The Midnight Groom (Last Play Christmas Romance Book 4)

by Taylor Hart

  He could see that his sister wouldn’t relax if he didn’t let go of his phone. So he did something he’d never thought he would do: he handed it to her. He’d seen an internet café, so he wasn’t being that altruistic, but he wanted to make it up to his sister for being so absent this past year. For all the times she’d spontaneously driven down to Denver to check on him. “I’m not doing this because you’re strong-arming me. I’m doing it because … for some reason, I like you.”

  A grin swept across her face. “Thank you. I hope you really try to relax and enjoy this cruise. There’s that singles’ group on board if—”

  “No.” He shifted his gaze back to the dark ocean.

  She exhaled. They stood there for a moment; then she brushed her hand over his. “Remember, you don’t have to live life alone, Cam. I’m here. Craig’s here. My kids are here. Plus, there are others here.”

  “You should have let me rent our own cruise boat.” That’s what he’d wanted to do, what he’d thought they would do.

  “No, that’s not normal, and I wanted normal for the boys. Plus, nobody’s bothered you too much, have they?”

  Surprisingly, it hadn’t been too bad. Of course, some had asked for a selfie, but most just focused on their own lives.

  “People are everywhere. People you could connect with.”

  Her words didn’t touch him. “Thanks,” he managed to say.

  She sighed. “Fine. So you’re ready for Jamaica tomorrow? Dunn’s River excursion?”

  Cameron would’ve preferred to skip it, hunker down on his phone to watch the footage of Kat again, and bug his PIs instead. “Uh, sure.”

  “Good. I’m going to go round up your nephews. It appears that they’ve made friends and think they can roam the ship until all hours.”

  He watched her go and thought about his nephews: Jon, her sixteen-year-old, and Paul, her fourteen-year-old. They were fun boys, ranch boys who knew what it meant to work hard and took every opportunity when it was time to play hard. He was glad they were having fun.

  He closed his eyes, focusing on just the sound of the water and the soothing hum of the ship. Maybe he could face the next five days and be okay.

  Cam wasn’t sure how much longer he stood there, but finally he decided it was time to go. As he turned, he heard some commotion.

  “Please don’t tell me what to do.” The woman’s voice was loud.

  There were lights strung on one of the cabanas, and Cam noticed a very pregnant woman lounging on one of the chairs by the pool.

  A tall redhead stood beside her. “The child’s ready to come soon, so make sure to rest often and keep your feet up,” she said in almost a whisper.

  The dark-haired pregnant woman glared at the redhead. “My child is not coming. Please go away.”

  A guy standing next to the dark-haired woman folded his arms. “Hey, listen, I wanted to come on this cruise and the doctor said it was fine. It’s not your place to tell my wife anything, so bug off.”

  The redhead put her hands into the air, as if surrendering. “I’m sorry.”

  Cam thought the redhead acted a lot like his bossy sister. He turned back to the railing, not wanting to get involved in any of it.

  “Be careful,” he heard the woman whisper again.

  “Go away!” the man shouted.

  Cam sighed and was just going to book it to his room and get away from these people, but as he left the rail, he collided head-on with someone. Unbeknownst to him, the redhead had come around his way. He was much more solid than her, and the force of the impact catapulted her into the pool.

  Chapter 2

  The cold, the sting. Isabel was right back to that day five years ago. The river. Her son. Her husband jumping in. Her jumping in after them. She broke past the surface and coughed, trying to tread water and get to the edge as quickly as possible. She didn’t like pools. Or oceans. Or water in general.

  Not since she’d lost them.

  “Here, take my hand.” A huge, muscled man with a beard and dark hair knelt at the edge, reaching to her.

  She was a good swimmer, an excellent swimmer. Not good enough to save them. The words were in her brain before she took the man’s hand.

  The man pulled her up and out with such ease that it made her look him over. Isabel was five-eleven, and it felt like the guy towered over her. Maybe six-two. Taller than her father, and he’d been six feet. She trembled and stared at him.

  “I’m sorry,” the man with the beard said.

  Anger, pain, and guilt surged into her all at once with such a force it felt like she would tumble back into the pool. Her body trembled harder.

  The man reached out to her, supporting her beneath her arm. His hand took hers. “Did I hurt you?”

  She wanted to yell, scream, cry that it wasn’t her who’d been hurt, that it wasn’t her who needed anything. Because she was alive. “I’m fine.”

  “That’s what you get for interfering with people!” the husband of the pregnant woman shouted at her.

  The words jumbled in Isabel’s brain as she stared at the woman, who clearly would be going into early labor. She just didn’t know it yet.

  “That’s enough.” The bearded man frowned at the pregnant woman and her husband. He turned back to Isabel. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She sucked in a breath and tried to get back to normal. Or the new normal she’d been for the past five years.

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “Can I walk you back to your room?”

  The normal that felt abnormal every second of her life felt even more strange with his hand on her. Isabel tugged away from him. “Please, let me go.” She tried to pull in a cleansing breath, the kind she used to tell her clients to take.

  “I didn’t realize you were right there. I’m so sorry.”

