Home to Stay (6 page)

“What brought you down here? Do you have family on the island?”

Beth shifted in her chair. “Not exactly. I was coming down to meet my future in-laws.”

Rebecca drew out her notepad. “So you were engaged? I’m guessing you’re married now?”

More shifting. Randy wanted to rescue his friend’s fiancée, but they’d known explaining their story would be complicated.

“No, I decided not to marry that man.”

“But you’re still here.” Rebecca crossed her legs and balanced the notebook on her knee. “Why did you stay?”

Beth chewed the inside of her cheek and glanced to Lola, who squeezed her hand. “I met a man while I was here, and we’re getting married next month.”

“That’s a great story.” Rebecca looked as if someone had set a delicious meal before her. “We have to include this. So you showed up on the island engaged to one man and ended up leaving him for another who you met here? That sounds like something out of the movies.”

“Right.” Beth gave a nervous laugh. “Just like the movies.”

“So who is the lucky man? I hope I get to talk with him, too.”

“You will,” Randy said, taking advantage of the opening. “We’ll be out on his boat tomorrow.”

Rebecca scanned her notes. “Dempsey Charters?”

“That’s right,” Randy said. “Joe Dempsey is the owner and operator of the fishing and charter boat service.”

“Great.” Rebecca looked back to Beth, who had started to sweat. “Whatever happened to the first fiancé? I guess he’s back wherever you left him?”

Beth proceeded to do a stellar impression of a dying fish.

“I can’t believe I haven’t brought out the tea,” Lola said, bursting from her chair. “I make a mean sweet tea. Let me get the pitcher from the back.”

“Thank you,” Rebecca said with a smile. Then she went right back to what was feeling more and more like an interrogation. “So what happened to the fiancé? I’m dying to know.”

“He’s here,” Randy said, worried about the color dropping from Beth’s face. “Lucas Dempsey is the island lawyer, as of last fall. He doesn’t really cater to tourists, so he’s not on our list of villagers to meet.”

“Wait.” Rebecca looked down at her notes, then back to Beth, then back to her notes again. “Did you say Dempsey? Good Lord, this is better than I thought.”

“Randy, could you help me outside?” Beth grasped for his hand, her face pale and damp. “I need some fresh air.”

“Is something wrong?” Rebecca asked, all innocent curiosity.

“Beth hasn’t been feeling well lately.” Randy took her weight as she slowly rose from her chair. “You go ahead and finish with Lola. We’ll be right outside.”

As soon as they passed through the front door, Beth dropped to the top step and put her head between her knees. Randy filled the space next to her.

“Keep breathing, darling. You’re going to be alright.” He rubbed in a circular motion in the center of her back.

“That was horrible,” Beth mumbled through a face full of curls. “How am I going to survive having to tell that story for the rest of my life?”

And he thought Rebecca asked tough questions. “Forget about how you got here,” he said, watching three seagulls dive-bomb a trash can. “All that matters is that you and Joe are happy. You’re going to start a family and it’s all good.”

“But she made it sound like some tabloid story.” Beth flipped her head up, then locked her hand on Randy’s knee to steady herself. “Whoa. Shouldn’t have done that.”

“Beth,” Randy said, speaking as gently as he knew how. “Lucas and Sid are as happy as you and Joe are. If you hadn’t made the choices you did, you’d be four miserable people right now.”

Beth sighed. “That’s true.”

“It all worked out.” He leaned his elbows on his knees. “Everyone is with the person they were meant to be with. Focus on that.”

“You’re right.”

Randy was happy to see color returning to her cheeks. They sat in silence for several seconds, when Beth asked, “What about you?” He looked her way and met green eyes filled with concern. “You haven’t found the one you’re supposed to be with. Or have you, and I don’t know about it?”

Randy wanted a wife and family as much as the next guy. Probably more. But he’d never found the woman he’d be willing to risk his heart to be with.

