If she wasn’t trying so hard to remain still, she might’ve squirmed because of how accurately he’d pegged feelings she had yet to acknowledge.
“Am I warm?” he asked, gazing up at her.
She nodded.
“The last thing I remember before we got hit was reaching for my phone to call you. I was going to tell you that no matter what you were thinking or feeling after the night we spent together, it was all going to be fine. I was going to tell you that I’d be over after I got in to talk to you. And I would’ve said that our night together was the best I’d ever spent with anyone.”
Kara’s mind raced as she tried to process everything he’d said.
“I sure do wish I’d gotten to make that call. Maybe then you wouldn’t have spent the last week wondering where you stood with me, and I wouldn’t have been tiptoeing on eggshells, worrying about driving you away when all I wanted was to keep you close.”
Kara moved very carefully to put an arm around him, leaning her head against his. “Well, this is a fine mess we’ve made of things.”
He laughed and then groaned when his ribs protested. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“Sorry.”
“When I woke up at the clinic, all I could think about was you. And when you came, when I saw you there by the bed, I felt better. I felt like I could breathe again.”
“I couldn’t believe it when Blaine came to my house and said you were asking for me. I thought you’d never want to see me again.”
“No such luck.”
“I was so scared that day,” she whispered. “When I heard about the accident and that you were missing… It was like someone had pulled the chair out from under me and sent me reeling. All I could think about was how we’d left things and whether I’d get a chance to tell you how sorry I was for what I said.”
“Don’t be sorry. I get it.” His hand slid over her hair in a soothing pattern that made her sigh with pleasure. “So how would you feel about going steady?”
Kara laughed. “Are you sure you want to take on an emotional basket case like me?”
“Very sure.”
“All right, then. But don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”
“I’ve been warned, and I still want you. I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you last winter at Luke’s. And I want you even more after the night we spent together. As soon as these damned ribs heal, and I can move without feeling like I’ve been stabbed, we’ll pick right up where we left off.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“No problem.”
“You have a book to finish.”
“I know.”
“We should get to it.”
He held her even tighter. “Uh-huh.”
“Dan…”
“Hmmm?”
“Dinner? Work?”
“Kiss me.”
“I did kiss you.”
“Do it right this time.”
He was positively incorrigible, and she adored him. The realization shocked her. Where had that come from? When had she begun to adore him? If she were being honest, probably when he brought her diet Mountain Dew and talked her into going out with him.
“What’s wrong now?” he asked, his brows furrowing with concern.
“Nothing,” she said, running her fingers through his unruly hair, attempting to bring order to it.
“For once, I don’t hate that word,” he said with that smile—and the dimples—that made her melt.
She tipped her head and kissed him as softly and as sweetly as she possibly could, mindful of his injuries and the need to stay still.
His hand in her hair anchored her to him as his lips parted and his tongue teased her lips.
Kara tightened her hold on him, falling into the kiss with a kind of abandon she’d never experienced before him. But he had battered his way through her defenses with his easy charm and cutting wit, wiping all thoughts of what’s-his-name and what he’d done to her from her heart and mind.
“Whoa,” Dan said when they came up for air many minutes later. “You’re making me forget I’m injured.”
As her lips tingled, she leaned her forehead against his. “If you try to do anything more than that, you’ll remember.”
“Can we do some more of that later?”
“Only if you get all your work done.”
“Let’s get busy!”
Big Mac took a walk down the main pier of the marina, checking to make sure the boats were secured, the power cords were on the docks and not in the water where they didn’t belong, the hoses had been turned off and everyone was tucked in for the night.
At the far end of the dock, a forty-two-foot powerboat full of young people enjoyed a Race Week party. Why was it that every year Race “Week” lasted longer and longer? The sailboat races attracted all sorts of people and boats, even powerboats like this one that came to the island for the parties rather than the races.
“Evening,” Big Mac said to one of the men on the boat’s aft deck. “Is the captain around?” He’d seen the guy earlier in the day but didn’t see him among the crowd.
“Hey, Tony! The marina guy is looking for you.”
