Once Hunted, Twice Shy

Chapter One

Penelope Messing tapped her cell phone, wondering what was happening to her GPS. It had suddenly lost its mind. She sat in her rental car, pulled off to the side of a narrow road near a large lighthouse. The navigation system had been fine one second and had tried to route her into the ocean the next. The voice, which was set to a female one, had been rather insistent that she continue onward. The screen with the map displayed had very clearly shown nothing but water, but that didn't seem to matter.

The darn thing had unrelentingly told her that her destination was ahead. It even had a flag graphic shown on the display with nothing but blue surrounding it. Unless her grandfather had taken to living in a submarine and no longer resided behind his shop, in the center of town, the directions the system was giving her were faulty.

Even worse, the rental car came equipped with navigation in the dash, and it too seemed to think she needed to be in the ocean. Having two different navigation systems want to drown her was unnerving to say the least.

She pulled up the address on her phone that she'd keyed in at the airport to be sure she'd not made an error. She hadn't. This one-lane road did not look like Main Street to her. If it was, the town of Everlasting had sure downsized since she'd last been there, not that it had been a sprawling metropolis or anything before.

Prior to finding the lighthouse, all that had surrounded Penelope had been trees on both sides of the road, leaving barely any shoulder to the road at all. The dense woods had gone on for what felt like an eternity. She'd been excited when she found a structure at the end of the narrowing road. As she glanced at the huge lighthouse, she wasn't so sure it was her saving grace after all. With the heavy rains, winds and thunder booming, the lighthouse looked less like a welcoming beacon and more like an ominous warning.

If she thought she'd be able to find her way back to the airport, and to the city, she'd have already turned around and made a go for it. At least there she'd be able to find a hotel room for the night and wait out the weather. As it stood, she was committed and starting to feel as if she'd driven to the town time forgot.

Just then, lightning slashed the sky behind the lighthouse, causing Penelope to jolt upright in the car. She hit her knee on the steering wheel and winced. "Son of a bumblebee, that hurt."

On the verge of tears, she rubbed her knee, rethinking her life choices in a big way. Had she just stayed in Chicago, she wouldn't currently be lost and parked near the spooky lighthouse. Had she just turned Craig down two years ago when he'd insisted they go to dinner together, she wouldn't have a broken heart.

Frustration gnawed at her, picking away at her inner defenses like a festering wound. Everything had led her to this point, and second-guessing it all was getting her nowhere fast.

She'd wanted to get away from the city, away from her life there, away from her ex and his newly announced bride-to-be, and spend time with her grandfather. It should have been easy.

So far, the flight in had been delayed several hours due to a broken windshield wiper that wouldn't go down. Once they'd finally gotten on their way, turbulence had rocked the plane nonstop. Upon landing, she'd found out they'd lost her checked luggage, but the airlines were quick to let her know that should they locate her bags, they'd have them delivered to where she was staying. And what should have been an easy drive to Everlasting was proving to be anything but.

"You are not going to die by the creepy-looking lighthouse, surrounded by even creepier woods and an ocean that looks like it wants to swallow you whole."

Now if she only believed herself, all would be well.

I'm a goner.

As she tapped her phone, she caught the slightest of movements out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she spotted a man in the window of the lighthouse. Maybe the lighthouse wasn't so creepy after all. Especially if she could get some help there.

Hope welled, and she considered getting out to ask for directions. If he lived here, he surely knew his way around.

That thought died the moment the man backed up from the window, and she got a good look at what he was wearing, or rather what he wasn't wearing—pants.

He was in a sports jacket and a pair of plaid boxers.

Nothing else.

"Oh my stars," she breathed as her eyes widened. She let off the brakes momentarily, and the car crept forward, toward the cliff side. She hit the brakes and put the car in park, needing to get her bearings and then put some distance between herself and the older gentleman wearing boxers. It was that or drive off the cliff to her death because the sight of him there was like a train wreck—something she couldn't look away from.

