Adam snapped out of his funk as she approached the registration desk, out of breath from the sprint through the hotel.
Sarah gave Adam a peck on the cheek. “So nice to have you home, and thank you for covering the desk.”
“You must not have had much faith in my abilities if you ran from wherever you were to get down here to relieve me.”
Sarah laughed and patted his arm. “We had full confidence, but Laura said she was certain you had better things to do than watch our desk.”
“I was happy to do it.”
Stephanie’s stepfather, Charlie Grandchamp, came into the hotel. His gray hair was cut into a severe-looking buzz cut, but his entire demeanor softened at the sight of Sarah at the desk, and his blue eyes positively twinkled. There was no other word for it.
Sarah’s face turned bright red, which Adam thought was adorable. “You know Grant’s brother Adam, right?” she said to Charlie.
“Sure.” Charlie shook hands with Adam. “Good to see you.”
“Likewise.” Watching the way Charlie and Sarah looked at each other, Adam experienced yet another craving to be part of something so sweet and sincere. He hadn’t found it yet. Sasha had never turned red at the sight of him. That was for sure.
“I can stay if you guys have plans,” Adam said.
“It’s nothing that won’t keep,” Charlie said.
“The overnight girl gets here in half an hour,” Sarah said.
Charlie plopped down in one of the overstuffed chairs in the lobby reception area. “I can wait.”
Adam was about to say his good-byes and continue the search for Grant when Stephanie came in.
“Oh, hey, guys,” she said, bending to kiss her dad. “What’s going on?”
“Just waiting for Sarah to be done with work,” Charlie said.
“Any sign of Grant?” Adam asked.
As Stephanie shook her head, her lips set with displeasure. “I went home to see if he was there. He wasn’t, but his phone was, which is why he’s not answering. I can’t imagine where he is. I was going to check on the restaurant and then head over to the Beachcomber to see if he might be there.”
“I’ll do that,” Adam said.
“Thanks, Adam. Send me a text if you find him.”
“You do the same.”
“I will.”
“I’m sure he’s fine, honey,” Charlie said to his daughter. “Probably went for a walk or something and lost track of time.”
“Yeah,” Stephanie said. “I’m sure that’s all it is.”
Adam could tell by the tension he saw around her eyes and mouth that she was downplaying her concerns, which made him even more determined to find his brother.
Chapter 7
With the sun heading for the horizon, Kara Ballard brought her launch to a smooth landing at the floating dock next to McCarthy’s Gansett Island Marina and helped her passengers disembark. After an endless day on the water, she was ready for some dinner and some peace. She would get the former, but the latter was hardly assured.
Her routine over the last week had been to work all day, pick up something for dinner and then head over to Dan Torrington’s place, where she helped him by typing up the notes he’d made during the day for the memoir he’d been working on before the accident. Fortunately, he was left-handed so he could still write longhand, but the bulky cast on his broken right arm made it impossible for him to type.
They’d talked about getting software that could type for him, but Kara was helping him edit as they went along, so this system was working for him. With his book deadline looming, he needed all the help he could get.
Kara had willingly volunteered to type for him, but he’d been grumpy and out of sorts since the accident. Not that she blamed him. He’d been through a traumatic thing, but sometimes she wanted to remind him that his injuries and limitations weren’t her fault. She was trying to help him, not that he seemed to appreciate that very much.
For a brief period this afternoon, she’d considered taking a night off from going to Dan’s, but her worries over what he’d eat for dinner as well as her concerns about his deadline had her turning over the launch to her relief driver and heading up the main dock at McCarthy’s.
She stopped at home to shower off the sunscreen and salt spray, changed into shorts and a tank top, grabbed a sweatshirt and called in a takeout order to Mario’s. By now she knew that Dan was extremely fond of Mario’s fettuccine alfredo. Despite her efforts to get him to try something else, he asked for the same thing every day and always insisted on paying for the food.