  She put up her hand without looking at him. “You can go.” Her eyes were closed, and she was trying to find her true center. Exactly the thing she’d always tried to teach pregnant women when they were in the middle of birth—close your eyes and find your true center. The one inside of you. The one she couldn’t find anymore.

  She flicked her eyes open, and the man was still there. He had a bushy beard she immediately hated. What was the deal with beards everywhere? She liked tidy, neat, smooth skin. She would have fallen back into the pool if the man hadn’t reached out and grabbed her shoulders.

  He frowned. “You’re shivering.”

  She hadn’t noticed how badly her body was shaking until he said it. The water had been cold, but she knew she was reacting to the mental trauma.

  “Let me just walk you back to your room.”

  Not arguing, she allowed him to put a gentle hand on her forearm and start walking with her.

  As they were leaving the pool area, he took a guest towel and wrapped it over her shoulders. “I really am sorry,” he offered.

  She was past that. Thoughts of the rescue workers pulling her out of the river and putting a towel over her shoulders swamped her. “It’s okay. I’m just … dealing with stuff.”

  Her son’s body being pulled from the water, and then her husband. She’d thrown the blankets off of them, insisting they just needed to stand up. She’d even done CPR on her son before they pulled her away gently. One of the workers had held her tightly as the rest of them had gathered the bodies into the ambulance. She’d been hysterical, screaming and crying. When her sister and parents had arrived, they’d gone to the hospital together, but she still couldn’t accept they wouldn’t wake up.

  “Where is your room located?” the man next to her asked, jolting her from her thoughts.

  “Oh.” She tugged the towel tighter around her even though it wasn’t cold. “Suite two seventeen.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “Funny, I’m two eighteen.”

  She nodded, still doing the pretend normal. She’d practiced it for the past five years, and it worked out most of the time.

  It didn’t take long for them to walk down the stairs, then
down the hall. The man still touched her, like a rescue worker would. Gentle, firm. He didn’t ask questions, and she appreciated that.

  When they got to her room, she pushed in a code and pushed open the door.

  “I’m sorry again.”

  She paused, and it struck her that the man’s eyes were very blue. They were rich and deep like the ocean. She hadn’t noticed something like that in a long time. “It’s fine.” She tried to give him a bit of a smile; it wasn’t his fault he’d pushed her in.

  “Wait. What kind of stuff are you dealing with? Anything I need to get you some help for?”

  As Isabel hesitated, all the overwhelming emotions rushed back.

  “You all right?”

  At this, she let out a sardonic laugh and shook her head. “Only if you can bring back my dead son and husband. Can you do that?”

  His face turned white with shock.

  She let the door swing closed between, then fell back against it. “I didn’t think so.” She knew this would be a long night.

  Chapter 3

  Cameron stood at the base of Dunn’s River the next morning, a whole bunch of tourists surrounding him. Dunn’s River was one big waterfall broken up in tiny chunks. The river wound down the mountain in a soft flow of small waterfalls and pools. The water was emerald green in some spots and clear blue in others. He kept on a fake smile, but all he’d been able to think about was the woman he’d pushed into the pool last night.

  His nephews were splashing each other, and his sister and Craig were holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. He wanted to tell his sister that she and her husband looked like teenagers, but he resisted. Hey, at least he felt like teasing again. That was a good thing, right? According to Alicia, it would be. He tried to think about who he’d been before he’d lost Kat.

  It was strange, because he hadn’t noticed much the past year. Hadn’t thought about much besides Kat and his team, the Storm. But when the woman last night had been trembling, a part of him had to help her. And when she’d said she’d lost her husband and son … Well, that resonated as deep into him as if he’d been standing inside a church bell.

  “Line up.” The tour guide waved his arms to everyone. “We don’t climb until we are all lined up and holding on to the other person’s hand.”

  The whole group began to move into a line. Cam’s sister, her husband, and the two boys were in front of him. He held Jon’s hand.

  Jon smiled at him. “Uncle Cam, this is cool.”

  Cam would rather not be stuck with this whole group. He would rather have paid for a private tour for the family, but his sister wasn’t happy he’d paid for the whole trip already. She’d insisted he let her book the excursions even if he wouldn’t let her pay. She wanted to get them a good deal. “Plus, my boys don’t need to be spoiled,” she had argued.

  Right now, he wanted to demand they have a helicopter take them to a private island somewhere that had a pool, zip lines, and hundreds of acres to explore. Once his sister had set her mind on this and got him out of mandated therapy, though, she wouldn’t let him deviate from her plans. It was pretty freaking annoying. Luckily, most people didn’t even notice him right now, which suited him just fine.

  Groups of people were still pushing together trying to get in the line. When he turned back and reached out his hand, he was quite surprised to see it was her. The woman from last night. She was facing Dunn’s River, taking a picture with her phone.

  “Hey,” he said, grinning.

  When he spoke, she jerked and swiveled toward him, dropping her phone.

  “Oh crap.” He swooped down and snatched it up for her while she was still bending down.

  The woman stood up as she took her phone, her eyes not breaking from his. “You want me or something of mine in the water, don’t you?” She frowned at first, but then the edges of her lips turn up.