A series of sneezes came over her, and she held tight to the wheel, thankful she had pulled the car to a stop. Had she not, the GPS might have very well gotten its way and had her swimming with the fishes. Every bad mafia pun she could think of rolled through her head, causing a nervous laugh to escape her. She sneezed more, so hard that she nearly hit her forehead on the steering wheel.

Penelope snatched her purse from the passenger seat and took out a pack of tissues. She touched her nose with one, wondering what had come over her. Normally, she only sneezed in such a manner when she was around cats. She had a strong allergy to them and therefore did her best to avoid them whenever possible. If she didn't, she'd end up with puffy eyes and a runny nose that would last for days. Once she'd stayed at a friend's house who had two cats and her eyes had swollen completely shut. That had lasted for nearly a week and had required a shot to help clear up.

Thankfully, she had no issues with dogs and had a major soft spot for them. She'd have gotten one of her own if her lifestyle permitted it. As it was, she worked so many hours that it would have been unfair to any animal. In the meantime, she donated to animal shelters and rescue groups to help sate her longing for a furry friend. Whenever she could, she also volunteered, being sure to point out she couldn't help with any cats.

Currently, there were no cats to be seen. She sneezed more, her body begging to differ with her.

She returned the tissue pack to her purse and set her purse back on the passenger seat of the vehicle, near her carry-on bag. Her carry-on held her laptop, charging cords, and a few personal items. Having to travel a great deal for the auction house, Penelope had learned to keep a change of clothes in whatever carry-on bag she took on a flight. She was relieved she'd had the forethought to do so now, or she'd be stuck in what she was wearing indefinitely.

She adjusted her sweater that had a puppy knitted on the front of it. Her sense of fashion had always been quite different from that of other women her age, but she didn't care. At twenty-six, she wore what made her smile, and the sweater had given her the warm fuzzies when she'd spotted it in a storefront window. The leggings that she wore with it had small fire hydrants on them and paired perfectly with the sweater. At five feet nine inches, she'd had to hunt around the internet for a pair that would fit her long legs, but she'd managed to find some.

Craig, her boyfriend of the last two years, and the man who had broken her heart into a million pieces, had hated the way she dressed when she wasn't at work. He'd mocked it every chance he'd gotten and had refused more than once to be seen in public with her until she'd changed her clothes. He also greatly disliked her sayings and refusal to say curse words. She'd always found a foul mouth to be a waste of energy. Besides, it was more fun to think of creative alternatives to words that shouldn't be said in polite company.

Craig had never agreed.

Looking back, she realized they'd never really had much in common. She loved old things, antiques of any kind, and architecture. He liked money and knocking down old buildings to make way for new ones.

They'd met while she was working at the auction house and she'd been in her professional attire. He'd come into the auction house with a friend of his who had items up for bid, and then he'd insisted she have dinner with him. He'd seemed sweet and charming, but it had all been for show. He was on the hunt for the proper wife to drag around to social functions, and she wasn't it. She wanted nothing to do with high society. She'd given him two years of her life, thinking the entire time that the relationship was going somewhere. That it had a future.

How foolish she'd been.

He'd broken up with her in an expensive restaurant, making quite the scene about how clumsy she was, how her sense of fashion was laughable and how she was book smart but would never be good wife material. He was also stuck on her lack of wanting to advance further in her career. She was content with what she did and didn't want to push onward. She made good money, more than she needed to live a modest lifestyle, and she liked the people she worked with. There was no reason to want more. Craig had never understood that.

Three days ago, she'd opened the newspaper to find his photo there in the engagement section with a beautiful woman smiling next to him. Within a month of their breakup, he'd not only moved on, he'd also found that cookie-cutter trophy wife he'd been so desperate for. He was living his dream, and she was in the middle of a nightmare. She'd thought she'd been in love with Craig, and that he'd felt the same for her. A small part of her had even hoped their breakup was temporary. Clearly, it wasn't. The sting of it all was still fresh enough to make her tear up.

She blinked away the pending tears. She'd shed enough of them over the man.

