Authors: Marie Force
Listening to Ned tell off her father, Tiffany realized two very important things: She loved the man who loved her mother, and she loved Blaine—with her whole heart. As soon as she got the chance, she was going to tell him so. Her mother was right—if she let fear drive her away from Blaine, Jim would win. She couldn’t let that happen.
Bobby grunted at all of them and then turned and hightailed it out of the store.
Francine threw herself into Ned’s arms. “You were positively magnificent! Wasn’t he magnificent, Tiffany?”
“Positively,” she said, smiling at her mom. She couldn’t wait to tell her sister about this. “And in case you were wondering, Ned, we love you, too.”
His eyes got all misty looking. “Aww, shucks, gal, now don’t go doin’ that.”
Tiffany stepped around the counter to hug him. “I’ve never had a father,” she said. “Better late than never.”
“Cut that right out,” he said, sniffling as he returned her embrace. He stiffened in her arms and pulled back from her. “What’s in there?” he asked, pointing to the beads.
Francine took him by the hand. “Mind if I show him?” she asked Tiffany.
“Um, please… By all means. As long as I don’t have to do it.”
Laughing, the happy couple went into the back room as the bells jangled yet again to admit Patty.
“Hey, boss.”
“Hi, there. What’re you doing here? You’re off today.”
“I know, but I was thinking with the first day of Race Week fogged out, we might want to ‘work the street,’ as you would say.”
Intrigued, Tiffany leaned forward on the counter. “What’ve you got in mind?”
A soft giggle came from the back room.
Patty glanced at the beaded curtain. “Who’s in there?”
“My parents.”
Patty’s eyes got very wide. “Yikes. Kinda embarrassing, huh?”
“Just a tad.” Tiffany prayed they didn’t buy anything. “So what about this idea of yours?”
“Oh, right.” Patty clapped her hands and went to the racks, holding up two racy sailor outfits. “What do you think?”
“You’re brilliant, but I can’t afford to pay you for today.”
“That’s okay. I wasn’t doing anything, and this’ll be fun.” She held out one of the outfits to Tiffany. “Shall we?”
Tiffany thought for a minute about how Blaine had promised to “punish” her if she strutted her sexy wares in public again, but with all the racers heading back into port due to the fog, she’d be crazy not to try to drum up some business. She also considered what Royal Atkinson and the rest of the town council, as well as her landlord and vindictive ex-husband, might have to say about it and decided she didn’t care. She had the same right as everyone else to earn a living in this town, and their threats weren’t going to stop her.
“I’m in.”
Blaine pulled into the pharmacy parking lot and took a moment to gather himself before he walked into the store. He hated having to do this kind of thing. Thankfully, it didn’t happen very often on the island—nowhere near as often as it had in his past job when he’d often had to tell people their loved ones had been hurt or worse. That Mac and his brothers were his good friends made today even more difficult.
He found Grace in the back of the store at the pharmacy counter.
She smiled when she saw him coming. “Morning, Blaine. How are you?”
“I’m…ah, could I speak with you for a minute? In private?”
She tuned right into his distress, and her smile faded as she came down the steps to meet him. “What’s wrong?”
He took her aside away from customers. “The boat Evan is on.”
“What about it?” she asked, taking a step back from him as if to escape from whatever he was about to say.
“There was an accident. The boat was hit by a freighter… Grace.
Grace!
” He reached out and caught her as she fainted. “Someone call 911.”
By the time the ambulance arrived a few minutes later, Grace was awake and crying hysterically.
“What happened?” a female voice asked Blaine as the paramedics talked to Grace. “I’m Jenny Wilks, a friend of Grace’s.”
Blaine told her about the accident and that Grace had fainted.
“I’ll stay with her,” Jenny said.
Relieved to have help, Blaine said, “Everyone is gathering at McCarthy’s Marina.”
“I’ll get her there as soon as she’s able.”
“Thank you very much. Tell her to stay strong, and I’ll see her later.”
Blaine left the pharmacy, dreading that he had to go through this twice more. On the way to the hair salon where he hoped to find Mrs. McCarthy, he tried to call Tiffany’s cell phone and the store line to let her know her sister needed her. When she didn’t answer either time, he wondered if she’d changed her mind about going to work and decided to run by the store after he located Mrs. McCarthy.
At the Curl Up and Dye salon on Ocean Road, he found Linda mid-dye and having an animated conversation with the owner, Chloe Dennis, who also cut his hair twice a year, if that.
“Hey, Blaine,” Chloe said when he walked in. “Did Mayor Upton finally wear you down and talk you into a haircut?” She was tall and curvy, and her hair color changed with her moods. Today she was a redhead.
“Not yet,” he said, glancing at Mrs. McCarthy.
“Everything all right?” Linda asked.
“I’m sorry to say it isn’t.”
“Not my husband,” she said with a hand over her heart.
“No, it’s the boys.”
To her credit, Linda maintained her composure. “What about them?”
Blaine told her about the accident.
Chloe gasped and put a comforting hand on Linda’s shoulder.
“I need to be with my husband.” Linda started yanking foils out of her hair. When she was done, she stood and pulled off the black cape. To Blaine, she said, “Can you take me to him?”
“I will,” Chloe said. “I’ll take you wherever you need to go, Linda.”
“He’s at the marina,” Blaine said. “I need to see Maddie, and then I’ll be there.”
“Thank you for letting me know,” Linda said.
Concerned about her eerie calm, Blaine exchanged glances with Chloe.
