Redemption Bay (Haven Point Book 2) (Contemporary Romance) (22 page)

Oh, it would be so tempting to throw all her caution to the wind, to grab his hand and lead him to her bedroom, where they could spend every hour remaining to them wrapped around each other while the rain whispered against the roof.

She obviously didn’t have the best track record in the common-sense department, at least when it came to Ben, but somehow she knew making love with him would only make the inevitable pain so much worse.

Sensing the shift in mood, he pulled away, his gaze searching hers. That beautiful mouth that could work such magic tightened now and he eased away. “This is the part where you tell me you want me to leave, isn’t it?”

Oh, she didn’t. She wanted him to stay here forever, wrapped in her arms and her love. “It’s not a matter of what I want,” she began.

“The hell it’s not,” he burst out, his eyes hot, aroused and suddenly angry. “It’s been about what you want since the moment I walked into town. You want a shiny new Caine Tech facility for this damned town you love so much and you can’t see anything beyond that. Because you can’t have it, you won’t consider anything else between us.”

She inhaled sharply at his words. Because they stung—and because, okay, she sensed some element of truth to them she wasn’t quite ready to face—she parried the thrust and lashed out in return.

“At least I care about
something
! I’m not some cold, insulated billionaire so afraid of being hurt that I wall myself off from anybody who might get close!”

Something flared in his eyes, something she almost thought might be hurt. “Cold? You think I’m cold?”

No. He was hot, sizzling temptation.

“I think you’re like some kind of...
Vulcan
. The only difference is, you have emotions, you just refuse to show them to the world.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw and she wanted to weep. She was a fine one to talk to him about hiding emotions when she was lashing out so he wouldn’t realize she loved him.

She folded her hands together to keep from reaching for him again, from pushing away that strand of dark hair falling in his eyes, from kissing away his sudden frown.

If Joe Kilpatrick were still alive, she would like to take him out on that Delphine to the deepest part of the lake, hog-tie him and toss him overboard for what he had done to a little boy who had only ever wanted the love of the man he thought was his father.

“You’re wrong. I feel things, deeply,” he said, his gaze suddenly intense.

What did he feel? She felt breathless, suddenly, like that moment just before that first dive into the lake in spring, when she knew the waters would be painfully cold.

She opened her mouth, suddenly frightened and exhilarated all at once, but before she could ask him, her cell phone rang, vibrating the little table in the foyer where she had set it when she first unlocked the door.

She stared at it as if it were a rattlesnake and then looked back at Ben. His expression was once more shielded, the mask firmly in place, and she suddenly wanted to cry.

“I have to take it. It’s Dale. It could be an emergency.”

Coward,
that little voice in her head taunted. She knew she was using the phone call as an excuse, seizing on the first one that came along.

“Someone else can take care of it, can’t they?”

“I’m the mayor.”

“And that’s the only thing that matters to you, isn’t it?”

She didn’t answer, she only gazed at him wordlessly.

After a moment, when the phone continued to ring, he made a rough, frustrated sound.

“You’d better answer it,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from something
important
.”

He turned and stalked from her house, closing the door hard behind him.

* * *

A
NGER
AND
FRUSTRATION
seemed to coil through him like barbed wire as he stomped back to his place.

He had left the damn umbrella in her entryway and the rain poured down like crazy, cold and unforgiving. By the time he made it the short distance to his rental house, he was soaked to the skin and freezing.

He didn’t care. A little outward misery was the perfect match for the storm raging inside.

When he unlocked the door, Hondo barked his hey-where-have-you-been? greeting and planted his haunches next to Ben for a little love. Ben gave him a perfunctory scratch, then headed immediately into his bedroom to rip off his rain-soaked shirt.

He didn’t know what to do with this turmoil raging inside him, this jumbled mess of raw feeling he wasn’t sure he even wanted to look at.

At least I care about something! I’m not some cold, insulated billionaire so afraid of being hurt that I wall myself off from anybody who might get close!

How did she see him so clearly? He had spent so many years not revealing his emotions, exhibiting a cool, contained facade to the world. He had found it invaluable in business, that ability to use logic and reason.

He suddenly remembered being eleven years old, a desperate boy who used to pretend he had a Teflon super suit that deflected every barb, every criticism.

Now he realized how ridiculous that was.

The suit had deflected
nothing
. Every hurt had shoved its way under his skin and sometimes he still felt as if it quivered around him with every step.

He picked up his shoe and hurled it at the wall. Not surprisingly, he didn’t feel any better.

Through the anger and frustration, he was aware of something deeper. An aching, completely unexpected sense of loss.

