What was she doing? Playing house with a man who was her employer, falling for a child who wasn’t hers to keep? The whole situation was impossible.
She should quit, find another job. But then she’d have to leave Driftwood. She wasn’t ready to go back to Maine yet, and she had no desire to start over somewhere new. Besides, though she’d gotten the settlement for her totaled car, she hadn’t purchased a new one yet. She was trapped.
And while technically that was accurate…those were just excuses.
Truth was, she didn’t want to leave because she was in love with Charlotte. And maybe her uncle.
Delaney needed someone to talk to and considered her options. Mom would do anything to protect Delaney and all her girls from heartbreak. She’d also love to get Delaney to come home.
She appreciated that about her mother. It would be so easy to run home to Mom’s arms. Which was why Delaney couldn’t call her.
Cici and Brooklynn would be just as protective, probably worse. They’d hop the first flight to Virginia and stage an intervention.
But Alyssa…
Alyssa hadn’t lived in Shadow Cove for years. She might understand Delaney’s need to escape for a little while.
And Alyssa had risked everything to save a little girl’s life—after she’d fallen in love with that girl’s father. She might be able to sympathize with the impossible pull Delaney felt toward Noah, the way her heart constricted every time he smiled at Charlotte. She’d never planned to stay away from Shadow Cove forever, but she couldn’t imagine leaving them.
Wandering past a row of retail booths, Delaney pulled out her phone and dialed her oldest sister.
“Laney?” Alyssa’s voice held a note of concern. “Everything okay?”
“I’m…fine. Good, really.” Delaney pressed her free hand against her sternum, a habit she’d developed since the accident. “I just need to talk to someone who won’t immediately tell me to come home.”
“Okay. What’s going on?”
“I kissed him.” The words tumbled out. “Well, he kissed me. Two weeks ago. And I can’t stop thinking about it. We’ve been avoiding each other ever since, only talking about Charlotte, never anything personal, and today he was so jealous when I talked to another man that I thought he might actually growl. And I understood because I’d just seen him talking to some women, and…” She didn’t want to admit her own jealousy.
“Just so we’re on the same page, you kissed who?”
“My boss.” She kept her voice low in case someone might overhear. “It was stupid, and I shouldn’t have, and now I can’t think about anything else.”
Silence stretched across the line. Then Alyssa laughed—not mockingly, but with genuine warmth. “Oh, honey. You’ve got it bad.”
“It’s not funny.”
“I know. I remember feeling the same way about Callan. We were in hiding from terrorists when I found out about Peri. The more I saw him with his daughter, the more I fell for him. It was…” She sighed. “It wasn’t the same, of course, but I’m just saying, I get it.”
Which was what Delaney needed, an understanding ear. Even so, she felt exposed as she passed a booth selling handmade soaps, the scents so overpowering that they turned her stomach. “He’s my boss, Lyss. And Charlotte, his four-year-old niece… She’s been through so much. She needs stability, not her nanny having a breakdown over feelings she can’t act on.”
“Why can’t you?”
“I work for him. I live in the house with him. And I’m not…I’m not suitable.”
“Says who?”
“Him.” The word came out too loud, drawing the glances of a couple of women nearby. She put her head down and hurried away. “He took one look at me and declared me scandalous.”
“He did what!” Her big sister’s anger was palpable through the phone.
“Not like that, not really. Just…” Delaney explained their first meeting and how she’d come to work for Noah, wandering into a side street away from the festival to avoid listening ears. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Tell me about him.”
Delaney had expected her no-nonsense sister to give her step-by-step instructions, as if she were helping her reset her router. But Alyssa was softer now that she was in love. More compassionate.
Was that what love did? Changed people for the better? All it made Delaney feel was weak and exposed.
