Home to Stay (24 page)

With a straight face, Will said, “No games. Got it.”

A week ago she’d been convinced staying on Anchor, or anywhere, would be impossible. But this island had become her home, and these people her family. After a lifetime of feeling like an outcast, it felt good to finally belong somewhere.

Watching Sid wander over to Beth, and then seeing Beth throw her arms around the mechanic, who looked as comfortable as a frog in a tutu, Will felt something heal inside her chest. This is what she’d always dreamed of having. Sid had been right.

It
was
about damn time.

CHAPTER 24

R
andy wasn’t sure he could take any more male bonding. After spending the day on Joe’s boat fishing with the three Dempsey men, they were now building a bonfire on the beach, waiting for the women to join them.

The fishing trip had been to keep the men occupied while the women had the wedding shower. As the sun faded in the horizon, they’d rolled into what was supposed to be the bachelor party. Sitting on Tom and Patty’s porch, Lucas and Joe had enjoyed a couple of beers and some brotherly trash talking, while Tom and Randy had stuck with the non-alcoholic beverages and discussed the symptoms and signs of heart disease.

Not exactly the most exciting bachelor party he’d ever attended. Truth be told, they were all killing time until the women joined them, though none of them would admit to it. At the beach, Manny, who worked for Randy at Anchor Adventures, Marcus, Lola’s newly found former sweetheart, and Chuck Brighteyes, a friend of Joe’s, had joined them.

The reinforcements proved fruitful once the bachelorette contingent arrived, most of them having imbibed enough alcohol to increase their volume to a substantial level.

“You call that a fire?” Sid yelled, charging over a dune with her arm around Opal’s granddaughter Kinzie. “I can barely see it from back here!”

Lucas leaned toward Randy. “Is she drunk?”

“Yes, she is,” he said. “And she’s all yours.”

With heavy steps, Lucas crossed the sand to reach Sid.

“Heya, hot stuff,” Sid said in greeting, throwing her arms around Lucas’s neck, smacking him in the back of the head with the beer bottle in her hand. “Where’ve you been all my life?”

Randy doubted Sid would remember any of this in the morning. Good thing he was sober and could remind her of it in full detail.

“We tried to slow her down,” Will said, sliding up beside him. “But she informed us she was drinking for two.”

He looked Will’s way. “What does that mean?”

Will pointed to Beth. “Said she had to drink Beth’s share for it to be a real bachelorette party, but I think she drank enough for all of us.”

As Lucas helped Sid wobble over to the fire, Kinzie was left staggering on her own. Her arms were out to her sides as if she were balancing on a high wire when Manny stepped in where Sid had been seconds before. A crooked smile covered Kinzie’s face as she stared up into Manny’s dark features.

“You’re so pretty,” she said, looking very happy to see him.

“So are you,
querida
.” Manny caught Kinzie as she stumbled. “Maybe we should go sit by the fire.”

Kinzie nodded, holding on tight to his arm. “Yes, I’d like to sit down.”

Kinzie wasn’t usually the party girl type. “Is that Sid’s influence?” Randy asked Will.

“I think Kinzie was having a good time and lost track of how many she had.” Will wrapped an arm around his waist and cuddled into his side. “How was your day? Any good blackmailing stories us womenfolk shouldn’t know about?”

Randy pulled her tight. “I spent the entire day waiting for this. It was the longest day of my life.” Smiling into her blue eyes, he brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “You’re so pretty.”

Chuckling, she replied. “Where have you been all my life?”

“Like I said, waiting for this.”

He took her mouth and it wasn’t long before they were both out of breath.

“Get a room!” came from the other side of the bonfire. Randy looked over to see Lucas cover Sid’s mouth, waving an apology. The man really did have the patience of a saint to put up with Sid in all her glory.

“That’s not a bad suggestion,” he whispered in Will’s ear.

She laid her head on his shoulder. “We just got here. I’ve been looking forward to roasted marshmallows all day.”

Randy took a deep breath. If his girl wanted roasted marshmallows, she would have them. “We can do that. Let’s hope Sid doesn’t breathe too close to the fire and send us all up in smoke.”

Will had barely unlocked the front door of Dempsey’s on Sunday morning when Sid showed up holding her head as if trying to keep it from falling off. She sat down gingerly at the bar. “Water,” she said, her voice sounding as if she’d gargled a handful of sand.

“What’s the matter, Sid? Not feeling so well this morning?”

With eyes closed, Sid warned, “I may not be able to kick your ass right this second, but once this marching band quits stomping through my brain, I will come back for you.”

Will tsked. “We tried to stop you, but you were determined to drink your weight in liquor. You did it to yourself, woman.”

Georgette picked that moment to slap her tray on the bar next to Sid. “Heard you had a good time last night,” she said, standing too close to be poking the angry bear, in Will’s estimation. “The head a little sensitive?”

With lightning speed, Sid turned and gathered a fistful of Georgette’s shirt. “I will pee on everything that you love. Don’t think that I won’t.”

Leaning across the bar, Will disengaged Sid from the waitress’s shirt. “Why don’t we all take a little break,” she suggested, keeping her voice as low and soothing as possible. “Georgette, you might want to check on the customers who just took a booth in the corner.” With more force, she added, “And avoid this area of the bar for the foreseeable future.”