It was only thwarted sexual arousal, he tried to tell himself. Somehow the words weren’t any more believable than the ridiculous idea that Joe’s steady criticisms had bounced harmlessly off his Teflon skin.

He had feelings for McKenzie, unlike anything he had known for another woman. Yes, she was exuberant with her emotions. Very different than he was—which was no small part of her appeal to him, he realized. She was sweet and funny, with so much love to give the entire world. She was patient with cranky old men, she pulled in friends wherever she went, she cared passionately about her community and her neighbors.

He had seen her compassion firsthand, when she used to be one of the few friends to visit Lily during those last days, this big-eyed, dark-haired girl with the ready smile and the infectious laugh. She had brightened Lily’s world immeasurably, just with her visits.

Tenderness seemed to unfurl inside him like new aspen leaves in springtime.

Yes, she loved Haven Point. Of course she did. She wanted so desperately to belong. Xochitl Vargas, who had changed her name to fit in with her father’s family when she had been left with nothing.

His chest ached suddenly and he sat down hard on the bed. Hondo immediately moved in, resting his head on Ben’s knee. He petted the dog, yet another thing he had to let go of so he could return to his real life.

When the hell had his world become so complicated? Before he came to Haven Point, everything had seemed so straightforward. He loved his job working with Aidan Caine and he was good at it. He thought he was happy in California, working long hours and running the company he and Aidan had founded.

Suddenly, he had to deal with a father he hadn’t known about, a dog he didn’t know what to do with and a woman who had somehow crawled into his heart when he wasn’t looking.

She thought he didn’t let himself feel things deeply. Ha. He was a jumbled mess of emotions. Now the only problem was figuring out what the hell to do with them all.

* * *

H
ER
PHONE
RANG
shortly before dawn—just an hour after she finally fell asleep.

She reached for it in a blind panic and knocked it off the bedside table where it had been charging. By the time she could turn on the lamp to find it on the floor, the blasted thing had rung four times and the call was about to go to voice mail. She managed to answer just in time.

“Yeah. Hello?”

“Mayor. Sorry to wake you. It’s Dale again. We’ve got a problem.”

“Is it Lake Road again?”

His reason for calling last night—she could only think of it as a fortuitous interruption before she said or did something she would deeply regret—had been to inform her about a section of asphalt on the road circling the lake that had begun to erode away from all the water. A section of shoulder about ten feet long by two feet wide had crumbled and would need major repairs.

“I only wish. This is big. Really big.”

She sat up in bed, alarmed by the gravity in his voice. At the movement, she stifled a groan. Her whole body seemed like one big ache, a combination of too little sleep and too much stress.

“What’s going on?” she asked after clearing the sleep from her voice so she didn’t sound like a trucker with a six-pack-a-day habit.

“I just got word from the Corps of Engineers. The Elkwood Dam is critically unstable and they’re worried it’s going to breach. They’re doing the best they can to fix the situation but they wanted to warn all the downriver communities that the Hell’s Fury might be rising to dangerous levels within a matter of hours.”

She sat up, now fully awake as cold dread seized her. There were thirty homes and businesses along the river within her city limits that would be impacted if water levels rose—and more upriver from them.

“How could this happen?” she demanded.

“Beats the hell out of me. I know it passed the last inspection last month. I read the report myself. Could be there was a structural anomaly they didn’t know about, could be all the rain we’ve had that’s weakened something. Doesn’t matter, when you get down to it. The river is rising, either way.”

All those houses, all those people. Eppie and Ronald lived along the river, with Hazel in her little house next door. The Smiths. The Pipers. Wynona. Her mind went through each house, cataloging the potential disaster for people who already had troubles, thinking of the ramifications.

“What do you want to do?” Dale asked. He was looking for guidance from
her
. The owner of a floral shop.

She pushed away the quilt, ignoring the chill. As much as she might want to stay here in her warm bed curled up under the covers with Rika asleep on the floor beside her, she didn’t have time to indulge her heartache right now.

She could do all that later, after Ben left Haven Point for good. Right now, people depended on her. She drew in a breath. She could do this. This was one of the reasons she had agreed to accept the nomination last fall, so she could help when the people of Haven Point needed her.

“Call Chief Gallegos and Chief Emmett and everybody else on our emergency management team. Have the police and volunteer fire departments start going door to door to the houses on the river, letting people know what’s going on and helping them evacuate. At this point, it’s people and pets first, then belongings. Let’s mobilize everybody we can to start filling sandbags. Scout groups, church congregations, the Haven Point High School football team. I’d like to see everybody who’s physically able helping out.”

“Got it.”