The pain of losing someone you love, with no warning, and no ability to save them, wasn’t something Randy ever wanted to endure again. If no one had his hea
rt, then no one could rip it in two. Then there was the chance he would be the one to leave loved ones much too soon, thanks to the history of men in his family dying at much too young an age.

No, his life was better this way.

“I’m happy the way things are, but it’s nice of you to think of me.”

“I don’t doubt you’re happy.” Beth bumped his knee with her own. “But you could be happier.”

Randy chuckled. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

He had to give the woman points for optimism. “How about if I agree to never say never?”

Beth nodded. “I can live with that.”

CHAPTER 6

E
veryone must have decided to stay in Wednesday night, because the dinner shift at Dempsey’s was nonexistent. Will relieved Tom at four-thirty and by six was bored out of her mind, so she took the opportunity to flip through Beth’s planner. She didn’t have to get past the first couple pages to see that the bride-to-be had a thing for Post-it notes.

Perched on a stool at the bar, she tried to decipher Beth’s planning process. There was a to-do section, which held the most Post-its. If she’d written on the pages there would have been no need for the sticky notes, but Will tried not to judge.

Then she found the receipts, and her accountant mind instantly flipped to divide-and-conquer mode. The receipt for the catering deposit was stuck to the one for the DJ, but by
what
Will wasn’t sure. It looked like a smudge left from a chocolate chip. As these were the top two receipts, she assumed they were the most recent ones. The dates proved her right.

Baby brain really was an evil thing. Beth was what one might call über-efficient. She’d done research for a law firm before quitting her job and moving to Anchor to live with Joe. Which happened after she’d been engaged to Lucas. Which made life a bit complicated for everyone for a while. But since Lucas eventually fell in love with Sid, who had been in love with
him
since they were in high school, the whole thing worked out in the end. Everyone found the person they were supposed to find.

“Hello there, darling. Can a chap buy the bartender a drink?”

Will looked up from the planner to see Jude had taken the stool next to her. He gave a wink, flashed the smile she was certain worked better than any pickup line he tossed around, and tucked a wayward lock of brown hair behind his ear. She was relieved not to see a camera anywhere in sight.

“Sorry, photo boy, but I’m on the clock.” She glanced at the mostly empty room behind her. “Though there isn’t much need for me to hover behind the bar tonight.”

“Ah,” he said, “but that’s why Becks and I are here, isn’t it?” He spun on his stool until his elbows rested on the bar. “I’ll have this place looking like heaven on Earth, and Becks will make sure it reads that way.”

Speaking of the overly curious blonde. “Where is Becks tonight?”

“She’s back at the hotel, presumably working on her notes. When I left, she was planted in front of the laptop, notebook at her side and pencil clasped in her teeth.”

“Do you two do many of these kinds of trips together?” Will asked, stepping around the bar and pulling a Samuel Smith from the lower cooler. “Kind of a travel reporting team?”

Jude faced the bar again and accepted the offered beer. “Thank you, my love. Not often, no. This is our…” He glanced up in thought. “…third assignment together. Becks is a little high maintenance. Best absorbed in short doses, with good long breaks in between.”

Will’s brows shot up. “You don’t like her?”

“Now, I didn’t say that.” He sipped his beer. “Rebecca is a bit…what’s the word?”

“If it starts with a
b
, I’ll have to switch into my
we are women, hear us roar
lecture, so choose your word wisely.”

“No worries,” Jude said, tapping the side of his nose. “Wasn’t going there. No, Rebecca King is driven. That’s what she is. Determined to be a
real
reporter, as she puts it.”

Will leaned a hip against the bar and crossed her arms. “What is she now? A fake reporter?”

“Right now she’s a travel reporter. A female Rick Steves of sorts. But she wants to be a Christiane Amanpour.”

“Oh, one of
those
reporters.” Now that she thought about it, Will could see the drive. Not that Rebecca hadn’t seemed happy enough to cover their island, but the way she asked questions, more like an interrogation than an interview, screamed hard-core news reporter. “And do you want to be one of
those
photographers?”

Jude waved a hand in the air. “I’m seeing the world on someone else’s dime, and not getting shot at for my efforts. I’m happy being
this
kind of photographer, thank you very much.”