So they’d slipped into this odd routine without a mention of the night they’d spent together or the awkward parting the morning after when he left to join his friend Grant and Grant’s brothers on the ill-fated sailboat. It was like the night of amazing sex had never happened.
Kara tried to tell herself that was because he was recovering from painful injuries, but she couldn’t help but wonder if or when the Dan she’d known before the accident would ever reappear. That Dan had been positively besotted with her—or so it had seemed. He’d pursued her relentlessly until she finally broke down and went out with him—and slept with him on the first date, breaking her own personal rules about such things.
Their uncomfortable exchange the next morning had haunted her during the long day of waiting to hear if he’d survived the horrific accident. Over and over again she’d regretted telling him that despite the best sex of her life, she wasn’t interested in a relationship with him. She’d told him nothing was going to happen, and he’d accused her of using him to get laid.
Kara had been a mixed-up jumble of emotions after he left to go sailing. The night with him had been her first sexual encounter since her longtime boyfriend dumped her two years earlier for her sister. With the hindsight of a week and a horrible day of not knowing whether Dan was alive or dead, Kara now knew that she’d been frightened by the powerful connection she’d found with him.
She’d never experienced that, even with the man she’d once planned to marry. Dan had rocked her in every possible way, first with his relentless determination to get her to go out with him and then in bed with lovemaking unlike anything she’d known before. Now she could see that she’d been frightened, which was why she’d pushed him away.
He was too damned much for her and had been from the start. But then the accident happened, and he’d been the most severely injured. He’d asked for her that night, and she’d been with him ever since, except for the hours she spent at work. She even slept most nights on his sofa after working long hours to type his manuscript for him.
After seven days of this routine, Kara was running on fumes but determined to help him make his deadline. Perhaps when the book was done they would talk about the mess they’d made of their fledgling relationship. A big part of her didn’t want to talk about it. He was still too much for her, and always would be. The drama of the accident and its aftermath hadn’t changed that fact.
She picked up the order at Mario’s and arrived at the house Dan was renting from Ned Saunders, the island’s resident land baron and cab driver. The small house was nestled in a wooded area near the island’s south coast. In the distance, the sound of waves crashing against the rocks reminded Kara of how close they were to the shore.
Bags in hand, she let herself into the house and followed the sound of Dan’s voice to the living room. He was on the sofa with his broken arm resting on a pillow, papers scattered around him, his dark hair standing on end as if he’d been tugging at it, and he wore a look of bemused aggravation on his face. Even with the dishevelment, he was sinfully handsome. Smiling, he waved her in, seeming happy to see her as always.
She was never certain if he was happy to see
her
or if anyone would’ve done after the long day alone.
“He said the keys you’re looking for are in the bedside table drawer next to your pleasure devices.” Dan held the phone away from his ear as the person on the other end screamed so loud that Kara could hear her. “Don’t shoot the messenger.” He grinned at her, flashing the dimples she found irresistible. “Those were his exact words.” Dan continued to placate the woman on the other end of the line for another five minutes before he ended the call. “That, right there, is why I hate handling divorces.”
“I didn’t think you did divorces.”
“I don’t, usually. But after I helped Tiffany Sturgil with hers, I’ve been in hot demand around here.”
“I thought her ex-husband was the island lawyer.”
Dan scratched at the stubble on his jaw. Though he wrote with his left hand, he shaved with his right, which was why Kara had been helping him with that, too. “He is, but since the town council meeting when Blaine told off Jim, his business has been way down. I’ve been flooded with calls.”
“You don’t have time to be taking new cases with your book due.”
“I know, Mom, but Tiffany asked me to help out her friend, so I did.”
This was said with a shrug and the charming grin that Kara had fallen victim to the night he’d taken her out and ended up in her bed. “Are you ready to eat?”
“I’m starving. I thought you’d never get here.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting, but I do have a business of my own to run, you know.”
He got up off the couch slowly and painfully.
Since she couldn’t stand to see him in such agony, she looked away and busied herself with getting dinner on the table.
