Songbird Cottage Read online

  Robin shook her head. "They weren't friends."

  "What do you mean?"

  "The reason for the secret," Robin said. "Senior Thackery assumed Ramona did all this because they were best friends. But she did it because Birdie's child was Jefferson Stockdale's."

  "What?!"

  "Birdie and Jeff had fallen in love as teenagers. But their families wouldn't allow them to marry, and her parents moved to Los Angeles to take her away from him."

  They began to walk again. "That's in the diary?" he asked.

  She nodded. "And after her mother died, she moved back to Pajaro Bay, hoping to live in the town she loved, but knowing that Jeff and Ramona were here. She thought she would be okay with it. But when his son died, and he came to her for comfort…."

  She trailed off, and Dylan put a hand over hers. "I see," he said. "So there was never a Lewis Smith."

  "No. And Jefferson—"

  "—Your grandfather—"

  "—Yes. My grandfather built this cottage for Birdie and the child. At least he started to."

  "But he died of a heart attack. And then she died in childbirth."

  They reached the patio. "And somehow Ramona found all this out," Robin said. "Maybe she figured it out years later. Maybe she found papers about the property. Maybe she knew all along. We might never know."

  Dylan looked at the house. "Someone else might have burned her husband's love nest to the ground."

  He helped her into the lounge chair, and arranged the quilt around her amply growing lap.

  "I have even more respect for Ramona than I did before," he said. "She thought of the baby, the child of her late husband. And how that innocent child had lost so much. And she wanted, somehow, to set things right for that little girl."

  "My mother," Robin said softly.

  "Yes. So she told her lawyer, and he, in his way, tried to fulfill her wishes: to keep all this a secret so the legacy of Jefferson Stockdale and Ramona Robles would remain untarnished, and yet do right by the baby."

  Robin sat back in the chair, and Chaussette jumped up onto her lap, struggling to find a place around the baby bump.

  "Ramona vowed that the little cottage would go to the last Stockdale," Dylan said, "the surviving descendant of Jefferson's love child. But she had no idea how hard it would be to track that person down—"

  "—Or that someone wouldn't want the descendants to be found," Robin finished, still feeling the ache of the crime against her mother, who had only wanted a link to her family.

  Dylan leaned down and kissed her. "You okay?"

  She nodded. "The story of my family has been interrupted so many times. So many false starts and dead ends."

  "It's unfair," he said. "How can I help you feel better?"

  She smiled up at him. "Hand me that pen."

  He did, then, with another quick kiss, he went back to work on the window.

  She watched him as he fitted the carved board he'd spent the last hour working on into the window frame, squaring it up so the crooked little kitchen window would fit tightly into the newly repaired wall. He was working quickly, trying to get the pieces in place before the child inside her decided to be born.

  The baby pulled her out of her reverie with a big kick, and she put a hand on her stomach again, as if to remind the little girl inside her that both her parents were close by, and were looking forward to meeting her. "Don't rush it," she whispered to her unborn daughter. "Give your father time to finish the job before you steal the spotlight."

  He stopped working. "Did you say something?"

  She shook her head.

  "Do you need anything?" he asked.

  "Not a thing," she said. "I've got everything I need."

  She opened the diary to the first blank page and began to write.

  Teresa Forest is hiding from her fellow gang members in the perfect place: the tiny village of Pajaro Bay. But when she falls for the squeaky-clean director of the local youth center, things get complicated. She's one step ahead of the danger on her tail, and may be taking him along for the ride. Should she run, should she hide, or should she stay and fight for the new life she's building based on a big, fat lie? Find out in Sunshine Cottage, the next Pajaro Bay Mystery.

  The Pajaro Bay Mysteries

  Welcome to Pajaro Bay, the little California beach town where the cottages are cute, the neighbors are nosy, and it's always possible to find your personal Happily Ever After. The novels can be read in any order, or follow along from the beginning to see how the world develops:

  * * *

  Honeymoon Cottage

  A tiny beach town, a handsome sheriff, and a chance for a fresh start. Sure, there's a serial killer on the loose, but no place is perfect, right?

  * * *

  Boardwalk Cottage

  Hallie thought she'd spend a fun summer at a funky old amusement park. She didn't expect to become the key to solving a kidnapping plot!

  * * *

  Lighthouse Cottage

  Alone at a lighthouse with a handsome, sweet… murderer? Lori had better figure out what he's hiding before they both end up as shark bait.

  * * *

  Little Fox Cottage

  Deliver a dog to its new owner, they said. It'll be easy, they said. They didn't say anything about murder.

  * * *

  Rum Cake Cottage

  Roxy spent 10 years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. Now she's got 72 hours to find the real killer, or she'll lose her daughter forever.

  * * *

  Songbird Cottage

  The abandoned cottage with her grandmother's portrait on the wall is the first clue. Will Robin find the others before it's too late?

  * * *

  Sunshine Cottage

  Witness protection in a small town. If Teresa's cover is blown, she'll lose the best life she's ever known. Oh, and she'll die. That, too.

  * * *

  Riverstone Cottage

  A cynical private investigator (and former secret agent) finds himself in the sweet little village of Pajaro Bay, sipping blackberry tea with a hippie chick who raises goats. But when danger arrives in town, he has to figure out if the killers are after him—or the bohemian artist he's falling in love with.

  * * *

  And more to come. Click here for the latest booklist.

  The Carita Cove Mysteries

  Maggie McJasper is starting over in a little California beach town. She has a craft shop, a nice circle of friends, and a handsome movie star who keeps flirting with her. Life would be pretty great if she could just stop stumbling over dead bodies….

  * * *

  Maggie and the Black-Tie Affair

  A bored trophy wife. A cynical movie star. One evening to save an innocent girl from prison. None of them will ever be the same after this Black-Tie Affair.

  * * *

  Maggie and the Inconvenient Corpse

  A handsome movie star in her kitchen, and a corpse in the swimming pool. Just your typical Monday morning.

  * * *

  Maggie and the Mourning Beads

  Can Maggie find the real killer when her teenage student threatens to strangle someone with a jet-black necklace... hours before the woman is found dead?

  * * *

  Maggie and the Empty Noose

  When the handsome movie star renting Maggie's house is accused of murder, she's the only one who believes he's innocent. Now all she has to do is prove it.

  * * *

  Maggie and the Hidden Homicide

  Maggie faces her most confusing case yet when she finds a treasured beaded knife–in someone's back! Can she figure out what happened before anyone else ends up dead?

  * * *

  Maggie and the Whiskered Witness

  Maggie's dog-training buddy drops off her German Shepherd for a play date–then disappears. Soon Maggie begins to wonder if her friend could be leading a deadly double life.

  * * *

  Maggie and the Serpentine Script

 
; A nasty paparazzo is accused of murder, and Maggie is torn between relief that he's out of her hair—and worry that the police have captured the wrong man.

  * * *

  Maggie and the Rattled Rake

  Maggie's friend Nora is charged with trying to murder her younger boy toy husband, and Maggie is sure it's a bum rap. But to clear her friend's name, she's going to have to break a few laws herself….

  * * *

  And more to come. Click here for the latest booklist.

  Barbara Cool Lee writes the kind of books she likes reading: fun and heartwarming romantic mysteries where the good guys treat people with kindness and you can always count on a happy ending.

  She lives in a cozy cottage by the sea on the California coast. While she's writing her next book, she's got a loaf of sourdough bread in the oven, a pot of veggie soup on the stove, and the fog is billowing outside the windows.

  Be sure to sign up for her newsletter to get all the free short stories and be first to find out when the next book is released.

  Newsletter

  Website

  Bookbub

  Facebook