“Meanwhile, I’ll call Anita and have her set up a command center at city hall. We can use the city council meeting room and the conference room next door. I’ll be in as soon as I can. A half hour, tops. Keep me apprised if you hear anything new from the people up in Elkwood.”

“Got it. Thanks, Mayor.”

To her surprise, she actually heard a note of respect in his voice, for the first time ever, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. Not when her town was threatened by outside forces.

* * *

T
WENTY
MINUTES
LATER
, she walked into chaos. Her office was filled with people, each of whom seemed to be on a cell phone having different conversations.

It wasn’t yet 7:00 a.m. but the city employees and the emergency management team were on the job, taking care of business.

Anita was at her desk, with her office phone at one ear and her cell at her other and writing something on a pad in front of her at the same time.

“Right. Yes. That’s great. Thanks.” She hung up the cell phone and held the other phone away long enough to jump up and hug her when McKenzie neared.

“Don’t interrupt your call,” she demanded.

“I’m on hold,” Anita said. “Hell of a thing to wake up to, right? I got here as soon as I could. I barely had time for mascara.”

Anita always looked perfectly made up to McKenzie, who had managed only a shower and a quick braid.

Anita handed her a stack of notes. “We’re getting calls from the media already. Word is out about the potential breach and they want the human-interest angle from the downriver towns. I’ve already fielded two calls and I’m sure there will be more. Somebody will have to take point on that.”

“Why didn’t you talk to them? Everybody knows you’re the one who
really
runs this town. I’m just the figurehead.”

Anita gave a modest shrug. “They want to talk to the mayor, not the mayor’s secretary. Makes better copy that way.”

“Returning media requests will have to come second—or third or fourth. Where are we on the sandbag operation?”

“I’ve been contacting all the quarries in a twenty-mile radius and they’re sending dump trucks full of sand to the elementary school parking lot. That’s where we’re going to fill them up, since it’s the closest public building to the river. Do you really think it will do any good?”

Again, that yawning sense of inadequacy threatened to swallow her whole. “I have no idea. We have to do something, though.”

Anita squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll get through this. You’ll see. Haven Point is tough.”

She wished she had a little of her friend’s optimism. Right now she felt helpless and overwhelmed by the pressure suddenly bearing down on her shoulders.

She wouldn’t let it be destroyed, no matter what she had to do.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

H
E
NEEDED
TO
BE
back at work.

Feeling muddle-headed and numb after only a few hours of sleep, Ben stood at the wide windows overlooking the deck, sipping at his coffee and watching the rain drizzle down. Everything was gray—the lake, the mountains, even the lovely landscaping around the rented lake house.

His restlessness was like an itch just between his shoulder blades that he couldn’t seem to reach no matter what he used to go after it.

He needed to be back at Caine Tech, where he felt in control of his world, in his element. That was the problem here. Something about the rugged vastness of the mountains, the sheer, wild beauty of the lake, left a man feeling exposed and vulnerable.

Since he had come to town, he had been buffeted by memories he didn’t want and emotional entanglements he didn’t need. His mother, Joe, Warrick. McKenzie. Hondo. They all circled around inside his brain, leaving him a little dizzy.

The day stretched ahead of him, too rainy to go hiking, too dismal for the boat. If he didn’t have this damned dinner to get through with Lydia and Warrick, he would be out of here and back home in California by evening.

He would just have to do his best to focus on catching up with work so he would be up to speed Monday back at Caine Tech. If the clouds cleared, he would call the marina and arrange to have someone drive the boat back there so he could hitch it to his SUV.

Maybe when he returned to San Jose, he would sell the Delphine. A few acquaintances had already offered far more than she was worth. He wasn’t a Kilpatrick. Why hold on to something that was just one more emotional entanglement, one more connection to his past?

He sighed and stepped away from the window just as Hondo gave his low-throated bark and hurried to the front door seconds before it rang.

Why did he even need a doorbell, when he had an alert German shepherd?

He headed for it, aware of the ridiculous part of him that half hoped and half dreaded it might be McKenzie. He wasn’t sure he was up for another confrontation with her but he hated leaving town with bitter words between them.

Instead, when he opened the door, he was shocked to see Russ Warrick standing there.

His father.

Some threads from that tangled mess of emotions he kept trying to shove down seemed to tug free—sadness, anger, betrayal, all coated in that damned awkwardness. He didn’t have the first idea how to deal with this man he had always admired and respected.

He could at least be polite and let the man in out of the rain. “Dr. Warrick. This is a surprise. Come in.”

