Lakeshore Candy: The McAdams Sisters (By The Lake Book 4) Read online

  Cece clapped her hands together, making the decision for Riley. “Perfect. Good. Go get ready. We can drive to the office together.” Cece slipped off the chair onto her four-inch black heels, but didn’t walk away. She stood in front of Abby and Riley, watching, waiting and not giving them a free moment to talk.

  “Alright. After breakfast,” Riley said.

  After breakfast, Riley took Abby’s hand and pulled her into his bedroom. “I wanted to be there for you today,” he said, shutting the door behind them. “You’ve been there for me the last five days and today I wanted to stand by your side.”

  Abby let out the breath of caution she had been holding. Darn, it was difficult trying to control the words that begged to come out of her mouth and more difficult to not reaching her hands out to touch Riley every second in Cece’s presence.

  “Thank you Riley. That’s really sweet. I’m just not sure what to do here. I’m not even sure where you stand with your label. I mean, this whole life of yours just got dropped on my lap yesterday and you have a house, a business, but more importantly you have a sister and she looks upset.”

  His anxious body stilled. “She’s different,” he said quietly. The image he had painted for her in the attic was very different then Cece, but she was dealing with his return also.

  “Of course she’s different.” Abby sighed. “Riley, what do you want me to say here? Do you want to know what I’m actually thinking or do you just want to deal with this on your own and keep my thoughts to myself?”

  Confusion blended with amusement crossed his face. “Abby McAdams is asking whether to give her opinion?” It wasn’t funny, she was serious. Her lips lifted regardless. “Should I alert the rest of your siblings? Because I’m sure this would be new to them too.”

  Abby hit him. “I’m serious. This is your life.”

  He stepped in and touched her shoulders. “You are my life. Everything I do from now on is our life.” Although his jokes made her smile, this dark, dramatic, serious love he sent her blanketed every part of her like protection. “I only want the truth from you. I don’t want you to tiptoe around me, ever. Understood?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” Abby wanted to tiptoe upwards and catch his lips with hers. “Cece loves you and I think she is afraid you are going to leave again.” She doesn’t trust me. She left that part out...for now. “Probably without telling her, so I think you better clear that up. If you don’t want to go to the office for the sake of the office, that’s your decision. But if you don’t want to go because you made a promise to me...” Abby rubbed his hand. “I’m going to be okay today. Your sister needs you.”

  “I can go another day. She can handle today.”

  “I can handle today.” Abby leaned up and softly kissed his lips. “I promise and if you get a cell phone I could text you when I got there, when I leave...” She grinned. “What I’m wearing...underneath my clothes...”

  He grinned at her. “You’ve been razing me to get a phone since we first met. This is the best argument yet.”

  “My panties tend to have that effect.”

  “Hmm. I might have to pick myself up one of these electronic devices you speak of.” He kissed her neck. She tilted her head giving his warm wet mouth full access.

  “Then you better hurry up and shower. Your sister is waiting.”

  “I’m not showering alone.”

  Abby touched her damp hair. “I already showered,” she said, with a shrug.

  Riley’s hands grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled it up over her head. His hands ran up her front and cupped her breasts. Her arms automatically wrapped around his neck while he kissed her throat again, then trailed his lips down to her chest, where he pushed her breasts up to his waiting mouth.

  Abby moaned.

  “That’s better...”

  There was a house full of guests! “No, stop it.” She began to back away but his hand caught her waist and pulled her back against him.

  “You need another shower.” Riley lifted Abby into the air causing a delightfully surprised shrill to leave her lips s he threw her over his shoulder.

  “Riley!” she laughed, lightly pounding his back.

  He slapped her rear end, walking toward the bathroom and she laughed so hard her stomach rumbled against his shoulder. He pulled her panties off, throwing them as he walked.

  “Riley!”

  He didn’t put her down, turning on the shower to warn the water.

  “Your sister is on the same floor.”

  He set her on her feet and unbuckled his pants. “I don’t care. It’s my house.”

  And a very big house at that.

  He dropped his pants and briefs at the same time, standing before her naked, letting his hardness spring out, ready for her. “You going to be able to resist this?” he teased.

  Abby slowly drank in his muscles and the flesh up his legs, finding below his waist that he was ready to take her now, up his torso, right up to the desire he cast on her. How could she resist this? How could she resist him?

  Her lips curved slowly. “Maybe...”

  “You lie.”

  Abby was standing in front of him naked. She ran her fingers from her middle up between her breasts and stopped. “Can you resist...”

  He was watching her every move. “Not a chance in hell.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  THE MEETING LEFT Riley feeling out of the loop, but surprisingly it didn’t bother him. Cece had every last detail of his job mastered and he was proud.

  “Do you like running the place?” he asked, as they walked away from the meeting and toward his office.

  Cece shrugged her squared shoulders. He’d noticed, watching her in his position as boss, that she was much harder than before he left.

  “I like you running your business better. I don’t mind running the place, but I certainly do not like doing it alone.”

  Guilt. More guilt on his plate, just when the last year’s had finally waned.