  He smiled back and searched her eyes. They were deep green, and her red hair made her breathtaking. “Sorry.”

  “No more apologizing,” she said. She was wearing a blue halter-top swimsuit with a white see-through cover, and a huge white hat. “It was my fault last night. I was trying to help the pregnant woman understand her swelling is out of control, but … well, it doesn’t matter, does it?”

  He thought about the way she’d been fussing over that woman despite the woman’s rude response. She had done her best to help. Now, worried that he had damaged her phone, he looked it over. “Is the phone workable?”

  Glancing at it, she shrugged. “I have this waterproof case, so I should be okay.”

  “Oh.” Nervous energy pulsed through him, and he realized he found this woman attractive. “I’m really sorry about last night.”

  “Please, no—”

  “Apologizing,” he filled in for her.

  “Yep.”

  “Hook up!” the tour guide called out.

  They fell into line, and he held his nephew’s hand and hers.

  The whole group started moving forward, and Cam noted the guide tried to keep them out of the really slippery places. Part of Cam wanted to drop everyone’s hands and go off on his own. He was trying to be his “old self,” the one from before Kat passed, but even his old self wouldn’t do this. He knew that.

  They navigated through some slippery parts of the trail. Then the guide said, “Okay, let’s explore this pool of water for ten minutes. Then we’ll hook up again.”

  They all broke their grip, and Jon splashed Cam. It sent him and Jon and Paul into a splashing war and ultimately left the two boys falling into the pool.

  “Yeah, that’s right.” Cam laughed at them as they ended up on their rears. He still had it.

  The boys hollered and began wrestling with each other in the water.

  He caught his sister’s eye, and she winked at him, holding Craig’s hand.

  Craig smiled and nodded at them. Craig was a nice guy. He’d been a bronc rider in his younger years and now just ranched and farmed. Cam was grateful for Craig. Craig was steady.

  That’s what Cam yearned to be again. Steady. He took a step back.

  “Watch it,” someone said behind him.

  Turning, he saw the redhead again. “Dang, looks like I can’t help but stumble at you or into you.”

  She was doing something on her phone and didn’t look up. “Yeah.” She smiled, but he could tell it wasn’t real. “My sister keeps bugging me, and it’s distracting.”

  For a few moments, he just stood next to her while she looked at her phone. Was it strange that this woman didn’t try to engage him at all? “My sister took my phone,” he said.

  She looked up at him. “What are you, twelve?”

  A laugh jerked out of him, which surprised both of them. Most women didn’t talk to him like this. If he was in a social setting, he was either spoken to with way too much care or blatantly flirted with. “Are you a doctor or something? Is that why you tried to help that pregnant woman?”

  The edges of her eyes creased. She pressed another button on her phone. “No, a doula. Well, I used to be a doula.”

  “What is that?”

  “Basically, I helped women have babies. I was a support person for natural childbirth.” She cocked her head to the side. “Or just a support person if the woman wants to have the baby in a hospital too.”

  “So … if you used to be a doula, what are you now?”

  Her shoulders twitched in a shrug. “I’ve been in school for a couple of years. Just got my physician assistant’s license.”

  He nodded. “Nice.”

  They were quiet for a moment. Her eyes met his. “Most people don’t want help until they absolutely need it.”

  He thought of the pregnant woman again. “Probably true.”

  Stuffing her phone into a spandex pocket attached to her covering, she turned her attention to the water, still looking a bit off-kilter. “That woman last night needs to be careful. Her feet and legs are swelling, and she is carrying really high. Too high. If you n
oticed, she was clearly in a lot of back pain. She might have been having contractions.”

  He frowned. “You could tell all of this by simply seeing her lounging on a deck?”

  “Oh yeah. I can see things from just standing here talking to you.”

  Cam straightened. “And what is that?”

  Sucking in a slow breath, she peered at him like a doctor would. “You work out hard, but you’ve lost weight recently. A little too much. That’s why you have that haunted expression around your eyes.” She cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t sleep much.”

  Cam touched his eyes self-consciously. “Hmm.”

  “And you don’t like it when people tell you things like that, which is funny, because I wouldn’t have bothered giving you my assessment if you hadn’t kept trying to talk to me.”

  That was true. He wondered why he was pushing to talk to her. “Maybe I thought trying to help that pregnant lady was sweet, in a bossy kind of way. My sister is a total boss, but she tries to help too.”

  She let that remark go and turned her attention to the falls. “This view is amazing.”

  He wanted to ask her about her husband and child, but it wasn’t like you just bring that crap up with people. Instead he said, “My sister tells me I never take the help I should take.”

  She turned to him. “And why are you telling me this?”

  Why indeed? He let out a soft laugh. “I have no idea.”

  With a sad smile, she said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s … well, my mom says that’s my superpower, getting people to tell me their life stories in less than a minute.” She shrugged. “Well, it used to be.”

  Perfect opening to ask about her child and husband. “About that—”

  “Hey, Isabel! Come over and see this!”

  Cameron looked up. Over in another group, some guy in the worst Hawaiian shirt ever was waving at this woman. He had a nineteen-seventies mustache and a thick layer of white sunblock on his nose.