“I can’t stay. I’m headed to the community center to fill sandbags. I just wanted to apologize in person that we’re going to have to cancel our dinner plans. I was hoping we would have the chance to talk about...everything. But in light of this town crisis, I think we had better take a rain check. No pun intended, believe me. I wanted to let you know, earlier, rather than later, in case you wanted to change your plans and take off for California today and I thought it would be better to do it in person instead of over the phone.”

Apparently the coffee hadn’t taken the edge off his mental torpor. He tried to process the overload of information but couldn’t seem to make the pieces fit.

He tried to filter through the salient points. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. What sandbags? What crisis?”

Warrick—he couldn’t think of him as his father yet—looked shocked. “You must not have had the radio or the TV on.”

“No. I was on a conference call until a few moments ago.”

“We’re facing heavy flooding along the river within the next few hours. An upriver dam is failing, though they’re trying their best to fix the situation. It’s all hands on deck right now, between helping with evacuations for those who will most likely be hit by floodwaters and sandbagging as much as we can to protect property. I fear it’s a losing battle, but Mayor Shaw is determined.”

McKenzie. His heart twisted a little and he could almost picture her, right in the middle of the action, trying to save the town she loved.

“I’m sure you understand that we have to cancel our dinner plans. For one thing, all the restaurants in town will be closed except to provide food to the relief workers and I wouldn’t feel good about leaving town for Shelter Springs in the midst of a crisis. I’m sorry. I was...looking forward to it, son.”

Son. Ben couldn’t deal with the word, especially when he thought back over the years to how many times Warrick had called him that.

“I understand,” he said.

Warrick studied him, then spoke carefully. “I also wanted to warn you there’s a real chance the bridge on the way out of town might be under water by this evening, if the river crests like they’re afraid it might. If you leave now, you could make it out before the bridge is impassable. Otherwise, you might be stuck an extra day or two or have to drive hours out of your way in the other direction.”

Again, he couldn’t think what to say. “Thanks for the information.”

“All right. Well. I should go.” Doc Warrick rubbed at the back of his neck, a mannerism Ben suddenly realized was one he did frequently himself.

“How are you doing with all this?”

He didn’t need the doctor to explain what he meant. From that ball of emotions, the tenuous threads of their father-son relationship seemed to coil between and around them.

“It’s been a shock,” he admitted. “I’m still having a tough time taking it in.”

“Understandable.”

Warrick’s kind eyes seemed to look right through Ben’s carefully calm facade. “This isn’t the time or place for it,” he said quietly, “but I wanted you to know, I loved your mother with all my heart, from the first time I met her. I made some mistakes along the way, I’ll be the first to admit, but I never stopped loving her. Even after she got married and I met and married—and loved—someone else, too, one part of my heart always belonged to Lydia. She’s an amazing woman who had some hard choices to make and did the best she could under the circumstances. I hope you fully appreciate that.”

Ben wanted to bristle at what suddenly sounded like a fatherly lecture. He was a little too old for paternal discourse.

On the other hand, he found it oddly refreshing, after so many years spent with a father who either belittled or ignored him.

“I do. Thanks.”

“If you do end up taking off today, God bless. Maybe your mother and I could drive to California in a few weeks for that dinner.”

Driving to California just for dinner would be ridiculous, especially when he had a private jet. He was about to say so, when he remembered something. “I’ll be back in town in a month for Aidan and Eliza’s wedding. Perhaps we can reschedule during that time.”

“Perfect. In that case, we’ll definitely see you then.”

Before Ben realized what he intended, Doc Warrick reached out and embraced him, just briefly but enough to leave a peculiar warmth behind.

“I know things are...awkward between us now. It’s only to be expected, but in time, I hope you can come to accept me. I’ve wanted to tell you the truth for a long, long time. I’m so happy that it’s finally out there, even though I know it can’t be easy for you.”

An understatement.

“I’ll see you soon,” Warrick promised. “Now I’d better go. Safe travels, son.”

This time the word didn’t strike him nearly as odd.

After the doctor left, Ben returned to the window, gazing at the lake and the Redemption Mountains. The Delphine bounced on the high water.

He had no reason to stay now. McKenzie obviously didn’t want him here. He didn’t have to wait to meet his mother and Warrick for dinner. The town was in crisis and he ought to get out of the way and leave the people of Haven Point to deal with it.

He looked out toward the little jewellike town that provided the only spots of color in the dreary rain. He couldn’t see the river from here but he could imagine it, frothing and wild. It wasn’t called the Hell’s Fury for nothing. Under certain conditions, it could rage through town to the lake, swollen with runoff and rain—and now, apparently, floodwaters from a dam breach.

He pictured McKenzie in the middle of the action, trying desperately to save her town. He thought of all the people he had seen in action the night before—the little old lady quilting at her husband’s bedside, Eppie and Hazel, the teenage boys who had offered lawn-mowing services.

