Sandcastle Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story (15 page)

“Where'd you learn to do that?” he asked softly.

“In high school. My crush was in orchestra with me and could never get his right for concerts. It was the perfect excuse to get to touch him.” I smoothed the tie down his shirt. I liked having a reason to be near Noah. “It worked. I got a date out of it.”

“Lucky guy,” he whispered. I grinned up at him.

“You have no idea. I am the best tie-tyer around.” I didn't tell him that the guy had gone on to break my heart when he left for college. It didn’t matter so much now.

“You're definitely pretty good at it,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss me. “I should let you do all of my ties, too. Beth always messes them up.”

Our lips met, soft and sweet. This felt good, like it could become normal. I could get very used to tying his ties for him in the morning. I pressed into the kiss until Beth started knocking on the door again.

“I'll call you as soon as I can,” he promised, pulling back but not letting me go. “If I get this done early...”

I went up on my toes and kissed his cheek. “Don't worry about it. I'll help Brooke with some shark-tagging today. Maybe I'll even bring you dinner from Adele's when I'm done.”

His face lit up at the idea. “You are wonderful. Fantastic. Amazing.”

I gave him a gentle push toward the door. “Flatterer.”

He turned and grinned. “Is it flattery if it's true?”

“Noah? You ready?” Beth called through the door. I pushed him again.

“Go to work. I'll see you this evening,” I told him as I slipped on my sandals and followed him. His hand went to the knob, but he didn't open it. Instead he just turned and kissed me again.

“I love you,” he said simply as he straightened up and opened the door.

“Me too.” I stepped out, nearly running into a now very businesslike Beth. She had a full dress suit that made her look professional instead of like a pixie. He winked at me before taking a file from Beth's hands. I grinned at him one last time before turning to head up the path back to the beach. This wasn't quite the way I had been expecting the day to turn out, but as I played with my shark tooth necklace, I figured it was still a pretty damn good day.

T
hunder boomed. The air was heavy with the promise of rain as Brooke and I brought the boat into the dock and secured it. Lightning flashed out at the horizon, striking the water with a blinding brilliance. I double-checked to make sure the knots were secure on the boat; I didn't want it floating out to sea with the storm.

“Thanks for the help today, Izzy,” Brooke said, heaving her gear onto the dock. We’d had an amazingly successful run. “This data is going to be amazing. If the Grove thing doesn't work out for you, I'll take you on my project in a heartbeat.”

“You are most welcome, but I have a good feeling about the Grove. That's where my future is,” I told her, securing another rope on the boat. Another peal of thunder made the air shudder around us.

“Yeah, you do mesh better with baby sharks than the big scary ones,” she teased. I had done more than all right with “the big scary ones” today, but she was right. I enjoyed the nursery of the Grove far more than the wild of the open ocean.

“You go on in. I'll finish tying up and bring in the cooler.” I tossed her the empty canvas bag that had held our lunch.

“Sounds good.” Brooke nodded, her light blonde hair catching in the wind and whipping around her face. “Thanks, though. You're the best.”

“That's what everyone tells me these days,” I replied with a laugh. Brooke picked up the rest of her equipment and hurried down the dock toward the house. The storm was coming in fast. I could see the rain creeping toward the island along the ocean in thick gray sheets. I finished lashing down the rest of the boat, grabbed the cooler, and hurried to the backdoor in an effort to beat the rain.

Thunder shook the windows as I fought the wind to open the kitchen door. The storm was picking up and tossing the leaves of the palm trees around like they were in a crazy dance party. The t-shirt and shorts I had changed into to work on the boat flapped wildly around my body as I struggled with the door. With a loud slam, the wind shut the heavy storm-door behind me, and I set the cooler down. The room was dark and gray, since the light was off and it was so cloudy outside. I ran a hand up to smooth my windblown hair, moving the cooler with my foot so that it rested against the wall and out of the way.

“Izzy?”

I startled, looking up at the kitchen entrance. Standing in the doorway to the next room was Doc, his arms uncharacteristically crossed in front of him. I wasn't sure if it was just the gray light of the storm, but he looked older. Tired. Where I was used to smiles and light, dark lines were now etched into the planes of his face. Something was wrong.

