Chapter 1
So this was Walker Beach.
A place that would finally help Bella Moody assemble the puzzle of her past—if she did her job.
Bella angled her car down the Main Street loop. Flashes of the Pacific Ocean to her left reflected the sun’s rays between the downtown buildings, which were painted in cheery yellows, robin blues, and coral pinks. Other than its location in California, Walker Beach was nothing like Bella’s home in Los Angeles.
The town had character—she’d give it that. But despite the fact Mom had called the little tourist town a “summer hotspot,” the streets didn’t seem overly crowded, even on a Friday afternoon in July. Probably had something to do with the earthquake last weekend.
The earthquake that had finally given Moody Development an edge.
Before she could blink, Bella had cruised by an art gallery, City Hall, a bookstore, and a smattering of restaurants. After passing a small public parking lot, she hit the northern part of town, which finally showed evidence of the earthquake.
Bella slowed her car and rolled down her windows to take in the damage, including a few downed roofs, some broken front windows, and siding that hadn’t fared well against the force. From the reports she’d read, the tremor had only registered a 6.5 on the Richter scale, with no loss of lives but damage to several homes in the hills and about ten businesses along Main Street.
Including her destination—the Iridescent Inn.
She came to a crosswalk and stopped for a young pigtailed girl with a thirty-something couple. The girl turned to the adults and reached for them. “Mama! Daddy! Swing me!”
Laughing, they each took a hand and swung her between them as they crossed the road.
Bella rubbed a hand over her heart. That child didn’t know how lucky she was. Not only to have a mom and a dad in her life but also to have the security of their love.
She rolled her windows back up. No sense in waxing sentimental about what had never been—at least for her. But the perfect picture in front of Bella reinforced her determination to find out what she’d always longed to know. Maybe even to change her future.
If only there were another way to obtain the information she sought.
Shaking loose of the grim thought, Bella hightailed it through the rest of town, past a huge community park situated along the beach, and about a mile outside of Walker Beach until she reached her destination. The Iridescent Inn sat on a bluff with a path that led down to a private beach.
Mom had chosen well. Now it was up to Bella to seal the deal.
She swallowed past her dry throat. Pulling into the parking lot, Bella climbed from her Lexus sedan. Only a single beat-up Ford pickup truck accompanied her car.
The breeze coming up from the ocean whipped Bella’s brown ombre hair across her face as she maneuvered to her trunk and pulled a travel-sized suitcase from inside it. Bella headed toward the adorable inn. Of course, it was no Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, but its Victorian-style wraparound porch and dormer windows cast it in the same cozy light as the rest of the town.
Bella’s Louboutins crunched over the gravel parking lot as she approached the front door. From here, she couldn’t make out any damage to the inn, but Mom’s source had assured them that the hundred-year-old building hadn’t escaped without a rather significant scratch. Bella reached for the knob on the red front door, but it held fast.
After knocking on the door without a reply, she whipped out her cell phone then looked up the inn’s number and dialed. Her legs ached as she shifted from foot to foot, the result of being crammed into the car for nearly five hours—thank you, endless LA traffic.
Great. No answer.
The ground beneath her feet rumbled. Bella shoved her phone into her purse and held as steady as possible while riding out the aftershock, which only lasted thirty seconds. She would probably experience hundreds of little quakes while here.
A crash cracked through the air, and Bella’s heart stuttered as she maneuvered into a defensive position despite the pencil skirt that restricted her movement. But other than a few cars passing on the street just beyond the inn, no one was anywhere to be seen. Bella turned her ear to the wind. Another collision, this one a bit quieter, came from the backside of the building, so she walked that way, suitcase in tow.
As she rounded the inn, she nearly gasped at the view—at the whiff of briny spray in the air that spoke of fun and relaxation in the sun. Of retreats and vacation. Of the West Coast at its finest.
No wonder Mom was willing to pay through the nose for this property. When combined with the two B&Bs that Moody Development had already bought on either side of the Iridescent Inn, this location would make for a beautiful—and profitable—new resort.
Once Bella convinced Ben Baker to sell.
She let herself through the wrought-iron gate that led from a walled-in courtyard down toward the beach. Trees provided a lot of shade, and a stone fountain nearby gave a pleasant ambience despite the fact no water trickled down its face.
But that’s where the charm gave way to destruction. From this side of the inn, the significant scratch—or scratches, rather—became obvious. The entire northwestern wing of the Iridescent Inn had visible damage, with a hole in the northern part of its roof, cracks in the western blue clapboard siding, and scattered roof tiles and wood that lay strewn below.
She walked closer, her eyes moving along the house, taking in every casualty. The poor old inn had met its match in the earthquake.
As she stood next to a partially collapsed winding staircase that led to a damaged upper-story deck, a pang of sympathy curled around Bella’s heart—even though all this was to her advantage.
The ground began to shake again as nature showed off with another aftershock. A large dangling piece of the staircase’s railing cracked and plummeted through the air toward Bella.
“Watch out!”
Before she could even shriek, a flash of movement crossed her path as someone knocked into her with a grunt, felling her breath. Bella rolled a few times until she landed on her back. Taking in a few gulps of air, she cringed at something beneath her and pulled out a sharp rock that she tossed aside.
“Are you hurt?”
Bella turned her head to find a man sitting next to her, groaning as he rubbed his head before looking her way.
She peered up into warm chocolate eyes and a handsome tan face. Her tongue grew heavy. “No.”
Scratch that. Her knees and elbows pulsed with a raw pain like the first time she’d ridden a bike without training wheels at the age of seven. Down the hill she had flown, and when she’d reached the bottom, onto the asphalt she had splayed. As usual, Mom hadn’t been there. “Nothing feels broken at least.”
“That’s good.” The man peeled thick work gloves from his hands as he bent toward her, squinting, examining, his eyebrows knit together. “Your knees are scraped up, but it’s nothing a good cleaning and some BAND-AIDs won’t fix.”
“Guess I won’t be wearing my favorite little black dress anytime soon.” Bella forced a chuckle at her bad joke. She wouldn’t need to wear something fancy if she were here for any length of time.
Not that she intended to be—though if Mr. Baker turned out to be as obstinate toward Bella as he’d been toward Mom, well, who knew how long she’d be stuck in the middle of nowhere.