  “Plus, I miss managing bands. There has been no time for me to even take a single band on while filling in as CEO.” There were a lot of positions available in this industry, in his business. When Cece had finished school and came to work for him, she’d proved herself to be a very talented artist’s manager. She was able to talk her way into any venue, book promotions, and press until each band she took under her wing succeeded. Cece had been the best Artist Manager at Torsten Label and Riley had taken that away from her.

  Riley’s office was exactly the way he’d left it. Cece followed him inside and shut the door.

  “Riley, can we talk?”

  He nodded as his hand touched the cold metal edge of the sleek desk.

  “Are you here to stay?” she asked.

  That was a good question. One he didn’t know the answer to because he hadn’t had time to consider it yet. He wanted to be with Abby and since she’d just started a business in Willow Valley with her sisters he assumed that was where she wanted to be. However, he couldn’t help the little pieces of him waking up with each step he took through his label. His label. His life. It wasn’t really open for discussion yet.

  “I don’t know Cece.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know? Your house is here. Your career is here. I’m here. This is your life.”

  He knew that. But he also knew he loved Abby and he wasn’t leaving her...she was his life. He wasn’t sure Cece would understand that right now.

  “Cece. I know you don’t understand...”

  “You’re right Riley. I don’t understand,” she snapped and he watched the quiet, sweet sister he remembered drag all her fears to the surface. “I am your sister. I am your family. Your only family and when life pulled you down a rough road you left me alone. For years Riley!”

  He didn’t need the reminder. He’d thought of her every single day. Was she okay? Had she moved on? It was clear she hadn’t.

  “I went to that rehab center every day to see you and you wouldn’t even let me in.�
��

  Sobering up in the rehab center had left Riley a lot of time to fear what his sister would think of him, what everyone in the label would think. For half the year after Dani and Jenny died, Riley had taken a road down a path of drugs and drinking, ignoring his responsibilities, causing destruction in his label, and he’d been embarrassed, ashamed.

  “Then one day you were gone and the receptionist just handed me a letter. A letter. That’s what you left me, a goodbye letter. So no, Riley, I don’t understand how the mother of a woman you couldn’t stand was the person you ran to instead of me. You raised me. Why didn’t you let me take care of you for once?”

  “Cece I was a mess.”

  “It doesn’t matter. We are family.”

  He knew that now.

  “Now you’re here, but you’re not here.” Tears were forming in her eyes. He abandoned his office chair and crossed the room to hug her.

  “I’m sorry. I was selfish. I’m not leaving you again like that ever. I promise.”

  “But you don’t even know if you’re staying. It’s that Abby girl isn’t it?”

  That Abby girl. He didn’t like the way she said it, spit it out like she was angry at Abby. Abby had nothing to do with the way he had treated Cece. In fact, Abby shared her part with Mrs. C for his return to Cece.

  He pulled away from Cece, but kept his hands on her fragile shoulders. She might stand tall at his height and square her shoulders strong, but they were still tiny beneath his hands.

  “I am the one who hurt you Cece. Not Abby. Please don’t be mad at her.” He paused, not sure if Cece was ready to hear what he felt compelled to say next, to make her understand that Abby would never be that girl to him. She was the girl. Abby McAdams was his woman.

  “You can start unloading some of your duties back onto me and find your next band.” The words were out of his mouth before he could think about it.

  “So you’re staying?”

  “I don’t have a black and white answer for you Cece. It’s grey. I haven’t discussed it with Abby.” He wasn’t even sure how he was going to discuss it with Abby.

  “So it’s her decision? If you stay or if you leave?”

  Ultimately, it was his decision to go with her. “It’s our decision to make together. But I promise, me and you, we are going to be fine.”

  “I missed you Ry.”

  “I missed you too.”

  “I don’t want you to leave again.”

  Riley was determined to convince her that he wasn’t ever disappearing again.

  “Will you at least stay until Friday and attend the year end party? We are having it at your house, as usual. That’s where we have all the parties.”

  They were staying in Oakston for the week on vacation anyway. “I can make that work.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  AVERY PARKED THE car in front of a small white house with perfectly maintained flowerbeds. Pinks, purples and foliage lined the brick pathway to the front door, painted a bright red matching the shutters.

  Izzy had stayed at Riley’s house deciding she would rather lounge by his swimming pool while they broke the news of death to an elderly woman.

  Abby paused at the door and looked at Avery for support. She had been debating her plan...or lack thereof...during the drive through the towering businesses in the busy part of the city, and then into the suburbs. Standing here now on the porch, she realized she was going to be telling an elderly lady that the twin sister she’d been conversing back and forth with was dead. This was terrible.

  “She needs to know,” Avery said, balancing the box of letters in his arm, knowing exactly what she was thinking, as usual.

  Taking a deep breath, Abby knocked on the solid wood door anticipating meeting Gran’s twin, while fretting about the news she was about to deliver.

