ridge absolutely weren't the demographic her sister was used to serving in her upscale Chicago restaurant. They weren't celebrities, or rich women with purse dogs, or snobby businessmen, who probably took off to St. Moritz on a whim - Kennedy knew that type and had catered to them often in various capacities over the years. The kind of people who'd be drawn to Eden's Ridge were, as Xander had said, everyday folks. The same demographic who were accustomed to vacationing in Gatlinburg.

The whole thing had Kennedy thinking.

People would be looking to alternatives to Gatlinburg, while it was being rebuilt. That meant the need, the prospective market, was ripe now - not next year or years down the line, once a full resort could be built. Some would take advantage of the rental cabins in the area, but others would be looking for something with a bit more service and pampering. The kind of experience they'd find at a cozy bed and breakfast.

And here they sat with this big, mostly empty house...

It was a lunatic idea. Kennedy knew that. But it hadn't stopped her from nabbing a notepad and conducting her own evaluation of the possibilities. She walked through the freshly cleaned rooms, looking with new eyes, eyes that had seen countless B and Bs over the years, making note of which rooms could easily be converted for prospective guests. There weren't en suite bathrooms for every room, and that would be an issue for some people. But she'd stayed in plenty of B and Bs in other parts of the world where sharing was the norm. And with more people in the US using services like AirBnB, there was a segment of travelers who were getting more accustomed to that sort of arrangement.

Fresh coats of paint everywhere, for sure. A house didn't serve as hub for dozens of kids over the years without taking something of a beating. But it had good bones and a lot of Victorian charm. Fresh linens for all the beds. The current hodge podge of comforters, quilts, and bedspreads might be okay with a good washing. And she was pretty sure she'd seen a trunk of other quilts up in the hay loft. Most of the furniture was in good shape. A good cleaning with lemon oil would take care of most of it, and the few pieces that looked too rough could be painted shabby chic style. That would suit a quaint, Southern inn.

Kennedy made notes on her pad.

Inquire about local art for the walls. If they could work up an actual clientele, they could serve as another point of sale for the artists. Make them fall in love with the house, the area, and want to take a piece of their stay home.

With a lot of planning, a lot of prep, it could work. She knew it could. The idea gave her a buzz of challenge. She could do this and it would be a way to finally contribute, not only to her family, but to the community. She could make her mark.

"Whatcha doing?"

Kennedy turned to find Ari in the doorway. "Hey. How was school?"

The girl jerked her too thin shoulders. "Was okay, I guess. What are you doing up here?" she asked again.

"Dreaming big."

A spark of interest lit those big, brown eyes. "Yeah? What about?"

Kennedy hesitated. Maggie had deliberately kept Ari out of the loop of the finance discussion. She hadn't wanted to worry the girl unnecessarily, especially with Ari's own fate up in the air. Kennedy understood that. But she also understood how frustrating and upsetting it was to be kept ignorant of details that could absolutely impact your life. Especially as it was likely she knew more than they were aware of. Mom had often said, "Little bunnies have big ears."

Kennedy sat on the bed and patted the mattress beside her. "Come sit for a bit."

Ari's eyes shuttered, that careful blanking of expression Kennedy had, herself, perfected at an early age. Never show vulnerability. Especially when shit was about to hit the fan. But she sat curling her feet up beneath her. "Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly. Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure."

"So you know we've been dealing with all the details of Mom's estate. The four of us are equal owners of the house, the property, and all that."

Ari's eyes widened. "Do Athena and Maggie want to sell?"

"No! No, no. Nothing like that. But maintaining a property this size is expensive. Most of the costs used to be covered by a trust, but for a lot of complicated reasons, that's not an option right now, so we have to find a way to pay for stuff like property taxes and upkeep. And that's what I'm dreaming about. A way to make the house pay for itself."

The girl frowned. "How?"

"I think we could turn it into an inn." She felt a snap of excitement in her blood just saying it aloud.

"Like a hotel?"

"Much smaller than that. A bed and breakfast. We've got all this space that no one's using, all these bedrooms. The house would need a bit of spiffing up, but we could rent out some of the rooms to tourists, provide them a meal or two. What do you think? How would you feel about having strangers in the house?"

Unlike a lot of her predecessors, Ari hadn't had a constantly rotating parade of other fosters going through the house during her time here. Mom had been dialing back for the last couple of years, as she'd gotten older. But Kennedy liked people, liked the idea of the house still being used.

"I think," Ari said slowly, "that Joan would've liked the idea."

"Did you know she used to call this place The Misfit Inn? Where misfits of all ages and types could find a home."

"She was good at that. At making us feel at home. If we could do something like that for other people, even on a temporary basis, it feels like maybe that would be a way to kind of keep her here with us."

"Yes." Kennedy hugged Ari. "Yes, that's it exactly. But would you be okay with it?"

"Does it matter what I think? Joan's gone, so this isn't really my home anymore."