His hand on her back made Kara freeze with surprise. He hadn’t touched her since the morning after their night together.
“I know you have a business to run, and all I meant was that I was looking forward to seeing you.”
“Oh.” She turned to face him, taking a careful study of the healing cuts and bruises on his stunning face. “You were?”
“Of course I was. Why would you think otherwise? I live for the time with you every day.”
Kara stared at him, wondering if she’d heard him correctly.
“Why are you so surprised?”
She hated the way he could see right through her. That had been a source of aggravation from the first time she met him the winter before at Luke and Sydney’s house. He’d undone her from the very start. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Dan took her hand and brought it to his lips. “What don’t you know?”
Despite the zing of absolute pleasure that traveled up her arm when his lips brushed over her skin, Kara worked her hand free. “Let’s eat and get to work. We’ve got a lot to do and not much time to do it.”
The wounded expression on his face reminded her a lot of the morning she’d told him she wanted nothing more with him. Why was it that his hurt became hers? Why was it that she couldn’t find a way to broach the elephant standing in the room between them? They’d gone on like nothing had happened between them, falling into this strange businesslike relationship.
Kara had no idea what it meant or what he wanted from her, other than someone to bring him dinner and type his notes for him. And what did she want from him? That too was a puzzler. She’d thought she wanted nothing to do with him until the long day when she didn’t know if he was dead or alive. That day had changed everything.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked when he was seated at the table.
Kara got him a beer and opened it for him the way she did every night. “Yes, I’m hungry.”
“I wish you’d tell me what’s bugging you,” he said between mouthfuls of pasta.
“Nothing.”
He winced, wiped his mouth with a napkin and sat back in his chair. “I hate that word.”
Kara regretted using it when she’d vowed never to say it again in his presence. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean it that way.”
“You mean the way you used it to describe what you wanted from me after we had sex?”
Kara’s face got very hot as she put down her fork. Her appetite was suddenly gone. “Why are you doing this? You haven’t said a word about what’s going on between us since the accident—”
“Because I don’t
know
what’s going on! And I’m afraid to scare you away by asking.”
“You, I…I don’t know either. Everything is so different, and I’m not sure…”
He took her hand and wrapped his much warmer hand around it. “What are you not sure of, honey?”
His use of the word “honey” made her belly quiver. “You, us. This. Whatever it is. This is exactly why I told you I didn’t want to get involved. I hate all the uncertainty and confusion.”
Dan tugged on her hand. “Come here.”
“I’m right here.”
“Closer.”
Though she was still uncertain and confused, she stood and let him guide her onto his lap. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then don’t make any sudden moves.”
Kara couldn’t help but smile at the amusement she heard in his tone as she sat perfectly still on his lap.
His good arm encircled her. “Kiss me.”
“We were having a conversation.”
“We still are. Now kiss me.”
Exasperated by him—as usual—she leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.
“I know you can do better than that.” He swept her hair off her neck and set off a riot of sensation with his lips. “But I suppose I haven’t exactly earned better in the last week.”
“Don’t say that. You’ve been in a lot of pain.”
“That doesn’t mean I should neglect you.”
“You haven’t neglected me.” Now she felt guilty for thinking about herself in the midst of what he was going through.
“Yes, I have. I’ve taken advantage of your good nature.”
“That’s not true. I’ve been happy to help you.”
“That day when I left your place… I was really upset.”
Kara cringed, hating that she’d done that to him. When she started to say so, he stopped her with a kiss.
“The thought of never having the chance to be with you that way again was killing me. It was all I was thinking about on the boat. Grant even asked me what the hell was wrong with me. I told him I was hungover, only I was heartsick rather than booze sick.”
“I’m sorry. I never meant… I don’t know what I meant. I was overwhelmed after spending the night with you. I handled it badly.”
“I figured that out about an hour after we left the dock. It occurred to me that it’d been a big deal for you to be with me after what you went through with what’s-his-name and your sister. I thought maybe you were dumping me before I could get around to dumping you.”