Within minutes of seeing the announcement in the paper, Penelope had finished off an entire apple pie and cried for several hours before getting online and booking a flight to Everlasting. So far, her last-minute trip was proving to be anything but relaxing.

"It can only get better from here, right?"

Glancing back up at the lighthouse, Penelope assumed she'd see the man in the plaid boxers once more. She didn't. He was gone from the window, and there was no light whatsoever in the lighthouse any longer. As much as she needed a helping hand with directions, she didn't want to go up to the lighthouse and ask.

She had a great-uncle who liked to walk around in his boxers as well when she was younger, and the image was still seared into her brain. At least the man in the lighthouse had gone with a nice sports jacket rather than a holey white undershirt that her great-uncle had been partial to.

Conjuring a mental image of her great-uncle, she shuddered, did a four-point turn, and drove the rental car back down the narrow road, hoping to spot a landmark or sign that would jog her memory. It had been a long time since she'd been in Everlasting. The sleepy little fishing village had apparently grown in size, at least from what she'd read on the internet.

Truth be told, she'd never thought she'd return. Her last memory of the area was of attending her parents' funeral. She'd walked silently behind the black vehicles that had held her mother's and father's coffins, her hand in her grandpa Wil's, her heart broken beyond repair. It had all seemed so confusing to her back then, like a whirl, everything happening so fast.

Her entire world had changed on a dime, and nothing had been the same. She'd been six years old then. Twenty years had passed, but it felt like yesterday. The raw emotions of it all were there, just below the surface, wanting to come out. She held tight to them, mentally reminding herself that she was no longer six years old.

She was a grown woman.

Still, the sting of it was there, floating on her memories of the time. Within hours of laying her parents to rest, she'd been whisked away from the town by her mother's parents to be raised far from Everlasting—far from Wilber Messing, her grandfather. She'd found herself in a small town in Mississippi until she'd gone off to college.

She had fond childhood memories of Grandpa Wil. He'd been attentive and caring when she was a child, always telling her one fantastical tale after another. He never ran out of interesting stories about mythical creatures and monsters that were purportedly real. He'd tell of times of old when he and his ancestors supposedly hunted these made-up creatures. He'd had a way about him that was whimsical, and that made her smile. He'd often taken her hiking in the woods on the edge of town, teaching her to track wild animals and to fish. And he'd always made her feel safe and loved.

She'd been devastated when her parents had died and even more distraught when she'd been taken far from Grandpa Wil. Her mother's parents had felt he was a bad influence and unfit to raise a small child on his own. They'd forbid her from visiting him or contacting him while she was growing up. Once she was away from their clutches, she'd reached out to him, hoping he'd want to see her once more.

He'd come right away to visit her at her university and had made trips across the country to spend time with her every year since, even after she'd gotten her master's degree and started her job in marketing. But not this year.

That was part of the reason why she'd decided to fly in and surprise him. The other part had been because of her ex-boyfriend and the rather harsh reminder she wasn't wife material in the morning paper. She'd cashed in all her unused vacation time, and she'd left the hustle and bustle of Chicago for the sleepy seaside fishing town of Everlasting.

The more she struggled to find anything that looked familiar, the more she thought she should have called first and given him a heads-up. She came to a spot in the road where she had to make a choice, left or right. She went with right and soon found herself driving down a narrow road, on a cliff side that overlooked the ocean. The storm was still going strong, so Penelope went slow, wanting to arrive in Everlasting safe, not be fished out of the bottom of the ocean by a search-and-rescue dive team.

She clutched the wheel tighter, white-knuckling her drive, as she wondered if Everlasting even had a search-and-rescue team at all. They weren't exactly a large town.

When the rain reached a rate that made it impossible for the rental car's wipers to keep up, she pulled the car to the side of the road once more, put the hazard lights on, and parked. She'd wait it out before she tried to push onward. There was no sense in risking life and limb to get there sooner. Check-in at the bed-and-breakfast she was staying at wasn't until later in the day, so she had plenty of time yet.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there before a set of yellow flashing lights came up from behind her. The lights were too bright to see what type of vehicle was there, but it was evident it was a sizeable one. Vaguely, Penelope made out a shadowy figure making its way toward her car.

