A Brambleberry Summer

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Would he be able to handle even that much? Right now, he wasn’t sure. At least he would be moving away from Brambleberry House within the next few weeks. When he wasn’t living downstairs from her, perhaps he could stop dreaming about her and wishing he could hold her again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was fully dark when Rosa returned to Brambleberry House after stopping at By-The-Wind and running the bills to the post-office drop box.

  She hadn’t been lying about the invoices. She really had forgotten them, though mailing them certainly could have waited until the next day. That had been sheer fiction, an excuse to escape the tension between her and Wyatt.

  She always loved spending time with the Abbotts. Carrie was invariably warm and kind and Joe treated her like a beloved younger sister.

  And then there was Bella, full of energy and fun and enthusiasm for life. Her mood always seemed to rub off on Rosa, leaving her happier than when she had arrived.

  This time, though, Rosa couldn’t shake a deep sense of melancholy.

  She knew the reason. Because Wyatt and Logan had been there. Spending time with them was beginning to make her ache deep inside.

  She knew she was setting herself up for heartbreak. She could sense it hovering, just out of sight.

  She was falling for them. Both of them.

  Logan was impossible to resist. His sweet personality and eagerness to learn touched something deep inside of her. She would be so sad when he was no longer a regular part of her life.

  And Wyatt. She brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. It was very possible that Wyatt was the most wonderful man she had ever met. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and not let go.

  She could not, though. Rosa knew she could not have what she wanted.

  She knew people who spent their entire lives wanting something other than what they had. Rosa tried not to be that person.

  As a girl growing up with little in the way of material things, she had become used to that feeling of lack. Mostly, she had learned to ignore it, instead finding happiness with what she did have.

  She was part owner in a business she loved running, she lived in a beautiful house at the seaside, she had cherished friends and a loving family. Most of the time, those things were enough.

  Once in a while, though, like on moonlit summer nights, she caught glimpses of the future she might have had if not for a few foolish choices, and it made her heart ache.

  Rosa sighed, a sad sound that seemed to echo in the emptiness of her apartment. Fiona nudged at her leg, resting her chin on Rosa’s knee and gazing at her out of eyes that seemed filled with empathy.

  Sometimes the dog seemed to sense her emotions keenly and offered exactly the right thing to lift her mood.

  “You want to go for a walk, don’t you?”

  Fiona wagged her tail wildly in agreement. Rosa sighed again. She had let her dog out when she first came home a short time earlier, but apparently that was not enough for her, especially when the work day had been so hectic and she hadn’t had time to take her on a walk.

  Rosa was tired and not really in the mood for a nighttime walk. Part of being a responsible pet owner, though, was doing what she didn’t always feel like doing when it was in the best interest of her beloved Fi.

  “Okay. Let’s find your leash.”

  Fiona scampered to the hook by the door of the apartment, where Rosa kept all the tools necessary for a walk. A hoodie, Fi’s leash, a flashlight, treats and waste bags.

  A few moments later, she headed down the steps. They had just reached the bottom when the door to Wyatt’s apartment suddenly opened.

  She gave a little gasp of surprise when he and Hank came out, the cute little dog all but straining on the leash.

  “Oh,” Rosa exclaimed. “You startled me.”

  Wyatt made a face. “Sorry. Hank was in a mood and nothing seemed to be settling him down. I was just going to take him on a quick walk. Are you coming or going?”

  “Going. Fiona was in the same mood as Hank.”

  “Maybe they’re talking to each other through the pipes.”

  Despite her lingering melancholy, Rosa had to smile a little at that idea. Fiona was smart enough that she could probably figure out a way to communicate to other dogs inside the house.

  She looked behind him. “Where is Logan?”

  “He’s sleeping over at Carrie’s again. I’ve got an early meeting tomorrow so they offered to keep him after dinner so I don’t have to drag him out of bed so early.”

  “That is nice of them. Your sister is very kind.”

  “Truth. She is the best. I would have been lost without her after Tori died. Totally lost. She and Joe have been amazing, basically stepping in to help me parent Logan.”

  The dogs seemed delighted to see each other, sniffing like crazy with their tails wagging a hundred miles an hour.

  She knew it was impossible, but Rosa still could not shake the suspicion that somehow her dog had manipulated events exactly this way, so that she and Wyatt would meet in the entryway of the house.

  He opened the door and they both walked out into the evening, lit by a full moon that made her flashlight superfluous.

  “Want to walk together?” he asked after a moment.

  His suggestion surprised her so much that she did not know how to answer for a moment. Intellectually, she knew she was supposed to be maintaining a careful distance between them. She did not want to fall any harder for him.

  How could she say no, though? Especially when she knew her time with him was so fleeting?

  “That makes sense, doesn’t it?”

  “Which direction were you going? To the beach?”