Since they had a nice, easy chemistry going, Will took advantage of the moment to ask Jude for a favor. “You know that picture you snapped of me the day you arrived?”

His brow furrowed. “We took a picture? Oh, yes. I remember, sure. Beautiful woman behind bar. Those are always my favorites.”

The man could flirt with a turnip. Too bad he was on the small side for Will’s taste.

“If you say so,” she said, dismissing the compliment. “Could you make sure that doesn’t make it into the magazine?”

“Shy type, huh?” He shook his head, as if truly disappointed. “If you don’t sign a consent form, then we can’t use it no matter what. I’m guessing you’re unwilling to sign consent?”

“Quite unwilling.”

“Does that go for the rest of the night as well?” the Brit asked, turning the smolder up a notch.

“Does
what
go for the rest of the night?” Randy asked, smacking Jude between the shoulder blades hard enough to knock the wind out of him. As the flirting foreigner coughed and struggled to catch his breath, Randy smiled at Will. “What did I miss?”

If she didn’t know better, Will would think Randy didn’t miss a thing. His timing was impeccable, and his handling of Jude not the least bit subtle.

“Jude let me know they won’t be using my picture in the magazine article,” she said. Since she’d let Randy see how panicked she was over the photo, Will wanted him to see how calmly and rationally she’d handled the situation.

Without having to lay a hand on anyone.

“That’s right,” Jude said, then he cleared his throat. “We were talking about the article. I thought you were waylaid by that brunette near the door?”

“Nah,” Randy said, planting his large frame on the stool Will had vacated. “Georgette’s husband works for me. She had a question about the reopen date.” He gave Jude’s shoulder a squeeze, making the smaller man wince.

Looking to his left, Jude said, “I see that lovely woman from the registration desk at our hotel. Think I’ll go see how she’s doing this evening.”

Using the tip of his beer bottle to send Will a silent salute, Jude headed across the room.

Will pinched her lips as tight as she could to keep from telling Randy exactly what she thought about what he’d done to Jude.

“Could I get one of those green teas, please?” he asked, as if he hadn’t just physically intimidated a man into ending a harmless flirtation.

So she wasn’t going to take Jude up on what he’d clearly been offering. That didn’t mean Will appreciated Randy taking matters into his own hands.

Literally.

“Who do you think you are?” she asked, slamming her rag onto the bar. “You could have hurt him.”

Randy’s head jerked back. With lowered brows, he asked, “Could have hurt who? Pretty boy over there?”

“His name is Jude,” Will ground through a clenched jaw. “He was being nice, and you practically knocked his head off.”

He rested his elbows on the bar, his hands clenched into fists. Will took a step back.

“From what I heard, he asked if you were
willing
, as if instead of offering drinks you were offering happy endings. Last I checked, this wasn’t
that
kind of establishment, and you weren’t
that
type of woman.”

“What do you mean
that
kind of establishment?” she asked, anger moving her forward again. “You mean a bar where people try to pick other people up? That’s exactly what this is.” She felt her temper rising. “And you have no idea what type of woman I am. You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

“Well not because I don’t want to,” he said, cutting off anything Will was about to say.

“What?” she asked.

Randy put his head down and rubbed a line across his forehead. When he looked back up, the brown eyes were softer. “The only reason no one on this island knows much about you is because you won’t let us. You’ve been here a year and we don’t even know where you’re from.”

Will snatched the rag and wiped up the wet spot Jude’s beer bottle had left behind. “I grew up all over. There isn’t one place I’m from.”

Randy laid his hands flat on the bar. “You had to graduate from high school somewhere. Where was that?”

Gnawing her lip, Will shuffled through all the lies and made-up history she’d created over the last three years. Then she told the truth. “Maine. I graduated from high school in Maine.”

She hadn’t shared a true fact about her past with anyone since the night she left her old life behind. Doing so felt scary and liberating at the same time.

Randy smiled, awakening the butterflies that had been flitting around her gut a lot in the last week. “I hear it’s beautiful up there.”