“Marina guy” was damned proud of the business he’d built over the last forty years from a collection of rickety buildings and falling-down docks.
The captain emerged from the cabin, wearing a dopey smile to match his glassy eyes. “Hi there, Mr. McCarthy. What’s going on?”
His regulars called him Big Mac, but he appreciated the show of respect from the young man, even if the words were slurred. “I want to remind you we have an eleven p.m. quiet time here. Have your fun, but wrap it up by eleven.”
“Oh, we will, don’t worry.”
“My good friend the police chief makes sure to send someone by every night to make sure no one is disturbing the peace.”
“I hear ya. We’ll behave.”
“Thanks very much. Have a nice evening.”
“You, too, sir.”
The “sir” was a bit much, Big Mac thought with a chuckle as he wandered to the end of the pier and looked out at the pond, where deck lights on hundreds of boats sparkled like stars in the darkness. He’d been standing right here talking to his son Mac when Steve Jacobson had approached them about recruiting some guys to fill in for a crew that had been stricken with the stomach bug.
Big Mac had urged his hardworking son to take a day off and go with Steve. Mac had recruited Evan, Grant and Dan to go, too. They’d set off in high spirits, looking forward to the day on the water that had ended so tragically.
Alone on the dark pier, Big Mac rested his elbows on the top of a piling and used the his palms to mop up the tears that kept coming and coming and coming, no matter what he did. He wondered if they would ever stop. He’d always known he probably loved his kids a little too much. Just as he’d always know that his effusive love drove them crazy, especially when they were younger and more easily embarrassed.
Unfortunately for them, he didn’t know any other way to love but all the way. An entire day spent pondering what it would be like to lose even one of them, let alone three at once, had broken something in him that wouldn’t be easily mended.
“Oh, hey,” Luke said. “Didn’t realize you were out here.”
Big Mac wiped his face and turned to the young man who’d been a son to him in every way that mattered. “What’re you doing here so late?”
“I suspect the same thing you are—checking on our friends at 11 D.”
“I had a little talk with them. I think we understand each other.”
“Oh good. I’m sure you were more diplomatic than I would’ve been.”
“You would’ve done fine.”
“See you in the morning?”
“Bright and early.”
Luke nodded and started to walk away, but then he turned back. Hands on hips, he leveled a steady look at Big Mac.
“Something on your mind, son?”
“I’m sorry… I wanted to say that because I know you’re pissed at me and with good reason—”
“Pissed at you? What’re you talking about? I’ve never been pissed with you a minute of my life.”
Under the lights on the main pier, he saw Luke’s cheek twitch, and his jaw was set with unusual tension that told Big Mac a lot about how upset Luke was over their supposed rift. “You’re going to deny you’ve been pissed since last week when I stopped you from taking the boat out?”
They’d nearly come to blows when Luke physically restrained him to keep him from going out on his own to look for his boys.
Big Mac rubbed at the stubble on his jaw, trying to think of what he should say to fix this. “It’s true I wasn’t pleased that you stopped me, but with hindsight, I can see you did the right thing. The Coasties didn’t need another missing boater on their hands.”
“It was bad enough that the others were missing. I couldn’t let something happen to you, too. And the fog was so thick. So thick.”
Big Mac stepped forward, put a hand on Luke’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’m glad one of us was thinking clearly, and I’m sorry if I’ve given you the impression I was pissed. I might’ve been in the moment, but I’m not now. Okay?”
Luke nodded, the relief showing in his expression.
“You’re one of my kids, Luke Harris. I could never be truly pissed at you. Never.”
“Shit… You gotta put it that way, huh?”
Big Mac hugged him. “’Fraid so.”
Luke returned the embrace and patted him on the back. “Thank God they’re all right.”
“Yes. Thank God. And thank you. You did the right thing, but then again, you always do. You’re a good man, and I’m proud to call you one of my own.”
When Luke stepped back from him, Big Mac thought he saw a tear or two in the younger man’s eyes. They’d all done their share of weeping lately. “You can’t possibly know how much that means to me,” Luke said.
