Page 2 of Return to Cheshire Bay

“Everything okay?” The male voice called out with concernlacing hiswords.

I bentdown, back to my neighbour, and picked up the mug, spying a crackin it but nothing more.“Yeah. Amazingly enough, it’s all good.”

In thehouse, Itrashed the oldcup, while also turning on the under the cabinets lights to give amuted glow to the area and switched off the harsh deck lightoutside – it was bright enough to act like a lighthousebeacon.

I headedover to the far end of the patio, closest to my neighbour’s. “I wasgoing to wait until tomorrow to introduce myself, butsince I’ve ruined thequiet vibe of the evening, may as well do it now.”

“I thinkDarth Vadercan take therap.”

A slightchuckle rolled out of me, pleased he knew the familiarity of the musical clip.“Yeah, we can totally blame him. I’m Lily, by the way.”

“Lily,as in LilyBaker?”

My jawdropped. That was anameI hadn’t used in years. At least not professionally. That namebelonged to a wild child, and clearly, this person remembered therebellious teenager who believed she was invincible. The weakestresponse rolled out. “None other.”

“Wow. You suregrew up.”

Wish Icould say the same about him as neither his voice nor his shape was at all familiar.I took a chance. “Mr. Morris?” But it couldn’t be. This voice wasyounger, with a sexy undercurrent to it.

A deeplaughfilled the air.“Only at doctor’s appointments.” His feet shuffled across hiswooden deck. “Don’t you recognize me?” The patter of feet fadedinto the sand, and his shadow made his way in my direction, intothe glow of the light. “You still don’t know who I am, doyou?”

Istared, shaking withdisbelief. “How can I? You’re in the shadows.”

The manbefore me was fully filled out and quite tall, something neither ofthe Morris boys had ever been. As he fully entered the light, Igasped as theboy hadbecome a man. And damn, a good-looking one at that too. Long gonewas the baby-faced, pimple-filled, gangly teenaged boy.

Having a50/50 shot between the brothers, I took a gamble. “Landon?”He was the baby, a year youngerthan me.

“No,”his voice fell indisappointment, something I related to when people found out it wasme and not my goody-two-shoes sister. “Just Eric.”

Ohmygod.Just Ericwas afull-fledged hottie. A caterpillar who’d burst out of his cocooninto a handsome, buff butterfly. Enough to cause my own in the pitof my stomach to swirl in excitement over seeing him after allthese years.

“Monahere too?”

“No, shecouldn’t make it.” Couldn’t be bothered was more like it, even ifshe wouldn’t let the place go.

“Cool.Can I come up? It’d begreat to catch up with you.”

“Sure, I’dlike that.”

Hestepped onto my deck and the sight of him up close made my jaw fall and my heartresponded with an uptick in speed.Just Erichad sprouted a good twelve inches since the lasttime I’d seen him and easily stood over six feet tall. “So… who’sthe Star Wars fan?”

“Me.”Assigning a fittingJohnWilliams score to my top ten callers was fun. Giving Parker theSith Lord theme was even better. He was such a tyrant and had nomercy.

“Who’sthe Darth Vaderfor?”

“No oneimportant.” Because he made it that way. Ended our relationshipwithout warning becausethe terms and conditions had changed, and he wasn’t onboard withany of it.

Ericseemed to have sensed my tone and eased away from the inquiry. Heleaned on the edge ofthe deck, his leg muscles tight beneath his shorts. “You back for acouple of weeks?”

“Actually, just like the good ole days, I’ll be here allsummer. Ithink.” Hadn’tworked through all the details completely, but it sounded good tosay it regardless, and I hoped the mock confidence rolledout.

A littleflutter took flight in my gut as a wanderlust expression filled his handsome face.It was still hard to believe a gawky teenager like he’d been, wasnow a stunningly gorgeous guy.

“Youhere for the summertoo?”

“Nah, Ilive hereyear-round.”

“Wow,really?”I couldn’timagine the seaside summer village being very busy during the cool,winter months.

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