  A woman in her sixties answered the door. Her steel-grey eyes looked them over, but a smile resided on her lips. She looked eccentric with a full head of wild curls that were pinned every which direction, dark filled in eyebrows, and clothes that mixed hippie with chic. Abby liked her right away.

  “Hi. Can I help you?”

  “Hi. I’m Abby McAdams and I was looking for De’laine Braxton. I’m pretty sure this is her address.”

  Abby took one of the letters out of her pocket and passed it to the woman.

  Sympathy softened the lady’s face. “I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but De’laine passed away last November.”

  November?

  “How did you know my mom?”

  November? What day in November? Was it coincidental that November was the same month Gran died?

  “I’m Avery.” Avery offered his hand past Abby to the woman.

  “Nice to meet you Avery. My name is Vivette.”

  “My sister found these letters in our grandmother’s attic and they insinuate your mother De’laine and our grandmother were twin sisters.”

  Abby wasn’t even sure how they were both having a conversation and not in complete shock like herself. The twin sisters had died in the same month.

  “Yes, I have those letters too.” Vivette opened the door for them. “Please, come in.”

  They followed Vivette through the house, very different than Gran’s little cottage which was homey and old-fashioned. This house was larger, freshly painted neutral beige and furnished with very modern furniture.

  In the backyard, Vivette poured three glasses of fruit infused water, fresh raspberries and strawberries bounced in the center tube of the glass clear pitcher.

  “Just wait here and I will grab those letters.” Vivette disappeared back through the french doors into the house and Abby hit Avery’s shoulder to get his attention quickly before she returned.

  “Avery, De’laine died in November,” Abby whispered, as he examined the water like it was poisonous.

  Abby shook her head. Had he never seen infused water? “Just drink it. It tastes like watered down juice.”

  Avery took a sip and let the water roll around in his mouth before swallowing, then shrugged like it wasn’t bad and took another sip.

  “Are you listening to me? November? Don’t you think that’s a little weird?”

  “It’s coincidental.”

  “It’s totally weird.”

  Vivette came back holding a fancy floral box and sat down across Abby.

  “When did De’laine pass away, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Not at all. She passed in her sleep on November 5th.”

  November 5th!!!

  Abby gasped.

  “That’s the exact same day my grandmother died and she died in her sleep too.”

  Vivette smiled. “De’laine was actually my mother-in-law, but I have referred to her as my mother for as long as I can remember. Her son, Rupert, and I were married very young and De’laine was like a mother to me. We were very close and I know she was planning on meeting Grace, before she passed.

  “Our grandmother didn’t mention De’laine to us, but the letter indicated they’ve been talking for years.”

  Vivette nodded. “Honestly, I didn’t know about Grace until after De’laine passed. I found the letters in her closet and from what I gathered from the one-sided conversation, the idea of meeting was only starting to reveal itself in the months before they passed.”

  They passed. Together. The same month, the same day.

  Abby was convinced, if not before then definitely now, that Gran had urged her through her dreams up to that attic to learn about De’laine.

  Why would Gran wait so long to meet her sister? If it were Abby she would have drove over the day she discovered the connection.

  “Do you know why they waited so long to decide to meet?”

  “These two wonderful ladies were from a different generation than us. Much more reserved and cautious. Trust me...” Vivette laughed. “I know all about throwing caution to the wind being married to her son. The mother and son combo often conflicted while Rupert took his career
into his own hands, making plunges, doing the out of the ordinary compared to the way De’laine was raised.”

  “Do you know why they were separated?”

  Vivette nodded, her dark blonde bangs bouncing. “It’s in one of the letters. They were separated during The Great Depression. Times were different and parents couldn’t always feed the mouth of all of their children. From what I understand, your grandmother was sent to live with another family when they were young, but old enough to remember each other. The earliest dated letter in this box from Grace seems like the first letter, explaining how she found De’laine and how she’d never forgotten about her.” Vivette slid the box across to Abby. “Here, take these letters. I’ve read them over and again. I feel like I know your whole family. Grace described all of you so beautifully.” Vivette’s eyes zeroed in on Abby. “Especially you Abby. I think Grace had a special place in her heart for you, because she only talks about an angel sent to her doorstep whose smile was priceless, laughter contagious and love in abundance.”

  Gran said all that about her? It brought tears to her eyes. “Thank you.”

  “Do you believe in fate?” Vivette asked.

  “Fate?” Abby believed if you smiled the world smiled around you. She wasn’t so sure about fate. Kate, Peyton and Sydney might believe in fate but Abby wasn’t sure. Then again, she was sure convinced that Gran had guided her to this very house. Was that fate?

  Abby shrugged. “I’ve never thought about fate.”

  “De’laine was a big believer in fate. She believed everything in life happened for a reason. The people you run into along the way are the people you’re supposed to run into and the people who stick around are the people who are supposed to stick around.”

  That was beautiful. In that expression, it would be fate that her and Riley were together. Fate that had brought him to Willow Valley or they would have never met.

  Did Riley believe in fate?

  “De’laine also believed fate brought her back to Grace and now hearing the date Grace passed, I believe fate reunited them together, just not here with us.”