Darkness Bound (17 page)

“Right. I’m sorry for being a pain.” She almost sang out her words and for the first time, the smile she gave him was phony.

“I’ve spent a good deal of my life keeping watch on one thing and another,” he told her. “I really am good at it.”

“I’m sure you are.” Leigh looked quickly away. “This will sound silly. It certainly isn’t enough, but thank you for everything. And I’m sorry you had to go through that
nonsense with my family tonight. Gib thinks he’s the alpha and Jan and I are the runts of his pack or whatever. He certainly doesn’t think we’re very bright.”

He didn’t respond for fear of telling her she was saying exactly what he already thought. Instead he went to throw more logs on the nearest fire and stood looking at a photo she had placed on the mantel.

“That’s Chris, my husband, and me when we got married.”

This had to be the photograph Gib had given her, all wrapped up in tissue and ribbon.
What was the man’s game?
Niles wondered. “Does it upset you to have this here?”

“No. I was surprised but when I put it up it felt right. You shouldn’t try to forget good things.”

These two had been lost in each other. “He really loved you.” He shouldn’t feel jealous of a dead man.

She cleared her throat behind him. “The feeling was mutual but how do you know?”

Niles gave a short laugh. “I’m no expert on the subject but I can see it in the way he looked at you.”

“If you aren’t going to leave at once, sit down again. I’ll run in the kitchen and get some snacks. I don’t think you ate much at dinner.”

“I ate loads,” he said, looking at her over his shoulder. “You must be mixing me up with your brother-in-law.”

When he sighed her expression sharpened. “You’re tired, Niles.”

She must think he wanted to get away from her. “I’m wide awake, suddenly. That happens. But I’m puzzled and not sure if I should say anything.”

“That’s not fair,” she said. “You know I’m going to tell you to go ahead and ask—whatever it is.”

He raised a brow. “Your wedding photo… It’s unusual. Looks like some sort of artsy effort.”

This time it was Leigh who sighed. “The love in the mist look was Chris’s choice—mine, too, I guess.” A misty haze framed them in the shot. “It’s pretty clever. You wouldn’t know it was taken in a hospital room if I didn’t tell you.”

He heard her breathing constrict and she held her throat as if it ached. “The hole Chris’s death left won’t get filled up—not in the same way—but I’m doing my best to patch it. He would want that. I do, too.”

Honor was an old-fashioned word, Niles thought, but Leigh had it. She was honest about her feelings. But he believed her when she said she was ready to move on. Grief took its own time and even when you thought you’d beaten it, back came the memories to punch you in the heart one more time.

“Where did you get married?” he asked.

“In that hospital room,” she told Niles. “We were supposed to have the whole church, cake, and flowers routine the following Saturday. Chris didn’t want to put the wedding off and neither did I. But he was the one who decided to move it forward a few days. I’ll always believe he knew… ”

Niles waited patiently, making no attempt to prompt her.

She caught his eyes and blinked. “Thanks,” she said although he wasn’t sure why. “You make me feel safe. You’ve got an open heart. I can feel it. Chris and I met right here—on the beach below the bluff. He pointed out where Chimney Rock is and we spent a long, long time supposedly watching to catch sight of it. We knew each other for two years before we were married. He died a few days after the ceremony.”

“Oh, God, Leigh.” He couldn’t find any clever words.

“There was an accident,” she told him. Apart from the police, she had never willingly discussed this with anyone until now. “We went off a road on ice and a boulder rolled off at the edge. The rock came for the car and Chris threw himself over me. I got a broken ankle and arm, a slew of Chris’s bones were smashed, and he had internal injuries. It took a week for him to come out of a coma.”

Niles turned a hand, palm out, and held it toward Leigh. She hesitated then put her hand in his and he threaded their fingers together.

She tipped her head back but tears still escaped.

“Let it go,” Niles said. “Cry. It’s okay.”

“You’ve had more than enough of me for one day.” She sniffed and gave him a watery smile. “I’m crying because I remember how I felt then. I thought my world was over, but it wasn’t. It isn’t. Chris was one of those people who thought everything through. He even thought about taking care of me if something happened to him.” She frowned.

“Like he knew something would?” Niles suggested quietly.

“Yes.” She glanced past him at the fire. “That’s right.”

He was very aware of their two hands joined. “This is the right place for you to be.”

“How can you know that?” she said.

“Because I’m going to make sure of it.” He rested a hand on either side of her face and studied her intently. “I’ve already asked you to trust me—if you want to. Trust me and let go of any fear. I can make sure you stay safe.”

“Why should you do that for me?”

“I lost someone I loved once. Afterward I needed strength around me while I healed, but I was alone. You
don’t have to be unless you tell me to get lost.” He grinned and his stomach swooped when she grinned back. “Are you going to do that—tell me to go away?”

“Er—nope.”

“Tell me one thing.”

