Page 6 of Return to Lovett Cove (Lovett Cove B&B #1)

CHAPTER FIVE

“I can’t believe you’re staying at your mother’s inn,” Kennedy said over the car’s speakers. Jasmine’s phone was connected to the vehicle’s technology system.

Jasmine found her way back to the inn with ease, the drive more scenic than she remembered. After being in Lovett Cove for only a few hours, she was already appreciating the small town and its charm.

And the view.

In a lush green mountain valley close to the Atlantic coast, Jasmine now understood why her mother wanted to live out her retirement days here.

Although Jasmine wouldn’t believe her mother knew about the coffee and fantastic biscuits at Petunia’s cafe ahead of time.

Jasmine much preferred to think of her mother finding this place as serendipitous.

“River told me she renovated the upstairs suite. It’s the only part of the house that isn’t dilapidated,” Jasmine grumbled.

“River?”

“R. Scott. The real estate agent and attorney.” Jasmine felt silly not having guessed they were one and the same before now.

She blamed her hectic work schedule for not allowing her a moment to think about it.

Truly, she just wanted to sell the inn and move forward with winning the VP position at her company.

“Mmm, River…That’s a nice name. Is he hot?”

Jasmine’s skin tingled at the image of River’s smile at her over coffee. “Absolutely not.”

“Well, that just means he is.”

“Literally not what I said.”

“It’s what you didn’t say that says it all.”

Kennedy couldn’t see Jasmine roll her eyes, but Jasmine rolled them hard anyway. “Okay, so he’s kind of a Hemsworth. He was at the inn when I arrived.” Jasmine switched her phone to speaker.

The volume was up high when Kennedy asked, “Naked?”

Jasmine stood in the foyer of the inn. Her memory conjured up River leaning against the wall at the opposite end, arms crossed, a sexy grin widening his square jaw. “Shirtless. Why in the world would he be naked, Kennedy?”

Kennedy laughed. “Sorry, not sorry. Go on.”

“Yeah, so…where was I?”

“Shirtless.”

“Right. Anyway. He was fixing the kitchen faucet.”

“So, he’s handy. That’s rare. Guys these days are so useless. Wait, so is he renovating the house?”

Jasmine stopped mid-climb up the stairs to the second level. She hadn’t asked River that. “I’ll have to find out. This place needs a lot of work for one guy. It would take him forever.”

“Does that mean you’re staying in Lovett Cove?” Kennedy asked coyly.

“Absolutely not. One more day to figure out how to sell this place. Then I’ll be back.”

“Well, take your time. We’re still on target with our marketing projections, and I have everything under control.”

“I know you do, Kenny. Thanks.”

Jasmine said goodbye to her best friend and assistant.

When she reached the second-story main suite, Jasmine stood in the doorway and stared at the last room her mother was in.

She could smell the faint flowery scent of her mother’s favorite perfume.

Tears welled in Jasmine’s eyes. She blinked them away and busied herself by setting her carry-on luggage on a bench and opening it.

Then she spotted the photograph on the chest of drawers.

Jasmine fingered the glass pane of the framed photograph. A picture of all her sisters on a dune at the beach, smiling. She couldn’t have been more than nine or ten in this photo, but Jasmine had to reach back into her memories to recall the beach.

Jasmine loaded the map app on her phone and gasped.

“It was here,” she breathed. The dunes weren’t far from Lovett Cove. “That’s why you wanted to buy an inn here. It wasn’t an accident.” Her mother was returning to a place she truly loved. To a time when all her daughters were together, smiling.

Jasmine sat on the edge of the four-poster bed, tears spilling onto the glass and blurring the photograph.

“Mom,” she breathed. “What am I supposed to do?” Jasmine placed the photograph on the nightstand and got ready for bed.

The last image she saw before she closed her eyes was of her mother’s smiling face as her mother raised the camera to take a picture.

The next morning, Jasmine heard a sad doorbell screech as she stepped out of the shower. She wrapped a towel around her body and stepped out onto the balcony that overlooked the front drive. River’s truck was parked next to her rental car. “River?”

He bounded down the porch steps and looked up. When he saw her, he grinned and held up a white bag in one hand and a tray with two cups of coffee in the other. “Figured you’d want breakfast.”

Jasmine smiled at him. He’s thoughtful. And he looked ready to work, dressed in stonewashed jeans and a dark blue t-shirt. His tool belt was slung over his right arm.