  Usually she liked to stick to the paths with streetlights and some traffic when she was walking late at night. Since Wyatt was with her, that wasn’t necessary.

  “Yes. Let’s walk on the beach. The water always calls me.”

  They walked through the gardens, the air sweet with the scent of flowers and herbs. He opened the gate for her and she and Fiona went first down the path to the sand.

  The moon was bright and full, casting a pearly blue light on everything. She certainly did not need her flashlight.

  They walked mostly in silence for the first few moments, content to let the sounds of the waves fill the void. Despite everything between them, it was a comfortable silence.

  She was the first to break it. “You said at dinner that your house is almost finished. Is everything going the way you like?”

  “Yes. We had a few issues early on. It’s an old house with electrical issues, which is what started the fire in the first place. I want to make sure everything is exactly right. I think I have been getting on the electrician’s nerves a little, but we’re getting there.”

  He gave her a sidelong look. “I’m sure you’ll be glad when everything is finished so we can get out of your way.”

  “You are not in my way,” she protested. It wasn’t exactly the truth. He was very much in the way of her thoughts constantly. “You know you can stay as long as you need.”

  “I know. Thank you for that.”

  “I am sure you are more than ready to be back in your house.”

  He shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “You do not sound convinced.”

  “It’s just a house, you know? I bought it after Tori died, when I knew I needed help and the best thing would be to move near Carrie and Joe. That one was available and it was close but it’s never really felt like a home.”

  She had not been to his house and couldn’t offer an opinion, but she had to wonder if the house needed a woman’s touch.

  She did not want to think about any other woman going in and decorating his house with warm, comfortable touches. She wanted to be the one turning his house into a home.

  She pushed away the t
hought.

  “You had many changes in a short time. That can be hard for anyone.”

  “I guess.”

  They walked in silence for a few more moments, stopping only when Hank lifted his leg against a tuft of grass.

  “Carrie said something tonight that made me curious.” He spoke slowly, as if choosing his words with care.

  “Oh?”

  “Something about you. She implied you had a tough time after you came to the United States. It made me wonder again how you came to be adopted after you arrived. That seems unusual. You were a teenager, right?”

  Rosa tensed, remembering that horrible time in her life, full of fear and darkness and things she did not like to think about.

  “Yes. Fifteen.”

  “And you didn’t have family here or back in Honduras who could have helped you?”

  Her heart seemed to squeeze at the memory of her dear mother, who had tried so hard to give Rosa a better life. She gripped Fiona’s leash. The dog, who had been cavorting with Hank, suddenly returned to her side as if sensing Rosa’s distress.

  “No.”

  “How did you get here?”

  That was a long and twisted story.

  “I told you my mother died. I had no money and no family. A friend of my mother’s told me I could find work at a factory in the city. She helped me find a place to live with some other girls and gave me a little money.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “Yes. But then some men came to the factory telling us they knew of many jobs we could do across the border. I was afraid and didn’t want to, but other girls, my friends, said yes. Then I...had some trouble with my boss at the factory and he fired me.”

  She thought of how innocent she had been in those days. Her mother had tried to shelter her when she was alive. As a result, Rosa knew little about the world or how to protect herself from men who wanted to take advantage of her. First her boss, then those offering riches and jobs in a new world. She had been monumentally naive, had thought maybe she would be working in another factory in the United States, one that paid better.

  She had been so very wrong.

  She was not going to tell any of that to Wyatt.

  “What did you do then?”

  “I came here and shortly after, I met Daniel and Lauren and they took me in and helped me go to school and then become a citizen,” she said quickly.

  He gave her a searching look through the darkness, as if he knew full well there had to be more to her story. She lifted her chin and continued walking, pretending that Fiona had led her a little ahead of him and Hank.

  She didn’t want him to press her about this. If he did, she would have to turn around and go back to the house without him. To her relief, he seemed to know she had told him all she was going to about that time.

  “They must be very kind people.”

  She seized gratefully on his words. “The best. I told you Daniel is a sheriff in Utah and Lauren is a doctor. I was very lucky they found me.”

  She knew it was more than luck. It was a miracle. She had prayed to the Virgin and to her own mother that someone would help her, that she could find some light in the darkness. And then, literally, a light had found her hiding in the back of a pickup truck in the middle of a January storm. She had been beaten and bloodied, and had been semiconscious when Daniel and Lauren had found her. They had pulled her from that pickup truck and had saved her. An answer to her prayers.

  They had stood by her then as she had spoken out against those who had hurt her. And they had stood by her later when she had to make the most difficult decision of her life.

  “Carrie talked about how much courage it must have taken you to make your way in a new country.”

  Rosa loved her country and her people. People from Honduras called themselves and each other Catrachos, a name that had come to mean resilience and solidarity.