“Depends on what it is,” she told him, visibly regaining some of her spirit.

“Do you like me?”

Leigh opened her mouth but no words came out.

“You don’t like me,” Niles said, beginning to frown.

“Of course I do. You’re a really nice, kind man and you’re a rock when things go bad. I can’t think of anyone who would have gone through my little family drama tonight and still come back because I said I needed them. You’re also much more straightforward than I’m used to.” Now there was an understatement.

“A really nice, kind man,” he repeated as if he were turning the words over and examining each one. “That’s a compliment.”

“Of course it is.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Leigh said. She nibbled her bottom lip—which didn’t relax even a cell in his body. Her lips parted and stayed that way for an instant before she said, “Sometimes I don’t think you’ve spent a lot of time talking to women.”

He laughed outright at that. “You’re perceptive. I’m not smooth—sorry.”

“I should have mentioned that I really liked it when we kissed,” said Leigh. “And when you hugged me. And rubbed my feet dry.” She turned that wonderful bright, patchy red.

“You try to be tough sometimes,” he said. “I really am tough.”

“Sure you are.”

“I wouldn’t normally mention that about myself but I think it will help you believe I can take care of you.”

Leigh would love to ask him if he had any idea of the tight knots he was tying her in. For a few moments her attention shifted toward the door, and what she could have sworn was a thin film of pink, blue, green, and purple vapor slipping through the cracks. It separated into long, elegant fingers and wrapped around the room. Very faintly, a stream of fine glitter raced through the colored ribbons, then it was all gone.

Leigh turned back to Niles, who continued to study her as if she were something rare. “Did you see that?” she asked.

He looked around. “What?”

“Um.” She thought fast. Obviously she was hallucinating and she didn’t want to add that to the list of weird stuff happening to her that would cause Niles to worry. “Nothing, just the way the windows and doors aren’t quite tight. The curtain floated up. It’s stopped now.”

His long, steady stare almost suggested he knew she was fibbing.

“I want you to stay at Two Chimneys,” Niles said. “I hope you’ll make Whidbey your permanent home. But I’ll understand if you decide against it.”

“I’m staying here. My mind is absolutely made up. I love this cottage, and Gabriel’s—and Gabriel—and the island and the beach—and Blue”—she giggled—“but don’t tell him or he’ll be impossible.”

“You are an insightful woman, too,” Niles said.

“I like all the people here. Sally is super, and Cliff and the twins and everyone.” She spread her arms. “Just call me Pollyanna and let me be happy.” The darnedest thing was that she did feel suddenly and deliciously happy and whatever came her way, she was sure she could deal with it.

Niles chuckled, then grew serious. “And do you think you could like me, too?”

“I told you I do—you are the most likable man I know,” she said and flung her arms around his neck. “What the world needs is many, many more men like you.”

He laughed and gave her a bone-bending hug, and kissed the top of her head.

Leigh closed her eyes. She felt the beating of his heart and heard her own. She heard everything clearly, the sizzle and mumble of the fire, the wind blowing snow outside, birds settling into warmer crevices in the trees, a car passing on the road above her property.

And she thought she heard another, much softer heartbeat.

L
EIGH DIDN’T
find the cat until after Niles had finally gone home, insisting that Blue was happy on the porch in several inches of snow. She had tried to bring him inside but Niles wouldn’t hear of it. Blue, he insisted, didn’t feel the cold because he was built to withstand it, including having a denser coat than a polar bear.

So she closed and locked the door, climbed the ladder to the loft, and saw Sally’s singular cat sitting on the bottom of the bed.

Once she decided there was nothing to be done about the little feline interloper until she could take it back to its owner in the morning, she curled up under the down covers and tried not to think, even when Skillywidden pressed her slight weight against Leigh’s back—and she heard that heartbeat, the same tiny, regular beat as she was now sure she had heard before.

Weird
.

Not thinking was impossible and turned into a jumble
of remembering her last days with Chris… and wanting to feel Niles holding her again.

When Leigh woke up it was still dark, as it should be at five in the morning. And she was so wide awake she knew she wouldn’t go back to sleep.

She got up and piled on the warmest clothes she could find.

Next the chains for the car tires, then dealing with the cat who must somehow have sneaked back this way on Niles’s bike. Sally wouldn’t want her kitty at Gabriel’s, so Leigh would just have to take her home before she went to work.

The cat in question continued to slumber in a cocoon on the down comforter.

Grateful her boots had dried overnight, Leigh emerged into the snow’s pure crystalline sparkle. It continued to fall against the darkness and she could scarcely keep a lid on her excitement. Nothing could be more beautiful and magical than this.

Blue had already been standing when she emerged, his tail waving slowly. He was on alert and watching her closely.

Beyond the edge of the bluff, Saratoga Passage was black and without dimension. Snowflakes seemed to snuff out in that darkness, like extinguished fireflies.