“It is,” she nodded. “You’ve never been?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. Maybe someday.”

This was a different kind of flirting. She could laugh off Jude’s charmer attempts. He only wanted to have some fun, not get to know her or learn about her past. The photographer had been harmless, even if he was the person in possession of a single image that could ruin her life.

No, that picture wasn’t nearly the threat Randy Navarro could be. If she let him.

“I’ll get you that green tea,” she said.

“That would be nice, thanks.”

She stepped toward the mini-cooler near the register, but Randy stopped her, saying, “I really didn’t hurt him. I surprised him is all. I’m not that kind of a guy.”

Will nodded. “That’s what I keep hearing.”

“Do you believe it?” he asked, genuine curiosity and a hint of hope in his eyes.

She opted not to answer and opened the small fridge. “We’re out of the teas up here. I’ll have to get one from the back.”

Randy had no idea why it mattered so much what Will thought of him. Maybe because he didn’t like how it felt to be feared. The fear brought with it a lack of trust, a belief he was a kind of person that he wasn’t.

But again, why did it matter? He’d had his share of people who didn’t think much of him. That was part of life. So, why did those people’s opinions not matter, but Will’s did?

A small voice in the back of his brain whispered
it’s because you like her
. But that was crazy. The woman had a hair-trigger temper, then swung back to soft and sweet before Randy knew what hit him. She called bullshit anytime she saw it, was more secretive than a CIA agent, and had the bluest eyes he’d ever wanted to fall into.

He almost laughed at the last thought. Fall into her eyes. What kind of sappy, girly-movie shit was that?

“Hey there, big guy.” Beth plopped onto the stool beside him. “Drinking alone?”

“Will went to get me a bottle of green tea.”

Her nose scrunched up as her lips twisted. “You like that stuff?”

Randy laughed, feeling his shoulders relax. “It’s good for you.”

“So is spinach, but I’m not adding it to my diet.” She pointed to her nose. “Couldn’t even be around it right now. Turns out being pregnant intensifies your sense of smell by about a billion percent. And the strangest scents make your stomach roll.”

“That would suck.” Randy loved a heaping bowl of spinach but kept the fact to himself. “Where’s Joe?”

Beth sighed. “Parking the car. He insisted I not walk any farther than from the Jeep door to the entrance. I’m surprised he didn’t carry me up the steps.”

“He’s worried about you.” Randy would likely feel the same way. After watching what the reporter had done to her today, he considered volunteering to help Joe carry the petite woman anywhere she wanted to go. “Does he know what happened today?”

“What happened today?” Will asked, sliding an open bottle of green tea Randy’s way. “Did you have another episode?”

Beth shot Randy a dirty look as she answered. “Joe does
not
know, and I’d appreciate it if you two would keep it to yourselves.”

“How could I tell him?” Will asked. “I don’t even know what it is yet.”

Green eyes darted to the door, then Beth leaned in. Will leaned in too, and the scent of lilacs swirled around Randy’s head.

“That reporter was at Lola’s today. She asked me how I got here. Instead of giving the smart answer, that I’d come here for a vacation”—she poked the bar with one finger—“which would not be a lie, I said I’d come to meet my future in-laws. I don’t even know how it went from there. Her questions were like bullet fire, and I kept taking direct hits until she figured out I’d left one brother for the other.”

Will jerked upright. “Yikes. It does sound bad when you say it that way.” When Beth shot her a pleading look, she added, “I mean, that’s so annoying of her.”

“I had to cut off the interview and take Beth outside to get some fresh air.” Randy bumped Beth with his shoulder. “That’s when I told her everything worked out the way it was supposed to, and she shouldn’t be worried about what anyone else thinks.”

“Easy for you to say,” Will said. “Reporter Rebecca hasn’t started asking about you yet.”

She was right. Randy had yet to face the firing squad that was Rebecca King’s interview style. At least not on a personal level. She’d asked questions about the island with rapid-fire succession, but not one had been about him personally.