  She would always consider herself part Catracha but this was her home now.

  If her mother had not died, she might have stayed and built a happy life there. She probably would have married young and would have had several children by now.

  After Daniel and Lauren rescued her, she had been able to get an education that would have been completely out of reach to her in that small, poor village.

  “Courage? No. I had nothing there after my mother died. And here I had a family. People who loved me and wanted the best for me. That was everything to me. It still is.”

  * * *

  Wyatt could not doubt the quiet sincerity in her voice. She loved the people who had taken her in.

  He was suddenly deeply grateful for them, too. He would have loved the chance to have met them in person to tell them so.

  They walked in silence for a few more moments, heading back toward Brambleberry House, which stood like a beacon above the beach a short distance away.

  He could tell Rosa did not like talking about this. Her body language conveyed tension. He should let it go now. Her secrets were none of his business, but since she had told him this much, perhaps she would trust him and tell him the rest of it.

  “You said you were fifteen when you came here?”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice clipped.

  How had she even made it across several borders? And what about the men who had promised her work in the United States?

  He wasn’t stupid. He could guess what kind of work they wanted from her and it made him sick to his stomach. Sex trafficking was a huge problem, especially among young girls smuggled in from other countries.

  Was that what Daniel and Lauren had rescued her from?

  He couldn’t seem to find the words to ask. Or to ask her how she had escaped. He was quite sure he would not like the answer.

  How was it possible? She was the most loving and giving person he knew, kind to everyone. How could she have emerged from something so ugly to become the person he was falling for?

  Maybe he was wrong. He truly hoped he was wrong.

  “You could have found yourself in all kinds of danger at that young age.”

  “Yes.”

  She said nothing more, only looked ahead at her dog and at the house, now only a hundred feet away.

  He thought again of his suspicions earlier that evening at dinner. He was beginning to think they might not be far-fetched, after all.

  “I think my sister is right,” he said quietly when they reached the beach gate to the house. “You are a remarkable person, Rosa Galvez.”

  Her face was a blur in the moonlight as she gazed at him, her eyes dark shadows. She shook her head. “I am not. Lauren and Daniel, who reached out to me when I was afraid and vulnerable, they are the remarkable ones.”

  Tenderness swirled through him. She was amazing and he was falling hard for her. Learning more details about what she had endured and overcome, including the things she hadn’t yet shared with him, only intensified his growing feelings.

  “We will have to agree to disagree on that one,” he finally said. “Every time I’m with you, I find something else to admire.”

  “Don’t,” she said sharply. “You don’t know.”

  “I know I think about you all the time. I can’t seem to stop.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  “I know that. Believe me, I know. But you’re in my head now.”

  And in my heart, he thought, but wasn’t quite ready to share that with her yet.

  “May I kiss you again?”

  Because of what he suspected had happened to her, it became more important than ever to ask permission first and not just take what he wanted.

  He thought she would refuse at first, that she would turn into the house. After a long moment, she lifted her face to his.

  “Yes,” she murmured, almost as if she couldn’t help herself.

  This kiss was tend
er, gentle, a mere brush of his mouth against hers.

  All the feelings he had been fighting seemed to shimmer to the surface. He could tell himself all he wanted that he was not ready to care for someone again. He could tell everyone else the same story. That did not make it true.

  He had already fallen. Somehow Rosa Galvez, with her kindness and her empathy and her determination to do the right thing, had reached into the bleak darkness where he had been existing and ripped away the heavy curtains to let sunshine flood in again.

  He was not sure yet how he felt about that. Some part of him wanted to stay frozen in his sadness. He had loved Tori with all his heart. Their marriage had not been perfect—he wasn’t sure any healthy marriage could be completely without differences—but she had been a great mother and a wonderful wife.

  Wyatt wasn’t sure he was ready to risk his heart again.

  But maybe he didn’t have a choice. Maybe he had already fallen.

  He wrapped his arms around her tightly, wanting to protect her from all the darkness in the world. She made a small sound and nestled against him, as if searching for warmth and safety.

  “I lied to my sister,” he said, long moments later.

  He felt her smile against his mouth. “For shame, Detective Townsend. How did you lie to Carrie?”

  He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “She admitted after you left that she invited us both to dinner because she has some wild idea of matchmaking.”

  Instead of continuing to smile, as he thought she would, Rosa suddenly looked distressed.

  Her eyes widened and her hands slipped away from around his neck. “Oh, no.”

  He nodded. “I told her to get that idea out of her head. I told her we were only friends and would never be anything more than that.”

  She stepped away. “You told her the truth. That is not a lie. We are friends.”

  “But we’re more than that, aren’t we?”

  She folded her hands together, her mouth trembling a little. “No. What you said to her is the truth. We are friends. Only that.”