“You scared me,” I said, putting a hand to my chest. My heart was pounding, and my palms were suddenly sticky with sweat. The grim look on Doc's face frightened me. “Did something happen to Devon or Lucas?”

“Devon and Lucas are fine,” Doc answered. His face crumpled a little, but he did his best to hide it. “I need to talk to you.”

He turned and walked into the living room, and I followed. Something bad had happened. Something he wasn't looking forward to telling me. A small table lamp was on in the living room, casting strange shadows on the fish tanks and adding to the deepening sense of gloom. The wind howled outside.

As I entered the room, Devon stormed past me. His face was pale against his freckles, and his eyes flashed with anger. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought there might have been tear marks on his cheeks. He hurried through the kitchen, slamming the door behind him as he went out into the storm. My heart rate ticked up higher. Something was definitely very wrong.

Doc sat down on one of the ancient couches, looking weary and worn. The pale yellow light of the lamp wasn't kind to him and only accentuated the length of his nose and the age of his skin. I didn't see Lucas, but Doc had said he was okay. Nothing could have happened to Brooke in the thirty seconds since I had seen her. Worry clutched at the pit of my stomach.

“What's going on?” I asked, peering through the dark kitchen doorway after Devon. He was probably on his way to Mimi's. I hoped he got there before the rain hit.

“You should sit down, Isabel.” Doc's voice was low and guarded. No one called me Isabel. Ever. Unless it was something bad. Something very bad.

“Doc?” I sat carefully on a worn, tan-colored easy chair. At least, I assumed it had been tan at some point in its life. The chair was probably older than I was.

Doc stared at my feet for a second before looking up. There was defeat in his clear green eyes.

“We didn't get the Grove.”

I heard the words, but my brain refused to comprehend them. This wasn't possible.

“What do you mean?” I barely squeaked. “We had enough money... the grants and the donations... and...”

“Someone outbid us at the last minute,” Doc interrupted gently. He reached out across the small space and put a hand on my knee. The air seemed to be leaking out of the room somehow, leaving me short of breath. “The lawyers say they can't release who won the bid until the sale is final, but some of the comments they let slip don't bode well. It sounds like a hotel company.”

The foundations of my world were crumbling. The Grove was supposed to be my project. My future. I had so many hopes and dreams for research, conservation, and education, and they were all fading before my eyes. If a hotel company had bought the land, the Grove was going to be destroyed. There was no way a fancy tourist hotel would want the mangroves taking over their beach front property. It had happened to other mangrove groves in too many places to count. They would raze the Grove to get at the beach underneath. The island's government wouldn't stop it, because another hotel would bring in more tourist money.

“Izzy?” I noticed that Doc's eyes were rimmed with red. This was painful for him too. He had devoted years of his life to studying the ecology of the area, not to mention the thousands of dollars and man-hours he had put forth to try and make the Grove a nature preserve. This was as much a blow to him as it was to me.

“I'm so sorry, Doc,” I whispered. Details were suddenly all I could see. Doc was wearing a frayed green shirt that had a small hole in the left sleeve. The couch he was sitting on had a miniscule stain in the corner of the center cushion. The light in the third aquarium was flickering. My mind was trying to focus on anything, on everything, other than the news.

“It's not your fault, Izzy,” Doc comforted. He was handling this better than I was. I could barely breathe. The air was now completely gone from the room. Doc peered at me, a frown of concern deepening on his already lined face. “Are you going to be okay?”

“No,” I gasped, standing up far too quickly. The room spun. Thunder shook the windows, further disorienting me. I stumbled against the end table with the lamp. The room swayed in the movement of the light. I was going to be sick.

“Izzy, it's going to be okay.” Doc's voice was distant, but somehow his hands were on my shoulders. I didn't want his comfort. I wanted to rage and scream and cry. It wasn't fair. This wasn't how things were supposed to be. Everything had been perfect this morning, and now it wasn't.

Noah. He was still perfect. Things were better when I was with him. I knew he couldn't fix this, but I needed him. I needed him to hold me and lie and say that things would work out better in the end.