Kennedy felt her heart crack in two. "This is your home. You are a Reynolds. That's what Mom wanted. We just have to finish sorting out all the legal crap. And, yeah, it might get messy because this is an unusual situation, but all four of us will fight for you. You're family."

Ari's chin wobbled and her eyes went a bit glassy. "Okay then." She rubbed an impatient hand over her face and looked around the room. "What kind of changes would it take?"

"I'm still working on all that. I don't want to present it to my sisters until I have all the details worked out for how it could work, so let's keep this between us for now. Our little secret."

"I can do that."

"Great." Kennedy stood. "Want to go play in the hay loft to see what kind of treasures we could repurpose from up there?"

A slow smile spread across Ari's face. "That sounds like fun."

* * *

"You're in a good mood," Jarvis observed.

"Am I?" Xander asked, aware that he'd come back to work whistling.

"You're smiling while doing paperwork."

He'd had what felt like a permanent grin stuck on his face since lunch. It probably made him look like a total love-struck goofball, but what did he care? He was. "Guess I am. No reason not to be in a good mood. It's a beautiful day, and the citizens of our fine county have been behaving themselves."

"That the only reason?" Essie asked, her eyes bright with mischief and an unabashed hope.

"Might not be," Xander conceded.

"Heard you were sharing a milkshake with Kennedy up at Crystal's earlier. In your old booth."

"So we were," he said easily. He'd wanted the word spread quickly. Mission accomplished. And he couldn't really resent Essie's interest. He knew she'd been rooting for them to get back together.

"Y'all worked out your differences?" Jarvis asked carefully.

"We did."

"She told you why she left?" Essie asked.

"She did. Not that it's any of y'all's business. More importantly, she's home to stay."

"Good for her," Essie declared, obviously relieved. "I never agreed with Buck bullying her out of town."

Xander felt the smile on his face turn brittle. "I'm sorry, what?"

Panic skittered over Essie's face, the kind of panic Xander was used to seeing in suspects who'd accidentally said too much. "I, um..."

He'd assumed her leaving was all about him, about the fight they'd had. Kennedy hadn't said otherwise. But deep down, he'd wondered if there'd been more keeping her away.

"Essie, you know something about why Kennedy left. What is it?"

"I - oh dear." Her wrinkled cheeks flushed, then went pale. "If she didn't tell you herself..."

He rose from his desk and advanced on the dispatcher, consciously shifting into interrogation mode. "What do you know?"

Essie cast a nervous glance toward Buck's office.

"He's not here right now. And you're going to tell me."

"Xander, I'm not sure I should - "

"This is about Kennedy. Which makes this about me. Whatever it is I don't know can impact our relationship. I can't deal with it if I don't know."

Another look toward his father's office.

"This won't come back on you. I swear it."

Her painted lips trembled, but she nodded once. "On the night of your high school graduation, Kennedy was pulled over in a routine roadblock. You know how they do, trying to catch the kids drinking and whatnot."

"Kennedy hadn't been drinking." Xander knew that definitively because he had, and she'd been designated driver. This must've happened after she dropped him home.

"No, but, well, she had drugs in the car."

"She what?" That made absolutely no sense. Kennedy never did drugs. She'd never even so much as smoked.

"Jim brought her in," Essie said, referring to Xander's predecessor. "Buck was here, and he said he'd handle it. He took her into interrogation. I didn't like the look on his face, so I went back to the locker room to listen through the ducts."

Now was not the time to chastise her for listening in on confidential interrogations.

"He asked her about them, where they'd come from. She said they weren't hers. That some kids at a party she'd gone to were planning to use them, and she knew that was stupid, so she took them and intended to get rid of them before anybody could hurt themselves."

Now that sounded like something she'd do.

"And then?"

"He asked her to name names. Say who all was at the party, who she'd gotten the drugs from. She wouldn't do it."

Because he'd been at that party. So had all their closest friends and a fair chunk of the senior class. Kennedy was no sellout.

"Buck got mad then. He hated that drugs had gotten into our county, turned into a problem. Took it as a personal attack. I knew he didn't like her. But I never thought he'd - "

A sick feeling took up residence in Xander's gut. "He what, Essie?"

"He told her it didn't matter if she named other names, he had her on felony possession charges with intent to distribute, and he...he used it to blackmail her."

"That's bullshit. Kennedy never did drugs. She didn't even drink."

"I'm just telling you what I heard. The drugs were in her car. Jim was very clear about that."

And given the laws in Tennessee, she could be charged, whether they'd been hers or not. But officers had room for discretion, as did judges, to look at the realities of each individual case.

"You said he blackmailed her. How?"

"Everybody knows Joan had a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior. He played on her fear, made her believe that this whole thing would make Joan kick her out. She was eighteen, a legal adult. Joan didn't have to be responsible for her anymore. Scared that poor girl to death. But he said he'd make her a deal. He'd see that all the charges went away if she left town, without you. He made it clear the deal only stayed in place so long as she stayed gone."