She tensed, having seen one too many horror movies in her lifetime. As the figure drew closer, fear raced up Penelope's spine. The person was wearing rain gear from head to toe and walking slowly, dragging one leg slightly. Lightning rent the sky behind the figure, making them look even more ominous.

Oh boy, she thought.

Paralyzed by fear, she sat perfectly still, positive the newcomer would succeed where the GPS had failed and actually kill her. She'd end up a statistic. A footnote in a local paper.

Coming to her senses, Penelope made sure the car locks were engaged and then looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Much to her dismay, the only object that might work was a ballpoint pen. Still, she clutched it for dear life, her heart pounding madly.

There was a hard rap on the window, and Penelope yelped, suddenly wishing she'd taken her chances with the man in boxers. She turned her head, unsure what she'd find, but positive it would be something horror-film worthy.

Much to her surprise, she found a woman who looked to be in her mid-sixties there, tapping lightly on the driver-side window, a huge, nonthreatening smile on her face.

Penelope sighed with relief, rolling down the window.

The woman beamed. "Lost?"

"And then some," replied Penelope, releasing her death grip on the ballpoint pen.

"Where you headed?" asked the woman, a Maine accent evident.

"Everlasting," replied Penelope, ignoring the rain that was coming in at her from the open window.

The woman laughed. "Well, child, you're in luck. You're in Everlasting. There was a sign down the road there. Couldn't have missed it."

Penelope's face reddened. She'd more than missed the sign. "Really? My GPS told me I had another twenty minutes. Right before it tried to drive me off a cliff into the ocean."

The woman waved a hand flippantly. "Those don't work so well around these parts. Follow my truck, and I'll get you off this stretch of road and closer to the heart of town. Tonight isn't a night for wandering."

"Thank you." Penelope barely got the words out before the woman was headed back to her truck.

They couldn't drive fast with the rain, but it didn't take long before they encountered something that looked like civilization. A small roadside fuel and service station was there, along with a hotel and tiny restaurant. Every parking space in the hotel lot was filled. Penelope wouldn't have thought of Everlasting as a tourist destination, but she was starting to wonder.

Chapter Two

There was a certain small-town charm about each of the places she drove past, following behind the woman's truck, reminding her of something from a painting rather than current times. The woman pulled her truck to a stop under the awning of the fuel station, and Penelope did the same with her rental car.

The woman was out of her truck and to the entrance of the service station in seconds, still limping as she pulled out a set of keys. She smiled wide. "You can come in here and wait out the storm, or you can head on over and get some food at the place across the way. I'll warn you, Chickadee's is better."

"Thank you, um…"

"Jolene," she said. "And you are?"

"Penelope Messing," she returned, thankful to be out of the rain for a moment.

Jolene stiffened. "You any relation to Wil Messing?"

"I am. He's my grandfather," said Penelope with a smile. It was as she remembered, everyone knew everyone.

The woman glanced around as if she was worried someone might have possibly overheard the conversation. "Come on in, and I'll put on a pot of coffee. This storm should blow through soon enough. In the meantime, we can get dry."

Penelope followed close behind. She instantly noticed the collection of old oil cans that lined the shelves in the office. Someone had taken great pains and time to make sure every one they had was worth something. She'd sold a lot of them once a year or so ago at the auction house, and they'd done decently. There was a market for everything if you knew where to look.

"I love your collection," said Penelope, motioning to the cans.

Jolene drew to a stop in front of a coffeepot and glanced up. "Oh, those. They were something my father was into collecting when he was alive. I sort of inherited the habit when I got the shop from him." She started a fresh pot of coffee and then set about removing her rain gear. Under it all, she had on a pair of overalls and a gray sweater. She looked like a strange combination of Lands End meets a mechanic. Somehow, it worked for Jolene.