I shook off Doc's hands, twisting away from him and banging my thigh against the table. It was going to leave a bruise, but the pain felt far away.

“No, no, no...” I chanted, weaving my way out of the living room and into the kitchen. Doc was just a couple of steps behind me.

“Izzy,” Doc called, grabbing my arm and spinning me to face him before I ran out into the storm alone. “Where are you going?”

“Noah.”

Doc let me go and nodded. “Be safe.”

I ran from the kitchen, slamming the door behind me. Wind whipped at my hair and sand bit my skin, but I didn't care. I almost wished it stung more so I could forget the sick sensation in the pit of my stomach. I ran from the house, my feet pounding on the cement as I headed for Noah's place.

There was too much and not enough in my mind. The Grove was going to be destroyed. I was sliding out of control and had no brakes to stop me. Months of planning, fund-raising, meetings, and hoping were for nothing. Everything I had worked for, everything Doc had worked for, was going to disappear into a monstrosity of a hotel.

The storm hit the coast with a hiss. Gray sheets of rain cascaded against the sand as it made land. I didn't care. I kept running down the path until I hit the Grove.

I stood in the pouring rain, staring at the tangle of wood and brackish water. It would never be considered classically beautiful. It wasn't what people expected of a tropical island paradise. But it had been my passion. I had seen myself in that Grove.

Logically, I knew I would recover. This wasn't the end of my career, but for this moment, this second in time, it was a knife in my heart. I ran past the Grove, the sobs heaving in my chest. It was all going to go away. The green and brown murky depths would no longer stand guard over the fledgling fish and sharks. The birds would have to find somewhere else to live. It felt so wrong that something so important to the local wildlife could disappear so easily. I would have to find somewhere else to chase my dreams.

The only problem was, I didn't
want
to find somewhere else. I had already become attached to those gangly trees. I had planned my future around them, and now it was changing. I didn't have a good plan for this. I had been too hopeful, too optimistic that we would be successful.

I couldn't see anymore. I stopped to wipe my eyes, unsure if it was rain or tears obscuring my vision. There was only one person who could make me feel better. If I could just get to him, then I could forget about it all for a little bit. Tomorrow, when the sun was out and the sea was calm, I could tackle this. I wouldn't be so raw with emotion and loss. I could handle this tomorrow if I had Noah tonight.

I started running again, the world a smear of gray rain across gray sand and ocean. The green of the Grove had ended. Another pang hit me. Our sandcastle was gone.

I could see it crumbling under the incessant pounding of rain, melting back into the beach. It was no longer beautiful. It was ruined. Destroyed. The fact that it too was going away broke my heart.
Nothing gold can stay...

I picked up my feet and started to run again, needing to find a release from the pain.

I
ran hard all the way to Noah's door. His window was open despite the storm, and I could hear his rich laugh from inside followed by the higher birdsong of Beth's. The rain had eased up slightly, but the world was still painted in shades of gray. Night was coming. With ragged breaths, I pounded my fist on the door and waited.

He opened the door, a smile on his face. His suit jacket was off, and his white dress shirt was open at the throat, the tie undone and resting on his shoulders.

“Shit, Izzy,” he exclaimed, concern quickly replacing the smile. “Are you okay? What's happened? What's wrong?”

He stepped out of the doorway and into the rain, his hands going to my shoulders. They were almost hot against my skin after the cool of the rain. Raindrops fell on his white shirt, plastering it to his skin and making the fabric translucent. His eyes were blue oceans of caring, taking me in and letting me lose myself.

“They sold it...” I sobbed, the words coming out in a jumble of syllables and sounds. I wasn't even sure if they even sounded like words. “It's gone... and...”

Noah wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in to him. “Shh,” he whispered, stroking my wet hair. “I'm here.”

I buried my face in his shoulder. His shirt was now soaking wet, from both the rain and holding a sopping girl in his arms. He didn't seem to care. I sobbed into the fabric of his shirt, finding strength in his embrace. In his arms, I was safe and warm. The storm couldn't touch me here. The world couldn't destroy this.