“I was only joking around.” Georgette straightened her shirt as she stepped out of Sid’s reach. “I won’t do that again.”

“Smart woman.” Will watched the waitress cross the dining room. “Have you taken any pain pills?” she asked Sid.

“Not yet. I couldn’t find them and Lucas kept laughing at me, so I got pissed and came over here.”

“Good,” Will said. “Those things can screw you up when they hit the alcohol still soaking your system. I’ll be right back.” She stepped to the kitchen door and almost yelled her instructions to Chip, the sous-chef, then remembered Sid’s headache. Crossing to his station, she gave instructions for a fruit smoothie with OJ and a hit of carrot juice.

Returning to the bar, Will filled a glass with water. “Drink this until Chip brings out the smoothie.”

Sid raised her head for the first time since Georgette had walked off. “Smoothie? You’ve been around my brother too much.”

“You need the vitamins to replenish your system. Trust me,” Will said with a smile. “I’m a bartender.”

Two minutes later, Chip delivered the drink and let Will know she had a call waiting in the office. After pouring the concoction into a tall glass, she made her way through the kitchen to the back.

“Will here,” she said into the receiver. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you have any idea how fecking hard you are to track down?” asked a man with a strong British accent.

“Jude?” A thorn of apprehension straightened Will’s spine.

“Are you really this Maria Van Clement person Rebecca says you are?”

Dear mother of…“What are you talking about? When did Rebecca say that?”

“Today,” he said. “On the front page of the
Boston Globe
.”

Holding the phone between her ear and shoulder, Will forced her lungs to continue working as she keyed the newspaper URL into the computer. She knew the website from having checked its financial news daily when she’d been living and working in Boston. There, looking back from the screen, was Will standing behind the bar looking as if she were about to face a firing squad.

And very shortly, she would be.

“I need to go,” she said, hanging up the phone before Jude could say anything else.

Randy finished dealing with the business finances in record time thanks to Will’s professional input from the week before. She was sorely wasting her talents behind the bar. In fact, he planned to talk to her about starting her own accounting service on Anchor. Not that he wanted to leave Tom and Patty without their manager, but Will should be doing what she really loved, which oddly enough was working with numbers, not shot glasses.

He’d putzed around the house, did some maintenance on the weight machines at the fitness center, and tried to focus on the reopening plans for Adventures until caving and doing what he really wanted to do—which was go see Will.

What he hadn’t expected to find was Sid behind the bar.

“What are you doing here? I expected you’d still be sleeping off the effects of last night.”

“Lying in bed made the headache worse, and Lucas was too amused to be helpful.” Sid didn’t look amused at all. “So I came in here looking for solace and a quick bite to eat.”

“And ended up behind the bar?” Randy surveyed the room. “Where’s Will?”

Sid paused in the task of pouring beer into a glass. “You haven’t seen her?”

“I came here to see her,” he said. “She’s working today.”

“She was. Then she got a call and said she needed to take care of something.” Sid set the glass down. “This is normally Lucas’s thing, but she didn’t leave me much choice. Will lit out of here as if her ass was on fire.”

“Did she say who was on the phone?” Randy tried to ignore the feeling of foreboding that landed like a weight on his shoulders. “Or where she was going?”

“Nope. Got the call and headed out.”

There was only one reason Will would bolt out of Dempsey’s without a word, without telling Sid what was wrong. But if the asshole from her past had appeared out of nowhere, why hadn’t she called him? Why hadn’t she gone to Randy right away?

“How long ago did she leave?”

Tossing the empty longneck into the recycle bin, Sid glanced to the clock behind the bar. “A couple hours. I thought she’d be back by now. I need to get out to the garage.”

Randy’s heart raced. That was long enough for her to get off the island already. If she took off, he’d never find her. Hell, he wasn’t even sure who the hell to look for since he’d never gotten around to finding out her real name.

Maybe she wasn’t gone. Maybe he was overreacting and she’d been looking for him. “I need to use the phone,” he said, charging around the bar.

“It’s in the office,” Sid said. “Probably sitting on the desk. But who are you calling?”

Ignoring the question, Randy jogged through the kitchen and stepped into the office. The phone was on the desk as Sid had assumed, but when he pressed the button, the line was dead. Locating the base near the door, he followed the cord to the wall, where it had been unplugged.

The moment he clipped the end into the base, the phone rang in his hand. Caller ID showed a 617 area code. “Dempsey’s Bar and Grill, how can I help you?” he answered.

“I’m looking for Maria Van Clement. I understand she works there?” said a nasally voice with a strong northeastern accent.

“There’s no Maria Van Clement here. You must have the wrong number.”

“You might know her as Will?” the caller said.

Randy gripped the receiver tighter. “What did you say?”

The sound of papers rustling sounded down the line. “Says here she’s going by the name Will Parsons. If she’s around, I’d really like to talk to her. Do you know her?”

“Who are you and where are you calling from?” Randy asked through a clenched jaw.

“I’m a reporter—”

Randy hung up the phone and headed for his truck. By the time he was halfway through the kitchen, the phone started ringing again, but he kept going.