The Posse (5 page)

The black shirt set off his
blond hair. The sleeves were snug enough that Jude could see the
muscles in his arms ripple as he reached for another slice of
bread.

“I think it’s going to bring
a lot more business to the Cove, even to Beach Street.”

Jude, absorbed in her study
of him, was just briefly lost by what Matt said. Then she
remembered and picked up the thread of conversation, grateful for
something to do.

“Without a doubt. That’s why
Daniel and Logan decided to go that route. At first they were
thinking restaurant. Not anything to compete with the Tide, of
course. I’d have wiped the floor with them, anyway, if they had
gone that way. More upscale, more a fancy-dinner night place.” She
waved her hand, indicating the room. “Kind of like this, I
guess.”

“The B-and-B will attract
more business. More people staying right there in town and spending
their money there, rather than taking a room at the chain hotel off
the highway. It’s going to be good. I had the organizer of a
surfing event call that woman who’s managing for you guys. She
booked rooms for a week next February.”

Jude smiled. “Thanks, Matt.
I don’t know what Crystal Cove would do without you. You’re like
our business rep these days. I hope people appreciate it.”

Matt ducked his head in that
way Jude remembered from back when he was in middle school. “It’s
no big. The town is part of my family. Everyone’s been there for
me, supported me. It’s nice to be able to return the favor.”

Jude squeezed another piece
of garlic onto her bread. This stuff was seriously good.  She
took a bite, chewed and swallowed before asking Matt another
question.

“Do you ever think back and
wish you’d done anything different, Matt? Maybe loved the Cove a
little less?”

Matt chuckled and leaned
back in his chair. “You’re talking about Renee, right? Nah.” He
shook his head. “No regrets. Except maybe that we both should have
been clearer from the beginning about what we wanted. I thought she
wanted to stay here, help me with the store, have some kids. She
thought I’d eventually get tired of this life and be willing to
move somewhere else. We were both really, really wrong.”

Jude reached across the
table and squeezed his hand before snagging another piece of bread.
“Do you ever hear from her?”

“Not for a long time. 
She lived in New York for a while, and then she moved to southern
California. Got remarried about five years ago, had a baby. Birth
announcement was the last thing I got.”

“Does it still hurt?” Jude
thought for a moment about how it would have felt if Daniel had
chosen to leave her behind, instead of being taken away against his
will. She imagined pain and betrayal.

Matt looked over her
shoulder, considering, and his eyes grew distant. “Sometimes I
think about what could have been. Renee and I weren’t cut out for
the long haul, I know that. But I would have liked kids, I think.
Yours are pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I like them most of
the time. Truthfully, I couldn’t have made it through these last
few years without them.”

“Well, I hope they’re up for
taking care of Uncle Matt in his old age. My sisters’ kids are
going to have their hands full with their own parents.”

The waitress finally
returned to take their entrée orders. Jude went with a penne and
cream sauce, and Matt ordered veal piccata.

Sipping her wine, Jude
studied him across the table. He was still uncomfortable about
something, she could tell.

“Have you ever thought about
getting married again?” Her words were more abrupt than Jude had
intended, but Matt’s reaction surprised her. His face turned red,
and he choked on his drink.

“Sorry,” he sputtered,
wiping his face with the white linen napkin. “Went down the wrong
pipe.”

“The idea of getting married
again is that scary?” Jude laughed and shook her head. “Typical
Matty.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. I
liked being married. I date enough, and if someone came along who I
could trust, who I could see building a life with...hell, yeah. I’d
dive in without another thought.”

“You should find a younger
woman. One who still wants to have children. It’s not too late for
you, Matt. You’d make a great daddy.”

He looked down, and Jude
sensed she’d touched a nerve. She drained her wine glass and gave
him a minute to recoup before she changed the subject.

They stuck to the
comfortable topics of Crystal Cove gossip and politics all during
the entrée. Matt knew everyone in the Cove, from the elderly lady
who lived in one of the tiny original houses in town—Jude suspected
Matt helped pay her taxes—to the United States congressman who had
just bought a beachfront condo.

“He loves the Cove, and it
wouldn’t hurt to have someone in our corner with all the
encroaching development.” Matt leaned forward, keeping his voice
low. “So I take him to lunch now and then, give his boy a free surf
lesson. He’s a nice guy. Doesn’t hurt to have friends in high
places, right?”

Jude took one last bite of
her penne. “You amaze me. I mean, I know all you guys love this
town. Daniel used to tell me sometimes the stuff you did, helping
people get businesses off the ground, making sure no one was hungry
or without a/c during the summer. But I think you’re probably the
most passionate about it. I’m proud of you, Matt.”

His eyes were glued to the
table. “That means a lot. Daniel used to say no one can build up a
man like Jude. He said he never would have done half what he did if
you weren’t there cheering him on.”

Jude hadn’t really cried in
weeks, but sitting there, hearing his words quoted to her, she
missed her husband with a new keenness. She fought back the tears
and instead grinned at Matt.

“Does that translate as I
nagged the hell out of him until he got it done? Probably closer to
the truth.”

Matt shook his head. “Never.
Daniel didn’t ever say anything but good stuff about you. Made the
rest of us hate him, sometimes. He was always the first one to go
home at night, because he had someone worth going home
to
.”

The waitress returned along
with a busboy who cleared their plates. “Coffee? And may I bring
our dessert tray? We have a delicious tiramisu tonight.”

