Sand Castle Bay (Ocean Breeze) - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,15

go, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want you underfoot from time to time. She needs to fuss over you, meddle a little, to feel your love again.”

To his regret, more tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

“When did you get to be so darned smart and sensitive?” she asked, her voice hitching.

“I was always smart and sensitive,” he claimed, amused. “You might have missed it because back then all you cared about was my body.”

Because she evidently had no response that wouldn’t be a flat-out lie, Emily turned and walked away, swiping impatiently at the tears on her cheeks as she went.

Though her lack of response left him chuckling, he couldn’t help staring after her and wondering just how complicated his life was about to get. Despite her declarations and his promises, he was pretty sure things between them were far from over. And that was going to cause more problems and heartache than he’d ever wanted to experience again.

4

By late morning, Cora Jane’s cell phone had rung half a dozen times, and several members of her kitchen and wait staff had shown up to help with the cleanup. She had put them to work scrubbing down the kitchen, top to bottom, so it could pass the toughest health inspection ever, if need be.

The last to arrive was Jeremiah Beaudreaux, better known as Jerry. He’d been cooking at Castle’s practically since the doors opened. Now in his sixties and still standing tall at well over six feet, the one-time Louisiana fisherman’s face was deeply tanned and weathered, his hair white, but he still had a smile that lit his bright blue eyes.

“Well, this sure enough is a sight for sore eyes,” he declared when he saw Emily, Samantha and Gabriella at work sweeping the debris in the dining room into piles to be discarded. “Looks like an ill wind blew us at least some good, Cora Jane.”

“Better wait till you see how much trouble they manage to stir up, Jerry,” Cora Jane retorted, but her eyes were sparkling.

“Let me give you girls a hug,” he said, lifting them each off their feet in one of his massive bear hugs.

“How’d you get to be so strong?” Emily teased, just as she had the first time he’d tossed her into the air as a child. Compared to her reed-thin grandfather, Jerry had seemed like a gentle giant.

“Toting around those cast iron pots of crab soup your grandmother has me making,” he responded. “Now let me get in that kitchen and see what else needs to be done. Those kids you put to work, Cora Jane, will do a slapdash job of it without my supervision.”

“Some of those ‘kids’ are as old as you are, Jeremiah Beaudreaux,” Cora Jane said. “They know what to do.”

“I’ll feel better if I see the results for myself.” He winked at Emily and her sisters. “We’ll sit down and have us a long visit once this place is set to rights. Andrew said he’d be over here in an hour, Cora Jane, soon as he helps his grandmama set a few things outside in the sun to dry out. You just put him to work whatever needs doing around here. I promised his grandmama we’d keep him out of mischief.”

Jerry spotted B.J. “There’s my best helper,” he said exuberantly. “You gonna come with me, young man?”

B.J. beamed. “Whatever you need,” he said eagerly.

Before heading into the kitchen, Jerry paused and gave Cora Jane a searching look. “You doing okay? We’ll have this place shipshape in no time. You’re not to fret about it, okay?”

Emily caught the tender look that passed between them. She waited until Jerry and B.J. were gone before asking, “Did anyone else happen to notice the way Jerry was looking at Grandmother just then?”

“Oh, hush! You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cora Jane responded tartly, though there was a surprising blush in her cheeks. “Jerry’s been my right-hand man around here for a lot of years. He was one of your grandfather’s best friends.”

“Looks to me as if he’d like to be more than friends with you,” Samantha chimed in, her eyes alight.

“No question about it, Grandmother,” Gabi added. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”

Cora Jane regarded each of them with an impatient look. “Don’t think you’re going to throw me off course by trying to turn the tables and meddle in my life,” she said. “Now, let’s get back to work. We’re setting a poor example for