“Also wanted to finish fixing that kitchen pipe, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Jasmine answered. “The extra key is still under the pot. I’ll be down in a minute.”

Jasmine fussed with her natural curls, a chunk of stubborn spirals determined not to be tamed.

She went back and forth over her outfit, not sure whether to wear the skirt that accentuated her hips or the practical drawstring pants she wouldn’t mind getting dirty if River asked her to hold a tool or something.

In the end, she chose the drawstring pants.

She felt more comfortable in her skin in the loose pants, and they were stylish enough for a day in town.

When she entered the kitchen, River looked her over, his expression pleased. “Good morning. You look like you slept well.”

“I did, thank you. The bed was incredibly comfortable.”

River handed her a biscuit breakfast sandwich from Petunia’s cafe. “Your mother wanted the best. Oh, here. I’d almost forgotten about this.” He slid a manila envelope across the island counter where they were seated.

“You’re the mail courier, too?”

He chuckled. “Close enough.”

“What brought you out here? To Lovett Cove specifically?” Jasmine asked as she opened the envelope.

“Divorce. I was a corporate attorney. Long hours.”

“That makes two of us. Trying to make partner has me living in the office.”

River rubbed the back of his neck. “I had a chiropractor on retainer thanks to my couch giving me cricks.”

“Ouch.”

“My ex and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on where my career was going.

I made partner early, and that meant living almost like a bachelor.

She resented me for it, and I resented myself for allowing my marriage to fall apart.

” His shoulders sagged as though he carried some residual weight from his past. “My priorities were out of order. I didn’t realize it until we had signed the papers and I nearly had a breakdown. ”

Somewhere in the middle of River’s story, Jasmine had stopped opening the envelope. “Oh, River…I’m so sorry.”

He smiled graciously. “Thankfully, Lovett Cove gave me a fresh start. I remember coming here to the beach as a kid.”

She grasped his arm. “I did, too! We all did. My sisters and me. There’s a photograph of us on a dune upstairs.”

“The old dunes are still there. We can go see them sometime, if you want.”

He wasn’t suggesting that she delay her return home. Work briefly entered her mind, but faded away as the feeling of digging her toes into warm sand sounded way more pleasant. “I’d like that.”

“Anyway, when I came out here just to lay on the beach and contemplate my future, I met an attorney who was retiring. He owned the real estate agency as well. It seemed serendipitous.”

“Certainly sounds like it.”

“I don’t regret it. I’ve known a peace here that can’t be beat.”

Jasmine bit her lip, considering. Had her mother found that peace before she died?

What did it look like? So far, Jasmine could only see it as living in a rundown house with a busted kitchen pipe, old flooring, and peeling paint.

Had her mother truly been happy giving up her busy life for a small town?

He gestured toward the envelope. “That envelope should’ve been in the packet I gave you yesterday. It’s a letter from your mother about the inn and some old pictures, I think.”

Jasmine pulled out the letter, but it was the pictures that caught her eye. They were black and white photographs of the home, in its previous glory. “Wow, look at these,” Jasmine exclaimed. “This house looked amazing.”

“Thirty years ago, yes. Your mother wanted to revive the place and see it create future memories for people who wanted a place to rest, even if only for a weekend.”

“A place to rest,” Jasmine echoed. “I like that sentiment.”

River busied himself with the kitchen faucet while Jasmine finished her delicious egg and sausage biscuit sandwich and read her mother’s letter.

Darling Jas,

Sweetheart, I know this is a long way from Philadelphia, but if I didn’t know you could do this, I wouldn’t ask this of you.

Lovett Cove is where I’ve been the happiest outside of being with you girls.

I saw a life here a long time ago. Not just for me; for all of us.

Time is so short. I regret so many things, but none more than not having time with you.

This bed-and-breakfast will let you have that time, Jasmine.

Time to slow down, have a family, if you want one.

I’m leaving it to you and hope that you will find your happiness here too.

It needs some work, but I can already see what it will be.

I couldn’t be prouder of the woman you are. Come home to Lovett Cove.

Love,

Your Mom

PS. The handyman I hired is single.

Jasmine swallowed her last bite as she came to the end of the letter. She felt almost sick to her stomach at her mother’s request.

“What’s wrong?” River stared at her with a worried expression.

“River, my mother is asking the impossible.”