Xander's hands curled to useless fists as shock slid into anger. His father had never liked Kennedy, but he never would have believed Buck would use his position as Sheriff to do something like this. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Essie knotted her hands and worried the lipstick off her bottom lip. She seemed to have aged a decade over the past few minutes. "I couldn't risk my job. Not with Henry being in chemo. And honestly, I never dreamed she'd really do it. Everybody could see how much she loved you, and I thought she'd fight. She was never the type to just roll over when someone attacked her. So when she left, it was a shock. And then she stayed gone and...I didn't want to bring it up and hurt you more."

Xander's blood was boiling, but he struggled to keep himself in check. This wasn't Essie's fault. "What happened to the case file?"

"There wasn't one. She was never formally arrested."

"What about the evidence? Was it ever sent off to the lab for analysis?"

"A few months later it was, when a similar stash was found. Arrests were made. It was after you'd left for college."

"And what was it?"

"I don't remember."

"Who was arrested? Pull up the damned file." Xander knew he was snarling, but everything he'd believed for ten years was wrong and he needed to see how bad this really was.

With shaking hands, Essie checked the computer, then went to pull a file from the cabinet.

He yanked it from her and flipped to the lab report. The way the laws were written, charges were the same whether the drugs were marijuana or something harder. He had to know what the hell she'd been caught with, what exactly his father had been sitting on for years. He read the lab report through, then read it a second time as relief and fury hit him in equal measure.

Coral plants. Kennedy had been threatened with felony drug possession over coral plants. Not even a legitimate drug. Even if he'd charged her, the charges wouldn't have held up.

Without another word, he strode to his desk and snatched up his keys.

"Where are you going?" Essie's worried voice floated after him.

"To talk to my father."

Buck had taken the afternoon off for a doctor's check-up, so he'd be home now. Xander intended to corner the bear in his den.

Why the hell hadn't Kennedy told him? He could see why she hadn't told him then. She'd been running scared. But now? She'd had every opportunity to tell him the truth when he'd apologized for the fight. Every chance to tell him it wasn't his fault. Instead, she'd continued to lie about it.

His mother's car was in the garage when he pulled up to the house where he'd grown up. Did she know what his father had done? Xander slammed the door of the car and stalked into the house without knocking. Buck was watching ESPN in his favorite recliner.

"Xander. What are you doing - "

"You son of a bitch."

Buck's brows drew down like thunderclouds. "Now hold on a damned minute."

Mom hurried into the room, a kitchen towel clutched in her hands. "Xander? What's going on?"

"Did you know? Did you know he blackmailed Kennedy with some bogus felony drug charges to leave town and stay the hell away from me?"

His mother's mouth dropped open. "Buck?"

"They weren't bogus charges. She was picked up at a road block with a bag of drugs in her car."

"It was fucking coral plants. Not even marijuana. Don't even try to lie to me. I saw the lab reports from the bust you made on Nelson Rimer."

"Didn't know that at the time," Buck defended. "And she'd been at a party with minors."

"She'd been at a party with me and the entire senior class. Where she was the designated driver and one of the only sober people there. And even if she was found with drugs in her car, the likelihood that they were hers was nil. She had no history of drug or alcohol use. No criminal record of any kind. She wouldn't, not only because was she a good girl, but she would never have done anything to risk Joan's wrath. And you knew that. You knew and you fucking well used that against her."

An ugly flush was rising up his father's face. "She tell you that?"

Conscious of protecting Essie as he'd promised, Xander ignored the question. "It doesn't matter how I found out. Why would you do that? Why would you go to such lengths to get rid of her?"

"Because I didn't want to lose you," Buck hollered back. He was red all the way up to his hairline and he was breathing hard. "You would've followed that girl anywhere, whether it made any goddamned sense or not. And if you'd left, you'd have stayed gone." He made an obvious effort to calm himself. "I only wanted what's best for you, son. She was bad news."

"She was an innocent girl. You used your authority in a wholly unethical fashion and straight up lied to her, emotionally manipulating her for your own sick ends." Rage made him half blind. "You're a disgrace to the badge."

"It's not my proudest moment, I admit, but how much did she really love you if she stayed away all these years?"

The blow struck Xander somewhere around his heart. It was a question that had been circling around beneath the surface of his brain for days. And one he was damned well going to get an answer to.

"It's not about how much she loved me. It's about how much I loved her. How you railroaded out of town the only woman I have ever loved and made her stay gone for ten goddamned years. How is that what's best for me? It's only what's best for you."

His mother took a step closer, the towel knotted in her hands. In contrast to Buck's face, hers had gone chalk white. "Let's everybody take a deep breath."

Xander barely spared her a glance. All his focus, all his rage was on his father. "You cut her off from the only family she had all this time. For the rest of her mother's life. Years she's never going to get back, and time she didn't deserve to lose because you didn't approve of her as a girlfriend."

"Son - "

But Xander couldn't hear it. He took a step backward. "Fuck you, Dad. You aren't the man I thought you were. Stay the hell away from me and from Kennedy."

Turning on heel, he stalked back out of the house.