Carson stirred a little and settled comfortably against Nick. He did not open his eyes. "Dad?"
"Time to go home."
"You didn't make her mad, did you?"
"I worked very hard not to make her mad."
"Good." Carson went back to sleep.
They all trooped down the hall to the front door and out onto the wide veranda. Winston vanished discreetly into the bushes. Hannah arranged Carson's black wind-breaker—a miniature version of the one Nick wore—around the boy's sleeping form.
"We've got some news," she said softly.
"What's that?" Nick asked.
"We're pregnant."
"Hey, that's great." He grinned and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Congratulations to both of you."
"Thanks."
Rafe put his arm around Hannah and pulled her close against his side. His pride and happiness were apparent. "You're the first to know. We'll start phoning everyone else in both families tomorrow."
Nick smiled. "Nothing else like it, you know."
"Yeah, sorta figured that," Rafe said.
Nick looked down at Carson lying securely in his arms. "You just wish it was this easy to protect them forever."
They stood there for a moment. No one spoke.
After a while Nick hugged his son a little more tightly to him and went down the steps. At the bottom he paused briefly and looked back. "Almost forgot. I've got a little news of my own."
Hannah smiled encouragingly. "What?"
"Octavia Brightwell is related to our own local legend, Claudia Banner. Turns out that Claudia was her great-aunt."
Hannah's jaw dropped. "You're kidding."
"Nope."
"What the hell is she doing here in Eclipse Bay?" Rafe asked.
"I don't think she knows the answer to that one, herself. She said something about coming here to see if there was anything that could be done to mend the damage her great-aunt did. But I've got a feeling it's more complicated."
"What do you mean?" Hannah replied.
"From what I can tell, she's been drifting since Claudia died a year and a half ago. No close family. No real roots anywhere. Coming here to repair the damage her aunt did gave her a goal. But she tells me that she plans to leave at the end of the summer because it's clear to her that the Hartes and the Madisons have ended the feud all by themselves."
"Yeah, the good times never last, do they?" Rafe said laconically. His expression turned serious. "Does my grandfather know who she is?"
"She said Sullivan and Mitchell have known since the night of Lillian's show. Obviously they chose to keep the information to themselves."
"Figures," Rafe said.
They waited together on the veranda while Winston finished his business in the damp shrubbery. Hannah watched the BMW disappear into the night.
"What do you think is going on here?" she said after a while.
"Damned if I know." Rafe wrapped his hands around the railing. "Maybe it's like Nick said. Maybe Octavia came to Eclipse Bay to carry out her aunt's dying wish and then discovered there was nothing to fix."
"Nick is getting serious about her. I can tell. Octavia is different from the other women he's been seeing in the past few years. He's acting odd, too. I wonder if he's given her The Talk yet?"
"Don't know about that, but one thing we can say for sure. The curse has not yet been lifted. Nick didn't stay the night at her place."
"That business about the curse is absolute nonsense. The reason Nick never spends the night with any of his lady friends is because of Carson. He doesn't like to leave him alone with a sitter all night."
"That excuse doesn't fly," Rafe said flatly. "It's true that Nick doesn't leave Carson with sitters all night, but you know as well as I do that the kid stays overnight with family at times. Trust me, Nick wouldn't have a serious problem arranging to remain in some woman's bed until breakfast if that's what he wanted to do. If you ask me, he's avoiding it."
"I suppose you're right. Waking up with someone in the morning is a little different. More intimate, somehow. He's probably afraid that if he spends the night, the lady in question might get the wrong idea in spite of The Talk. He's done his best to avoid getting entangled in a real relationship since Amelia died."
"It's one thing to have hot sex and leave while it's still dark," Rafe agreed. "It's another thing to face the lady across the breakfast table. Takes the relationship to a whole new level."
Hannah smiled and patted her tummy. "Certainly had that effect on our relationship. But then, you can cook. That made a huge difference."
Winston trotted up the steps and kept going toward the front door. Rafe turned his head to watch the dog disappear inside the hall.
"Uh-oh," he said.
"Something wrong?"
"Just realized that we left the door open."
"So?"
"So Eddie is still at the front desk. He must have over-heard everything we said when we talked to Nick a few minutes ago. Got a feeling he now knows just who Octavia Brightwell really is. Probably can't wait to tell everyone down at the post office first thing tomorrow morning."
Hannah groaned. "You're right. Uh-oh."
"What the heck. It was all bound to come out sooner or later. Not like there's any way to keep a secret in Eclipse Bay, after all."
"True." Hannah nibbled on her lower lip for a moment. "All the same, I think I'll give Octavia a call first thing in the morning and warn her. She's an outsider. She won't be prepared for what she's going to walk into tomorrow."
Rafe smiled. He said nothing.
She raised her brows. "What?"
"Just struck me that Octavia isn't that much of an outsider."
"What do you mean?"
"She's related to Claudia Banner, remember?" He tightened his arm around Hannah and steered her back toward the open door. "Her family has been involved in this thing from the beginning. Just like us Madisons and Hartes."
Chapter 7
All eyes turned toward her when she walked into the Incandescent Body bakery shortly before nine the next morning. And just as quickly shifted away again.
Even if Hannah had not been kind enough to give her a wake-up call and a warning, Octavia thought, she had been in Eclipse Bay long enough to know what this peculiar attention meant.
There was fresh gossip going around and she was the focus of it.
She had been well aware of what would happen if she accepted a date with Nick Harte, she reminded herself. And the fact that everyone now knew that she was related to the infamous Claudia Banner just added a whole lot of very hot spice to the stew that was now brewing in Eclipse Bay.
