Summer in Eclipse Bay

way. But in fairness, Nick thought, those traits ran through every generation of both the Madison and the Harte families.
    Sullivan grinned at Carson when the boy barreled to a halt at his chair. He gave Carson a hug and ruffled his hair affectionately.
    "Hello there, sport, how are you doing?"
    "Hi," Carson replied. "Did you come to see my picture in the art show? Cause if you did, you'll have to wait for a few days. The show isn't until next weekend. I did a picture of Winston."
    "I won't miss the show," Sullivan assured him. He gave Carson a gentle push toward the front counter. "Go get yourself a muffin on me."
    "Okay." Carson hurried away.
    Nick looked at Mitchell. "This is your doing, I assume?"
    "Just thought your grandfather oughta be made aware of what was going on here in Eclipse Bay," Mitchell said with malevolent good cheer.
    "I hear you've been busy lately, Nick." Sullivan picked up his coffee. "Trying to find a painting that used to belong to Thurgarton and seeing Octavia Brightwell on the side."
    "Not necessarily in that order, but, yeah, that pretty much sums up my summer vacation so far." Accepting the inevitable, Nick grabbed a chair and sat down. "But I've got hopes that the situation will improve."
    After lunch at Dreamscape and some hurried conversation with Rafe and Hannah, who were busy with a crowd in the restaurant, Nick and Sullivan took Carson and Winston down to the beach below the old mansion.
    Sullivan watched his great-grandson dart all over the landscape, following Winston from one tide pool to another.
    "One of these days you're going to have to get that boy a dog of his own," he said.
    "When he turns six," Nick agreed.
    "That's next month."
    "Yeah, I know. Carson reminds me just about every day."
    "Six years old." Sullivan shook his head in wonder. "Where the hell did the years go? I remember when I used to walk on this same beach with you and Hamilton and a dog named Joe."
    "If this is another one of those little grandfatherly chats on the subject of how the years are slipping away and how Carson needs a mother and how it's time I got married again," Nick said, "could we just skip to the end? I've heard it so many times that I've got it memorized."
    "Take it easy. We're all worried about you and Carson. Harte men are family men, you know that."
    "Carson and I have plenty of family. Every time I turn around, I'm running into family. Take this morning, for example. I walk into the local bakery to get a cup of coffee and what do I see? Family."
    "Not like a Harte to be playing the field at your age."
    "I do not play the field."
    "What do you call it when you have relationships with several different women?"
    "I call it a social life. And for the record, I did not have those relationships simultaneously. Hell, I've only dated maybe a half dozen different women in the past three years. I don't think that's excessive."
    "Your mother and your grandmother and your sisters do."
    "They're all obsessed with the idea of getting me married again."
    "They think you've got some kind of psychological block. They've all decided that you've got a problem with getting serious about another woman because you're afraid of losing her the way you lost Amelia."
    Nick watched Carson poke at a hole in the sand with a long stick while he tried to decide how to respond to that. "What do you think?" he said at last.
    "Me?" Sullivan seemed surprised to be asked for his opinion. He halted beside a rock. "I think you just haven't found the right woman."
    Nick realized he had been braced for a lecture. He allowed himself to relax slightly. "Yeah, that's sort of how I see it, too."
    "But Octavia is different, isn't she?"
    So much for letting down his guard. "Mitchell sent for you, didn't he? That's why you're here."
    "Mitch feels protective toward Octavia Brightwell."
    "Octavia can take care of herself."
    "What about you?" Sullivan asked quietly.
    It took Nick a beat or two to grasp that. "Don't tell me that you're afraid that I'm the one who might be in trouble here."
    Sullivan's gaze rested on Carson and Winston, who had moved on to explore the entrance of a shallow cave. "Got one question for you."
    "What?"
    "Did you give Octavia The Talk?"
    "Damn. I'm starting to think that everyone in the Northwest knows all the details of my social life. A guy could get paranoid."
    "You didn't answer my question. Did you give Octavia your patented lecture on the subject of keeping things light?"
    "You know what? I'm not going