His little fishing buddies, Caleb and Luke. Even the jackass he had decked at the Lake Haven Days barbecue, Jimmy Welch. He was somehow absolutely certain everybody was out in force, working together to help each other.

How could he duck and run, even though he was no longer part of the town?

Yeah. He wasn’t leaving.

He glanced down at Hondo. “I have to take off for a while, dude. You can handle things here, right?”

The dog barked in agreement and Ben hurried to grab his boots and his jacket before he headed off to see where he might be needed most.

* * *

I
F
ONLY
THIS
blasted rain would stop, they might have a chance to beat back the impending disaster.

McKenzie gazed up at the sky as she drove from city hall to the parking lot of the elementary school to check on the sandbag operation. If anything, the clouds looked more ominous and ugly. Weather forecasters had been saying the clouds were supposed to lift, but before they did they were supposed to receive one more big thundershower—the
last
thing they needed.

The weight of responsibility on her shoulders felt heavier than the Redemptions and for a moment, she could barely breathe. According to the latest update, the engineers working to restore the upriver dam’s integrity were down to their last option. If that failed, a vast amount of water would be pouring through her town, sweeping through everything in its path with its dangerous power.

They were doing all they could to minimize the destruction. All residents of the houses along the river had been evacuated and dozens of volunteers had helped people remove their most valuable possessions. Emergency shelters had been set up for them at various churches, though most of the evacuated residents had friends or neighbors out of the danger zone who had gladly taken them in to wait out the potential disaster.

While city hall was command central, the true epicenter of the action was the elementary school, where the sandbag effort was underway. As McKenzie pulled up, the scene in the parking lot almost made her burst into tears.

It looked as if everyone in town was here working together, hundreds of people. In an effort to keep as dry as possible, people had brought little canvas pop-up shelters and set them up around the huge piles of sand. Others didn’t even bother, working with water streaming down their faces.

From what she could see, children, teenagers, adults—even a few senior citizens in wheelchairs—were all working together to help each other.

Some were filling sandbags with shovels while still others were hauling those sandbags to a waiting flatbed trailer to be hauled to the river. She knew there were even more volunteers at the homes along the river, trying to build up the bank on both sides as high as possible.

Oh, how she loved this town.

She walked through, greeting friends and neighbors, taking a moment to offer her heartfelt thanks. She was looking for Dale to give him the latest update from the Corps when she spotted an astonishing sight.

Under one of the canvas shelters, Ben was shoveling sand into a bag held open by little Caleb and Luke Keegan. His hair was plastered to his head; his T-shirt, straining over his bunched muscles, was drenched with either sweat or rain, she didn’t know.

He had never looked more gorgeous to her.

What was he doing there? He wasn’t part of the town. He didn’t even
like
it here. She wouldn’t have expected it in a thousand years, but here he was, working every bit as hard as those whose neighbors were threatened by the potential disaster.

Oh, he was a hard man to resist.

She watched the scene for only a few seconds—more than she could spare. Just as she was about to head off to look for Dale again, Ben turned as if he felt her watching him.

He met her gaze for one supercharged moment while everything else seemed to slough away—the crisis and the town and all the people who needed her. She stood with rain pelting the hood of her raincoat, wishing she had time to speak with him, to thank him for his effort, but she had no time to even breathe.

With a half smile she hoped conveyed at least a little of her gratitude, she turned away, just as an annoyingly perky young woman in a parka bearing the logo of one of the Boise television stations hurried toward her carrying a huge red umbrella that made her impossible to miss. She was followed by a man carrying an even larger camera.

“Mayor Shaw. Mayor Shaw. What do you have to say about accusations from some citizens that your administration was caught unprepared for this situation?”

What citizens? Probably Jimmy Welch, who lived in one of the houses along the river and was already talking about suing over being ordered out of his home.

She didn’t have time for ridiculous made-up controversies or diplomacy right now, when her town was in trouble.

“We had an emergency plan in place for high water levels and, as you can see, that is being implemented right now.”

“Is it true that you had advance warning of the impending disaster and did nothing until this morning?”

“We were notified at 6:30 a.m. By seven, the town’s emergency management protocol was operational, and before seven-thirty, we were filling the first sandbags. All people and animals have been safely evacuated and we are doing everything we can to minimize the possibility of property damage. Look around and you can see the tremendous outpouring of support. Only thirty homes are threatened along the river. The rest are safely removed from the flood zone. As you can see, nearly everyone in town is out here in the pouring rain because they want to help their neighbors. I would say that’s a pretty amazing response, wouldn’t you?”