Jolene opened the door to the cabinet above the counter area and pulled down a white box that read Witch's Brew Coffee Shop and Bakery. The second Jolene opened the box, the office filled with the sweet smell of baked goods, making Penelope's mouth water. Her stomach growled, feeling as if it were touching her spine. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until she'd smelled the delicious goodness in the box.

Jolene's eyes gleamed as she put two items on a small paper plate and brought it over to Penelope. "Here. Anna made these cranberry scones. I dare you to eat just one. It's impossible. These melt in your mouth."

Penelope smiled and then took a bite of the fluffy goodness. The flavor of nutmeg and cranberries exploded in her mouth, making her moan and Jolene laugh. They were the best scones she'd ever had.

"Good, aren't they?" asked Jolene, helping herself to two as well. She then took a seat behind a desk. Paperwork was piled high to one side. She lifted her leg and plopped her boot-covered foot on the desk unceremoniously. She ate a bite of her scone and then scowled at her ankle. "Twisted the damn thing a good one this time."

"Do you have ice? I can make you a cool compress," offered Penelope.

Shaking her head, Jolene remained seated. "Nah. I'll be fine. I twist it all the time. I broke it a good one back when I was only twenty, and it never healed right. I pretty much have a trick ankle now. Never know when it's going to go out on me or act up. I have a set of crutches I keep out back in case it gets too bad to walk on, but this is tolerable. So, you're Wilber's granddaughter?"

"I am."

Jolene looked her over slowly, a soft smile forming on her face. "You look like your momma. I should have seen that right away when I came up on you on the road."

"You knew my mother?" asked Penelope, her chest tightening. She hadn't considered that people in Everlasting would remember her parents. Their deaths had occurred when she was so young that it no longer brought tears to her eyes whenever she thought of them. Long ago she'd learned to accept the fact they were gone. She missed them and would always love them, but understood life went on.

"I did. Knew your father too. He was a good boy who grew into a fine young man. Tragic that they were taken so young. I know it broke something in Wilber. He'd already lost his wife years before, then his son, and then you were taken from him. He was never the same. Tends to keep people at arm's length now, never letting them fully in. A man can only take so much heartbreak in one life, I guess."

An awkward silence filled the room before Jolene spoke again. "Your granddad know you're in town?"

Biting her lower lip, Penelope glanced away. "No. I wanted to surprise him."

"Mmmhmm, sounds like there's a story there," said Jolene, settling into a relaxed position with her foot up and her scones in hand. "I love a good story."

With a sigh, Penelope found herself confiding in the woman. "The man I thought I was going to marry decided I wasn't good enough for him. He's now engaged to another woman."

Jolene frowned. "How long ago did the two of you split?"

"Not that long ago."

"And how long were you together?" she asked.

Penelope expelled a long, slow breath. "Two years."

"Ouch," said Jolene. "He sounds like a jerk. Good riddance to him. His loss is our gain. We've got plenty of eligible bachelors here in town."

Penelope gasped. "Thank you, but I'm not really ready to start dating again. The sting of it all is still too fresh. I only just saw that Craig was engaged several days ago. Certainly didn't take him long to move on from me."

"Honey, it shouldn't take forty-eight hours to realize he's a loser," said Jolene in a way that left Penelope smiling. "There. That is better. Now, let me think. Who would you be best with?"

Penelope took another bite of her scone as Jolene touched her cheek, deep in thought.

Finally, the woman pointed. "I've got it. Hugh Lupine. Now, he's a bit rough around the edges, but that isn't anything a good woman can't iron out. His bark is worse than his bite, and that's saying something. He's a big, strong man. Looks like those men you see in pictures that make all the women around sigh and look dreamily at them. Once a month he'll vanish for a few days, giving you time to yourself. And he'd be perfect for you, since it's clear you like dogs." Jolene pointed to Penelope's sweater.

Penelope choked on her scone. "Um, thank you, but really, I'm good. I'd like to take some time to just focus on me, not on a man."