Matt looked at her with
raised brows, but Jude just laughed, holding her stomach. “It
sounds great, and I wish I could, but I’m so stuffed. Plus, I need
to get home. Four AM is going to come early tomorrow.”

She sat back in her chair,
studying Matt as her took the check, glanced at it and then handed
it back to their server along with his credit card. She hadn’t been
lying earlier when she told him he should get married again. And
she could see him with a younger woman, one who would be willing to
start a family. She only hoped someone would come along who could
appreciate him.

“Are you sure I can’t pay
for my own? Or at least leave the tip?”

Matt looked wounded. “What
kind of guy do you think I am? No, thanks. I take a lady out, I
pay. I’m just old-fashioned that way, I guess.”

The ride home was relaxed
and quiet. Matt showed off the Corvette’s state-of-the-art audio
system as Prince crooned about purple rain.  Jude leaned her
head back against the seat and ran through the list of unattached
women she knew. There weren’t that many, none she could imagine
settling down with Matt.

The ‘Vette purred into her
driveway, and Matt turned off the ignition before he hopped out and
came around to open Jude’s door. He trailed behind her as she
walked toward the back door.

“Matt, you don’t have to
walk me to the door. I’m fine. I come home by myself pretty much
all the time, you know.”

Matt held the screen door
while she worked the lock. “Will you stop? I’m seeing you home
safe. Just like my dad always told me.”

Jude laughed, shaking her
head as she turned the knob. “Okay, well, mission accomplished. I’m
inside, and all is well. I’d invite you in, but I really do have to
get to bed. I’m sorry, I guess I’m not very fun these days.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not
every night I get to have dinner with a beautiful, fascinating
woman.” His eyes fastened on hers, and once again Jude felt that
thin line of dread from earlier in the evening.

“Well, clearly being
fascinating is also exhausting, because I need my sleep.” Jude
tiptoed up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Matt caught her arm,
and for a moment, Jude’s heart pounded.

Then he released her, patted
her back and smiled.

“Thanks for the nice
evening, Jude. See you around.”

***

Stopping in at the Riptide in the early
morning had become part of Logan’s routine. He had always been an
occasional jogger, running sporadically a few times a week, but for
the last month, he’d been at it every day. Seeing Jude first thing
in the morning was worth missing an hour of sleep and walking
around with sore muscles.

As he made his way down the
beach, his footfalls echoed against the dunes between the crashing
of the waves. There was something nearly mystical about the surf at
this time of day, before the sun rose and while a few last stars
still twinkled in the black velvet of the sky. Logan could almost
imagine that he was alone in the world.

He followed the bend and
caught sight of Tide, nestled just beyond the edge of the sand. As
he drew closer, he saw a figure silhouetted by the door. She
paused, glancing over her shoulder, and Logan dared to hope that
she was looking for him.

He turned up the narrow
walkway that led to the Riptide. Jude raised a hand in
greeting.

“Hey. You here to mooch off
my water and coffee again?” It had become her standard teasing
greeting.

“I’m doing you a service,
testing that stuff you call coffee before you unleash it on the
unsuspecting public. You ought to be paying me.”

Laughing, she swung open the
door. “Well, when you put it that way...”

His dark brown eyes tracked
her routine movements, and he snuck behind the bar to snag a water
bottle before taking up his usual seat on a bar stool.

“So...you make out okay last
night?”

The look Jude flashed him
was a mix of guilt and worry, and his heart plummeted.

“Last night? What do you
mean?”

He chose his words
carefully. “Your first night without the kids. I know they went
back to school yesterday. So I thought things might have felt a
little...quiet.”

“Oh.” She shook her head,
and he definitely detected relief. “Yeah. I was fine.” She paused
for a minute, measuring coffee into the machine. “Actually, I had
dinner with Matt. I think he was thinking the same thing—that I
might be lonely. So he took me out.”

Logan already knew about
their date, but he feigned surprise. “That was nice. Where’d you
go?”

Jude shrugged. “The new
Italian place. It wasn’t bad. Maybe a little pretentious. But you
know, restaurants...”

He nodded. “Yeah. But it
must’ve been good to get out. Have a little fun.”

She smiled. “It was. Matty’s
a good guy, you know? He just needs...” Her voice trailed off, and
her mouth dropped open a little as she stared out the dark
window.

Logan frowned and followed
the direction of her gaze, but he didn’t see anything. “What? Jude,
are you okay?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” She grinned
across at him, and her eyes sparkled. Logan’s heart skipped a beat
again, but this time for a completely different reason.

“I’ve been thinking and
thinking since last night. Matt needs someone in his life. You
know? Someone to love. Someone to love him, to take care of him. He
takes care of everyone else, the town—even me. That was what last
night was about.”

“Okay.” Logan was cautious,
not sure where she was going with this.

“So it just hit me. There’s
this girl I met when I was doing the grief support group. You
remember that? Right after Daniel died. She was actually from the
Cove originally, but she’s living across the bridge now. She was
younger than us. I think she graduated with Molly.” Matt’s youngest
sister was six years younger than the rest of them.

“And you think she and Matt
would be good together?”

Jude put her hand on her hip
and leaned against the counter. “I think they would be freaking
awesome together. Sandra is a firecracker. She’s got one little
girl, and she wants more kids—I remember she said that at one of
the meetings. Perfect.”

Logan propped one elbow up
on the bar. “Did you and Matt talk about this last night? I
thought—”

Jude glanced at him as she
poured his coffee. “You thought what?”

“That maybe last night—when
you said Matt took you out to dinner, I thought maybe it was more
like...a date situation.”