The Girl From Summer Hill Read online

  Landers was now talking about hiring lawyers to get out of paying any more. If he did that, Devlin didn’t know what he was going to do next. During his once-a-month call to Emmie, she’d told him that Uncle Tate—how Devlin hated that name!—had bought the Virginia plantation and her mom had fixed it up.

  “You mean that old place Nina used to go on and on about, with those two kids?” He was annoyed that he hadn’t been told this useful information earlier.

  “Letty and Ace,” Emmie said with enthusiasm.

  “I didn’t think that place was real. Will he be there?”

  As young as Emmie was, she knew who “he” was. “Mom wants Uncle Tate to come, but she says that if he does, he’ll only stay for a day. My uncle is a celebrity and he can’t—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Devlin said. “I gotta go,” and he’d hung up.

  It had taken him a while to swallow his anger over that news. He was having to scrimp on everything, from clothes to his car, but Landers was buying plantations. How was that fair?

  Devlin did some investigating and found the town of Summer Hill, where the old plantation he’d heard too much about was. When he read of the auditions for the local play, he thought that maybe, for once in his life, his luck had changed. He’d go there, be in the play, and he’d work on getting Nina back. They could live on that lovely old plantation in the little town and he’d become…what? The mayor? He imagined town meetings with everyone lined up, asking for his autograph.

  But his long-term plan wasn’t working out. As always, everything good was given to Landers. He’d shown up with Jack Worth—the B-movie actor who had been chosen for his friendship instead of Devlin—and taken over the whole town. That was all anyone could talk of.

  And now it looked like Landers might be falling for some local girl. Sure she could cook, but who the hell was she? Nobody!

  Devlin knew that if he were given what fate had dished out so generously to Landers, he’d go after some rising starlet—or three. Not some cook in a nowhere town in Virginia.

  As he made his way to where he’d cut an opening in the fence at the back of the property, he thought about the photos he’d bought. He wasn’t yet sure what he was going to do with them, but he’d figure out something. His goal was to do to Landers what had been done to him—and it looked like that would involve this local girl.

  Smiling, Devlin went back to his Toyota, which was hidden at the side of the road. His next car was going to be a dark-green Jaguar.

  “Good morning.”

  Casey looked up to see Tate standing at the screen door. The early-morning sun behind him made her remember the first time she’d seen him: wet and naked.

  What she was thinking must have shown on her face because Tate’s eyebrows raised in a way that made her blush.

  “Maybe now’s not a good time,” he said as he turned away.

  “You don’t have to leave.” She took the two steps to the door and held it open.

  As Tate went past her, he lifted his arms as if he were in a holdup, and stepped sideways. She knew he was making a point of not touching her, so no electricity would pass between them.

  She ignored his theatrics. “Where are the others?”

  “Richmond. Gizzy said she had to go there to get something for her dad, and Jack asked to go with her. My guess is that they’ll spend the night. That means I’m…” He shrugged.

  “That you’re all by yourself and I’ll bet you’re hungry. Sit down. I made breakfast burritos, so we can eat before the rehearsals start.”

  Tate straightened his shoulders. “Actually, I told Kit I needed a break and whether he liked it or not, I was going to take the entire day off.”

  Casey gave a derisive little snort. “He called off rehearsals today, didn’t he?”

  “Oh, yeah. His relatives are moving into their new house and he’s spending the day with them. This whole place is going to be free of people, so I thought I’d go exploring. You wouldn’t want to go with me, would you?”

  “Love to!” Casey took four stainless-steel buckets out of a closet. “I was told there’s a stand of blackberry bushes on this property, and I’d like to find it. Wrap up a couple of burritos and we can eat as we walk.”

  “Walk, ha!” Tate said. “I live in L.A. We drive from the kitchen to the living room.” He quickly wrapped two burritos in foil, grabbed bottles of water, then held open the door. Outside was a little red utility truck.

  “Perfect.” She set the buckets in the back.

  Tate put the burritos and water on the seat, then returned to the house. Moments later he came out with a big plastic pie carrier and a huge spoon. “Must feed my addiction.”

  Casey laughed as he put it in the back, then got in beside her, turned on the engine, and drove across the lawn. “So who are Letty and Ace?” A flash of something she couldn’t read went across his eyes, then it was gone. It looked like he’d guessed that Devlin had first mentioned the children to her. Was he jealous?

  “My mom spent summers here until she was ten. Her real name was Ruth but she asked everyone to call her Letty, short for Princess Colette, because she thought that was the most beautiful name she’d ever heard. The boy she played with every summer was called Ace. When Nina and I were kids, Mom told us stories about what they did.”

  “Anything about peacocks?”

  “Oh, yes. Ace covered a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and used it as a shield. He used to run a particularly big peacock away from the well house, where he and Letty had their most secret hideout. My mom said Ace was a true hero, fearless and brave.”

  “Like you were with the peacock?”

  “No. I didn’t confront the beast. I was a total coward. Threw my shirt over the creature, gave it a push, then ducked down under the window—and he still almost pecked my face off.”

  “And Emmie saw it all?”

  “Every second of it. It entertained her immensely, but then, she thinks her uncle Tate is fairly ridiculous. So what made you decide to become a great chef?”

  “I haven’t reached that level by any means. Ow!” Tate had hit a pothole so deep that her head hit the ceiling.

  “Sorry. We are now going into uncharted territory. But you’ve been here for months, so you must know the place better than I do.”

  “There was too much snow this winter for me to get out much, and besides, Kit got me quite a few jobs so I was busy. I cooked for him until he dragged his former housekeeper out of retirement. She wasn’t happy about it, and every day she says she’s leaving. What’s that?”

  She was pointing at a ramshackle building under a big oak tree. The roof looked fairly new but some windows were missing.

  “Probably the old chicken coop.” He stopped the truck. They opened the burritos and began to eat.

  “This place has a lot of memories for you, doesn’t it?”

  “From my mother’s stories, yes,” he said. “After my father died, I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t there to toss me around and throw a ball to me. My mom did her best, but she was grieving too. She had a baby and a rambunctious four-year-old, and lots of bills.”

  “It must have been awful for all of you.”

  “It was.” He looked back at her. “But that’s when Mom started telling me the Letty and Ace stories. The kids vowed to be best friends forever and ever.”

  “Was Ace his real name?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve always wished that I’d asked. At first I was too young to question the name, then later I was too busy with my own life to think about it.”

  “Your mom…?”

  “Died just before I got my first major role.”

  Casey could hear the pain in his voice, and she reached across the seat to put her hand on his.

  “Thanks,” he murmured, then in the next second a charge of electricity went through both of them.

  Casey snatched her hand away and started to make a sharp retort, but instead she laughed, and Tate joined her.

  “Sh