"Can't fault you for that, but there is no harm in meeting Hugh. If he's not to your liking, I can set you up with Curt Warrick or even my nephew Sigmund. All are great choices."

It was pointless to argue, so Penelope resorted to smiling awkwardly instead.

Jolene glanced up at her. "Now, your grandfather will take exception with Hugh as my first choice, but my gut is saying he's the one. I'm pretty well known around these parts for my matchmaking skills. I'm rarely wrong. Hugh is the one for you. Not that loser Craig."

It was hard to argue with the fact that Craig was indeed a loser. The longer Penelope sat talking with Jolene, the less she felt devastated by recent events and the more she felt relieved. Had Craig not dumped her, she might have actually married him and then had to spend her life with him.

The idea no longer made her feel happy and content. It depressed her. A life with Craig every day? Always hearing his criticisms, always listening to how she wasn't good enough and wasn't going far enough in her career?

She shivered.

Maybe it was a blessing things hadn't worked out with him.

"Fate has led you straight to Everlasting," said Jolene.

"Fate?" Penelope asked, never being one to put much stock in the idea of the future being preordained. "I'm not sure about that. I'm just here to visit my grandpa and then it's back to Chicago for me."

Jolene eyed her slowly. "If you say so."

Penelope smiled. "I have a great job to get back to."

"We have jobs here too, you know."

"You sound like Grandpa," said Penelope. The man was always trying to convince her to give up everything in Chicago and move to Everlasting. He had big hopes she'd take over his shop for him one day. "And if fate really led me here, it's got a twisted sense of humor since my GPS tried to route me off a cliff."

Jolene let out a rather loud snort. "Those things don't work worth a damn for anyone around here. Don't take it personally. If Everlasting wanted you dead, it would have been more direct."

Odd.

"Storm should be letting up soon. How about some coffee to warm you up?" asked Jolene, making a move to stand.

Penelope hurried forward. "I'll get it. You sit tight."

Once she was done making two cups of coffee, she set one before Jolene then pulled an extra chair out from the side of the office. The chair reminded Penelope of something one would find in a school in the mid-seventies, but it served its purpose. She sat and sipped her coffee, nearly spitting it out the moment it crossed her lips.

Jolene cackled with delight. "Forgot to warn you that I like it strong."

Penelope pounded on her chest as she set the mug on the desk, fearful that if she dared take another sip, she'd lose her stomach lining.

Jolene sipped her coffee like it was the best-tasting thing she'd ever had, and Penelope just sat and watched.

"Are you friends with my grandfather?" she asked, never one to like silence.

Jolene stiffened and then set her coffee down as well. "Of sorts."

Of sorts?

That didn't really answer her question. All it did was pique Penelope's curiosity. She hid a smile as she thought back to when she was younger, and her mother would tell her that she asked far too many questions and had an overactive imagination.

Penelope grinned, deciding to spin Jolene's words back at her. "Now there is a story in there somewhere. I'm sure of it."

Jolene blushed, surprising Penelope. "At one time, your grandfather and I were an item. We were young and idealistic. We thought love could conquer all. We were fools. Our parents didn't agree with the relationship, and back then, you listened when your parents said no to something."

Penelope sighed. "That's so sad."

Jolene shrugged. "Our lives went in two different directions. A few years later your grandfather met your grandmother, they fell in love and had your father. And here you are today. See, it worked itself out in the end."

"What about you?" asked Penelope, invested in the saga now. "Did you find love?"

Jolene glanced away, unshed tears filling her eyes for the briefest of moments. "No."

"So you didn't end up marrying and having children?"

"Oh, I married. He wasn't a good man. Had a love for the bottle and a heavy hand." Jolene adjusted her foot on the desk. "He died after we'd been married two years. He drowned at sea." The way she said it didn't hold any remorse. She almost seemed pleased by the fact.

Penelope would have asked more on the matter, but there was a sharp rap on the exterior door. She nearly shot out of her seat like a skittish animal.

Jolene remained in place and glanced at the door. "Come on in!"