“I’ll take care of her,” Chloe whispered.
“Thanks.” Since the salon was only two blocks from Tiffany’s store, Blaine left the truck and walked, staring out at the fog as he went, imagining his friends fighting for their lives in the midst of it. Were they injured or worse? Were they conscious? He doubted any of them had been wearing lifejackets, as they were all experienced yachtsmen. At times like this, Blaine wished he were more religious, because it would take an act of God to bring them all back safely. What if the McCarthys lost three of their sons? That thought didn’t bear entertaining, so Blaine refused to go there.
He was half a block from Tiffany’s store when he stopped abruptly on the sidewalk, shocked to see her prancing around outside the store with Patty. And what the hell were they wearing? Sailor suits? If you could call them “suits.” Tiny scraps of fabric held together with a square knot placed strategically between two sets of full breasts. His cock stood up for a better look at Tiffany, but he willed it into submission by allowing in the anger. He’d told her he didn’t want her doing that! A crowd of men had gathered to watch the two women as they teased and flirted and tried to entice customers into the store.
The squeal of car tires tore his attention off her as two cars narrowly avoided colliding in front of the store.
All the stress and emotion of the last hour bubbled to the surface, filling him with fury as he covered the remaining distance, laser focused on Tiffany. As if he was outside himself watching someone else, he grabbed her arm and marched her into the store, slamming the door in Patty’s face as she scrambled after them.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Tiffany asked, outraged as she pulled her arm free.
Blaine hadn’t been this angry since he heard about what Eden had been up to while he worked nights. “What did I tell you about that?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a grown woman who can do whatever she wants, and the last thing I need is another man in my life thinking he can call all the shots while I watch passively from the sidelines.”
He took her hand and pulled her over to the window. “See those guys over there?” Pointing to the crowd of randy, leering young bucks who’d gathered on the sidewalk, Blaine said, “They’re all picturing you naked right now.”
“So what? They’re never going to
see
me naked.”
“You’re goddamned right they’re not.”
“Neither will you if you don’t get out of here right now.”
He pulled his citation book from his back pocket. “Not until I cite you for public indecency.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Blaine knew he’d probably regret throwing his official weight around, but at the moment, he was too damned mad to care about repercussions. “Don’t act like I didn’t warn you. The mayor has been all over me about your ‘advertising’ strategies, and you’ve given me no choice.”
“You absolutely have a choice.”
He pulled two pages from his book. “A citation for you and a warning for Patty. Now put on some clothes and quit creating a nuisance.”
Right before his eyes, Tiffany tore the citations into tiny pieces and sprinkled them like confetti at his feet.
“You’re just begging me to arrest you.”
She held out her hands. “Go for it.”
“If I didn’t have much bigger problems at the moment, I would, so count yourself lucky.”
When she stuck her tongue out at him, it was all he could do not to take her up on the blatant invitation.
“You need to put on some clothes.”
“I have clothes on.” Tiffany put her hands on her barely covered hips and met his mulish stare with an even more mulish stare of her own.
“
That
,” he said, gesturing to the suggestive outfit, “does not count as clothes.”
“Everything is covered.”
“Not covered enough.”
“I asked you to leave.”
“Not until you change.”
“I’m not changing, and you’re leaving.”
“Mac and his brothers are missing.” The moment the words left his mouth, Blaine felt like a total ass for telling her that way. “That’s what I was coming to tell you.”
Her lips parted, and her eyes filled with tears. “What do you mean missing?”
Blaine told her about the crash with the freighter. “There’s one confirmed fatality, but we’re keeping that info close until we know more.”
She bolted for the changing room. “Oh God, I’ve got to get to Maddie. Does she know?”
“Not unless one of the others called her.”
Tiffany emerged from the dressing room wearing jeans and a formfitting T-shirt that Blaine didn’t like much better than the skimpy sailor suit. The woman was too sexy for her own good—and his. When she reached for her purse and keys on the counter, her hands were shaking so badly she dropped the keys.
“I’ll drive you,” he said.
“I can drive myself.”
“Tiffany, you’re upset. Let me take you.”
“Not if you’re going to lecture me about how I choose to run my business.”
“I won’t say another word about it—for now. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Fine. I’ll let you take me to my sister.” She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and hit a number on speed dial. “Mom, I need you to get Ashleigh and Thomas from camp and meet me at Maddie’s.” Tiffany told her mother what’d happened as she followed Blaine from the store. On the sidewalk, she stopped to tell Patty she was in charge at the store for the rest of the day.
“You got it, boss.”
On the way to Maddie’s house, the unusual silence between them grated on Blaine’s already frayed nerves. “Tell me what you’re thinking?”
“I can’t even imagine what’ll become of my sister if he’s dead.”
“He can’t be dead. He’s too vital and too stubborn to die.”
“Do you really think so?” she asked, turning to him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw tears rolling down her cheeks and pulled the car over to the side of the road. “Come here.” He held out his arms to her and was relieved when she allowed him to comfort her. “Try not to think the worst until we know more.”
“It doesn’t sound good, though, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t.” He rubbed his hand over her back. “Try to get yourself together. She’s going to need you.”
“Yes, you’re right.” She wiped away the tears. “She’s always there for me, so I need to be there for her.”
“That’s the way. Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Chapter 24
Three hours later, a subdued group waited for news at McCarthy’s Marina. The unusual quiet in the normally boisterous group told the story of how concerned everyone was.