If for Any Reason (Nantucket Love Story #1) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,11

Because thirteen might feel grown-up, but it’s not quite, and that’s okay.

The girl turned and looked at her, and Emily realized she was staring. She didn’t really want to make friends with anyone new right now. She wanted to wallow and be moody and have a little pity party for herself. In fact, she’d already made plans to find one of the old bikes in the shed and ride into town for a pint of Häagen-Dazs and turn it into dinner. She was an expert wallower.

But she was also the adult, and this was her neighbor, and she should be neighborly and kind and at least ask the dog’s name.

She walked toward the girl, whose hair was the loveliest shade of strawberry Emily had ever seen.

Emily lifted a hand to wave at her as the wind pulled several strands of hair from her elastic. “Hi there.”

The girl dropped her beach bag at her feet and waved back at Emily. “Hey.”

“Beautiful dog,” Emily said. “What’s his name?”

“She’s a girl. Tilly.”

“Do you live here?” Emily pointed toward the cottage next to her grandparents’ house—her house now, she supposed. The neighboring cottage had always been a rental property and nearly every year Emily spent on Nantucket, it was rented by the same family.

She hadn’t thought about her lazy summer days with Hollis McGuire for a lot of years, but she couldn’t help but remember them now. She might have been young, but even then she knew there was something special about the boy next door.

“I live in Boston,” the girl said. “I’m staying here for a month.”

“Lucky girl.” Emily smiled. She could sense the girl’s disappointment with her current situation. Her poor parents probably thought they were giving her the summer of a lifetime—and they likely were—but this young beauty didn’t know it yet. She’d yet to discover the magic of Nantucket.

“Doesn’t feel so lucky,” the girl said.

“Doesn’t feel so lucky for me either,” Emily replied absently.

The girl squinted up at her, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “Really?”

Emily was doing a terrible job of encouraging her young neighbor. She should be ashamed. “No,” she said. “It’s an amazing place to spend your summer. When I was your age, it was my favorite place in the world.”

“Do you live in that run-down house next door?”

The way she said it made Emily realize how different things would be for her this summer than they had been all those years ago. They were a family of means. Her grandfather was well-respected. He’d single-handedly saved the arts center, not to mention his substantial gifts to the hospital and who knew how many other charities.

They fit in with Nantucket society—even as a girl, Emily had known that.

Now she was the single woman living in the run-down house that had become an embarrassing eyesore. The fact that no one had fined her grandparents or taken some kind of legal action was astonishing. Or maybe they had and Grandma had just failed to mention that.

“I’m just visiting,” Emily finally said. “I’m here to fix it up so I can sell it.”

“Why would you sell it if it’s so great here?”

Emily laughed. This girl was smart. Emily bet her parents didn’t get away with anything—not on this girl’s watch.

“It’s a long story,” Emily said. And not one she was going to get into with a child.

“JoJo!” A man’s voice broke through the brief silence and the girl rolled her eyes.

“I have a feeling he’s not going to leave me alone for a second this whole month.”

What I wouldn’t give for a dad like that . . .

A man wearing a pair of long khaki shorts and a faded-red T-shirt emerged onto the beach from the yard next door. His distressed baseball cap was pulled low over his eyes, which were covered with a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Emily took a very brief moment to notice his well-built torso. And then another very brief moment to appreciate it.

The dog raced back from the water and sniffed his hand.

“Tilly, be good,” he said.

As he strode toward them, Emily felt her shoulders straighten. It was almost as if he were moving in slow motion, as if her past were unraveling right in front of her. Her heart quickened. She hadn’t counted on this—on him.

Hollis.

“Dad, this is our neighbor,” the girl said. “She says it’s nice here but she’s selling her house, so . . .” She shrugged.

But Hollis didn’t seem to hear or see his daughter. He’d stopped moving and