“Go on home to your wife, son. Everything’s okay here.” And it was, Big Mac thought as he watched Luke walk up the pier to the parking lot. Everything was okay. He just had to keep telling himself that in the hope that someday soon he’d believe it.
Linda was enjoying a glass of wine at the kitchen table when Big Mac returned from the marina. “Everything all right down the hill?”
“Yep. Got a couple of party boats still in from Race Week, so I wanted to make sure they aren’t going to keep everyone else up all night.”
“Remember when that would’ve been us? Up all night with our friends, partying till the sun came up?”
“That was a very long time ago.”
“Those were fun times.”
He popped open a beer and joined her at the table. “Yes, they were. Before five kids came along and ruined everything.”
Linda shared a smile with him. They’d never done anything more fun than raise those five kids and their assortment of cousins and friends.
“I ran into Luke down there. The poor kid thought I was pissed with him for stopping me from going out after the boys.”
“Oh, no. All this time he was thinking that? What did he say?”
Big Mac relayed the essence of their conversation. “I told him I could never be truly pissed at him.”
“He loves you so much.”
“I know. And the feeling is entirely mutual. What a good kid he is to be down at the docks checking on things so late. I sure got lucky when I hired that eager fourteen-year-old.”
Linda covered his hand with hers. “He got lucky, too. He got a job
and
a dad out of it.”
They shared a warm smile.
“I’m worried about Grant,” she said. “Really worried.”
“I am, too.”
“Something happened to him out there. Something big.”
“I’m afraid you might be right.”
“Adam has gone to find him.”
“Oh, good,” he said with a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I thought about going to look for him, but I figured he wouldn’t want to be found by me. I can tell I’ve been irritating them since…” As his eyes filled, he took a deep breath and blew it out. “Since it happened. I’m trying not to think about it. I’m trying to remember to count my blessings. Trying to remember everyone is safe. Other than that…”
“I think about poor Steve and his family and how easily it could’ve been ours.”
He nodded in agreement. “You don’t think I should go looking for Grant, do you?”
“Adam said he’d call when he found him.”
Big Mac nodded. “Hard for me not to go after them the way I would’ve back in the day. Gotta remind myself they’re not little kids anymore.”
“I know, love.” Not being able to go after them had been the worst part of an awful day for him. Old habits were hard to break. “You know what would make you feel better?”
“What’s that?”
“We need to go to bed early and watch a movie. I’ll even let you pick. Some James Bond will get your mind off it.”
“I don’t need a movie.”
Linda eyed him. “What, then?”
“I need you.” He stood and tugged on her hand to urge her to her feet. “You can get my mind off it a lot better than James Bond can.”
Ridiculously complimented by his words as well as the raw hunger she saw on his face, she let him tug her up. She was no sooner on her feet than he was kissing her, his arms wrapped tight around her. His kisses had always had the power to take her breath away, and tonight was no different.
Reason finally had her pulling back from him. “Mac, wait. We need to go upstairs. Adam is home. He could come back any time. We’d scar him for life.”
“Hurry,” he said, swatting her on the rear as he directed her toward the stairs.
Laughing, Linda scurried out of his reach on the way upstairs.
“Do you still have that doohickey you got at Tiffany’s store?”
“Um, yeah. You don’t exactly use and return such things.”
“We’re going to need that.”
Her heart raced and the breath got caught in her throat as he bypassed the buttons on her blouse and pulled it over her head.
His eyes widened when he got a look at the sheer bra she wore that left nothing to the imagination. “Where’d you get
that
?”
“Also at Tiffany’s store,” Linda said with a saucy smile. “I thought you might like it.”
“I
love
it. I love that store. I need to see if she’s in need of some investors. We’ve got to keep her in business.”
Linda laughed, feeling more carefree and lighthearted than she had since the moment the island’s police chief, Blaine Taylor, found her at the hair salon with the news that her sons were missing. Tugging at the faded T-shirt her husband had worn to work, Linda helped him take it off, giggling as she did every summer at the “farmer’s tan” that encompassed his face, neck and lower arms, leaving the rest of his torso white.